Oh The Russians and The Americans Must Be Friends

(2) russian bearWith apologies to Oklahoma:

Oh, the Russian and the American should be friends,
Oh, the Russian and the American should be friends.
One leader like to kills his foes,
The other likes to count his dough,
But that’s no reason why they cain’t be friends.

It is sort of scary to me how many Americans are singing the above song just because the Trumpster has told them that is how they should think. The Trumpster is pushing this courtesy of a deal that was made that Russia would help Trump in his election (yes, no one doubts that Russia helped him, some don’t believe the deal was made).

Strangely, out of the blue the Trumptser questioned the American alliance with NATO which has kept peace in Europe of 70 years. He also cheered the British leaving the EU which will cause a significant undetermined amount of damage to the United Kingdom, perhaps making it even less united.  These moves only help Russia.

Not a few wondered why the Trumpster criticized other world leaders but found nothing but good things to say about the leader of Russia Putin. I have suggested before that this Bannon Russian strategy developed because of his amazement at how Putin has gained and held power for 17 years through his strong-arm tactics. Bannon admires, as a recent Breitbart article noted, how the Russian “health ministry works with Church-linked conservative groups against what they see as liberal western values.”

Bannon as I noted in an earlier article seeks to have the nation’s liberal values struck down. He and the Trumpster followers have difficulty accepting the secularism of the West. They seek to have a more Church-like policy which they believe exists in Russia no matter how much evil need be done to gain it.

In Newsweek in 2012 it was observed, “After near extermination under Communist rule, the church and religion are back at the heart of [Russia’s] politics … Since Putin’s reelection, a parade of priests have been loudly denouncing forces aligned against the president.” The article went on to note “a group of Russian Orthodox vigilantes dressed in all-black clothing emblazoned with skulls and crosses patrol the streets. Its leader stated:  “The enemies of Holy Russia are everywhere. “We must protect holy places from liberals and their satanic ideology.”

This is the drawing card for Americans who are drawn to Russia’s preserving of the “old way” who see America turning more and more away from religion. Not that the Trumpster is a particularly religious person, True he does worship a god which is money but he knows how to appeal to those who fear the loss of the traditional Christian influence in America exemplified by the anti-religious Democratic Party leadership.

Bannon has a strong Christian belief of being surrounded by unbelievers who must be crushed. He has pushed the Trumpster (an admittedly ignorant person who did not even understand his recent prize health care legislation) toward the Putin way of governing. The Trumpster’s followers are along for the ride.

Putin just faced the biggest demonstration in five years yesterday. He did not like it. The leader of that last demonstration Boris Nemtsov was murdered. This year the leader Alexi Nalvany has been arrested along with hundreds of others for peacefully protesting Russian corruption. Last week Denis Vorenenkov who fled from Russia being upset at the extensive corruption who turned on Putin was murdered on the streets of Kiev. Another opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza who was a supporter of Nemtsovwas poisoned for the second time as he protested against Putin. Then there was Sergei Magnitsky who was arrested and murdered in prison for reporting a massive tax fraud around Putin. Last week the lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov who represented him “fell” from a fourth floor apartment. Then there was Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned in London after accusing Putin of the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya.

Yes, you followers of the Trumpster, that is the type of person you want to be friends with. Will that soon be the remedy the Trumpster bring to our country as his presidency continues to fail?

And by the way, the Trumpsters indifference to learning has caused him to cede control of the military to the general. It is reported “a new pattern of behaviour by US forces since Donald Trump took office in January. Since then, the monthly total of recorded civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria has more than doubled, according to independent monitors.”  Are we already following the ways of Putin?

35 Comments

  1. “Affiliation”, “identification”? What does that mean? Does observance figure in any way to religious fealty?
    What type of “Christianity”? Evangelicals (American Taliban)? The Christianity of Thomas Moore (how many did he burn?).
    Recent studies in Great Britain (sorry cannot cite exact article) report that the percentage of observing Christians i.e. attending services more than10 times a year is less than1%.

    I think these my-god-is better-than-your-god (or no god at all) arguments are a waste of time.

  2. Matt and Hutch: Fear not! Concerns about Christianity’s demise many be premature!

    Four countries with the most Christians:

    U.S. 247 million
    Brazil 176 million
    Mexico 108 million
    Russia 105 million

    Vatican announces record number of Baptized: 1.27 billion Catholics. Total Christians worldwide 2.2 billion.

  3. Christianity is alive and well in America.
    Says who? Says Pew!
    Most recent Pew Research Data: 71% of Americans describe themselves as Christians:
    77% of adults affiliate with a religious faith. 63% Democrats identify as Christians; 82% Republicans identify as Christians. 92% members of Congress identify as Christians.
    “Among the roughly three-quarters (77%) of U.S. adults who do claim a religion, there has been no discernible drop in most measures of religious commitment. Indeed, by some conventional measures, religiously affiliated Americans are, on average, even more devout than they were a few years ago.”
    “Share of US adults who believe in God is 89% down from 92%”
    “Fully two-thirds of religiously affiliated adults say they pray every day and that religion is very important to them, and roughly six-in-ten say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month; those numbers have changed little, if at all, in recent years.”
    Yes, the non-affiliated has increased to 23%, but 90% of these still believe in God. 80% of millennials believe in God; and 52% of Millenials believe “Scripture is the word of God” according to Pew Research.
    You know: Young people rebel. Let’s see how they raise their kids!

  4. PBS had a Frontline program that showed the U S Military had defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq. The terrorists had only 40 members left in Western Iraq. Then for political reasons Obama withdrew the forces. The Iraqi jihadists then grew and combined with the Syrian jihadists to form ISIS. Obama’s conduct created ISIS. 2. Nothing in the dossier has been confirmed. There is no evidence in it. Trump increasing NATO spending refutes your argument.

  5. Who is wearing “fairy” glasses? Stop by the churches, two padres-no waiting. The West is fraught with CRINOS. All this pathos about “Christian America” and nobody goes to Mass or church.

    • Hutch:

      I read this: “But the share [of Americans] that rejected any religious affiliation was growing fast, rising from 6 percent in 1992 to 22 percent in 2014. Among Millennials, the figure was 35 percent.” The same article said: “the percentage of white Republicans with no religious affiliation has nearly tripled since 1990.” It also noted: As Notre Dame’s Geoffrey Layman noted, “Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They don’t really go to church.”

      Here’ the article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/breaking-faith/517785/

      Your points are well taken.

    • Being a member of a church is often like leaving the ski rack on your Audi long after you are too old to go skiing. Its important to appear sporty.

  6. Rep. Nunes “briefs” the President on incidental intelligence collected on his transition team when they conversed with foreign officials. Why would the President need to be briefed on information he has free access to as the commander in chief? Further, it now comes out that Nunes received this information from someone on the White House grounds. Sooooo the President’s office provided Nunes with the information he needed to say in the media that Trump had been incidentally caught up in the NSA surveillance appartus. What???? This is literal tampering of a Congressional investigation by a sitting President. Time for impeachment.

  7. OBAMA, the peace candidate:

    1. OBAMA GAVE US ISIS:
    Obama’s troop cuts, which some boasted of and most called precipitous, gave us ISIS.

    2. As of August 2, 2016: 4,683 brave Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) on October 7, 2001, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began with the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. Of the total deaths, 3,708 were due to hostile fire, and the remainder due to non-hostile actions (such as accident, suicide, or illness).
    30,000 wounded in Iraq;

    3. AFGHANISTAN 2,500 US MILITARY DEATHS (mostly Obama’s;)
    U.S. military deaths have increased nearly four-fold, from the 558 that took place before Obama was inaugurated for office in 2009 to over 2,500.
    Meanwhile, the injuries have increased about 7-fold, from 2,702 under the previous administration to over 21,000
    75% of deaths and 90% of combat injuried in Afghanistan occurred under Obama’s watch.

    OBAMA (The Peace Candidate): A SUMMARY OF SOME OF HIS ?SUCCESSES?
    – Sent 3,500 U.S. troops and tanks to Russia’s doorstep in one of his final decisions as president.
    – Obama ordered ten times more drone strikes than Bush.
    – In 2016 alone Obama dropped 26,171 bombs (an average of 72 bombs every day).
    – Put boots on the ground in Syria , despite 16 times saying “no boots on the ground”.
    – Dropped bombs in 7 Muslim countries; Bush bombed 3.
    Bragged about his use of drones – I’m “really good at killing people”.
    Initiated, and personally oversaw a ‘Secret Kill List’.
    Pushed for war on Syria while siding with al-Qaeda .
    Supported Israel’s wars and occupation of Palestine.
    Deployed Special Ops to 134 countries – compared to 60 under Bush.
    Drastically escalated the NSA spying program .
    Signed the NDAA into law – making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial.
    Signed more executive memoranda than any other president in history.
    Transferred more than $100 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, more than any other administration in history.
    Signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia .
    Opened a military base in Chile.
    Waged war on Libya without congressional approval.
    Started a covert, drone war in Yemen.
    Escalated the proxy war in Somalia.
    Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan.
    Sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan.
    Repealed the Propaganda ban, making it legal to spread government propaganda via news outlets.
    Assassinated 6 US citizens with drone strikes.

    • ISIS exists because the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq totally destabilized the Middle East. And let’s not forget the disaster of Sept. 11, which occurred on the watch of your boys, Bush and Cheney. I much prefer the man who killed Osama bin Laden to the men who couldn’t stop bin Laden and then couldn’t find him! Your laundry list is a joke.

    • Bill:

      1. Bush had made the troop cuts and Obama removed the last 10,000 when Iraq would not give our forces the protection we demanded.

      2. Sending US troops to Russia’s doorsteps ensured peace. Whatever Obama did Trump has increased in Spades. Civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria have sky rocketed under him and he has increased the American troop presence on the ground by almost double. Trump increasing Afghanistan forces saying Obama did not put enough in there.

      3. Under Obama the world has been made safer from the evils of ISIS. You apparently would prefer we have done nothing against them from what I can tell. Those US citizens who were killed were in a war against our country.

      • Matt:
        1. When Bush left office, we had 170,000 troops in Iraq. Yes, Bush had a withdrawal plan. Obama was in charge. Obama made decisions whether to implement it. Obama withdrew all our combat forces by 2011, not Bush. Don’t blame Bush!
        – – Obama saw the rise of ISIS and did nothing, dismissing it as “the JV team.”
        2. Trump is in office less than 60 days, and you blame him for all that goes wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan. Absurd!
        3. You say Obama “made the world safer”: How by letting ISIS metastasize and by spreading war to Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia? I guess putting American troops in 136 countries is a good idea? We’ll make the world “safer” by getting involved in more wars!
        4. As for Christian Americans, the polls I’ve cited show 70% to 83% of Americans identify as Christians. How often they attend Church services is a secondary question. See below!

  8. Obama radically reduced the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively cleaning up the mess created by your boys, Bush and Cheney. He also cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and ordered the assassination of Osama bin Laden, a man Bush and Cheney could never seem to find.
    The net effect of these actions meant many fewer bombs were falling in the Mideast. The number of US combat deaths also plunged. Good job, Obama!
    Civilian casualties have always generated widespread publicity. A US attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan killed 42 people. It was a major story with a publicity fallout that lasted for months. It happened on Obama’s watch.
    By the way, it’s reasonable to expect more stories about civilian casualties under Bush and Cheney since this haven’t-seen-combat couple was waging a major war. In addition to much civilian misery, there were also several thousand American war dead. Bad job, GOP.
    You won’t catch me blaming Christianity for this carnage, because I think the war was animated by very unChristian ideas and instincts. But with several hundred thousand war dead, can you blame the Iraqis for thinking that Christianity is the religion of terror?

  9. 1. The American Constitution guarantees the Free Exercise of Religion and throughout its history the vast majority of Americans have freely exercised this right and identified as Christians. One recent ABC poll (2013? 2009?) said 83% of Americans identified as Christian. As said, a recent Pew Poll said 70%. Anyway, throughout its history, the US has been predominantly a Christian nation. Some people like Obama deny that fact!

    2. When for 8 years Obama reigned and rained down 100,000 bombs and thousands of missiles on the people of the Middle East, only a few civilians were killed. That’s what Obama’s government and Media have been telling us. Now, the Media will change the story . . . . soon the likes of Cindy Sheehan will be back in action and the people once again will be horrified by war.

  10. As I recall it, the Pilgrims were fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is a bedrock of American democracy. There is no reference to Christianity in the Constitution. That’s because the Fouding Fathers were largely inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, not the theology of the pope or the protestant king of England.

    • The Pilgrims and Puritans left England to practice Christianity as they saw fit, not in the interest of Freedom of Religion. They denied others the same in the the New England colonies. Only Rhode Island did not practice exclusivity and the Constitution was ratified and came into effect without Rhode Island’s accession.

      The Constitution barred the Federal government from establishing a preferred religious [Christian] sect. The state established churches were left intact. They were all Christian.

      Utah was long prevented from becoming a state because Mormonism was not considered Christian by many lawmakers in Washington. This reaffirms the Union was intended to be Christian in its essence.

      One of the first laws passed by the Federal government under the Constitution, the Naturalization Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 103), limited naturalization to “any alien, being a free white person” which was a way of saying European and Christian. The thinking of the Founder Fathers did not embrace a heterodox result from immigration whatsoever.

      Ideology is not history. Christianity is woven into America’s birth. It is our cultural DNA.

      • Sorry, the Pilgrims were fleeing religious persecution. To say otherwise just isn’t true. And to say they persecuted others is a point against Christianity, not a point in its favor!

        The other examples you cite also make Christianity look intolerant. No wonder the Founding Fathers thought it important to include freedom of religion in the Constitution.

        My advice would be to go back in history and find a few things that make Christianity look good.

        • I did not say that the Pilgrims were not fleeing persecution. I said that they believed in persecution of others. You do not understand history.

          It is your ideology that deems the religious exclusivity practiced by Puritans and Pilgrims as a “point against” Christianity. Most of the world today and has throughout history approved of such exclusivity.

          Sane people agree that diversity is a weakness that is fatal to whatever version of civilization they live in. That is why a dominant culture enforces its values on all. It has to or perish.

          Christianity has always been intolerant of error. All religions are or they have nothing to offer.

          The Founding Fathers allowed people to worship as they wished. They did not coerce this or that ritual. At the same time they left state established churches in place. It was a compromise between Congregationalists and Anglicans, now Episcopalians. They were solid in support of Christianity.

          Your given advice about learning history when your grasp does not appear to have progressed beyond some vague leftist civics course in high school is arrogance typical of the product of what passes for education today. Your ideas are inchoate and facts seem alien to your thought process.

          Put your feelings, your virtue signaling, aside. Clio does not care about them. Your schema of the past eschews facts. It ignores facts. It is fact free. Contra factum non velat argumentum.

          • Another muddled, incoherent and narrow-minded outing for you, Tadzio. Sane people see diversity as a weakness that will destroy civilization? I guess that makes the Founding Fathers mad men since the freedom embodied in the Constitution protects diversity of belief and religion.

          • Another fact free reply. With a bit of name calling added. Clever.

            That the Constitution did not allow coercion is not an argument that the country is not Christian and is not based on Christian principles. In the first half of the 19th century you still had to support through levies the established church in many states. Tolerance did not extend to selectively paying taxes.

            In trying to extract a modicum of logic in your history the best I can come up with is that you think that a policy of no coercion must derive from an intellectual void. In the case of the Constitution Christianity and non-coercion exist side by side. If you examine the public acts and statements of the writers of the Constitution you will find that their opinions are firmly rooted in Christianity. The Bible, especially the New Testament, was the book that they were most familiar with and sought inspiration from.

            You seem to be offended by that. Therefore, it cannot be true. History does not work that way. Your puerile daydreams are not evidence of what the men thought 230 years ago. If you read the Constitution, the public acts and proclamations of the government, debates, private letters and other such evidence you have to conclude that the United States was consciously established as a Christian nation, not a Muslim , not a Jewish, not a Hindu, not a Buddhist nation and not an overly tolerant one either.

            You can believe any sort of airy-fairy nonsense about what policy today should be. But it cannot change the record of the past. Again, contra factum non velat argumentum. You display zero knowledge of the men who established this country or the cultural milieu that they lived in.

            Has it ever entered into your mind that, just possibly, they might have had ideas at variance to yours? Stop looking into a mirror to see someone else. Only silly geese do that.

          • “They were solid in support of Christianity.”

            Where does slavery fit into that Christian dance?

          • Thanks for writing such an eaoyets-und-rstand article on this topic.

          • Marketing a brand is rather difficult and calls for time, patience and research. I’m not sure if the people in the video know exactly what goes into marketing a product/brand.

      • America’s birth. I like that. Like a hen not near draint.

  11. Matt:

    We learn more from those who disagree with us than those who concur:

    1. Matt seems to say Secularists are good; Conservative Christians bad? A handful of “Orthodox vigilantes” represent Conservative Christians, in Matt’s view; does the KKK?
    2. Mocking Christians mocks our Nation’s history. Christians gave us Western Civilization. Pew Research: U.S. today: 71% Christian; 6% non-Christian faiths; 16% unaffiliated; 4% agnostic; 3% atheist. Other polls: 89-90% of Americans still believe in God.
    3. Assassinations: Didn’t we kill the US Citizen Al Awlaki and his 17 year old American born son? Didn’t we try to assassinate Castro? What about Diem? Look up US assassinations! “Obama has actually gone further than Bush by claiming, and acting on, a supposed presidential authority to assassinate anyone, including those with U.S. citizenship, anywhere in the world just based on the presidential say-so that those targeted are “terrorists” and a danger to U.S. interests.” LA Times reported that in addition to Al Awlaki “US drone strikes killed 6 other US citizens.”
    4. “In July 2016 the US government made the absurd claim it had killed, at most, 116 civilians (64-116) in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya between 2009 and 2015. . . The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) said the true figure was six times higher: 384-807 civilians killed by Obama in drone strikes in those 4 countries.
    5. Elsewhere in the News: “In Afghanistan, alone, in 2016, Obama ordered 1,337 drone strikes.”
    6. The number of countries being simultaneously bombed by the US increased to seven last year(2016) . . . In Somalia, US Special Operations Forces and gunships had been fighting al Qaeda and its al Shabaab allies since January 2007.”
    7. In 2016, Obama dropped 26,000 bombs; 12,000 in Iraq; 12,000 in Syria. “In President Obama’s last year in office, the United States dropped 26,171 bombs in seven countries.” No reliable data on civilians killed by 26,000 bombs dropped in 2016.
    8. “According to the TBIJ, at least 2,347 people have been killed in Pakistan by U.S. drone attacks, and there are “credible news reports” that as many as 781 of those killed were civilians—more than 175 of them children. Another study (says) up to 360 were civilians. But according to Obama—in other words, from the viewpoint of the head of the U.S. empire—these are “not … a huge number” of human lives.”
    9. How many civilians do you think have been killed under Obama? 64? 100? 2,000? 10,000? 100,000? A lot? or “not a huge number”?

    • Bill:

      1. Do you approve of Putin’s murdering Russian opposition figures?

      2. Do you equate Putin’s murdering Russian opposition figures with America acting against foreigners who threaten our nation?

      3. Can you name any American president who murdered an opposition figure?

      4. How many civilians died in WWII? Were all their killings unjust? Should the US not have fought in that war.

      5. How many civilians would have been killed had we not stopped the leadership of ISIS and al Qaeda?

      6. Is our purpose in Afghanistan to gain anything for America or is it to help the Afghanistan people live without being under the hand of the Taliban? What would you suggest we do to help those people?

      7. In all the bombings you mention what is our purpose in doing them? Is it to gain territory? Is it to defeat a group that seeks our destruction? What would you do about ISIS>

      8. Do you know the connection between al-Awlaki and the attempted bombing of American passengers on airplanes? Do you think we should not act against American citizens who are working in conjunction with and enemy seeking to harm Americans?

      9. Do you think Trump will cause less or more civilian casualties? Do you see that Trump is doing anything different that Obama has done? Has our involvement in these countries increased or decreased since Trump became president?

      10. Do you trust the American military? Do you trust Putin more than our generals? Do you believe the Russians have not murdered any civilians? Do you believe Russia is justified in invading Ukraine’s Crimea and Eastern Ukraine?

  12. Is Trump undermining NATO or improving it? Adding 100 billion in annual spending to the U S and European budgets for defense hardly seems to weaken that organization. No other candidate for the Presidency had such a forceful approach, Did Sanders, Stein, Johnson or Hillary propose a huge increase in defense spending? If they did most voters missed it. Trump has made NATO stronger not weaker. 2. Are we using too much force or too little in fighting ISIS in Mosul? Some have asserted we won’t defeat ISIS there. Yet when the military increases it’s pace against the terrorists they cry we are using too much force. Where was the concern for civilian casualties in Yemen? Thousands have been killed by the Saudis using U S planes and bombs. The silence is deafening. 3. Many doubt the Russians had any impact on the election. President Obama a couple of weeks before the vote, said it would be impossible to fix an American election because it is too decentralized. Even if they tried they couldn’t alter anything. 4. The FBI commenced an investigation in July to see if there was a Trump campaign-Russian connection. Nine months later they have found nothing. Did the investigation start as a result of the Fake Dossier? In order to get a search warrant in Massachusetts one needs a sworn statement that contains personal knowledge of criminal activity and a demonstration that the person giving said information is reliable. The personal Knowledge and reliability test is completely lacking in the Fake Dossier. Nothing in that dossier can be confirmed or verified. Rumors, innuendos and hearsay from anonymous sources. No warrant would ever issue on that basis and no investigation should have been initiated. However if the Obama Administration had used Federal Law Enforcement and the Intel guys to spy on their political opponents without any basis which seems clearer and clearer as the weeks go by then you have the biggest political scandal in American history. We have become a police state and a totalitarian state and it didn’t happen under Trump. Stop looking across the ocean for wrongdoing. The greatest political crimes are in DC.

    • NC:

      1. Trump is undermining NATO by cozying up to Russia. Did you hear that he presented Merkel with a bill for billions of dollars he said Germany owed us? Do you think Trump knows NATO kept the peace in Europe for 70 years?

      2. There is no silence over civilian casualties. Unfortunately if we are to regain Mosul then there are going to be a lot of innocent people killed. We will do our best to minimize the killings. As long as ISIS uses civilians as shields they will die. It is tragic but the choice is to let ISIS control the part of the city it still has or to drive it out. The former is really not feasible since it is an evil force.

      3. Whether the Russian’s affected the election is hard to tell. There is no question that they tried. It is almost certain that Comey affected it. But the main cause was the Democrats had a horrible candidate.

      4. We do not know what the FBI has found. The investigation is ongoing. Sorry to bust your balloon but a lot in the dossier has been verified which I have mentioned before. The search warrant standards of probable cause are inapplicable to the dossier since it was not written to get a warrant.

      5. There is no evidence Obama used any federal officials to spy on Trump. Obama refused to interfere in the election by releasing the information on the Russian trying to tilt it toward Trump. Your friend Neopolitano, I believe you relied on him before, has been suspended by Fox news for making up his story about the three British sources.

      6. True the greatest political crimes are now in DC with Chairman Nunes refusing to investigate and telling the subject of the investigation what is happening in the investigation. With the Trumpsters son-in-law secretly meeting with a KGB trained bank president of a Russian bank on the list of sanctioned banks and everyone around Trump doing their best to line their pockets.

  13. “Not that the Trumpster is a particularly religious person, True he does worship a god which is money… an admittedly ignorant person who did not even understand his recent prize health care legislation…”

    The arrogance of the above statements is why the Democrats lost and are not on the way to recovery. You know nothing about his inner religious values. They backed the most blatant money lover ever to get a major nomination – Hillary Clinton. Trump is a successful businessman: she is a corrupt thief.

    For a Democrat to complain about not understanding legislation is weird when Obamacare was passed so that we could find out what was in it is risible. Eight years ago such ignorance was thought to be clever. The President should not be bogged down in bureaucratic details, that is for Congress to work out. Congress enacts, the Presidents administers.

    Things are moving along smoothly. Often in writing laws you have to find out what will not fly before you find out what will fly. When spending on Beacon Hill required new revenue in the early 1960s John Volpe sent up sales tax bills seven times before the Legislature tweaked it into workable form. One can doubt if the Governor worked on the details day after day. If you knew him you would know he did not. He was an excellent Governor and a top notch executive.

    America was founded as a Christian nation by Christians. Its public figures should be dedicated to preserving that fact from which whatever makes it good and decent flows. No country can long flourish or even survive without a solid ethos. Christianity is America’s moral core.

    • Tadzio:

      Trump has no time for learning things. Too much time on the golf course or thinking about tweets or meeting with people and claiming credit for things they announced years ago. He is really too involved with himself to have time for learning the ways of governing as we see with him appointing Jared to handle most of the things a president would be involved in doing.

      As for religion, his is the worship of money. There is no doubt about that. It is also doing anything he can to get money including his many bankruptcies that hurt the tradesmen. Presidents should know what is in legislation but Trump is too busy to find out. He is blaming everyone but himself for his failures.

      You contradict yourself talking about Volpe who went up seven times on a simple sales tax bill whereas Trump tried to push through a highly complicated health care bill with one try and then gave up except to attack those who did not vote for it. I disagree about Volpe. He was a smart man who was very involved in legislative matters and would have had deep involvement in anything important to him.

      America was founded by Christians. Up until the first part of the 20th Century it considered itself a Christian nation. That Christianity was an Anglo-Saxon Christianity which excluded Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. Slowly it changed as did the people who inhabited it. There are good and evil Christians. Being a Christian nation did not make us good, after all we had slavery here and then Jim Crow and other evils. You say we should preserve the fact we were a Christian nation; how exactly should that be done? And, what branch of Christianity should make that decision.

  14. You’ve triggered me, Matt. Ever notice how you never see Putin and Stalin together?
    Hmmmmm.

    • Honest:

      Yes, just the other day I thought that same thing. Perhaps I have not been paying attention well enough. But I did see that Trump had Frederick Douglass over at the White House last week.

  15. True, that, especially about the indiscriminate bombing. Mosul is a slaughter house.

    • What’s 500 civilian casualties, give or take, to a Christian Nation?

      Pope Innocent III would approve.