Henry’s Detritus is hereby on sabbatical until further notice. Thank you for your kind attention.

2017 Aug 29^th

Here is the detritus from an earlier Aug 29^th As yo can see not much has changed.

If Ronald Reagan was ‘The great Communicator” then Donald Trump will be remembered as “The Great Exaggerator.” He is, after all, a salesman and he has admitted in his book, ”The Art of the Deal,” that if you need to paint an exaggerated picture to entice the client, well, so be it. The result is that almost every word that comes out of Trump’s mouth is an exaggeration designed to diminish his opponents or enhance his own appeal.

A few days ago he was working over Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, two of his very favorite whipping boys. He was talking about the mentoring relationship Bush had with Rubio and how Rubio had responded by challenging Jeb for the nomination. Oh, but now they are friends again, he said, “I saw them hugging and kissing…” I saw that meeting because it was televised and his description was pure hokum.

He also overdoes the, “nobody else permits birthright citizenship.” He claims that, “Mexico doesn’t do it. Other places don’t do it….We’re the only place, just about, that is stupid enough to do it,” It is being phased out in many countries that once had it, but Mexico does in fact still have it; in somewhat different form but it is essentially the same thing. Then there is the awful danger he claims he faced when he went to Laredo, Texas, to confer with border guards about the porous border.  When the border guards union told them inviting Trump was a no-no because the union was officially politically neutral, Trump claimed the guards were not allowed to tell him the real story.

He told his pilot not to fly too close to the border because of the danger, (Could he have known about the remarkable Mexican air defense missile system?) and made much of the presumed risk he was taking by going to the border. (The Washington Post pointed out that he was statistically safer in Laredo than in New York City.) Trump said, “People are saying ‘It’s so dangerous Mr. Trump’ but I have to do it.” He also said that he “Would proceed with the visit despite of the grave danger.” What bravery, what spunk; you wouldn’t believe that this was the same guy who got multiple student deferments to avoid serving in Vet Nam.

You recall the press conference where Jorge Ramos was “escorted” from the room for asking questions when he was not called on? The man doing the escorting was a very large fellow with a near bald haircut. Later when Trump was asked about this interesting example of media control, Trump said repeatedly that Ramos was “screaming” questions at him and that he was “ranting and raving like a mad man.” He was doing no such thing. He raised his voice so that he could be heard because he, unlike Trump, had no microphone. Of course Trump must claim that Ramos was screaming and raving to provide more justification for ejecting him. Then Trump was asked about the near seven foot tall man who escorted Ramos from the hall. Trump pleaded ignorance but the same guy is always close to Trump and scanning the crowds. I guess he’s just a fan.

2017 Aug 28^th

Sometimes communication is very difficult. Here is an example:

Mother

“Hi Mom; how are you today?”

“I’m just so disappointed and distressed I don’t know what to do.”

“What’s wrong Mom?”

“You know that I never got a Christmas card from you.”

“But Mom I called you Christmas day to wish you Merry Christmas and to see if you got those books and the records of Christmas carols you wanted. Don’t you remember? We talked for nearly an hour Christmas morning.”

“But I have these other Christmas cards on the mantle above the fireplace but there is nothing there from you…(sigh)… I guess you just forgot. Well that’s alright I’m sure you’re too busy to remember something like that.”

“Actually Mom I have been busy; I’ve met a girl I really like and I want you to meet her.”

“That’s fine son. Where does she live?”

“She lives with her folks over in Homewood.”

“She lives in Homewood? We don’t know anyone who lives in Homewood. That is a terrible neighborhood.”

“Mom, her folks have a very nice house.”

“She lives with her parents does she?”

“Yes, she lives with her folks.”

“Why does she live at home? Can’t she find a job?”

“She has a job; she works in a drugstore over on East Eighth Street.

“Oh my Lord; you aren’t getting mixed up with drugs now. Please tell me you aren’t into drugs!”

“Mother, she works in a drugstore. She is a druggist, a pharmacist. That means she has a doctor of 
pharmacy degree. She has more college than I do.”

‘Well, that education won’t make a bit of difference if she is into drugs. You know those people can get all the drugs they want. You be careful because once she gets you hooked on drugs…

“Mom she only sells drugs to people who have prescriptions from their doctors.”

“You can get a doctor to provide a prescription for whatever you want. Don’t you see those TV ads that say ‘Get your doctor to provide a trial of …’ and she can also use those drugs herself or she can give them to you!”

“Mom they have to account for every narcotic pill they dispense. The State controls all that.”

“And aren’t you an accountant? What will happen when that bank you work for finds out about this?”

 “Mom, her drugstore does all their banking right here. And they have an excellent credit rating.”

“Well, you weren’t brought up this way; first you date a woman who sells drugs for a living and then you work for a bank that does money-laundering for drug dealers. I’m so ashamed!”

“MOTHER!”

2017 Aug 27^th

Many people who came here illegally brought their children with them. In some cases that was many years ago. Those children, now grown in many cases, had hoped to become citizens, or at least have a legal right to live here. Technically, of course they are here illegally and so Donald Trump wants them deported. This is simply another example of Trump’s inhumanity, there are many other examples.

Where does such a human being come from? That he is not part of the usual run of humans is obvious. Lying comes as naturally to the man as breathing. His lies about Muslims go back at least to the twin towers destruction when he claimed they celebrated that destruction by dancing in New Jersey streets.

He has desperately tried to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency by claiming without any evidence that he is not a native-born citizen. He has taken out ads insisting that the central park five, who had been exonerated from the crime they had been convicted of, be executed anyway. Is this a member of thje human race?

Now as president he has attacked his own senior party members, few have escaped his ire, He had a shouting match with the leader of the Senate without whom he can accomplish nothing legislatively. He has picked more fights with Republican senators than he has with Democrats. Perhaps he expects a loyalty from Republicans that he does not expect from Democrats and when he doesn’t get it he explodes.

Now with the pardoning of Arpaio he tests the waters for pardoning members of his inner circle, his family and perhaps even himself. Finally, Donald Trump may have put himself beyond any legal accountability. Go figure.

2017 Aug 26^th

So Alice, you say there is a hurricane of stupendous proportions ripping apart the coastal areas of Texas? Tell us, where did it come from? Like all hurricanes it came from the Gulf of Mexico. But we have storms come in from the Gulf all the time; what makes this one special? Usually there are weather conditions that will blow apart the gathering storm; this time those conditions are absent and this storm can continues to feed from the super-warm Gulf of Mexico water.

Is it at all possible that global warming, if it existed of course, could have had anything to do with an event like Hurricane Harvey? We do have the enormous heat buildup in the gulf that feeds energy to this hurricane. There are other factors as well but the heat of the gulf water is a necessary condition, without which there would be no hurricane.

We know that former governor Perry (You remember Perry. He is the presidential candidate who planned to abolish three government departments. Remembering all three was more than poor Perry could handle so now courtesy of President Trump, he is secretary of one of the departments, Energy, he had hoped to abolish.) was adamant that global warming was, “one confused phony mess.” What elase could he say and stay in business as governor given the importance of Texas off shore oil and gas business. Harvey has temporarily eliminated that business and the losses will be considerable.

Trump, Perry’s boss, is also a climate change denier. He wants the votes of West Virginia coal miners so his position is necessary. This is just another Trumpian scam. Coal is not coming back because natural gas is cleaner and cheaper. (But mentioning that will not corral those West Virginia and Kentucky votes.)

Naturally there are other events this weekend. Sheriff Arpaio has been pardoned to no one’s surprise and everyone’s disgust. The premier Nazi in the Trump advisory group, Mr. Gorka, has left the building although whether he was kicked out or resigned is up in the air. Then Trump acted to eliminate Transgender people from the military services. That will be tricky because many of them have served the military honorably.

What will this oaf do next?

2017 Aug 25^th

Today comes yet more speculation regarding the president’s sanity. We have already pointed out that the constitution does not require that our president be literate. Either the founders felt no need for a president who could read and write or they assumed anyone aspiring to the office would have these abilities; surely the latter is the case.

There were mental asylums in 1775 but the symptoms requiring incarceration were far from subtle. There is no evidence that the founders thought a sanity test an appropriate requirement for the presidency.

The mental competence of our presidents has been an issue before. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke while in office and his wife simply stepped in and assumed many of his responsibilities. She even controlled his visitors so that she was the de facto president. There are rumors that Ronald Reagan’s dementia began before he left office and that his devoted wife and staff covered for him. When Senator Goldwater ran for the presidency some psychiatrists speculated about his soundness of mind based on his comments. This was obviously inappropriate and led to the “Goldwater Rule” which declares that physicians cannot diagnose a person whom they have not personally examined. 

We do have the 25^th amendment which specifies how an incompetent president can be removed. The requirements involved make it useless in all but the most extreme cases.

There is an election in 2018 and that election is the best chance of ridding ourselves of Donald Trump. At this rate he will have no accomplishments as president unless we credit him with a right wing SCOTUS appointee. The odds are good that nothing will change. Trump lives in a world of his own making. No one who keeps track of Trump’s remarks, tweets, rallies or other appearances can conclude the man is totally rational. Unfortunately we will have to endure him until the next election. Let us fervently hope that we needn’t endure him beyond that.

2017 Aug 24th

All right, enough of our accidental president, our national embarrassment, Here is a more cheerful piece abut a camp for crippled children during WW @.

Many years ago, during World War II, I was a counselor in a summer camp for crippled children. Of course no one calls them crippled children anymore. Now the preferred term is physically challenged, or handicapped. The camp depended heavily on charity for its existence, and I would guess that “crippled” brought in far more money than “handicapped.”

The camp, Camp Daddy Allen, was named for a Philadelphia benefactor; it was located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania in a federal recreation area. This was 1943 and the war had taken its toll on the supply of able-bodied males available to be counselors. Therefore, at sixteen, and with two years experience as a junior counselor, I became a senior counselor in the older boys’ unit. We had about twenty-four campers in each of four units, older boys, younger boys, older girls, and younger girls. The campers had various handicaps; most were from the effects of polio. Many were from cities and most had never seen another kid with the kind of handicap they had. For the first time they discovered that some other kids were worse off than they were. A fair number were in body braces. They propelled themselves along the trails on their crutches, buoyed somewhat by the knowledge that the President of the United States had the same problem.

All of the campers had to be able to benefit from a normal camping program such as might be found in a Boy Scout camp, or a YMCA camp. There were obvious limitations. We had sleep outs, but they were very close to camp. Most of these were city kids who were not very comfortable in the woods where they assumed that spiders, snakes, bears, and wolves were lurking. We managed to get all of them to have at least one night sleeping on the ground by a campfire. Maybe sleeping isn’t the right word.

We had softball games, but we needed about fifteen players on a side. A kid with the hugely muscled arms from years on crutches might bat, and another kid with withered arms would run the bases for him (or her). In the field the same pairing would have the kid with the withered arms chase down the ball, bend to the ground grabbing the ball under his chin, and then running to his buddy who would throw the ball in. They were unflappable.

We had one unusual activity for the kids. This was advertised well in advance. We had a Bandersnatch hunt. These kids had never heard of Lewis Carroll so there was nothing to give us away. Our Bandersnatch were not described as frumious, as were Carroll’s. They were described as very shy, with an affinity for wet wood. Indeed the way to catch one, which was the purpose of a Bandersnatch hunt, was to drag a fair size piece of wet wood through the forest on a string, thus tempting a Bandersnatch to jump from its hiding place and grab the bait. When you felt the wood catch on something this might be a Bandersnatch. If it was a Bandersnatch, it would not let go of the bait and you could put it in a sack you carried for that purpose. You had to be very careful though, because Bandersnatch can easily have their very short legs fall off. This is of no concern because they grow back very quickly. When you have a Bandersnatch in your sack, you were to return with it to the dining hall, which was the base of operations for the hunt. Prizes were offered for the largest, the prettiest and the smallest Bandersnatch. (There is some debate about whether Bandersnatch is both singular and plural, like aspirin, or only singular. Number aside, the Bandersnatch is certainly singular.)

The hunt was over when the bugle blew calling everyone back to base. Many Bandersnatch were seen and many were almost caught. It amazing how dragging a piece of wet wood through the woods can fool you into thinking something has grabbed it when it was just temporarily snagged. The program director claimed to have caught one. He reached in his bag and pulled out an eighteen inch long garter snake which had been decorated with water colors. He held it up for all to see saying that its legs had fallen off when it was captured. Then he topped himself. He also had a large newt in another bag. It had all of its legs and it had also been decorated with water colors. The youngest campers were in awe; the oldest campers were suspicious, but a few, “Don’t give Santa Claus away,” comments handled that problem.

 Speaking of Santa, that reminds me that in our search for activities we decided on a camp Christmas. Naturally we picked July 25^th. We got a Christmas tree, a huge spruce specially cut for us by the few remaining caretakers of the Park Service property. The kids trimmed the tree. We had all of the traditional decorations, lights, tinsel, shiny glass balls and a star for the very top. The dining hall was designed so that the big stone fireplace was about in the middle. Naturally we had a fire in it and we had the kids scour the woods for a Yule log. (Nights in the Poconos were chilly so the fire was not without some comfort.) We sang Christmas carols after lunch and after dinner. About a week before the natal day we had a drawing. Each kid got the name of someone for whom they were to make a present. The craft shop hummed. Lanyard material flew off the spools. Painted pine cones were big. Of course there was Christmas themed wrapping paper. The counselors saw to it that there was a gift for everyone. Christmas Eve saw Santa arrive in the person of a well padded camp director who did a little curtain chewing with his Ho, Ho, Hos; nobody minded. Christmas Day we had turkey with all the trimmings. Some of the older kids came back in later years as counselors. They often told me that camp Christmas was the best Christmas they had ever had.

I was a counselor at Daddy Allen every summer beginning when I was fourteen and ending when I was seventeen in 1944. That was the summer I enlisted in the Army Air Force reserve. I left for service after I graduated from high school in 1945. In 1947 the Easter Seal Society opened another camp in central Pennsylvania. I was the head counselor of the older boys’ unit. That year the University of Pittsburgh recruited Jonas Salk to develop a polio vaccine. He accomplished that by 1955 and soon afterward, when Sabin’s vaccine also proved effective, there was no longer much need for camps like Daddy Allen.

Excerpted from “More of the Same” © by Henry E. Klugh

2017 Aug 23^rd                                         

Yesterday I made the point that in spite of our problems with taxes some of our citizens have accumulated enormous wealth; the top American fortunes range from 55 to 81 billion dollars. Keep in mind that a billion is a thousand million, so 55 billion is 55 thousand million dollars, an unimaginable sum to most of us. This wealth has been accumulated under our, presumably, burdensome system of taxation. I maintain that we are far from over taxed; we are, howeverunevenly taxed. Few would debate that thesis.

I suggest a wealth tax be established; this would not affect anyone with less than five million dollars in assets. It would not impact the great majority of Americans. The tax would be graduated beginning with a 1 percent assessment on one’s net worth between five and fifteen million dollars. A net worth of a billion dollars would incur a tax of 5 percent, the top rate. The fine details remain to be worked out. The problem will be to get the principle accepted. Naturally there will be a huge protest against this government confiscation of wealth. Of course there will be just as there was after the introduction of the income tax. That tax required the passing of the 16th amendment to the constitution.

This new tax will produce enough money to spark a debate over just how to use it. After WW 2 we had an educational spurt in this country produced by the GI Bill. There is still a Gi Bill out there but why not make its benefits universal? Why not let it apply to all citizens? We are one of the few civilized nations that does not provide free education to all qualified citizens. That should change.

Let’s be clear; I don’t actually expect any of this to happen but a guarantee that it will not is to never propose it in the first place.

2017 Aug 22^nd

Our conservative friends in government tell us that we Americans are terribly over-taxed, that our taxes must be reduced forthwith lest our economy collapse. Really? Yes, they tell us, 44 percent of our income goes for taxes. Maybe you could get that if you counted gasoline taxes and dog licenses but if that’s true it is amazing that we live so well on the leftover. Keep in mind that there is an important distinction between taxes levied and taxes paid. Our corporate tax rate is well over 30 percent yet to corporate tax rate actually paid is about 19 percent.

If our taxes are too high then we should find a substantial reduction in the accumulation of private capital. That is not happening: We now have a population of about 320 million people and scattered among them are well over 520 billionaires. Please remember that a billion dollars is one thousand million dollars. Our new Secretary of Education is worth about five billion dollars and own a yacht of humungous dimensions that is 50 meters long and sleeps 12 in separate staterooms; it is worth about 40 million dollars. (Well, why not?)

DeVos’ brother, Eric Prince, lives out of the country for reasons he is hesitant to discuss, shares in this incredible wealth. Mr. Prince is in the private Army business just as his sister Betsy is pushing for government funding of private religious schools, Mr. Prince has offered to have  his employees completely takeover the Afghan war for just 15 billion a year instead of the current cost to the taxpayer of 45 billion a year. (I’m willing to bet he doesn’t get hired.)

As it happens we are churning out millionaires at a great rate. Of all the countries in the world we rank seventh in the per capita number of millionaires. The countries that are ahead of us are the tiny mid-east oil kingdoms and Singapore, We are adding about 17,000 millionaires a day to our population. Maybe we aren’t over-taxed at all; maybe we need a different kind of tax. There’ll be more about this tomorrow.

2017 Aug 21st 

As we’ve been told, “He got elected fair and square; so live with it.” As it happens, on one particular day in November of 2016, in just an instant of time, Trump managed to get enough Electoral College votes to become President of the United States. Had the election been held a day earlier, or a little later, the outcome could have been very different.

In short, it was the opinion of voters on just one day that determines our president for the next 1450 days, What happens if we discover that the president we have just elected is mentally unstable? The president can be impeached or perhaps the majority of his cabinet will certify that he is incompetent to carry out his duties. Failing these remedies, it seems that we are stuck with what we got until the next scheduled election. Bummer!

 In the case of the incumbent, he lost the popular vote by about three million votes. Then he insisted that this was because illegal immigrants flooded to the polls to support his opponent. There is no evidence for this,

A possibility is to have a “re-affirm vote” six months after the new president is worn in. We assume the new president is simply trying out for the job for the first six months he is on duty, If he as done a good job then he can be  re-affirmed; if he hasn’t then someone else can try the job.

The presidency is an enormously complicated job. What are the requirements? You have to be born in this country at least 35 years ago and lived her for fourteen years..  You needn’t be able to read or write; you can be a member of the flat earth society,if you get enough Electoral College vote you will become president. That’s  ridiculous.

When the constitution was written that might have been enough; It isn’t anymore. In most states the requirement to carry a pistol are more stringent than the requirement to control this country’s nuclear arsenal. The incumbent has actually asked several times why we can’t use nuclear weapons if we have them.   

Henry’s Daily Detritus

2017 Aug 18^th,-20^th

Buchanan’s column yesterday claims that if we erase our history who are we. Some of this history is is not history at all; it is myth created by the losers. Keep in mind that the revered Robert E. Lee was  a traitor to his country. When he was at West Point he swore an oath of allegiance, an oath he violated when Virginia removed itself from the union. Lee could have resigned from West Point and remained neutral, but he did not. He chose instead to commit himself to the destruction of his country and the glorification of his state. Now we have the myth of Lee as hero to a lost cause. Lee is not alone, many other southern officers attended West Point, swore an oath of loyalty to their country and then became traitors, among them are JEB Stuart, James Longstreet, “Stonewall” Jackson. We also include among these former United States officers, Jefferson Davis.

What happened? How did these traitors, these promoters of slavery, become heroes? The answer is, “Slowly but steadily.” There was the steady erosion of black civil rights epitomized in  “The Birth of a Nation,” and a KKK now mainstreamed and marching hooded and unembarrassed down the streets of mid-western cities. There is President Wilson who kept us out of war and allowed the country to slip into the grossest bigotry. Finally there is “Gone With the Wind” which reminded us yet again how noble was the cause of the gallant south fighting against terrible odds to preserve a life where people of color were considered property like horses or cattle.

Six hundred thousand lives were lost by both sides in the Civil War; that is two percent of the country’s population at that time. The equivalent loss given today’s population would be about six million dead. What would be the effect on this country today if a civil war cost us six million dead? Would we tolerate monuments constructed to the heroes of the losing side? ( Are there monuments to Adolph Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and many other prominent members of the losing side in WW 2? Perhaps Germany prefers not to be reminded of that chapter in their history.)

Finally, Buchanan tells us that, “All men are created equal,” is an  ideological statement. Buchanan wants evidence for its scientific proof. There is none of course because taken literally the statement is false on its face. “All men are created equal” was never meant to be taken literally; it means that thjey are equal under the law…even that was a lie at the time it was written.

(It might take me some time to get back in the grove but I’m working on it.)

Henry's Daily Detritus: 2017 June 11thNo detritusposted today; not there...

Henry's Daily Detritus: 2017 June  11th
No detritusposted today; not there...:



 2017 June  11 th No detritus posted today; not there isn’t any, but my 90 years require me to take a day off; perhaps tomorrow?



 Henry's Daily Detritus: 2017 Aug 9th Hello again! Is anyone still checking out this blog? I hadn't expected to be gone so long but as the Yogi said, "Predicting is tough, especially about the future."

I have spent the last two months on an inspection tour of hospital emergency rooms ( same hospital; different emergencies) and a local and well regarded rehab center.

I have now been home a few days (a much modified home) with various gadgetry allowing me to move about while reducing the odds that I will wind up on my kiester. This gadgetry has bee installed under the direction of my wife who in very thorough. Every rom is "bugged" lest I cry for help unheard. That's great except my sotto voce cursing is also revealed.

So what happened?  I began with a back problem affecting the control of my right leg a large and painful cyst whose surgical removal would not be wise at my age. I just got some pain medication instead.

The interaction between these meds in my system was about as lethal as any surgical procedure could have been. I began to hallucinate, epidermis began peeling off my fingers. The peeling has moved to the palms of my hands. Well, you get the idea. I still have much physical and occupational therapy with home health care to assist my beleagured wife. I'll try to get back to politics tomorrow but for now the "Daily" part of this blog's title is questionable,

2017 June  11^th

No detritus posted today; not there isn’t any, but my 90 years require me to take a day off; perhaps tomorrow?

2017 June 10^th

I was thinking about Lena Epstein, the subject of my June 1 blog, Ms. Epstein is the third generation owner of Vasco Automotive products in Detroit and will run as a Republican against Debbie Stabenow, in 2018. Ms. Epstein’s platform, so far as she has affirmed one, is to offer generous 10 percent tax cuts to all voters. Standing outside a polling place with envelopes stuffed with hundred dollar bills and offering one to each entering voter is illegal… but making this promise isn’t. Go figure.

The politics after the Civil War was unbelievably rotten. Those who worked to get politicians elected were assured of good jobs at generous pay whether or not they were competent. Sometime there were more job seekers than there were jobs. Sometimes that led to assassinations. That’s how Teddy Roosevelt became president when President McKinley was shot and the same thing pushed Vice President Chester Alan Arthur to the presidency when James Garfield was assassinated in 1881. (Except for how they attained the office there are very few similarities between Arthur and Roosevelt.)

The need for reform had been apparent for some time. Gorge H. Pendleton, a senator from Ohio, produced a bill that specified that certain federal employees could only be fired for incompetence. Initially this covered only about ten percent of federal employees but outgoing presidents could cover any of their appointees and soon most federal employees were covered. It didn’t help President Arthur however because he had destroyed the use of patronage by the movers and shakers in both parties with the result that he was a one term president.

There are now tests you have to pass to get a civil service job; these tests ae similar to the SAT and ACT tests used by some colleges to screen their applicants. So to work for the government in a secure job you must do well on a civil service test… but to get elected to an office that allows you to appoint someone who will be required to pass such a test requires nothing at all but getting the necessary votes …which can  be bought.

2017 June 9^th

More fallout from Comey’s testimony before that Senate committee: In fact it is more about Trump’s new hard-nosed lawyer Marc Kasowitz who claims that Comey lied about Trump’s request to have him go easy on investigating General Flynn. Kasowitz plans to “bring an action against Comey for this falsehood.” Good luck with that dodge, dad.

I assume there is no tape of this conversation. Surely if a tape does exist, Trump would have told Attorney Kasowitz about it and Kasowitz would stop with these bluffing noises. If there is no tape it comes down to whom to believe, doesn’t it. On the one side is that soul of probity, FBI Director, James Comey; on the other side we have the hardly ever truthful President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. If you were an attorney and you had to convince a jury that one of these men is a congenital liar, which would you rather attack? Kasowitz will earn every penny of his fee, particularly if he can keep the litigious Trump from forcing this mess to trial.

Today on “Meet the Press” we met Tennessee representative Marcia Blackburn who had been the Vice Chair of the Trump transition team. Ms. Blackburn simply oozed southern charm until James Comey’s name came up and then there was a shift; her southern charm had been challenged beyond its ability to respond civilly.

She began by claiming that Mr. Comey “had an interesting relationship with the truth.” Todd immediately jumped at that because Comey had testified under oath and Blackburn seemed to be accusing him of lying. “Oh no,” she said I said, “he has an interesting relationship with the truth.” She stuck with that talking point in addition to claiming that Comey had “What we in Tennessee call a good old fashioned come apart.” She then accused Comey of throwing various people “under the bus.” She tried mightily to get to issues about uranium scandals but, thankfully, Todd recognized her attempt to preach her own agenda and he cut her off.

It was most instructive if more than a little disheartening. How could this southern gentlewoman have allowed herself to be associated with a man who is on record bragging about being allowed to grab women’s privates and pay no penalty because he is rich.

The obvious answer in the case of Representative Blackburn is that she would have backed anyone wo might have secured a SCOTUS seat for a candidate likely to vote to outlaw abortion.

2017 June 8^th

Now the public portion of the Comey hearing is over. What do we know now that we didn’t know last night, given that Comey released most all of his testimony then? Nothing much about Comey, but quite a lot about Trump’s very private and very expensive attorney, Marc Kasowitz, senior partner in Kasowitz, Benton, Torres and Friedman.

Kasowitz tells us that Comey’s testimony cleared Trump because Comey admitted that Trump was not under investigation. Was that worth 1500 dollars an hour? I doubt it. Poor Donald, this is just the beginning. We have Trump’s clear admission on tape to his Russian buddies that he fired Comey to shut down the Russian investigation. Kasowitz claims Trump never said that, but there it is on film. Maybe Trump should get a refund.

It is surprising that Trump did not tweet during Comey’s testimony. Maybe the recognition that he could wreck the value of his expensive attorney if he tweeted any of his usual garbage held him in check. I’ll bet that changes tonight.

OK, this is a tad brief but it will have to do for today. Tomorrow’s will be more expansive.

2017 June 7^th

Tomorrow will be the most entertaining news day in many months. James Comey, former director of the FBI will testify under oath about Trump’s attempts to get him to drop the FBI’s Russia investigation. He also asked Comey to lay off investigating Michael Flynn, and he asked for Comey’s loyalty, presumably loyalty to him personally. He got none of what he asked for and shortly after being refused, he fired Comey.

There is a consensus that Trump will start a tweetstorm about the time Comey begins testifying. He will attempt to rebut what Comey says in real time. That might be a tad odd even for Trump; we’ll see.

Trump has already claimed that Comey’s preliminary testimony has vindicated him. Naturally, he doesn’t go into detail about why he believes that, but Comey told him that he was not personally being investigated. Of course Trump does not deny asking Comey to hold off his investigation of “god guy” Michael Flynn who we know was illegally taking money to represent Turkey even as their goons were beating up peaceful protesters outside their Washington embassy.

James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, was in the intelligence business during the Watergate mess. Clapper asserts that Watergate pales in comparison to the Trump Russia disaster. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if Clapper is right.

The Brits betting people are providing some interesting odds. Ladbrokes, one prominent betting parlour, will let you bet that our national embarrassment will either resign or be impeached before the end of his first term. You put up seven dollars and if Trump is either impeached, or if he resigns, you win four dollars. If neither happens, you lose the seven bucks you risked to start with.

We’ll see how those odds change after the 2018 election. Impeachment must originate in the house and if Trump keeps the house, we’ll probably be stuck with him until 2020. If he loses the house,  we can kiss him goodbye.

2017 June 6^th

Politics will be back tomorrow. Meanwhile, here is a piece from “A Double Dozen and Six.”

The Golf Tournament

I do not play golf anymore. I have played the game twice in my life and I was able to win trophies both times. It wasn’t much of a challenge, so I gave it up.

The college where I taught was close to a very nice country club. It was really a golf club. It had no swimming pool, a few rather run-down tennis courts, a passable restaurant and cheap drinks at the four to six afternoon happy hour. I had a social membership that entitled me to restaurant and bar privileges but not access to the golf course. I didn’t play golf, so I didn’t care.

Some faculty members decided to have a nine-hole faculty golf tournament at the end of the school year and everyone was invited to compete. We would begin at nine in the morning and the foursomes would tee off every few minutes until all had entered the course. Let me make it clear that I had no interest in this endeavor whatsoever. I would much prefer to have been trout fishing. Still, some of my friends cajoled me into joining a foursome. I think they saw it as an easy way to humble a wiseacre. (Ha!) A set of clubs was found for me, and I bought a set of three golf balls and a packet of tees. I was ready. I knew enough not to wear my usual blue jeans and denim shirt, so I arrived in khaki slacks, short sleeved sport shirt and a sweater draped over my shoulders with the sweater arms crossed over my chest in the approved overhand knot. First, dress the part, then play it!

My colleagues knew that I had never played golf before, so I and the other complete novices were in the last foursome. (The experts were not to be delayed on their run to the clubhouse.) I understood that we kept our own scores, and that noting the correct score on each hole was a matter of honor. I teed up on the first hole. I addressed the ball and smiled remembering that wonderful scene where Ralph Cramden is teaching Norton to play golf. Cramden Tells Norton he must first “address the ball” whereupon Norton steps up, doffs his hat and says, “Hello, ball!” No one can understand what I am chuckling about. No matter, I am considered a bit strange anyway.

Now time to perform. I take a mighty swing and miss the ball completely. Others are now chuckling. That’s OK, as far as I know it’s not “three strikes and you’re out.” I take a second mighty swing. Missed again. Maybe it’s the wrong club. A different club helps, but I hit the ball only about thirty feet. I guess there are no do-overs. That’s OK I am playing with the big boys. I discover a strange thing about scorekeeping. You count as strokes, swings where you miss the ball completely. How fair is that? I get a direct hit on the next swing and the ball arcs into the air but moves smartly off line to the left. Someone says, “Hooked it,” golf talk for “it was hit left of where it was intended to go.” I was to learn a lot of golf talk that day. Golfers have their own lexicon; sometimes it gets on their shoes.

I muddle along until the sixth hole when I hit another mighty shot. Hooked it again! You see, I can now speak the lingo. Unfortunately, the ball is in some waist-high grass. I find the ball and begin trampling down the grass so that I can get a decent swing at this sucker. What! I can’t do that. Why on earth not? I certainly can’t hit it where it is unless I tramp down these weeds. Hey, I can barely see the ball. Oh, so it is an unplayable lie. Well, who decides that, and then what do we do about it? I decide? OK, it’s an unplayable lie. I’ve decided, now what. I can move two club lengths away and drop the ball from my shoulder high, outstretched hand, at a cost of one stroke. Well friend that’s dandy, except I am twenty feet into this hayfield. Eventually, with an eight-stroke penalty, I complete the hole. (People do this for recreation?)

And now for the grand finale. I hole out at the ninth hole ready for a double martini when I discover I am not playing one of the balls I bought that morning. There is much discussion, which I ignore because I am sitting on the club’s porch sipping my very large martini. The agreed penalty strokes are assessed. 

At the last faculty meeting of the year, real trophies are awarded for best player and most improved player. Colleagues rise to receive applause and be recognized. Last comes the “Duffer’s Cap,” a green straw cap with duffer printed on the front in large letters. I wear it proudly for the rest of the meeting. My score was 104 for nine holes. There is some muttering that I did not take the “auld game” seriously. That is true, very true.

None-the-less, the following spring I am invited to play again. The winner of the Duffer’s Cap must award the cap to the new winner. I would still rather be trout fishing, but in the spirit of camaraderie, I agree to participate. This event goes better. I learned last year that mighty swings do not pay off. I stay within two club lengths of any really deep rough, and I inspect my ball after each hole to be sure it is mine. I have marked a little obscenity on it with my ballpoint pen. It is a Chinese character so no one finding it will be insulted. My score for the nine holes is a blazing 89.

At the faculty meeting, I discover that I am to receive the most improved player trophy. Did I hear some jealous hisses as I rose to receive my award? I put the trophy in a prominent place in my office all the next year.  Lastly, I am also to crown myself with the Duffer’s Cap, which I have won yet again. Indeed the Duffer’s Cap has now been officially retired in my possession. I have never played golf again. None of my colleagues have ever encouraged me to join them.

2017 June 5^th

Mona Charen has an interesting, if misleading, column in today’s paper. She claims that there is a huge spike in the suicide rates for young women.  Indeed there is, particularly among those from age 10 to 14 where rates have tripled from 1994 to 2014. They have moved up from .5 percent to 1.5 percent.

To bolster her argument Ms. Charen cited the University of Central Florida where she claims, “…the requests for mental health treatment have risen 12 percent annually for the past decade.”

Ms. Charen gets to her analysis of the cause: It is the increase in teens living in single parent homes. She writes, “Teens who live with a single parent have twice the rate of suicide attempts as teens who live with both parents.” Interestingly she cites the Journal of Transactional Psychiatry that claims the rate of depression is 36 percent for girls but only 13.6 percent for boys.

The first of several bits of curious data that apparently do not puzzle Ms. Charen at all: Surely male children and female children are equally likely to come from single parent homes. If that is the case then why are females nearly three times as likely to suffer from such wicked bouts of depression? Ms. Charen just sticks with her single parent cause for all parties and doesn’t explore the difference in gender susceptibility.

While the depression/suicide rates for very young women from 10 to 14 have tripled over 20 years these are still very small samples, from .5 percent to 1.5 percent; when sub-samples get that small they are very unreliable. It is unlikely that the tripling is accurate but that doesn’t mean there is not an important increase. Over this same time period, 20 years, there are increases for most female age groups; the 25 to 44 age group shows an increase from 5.5 to 7.2 per thousand. Is Charen prepared to blame that increase on single parenting these women might have endured 30 years ago?

We’ll look at some other data Charen presents: The University of Central Florida, you may remember, where the requests for mental health treatment rose “12 percent annually for the past decade.” That sounds serious until we find out that the enrollment at this school went from 33,453 in 2000 to 60,810 in 2014. It is fascinating that Charen doesn’t mention the enrollment increase. Why do you suppose she doesn’t? She has an agenda and it is to support the notion that depression in young women is due to the increase in single-parent households.

The percentage of annulments and divorces have actually dropped between 2001 and 2014. In 2000 there were 8.26 divorces/1000 marriages while in 2014 this had dropped to 6.86 divorces/ 1000 marriages.

Keep in mind that many kids live with mothers who never married to begin with so divorce statistics are only part of the story. Even so, it is clear that Charen is pushing an enormously oversimplified solution to this problem to fit he preconceived agenda.

2017 June 4^th

It is a beautiful Sunday in June and I don’t want to write about our national embarrassment. Here is a piece from “A double Dozen and Six” that I published some time ago; it’s all true.

The Cottage

We once bought a beautiful summer cottage on a storied Michigan trout stream. (Virtually all Michigan trout streams are storied.) The purchase included a two-car garage, a large pole barn and its contents, a woodshed, and a bomb shelter. That’s right--- it had a bomb shelter. The previous owner had also owned a construction company and he was apparently made nervous during the cold war, so he added a below ground bomb shelter with concrete walls and layers of railroad ties imbedded in concrete for the roof. Of course, the realtor did not call it a bomb shelter; he called it a root cellar, but there weren’t any roots.

It also came with a green lawn tractor, which had an attached trailer containing a motorized vacuum, and a bin into which the leaves and grass clippings were blown. We had a beautiful expansive lawn with many mature maples and oaks. When we saw the place there was not a leaf on this lawn, they were all on the trees. That would change.

It was such a lovely spot that we decided to make it our year-round home. It wouldn’t need all that much to convert it into a year-round residence; just some insulation in the attic, a furnace, a larger water heater, and a new well. Insulation was totally absent; a huge fireplace supplied heat with an attached blower to send the warm air into other parts of the cottage; there was just a five gallon electric water heater under the sink, so showers had to be very fast and carefully spaced.

We found a handyman who worked with his wife. They showed up in identical t-shirts and set to work laying bats of insulation in the small attic crawl space. As they were taking a break and sitting together with their coffee, the husband told me that his wife wasn’t all that bright but that she was a very hard worker. The wife smiled agreeably at the nice compliment.

 A down-draft furnace was installed where a large closet had been and a substantial water heater found space in the same closet. Three cords of oak firewood were ordered. We discovered that the price did not include stacking; it was just dumped in the yard. Of course it would all have to be split, so a splitting maul was obtained. We were ready for winter. No, we weren’t ready; we just thought we were.

Three weeks after we moved in the beautiful lawn needed attention, so out came the tractor; it was lawn-mowing time. The tractor was not in the mood to cooperate. It would not start, even with the choke carefully set. Perhaps it was flooded; best to wait a bit and then try again. At last it started. Then the motor powering the vacuum on the trailer had to be started. This motor had a hand-pull starter. I pulled, and pulled, and pulled some more. At least there was no possibility of running down the battery, although there was the distinct possibility of a heart attack. I adjusted the choke, caught my breath and tried again. Finally, both motors were running and I started to move around our lawn. The clippings eventually filled the box and I detoured to the woods to empty them. Emptying the box required that I climb inside the box which tilted on its axle and assist things with a pitchfork.

Later in the fall the leaves began to fall. They soon covered the ground to a depth of five inches and it was clear, from the number still on the trees, that many, many, more were yet to drop. It was time to fire up the tractor again. In summer the lawn had to be mowed every two weeks; in late fall the leaves had to be vacuumed twice a week. Soon the trees were bare and winter with its snow was close at hand, but the tractor could not be put away. The leaf vacuum was disconnected from the rear of the tractor and the snow blower was attached to the front. The cabin driveway was two hundred yards down a two-track from the paved road. You plowed your own driveway and the two-track if you cared to access the main road and retrieve your mail, or drive to the grocery store.

We had a neighbor. He was a portly retired factory worker who lived alone about three hundred yards down river from us. He stopped by regularly to say hello and always brought us a little gift. Once it was a pound of butter, another time it was a dozen eggs. He told us that he bought this stuff by the case when it was on sale at a local supermarket and then took it with him when he visited his friends. We always invited him in for coffee and some of my wife’s homemade cookies. He was lonely, so these visits lasted between one and three hours. He had many interesting tales to tell us about other folks who lived along the river, stories about who was unknowingly related to whom.

Winter was finally upon us. The fireplace had a huge one-piece glass door, which, when sealed and when the lower ash door was opened, produced a roaring fire in no time. Of course the glass had to be cleaned daily because of the greasy soot that collected on it. We started the new furnace when we first got up in the morning and it immediately produced floods of hot air at floor level. Naturally, it had a powerful and very noisy fan. This is why most civilized homes have the furnace in the basement and not in a living room closet. Once the fireplace roared to life, we turned on the fan that circulated hot air from the fireplace to the rest of the house. No conversations occurred while both of those fans were on. Certain hand signals are universal.

We had discovered that the walls were not insulated and that the floor was drafty enough so that sheepskin slippers and footstools were a must. We had also moved the bed headboard well back from the exterior wall. It helped to wear a nightcap, although the cold air still rolled down the wall, slipped under the covers and chilled the shoulders. My wife refused to resort to a mummy style sleeping bag. I just wore a sweater and a scarf. We got used to it.

Eventually the isolation outweighed the beauty of the place. It was forty miles to shopping for other than necessities and a ten-mile round trip to the post office for the mail. We will miss sitting on our screened riverside porch and listening to the approaching metallic ring of the aluminum canoes as they come down stream bouncing from bank to bank. The current was swift enough so that they were out of earshot within three minutes, so they were not a nuisance. We lived in that cabin for five years and then sold it to a family who planned to use it only as a summer place. They have several sturdy sons who will have fun with the tractor, the leaf blower, and the splitting maul. We wish them well; we’ve had our fun.

2017 June 3^rd

Trump has been knocked about a bit, even accused of getting election help from the Russians. Megyn Kelly, recently escaped from Fox News, begins her new CNN show Sunday and her first interview is with Vladimir Putin. Anything this grand must put out some teaser advertising, some snippets from the main interview. So Megyn Kelly asked Putin, through a translator of course, what he thought of the accusations of Russian hacking into private communication channels in our election.

‘Not us,” Vladimir said, “we did nothing of the sort.” Then he went onto suggest that it might have been “patriotic Russian private citizens.” He claimed that it was impossible to know who had done the hacking, if hacking was done.

What in the world did Megyn Kelly expect him to say? Of course there were no follow up questions. So far this interview is much ado about very little; perhaps there will be more in the full interview but I’m not counting on it.

Somewhat closer to home we had some comments from Nigel Farage. Farage is not the household word here that Putin is but he is famous to the Brits; he is the leader of Britain’s alt-right (Fascist) political movement and was a strong supporter of Trump’s candidacy. It seems that he might be asked to testify at one of the inquiries. He was asked if he would do that; he said that he would but he said a great deal about the American electorate first. He believes that Americans are unwilling to admit that Trump won the election and that all of these Russian investigations are in response to that loss. As a Trump supporter, it makes sense for him to say that. Other Trump supporters have said the same thing.

To the extent that Putin wants to fracture the American electorate, he has been enormously successful. Vice President Pence is speaking in Iowa at a “Roast” for Senator Joni Ernst. Ernst is the junior senator from Iowa where Charles Grassley is the senior senator.

Pence is getting enthusiastic applause from the Iowa republicans in attendance, particularly when he talks about the president withdrawing the country from the Climate Change agreement. Echoing Trump, Pence claims that this agreement is very unfair to the United States. He doesn’t go into any detail about why this agreement with no mechanism for enforcement is unfair. Perhaps Trump/Pence believes it is because it was negotiated under the Obama administration. We all know that the Trump catechism is that nothing worthwhile could have come from the Obama administration.

When Trump told the country about his withdrawal from the Paris Accords he specifically mentioned that it would benefit Youngstown Ohio and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Not so fast Trump. The mayors of both cities said they their cities were very much in favor of the agreement and that their cities would continue to abide by it regardless of what Trump did nationally.

Pittsburgh is an example of what can be done when a community decides to clean up its environment. When I lived there in the 1950s, you could not sit on a park bench without putting a newspaper on the seat first, the coal soot was that bad. That has all changed thanks to clean air regulations. No one in Pittsburgh wants to go back to the 1950s.

2017 June 2^nd

Our president is a fountain of misinformation about the Paris Accords from which he has withdrawn our country. Anyone with a computer and access to the internet can discover that this is a volunteer group whose members set the Carbon Dioxide emissions standards they hope to achieve. If they don’t achieve their goal there is no penalty. It is nonsense to claim that that “standards are very unfair to the United States.” We set our own standards and absolutely nothing will happen if we don’t meet them. This agreement was set up by the Obama administration; it follows that Trump must trash it and withdraw from it even if withdrawing makes no sense.

Trump asserts that European leaders will stop laughing at the United States. He believes they did that during his trip. These leaders were not snickering at the United States, they were snickering at Donald Trump and that will certainly continue. Trump is a splendid comic figure even if he doesn’t realize it.

Trump claims that he will negotiate a better deal on climate with members of the Climate Accord.  Trump does not know that there is no mechanism in the accord agreement for doing that. In fact, Martin Schultz, Angela Merkel’s opponent in the coming German elections and one who bitterly resents Trump’s treatment of Merkel, has said that changing the accord agreement is a lot harder than shoving a NATO statesman out of the way as you move to the front row for a photo op.

Some of the holdover Obama people have claimed that the Trump transition folks wanted them to put in motion a mechanism for the removal of the economic sanctions against Russia. It quickly became apparent that this would be unacceptable even to Republican lawmakers who let it be known that if such a move were pending the congress would make those sanctions a matter of law.

What in the world was that about? Why would the Trump administration want, as its very first move, to eliminate the economic sanctions against Russia? Recall that the Trump people also wanted, and got, the elimination of the Republican Party platform plank regarding the provision of defensive arms for the Ukraine.

We also have Trump hosting a meeting with Ambassador Kislyak and Foreign Minister Lavrov in the Oval office where Trump instantly declassified some intelligence about the bomb potential of laptop computers on commercial aircraft. Why did Trump arrange this curious meeting? It was because Putin asked him to.

Lastly we find that Trump wants to restore to Russia the use of a large compound in New York and one in Maryland that President Obama closed in response to Russia’s meddling in our elections. Both of these residences were known to house intelligence agents. Now Trump wants them restored to Russian control.

Trump declares at length that there is nothing to investigate about his connections with the Russians…absolutely not! Who believes him?

2017 June 1^st

Lena Epstein is going to run for the Unites States Senate against incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow. Ms. Epstein is a co-owner of Vesco Oil Corp. Vesco doesn’t find oil, it just distributes lubricants and other automotive products. The local daily paper has informed us of Ms. Epstein’s intentions and of her platform of tax cuts. She has impeccable credentials for a Republican. Detroit Country Day School, Harvard College, Magna Cum Laude, U. of M. MBA, and, most importantly, co-chair of the Trump campaign in Michigan. She remains a very strong supporter of Trump and of his policies.

Mr. Trump did not exactly dominate Hillary Clinton in Michigan in the 2016 election. He did win but by a margin of just 10,704 votes of of 4.8 million votes cast. How does Trump fare with Michigan voters today, six months later?  Now that Michigan voters have had a close look at his governing style he isn’t all that popular. As of May 20-24, 61 percent of Michigan voters disapprove of him and only 39 percent approve. Ms. Epstein plans to run as a Trump clone. Her support for Trump probably means Senator Debbie Stabenow is in no danger.

Ms. Epstein core platform consists of tax cuts. I mean really serious tax cuts, ten percent across the board: although the very top bracket will drop from 39.5 percent to 35 percent. Even without my calculator and with no MBA, that sounds like more than a ten percent drop for those at the top end, and that includes her family of course; are we surprised? Hey, the woman is running as a Republican.

It is standard procedure for politicians to buy votes and that is just what Epstein proposes to do. She is running on a tax cut platform. It might work but someone should ask her to list the services she will eliminate to pay for these enormous cuts. Maybe we’ll get the standard answer that 3+ percent growth will spur the economy and that will pay for it, or she’ll stamp out “waste fraud and abuse,” that’s always a good phrase to use. It is more likely that environmental protections will be cut, programs for the elderly, Medicaid and similar social programs will go unfunded. We’ve already seen a 97percent cut in funds to protect the Great Lakes so soon we’ll have Asian carp spawning in the Great Lakes tributaries. Lake Michigan is the warmest on record and that will continue providing a welcoming environment for Asian carp. If Epstein becomes Senator, does anyone suppose she will worry about that?

Now we have President Trump withdrawing from the Climate Accord, a voluntary, non-binding agreement accepted by most nations with the notable exception of Syria and Nicaragua. What splendid company Trump wants us to keep. The man is obsessed with negating everything President Obama achieved. He can’t of course. When Obama first appeared in Europe after his election it was to wild and enthusiastic cheers. Trump is snickered at by Europe’s leaders and ignored by their ordinary citizens, and there is nothing he can do about it except pout.

2017 May 31^st

Every day we learn a new thing about our new President. Today we discovered that no one is scanning his tweets, not to determine if they are accurate, but even to determine if he is spouting gibberish. Minutes after midnight, (Does that sound like the intro to a mystery story?) Trump tweets, “Despite the negative press covfefe.” That phrase with its non-word, covfefe, stayed up for six hours. Perhaps he posted it before he went to bed and then after waking, decided to remove it. Who knows with the Donald?

Everyone to some degree alters their perception of the world to please themselves. In Trump’s case the alterations become obviously false to fact and borderline pathological.

His inaugural crowds were not larger than President Obama’s; his electoral college majority was not the greatest ever but was in fact rather modest. His loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton was not due to aliens illegally voting for her. There are many other examples.

These are all attempts to salve an ego; they are personal and his exaggeration and misunderstanding of them do not put the country at risk. That is not the case in other situations: It seems likely that we will join Syria and Nicaragua in rejecting the Paris Climate Accords. Trump does not believe that greenhouse gases have anything to do with climate change. Many of his cabinet appointees agree with him. Secretary of Agriculture Perdue strongly rejects man made climate change. EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt sued the EPA he now heads over its regulation before he became its chief. Do you believe he will actively enforce those regulations now? Former Texas governor Perry is Secretary of Energy. Remember the debate in which Perry said as president there were three cabinet positions he would abolish and then the poor man could only remember two of the three, well, the Department of Energy that he now heads was the third.

More recently, Trump has declared his overseas trip a great success. Many of his White House employees have said so too. He said nothing when he was in Saudi Arabia about their support for Wahhabism; in fact, he was specific about claiming that he hadn’t come to lecture anyone. He can’t have it both ways; Wahhabism is responsible for much of the terrorism we face and Trump was so enamored by his red carpet welcome and the sword dancers that he chose to ignore the Saudi’s support for the very evil he rails against.

Then in Europe, he shoves the Premier of Montenegro out of his way without a word of apology. He personified the ugly American as he was on his way to a front row photo-op. The only adjustment he made was to his suit jacket. It was important to him that it hang just right.

Not a word did he utter about the agreement that an attack on one of the NATO nations is an attack on all. His comments were in fact themselves an attack on NATO nations because he believes “they aren’t paying their share.” We didn’t seem to care about that when they sent troops to support us when we went into Afghanistan after 9/11. My, how our national priorities have changed. But to hear Trump tell it his overseas trip was a great success. The awful part is that he believes it.

2017 May 30^th

We have some of our high-level intelligence types commenting on Jared Kushner’s ham-handed attempt to establish a back channel to Putin through Russian diplomatic communication        routes. This was attempted, apparently not successfully, in December after the election.

Nothing about this presidency should surprise anyone who has followed Trump’s road to the office. There were Trump’s verbal assaults on the press, the press that he penned up during his rallies while he encouraged his followers to physically assault them as they left the buildings. Then on his trip to Europe he hand wrestled with the new Premier of France. I think that was a draw with Macron ahead on points. Who is surprised that favorite advisor Jared Kushner consults Russian Ambassador Kislyak about a private channel of communication to the Kremlin?

Some of the high-level intelligence people were surprised and some were not. Who falls into which category is interesting: General H.R. McMaster is Trump’s national security advisor and he has made curious defenses of Trump and of his policies. When Trump gave the Russians intelligence we got from Israel on the use of laptop computers to smuggle bombs aboard airplanes. McMasters said that was nothing untoward and no big deal. Now he says that Jared Kushner’s back channel efforts are no big deal either, back channel communications happen all the time. They do indeed, but between low-level staffers trying to prearrange agendas before the big boys get together. This back channel is completely different. General McMaster has a sterling reputation of standing up to power. What happened?

General John Kelly who says the Kushner back channel efforts “are no big issue” joins McMaster’s evaluation of Kushner’s efforts. General Kelly is Secretary of Homeland Security. It seems that some senior White House officials want to diminish the importance of Kushner’s back channel attempt as much as they can even if their own reputations are wrecked in the process. Why are these previously honorable people willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the reputations of people who don’t deserve their efforts.

Former CIA chief John Brennan points out that Kushner is under investigation by the CIA for his Russian contacts. Do Kelly or McMaster believe the CIA is interested in an investigation of Kushner because his attempts to connect with Russian senior officials and a Russian bank are all very innocent; not likely.

General Michael Hayden whose intelligence credentials  are substantial: United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. So what does General Hayden say about this? He does not pass it off as of no consequence: "This was probably as off-putting to Kislyak as it is for you and me. This is off the map. I know of no other experience like this in our history, and certainly not within my life experience."

"What manner of ignorance, hubris, suspicion, and contempt [for the previous administration] would you have to have to think doing this with the Russian ambassador would be a good or appropriate idea?" Hayden added.

Kushner, who did not disclose the meeting on his security clearance form, is now under investigation. 

I’ll bet Donald Trump is too.