THE WAR ON WOMEN
In a speech before a group of anti abortion activists in Nashville, Vice President Mike “I’m a little Dense” Pence declared that “legal abortion could once again be banned in the U.S.” and that it could “happen in our time”. He also said the administration has made great progress in limiting women’s right to legal abortion both here and abroad. WTF? Somebody correct me if I’m mistaken, but didn’t the Supreme Court of the United States rule, in Roe vs. Wade in 1973 that abortion was a legal right for all women? In the state of Kentucky, our Christian conservative Governor, “Mad” Matt Bevin, has been on a mission since day one of his administration to eliminate the state’s abortion clinics and the access to them through a series of legal maneuvers and political pressure. In our legislature, he and his Republikan cronies have introduced a bill that would seriously impact the financial future of our school teachers by taking away a part of the pensions they were promised-is it coincidence that almost 80% of our public school teachers are women?!? The same is true in neighboring West Virginia, where teachers just went on strike to protest the meager pay raises offered by the legislature after four years with NO increase. They are the lowest paid teachers in the United States, and guess what? The vast majority of them are women. But Bob Huggins is paid millions to coach basketball. Again, WTF is wrong with this picture???? Look at the record of the Trump administration, from the top on down. The President himself has been accused of over TWENTY separate episodes of sexual harassment or abuse, and has been linked to numerous adulterous affairs. His Cabinet and other positions in the West Wing are loaded with middle aged white males who have no regard for women’s rights and, in fact, are abusers (see the Rob Porter story) themselves. Women’s rights and the #metoo movement have come too far to allow this war to continue to be fought without some serious push back on all fronts. Otherwise, these Bible thumping far right so called “Christian” conservatives like Pence and Bevin will just continue to trample on your rights until they’re gone. It’s God’s will.
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THANK YOU DICK’S SPORTING GOODS!!
The CEO of Dick’s, Edward Stack, announced today his retail stores will no longer sell assault style weapons or high capacity magazines effective immediately. He stated this decision was a direct result of the shootings in Parkland, Fl a couple of weeks ago. I APPLAUD HIS ACTION!! I would also urge the one remaining retailer still offering this weapon of mass destruction for sale, Bass Pro Shops (also own Cabella’s) to do the same. It’s time to put aside the dollar and think about the future of our children. SYRIAN SLAUGHTER
The ongoing civil war (not any longer a civil war in any use of the word!) inside Syria is a story that apparently no one in Washington seems overly concerned about. I’m not going to pin this one on the Trump administration, although their lack of a clear cut policy with definitive objectives other than defeat ISIL has allowed the situation to deteriorate rapidly of late. The facts are these, irrespective of politics: between 350,000 and 500,000 people have perished since the war began over seven years ago during the so called ‘Arab Spring”, and the majority of these fatalities have been civilian deaths; over seven million persons have been displaced by the conflict; over five million refugees created by the ongoing battles between the regime of Assad and the opposition. These numbers alone are staggering. When you also consider the fact that Assad has used chemical weapons, including saran and chlorine gas, on his own population, and is currently embarked on a mission of genocide on the outskirts of Damascus, killing and gassing women and children indiscriminately, there are actual war crimes being committed. The situation is indeed complicated. Assad’s regime was in grave danger of being toppled, but his long time advocates named Vladimir Putin and Russia were handed a golden opportunity to reestablish themselves in the country and the region at the invitation of Assad to conduct air strikes after a number ISIL offensives had set the Syrian army on its heels. They have done so; Assad has not only survived but now appears to be on the verge of defeating his political opponents and crushing his enemies, by any method available. In the meanwhile, the United States has conducted a couple of operations in response to Syrian regime atrocities, including a cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base following a chemical attack on his own people, and more recently a significant clash between U.S. forces and Russian mercenaries, in which a large number of Russians were killed by air strikes. But our main objective in this country is only to stop the spread of the disease known as ISIL or ISIS, and our focus has been on this mission. Countless cease fires have been brokered and broken, the Russians have consistently vetoed any United Nations resolutions aimed at ending the bloodshed. In the meanwhile more and more civilians are being slaughtered by random bombings, artillery fire and chemical attacks, all aimed at the total elimination of any possible opposition to the regime. And the rest of the world watches, and Trump and other politicians call for a ban on Syrian refugees instead of providing the necessary humanitarian aid and political or military solutions necessary to end this conflict. The stated American end game of Assad stepping aside will NEVER happen, any more so than Kim Jong-un will give up his nuclear weapons program. It is also currently being reported that N. Korea is providing his regime with the materials necessary to produce additional chemical weapons, in spite of a United Nations ban and monitoring that took place following the original chemical attacks. In short, the situation is becoming dire, and the world needs to start paying closer attention to the slaughter being orchestrated by Putin and his proxy and war criminal, Assad. They should be held accountable for the incredible human toll this conflict has extracted on his country and his people, all in order to retain his grip on power. Hopefully, his day of reckoning will come sooner rather than later. In the meanwhile, don’t expect to see Putin’s good friend Donald Trump do anything to upset the balance of power or give anyone cause for hope. He’s already in too deep!!! INSIDE THE EAST WING (Once Again!!!)
Several tidbits which caught my eye regarding the absolute DOLTS that permeate the Trump administration from the top to the bottom!! I have previously detailed many of these officials in previous posts, but, like this year’s flu strain, they just won’t seem to go away. First, Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. According to multiple news outlets, here is the latest about “Dinnergate”: Secretary Ben Carson was in need of a sturdy table to support all the paperwork for his planned cuts for the elderly and poor, so in late 2017, the Department of Housing and Urban Development splurged to get the boss man a shiny new dining room set for his office, the New York Times reports. The cost of the set, which includes a custom hardwood table, chairs, and a hutch, totaled a whopping $31,561 — a sum that eclipses many of the salaries of the people Carson’s job requires him to care about. The purchase was reportedly made while the HUD was announcing plans to slash funds for programs to aid the poor, homeless, and elderly. A HUD spokesman told the Times that Carson apparently “didn’t know the table had been purchased,” but that the secretary has no plans on returning the deviously purchased set because he doesn’t believe its sticker price was that obscene. (Federal law mandates congressional approval when the cost “to furnish or redecorate the office of a department head” exceeds $5,000.) Kind of speaks for itself, wouldn’t you agree? Oh, BTW, the HUD official who refused to sign off on the expenditure was apparently then demoted. Next up we have Jared Kushner. WTF is this prissy looking idiot even doing??? Does anybody even know? Not only has he been witness to countless top secret documents without proper security clearance for over a year, but now it comes to light he has had numerous meetings with foreign leaders and officials "off the books", and that several of these countries, such as Israel, have privately warned the intelligence community that he was the definite target for multiple influence operations. The very fact that this individual’s only qualification to work in the dysfunctional White House is that he is Trump’s son in law should tell us all we need to know about him. There is also the involvement in the campaign collusion with the Russians, i.e. the Trump Tower meeting, for which he will undoubtedly have to ultimately answer to Bob Mueller, to say nothing of the multitude of shady and disastrous business deals in his resume. Please, Jared, go back to New York while there’s still time for you!! You’re too pretty to go to prison, and it would upset Ivanka!!! Lastly, we have dear friend Hope(less) Hicks, White House Communications Director. In testifying before a Congressional Committee on the Russian investigation, she refused to answer a number of questions regarding her or her boss’s role, but did admit to the occasional “white lie” to further Trump’s agenda. NO S**T HOPE(less)!!!! What would be more amazing would be for ANY honest or factual statements coming forth from her, her sycophant Sara “Huckleberry” Sanders or their boss, Donald Trump, the greatest collection of collective liars the American people have had to suffer over the past year or so. Perhaps it’s all by design, like the more crap you throw out there the more confused people will be about the facts. If so, it’s working pretty well, at least to this point. Although at least half if not more of us don’t believe things are going well for this country and don’t believe the absolute nonsense spewing forth from this administration, what about the thirty percent or so who actually believe what they hear?!? Are they really that ignorant or have they just become so enamored with this President they don’t want to see the truth or believe the facts? That’s the scary part. The list of individuals within this totally corrupt and deceitful administration that have graced this blog is long, and the sad truth is that as every day goes by under Donald Trump’s imperial reign the list just keeps growing. It’s almost inconceivable that any President could bring in such a team of inexperienced, unqualified buffoons to supposedly protect and defend us. But here we are, folks, another tragic episode of “ THE EAST WING” unfolding right before our eyes. BE CAREFUL GEORGIA OR DELTA WILL FLY AWAY!!
More fallout from the Parkland, Florida shooting a couple of weeks ago. In the aftermath, there have been a number of corporations, such as United Airlines, Met Life, Hertz, Enterprise, North American Van Lines and Delta Airlines which have discontinued offering discounts to NRA members. These are all privately held companies, not government entities. They are entitled to make any decision they want to regarding what group or organization is entitled to their particular discounting programs, just like the decision Fed Ex made to continue to offer a discount to the NRA. However, now the state legislature of Georgia, led by Lt Governor Casey Cagle (a Republikan, of course!), is threatening to withdraw $40 million in tax breaks on jet fuel if the company does not relent and reinstate it’s discount to the NRA. He tweeted as follows: “I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA. Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”
Here’s a news flash, Georgia-you need Delta Airlines a hell of a lot more than they need you!!! Immediately following the news of this outrageous demand, the State of New York immediately stepped up and offered to have Delta move their corporate headquarters there. And I would imagine other cities like Dallas and Cincinnati, already set up as major Delta hubs and more than capable of becoming the major hubs for the airline, are lining up to make their pitches as well. If I were the Delta CEO, I would basically just tell the Georgia State legislature and the idiot Lt. Governor to stand by their own conservative principles (if there are any left!) and keep their nose out of the private business of corporate America; at least these corporations have the stones to stand up to the NRA and what it stands for, which is a lot more than can be said for these and other politicians who are so beholden to them. Personally, I am paying close attention to those companies that join the boycott as well as those that don’t. Fed Ex, for example. When given the option, I will no longer ship anything via Fed Ex. That’s my choice. And in making that choice, we start hurting the NRA and its beneficiaries where it hurts the most-in the WALLET! This is powerful tool to utilize to change the status quo on guns, along with your vote at the ballot box. Step up and exercise these rights so that reasonable gun regulations become a reality and also help insure our children’s safety! JOIN THE MOVEMENT-JUST SAY NO TO THE NRA AND ITS BENEFACTORS!! NEWS FLASH: THERE IS NO KENTUCKIANA!
Having grown up in Kentucky, I have a natural dislike for Indiana. Of all the states that border the Bluegrass State, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois, Indiana is the one that generates the most negative connotations in my mind. I suppose that’s due to the proximity, being located right across the river from my hometown of Louisville. The state that brought us Bobby Knight and Mike Pence also garners way too much news coverage from our local outlets, which is really the point of this post, other than Hoosier bashing. I turn on the local news channels and am constantly being bombarded with stories about Indiana. Here’s a news flash to WHAS, WAVE, WDRB and WLKY-you’re located in Louisville, KENTUCKY!! Not Indiana!! Southern Indiana is comprised of any number of small towns in search of an identity-New Albany, Jeffersonville, Bedford, Seymour, Corydon, etc. Nobody in the state of Indiana south of Columbus gives a sh*t about southern Indiana, including many of us who live in KENTUCKY!! The Ohio River is there for a reason, people! So why on earth did you go and build two more bridges?!? If anything, we should have torn down the ones that existed! Actually, that’s not true. The local politicians finally figured out a way to tax all those Hoosiers who come across the river to make their living, drive on our highways and otherwise enjoy the fruits of MY tax dollars. They take their money back across the river, send their children to Indiana schools and turn their noses up at us! Well, guess what? At a minimum of $4.00 per trip across the toll bridges, they are finally being made to pay. Personally, I have driven north across the new east end bridge ONE time, and that was the day before the tolls took effect. At any rate, my complaint is in the fact that these local news outlets spend an inordinate amount of time covering southern Indiana news. I really don’t care what’s going on in the new Albany-Floyd County school district, or if the Governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb visits flood ravaged Utica or if Silver Creek beat Loogootee in high school hoops. We have enough of our own problems in Kentucky with another idiot like Holcomb at the helm, steering the ship of state straight into the rocks! My suggestion is to establish a southern IN bureau like the Courier-Journal used to do (when they actually had reporters!) that specifically caters to Hoosier land, and let us Kentuckians get news, weather and sports that we are interested in. Sometimes I get so fed up with the coverage I will actually watch WLEX in Lexington, because they talk about OUR state and OUR issues, NOT Indiana’s. I’m Mike Cole, and that’s my point of view!!! THE SHERIFF OF BROWARD (COWARD?) COUNTY
The facts being disclosed almost two weeks after the Parkland, FL mass shooting regarding the actions (or lack thereof) of several Broward County Sheriff’s deputies and the resultant political fallout from the Governor to the state legislature to the Sheriff himself, Scott Israel, only make the entire episode more tragic. The fact that apparently three or more deputies hid behind their vehicles rather than enter the school to confront the gunman while students were being gunned down inside defies everything we have come to expect from our first responders. It is disheartening, to say the least. Coupled with numerous warning signs over the previous months that the shooter was “going to explode” that were apparently ignored by the Sheriff’s department adds further to the breakdown in law enforcement that facilitated this horrific mass murder. According to multiple sources, the Sheriff's department had OVER TWENTY different encounters with the individual in question prior to the murderous shooting spree that killed seventeen people and injured many more. There's obviously something wrong with the system when breakdowns like this occur, from the top down. I’m not particularly a big Jake Tapper (CNN) fan, although his book “the OUTPOST”, describing an incredible battle in Afghanistan, is one of the best I’ve read regarding that seemingly endless struggle (which, by the way, we’re losing after SIXTEEN years!). I watched his interview yesterday with the Broward County Sheriff. During the course of the interview, which was typical of Tapper’s confrontational style, Scott Israel claimed his was “amazing leadership”; when asked incredulously by Tapper to clarify based upon the facts we already know that indicate anything but amazing leadership, he defended his actions and those of his department despite the fact that the actions were indefensible. Now, seventy-three members of the Florida legislature have called on Governor Rick Scott to fire Israel, and the Governor himself is launching an internal investigation into the actions of his department before and during the shootings. The actions of a few do not indicate the overall professionalism and dedication of Broward County law enforcement, and the actions of those who did put their lives on the line and do so every day are not being called into question here. What is being called into question is if this is how trained law enforcement professionals react under duress in a real life situation, how in the world can we expect armed teachers to “shoot the hell out of ‘em” as Trump has claimed would happen if his ridiculous proposal to put guns in their hands is adopted?!? This is a BAD IDEA. The solution is not more guns, but fewer. The other sad fact is that there was no safety modifications put into place over the last couple of weeks to make this school a so called “harder target”. No bulletproof glass, no door locks that lock from inside, etc.; I guess the taxpayers in Florida have other priorities other than protecting their young adults and children (see my previous post regarding the “GUNSHINE STATE”). So they are sending these students back to school this week after having turned the entire debate into a political pissing contest, refusing to consider a bill to outlaw assault type weapons in their state and having the entire country wonder just what in the hell is going on down there??? From what I’ve seen, the only people behaving as if the have any moral compass or plan of action are the young adults themselves. Let us hear them and not let this tragedy turn out like so many others have in the past, forgotten after the news cycle and a return to business as usual. I fervently hope this time it’s different, for all of our sakes, and our children’s and grandchildren’s!!! There were a total of fiftyCLIMATE CHANGE and GLOBAL WARMING A LIBERAL HOAX? MY LEAKING BASEMENT SAYS IT’S NOT!!
Many conservatives and Republikans, including many of our current members of Congress, are not swayed by the indisputable scientific evidence that green house gas, specifically CO2, primarily caused by emissions from coal burning power plants, is causing a significant warming of our climate over the last decade or so and that the resultant climate changes we are experiencing in the form of intensifying storms such as hurricanes and other meteorological phenomenon will only get worse as time moves forward. My own non scientific confirmation that something is going on is a lot closer to home-in fact, it is home. Over the last four days, Louisville has received over seven inches of rain, nearly four inches yesterday alone. The all time monthly and single day rainfall totals happened this month here! The Ohio River is reaching flood stages not seen in over twenty years, since 1997. In my case, my basement man cave sprung its second leak in the last three years due to excessive rainfall amounts in a short period of time. Fortunately for me, the damage was restricted to a wet carpet and having to empty out a closet in the spare bedroom that got soaked. By the way, the basement is fully carpeted, so when any leakage occurs, mold is always a concern. These two incidents were not related to actual foundation cracks and repairs, several which I have had done over the thirty some years I’ve been in this home. These were leaks caused by excessive groundwater resultant from torrential downpours, these two events in particular the likes of which I have never seen. And I’m one of the lucky ones, folks. The pictures I have seen and video footage of the flooding in the area are incredible, and many people will end up losing everything to the water. Scenes were reminiscent, though not on the same scale, as Houston last summer during Hurricane Harvey. There was a total of over fifty different water rescues carried out last night during the height of the deluge. For all of those who say this is just a typical cycle in our overall weather patterns, I’m calling bulls**t!! My suggestion to skeptics is to watch “An Inconvenient Truth”, the documentary done a number of years ago by Al Gore. I know these same conservatives and Republikans will claim he is a kook, as evidenced by his claim of inventing the internet. However, Al Gore is anything but a kook, folks. This documentary will show in indisputable terms the reality we are facing from this man made catastrophe. And yet, our President, Donald Trump, withdraws from the Paris Climate Accord. His Environmental Director, Scott Pruitt is busy rolling back ALL of the previous EPA regulations regarding these emissions and promoting the primary culprit, coal, as the energy of the future!! WTF?!? I don’t want to have to write my blog or play my Xbox or watch Netflix in a moldy cave, so people get your act together and help solve the problem, not make it much worse!! The effects of your actions are being felt today, and will continue to worsen unless you change course and revise your disastrous environmental policies!!!! MARCH SADNESS
The revelations yesterday regarding the ongoing FBI probe into NCAA college basketball, coupled with previous revelations regarding “pay for play” schemes at Louisville and other schools which resulted in the termination of Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich, the Louisville A.D., is a sad commentary on the state of this sport. From the wiretapped conversations of Arizona coach Sean Miller’s involvement with a $100,000 payment to secure the services of a highly sought after recruit to the absurdities of a player or his parents accepting a meal from an agent or associate being an infraction while the schools pocket literally millions off of their services, it is very obvious that changes are necessary to insure that this sport survives. The schools involved in these latest allegations include Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona and Michigan State, to name just a few. These are the alpha dogs of collegiate basketball, and it seems now that the shoe has dropped and the depth of the improprieties at these and other schools has yet to be uncovered. Already coaches and schools are lining up with their denials and claims of ignorance, but I believe the damage to these programs will be real and expensive. If the NCAA sticks by its guns and intends to punish these institutions for these infractions, like it did with Louisville, you better believe more heads will roll. It appears inevitable that Sean Miller will NOT be coaching tonight’s game, nor will his star recruit likely be participating. All of this coming just days before the beginning of March Madness, college basketball’s premier showcase. It seems to me that the underlying problem here is the fact that the institutions are not willing to share in the income these athletes are able to generate for them, nor is the NCAA willing to acknowledge this is a huge problem. Many of these student athletes are from lower income families, and the opportunity to generate income for them is not a matter of choice but necessity. You tell me how a father who is struggling to support his family from paycheck to paycheck turns down an offer of $100,000 to have his son go to school someplace for a year before hopefully signing a professional contract? These athletes AND their families should be able to participate in the revenue they help generate, and the NCAA needs to change its rules to reflect this participation. If they don’t, it’s only a matter of time before there won’t be any teams left to participate in March Madness, and for college hoops fans it will become “MARCH SADNESS”. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE REDUX
Following article from the Huffington Post describes the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and how it continues to seriously jeoporadize our national security. America now ponders two remarkable questions. First, did a presidential candidate compromise our interests in exchange for electoral help from a foreign adversary? Second, once elected, did he obstruct justice in order to conceal his disloyalty? We must have answers. But, for the moment, let’s consider what we already know: how assiduously America’s president serves Russia’s interests. During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin evoked the slavish sycophancy of a Soviet-era puppet. Putin, he told us, “has eaten Obama’s lunch”; “done an amazing job of taking the mantle”; and deserved “a lot of credit” for intervening in the Ukraine. Dismissing the Russian government’s murders of dissidents and journalists, he asserted that “our country does a lot of killing also...” As president now, Trump is equally servile. At the G-20 summit, after Trump neglected a state dinner to seek a one-hour tete-a-tete with Putin, he crowed about forming a joint cybersecurity plan with the very nation that hacked America’s elections. At times ― as when he called to thank Putin for praising Trump’s economic stewardship ― he grovels for rhetorical crumbs. But Trump’s servitude is also substantive. He slights our allies and alliances, furthering Putin’s hopes of dividing the West. He ignores European concerns about Russian intrusion in their own elections. He airbrushes Russia’s invasion or harassment of its neighbors. He countenances Russia’s participation in Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian slaughter. His indifference to human rights mimes Putin’s. He has become the principal geopolitical asset of America’s foremost global adversary. Trump’s cardinal service is his relentless facilitation of Putin’s efforts to subvert America’s electoral and legal institutions. In 2016, Russia caused the release of hacked emails calculated to help Trump and damage Hillary Clinton; disseminated a tsunami of fake news, calculated to influence the election, for which Robert Mueller has now formally indicted Russian nationals and companies; and probed election-related computer systems in numerous states. Yet Russia continues to escalate such attacks both here and abroad, advancing Putin’s resolve to discredit Western democracy. Any other president would educate America about the threat we face, and rally our resources to thwart it. Throughout his presidency, Trump has helped him. In January 2017, our intelligence agencies briefed Trump on their unanimous conclusion that Putin had directed Russia’s attack on our election ― revealing Putin’s specific instructions. Trump responded by telling aides that our intelligence agencies could not be trusted, and that their findings were a “trap.” Worse, he has defended Putin’s pusillanimous denials and attacked the institutions charged with investigating Russia’s actions. He demeaned the heads of our intelligence agencies as “political hacks”. He insists that the intelligence assessment is a “hoax” and a “scam” ― a “Democratic hit job” fabricated to place “an artificial barrier” between America and Russia. Similarly, he called the FBI a biased organization whose reputation was “in tatters.” He repeatedly assails leaders of the Bureau and the Department of Justice. Most recently, he used the cherry-picked Nunes memo to claim that the Russian investigation was politically motivated ― leading Sen. John McCain to warn that “we are doing Putin’s job for him.” Here Trump excels. A February Reuters poll found that 73 percent of Republicans believe that the FBI and DOJ are “working to delegitimize Trump through politically motivated investigations”; that 55 percent of all Americans believe that the Obama administration “improperly surveilled the Trump campaign during the 2016 election; and 35 percent believe that senior officials at the FBI and DOJ “knowingly coordinated to frame the president with allegations of Russian collusion...” More broadly, a survey by a consortium of political scientists shows that in Trump’s first year, public faith in our institutions dramatically declined. Among the casualties is a fundamental belief in our democracy. Adamantly, Trump has opposed punishing Russia for undermining our election. When Congress reacted to this curious behavior by passing sanctions with near-unanimity, Trump refused to enforce them. His surreal excuse? That their existence on paper is deterrent enough. Hardly. In mid-February our four top intelligence officials ― the directors of the CIA, FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Intelligence Agency ― warned that Russia means to repeat its interference in 2018 by again hacking our electoral systems and using fake news to aggravate America’s political and social divisions. Concurrently, Russia has launched a social media onslaught in support of Trump’s attacks on law enforcement. Mueller’s 37-page indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian companies has now exposed the resources Russia deploys to subvert our political process like never before. In 2016 Russian operatives infiltrated the U.S.; recruited unwitting Americans, posed as political activists; used American emails and bank accounts; organized events and churned out fake news calculated divide Americans; and targeted specific locations and demographic groups. Overall, Russia spent millions of dollars and utilized hundreds of agents. This multi-pronged operation on American soil had one unifying purpose ― to help Donald Trump become our president. Now he is. Mueller’s indictment finally forced Trump to acknowledge, elliptically and grudgingly, the reality of Russian interference in 2016. But he uttered no condemnation and took no action. Instead, he used the the same ugly and diversionary tweets to deny his previous denials of Russia’s activities; attack Democrats and the FBI; assert that the Russia investigation had distracted the Bureau from pursuing a tip about the Florida school shooter; and rebuke his own National Security Advisor for calling the indictment “incontrovertible” without parroting Trump’s mendacious talking points. Once again Trump’s chosen enemy was not Russia, but the agencies and individuals striving to protect the integrity of our elections. Most disturbing, Trump still has done nothing to combat Russian cyberattacks or fake news campaigns ― let alone punish Russia for its brazen assault in 2016. Any other president would educate America about the threat we face, and rally our resources to thwart it. Instead, this president’s advisers fear that raising the subject will enrage him. Daily, Trump undermines our institutions and undoes our defenses ― encouraging Russia to escalate its assault. The most basic obligation of a president is to defend American democracy against attack. Trumps failure to do so is an inexcusable act of dereliction and disloyalty. But, to Trump, loyalty is owed to him alone ― excepting, apparently, his affinity for Putin. Offended by Democrats’ non-response to his State of the Union, Trump suggested that this was “treason.” As ever, he personifies projection. Richard North Patterson is the New York Times best-selling author of 22 novels, a former chairman of Common Cause, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. |
About Mike ColeBorn in Hamilton, OH but a proud Kentuckian since age two. One brother and three sisters. Suburban, Catholic middle-class upbringing. Attended Jefferson Community College and Pasadena Community College. Proud father of four and grandfather to seven, and most of all, a concerned American citizen! Are you??? Categories |