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Showing posts from December, 2016

Let There Be an Arms Race

Yes, he said that.  Donald Trump is ready to play God, the all-embracing figure upon whom the fate of mankind rests.  Now waiting in the wings of the most powerful office in the world, he is convinced that he is the ultimate negotiator, the powerhouse deal maker who pretends that he is willing to see his adversary's point of view. A passionate believer in his own myth, he is certain he will win in the end, because in the high stakes game of Chief Executive he thinks he holds all the cards. For an individual with all the manufactured sincerity and charm of a used car salesman, it's quite an accomplishment, especially when his opponent is Vladamir Putin. What's Donald's trump card? Nothing less than nuclear war. Though not yet sworn in as president, Mr. Trump arrogates to himself the right to toy with the nuclear weapons regime that has successfully kept humankind from destroying itself since 1945. Is the diplomatic dance being played by these ego-maniacal demagogues

Art of the Deal

The results are in: The Electoral College has met to confirm the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. What an example for mankind--the world's most innovative culture, its most vibrant democracy, the steward of the most terrifying military arsenal chooses a loud-mouth semi-literate braggart to lead them. In the mysterious world of international poetry, Russia and the United States are referring to each, other as "frenemies." Now that the FBI, CIA and the office of National Security has verified that Russian hackers broke into secure American computer networks to tilt the presidential election in behalf of Donald Trump, it would appear that the president-elect has a serious problem to explain to the American people.  This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government according to President Obama. Just what is behind this odd non-rapprochement between the U.S. and the former Soviet state? It is no secret that Russian leader Vladamir

CITIZEN INDICTMENT OF DONALD J. TRUMP

The Electoral College has confirmed the election of Donald J. Trump to the office of the presidency. The tenor of the campaign, as well as the personal conduct of Mr. Trump—before, during and since the election—has called into question the fitness of the president-elect to assume the office of the presidency when the president is inaugurated on January 20. On December 2, Christopher Suprun, an elector from Texas, announced his intention to withdraw his electoral vote for Mr. Trump, citing his objection to the president-elect's continuing involvement with his domestic and foreign business interests, his disturbing lack of discipline, his deficiency in foreign policy experience, his dalliance with national security matters, and other actions. Opposition to Mr. Trump is bi-partisan. During the campaign, more than 50 Republican former national security officials and foreign policy experts co-signed a statement opposing him. Mr. Trump has, in his words and actions, ignored s

A Victory Lap in Uncharted Territory

The Emperor did a victory lap today, according to cable news, visiting and speaking in several of the states that had given him the slim margin of votes needed to win the White House. Nauseated, I quickly changed the channel. In a moment I had turned the speech back on, unable to avoid that voice ringing in my ears, compelling me to face once more the twisted results of the presidential election. There was Donald the 1st attacking the media, calling them liars. The signal was clear -- a highly questionable political victory and another threatened death knell for the First Amendment. I remembered our history. One of the first actions the beast from Austria took in 1933 was to grab control of the media -- news papers and radio at that time. Without a free press and an independent judiciary democracy is dead. During the 1930's the rightists in Germany dismantled the multi-party system then in place, a move that not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced