Thursday, February 23, 2017

Abnormal is the new normal

The mainstream media, dubbed an ‘enemy of the people’ by Donald Trump, struggles to come to grips with an Administration that promotes falsehoods as ‘alternative facts,’ there is a plea from some conservative quarters to give the new administration a break. It’s difficult to do in the face of some of the things that have flowed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
When State Department Foreign Service employees signed a Dissent Channel message disagreeing with Trump’s Muslim visa ban and proposing alternatives that would better achieve his oft-stated security goals, and the message was leaked, Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, rather than decrying the leak of an internal document, basically said the employees should ‘get with the program or get out.’ On the other hand, when documents were leaked showing that Trump’s national security advisor, retired general Michael Flynn, lied when he said he’d not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador and was forced to resign, Trump maintained that Flynn had done nothing wrong and the leak should be investigated.
When the media exposes another ‘alternate fact’ coming from him or one of his minions, they’re labeled ‘fake’ and ‘enemies of the people.’ When he decided to replace Spicer at a press conference, he spent most of the time ranting at the ‘fake’ press for its unflattering coverage of him and his administration.
Oh, and before I forget, much to the discomfort of many senior GOP elected officials, Trump continues to float the lie that the only reason he lost the popular vote by some 3 million votes is because there were 3 million illegal votes cast. The only support he’s received in this blatant falsehood, again, is from his minions. And now, rather than focusing on getting his administration’s act together and governing, he seems to be going back on the campaign trail, which appears to be his comfort zone.
I could go on and on, but it’s just too depressing. Some of my friends and former colleagues (a very few, I might add) tell me that I’m being too hard on the man, and that he’ll come to his senses soon and things will be normal again. I wish I could believe them, but my 50+ years of dealing with people in cultures all over the world, from kings to cannibals, have led me to conclude that absent a truly cataclysmic event, people seldom change their basic nature.  Nearly two months into the Trump Administration and I have yet to see signs of change.
I am forced, sadly, to conclude that waiting for things to return to normal is like pushing a rope up a hill. It appears that abnormal is the new normal.

Global Journalist: Zimbabwe after Mugabe

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Start your spring off with free e-Books

Beginning on March 1, and for each week following, I'm offering one of my Kindle books free to readers. This means some great reading with savings of up to $6.95, so don't miss it. The first book available is Buffalo Soldier: The Piano, a great western, which will be free for Kindles and Kindle apps March 1 to 5. If you click on the image below between March 1 and 5, you can get it free, and while you're at Amazon, check out some of my other books, or take a look at my store in the sidebar of this blog.. Check out my publisher page on Facebook for other freebies in March as well as the rest of the year.


Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, Ia Drang battle commander, dies at 94

Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, Ia Drang battle commander, dies at 94: Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, the commander at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965 that led him to co-author the book, “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young,” died Friday at his home in Auburn, Ala. He was 94.

Is the GOP response to the Flynn fiasco a double standard or what?

Retired General Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, has officially resigned from his post after finally admitting that he’d lied about his pre-inauguration conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US. While this is frankly the only honorable (and I hate having to use that word for Flynn) course of action, there is still a bit of stench associated with this debacle that hasn’t been cleared.
First, there’s presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway’s statement that the president still had ‘faith’ in Flynn just a day or two before his resignation. She obviously neglected to clear her talking points on that one. Then, there’s Trump himself saying that he was ‘unaware’ of Flynn’s situation, despite DOJ having alerted the previous administration of the problem, and presumably the Trump team as well. Then, there’s this little kick in the pants.
The Devin Nunes (R-CA) chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced that he would not open an investigation into Flynn, citing executive privilege, but would investigate who leaked the story that led to his resignation, and why his conversation with the Russian ambassador was recorded.
I find this interesting, considering all of the congressional inquiries into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server, and how that might have compromised national security. I’m not even going to call this a double standard—it’s so far beyond that, it’s mind boggling. My willingness to give the new Administration and the GOP-controlled congress the benefit of the doubt is being severely tested.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

US Court of Appeals gives Trump a taste of the real world

 When former acting-Attorney General Sally Yates, a 27-year DOJ veteran, refused to defend Donald Trump’s travel ban, she was fired and replaced by Dana Boente, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, pending Senate confirmation of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as AG. Boente promised to defend the ban, which had been ordered temporarily suspended by a federal judge in Washington. Under Boente, the DOJ immediately filed a request to restore the ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
On Sunday, February 5, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco denied the request for an emergency of the original suspension order pending a full consideration of the motion. The court requested the AGs of Washington and Minnesota to respond right away, and the DOJ to respond by Monday, February 6.
In response to the original order by US Justice James Roberts, an appointee from the Bush Administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended ‘any and all actions to implement the ban.’

The Trump Administration, one of the least-prepared White House teams in modern history, will now get a look at how real government works. It’s not like a reality TV show where you can shoot a retake or change the script if you don’t like the way things are going. In the real world, the judicial branch is independent from the executive, and for the most part, justices take their responsibility to uphold the law and Constitution seriously, regardless of their politics. 

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