Memorial Day And Enduring Values

It is Memorial Day weekend and Tom Brokaw is once more celebrating the greatest generation. Somehow I find it particularly appropriate for him to honor the men and women of that generation at this time when President Trump is showing such a troubling disregard for NATO, our most trusted allies, and the European Union, much to the advantage of a militarized, resurgent Russia that has so recently interfered in our democracy, and is threatening its neighbors. Let us learn from the men and women of the greatest generation who came out of a great depression and terrible war to build the middle class and the greatest market economy we have ever known. It was a generation of Americans who steadfastly opposed tyranny and who helped to rebuild the ravished economies of friends and foes alike. They guided the actions of America after the war and elevated the goals of that war far above some narrow national interest to a world wide concern for the freedom and well being of all people. In essence, they made America the moral and economic compass for all nations.

Pax Americana was built on three main pillars: The Marshall Plan which rebuilt Western Europe, NATO which protects the free countries of the alliance, and the United Nations which is an organization and forum of all nations and for all nations. I will submit to you that when we want to express the values for which the brave men and women in our armed services have sacrificed so much over the decades we could not do better than the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights written for the United Nations by Eleanor Roosevelt. The Preamble of the declaration alone speaks volumes about who we are and what we struggle to make universal for our own sake and for the sake of all human kind:

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. “

A special thank you to the members of our armed forces and to our loyal allies who have so often fought beside us and who stand with us on the pillars built by the greatest generation. We are committed to our allies and each other and to the cause of freedom and human dignity everywhere.

Warning to Washington Attorneys

I have just heard on MSNBC that Trump is seeking outside legal counsel.  Attorneys beware!  The Trump administration is where reputations go to die.  Representing Trump is like representing Anthony Weiner's wiener.  It is frequently exposed and lit up by anonymous sources.  Furthermore, it defies any effort to keep it covered.  Da little birdie go tweet, tweet, tweet all de time!

Spun Nonsense

I just heard a Republican apologist trying to defend Trump's act of revealing highly classified information to the Russians by saying that President Obama also gave the Russians classified information in an effort to work with them in fighting terrorists. This to me is a horrible non sequitur. I cannot understand why someone did not ask this Republican twitt how Obama's efforts turned out, and why Trump did not learn from the futility of trying to work with Vladimir Putin in that instance. My point is that this national experience should have been a warning that makes what Trump did even more indefensible. I know someone is also trying to defend Trump by pointing to his inexperience. That does not wash either. If he is not bright enough to know he is ignorant and that he needs to consult with experts on such subjects as classified information then he poses a serious threat to our country. Hey businessman, is there anything that can destroy a company faster than an incompetent CEO? I do not think so. Trump himself stated the danger of his incompetent handling of classified information when he said Hillary Clinton's mishandling of emails that contained classified information disqualified her for the office of President!

The real problem is that this is just one more instance of Trump planting big wet kisses on Putin's ass. It makes the charge that he personally colluded with Russia in its efforts to interfere with our Presidential election all the more believable. It is part of a whole plot line that includes firing people who are investigating Trump's ties with Russia, and the financial ties between Trump, some of his top aids, and Russia that we already know about -- not to mention whatever he is hiding in his tax returns! What is Trump afraid that those tax returns will reveal? Why was Trump afraid of the FBI investigation? Why are Trump and his entire party afraid of a fair and impartial investigation by a special prosecutor and/or a select committee?

Now if you will excuse me I am going to grieve for the loss of the confidence we placed in General McMaster. I am sure is just trying to be a good soldier by defending a decision of his superior, but doing so makes him one more diaper covering Trumps ass. Unfortunately diapers get soiled by what they are covering, and this places General McMaster's good reputation in grave peril.

Wanted!

A crowbar large enough to pry from the dark and smelly place in which they are embedded the heads of the willfully ignorant Trump Chumps who claim that the “Russia scandal is phony" and the investigations are witch hunts. If that is so why is Trump so afraid of what a special prosecutor or select committee conducting a fair and impartial investigation will uncover? This whole nonsense about Trump being persecuted is ridicules on its face. But I suppose if you are as morally and intellectually bankrupt as the Republicans are today the charges about sham investigations are a believable reflection of your own guilt. Those charges make sense to you because of the witch hunts and inquisitions you conducted over the phony scandals regarding Benghazi, the IRS, and Eric Holder. The difference is that the Democrats are not advocating hearings conducted by the Democratic equivalent of Grand Inquisitors Issa and Gowdy. All the Democrats are demanding are investigations overseen by a credible person who will instill confidence in the accuracy of the results, whatever those results my be!

Any Trump appointee who comes anywhere near an investigation into the hacking or the connection between Trump and Russia will be tainted by the appointment because Trump is the subject of the investigation. Think about it! Even a Trump chump will have to admit that letting Al Capone appoint the person investigating Al Capone or hiring Frank Nitti to investigate Al Capone would not have been a good idea. The fact that Attorney General Sessions violated his pledge to recuse himself from the investigation by recommending the firing of Comey and the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein destroyed his credibility by trying to provide Trump with an excuse for firing Comey makes the appointment of a special Prosecutor essential. The fact that the excuse provided by Mr. Rosenstein was so transparently false makes matters even worse. I cannot imagine how irritated Trump must have been over the excuse being so ineffectual. I am sure it was the scornful laughter inspired by that excuse that caused Trump to admit that he fired Comey because Trump was unhappy about the investgation the FBI was conducting.  

Trump being Trump, of course, could not resist inadvertently adding a farcical element to the firing of Comey by needlessly inserting into the letter announcing the firing the statement that Comey told Trump three times that Trump was not a subject of the FBI investigation. I am sure all of the parents reading this had the same reaction to Trump's assertion about not being under investigation that I had: It is the reaction you would have if you picked your six year old child up at the day care center and he greeted you by saying, “I didn't spit milk in the fish bowl!”

The very frightening thing is that it is up to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, and Mr. Rosenstein is resisting the pressure to do that. I will submit to you that Mr. Rosenstein will not like his place in history if he refuses to appoint a special prosecutor, but, as I am sure the Republican demagogues will tell you, the historians will only render their verdict after the polls have closed and most of the participants have passed away; so it is Rosenstein's grandchildren rather than his children who will have to come to grips with the revelations about him being a shit bag who refused to defend our democracy from the Russians and Trump!

The only solace I can take at this time is that the mid-term elections are not that far away. Hopefully, there are enough independent voters who see the clear and present danger, and will react by giving Democrats control of Congress and thereby the power to subpoena the information Trump and the Republicans are so desperately trying to hide!.

Hope A Dope

The hope is the election in France. In electing Emmanuel Macron President the French gave Vladimir Putin the finger. They also reaffirmed their commitment to NATO, the EU and democracy. Congratulations and thank you France. I can only hope that voters in this country and elsewhere will follow your good example.

Dope is everything Trump and in particular the dopes who voted for him and continue to support him! Hoping you can change those dopes is bound to lead to disappointment. As Forrest Gump would say, stupid is as stupid does and you don't get stupider than a willful and unchanging ignorance.

I would like to follow Jon Stewart's example and tell the entire Republican Party to go screw itself, but they give every indication of doing that without my encouragement. They are doing it in regard to health care and they are doing it in regard to the connection between Trump, his campaign and Russia. Let's deal with health care first. The Republicans spent seven years lying about what they call Obama care and promising to repeal and replace it. Now they are in power and it has become quite obvious that doing away with the many things people like about the ACA is not going play well. The problem is that the Trump Chumps and others, many of whom do not reap the full benefits of the ACA because they were unwise enough to give control of their state governments to Republicans, do not want the government to be involved in health coverage.

A perfect example of the problem Republicans now have is the Congressman in my district, Paul Cook. I just received a “Legislative Update” from Congressman Cook. One of the questions asked on the first page of this missive is, “Do you support or oppose Obamacare?” I found this question rather odd because on page four is a paragraph entitled “Reforming Healthcare.” Needless to say that in that paragraph Congressman Cook follows the party line by stating his support for the repeal of Obamacare and “its replacement with something better.” He went on to say, “I had particular concerns with the original House Republican plan that was introduced earlier this year, particularly its potential effects on older and sicker Americans, but I will continue working with my colleagues to replace Obamacare and provide the American people with the sort of patient-centered quality health care they deserve”

And how did Congressman Cook continue working for the “sort of patient-centered quality health care [we] deserve? He did it by voting for the bill Trump supported and the House Republicans passed like a partially digested meal of flaming hot peppers. While this bill does not accomplish Mr. Cook's desire to repeal Obama care, it does kick millions people off of Medicaid, and it allows insurance companies in many states to charge prohibitively high rates because of preconditions. According to the CBO's report in March over 24 million people now covered by the Affordable Care Act would be deprived of health care coverage by this bill if the Senate passes it without changes, and it gives huge tax breaks to the rich! What more could you want? A bill that plucks money from the dying bodies of the neglected and untreated and then gives that money to the rich and greedy; you cannot get more Republican than that! Is this what Congressman Cook thinks we deserve?

Trump was so giddy over getting this bill passed by the House that he bussed the congressmen who voted for it to the White House to thank them. One really has to marvel at the optics of politicians cozying up to a President who 50% of the people disapprove of, and posing with him with big smiles of gratitude on their faces as he praises them for having the courage to vote for a bill that screws so many of their constituents. The Republicans are now lying about what the bill does, but the people who face sky high premiums or are denied coverage will soon know who to blame as will their families and friends. I will bet that a majority of the congressmen who voted for this abomination will avoid public meetings during the recess. Here is a hint for the morons screaming about free market health care coverage solutions: That is what we had before the ACA, and it gave us rapidly escalating premiums, outrageous coverage exclusions, denials of coverage based on what the insurance companies deemed to be preconditions, and coverage caps that denied coverage to people who were in the most dire need of coverage!

Every bit as disastrous as the Republican Health care bill is the so called investigation of Russia's interference with our Presidential election and the participation in that interference by people close to Trump. During FBI Director Comey's testimony before the Senate Committee Senator Grassley and others demonstrated that they are now part of the cover up. Senator Grassley revealed the Republican strategy for covering Trump' s ass in a letter to FBI Director James Comey that the Senator’s office made public Monday afternoon. In that letter Grassley called a plan to pay British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, to continue his investigation into the connection between Trump and the Russian government, “troubling.” In the warped world of Senator Grassely the proposed payment to Steele somehow became a partisan act rather than an indication that the FBI found much of the information in the dossier credible. It should also be noted that the FBI never actually paid Mr. Steele or relied on information in the dossier. This letter and Grassley's questioning of Director Comey during Mr. Comey's testimony was clearly a matter of Senator Grassley trying to disparage an independent investigation of Trump and Trump's staff.

And the obstruction continued during the testimony of Sally Yates and James Clapper. But despite continuing attempts to distort Mr. Clappers testimony and to portray Ms. Yates as an insubordinate partisan supporter of Hillary Clinton the fact is that the Trump administration received repeated warnings about General Flynn and either negligently ignored those warnings or chose to make him the Security adviser for other, probably much worse reasons. This makes Hillary Clinton's email scandal seem like nothing at all.

For me the obstruction of the investigations by Grassley and other Republicans is deja vu. Even during the hight of the Watergate hearings many Republicans did their best to defend Richard Nixon. This should serve as a warning to all of us about the need for an independent prosecutor and maybe a select committee of some sort. It should also serve as a warning to Republicans such as Senator Grassley who are trying to cover Trump's ass like a diaper. Diapers get soiled and when the stench becomes great enough the diaper will be removed and discarded. Just look at the results of the elections as the Watergate scandal unfolded.