Christmas Ghosts Visit Donald Trump

    If Harvey Weinstein were still in the game he might be doing a remake of The Three Amigos- Jesus, Donald and Vladimir.

      Although the Christianity Today editorial would probably change that. The magazine that Billy Graham founded and that has been down the middle and a little to the right on most secular and theological issues has sent a broadside to the right wing of the evangelical brothers and sisters.

     It said Donald Trump has abused his power, violated the constitution, has dumbed down the idea morality with his government and is himself "a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused." They say he should be removed from office. 

     I have a bone to pick with CT and a thought about the impact of this further down the post, but first...

a personal note to the president

   Mr Trump,

    It is highly unlikely these words will find their way to your possibly soulless and certainly empty eyes, but I wish they would so you cannot escape a reality, the truth that people know about you. (By the way, your eyes would not look so beady if your face were not so bloated and you could change that if you did some real exercise. Getting in and out of a tanning bed, creating that coiffure and eating KFC does not count as exercise.) 

   Perhaps you will be visited by the Ghost of Richard Nixon, or Abe Lincoln if the Dicken's specters are busy lobbying at the McConnell house. Abe and Tricky Dick might run you around the presidential bed. Until then, my Christmas message here will try to channel the Ghost of Christmas Future.

     When you die, as you will, the taint of impeachment will be the first thing future generations will know about you. A close second will be what a foolish, pathetic, deceitful and abusive oaf you were. With time will come the myriad details of your massive tax fraud, business failures, cheating, and pages of despicable behavior and judgement. 

     Your presidency, including your court appointees, will be with an asterisk, that is denoted as a campaign assisted by a foreign power. History will record how you then became a lap dog and stooge for a ruthless Vladimir Putin complete with all manner of speculation as to your "bromance" with him. 

     Perhaps he was the "real man" whom you could only pretend to be. He was a tough guy KGB apparatchik when you were filling tabloids with your own tales of deception and cheating in your personal relationships. Who calls radio and tv stations using a fake name and posing as a spokesman for Donald Trump to brag about Trump's romantic prowess? Who? You did.

your legacy

     At some point cultural history will dissect your classless demonstration of "new rich" with your garish and tasteless faux opulence? There will be theories about  trying to be a king. It's a cliche', the trashy trying to gild with gold. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.

    You will probably be remembered as one of the biggest liars in history. It's so serious major news organizations actually do tabulations. 

    First president to be impeached in a first term-there's another historical note that will follow you when you are dead and unable to tweet a retort.

    But mostly you will be remembered as a joke. You are the lying hustler bully who played the race card, appealed to the angry and yes some legitimately overlooked citizens, along with kooks, xenophobes, residual nazi and fascist sympathizers (Steven Miller), racists, the poorly or uneducated, and just plain losers. You stirred a cult that worships the absolute worst of American culture. You have unleashed division, legitimized stupidity, nurtured meanness, crassness and hatred. You demean manhood and you degrade humanity. 

your list of kings

    I know you call yourself a Nationalist. The world may remember Hitler and Mussolini as nationalists on the list of evil humans. There have been other dictators; Amin, Stalin, Franco, Duarte, Mao, the Kims, Caesar, Ataturk, Garibaldi, Duvalier, Attila the Hun, Torquemada, Khan and others. But you are not on that list. No, you will be remembered as the not so bright and troubled little rich boy who wanted to grow up to be on that list, but were too incompetent. You passed only the disgusting level. 

     Your distinction is that you are forever great fodder as a joke, a laughable would be tyrant. You have been a tool, a stooge. You are the man who went broke running a casino, who failed, always. The name Trump will go down in the halls of history as meaning failure, clown, disgusting, a kind of biological waste product.  In our house, as our grand daughter was working on toilet training, we referred to her filling her diaper as "making trumpies." 

     Isn't that a wonderful legacy mr president?

     I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope the happiness of the New Year is that you return to Trump Tower and/or Mar a Lago where you contemplate the stunning change of fortune in the Senate and meet continuously with a team of lawyers helping to prepare for the first of a lifetime of trials. 

      Sincerely,

      A Tax Payer

the evangelical thing

   I know people who are otherwise pleasant but with whom I disagree on theology and politics. They are representative of who I hope will read the CT article, because while it may be comfortable to think you have it all figured out, a neat and tidy understanding of, as Bill Buckley said, "God and Man...."such thinking can lead you to dark places of wrongfulness, including judgmentalism and false teachings. 

     In making the case to the right wing of the Christian world CT say the Trump administration is morally unable to lead because of "gross immorality and ethical incompetence."

      To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

    That part of the editorial cuts right to the heart of matter for some of Trump's base---- though many of his supporters are only as "church going" as is Trump himself! Just another fraud, working both ways.

      I take exception to this CT contention

Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.

But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

    The first paragraph is, in a non-theological phrase, pure bull shit and it is one that Trumpists and Republicans have used from the beginning. 

   And Trump had a chance to participate, send records and witnesses, but defied congress, and thus the obstruction charge. CT-you get an F on that.  

   BUT hold that thought and suspend my judgment and consider that on the night of Obama's inauguration Republican leaders met for four hours to plot how to block the Democrats on "every single bill and every single issue."

    Then less than two years later in October on the eve of the first mid-term election McConnell admitted what was the Republican interest when he spoke to the National Journal

   "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one term President."
                            Mitch McConnell

   The rest is history, including the abusive act of denying a supreme court appointment to Obama.
    I do not think the effort to impeach began with the election. The effort to impeach began when Donald Trump proved true to what 55 top Republicans who served at the highest levels in Republican Presidential administrations warned in August 2016 that he was unfit, unqualified, lacked the character and would jeopardize national security.
     Like right wing evangelicals, Republicans have been fooled, or worse, with Trumpist perversity. My understanding of Christ's teaching and practices lead me to different understandings than right wing evangelicals, but I paraphrase an old saying. You need to be careful with whom you dance.
      While the group CT is trying to reach, and while the once Republicans the Lincoln Project are trying to "deprogram" may not be dancing with the evil one, they are dancing with Donald Trump, who CT says is a perfect "example of someone who is morally lost and confused."
       I am not so charitable. From my secular side of the street, whatever else he is, Trump is a traitor to the US.
        The Ghost of Christmas Future is still conjuring what that will mean to "us all, everyone."

         See you down the trail.

Citizens Speak

       On a dark December night, people brought the light.
     In our village tucked between the Pacific and the Santa Lucia mountains citizens joined others from Times Square to LA, at State Capitols, City Buildings, Court Houses, Federal Buildings, in dusky twilight and even in subfreezing ice and snow. From all corners of this nation, all kinds of people spoke the same words. No one is above the law. Impeach!

    The US is a democratic republic. It is made strong by participation.

     Marchers in a village are meager compared to throngs in  sprawling cities, but the message is the same, and so is the spirit. 

   It is comforting to know that US citizens in the height of a festive season of parties and busyness care enough to go out at night, leave the comfort of their couch, or party and speak their minds. To my mind, speak truth to a corrupt power.

   It is a rare moment in American history. On the eve of the impeachment vote a group of Republican strategists announced formation of the Lincoln Project and effort to take control of the Republican Party and turn it from the depraved Trumpist cult. Here's what one of the founding members, Rick Wilson said

...all of us give a damn about this country in a way that Trumpism denies and Trumpism is not about the the sacred nature of the American experience and about the propositional nature of this country. it is a cult dedicated to a madman who is displaying it today and tonight That he’s an unhinged maniac but he is lavishly corrupt and will do anything to defend himself and we happen to believe that the country is more valuable than a temporary moment, a blip in the politics of this country.”

      An unhinged madman indeed! I harken back to that August 2016 letter signed by 55 Republicans who worked at the highest levels for Republican Presidents; they warned us Trump was unfit and lacked the character to lead and said he would be a danger to national security. 
    I can only hope the Lincoln Project may have influence on Republicans in the Senate. If they do not listen to their parties elders, they will be forever smeared with fetid Trump taint.
    As one of our chants this evening said  IT IS THE SEASON TO END THE TREASON.

    See you down the trail.

Are We Capable?

precarious times

     I've been replaying the moment I stood next to a USGS scientist staring down into the caldera of the most active volcano in history when the earth shook and a jet engine sound rattled our ears as a noxious cloud of black sulfur gas enveloped us. The gas piston tremor created a strong earth quake. Mother Earth was not terra firma. In that moment I realized this planet of ours is alive, still forming, unpredictable, eruptive and that our human certainties are not so certain and there are forces more powerful at work.

    Our ordered, legally defined and constitutional way of public life is being shaken now and assaulted by forces including a noxious self inflicted ignorance.

     The people's House impeaches the US President, Britain votes again as Brexit undermines stability, Iranians die as they protest a regime, Hong Kong unravels, allies make joke and laugh at president Trump, dictators and strongmen are  on the rise, nationalism once again creeps virus like back onto the world stage and meanness trumps cooperation time and time again.

impeachment is hard

     It is the right thing to impeach Donald Trump. There are many more reasons he should be removed, but the case against him as outlined in the hearings is undeniable. He abused power, he misused the office, he has obstructed justice and the constitutional process. 

    Those who say it is only politics are wrong. Impeachment is about now and the future. 

    If Trump is not impeached, it sends a destructive memo to all future Presidents. Those who say it undoes the will of the people seem to miss that is exactly what Trump did when he attempted to withhold funds that were approved by the congress, representing the people's will.

    The founders wrote in the impeachment process because they wanted future generations to have the power to protect our system by removing a despot, would be dictator, criminal or crackpot. If this president is not impeached it is a signal that his abuses, his invitation to foreign powers to meddle in our elections by money or subversion, or manipulation, could be repeated by future presidents.

    He is not being impeached because he lies dozens of times every day. He is not being impeached because he has and continues to act like a traitor. He is not being impeached because he advances Putin's agenda on the world stage and behaves as though he is the Russian's stooge. He is not being impeached because he has tried to dismantle the State Department, or denigrated our federal law enforcement, or undermines our intelligence agencies, or demeans the federal judiciary, or because he is trying to make money for his family business while president. He is not being impeached because he meets privately with a Russian spymaster and gives away secrets. He's not being impeached because he betrayed allies and allowed their slaughter. He's not being impeached because he pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. He's not being impeached because most of his campaign staff are now in prison as federal prisoners. 

    Instead he is being impeached because he is a clear and present danger to our way of government, our constitutional system, and because he seeks to overthrow the balance of power between three separate branches of government. He is being impeached because he is not above the law.

an age of ignorance

    That it is unlikely he will be convicted in a Senate trial does indeed speak to how his cultish influence has destroyed a once proud Republican party. It speaks volumes about the cowardice and self interest so evident in most Republicans on the Hill. But it speaks more loudly about how ignorant we have allowed ourselves to become.

    I've written here about my concern about our failure to teach civics, government and the lessons of US history. We are living at the junction of that failure and the rise of a defiant ignorance fed by bias, manipulation and brainwashing.

    Several recent studies have reported that a decline in newspaper readership leads to more corruption, greater polarization and a decline in voting. We are there. 

    So much talk is about "motivating the base." Isn't that a variation of a kind of mob rule? Where is there intelligent discussion or civil debate? We've devolved and we've done it to ourselves as we fail to teach, and then feed the worst instincts by tribalized and echo chamber news channels. One of them, the one founded by a sexual predator, spends most of the day engaged in Russian disinformation, brainwashing and Trump worship.

    Even at that, millions get their "news" and opinion shaping info from social media platforms infected with manipulation and persuasion programs, run by all number of nefarious players, including foreign and hostile powers.

    When you see Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, John Kennedy, Lindsey Graham and company actually speaking Russian disinformation your head wants to explode. Reagan, HW Bush, Eisenhower and Nixon must be spinning.  

    I guess there is a reason he's called Moscow Mitch. When you compare what the Republican Party used to stand for on the Soviet Union, national security and intelligence and you hear the words and see the actions of Trump and his synchophants, it should be clearly obvious why impeachment is important to our survival. Giuliani is off trying to trump up more fabricated dirt, even as this president is being impeached. If they are not stopped, where in the world will they take us and what will they try to do?

    43% of self identified Trump Republicans believe he is right to ignore the Constitution and obstruct Congress. Folks, that's the kind of blind loyalty the world saw in Germany in the late 30's. It's in the history books.

     If we did a better job of teaching history, if our graduates knew the difference between a Governor and a US Senator, or could identify the three branches of government, Nunes would be looking for a job, Jim Jordan would still be hanging out in the locker room watching his fellow coach masturbate in the shower with his wrestling team, and Trump would still be calling New York radio stations posing as John Miller to talk about how sexually active "his boss Donald Trump is."

Bill Barr would be selling tupperware and Moscow Mitch would spend all day on the liars bench drinking from a brown paper sack. 

    An educated and informed electorate has a way to deal with hustlers, idiots and liars. We are not a well informed electorate and there is more blind faith than due diligence and more opinions than facts. The ground is shaking, and a loud noxious presence is apparent. The certainties are not.

why build a statue of trump and mitch and company

       With apology to those who are deserving statesmen and women and genuine heroes. Still, even for them, nature is what it is. And me thinks nature would love a chance to speak to the trump gang.

        Back to the Irish trail, soon. Thanks for indulging another historic US moment.

         See you down the trail.

    

A Moment Please-I Beg Your Indulgence

Reflections from the US

      I beg your indulgence for this brief break from the series of reports from Scotland and Ireland. A post on the historical and mystical County Meath is forthcoming. 

      The historic US Constitutional drama that played out on screens this week requires this old journalist, who covered the two previous impeachments in my life time, to offer some observations, unsolicited though they are. 

The People

      Over the past few years some of the more adamant folks in coffee deck conversations run toward the old cliche about politically biased civil service employees and a "deep state" conspiracy. I've countered by observing that in my reporting career some of the most impressive people have been civil service employees. At local, state and federal levels I've seen a commitment to public service and sense of mission. I've seen a non partisan, non political devotion to getting the job done for the benefit of the common good.

      All of this is especially so in law enforcement, national security and intelligence. These are fellow citizens doing an incredibly difficult job at wages well below the value and skill evinced and demanded. 

      The world saw that this week. The contrast between federal employees in the national security apparatus, including the military and those of the US political culture, the members of the House, was staggering especially so in specific cases. The career foreign service and security experts had a grasp of real politic, national security and international relations. A few were frankly impressive and dazzling beyond expectation.
       They were calm, quick thinking, intelligent professionals. Some members of the house displayed a commensurate understanding, others were merely political actors, shallow and in a couple of cases stupid.*  

The Process 

       I would suggest widening the scope of the articles of impeachment, either with specific charges or with a preamble.

       This Ukrainian play and the President's attempt to engage a foreign nation to participate in our election process needs to be put in the context of this administration's explicit tumble to the Russian priorities and preferences. To be considered:

     -The private meeting in the White House with the Russian spy master shortly after the election

     -The private meetings with Putin, without a US interpreter

     -The televised Helsinki repudiation and degrading of the US intelligence community and the siding with Putin over the issue of Russian intervention in the 2016 election

     -The continued attempt to break old alliances and to weaken NATO

     -The unilateral and unadvised decision to withdraw troops, betraying the Kurdish allies, and paving the way for the for Russian dominance in Syria.

     -The attempt to withhold Congressionally approved military aid to an ally under attack and at war with Russia

     -His continued insistence the Russians were not involved in the 2016 election, despite findings to the contrary by all intelligence agencies in the US, the House and the Senate and foreign investigations as well finding that Russia was involved.

     -The true findings of the Mueller investigation, not the spin he and his Attorney General have spun.

     The painful truth is Russian has been strengthened by the Trump administration. To repeat what I have observed before Trump is either a Russian agent or Russian stooge. He is probably too ignorant to know the difference.

     We Were Warned

    It is important to remember this story reported in August of 2016.

      Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

Mr. Trump, the officials warn, “would be the most reckless president in American history.”  New York Times 

         You should link to that story Here or to the text of the letter and the list of senior Republicans who signed it at this link.
       The people who signed the letter made the case he was unfit and unqualified and lacked the character. The world has seen the truth of their prophesy for the last  3 years.

       That 2016 Republican warning and the spiderweb of his dangerous behavior should be read to the Republican members of the Senate, until they acknowledge their once proud party has been pimped out to the Russians by, in the vernacular,  Putin's little bitch. 

Why It Matters

      There are greater goods than partisan advantage and there have been periods in our history when our political culture behaved as though they understood that. That is not so now.

      The Impeachment is not about "undoing" the 2016 election. Everyone who says that is merely mouthing a Putin trope. The sad fact is those who say that have their heads in a Fox News or Trump silo and don't comprehend the nature of their brainwashing and the extent to which it does exactly what Putin wants-to undermine our faith in our democratic republic. 

      It is true that the majority of American voters voted against Trump, by the millions, but his team, many of whom are now imprisoned and who had ties to Russian efforts, figured a way to win the electoral college. So he moved into the White House against the wishes of the majority of the nation. Still he is the President and must be held accountable. Here he is, complicit in undermining the security of the nation he is supposed to lead and contributing to the death of our allies. 

     He must be held accountable, not only because of his traitorous and criminal behavior, but because if he gets away with it, we have moved the lines on so many aspects of our constitutional government and expectation, that we will only hasten the call of our own demise. 

     No President, regardless of party, should be permitted to do what he has done, and be so reckless with our security. No President should openly or secretly ask foreign powers to engage in our electoral system. 

     Once the Republican party was staunch in their advocacy of national security, and tough in their opposition to the Russian (then USSR) threat. Now they need to look beyond their ability to make court appointments, or pass more tax breaks for the wealthy and consider what matters in the frame of history and what matters to the health of our equal branches of government.

      Those real Republicans who signed that August 2016 warning letter had it right. Those who now call themselves Republicans need to look in a mirror and decide are they people of principle or are they members of the Trumpist cult? Do they really believe the man who is Donald Trump could even sit in the same room with Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush George W. Bush, Gerry Ford and yes even Richard Nixon. Flawed as he was, Nixon did an honorable thing in the face of his impeachment. He did not want to further fracture the nation.

      Are those who call themselves Republicans in alignment with the constitutional values of this Republic or are they merely whores, working for an unfit and unqualified and disgusting Russian stooge?

    Who do you trust Donald Trump, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort, William Barr, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, or those stalwart civil servants who endured endless hours of questioning, challenges, excoriation and belittling but who displayed what it is to be a citizen and a patriot.

     Can you even imagine Donald Trump being put into a chair and examined as such?  This nation is much, much better than that. Our Presidency deserves much, much better. We should be able to expect much better out of Republicans, if any still exist.

    *Devin Nunes embarrasses even himself. I liked what California political strategist Mike Murphy said about Nunes' side kick Jim Jordan, "...he was so wild I expected him to pull out the sock puppets."

     I wonder how Congressman Jordan would receive a full scale investigation of his knowledge or role in aberrant sexual behavior on his watch as an Ohio wrestling coach. Check the history of this incident for yourself and then ask yourself, if a guy like Jordan is a point man for the House Republican defense of a man like Donald Trump what has the party come to?

    The US deserve much, much, much better.

    Ok, getting off the soapbox and getting back on the road through Ireland and Scotland.  Sorry for the intrusion.

   See you down the trail.

    

Fresh Air

    Lana and I have chuckled about what the woman at the garden center must have thought when we showed up back in the spring of 2007 asking about a wonderful plant with which we were smitten.

  After our amusing attempt to describe it, she realized we were talking about Echium, or Pride of Madeira. 
   We moved in January, from a bleak and dreary Indianapolis winter and were bowled over by the vibrance of California winter blooms and Echium was, to our eyes, an exotic.
  When she heard we wanted to "buy" a start she said, "If you have some near by, you might just wait" for it to spread. We didn't know then what we've learned in the last 12 years-it grows mightily and has to be kept cut back or it takes over.  Still, we love it every year at this time as it displays it's arrays of color and hue.

stars of wine country

  The field crews, who work for the viticulturist or wine grower are the unsung heroes of wine country. Here they are doing a late winter/early spring trimming of the vines.

      In the fall these crews will return to harvest, displaying a skill and speed that is stunning.

    We caught these people in action in a region of the Paso Robles appellation know as Pleasant Valley, near San Miguel, north of Paso Robles and east of the 101. It was a good outing for us as we spend most of our wine country visits in the "westside." It stretched our horizon. 

     Navigators Mike and Sue tracked us to a mom and pop winery that is opened on rare days and by appointment.

     The Mom and Pop purchased the land for a retirement home, and thought they might "raise a few vines." He works for a big Winery, she's a writer in tech. Years later they still live upstate and their retirement is still a few years off. They didn't build a home, they built a winery.

   Cinquain Cellars is an award winning artisanal winemaker and is developing a loyal following. 

   The Pleasant Valley wine trail opens with wide vistas and a gentle undulation.

   And it is diverse. The Villa San Juliette Vineyard and Winery sits near more "barebones" neighbors. Out here on the east side, as everywhere in the Paso Robles appellation, there is a range of style, vibe and wine. 

saturday school

   On a recent Saturday in the westside, Denner winemaker Anthony Yount, standing to the left of the chef, conducted an introduction to winemaking and a wine-food pairing seminar. 

        Back in another era I would have bristled at the idea of spending a Saturday in school. With wine and food as the content, I bristle not so much.

land of the free, home of the brave

     Soon we may all have a chance to put our eyes on the Mueller report, at least in some redacted version. I hope everyone takes an interest. Hope so, but some will refuse to read it. Why? 

      It is immoral to separate a child from parents and have no good way to match or record keep. It is evil to keep a child from parents for two years, or longer. 

     Did you see where the American fool told people his father was born in a German village. (Would that be the Bronx?) 

     Is he truly delusional or just a lying chimeric collusion of feculence?

     Aren't either, cause enough to haul him out? Seriously.

     Can't rodent control or crime prevention or no contact with reality be grounds for impeachment? You don't think so? Why?

    Even a cat named Joy seems fed up. 

     See you down the trail.

MONUMENTAL IDEAS and TRUST

Simon Bolivar The Liberator, Felix Weldon Sculpture in Washington D.C

   A conversation about monuments, history and racial sensitivity is important. So, lets start with this guy. There are probably more statues and monuments to Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan, than anyone else in history. Yea, really!

    Bolivar rides or stands tall in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Ottawa, Berlin, London, Cairo, Tehran, plus every major city in central and south America.

    Bolivar was a kind of aristocratic Che Guevara. He liberated 5 nations, none of them the United States. He freed Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama by organizing guerrilla campaigns and leading armies. Impressive stuff. 

     Now we get closer to home. Bolivar died in 1830. The US Congress approved the statue in 1945 and it was installed in 1959. That is a large historical disconnect, compared to the Robert E. Lee statues and those of other confederate leaders that stand in many places in the American south.

     Those confederate memorials are offensive to millions of Americans and with just cause. They are however a part of history and even historic in their own right. While we may scratch our head and wonder why old Simon shows up all over the world, we probably would be opposed to suddenly tossing him over everywhere. While revisionist history of any sort is wrong, so too is a lack of perspective.

    So here's the monumental idea. Put those confederate military leaders in context. It is important that all generations know  the "honored" were part of a horrible and deplorable war effort.

    The future needs to know they stood for the enslavement of human beings, dissolution of the Union, a white supremacist view and that they lost. That kind of information should be added to the statues, prominently. But we can also add context.  

     For every confederate war leader there will be a larger statue or monument to others, such as African American leaders like Fredrick Douglass (who donald trump hears is "doing a good job") Sojourner Truth or Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Union Generals US. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Gordon Meade, George Henry Thomas, Phillip Sheridan and leaders, etc. As painful as it might be, there should also be monumental representation of the slave trade markets and conditions on plantations. 

     It is a matter of perspective. When you start knocking down statues the Taliban or ISIS comes to mind. Keep the old statues in place, but add interpretation and then put them in context with new statues and monuments so the full story and truth is told. 

    This "battle of monuments" would put a lot of artists to work, would spur a learning of history, would add relevance to old statues, create vivid interpretation of lessons best not lost in history and put the confederacy in a proper context.  It would also offer increased tourism to those communities who work to set the record straight by virtue of monumental truth.

guarding truth

      Truth and trust are bound in life. You can't have one without the other. That leads us to a consideration as to how to free ourselves of the man who is a cancer in our history.

        The premise is simple. We must, the world must, everyone must be able to trust the President. Recent history shows us painfully we cannot trust president trump. It's a prescription for disaster when allies, enemies, constituents, military chiefs, national security forces, when no one can trust the president.
        There is no need to wait for the Mueller investigation into the Russian connection; was there collusion or not, was trump enterprises involved in Russian money laundering, has his family enterprise violated conflicts of interest laws or the emoluments clause, is he compromised by loans from Russian banks, did he obstruct justice?  It is important to get these answers, but there is a path to removal in advance of that and it deals with trust.
       In this case the inability to trust trump qualifies as making him unit to serve and that leads us to section 4 of the 25th Amendment.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. 

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

     The president own words are proof enough of his habitual lies, his fantasy phone calls included. There is 6 months of presidential dishonesty that makes the case. trump would fight it, however there is a growing mood to get rid of him.

       This newspaper ad greeted readers this morning. Doyle McManus's recent report in the LA Times underscores how official Washington is dealing with trumps lack of fitness.

        McManus details how Secretary of State Tillerson, Defense Secretary Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford have worked overtime to back the US and North Korea from the brink of war. The situation was made grave by trump's tweets, lippy retorts, ignoring of staff and the behavior of a spoiled little rich boy brat. Pause on that for a moment--had Tillerson, Mattis and Dunford not joined forces we could be in the midst of war because a liar with no character and no sense of history or diplomacy. 

        He is unfit because he cannot be trusted. No psychologist or prosecutorial data is necessary. trump's own utterances make the case. 

        The question remains will congressional Republican leadership and members of the cabinet show character and begin the process to toss the lunatic out of office and thereby move to protect the US.

caesar's secret

    Referring here to the salad.

    Over the years I've gained a reputation-deserved or not-as being good at making caesar salad. Above is recent set up of most of the ingredients. But there is something that needs closer examination.

      This is a technique I learned from legendary chef Dieter Puska.  You hand mash the anchovies and the minced garlic by fork in the salad bowl.  Over the years I've learned that mincing the cloves earlier and letting them soak in olive oil makes them more pliable and enriches the oil, which gets worked into the dressing. I have also started reserving the oil of the anchovies as well.  Everything starts with these two foundations. 

      See you down the trail.