Patriotism

Yesterday was truly a sad day in American Government.  Watching the Cohen testimony from the House Oversight Committee hearings, the only emotion I could conjure up was disgust.  There were so many unsavory elements of our tawdry American drama on display, that I wonder if we will ever recover our pride and integrity as examples of the world’s only true liberal democracy.

Listening to Cohen’s description of Trump’s behavior and character is something that most of us have come to understand and accept as truth.  The man is despicable on so many levels.  We already know how he lies, cheats and cons all of us—well maybe most of us do-- including his base!  The harsh reality is that a major segment of our population doesn’t care.  That is the true tragedy.

To watch the Republicans on the committee return time after time to the mission of destroying Cohen’s character and labeling him as the consummate liar was tedious.  Yes, it’s all true, he is a liar.  But what about his mentor?  Where is their analysis of whether the facts and evidence he was presenting supporting his claims are, in fact, true?  Not once did any minority members of the committee try to defend their President against any of the claims.  That wasn’t as important as trying to skewer Cohen over and over again—to what end?  The Republicans seem to have abandoned all reason and concern for the health of the country at the hands of a megalomaniacal narcissist.  Their eyes are blinded to our final destination—the pit of despair to which we are being led, as we witness the gangrenous morphing of our republic into an autocratic mean- spirited failure.

‘Populism’ (Autocracy) is on the rise worldwide.  And here is the sad truth:  America is perhaps the only country in the world with a government that was originally conceived around a ‘Creed’ rather than ‘Blood and Soil’.  240 years ago, our founders labored to create a place that eschewed the tribal character of nations that base their legitimacy on singling out portions of the population as unworthy or privileged.  Now we have a ‘leader’ who promotes racism, privilege and fear as tools of leadership.  It is happening across the globe, and we all watch with great apprehension as the specter of discrimination and anti-semitism again takes shape from the muck of anger and fear.  Trump is a symptom of this movement, and his followers blindly support him while ignoring all his obvious flaws and anti-humanistic behaviors.

If we are to survive as a democratic nation founded on the notion of the rule of law and truth, we must mobilize to make our voices heard in the 2020 elections.  We must take note of the people who defend the destroyer of our social fabric in our government and reject them, and most of all reject the leadership of Donald Trump who will only do all he can to promote himself and the unrelenting destruction of our representative government.  2020 is closer than you might imagine.  There are many that fear that even if Trump is defeated in an election he will not relinquish his power, as is the tradition of American Government over the past 242 years.

The Special Counsel’s report is eventually going to appear.  But notice:  there is no promise from William Barr, the new Attorney General, that ‘we the people’ will get to see the findings.  What is that about?  We are the government—we MUST see what the findings are.  Who are those who deny us that right?  Where is their authority to do that? 

There are certainly countervailing forces in the Democratic Party that will try to assure that we will see what Mueller has discovered, but it will be a struggle because there are those who want to maintain their power and deny us the option of deciding for ourselves if our country was undermined.

Just think about this:  Flynn, Sessions, Manafort, Gates, Papadoupolis, Stone, Cohen and 27 Russians indicted already!  These are the people who surrounded and were drawn into office by Donald Trump.  The fact is that our country has been attacked by all these people.  Our fundamental founding principles have been trashed by these people.  Our prime adversary in the world has effectively co-opted these ‘agents’ to do their dirty work to undermine our society and our place in the global order.  Their mission is to destroy our global alliances, cripple our economy, denigrate and dash our concept of ‘creed’ driven equality to those in the world who look to America as a bastion of hope and opportunity.  They are succeeding.

It is up to us to preserve what all Americans have revered over the course of our national history—equal opportunity, the pursuit of happiness, freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of worship.  These concepts are vulnerable and under attack.  We must do whatever we can to preserve what has been built over the past 242 years.  The next 20 months are a crucial battleground. 

True patriots will understand the stakes.

A Respite in Kingston

I have just returned from a week in Kingston, Jamaica where I essentially did nothing and got a chance to escape the constant tinnitus of what’s going on in our country. 

Let me tell you about Kingston.  It is the commercial hub of Jamaica.  It is NOT a beach resort and a tourist destination.  Rather it is the center of commerce, government and business for the country.  It is a classic example of crumbling infrastructure, horrible traffic due to very little urban roadway planning, and a population that is not truly aware of its roots and history.  They are wonderful warm people, but with little appreciation for what’s going on in the rest of the world.  It is an international city with all manner of ethnicities and cultures.  It is a true melting pot in that sense.

Life is slower there—unless you are driving, which I did for the first two days before I returned my rental car out of sheer fear of death and I hired a car and two drivers who chauffeured us around and tamed the madness of the streets.  Gas is expensive, but food is not and the choices for gastronomical exploration are many! 

We visited a remote beach area where fisherman bring freshly caught parrot fish and snapper to the beach kitchens to be cooked by native chefs who do wonderful and amazing things by steaming and seasoning the catch!  Sitting there and savoring the flavors of all the added vegetables, plantains and beignet type croissants while sipping a Red Stripe sorrel beer was a divine diversion! 

Visits to Kingston are not for those seeking placid beaches and restful experiences.  If on the other hand you want to eat some great Jamaican cuisine, visit some interesting museums (The Bob Marley Museum; the National Jamaica Gallery), then it can be an enlightening experience.   

At the Marley House, the guide actually led us through the mansion while singing Marley tunes that described the man’s life and contribution to music.  It was a wonderful interactive experience to come to know the man behind the music.  At the National Gallery, there was an exhibition of the contest to create a Reggae poster celebrating Bob Marley’s life and music.  The art was sensational.  The Museum also explored the cultural roots of the Jamaican story from its inception in Columbus’s time through the Spanish presence and then ultimately to the British territorial occupation until Jamaica became an independent country.  Very interesting stuff.  

The young native men we had chauffeuring us around were almost completely unaware of their heritage which is a shame, because it is a story of escape from slavery and oppression that is inspiring.

Security is an issue.  Gates and locks are omnipresent everywhere!  Apparently crime is a real threat in most places.  Security personnel are apparent in almost all public places like parking lots, grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, etc.  People looking out for your safety are everywhere.  It is reassuring and frightening at the same time.

We had an apartment in a gated community in the hills overlooking the city with a fabulous view and frankly that was the best part of our vacation.  It was mesmerizing to take in the ocean, the port of Kingston and the bustling city all at once from a perch in the foothills.  The sunsets were breathtaking and the mornings were energizing as the city came to life from our perch.  The break from reality was truly a breath of fresh air.

And so, when we returned to the US, we were immediately reconnected to the roiling saga of our political restlessness.

I have been absorbing the news about the Congress’ moves to blunt the “National Emergency” that we face as the result of the Trump mania, and the sense that Trump has committed himself to deconstructing the Constitution as much as he can and as much as his Republican cronies will allow him to.  I think I need another day to process it all, but I am working on a way to express my feelings about where I think the country is heading and why we must all assess what we can do to save our Republic….  More to come in the next few days.

In the meantime, I am am basking in the recent mellowness that being in Jamaica has left me with…and trying to figure out how to re-engage with my life here in the US.  Perspective is a good thing to re-evaluate from time to time…..

Emergency!---Really??

Of all the egregious things Donald Trump has done to the Constitution and to our society over the past two years, he is about to outdo himself by declaring an emergency at the southern border.  The founders of this nation wanted to protect against the despotism that comes from an executive with the power of the purse.  That’s why they constructed our government so that one person, the President, did NOT have the power of the purse.  Instead it was vested in Article 1 of the Constitution in the House of the People’s Representatives.

What he is going to try to do is clearly an abuse of power by any standard.  Most importantly, please realize that there is NO emergency at the southern border!  He is only declaring this emergency to circumvent Congress' constitutional authority, in order to fulfill his fantasy of building a wall (which he promised Mexico would pay for!)  

But circumventing Congress by false proclamations is not allowed in this game called America!  If it really was an emergency, why is he flying off to Mar-a-Lago instead of rushing to the ‘war room’ to manage the emergency?

The emergencies the country really faces can be listed in a worrisome list that includes massacres of innocents by crazies with guns and the worsening climate change effects.  Those are clear and present dangers to our society that will spiral into catastrophe without coherent action.  And the tragedy here is that a majority of Americans want faster action, but our government, led by the Republicans, is not interested in the real dangers.  They are only interested in not getting ‘primaried’ by Donald Trump.

Mitch McConnell is supporting this precedent changing action by Trump.  I have to believe he understands what he is unleashing in terms of future actions by a President.  What is his motivation?  Why does he want to pave the way for further abuse of power and the destruction of one of the foundational parts of our Constitution?  Mitch has gone around the bend!  If I were a true Conservative, it would boggle my mind!  

Clearly the only action that will put a stop to this immediately is if the House passes a measure to rescind  the emergency status proclaimed by the President.  The 1974 National Emergency Act provides that if one house of Congress votes to rescind the proclamation, the other house MUST vote on the same measure immediately.  My guess is that Republicans would be put in an untenable situation and would most likely break with the President on this issue.  That would put a stop to the 'Emergency'.

I keep hoping that the pendulum of rationality is swinging away from the madness we have had to endure since Trump became President, but it is a trial every day to understand and endure the sight of our crumbling democracy.  The only real way to oust this madman and his lemming like supporters is at the ballot box, but will there be a ballot box when the actual election opportunity arrives? 

And will the Democratic Party, which is the only mitigating force thus far in the march toward 2020, avoid self-immolation by creating their own personal errors and 'issue potholes' as they flex their newfound power in the House of Representatives.  Can Pelosi reign in the party to avoid handing the Republicans fodder for their re-election campaign, eg. the mess in Virginia, or the loudmouthed new progressives like Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar and  Rashida Tlaib?

The 2020 election is the Democratic Party’s to lose.  Unless they step up their game and be more strategic and less loose-lipped, they will fall victim to themselves!

BTW, has anyone listened to this Mayor from South Bend, Indiana?  I heard him on Colbert’s Late Show last night and he is an interesting candidate. 

It is really easy to dismiss Pete Buttigieg as ‘too young and inexperienced’ to be President.  Well, just a minute!  Here is a 37 year-old guy that has been a Mayor for the past 8 years.  He is a veteran of the War in Afghanistan(commissioned as a Naval Intelligence Officer), Phi Beta Kappa Harvard grad, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, has worked in DC with former SECDEF William Cohen and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

In June of 2015 he ‘came out’ as a gay man, and that November he won re-election as Mayor of South Bend with over 80% of the vote. Do you think his fellow citizens in South Bend liked him??

But even more than those facts, he voiced an interesting perspective about who he is:  Pete Buttigieg is building a campaign on ‘intergenerational justice’.  Since he is the first ‘Millenial’ to run for President, he believes “that millennials are suffering from their elders’ short-term thinking on climate change, economics, and other issues.”  He also said, “I think the trick for us is there should be a way to make a generational case without this all being about generational conflict. And I think there’s a way to do it.' "

That’s a wake up call!

His point is that he is from the generation of kids that were in high school when the Columbine shooting happened; he is the generation that will have to deal with the effects of Climate Change and the avoidance of the rest of us in dealing with it; his generation will have to fix what is wrong with our democracy—he says, “we’ve got to repair our democracy. The Electoral College needs to go, because it’s made our society less and less democratic.”

These are simple truths that we must all admit are on target.  Do not count this guy out—he is a voice for our immediate future, and even if he doesn’t make it all the way around the track this time out, he and his generation are probably the ultimate salvation of America.  Ultimately they will clean out the rot that overtaken our current government because they will have to deal with all the horrors that we have created for them.

But I digress---so, back to the present.  The ‘emergency’ that Donald Trump is trying to foist on all of us will be a self-defeating moment.  If he actually follows this path, his despotic, self-aggrandizing action will further reveal his vileness….  There is no ‘character’ present in this man that is redeemable. 

We must endure this and more until 2020….and let us pray it ends there!

The Pendulum Swings

I thought Nancy Pelosi did a marvelous job of keeping her composure the other night.  The only time I saw her flinch was the moment Trump said the economy would fail unless we stopped the partisan investigations.  Hmmm---sounded like a threat to Congress to me….”If you don’t stop investigating me there won’t be any legislation that will succeed.”  He is so full of dooky!  Did he really think his threat would stop oversight?  How ridiculous.

And how about all those Republicans up and down like ‘Whack-a-moles”!  Maybe they thought their energetic jumping would distract from the impending noose tightening around their standard bearer’s neck.

He tried desperately to implant his image of hordes of huns (refugees) running across the border like the scene in World War Z where they scale the wall that blocks them in.  The reality of a flood of humans who are fleeing violence and simply want a better life is just not the image of marauding criminals overrunning the boarder.  Oh, and by the way, crossings have been decreasing steadily since 1971.  Reality rules.

This was the longest, most languid rendition of all his many (self perceived) accomplishments, as he tried to take credit for almost everything.  And I was so grateful that his love-buddy Kim Jung-Un decided not to go to war because of his expansive love for Donald Trump.  He is certain that we would be in a major war with Kim if he hadn’t been elected. According to the entire intelligence community of the US, there has been no movement to de-nuclearize their country, and their threat is still real.  Trump is imagining progress in this arena, and he will wake up surprised one morning when they launch another missle or demand that we withdraw completely from South Korea as a condition for any action to decrease the threat.

Now he is attacking Adam Schiff as a political hack, when for the past two years we have all been the victims of Republican political hacks on the House Intelligence Committee, as they lied, refused to conduct any meaningful oversight, became lackies for the President, and refused to press witnesses for valid testimony.  It would be terribly demoralizing were it not for the renewed Democratic energy to get to the bottom of the collusion between the Trump administration and the Russians.

The world of Donald Trump has changed.  He is suddenly opposed by the loyal opposition, and they are going to toast him for all the crap he has pulled over the past two years.  He richly deserves it!

I think that we are going to finally learn, albeit not fast enough for my taste, how corrupt this man, his family and his sycophantic Republican base really are.  The pendulum is now swinging back as normal citizens become more and more aware of the perfidy that has vomited forth from this President since we became aware of him when he decided to run for the office.

And yet, the hearty cheers from the Republicans in the audience the other night belay their increasing discomfort with blindly following a liar.  The Republican Party as we knew it is gone.  It is comprised of power seeking toadies who are afraid of being ‘primary-ed’.  Serving their constituencies is the lowest priority on their minds.  Getting re-elected is the prime directive so they can keep getting the financial support from special interests.  One or two more election cycles and the majority of them will be gone, hopefully.

So this is the next two years we will have to endure.  Lies, deception, and more lies.  The old adage will be the saviour of the day…..Truth Will Out!