Around the world in one hundred eighty days

The US President has just completed his first six months in office and his 180 days have been a lengthy and chaotic affair. Each week has seen bizarre story after another and, just when it looks like we can go no lower, the President can slip under an even lower limbo bar.

The sad part is he not only affects the US, he has created an untrustworthy relationship with pretty much every leader around the globe. Even leaders who are on his side likely do not trust the man as far as they could throw him. Conservative writer Ross Douthat wrote recently, “as soon as you give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, he will disappoint you.”

A recent Pew Research Poll of 37 countries said trust in the President has fallen from 64% with Obama to 22% with Trump, a fall of 42 points. Think about that. Pulling out of agreements like the Paris Climate Change Accord and having to be shamed into fully supporting NATO reveal a man whose words do not mean that much. As a result, neither does our word as a country.

This is a key reason we try to honor earlier commitments. But, with Trump saying everything done before is a “disaster,” he feels he has to prove it by destroying it. As a result, other leaders may choose to work with more dependable countries.

Finally, when he layers in his destructive tweets, he seems to forget or not care that his tweets maybe contradictory to earlier statements made in person with another leader. The sophomoric tweeting is not enabling good governance.

So, until he is removed from office, we will have to suffer with the world. God only knows what the next 180 days will bring.

The Great Russian Rationalization

As the retreating lines in the sand continue to be drawn with the lying, denial and story changing, there is an interesting process underway. As the Russian meddling story gets closer to the White House, more than a few so-called news sources and supporters of the President are doing the “Great Russian Rationlization.” Fortunately, there is growing number of conservatives who are realizing the President has been less than truthful to counterbalance the rationalization effort.

Yet, these rationalizing discussions are increasing because of the growing credibility of the Russian meddling story. With the Donald Trump, Jr. emails and meeting with a Russian attorney and investigation into Jared Kushner’s digital data mining role, the story should no longer be downplayed as a witchhunt, the favorite dismissal line of the President. So, these so-called news outlets are openly discussing that collusion may not be a crime, this meeting is just bad judgment, this is not conspiracy, treason and so on.

Attorneys, news agencies and supporters can talk all they want, but if Ronald Reagan were alive, he would rake these folks over the coals. A Watergate prosecutor said on NPR earlier this week, this could be construed as a conspiracy with a foreign entity to accept value in violation of the Federal Elections Campaign Act. The contention by Junior that no services were proffered is moot in the mind of the prosecutor as he went to learn about such.

It should also be noted that Senior’s FBI Director nominee, Christipher Wray said yesterday under oath to a Senate committee that the investigation of Russian meddling is not a “witchhunt” directly refuting the President’s assertion that it is. He supports the effort of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller who he holds in  high regard and calls a “straight shooter.”

Setting aside the Great Russian Rationalization, here is what we know.

– the President is on public record for firing the FBI Director over the “Russian thing.”

– the testimony under oath by former FBI Director James Comey spoke of the President’s coercion to drop looking into the issues related to Michael Flynn.

– the President and several of his team have been confirmed to have lied about Russian meetings during the campaign and transition leading to the firing of Michael Flynn, the recusal of Jeff Sessions from the “Russian thing,” and Junior confirming with his own words that he lied several times about the meeting. Further, the President lied about no one having contact with the Russians.

– the changing stories as information filters out. I refer to this earlier as drawing retreating lines in the sand. Call me crazy, but this gives me the impression of people with something to hide. I would add do not assume Senior or Junior are telling the truth now.

Yet, four things convince me Trump was more than an unwitting pawn in the Russian meddling. He has been embarassingly nonchalant about a major crime against the US by Russia. He has been overtly friendly with the Russian leaders in meetings believing them over the advice of his intelligence community. He has numerous business and financial ties to Russian investors and lenders. And, per six authors who wrote about Trump’s history, the President has a very difficult time with the truth.

My strong advice to legislators who support this President “no matter what” is to remember they swore an oath to the United States of America. And, do they really want to be remembered for blindly supporting a man whose word means so little? To be brutally frank, people can perfume this pig all they want, but to me it looks and smells like conspiratorial acts may been committed. One thing is for certain, this story will not be going away.

 

 

A few obvious statements

There are lot of important things we should be talking about, but let me make a few obvious statements about what is.

– While it remains to be proven whether the President of the United States colluded with Russia to get elected it is painfully clear he has lied about no involvement from any of his campaign team with Russians.
– While Junior says nothing was gleaned from the meeting with the Russian attorney, there are two truths using his own words in emails. He expected and relished in getting Russian government dirt on Hillary Clinton. And, he lied about the meeting, the purpose of the meeting, that Kushner and Manafort did not know and then released emails after being advised the NY Times was going to. Now, he says his father did not know, but frankly, why should we believe him now?
– if the GOP led Senate passes a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare using only GOP votes and the bill gets reconciled with the House bill and signed into law, it will harm two groups – a great many Americans and the Republican Party.
– The US has begun its official demise as the global leader. With the pulling out of the Paris Climate Change Accord and poor performance on the world stage at the G20 meeting, coupled with the retrenchment on trade and proclivity for untrustworthy behavior, this President has done huge damage to our reputation. If you have not seen it, check out the scathing review of Trump by an Australian political reporter who is saddened by this.

These stories are critical. We need Americans to pay attention to legitimate news sources. You could start with everyone being condemned by the President as fake news. Based on his lying and denials that are eventually disproven, people should not take this man at his word. He has not earned that right.

The Teacher Asked

The teacher asked little Johnny if he took Susie’s lunch money. Johnny said he did not. The teacher had seen this before.

She asked him again if he took Susie’s money. He replied more angrily and said how dare someone accuse him of such? Someone is making this story up.

Still unsatisfied, she told Johnny that she has strong evidence that he may be the culprit. Johnny stood firm saying “my enemies are out to get me. And, she gave me the money.”

The teacher said “so, you are admitting to having the money?” Johnny said “Susie gave it to me and if she says she did not then she is lying, believe me.”

The teacher asked if he was sticking with that story. When he said yes, she said “well let’s go down to Principal Mueller’s office and look at the videotape of you going into Susie’s backpack.”

At some point, most children learn that when caught in a lie, it is better to come clean. If you keep lying, more trouble will ensue.

Picture two men with the same name, one a father and one a son. The elder man never learned this lesson, so how could he teach his son not to lie. Principal Mueller may have a say in this, as well.

A little class would help

We cannot condone violence. We cannot promote violence. And, we cannot make excuses for violence.

I cannot say it more simply than this. We cannot say it is OK to slug someone because they said something you disagree with. We cannot lie and then be upset when someone calls us on the lie.

We need to follow Jesus’ mantra and treat others like we want to be treated. But, people in a position of leadership must do more than that to actual be real leaders. They need to have a little class. They must be exemplars.

We are witnessing what happens when a person in leadership does not act like the role requires. It is not a requirement that we agree with everything our leaders do or say, but we should require them to act with the dignity the office requires. I can assure you, leaders in other countries notice when our incumbents do not.

They said that?

One of the mysteries of politics is how politicians so easily forget a key point. Most of what they say is recorded. So, when they change a position, it can be shown they are at odds with their earlier views.

One of my personal favorites is both former Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are on video saying climate change is real and man-influenced and we need to do something about it. It should be noted that McConnell recently signed a letter with 22 senators saying we should withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Accord.

While on climate change, we should not forget the double flip-flop of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He first said it was a hoax. Then, he did a national TV commercial with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he was wrong about climate change and we need to do something about it. Then he ran for President and said he was wrong to say he was wrong.

The sad part about the above is it did not do much harm to the three politicians. Others have not been as lucky. President George HW Bush was punished in a subsequent election after he promised “Read my lips, no new taxes,” and then later raised taxes. President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House for his lying under oath that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

President Ronald Reagan was almost impeached when he lied on TV that he was not aware of weapons being sold to Iran to fund the Contras in Central America. He later went on TV and said he had misled America. And, President Barack Obama oversold the ACA saying that if you want to keep your doctor you could, without recognizing networks don’t work that way.

Yet, our current President has set a new standard for untruths and misstatements. They are rampant, occurring daily and sometimes hourly. When he recently said he would testify under oath, his attorney probably had a stroke. The attorney likely recalls how Trump testified under oath a few years ago and was forced to admit he lied 30 times.

Yet, let me conclude with a priceless quote from former Senator John Kyl which is indicative. When a reporter caught him in a lie, Kyl responded that “your problem is confusing what I said with the truth.” Yes, it is our fault for believing what you say.

Interesting contradictions per John Oliver

Our world is filled with interesting contradictions. It is especially apparent when people ignore facts or try to tell you other so-called alternate facts. Here are a few that I find amusing courtesy of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight:”

– The Kentucky Museum on Coal is powered by solar energy. They save $13,000 per annum on energy cost using renewable energy.

– Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA notes that 50,000 coal jobs have been created under this President, when there are only 76,000 jobs to begin with. The correct answer is 1,300 jobs, which is positive, but 48,700 lower than advertised.

– While coal energy CEOs like to blame President Obama, it should be noted coal jobs have been on the decline for decades. And, 50% of more recent job losses have been due to natural gas, 18% due to renewable energy and the rest due to technological improvements. That means 32% of the job losses are on the shoulders of the coal CEOs.

– As one coal company went into bankruptcy to reorganize, the CEO petitioned the court to allow him to cancel a non-union retiree medical and life insurance plan to save $3 million, but permit them to set up a retention bonus plan for management for $11 million.

– While the President has touted his interest in serving the needs of coal miners, his proposed budget eliminated funding for an Appalachian retraining program for displaced coal workers.

As Oliver points out, there is a huge distinction between actions that support the coal industry and actions that help coal workers. The President and others owe these coal miners the truth. Their jobs are going away and we need to work on career redevelopment.