UNPRESIDENTED

What if you woke up tomorrow morning and saw this newspaper on your front porch, or you passed a newsstand while working to work and saw this newspaper, what would you do, would you buy it? Would you frame it? Would you tear it up into 25,000 tiny little pieces (maybe Trump would) Well, yesterday 25,000 American's dreams came true, so to speak. First, this is not a real Washington Post Newspaper. it is a fake one, created, published and circulated by a Leftist political organization called "The Yes Men." According to the video below, this group printed up 25,000 of these fake papers and distributed them in various part of the country including Washington D.C. It really does look like an authentic Washington Post Newspaper with the headline "UNPRESIDENTED." What a very striking headline. It's actually a blog post title that I had been contemplating using for an article similar to this one for some time. I was just waiting for the right moment to give it a whirl, and well you know what they say, there is no better time than the present. However, my blog post was going to be slightly different than the nature of "The Yes Men's" fake news story in their fake Washington Post newspaper. Their fake news story headlined "UNPRESIDENTED" breaks a story regarding President Trump choosing to resign from office in light of a stalemate in gov't over the border wall and the impasse in Congress, & the White about the #govtshutdown. So, this fake new story was created to give the American people the impression that Trump has resigned his office as President, because he saw this as the only solution to reopening the government. At least that's what the video below suggests, I don't know for sure I wasn't one of the lucky 25,000 people who got an opportunity to purchase and read this newspaper. (Which I definitely would've framed) Although, I would've definitely been more than happy if the story in deed was real instead of as Trump calls it "Fake News." Watch this brief video to get more information about this elaborate $40,000 newspaper prank pulled off by "The Yes Men."

While this might have been one big elaborate prank, I believe the desire for this fake news story to be authentic, real and indeed credible in on the wish list of many Americans, including myself by the way. (I thought I mentioned that earlier.) But, as I also said earlier, my reason for titling this blog post "UNPRESIDENTED" is not the same as the fake news story in the fake Washington Post. My reasoning is more in line with a similarly sounding word, but with an entirely different meaning. My word is "UNPRECENDENTED." I still was going title my blog "UNPRESIDENTED" because I like the play on words to express a much deeper and broader meaning to our readers. But, I digress. My use of the term "UNPRECEDNTED" is the ways in which the Trump Administration has continued to chip away at the storied institutions of this government and our democracy we called the United States of America. Our country has became an embarrassment around the world, in large part because of the UNPRESIDENTED moron that sits in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We have had presidents in our history that have not been the best representatives of our country to the world. For example, George W. Bush in a press conference on foreign soil discussing the Iraq War, had not one but two shoes thrown at him, ducking them both (I wish at least one would've hit'em, don't you?) According to reports, the person who threw it had grown tired of hearing President Bush lie about the Iraq war. Initially, everyone thought that this person would be punished for pulling such a political stunt on national TV, only to discover the man was thrown a parade just days after the press conference took place. (Booyah!) While that was embarrassing to us as a nation and that act itself was "UNPRECENDENTED," it still doesn't seem to rise to level of buffoonery levied at the hands of good ol' Mr. Trump, at every turn it seems. There are numerous examples that we can give to make my point, but one of the most recent ones that come to mind is Pres. Trump serving the College Football National Champion Clemson Tigers fast food during their visit to the White House. When I first saw this news story, I thought this was a hoax and this couldn't be true at all. Only to discover that this actually was the case. In fact, Pres. Trump not only had McDonald's, Wendy's hamburgers & Dominoes Pizza for the National Champion Cremson Tigers Football Team, but was generous enough to pay for himself. (What a guy, sike!) This is of course was because much of the White House staff have been furloughed because of the #TrumpGovtShutdown and something had to be done to feed these hungry football players who had come to the White House for this photo-op. (What a joke!)

This indeed was "UNPRECEDENTED," and not just fast foods creatively displayed in one of the stately rooms of the White House where foreign diplomats and heads of state usually dine from the crem' de la crem' of cuisine, but for a president to use this platform to play political games with the lives of over 80,000 federal workers who are being effected by this shutdown that he is largely responsible for. This is is indeed "UNPRECEDENTED." Yes, the gov't has been shutdown before because of an disagreement on policy or legislation between Congress and the President. Pres. Obama went through this when he was president. The difference, was it was not for a record breaking 26 days and not for something as as-sine, frivolous and as Speaker Pelosi put it "immoral" as a border wall. (What a truly sad time for our country) And, for me what is truly remarkable and indeed "UNPRECEDENTED" is how unprepared, unintelligent, undiplomatic, unapologetic, un-phased, un-bothered and generally UNPRESIDENTED this president seems to be on just about every thing that matters to more than half of the American people. He, of course is appealing to his base of supporters in most of what he does in Washington, the Ann Coulture's, the Rush Limbaugh's, the lemming's at Fox News, all seized on the opportunity to remind the president about his campaign promise to build a wall and that Mexico was going to pay for it. (None of which is going to happen, by the way) After agreeing to sign legislation passed by the House and Senate that did not include a border wall, he reneged and now is hellbent on taking this entire Titanic ship down in UNPRECEDENTED fashion. Each day it seems, more and more investigations are being launched, lawsuits are being filed, members of his cabinet are resigning, former members of his campaign are being indicted and implicated for federal crimes, all of this is indeed "UNPRECEDENTED." Never before in the history of the presidency has there been as much controversy and scandal surrounding the President of the United States. We can cite a laundry list of other instances where this president has cross the line of UNPRECEDENTED, meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin with just his translator 5 times, and confiscating her notes from the meeting, promising to own the gov't shutdown on camera in an exchange between House Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and then reneging on that promise and blaming Democrats every day since the gov't officially shut down, being investigated by the FBI of possibly being an agent for Russia, siding with Russia & Vladmir Puttin in Helsinki when asked about whether he believes Russia meddled in the U.S. Presidential Elections in 2016, should I go on? Every single event was an unprecedented moment not just for Trump but for this country, and can you imagine the optics of all of this if it happened not on Trump's watch but under the Obama Presidency? Every single one of these events would've been considered impeachable offenses and would have met the standards of impeachment by every single Republican in both the House & the Senate. But, one thing that Trump presidency has clearly shown us; which is indeed UNPRECEDENTED, is how partisan we as a country; we as a body politic actually have become. And, he is the culprit. He, alone stands in the way of his party's progress, and he alone may end up presiding over his own party's demise; if he's not careful. (He really has to go.)

The question becomes as comedian and talk show host Bill Mahre asked in a recent interview on MSNBC with host Chis Wallace, "If we don't impeach this president, where is the bar." This is such a penetrating question for the entire Republican party; who by the way have all been radio silent while this president has wreaked havoc this past two years, because the more latitude they allow or give Trump to continue down this path of unprecedented behavior, the lower the bar of our democracy goes. And, so at what point will these spineless Republicans like Sen. Majority Leader Mitchell McConnell will say, "Enough is enough." What is going to be their breaking point? When are they going to break with this president and reopen government and tell Trump where he can put his border wall. (Up you know where) McConnell has said publicly that he wouldn't allow any bills to come to the floor that didn't have a provisions for Trump's $5Bil border wall included, unequivocally sticking with the presidents childish, expensive and unrealistic demands. A wall that Mexico is not agreed to pay for, despite what the White House keeps saying about the renegotiated trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and United States that still hasn't been approved by Congress. What's interesting is that on the House side of things Trump now has a formidable opponent in newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who continues to remind him that Congress is co-equal with the Executive Branch, and she will not be bullied into submission by this Mob Boss of President. What is also interesting is that the longer the gov't shutdown continues the weaker the Trump Administration seems to become and the more powerful the Democrats and Pelosi seem to get. Case in point, the State of the Union is supposed to be scheduled for Tues, Jan 29th But, Speaker Pelosi is recommending that the President; for security reasons postpone his State of the Union in light of the gov't shutdown. On the basis of security purposes, Speaker Pelosi believes it is in the best interest of the 3 branches of gov't that the President's annual address be delayed to a later date.

This is "UNPRECEDENTED" but it is a very strategic move by Speaker Pelosi to un-invite the President of the United States to Capitol Hill; on what would be his largest platform of the year to address not just members of both the House & Senate but the American people regarding the gov't shutdown and his unreasonable request for a $5BIL border wall. Keep in mind, the President has to be invited to Capitol Hill to give this address from both the House & the Senate, and Speaker Pelosi appears to have made it very clear what her position is. I wonder what will Trump do next? Whatever he does, i'm sure it will definitely be UNPRESIDENTED.

Your thoughts?