Tsar Donald Finds the Crown Sits Uneasily on His Hair:

IMG_20170203_143317As far as finding fault in, expressing fear of, and being frightened by the first and foremost fellow I find few peers. I expressed worry and wrote posts that he is being blackmailed by Russia; that he will encourage racism to rise; that he speaks in foolish gibberish like a dictator; that he’s abandoning our allies and lining up with foreign leader hostile to our way of life; that he is a “wretch concentrated all in self;” that he will hurt America by lifting Russian sanctions and moving our embassy to Jerusalem; that his inaugural America First speech is alien to our country’s values; that he and his staff tell obvious lies; the lies they tell all relate to his view of the country from an extreme narcissist viewpoint; that a mass movement of ordinary people will not put up with him; that he acts with the mentality shown by the Alice in Wonderland characters (or the emperor in the Emperor’s New Clothes); and he acts and thinks like Tsar Nicholas II.

It is fair to say I am not among those smitten by him. Yet as the time passed I thought I noticed a change. It seemed he became less the egotistical tsar and more aware that the sun doesn’t come up for the purpose of bleaching his hair. Having spent many years bullying people around he is finding that act doesn’t work too well in a democracy. Although he is still surrounded by sycophantic servants in position far beyond their capabilities it seems that some, and I expect they are in his family, are telling him: “Dad, you’re not tsar, you are president! Take off the crown!”

Understand that I did not vote for him nor for the all the ideas he espoused. He is much too far on the right for me and these ideas run up against my beliefs that America must be a more inclusive and welcoming society especially for those suffering the greatest hardships. I believe it is immigrants who have made America great and they should be welcomed; I believe we should accommodate as much as possible the diversity among our citizens in all aspects. However I recognize Trump is president and he has a different agenda and is entitled to pursue those things he promised doing.

In that respect he has shown one trait that is admirable is that he is a man of his word. Although he lies so much I sometimes blush saying that. Trump would be so much better off if he acted presidential rather than like a demigod; if he believed what his eyes see rather than what he wants to see. He did say during an interview that “I like order and I like strength.” Keeping true to his promises he is showing strength of conviction (put America first). From that he is issuing directives that make clear his positions which will bring about the order he desires.

I’ve covered the sideshows in my prior posts. Now let us see what he has done with his executive orders except the one on Muslim immigrants.  He ordered the go ahead on building the Wall, the speeding up of the deportation of certain undesirable illegal immigrants, the reviewing and slashing of regulations, the continuation of pipelines, the use of American products in the pipelines, and the streamlining of environmental regulations. He froze federal hiring, withdrew from the Trans Pacific trade deal, stopped U.S. funding of abortions overseas, froze all planned new regulations that were in process, stopped some of the ACA (Obama care) mandates, and some other housekeeping matters.

These all are consistent with his promises to his constituents. The wisdom of some of the actions may be questioned and debated but nothing that he has done so far is something that should surprise outside the immigration mess. Nor are they beyond the actions of prior presidents who by these orders intrude somewhat into the provenance of Congress.

I suppose with him it may be best to watch his actions and not what he says. I say the crown rests uneasily because I sense his interaction with three foreign leaders: the UK’s Theresa May, Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull and Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto has taught him that “America First” must be tempered by the knowledge that like it or not he lives in a very complicated world and that every action will result in a reaction. Maybe he is learning that the sun shines on all of us and not just him. At least I thought that until his immigration disaster, telling U.C. Berkeley “no federal funds”, and threats to Iran (“PUT ON NOTICE” whatever that means).   And notice I don’t put on his lap the messed up raid in Yemen although I question why Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon had input into the decision to go ahead.

17 Comments

  1. John King McDonald

    Ms. Freeh :

    Dorothy Hunt says hello . 🙂

  2. You fellas having a right-wing alt-fact circle jerk? Don’t let me interrupt. Carry on.

    • John King McDonald

      Circle-Jerkus Interruptus? …Once again the carriage of political discourse is driven off the road! UGH

  3. oh oh!
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/couple-22-years-divorcing-trump-vote-article-1.2966332

    Woman says President Trump made her single again.

    A retiree in Washington State told Reuters she called it quits with her husband of 22 years because he voted for Trump — something she saw as a “deal breaker.”

    “It totally undid me that he could vote for Trump,” said Gayle McCormick, 73, a retired California prison guard who called herself a “Democrat leaning toward socialist.”

    “It opened up areas between us I had not faced before,” she said.

  4. Matt
    It is harder to get a drivers license
    than to have a baby

    Studies of children with ACES
    show PTSD from domestic violence
    leading to developmental disabilities
    and criminal behaviour later in life

    just in from the Guardian newspaper

    Russia
    Putin approves change to law decriminalising domestic violence
    Critics say amendment sends wrong message in country whe

  5. I re-emphasize how the press distorts the news. The press is apoplectic that Kellyanne Conway referred to a “Bowling Green Massacre.” There was no massacre in Bowling Green. But the two terrorists captured in Bowling Green did admit to massacring US soldiers overseas and planning to massacre more American servicemen overseas.
    “After they were arrested, they admitted to using IEDs against US soldiers in Iraq and attempting to send money and weapons to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terror group that later morphed into ISIS, according to the Department of Justice. Alwan was charged with conspiracy to kill US nationals abroad, distributing information on the manufacture and use of IEDs, attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to Al Qaeda in Iraq (the group that later morphed into ISIS), and conspiracy to transfer, possess, and export Stinger missiles, according to the FBI.
    Hammadi was charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to Al Qaeda in Iraq, conspiracy to transfer, possess, and export Stinger missiles, and making a false statement on an immigration application.
    Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in prison and Hammadi was sentenced to life. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
    At the time of their sentencing, David Hale, the US Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, called Alwan and Hammadi ‘experienced terrorists who willingly and enthusiastically participated in what they believed were insurgent support operations designed to harm American soldiers in Iraq.'”
    Now rather than expressing outrage at the massacres these two committed and the further massacres they attempted to commit, the US press attacks Conway’s mistake of saying, “Bowling Green massacres.”
    As John Adams said of his critics: that they threw at him, “sour, angry, peevish, lying paragraphs, the press batters the government with.”

  6. All good comments, all around. I learn a lot here on this blog.
    I share a perspective from a blogger on the recent events:
    “When Judge Robart gave Washington State “standing” (found the State suffered “damage”) and issued an injunction against the President’s Executive Order. Democrats rejoiced.
    But when border states, observing that President Obama had ordered the Border Patrol to cease patrolling the border, permitting MILLIONS of destitute, unskilled Latin Americans to cross unhindered . . . the judiciary found no evidence of “damage”, found no reason to grant “standing”, and ordered the states to cease and desist because IMMIGRATION CONTROL IS SOLELY THE PROVINCE OF THE FEDERAL EXECUTIVE. Then Democrats rejoiced.”
    The hypocrisy continues. We’ll see how the 9th Circuit wiggles out of this one. We’ll see if the Courts eviscerate this President’s executive power on Immigration.

  7. Redemption at Pats parade….Angiulo’s trucks are towing the flatbeds. G/J (Gennaro & Jason) . Gotta love it . They even have the confetti cannons!

  8. “I believe it is immigrants who have made America great and they should be welcomed; I believe we should accommodate as much as possible the diversity among our citizens in all aspects.” That is a religion the church of which I do not worship in.

    First. Diversity is a weakness. All societies recognize this. That is why there are borders. The knowledge of this is both genetic, common to all mammalian species, and observable. Diverse areas have low civic participation and greater distrust. The human experience is diminished and people withdraw into themselves.

    A government that encourages diversity is at war with its population. Most treason is a result of diversity. Anyone claiming dual loyalty is a liar. They are loyal to the Other, as opposed to the host population. Loyalty cannot have two parts. This has been a constant throughout history. Any demographic group that refuses to assimilate is a threat to the majority.

    Second. America’s greatness, if it is great, derives from the population and the government established by the Constitution in 1787. This was the product of a highly cohesive population mostly descended from settlers who arrived in the early 17th century. This was a British race or tribe. Their ideas and energy made America.

    Later arrivals often contributed to the nation, but all to often at a price of watering down the principles that attracted them in the first place. From the radical Germans after 1848 to Jewish communists that that flooded in during the the late 19th and early 20th centuries their influence has been divisive and a net negative. There are others. Whatever they contributed the price was higher than the benefit.

    These unassimilateds have contributed to us the bloodbath of WWII and and the moral degeneracy of our time – a pornographic culture, same sex “marriage”, abortion as birth control, foreign entanglements… From the baseline of the Republic, the adoption of the Constitution, immigration has been a mixed bag, and to my observation, not worth the price.

    In the 19th century the Founding Stock through its vigor and moral capital conquered a large part of a thinly populated continent. It adopted policies to secure its hold on that territory by British and European migration. That goal has been attained and the policy has no further value. It should be discontinued. History will judge if it was a success. Our bets are on opposing horses in that race.

    In its present form our immigration policy only creates a Tower of Babel, not only of tongues but of religion and disparate races. The accumulation of hundreds of thousands of years of different environments have evolved genetic and inherited differences that cannot be erased within a time frame that that does not destroy the happiness and well being of today’s population and that of many, many generations to come.

    It is immoral to condemn our children to chaos, warfare, discord, and a miasma of cultural and moral confusion. They and their progeny have a right to a happy sojourn on this planet. All lives are fleeting. The cruel god of equality. a perverse and silly idea, does not deserve the sacrificial offerings of blood, poverty and spiritual misery that a continuation of a 19th century immigration policy requires. Close today’s version of Ellis Island and you close the temple doors of Janus, the God of War.

  9. Matt, Many Universities have unconstitutionally burdened free speech by imposing “security fees” (thousands of dollars) on cash-strapped student groups inviting conservative speakers. Berkeley recently did so; but so too have U. Mass Amherst, Stanford, U. Cal Santa Barbara and many others.
    Many other schools have allowed protesters to shut down speech events.
    Colleges that don’t protect free speech should lose federal funds.
    Incidentally, after the rioters at Berkeley shut down the most recent speaker, Berkeley returned the “security fee” to the Young Republicans. Under pressure, other schools have returned the security fee, too. But imagine the “chilling effect” on free speech!
    Good for Trump to threaten cutting off funds to schools which impede free speech and refuse to protect free speech events.

    • Bill C and Matt…Matt and I had worked with a retired FBI agent and we were talking one day about kings and strings…the agent mentioned a raid on the ‘sanctuary’ at BU’s Marsh Chapel in the 60’s…I laughed and told him “I knew you looked familiar!”
      I took at look at Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley ( we had Ray Mungo and the B U News) recently to see how far from that universities have strayed of late..age brings some perspective along with aches..I wonder if looking at the genesis of the Free Speech Movement might educate people as to what has happened now..I would help with that if I was not on a Student Strike!

  10. Presidents usually get a seven month honeymoon period. Trump hasn’t been given seven minutes. The nattering nabobs of negativism can’t restrain themselves. Trump is adopting the same approach to the press that Washington and Jefferson had. Washington said the newspapers were stuffed with scurrilities and baseless declarations. Jefferson said nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth is suspicious in that polluted vehicle. Both essentially pointed out the Fake News of the day. 2. Enhanced screening and extreme vetting of potential terrorists is a sound idea. Trump should be applauded for his approach.

  11. Matt: It’s good to see you tacking a little bit toward the center and crediting Trump for a few things.
    2. You see Trump’s “lies”, I see “estimates” or “opinions” or “misstatements”. I’ve seen far more lies from the Press: especially by spin and omission.
    3. As for Immigration: The UN says there are 23 million refugees in the world, today! How many should the US welcome?
    Obama limited refugees to 100,000 annually; Trump to 50,000. The US annually issues 1 million green cards (relatives or for permanent employment) tens of millions of visas (students, temp. employment, business visitors, tourists etc); about 1% overstay their visas;, and we have 11 million illegal immigrants draining resources.
    15% of U.S. population today is foreign born. In 1970 it was 5%. In 1890-1910, it was 15%. But that was a different era! Today, we’re at the historical high, and liberals say “let more in” as our nation debt soars past $20 trillion and our infrastructure crumbles and medicaid, medicare and social security get tapped out of cash!
    How many more immigrants do you propose we admit? Every nation controls Immigration!I Perhaps we should drastically reduce immigration to allow current immigrants to assimilate. Let’s go back to the 5% figure, again.
    4. The Yemen Raid: As for Kushner and Bannon having “input” on the Yemen raid, being “present” at a meeting is not “input”.
    From a reporter at the liberal Slate Magazine: “Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the plan over dinner at the White House, on Jan. 25, to Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his political strategist Steve Bannon. Officials told me that Trump approved the plan then and there.” It was Mattis’s and Dunford’s plan, approved by Trump.
    5. Where we agree: As for Iran, I too hope we are not triggering a war with Iran. I voted for Trump in part to oppose Obama/Hillary’s bombing of seven countries. I’m against the neo-cons’ ceaseless interventionism.
    As for Israel, I agree that moving the embassy to Jerusalem and continuing settlements are great obstacles to peace. In fact, I doubt the Israeli Government has any intent of creating a two-state solution, as Netanyahu promises more and more settlements. The West Bank already looks like apartheid bantustans. Look at a map of the bantusans in South Africa; blacks were isolated in geographic areas with substandard housing conditions; whites lived in the best cities and town; now look at a a map of the Settlements: the Palestinians are kept out in the “bantusans” isolated in a patchwork of separate/unequal living conditions. I judge Netanyahu by actions, not words!
    The U.S. should move its embassy to West Jerusalem contingent on the completion of a viable and fair two state solution.
    Noam Chomsky has stated that what Israel is doing in the West Bank “is far worse than apartheid.”

  12. HOTSPUR
    And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
    By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil.
    If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
    And I’ll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
    O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!

    • No Shakespeare fans? Pity. The piece above comes out of Henry IV part 1. Its, especially, apropos for this blog.

  13. John King McDonald

    Rich syntax is its own reward, but for chrissake break thst first paragraph up. Say it out loud to yourself without taking a breath and you will understand a post-election medical condition known now as TRUMP APOCALYPSE – PLEXIA … Water? 🙂

  14. He is a breath of fresh air after the prior administration…
    a few early returns coming in from the Sally Yates/Obama early release program that must have been a great morale boost for the ATF agents we both had worked with…
    the old emperor may have had no brain! I hope someone else is keeping a Sally Yates scorecard!
    1) March 2, 2016 A convicted crack dealer who left prison early as part of the Obama administration’s mass release of federal inmates has been indicted by a grand jury for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and her two kids in Columbus, Ohio. The gory crime drew national attention because the children, ages 7 and 10, were murdered to eliminate them as witnesses in the brutal massacre of their 32-year-old mother.

    2) This week: A Texas man whose life sentence on drug charges was commuted by former President Obama is back behind bars after cops caught him with more than two pounds of cocaine following a high-speed chase, according to a report.

    Robert M. Gill, 68, had been imprisoned in 1990 for for cocaine and heroin distribution before Obama set him free along with other non-violent federal inmates in 2015, the San Antonio Express News reported.

    During his eight years in office, Obama commuted 1,715 prison sentences, more than any other president.

    Last Thursday, according to federal court papers, Gill met with his probation officers and then went to the parking lot of a food market to buy more than 2 pounds of cocaine.

    Gill met a person who gave him a black backpack that he placed in his vehicle, and a sheriff’s deputy in an unmarked car tried to stop him, the affidavit said.

    But Gill took off and after a high-speed chase collided with another vehicle where deputies were able to disable his car.

    Officers found the cocaine in the backpack and put him under arrest, the affidavit said.

    Gill “related that he was going to sell the cocaine to make money and would be paying a female $26,000 for the cocaine,” the affidavit said.

    “I’m so disappointed to hear that he got arrested again,” Ronald Schmidt, a lawyer who helped Gill appeal his life sentence in the courts, told the San Antonio newspaper.

    In signing his release, Obama said he did so “because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. … Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity.”

    Gill’s prison warden also stood up for him, saying: “Robert has reformed and rehabilitated himself and poses no threat to the outside world.”

    Gill has been charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and was held without bail.

    He faces a return to prison for up to 40 years, if convicted.