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Vol. 11 No. 41 -- My Christmas Wish December 24, 2017
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It
is 6:00 on a quietly, snowy Christmas Eve morning. The family is still
asleep. The morning newspaper is yet to arrive. It is an excellent time
for reflection. As 2017 nears its close, it is easy to look back and
say what a lousy year it has been. Based on a quick scan of morning
newspapers, it is easy to understand how one can reach that conclusion.
But on this peaceful, silent morning, I'd rather look at life within my
immediate sphere of influence. When I look at the people and things
that directly affect my life, I have few complaints. My family is in
good health. I have a granddaughter due to arrive in March. I still
have the friends I started the year with and have added a few more.
While teaching several hundred students during the course of the year
has been difficult, I remain as much up to that challenge today as I
did when I first arrived at the University of Kansas in August 1991.
While the fates and fortunes of my favorite sports teams do not seem as
important to me at age 65 as they did when I was 15, I took tremendous
satisfaction in seeing Maryland Men's Lacrosse win its first national
championship since 1975. The fact that the Terps had gone to 12 Final
Fours since their last title only to leave empty-handed made this
year's success that much sweeter. (If you can't understand why anyone
could be excited by lacrosse, let's just say its a Maryland thing and
leave it at that.) Sure, things could be better for me as 2017 fades
away. But they could be worse. And while I can't change the past, the
trajectory of my future remains largely within my own hands. I will
continue to strive to be a better person. That requires a commitment to
my values and a willingness to acknowledge and correct my path when I
go astray. Through this blog, other social media and interpersonal
communication, I will continue to engage in the national conversation.
I'd much rather support our president when he's right, but will
continue to resist him when he's wrong. There's one Christmas wish I
have that seems unattainable, yet still worthy of seeking. I'd like to
see our service men and women return safely to their homes so that they
can resume their life's. I'd like to see the world's leaders -
especially the American ones - move away from a constant state of
conflict into a era of accommodation and cooperation. It's a Christmas
wish as old as Christmas, itself - perhaps older. To some it may sound
trite. But it is sincere. My wish - and the wish of many - its that in
2018 we finally achieve peace on Earth and goodwill to all.
That's it for now. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 40 -- Alabama's Choice December 10, 2017
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Voters
in Alabama will send a message to the rest of the world on Tuesday. The
outcome of the special election to fill the vacancy left by U.S.
Senator Jeff Session's selection as U.S. Attorney General will tell us
whether Alabamans are looking ahead into a 21st century of infinite
possibilities or are trapped in a discredited "Wish I was in the Land
of Cotton" 18th century mindset. The fact that former state Supreme
Court Justice Roy Moore is in a tight race for the senate seat is
disturbing on many levels. If nothing else, the fact that he has been
twice removed from the bench for failing to follow the Constitution
should disqualify from holding any elective office. Add to that the
numerous believable allegations that he has taken indecent liberties
with underage girls, one would think that the good, Bible-reading and
God-fearing people of Alabama would want to have nothing to do with
him. To the contrary, Moore may very well be elected in Tuesday's
balloting. His victory would, in no small measure, be credited to the
last-minute intervention by an even better-known sexual predator,
President Donald J. Trump. Our Perv-in-Chief has convinced the National
Republican Committee to resume financial support of Moore's candidacy,
even though it had earlier withdrawn it after reports of Moore's close
encounters with the third grade surfaced. Trump and the Republicans
have put party ahead of country. Just last night, Trump said our
nation's institutions - especially the courts and the FBI - are corrupt
and rigged. That's a remarkable -- and incredibly reckless -- statement
to be made by a President of the United States. Trump's unsubstantiated
broadside against American democracy undermines this nation's ability
to lead a deeply troubled world from the brink of disaster. The Madman
in the (Trump) Tower has given aid and comfort to our enemies. (That
should come as no surprise considering his admiration of Czar Vladimir
the First.) And in the light of sexual misconduct committed by people
in both parties, this is not the time to be giving a full-throated
defense of a sleaseball like Moore. But, of course, Trump is. To the
people of Alabama, the choice should be a simple one. If you consider
yourself a moral and religious person, there is no way you can justify
a vote for Roy Moore. Even if you've voted Republican all of your lie,
there should be a moral boundary that you should refuse to cross. If
you consider yourself a patriot, then you should provide no quarter to
a man who has trashed the Constitution and the Bible in favor of him
own home-spun version of Mein Kampf.
While I can understand the trepidation that comes with the dramatic
demographic and psychgraphic changes occurring in our county, I will
never understand Sunshine Patriots like Roy Moore and Donald Trump who
are willing to trample on the most basic of American values to get what
they want. They must be stopped. The people of Alabama have a chance to
do just that.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 39 -- Robin Hood In Reverse December 2, 2017
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The
United States Senate, acting under the cloak of darkness, early this
morning narrowly passed a so-called tax reform bill that, in the long
run, gives to the rich and takes away from the poor. Of course, the 51
republican senators who narrowly passed this 500-page bill only hours
after they were presented with its text, claim this is a victory for
the middle class. "Republicans have pitched the bill as a middle-class
tax cut and the overhaul is intended to immediately cut taxes for about
70 percent of middle-class families," reported the New York Times.
"But it would raise them on millions of others, since the Senate plan
eliminates some tax breaks like the deduction for state and local
income taxes and phases out the individual tax cuts at the end of
2025." If you are or are planning to be a graduate student, this
legislation will now add the value of tuition credits to the tax bill,
effectively removing grad school as a option for thousands of American.
How does that strengthen America's future? The Times
also reported that in a last-minute concession to Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-Texas), the tax bill "allows people to use up to $10,000 a year from
tax-advantaged 529 savings accounts to fund tuition at private and
religious K-12 schools or certain educational expenses for
home-schooled students." Based on previous rulings involving church-run
schools, I think there's a real good chance that provision is
unconstitutional. The Republican leadership says these tax cuts heavily
weighted to the wealthy are "revenue neutral" because of the revenue it
will raise resulting from a booming economy. Not everyone feels this
way. The nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation found
that the tax cuts will add $1 trillion to budget deficits over the next
10 years. The House version of the tax reform bill will have a similar
effect. The truth is, are we really certain how this so-called tax
reform will affect the American people? Most of our elected
representatives hadn't even read the bill prior to voting on it. It was
rushed through in a effort to give this deadbeat Republican Congress
and the scandal-ridden Trump White House a much-needed victory at the
end of a spectacularly unproductive year. The greatest irony of this
bill is that it will, in the long run, have its most-negative impact on
the very people who voted for Donald Trump, the lower to middle class.
Those folks are going to feel the squeeze while the wealthy, like Trump
and his children, will reap untold and unearned benefits. For
politicians, promising tax cuts is like dangling candy in front of a
baby. However, as I wrote in this space on May 1, 2012:
"I am not an economist - nor do I play one on TV. I did not
attend the famous Wharton School. Instead, I am a graduate of the
School of Hard Knocks with a masters degree from the Wantin'
School. And the driving economic philosophy instilled into
graduates of the Wantin' School is that if you are wantin' something,
you have to pay for it." More than five years later, I have not changed
my mind. At a time when our schools, roads, bridges, health care system
and military are so badly in need of repair, this is not a time for
"feel good" tax breaks designed to prop-up Donald Trump's falling poll
numbers. The Senate bill now joins the House version in a
reconciliation effort that will do little to assuage the damage of this
so-called tax reform. May our grandchildren forgive us for what we have
done.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 38 -- Thanksgiving Traditions November 18, 2017
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Americans
will celebrate Thanksgiving in the coming week. It is a time to
contemplate the many blessings that we, as individuals and as a nation,
enjoy. It is based on the concept of the autumn feast, when family and
friends gather to partake of the bounty of the harvest. In 1621, the
Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians participated in what is
acknowledged to be one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations
in the American colonies. The idea behind Thanksgiving is simple and
elegant - giving thanks and counting our blessings for the bounty
before us. However, the meaning of Thanksgiving has evolved through the
years. One of the first things to come to mind is football. The Detroit
Lions of the National Football League have scheduled a home game on
Thanksgiving since 1934. According the the NFL Hall of Fame website,
"Even though he knew there was some risk in scheduling a game on
Thanksgiving Day, (Lions team owner George A.) Richards also recognized
that his Lions were taking a back seat to the baseball Tigers on the
sports pages. So as one way of attracting Motor City fans during the
team's first season, he opted for the Thanksgiving Day contest." It
proved successful, and at least one NFL game has been played on every
Thanksgiving since 1944. Another holiday tradition is the Thanksgiving
Day parade - a way for local merchants to usher in the Christmas
shopping season. The most famous of these parades is the one in New
York City organized by the Macy's department store. According to a New
York City tourism website,
"The first-ever Macy's Day Parade actually took place on Christmas of
1924. Macy's employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and other fun
costumes, and traveled with Central Park zoo animals and creative
floats a lengthy six miles from Herald Square to Harlem in Manhattan.
The parade is best known for it's giant balloons - often of comic book
fame. The Felix the Cat balloon made it first appearance in 1927. My
favorite is the Underdog
balloon, featuring a cartoon character from a series that ran from 1964
to 1973 on NBC-TV. The sad thing is that no one under the age of 40
has a clue who Underdog was. Then there is the Thanksgiving tradition
of the President of the United States pardoning a turkey
and sending it to a mythical children's petting zoo. Considering the
current state of affairs, this year's event may feature the turkey
pardoning the President. I'm cool with that - just as long as the
President is sent to a petting zoo. Actually, my favorite presidential
Thanksgiving moment is one that never really happened: When President
Josiah Bartlett called the Butterball Turkey Hotline in the
long-running NBC-TV series West Wing.
Another Thanksgiving tradition is the annual cease fire. I am not
talking about temporarily suspending military operations on
battlefields. I am talking about the family dinner table, where
subjects such as politics, religion and the Kardashians are banned from
conversation - lest the dinner table become its own battlefield.
Of course, the most important tradition of Thanksgiving is the counting
of our blessings. Everyone does it in his or her own way. But we do it
because we need to remind ourselves that no matter how crazy, weird,
disgusting and frightening this world has become, the very fact we
exist and have the power to change the world in our own way is
something for which we should be thankful.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 37 -- Inauspicious Anniversaries November 5, 2017
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This
coming week is one filled with inauspicious anniversaries. And no, I am
not referring to my 65th birthday on Wednesday - although some may
argue otherwise. Tuesday marks the centennial of the Russian Revolution,
a event that resulted is a brutal regime that murdered millions of its
own citizens and sparked a life and death struggle of ideologies that
dominated the second half of the 20th century. Thursday marks the 28th
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a event that looked a heck
of a lot more hopeful then than it does in hindsight. Today, in
Vladamir Putin's Russia, the centennial of communism is largely going
unnoticed. This is ironic, insomuch as Vladamir Putin's Russia is
looking more and more like Vladamir Lenin's Russia. It is as if the Russians have been living out that line from The Who's Won't get Fooled Again - "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." Forty-nine
years ago today, Richard Nixon was elected President of the United
States. Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nixon's election seemed as
far more hopeful in 1968 than it does in the rear view mirror of 2017.
That year marked the last election in which I was too young to vote.
But I supported Nixon. He represented real change. I had - and still
have - a hearty dislike for Lyndon Johnson. There were hopeful signs
that Nixon's election could bring peace
to a raucous and discordant nation. As it turned out, he only
exacerbated it. And then there's one year ago this Wednesday, the day
America lost its freaking mind and elected Donald Trump. Like Nixon, a
minority of voters cast ballots for him. Unlike Nixon, there were no
great hopes for Trump. We knew he was an egotistical, lying, fraudulent, jingoistic, misogynistic, treasonous mental midget.
Yet, we still elected him. One year later, he has somehow failed to
meet the lowest bar of expectations in American history. The only
glimmer of hope is that Robert Mueller is on the job and that he may
amass so much dirt that Trump will be forced to vacate the Oval Office.
But before you get excited, that leaves us with Mike Pence, a new age evangelical Spiro Agnew
who clings to Trump like a new puppy. And the next in the line of
succession is House Speaker Paul Ryan, a very bright young man who has
apparently checked his values at the front door. I plan to quietly
observe my birthday this week. But other than that, the first week of
November brings me little else to celebrate.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 36 -- The 'R' Word October 19, 2017
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This
is not an announcement. Nor am I setting a timetable. However, the fact
is undeniable: I am going to retire. Of course, the big question is
when and I do not have a clue as to the answer. I will be 65 years old
in less than a month. All of my surviving siblings have either retired
or have established a time line for doing so. Recently, a long-time
friend and former neighbor announced his retirement - and he is younger
than I am. Not only do I not know when I am going to retire, I am not
even certain what criteria will dictate my decision. On the physical
health front, I am not a spring chicken. However, I'm not a dying
quail, either. I don't move around as well as I did as a young man, but
I still have my mobility. Other health issues I've been dealing with
appear to be well under control. As for my mental health -- insert your
own joke here -- I am doing fine. I getting a bit frustrated when I
find myself searching for a word or phrase, but everyone my age says
that's fairly normal. Another factor to consider is motivation -- am I
still excited about going to work? Teaching remains a big kick --
although grading, not so much. I get to hang around some amazing
colleagues, each of whom brings his or her own special talents to the
table. And then there are the students, truly outstanding young women
and men who give bright promise for the future. Sure, I don't care for
the meetings or committees - but that's a part of the job I signed
onto. And there's the research - not a drudgery but, for me, the icing
on the cake. Then there's the great unknown - after retirement, what's
next? I am already giving some thought to that. It would be premature
to discuss those ideas now. However, I can tell you that I want to
continue as a writer for as long as I am capable. Back in 1975, I'd
never been married before. But I took the plunge and never looked back.
In 1991, I signed on as college professor having never taught before.
But I soldiered on, earned tenure and established my lifetime identity
as a teacher and a scholar. Ten years ago, I was widowed. I initially
felt like giving up - but I didn't. Now, I am happily remarried with a
grandchild on the way. Sometime in the next few years, I will make my
latest and perhaps last life-changing decision to retire and to move on
to a new life. I hope that when that time comes, I will know it and
will act accordingly. The best actors are those who know when to step
out of the spotlight and step down from the stage.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 35 -- When Blogging Isn't Fun October 11, 2017
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While
I doubt that anyone has noticed, it's been several weeks since I last
posted in this space. In fact, the time since my last blog entry may be
the longest interval in the more than 10 years since it was launched.
While there are variety of reasons for this inactivity, the preeminent
one is that I have lacked motivation to write. Specifically, I have
grown weary of chronicling the daily atrocities that 2017 has become.
Charlottesville sickened me. Las Vegas broke my heart. The president's
personal conduct has simultaneously worried and angered me. And the
nonsense over who does or doesn't stand during the national anthem
befuddles me. Frankly, it is not a lot of fun to write about this
stuff. Hurricanes have caused horrendous damage along the U.S.
Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean. The image of the American citizens of
Puerto Rico barely hanging on to life while the president playfully
tosses cheap rolls of paper towels to them is disgusting. Perhaps I should write about stuff closer to home. But the only
glimmer of good news is that Governor Sam Brownback is packing his bags
to become Donald Trump's ambassador to God. However, any pleasure that
comes from the prospects of a Brownback-free Kansas is tempered by the
knowledge of the ultra-conservative leanings of the man who will
succeed him, Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer. And looming on the horizon is
the gubernatorial candidacy of Kris Kobach, the nativist prophet of
American jingoism. To borrow a line from Thomas Paine, these
are the times that try men's souls. But do not fret, my dear
friends. I am not so depressed that I am contemplating drastic
action. I love my family, enjoy my job and am joyfully looking ahead to
basketball season and the birth of my daughter's first child - not
necessarily in that order. I am looking forward to writing about good
news - the happy stuff. In the meantime, I can take consolation in
another quotation from Thomas Paine: "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the
conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 34 -- The Vietnam Itch September 20, 2017
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Vietnam
is a scab that America can't seem to help itself from scratching.
Legendary filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick are currently airing a
10-part 18-hour PBS documentary about this nation's most divisive war.
While the United States remains embroiled in a seemingly endless
conflict in the Middle East, we are reminded of a time when the body
counts were significantly higher and the national consensus was
non-existent. I doubt that anyone who lived during the Vietnam war that
didn't come out of it with hardened feelings. Many saw it as a
reckless adventure to prove that America was willing to do anything to
oppose communism. There are others who believe that America inflicted
all this pain on itself. They blame the media, the left and peacenick
hippies for the humiliating defeat. During the war, I had more than a
casual interest in the conflict. I would become draft-eligible in
November 1970. And while I considered myself a patriotic citizen, I had
absolutely no enthusiasm for the prospect of joining the armed forces
and shipping out to Vietnam. I knew that I wouldn't be among those who
escaped the draft by running off the Canada. But there was no way I
wanted to be a war hero. As it turned out, Richard Nixon became
president and started to wind down the war. Fewer and fewer draftees
were needed. And when my number in the birthday lottery came up - 256
(I will never forget it) - that was significantly above the draft
cutoff date. However, that did not mean that I put the war behind me.
In fact, it was all around me - literally. I was tear-gassed while
watching a Vietnam protest at the University of Maryland on May 1,
1971. Up until that moment, I was on the fence about Vietnam. I didn't
like the war, but I had bought into Nixon's "peace with honor" thing.
Let me tell you, having a tear gas canister explode at your feet has an
instant radicalizing effect. Actually, the angriest I got came
long after the war was over. CBS News broadcast a documentary, "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception"
in January 1982. In it, the network accused General William
Westmoreland and military officials of misrepresenting the number of
enemy causalities, causing President Johnson to make decisions based on
inaccurate and inappropriately optimistic information. Westmoreland
sued CBS for libel, but later dropped the suit and agreed to disagree.
When I saw that documentary, I was livid. Knowing what that war had
done to the country - especially to a generation of American fighting
men and women - I considered Westmoreland's actions to be nothing short
of treason. Three decades later, I still feel that way. Yet my wife and
I still sit down in front of our television and watch the Vietnam
tragedy unfold once again before our eyes -- this time in the form of
the Burns/Novick documentary. After all the pain and suffering, we
still can't keep ourselves from scratching away at that scab. And, in
an odd, but sad way, perhaps that's a good thing.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 33 -- A Political Storm September 12, 2017
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In
an odd sort of way, this has been a good past couple of weeks for
President Trump. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have literally blown all
other news off the front page. The controversies over immigration,
health care, taxation and Russian election interference have been
shoved onto the back burner. At the same time, President Trump has had
the opportunity to do something has hasn't done so well until now - act
presidential. After an initial stumble during a Texas trip in the
early days of the Harvey floods, he has actually done fairly decent job
of doing what presidents are supposed to. He has comforted the
suffering, praised the volunteers and first responders, and rallied the
nation in support of their fellow citizens. This is not a back-handed
complement: I think Trump has performed as well as any president in
similar situations. My point is that everything carries with it a
political calculation - even natural disasters. And sometimes the best
politics are just being seen doing your job. Whether Trump's
performance as comforter-in-chief will continue to stand up over the
coming days remains to be seen. Again, this is not an anti-Trump
political statement. The fact remains that the challenges facing the
people of Texas and Florida are extremely difficult regardless of the
political equation. It is going to take a long time before things
return in normal - or at least to what will pass as a new normal.
And it doesn't matter who is in charge, it is almost inevitable that
you will begin to hear complaints that the government isn't working
hard enough nor fast enough to fix things. Both Presidents Bush were
politically harmed by hurricane disasters - Bush 41 by Andrew in 1992
and Bush 43 by Katrina in 2005. And while both of them carry some
responsibility for slow responses, the facts suggest that both became
the focus of post-storm anger because of the incompetence of local and
state officials, all of whom were Democrats. The failure of those local
and state officials to take decisive actions in the run-up to the
storms seriously complicated the response. However, in both cases, the
national political narrative was better served by blaming it on the
Bushes. President George H.W. Bush was in the midst of a reelection
campaign. His son was mired down in an unpopular war. They were easy
targets for White House-hungry democrats, as well as media who were
either unaware or uninterested in a far more complex narrative. And
regardless of who is occupying the White House at any given time, one
fact remains unchangeable: Mother Nature is far more powerful than even
the mightiest of nations. Government can't do it all by itself. The
people have to share in the burden of recovery. The one "blessing" that
Florida and Texas have in this tragedy is that they play a gigantic
role in the election of presidents. There is very little doubt that
this electoral math has not escaped anyone's attention - Republicans
and Democrats alike.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 32 -- Sheriff Joe August 27, 2017
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For
about four years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was the chief
spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Correction. In that
incredibly intense job, I learned more than most about the inner
workings of incarceration. It is not with ego or an inflated sense of
self that I consider myself an expert on the subject. I have even spent
some time in Arizona, training public affairs officers who worked for
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They very carefully toed the line
of "Sheriff Joe" and sang his praises. However, then, as now, an
overwhelming majority of those within the law enforcement community
felt that Arpaio's actions were reactionary, inhumane, sadistic and
unconstitutional. His tactics
may have played well viscerally among conservative Arizonans, but they
were clearly outside the values expressed in the U.S. Constitution.
Recently, after a federal judge ordered Arpaio to cease and desist the
racial profiling of Hispanics and Latinos, Sheriff Joe ignored the the
order. He was found guilty of contempt of court and was headed to
prison when President Donald Trump issued his pardon Friday night.
Trump's abuse of the presidential pardon is historic. Procedures that
had been followed by presidents for two centuries were ignored. At the
very least, pardons should be a tactic admission of guilt. To no one's
surprise, the only counsel that Trump follows is his own. Does
Trump have the power to pardon Arpaio before he set foot in a prison or
admitted his guilt? Yes, he does. But does Joe Arpaio, the man who
embodies everything that is wrong with the American criminal justice
system, deserve a pardon? Absolutely not. Trump's action undermines the
integrity of the legal system. It sends a message that as long as you
are The Donald's friend, you can ignore the law. The American people
have long
struggled with the role of imprisonment in our society. Some say it
should be about rehabilitation. That would be nice, but you can't
expect any prison system to undo the failures of family, education and
society that preceded incarceration. Some inmates are successful in
reversing the course of their lives - but most are not. Approximately three out of four
state inmates are rearrested within five years of their release. Others
say prison should focus on punishment. I tend to agree, but only to a
limited degree. Our constitution prohibits cruel and unusual
punishment. Sheriff Joe's tactics crossed that line many times. The
result is an even more angry, dehumanized criminal. To put it another
way, Arpaio just adds fuel to the fire. And for
the ill-informed cynics who believe a stretch in prison is some sort of
holiday, prisons are prisons - not Holiday Inns. The true punishment is
the loss of personal freedom. And even the best-managed prisons are
dangerous places where many of the inhabitants have nothing to lose and
life is cheap. If you don't believe it, I invite you to take a tour of
some prison facility. Unless living in close quarters with hateful,
angry convicts appeals to you, you'll quickly get my point. Arpaio has
made it
his mission to deport people who broke the law by crossing the border
illegally. And within legal constraints established by law and the
courts, he should do so. However, Arpaio also took an oath of office
"to support the Constitution of the United States" and "to bear true
faith and allegiance to the same." He failed to do so and was found
guilty in a federal court. Is it reasonable to ask Sheriff Joe whether
one who ignores the law of the land is morally superior to those he
seeks to deport? Being "less guilty" is like being "less pregnant."
Guilt, like pregnancy, is a binary condition - either you are or you
are not. In a period in which the President of the United
States has demonstrated a callous disregard for human rights and
socially responsible governance, the Arpaio pardon provides further
evidence of the moral imperative in removing Trump from office.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 31 -- Incompetent and Incoherent August 21, 2017
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You
might not believe it, but I want President Trump to succeed. If he is
successful in tackling the many issues confronting this nation - war,
health care, immigration, civil rights, and economic justice - he will
have earned my thanks and my vote for reelection. It was with great
interest that I listened tonight to the President's vision for the
future of America's role in Afghanistan. Guess what? He has no vision.
After six months of wrangling over the various options the U.S. has,
Trump didn't announce a damn thing. He said we are no longer in the
business of nation building. Guess what, Donny. Neither Presidents Bush
or Obama engaged in that fruitless exercise. They wanted to restore
order and then get out - which neither man succeeded in achieving.
President Trump says we going to fight to victory. However, he didn't
say what constitutes victory. In reality, Trump has absolutely no
vision for America's role. What Trump said he was going to turn more
command decisions over to the military. That sounds good - except
that's not how it is suppose to work. Make no mistake, I trust
our military leaders to make sound tactical decisions. But it is not
their role to determine the strategy. Certainly, they can advise the
President. But only he and the Congress are the ones constitutionally
empowered to set the direction of this nation's foreign policy. The
President gave what sounded like a threat - Afghanistan's leaders need
to clean up their act because America has not given them a blank check.
But frankly, what the hell does that mean? A complete withdrawal?
Martial law enforced by America's might? Taking away their library
cards? The speech was an exercise is pablum-coated circular logic. He
has no vision for American foreign policy and lacks the intellectual
capacity to articulate one. After the President's disastrous news
conference following the Charlottesville tragedy, a growing number of
people have openly questioned whether Trump has the mental capacity to
serve as President. I agree. While Trump tonight demonstrated that he
can speak in solemn tones from a teleprompter, that does not a leader
make. Trump is incompetent and incoherent. And all his speech tonight
did was too further heighten concerns about the hazardous path upon
which he has embarked.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 30 -- Ballistic Bluster August 9, 2017
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Viscerally,
I agree with Donald Trump. I'd love to bomb the crap out of North
Korea. The "hermit kingdom" is the closest place to hell on earth and
its leader is a certifiable nut job. Intellectually, I understand that
war with North Korea should be the last option we consider. Millions of
lives - American, Korean and innocent third parties -would be at risk.
The events of yesterday caused many to pause and take a deep breath. The Washington Post reported that Kim Jung Un's regime has developed nuclear weapons small enough for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles. This news came in the wake of North Korea's violent reaction to newly implemented United Nations sanctions. Vacationing President Trump ratcheted up the tension
when he declared “North Korea best not make any more threats to the
United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has
never seen.” Predictably, Kim upped the ante by announcing that plans
are underway to attack Guam,
a U.S. territory with 168,000+ American citizens. It was at that moment
when we were all reminded that there is more than one unstable finger
on the nuclear button. My question to President Trump is this:
"What the hell were you thinking?" The United States holds most of the
cards in a potential confrontation with North Korea. There's no need to
pour gas on the fire by telling Kim what he undoubtedly already knows.
Yesterday's ballistic bluster came from a man who has always used
over-the-top rhetoric to compensate for what he sees as his own
deficiencies - whether it the size of the inaugural crowd, the size of
his vote or the size of his tiny, tiny hands. Mr. President, before you
vigorously protect your manhood, how about acting like a man? Teenage
tantrums may work in the world of real estate. But in a high-stakes
geopolitical showdown, your antics have exposed you for what you really
are, an impatient and immature narcissist in an empty suit. And they
have exposed the American people - not to mention South Koreans,
Japanese and Australians - to very real danger. U.S. Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson this morning sought to dial back
Trump's threats, assuring Americans that we can "all sleep well at
night." My reaction to that statement was two-fold. First, I am pleased
- and relieved - to know that there are still some adults in the
Situation Room. Second, it appears that the greatest threat to peace
does not live in Pyongyang, but instead lives at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, Washington, D.C.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 29 -- An Odd Parallel August 2, 2017
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The
events at the White House this week remind me of a bad television show.
Really. This is not a metaphor. On February 5, 1969, ABC-TV debuted a
new show that was supposed to be the network's answer to NBC-TV's Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. The new show was called Turn-On and it was produced by the same people who produced Laugh-In. Like Laugh-in, Turn-On utilized rapid-fire editing, snappy one-liners and risque jokes. Unlike its predecessor, Turn-On was
filmed, had no sets, no laugh track and focused almost exclusively on
sex. More to the point, the program was not very funny, borderline
obscene and in incredibly bad taste. It was so bad that many stations
dropped it in mid-broadcast. A Cleveland station dropped it after the
first commercial break. Needless to say, people were turned off by Turn-On - it was canceled after one episode. It is today considered one of network television's biggest flops, alongside the likes of The Tammy Grimes Show and the XFL. Let's move ahead 48 years to the strange case of Anthony Scaramucci. With much fanfare, "the Mooch" was brought in to replace the beleaguered Sean Spicer. In his White House Briefing Room introduction, Scaramucci came across as a fresh - albeit cocky - breath of fresh air. But that was before he actually started his job. Like Turn-On,
it didn't take very long for "the Mooch" to self-destruct. In his first
- and as it turned out, his only - round of Sunday morning interviews,
Scaramucci brashly stated that he was going fire everyone that got in
the way of President Trump's agenda. (Does that mean he would fire
Trump?) And then - again similar to Turn-On - Scaramucci really went off the rails with a profanity-laced interview with The New Yorker. It was such an obscene performance that it was actually funny watching network commentators doing verbal gymnastics
to paraphrase what "the Mooch" had said. It is obvious that Trump hired
"the Mooch" to set the stage for the firing of White House Chief of
Staff Reince Priebus. But even Trump may not have realized that
Scaramucci was a suicide bomber. Like Turn-On,
"the Mooch Show" was short-lived. In his case, 10 days was all it took
to pull the plug. As soon as the new chief of staff came on board,
Sacramucci was escorted off the White House grounds. In an
administration marked by short tenures, "the Mooch" had set a recored
for self-immolation - again, just like Turn-On.
Whether it be a bad television show or a bad political mouthpiece, the
American people have little tolerance for those who insult their
intelligence. And that's why in the annals of history, Turn-On and "the Mooch" are best forgotten.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 28 -- Bad Choices July 29, 2017
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While
it is true that some people are disadvantaged at birth, it is not true
that the direction of our lives is preordained. Many people have
overcome physical, mental and/or financial obstacles to lead successful
lives. Of course, it depends on how you define success. I am not
wealthy. I am not the CEO of a great company or the leader of a great
movement. My home is nice, but modest. I drive a 2006 Chevy Equinox -
and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. However, I
consider myself reasonably successful. I am a college professor at a
great university located in a wonderful town. I am married to a loving
woman and am the father of a terrific daughter and son-in-law. And
let's not forget my step-son and his terrific family. I could go on and
on, but let's not belabor the point. How one chooses to define success
is the key. However, I am not writing about success, per se. The focus
of this post is about the choices we make - including the choice of how
one defines his or her own success. Notice that I said I consider
myself reasonably successful.
I qualified that statement because I have made choices that probably
kept me from achieving my life goals. For example, my choice of a
college major - radio, television and speech - set me along a
particular path. I often wondered if I should have gone into emergency
management, a field that holds my interest today. However, I choose not
to regret that decision. Any change in the past would have altered the
path I followed and would have resulted in me missing the many good
things I have experienced. It seems to me that the political
dysfunction that America is currently experiencing stems from a series
of bad choices. The worse choice Americans have made in recent years is
electing Donald Trump as our president. How did he win? Trump appealed
to voters' insecurity. He said the economy was in bad shape when, in
fact, it was not. He warned about the dangers of immigrants taking away
jobs and raping our mothers, sisters and daughters. Statistics do not
support such a conclusion. He has claimed that millions of illegal
votes have been cast in U.S. elections, despite evidence to the
contrary. Those and other outlandish claims resonated with people who,
because of the life choices they had made, now feel scared and
disenfranchised. Rather than accept the consequences of their own
actions, they use the government as the straw man for everything that
is wrong in America. Because of the antiquated Electoral College, Trump
was able to win election with 3.5 million fewer votes than Hillary
Clinton. Since the election, support for Trump has dropped by
one-third. Yet there is a core group, approximately one-third of the
electorate, who are still standing by a man who many fear lacks the
mental stability to be president. Yes, some support Trump for
philosophical reasons. I do not wish to minimize the sincerity of their
beliefs. But I venture to guess that most Trump supporters are unhappy
with their lot in life. Unwilling to accept responsibility for the
choices they have made to land them where they are, they prefer to
blame blacks, Muslims and LGBTs for their misery. These disenfranchised
feel they are morally superior, even though the evidence suggests
otherwise. All of this in the face of strong evidence to suggest that
we, as a people, have never had it better. I suggest you read Steven
Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature.
It puts to rest many of the fear-inciting claims that Trump and people of
his ilk have exploited. It is time for the president's supporters to
wake up and smell the coffee. It won't be long before we, the people,
will have to decide whether Mr. Trump's presidency should be
terminated. Are we going to embrace the American values of free
expression and equal justice? Or are we going to stick to the same old
narrative, one that reflects many of our citizens' bad choices?
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 27 -- Unworthy July 18, 2017
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In the final scene of Saving Private Ryan,
an aging John Ryan stands at the grave of Captain John Miller. Miller
sacrificed his life so that Ryan's mother would be spared the loss of a
fourth son. Miller's dying words to Ryan were "earn this." In that
final scene, Ryan asks his wife to bear witness that he had, in fact,
earned the precious gift Miller had given him. I thought of that scene
this evening after watching an episode of the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
documentary The War.
It too, dealt with the incredible carnage that followed the D-Day
invasion on June 6, 1944. We lost more American soldiers in the six
weeks following that invasion than we have lost during 16 years of war
in Afghanistan and Iraq. After watching the documentary, I couldn't
help but ask myself Private Ryan's question: Have we, as a nation,
earned the sacrifices made by America's armed forces in the years since
9/11? Honestly, the answer is "no." First, America's civilian
population hasn't been willing to make the kind of home front
sacrifices that were made during World War II. Forget ration books or
Rosie the Riveter. This generation of Americans is unwilling to pay
taxes to cover basic services -- including the money necessary to
properly operate the Veteran's Administration. Nor does the tone of our
political discourse come close to honoring those who made the ultimate
sacrifice in the name of democracy. All we do is bicker. We call each
other names. We have forgotten that compromise
is not a dirty word. Instead of trying to reach a consensus on the
great issues of the day, we seem willing to bludgeon one another in the
name of ideological purity. It is not just the Republicans. Nor is it
just the Democrats. There's a pox on all of our houses. There was once
a time - six months ago to be exact - that the world looked toward
America for leadership. Now, the U.S. has become irrelevant. No nation is perfect, but it used to be that Americans were
always striving to achieve a more perfect union. Now, not so much. At
the risk of sounding like an aging old curmudgeon, I fear that America
is in a downward spiral. When it comes to following our values, we've
lost our way. We've told
the world that we are more interested in regime change than climate
change. Do we welcome people to our shores who are yearning to be free?
No. Do we believe in social and economic justice? Not a chance. Respect
for different religions? Sure, as long as we are not talking about
Muslims. And do we respect the views of those whose opinions differ
from our own? Not really. We've become an intolerant and selfish
nation. Is this trend reversible? I hope so. But until then, we are
unworthy of the men and women who have given what Abraham Lincoln
called "the last full measure of devotion." And for that we should be ashamed.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 26 -- The Season of Reunions July 16, 2017
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Toward
the end of this coming week, my wife and I will travel from America's
heartland to the Jersey shore to attend a reunion of my surviving
siblings. In the past, family reunions have occurred more by
happenstance than planning. The family came together for the usual
occasions, such as weddings, graduations and funerals. However, in
recent years, a more conscious effort has been made to get together to
swap stories and enjoy each other's company. The passing of two of my
older brothers in recent years created a new urgency to share some time
together. We are now all of an age where we can no longer take these
gatherings for granted. Every family has its own dynamics when it comes
to reunions. Our parents' divorce in the 1950s effectively limited our
contact to only one branch of the family tree. That we have since
scattered to the winds and moved far from our Maryland Eastern Shore
home also has limited contact. Compare that to my late wife's family,
the Fillmans, who have had reunions every year for nearly 60 years.
While that family has also scattered across the map, there are several
locations - Illinois, Kentucky, Florida and California - where enough
members of the Fillman family reside to create the necessary critical
mass to organize this annual gathering. Last week, for the first time,
the Fillmans gathered in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it
and regret that I was unable to spend time with a family I have known
and been proud to be a part of for more the 40 years. And then there's
my wife Maureen's family, the Mannings, where most of the family lives
in the Kansas City area and vacations in cabins they own alongside a
Minnesota lake. For the Mannings, there's less of a need to organize
reunions because the family members are in constant contact with one
another. That they are of Irish descent is also a strong tie that binds
the Manning clan together. Still, even with proximity and a common
Irish heritage, there have been several times my wife's siblings have
organized gatherings of Bob and Katie Manning's kids. They felt a need
to have everyone in the same place at the same time. Summer is the
season of reunions. It's a time when families overcome distance and
differences to remind themselves of a common heritage. In a summer
where our nation seems to be a war with itself, family reunions are
needed now more than ever. At such a discordant period in our nation's
history, it's a good time for families to gather to remember the things
that are really important - shared history, common values and, most of
all, a love for one another.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 25 -- Democracy's Dirty Word July 4, 2017
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The
American people launched a grand experiment in democracy 241 years ago
today. It's an experiment that continues to evolve. We are still trying
to figure out whether we can bridge the gap between the promise and the
reality of government of, by and for the people. For the most
part, we've done pretty well. The United States is, in many ways, what
many nations aspire to be. However, in so many other ways, we do not
measure up to our lofty expectations. Among civilized societies, the
United States is the most violent. Unlike other industrialized nations,
we have not figured out how to bring provide health care for all of our
citizens. Our educational system founders while we have surrendered our
lead in entrepreneurship and innovation. And, at least at the federal
level, our government is virtually non-functioning. Why have we gotten
to this point? I suggest it all comes down to one word: compromise.
When I went to school in the 1960s, we were taught that compromise is
what makes democracy work. By bargaining with one another, we ensure
ourselves of maintaining steady, albeit slow, progress toward mutually
define goals. However, in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam, compromise
somehow became a dirty word. Nowadays, voters on both ends of the
political spectrum demand our leaders possess what passes today for
political purity. We are electing people who believe it is
immoral to waver from a political position and that their job is batter
those with opposing views into submission. When that happens, nothing
gets done. It's the Hatfields and the McCoys on steroids. Both
republicans and democrats share this blame. And I am not just talking
about the politicians. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you
haven't fostered this "take no prisoners" dialectic. That includes me,
who on occasion has been too strident in the defense of my beliefs.
Real communication does not occur is everyone is yelling and no one is
listening. Compromise doesn't mean abandoning one's beliefs. Nor does
it mean that we have to compromise on core values. (For me, that's
freedom of expression - even that expression which is not popular.)
However, we can't draw a line in the sand for every stinking
issue. The only reason we are unable to come social agreement on
issues such immigration, gun control and health care is because all
sides appear to enter these debates with their mouths wide open and the
minds shut tight. If we are going to reserve this trend toward disunity
and discord, the healing has to start at the top. We need to remainder
the President and Congress that their job isn't to "Make America Great
Again." (That sounds like an acknowledgment that the era of American
exceptionalism is dead.) Instead, let's focus on keeping America great. We start by embracing the values committed to parchment
241 years ago today: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness." If we use that as a starting point for all
negotiations, we will have a greater chance of narrowing the gap
between the promise and reality of democratic government.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 24 -- Bernadette Gray-Little June 29, 2017
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Friday,
June 30, is the last day on the job for University of Kansas Chancellor
Bernadette Gray-Little. Gray- Little, 71, is retiring after coming to
KU from the University of North Carolina in 2009. At the time of her
appointment, I couldn't help but wonder why the Board of Regents would
choose someone near or at retirement age and who had no academic
administrative experience outside of UNC. However, she quickly
dispelled that concern. And the record she leaves behind is impressive.
The most tangible expression of that record is the considerable amount
of construction taking place on the campus - especially in the area of
what is now known as the Central District. Her ability to attract
public and private money to fund such an expansion is impressive. On a
personal level, I have always found the Chancellor to be a quiet, calm
and steadying force in the midst of a storm. When I was the target of a
hateful campaign of abuse over my tweeted objections to irrational
opposition to any and all gun control, the Chancellor understood that I
was within my rights as a faculty member and as an American citizen to
speak my mind. And while she didn't like the tone of my language, she
still had my back. That's in sharp contrast to then-Vice Chancellor for
Public Affairs Tim Caboni, who wanted to appease pro-gun legislators by
throwing me under the bus. Fortunately, Chancellor Gray-Little wouldn't
have any of it. It was Caboni who also created the Chancellor's worst
public relations stumble, a slow and clumsy response to sexual
abuse allegations on campus. However, the Chancellor soon regained her
bearings and responded to the very serious charges in an appropriate
manner. Caboni has since departed KU to lead Western Kentucky
University - a move that many on campus see as addition by subtraction.
The best that the leader of any organization can hope for is to leave
it in better shape than he or she found it. Without question,
Chancellor Gray-Little passes that test. I wish her and her family the
best as she moves into a well-earned retirement.
X
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 23 -- Crying Wolf June 27, 2017
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The
White House press office issued an ominous statement late last night.
It said there were signs that Syria was about to launch another
chemical weapons attack against its citizens. The White House statement went
on to say, "As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria
to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. If, however, Mr.
Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he
and his military will pay a heavy price." Had this come from the White
House of any other president, I would applaud it. This nation is the
only one in the world that can stand up against these war crimes. I
believe doing so is in our national interest. I have stated such in
previous posts in this space. I also criticized President Obama for
"drawing a red line in the sand" against these attacks and then failing
to take any action. Yes, I normally would support President Trump in this
matter. However, these are not normal times. President Trump is a
proven serial liar. He has repeatedly doubled-down on statements that
were easily disproved. His press office is an embarrassment. So,
instead of automatically falling in line behind our president, I
cannot help but wonder if he's telling another lie. Is Syria really planning
another chemical attack or is this just lie designed to
misdirect public attention from the Russia investigation? When Assad
denies the White House claim, which serial liar should we
believe? Is this statement a Trump administration ploy to draw
attention away from Senate Republicans' attempt to pass a horrific
health care law that would take away coverage from 22
million people? Can anything Trump and his minions say be taken at face
value? This is the price of Trump's lying. The White House has lost all
credibility. Who can take anything coming out of that puzzle palace
without more than a few grains of salt? Trump asked the American people
to elect him on the promise that he would bring common sense leadership
back to the White House. Unfortunately, we now know that, too, was a
lie. All this president has done is make a dangerous world even more
dangerous. Our friends don't believe him. Our enemies mock him. And an
overwhelming majority of Americans just want to see Trump go away.
That's presidential leadership in the 21st century? Donald Trump is now
the boy that called "wolf." No one believed him, either.
X
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 22 -- Nancy Pelosi: Problem and Solution June 21, 2017
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The
last two of four congressional special elections were held yesterday
with the same results. The four elections were necessitated by the
resignation of Republican congressmen appointed to positions in the
Trump administration. All four races saw Republicans retain the seat
despite a more competitive than usual challenge by Democrats. As you
might imagine, both sides are spinning the results to suit their own
narratives. As Trump and the GOP will note, the Democrats are 0-4 in
house races since Trump's unexpected election last November. As usual,
Trump will overstate the results as a resounding - "yuge" - vote of
support for his train-wreck presidency. Democrats will claim a moral
victory and say the tightness of the races bodes well for the 2018
midterm elections. I do not share either view. And I am not alone.
According to CNN,
"Jon Ossoff's loss Tuesday night in a hyper-competitive Georgia race --
the most expensive in history -- 'better be a wake up call for
Democrats,' tweeted Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, an emerging
Democratic leader. 'We need a genuinely new message, a serious jobs
plan that reaches all Americans, and a bigger tent, Moulton wrote.'" A
look at recent election campaigns is instructive. Republicans rebounded
in 2010 from significant losses in 2008 by painting House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi as the boogie man. Usually, when that sort of thing happens, the
losing party turns to new leadership. However, the House democrats
stuck with Pelosi. After failing to the take the House in 2014 and
again in 2016, the Democrats are again going into battle in 2018 with
the same flawed field general. Isn't that the classic definition of
insanity? There are two major lessons from the 2016 presidential
election that the Democrats do not appear to have learned. First, being
against Donald Trump is not enough. Democrats have to articulate their
vision for America - something Hillary Clinton did not do. Second, they
need to stop recycling their leadership and should turn to new people
with fresh ideas. The single-most important thing Democrats can do
right now to begin to emerge from their political wilderness is to
convince Nancy Pelosi to retire. She is the albatross hanging around
their neck. Maybe that's not fair, but it is the reality. If Pelosi
truly wants to see a resurgence among Democrats, she needs step down
from Congress, go back to San Francisco, spend more time with her
grandchildren, and accept the thanks of a grateful nation.
x to
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 21 -- Truth or Consequences June 15, 2017
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The
events of the last few weeks have been coming to us at break-neck
speed. Every day, there's another Trump/Russia story. Up until now,
there has been more smoke than fire. There is a growing preponderance
of evidence to suggest that people within the Trump campaign either
directly or indirectly colluded with the Russian government to influence last
fall's presidential election. There are also strong indications that the President Trump has obstructed justice in the Russian problem. Now, even Trump's son-in-law is under investigation. However, a preponderance of evidence
cannot be confused with proof. Frankly, President Trump would be in a
lot stronger legal position if not for his own actions. The firing of FBI
Director James Comey, Trump's self-incriminating tweets and his oddly
tone-deaf support for friendly relations with Russia have cast a cloud
of suspicion over the White House. But everything that has happened up
until now is preliminary. As Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller begins
to interview witnesses under oath, each interviewee will have reached a
point of no return. You can lie to reporters and get away with it. You
can even lie to Congress and get away with it. But if you lie to an
federal investigator, you will face almost certain criminal
prosecution. According to the Washington Post,
Mueller is interviewing top intelligence officials, including Director
of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency
Director Mike Rogers. Coats and Rogers during a congressional hearing stubbornly refused to
discuss their private conversations with the President, even though the
substance of those conversations was not classified nor had the Trump
administration claimed executive privilege. Mueller has the legal means
to force them testify, such as calling them before a grand jury. My
sense is that both of them will eventually tell the truth. They are not
Trumpeters, they are public servants. However, there are some people
Mueller may subpoena who are Trump loyalists and may be faced with an
uncomfortable reality: Tell the truth or face dire legal consequences.
How certain can they be that other Trump loyalists
- such as disgraced former General Michael Flynn, former campaign
manager Paul Manafort and Trump confident Carter Page - will be willing
to risk a criminal conviction to protect Donald Trump? Just ask James McCord. Will they remain loyal to a man who demands loyalty but does not give it in return? Just ask House Republicans.
And as for Republicans in the House and Senate, the absence of legal
liability in this scandal is the least of their problems. The more they
defend Donald Trump, the more they are placing themselves in political
peril. Make no mistake about it - Donald Trump will be the main issue
in the 2018 mid-term elections. The time is rapidly approaching where
they will have to either jump in the lifeboats or learn the lyrics to Nearer My God To Thee.
One other thing the President needs to consider: He will not be judged
by Congress in a legal proceeding. Under the Constitution, sitting
Presidents cannot be indicted. However, impeachment is a political
process. And "high crimes and misdemeanors" are whatever Congress says
they are. Truth or consequences: Tweet that.
x to
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 20 -- The Ugly American June 3, 2017
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The Ugly American is a 1958 political novel detailing the failures of U.S. diplomacy in southeast Asia. It is also the title of a commentary written this week by Dana Millbank of the Washington Post.
In it, Millbank said, "For the last fortnight, Trump has presented
himself to the world as the caricature of the ugly American: loud,
boorish and ill-informed. For nine days in Europe and the Middle East,
Trump shoved, hectored and lectured, betraying confidences and
demonstrating an ignorance of world affairs. The French president
applied a crushing grip to Trump’s tiny hands to show that he would’t
be bullied, and the German chancellor suggested that Europe may need to
go it alone after 70 years, without its suddenly flaky ally. The pope
gently conveyed disdain." I had already decided to write a blog post
titled "The Ugly American" when I stumbled across Millbank's offering.
I couldn't have said it better. President Trump's behavior during his
first international trip, combined with Thursday's decision to pull out
of the Paris climate accords, has made the United States a rouge nation
in the eyes of the rest of the world. For a nation that has stubbornly
lived up to its word for 16 years of war in the Middle East, this
ill-considered and unilateral decision to withdraw from a treaty of
which we were among the principle authors is stunning. The United
States has joined Syria and Nicaragua as the only nations on the planet
to reject the treaty. (Actually, Nicaragua thought the treat didn't go
far enough and Syria is in the midst of a civil war.) This is America's
worst betrayal of its values and principles since Republicans in
Congress refused to join the League of Nations. And as I noted in a
Facebook post earlier this week, that betrayal helped to hasten the
Second World War and the loss of 60 million lives. The irony in all of
this is that much of the treaty has to do with implementing voluntary
measures - meaning that Trump could have revised America's response to
the treaty without rubbing the world's face in the mud. But that wasn't
enough for our narcissistic, jingoistic President with the vocabulary
and maturity of a 17-year-old bully. Yes, there are a bunch of
ill-informed people who voted for this clown and who are thrilled by
the President's actions. But here's the rub: When the United States
begins to pay the price for isolating itself from the mainstream of
global thought, those Trump-loving folks will be most likely the ones
that pay the heaviest price. The wealthy Trump supporters will suffer
financially from the devaluation of the American economic leadership.
The least wealthy among the Trump supporters will become even poorer
and will be forced to deal with the realization that that they voted
for a man who doesn't care a flip about them. And the ugly truth is
that both groups will have no one to blame but themselves.
x
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 19 -- Memorial Day - In Context May 28, 2017
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Memorial
Day is the solemnest of American holidays. It is a day of remembrance
for those who have died in defense of American freedoms. A familiar and
uniquely American controversy serves as a backdrop for this year's
observance. It has to do with the conflicting views of this nation's
most tragic event, the Civil War. In recent weeks, there has been a
call for the removal of Confederate memorials from public places. And
there are a lot of them -- more than 700 nationwide. As USA Today
has reported, some of them are located in places that were not even
part of the United States at the time of the war. African-Americans see
the memorials as an offensive commemoration of treason committed in
defense of the indefensible institution of slavery. Others, mostly
white Southerners, see them as a recognition of their ancestor's
defense of their homeland. This conflict is inevitable. Can you think
of another country that allows the losers of a civil war to venerate
the leaders of the rebellion? It reminds me of something I wrote in
this space more than seven years ago: "The Civil War was an inevitable
conflict to clear the ambiguities of the federal-state relationship
left by the nation's Founders. Atrocities were committed by both
sides. Should we condemn the Confederacy for what it was, an
armed rebellion against the United States in defense of an immoral
institution? Absolutely. Should we paint Southerners who fought in that
conflict with the broad brush of terrorism? Not unless you are
personally willing to wear the mantle of responsibility for My
Lai, Abu Ghraib and other atrocities committed in the name of the
United States." (Vol. 4 No. 14)
I don't have the answer to this controversy. However, I think the
experience of my native Talbot County, Maryland, is instructive. The
courthouse was built in 1710. A statue
to county residents who served the Confederacy was erected on the
courthouse grounds sometime after the war. It stood there alone for
more than a century before it was joined by another statue
- one celebrating Talbot County native Frederick Douglass. Does this
arrangement "balance the books?" Probably not. But it allows all
parties to commemorate their own history. And as they do so, let me add
this proviso: No version of history is complete unless it is understood
within a full and appropriate context.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 18 -- The Price of Doing Business May 25, 2017
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The
former journalist in me likes leaks. The former government official in
me does not. The realist in me understands that there are times when
leaks are appropriate and other times when they are not. Why do
leaks happen? They happen because someone is dissatisfied with the way
the people's business is conducted. Granted, the motivation for leaking
information is often selfish and vindictive. The perceived wrongs may
be more about the inadequacies of the leaker than those targeted by the
leaks. However, there is just as often a higher, moral justification
for leaking information. Giving secret information to journalists has
historically served as a social pressure valve that, on many occasions,
has helped society to either avert major calamities or allowed it to
bring justice to those who created them. In another context, this kind
of leaker would be known as a whistle blower. Another important
consideration is that leaks could not occur without a free, vigorous
and vigilant press. Free and independent journalism is a cornerstone
of democracy. The freedom of individuals is linked to their unfettered
access to information. The Trump administration, which has been the
subject of more leaked information than any administration in memory,
has gone as far to suggest that journalists should be jailed for disseminating leaked information. The irony, of course, is that the President, himself, has leaked
highly sensitive classified information on at least two occasions. And
today, the British government has announced it will not share
information about its investigation into the Manchester bombing because
of American government leaks.
The question is: Are leaks good or bad? And the answer is: "Yes." It
would be foolish and morally wrong to apply one standard to all leaks.
Each has to be judged within its own context. Mark Felt's a/k/a "Deep Throat's" leaks to the Washington Post
led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Knowing now what we
didn't know then, we can say those leaks served a greater public
interest. (And, yes, they also served Felt's personal interests, too.)
On the other hand, Bradley/Chelsea
Manning's release of classified information to Wikileaks put the lives
of American overseas operatives at risk. (And, yes, it exposed some bad
stuff, too.) My point: Leaking secrets to the press is both good and
bad. Each has to be taken within the context of its situation and
whether the ultimate impact of the leak serves a Utilitarian
greater good. Regardless of whether we embrace or disdain leaks to
journalists, we must recognize that they are the price of doing
business in a free, democratic society.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 17 -- A Message From Our President May 19, 2017
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The following is a rebuttal editorial written by Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States:
My fellow citizens of this, the bestest country in the whole, wide
world. As your President, I asked for this opportunity to discuss the
phony-baloney witch hunt that the crybaby Democrats have unleashed
against me. As you know, my first 115 days or so as your leader have
been phenomenal. Under my magnificent leadership, the American people
have enjoyed beautiful prosperity. Millions and millions of you have
told me that they are so much better off than they would have been
under Crooked Hillary. As I promised, I have gotten rid of that failed
Obamacare and have kicked all of the Muslims out of our beautiful
country. Well, at least I tried. My press secretary's daily briefings
have had the highest television ratings of all time! (Suck on that, Arnold Schwarzenegger!)
And my golf scores have been better than those of those so-called
"pros." A lot better than Obama's. But now I have to deal with that
loser James Comey. Everybody in the FBI hates Comey and loves Donald
Trump. Everyone wanted me to fire him. Comey is a bad, bad hombre.
Everybody knows that I have not colluded with those adorable Russians.
Hell, I don't even know what colluded
means. But now, the out-of-control Justice Department has appointed a
special councel to investigate me, the most successful president in the
history of the presidentiary. (What? Of course it is spelled c-o-u-n-c-e-l. I'm the greatest spellerer in the history of the Harvard Bizness Skool.)
I won the greatest landslide in American history all my myself. I
didn't need Vladimir Putin's help. I should have won the popular vote.
After all, I am America's most popular commander in chief since
President Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Russians aren't our enemies. They are our
friends. We need them. The Germans would not have attacked Pearl Harbor
if they had know that Putin was our best-buddy. Please understand -
Being president has been a big sacrifice for me. Heck, I'm living in
public housing and am forced to use public transportation. But I am
willing to do it for you, the beautiful people of the biggliest,
bestest and greatest country in the history of the universe. All I ask
is that you tell those sore loser Democrats to give this impeachment
talk a rest. And give Mike Flynn a break. After all, he is a
sweetheart of a guy who had to work two jobs to make ends meet. It's
hard to advise a presidential campaign and promote a foreign government
at the same time. He's just the kind of working man I am fighting
for. So, let's stop this unnecessary investigating. As that
great civil war President Andrew Jackson once said, "Let it go. Let it
go. Can't hold it back no more. I don't care what they are going to
say. Let the storm rage on. The cold doesn't bother me anyway."
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 16 -- Storm Warnings May 10, 2017
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Donald
Trump is the last thing I wanted to write about tonight. He has been in
office some 100+ days and I am sick of him. I don't like to talk about
him. I don't like to think of him. He makes me want to barf. As I
pondered my latest blog post, I had decided to avoid Trump and write
instead about another national security controversy that took place in
1953. I published several academic papers about Harry Dexter White
some 20 years ago. Instead of being a chronic complainer, I was going
to assume the role of thoughtful historian. But that was before
Tuesday's bombshell, the President's decision to fire FBI Director
James Comey. It's stunning news that echoes back to the Saturday Night
Massacre of October 1973. To be fair, the firing of Comey is not a
mirror image of President Nixon's firing of Watergate Special
Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
One difference is that Nixon was threatening to ignore a federal court
order. Comey's investigation into Russian interference in last year's
presidential election had not reached that stage - yet. (However, CNN
reported this evening that the FBI has issued its first grand jury subpoenas
in its Russian investigation.) An even bigger difference has to do with
the composition of the American government. The Democrats controlled
both houses of Congress in 1973. Nixon's resignation came after it was
apparent that Congress was ready to remove him from office. Today's
reality is that the Republicans control the executive and legislative
branches. Impeaching The Donald in 2017 is a much taller hurdle to
clear. So, once again, I find myself writing about Donald Trump - the
lying, morally corrupt sexual offender who has embraced America's
enemies, dissed America's friends, trashed the First Amendment,
undermined the nation's courts and pretty much crapped on the concept
of public discourse in a civil society. I don't want to overreact. But
today's shocking episode sure feels like our country has reached a
crossroads. I can't dismiss the Comey firing as "just politics."
If it looks like a cover-up, smells like a cover-up and sounds like a
cover-up - it's a cover-up.
And if the thought of American armed forces under the control of a
mentally unstable man with the maturity and vocabulary of a seventh
grader doesn't give you the jitters, nothing will. My best hope is that
the Comey firing will have the same effect as the Saturday Night
Massacre. Perhaps now, as was the case nearly 44 years ago, an
ethically challenged President has unleashed forces that he can't
control and will eventually drive him from office. Storm clouds are
gathering. We have some rough sailing ahead.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 15 -- 100 Days April 29, 2017
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These are words you haven't heard me say very often - President Trump
is right. He is correct when he says that judging a president by his or
her first 100 days in office is arbitrary and foolish. However, it was
candidate Donald Trump who promised that he would make America great
within 100 days of taking the presidential oath. He promised. But like
so many alternate facts that have permeated this cesspool of an
administration, his words have been meaningless. Granted, there have
been two successes - getting his Supreme Court nominee confirmed and
retaliating against Syria's use of chemical weapons. However, most of
the other so-called successes he claims were either superficial, a
result of things his predecessor started or long-planned actions
carried out by others. So what has our 45th president actually
accomplished? It's an impressive list. He has demonstrably lied earlier
and more often than any president in U.S. history. He couldn't repeal
Obamacare as quickly as he said he would. And the health care
legislation that is currently being hammered out would strip health
insurance coverage from millions and weaken it for millions others -
things he promised wouldn't happen. His tax plan - if that's what you
can call a one-page list of bullet points - would explode the nation's
already burgeoning debt while rewarding rich folks like himself. He is
reversing or killing environmental regulations that actually improved
the quality of our air and water. In foreign policy, he has embraced
our enemies and disrespected our friends. His careless rhetoric has
unnecessarily added tension to an already volatile situation involving
North Korea. Oh, lest we forget, there's strong evidence to suggest
that Trump and his associates engaged in treason during the campaign.
After criticizing his predecessor for an occasional game of golf, Trump
has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars running down to Florida
practically every weekend so he can hit the links at his so-called
"Winter White House." He has brought into government a cadre of
bottom-feeders such as Michael Flynn, Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and
Steve Bannon. For a guy who says he wants to run government like a
business, he has permitted a level of incompetence that no
self-respecting business executive would tolerate. (But then again, who
said Trump was a self-respecting business executive?) Hell, this
president couldn't even organize the White House Easter Egg Hunt. It's
no wonder this guy has the lowest 100-day approval rating since the
Second World War. To top it off, Trump told an interviewer this week
that being president was much harder than he thought it would be. Of
course it is. That's what we get when we hire an apprentice to do a
president's job.
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 14 -- Birdageddon April 22, 2017
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Can
you smell it? The scent of war is in the air. How it will end? No one
knows. The outcome is literally up in the air. There have been border
skirmishes for years. But lately, the enemy has crosses the line.
By now, I suppose you are saying to yourself "what war?" I have to
admit, the fake news media have ignored it. But let me tell you, the
fate of democracy rests in the balance. The flash point came last week,
when the Bluebirds returned to Carver Lane to nest in Maureen's very
special Bluebird house. Suddenly, the Sparrows appeared. For those of you who are ornithologically challenged, Bluebirds are like Canada, the neighbors you like. (Not to be confused with Blue Jays, a Canadian baseball team I detest.) Sparrows are the Empire's stormtroopers,
mean-spirited snots up to no good. The Sparrows like to takeover the
Bluebirds habitat, make it their own and often kill off the Bluebird
offspring in the process - a true avian atrocity. Sparrows usually have
their way - until now. My wife Maureen has become the Bluebird Avenger.
She hasn't caused any physical harm to the winged intruders - yet. But
she sits in her recliner with a monocular scoping out the Bluebird
house. When a Sparrow arrives in forbidden territory, she will spring
from her roost, charge into the back yard and shoo the enemy away.
Trust me, hell hath no fury like an Irish woman.
During the last few days, the Bluebird Avenger has had her own wings
clipped by minor surgery. So it is up to me to get up, run into the
yard and shout "away, away you bird bastards!!!" (Well, at least until
the neighbors complained.) Keep in mind that the only birds I really
care about are Orioles, Ravens and Jayhawks. For now, the Bluebirds
seem to have the upper hand, er, wing. But it is as fragile a truce as
our President's ego. So, if you travel to west Lawrence in in the fair
state of Kansas, please be aware that you are entering a war zone. Of
course, Lawrencians have survived other conflicts, including Quantrill's Raid and a Russian nuclear attack. But this is different. This is Birdageddon! However, no need to hide in your nest. My money is on the Irish woman!
ponse
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 13 -- Easter's Lost Message April 16, 2017
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The
story of Easter is about sacrifice and spiritual rebirth - two things
that this country is in short supply of these days. Whether that
sacrifice comes in the form of the deprivation of luxuries, working
harder without additional compensation or the willful giving of
something of value with no expectation of reciprocity, sacrifice no
longer appears to be a part of the American lexicon. How else can you
explain the insatiable desire of our politicians to cut taxes without
regard to the social harm it brings? We complain about the quality of
education and then, in the same breath, we slash spending on schools
and teachers out of the belief that our taxes are too high. Our roads
and bridges are in need of repair, but lawmakers don't dare raise
gasoline taxes out of fear of retribution from voting motorists. And
when it comes to the principles upon which our nation was founded, we
find ourselves spiritually exhausted. Practically every poll taken says
we don't believe in public institutions such as our government, our
courts, our police and even our churches. The loss of faith in those
institutions may be directed more to the people who run them than the
ideas upon which they were founded. However, even the basic principles
of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, equality and
self-determination no longer seem to be the moral imperatives they once
were. Maybe that explains how people who consider themselves persons of
faith could praise God in one moment and vote for a morally bankrupt
politician like Donald Trump in the next. And that's why some are quick
to surrender privacy rights in the name of security. This is not to say
that America hasn't always found itself working at cross-purposes. The
fact is that democracy is messy. It has always been a delicate balance
between protecting our self-interests while considering the greater
good. Those two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Foreign aid and
environmental protection laws are just two examples of where
self-interest and the greater good are in concert. There have been
times when we, as a nation, stood tall in defense of human rights. But
now we talk about refusing access to America for refugees fleeing
oppression. In today's hyper-political climate, we seem to have lost
the word compromise from our
vocabulary. Change frightens us. We are paralyzed by our insatiable
search for personal advantage. We have lost our way. These are things
to ponder during this season when many celebrate the greatest sacrifice
of all.
ponseXrs
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 12 -- Immoral and Amoral April 4, 2017
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Let's look at today's headlines. President Trump yesterday welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who the website Vox
described as "the brutal military dictator who overthrew his country’s
democratically elected president in a 2013 coup, killed more than 800
protesters in a single day, and has imprisoned tens of thousands of
dissidents since he took power." To put this in perspective, Trump
embraced a brutal dictator that the Obama administration had shunned
just days after he was publicly cool toward German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, one of the nation's strongest and most reliable allies.
Meanwhile, out of the blue, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has
announced that he wants to review consent decrees the Justice
Department has made with police departments across America - despite
the fact that these decrees were the result of well-documented abuses
of power and violations of individuals' constitutional rights.
According to the New York Times,
"In a memorandum dated March 31 and made public Monday, the attorney
general directed his staff to look at whether law enforcement programs
adhere to principles put forth by the Trump administration, including
one declaring that 'the individual misdeeds of bad actors should not
impugn' the work police officers perform 'in keeping American
communities safe.'" The Trump Justice Department wants to delay the
implementation of a settlement agreement with the Baltimore Police
Department - despite the fact that Baltimore's mayor and police chief don't want the delay. And just in case this administration hasn't made its position clear, National Public Radio
has reported that Trump and his Secretary of State have decided that it
is not in the nation's best interests to promote human rights. Of
course, this follows the President's recent claim that Russia's
approach to human rights has the moral equivalence of this nation's. So, what does this all mean? By his own words, we know that Donald Trump is immoral. These and other events also suggest that Trump is amoral, which Merriam-Webster
defines as "having or showing no concern about whether behavior is
morally right or wrong." One would think this would come as a surprise
to the evangelical community that shockingly supported
Trump's candidacy during November's election. As one who believes that
how we act upon our values defines us as a people, the trajectory of
this immoral and amoral government is a cause for grave concern. In a
democracy, we elect our leaders to act in our name. But the only name
that Trump cares about is his own. This evidence suggests that any
reasonable American with any level of integrity should know that the
Trump brand of morality is not one we should embrace.
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 11 -- Maryland, My Maryland March 25, 2017
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In the moments after the Baltimore Ravens squeezed out a hold-your-breath Super Bowl victory in February 2013, quarterback Joe Flacco said,
"We don't make it easy, do we?" Then he added, "We are just like the
city of Baltimore." Joe Cool may not have known it, but his
statement was historically accurate. Lord Baltimore's namesake city and
the colony he founded 383 years ago today never seemed to follow the
easy path. Maryland and its people have been defined by overcoming
adversity. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, risked everything
when he went against the tide in Protestant England to convert to
Catholicism. On his deathbed, he was granted a royal charter to
establish a New World colony based on religious tolerance. The Mary
Land colony was nestled between two aggressive and often-belligerent
neighbors, Virginia and Pennsylvania. A power struggle between Patriots
and Loyalists made Maryland the last colony to sign off on a
Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress in 1776.
Against all odds, stubborn Marylanders turned the tide against the
mighty British fleet in the Battle of Fort McHenry
in September 1814. Despite being a slave state with decided Southern
leanings, Maryland chose to stick with the North in 1861 - a decision
that went a long way toward preserving the Union. The bloodiest battle
in American history was fought near Sharpsburg in September 1862 -- and cleared the way for President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The 29th Infantry Division based at Fort Meade was the only National Guard unit to participate in the D-Day
invasion of Normandy in June 1944. In the early 1970s, Baltimore was
dreary and decaying metropolis. However, with enlightened political
leadership and a surge of civic pride, Baltimore experienced a renaissance
during the next decade that made it a model for other American cities.
After decades of benign neglect and unchecked pollution, the state's
greatest treasure, Chesapeake Bay,
is beginning to rally from the brink of extinction. (But there's still
a lot of work to do.) It's the state that brought us Edgar Allan Poe,
H.L. Mencken, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall,
Nancy Pelosi, Ogden Nash, Upton Sinclair, Nora Roberts, Cab Calloway,
Billie Holiday, Frank Zappa, Goldie Hahn, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Babe
Ruth, Bill Belichick, Kevin Durant, Cal Ripken, Lefty Grove, Jimmy
Foxx, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Michael Phelps, Pete Sampras, Steven
Decatur, Francis Scott Key, Jim Henson, Kermit the Frog -- and me.
Tired of writing about the sorry state of affairs in Washington and
Topeka, I've decided to take this Maryland Day to honor the land of my
birth. It's been 43 years since I called the Free State (or Old Line
State) my home. But not a day goes by without me thinking of where I
was born and raised, went to school and forged most of the values I
live by today. And while our state song is sung to the same tune as "Oh Christmas Tree," we Marylanders take pride in having the coolest state flag. I'll bet you didn't know that our official state sport is jousting. Lacrosse is Maryland's official team sport. And the official state reptile? Come on, make a guess. After 383 years, she's still going strong. Happy birthday, Maryland, my Maryland!
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 10 -- Ten Years March 17, 2017
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February
22, 1974, was a day that changed my life. Late on a dreary, rainy
Friday afternoon, I arrived in the tiny western Kentucky town of
Hawesville. My VW bug was packed with all my worldly belongings. I had
come to this remote corner of America to begin my first post-college
job as an announcer and ad salesman for a small 500-watt daytime radio
station. (Believe me, they don't get any smaller than that.) I had
taken the job over the telephone - site unseen. The country was in the
midst of a recession and it was the only job offer I had gotten. It was
like I had landed on the dark side of the moon. I didn't know what to
think of this rundown river town nor of its tiny radio station located
in an old wooden-frame house. However, once I got to meet the radio
station folks who would become my defacto family, I began to feel more
at ease. The station manager took us all out to eat at "The Captain's
Table," a small restuarant just across from the Hancock County
Courthouse. That was when my world turned on a dime. A beautiful,
smiling young waitress wearing wire frame glasses, a white dress and
blue stockings walked into my life. Her name was Jan Marie Fillman and
exactly 18 months and one day later, she became my wife. And what a
life we had together. Like any couple, there were both good times and
bad. Thankfully, the good outnumbered the bad many, many times over.
Life with Jan was more than an adventure, it was a pleasure cruise. She
was very smart -- a lot smarter than I. However, Jan had her
"ditsy" and silly moments that made us both laugh. For example, when I
took that Iowa-born girl to see the ocean for the first time in her
life, she said "The beach would be great if it wasn't so sandy." How
could you not fall in love with woman like that? As great a wife as she
was, she proved to be an even better mother. Jan was devoted to our
daughter. I know that she would be proud of the woman and wife our
daughter has become. Jan passed away with no warning 10 years ago
today, March 17, 2007. While the passage of time has allowed me to pick
up the pieces and begin a new life, thoughts of Jan will remain with me
until I take my last breath. As is often true with widows and widowers,
the memory of that tragic day dominated my thoughts for a long time. My
grief knew no bounds. Eventually, those dark thoughts were crowded out
by powerful remembrances of our joyous times together. They reminded me
to embrace life as Jan had. I think of her every day. And now, when I
do, I smile. I try to honor her memory by living life to its fullest.
Which is why on this, the 10th anniversary of the worst day of my life,
I choose to honor a special woman by focusing on that precious day in
February 1974 -- A day when my life and her love became one.
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 9 -- We Still Like Ike March 4, 2017
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When
he left office in January 1961, historians were quick to label Dwight
David Eisenhower as a caretaker president. The conventional wisdom was
that grandfatherly Ike governed during a period when America finally
got a chance to catch its collective breath after the the crisis-filled
Depression, World War II and Korean conflict years. Eisenhower
certainly suffered in comparison to the youthful and dynamic John
Kennedy who succeeded him in the White House. The inevitable
revaluation of the Eisenhower years came. As more and more documents
from his administration became available for public view, a new image
of Ike emerged. Historian Fred Greenststein's The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader
presented Eisenhower as a skilled, behind-the-scenes manager who
exerted far more influence than he had been given credit. For example,
Greenstein noted that Eisenhower worked quietly behind-the-scenes to
undermine fellow Republican and communist witch hunter Joseph
McCarthy. While the 1950s are seen fondly as a relatively quiet
period in world history, our view of that time might have been much
different if Eisenhower had not skillfully defused a series of
international incidents that could have easily escalated into war.
Shortly after taking office, the former military leader became the
nation's most visible peace advocate. In a speech known as "A Chance for Peace,"
Eisenhower told a gathering of newspaper editors that "Every gun that
is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the
final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who
are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money
alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its
scientists, the hopes of its children." Often accused of being slow on
civil rights, it was Eisenhower who sent troops into Little Rock,
Arkansas, to enforce a federal court school desegregation order.
Although Kennedy is often referred to as the first television
president, I argued in a 1996 paper in American Journalism
that it was Eisenhower who first used televised news conferences to
remove restrictions on White House coverage. Up until 1954, journalists
covering presidential press conferences were not allowed to directly
quote the President. Eisenhower removed those restrictions as a means
of speaking directly to the American people. When Eisenhower left
office in January 1961, the former general is remembered for his
farewell address warning the nation of the growing influence of the military-industrial complex. It is not surprising to me that a recent C-SPAN poll of presidential historians
moved Ike up to fifth place on a list of the greatest presidents.
After a half-century of Watergate, Vietnam, Iran-Contra, Monica
Lewinski, missing weapons of mass destruction, ISIS and the meltdown of
civility in government, the calm reassuring leadership of Dwight
Eisenhower looks pretty good. That's why more than 60 years after he
left office, America continues to like Ike.
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 8 -- Lip-Service Liberty February 23, 2017
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My
mother's family arrived in America before the Revolution. My father's
family came to these shores during the Industrial Revolution. That, in
essence, is the American story: We all came from somewhere else. Most
immigrants come to America with little more than a dream of building a
better life. Even the President's mother was an immigrant. They
don't come here looking for welfare or hand-outs. They want to
work and become a part of the fabric of the greatest nation on earth.
They believe in America's most basic values of "life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness." In our most sacred founding document, we proudly
proclaimed that "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men
are
created equal." The United States of America is a proud nation based on
natural laws firmly rooted with our Constitution. Yet there millions
of us who wear these liberties as if they are a cloak of armor designed
to protect us from those seeking to share in them. Many of my fellow
citizens want to deny safe harbor to refugees fleeing from deadly and
chaotic conditions. We fear that immigrants will take away American
jobs -- despite the fact that they tend to fill the kind of jobs that
most Americans don't want. We fear they will bring terrorism to
our shores - forgetting that most of the acts of terrorism we have experienced
since 9/11 have been home-grown. We want to build a wall - something
rich in irony considering that one of this country's greatest victories
came with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The sad truth is that when it
comes to American values and liberties, many of us give them little
more than lip-service. When we put our hands over our hearts and
declare that we are "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all," we don't really mean it. Many of us who claim to
be devoutly religious fail to heed the words of the Bible, Leviticus
19:33-34: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall
not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as
the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were
strangers.” Like it or not, this is a nation of immigrants. We
have benefited from the migration of people fleeing oppression and
seeking a better life. It is the blending of cultures and traditions
that have made the American experience what Ronald Reagan once called
"a shining city on a hill." Just look at the University of
Kansas journalism faculty of which I am a
member. It would be only a shadow of what it is without the blending of
great minds from Romania, Poland, Corsica, Vietnam, South Korea and
Taiwan. It is plain to me that the immigration issue is a straw man
politicians have constructed to shroud their own lack of imagination
and substance. If these so-called government leaders really want to do
their jobs, then they should start by folllowing the words of their
oath of office in which they promised "to preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution of the United States."
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 7 -- On The Road To Impeachment February 15, 2017
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Donald Trump is the ringmaster of a three-ring circus from hell. Just
like the much-feared Chinese water torture, we are seeing a
constant drip, drip, drip of chaos coming out of his White House. Every
day, a new disaster. Every day, a new blunder. And every day, a new
gaggle of lies from the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.
In just the last 48 hours, Trump has had to fire his national security
adviser because he engaged in diplomatic negotiations with the Russians
before the inauguration and then lied about it. That's a violation of
the Logan Act,
a federal law that levies fines and/or imprisonment to unauthorized
citizens who negotiate with foreign governments. Yesterday, the New York Times
reported that there's evidence that high-level officials in the Trump
campaign had extensive contact with Russian intelligence officers
during the presidential campaign. That's an act of treason. And today,
Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor has withdrawn his name from
consideration after it surfaced that he is a tax-evader and a
wife-beater. Nominating Andrew Puzder was
an act of sheer stupidity. It took six years for Richard Nixon's lies
to catch up with him. For Trump, it may be less than six months. Now,
let's be realistic. It is not likely that Republicans will
abandon Trump overnight. They've got too much skin in the game. While Gallup
says Trump's overall approval rating is only 41 percent, his approval
among Republicans is around 90 percent. Until that figure drops below
60 percent, its not likely that enough Republicans in the House would
abandon him to ensure that Trump will be impeached. However, the allegations of Trump's involvement with the Russians are serious - even
more serious than anything Nixon faced. Again, we are talking about treason. Should
definitive evidence surface that Trump conspired with the Russians to
influence the election - and I think there's a high likelihood
that it will - then his support among the GOP will collapse like a house of cards.
And why am I so certain that this evidence will come forward? Let's
just say it is not nice to denigrate the intelligence community.
Eventually, there will come a point when conservatives, evangelicals
and others who blindly supported him will no longer be willing to
wallow with him in the swamp of his own making. We have already seen
some Republicans beginning to distance themselves from this train wreck
of a presidency - one that's less than one-month old. At first, I
thought an early end to the Trump presidency was a fantasy.
However, I am beginning to think that this may be the week that started
this nation down the slow and painful road to impeachment.
ponseXrsøtmade
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 6 -- An Appeal To Trump Voters February 7, 2017
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Permit
me to address my comments to the people who voted for President Trump.
There were a lot of them. No, not a majority, but enough to have earned
a victory in the Electoral College. To my friends, the supporters of
Donald Trump: I understand why you voted for him. You were
frustrated and you wanted to shake things up in Washington.
Congratulations, he has done that. But here's the worry in all of this:
There hasn't been a single day since he took the oath of office that
the President hasn't lied to you. I'm not talking about a difference of
opinion where the facts are open to varied interpretations. I'm talking
about lying - a deliberate release of information one can easily verify
as being false with irrefutable facts. It started on day one, when Mr.
Trump claimed his inaugural crowd was the largest ever. There was
pictorial evidence and statistical evidence from the Washington Metro
system that disproved his claim. Of course, who really gives a flying
flip about such an inconsequential issue? Unfortunately, it set a
pattern that continues today. The latest: Media are under-reporting
terrorist attacks. With the exception of Kellyanne Conway's mythical
"Bowling Green massacre," that's just not true. And none of the attacks
that have happened in the United States would have been averted by the
Trump immigration ban. As bad as all of that is, here's the worst part.
Despite being caught in easily refutable lies, this President and his
staff repeatedly double-down on the lies. They offer what they call
"alternative facts," which themselves are, by their very nature, lies.
Why does he do this? I'll admit up-front that what I am about to
say is not a fact, but is a well-considered opinion. I think he
continues to lie to the people - especially his own supporters -
because he thinks are you stupid. Trump believes that if he tells the
lie often enough and loud enough you will accept it. Your natural
distrust of the media - which is not totally undeserved - helps fuel
his phony fables. But here's the thing: If a reporter is caught in a
lie, more times than not, the reporter is fired. Now that Trump is
President, he feels as if there are no consequences for repeatably
disceiving the American people. But that's the biggest lie of all. When
you, the voters who gave their trust to a man who has repeatedly
treated it as if it is a box of kitty litter, come to realize that
Trump is a pathological liar who is neither a conservative nor a
Republican, the end of his reign of disruption will begin. When that
happens, the adults in Washington will set the American nation back on
a righteous and moral course. Of course, that won't happen until you
decide that you deserve better than what you've received.
ponseXrsøt
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 5 -- Only 207 Weeks to Go January 26, 2017
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You
have to hand it to President Trump. His first week in office has been
the worst in the history of the presidency since William Henry
Harrison. If you don't remember Old Tippecanoe, he is the chief
executive who gave a two-hour speech in March without a topcoat, caught
pneumonia and died 28 days later. My criticism of Trump has nothing to
do the new policies he is putting into place. After all, elections have
consequences and he won. There are many people who like what he's doing
- although, based on the popular vote, those folks are probably in the
minority. No, my criticism has to do with the daily series of unforced
errors and outright lies emanating from the White House. When the media
pointed out that Trump's inaugural crowds where considerably smaller
than Obama's, Old Orange Top went ballistic. He sent out his pitiful
press secretary to berate the media for lying. When the media refuted
his provable falsehoods with well documented facts, what did the Trump
administration do? It double-down on the lies and invented a new
Orwellian term, "alternative facts." And, oh, by the way, why did he
choose to make the size of of his inaugural crowds and issue in the
first place? That's because size matters to Thin-Skin-Donny. Of course,
this was just one of several first-week blunders by the Gang That
Couldn't Shoot Straight. He's questioning the veracity of his own
election by saying "millions" of illegal voters cast ballots for
Hillary Clinton - thus denying his victory in the popular vote. Of
course, he didn't offer even a nugget of evidence to support his
preposterous claim. Even Republicans are shaking their heads in
disbelief. Today, he managed to piss-off the Mexican President over the
ridiculous claim that Mexico will pay for his $15 billion wall. Trump
even suggested that he would impose tariffs on goods imported from
Mexico. Doesn't Donald know that Mexico is the United States' largest
trading partner? And who does he think will really
end up paying for his wall? If you don't know, just look in the mirror.
And let's not forget that Trump also suggested in an interview this
week that he favors bringing back torture as a tool against terrorists.
Forget the morality of it. Torture is a violation of U.S. and
international law. Even if President Waterboard wasn't serious, his
very words have undermined the moral authority of the United States.
Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s chief White House strategist and
the latest incarnation of the late Ron Ziegler, today told called the
news media "an opposition party" and told reporters to keep their
mouths shut. (Apparently someone forgot to tell Bannon that this isn't
1938 and he doesn't live in Berlin.) And this was just Week One. There
are 207 weeks left in his term of office -- unless, of course, he is
impeached. One can only dream.
ponseXrsøt
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 4 -- A Distant Inaugural January 18, 2017
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My
late wife Jan and I embarked on an adventure of a lifetime 40 years ago
today. We left our home in Milledgeville, Georgia, during a snowstorm
and
drove eight or nine hours north to Washington, D.C., to attend the
presidential inauguration of Jimmy Carter. I had become acquainted with
the former Georgia governor while serving as the news director of his
hometown radio station. I had interviewed him and his wife several
times during the period leading up to his successful run for the
presidency. Jan and I were amazed when we received a formal invitation
to attend the inauguration. Keep in mind that in 1977 I was only 24
years-old and Jan was barely 20. If memory serves me correctly, I was
making a whopping $8,000 a year back then. Needless to say, to be
invited to an inauguration was what Georgia folks called "pretty high
cotton" for a couple of kids. We almost missed the swearing-in - a D.C
Transit bus that was supposed to take us to the ceremony from L'Enfant
Plaza never showed up. Jan and I shared a last-minute taxi with a
couple from New York. We didn't have reserved seating for the ceremony,
so we stood in the snow on the east front of the Capitol - I believe
that was the last time the ceremony was held in that location. But we
did have an invitation for that evening's Georgia Ball at Washington's
National Guard Armory. Jan borrowed a gown from her mother and I rented
a blue velvet tuxedo. It's a shame that we don't have any pictures of
just how damn good we looked that night. In addition to appearances by
the newly sworn-in President and Vice President, we got to listen and
dance to an eclectic trio of bands: The Charlie Daniels Band, The
Marshall Tucker Band and Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians. It was a
magical night and, in a sense, a magical time. It was very different
than the feeling around this week's inaugural of Donald Trump. Even
though I had voted for Carter's opponent in the election, the
inauguration of Jimmy Carter felt like the nation was getting a fresh
start after years of Vietnam and Watergate. Of course, that feeling
didn't last forever. But for a brief period, the nation was uniting
behind its newly-minted president and my wife and I had our shining
moment of cutting the rug among Washington's power elite.
ponseXrsø
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 3 -- The Greatest Threat January 16, 2017
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It
has been 24 years since the United States has had a peaceful transition
of power. In January 1993, President George H.W. Bush handed the reins
of the government to President-elect Bill Clinton. Clinton had defeated
Bush in the November general election. Even though Clinton had neither
the experience nor the moral standing of his predecessor, no one
questioned his legitimacy as president. Americans held their heads high
proclaiming that the nation's two-century long tradition of accepting
the will of the electorate and giving support to the new leader is an
example for the world to follow. But do we feel that way now? Clinton
was reelected in 1996, meaning there was no transition. In 2000, an
electoral deadlock was ultimately decided five weeks later by the
Supreme Court. Some democrats claimed Bush's presidency was
illegitimate. After a close vote in Ohio, they renewed that claim after
the 2004 election. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and 2012, many
republicans claimed that he wasn't an American citizen, making him
ineligible for the office. As we know, one of the most vocal proponents
of the so-called birther movement was Donald Trump, the man who
succeeds Obama as president on Friday. Even after he acknowledged the
legitimacy of the Obama presidency, he famously proclaimed in one of
last fall's presidential debates that he would withhold judgment on the
legitimacy of the election until after he had seen the results. And now
there are people saying that Trump's election is illegitimate because
of the intervention of Russian hackers - and presumably the Putin
government - into the American election. As of right now, there is no
evidence to suggest that Trump's campaign collaborated with the
Russians. If that remains the case, then our beef is with the Russians,
not Trump. However, if the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to
defeat Hillary Clinton, that's another thing. In that case, both Trump
and Vice President Mike Pence should be impeached. Until then,
Americans need to move on. Ironically, that includes the limpid
liberals at MoveOn.org. Donald Trump is not the greatest threat to
American democracy. Nor are the Russians. The greatest threat to
American democracy is the cynicism that has for nearly a generation
questioned the legitimacy of our presidential elections. That is a
cancer that left unchecked could ultimately lead to either a voluntary
or violent abandonment of the democratic processes we hold dear. And we
would have no one to blame but ourselves.
ponseXrsø
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 2 -- Obama's Symbolic Presidency January 10, 2017
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President
Barack Obama tonight will give his farewell address in his adopted
hometown, Chicago. Farewell addresses are not new - George
Washington gave the first farewell address
in 1796. In advice we would have been well served to have followed,
Washington cautioned against partisanship that divides the nation. Most
presidential farewells are self-serving, last-ditch attempts at
defining a legacy. Aside from Washington's address, only one other
farewell has been particularly noteworthy. In January 1961, President
Dwight Eisenhower used his speech
of "farewell and leave-taking" to warn of the dangers of the growing
"military industrial complex." Will tonight's Obama address achieve the
status of Washington's or Eisenhower's farewells? Because of this
particular president's eloquence and historical significance, there's a
chance that it will. However, given the nation's caustic political
environment, it is doubtful that Obama's remarks will have a lasting
impact. It's more likely that any significance given these remarks will
be assigned by historians in years to come. That, in many ways, sums up
the Obama presidency. The election of the first African-American
president was an important moment in this nation's political life. In
terms of moral leadership, he deserves high marks. This moral
leadership was never more evident than in the wake of the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting. The president hit the right note
in expressing his grief and outrage. Unfortunately, the Republican
majority and the gun lobby successfully ignore the national outrage and
blocked any meaningful gun control reforms. And that was the case with
almost every proposal President Obama offered: A Republican roadblock
that stalemated government. In the few areas where Obama was successful
- most notably Obamacare - the GOP is promising to dismantle them under
the Trump administration. Obama's administration has been scandal-free - not necessarily a high bar of achievement, but an achievement anyway. Some
criticism of Obama is justified. He invited disaster when he drew his
proverbial "red line in the sand" in Syria and did nothing once it was
crossed. As recently stated in this space, his actions toward Israel
have been justified, but clumsy and heavy-handed (Volume 10 No. 48).
Many of the elements of the nation's economic recovery and the
withdrawal of troops from Iraq were put into place by his predecessor.
Overall, as a president, husband and father, Barack Obama has earned the praise and respect of his country. I'd
give the 44th president an "A+" for effort, but a "C-" for execution.
He never achieved his full potential. However, it is important to note
that no president ever has and probably ever will. And when one
considers the unreasonable expectations that accompanied Obama into the
Oval Office, no one should not be surprised that he did not meet them.
Obama's greatest legacy is that he has become an embodiment of the
American dream; that hard work, perseverance and a moral character can
lead to a desired result, no matter how improbable. In absence of real
accomplishments, President Obama's symbolic leadership was
inspirational and surely will be missed.
ponseXrsø
That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 11 No. 1 -- We Asked For It January 1, 2017
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America
today enters a new year with the highest level of anxiety that I can
remember within my lifetime. It's not about the economy: The Gallup
Poll says investor confidence today is higher than at any time since the Great Recession. As he leaves office, President Obama's approval rating is
in the mid-50s, unheard of in recent decades. The crime rate is down.
ISIS is on the decline. Despite the good news, the nation enters the
new year deeply divided.
And we are not really sure where we are going. On January 20, the
ship-of-state will have new captain at its helm, Donald J. Trump. Even
Trump supporters are not exactly sure about the nation's future
direction. Not withstanding Trump's Electoral College triumph, the fact
remains that a significant majority of voters in last November's
election voted for somebody else. And many of those who voted for the
New York entrepreneur did so while holding their nose. And since the
election, the President-elect has behaved in an unconventional and erratic
manner. By all indications, Trump exemplifies many of the traits
conservative Republicans hate. He's a RINO - Republican in name only.
Who really knows what this guy believes? There's a great fear that the
people who actually pulled the lever for Trump on November 8 will
learn the true meaning behind the caution "be careful what you ask for
- you may get it." Here, in Kansas, we are anxiously waiting to see
what happens in Topeka. Will Governor Brownback resign to join the
Trump Administration? A lot of people - many of them Republican legislators - are hoping he will get the call. And will Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, our xenophobic
elections monitor, be asked to join the Trump team? Again, lots of
Kansans are lighting candles and praying for a Kobach-free Kansas. (One
again, "be careful of what you ask for.") The other big question coming
out of Topeka is whether the shellacking conservatives suffered in the
recent legislative elections will be enough to get them to steer the
Sunflower ship-of-state out of the financial minefield into which
Governor Brownback has driven it. There's also uncertainty about the
leadership at the University of Kansas, with its chancellor planning to
retire at the end of the school year. The Board of Regents just
appointed a search committee. One hopes it will do a good job. Of course, this is the same group that imposed an unconstitutional social media policy upon the state's universities. And if that's not enough, thanks to the wisdom of Kansas legislators, it will be lawful to carry concealed weapons
onto Kansas college campuses starting July 1. The theory is that this
policy will make college campuses safer. Let's hope they are right.
(Again, "be careful what you ask for.") There are just so many unknowns
going into 2017 that only a fool or a paid political pundit would be
silly enough to predict the future. Looking ahead one year to start of
2018, will we look back and see 2017 as a good year or a bad year? One
thing is for certain: Many of us will get what we deserve. After all,
we asked for it.
ponseXrsø
That's it for now. Happy New Year. Fear the Turtle.
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