Why not "conduct unbecoming" re. Trump?

It is 3:32 a.m. and not a creature is stirring. Oh, I imagine there are quite a few creatures stirring out and around, but the sense of peace is obviously great. It's nice to soak in this peace when so much crazy stuff is going on. I sense I can escape it to a degree if I get up in the middle of the night. Lawrence Welk talked about how he got up so very early in the morning. So Johnny Carson wondered, "what goes on at that time?" 

We can peruse the news at any hour of the day or night these days. The online world never sleeps. The deluge of news and commentary about Donald Trump continues unabated. 

Politicians always listen to the people. So if a large majority of Americans become suddenly upset about the persistence of the Trump craziness, right under our nose, there will be a reaction. 

Trump is entitled to use the legal process, a process which is now being affirmed for giving the white collar types so many of the crevices to stay out of trouble. We have known this for a long time. It is just being laid bare now. But Trump can't even keep his lawyers anymore. He tries using them to continue his pattern of lawbreaking. If he were just some ordinary mobster, we'd be upset but it wouldn't disrupt our lives. 

Trump got elected president. We have the fervent "Christians" across the USA to thank for that. The "evangelical" ones led the parade but many others followed. 

This mob type of person named Trump gained the presidency and did things that affect people's lives. Out the window went the "Roe vs. Wade" protection for women's rights. 

My atomic clock tells me it's 3:42 a.m. And the lead headline on Yahoo News is: "How Trump's case stacks up with other alleged violations." 

Maybe we have to stick with the "alleged" prefix. Perhaps I could use the word "voluminous" as our congressperson Michelle Fischbach did on January 6. Fischbach talked about the "voluminous" allegations of "voting irregularities." She voted against certifying the election results. What if she and Ted Cruz had won out on this? You're in Minnesota, Ms. Fischbach, not Texas. We have some "blue" sensibilities in Minnesota. But it's kind of strange: the same state that elected Paul Wellstone can also elect Michelle Bachmann, Tom Emmer and Fischbach. 

Emmer is the humorless far right Republican. He actually was not in line with Fischbach when it came to Jan. 6. Emmer did not turn thumbs-down on certifying the election results. Failure to certify would have only meant that things would get strung out until Republicans got their way, of course. If you're so Pollyannish as to not  believe this, then I guess this blog is not for you. 

Michelle Fischbach

I have tried recently to get a statement from Fischbach on whether she continues to stand by her statements of January 6. No response. I'm not sitting here feeling personal dislike for Fischbach. Profound disappointment maybe but not real invective, because invective gets us nowhere. She must have a modicum of intelligence and judgment - I really think she does. She has consumed the Kool-Aid, as it were. Maybe we really are "South Dakota East" here in this part of Minnesota. 

So Trump can exercise his machinations with our legal system. Many people would say we have to move over and let him do this. Because that's America, right? The primacy of our legal system which yes, can be thick as mud when it comes to white collar types. We've getting a clarion call on that. But again, politicians will in the end be responsive to the people. Enough people have to stop listening to their right-leaning church pastors. To think independently. And in many cases to start paying attention to Christ's own words. 

Pat Robertson recently left this life. Is he even in heaven? Good question. 

Let's see, what is the No. 2 headline on Yahoo News right now, dead of night (or morning)? Well, "Ex-Federal prosecutor says Trump's big speech was 'just a straight-out confession.' " Oh, so a legal expert judges that. 

Remember that Jason Ravnsborg of South Dakota got out of his initial predicament by just getting a couple traffic violations. But in the end, albeit by a narrow vote, he was removed as South Dakota attorney general. Frankly he never did seem like the brightest bulb on the chandelier. He got elected because he had an "R" next to his name. Heaven help us. In the end he was impeached and removed from office because enough elected people were able to smell something more serious than a couple of traffic violations. 

This is best articulated with the expression "conduct unbecoming." I would suggest that the same expression could be used in connection with the notorious former principal of our high school here in Morris MN. "Conduct unbecoming." I have made this argument several times but my reasoning was never followed. Ultimately he left Morris but not until he had returned to his position for a lengthy time. And now he is out at Breckenridge. 

Watch me, Brian Williams, try to get another job if I had fallen into the same ridiculous circumstances as the fellow I'm writing about here. Watch me try to keep a decent reputation if I had gone through what Ravnsborg in South Dakota did. Sometimes these news developments are "stranger than fiction" just like what we're seeing with Trump now. For God's sake, can't we all come together and agree that evidence is overwhelming that Trump engaged in "conduct unbecoming?" 

Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley says of Jack Smith's charges that "if true," it looks real bad. "If true." 

The legal purists would say to me "Brian, of course we have to wait and see how our legal process judges this." 

For any kind of normal person, perhaps, but now our embarrassingly molasses-like legal process (for white collar) could get extended so far, Trump could get elected president again before any excrement hits the fan for him. 

We should all want to ask Haley: "Do you think there is really any chance that Jack Smith has made all this up?" C'mon, really. We need to give the benefit of the doubt to Smith at this point. 

America can survive without Donald Trump as president. Haley seems to think she herself could be president. And Tim Scott, and Asa Hutchinson and others. But the Trump stories are sucking all the air out of the room now. This is plain as the nose on your face, from my perspective sitting here at 4 a.m. early Wednesday morning. I can feel some detachment at this hour. But it is getting harder. 

Tim Scott is making appearances around the country. I'm hard-pressed finding any media coverage of this because the media is fixated on the orange man. Has America gone insane? I wouldn't vote for any Republican but it would be refreshing and positive to see some profiles of Tim Scott. It's the way America ought to be paying attention to the standard type of political campaigning - the kind of media behavior I grew up with. Is that America gone now? 

We live in an America with crazy gun violence all over the place. I see on my Yahoo News page another news item in this vein: a fellow named Johnny Max Mount was at the counter of a Waffle House Restaurant when a waitress told him he could not smoke his e-cigarette. 

"Mount slid back in his chair, stood up and pulled a .9 mm handgun from a black holster he had around his shoulder, and leaned over the counter to shoot Julie Brightwell." 

So maybe the America of 2023 is in fact showing true signs of insanity, of decline. Donald Trump reflects it. Republicans will respond only if their own constituents press them. The co-called "Christians" must wake up and smell the coffee. But I am not betting on it.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com