More chaos in looking for FBI boss? No-o-o-o!

What? Do you mean to say that Donald Trump’s search for a new FBI director has become an exercise in chaos and confusion?

Why, I simply cannot believe it.

Actually, of course I can. And I do believe it.

The president likely didn’t have a hiring plan ready to execute when he canned FBI Director James Comey a few weeks ago. Indeed, the director reportedly didn’t even know he was getting fired until he heard something on TV while he was preparing to meet with FBI agents in California. And then, he thought it was a prank, a joke. Well, it damn sure wasn’t a joke.

Now The Hill reports that Trump’s selection and vetting process is turning into another kind of joke.

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/336171-trump-fbi-director-interviews-chaotic-report

The Hill and other media have reported that several candidates have dropped out of the running to replace Comey. Meanwhile, the president’s team reportedly is scrambling to find someone to fill the post much in the manner it is fighting to fill so many other senior positions within the administration.

Indeed, it appears that jobs once thought to be career builders for aspiring public servants now have been seen as career enders.

It well might be that the post of FBI director has joined that dubious roster of government jobs that no one wants.

Indeed, given the chaos throughout the Trump administration we’ve seen to date, who can blame any top-notch law enforcement professional or legal eagle for their reluctance at stepping onto that political minefield?

Mr. President, relationships matter … really, they do

If the president of the United States had any knowledge of diplomacy and geopolitical relationships before he took the oath of office then perhaps he might have established a different record early on in his administration.

Donald Trump had no knowledge of any of it when he became president. He has spent his entire adult life in pursuit of personal enrichment, personal success. He achieved both in huge quantities and as I’ve long believed, one doesn’t accomplish all that he has done by being a nice guy.

That means, to me at least, that he is not wired to work through diplomatic channels.

We are witnessing the consequence of that background in real time as the president bulls his way across the world stage.

His latest stunt was to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. He has enraged virtually the entire world. Why? Well, the entire world — minus Nicaragua and Syria — have signed on to the accord. And until this week, so had the United States of America.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, I suppose. He pledged to “put America first.” His electoral base loves him for that. Trump loved the base back with his decision.

It’s part of a pattern of Trump’s behavior as president. He has scolded allies on three continents. Germany sells “too many cars” to Americans; Mexico is going to “pay for the wall” across our southern border; he spoke about imposing a tariff on Canadian timber imported into the United States; he hung up on a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The president of the United States does not understand, appreciate or comprehend the value of international diplomacy. He appears to govern the greatest nation on Earth as if it’s the biggest business on the planet.

This, I also submit, is going to exact a steep price on America’s standing as the world’s most indispensable nation.

 

Does POTUS believe climate change is a hoax?

Donald J. Trump campaigned for the presidency on the heels of a series of outrageous assertions.

One of them involved climate change.

This individual would travel around the country and declare that climate change is a “hoax” — perpetrated by nations such as China. He would buck the consensus developed by the worldwide scientific community. Many scientists, including more than a few Nobel laureates, have concluded that Earth’s climate is changing, the temperature is warming — and that humankind is largely responsible for the change.

Polar ice caps are shrinking; animal habitats are being threatened; rampant development is ridding the world of millions of acres of forestland; yes, sea levels are rising and vast expanses of coastline around the world are being threatened.

A hoax? I don’t think so.

So the president pulls the United States out of the Paris Accord meant to unite the world’s nations in the fight against the changing climate. He wants to “make America great again.” How does this move accomplish that? By taking the world’s greatest nation out of the global discussion?

The president keeps harping on jobs, how regulations rob Americans of jobs. He never mentions all the jobs being created by the development of alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar and nuclear power.

Trump yaps about bringing back the coal industry, about boosting the production of petroleum. He rolls back environmental regulations with the blessing — and this is hard to stomach — of the Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

And yet, when the media keep asking the president’s representatives about whether he still believes climate change is a hoax, they won’t answer. They hem and haw, they bob and weave, they won’t provide a direct answer to a direct question.

I’ll ask again here: Does the president still insist that all the evidence we are witnessing in real time is a hoax, a figment of our imagination?

‘Comedian’ reaps what she has sown

I just watched a brief TV news video of “comedian” Kathy Griffin blubbering about the future of her career.

I’m not sure what her future holds in store, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she needs a good bit of time to “rehabilitate” her image — or perhaps she could start over — from scratch.

Griffin recently took part in a hideous video depicting her holding a “severed head” that supposedly belonged to Donald Trump.
The outrage was immediate and forceful.

It was just the kind of response that Griffin should have expected to receive from what she called “an artsy fartsy statement.”

It was nothing of the kind.

I get that entertainers are entitled to their own political points of view, just like, oh, bloggers. However, when entertainers are as well-known as Kathy Griffin, then they risk the kind of blowback that has exploded all over her.

Lest we forget: Kathy Griffin built her career on raunchy “humor.” She went too far. Now she is paying the price for stepping way beyond the bounds of good taste.

What do you suppose blocking Comey would tell us?

Let’s play out a certain scenario that’s being discussed in Washington, D.C. at the moment.

Donald J. Trump reportedly is considering whether to invoke executive privilege to block former FBI director James Comey from testifying before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

The White House isn’t saying what the president will do.

Trump fired Comey as FBI director while the FBI is in the midst of an investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russians who were hacking into the 2016 presidential election.

Trump canned Comey suddenly.

The Justice Department has appointed a special counsel to lead the investigation.

If the president blocks Comey’s testimony, what are we supposed to presume? Might it be that Comey has something terribly damaging to tell senators — under oath — about whether the president obstructed justice by pressuring him to back off an investigation?

Inquiring minds might want to know. Don’t you think?

Kushner, Ivanka get stiffed by POTUS/Dad

Just when you thought Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were deputy presidents of the United States, the actual president stiffs them on their staunch support of the Paris Accord aimed at dealing with climate change.

What gives? Oh, I think I know, actually.

The nationalist wing of the White House inner circle got to the president; it had his ear for the final time before announcing Thursday that he would pull the United States out of the worldwide alliance to fight the planet’s changing climate and the consequences it is bringing.

So much, then, for Ivanka and her husband’s legendary influence over the president. Frankly, I stand with them — and against Trump and his nationalist buddies — in this crazy development.

The president’s daughter and son-in-law weren’t alone in their support of the climate agreement. National security adviser H.R. McMaster wanted to stay involved; so did Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; same with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. I should add, too, that a number of key Republicans in and out of public office wanted the president to stay the course.

No can do, he said.

The issue is American jobs, which the president believes would be lost because this country would work with other nations in seeking to curb the causes of global warming and climate change.

What … utter … crap!

So long to straight-ticket voting … woo hoo!

I am happy to report that not all Republicans appear to be bat-crap crazy.

One of them, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, has just signed a bill that does away with straight-ticket, one-punch voting in Texas beginning with the 2020 election cycle.

The Legislature sent the bill to his desk and he signed it fairly quickly after the end of the 2017 legislative session.

Why is this a good deal? Because it forces voters to consider each race individually as they look over their ballots. Sure, they can still vote for an entire partisan slate if they so choose; but now they will have consider each race, each candidate and make their decision on some other factors — perhaps — other than just the political party to which they belong.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/01/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-bill-eliminate-straight-ticket-voting/

It fascinates me that a Republican governor would sign a bill approved by an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature, which is elected by a rock-solid Republican state full of, well, Republicans.

The nation’s leading Republican, Donald J. Trump, today went around the bend by pulling the United States out of a worldwide campaign to battle the impact of climate change.

I am glad that a Republican leader of one of our nation’s largest and most important states has decided that it’s better for voters to take just a tad more time in the polling place before casting their votes.

Happy Trails, Part 20

SAYRE, Okla. — We have discovered a feature of RV travel that we didn’t expect to find.

It’s called “Public RV” camping.

We discovered it in this community that sits precisely midway between Amarillo and Oklahoma City. We camped at a city-run park that just happens to have about 60 RV campsites. Some of them are pull-through sites, which is our strongly preferred type; they have water and electricity; we get decent antenna TV reception.

And we paid all of $12 for our overnight stay. Twelve whole American dollars! 

We have discovered this form of RV camping while scouring through our huge directory of campsites across the country.

My wife and I have made pact that we’re going to look for this kind of campsite as we continue our trek across North America.

We aren’t too big into those fancy-schmancy RV “resorts.” People are packed too tightly into some of them we’ve seen. We prefer a more “rustic” setting to park our fifth wheel.

We do use our Texas state park pass that gets into our state’s parks for free; sure, we pay for nightly use, but the pass waives our entry fee.

Sayre’s park is actually quite nice. It’s clean, well-manicured, well-lit, pet-friendly.

It’s also inexpensive. We fixed-income travelers appreciate that aspect of “public RV” camping most of all.

This isn’t how you ‘make America great … again’

Donald J. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” now means that the United States of America will sit on the sidelines while the rest of the world wages war against climate change.

This isn’t surprising. Neither is it acceptable in any form or fashion.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/climate-pact-pullout-rewards-the-few-and-powerful/ar-BBBNixu?li=BBnb7Kz

The president today announced his decision to pull out of the Paris Accords, which aligns more than 190 nations in the fight against climate change.

It isn’t, as opponents have contended, a top-down edict forcing nations to adhere to some sort of global mandate. The agreement, hammered out among the participating nations, allows for individual countries to adapt to policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions and scale back on the myriad causes of climate change and, yes, the warming climate.

Scientists around the world have concluded that human activity has played a major role in the changing climate. The Paris Accords are meant to bring nations together to hold humans accountable for their actions.

The United States is the big dog on the planet. We are the greatest nation on Earth and we need a place at the world’s table.

The president today just pushed us away from that table. Why? To satisfy the electoral base that help elect him.

This is a sad day for those of us who are concerned about the fate of the world.

This isn’t how the greatest nation in that world is supposed to lead it.

Sanity presents itself in Trump White House

Donald Trump pledged to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Then the president thought better of it. He has signed a six-month extension to keep the embassy where it’s been since the founding of Israel in 1948, in Tel Aviv, a relatively safe distance from where terrorists and other sworn enemies of the United States and Israel commit their acts of violence.

http://thehill.com/policy/international/335850-trump-keeps-us-embassy-in-tel-aviv?rnd=1496325457

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to become capital of an independent state, when or if that occurs. The Israelis claim all of Jerusalem as their own holy place.

“We know that peace is possible if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past and commit together to finally resolving this crisis,” Trump said in a speech in Jerusalem. “I am personally committed to helping Israelis and Palestinians achieve a peace agreement.”

The idea is to broker a peace deal that determines the fate of the holy city, which has been the goal of U.S. presidents of both political parties all along.

Donald Trump has seen the reality of the situation and has backed off his overheated campaign pledge and has decided the status quo isn’t such a bad idea.

Good call, Mr. President.