I'm finally convinced that President Trump is absolutely correct when he tweets that Robert Mueller's investigation into the alleged malfeasance of the Trump campaign and his possible obstruction of justice is, indeed, a witch hunt.
Because we've discovered that there are witches.
Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort have told demonstrable lies about their roles and the actions of others during their time as Trump servants. Manafort has made an art of his lying by first getting a deal on immunity, then breaking it by lying some more. This guy is a machine. Impressive. Cohen's testimony, which implicates the president directly in authorizing payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in return for their silence about their affairs with him, is even more damaging because it essentially calls Trump a liar since he denies having affairs with either of them. The weight of the evidence is not in the president's favor.
And if you thought the witches only came out in the Mueller investigation, then you haven't been paying attention. The other witches were found in North Carolina engaged in...wait for it...voter fraud. The best part is that they're Republicans. You know, the ones who enacted all of the voter ID and intimidation laws that have been suppressing minority voters for the past two national election cycles. The ones who claimed that illegal immigrants were voting in huge numbers against the president. The ones who said that Democrats were stealing elections.
Them.
Yes, they engaged in some fraudulent activities that blatantly affected the vote in a congressional race in North Carolina. And the even bester part is that the GOP contender is an evangelical preacher who says he has no idea that this was happening in his campaign. What a disgrace.
So there you have it, my friends. Real witches doing really witchful things.
The president is right. And it could turn out to haunt him. Eye of newt indeed.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Sunday, December 2, 2018
A Thousand Points of Light Beats One Dim Bulb
I didn't really care for George H.W. Bush as president, but as history shows us, he certainly looks a great deal better in light of, shall we say, current realities.
At the time, Bush was seen as inheriting Ronald Reagan's conservative mantle, but Bush was more moderate and came from the old blue blood wing of the Republican Party. You know, the wealthy, business-oriented, somewhat squishy on civil rights cadre that also nominated Richard Nixon. Bush had labeled Reagan's economic policy as "voodoo economics," which turned out not only to be prescient, but a fair warning to the conservatives who didn't know how to balance a checkbook because, well, daddy would always clean up the mess.
Bush played daddy to the extent that he could, but he still gave in to the disgraceful instincts that were becoming part of campaigning in the modern era. The Willie Horton ad (I won't even justify it with a link, though of course you could look it up) became part of the lexicon of scurrilous political advertisements because it played directly to the racist practices that were embedded in conservative circles. The ad was said to use dog whistle tactics, but that's big fat lie. The ad screamed and generated sirens and flashing lights. And it worked.
Which of course made Bush's appeal for a kinder, gentler America seem suspect to say the least, but he soon pivoted to his strengths, which were his close personal relationships in Washington and diplomatic circles, and his economic policies, which ultimately sunk him. During the 1988 campaign he said that the Democrats would need to read his lips; that he was not going to raise taxes. Then he did the responsible thing and raised taxes to put the economy on firmer footing and to close the budget deficit. For the conservatives, though, that was heresy. He lost in 1992 because conservatives didn't come out for him and moderates thought he wasn't engaged enough in domestic affairs.
But Bush did have some successes. He ordered invasions of Panama and Iraq to stop their leaders, Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, from expanding their roles as very bad guys. And he also navigated the country through the end of the Cold War from 1989 to 1991, and did so with a steady hand. Reagan gets credit for ending the conflict, but it was Bush who helped make it an orderly reality. Looking back, it's amazing to remember that for all of the talk about the Cold War ending with a mushroom cloud, it really ended with hammers slamming away at the Berlin Wall. Bush's support for Boris Yeltsin's coup was a masterstroke of realpolitik. He could have stuck with Mikhail Gorbachev, but Bush saw that Yeltsin was the future. And he was right.
Bush also had a successful post-presidency, burying the hatchet with Bill Clinton and generally living the life of an elder statesman with restraint and credibility. He was, though, the last of the old conservative breed, and it was his son who led us into the political world we unfortunately inhabit now. I won't recap. You know this.
And yet it says something about the disaster that sits in the White House today when he says he doesn't understand what the thousand points of light was supposed to represent, or even what it meant. That's because you need to look beyond yourself and see the country as an interconnected community of people who are willing to help each other through volunteerism and a shared vision of what it takes to continue to improve. George H.W. Bush, indeed, most every other president, understood what this meant and encouraged us to give back to the United States. His death leaves one less light shining. Let's make sure the present occupant doesn't shut them all off.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
At the time, Bush was seen as inheriting Ronald Reagan's conservative mantle, but Bush was more moderate and came from the old blue blood wing of the Republican Party. You know, the wealthy, business-oriented, somewhat squishy on civil rights cadre that also nominated Richard Nixon. Bush had labeled Reagan's economic policy as "voodoo economics," which turned out not only to be prescient, but a fair warning to the conservatives who didn't know how to balance a checkbook because, well, daddy would always clean up the mess.
Bush played daddy to the extent that he could, but he still gave in to the disgraceful instincts that were becoming part of campaigning in the modern era. The Willie Horton ad (I won't even justify it with a link, though of course you could look it up) became part of the lexicon of scurrilous political advertisements because it played directly to the racist practices that were embedded in conservative circles. The ad was said to use dog whistle tactics, but that's big fat lie. The ad screamed and generated sirens and flashing lights. And it worked.
Which of course made Bush's appeal for a kinder, gentler America seem suspect to say the least, but he soon pivoted to his strengths, which were his close personal relationships in Washington and diplomatic circles, and his economic policies, which ultimately sunk him. During the 1988 campaign he said that the Democrats would need to read his lips; that he was not going to raise taxes. Then he did the responsible thing and raised taxes to put the economy on firmer footing and to close the budget deficit. For the conservatives, though, that was heresy. He lost in 1992 because conservatives didn't come out for him and moderates thought he wasn't engaged enough in domestic affairs.
But Bush did have some successes. He ordered invasions of Panama and Iraq to stop their leaders, Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, from expanding their roles as very bad guys. And he also navigated the country through the end of the Cold War from 1989 to 1991, and did so with a steady hand. Reagan gets credit for ending the conflict, but it was Bush who helped make it an orderly reality. Looking back, it's amazing to remember that for all of the talk about the Cold War ending with a mushroom cloud, it really ended with hammers slamming away at the Berlin Wall. Bush's support for Boris Yeltsin's coup was a masterstroke of realpolitik. He could have stuck with Mikhail Gorbachev, but Bush saw that Yeltsin was the future. And he was right.
Bush also had a successful post-presidency, burying the hatchet with Bill Clinton and generally living the life of an elder statesman with restraint and credibility. He was, though, the last of the old conservative breed, and it was his son who led us into the political world we unfortunately inhabit now. I won't recap. You know this.
And yet it says something about the disaster that sits in the White House today when he says he doesn't understand what the thousand points of light was supposed to represent, or even what it meant. That's because you need to look beyond yourself and see the country as an interconnected community of people who are willing to help each other through volunteerism and a shared vision of what it takes to continue to improve. George H.W. Bush, indeed, most every other president, understood what this meant and encouraged us to give back to the United States. His death leaves one less light shining. Let's make sure the present occupant doesn't shut them all off.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Climate Change Is Real. The Hoax Sits in the White House
Contradiction? Who's to say.
The federal government released a report based on the judgement of 13 agencies that unequivocally warned of the dangers, both economic and biological, of thecoming present global warming crisis. The report was mandated by Congress and points out in stark detail why we need to address climate change, carbon dioxide, and everything else that is contributing to major changes in the United States and the world. It hands the Democrats a potent line of attack for the next election, and should make every American stand up and realize the danger we face.
Then, of course, there's the guy in the White House. You know, the guy who says it's all a Chinese hoax meant to destroy the US economy. The guy who has issued several executive orders that will enable the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries to pollute more, destroy sensitive ecosystems, and foul the air and water in the name of...jobs and a misplaced, OK, warped, sense of history.
Yes, it's true that the United States grew wealthy on US Steel and Exxon and Dow Chemical, but those days are over and gone and killing more people who mine and work around dangerous materials will not bring it back. Neither will fouling the air and water, but that seems to be the policy of choice among the sycophants who worry about the latest tweet or the mercurial nature of the man who holds the future of the country in his small hands.
Yes, I am worried too.
At least with the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives we can have an honest debate about the role and influence of actual science, rather than some warped accounting of the world that has no basis in rational thought. The White House thought it could bury this report in the frenzy of the holiday shopping season. It cannot, nor can it hide the facts that undergird the research.
A president whose approval ratings have never seen the sunlight that shines above 50% will have a tremendously difficult time running on a platform of denial and pollution.
He certainly has his fans.
The rest of us are in the majority.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
The federal government released a report based on the judgement of 13 agencies that unequivocally warned of the dangers, both economic and biological, of the
Then, of course, there's the guy in the White House. You know, the guy who says it's all a Chinese hoax meant to destroy the US economy. The guy who has issued several executive orders that will enable the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries to pollute more, destroy sensitive ecosystems, and foul the air and water in the name of...jobs and a misplaced, OK, warped, sense of history.
Yes, it's true that the United States grew wealthy on US Steel and Exxon and Dow Chemical, but those days are over and gone and killing more people who mine and work around dangerous materials will not bring it back. Neither will fouling the air and water, but that seems to be the policy of choice among the sycophants who worry about the latest tweet or the mercurial nature of the man who holds the future of the country in his small hands.
Yes, I am worried too.
At least with the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives we can have an honest debate about the role and influence of actual science, rather than some warped accounting of the world that has no basis in rational thought. The White House thought it could bury this report in the frenzy of the holiday shopping season. It cannot, nor can it hide the facts that undergird the research.
A president whose approval ratings have never seen the sunlight that shines above 50% will have a tremendously difficult time running on a platform of denial and pollution.
He certainly has his fans.
The rest of us are in the majority.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
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