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The world is watching

9/30/2019

Dear Members of Congress,

We are at a key moment in our country’s history.

President Trump during his campaign and his years in office has been offering up alternative facts, as his counselor likes to call them, or lies, as the rest of us call them.

He has pointed an accusing finger at legitimate news organizations who have done fabulous reporting during his Administration. Yet, Trump yells “fake news” simply when he doesn’t like their stories and while some believe him, you all, to a man and woman, know that he’s lying.

Facts, now, have two versions: the truth, and Trump’s truth. This cannot stand for our country to survive as the leader of the world.

Now, an impeachment inquiry has started. By its name, this is a search for facts, for the truth. Did the President ask his counterpart in Ukraine to investigate his political rival? If he did, was there a conscious and conspiratorial cover-up to hide what he did?

Seems to me an easy yes or no can be decided if a fair inquiry is conducted. One where facts rule. As the Democrats move to call witnesses and subpoena documents, will you Republicans be honestly looking for the facts? Or, will you continue to pretend to believe a president who has a lifelong history of lying and cheating because you fear for your own job?

And, will you Democrats stick to the facts and skip the political posturing?

A couple of Republicans have spoken up at least to say an inquiry should take place, a search for the truth. Republicans will you, though, actually participate in that search or pounce on talking points given to you by the White House? Democrats, will you spout talking point blather from the Democratic National Committee?

Impeachment is one of the most serious things the Congress can consider. Accusing and maybe convicting a President of the United States of high crimes and misdemeanors is serious business. Not only will your country mates be watching and listening closely, the world will be watching to see if our democracy still deserves the admiration we’ve enjoyed for hundreds of years. Or will we show them we’ve divided into camps, shouting and screaming rather than a democracy talking and debating? Will you blindly choose party over country or conduct an honest inquiry for the truth?

Republicans may already believe the president is innocent of any wrongdoing. Democrats may go into this inquiry ready to file articles of impeachment.

But, please, each of you -- stop. Consider the facts.

Please pay close attention to the inquiry to see if your preconceived notion is wrong. Pay attention and react honestly. You’re supposed to. It’s your sworn duty to the country and your constituents.

Just as President Trump may have violated the oath of office he took, you are being asked to be true to your oath of office, your pledge to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. Will you? Can you put aside party and act on the facts presented? That’s what we elected you to do.

Why did the President use his private attorneys to try to get dirt on Joe Biden from Ukraine? He runs the biggest government in the world with agencies whose job it is to interact with other governments and which has folks on salary who investigate for a living. Did the President seem to try to extort a personal “favor” from the Ukrainian president?

This country unfortunately has been settling in camps, let’s call them Republican and Democrat. Please put that aside for this inquiry.

Please be honest in listening to and participating in the inquiry to assure it is done fairly and honestly.

Then vote based on the arrived at facts, not the Twitter accounts of the President or any of his opponents.

Please. The world will be watching.

Let’s show them we’re still the model of a type of government that they should aspire to be.

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GOP cancels primaries; Bolton's White House pass canceled

9/11/2019

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When you’re riding 90-plus percent approval within your own party, why should a primary challenger concern you?

And, is three the lucky number for a former National Security advisor who will talk publicly some inside baseball as to what the President is really like behind closed doors?

At least three state Republican parties have cancelled their primaries next year. Yet, there are four announced candidates for the presidential nomination. President Trump has always polled more than 90 percent approval from Republicans. I challenge you to name two of the other three men who’ve announced for the nomination. I’ll wait.

Okay, that’s my point – Trump has little to worry about from those three. But, he does having something to worry about if they draw some votes. It will show he’s not a “unanimous” choice and anything less than perfect would destroy his self-perception that he is perfect, just like Mary Poppins.

Do primaries cost state parties money? Yes, they do. But we live in a democracy and while political parties are free to hold or not hold primaries, in this case it looks like just one more box checked on Trump’s way to a dictatorship. Remember when we read “the party” ran various dictatorships in the world? The Republican Party could lose that second word and be “The Party” if they keep up their kowtowing to Trump.

He portrays great confidence publicly. He never admits a mistake. He says his presidency is the best ever for blacks and Hispanics though I doubt the residents of Puerto Rico would agree; he’s talked more about the horrible conditions in the Bahamas – and they are horrible conditions – than he has about the conditions in Puerto Rico.

And, he has been protected by his appointees who even after they leave office basically maintain their silence (with one or two not very credible exceptions).

Which brings us to John Bolton who, until yesterday or the night before – who can be sure – was Trump’s NSC advisor. That has been an important role in past administrations. The NSC advisor is the one who is supposed to be the honest broker and manage the inter-agency process for presidential decision making in foreign policy. And, there is the problem. There is no inter-agency process in this administration. Trump has been clear that he doesn't trust the "deep state" he thinks exists only to disrupt his presidency. He trusts only those sycophants who tell him how handsome he is and how perfect his brain is.

Whoever replaces Bolton will have a non-job. He or she will not have the President’s ear and he or she will not manage an inter-agency policy-making process.

Bolton though is the type who just may talk about the inner workings of this Administration. He will feel, I’m guessing, no loyalty to a President who even at the end claims he fired Bolton while Bolton says he resigned. And he will feel no loyalty because Trump didn’t do everything Bolton wanted.

Bolton has never been well liked in DC. He is an ideologue with sharp elbows. Reportedly, though, he has been good for reporters throughout his many years in Washington, including his Trump years - giving background information to them almost in real time. He, too, has a big ego. And he wants to “control the narrative” on his service in this administration, likely the pinnacle of his career.

The hope is he doesn’t wait until writing tell-all book to spill his hawkish guts. We need to know now, before the next election.

Bolton has been getting credit for being the one inside voice who probably has keep us from caving into Kim-Jong Un. He probably was the one keeping Trump from getting fully into Putin’s bed, at least as far as we know. He probably stopped that ridiculous Taliban at Camp David idea.

If you really did do those things, please, Ambassador Bolton, help stop this would-be dictator from being re-elected. Spill your guts on the record.

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If you don't like the weather wait -- Trump will change it

9/7/2019

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President Trump’s more than one week focus on not admitting he was wrong about a weather forecast has bridged into a much bigger problem than a whiny President who can’t admit an error.

While he’s done this in many other areas, he has put the integrity of his own government – our government – into major question, once again putting his ego before the safety of the citizens who elected him.

Trump’s mistake wasn’t even that big – he’d heard in a days earlier briefing that Hurricane Dorian might reach into Alabama but that forecast was history hours later when the maps showed Alabama was in no danger.

Still Trump persists that he wasn’t wrong.

Seeing his mistake and knowing the panic that could result from the President of the United States reporting that Alabama was in the cone of danger, the Alabama National Weather Service office immediately put out a statement saying that Alabama was in no danger.

The misstatement by the President in this case was really no biggie. He merely was reporting old information that at least showed Dorian might affect Alabama. By harping on it for a week – while American citizens were in danger from the storm and Bahamians literally are fighting for their lives – and because he runs the government, the President has done a major disservice to the citizens he governs and to the meteorologists who work for him. They were merely doing their jobs.

Think, for a moment, what happened in those minutes (yes minutes) that the weather bureau office debated putting out the correction. They knew they were refuting not just their ultimate boss but a vindictive President who can’t admit ever that he’s wrong. What did they do? They put out the statement. They did the right thing.

Their bosses, from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on down (the weather bureau is within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which is part of Commerce) caved to the whims of a self-perceived strongman – protecting him (over a tiny mistake) rather than their employees who held true to their oath of office.

I used to work at the Commerce Department. If this incident had happened then, no way that secretary of commerce, the late Malcolm Baldrige (a man of high integrity) would ever have gone along with this charade. He knew you had to back your employees especially when they're right.

The President, like a fourth grader, then marked up a weather map with a Sharpie to use to back up his false statement.

This is how focused this President is on his own ego than he is on the safety of the people of this country. And really, it was a small mistake in the scheme of things.

If this were the only mistake Trump has made as President, how happy we all would be.

But let’s see what happens when his self-described love affair with the dictator of North Korea who, despite the President claiming he trusts him, keeps shooting off nuclear weapon tests.

I’m sure this President thinks he can lie his way out of any self-inflicted wound (the Wall that Mexico would pay for, the elimination of the budget deficit, etc. etc.). If the minor weather error is an example of his stubbornness, imagine what happens when Kim bombs Japan or Putin annexes another country.

As he has done so many times before, he will lie to escape any responsibility.

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The world is watching

GOP cancels primaries; Bolton's White House pass canceled

If you don't like the weather wait -- Trump will change it

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