This Trump critic is no ‘Deep State’ monster

Let’s be clear about John Bolton, who he is and the governing philosophy he represents.

The former national security adviser for Donald John Trump has written a book that shreds the president, peels the bark away from him. “The Room Where it Happened” is a memoir that tells a grim story of Donald Trump’s ignorance, his self-serving approach to government and the corruption that runs rampant through his administration.

Bolton is a hard-liner. He is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican foreign policy operative. He broke with Trump over policy differences, in that Bolton took a tougher stance against Iran, Russia and Syria than Trump.

This is my way of saying that John Bolton is not some squishy liberal “Deep State” operative, meaning that Trump cannot possibly label him as a tool for those who believe Trump poses a threat to that Deep State cabal that seeks to control the world.

All of this makes his contentions in the book all the more remarkable. He says Trump asked China for re-election help; he said the Saudi role in the murder of a Washington Post columnist took attention away from Ivanka Trump, who was facing a firestorm of her own; he acknowledges that Trump sought a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for weapons sent by the United States to help Ukraine fight Russia-backed rebels.

Were this coming from a lefty, Trump might be able to make hay over the source of John Bolton’s criticism. He cannot use that defense. John Bolton instead is a man of high principle who is laying even more bare what we have known all along.

It is that Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.

Bolton spills more beans on Trump … who knew?

As the saying goes: The hits just keep on comin’.

Former national security adviser John Bolton is about to release the contents of a book he has written in which he details how Donald Trump — in Bolton’s view — committed multiple impeachable acts while dealing with foreign leaders.

Gosh! Who would have thought that could happen?

The White House is suing Bolton in seeking to block publication of his book, “The Room Where it Happened,” contending that Bolton is violating national security matters by publishing classified material. Bolton, to no one’s surprise, denies any such claim from the White House.

I’ve never been a Bolton fan. However, I am even less a fan of Donald Trump. So, when Bolton says that Trump curried favor with China to help him win re-election, or that he held up military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Joe Biden, well… I tend to believe him.

Bolton’s memoir is an explosive tome that alleges that Trump is ignorant about foreign policy and that Trump governs my impulse and little else.

Bolton dives straight into the heart of the issues that brought about Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives, namely the Ukraine matter and Trump seeking a favor from the Ukrainian president: Would he launch an investigation into Joe Biden before the United States would send Ukraine missiles to help fight the Russia-backed rebels fighting against the Ukrainian government?

Of course, in many respects this memoir is a bit anti-climactic. Many of us knew already what Bolton was going to say in the book. Congressional Democrats wanted Bolton to testify during the impeachment inquiry and then in the Senate trial that eventually acquitted Trump. Bolton balked. We didn’t hear from him. Until now.

Then again, it’s not as if Bolton’s testimony during the impeachment inquiry and trial would have changed any minds. It’s doubtful any minds will be changed even now.

I find it ridiculous — and certainly not funny — that Donald Trump would seek to block publication of this memoir on some phony notion of leaking “classified material.” Trump instead appears frightened by the prospect of a once-trusted national security aide exposing him for what many of us know already.

That the president is a dangerous buffoon.

Ex-cop faces some serious prison time

I’ve seen the video. You have, too. We’ve all seen it. The video is stomach-churning and heartbreaking.

Rayshard Brooks got stopped by Atlanta police. They tested his sobriety after finding him asleep in the drive-through lane at a Wendy’s restaurant.

He took a Breathalyzer test and came up slightly inebriated. He offered to walk to his sister’s house just a few blocks away. The cops sought to handcuff him instead. Brooks resisted; he wrestled a Taser stun gun from one of the cops; he ran away.

The cop — Garrett Rolfe — shot him in the back … twice while he was fleeing, running for his life. Brooks died later in a hospital.

Now the cop is charged with felony murder. This looks like a legitimate accusation to level at the former officer.

The ex-cop is white; Rayshard Brooks was black. It is another case in a distressingly long line of cases involving white police employing the heavy hand of the law on a young African-American. To think, as well, that this case happened while the nation is still reeling from the George Floyd case in Minneapolis, where another white officer snuffed the life out of Floyd, a black man who allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit bill.

Oh, my goodness. When will we learn? Ever?

Gov. Abbott hands out blame, fails to own this crisis

I have some advice for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

You need to stop dishing out blame to others and start taking ownership of the role you have played in the spike in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in the state you were elected to govern.

Abbott decided this week to blame 20-something Texans for refusing to practice social distancing, for failing to wear face masks in public and for being too cavalier about the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic that has swept around the globe.

Here’s a thought for the governor to ponder, although he likely won’t: Greg Abbott has the authority to issue a mandate that requires Texans to wear masks. Yet he doesn’t do that. He chooses to follow the lead of others — namely Donald Trump — who decline to accept fully the gravity of the health crisis at hand.

Having said that I’ll accept that we all deserve to be slapped across the face about this COVID-19. We need to ensure we all take it seriously. I get it. However, I found the tone of Gov. Abbott’s remarks to be disconcerting because they fail to address the role he and other political leaders can play in reducing the threat of this killer virus to Texans.

Isn’t there a saying making the rounds that declares that “We’re all in this together”? If were “in it together,” then we need to share the responsibility in looking for ways to get through this crisis. Assessing blame to just some of us won’t do the job.

‘Cause for celebration’? Really?

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Vice President Mike Pence is proud to wear the dunce cap that designates him as Donald Trump’s No. 1 sycophant.

Take, for instance, what he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, where he declared that “under … Trump’s leadership” the rate of infection by COVID-19 in the United States should be a “cause for celebration.”

Huh? Is the VPOTUS out of his mind? Well, yes. He is!

If he’s going to cite national causes for celebration, he needs to hold up France, Italy and Spain. Those countries have actually “flattened the curve” and are seeing serious declines in the infection and death rates from the pandemic.

How about Greece and Taiwan, which took seriously proactive measures at the onset of the pandemic and have experienced hardly any of the heartache that has occurred in the United States?

Oh, no! The VP has swilled Trump’s pandemic Kool-Aid and declared we should be “celebrating.” Earth to Mikey: We’re getting sicker here; many states are seeing serious increases in infection and hospitalization.

Pence wrote: “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”

No. We are not “winning the fight.”

Flabbergasted at POTUS’s declaration of ‘victory’ against COVID-19

I cannot wrap my arms — let alone my noggin — around the notion that Donald Trump keeps harping on that declares some form of “victory” against the COVID-19 killer virus.

How in the name of medical expertise does this clown get away with making such idiotic declarations we have whipped the virus, that it’s all but gone?

Texas is among more than a dozen states that is seeing a dramatic spike, an increase, in the number of infections. Yet our governor, Republican Greg Abbott, says he sees no compelling need to put the brakes on the state reopening. Oh, no. Now he’s throwing out blame at 20-somethings for refusing to use proper social distancing methods and declining to wear masks in public for the increase.

Yumpin’ yiminy, man! We aren’t winning anything as it regards this virus. Medical gurus tell us there might be a second “wave” of infection that will make the first wave look like a Scout outing. Our beaches have been declared open and tourists are flocking to the coast with little or zero regard to social distancing “recommendations.” Is it any surprise that we’d see a spike in infection and hospitalization in Texas?

Still, Donald Trump tells us we’re whipping that Bad Boy. His loyal followers believe him! The basis for his victory declaration? He doesn’t have any. He points to his own vacuous skull and says he just knows these things.

No. Donald Trump doesn’t know whether to sh** or shine his shoes.

I think we’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing all along. We’re not going to mingle among crowds. No thanks, Mr. POTUS. You can declare victory to your heartless soul’s content. We cannot believe the words of a pathological liar.

Texas Democrats to ask SCOTUS for help in voting by mail

This is likely a bit of a reach, but perhaps the Texas Democratic Party is heartened by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to include LGBTQ Americans as those who are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Texas Democrats today have asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue of voting by mail, something Democrats want and which Republicans oppose. The high court had been seen by many as a fallback for rigid GOP conservatism; the LGBTQ ruling, though, now suggests there might be a glimmer of independence inside the nine-member Supreme Court.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has put the brakes on a lower court Texas ruling that cleared the way for voting by mail. The Fifth Circuit sided with GOP officials who keep arguing that vote by mail is too fraught with potential corruption, despite claims to the contrary by elections officials in states that have all-mail voting.

At issue is that damn pandemic that is infecting and killing Americans. Democrats are concerned that in-person voting might expose too many Americans to the COVID-19 virus. They want to boost voter turnout by allowing all-mail voting, something Republicans dislike seemingly because it would invite too many anti-Donald Trump voters to cast their ballots for president this fall.

This is no big flash, but I am standing with Democrats on this one. They have reason to be concerned about “voter suppression,” which is being practiced in the guise of protecting us against “rampant voter fraud” that simply doesn’t exist.

Donald Trump is cooking up this excuse because he fears the outcome of an election that produces massive voter turnout. His GOP allies out here in Trump Country are lining up behind him.

Democrats, meanwhile, are turning to the Supreme Court for a decision on the matter. As the Texas Tribune reports, Democrats want the court to rule on a Fifth Circuit “block on a sweeping ruling that would allow all Texas voters who are seeking to avoid becoming infected at in-person polling places to instead vote by mail. Early voting for the July 14 primary runoff election begins on June 29.”

And … yes, this has implications down the road, for the presidential election in November.

‘Defunding’ = ‘reform’

I dislike the phrase “defund the police,” which has become all the rage — pun intended, really — across the nation these days.

Individuals and groups of Americans are angry at police departments over the way many of them treat African-Americans. They contend that the cops are much rougher and tougher on black citizens than they are on white folks.

Indeed, the videos we have seen — such as the George Floyd video in Minneapolis, which has spawned so much of the anger — tell a grim tale of “systemic racism” that many folks believe runs rampant in police departments.

If “defund the police” means “reform the police,” then why not call it what it is … a move to enact fundamental reform of police departments?

I don’t believe these efforts to “defund the police” means that communities will go without police protection. Cities such as Minneapolis, though, are taking gigantic steps toward redirecting police funds to other programs intended to assist communities in need.

My hope for all this anger is to see police departments, even those that haven’t been caught up in the swirl of controversy, enact meaningful reform. By “reform,” I intend to mean that the reforms will produce dramatic improvement in community/police relationships.

Every department, given the tenor of the times and the extreme anger being expressed all across the nation, would do well in this moment to examine carefully how their officers are being trained to respond to incidents involving  everyone they serve. That means black citizens, white citizens, immigrants … you name it.

Are they ensuring even-handed treatment of everyone with whom they come in contact? That is where reforming the police can begin.

Has this medium gotten too ‘negative’? Perhaps, but I’m staying with it

A Facebook acquaintance announced the other day he is taking a break from the social medium.

It’s gotten too negative he says. He is tired of the negativity, so he’s bowing out. Maybe he’ll come back. I know this fellow a bit, although not well. We have a friendly relationship, so I’ll miss his occasional postings.

Am I going to follow suit? Hah! Not even …

I use Facebook — along with other social media — as a vehicle to peddle my blog, which I call High Plains Blogger. I write my blog posts, then send them out along my Facebook network of “friends” and actual friends. Yeah, a lot of my blog posts are political in nature. Yes, too, they contain “negative” content; that’s the nature of politics.

However, I choose to avoid getting too worked up in exchanges with those who disagree with my political musings. I express my thoughts and those musings stand as my comment. If someone wants to disagree with them, that is their call. It is my call as well to let them have their say, given that I already have had my say on issues of the day.

I have been tempted at times to bow out, to step away from Facebook. I enjoy the platform on a personal level as well. I am able to stay current with people I have met along my life’s journey. Some of my several hundred Facebook network members are actual friends. A few of them are really dear friends, folks I have known for a long time or individuals with whom I have forged unique relationships.

There are a number of these individuals who disagree with my political leaning. They express their disagreements on Facebook. Fine. Go for it. I let ’em vent and generally stay silent. What might spur a response would be if they question (a) my faith or (b) my love of country. Neither line of commentary will not stand.

I am going to stay with it. I respect my Facebook acquaintance’s decision to step away. It’s just not for me.

Is health a campaign issue?

Donald John Trump seems to take some measure of joy in poking fun at opponents’ medical health, usually with baseless allegations that they possess limited “stamina” or “mental capacity.”

He did so in 2016 while running against Hillary Clinton; he is likely to do it again in 2020 while campaigning against Joseph Biden.

OK, then. Is it fair to ask whether Donald Trump is in top form?

I ask because of reports that came out of his West Point, N.Y., commencement appearance before graduating U.S. Military Academy cadets. You likely have seen the video of Trump lifting a glass of water to his mouth; he started to hoist the glass with one hand, then had to guide it toward his mouth with both hands. Then came his exit from the podium, down a ramp in which Trump seemed unsure on his feet, walking extra-gingerly.

Do you recall when Trump went to the hospital for an undisclosed matter? He hasn’t spoken publicly about why he showed up for that event; nor has the White House issued a statement. Hmm. Makes me wonder whether Donald Trump is as fit as White House docs have proclaimed him to be.

It also makes me wonder whether Donald Trump is hiding something from the public.

If he is healthy, then there needs to be a complete release of his medical records, replete with exams from physicians who will attest to his good health.

However, if there are medical issues to be revealed, then we need to know that, too.

If Trump is going to keep his medical condition from Americans, then he ought to keep his trap shut about the medical health of his foes.

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