2016 March 30^th

Shall we play absurdities? OK, so these are not absurd matters to the people involved, but in the existential concerns of the nation they certainly are. First we have one Corey Lewandowski, a major adviser to Donald Trump, who is shown grabbing a reporter’s arm and pulling her away from attempting to question his employer. This is clearly seen from an overhead camera provided by Trump at his Jupiter, Florida, Golf Club where this happened. For a man to grab any portion of a woman’s anatomy is a no-no unless he is attempting to remove her from the path of a speeding car…and even then he better be grabbing his eight year old daughter.

And now for the absurdities: First off, Trump claims that Lewandowski never touched Michelle Fields; then when that was rendered nonsense by Trump’s own cameras, Trump claimed it was an insignificant “bump” such as he himself might have received in the scrum of a rally. But Michelle Fields wound up with bruises on her arm indicating a “grab” and “yank” disproportionately violent for the circumstances. Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News Service, an avowedly right wing on-line reporting outfit, decided to press charges. It was seen as rather naughty for a Breitbart News reporter to raise issues with a fine right wing leader like Donald Trump or his minions and Breitbart threw Ms. Fields under the bus. This led to outrage and resignations by Fields and several other Breitbart reporters. Now, with the arrest and the released camera footage, Breitbart is having second thoughts and claims that maybe Michelle Fields was right after all.

The tape evidence persuaded the local police department to file a charge of battery against Lewandowski. Mr. Lewandowski claimed complete innocence; in fact he said that not only had he never touched Ms. Fields, indeed he didn’t even know her. Lewandowski apparently believes that if you are unacquainted with someone you could not possibly be guilty of assaulting them.

Lewandowski is a top advisor to Donald Trump and insiders claim that he is so effective because “he lets Donald Trump be Donald Trump.” (Lewandowski knows how to keep his job.) Trump claims his adviser is blameless and Trump seems to be returning the favor by “letting Corey be Corey.” Ah, but the Jupiter, Florida, police may not agree.

The ultimate absurdity here is the fact that if Lewandowski had bothered to apologize to Michele Fields by saying something like “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to grab your arm that hard” this entire incident might never have arisen. But then who brings logic into politics?

Then, in another venue, there is the issue of Secretary Clinton’s emails—we are still dealing with absurdities here—it seems that depending on your source there are anywhere from 50 to 147 FBI agents classifying Clinton’s emails. Keep in mind that these agents all need a top secret clearance because some of Clinton’s emails have been so classified. This is not a job for any run of the mill clerk. At the same time we have a great concern about public safety and the monitoring of ISIS adherents in this country poised to commit mayhem and murder on our streets. But Clinton’s emails are safe and secure in the custody of the FBI; why then is this organization using such enormous manpower on this low priority endeavor when our citizens are at risk? Absurdities are everywhere.