Treasonist

OK, time to call a spade a spade!  Donald Trump is a traitor.  Either that or he is a coward.  Or he is just an incompetent fool.  At the very least he is derelict in his duty to protect the country and the Constitution which he took an oath to defend.

It is self evident that he has not given any direction to our national security apparatus to erect defenses against further Russian intrusion and attack on our democracy.  When presented with irrefutable evidence that Russia meddled with our electoral machine, continues to play havoc with our social media platforms and is clearly planning to sabotage our elections in the fall, Trump is silent.  He answers no questions.  He, among all our Intelligence officers, refuses to accept the facts and refuses to take any action.  My friends, that is treason.

Or he doesn’t want to piss off the Russians because they have something on him that will ruin him.

What is so galling about all of this is that there doesn’t appear to be any way to stop him or force him to take action.  The entire (what once was) the Republican party is now complicit in the treason.  No one wants to step up and end this spectacle.  Our democracy is at risk, folks, and no one seems to have the ability to act to halt the disintegration of our system.

Our Congressional oversight committees are useless.  They call witnesses from the administration and the witnesses simply refuse to answer questions.  Where are the contempt citations?  Why aren’t these people headed for jail?  What happened to the rule of law?  I can’t imagine a clearer case of obstruction of justice.

It was crazy to see Mike Rogers, the head of the NSA, twisting in his seat yesterday at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing as Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) screeched incredulously, asking why we weren’t doing anything to end the current attack and prevent ongoing attack from the Russians.  And from Rogers mouth we heard, “I have not been instructed or mandated from the Commander in Chief to do anything.”  What??????

Is there nothing we can do? Maybe Tom Steyer has the right idea.  We need to impeach this traitor and remove all his incompetent, nepotistic administration if we hope to save our country.

It is inconceivable that there is no immediate mechanism we can invoke to end this madness and become the United States of America again.  And being saved by the Special Counsel is still an interminable time period away.   I know Robert Mueller is being methodical and careful in putting together his ‘case’, but unless he acts with all due dispatch, there won’t be anything to save.

And further today, we learned that there had been real intrusion into 7 state’s election/balloting systems prior to the 2016 general election.  Believe this:  if nothing is done to erect defenses and prepare for all out cyber-war with our adversaries, you can bet that all the Trumpites will be the first to scream ‘foul’ when the election results start coming in in November and they find out they are losing control of the Congress.  They will claim the election was rigged and we can’t trust the results. Who will dispute them?  If you think we are roiling now, wait until after our midterms!  We are heading for disaster with a madman/traitor at the wheel and no one appears able to throttle him.  God Help Us!

The Unadulterated Truth

Yesterday was a remarkable day. 

We saw President Trump actually listening to young people and their parents.  We saw Marco Rubio, courageous at the very least, stand before a town meeting that excoriated his stance on gun safety and background checks.  We are seeing the ‘talk shows’ being stunned by the outpouring of emotion and anger and desperately trying to figure out whether all this is going to force change.

Hard to know. 

However from where I sit there are some facts that are incontrovertible.  Since Columbine, 19 years ago, we have had an ever-increasing occurrence of mass shootings, the most horrible being the school mass carnage that rip our hearts out each time they happen.

 

During those 19 years, the NRA has focused its attention on persuading everyone, and most especially our legislators, that anyone who wants to be sensible about regulations on sales, to have sensible changes in mental health guidelines, to have sensible restrictions on assault weapons is on a mission to ‘destroy the lives of true Americans’.  They sweeten that persuasion by contributing obscene amounts of money to further the campaign of any legislator who will climb on their nefarious bandwagon.

The unfortunate truth (fact), that we all must accept as reality, is that in those 19 years the policy of non-intervention of any kind by legislators has not helped the situation in any way.  Non-action has led to event after event, with an increasing tempo and increased lethality.  Doing nothing doesn’t work!  Can we all agree on that?  It is self-evident.

 

If you examine the legislative and industry actions over the same period you will find that there has been a creeping but inexorable lessening of regulation on firearms, assault weapons, efficacy of background check mechanisms, etc.  And there is a corresponding increase in false narratives by the NRA and it’s supporters that any action is a threat to the 2^nd Amendment and our freedom generally.  If you are unfortunate enough to be exposed to NRATV, apparently available on many cable systems, their messages are laced with untrue conspiracy statements and threats of violence and chaos. 

 

Even if you deny that this creeping relaxation of regulation is not to blame in any way for the increase in mass murders in schools, can we at least agree that it has not diminished it?  It is self-evident.

Is it so hard then to understand why we have finally seen the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back’?  And the backlash comes from the victims, as of course it should!  Who would have thought that teenagers would be so much more articulate than adults in being able to express the outrage felt by the victims and their families?  Children are being murdered and no one has had the balls to stop it.

Cultural change is what is needed, and perhaps the Parkland massacre was the tripwire for that change.  The Parkland students have finally said what needed to be said, “If you don’t provide a solution, we will vote you out!”

Indeed we will, and it can’t happen soon enough!

Do your homework. Choose your representatives wisely. VOTE!

I Felt Like Crying.....

I happen to be a fan of The Bachelor on ABC---I know, I know, you wonder why I would waste my time watching a train wreck!  Well there is this fascination about human romance that I have always had, and this show is perhaps the most crass example of constructed romance I have ever seen.  Somehow it is compelling!

Anyway, this week’s episode was the ‘Hometown Visit’ program where the bevy of 25 beauties has been winnowed down to 4 ‘lucky’ candidates who have managed to survive the rose ceremonies and now get the dubious honor of introducing their ‘maybe’ fiancé to their families.  

The promos for this episode create mega-drama, as if the families are skeptical and negative about the outcomes, but in fact the actual meetings and questioning by the parents and siblings of the prospective brides is pretty mundane and expected.

Bekka

                                                      Tia

Lauren

 

                                                     Kendall



This season’s bachelor is Arie, a rather vanilla fellow who is 34 and an ex-race car driver.  At first I thought he was suave and debonair, but after watching him stick his tongue into 20 of the girl’s mouths I think he is more an opportunist! 

His intellectual firepower is less than I  expected when I first met him, but over the ensuing episodes I really tired of him saying, “ I love that!” every time a prospective candidate cooed or said something that expressed her interest in him.

What I didn’t expect to happen was that over the course of the culling of the women that didn’t fit Arie’s concept of what a wife should be, I actually came to admire and like the ultimate 4 candidates that he selected to go on hometown dates with.  They were all different and pretty intelligent.  Quirky to be sure, but singular, and for whatever reason they all are falling desperately in love with this guy who they met 6 weeks earlier.

(I keep thinking about when I was that age and what I wouldn’t have given to have 4 gorgeous women all tell me they were falling in love with me and I had the luxury of choosing!)  My sense is that each of these women, in fact all 25, seem so desperate to find ‘true love’ that they almost can’t help falling in love with this potentially ‘perfect man’.

So Arie goes on hometown dates with all 4 and meets their families.  He gets along with everyone and the girls are terribly excited to see him mesh with their families.  Arie tells all the fathers and mothers that he ‘is falling’ for their daughters, and yet I know that at the end of this episode he will tell one of them goodbye.  This is complicated by Arie’s stupidity in telling each of these women that he ‘is falling’ for them too!  What a jerk! 

What can we expect when the moment of truth comes and he gives out 3 roses to 4 girls? 

Heartbreak!

What I wasn’t prepared for was the empathy and pain that I felt for Tia, who was the unlucky girl who didn’t get the rose.  The crushing emotional despair on her face and the nauseating close ups of her crying and decompensating in the limo were awful.  Then, to think about her walking in the door of her family’s house and be met with the sadness for her loss by the people who had such high hopes for her success at love made me want to cry.

That’s not the worst.  Now I think ahead to the next two women who are in love with this guy and will meet the same fate as Tia.  If he were such a magnificent catch I think I would feel REALLY bad!  But, nonetheless, they will have the same heartache and be devastated.

Is this really entertainment?  I guess in the age of Trump, it is better than seeing people blasted to pieces by weapons in almost every other TV show on the air….but I don’t know…

Maybe it’s time to move to a monastery!

And finally, will the victor find true love with Arie, Vanilla Man Race Driver?  Ask Ann Landers!

This Time Is Different.....

Is it?  Maybe.  Every time I see interviews with the students from Margery Stoneman High School, the anger rises into my throat like a bloody retch!  It is so patently obvious that gun control/safety legislation is mandated by a large majority of US Citizens and yet our legislators, especially the ones on the ‘take’ from the NRA are looking for any excuse to obfuscate and find a neutral place where they appear to be ready for action, but when the moment of action comes, they would rather retain the money flow from their NRA patrons.

Further action is stonewalled by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.  These two people refuse to bring votes to the floor of their respective bodies.  Why?  Isn’t it obvious?  Money! 

To Ryan and McConnell, money is more important than life….except when they want to control women’s choice issues.  Then they are sanctimoniously eager to stymie the law, support efforts to restrict abortion, and to defund Planned Parenthood.

Well, those kids in Parkland, fresh from the anguish of feeling neglected by adults who would rather protect their guns than their lives, have had enough.  These brave future leaders want action.  They are calling out the NRA teat suckers.  They say, “Either you are with us or against us”.  Nothing in-between.  God Bless them.  If our legislators and President don’t heed the call, we need to oust them in November and elect people who will honor life more than weapons. 

And here is a thought…It seems like the biggest question everyone asks is about the awareness of the FBI about the shooter well in advance of the crime.  They knew, but the outrage is that they did nothing. What exactly could they do if no crime had been committed? 

There is not a mechanism to take action against someone like this.  Police or other authorities can ‘recommend’ psychiatric treatment and evaluation but have no legal instrument to force it; and there is no legal method existing to take away the person’s weapons. 

In Florida there is a law called the Baker Act.  This measure allows authorities to force involuntary examination (what some call emergency or involuntary commitment). The Act can be initiated by judges, law enforcement officials, physicians, or mental health professionals. There must be evidence that the person:

·       possibly has a mental illness (as defined in the Baker Act).

·       is in danger of becoming a harm to self, harm to others, or is self neglectful (as defined in the Baker Act).

What if we had a ‘Baker Act’ for potential mass murderers?  If authorities see all the warnings that they tell us to be looking for, they could confiscate weapons, temporarily incarcerate for psychiatric evaluation, and perhaps do other measures that would protect the public.

                   This time must be different!

Antidote for Despair

I am 70 years old and have been in the voting booth at least 25 times in my life.  I never fail to vote every two years when we hold national elections.  I am not so diligent when it comes to primaries, but that is going to change this year.

If there is anything that the last two years have taught us it is that the sacred right that we as citizens have to vote winds up being the last resort we have as citizens to direct the path of our government.

America has become a place where politics has been corrupted by money.  With the arrival of the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court, the decay set in with a vengeance.  Suddenly the power of corporate greed was given primacy over rational thought.  The motive to make money above all other moral dilemmas became the driving force in American politics.  It has corrupted our Congress and Executive branches of government.  The result is that vested interests pour money into election campaigns that distort rational thought.  The NRA contributes millions to campaigns all over the country and those recipients don’t want to jeopardize their re-election chances by taking positions that might stop that money flow.

Just look at the Republican party positions on guns, climate change, pollution, energy development, education, health care, immigration.  All their positions are tied to moneyed interests pushing them to take positions that make those corporate interests make more money.  Democrats are not completey without blame either.  They have their share of legislators who worship the same money God.  Do you really think that the NRA is truly behind “preserving the 2^nd Amendment rights”?  No, what they are mostly interested in is preserving the ability of gun manufacturers to make gobs of money.  These people and the recipients of their campaign money are more interested in preserving the funding flow than stopping the slaughter of our children.

I have increasingly come to believe that if we citizens are going to prevail in making rational decisions about the path of our future as a society, we must take care to actually analyze the positions of the people who are running for office.

How many times have you gone into the voting booth and not recognized the names on the ballot, much less understood what they stand for?  If they have a D or an R in front of their name, in many cases we just pushed the button because our parents were Democrats or Republicans.  That time is over.

We must take responsibility for our ‘voice’ in ways that we have not been impelled to do before this period of corruption and legislative paralysis enveloped us.  It matters who we send to Congress to make our laws.  Could that be any more apparent after seeing the hypocrisy of people like Grassley, Ryan, Sessions, and McConnell?  Republicans are ignoring what large majorities of the American people want.  While they are in power we are held hostage to greed and hypocrisy.

That is why the elections in November are so critically important.  Unless we get rid of the people who ignore the will of the people, we are doomed to be prisoners in our own country.

Please learn about the candidates.  Support and encourage our youngsters to take initiative and power.  Teach them that the vote is their most precious possession as citizens.  And then go out there, starting with the primaries and make intelligent decisions about who will guide our society going forward into the future.  Our children’s lives depend on it.

And now just a word about this abomination in Parkland, Florida.  To all of you who think we can’t do anything about this horror, my anger and disgust for you knows no bounds.  Spend some time listening to the voices of parents and classmates of those killed this week, and then tell me we can’t do anything to change this barbaric ritual that makes us all sick.  Rational people---we can stop this carnage….Make gun control a litmus test for the midterm elections.  We must have different people in Congress to save our souls.