Holy Bat Shit, Batman

Well another bat-shit crazy week. After the fired FBI director testifies before Congress in a highly believable, complete-thought-and-sentences manner, our President deigns to insult and demean him further. While at the same time claiming total vindication! Everyone seems to miss the earthquake of an announcement that was revealed to the American public that there is no doubt in the intelligence community that the Russians tried to influence our election by hacking. This is the new war of the 21st century...fought in the cybersphere.

Since a large part of the folks who elected Donald are not exactly "computer literate," the impact of this bombshell hasn't hit. No matter what the President's team did, SOMEONE should be declaring all-our war on Russia for what they did. It picks away at the very foundation of America--it's ability to hold free and honest elections. Over the last few elections, when there was no evidence of voter fraud, it seems that many Republicans and conservatives maintained there absolutely was. Now that the American intelligence agencies say there is absolutely no doubt...100% that Russia interfered with our most recent Presidential election, some are saying, "No big deal." Our so-called "leaders" seem to be doing nothing...Cowering before this President's bluster which covers up his deeply held insecurities about the election. ("The greatest electoral victory ever!" "The biggest crowd at an inauguration ever!") Then he says, "I won. I won. People won't accept it." I accept he won the election. Now can he move on?

Today, I went to the post office on a piece of business I needed to handle. In front of it were two 25-30 year old men with a poorly created sign that said "Defend our President. Jail Obama now. Put Comey in Jail."

First of all, I cannot defend the behavior of this President. He has done more to embarrass America around the world and to intelligent people in this country than any other I have witnessed in my entire time of earth. I admit I wasn't around for the likes of Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson and a few others who I heard were really bad. But the ones I have lived through, starting with Dwight Eisenhower, through Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Bill Clinton, Bush 2 and Barack Obama have not embarrassed our nation to the extent this man has in his first 120 days. He has shown a complete lack of understanding about how the American government works. He has made irrational claims about enacting more legislation in his first 5 months than any other President in history. Is he aware that he has not passed one law yet? That he needs Congress to do that?

Second of all, what were Barack Obama's crimes? I suspect that these two men feel it's a crime for a black man to become President of the United States. With Barack Obama's election, our country was hailed for finally coming into the 21st century. His intelligence was something I admired greatly while he was in office, and his restraint in the face of idiotic obvious prejudice was more than super-human. His wife was another huge credit, which was reflected not only in her getting school nutritional lunch standards raised to a respectable level, which would save this country an enormous amount of money in future health care costs, but in her lovely children. It seems this President is so small-minded and petty that he has decided that anything Barack Obama touched was poison. That includes trying to protect our air and water and investors from predatory greedy practices. He has said that greed is good. I disagree.

Barack Obama cut through some taboos that were very sensitive. Our police force is well-equipped and we depend on them whenever we are in danger. Their heroism in these circumstances cannot be questions. But, the defense of the few bad apples in our police forces around the country by their fellow officers for fear of being shunned by some of their police brethren needs to and under the Obama administration began to crack. When use of deadly force was excessive against unarmed perceived perpetrators, a few policemen were held accountable. Prejudice in any form is ignorant. To be clear: I am saying I support our police. I don't support the ones that are prejudice to the point of fear that causes them to kill an unarmed suspect.

I also applauded the President Barack Obama's push to forward sustainable, renewable energy. He jump started solar, wind and other alternative energies, trying to get the United States to take the lead in the world on this, which would be another boon to our economy. The idiocy of those who claimed climate change wasn't real was left for what it was...idiocy. We signed an agreement that almost 200 countries in the world (that's almost ALL of them) signed agreeing to voluntary cuts in the emissions of Greenhouse gasses. Each country determined how much of a cut they could volunteer. No country told another country how much they had to cut their emissions. Yet, Donald Trump complained that other countries were telling us what to do, inflaming his base. It was another of his many lies, taking advantage of those who follow him, but do not pay attention to the facts. We pulled out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, alienating our allies of the last 75 years. He threatened to pull out of NATO before he finally realized how dumb that was and reversed course. I don't believe anyone elected Donald Trump hoping he would lower our air and water quality and endanger future generations.

As far as James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, he was fired by hearing about it from the television. That is a classless move. Comey wouldn't pledge his "loyalty" to Mein Covfefe, nor agree to drop the bureau's investigation of a terrible pick for National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in disgrace after a few weeks "on the job," and who has now invoked the 5th amendment--that is, he would not answer questions about his involvement with Russia on the grounds he would incriminate himself. His son was also the lunatic who published on the web that Hillary Clinton was operating a sex slave trade out of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor, causing a susceptible rube to go there with an assault rifle in an attempt to free those poor women! The apple apparently doesn't fall too far from the tree. Yet, President Trump called Michael Flynn "a good guy." He claims he never said "I hope you can see your way to letting this go," while at the same time saying, "it wouldn't be wrong if I did." To my way of thinking, yes, it would be wrong.

I believe history will portray James Comey as a true patriot, who did the right thing in the face of enormous pressure from the President to do the wrong thing. But only time will tell.

This week, the President told a friend visiting the White House on Monday that he's considering firing the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, who both Republicans and Democrats have said is a great pick. Why won't he let the man do his job and investigate the hacking? If the facts exonerate the President, so much the better. The stench is off, and he can go about his business. If they don't, American needs to know. Despite Jack Nicolson's "They can't handle the truth!" statement in "A Few Good Men," Americans can certainly handle it and need to hear it.

Russia has sought to shake America's faith in its institutions. It is time for America to gather around and support these institutions, because the government, the police forces, the free press, our universities, our scientists are what makes America the envy of the world. Russia has to be taught to leave America to Americans. They will not win this new 21st century war.

Finally, we were promised "a trillion dollar investment in America's infrastructure." That is something both Republicans and Democrats support. Our bridges, our roads, our railroads, our electrical grid and water delivery systems need rebuilding desperately. Let's put Americans to work doing just that. That's something only government can do and it a matter of our security.

And healthcare? Oh my God. Every civilized country in the world has a single-payer national health systems and are thrilled to have it. Why not ours?

The truth. America deserves it.