Gordon Sondland impeachment testimony- zero interest in taking a fall for a crime boss

Echo opinion syndicated column by Dick Polman*. 

Do you remember the climax in the Agatha Christie novel, "Murder On The Orient Express?". 

 It turned out, all the murder suspects were guilty.

And, as Donald Trump's hand picked ambassador, Gordon Sondland, publicly declared during the House impeachment hearing, that all the suspects in the illegal scheme to squeeze Ukraine for fake Biden dirt are guilty. Starting at the very top, with Trump. (IMO, evidence to support this illegal scheme is evident.)

And, Sondland is certainly a credible guy, right? After all, Trump recently praised him as, "a really good man and great American."

https://www.thenation.com/article/gordon-sondland-dean-impeachment/
Gordon Sondland

Here's what the good man and great American Sondland told Congerss: "Everyone was in the loop." In fact, the whole mission was about how to "make the boss happy." And, if it made the boss happy to hold back taxpayer-financed military aid from an ally fighting Russian aggression, until the ally agreed to launch bogus investigations of the Bidens, then fine. In Sondland's explosive words, "Was there a quid pro pro? The answer is yes....We followed the president's orders."

Translation: I paid a million bucks to get myself an abassadorship, and never imagined I'd get sucked into something like this. There's no way I'm gonna take the fall. If that happens, I'm gonna take everyone down with me- starting with Trump.

Sondland's sworn testimony is more delicious than a chocolate sundae. Historians will look back on the day when Sondland testified as being conclusive proof that Donald Trump blatantly abused his office, pursuing his own personal inerests and solicited collusions with a foreign government, all at the expense of our national security. And, as Sondland testified, "everyone was in the loop" on the impeachable act.

Moreover, Sondland fingured Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ex-national security advisor John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and of course he fingered Rudy Giuliani. In short, "everyone knew what we were doing and why."
Am I overracting? I'll yield the floor to Ken Starr, the conservative Clinton-hunting special prosecutor. On Fox News, Wednesday, he said, "Articles of impeachment are being drawn up if they haven't alreay been drawn up....This obvioiusly has been one of those bombshell days."

Sondland also blew up two desperate Republican defenses. The mantra of "no quid prop quo" is dead. The notion that Rudy and a handful of confederates, "went rogue," and that Trump had no role in the scheme for fake Biden dirt, is buried.

Now, here is the fun part. Sonland was quizzed about his cellphone conversation with Trump on July 26. Sondland was at a Kiev eatery when a foreigh service official, David Holmes, has already sated in a sworn deposition that he was with Sondland at the time, that he overherard Trump's end of the conversation (because Trump was speaking so loudly), and that Trump specifically asked Sondland for an assurance that Ukraine would indeed launch a Biden dirt investigation.

Sondland today: "I have no reason to doubt that the conversation included the subject of investigation." And, "I have no reason to doubt" Holmes' recollection about the cellphone call.

As a matter of fact, Holmes, in his deposition, said that Sondland assured Trump that Ukraine's president was ready to play ball- and, that, in fact, "he loves your ass".

Sondland was asked whether he really said that. His response: "It sounds like something I would say." He and Trump talked frequently, and liked to engage "in Trumpspeak," which featured "a lot of four-letter words"- or, in the cse of ass, "a three letter word."

(So, they spoke a lot? But, didn't Trump say that "I hardly know the gentleman"?)

Looking back, Sondland now laments: "I really regret that the Ukrainians were placed in that predicament."  It's nice that he feels compelled to voice remores. And, it's amazing how his memory keeps getting better as the noose keeps tightening.  Luckily for us, Sondland as zero interest in taking the fall for a crime boss.

Indeed, Trump knows how that game works.  Last year he told Fox News: I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years, I've been watching flippers."  

In Trumpspeak, Wednesday's flipper is beautiful.  

*Dick Polman, is a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania. 

Republicans irresponsibly fall victim to the fictional narrative

“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves. The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016." 

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/11/29/opinion/unite-to-fight-back-vs-foreign-disinformation-campaigns/

Fiona Hill- biogrpahy

Fiona Hill took a professional integrity risk when she served Donald Trump on the National Security Council.  

This echo editorial was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and re-published in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Fiona Hill, the former top National Security Council (NSC) expert on Russia, set the reord straight on that country’s attack on the 2016 election.

“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did,” Hill testified during the House impeachment inquiry last week.

“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves. The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.”

America is not the only nation targeted by Russia. The Kremlin’s assault on elections — democracy’s DNA — is apparent in many Western nations. This includes the United Kingdom, where Brits will have to wait until after the Dec. 12 election for a report on the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Russia will likely try again in the interest of advancing its cynical goals, which Hill starkly described as “to weaken our country — to diminish America’s global role and to neutralize a perceived U.S. threat to Russian interests. President (Vladimir) Putin and the Russian security services aim to counter U.S. foreign policy objectives in Europe, including in Ukraine, where Moscow wishes to reassert political and economic dominance.”

Russia cannot match the U.S., let alone NATO, in military spending, so it’s using asymmetric measures to disrupt the West.

“The Russians have a really dark purpose, which is to undermine democracy,” Richard Stengel, the former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, told an editorial writer. Stengel, a former Time editor and author of “Information Wars: How We Lost The Global Battle Of Disinformation And What We Can Do About It,” added that “we’re still in an era where offensive capabilities are greater than the defensive capabilities, which is worrisome going into a really critical presidential election.”

A recent joint statement from the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security and other federal entities warned of looming 2020 interference. “Our adversaries want to undermine our democratic institutions, influence public sentiment and affect government policies. Russia, China, Iran and other foreign malicious actors all will seek to interfere in the voting process or influence voter perceptions,” the statement said.

“An informed public is a resilient public,” the statement added. Stengel agreed on the need for more media literacy as well as more accountability for social media companies. “Every voter in a way is a target of entities that malignly seek to influence them,” Stengel said.

That includes voices here at home, which is a factor Hill highlighted in her testimony. “President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a super PAC,” she said. “They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives. When we are consumed by partisan rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each another, degrade our institutions and destroy the faith of the American people in our democracy.”

Russia’s, not America’s, interests are advanced by the “fictional narrative” that it wasn’t the Kremlin that attacked the U.S. in 2016. On that point, a deeply divided Congress, and country, must agree.

— Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Midwestern economic reality check - failed Donald Trump trade policy

Just my opinion. Donald Trump randomly goes from one issue per day to another. China Trade talks seems to have been delegated to Ivanka, that's my opinion. This Chicago Tribune echo editorial describes the economic impact of the mismanaged China trade.

Check out the rise in farm bankruptcies report here.

OPINION echo- At the moment, the American economy is really two economies. One is chugging along at a respectable rate of GDP growth, with the stock market up by more than 25% since December and unemployment at its lowest level in 50 years. In the other, manufacturing output is falling, Midwest farm bankruptcies are climbing and exports are down.

One big reason for the worrisome news is the U.S. standoff with China over trade issues. Donald Trump made a priority of getting Beijing to put a stop to theft of U.S. intellectual property, expand access to its markets, curb its subsidies to Chinese companies and buy more American agricultural goods. Early in his first year, he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort and emerged saying “tremendous progress” had been made on trade issues.

But the apparent breakthrough led nowhere. And the two governments have paired their negotiations with tit-for-tat tariff hikes aimed at forcing each other into concessions. Trump has imposed hefty taxes on goods shipped from China, and Beijing has retaliated by levying tariffs on U.S. goods and halting purchases of American farm products.

China’s Commerce Ministry recently said both sides had agreed to roll back tariffs in a “Phase One” accord that would resolve some of the issues. But, Trump promptly denied agreeing to any rollback, asserting, “They want to make a deal a lot more than I do.” More recently Trump said a trade deal was “close,” without providing evidence an end is in sight.

He thinks the harm his tariffs cause to China’s economy will compel it to capitulate sooner or later. But Xi doesn’t have to face voters at the polls next year, or ever. 

Trump's trade negotiators seem to believe as though the real pressure to settle is on Trump, who must wonder if the economic damage will sink his reelection campaign.

The effects are not pretty. Factory output is down nationally, and manufacturing employment has declined in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — states that were crucial to Trump’s 2016 victory. A study for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta calculated that the tariffs and trade friction “subtracted about 40,000 jobs per month from non-farm payrolls and about $259 billion in sales over the first half of the year.”

Sachin Shivaram, chief executive of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry in Manitowoc, Wis., told The Washington Post that orders for his firm’s brake housings and conveyor belt motors were off 40% this summer due to Trump’s trade war. “I don’t want to lose my company in the name of what the president is doing,” Shivaram said. “It doesn’t seem like there’s an endgame in sight.”

Agricultural exports to China plunged by more than $10 billion last year, and the administration has had to compensate hard-hit farmers with two rounds of bailout payments totaling $26 billion — with another round reportedly in the works. Sooner or later, consumers are bound to see price increases on goods shipped from China.

Business investment, which got a boost from the 2017, tax reform, has fizzled. Companies can plan when they know what the trade environment will be. But the uncertainties created by trade war leave business people and farmers groping in the dark.

China, of course, is not exempt from the repercussions. It has taken a hit in exports and manufacturing production. The International Monetary Fund says the U.S. tariffs that have been imposed or threatened could reduce China’s GDP by 1.6%.

In the absence of a deal, both countries have additional tariffs scheduled for December. So it should be obvious to all involved that they need to act soon to settle their differences and return both economies to a semblance of normalcy. Neither country gains from prolonging this impasse. Both stand to reap immediate gains from accepting compromises that improve the conditions for trade between the two countries — and speed the removal of the tariffs each has imposed.

Neither is going to come away with a triumphant victory. But an imperfect settlement would leave both countries better off going forward.

— The Chicago Tribune

Kentucky challenge to Senator McConell and Donald Trump- 3 opinion echoes

Maine Writer post script* to this cluster of opinion letters:

Trifecta of echo opinion letters from the Kentucky Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper: 

MCCONNELL VS. CONSTITUTION
Reminder to Senator Mitch McConnell: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;...."

Only 33 percent of people in Kentucky approve of his failed leadership & unexplainable support for Donald Trump.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell says he will stop this Trump impeachment dead in its tracks when it comes before the Senate. Isn’t it in the U.S. Constitution that if the House impeaches a president, a trial has to be held in the U.S, Senate with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding? Didn’t know Mitch had that much power to override the Constitution. Of course, Mitch wants you to send him some money, too, for his campaign. Gotta love our strong defenders of the Constitution.

From Bob Sutton, Springfield, Kentucky

Evangelicals: TRUMP SUPPORTERS are A TURN-OFF

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity

Not only could Donald Trump shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and be forgiven for it by his base, Evangelical Trump supporters could witness him suddenly sprout a pair of horns out of the top of his head, watch his feet morph into hooves, and watch a 5-foot-long tail sprout out of his tail end, and still support the man.

This is one of the many reasons why America’s Sunday morning church attendance has declined over the past several decades to the low it is at now. If Evangelical Christians want people who work 40 or more hours a week to wake up early every Sunday morning to attend church, they need to practice what their pastors are preaching and stop listening to and following behind a known liar like Trump.

Nobody is going to let so-called Christians, who blindly support Trump as they’re watching him get crazier by the hour, convince them they should wake up early on the only day many of them have off to attend services. These supporters need to stop telling people that they support Trump, because it makes them look like huge hypocrites. And that makes many people not want to attend church.

Yolanda Averette, Lexington Kentucky

Donald Trump is "A WANNA-BE DICTATOR"

Judge tells Trump he's not a king!

Donald Trump isn't going to like his Constitution 101 lesson: "Presidents are not kings."
A federal judge's stunning rebuke of the White House on Monday came as the result of a case by House Democrats to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify. But it serves as a thematic frame for an entire (failed!) presidency, for Trump, who has never played by the rules.

Donald J. Trump is an above-the-law dictator who would like to be a full-blown dictator like his comrades Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Why is Trump cozying up to them? U.S. citizens and other nations in the world deserve to know the answer. When Trump meets with (former KGB agent!) Vladimir Putin and North Korean monster Kim Jong Un, separately in private, one has to wonder what, in general, are they discussing?

During the 2016, presidential campaign, I remember Republican nominee Trump saying nuclear weapons were made to be used. Trump says he doesn’t want war. I don’t believe or trust anything he says. He has lied to us so many many times during the first three years of his chaotic, bizarre presidency.

If Trump thought that going to war before the 2020 election would help him be re-elected, I believe he would do it. President George W. Bush took us to war in Iraq in 2003, right before the 2004 election. It helped Bush win re-election.

A vote for Trump in the 2020 election is a vote for four more years of Trump-style (dangerous!) dictatorship.

From Paul L. Whiteley Sr., Louisville, Kentucky

*Maine Writer Post Script- this cluster of opinion letters are letting Senator McConnell know that his failed leadership is at risk. He should resign from the Senate, while he can still get out from under history's stamp of evil Trumpziim. 

This is the second Utah opinion echo I've blogged - Congress must persue legal process

Congress has officially begun an impeachment inquiry. Potential articles of impeachment will include evidence about how Donald Trump abused his power to seek a quid pro quo from Ukraine President Zelensky, for the purpose of witholding military aid in exchange for "trumped up" (excuse the nasty pun) political muck on Joe Biden, who he sees as being his primary political rival.

While there may be some political motivations, it is now reality, and there’s no reason that any Member of Congress should neglect their legal duty to carry out the process correctly.

It’s unfortunate, but the Ukraine phone call raises enough questions that we really do need to get to the heart of the matter. Was it a quid pro quo? It seems to be open to interpretation at the moment. But we, as Americans, should be concerned about potentially dangerous actions made by Donald Trump. He represents the United States of America on the global stage and his behavior must support our national sense of pride and our collective integrity. And that is why we need to uncover the truth.

I have supported the Republican Party since I was 26, and I believe the investigation should continue. If there is no wrongdoing, then both parties (especially the Republican Party) should be relieved. But if something is proven, the President should be removed from office. Abuse of power should not be tolerated. I hope that as the investigation inevitably moves to the Senate, our Senator Mitt Romney will stand by the values that make our party great, including and especially a respect for the Constitution.

From Wes Worthington, in Utah

Donald Trump is the Poster for "Seven Deadly Sins" - Evangelical and Christian alert!

Bible lesson 101 to Evangelical and Christian Trump supporters: a lesson letter from Utah. (I do not understand how how people who can quote the Bible verses verbatim do not understand the basic message contained in the Scriptures.)

This echo opinion letter was published in The Spectrum, a St. George Utah newspaper:

Challenge! When will those who profess to be admirers/followers of Jesus, "talk the walk"?  I am referring to the "conspiracy of silence" regarding the moral bankruptcy of Donald Trump. He makes a good candidate for Poster Boy for the "Seven Deadly Sins," which are: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride as opposed to the Christian virtues of Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Gratitude and Humility.

Jesus spoke "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which comes out of the mouth, this defileth a man." (Mathew 15:11)  The apostle James said "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity . . . that it defileth the whole body." (James 3:6)

Jesus would call out Trump directly on this, just as he did the Scribes and Pharisees for their Hypocrisy and Perjury.

One cannot have it both ways. Most of our Utah Congressional delegation through cowardly expediency, stand condemned in betraying these Christian values they profess. The same with us if we are silent and afraid to speak the truth. You don't have to ask, you KNOW what Jesus would do and say as to Trump's tongue. (My mother would have washed his mouth out with soap, as she did mine).

Warren S. Wright, St. George, Utah

Impeachment witnesses were brave and credible - out did cowardly colleagues who will not yet submit "under oath"

"...everybody was in the loop, including the vice-president (Mike Pence), the secretary of state (Mike Pompeo) and White House acting Chief of Staff (Mick Mulvaney)..."- Fiona Hill.

The impeachment witnesses are the silver lining to this embarrassing chapter in our history

Echo opinion by Kathleen Parker published in the Bangor Daily News, a Maine newspaper.

Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill testified under oath before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington during a public impeachment hearing of Donald Trump's illegal efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents.

After fidgeting through five days of public hearings, a dozen witnesses and countless political pontificators, Americans should be gratified by the quality of the people who testified and who actually do the nation’s work abroad.

If there was a silver lining to an otherwise embarrassing chapter in our history, it was that we were able to meet and hear from those whose names aren’t well known except to their colleagues. To listen and observe was to have one’s faith restored in America’s image despite the withering damage suffered these past few years.

One after another, the men and women who testified, subjecting themselves to the sometimes-scurrilous scrutiny of political profilers, maintained their focus and their cool. It was grating to hear the screech of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, whose raised voice surely signaled a stretch-and-restroom break for many viewers. While we’re on the subject, can’t the man put on a blazer? Jordan appeared without one, putting in mind a teenager who refuses to play by his parents’ rules.

May I remind him and others that dress codes are intended to show respect for the occasion and for others in attendance. Surely, our congressional leaders owe their constituents — and, in this case, the process — the small personal sacrifice of dressing appropriately. To do otherwise is to telegraph to the world that you think you’re more important than everyone else. Jordan also proved that age and maturity can be mutually exclusive.

There, I got that off my chest. (Parents may clip for personal use.)

Quite apart from the question of whether Trump should be impeached, viewers of the hearings were privy to history and were beneficiaries of a primer on current events. Often lost in the drama of the impeachment proceedings is the profound importance of Ukraine as a buffer to a resurgent Russian empire. 

Trump’s withholding of $400 million in military funding from Ukraine during its war with Russia — pending assurances that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would at least say he’d investigate the Biden’s involvement with the gas company Burisma — put Ukrainian lives at risk and signaled to Russia that U.S. support of Ukraine was credibly iffy.

One of the pivotal questions during the hearings was whether America’s diplomatic corps understood that “Burisma” was actually code for the “Bidens,” meaning political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was employed by Burisma. Only two witnesses claimed not to have known about the connection. One was Kurt Volker, a former envoy to Ukraine, who later said he should have caught on sooner. The other was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, whose claim was deemed “not credible” by witness Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former senior director for Europe and Russia, and a standout in the lineup of witnesses.

At several junctures, Hill schooled House Intelligence Committee members about the significance of Ukraine and the perils of advancing the false claim that Ukraine and not Russia had interfered with the 2016 election. “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” she said. Critical of partisan rancor, she beseeched members to “not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.”

As for the inferred quid pro quo between Trump and Zelensky, Hill confirmed Sondland’s earlier testimony that “everybody was in the loop,” including the vice president, the secretary of state and the White House acting chief of staff.

While true that the administration under pressure did release the military-aid funds, without Zelensky’s public announcement of an investigation, which Trump had specifically requested, his intentions alone created problems for those serving in Ukraine. In Hill’s words: “[Sondland] was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security, foreign policy. And those two things had just diverged.”

Whether Donald Trump is impeached remains to be seen. But the shame of his highly irregular behavior in seeking political favors from a foreign entity is softened somewhat by the pride one can feel in our diplomats, experts and fact witnesses to whom we are beholden for their good grace.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for The Washington Post. 

Hill’s testimony jibed with earlier testimony by acting Ukraine Ambassador William Taylor that there was a regular policy executed by the diplomatic corps and a “highly irregular” policy run by Rudy “Hand Grenade” Giuliani, whose legacy as former New York City mayor, we should note, has definitively expired.

Please listen to the evidence!

Put country first
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20191125/281754156170343

Response to: “Political disengagement is a rising threat — When we stop caring about what’s going on in Washington DC, the extremists run amok,” by Abby McCloskey, Opinion published in the Dallas Morning News.

Opinion Letter echo:  What sets our country apart from many other countries in the world is the genius of the U.S Constitution. Not always perfect, it strives to make our country a more perfect union. 

Moreover, I find ironic those who professed admiration for our Constitution in the tea party movement are the same people who want to rip it to pieces by ignoring the many malfeasances in office by Donald Trump.

Asking a foreign country to do opposition research of a political opponent is in my view, against the law, i.e. the Hatch Act. If not against the law, then this action is an abuse of power that makes the presidency, our Constitution and country weaker. Do we want to leave our children and future Americans a country that can’t function democratically? I don’t.

Those who support Trump, please listen to the evidence provided by the impeachment inquiry with an open mind. Consider what is at stake for the country, not the election prospects for Trump. What he has done in regards to shoring up his election prospects is grave. And it should worry us all.

From Russ Pate, Dallas, White Rock, Texas

Representative Jim Jordan slithers to serial cover ups- Cleveland point of view

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2019/11/jim-jordan-was-imposed-on-us-for-egregiously-partisan-reasons-now-hes-afflicting-the-nation.html

Here is the fact - Jim Jordan is obviously involved in a cover up of sexual misconduct at Ohio State University. 

Therefore, his morals are corrupted.  Cover ups are serial misconducts. 

Rep. Jim Jordan - He may be the most unfit man to ever represent part of Greater Cleveland in Congress. Echo opinion.

By Brent Larkin, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Of all the regions in all the states in all the country, Jim Jordan got dragged into ours. There was no good reason to punish Greater Cleveland by making the person who’s now the second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government part of the region’s delegation to Congress. 

Worse yet, the betrayal was bipartisan.

When Ohio’s political and legislative leaders were drawing new congressional boundaries prior to the 2012, election, Democrats wanted a district that would protect U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. Republicans wanted districts that would elect the maximum number of GOP congressmen. And some people from both parties wanted a district that would likely lead to the defeat of longtime Cleveland Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

They all got what they wanted.

But to make it work required drawing a hideously gerrymandered district for the southwest Ohio congressman, one that meanders some 200 miles from near Dayton north into Lorain County near Cleveland.

And now it’s fitting that Republicans have given this seven-term sycophant a starring role in the televised House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings against Donald Trump. The assignment comes as Jordan is being credibly accused by some of knowingly turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by a team doctor when Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1994.

At least five people – four of them former wrestlers and one of them a longtime friend – have said Jordan had to have known former OSU team doctor Richard Strauss was on a sexual rampage that would include -- according to OSU -- 1,429 sexual assaults and 47 rapes of student patients during Strauss’ time at the school (1978 to 1998) prior to his suicide in 2005.

That makes Jordan an ideal candidate to lead the defense of a malignant president who has bragged about physically abusing women and who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual assault or misconduct.

Jordan was appointed to the Intelligence Committee the same day, Nov. 8, that NBC reported on a lawsuit filed early this month in which a former wrestling referee alleges Strauss masturbated in front of him in the shower following an OSU wrestling match in 1994.

People have every right to believe Jordan’s angry dismissals. Common sense suggests they’d probably be better off believing five men who have no reason to lie.


When Jordan slithers out from under his rock each morning, dons a shirt and tie - sans the jacket, lest he be mistaken for Joe McCarthy - his life’s work is to besmirch everything America stands for in service of Donald Trump.

If it takes undermining yet another principle of democracy by condoning attacks on men and women who have devoted their lives in honorable service to this country, Jordan is always ready and willing.

If it takes changing the Trump defense strategy on an almost daily basis because facts keep getting in the way, Jordan is the ideal bootlicker. Trump’s support is all that seems to matter to the man former House Speaker John Boehner regularly referred to as "a legislative terrorist” – along with a whole bunch of other descriptions unfit for print.

When the referee told Jordan what happened, he alleges that Jordan blew him off with, “Yeah, that’s Strauss.”

As the allegations pile up, Jordan’s denials remain unchanged. 

He dismissed the latest one as “ridiculous.”

Why would Jordan so readily ruin what little was left of his reputation? One theory holds he hopes to inherit Trump’s base for a presidential run of his own in 2024. The swamp will be a crowded place in four years, overrun with loathsome folks angling to continue the dastardly business of shredding the Constitution.

Michael Gerson’s credentials to analyze Jordan are impeccable. He is an evangelical Christian, lifelong Republican and onetime chief speechwriter to former President George W. Bush.

In his Washington Post column of Nov. 14, Gerson showed his keen understanding of Jordan, describing him as “the Truly Trumpian Man – guided by bigotry, seized by conspiracy theories, dismissive of facts and truth, indifferent to ethics, contemptuous of institutional norms and ruthlessly dedicated to the success of a demagogue.”

Gerson applied the identical description to Stephen Miller, the White House resident white supremacist.

Everything about Jordan reeks of a man willing to cast aside common decency and fairness in service of a corrupt and cruel president.

He may be the most unfit man to ever represent part of Greater Cleveland in Congress.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer is another high level forced resignation - abuse of power!

(CNN) (This is even more wrongbbehavior by Trump! Another example of evidence in the impeachment abuse of power.) 

https://www.axios.com/eddie-gallagher-richard-spencer-navy-seals-b9fb9c20-42f4-416d-b0a6-535544e16a47.html

Defense Secretary Mark Esper "fired" Navy Secretary Richard Spencer for going outside of his chain of command by proposing a "secret agreement with the White House" in the case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, according to a senior defense official.
Esper on Sunday asked for Spencer's resignation after "losing trust" and "confidence in him," according to a statement from the Pentagon. (Spencer's letter sure exhibits honor.  There is no hint of a loss of trust but, rather, shows courage.)

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer was forced to resign because he disagreed with Donald Trump and the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

Secretary Spencer on Sunday submitted a letter to President Donald Trump that acknowledged his termination.

Read Spencer's letter below:

Dear Mr. President,

It has been the extreme honor of a lifetime to stand alongside the men and women of the Navy and Marine Corps team in the protection of the American people and the values we all hold dear.

Together we have made great strides over the past two years. strengthening the foundation of our readiness, and bolstering our constellation of allies and partners, to respond wherever needed with the honor and professionalism that have marked our force for the past 244 years. 

Now, more than ever. the United States Navy and Marine Corps stands ready and firm in every part of the globe. fueled at all times by our greatest resource, the men and women who wear the uniform. Many of them will soon miss their Thanksgiving dinners at home so that they can continue the watch beyond the curve of the horizon. They and their families are, and will forever be, my personal heroes. 

As Secretary of the Navy, one the most important responsibilities 1 have to our people is to maintain good order and discipline throughout the ranks. I regard this as deadly serious business. 

The lives of our Sailors. Marines and civilian teammates quite literally depend on the professional execution of our many missions. and they also depend on the ongoing faith and support of the people we serve and the allies we serve alongside. The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries. 

Good order and discipline is what has enabled our victory against foreign tyranny time and again, from Captain Lawrence?s famous order "Don't Give up the Ship", to the discipline and determination that propelled our flag to the highest point on Iwo Jima. 

The Constitution, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, are the shields that set us apart. and the beacons that protect us all. Through my Title Ten Authority, 1 have strived to ensure our proceedings are fair, transparent and consistent, from the newest recruit to the Flag and General Officer level. Unfortunately it has become apparent that in this respect. I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me. in regards to the key principle of good order and discipline, I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took in the presence of my family, my flag and my faith to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The President deserves and should expect a Secretary of the Navy who is aligned with his vision for the future of our force generation and sustainment. Therefore. with pride in the achievements we've shared, and everlasting faith in the continued service and fidelity of the finest Sailors, Marines and civilian teammates on earth. I hereby acknowledge my termination as United States Secretary of the Navy, to be effective immediately. 

I will forever be grateful for every opportunity to have served. from my days as a Marine, to the extreme honor of serving as the 76th Secretary of the Navy. My wife Polly and I stand in appreciation and admiration of the patriots who today forge the next link in the unbroken chain of our Navy and Marine Corps, and we urge all Americans to keep them, and their families, in their hearts and prayers through this holiday season and beyond. 

Thank you once again for the opportunity to serve. 

Respectfully yours, Richard V. Spencer

Echo from Alaska - GOP must put up a new 2020 potus candidate!

I connected with Allen Jorgenson’s letter of Nov. 15, “Directionless GOP.” * (see referenced letter below)

https://www.adn.com/opinions/letters/2019/11/25/letter-impeach-donald-trump/

The behavior of President Donald Trump threatens the security of the nation. From what I have read, seen and heard, he is a poor manager at best and perhaps an unknowing agent of a foreign power at worst. It seems that so many Republican officials are in lockstep with him but he “doth protest too much.” Case in point: Why won’t he show us his taxes?
Happiness, to me, would be to have the GOP put up a new candidate for president in 2020. The GOP has $300 million available in its 2020 election coffers to spread among senators and Congress members up for election. I’ve heard that those who were supportive of Donald Trump and his policies over the past four years will receive funding at a higher priority than those who did not. Makes it kind of hard for another candidate — or other issues — to emerge, or for elected officials to express opposition to Donald Trump if they want to get reelected.

This president spends a couple of days a month at rallies raising money for the GOP OP — his reelection. I have seen short clips of his “show” because he is foremost an entertainer. These events are part of American democratic traditions, but his visual images, message and manner are reminiscent of past authoritarian dictators. Trump is the schoolyard bully I scrapped with when I was a kid. Once I stood up to him, even though I got a bloody nose, he went away and left me alone.

I think Donald Trump needs to go.

— Pete Panarese Eagle River,, Alaska

*It’s dizzying. Donald Trump, the con artist I voted for, declaring he is literally above the law, can’t be indicted, and that there is a “political” process, impeachment, to remedy any wrongs.

The Democrats then answer by beginning impeachment. Republicans then shift gears, quickly dismiss impeachment itself as flawed because of it being “political.” Republicans shift smoke and mirror strategies again, declaring the impeachment process invalid because it was not officially voted on.

Then, once it was voted on, the complaint rapidly changed and became “no transparency, because it’s not public.” Then, when Democrats announce public hearings, our president says they should not be allowed to take place (get ready) “in public.”

Republicans said for weeks there was no quid pro quo, and if there was, that would be a big issue, damning, deeply troubling! Then they admitted on live television there unequivocally was — then declared in the same long breath that “this is done all the time.”

I am embarrassed for my party. There is no Democratic National Committee server hidden away in the Ukraine. And the moon landing really did occur. And Barack Obama really was born in Hawaii. And the Sandy Hook massacre really happened. And the Republican Party, sadly, has become a rudderless, shameless cult subjugating itself to a single amoral personality. We deserve the beating we are about to take. — Allen Jorgenson  Anchorage

Armenian genocide history badly synergies with what's happening today

"...brunt of the genocide fell upon the .... civilian population, made up overwhelmingly of women and children and elderly"

Mother Arising Out of the Ashes, memorial statue (2002)
What Recognizing the Armenian Genocide Means for U.S. Global Power. Excellent history essay with salient reflections on current events.

Tsitsernakaberd is Armenia's official memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, built in 1967, on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd, in Yerevan. Every year on 24 April, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, thousands of Armenians gather at the memorial to commemorate the victims of the genocide. The people who gather in Tsiternakaberd lay fresh flowers out of respect for all the people who died in the Armenian genocide. Over the years, from around the world, a wide range of politicians, artists, musician, athletes, and religious figures have visited the memorial.
By Charlie Laderman Kings College London lecturer in International History

Grateful to Speaker Nancy Pelosi! It is apt that the U.S. House of Representatives recently formally recognized the Armenian genocide and called for “education” about the United States’ own humanitarian response.  This expert echo opinion was published in the History News Network electronic magazine and in The Washington Post.  

Just over 120 years ago, the House passed a different resolution regarding the Armenians that confirmed a fundamental departure in U.S. foreign policy. That event signaled that the United States was becoming a great power with global responsibilities and would no longer remain indifferent to events beyond its continent. The House’s latest action could serve as another watershed moment in American diplomacy if it challenges a new isolationist spirit and stimulates a fresh debate over the nation’s international role.

In early 1896, Congress responded to the first large-scale massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — which claimed roughly 100,000 lives — by passing a resolution calling for President Grover Cleveland to intervene diplomatically to help “stay the hand of fanaticism and lawless violence.” It was an unprecedented step, the first time that a branch of the federal government advocated a political response to a humanitarian problem outside the Western Hemisphere.

Cleveland demurred, outside of sending a couple of warships to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect U.S. missionaries, the nation’s principal regional interest. Still, the resolution revealed a bold new spirit in American diplomacy. Theodore Roosevelt would soon emerge as the leading advocate of an American duty to aid the Armenians — and of greater intervention in the world beyond U.S. borders. Atrocities against Armenians profoundly shaped his commitment to counter “crimes against civilization.”

In his 1904, address to Congress, Roosevelt even suggested that intervention might be warranted. Roosevelt was personally “entirely satisfied to head a crusade for the Armenians.” But he recognized that Congress would not back an intervention in a remote region, at a time when the majority of Americans wished to keep their country isolated from great power politics.

A decade later, in 1915, during World War I, reports reached the United States that the Ottomans were again perpetrating atrocities against Armenians. Roosevelt, at that point a former president, was the most outspoken proponent of intervention on their behalf. But although the American public responded with an impassioned expression of philanthropy to aid survivors, the official U.S. response was restraint. President Woodrow Wilson was concerned that public condemnation of one of Germany’s principal allies would compromise U.S. neutrality in a conflict that most Americans wished to stay out of. 

Even after entering the First World War against Germany in 1917, Wilson avoided declaring war on their Ottoman ally.

Roosevelt was adamant that if the United States failed to vindicate the Armenians by punishing the Ottomans, then it would reveal all of Wilson’s “talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world” as “mischievous nonsense” and “insincere claptrap.”

But Wilson’s prime concern at the time was the defeat of Germany. He was also concerned that military intervention would threaten the security of U.S. missionaries and their institutions, and risk worsening the Armenian situation by impeding the missionary-led relief efforts.

Yet Wilson’s apparent inaction in the face of the massacres belied the outsize role that the Armenians would come to play in his own vision of reforming global politics. While he was against military invention during the conflict, at the end of the war Wilson wanted Americans to take the lead in establishing a new international system, in which the Ottoman Empire would be dismembered and the security of its subject peoples guaranteed.

Armenia played a key role in this vision. Wilson hoped the United States would help the Armenians establish a state under the new League of Nations’ “mandate system,” through which the victors assumed responsibility for the imperial possessions of the defeated powers and prepared them for self-determination. The Armenian mandate was a clear manifestation of Wilson’s new world order, providing an American alternative to Europe’s imperial practices and, more importantly, ensuring the United States assumed a position of global leadership.

But the public didn’t agree. Whereas Wilson perceived the mandate as a symbol of American selflessness and moral authority, his opponents interpreted it as evidence of the unrewarding and open-ended commitments the new international organization would impose. For Wilson’s opponents, there was a fundamental difference between private expressions of charity and a political commitment to Armenian security. Republican Sen. Warren Harding, who succeeded Wilson as president in 1920, summed up their position: “I am not insensible to the sufferings of Armenia … but I am thinking of America first. Safety, as well as charity, begins at home.”

Ultimately, Wilson was unable to convince Americans to join the League and his request to assume a mandate was also rejected. Correspondingly, deprived of protection, Armenian independence was short-lived, crushed between Russian expansion and Turkish nationalism.

Although the United States was unable to prevent the wartime atrocities or secure Armenia’s independence in the aftermath, the plight of the Armenians was a major political issue at the time — reflecting how, as American power expanded at the turn of the 20th century, so did some Americans’ sense of global responsibility.

Events that would have been lamentable but unresolvable in an earlier era, occurring far away, began to provoke intense debate over whether the United States should respond and, if so, how. The humanitarianism was certainly selective. At a time when lynchings were rife within the United States and the country had just fought a brutal war to suppress an insurrection in the Philippines, it opened the government to charges of hypocrisy. 

Yet in attempting to convince the public of its responsibility to the Armenians, first Roosevelt and then Wilson extended the parameters of debate on the purpose of American power and the nature of the national interest. Their attempts to safeguard the Armenians encapsulated the nation’s internal conflict over its world role.

Today, the question of the United States’ moral responsibility to victims of humanitarian atrocities could again spark a debate over the nation’s global mission. It was strained relations with Turkey — a longtime NATO ally that has successfully lobbied for decades to prevent recognition of the genocide — that created an opportunity for advocates of recognition to convince congressmen that the pursuit of historical truth trumped considerations of realpolitik.

As well as recognizing the genocide, the House also stressed its relevance to “modern-day crimes against humanity.” Indeed, the passage of the House resolution was justified by its sponsors with reference to Turkey’s current human rights violations. Alongside the resolution, the House passed a bill to impose sanctions on Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. This served as a riposte to President Trump, whose announcement that U.S. troops were withdrawing from northeastern Syria provided the precursor to Turkey’s assault on the Kurds. Moreover, it was a rejoinder to the more narrowly nationalistic “America First” approach to foreign policy, (badly!) advocated by Trump and, before him, by Harding.

The House’s actions increased pressure on the administration. It has already faced a backlash from American Christian leaders, including formerly loyal supporters such as Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson, for sanctioning a withdrawal that has also left 50,000 Syriac-Assyrian and Armenian Christians on the Syrian-Turkish border in grave peril. Many Christians live in al-Hasska and al-Qamishli, two cities founded by survivors of the 1915 genocide.
In the early 20th century, two internationalist presidents, in their different ways, urged a reluctant Congress to adopt a more interventionist role in the region. Today it is a branch of Congress that is attempting to pressure a recalcitrant president to change course. But unless Congress succeeds in reversing the U.S. withdrawal, it is likely that forces sponsored by Turkey and Russia will fill the vacuum, just as they did in 1920. And if they do, the remnants of these ancient Christian communities risk being cleansed from their ancestral homes for good.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/14/what-recognizing-armenian-genocide-means-us-global-power/

Charlie Laderman is a lecturer in war studies at King's College, London, and the author of "Sharing the Burden: The Armenian Question, Humanitarian Intervention and Anglo-American Visions of Global Order."

Nurses call to care for migrants- an ethical imperative

This echo nursing opinion by Leah Curtin was published in American Nurse Today. 

From Where I Stand on the last page opinion column:  

Must nurses care for migrants?

To deny basic human right to any person for any reason is ipso facto* unethical!

Basic human rights apply to everyone.

There seems to be much controversy about giving healthcare to "undocumented" immigrants- or even "documented" ones. In fact, some people believe that anyone who doesn't have health insurance has no right to healthcare. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they are wrong. And what's even worse is when a government not only doesn't uphold the right but actually violates it.  For example, the treatment of migrant children on the U.S. southern border is a gross violation of these children's basic rights on several levels.  Period. Full stop. It isn't a matter of politics or party. It's a matter of basic human rights. Nothing that their parents do or fail to do has any bearing on their rights as human beings.

How dare I say such a think?  Let's go back to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the United States is a signatory. What follows comes directly from the declaration:

"Article 1:  All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.  They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

"Article 2:  Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.  Furthermore, no distinction shalt be made on the basis of the political jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."

"Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical are and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection."

Perhaps it is worth the time to refresh our understanding about human rights. Human rights are just claims to the fulfillment of fundamental, universal human needs. They don't depend on any legal jurisdiction, but they do need to be claimed, but you aren't less human if they're violated. No one can live a full human life, without them and in some cases they can't live at all without them.  

Human rights can be violated, but they don't go away because they're violated.  In act, their violation demands retribution. They don't disappear when one crosses state or national boundaries- whether or not that state or nation recognizes and protects them in their existing jurisdictions.

So, if you want to know if nurses have an ethical obligation to care for undocumented immigrants, the answer is a resounding "yes". To refuse to care for them is, ipso facto, unethical.

By Leah Curtin, RN, ScD (h), FAAN
Executive Editor, Professional Outreach
American Nurse Today

*ipso facto: Latin meaning "by the very fact".

Hillary Clinton quote:  "....human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and for all...."

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35