Donald Trump and maga Republicans must protect America's foriegn alliances: claims to take over Greenland are stupid

“Trump Mocks Leaders Who Seek to Curb His Greenland Ambitions as Weak” (news article, January 21):

Echo opinion letters published in The New York Times:

As tensions rise between the United States and Europe, Donald Trump has not done anything to cool things down but instead derided Europe as weak ahead of his meeting with European leaders in Davos, Switzerland. Donald Trump has gone too far.

For years the U.S. has been able to build strength through its alliances, but Donald Trump has turned this idea on its head. 

Obviously and unbelievably, it has come to a point where Donald Trump is willing to bully allies and make threats in order to obtain Greenland, an island that few Americans care about and that would not improve the security of the country, whatsoever. (IOW "stupid")

Donald Trump has made a dangerous assumption that the U.S. on its own would be able to stand strong on the global stage, particularly against two superpowers: Russia and China. If the Donald Trump really wants to pay off the national debt (a financial impossibility) and improve the economy, losing allies is not the way to go about it ❗ Perhaps it is time for Trump to learn the meaning of the word “cooperation.”  From Maxwell Mercado in  Collegedale, Tennessee

To the Editor:  This is not a test. Donald Trump’s increasingly flagrant and bellicose threats to violate Greenland’s sovereignty represent an existential threat. There is no telling what will befall us if the United States shatters the NATO alliance and cements its abrupt shift from leader of the free world to global pariah.

Congress and all Americans: If you oppose this perilous path, now is the time to speak. 

 (Maine Writer post script:  #WhereIsSenatorSusanCollins ❓)

From Emily L. Cooke in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Donald Trump denies experts and the consequences are a lack of confidence

Coronavirus was not caused by Republicans but the root cause for creating the chaos in response to the illness is in inept conservative public policy.

Trump's complete failure of imagination is costing America lives and treasure

Republican Party has paved the way for U.S. to be overtaken by COVID-19:  The crisis is the result of the demonization of government, the diminishment of the role of science and support for a president who's not fit to lead.  

Echo opinion published in the Maine newspaper the Portland Press Herald by Herb Janick: 

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — I write this as I, along with most of the country, are in our first week of “social distancing.” I am sure I am not alone in wondering how the world we thought we knew has changed so much so quickly. I do not presume to have all of the answers, but one inescapable conclusion to me is that the Republican Party created the conditions that caused America to be overtaken by the coronavirus. To be clear, no political party created the virus, and it respects no parties or national borders. But over the past several decades, and especially in the past three years, the Republican Party has done three things that have made America especially vulnerable.

First, rather than recognize that the federal government has a critical role, the Republican Party has spent years denigrating and demonizing the government and its important role in society. From Ronald Reagan’s oft-repeated assertion that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” to Donald Trump’s tweets about the FBI and the so-called “Deep State,” the party and its leaders regularly mock, belittle and delegitimize the government. This misguided attitude has real consequences. It discourages talented people from serving or staying in the government. It also supports the party’s efforts to cut necessary services and programs, which leads to a vicious cycle where a government starved of necessary resources performs inadequately, leading to further criticism of the government and, in turn, further withholding of needed funding.

Second, the Republican Party has sought to diminish the role of experts and science and replace them with ideology. The party and its leaders mock and ignore our nation’s experts, whether they serve in the State Department, the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency or the National Weather Service. These actions have real-world consequences. Given the party’s disdain for experts and their inconvenient science-supported conclusions, is it really a surprise that our government disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic preparedness staff? And should we be surprised that our government disregarded the advice of all epidemiologists to immediately ramp up testing for the coronavirus when it appeared in China? Although banning travel from China bought us time, our leaders squandered it by ignoring the experts because the Republican Party does not respect their role in our society.

• Third, the Republican Party has supported a president who manifestly is not fit to lead. The leadership of the free world is an awesome responsibility and would be a herculean task for any person. That’s why our political parties have a responsibility to vet and present the American public with potential leaders who are competent, intelligent, have sober judgment and are prepared to serve the nation’s interests. Back when Donald Trump was the party’s nominee, our own senior senator, Susan Collins, recognized that in selecting Trump, the party had failed in this basic responsibility. As she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in August 2016, Mr. Trump was “unworthy of being our president” and that “regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of growth or change.” Once he was elected, however, and despite ample, daily evidence that her initial conclusions were correct, Sen. Collins and her Republican Party colleagues praised and supported him.

Again, these actions have real consequences. Should we really be surprised that a man whose businesses filed for bankruptcy six times has run our country into a financial ditch? Should we be surprised that when we need a leader who tells us the truth, we as a nation are deeply unsettled by a man who lies about the spread of the virus and overstates or misleads us about the status of his administration’s efforts to combat it? 

Did we really expect a man who, according to the Washington Post, made 16,241 false or misleading statements in his first three years in office suddenly to start telling us the truth?

As we sit at home over the next several weeks and wonder what happened to our world, I urge you to ask yourself why it is acceptable for the Republican Party’s misguided attitudes toward government, science, expertise and leadership to have left our country so unprepared for the current crisis?

USS Zumwalt - enters into a new American Navy

Today December 12, 2015 the Midshipmen at Annapolis deeated the Cadets at West Point at the annual Army-Navy game held in Philadephpia, PA, the score was Army 17, Navy 21 and it was a very good game. This is the 14th time Navy has defeated Army in the annual classic.  Yet, this week was also a time of extraordinary change for the US Navy.  In fact, a new Navy emerged from Bath Iron Works with the launching of the USS Zumwalt.

USS Zumwalt passes Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth Maine a "war and peace" image.

A New Navy emerged from Bath Iron Works in Bath Maine with the launching of the USS Zumwalt. It's a state of the art "battleship".  Yet, to call the Zumwalt a "battleship" is like calling a jet airplane a "barnstormer".  In fact, the Zumwalt is a slick and clandistine defense weapon. Now that it's launched, the Zumwalt has complely antiquated the entire US Navy fleet of "tin cans" and all future ships of this class will become even more svelt, efficient and expensive.

The Portland Press Herald reports:

Navy destroyer USS Zumwalt christened at Bath Iron Works

The 610-foot-long warship has advanced technology and a stealthy design to reduce its visibility on enemy radar.

BATH — A crowd of thousands gathered at Bath Iron Works to watch the christening of the USS Zumwalt, the largest and most technologically advanced destroyer in Navy history.

Relatives of the ship’s namesake, Adm. Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., former chief of naval operations, as well as top Navy brass and Maine elected leaders celebrated the near-completion of a $3.3 billion ship that is the first of a new class of high-tech destroyers.

Every aspect of the Zumwalt’s exterior was designed to make the ship harder to detect on radar despite its size. Antennas, radar dishes and communications equipment are either hidden or enclosed in a 900-ton “superstructure” that sits atop the ship like a massive gray fortress.

The Zumwalt’s hull is designed to slice through waves with less wake, and Navy officials say the ship will have a fraction of the radar profile of the smaller Arleigh Burke-class DDG 51 destroyers also built at BIW.

Yet, how much defense can one state of the art "battleship" provide?  This is an certainly an expensive experiment!  

But, the Zumwalt is already proudly showing off by doing public relations, even rescuing a Maine fisherman in distress:

The U.S. Navy's brand new $4.3 billion stealth destroyer, the Zumwalt, came to the rescue of a fisherman suffering chest pains early Saturday off the coast of Maine.

It was only Monday that the Zumwalt, the largest destroyer ever built for the Navy, headed out to sea for the first time.

Coast Guard officials reported receiving a distress call at about 3 a.m., saying the 46-year-old captain of the fishing boat Danny Boy was suffering chest pains about 40 miles southeast of Portland.

The Zumwalt was conducting sea trials in the area and responded to the scene, the Portland Press Herald reported.

A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter had responded from Air Station Cape Cod but the crew determined a hoist of the stricken fisherman would be too dangerous due to the configuration of the fishing boat's deck.

Officials said a crew and small boat from the Zumwalt transferred the man to the destroyer's deck. The helicopter crew then hoisted the patient and transported him to shore, where he was taken to Maine Medical Center for care.

USS Zumwalt in Portland Harbor, Maine involved in fisherman rescue.

"Our main concern with this type of medical emergency is to recover the patient safely and transport them to a higher level care as quickly as possible,” said Lt. David Bourbeau, public affairs officer at Sector Northern New England. “Fortunately, the Zumwalt was operating in the area and was able to provide valuable assistance.”

Two days ago the Press Herald reported that the Zumwalt caught Maine’s largest city by surprise when it emerged from the fog just off Cape Elizabeth and slipped unannounced into Portland Harbor.

Regardless of the USS Zumwalt's expensive price, or whether or not it will be as effective as predicted, the fact is, the US Navy is forever changed as a result of its launching.

It's not our grandfather's, or even John Paul Jones' Navy, anymore.