Brendan Buschi: The Dems Are Losing At Whatever Game They Are Playing

People like to compare politics to chess. I prefer to compare it to Go.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote "It Can't Happen Here". It was about the United States descending into fascism. It's often referred to as a "cautionary tale".

In 2016, ignorant American voters threw all caution to the wind. Donald Trump, a real life Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, "won" (stole) the election aided by a foreign adversary.

The Republican Party - particularly Ryan and McConnell - helped Trump and Putin pull off a successful coup d'état.

The ultra wealthy, who believe their wealth entitles them to basically own the government and rule, also contributed to the coup.

More and more information is coming out about the extent to which Russia interfered with our elections. More and more information indicates that they plan to do it again on a larger scale in 2020.

Shortly after Trump was sworn in, he fired FBI Director James Comey. Comey was heading the Russia investigation and had repeatedly refused to swear allegiance to Trump.

After that, Robert Mueller was hired as an Independent Counsel and charged with investigating what happened in 2016.

Muller was very good at securing indictments and convictions during the investigation. Some might say too good. However, the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate and removing Mueller was deemed an unnecessary risk - that is until the Democrats regained control of the House in 2018.

Suddenly it was worth the risk to stop Mueller. Rather than fire him, Trump fired United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions and eventually replaced him with William Barr. Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation and Trump couldn't stand it.

So Trump hired first Whitacker and then Barr to replace Sessions.

In the process, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had hired Mueller and oversaw his investigation, had his control of Mueller taken away from him by Barr.

Rosenstein originally seemed to be an honest overseer. He seemed to be protecting Mueller from Trump and insuring the integrity of the investigation.

When Mueller finished the investigation, he turned the results over to Barr. Barr, initially with Rosenstein's signature next to his on a summary statement and finally with Rosenstein standing quietly beside him at a press conference, twice declared that Trump had been cleared of all wrong doings by Mueller.

Barr further went on to say the investigation was over and we saw that echoed and reinforced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump seized on this as well and proclaimed that he was totally "exonerated" and that the investigation was a witch hunt. He also said he wanted an investigation of those who had started the investigation in the first place.

Mitch and Lindsey came out supporting Trump's call for an investigation of the investigators and Lindsey wanted Hillary Clinton investigated as well.

Yeah, that got everybody's attention. Especially after Mueller came out and said that he did not agree with Barr's conclusions about what he, Mueller, had put in his report.

Mueller's report is over 700 pages long and there are hundreds of additional supporting documents attached to it. My paperback copy of the redacted report is almost 2 inches thick.

Barr had initially written a 4 page memo summarizing the report and then, when everybody cried foul, he released a redacted version of the report with no supporting documents. He also refused to turn the entire, unredacted report over to Congress.

Trump did everything he could to block any investigations. He claimed executive privilege. He told people not to respond to subpoenas. He even trashed his own former counsel, Donald McGahn, and said he would not allow either Mueller or McGahn to testify before Congress.

McGahn had testified in his interview with Mueller's investigators that Donald Trump had instructed him more than once to fire Mueller. McGahn testified that he refused to obey Trump's orders and was prepared to be fired.

That's not the end of it. On May 14th, Barr hired John Durham to investigate the actions that led to the Russia investigation. Yep, we are now officially investigating the investigation.

On May 6th we learned that Trump had ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to Iran. On May 16th, we learned that National Security Adviser John Bolton requested sending an additional 120,000 troops to Iran.

Yep, that's the same John Bolton who advised President Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.

On May 9th, the White House revoked the press passes of most of the press corp.

On May 10th, Mike Pence reported that Trump will be asking the Supreme Court to block lower courts from making "nationwide injunctions" regarding his policies.

Questions are now being asked as to whether or not Barr actually ordered Mueller to end his investigation as opposed to just letting him finish it.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are now reporting that attempts were made on their ships in the Gulf of Hormuz. This is causing many to reflect on and compare their reports to the false and now infamous Gulf of Tonkin reports that got us into war wtih Vietnam.

In summary, it looks like there is a full court press to bury the Mueller Report, stop and obstruct all investigations by the House and Senate, shut down press reporting, restrict judicial authority, start a war with Iran and block anymore investigations of Russian interference in our elections coming into the 2020 elections.

As crazy and troubling as all this is, the craziest and most troubling thing is the stubborn refusal on the part of the House Democrats to impeach Trump. Go figure.

The opening moves in chess are crucial. They determine how the game will proceed. You don't get to take back moves in chess. You are stuck with the choices you made at the onset. If you open and start to retreat, you will turn the game over to your opponent.

Unlike chess, you can lose a Go game and still be in possession of territory. However, a truly defeated player can easily be left with nothing or even have a negative score.

We gave the Democrats the House believing they would take the fight to Trump. They are our last hope. The fate of the country is in their hands and they are refusing to even take the court.

They are surrendering the country to Trump and the Republicans without a fight. They are doing exactly what the Republicans did.

Trump says he is exonerated and we do not respond. Our inaction only serves to confirm what he is saying. We are ignoring how bad things truly are, while our Constitution is being shredded and our government is being taken apart.