Monthly Archives: June 2020

GREAT AGAIN?

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October 2, 2018 Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. He never walked out. Indeed, over time it became clear that he had been brutally slaughtered, and his body dismembered with saws by Saudi government agents. The President of the United States defended not the American resident journalist Khashoggi, but the Saudis, emphasizing the monetary value of the U.S./Saudi relationship. He continued to provide advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia. Republican support and popularity with his base did not suffer at all.

The Turks, however took note. Turkey was already very aware of the power of money within the Trump Administration. The former National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn had been on Turkey’s payroll as a “consultant”. Flynn had failed to disclose his status as a foreign agent for Turkey, or his role in the conspiracy to kidnap Turkish cleric Fathullah Gulen from the United States and secret him off to Turkey, likely for a fate not dissimilar to that of Khashoggi. Seeing Trump’s continued approval of the Saudis and Flynn, Turkey’s ruler, Recep Erdogan decided to push for an end to American protection in Syria of the Kurds, whom Turkey wanted displaced and weakened. To the astonishment of many, President Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops, leaving the Kurds, who had fought side by side with Americans against the Islamic State abandoned and fleeing for their very lives from Turks and Russians. Trump’s support never wavered.

Even as an investigation of President Trump’s relationships with Russia, led by Robert Mueller yielded potentially damaging details, and his documented and witnessed blackmail of Ukraine for investigations of enemies in exchange for desperately needed weapons led to his impeachment in the House of Representatives, the Republican led Senate held him free and harmless, weakening Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression and cowering Trump’s domestic rivals as Bill Barr, more a Trump consigliere than an Attorney General, began helping Trump allies and investigating investigators.

Emboldened, President Trump’s exertion of his power and disdain for the rule of law escalated, along with his overt racism. So did his open embrace of Vladimir Putin. He railed against N.A.T.O. allies, announced withdrawal of American troops from Germany, and insisted that Russia be readmitted to the G8 (now G7) despite its annexation of Crimea, invasion of Ukraine, and poisoning of Russian exiles in England. North Korea’s Kim Jung Un became disgusted that even as Trump publicly courted his friendship as well, he was unable to extract such tangible benefits as the Saudis, Turks, and Russians.

Perhaps the most interested observer of all was President Xi Jinping of China. Economically and militarily, China continues to emerge as the primary rival of the United States for world supremacy. Accordingly, Mr. Trump regularly ignites his base with anti Chinese rhetoric. Their personal interactions though are quite different from the rhetoric. Trump even asked Xi Jinping for help in Trump’s reelection effort in the form of investigations of his rival Joe Biden, and a successfully concluded trade deal to bolster the U.S. economy. Astutely, Xi Jinping mentioned the prison camps in construction in China to house the Uyghurs and other minorities. Mr. Trump expressed comfort with it all. Seizing on this compromise of the moral high ground, China began publicly denouncing U.S. hypocrisy on human rights, and oppressive measures in Hong Kong.

The most grievous action however involves Mr. Putin. It is now revealed that he offered and paid bounties to Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American troops. President Trump, despite this being in his President’s Daily Briefings claims to have been unaware of it while in frequent friendly phone calls with Mr. Putin, inviting him to Washington, D.C., and campaigning for Russian reentry to G8.

A cadre of former Trump Administration officials, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, former Secretary of State Rex Tillis, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton have denounced President Trump’s discourse with foreign leaders as injurious to the national security of the United States, but his Republican and base support remain strong. Legions of Americans are dying due to his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, and his advocacy of mass gatherings with resistance to face coverings even as te sicknesses become more pervasive. Still wherever he goes there is a welcoming sea of adoring fans in red baseball caps bearing his trademark phrase, “Make America Great Again”.

Assault On American Values

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Below is a list of offenses by the President of the United States in full view of the world that are shocking given his broad support in a country called leader of the free world and a nation of laws. Sadly it isn’t even a complete list.
1. Kids detained in cages.
2. Daily barrage of lies.
3. Misapplication of funds designated for defense but used for his border wall.
4. Constant trips to his golf resorts at taxpayer expense with inflated rates charged to Secret Service.
5. Defiance of oversight and constitutional separation of powers.
6. Courtship of despots and denigration of allies of the USA.
7. Use of the Attorney General to reward friends and punish rivals.
8. Shameful abandonment of Kurdish allies on the battlefield.
9. Siding with Russia over USA Intelligence Agencies.
10. Massive loss of life due to mismanagement of coronavirus pandemic.
11. Public advocacy of violence against political opponents and the press.
12. Mocking women when they allege sexual misconduct.
13. Politicizing face covers during pandemic, costing lives to be lost.
14. Constant attempts to deprive citizens of health insurance.
15. Advocacy of voter suppression.
16. Racist statements, practices, and policies.
17. Entreating and extorting foreign political and electoral help.
18. Defiance of legal subpoenas and ongoing obstruction of justice.
19. Denying government employment on the basis of demanding personal loyalty.
20. Brutalizing peaceful protesters to enable a photo op holding a bible upside down.
Shame on all of us.

Confederate Statues?

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I can’t recall why I asked the question. We were standing around near the stereo in my Nashville condo, having drinks before dinner, listening to the Doobie Brothers. Trisha and Diane worked with me at Ford Credit. On this evening, I was meeting their husbands for the first time. The condo sat in Printers Alley opposite the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, a popular tourist destination.
Nashville holds a special place in my heart. As African Americans my wife, son, and I encountered less racism there than in New York or Michigan. Our guests that evening were all Caucasian, unimportant to us, but salient to this story.
“Trisha,” I inquired “what do you know about the Civil War?” She replied “I know we won.”
For a couple of seconds, her husband, a Tennessee native, stiffened, then joined the rest of us in laughter at Trisha’s innocent insensitivity. Diane and her husband, like Trisha’s husband are native Tennesseans. Trisha, my wife, and I are “Yankees”.
“It’s not that simple,” I amusedly advised Trisha. The current controversy over confederate statues is one example of its lack of simplicity. Many people are understandably fed up with these symbols of slavery and white supremacy towering over us in public squares. While I concur, having lived and socialized in Hagerstown, Maryland Jacksonville, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee I’ve come to appreciate that every guy with a rebel flag on his cap or belt buckle doesn’t wish me enslaved nor intimidated. Nor did I seek to insult them wearing my N.Y. Yankees cap or my X cap in remembrance of Malcolm. I don’t suggest that I have all the answers, but I do have an opinion. Here it goes.
There should be museums in the South acknowledging the memory of those who fought and sometimes died for a cause that they believed in. If your forebears fell at Antietam, they’re no less loved by you than mine who fell there as well. Calling confederates traitors is wrong, as wrong as having their statues symbolically lording over citizens in public plazas.