The Week in Hypocrisy

Posted on September 13, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 13, 2018

If it weren’t so disturbing this might be funny, but then, there’s really very little about hurricanes that’s funny. I know because I spent my honeymoon in one of the most devastating storms of the twentieth century. The only good news was that we weren’t among the seventy-six people who died in it.

After the storms that wracked Houston and Puerto Rico, last year, we knew exactly what to expect from Donald Trump as Florence approached. He likes to think he’s unpredictable, but there was no doubt about how he would behave.

Having learned from the mistakes of the Bush administration when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, FEMA was prepared when Harvey blasted Houston last year. Since our narcissistic president loves to portray himself as a populist hero, and Texas was a bright red state in 2017, Trump made sure Texas received all the assistance it needed, and loudly applauded himself for the efforts of first responders and FEMA staff, most of which he had nothing to do with.

When Irma threatened Florida and the Gulf Coast, Trump was in full voice again, expressing great concern for residents of all the red states in its path. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump’s ego, Irma fizzled before it could do much damage anywhere but Marco Island.

If we had any doubt about the sincerity of his forced attempts to appear compassionate, they were erased when Hurricane Maria destroyed the power grid in Puerto Rico, disrupted transportation across the island, and caused a half million people to move to the mainland when it became clear that the Trump administration was ignoring their plight. Trump’s disdain for the people of Puerto Rico, backed by his Republican-controlled Congress was one of the most embarrassing moments of an administration that has had so many of them, I’ve lost count.

You see, Puerto Rico has zero electoral votes, and its population of over three million American citizens does not have representation in Congress, and if it did it would always vote blue. And while we’re discussing colors, Puerto Rico’s main problem is that almost all of its citizens are brown. So today, when Trump lavished great praise on himself over his unrecognized brilliant success at saving Puerto Rico from devastation, rating his performance an A-plus, his disingenuousness was the only transparent thing about his presidency.

Not all of this week’s hurricane related hypocrisy can be attributed to Donald Trump. Yesterday, as I was waiting for my car to be serviced, someone had tuned the television in the customer lounge to the Christian Broadcast Network, and we were all treated to the spectacle of a TV preacher assuring his flock that he would pray to Jesus who would force Hurricane Florence to change course and miss the Carolinas. And by the way, if you want to be sure Jesus hears us, just keep those donations flowing.

As the walls of the Mueller investigation continued to close in on the president, we witnessed hypocrisy that was overshadowed only by its blatancy. It became clear during this week’s Senate hearings that from Trump’s point of view, the main qualification possessed by Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court was his documented stance on presidential power. Trump believes he can count on Kavanaugh to protect him from Mueller.

If as many people fear, Kavanaugh also casts a deciding vote to overturn Roe v Wade, he would make several red states very happy, though Trump himself never cared one way or another about either women’s health or abortion rights until it affected vote counts. If we needed any more evidence that the Republican majority cared only about having another justice who will solidify their legislative ambitions, Senator Mike Lee (R, Utah) provided it when he devoted his time during Kavanaugh’s hearing to questioning him about the nature of his writing implements.

Finally, this week, President Trump had yet another opportunity to play hero as he lamented the deaths of 3,000 Americans on the anniversary of 9/11 and reminded us that his border wall would assure that it never happens again. But as he was decrying the murderous acts of the Islamic terrorists who flew planes into the wall-less twin towers and the Pentagon, his absurd denials that virtually the same number of Americans in Puerto Rico were killed during Hurricane Maria and its aftermath reached the worst level of hypocrisy yet.

In Trump’s alternate history, only a dozen or so Puerto Ricans died as a result of the storm. The revised number of casualties, which has been reported by the government of Puerto Rico and verified by both FEMA and House Speaker Paul Ryan, were made up by Democrats to make Trump look bad. Of course they were. As usual, it’s all about Trump, no matter what the subject is.

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Legacies: McCain and Trump

Posted on September 1, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 1, 2018

When I started this blog the first thing I wrote was its dedication “to preserving what has made America great.” That wasn’t intended to be overly subtle. Donald Trump, with a matchless talent for unearthing and energizing everything negative about America, had convinced enough of us that America needed to be great again to win the election. Great again?

I’ve deliberately avoided all the eulogies to John McCain until now, but I was struck by the words of his daughter, Meghan: “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great.” And therein may have lain the root of her father’s long-standing bitter feud with the president. He understood the dangerous hypocrisy of Doublespeak, the technique which Trump uses so effectively to twist and distort the meanings of words.

No one I know ever thought America was perfect. God knows we’ve been guilty of some awful things like genocide against all the nations of native American peoples and the defense of slavery, whose abolition nearly destroyed our country. But being great doesn’t require perfection. Rather it’s about growing more enlightened over time and educating each generation of Americans to be better than the one that preceded it.

That’s the America I grew up in. When I was a kid schools and neighborhoods were segregated, we were insensitive to the needs of people in poverty, there was no general acceptance that all people have a right to good nutrition and health care, and our economy was based on old money and corporate elitism. In the last six decades we made huge improvements in all those areas – we haven’t exactly fixed all our problems, but relative to other nations we’ve done extremely well.

I don’t regret not voting for John McCain in 2008. I liked and respected him, but I had two powerful reasons not to.  One was Sarah Palin, whose rhetoric was so outrageously abhorrent. The other was the great pride I felt because my country had matured to the point where a man like Barrack Obama could be a serious contender for the presidency, but not everyone felt that way. Ms. Palin had already begun to rip off the scabs of our shameful past with her divisive, insensitive rants. And when one particular individual took it upon himself to lead the phony birther movement we were shocked that he could sustain it even after it was thoroughly debunked. What was going on in our country?

What we didn’t yet realize was that two ominous things were happening beneath the surface of Obama’s presidency. The racial wounds that we thought had been at least partially healed turned out to be merely submerged. Though we’d known they were still there, we were shocked by the magnitude of the hate that still existed in this country. But the real horror was how effectively Donald Trump activated and enabled all that hate and resentment into a revolution that took over one of our major political parties and swept him into the White House. The fact that more than a third of our country bought into Trump’s hate-mongering was a wake-up call that we can ill afford to ignore.

There’s a widely celebrated video from the 2008 election campaign, in which supporters of John McCain kept trying to get him to buy into the birther controversy. McCain wouldn’t take the bait. He kept assuring people that Obama was a very decent man, a proud American and family man. It was impressive then, and McCain’s decency, even in the midst of a bitter election fight which he was losing, stands as a shining monument to what really made us great. Compare that to the divisive, vicious tactics of candidate Trump eight years later. Both men’s characters were clearly defined by their campaigns, and the differences continued to be starkly apparent through the first eighteen months of Trump’s presidency, even beyond the moment of McCain’s death, when President Trump had to be shamed into lowering the flag in his honor.

In celebrating John McCain’s legacy, most honest Americans must confront the reality of what will surely be Trump’s. Nothing defines Trump’s immoral nature, his inability to tell the truth, and his hateful willingness to widen differences between people to achieve his own ends more than John McCain’s decency. Was McCain perfect? Of course not, but like the country he loved and defended, he was splendidly heroic. His life and values defined greatness. They are exactly what I meant when I wrote “dedicated to preserving what has made America great,” which is simply another way of saying “protecting America from Donald Trump.”

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Only the Best People

Posted on August 27, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, August 27, 2018

Viewed objectively, “the best people” is a phrase that must by its nature be subjective, one that differs in the eye of each beholder. Indirectly acknowledging his own lack of specific expertise in the various facets of governing, candidate Donald Trump repeatedly used it to promise voters that only the most qualified people would be given important jobs in his administration.

Because of the emphasis he placed on defense and national security, his appointments in those areas were his first test. At the urging of a wide spectrum of military leaders, his most impressive pick was Defense Secretary James Mattis, someone we can rely on to protect the nation. But after Mattis it was all downhill.

Trump’s first National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, was fired weeks into the job due to serious conflicts of interest with Russia and Vladimir Putin, and lying to the FBI about them. His replacement, H. R. McMaster, was a no-nonsense Army General who called things as he saw them. He might have been an excellent replacement, but he wouldn’t toe Trump’s line on Russia, and his remarks about Russian aggression and information warfare resulted in the now familiar pattern of the president attacking and ridiculing his own people when they displease him.

McMaster and Trump’s first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, were both high quality appointments, but Trump couldn’t get along with either of them. After being trolled by Trump in the media, McMaster was ignominiously replaced by John Bolton, a Bush era war hawk who is disrespected by most of the defense establishment. As for Tillerson, he was overheard telling the truth about what he thought of Trump. Exit one Secretary of State.

Continuing with the Cabinet, we have Tom Price and Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choices to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the largest agency in the government, and the Environmental Protection Agency. After months of corruption, violation of government regulations, and evidence of enriching themselves at taxpayer expense, both resigned in disgrace. And consider Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, whose only qualification for the job was her disdain for public education and her support for Trump’s brand of elitism.

Last but surely not least, we cannot discuss the president’s Cabinet without recalling the sad tale of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions committed the unpardonable crime of integrity, recusing himself from the Russia investigation, in which he was likely to be asked to testify. For that he has been subjected to eighteen months of insults and attacks from the president. The country has literally never witnessed anything like it.

Trump’s first two campaign managers Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski both had to be replaced within a few months. Manafort was fired because of shady business practices and his dealings with Russia, which ultimately led to his conviction on eight felony counts in federal court. Lewandowski, a staunch ultra-right wing political advisor was fired because he couldn’t get along with Trump’s family.

Also ranking high on the list of failed Trump hires are Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus. Bannon tried to use Trump’s infatuation with him to advance his Alt-Right political agenda, but like others who refused to kowtow to the president’s ego, Trump finally fired him, proving that even the worst of intentions can have a positive result. Priebus, who was totally ineffectual as White House Chief of Staff, only lasted a few months.

In the main, Trump’s appointments fall into two categories: really terrible ones and good, strong people who rubbed Trump the wrong way because they refused to bow to Trump’s ego and give in to what they considered his wrong-headed policies. Another of the latter was Gary Cohn, Trump’s first pick for Chief Economic Advisor. Cohn was among the great majority of economists who opposed Trump’s desire for a full-scale trade war. He refused to back down, and that made his stay in the White House untenable.

To round out the list of unmemorable Trump appointments, we mustn’t forget Sebastian Gorka, whose lack of qualifications was exceeded only by his arrogance and nastiness. And we should at least give waves to such notables as Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, Hope Hicks, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, and Ronny Jackson.

Trump has shown a remarkable capacity for either picking the wrong people or alienating and being unable to work with those who are competent and carry themselves with grace and integrity, two different failings with a single cause. The problem is that Trump values personal loyalty above all else, which frequently renders him unable to recognize the right person for a job, even when he or she is in plain view. What more evidence do we need than his treatment of John McCain?

John McCain, who Trump refused to acknowledge as a war hero because he’d been shot down over Hanoi, captured, and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese. John McCain, who Trump insulted and attacked relentlessly because he remained true to his own values when Trump tried to run roughshod over them. John McCain, who has always been a uniter and a gentleman, and who is being lauded by everyone in public life who ever worked with him.

Everyone, that is, except Donald Trump.

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Forgiveness

Posted on August 23, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, August 22, 2018

The revelations that the president’s former attorney and campaign manager were both guilty as charged were only news in that their federal court convictions confirmed what most of us already knew. They are both guilty of serious felonies, the sorts of crimes that would result in prison time for you and me if we were convicted of them, and for every single other American, except one.

Despite Michael Cohen’s admission that he was directed to commit those crimes by then candidate Donald Trump, and the fact that Trump hired Paul Manafort, a corrupt white collar criminal with well-known ties to Russia to be his campaign manager, Trump will never see the inside of a courtroom because of them. Even impeachment, while a possibility, is more fantasy than reality. No one should waste another minute thinking about either of those outcomes − at least until after the midterm elections.

If you voted for Trump because you hoped he might actually clean up the Washington swamp, or because you hated Hillary, or because you felt so desperate to change the direction of our dysfunctional government that you were willing to try anything new, you now know it was a mistake. If you didn’t vote for either Trump or Clinton, or you voted for your dog because you thought it was a better choice than either of them, you might have thought you were abstaining, but you now realize that choosing neither of them was actually a vote for Trump.

You knew he was dishonest, profane, and totally lacking in compassion, and you knew he was morally unfit to lead this country. Maybe you got caught up in all the lies and misinformation spread by hackers working for people trying to disrupt our system. Maybe you were just sick of the obscene spectacle of the 2016 election campaign. It’s not that I don’t love dogs or that I think we might not be better off with a dog in the Oval Office, but face it, you made a mistake.

Now that we’re clear, get over it. You need forgiveness and redemption first? Okay, you’re forgiven, we all make mistakes. It’s time to make amends.

The first step in making amends is to accept reality. Trump married his current wife Melania in January of 2005. Fourteen months later, their son Barron was born, and during the next year-and-a-half, our president carried on extramarital affairs with a porn star (Stormy Daniels) and a Playboy model (Karen McDougal) who’d come in second in a reader poll for the sexiest Playmate of the 1990s.

During the 2016 election campaign, we saw and heard candidate Trump brag about groping women and getting away with it because of his money and celebrity. Following that, thirteen women accused Trump of sexual misconduct in separate incidents ranging from groping to forced kissing to harassing them for sex, and Trump said they were all liars. As the election neared, Ms. Daniels and Ms. McDougal threatened to make their stories public, and eleven days before the election, Michael Cohen made the hush money payments that resulted in his guilty plea.

Knowing Special Counsel Robert Mueller considered the payments illegal campaign contributions and deliberate attempts to influence the outcome of the election, which made his actions felonies, Cohen told federal investigators the payments had been made at the behest of Trump. Whether you believe him or not, you have to ask why Cohen would plead guilty to a jailable offense if Mueller’s team didn’t have corroborating evidence.

Today, after repeatedly denying he’d had sexual relationships with Daniels and McDougal, Trump defended himself by claiming that the hush money paid to the two women to prevent them from speaking out came directly from him and were not campaign finance violations, and therefore were not illegal. Huh? That’s like defending himself against a murder charge by saying he didn’t desecrate the body. Is he that clueless or does he have such a low opinion of his base that he thinks that will fly?

To summarize, a year into his third marriage with a newborn son at home, our president committed adultery with a porn star, a playboy model, and anyone else who could be seduced by his money and celebrity, and bought their silence with non-disclosure agreements to assure that the truth wouldn’t be known before the election. He spent $280,000 on cover-ups, about what the average Trump voter would earn during Trump’s entire four-year term.

Another reality is that the Republican majority in Congress has no intention of taking any action to censure Trump or restrain his attempts to undermine our Constitution. You can earn the absolution you seek by getting off your ass and voting in November.

I don’t care whether you vote for a Democrat, a Republican, a Socialist, or a Libertarian. Just make sure the person who gets your vote cares more about our country than politics, and has the courage and integrity to stand up to Trump. Then, perhaps you can forgive yourself.

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Opting Out

Posted on August 19, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, August 19, 2018

Ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, public reaction has been separated into well-delineated camps. One of the two most vocal and obvious groups is comprised of Trump’s loyal supporters. The other is made up of people who think he represents a clear and present danger to the nation, not the way Tom Clancy imagined it, but the elements of a conflicted Intelligence community and a president who is accused of putting ego and politics above the welfare of the country are strikingly similar.

We’ve heard the talking heads on both sides ad nauseum. The constant din of people screaming, “Fake News” on one hand and accusations on the other that the president is immoral and unfit have resulted in a dangerous impasse. Trump’s relentless attacks on his opposition and his willingness to go to any lengths to silence anyone who stands in the way of his insatiable lust for power have caused his party’s leaders in Congress to either submit to his will or announce that they are withdrawing from the fray. Now we get to decide if they’re unfit.

The political atmosphere has become one in which the people in power are ever more extreme in their attempts to further their divisive agenda to disrupt the political establishment, while those willing to speak in opposition have so far seemed relatively impotent. The noise from both sides has become mind-numbing, causing far too many people to bury their heads and tune out.

The same thing happened prior to the 2016 election. The anger and corruption in both major political parties, the hype over lies and false accusations, the outrage felt by both sides caused millions of us to opt out, and the resulting ennui was a major factor in Trump’s victory. We can’t afford to let that happen this November.

Neither Trump’s rabid supporters nor his vehement detractors comprise a majority. As in 2016, the midterm elections will hinge on the disaffected nonvoters and those who held their noses and voted for someone because they disliked him less than his opponent last time. This time they have no excuse to stay home on Election Day or pretend this election is not about a critical turning point in our history.

We now know exactly who our president is and what he represents. And we know who our Congressional representatives are, which ones still have a shred of integrity and understand their constitutional obligation to be a check on the excesses of the Executive Branch, and which ones  have succumbed to preserve their seats. It’s up to us, the voters to elect people willing to stand against abuses of power, xenophobia, and racism.

If we don’t, we will enable an administration that will go to any lengths to suppress the opposition and dissent that are fundamental to our way of life. We will be telling Trump that there are no limits to how far he can go to punish anyone who disagrees with them. We will be supporting his attempts to shut down immigration so he can arouse his ultra-nationalistic base and profit the billionaire donors who are desperate to stop the demographic shift toward a multicultural, browner America. We will be adding our voices to the mobs who scream that the media are the enemies of the people unless they speak adoringly of the president.

If you discount the fears that our democratic institutions are under attack, if you smugly believe it can’t happen here, you may one day look back on November of 2018 as the moment when we might have avoided a disaster that our children and grandchildren will live with for decades. How is it possible that a government that is praised by our most dangerous adversaries and despised by our traditional allies could be acting in the best interests of any but a small, elite power clique?

For those among us who cheer the president’s divisive and racist attacks on groups who cannot defend themselves, re-read your history. The day may come when you and your family are on the receiving end of this evil.

I’m reminded of the 1970 film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. It’s 1938 in Ferrara, a prosperous mid-sized city in Italy. Outside the town the world is in chaos, with governments being overthrown, fascism uprooting democracies, and millions of people arrested and murdered because of their race or religion. The Jews in Ferrara think it won’t happen to them, because they’re Italians and their country would never betray them. Complacent to the end, by 1943, all of them who haven’t escaped Italy are in concentration camps.

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Mueller and the Court

Posted on August 5, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, August 5, 2018

As frequently noted here and elsewhere. Donald Trump is a master of obfuscation. While those of us who are trained in logical discourse and scientific method are often appalled by his relatively incoherent style, it certainly works with his base. His friends have compared his style to throwing a grenade into a room and then rushing in to seize what he wants before everyone else can sort through the resulting chaos.

There’s really no argument about that. Trump himself has touted his ability to keep his adversaries off balance with his unpredictable behavior. He revels in creating confusion with self-contradictions and made-up facts, not to mention outright lies. Whether this represents a lack of character and integrity or a canny ability to manipulate people really doesn’t matter. What does is that the rest of us have to keep our eyes on the ball.

Every athlete knows that, regardless of the game he or she plays. Athletic competition is about gaining advantage through misdirection and fakery, whether it’s throwing a pitch, hiding a quarterback’s true intentions, shielding your king, or slipping behind a defender undetected. Trump throws off so much chaff it’s sometimes difficult to focus on what’s significant.

I find it helpful to step back from the daily turmoil and ask myself what is likely to stand out most when we look back on it a year from now. It won’t be North Korea, NATO-bashing, or the Trade War – those will take years to play out. The mid-term elections may ultimately determine the direction of this country for years to come, but they’re still three months away. What’s left is the fascinating confluence of the coming confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the Mueller investigation into Russian interference of possible obstruction of justice, and the two are not unrelated.

As Trump continues to make various noises about ending the investigation he, in typical fashion, leaves everyone guessing about whether he might fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. One never knows what a judge might rule, but based on Trump’s constant verbal war on Mueller, the question of whether his attacks constitute criminal obstruction is not going away.

Add Judge Kavanaugh to the mix, and you have a fascinating potential convergence of events. Kavanaugh has a long history of favoring a strong presidency, which means he doesn’t necessarily agree with previous court decisions that limited presidential powers. Much has recently been made of his 1999 opinion that the Court may have been wrong in forcing Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes. With the Mueller investigation closing ranks around the president’s inner circle, Kavanaugh’s nomination triggered concerns that his vote might make the Supreme Court side with Trump in any dispute with Mueller.

The Republican-controlled Congress has demonstrated that when they have to choose between alienating Trump’s base at election time and standing up against his more outrageous actions, they will sit on their hands. Perhaps the clearest indication of that is Paul Ryan’s refusal to speak out against Trump, though it’s clear he feels tortured by having to choose. Prior to accepting his role as Speaker of the House, Ryan had a reputation for integrity. He was a staunch conservative, but even those who disagreed with his political views expected that his priority would be upholding the Constitution.

The reality has been that he doesn’t have the stomach for the kind of down-in the-trenches warfare Trump prefers. At least until the next Congress is sworn in, the Supreme Court is our last line of defense against Trump’s attacks on our system.

The timing of Kavanaugh’s eventual confirmation is critical. If it occurs before both the election and the release of Mueller’s findings, it could be the determining factor in everything that follows. Can Mueller force Trump to testify? Could he successfully subpoena Trump’s financial records if he deems them relevant to his investigation? And which of Trump’s private conversations would be ruled privileged if the question had to be decided by the high Court?

In truth, it’s not clear how Kavanaugh would rule. Consider that he was part of the Ken Starr team that investigated President Clinton, which many people thought had improperly infringed on presidential power. Consider also that Kavanaugh is on record in 2016 citing the Nixon decision as one of the greatest moments in American judicial history, when judges “stood up to the other branches, were not cowed, and enforced the law.”

The next three months may turn into a real cliffhanger. It’s not an exaggeration to say that when we look back on what happens between now and the end of 2018, it may be as critical to our future as Trump’s victory in 2016. I shudder to think of Trump unfettered by a Court that is disinclined to limit his usurpation of power from the other branches of government.

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The Slide to Autocracy

Posted on July 25, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, July 25, 2018

I was one of many who was struck, early on, by the similarities between Donald Trump’s rise to power and that of Adolf Hitler. The number of websites devoted to the subject is astounding, and a year-and-a-half into the Trump administration the debate still rages. Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that Trump is without peer in his ability to disrupt, and there are few subjects that have done more to wreck friendships and familial relationships, even marriages, than Trump’s shameless tendency toward fascist autocracy.

I have experienced it with respect to one friend, in particular, who is noteworthy because of his brilliant, scientific mind which makes his embracing of Trump’s values unfathomable to me. My friend, in his own words, was “lit up” by the comparison to Hitler because it triggered images of millions of Jews dying in concentration camps.

That’s understandable because he’s Jewish, and his family suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis. But since he knows I’m Jewish as well, I was amazed that he would think that was what I was implying, until I realized his reaction was entirely visceral. The fault was mine – I’d been imprecise. Adam Roy, writing in the Jewish medium forward.com may have best expressed what I meant: “We want to believe that the Nazis were a special, exceptional kind of evil, because it’s easier for us. But the reality is that their brutality was just another manifestation of humanity’s worst flaws … the unthinking cruelty we unleash upon each other as soon as society gives us license.”

That is what I see embedded in Trump’s governing. He is not anti-Semitic, nor is he anti-anything in principle, because that would imply that he possessed an ideology of his own. Trump is simply an opportunist who will attack and scapegoat any convenient target or group if it furthers his own ends. I doubt that he has any intention of gassing his political enemies into extinction, though apparently, he would have no compunction against locking them up.

Like Hitler, Trump’s great gift is the ability to cleave and divide, though it remains to be seen whether he can destroy the basic democratic institutions he considers his enemies. Among those so honored we can list the free press, Democrats, the loyal opposition in Congress, and any court that attempts to slow his rush to absolute power. But like Hitler, he can’t undermine democracy single-handedly. He requires our complicity as a society to give him the license referred to by Roy.

Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs addressed this yesterday in a chilling article, “Trump is Taking Us Down the Path to Tyranny.” Sachs believes President Trump is attempting to remove the checks and balances prescribed in our Constitution to avoid a repetition of the tyranny from which our revolution freed us. It’s clear in everything he does, and it makes me wonder why anyone is still puzzled by his fascination with Vladimir Putin.

Trump craves the power Putin wields. He would be Putin if we let him, but he’s not Putin’s equal. Does Putin ignore and denigrate his own Intelligence people? Would he undercut them in public statements heard around the world? Does anyone believe Putin has kept his own people in the dark over what he discussed with Trump?

Sachs points to a long list of “one man” actions taken by Trump, none of which are illegal, but which in sum imply complete disdain for our constitutional separation of powers. Eschewing any interaction with Congress, Trump has instigated a trade war with adversaries and allies alike, abrogated the Iran nuclear deal, and instituted new sanctions against Iran which are intended to cripple its economy. Likewise his attempts to impose a travel ban on Muslim countries and his withdrawal from the treaty obligations of the Paris Climate Accords.

The issue isn’t whether we agree with those actions, it’s whether they should have been taken without the consent of our duly elected representatives. But it’s not all Trump’s fault. Any legislator or judge who allows him- or herself to be cowed into submission is wholly culpable in our slide toward autocracy. That’s where the comparison with Hitler is frighteningly believable.

Professor Sachs points out that “[s]imply by invoking the phrase ‘national security,’ Trump can push the Congress and Supreme Court to give him almost any degree of latitude.” But he can only do that if they allow him to. It’s worth noting that the Constitution grants the power to declare war only to the Congress, though the president can bring us to the brink of war and even initiate hostilities entirely on his own authority – unless someone stops him.

Sachs reminds us that a Swedish think-tank that specializes in analyzing democracies now ranks the United States 31st in the world, and The Economist now rates us a “flawed democracy.” And as a final note, he quotes Hitler’s subordinate Hermann Gὅring on how easy it is to get a population to back an autocratic leader. “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

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The Secret Meeting

Posted on July 24, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, July 23, 2018

According to this exclusive transcript of the secret meeting in Helsinki between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, both men were extremely pleased to be there.

T – Hello Mister President, I’m so glad we can finally meet and speak frankly to each other. (Trump grabs Putin’s hand and shakes it vigorously, until Putin’s steely stare and his iron-firm grip make him let go.)

P – Yes Donald, it is high time we met. (Боже, помоги мне!) Things are not going quite as I’d hoped.

T – Yes, those bastards in the press simply won’t let it go. How do you manage so well in Russia?

P – (Smiling benignly at his protégé…) As you have observed Donald, (наивный ребенок)
we rarely have issues with journalists, and when one of them steps out of line we have very effective methods of dealing with them.

T – Oh, you mean….

P – Shush, Donald.(Спаси меня!) Not here. I will have my Public Information Minister call to instruct you. But until you have learned our techniques, what do you say we make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear as your people say?

T – None of my people ever said that. It’s fake news. Why would anyone say that? What’s a sow, anyway?

P – (Muttering under his breath… такой идиот.) Never mind. I meant to say, let’s use their zealousness to our advantage.

T – Before we crush them beneath our boot heels?

P – Donald, if only I had met you when that dossier claimed I had. What we could achieved if I had had time to prepare you. (Pausing, shocked by the uncomprehending expression on Trump’s face… Я не могу поверить этому парню!) Never worry, just do as I tell you.

T – You said you’d teach me how to handle the media when we meet them later.

P – It’s really quite simple, even a child could do it. (Я подавил это для вас.) You need only follow two simple rules. At our press conference, whatever they ask you, don’t think. Say the first thing that comes into your mind, and make sure to confuse them with contradictions. Later when you are home, tweet something inflammatory every morning, and whenever you are forced to discuss Russia, say the opposite of what you tweeted. Then give your (пухлый, сочный) girl Sarah a script that will drive your media crazy.

T – But they’ll just keep attacking me, saying I’m lying. And there are a handful of Republicans who are only this close to showing some backbone and turning on me.

P – Donald, haven’t you paid attention to anything I’ve taught you? We’ll keep writing talking points for your friends at Fox, and planting conspiracy theories on Facebook that make it sound like you’re about to tear up your Constitution and declare martial law.

T – That’s exciting, just like you did in Crimea.

P – Donald! (невежественный дурак.) I’ve told you never to say things like that where anyone can hear.

T – But it’s only the translators. My people would never break a confidence.

P – (Flabbergasted… Неужели ты действительно так глуп, как кажется?) Yes, I’m sure you are right, but still you must observe the rules I’ve set for you. If you follow my instructions your media will be like sharks in a trout pond. They will be so distracted you will be able keep dismantling all those things you hate under the radar. And if things get too quiet, announce the list of new tariffs I gave you. Remember our mantra – Trade Wars are Good.

T – What about the election?

P – We’ve discussed this, Donald You must kill the budgets for your special counsel and for all the anti-hacking work being done by your people. Announce that you can’t afford to waste money on witch hunts and hoaxes. Never back down no matter what.

T – But, but (makes a sound like a whimper) …

P – Let them scream. Your base will love it with some help from us. By the time it all boils over, you’ll be safely into your second term. And if they impeach you, remember I’m having an exclusive dacha built for you on the Black Sea.

T – The Black Sea?

P – Yes Donald, after you oversee my annexation of Ukraine, you can move to Odessa. You’ll have your own golf course, and Ivanka and Jared will love it – it’s where all the rich Jews live in Ukraine. (Opens his arms wide, and Trump steps into his embrace.) Everything will be all right, Donald. You know you can trust me.

* * *

I know this transcript is hard to read without the translators. No worries. I studied Russian in college. Here’s a brief glossary:

Боже, помоги мне – God help me

Спаси меня – save me

       такой идиот – what an imbecile.

наивный ребенок – naïve child

не могу поверить этому парню – I can’t freaking believe this guy

Я подавил это для вас – I dumbed it down for you

пухлый, сочный – plump, juicy

Неужели ты действительно так глуп, как кажется – can you really be that stupid

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Missteps And Misstatements

Posted on July 19, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, July 19, 2018

I’ve been spoiled most of my life. I’ve had wonderful role models as my heroes, and with the exception of Harry Truman and Winston Churchill, none of them were politicians. They were my teachers, those special few who took the trouble to really recognize who I was, and they were scientists and writers. It’s quite a shock to my senses to have a president who is so inarticulate he can’t complete an English sentence unless it’s written down for him.

He is so directionless, his thoughts are scattered and contradictory, and he turns those unfiltered thoughts into words, without the benefit of forethought. He does it in every interview, speech, and press conference, and he did it most notably in Helsinki.

I can’t decide which is worse, being unable to confront Vladimir Putin on a world stage during a meeting he desperately sought, or expecting us to believe that he misspoke when he said he couldn’t think of any reason why Russia would hack our elections. And if he really did misspeak, how does the President of the United States make such an error live on worldwide television? Was his mouth moving with no connection to the cognitive part of his brain?

Even worse than the president’s abysmal performance is the White House Staff’s lame attempt at spin control. They apparently accomplished their goal of pacifying their base, as 68% of Republicans say they believe the president’s tortured explanations. As long as Trump didn’t lose his base, it simply doesn’t matter whether the rest of the world reels with laughter or shock at the spectacle of an American president bombing before the world. That may be the worst take-away from the Putin-Trump summit.

If we believe the media, including such conservative voices as The Wall Street Journal, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are somewhere between disappointed and furious at the way the president behaved in Europe. Prominent Republicans have been privately expressing their concerns, but confidential whispers in corridors won’t change anything.

After every Trump misstep we wonder if the most recent one will finally be enough to make those same people speak out in meaningful ways. We ask if our congressional representatives who are afraid that he will behave erratically or overstep his authority in ways that tangibly harm the country will finally take action to stop him. Congress has both the power and responsibility to pass legislation to limit the actions he can take. They can’t muzzle him, but they can greatly reduce the damage he does.

We’ve learned not to be too optimistic on that front, but the Congress at least seems inclined to use its voice (the non-binding resolution voice) to try to heal the wounds Trump has caused. They are contemplating a sense-of-the-Congress resolution that will reassure NATO that the United States can be relied upon to honor Article 5, which requires all member states to come to the aid on any member who is attacked. That would be the Congress begging Europe to disregard everything the president has said on the subject.

That would be a welcome first step, but at this moment, we don’t even know if, even bolstered by the strength of numbers, they will be willing to take it. Repudiating the president in this manner risks alienating his base, and would likely accomplish nothing here at home. It certainly won’t make Trump change his mind. The real test will be whether Congress can take any action with teeth. Can they behave in a bi-partisan way for the good of the country? Will those Republicans who badmouth Trump when the cameras aren’t rolling put integrity before politics?

If they can’t or won’t, they will simply enable him to grab as much power as he can and ignore the Constitution as long as he’s not stopped. His history is one of charging head on and bullying his way through all opposition until someone is willing to stand up to him. Financial analysts always warn that past performance is no guarantee of future success, but there’s never been a safer bet than assuming Trump’s behavior in the future will mirror what he’s always done in the past.

The rest of the world is watching, shocked at the spectacle of the most powerful nation in the world, the one they’ve always depended on to maintain international economic stability and military balance unraveling before their eyes. The German Foreign Minister said, after Helsinki, that Europe can no longer count on the United States.

If the damage is to be repaired before it worsens, it will be up to the Congress. They have the power to reign Trump in and restore order in our relationships with our allies. That’s true today and it will be even truer after the November elections.

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A Sad, Embarrassing Wreck of a Man

Posted on July 18, 2018 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, July 18, 2018

We’ve all had two days to absorb the Helsinki press conference in which Russian President Putin smirked and our president misread the expression as a friendly smile. No doubt we’ve all formed our opinions about it, and heard the denunciations of President Trump’s apparent inability to accept the findings of his own security people. We all saw him bend over backwards to praise his Russian counterpart – it’s a wonder he didn’t rupture his spine. After the abuse he heaped on NATO and our closest allies, what was the world to think about his infatuation with the man who is potentially America’s most dangerous adversary?

It was no surprise to most Americans that master manipulator Putin was able to run circles around Trump, much the way a scheming, manipulative seductress can hold an infatuated male in complete thrall. What does it say about our president that his need for approval from dictators and autocrats continually overwhelms his judgment? He seems almost rapturous when Putin is near.

The critical takeaways from Helsinki haven’t been realized yet. The essential question is whether the Republican leadership has seen enough, or if not, how much it will take for integrity to win out over self-interest. They’re in a tough spot. There’s a Congressional election coming up in just over a hundred days, and Trump’s base of support appears to dominate the Republican Party.

There was a time in America when people in power put the country over party loyalty and their own political futures. In 1973 a corrupt, dysfunctional president (Richard Nixon, if you’re too young to remember) created a constitutional crisis that would have torn the nation, already badly divided over Vietnam, completely apart. Disaster was averted when Attorney General Eliot Richardson and his Deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned. Think of it! Two politicians at the very pinnacles of their careers quit in protest with no assurance that they weren’t destroying their futures.

Paul Ryan has already announced that he’s leaving the Congress and Mitch McConnell isn’t running for re-election in November, and yet neither of them has been willing to speak out forcefully against the actions of this president, though neither has any use for him. Clearly, their priority is assuring a voting majority in the House and Senate after November, when it should be assuring the health and security of the nation.

The primaries are over and the candidates have been chosen. Each of them will have the same choice ahead of them in the coming months. Will they do their jobs as prescribed by the Constitution or will they permit a dangerous. erratic president to rule as an autocrat? Trump governs by threat and intimidation, and this election may well turn on who shows a willingness to stand up to him regardless of party dictates.

Distinguished Conservative commentator George Will may have said it best today: “Trump has a weak man’s banal fascination with strong men whose disdain for him is evidently unimaginable to him.” I said much the same thing last week in The Evolution of Trump, if not as eloquently. Richard Clarke who worked as Counter-terrorism chief and National Security advisor to presidents Reagan, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton said on PBS last night that the fascination referred to by Will has essentially turned Trump into a “controlled asset” of the Russians who feels compelled to act the way Putin wants him to.

That speaks volumes about our President. He’s like every other bully who acts tough until he meets someone who possesses the strength he wishes he had himself. In fact, Trump is the opposite of the man he worships, and once again Will said it much better than I could have when he described him as “This sad, embarrassing wreck of a man.”
It’s almost too much to contemplate – our president is an ego-driven man with an unquenchable lust for power who at his core simply melts when he encounters real strength. We saw it with Chinese President Xi, with North Korean dictator Kim, and we’ve seen and heard it since the day Trump announced he was running for president with Putin.

Not for the first time, Will also raised the question of when the Republican leadership would finally decide enough was enough. He characterized them as possessing “the peculiar strength that comes from being incapable of embarrassment.”

Maybe that should be our litmus test in evaluating candidates this year. Don’t vote for anyone until you know what it takes to make him or her blush.

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