OMAROSA AND BRENNAN AREN'T GOING TO STOP SO THUMBS-UP TO BOTH

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     The "bully-in-chief" has done it again.  If you don't like him...if you don't embrace his maniacal lunacy...or if you simply disagree with one iota of his backward thinking...Donald Trump puts the thumbscrews on you.  However...to those spineless individuals who kiss his behind and elevate him on to an undeserved pedestal, Trump - who is as phony as a three-dollar-bill - gives a pat on the back.  That is...until you cross him.  And then...you get put in the "dog" house. 

     Stripping John Brennan of his security clearance proves to me once again that Donald Trump has no clue whatsoever how to suitably serve as president of the United States. Therefore - as I suggested in the early days of the 2016 campaign - he is mentally unfit to sit behind The Oval Office desk.

     Trump firmly articulated to The Wall Street Journal that his action to revoke Brennan's access to sensitive, confidential information is directly connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's interference in to America's 2016 presidential election.  That contradicts press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' official White House statement on Wednesday, August 15th, 2018 that noted Brennan's "erratic" behavior and "increasingly frenzied commentary" about Trump as the reasons to cut off Brennan's pathway to privileged material.  Trump further threatens to pull the security clearances of numerous other U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials, past and present.  As he declared to The Wall Street Journal the same day..."I call it the rigged witch hunt.  It is a sham.  And these people led it.  So I think it's something that had to be done."  In my mind - and more importantly, I hope in Mueller's mind - that spells out obstruction of justice.  I - along with a vast number of Americans nationwide, including Brennan himself - believe that withdrawing security clearances is an "abuse of power."  In an exclusive interview with Rachel Maddow on her Friday, August 17th program on MSNBC, Brennan elaborated that Trump is "drunk on power." By denying Brennan - and probably others with similar credentials - the ability to obtain classified information...adds to the embarrassment that is Donald Trump.  He is a stain on the fabric of our country.

     Trump thinks he can intimidate people...and that when he attempts to do so, it will cease them from exercising their First Amendment right of free speech to verbally attack him.  Trump's dangerously authoritarian vision of the presidency - by definition - would forbid Americans from expressing negative opinions about him.

     Trump should take a lesson from former President Barack Obama and the words he delivered in a December 6th, 2016 speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.  "We're a nation that believes freedom can never be taken for granted...and that each of us has a responsibility to sustain it.  The universal right to speak your mind and to protest against authority...to live in a society that's open and free...that can criticize a president without retribution...a country where you're judged by the content of your character rather than what you look like, or how you worship, or what your last name is, or where your family came from...that's what separates us from tyrants and terrorists."  For nearly two years, I have carried President Obama's speech with me wherever I go.

     Trump's order to ban Brennan is indicative of an autocratic madman.  It is unquestionably obvious that Trump executed his command for political purposes and because he refuses to accept criticism from anybody...even from a valuable source.  

     Brennan has served three commanders-in-chief including President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.  As C.I.A. director under President Obama - from March 2013 to January 2017 - Brennan is one of our country's "keepers of the secrets."  As such...stored within the cells of his brain is a treasure trove of solid gold knowledge that is priceless to our national security and that can benefit his successors - as well as others - who serve within the intelligence community.  Allowing certain former government officials - who exited without incident - to retain their clearances...is a definite advantage for America. Donald Trump is cutting his nose to spite his face.

     Trump's preoccupation in Brennan is out of fear.  But why is Trump so afraid?  If he truly has done "nothing wrong" - as he insisted in a tweet on June 4th, 2018 - then why...as sources close to him have implied...is Trump an emotional basket case...worried that people outside The White House and inside The West Wing could rip his world apart?

     Omarosa Manigault Newman has recently shown Trump that there are people who know how to play hardball on the same level plane as he does.  And as I wrote - many days prior to Manigault Newman blowing the whistle with her secretly recorded tapes - there had to be at least one person - from the current or former Trump circle - who would have the courage to expose to the American people that Donald Trump is not functionally competent to perform the duties of president.

     I have always believed that there had to be one gutsy individual - if not more - who have been inside the Trump orbit...and who know where the proverbial bodies are buried.  Therefore, Trump has got to be trembling like the aftershocks of a San Francisco earthquake.  True, Trump can portray himself as someone who is constructed with nerves of steel...but he is undoubtedly weakening.  He is beyond terrified that Manigault Newman has in her possession the straw that will break "The Donald's" back, and therefore, not only drown his presidency, but torpedo the Trump brand and the business that bears his name and the names of his children and grandchildren.  

     Trump cannot fire Manigault Newman.  He already saw to that.  But she does need to be extra careful that the "godfather's" horse's head doesn't find its way in to her bed.

     As for his chilling ambush on John Brennan - currently a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC - Trump's timing was calculated. The date of his written order was July 26th...nearly three weeks before Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the official announcement.  Trump, therefore, slipped the statement in to his back pocket until he needed it.  And being blasted by Manigault Newman's tapes was as good of a time as any to defuse the situation...even if it was only for one news cycle.

     But Manigault Newman isn't going to stop.  She's not going away.  The New York Times - on Thursday, August 16th - reported that Manigault Newman may have an archive of about 200 clandestinely recorded audio files...and she acknowledged to NBC News correspondent Craig Melvin on his MSNBC program the same day..."If I need to" more tapes will be released.  "I'll do what I have to do to protect myself." Meanwhile...despite Trump's efforts to take her out of the headlines, Manigault Newman will continue to find her name on the front pages of newspapers and in the lead stories of broadcast and cable news shows.  And taking away Brennan's security clearance won't zip his lip.  He'll remain an outspoken critic of Trump too.

     My prediction...there's going to be a vocal explosion - a bomb - with cataclysmic force...that will dismantle and ultimately mutilate the legacy of Donald Trump and his entire family.  And Omarosa Manigault Newman is going to pull the pin on the monstrous oral grenade that will blow to bits the lives and the livelihoods of everything Trump.

     Manigault Newman, Brennan, and others too, are formidable opponents for Trump. His vile rhetoric that is venomously spewed off his toxic tongue and through his vicious tweets is his wicked way of demonstrating his narcissism and his power. Belittling and dehumanizing Manigault Newman, Brennan, or anyone else on the so-called "Trump enemy list" is merely to prove - in an "unhinged" demeanor - that he is the boss.  But the United States of America is not The Trump Organization.  The people of our nation are Trump's boss...not the other way around.

     It's mind-boggling that more than one-third of Americans can still support a man who worships and celebrates brutal dictators. Donald Trump pays homage to Russia's Vladimir Putin...Kim Jong-un of North Korea...The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte...and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, among others.  It was about two months ago, in June 2018, when Trump - during an interview on Fox & Friends - praised Kim Jong-un.  "He's the head of a country, and I mean, he's the strong head. Don't let anyone think different.  He speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same."  And if you watch the interview with Steve Doocy, Trump expressed the aforementioned words in a serious tone.  He was not "joking," as some Republicans want to spin it.  Americans, therefore, must not ignore Trump's off-the-cuff remarks as humor.  It is not at all funny for the president of the United States to jest that he wants to be dictator.  He's not a comedian.  But James Corden is.  And on the April 16th, 2018 broadcast of The Late Late Show on CBS, the program's host hit the nail on the head when Corden said..."Donald Trump is morally unfit to manage an Outback Steakhouse."

     America needs dedicated people like John Brennan to help protect our nation. We are better off for it.  But Donald Trump is more concerned about himself than he is our country.  

     When a bully picks on the wrong person, he usually regrets his mistake.  Even if you don't trust some of what Omarosa Manigault Newman has written in her new book, Unhinged: An Insider's Account Of The Trump White House, and you think she has painted a portrait that dishonestly represents Trump - as he contends - the fact of the matter is, she has tapes...and Trump is going to someday beat himself up that he ever tangled with her.  As Manigault Newman forges ahead by giving Trump a one-two punch with her secret recordings, she will continue to damage his reputation and wreak havoc on his overall life, his family and his administration.  That being said, no American can simply brush off Manigault Newman's allegations as rants of "a disgruntled former White House employee" whose book "is riddled with lies and false accusations," which is how Sarah Huckabee Sanders has described her.

     When the truth can actually be heard by the sounds of Trump's voice (and others)...denial is impossible.  The tapes that have perked up our ears establishes that Manigault Newman's authenticity cannot be debated.  The stench from the cesspool of corruption within "Trumpworld" makes Richard Nixon's Watergate White House radiate an aroma of a bouquet of blossoming roses.

     In Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning, satirical screenplay for the 1976 motion picture, Network...the fictional Union Broadcasting System news anchor Howard Beale - brilliantly played by Academy Award winner Peter Finch - single-handedly moves the network from dead last to a media powerhouse. But when the novelty of "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves" wears thin with viewers, the ratings tumble and eventually sink to the bottom.  And although the parent company's chairman and chief stockholder issues an order to keep Beale on the air - despite the poor ratings - UBS executives hire assassins to have him murdered on a live broadcast.

     I am in no way suggesting that senior level employees of the United States government bring harm of any kind to Donald Trump. Let me repeat that for those readers who tend to not read my column - or anything, for that matter - word for word.  I would NEVER...ever...recommend...nor would I want...anyone to physical hurt the president of the United States...no matter how much I oppose his policies and no matter how much I find his thinking to be abhorrent and destructive to the people of our nation.  In fact...I sincerely hope that Donald Trump lives beyond his 100th birthday, so he can suffer humiliation for decades after Robert Mueller forces his resignation, just as Richard Nixon was forced to resign pending an impeachment after Watergate.  But Republicans in Congress...and in the Cabinet...must take a stand and realize that Trump's disturbing behavior is quickly injecting a lethal dose of poison in to our country.  I have shared these thoughts with my readers in many other editorials over the last nineteen months.  So what then are Congressional Republicans and members of Trump's Cabinet waiting for?  Our nation is smack dab in the middle of a Constitutional crisis, and therefore, it is time for the 25th Amendment to be invoked and Trump legally to be removed from office. 

     Unlike impeachment - which requires a House of Representatives investigative committee to determine "high crimes and misdemeanors" by the president, followed by a vote in the full House, a Senate trial, and a vote where two-thirds of the senators agree to remove the president from office - it is not necessary for any crime to be committed in order to enforce the 25th Amendment.  The majority of the Cabinet - including the vice president - needs to simply conclude that the president is unable...or unfit...to perform the duties of his job...and, at that point, the vice president becomes acting president.  Two-thirds of both Congressional chambers would have to agree with the Cabinet in order for the vice president to formally become president. If not, the president resumes control.

     Handing over the reigns of our country to Mike Pence would not put a smile on my face.  His soul is sinned with evil prejudices.  But Pence's mental competency is not necessarily in question - as is Trump's - and Pence appears to lack the narcissism that drives Trump.  Perhaps Pence would be willing to compromise with Democrats.  But then, there's the distinct possibility that Pence has participated in a cover-up.  If so, he might end up following in what eventually - I believe - will be Trump's footsteps.  And that means resignation or some form of forced removal from office. Therefore, with the Democrats hopefully taking control of the House of Representatives come January 2019, the new Democratic Speaker of the House would become president.  But none of the above will be possible without either Congressional impeachment or direct evidence discovered by the Mueller probe that proves Trump - and perhaps Pence too - to be guilty of one or more crimes.

     Short of Donald Trump actually "stand(ing) in the middle of Fifth Avenue (in New York City) and shoot(ing) somebody," - or doing something just as bad - Trump's Cabinet members are not likely to invoke the 25th Amendment.  But we cannot give Trump carte blanche to get away with killing our country.  So it's up to all Democrats and all Independents to vote in the mid-term elections this November 6th so that Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate.  Otherwise, if Trump is allowed to continue as president, he is going to fire bullets into the heart and brain of our nation... and literally put the United States of America...to death. 

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits:  NBC News and MSNBC (former C.I.A. director John Brennan), Voice Of America News (former President Barack Obama), NBC News and Meet The Press (Omarosa Manigault Newman), Terence Patrick, CBS and The Late Late Show with James Corden (James Corden), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists and Howard Gottfried/Paddy Chayefsky Productions (Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network), John Moore and Getty Images (Donald Trump #1) and Chicago Tribune (Donald Trump #2)

Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and The Controversy.net.  All Rights Reserved.  This column - in part or in its entirety - may be freely shared among individuals, and it may be reprinted, republished or quoted in any medium including broadcast, cable, satellite, and other forms of media, but only when crediting Gary B. Duglin and The Controversy.