Time for Obama to teach Mitch McConnell something

I get it...I'm back

Barack Obama has been relatively quiet since leaving office after eight years of dealing with Republicans led by Mitch McConnell with only one intent: to sabotage anything that President Obama presented. Not to consider what was best for the country, just to subvert whatever he advanced. We'll never know just how much could have been accomplished for the good of the American people in those eight years, but we could find out soon how effective Barack Obama can be as a former president, who still heads his party, and who wants to fight the GOP plague.

As one Democratic pundit put it...

“He’s been way too quiet. There are a lot of people who think he’s played too little a role or almost no role in endorsing or fundraising and he’s done jack shit in getting people to donate to the party.”

Maybe the man wasn't really sure how much of his participation was wanted since he received so little support when in office, even by his own party. Bernie Sanders, who may run in 2020, cannot carry the banner because he is an Independent. Other possible 2020 candidates are former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), but it is Barack Obama in 2008 who trounced John McCain in the popular vote and the Electoral College. The key will be to resurrect the magic of Obama's 2008 campaign and turn it into a win for Democrats in November.

Another point of view on the former president's hushed approach was...

"Former aides and Democratic strategists said Obama has sought to maintain a lower profile not only for his party to find new life, but also to avoid playing a foil to President Trump and Republicans."

Obama's two top priorities are, “recapturing the House and helping Democrats gain more influence in the redistricting process.”

At the same time, Democrats plan to make Washington corruption the focus of their campaign in 2020. They had earlier announced targeting their economic agenda to combat big money through campaign finance reform. Without a Democratic Congress this will be an uphill battle, but the odds are still out that Dems can take over the House and Senate. Nancy Pelosi, former House leader said, “President Trump has become the swamp and Americans are paying the price. The American people deserve better.”

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer added, “The swamp has never been more foul than under this president.” And targeting corruption did work in the 2006 elections when Democrats took control of the House and Senate from Republicans. They hammered away at the GOP’s “culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.” Pelosi is testing the corruption theme on Scott Pruitt who "repeatedly used his position to seek employment and business opportunities for his wife, and had agency staffers doing personal errands on his behalf."

If ever there was an administration where corruption would be the central problem, and one to explore by the opposition, it would be Donald Trump's.

Read more: Dems say Obama return from sidelines is overdue

                   Democrats Plan Big Anti-Corruption Theme For Midterms

                   As The Scandals Mount, Conservatives Turn On Scott Pruitt

How many Trump scandals are there? Atlantic says only one

Is there another way?

Atlantic magazine has documented possibly the best list of scandals that Donald Trump is guilty of, while coming to the conclusion there is only one. There are, in fact, multiple cases which I will show later but these all add up to one entity...

"the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability."

Yes, corruption is Donald Trump's real scandal, but the numerous public embarrassments this lunatic has put our country through are both heinous and completely unacceptable for the President of the most powerful nation in the world. Here are some of them...

"Russian campaign to aid Trump’s candidacy, president obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, president’s hush-money payments to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs, corporate cash paid to influence White House, ongoing effort to interfere with the Russia inquiry and politicize federal law enforcement, foreign governments that seem to be utilizing the president’s properties as vehicles for influencing administration policy..."

...and there are a few others you can see in the Atlantic article. There's the recent stuff...

Aid to Chinese company ZTE following the Chinese government approved funding for a project in the vicinity of a Trump property in Indonesia, millions of dollars corporations paid to Cohen after the election for presidential favors, and then there was Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s own mini-universe of scandals...

The list goes on and on but does add up to one word, corruption. The United States is governed by a man so unscrupulous that there is nothing he won't do to promote the Donald Trump brand. His ego is postal as he is mired in a narcissism that ignores everyone else, the whole world. There was an American public that put him where he is, and a U.S. Congress (Job approval 16%) full of blithering idiots that have allowed this to go on longer than a year now. We have a nation in crisis and there is no one to bail it out, except, perhaps the youth. We can only hope they go to the polls in November.

Republicans paid millions by top polluters to dump Paris Agreement

GOP Congress 

The sleaziest of all, Senate head, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) was paid $1,975,245; Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas): $2,484,520; Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas): $3,031,956; Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri): $1,143,574. And the list goes on; view the totals for each Senator here. There is a question in my mind of what the difference in the impact of this group is over the White House nationalist, Steve Bannon, who supposedly spearheaded Trump's decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord. But politicians will take money for anything, regardless, especially Republicans.

In the Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor made a startling statement: "If Trump quits the Paris climate accord, he will lead the U.S. into the wilderness." It was the headline for his article speculating that should Trump take that course, we, the United States, go against the rest of the world. And he did. And we have. What is most interesting is that local governments across the country have rebuffed DT's decision, insisting they will support the Paris Climate Pact. At the same time the nation's top CEOs say Trump is dead wrong in his decision.

Even the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were supposedly urging Trump to stick with the Paris agreement, according to Tharoor, but Tillerson's former company, Exxonmobil ranks #2 in historic greenhouse gas emissions. There are opponents including...

"White House chief adviser Stephen K. Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic who has already set about dismantling Obama-era regulations on the U.S. fossil fuel industry."

Bannon, of course, is considered one of the architects of Donald Trump's decision to exit the agreement. The WP provides more background on the Paris agreement...

""Championed by the Obama administration, the Paris agreement created, for the first time, a single framework for developed and developing countries to work together and reduce greenhouse gases."

Former President Obama developed a network of countries that were interested in improving the ecology of the planet, including China, which is #1 in carbon dioxide emissions. The latter, in itself, was considered a major accomplishment because China had always refused to participate in any ecological agreements. The pact was signed by 195 countries, with only Nicaragua, Syria and the United States, #2 polluter, not participating. There's more fallout...

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla announced that he's quitting the president's business advisory councils because of the decision. He twittered, "Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world." Also, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he will step down "as a matter of principle" from Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.

The Forum is a group of business leaders organized by Donald Trump, to give Donald Trump advice in protecting the planet. Apparently' the Oval Office moron doesn't listen to anyone, not even industry compatriots.