(Cape May County Herald opinion from a year and a half ago on Trump and GOP complicity, as relevant as ever.)
By Kevin McKinney, May 11, 2016
As Donald Trump sells out America, leaving behind a slew of defeated establishment candidates to squirm and sweat before the funhouse mirror in this Twilight Zone playing on an endless loop, one thing is clear: these United States of America aren't what we've cracked them up to be, and we wonder, were they ever?
Our once great nation's standards, values and hopes have seemingly crumbled right before our eyes into a reality TV rubble, where the truth is a joke, the disingenuous reigns, insults are hip, fear motivates and a walking, talking tabloid caricature has a serious shot at the Oval Office.
How did we get here? How did the most powerful democracy in the world become so desperate as to welcome the phony, inciting declarations of a billionaire successfully bidding for the highest office in the land?
The Republican Party only has itself to blame. The unmitigated rise of ‘The Donald’ is as much about the tangible as the intangible, about a twisted, single-minded, conservative ideology which has long catered only to a powerful, select few.
In truth, it’s been a slow fade. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Trump is just the tip of the iceberg, the most visible symptom of an insidious disease that for decades has been quietly compromising many aspects of American life - our security, health, finances and overall quality - certainly since Reaganomics trickled down, trickled out and left the people dry.
But, only now, in the flotsam wake of unprecedented, ultra-conservative, think-tank-orchestrated, corporation-endorsed, alarmist manipulation of the people's hearts, minds and lives since the watershed 2001 high-jacking of the White House is the devastation suddenly and sickeningly obvious.
Donald Trump is what happens, he's the result, the divine justice administered, in the wake of so much criminal negligence and inexcusable abandonment of the people in their most desperate times of need.
After eight hellish years of George W. Bush's "War of Terror" against the American people - through the inexplicable Sept. 11 failures, Iraq War lies, profiteering and bloodshed, domestic spying, bungled Hurricane Katrina response and the deregulation-instigated 2008 Great Recession - untold damage was done.
Then, while millions of Americans were losing their homes, jobs and savings, obstructionist Republicans blocked hundreds of bills, including those designed to help veterans, senior citizens, women victims of violence, ill Sept. 11 first responders, the jobless, middle class families, teachers and the underpaid.
Today, more than 16 million American children are living in poverty and the richest one-tenth percent of Americans have almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The only time congressional Republicans have lifted a finger for the past seven years was to point it accusingly at the president.
Fear-mongering and personal attacks became common. Trust in the Republican establishment evaporated like so many campaign promises.
Emerging from this atmosphere was the bright and shiny political outsider, ‘The Donald,' to the rescue of the disenchanted.
Promising change in loud, condescending, childlike declarations - repeating his adjectives, "great," "amazing," and "special" - devoid of substance, the grand illusionist gradually won the hearts of the forsaken and desperate.
Who can resist a peep under the sideshow circus tent?
Despite his anti-establishment appeal, Trump, in essence, is the amplified embodiment of everything ugly about today’s Republican Party.
Rock bottom line: Obsessive greed and the relentless pursuit of absolute power, is the mad scientist that inadvertently electrified and enlivened this amalgamation of our lesser selves, Trump, to run amok, deceive, disparage and ultimately destroy with impunity.
Friday, November 24, 2017
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Holding America Hostage
It's as if someone is holding a gun to their heads.
They can't talk about it. Not now. It's too early, they say. Just pray.
In the wake of another horribly senseless shooting massacre, this time at Sutherland Springs Baptist church in Texas, where 26 men, women and children were killed, and more 20 injured, while praying, Congressional Republicans insist that it's "too early" to discuss ways of stopping the next one.
They just throw up their hands -- and keep them up. Nothing they can do. Can't talk right now. In fact, they don't like talking about a lot of things.
Like how the National Rifle Association dumped $50 million into the 2016 campaign coffers of Republican Senators and then candidate Donald J. Trump to, in effect, buy an assured Republican majority.
And there's the gun.
Our Republican congressmen, whose job it is to listen to the American people, can't talk about trying to make our country just a little safer. They are being paid to keep their mouths shut and sit on their hands.
They are getting paid to sit idly by while we watch some 30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence.
And make no bloody doubt about it. These so called representatives of the people have blood on their hands.
Much of this same crowd are professed Christians who like to talk about prayer a lot. But they are phony Christians. They are the deceivers, the wolves in sheep's clothing that Jesus and Paul warned us against in the New Testament.
James warned that "Faith without works is dead." And these posing Christians are dead inside, corrupted by greedy corporatist policy.
Prayers can be powerful and are absolutely needed. But talking about prayers without backing it up with urgently needed, doable action, is dead.
Yeah, they talk about prayer, but when it comes to practicing Christian values, even when so many of their brothers and sisters of the same faith were slaughtered just a week ago, they are powerless to take the most basic and sensible of steps to keep killing machines out of the hands of the unstable.
It's long been a matter of record that the overwhelming majority of Americans -- Democrats, Republicans, white, black and brown -- want stricter gun regulations in this country so queerly obessed with firearms.
But all we hear from the National Rifle Association, and their puppet Republican congressmen, is a whole lot more shucking and jiving by about infringing on Second Amendment rights of gun ho gun owners.
Never mind the Second Amendment was written at a time when "the right to bear arms" referred to the single shot musket, which allowed on a good day maybe three lead slug firings a minute.
Today, with the aid of presently legal "fire bump stocks," a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle can be converted into a virtual machine gun, firing hundreds of rounds per minute.
How do these Second Amendment, gun rights advocates reconcile that?
It was "too early" to discuss reasonable gun law changes after the Las Vegas shooting massacre last month that left 58 people dead, and hundreds injured.
And in the meantime, it's getting way too late.
After the Vegas shooting, it was the legality of Bump stocks, that was supposed to be addressed. So, what is Congress waiting for?
Another mass shooting so they can say it's "too early" to amend the laws and simply call for prayers again?
Despite all the posturing last month, bills to make bump stocks illegal are languishing on Capitol Hill.
No one wants to talk about keeping high-powered killing machines out of the hands of killers.
We also know that the Texas shooter should have been prevented from buying firearms for various reasons, including his discharge from the Air Force related to a domestic abuse case and involuntary committal to a mental institution.
Clearly, there is work to do on many fronts to seriously address America's gun epidemic.
The President says the Texas church massacre is a "mental health thing." As if guns weren't involved.
This is the same guy who, earlier this year, signed a bill reversing President Barack Obama's restrictions on mentally ill people buying guns.
While the President and Conservatives stretch the boundaries of reason in responding to these terrible tragedies and shift the blame on anything or anyone but guns, I lay much of the blame on our lip service congressional representatives and the President himself.
We'll never know just how much damage Trump's exhaustive, relentless fear and hate mongering has inflicted on the American psyche these past two years or so.
And that's the whole point. It's not something easily measured.
We do know that hate crimes spiked more than 20 percent in major American cities in 2016 during Trump's divisive, caustic presidential run.
Trump has fanned the flames of hatred and bigotry with his sheer callousness and constant childish, inciting tweets.
As a so-called leader, if the President isn't making this country a better place, he's aiding and abetting the bad guys who want to do it harm.
They can't talk about it. Not now. It's too early, they say. Just pray.
In the wake of another horribly senseless shooting massacre, this time at Sutherland Springs Baptist church in Texas, where 26 men, women and children were killed, and more 20 injured, while praying, Congressional Republicans insist that it's "too early" to discuss ways of stopping the next one.
They just throw up their hands -- and keep them up. Nothing they can do. Can't talk right now. In fact, they don't like talking about a lot of things.
Like how the National Rifle Association dumped $50 million into the 2016 campaign coffers of Republican Senators and then candidate Donald J. Trump to, in effect, buy an assured Republican majority.
And there's the gun.
Our Republican congressmen, whose job it is to listen to the American people, can't talk about trying to make our country just a little safer. They are being paid to keep their mouths shut and sit on their hands.
They are getting paid to sit idly by while we watch some 30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence.
And make no bloody doubt about it. These so called representatives of the people have blood on their hands.
Much of this same crowd are professed Christians who like to talk about prayer a lot. But they are phony Christians. They are the deceivers, the wolves in sheep's clothing that Jesus and Paul warned us against in the New Testament.
James warned that "Faith without works is dead." And these posing Christians are dead inside, corrupted by greedy corporatist policy.
Prayers can be powerful and are absolutely needed. But talking about prayers without backing it up with urgently needed, doable action, is dead.
Yeah, they talk about prayer, but when it comes to practicing Christian values, even when so many of their brothers and sisters of the same faith were slaughtered just a week ago, they are powerless to take the most basic and sensible of steps to keep killing machines out of the hands of the unstable.
It's long been a matter of record that the overwhelming majority of Americans -- Democrats, Republicans, white, black and brown -- want stricter gun regulations in this country so queerly obessed with firearms.
But all we hear from the National Rifle Association, and their puppet Republican congressmen, is a whole lot more shucking and jiving by about infringing on Second Amendment rights of gun ho gun owners.
Never mind the Second Amendment was written at a time when "the right to bear arms" referred to the single shot musket, which allowed on a good day maybe three lead slug firings a minute.
Today, with the aid of presently legal "fire bump stocks," a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle can be converted into a virtual machine gun, firing hundreds of rounds per minute.
How do these Second Amendment, gun rights advocates reconcile that?
It was "too early" to discuss reasonable gun law changes after the Las Vegas shooting massacre last month that left 58 people dead, and hundreds injured.
And in the meantime, it's getting way too late.
After the Vegas shooting, it was the legality of Bump stocks, that was supposed to be addressed. So, what is Congress waiting for?
Another mass shooting so they can say it's "too early" to amend the laws and simply call for prayers again?
Despite all the posturing last month, bills to make bump stocks illegal are languishing on Capitol Hill.
No one wants to talk about keeping high-powered killing machines out of the hands of killers.
We also know that the Texas shooter should have been prevented from buying firearms for various reasons, including his discharge from the Air Force related to a domestic abuse case and involuntary committal to a mental institution.
Clearly, there is work to do on many fronts to seriously address America's gun epidemic.
The President says the Texas church massacre is a "mental health thing." As if guns weren't involved.
This is the same guy who, earlier this year, signed a bill reversing President Barack Obama's restrictions on mentally ill people buying guns.
While the President and Conservatives stretch the boundaries of reason in responding to these terrible tragedies and shift the blame on anything or anyone but guns, I lay much of the blame on our lip service congressional representatives and the President himself.
We'll never know just how much damage Trump's exhaustive, relentless fear and hate mongering has inflicted on the American psyche these past two years or so.
And that's the whole point. It's not something easily measured.
We do know that hate crimes spiked more than 20 percent in major American cities in 2016 during Trump's divisive, caustic presidential run.
Trump has fanned the flames of hatred and bigotry with his sheer callousness and constant childish, inciting tweets.
As a so-called leader, if the President isn't making this country a better place, he's aiding and abetting the bad guys who want to do it harm.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Thank You Zoe Snifferdink
There's no one to bark and go crazy, attacking the heavy bag when I hit it, as if she was defending me against the bag.
No one to greet me as I come home, her behind wagging wildly and wearing a big hairy toothed smile to see what I maybe brought her.
No one to say good morning with a wild little dance of her own making, up on her hind legs and pawing the air like a whinnying horse -- so exuberant that a new day had dawned and that she was alive to experience all of its wonderful possibilities.
We could play ball, hide n seek with treats, wrestle, or she could dig herself silly outside, hunting down voles like she was bred to do.
Zoe was a dog -- a black and white, rough-haired, Jack Russell mix. But she had more personality, life and compassion than most humans.
I was Zoe's "Uncle," if you will. For the past four years or so, I took care of Zoe anytime her "mother" Mary went to visit family, which was every couple months.
The first time I met her, Zoe jumped up onto my lap, sat there perfectly balanced and licked my face. We've been buddies ever since.
Whenever I picked her up at Mary's, Zoe would go nuts, crying and barking as if to say, "Why so long between visits?"
At the boatyard bungalow in Cape May we had many adventures.
One summer night a family of raccoons showed up in the trees off my backyard and Zoe was repeatedly bouncing off the vinyl lattice fence trying to get at them, much to the amusement of a friend and me watching by torchlight.
I often wondered how things would go if Zoe met a raccoon face to face. The raccoon initially might have mistaken Zoe, who had the same coloring, for another raccoon.
I imagined Zoe running circles around, and occasionally swatting the stunned raccoon the way Cassius Clay punished the lumbering Sonny Liston in their first bout in Miami. Like Liston, the raccoon would finally give up, and retreat to a neutral corner of the yard.
Together Zoe and I hunted and chased squirrels, rabbits, mice, possums, raccoons and the occasional stray cat that dared to venture into our hood. (though I would always allow the rabbits to get a running start).
I remember Zoe, after she had chased a mouse under the stove, repeatedly whining and pawing at the stove. "Zoe you can't get it that way," I told her. "He's not gonna come out with you pawing away like that. You have to wait quietly and be patient."
Then Zoe, seeming to understand me, sat back on her haunches and waited. I never did see her catch a mouse. But a couple months ago, at my new place, a cottage in Courthouse, I awoke on the couch and found a soggy, dead vole on the floor next to me.
"Thanks Zoe," I said, as Zoe looked up from her bone surprised, having apparently forgotten the night's before kill.
Another time, Zoe cornered a possum under the deck in the boatyard; the frightened creature stayed there, frozen all night, or least until we went to bed.
When Zoe's owner Mary would return home after a week or two with family and text me, I always managed to make excuses to keep Zoe another two or three days.
"I know she's having fun," Mary would text generously. "Keep her as long as you want."
Zoe loved tennis balls, soccer balls, anything round. She once sat on the neighbor's back deck, staring at the fence and whining. She had spotted the decorative wooden ball adorning the fence post and wanted it to play with.
For awhile there, I woke up wondering where Zoe was and then found her standing at attention in front of "Toy Corner" -- a cramped space with a TV table wedged between the refrigerator and the bungalow's back door.
It was where I piled all kinds of things I had no other place for -- broken gooneybird chimes, bug repellent, water guns, artist paint supplies -- and Zoe's treats, like rawhide bones, stuffed animals and tennis balls.
Several mornings in a row, she automatically assumed her vigil before Toy Corner, certain that it held a new surprise for each new day. Of course, I'd have to oblige even if it meant sneaking out to the dollar store for a squeaky stuffed hedgehog.
Zoe touched my heart immensely. She was a brilliant, fun-loving and affectionate dog. The best dog I ever knew. I loved her as much as she loved me. And she always entertained the hell out of me.
If we can learn from animals, and I know that we can, Zoe taught me and continually seemed to be reminding me of how precious is the gift of life.
Just a few days ago, Zoe was tirelessly retrieving Wiffle balls I batted out back.
A day later, she was unusually subdued. I thought she was mad at me for not paying her enough attention.
She wouldn't eat. Suddenly, she had no interest even in a doggie treat or, her favorite, a marrow bone.
With Zoe resting on my lap, I drove her to the veterinary hospital yesterday morning. It was serious. A dastardly disease that sneaks up on some dogs in the prime of their life.
Zoe died this morning. She wasn't even seven. But she packed enough living into those nearly seven years to fill seven lifetimes.
I will miss her. Thank you Zoe Snifferdink, my pal the Love Pup, AKA the Scruffin' Pup, for immeasurably enriching my life.
No one to greet me as I come home, her behind wagging wildly and wearing a big hairy toothed smile to see what I maybe brought her.
No one to say good morning with a wild little dance of her own making, up on her hind legs and pawing the air like a whinnying horse -- so exuberant that a new day had dawned and that she was alive to experience all of its wonderful possibilities.
We could play ball, hide n seek with treats, wrestle, or she could dig herself silly outside, hunting down voles like she was bred to do.
Zoe was a dog -- a black and white, rough-haired, Jack Russell mix. But she had more personality, life and compassion than most humans.
The first time I met her, Zoe jumped up onto my lap, sat there perfectly balanced and licked my face. We've been buddies ever since.
Whenever I picked her up at Mary's, Zoe would go nuts, crying and barking as if to say, "Why so long between visits?"
At the boatyard bungalow in Cape May we had many adventures.
One summer night a family of raccoons showed up in the trees off my backyard and Zoe was repeatedly bouncing off the vinyl lattice fence trying to get at them, much to the amusement of a friend and me watching by torchlight.
I often wondered how things would go if Zoe met a raccoon face to face. The raccoon initially might have mistaken Zoe, who had the same coloring, for another raccoon.
I imagined Zoe running circles around, and occasionally swatting the stunned raccoon the way Cassius Clay punished the lumbering Sonny Liston in their first bout in Miami. Like Liston, the raccoon would finally give up, and retreat to a neutral corner of the yard.
Together Zoe and I hunted and chased squirrels, rabbits, mice, possums, raccoons and the occasional stray cat that dared to venture into our hood. (though I would always allow the rabbits to get a running start).
I remember Zoe, after she had chased a mouse under the stove, repeatedly whining and pawing at the stove. "Zoe you can't get it that way," I told her. "He's not gonna come out with you pawing away like that. You have to wait quietly and be patient."
Then Zoe, seeming to understand me, sat back on her haunches and waited. I never did see her catch a mouse. But a couple months ago, at my new place, a cottage in Courthouse, I awoke on the couch and found a soggy, dead vole on the floor next to me.
"Thanks Zoe," I said, as Zoe looked up from her bone surprised, having apparently forgotten the night's before kill.
Another time, Zoe cornered a possum under the deck in the boatyard; the frightened creature stayed there, frozen all night, or least until we went to bed.
When Zoe's owner Mary would return home after a week or two with family and text me, I always managed to make excuses to keep Zoe another two or three days.
"I know she's having fun," Mary would text generously. "Keep her as long as you want."
Zoe loved tennis balls, soccer balls, anything round. She once sat on the neighbor's back deck, staring at the fence and whining. She had spotted the decorative wooden ball adorning the fence post and wanted it to play with.
For awhile there, I woke up wondering where Zoe was and then found her standing at attention in front of "Toy Corner" -- a cramped space with a TV table wedged between the refrigerator and the bungalow's back door.
It was where I piled all kinds of things I had no other place for -- broken gooneybird chimes, bug repellent, water guns, artist paint supplies -- and Zoe's treats, like rawhide bones, stuffed animals and tennis balls.
Several mornings in a row, she automatically assumed her vigil before Toy Corner, certain that it held a new surprise for each new day. Of course, I'd have to oblige even if it meant sneaking out to the dollar store for a squeaky stuffed hedgehog.
Zoe touched my heart immensely. She was a brilliant, fun-loving and affectionate dog. The best dog I ever knew. I loved her as much as she loved me. And she always entertained the hell out of me.
If we can learn from animals, and I know that we can, Zoe taught me and continually seemed to be reminding me of how precious is the gift of life.
Just a few days ago, Zoe was tirelessly retrieving Wiffle balls I batted out back.
A day later, she was unusually subdued. I thought she was mad at me for not paying her enough attention.
She wouldn't eat. Suddenly, she had no interest even in a doggie treat or, her favorite, a marrow bone.
With Zoe resting on my lap, I drove her to the veterinary hospital yesterday morning. It was serious. A dastardly disease that sneaks up on some dogs in the prime of their life.
Zoe died this morning. She wasn't even seven. But she packed enough living into those nearly seven years to fill seven lifetimes.
I will miss her. Thank you Zoe Snifferdink, my pal the Love Pup, AKA the Scruffin' Pup, for immeasurably enriching my life.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Pray -- And Act
The National Rifle Association has bought and paid for Republicans' silence and inaction on America's grating gun-ho epidemic for far too long.
While we mourn and pray for our brothers and sisters, senselessly and tragically mowed down by a crazed man with an aresonal of high-powered weapons in Las Vegas, we must channel our anguish and anger into action.
Arguably, tougher gun laws in Nevada and the nation would have at least minimized the deaths and injuries in the senseless, horrific Las Vegas tragedy.
Without the readily available bump stock attachment converting a semi-automatic into essentially a machine gun, the mass killer, whose name doesn't need mentioning, wouldn't have spilled so much blood -- 59 killed and more than 500 injured.
The Las Vegas shooter owned more than 40 guns reportedly and 12 were semi automatic rifles converted to machine gun capacity right there in the hotel room with him.
He had no problem amassing a mass killing aresonal, and that simply should not be.
After the worst mass killing in our nation's modern history, will Republicans finally own up to their criminal complicity?
After San Bernadino, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Aurora, Columbine and the like, the Right's glaring inaction on common sense gun safety laws must end.
If President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders truly care about the American people they would indeed pray -- and then act to tighten gun laws, ban bump stocks and do all they can to prevent a mentally unstable person from legally buying guns.
Of course, if they really gave a squat, they wouldnt have started to reverse sensible gun legislation passed under President Barack Obama.
Bottom line. The Las Vegas horror illustrates all over again why we need to get money out of politics.
In the 2016 elections alone, The NRA dumped 500 million dollars into the campaigns of six Republican senators and then candidate Trump. All but one senator won their races.
The Bible that the President was quoting Monday also tells us that we can't "serve both God and mammon."
And 1 Timothy, 6:10 has this to say about the love of money:
"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
In Matthew, Paul has a good deal to say about hypocrites of the faith as well.
President Trump can posture all he wants about praying for the Las Vegas victims and he can cite all the scripture he wants too.
But sadly, it all rings hollow. Something the President never has seemed to grasp: Actions speak louder than words.
While we mourn and pray for our brothers and sisters, senselessly and tragically mowed down by a crazed man with an aresonal of high-powered weapons in Las Vegas, we must channel our anguish and anger into action.
Arguably, tougher gun laws in Nevada and the nation would have at least minimized the deaths and injuries in the senseless, horrific Las Vegas tragedy.
Without the readily available bump stock attachment converting a semi-automatic into essentially a machine gun, the mass killer, whose name doesn't need mentioning, wouldn't have spilled so much blood -- 59 killed and more than 500 injured.
The Las Vegas shooter owned more than 40 guns reportedly and 12 were semi automatic rifles converted to machine gun capacity right there in the hotel room with him.
He had no problem amassing a mass killing aresonal, and that simply should not be.
After the worst mass killing in our nation's modern history, will Republicans finally own up to their criminal complicity?
After San Bernadino, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Aurora, Columbine and the like, the Right's glaring inaction on common sense gun safety laws must end.
If President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders truly care about the American people they would indeed pray -- and then act to tighten gun laws, ban bump stocks and do all they can to prevent a mentally unstable person from legally buying guns.
Of course, if they really gave a squat, they wouldnt have started to reverse sensible gun legislation passed under President Barack Obama.
Bottom line. The Las Vegas horror illustrates all over again why we need to get money out of politics.
The Bible that the President was quoting Monday also tells us that we can't "serve both God and mammon."
And 1 Timothy, 6:10 has this to say about the love of money:
"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
In Matthew, Paul has a good deal to say about hypocrites of the faith as well.
President Trump can posture all he wants about praying for the Las Vegas victims and he can cite all the scripture he wants too.
But sadly, it all rings hollow. Something the President never has seemed to grasp: Actions speak louder than words.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Normalizing The Absurd
(I was told the following "letter to the editor" submitted to the Cape May County Herald earlier this month, was too critical of the Publisher to run in his newspaper. What do you think?)
In Herald Publisher Art Hall's September 6th column -- "Is America Really Flying Apart?" -- he calls for cool heads to prevail in these turbulent times.
That's fine. I agree. But, keeping our heads doesn't mean burying them in the sand.
What I can't concur with is the Publisher's seeming inability to grasp the gravity of President Donald Trump's inexcusable fascist chaos.
More than once in his recent columns, Mr. Hall has seriously implied that America's present unrest largely can be blamed on discontented Democrats still whimpering over their election loss to a Charlotan.
Just a handful of racist agitators and a bunch of cry baby cupcakes that are stirring the hornet's nest, Hall essentially proffers. That's pretty much it.
Our antiquated two-party political system -- which feeds an "us" versus "them" mindset -- indeed too easily divides.
But these troubling times are unlike any other. They demand that political party allegiances be shed to stand for country.
So, with all due respect, I submit that the Publisher is employing the same blind partisanship he charges the Left with.
And by doing so, he trivializes the President's complete and utter failure to lead; the Publisher comes dangerously close to normalizing what, in so many aspects, is a hideously abnormal presidency.
The only hint of acknowledging Trump's glaring ineptitude as President these past disastrous seven plus months, was to say that he has been "unable to rise above the fray."
Allow me to clarify. Not only does the impulsive President lack any ability to keep his powder dry -- think of his "fire and fury" shot across the bow towards North Korea -- but he is this country's premier agitator.
Fear-mongering is Trump's greatest talent. He purposely has been inciting and dividing our nation for two tumultuous years -- all to pursue a narcissistic scheme of self-enrichment at the people's expense.
Every single cabinet appointee of Trump's represents interests gratingly antithetical to God's people, but favorable to the corporate world -- Big Pharma, Wall Street and fossil fuel mega-billionaires like Charles and David Koch.
Now, so much is at risk: environmental protections, healthcare for the sickest and poorest, a living wage, free speech, a free press, gun control law, Wall Street regulation and national security.
In his column, the Publisher neglects to credit the millions of justice-minded, peaceful protesters across this nation who have held Trump to account since his surreal inauguration -- which he proclaimed would be remembered as "the day the people became the rulers of this nation."
There's no telling how much worse off we'd be without concerned citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by voicing opposition to discriminatory policies like the travel ban, Trumpcare and ending DACA.
If Trump really gave a rat's tail about his fellow man, he wouldn't have needlessly tossed a monkey wrench into the lives of 800,000 young immigrants who have called America home from their earliest memories.
If that's how Trump shows his professed "love" for the Dreamers, by so casually and viscerally threatening their American dream, why would anyone of us for a second think our own American dream is safe under a Trump presidency?
Trump consistently proves how grotesquely unqualified he is to be our commander-in-chief -- whether it's regaling 40,000 Boy Scouts with corrupting stories of shysters at cocktail parties or failing to reject the pledged alliance of hatemonger, former KKK Grand Dragon, David Duke.
The writing has been on the wall in glaring pitch black letters for endless months now. But still so many, my fellow Christian brothers and sisters included, fail to have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" the truth.
Such persistant darkness, as perpetuated by the Trump cabal, gone unchallenged only leads to doom. Look no further than Hitler's Nazi Germany.
The American people can't afford to wait for Trump to lay all his cards on the table. By then it will surely be too late.
So, cool heads prevail? Absolutely. But sitting idly by while Trump tramples over our Godly values and Democratic principles?
In Herald Publisher Art Hall's September 6th column -- "Is America Really Flying Apart?" -- he calls for cool heads to prevail in these turbulent times.
That's fine. I agree. But, keeping our heads doesn't mean burying them in the sand.
What I can't concur with is the Publisher's seeming inability to grasp the gravity of President Donald Trump's inexcusable fascist chaos.
More than once in his recent columns, Mr. Hall has seriously implied that America's present unrest largely can be blamed on discontented Democrats still whimpering over their election loss to a Charlotan.
Just a handful of racist agitators and a bunch of cry baby cupcakes that are stirring the hornet's nest, Hall essentially proffers. That's pretty much it.
Our antiquated two-party political system -- which feeds an "us" versus "them" mindset -- indeed too easily divides.
But these troubling times are unlike any other. They demand that political party allegiances be shed to stand for country.
So, with all due respect, I submit that the Publisher is employing the same blind partisanship he charges the Left with.
And by doing so, he trivializes the President's complete and utter failure to lead; the Publisher comes dangerously close to normalizing what, in so many aspects, is a hideously abnormal presidency.
The only hint of acknowledging Trump's glaring ineptitude as President these past disastrous seven plus months, was to say that he has been "unable to rise above the fray."
Allow me to clarify. Not only does the impulsive President lack any ability to keep his powder dry -- think of his "fire and fury" shot across the bow towards North Korea -- but he is this country's premier agitator.
Fear-mongering is Trump's greatest talent. He purposely has been inciting and dividing our nation for two tumultuous years -- all to pursue a narcissistic scheme of self-enrichment at the people's expense.
Every single cabinet appointee of Trump's represents interests gratingly antithetical to God's people, but favorable to the corporate world -- Big Pharma, Wall Street and fossil fuel mega-billionaires like Charles and David Koch.
Now, so much is at risk: environmental protections, healthcare for the sickest and poorest, a living wage, free speech, a free press, gun control law, Wall Street regulation and national security.
In his column, the Publisher neglects to credit the millions of justice-minded, peaceful protesters across this nation who have held Trump to account since his surreal inauguration -- which he proclaimed would be remembered as "the day the people became the rulers of this nation."
There's no telling how much worse off we'd be without concerned citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by voicing opposition to discriminatory policies like the travel ban, Trumpcare and ending DACA.
If Trump really gave a rat's tail about his fellow man, he wouldn't have needlessly tossed a monkey wrench into the lives of 800,000 young immigrants who have called America home from their earliest memories.
If that's how Trump shows his professed "love" for the Dreamers, by so casually and viscerally threatening their American dream, why would anyone of us for a second think our own American dream is safe under a Trump presidency?
Trump consistently proves how grotesquely unqualified he is to be our commander-in-chief -- whether it's regaling 40,000 Boy Scouts with corrupting stories of shysters at cocktail parties or failing to reject the pledged alliance of hatemonger, former KKK Grand Dragon, David Duke.
The writing has been on the wall in glaring pitch black letters for endless months now. But still so many, my fellow Christian brothers and sisters included, fail to have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" the truth.
Such persistant darkness, as perpetuated by the Trump cabal, gone unchallenged only leads to doom. Look no further than Hitler's Nazi Germany.
The American people can't afford to wait for Trump to lay all his cards on the table. By then it will surely be too late.
So, cool heads prevail? Absolutely. But sitting idly by while Trump tramples over our Godly values and Democratic principles?
Monday, August 21, 2017
Trump Needs To Go
Never has it been more clear that President Donald Trump is in the wrong line of work.
In just the past couple weeks of his brief, tumultuous, autocratic-tinged presidency, Trump has displayed a mystifying knack for making bad situations so much worse.
Trump's utter inability to keep his powder dry in addressing the North Korea nuclear threat unnecessarily placed the United States in it's greatest peril perhaps since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
And the President's failure to reject the hate monger David Duke's professed allegiance to the President -- in the aftermath of Charlottesville's deadly riot -- inexcusably fans the flames of bigotry.
Of course, that's what demagogues do. And nobody's better at it than Trump.
The problem with truly knowing where Donald Trump stands or weighing seriously anything he utters, is that he's Donald Trump.
After nearly seven insidious months of Trump's blatant lies, flip flopping, phony posturing and loads of divisive inciting rhetoric, the President has lost all credibility.
The Narcissist-in-Chief can load up on all the bluster and feigned sincerity he wants, but he's still got no credibility. Zilch.
But while Trump's words almost always ring hollow, they are essentially garunteed to enflame.
And that's what makes him so dangerous.
So right now, the looming questions remain and beg for answers -- before this twisted mess of a presidency ends very badly for the people.
When will Congress step up and put an end to this nightmare?
If there ever was a president who qualifies for Impeachment due to dereliction of duty, it's the former Reality TV star.
When will Republicans snap out of it, forget about absurd political party loyalties and take a stand for their country?
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Trump Freak Show Demands Impeachment
It's bad enough that a guy with the demonstrable moral compass of a common garden slug somehow swindled his way into the White House, promising deliverance, but delivering chaos.
In the wake of the White House's Russia-centered scandals in just this past week, it's more than fair to ask: Is there anyone less qualified or less deserving to be President of the United States than Donald J. Trump?
And it's fair enough to answer: No.
Trump's inane intelligence security breach to Russian diplomats in the Oval Office a week ago and his abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey, the day before, cry ineptititude, obstruction of justice and possibly high treason.
Nevertheless, nearly four months into this Twilight Zonish presidency, the right's queer commitment to normalize Trump's hideously abnormal presidency, persists.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday brushed off Trump's sharing highly classified secrets with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, as just more White House "drama," distracting from more pressing Capitol Hill business, like cutting taxes for the rich.
As it stands, the featured freak has escaped from the red and yellow circus tent, highjacked the sideshow barker's box, and is peddling discount tickets just to gawk at an empty tent.
And the suckers are still lining up.
That fact alone is as scary as all of this narcissistic, dictatorial President's erratic, inciting and vindictive tweets and disruptive, divisive actions put together.
After 100 plus days of: corporatist-beholden policy, autocratic attacks on the Press, repetitive blatant lies, persistant childish tweets, unfettered profiteering off the presidency, reckless provocation of world leaders and the firing of key federal investigators probing Trump's Russian ties, Republicans and rabid Reality TV fans can't see it.
They can't see the 15,000 pound, wise-cracking, dancing, pink, polka-dotted elephant in the room.
Both McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan's predictable downplaying of Comey's firing and secrets shared with Russia, United States' advisary in the Syria conflict, only further call into question their loyalty to country over party.
So far, the congressional leaders have dismissed urgent calls from congressional Democrats for a special prosecutor and an independent bi-partisan commission to investigate Trump's Russia connections -- a move Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) insists on before congress considers a new FBI director.
Yet, if there ever was a clear cut case of obstructing justice anywhere in the universe, it seems Trump's firing of Comey qualifies.
Not only did Trump can Comey just as the head FBI investigator was amping up his probe into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia's 2016 presidential election meddling, but the President offered conflicting reasons for Comey's ouster -- his latest of which directly implies he was trying to cover up his own treasonous Russian connections.
"... I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story,' Trump told NBC News on Thursday, oddly referring to himself in the third person, 'it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'"
Whether the President is truly clueless that he doesn't get to decide his own criminal innocence or guilt on such weighty matters as obstruction and high treason, or he is attempting to cover up his complicity with Russia -- or both -- he's plainly exhibited grounds for impeachment.
Period.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Just A Show?
So, was it all just a show? A corporatist ploy?
What good did Donald Trump's impulsive Tomahawk missile retaliatory attack in Syria really accomplish?
Two keys things actually.
It's distracted the American people from the Trump-Russia ties talk. And it's helped resurrect Trump's self-promoted image as a strong leader, a good guy.
Other than that, it was a waste.
In reality, was the U.S. attack anything more than staged "shock and awe" -- ala George W. Bush, whose first 50 bomb strikes missed their targets and killed scores of innocent civilians, children included, in the unprovoked start of the bloody Iraq War?
Bush's, and now Trump's, trumped up display of power and alleged precision was more like "shock and awe, come on."
And why didn't we hear more on the early network news reports about the additional children killed by Trump's strike, ordered illegally without approval from Congress?
The very day after the U.S. fired 49 missiles at a Syrian airfield, military planes were taking off from the same runway there as if nothing had happened.
The chemical weapons stockpile were apparently untouched and another chemical attack was reported Saturday.
But the lives of at least four children, and several adults, who had the misfortune of living too close to the airfield, were over.
Trump's order to avenge the deaths of innocent children, killed more innocent children.
Trump made a good play as a sober leader saddened by the cruel, horrible deaths of children, men and women after the chemical weapon attack early last week.
He made the obligatory references to God and defending America from any similar horror.
Did he finally get religion -- become a kinder, more sensitive Donald? Or was it all just an act?
Anyone whose been paying attention has to wonder if it indeed wasn't a charade, little more than an opportunistic ploy from our master Illusionist president to win back over American hearts and minds.
We can't forget his record on human decency up until now is non-existent. And remember, he is an expert poser, who swindled his way to the presidency.
In the meantime, it must be asked what role the increasingly corporate-owned media played in the whole affair.
The networks untypically chose to air gratuitous, graphic footage of the chemical attacks, as if intentionally beating the war drums.
Then, initial network news reports of Trump's Tomahawk retaliation mentioned nothing of the civilian casualties, while the British newspapers were blaring it in their headlines.
Why?
In the meantime, Sryian ally Russia is reportedly outraged with the U.S. strike (that failed to leave a blemish on the runway), as we also learn that Russia allegedly played a role in the chemical attack.
So, why would Trump risk violating his seeming bromance with Putin by striking against a Russian ally?
Is it possible the American people are being played 'bigly?' The one thing that Putin, Trump and even the Corporate media has in common is deference to the corporatist world.
And there's nothing like a terrorist threat combined with the flexing of military might to empower and enrich the corporatist elite.
Trump has been fear mongering the terrorist threat ever since he emerged as a candidate for president.
It's been almost as if Trump wanted something bad to happen on American soil so he could attempt to legitimize his own illegitimate notions, including the one about "making America (white) again."
It seems that the terrible Syrian chemical attack, of which the networks repeatedly ran graphic footage, was just the sort of alarmist event that Trump was not so patiently waiting to exploit.
What good did Donald Trump's impulsive Tomahawk missile retaliatory attack in Syria really accomplish?
Two keys things actually.
It's distracted the American people from the Trump-Russia ties talk. And it's helped resurrect Trump's self-promoted image as a strong leader, a good guy.
Other than that, it was a waste.
In reality, was the U.S. attack anything more than staged "shock and awe" -- ala George W. Bush, whose first 50 bomb strikes missed their targets and killed scores of innocent civilians, children included, in the unprovoked start of the bloody Iraq War?
Bush's, and now Trump's, trumped up display of power and alleged precision was more like "shock and awe, come on."
And why didn't we hear more on the early network news reports about the additional children killed by Trump's strike, ordered illegally without approval from Congress?
The very day after the U.S. fired 49 missiles at a Syrian airfield, military planes were taking off from the same runway there as if nothing had happened.
The chemical weapons stockpile were apparently untouched and another chemical attack was reported Saturday.
But the lives of at least four children, and several adults, who had the misfortune of living too close to the airfield, were over.
Trump's order to avenge the deaths of innocent children, killed more innocent children.
Trump made a good play as a sober leader saddened by the cruel, horrible deaths of children, men and women after the chemical weapon attack early last week.
He made the obligatory references to God and defending America from any similar horror.
Did he finally get religion -- become a kinder, more sensitive Donald? Or was it all just an act?
Anyone whose been paying attention has to wonder if it indeed wasn't a charade, little more than an opportunistic ploy from our master Illusionist president to win back over American hearts and minds.
We can't forget his record on human decency up until now is non-existent. And remember, he is an expert poser, who swindled his way to the presidency.
In the meantime, it must be asked what role the increasingly corporate-owned media played in the whole affair.
The networks untypically chose to air gratuitous, graphic footage of the chemical attacks, as if intentionally beating the war drums.
Then, initial network news reports of Trump's Tomahawk retaliation mentioned nothing of the civilian casualties, while the British newspapers were blaring it in their headlines.
Why?
In the meantime, Sryian ally Russia is reportedly outraged with the U.S. strike (that failed to leave a blemish on the runway), as we also learn that Russia allegedly played a role in the chemical attack.
So, why would Trump risk violating his seeming bromance with Putin by striking against a Russian ally?
Is it possible the American people are being played 'bigly?' The one thing that Putin, Trump and even the Corporate media has in common is deference to the corporatist world.
And there's nothing like a terrorist threat combined with the flexing of military might to empower and enrich the corporatist elite.
Trump has been fear mongering the terrorist threat ever since he emerged as a candidate for president.
It's been almost as if Trump wanted something bad to happen on American soil so he could attempt to legitimize his own illegitimate notions, including the one about "making America (white) again."
It seems that the terrible Syrian chemical attack, of which the networks repeatedly ran graphic footage, was just the sort of alarmist event that Trump was not so patiently waiting to exploit.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Why Not Censure The President?
Russia Gate investigators must be getting warmer.
Either way, there undoubtedly would have been good reason for legally eavesdropping on Trump -- given his seeming bromance with Russia President Vladimir Putin.
In the meantime, what will it take, what will Trump have to do for one or both congressional house leaders to lay aside their corrupting Republican Party allegiances in defense of their country, and say "enough"?
When will the House or Senate consider censuring the President?
Censure is partly defined as a "formal, and public, group condemnation" for elected leaders "whose actions run counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior."
Trump's presidency so far, just six weeks in, has been anything but, "acceptable." President Trump hasn't been acting right from the get-go. His antagonistic, divisive and deceitful tweets and policy signings are actually America's greatest threat.
For the sake of America's stability at home and standing abroad, Trump needs to quit the reckless, groundless accusations, the inciting attacks and blatant lies. And if he doesn't, it's Congress' duty to intervene.
President Andrew Jackson in 1834 was censured by a Wig Party Senate for "withholding documents," an apparently partisan-motivated move. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton was the first to be targeted by congressional Censure, though the vote fell short.
In 1842, Whigs also settled for voting to censure President John Tyler after failing to get enough votes for impeachment.
We know this drill. President Donald Trump deflects from more pressing inquiries into his misdeeds by tossing out destabilizing, baseless accusations -- the "sky is falling"... "Martians have landed."
Time and again, it's like he's a child insisting to his parents that his brother broke the vase by playing ball in the house, when all the while little Donnie was the only one home.
Time and again, it's like he's a child insisting to his parents that his brother broke the vase by playing ball in the house, when all the while little Donnie was the only one home.
Tweeting that our previous president is a "bad (or sick) man" only more sharply defines the bigoted lines of division in this country.
And it threatens to tarnish the reputation of a man, President Barack Obama, who has more integrity in his left pinky finger nail than Trump will ever have in his entire body.
Unfortunately, this is what the Deflector in Chief does best. Forget legislating, or looking out for the American people's best interests. He's really good at projecting his own shortcomings and crimes on the other guy.
If President Trump has any evidence whatsoever of the previous administration wiretapping him, he should cough it up. Otherwise, he should shut up.
Either way, there undoubtedly would have been good reason for legally eavesdropping on Trump -- given his seeming bromance with Russia President Vladimir Putin.
In the meantime, what will it take, what will Trump have to do for one or both congressional house leaders to lay aside their corrupting Republican Party allegiances in defense of their country, and say "enough"?
When will the House or Senate consider censuring the President?
Censure is partly defined as a "formal, and public, group condemnation" for elected leaders "whose actions run counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior."
Trump's presidency so far, just six weeks in, has been anything but, "acceptable." President Trump hasn't been acting right from the get-go. His antagonistic, divisive and deceitful tweets and policy signings are actually America's greatest threat.
For the sake of America's stability at home and standing abroad, Trump needs to quit the reckless, groundless accusations, the inciting attacks and blatant lies. And if he doesn't, it's Congress' duty to intervene.
President Andrew Jackson in 1834 was censured by a Wig Party Senate for "withholding documents," an apparently partisan-motivated move. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton was the first to be targeted by congressional Censure, though the vote fell short.
In 1842, Whigs also settled for voting to censure President John Tyler after failing to get enough votes for impeachment.
A majority vote in either house is needed to censure. Arguably, the censure is a ready made disciplinary tool for times such as these.
Trump is President of the United States. He needs to act like the President. Not a circus sideshow barker.
Trump is President of the United States. He needs to act like the President. Not a circus sideshow barker.
Other than appointing a special prosecutor to head a probe into President Trump's ties to Russia, censuring the President is the least Congress can do -- and it could help lay the groundwork for impeachment.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Russia Gate. Don't Forget Sessions' Ties To Page
The scrutiny of newly minted United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions' possible ties to Russia should include his apparent relationship with Russian oil operative and President Donald Trump's former foreign policy advisor Carter Page.
Sessions reportedly introduced Trump to Page last Spring. Now, Page is bizarrely defending himself, deflecting questions on his Russian relations of late on cable news.
This is "Russia Gate" -- definitely.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Just Words
President Donald Trump sounds like an old high school football coach searching for his glory days.
The United States will "win again," he promises. But what does that really mean?
Like much of The President's first speech to a joint session of Congress last night, he seemed to say the right things.
But when you dig a little deeper, you realize there's nothing there. Let's be real, when has what Trump said meant diddly?
When has his words measured up to the truth of his actions? In fact, most of the promises the President made Tuesday night, he was already breaking.
Smoke and mirrors baby. Smoke and mirrors. With a discount special of snakeoil. Buy one. Get another free.
One fact checker had the President lying some 50 times in the speech.
Perhaps, the most absurd thing he said was that we need to promote clean air and water for the future -- this on the very day he rolled back President Barack Obama's clean water rules.
The list goes on.
As Bernie Sanders pointed out, it's what Trump didn't say that's just as important as the misleading things he did.
What are his plans for social security, Medicaid and Medicare? Why didn't he offer a peep about climate change?
No matter how even-toned his delivery or appealing his rhetoric, nothing Trump says will negate the chaos he's already created and the damage already done in his first turbulent month as President.
The United States will "win again," he promises. But what does that really mean?
Like much of The President's first speech to a joint session of Congress last night, he seemed to say the right things.
But when you dig a little deeper, you realize there's nothing there. Let's be real, when has what Trump said meant diddly?
When has his words measured up to the truth of his actions? In fact, most of the promises the President made Tuesday night, he was already breaking.
Smoke and mirrors baby. Smoke and mirrors. With a discount special of snakeoil. Buy one. Get another free.
One fact checker had the President lying some 50 times in the speech.
Perhaps, the most absurd thing he said was that we need to promote clean air and water for the future -- this on the very day he rolled back President Barack Obama's clean water rules.
The list goes on.
As Bernie Sanders pointed out, it's what Trump didn't say that's just as important as the misleading things he did.
What are his plans for social security, Medicaid and Medicare? Why didn't he offer a peep about climate change?
No matter how even-toned his delivery or appealing his rhetoric, nothing Trump says will negate the chaos he's already created and the damage already done in his first turbulent month as President.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Which Side Is He On?
Which side is President Donald Trump on?
That's the singular, simple, burning question we fellow Americans should be concerned with. Which side is our increasingly indifferent, detached and reckless President on?
America's? Or Russia's?
That's it. You can forget about Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway's insipid plug of Ivanka's fashion line.
Or Trump's delusional talk about inaugural crowd sizes. Or his absolutely baseless claim of illegal aliens voting in the last presidential election.
Or his clownish comments with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday about whether a two-state, or one-state solution with Palestinians was best.
He treated the decades old diplomatic dilemma as if he were deciding whether to get mustard or ketchup on his hamburger. Said Trump casually: "I could live with either one."
Be careful of scrutinizing any one of our presidential imposter's endless list of blatant lies during his tyrannical, turbulent first month in the White House.
The lies about landmark crime rates or non-existent terror attacks.
Never mind the President's fake take on "fake news" in the media.
You can forget all that cooked up garbage -- which is not only designed to alarm, but just as importantly, distract from the one monumental question that we all should be asking.
Which side is he on?
And you, me, we the people, need to insist that Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, expediently get some answers to that question.
Various House and Senate committees may be investigating one aspect or another related to Russia's meddling in American affairs.
But for the sake of our country's security, both political parties need to be united in determining the clear extent and nature of Russia's relationship with President Trump and his family.
Certainly, President Trump's entangled web of international business conflicts are at play here.
The writing has been on the wall in glaring, dark letters for months, since we started learning about Russia's hacking of Democratic emails this past summer and Trump's subsequent odd defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump's relationship with Russia goes back decades.
We know of Trump's desire to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in the 1990's. We know of his son, Don Jr.'s repeated trips to Moscow.
"We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia," said the younger Trump in a 2008 real estate conference speech in Moscow.
Donald Jr. told investors that the Trump Organization had trademarked the Donald Trump name in Russia and had big plans to build in Moscow.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
How can Trump claim to be a champion of American Democracy, while repeatedly, bizarrely, inexplicably, exhaustively, unrepentantly and exuberantly defending Putin at every turn?
How can Trump consistently, unapologetically stand up for the unsavory Russian oligarch at the slightest hint of criticism, in the same way he impulsively attacks anyone who remotely challenges his own twisted, hateful, divisive policy tweets?
Indeed, what incriminating evidence might Putin have on Trump?
General Michael Flynn's resignation as National Security Advisor earlier this week, makes all the more urgent a joint congressional investigation of Trump's Russian ties.
Flynn apparently lied to Vice President Mike Pence about discussing sanctions with a Russian ambassador prior to Trump's presidency.
But who put Flynn up to discussing those Russian sanctions?
The plot thickens. Flynn's ouster should ultimately be the ticket to Trump's own.
This stew of intrigue has been cooking far too long. Sooner, rather than later, it's bound to boil over.
So, let's get some answers. Like, now. Most crucially, Americans have a right to know the truth.
Which side is the President on?
That's the singular, simple, burning question we fellow Americans should be concerned with. Which side is our increasingly indifferent, detached and reckless President on?
America's? Or Russia's?
That's it. You can forget about Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway's insipid plug of Ivanka's fashion line.
Or Trump's delusional talk about inaugural crowd sizes. Or his absolutely baseless claim of illegal aliens voting in the last presidential election.
Or his clownish comments with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday about whether a two-state, or one-state solution with Palestinians was best.
He treated the decades old diplomatic dilemma as if he were deciding whether to get mustard or ketchup on his hamburger. Said Trump casually: "I could live with either one."
Be careful of scrutinizing any one of our presidential imposter's endless list of blatant lies during his tyrannical, turbulent first month in the White House.
The lies about landmark crime rates or non-existent terror attacks.
Never mind the President's fake take on "fake news" in the media.
You can forget all that cooked up garbage -- which is not only designed to alarm, but just as importantly, distract from the one monumental question that we all should be asking.
Which side is he on?
And you, me, we the people, need to insist that Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, expediently get some answers to that question.
Various House and Senate committees may be investigating one aspect or another related to Russia's meddling in American affairs.
But for the sake of our country's security, both political parties need to be united in determining the clear extent and nature of Russia's relationship with President Trump and his family.
Certainly, President Trump's entangled web of international business conflicts are at play here.
The writing has been on the wall in glaring, dark letters for months, since we started learning about Russia's hacking of Democratic emails this past summer and Trump's subsequent odd defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump's relationship with Russia goes back decades.
We know of Trump's desire to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in the 1990's. We know of his son, Don Jr.'s repeated trips to Moscow.
"We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia," said the younger Trump in a 2008 real estate conference speech in Moscow.
Donald Jr. told investors that the Trump Organization had trademarked the Donald Trump name in Russia and had big plans to build in Moscow.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
How can Trump claim to be a champion of American Democracy, while repeatedly, bizarrely, inexplicably, exhaustively, unrepentantly and exuberantly defending Putin at every turn?
How can Trump consistently, unapologetically stand up for the unsavory Russian oligarch at the slightest hint of criticism, in the same way he impulsively attacks anyone who remotely challenges his own twisted, hateful, divisive policy tweets?
Indeed, what incriminating evidence might Putin have on Trump?
General Michael Flynn's resignation as National Security Advisor earlier this week, makes all the more urgent a joint congressional investigation of Trump's Russian ties.
Flynn apparently lied to Vice President Mike Pence about discussing sanctions with a Russian ambassador prior to Trump's presidency.
But who put Flynn up to discussing those Russian sanctions?
The plot thickens. Flynn's ouster should ultimately be the ticket to Trump's own.
This stew of intrigue has been cooking far too long. Sooner, rather than later, it's bound to boil over.
So, let's get some answers. Like, now. Most crucially, Americans have a right to know the truth.
Which side is the President on?
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Deceiver In Chief
"Let no man deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 5:6
Monday, January 30, 2017
Time For Congress To Censure Trump
The honeymoon is over.
The Trump train is dangerously close to derailing. And if our elected congressional leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, don't forcefully apply the brakes soon, America as we know it, could be doomed.
Right now, the Republican Party leadership must stop giving Trump a free pass in light of the President's increasing reckless and dangerous decisions.
The new Tweeter-in-Cheat signs executive orders the way he impulsively fires off angry tweets, with minimal forethought and abundant malice.
And with each passing day, he's proving himself to be not only an immensely unfit commander in chief, but a severe and mounting threat to this nation.
Insipid lies. Baseless claims of mass illegal alien voter fraud. A refugee ban that disvriminates and has wreaked havoc in the lives of the law abiding.
Bumping the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair and Director of National Intelligence from the National Security Council to make room for disreputable, alarmist advisers with anti-Democratic sympathies.
A tweet hinting of "World War III"?
What will it take for Congress as a whole to seriously consider Trump as a suspect actor, if not an outright state enemy?
First and foremost, Congress needs to insist President Trump reverse his hurried anti-American executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries.
Secondly, it's time to discipline the President whose juvenile antics is severely undermining our country's Democratic principles and it's reputation around the world.
Trump's actions already warrant impeachment.
But considering the unlikelihood of that so early in his term, and given his cozy relationship with Republican leaders, impeachment presently seems like a long shot.
But if our legislative representatives in the House and Senate have the guts, they could issue him a formal rebuke by censure -- and tell him to quit acting up and working to destabilize our country.
Censure, in part, is defined as a "formal, and public, group condemnation" for elected leaders "whose actions run counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior."
From the start, just 10 days ago, Trump's presidency has been anything but "acceptable."
Congress can't sit idly by.
Censure is further described as a "process of Congressional reprimand -- the political equivalent of a strongly worded letter."
President Andrew Jackson was censured by a Wig Party Senate for "withholding documents."
If Congress isn't ready to start impeachment, it has the means to give Trump a heavier slap on the wrist than typical.
Granted, there may be an inherent risk that Trump wouldn't accept a reprimand so graciously -- and then go off more half-cocked than ever. Given his erratic behavior to date, that's a valid concern.
But how else do we reel in Trump's recklessness?
We can't wait. We can't wait to see which nuclear-armed nation he might anger later this afternoon or later this week with a childish tweet.
We can't wait for a secret bombing mission to go awry.
Just give him time they say? For what? To destroy this country by recklessly running roughshod over our core American values? To risk war? To dismantle the First Amendment?
The President's actions has the whole world on edge. He clearly doesn't appear to be in control of himself, let alone this country.
And it's the Congress' job to intervene to protect our country and its citizens from what by all accounts is a serious looming threat.
The writing has been on the wall for some time.
Employing the censure could lay the groundwork for impeachment. At this point, censuring the President is the least our Congress could do to protect life, liberty and the American way.
The Trump train is dangerously close to derailing. And if our elected congressional leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, don't forcefully apply the brakes soon, America as we know it, could be doomed.
Right now, the Republican Party leadership must stop giving Trump a free pass in light of the President's increasing reckless and dangerous decisions.
The new Tweeter-in-Cheat signs executive orders the way he impulsively fires off angry tweets, with minimal forethought and abundant malice.
And with each passing day, he's proving himself to be not only an immensely unfit commander in chief, but a severe and mounting threat to this nation.
Insipid lies. Baseless claims of mass illegal alien voter fraud. A refugee ban that disvriminates and has wreaked havoc in the lives of the law abiding.
Bumping the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair and Director of National Intelligence from the National Security Council to make room for disreputable, alarmist advisers with anti-Democratic sympathies.
A tweet hinting of "World War III"?
What will it take for Congress as a whole to seriously consider Trump as a suspect actor, if not an outright state enemy?
First and foremost, Congress needs to insist President Trump reverse his hurried anti-American executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries.
Secondly, it's time to discipline the President whose juvenile antics is severely undermining our country's Democratic principles and it's reputation around the world.
Trump's actions already warrant impeachment.
But considering the unlikelihood of that so early in his term, and given his cozy relationship with Republican leaders, impeachment presently seems like a long shot.
But if our legislative representatives in the House and Senate have the guts, they could issue him a formal rebuke by censure -- and tell him to quit acting up and working to destabilize our country.
Censure, in part, is defined as a "formal, and public, group condemnation" for elected leaders "whose actions run counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior."
From the start, just 10 days ago, Trump's presidency has been anything but "acceptable."
Congress can't sit idly by.
Censure is further described as a "process of Congressional reprimand -- the political equivalent of a strongly worded letter."
President Andrew Jackson was censured by a Wig Party Senate for "withholding documents."
If Congress isn't ready to start impeachment, it has the means to give Trump a heavier slap on the wrist than typical.
Granted, there may be an inherent risk that Trump wouldn't accept a reprimand so graciously -- and then go off more half-cocked than ever. Given his erratic behavior to date, that's a valid concern.
But how else do we reel in Trump's recklessness?
We can't wait. We can't wait to see which nuclear-armed nation he might anger later this afternoon or later this week with a childish tweet.
We can't wait for a secret bombing mission to go awry.
Just give him time they say? For what? To destroy this country by recklessly running roughshod over our core American values? To risk war? To dismantle the First Amendment?
The President's actions has the whole world on edge. He clearly doesn't appear to be in control of himself, let alone this country.
And it's the Congress' job to intervene to protect our country and its citizens from what by all accounts is a serious looming threat.
The writing has been on the wall for some time.
Employing the censure could lay the groundwork for impeachment. At this point, censuring the President is the least our Congress could do to protect life, liberty and the American way.
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