Right wing MAGA Republicans want to revise January 6 history to claim it was not an insurreciton? Really?

January 6 'protest' was actually an insurrection❗

Echo opinion letter published in Kenosha News, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, "....that January 6th was merely a protest that turned into a riot. Seriously❓😖"

"...the FBI bureau had an informant in the January 6 crowd, providing an inside glimpse of the insurrectionists actions, according to confidential records obtained by The New York Times."

Citizen Trump pressured Republicans in some states to say he won when he didn’t; he summoned his followers to Washington with the express purpose of stopping the certification of votes; he knew people in the crowd that day were armed (He specifically requested removal of the detectors that kept them from getting too close to him.); he told them to “fight like hell;” he and his allies bombarded the airwaves with conspiracy theories that are still going strong; and he sat for several hours in the White House watching the mayhem and did nothing to stop it, even when the crowd was chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

January 6 gallows....who constructed this scaffolding*?

Add to that the testimony of many Republicans and Capitol Police during the January 6th hearings, and only one conclusion can be drawn: It was Trump’s intention, and that of his followers, to seize the power of the United States government. That’s an insurrection. Ask yourself this: If Obama or some other Democratic president had done the same things, what conclusion would you draw?

From Ferne Cerqua, Kenosha

*Maine Writer:  I asked this question dozens of time in several social media postings. ❓ In all the pictures and videos we are shown about the insurrectionist terrorism on the U.S. Capitol, on January 6th, there is no image I can find to show who built the Hang Mike Pence scaffolding.

Syria - snatching defeat from the jaws of victory- an echo David Ignatius opinion

Opinion echo published in the Wisconsin newspaper Kenosha News by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius

Donald Trump's failed Syria strategy

Asked to describe U.S. policy toward Syria after Donald Trump’s sudden (and stupid!) decision on Dec. 19, 2018, (stupid!) to withdraw U.S. troops from that country (without advance notice to his Defense Secretary!), several key officials use the same two words: “total chaos.”

There’s another phrase that comes to mind in assessing Trump’s move: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. American-backed forces were on the verge of eliminating the Islamic State in northeast Syria when Trump made his surprise announcement, which went against the recommendations of all his senior diplomatic and military advisers.

Trump did it anyway, for reasons that remain mysterious to some of his subordinates. The trigger was a Dec. 14 phone call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump had been briefed to warn the Turkish leader not to invade Syria, as he had been threatening to do. But Trump instead told Erdogan: “You know what? It’s yours. I’m leaving.”

Trump’s (stupid!) idea was to let Turkish forces take over the American-backed campaign against the Islamic State in northeast Syria. But senior military officials say the Turkish alternative doesn’t add up, quite literally, in terms of numbers.

Kurds counted on the US ! The Turks want to replace a Kurdish-led force of about 60,000 fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. They have claimed to U.S. officials that they have 50,000 Syrian opposition forces under their control, but that’s wildly overstated. The Turkish-backed opposition is closer to 5,000, U.S. officials say, and many have jihadist connections.

The Turks have been trying to sell the notion that they can combat the Islamic State for more than two years. U.S. military commanders who investigated Ankara’s proposals starting in 2016 began describing the force that would supposedly clear Raqqa and other jihadist strongholds as a “ghost brigade.”

The posturing continues: Last week Turkish-backed Syrians moved heavy weapons across the border toward Manbij, to signal their readiness. But Turkish military resources are so threadbare that they’ve asked the U.S. to provide overhead surveillance, logistical support and air cover for any operation to finish off the Islamic State in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, officials say. The U.S. has so far refused such requests.

The most dangerous consequence of Trump’s Turkish solution is that it could re-ignite the Islamic State. (HELLO? Where are those Evangelicals who vilify all those who are Islamist?) The problem starts with about 780 foreign fighters who are now being held by the SDF in a half-dozen prisons in northeast Syria. The SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, told me bluntly in an interview 10 days ago that he wouldn’t be able to hold the prisoners if Turkish forces invaded the areas he controls.

These jihadists prisoners are the worst of the worst, and their release could mean mayhem. But so far, almost none of the 48 countries from which the fighters traveled to Syria has been willing to take them back. Britain, France, Belgium and other European nations that have been attacked are said to have refused, claiming they don’t have legal authority or making other excuses. Macedonia has agreed to take a handful, as has Lebanon. Several North African nations are considering repatriation requests, and a Central Asian country might eventually take as many as 100.

Trump’s apparent assumption, initially, that Turkey would take the prisoners could be almost as dangerous as letting them go free. The Turks have allowed jihadist fighters to crisscross their border since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, U.S. officials say. 

These officials argue that Erdogan’s real nemesis in Syria is the Kurdish militia, which he calls a terrorist organization, rather than the jihadists

Erdogan has many links with the Trump team. Michael Flynn was a well-paid but unregistered Turkish lobbyist before he briefly became Trump’s national security adviser. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, tried in 2017 to broker a deal to free Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian businessman with links to Erdogan’s family. Trump himself has embraced Erdogan as a kindred spirit when they’ve met at summits.

Amid all this policy turmoil, the Kurds just keep on fighting the Islamic State. A U.S. official told me Thursday that the SDF had suffered 80 casualties, including 25 dead, in heavy fighting by its 5,000 fighters over the previous 72 hours in the Euphrates Valley. It had also pushed to within 15 miles of the Iraqi border. A brief ray of hope for the Kurds is that Trump has agreed to carry out the withdrawal of U.S. Special Operations Forces from Syria over the next four months, and Turkey has promised it won’t attack until the SDF’s American advisers leave.

The Kurdish fighters “do what they promise to do,” said one U.S. official who has worked closely with them. The same, alas, cannot be said of the Trump administration.

David Ignatius can be reached via Twitter: @IgnatiusPost.

Jobs site for unemployed Republican governors- Walker and LePage

This opinion letter was published in the Kenosha News, a Wisconsin newspaper.  The premise of this opinion is excellent; so I'm thinking to compose a similar letter to apply to outgoing Maine governor Paul Lepage.

Job recommendation for the Wisconsin lame duck Governor Walker: "Seek appointment in Trump’s cabinet. (Oops, Trump doesn’t like “losers.”)"

How ironic that Wisconsin's self professed “education governor” got beat by a school teacher. 

Wisconsin Trump loyalists must be cringing. As Wisconsin's lame duck governor Walker ponders his future, here are a few job suggestions for his potential employment:

1. Return to Marquette University, finish his degree, improve his job marketability skills, and quit being a “fake alumnus.”

2. Enroll in Trump University.

3. Seek appointment in Trump’s cabinet. (Oops, Trump doesn’t like “losers.”)

4. Assembly line worker in Ivanka Trump’s foreign factory.

5. Staff security guard shack for Uline Corp (at the company's expansion site).

6. Shoe shine attendant and valet for the Koch brothers.

7. Crying towel salesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party.

8. Maintenance worker for the Foxconn housing village.

9. Ron Johnson re-election campaign director.

(MaineWriter: What about being a farm worker supervisor for the harvesters in the Kenosha County Wisconsin Farm Bureau?)

Given that Scott Walker has never had a real job that did not provide him with a taxpayer-funded salary, health insurance, pension, limos, airplanes, expense accounts, etc., perhaps he can now avail himself to one of the 250,000 jobs he promised us. Kimberly-Clark is hiring.

Richard A. Bosanko, Bristol, Wisconsin

Character revealed ~ echo opinion by David Ignatius

This column is spot on one of my favorite "echo" articles re-blogged while scanning the nation's news.  David Ignatius is a columnist for The Washington Post and a pundit who frequently appears on MSNBC Morning Joe.  This opinion was published in the Wisconsin Kenosha News. 

America watched three searing versions of reality television this week. They all demonstrated that under the glare of the lights and the stress of questioning, character reveals itself.

David Ignatius opinion, published in the Kenosha News, a Wisconsin newspaper.

Christine Blasey Ford was a startlingly powerful witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, in part because she had been unknown to most Americans before the cameras started rolling. Her answers were clear and concise. 

She described what she remembered from 36 years ago, and what she didn’t. She never embellished her statements or added extraneous comments. With her simple responses of “yes,” “no” and “correct,” she maintained her dignity while describing the most upsetting experience of her life.

Ford seemed in some ways a modern American “Everywoman,” voicing publicly the often-hidden trauma that millions of women have experienced. She may have been “terrified” when the hearing began, as Republican interrogator Rachel Mitchell commented, but she gained confidence as the hearing progressed. 

It will be harder now for people to question her motives.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh followed with an enraged response and rebuttal. He’s usually a practiced performer before the cameras, but Thursday he was deeply shaken, pausing many times to control his tears and maintain his composure. In contrast to Ford’s quiet demeanor, Kavanaugh was almost shouting in his opening statement. He said that Democrats’ attempt to “blow me up and take me down” was a “national disgrace.”

As Kavanaugh struggled to prevent an emotional meltdown, you felt the tremors that have rocked American life as women have spoken out about abuse. Sometimes, when Kavanaugh spoke about the possibility that he might never teach or coach basketball again, he seemed to feel his life had been undone by the accusations from Ford and two other women.

Kavanaugh was least compelling when he took his defense into a political space, calling the accusations against him “a calculated and orchestrated political hit,” and “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” It was hard to imagine a man so angry and traumatized serving as a dispassionate Supreme Court justice.

What Kavanaugh couldn’t do, even in his poignant denials, was to erase the impression that Ford’s testimony had left. Whether the Senate votes to confirm him as justice or not, Kavanaugh will struggle to recover from the hurt that was so evident in his face Thursday. We should want him to heal: Just as Ford could be your sister, Kavanaugh could be your brother.

On the eve of this visceral day of testimony, we entered the fever dream of President Trump, the man who has been popping the nation’s boiler at its seams. This was a very different self-portrait from the quietly anxious Ford, or the indignant Kavanaugh. In his 75-minute news conference from the United Nations in New York Wednesday night, Trump was rambling, evasive, boastful, contemptuous.

Trump often seems calculating in his tweets and tempests, but Wednesday night he seemed almost out of control. He bounced from topic to topic. One minute he was denouncing the “con artists” who had attacked Kavanaugh, the next he was insisting he had an open mind on Ford’s accusations, and then skittering back to discuss his own supposed victimization by the media and other tormentors.

Trump’s performance was a stream-of-consciousness tour of the world as imagined by what he called his “very, very large brain.” As he spoke, it was obvious that he truly believes what he told the U.N. Tuesday, that he had “ accomplished more than almost any administration.” The laughter that greeted that boast was quickly transformed in Trump’s mind, to a positive “they were laughing with me.” Communist dictators Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un were his friends — and even Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani got stroked as a prospective future friend of the great deal-maker.

Watching Trump in this ultimate reality show, viewers could see for themselves what has been described in recent books by Bob Woodward and Michael Wolff — a president who acts so unpredictably that his closest aides must work around his rants and impulses to keep the government running. The world watched this careening, self-obsessed president live on Tuesday night. What a disturbing show it was.

America is living under a volcano. Thursday’s competing testimonies from Ford and Kavanaugh will probably make a polarized nation even more divided. The healing begins when we have a leader who stops spewing lava and starts building unity, but that seemed a very distant hope this week.

David Ignatius can be reached via Twitter: @IgnatiusPost.

America's deficit has increased by 33 percent over 11 months

Echo: A Newsday Editorial (Long Island, New York) republished in the Wisconsin Kenosha News. 

The economy of the United States might be (temporarily) booming (workforce shortages notwithstanding), but the finances are going bust. In the first 11 months of fiscal 2017, the nation’s budget deficit was $674 billion. For the first 11 months of fiscal 2018, it was $898 billion, an increase of 33 percent. President Donald Trump’s administration now says the annual shortfall will exceed $1 trillion in 2019 and remain above that level for at least three years.

The deficit has exceeded $1 trillion in only four years, from 2009 through 2012, when unemployment of 8 percent to 10 percent depressed income tax receipts, low corporate profits reduced tax revenue and federal spending spiked to provide for struggling Americans, stimulate the economy and help fund state and local governments.

Such colossal deficits now lack any such excuses. Unemployment is around 4 percent, a historic low (driving workforce shortages), and corporate profits are at all-time highs. Happy days should be here again when it comes to fiscal sanity, but corporate tax receipts have dropped 20 percent since Donald Trump’s tax cuts took effect in early 2018. Income tax payments are up just 1 percent. And government spending under Trump has skyrocketed.

The answer, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the Economic Club of New York, is being “tougher on spending” when it comes to the “larger entitlements.” (HELLO? Beneficiaries pay for our entitlements!)

The growth in spending on social programs is a real problem. Social Security outlays are up 8 percent this year, reflecting an increase in recipients, and Medicare spending is up 9 percent. But interest on the national debt has increased 13 percent this year. And military spending is up almost 10 percent, to $700 billion.

The average monthly Social Security check is $1,404. Cutting such benefits or making people work much past the current full retirement age of 67 before they can claim that benefit would not be humane, sensible or popular. Neither would cutting the Medicare benefits that provide health care to seniors or the Medicaid benefits that pay the costs of 62 percent of nursing home residents and the health care costs of 30 million children.

Trump is trying to nickel-and-dime the people who least deserve such treatment. He recently canceled next year’s scheduled 2.1 percent pay increase for federal employees, writing that he can do so because of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare” of the United States. 

And he is fighting for a farm bill that would take food stamps from several million recipients. (This is wrong minded and cruel farm policy.  It makes no economic sense whatsoever. Eventually, this Donald Trump policy will drive up the cost of food for everybody by causing farmers to plant less crops.)

Trump and his advisers are crowing about a booming economy and crying poverty when it comes to caring for the nation. They have cut taxes, benefiting mostly the very wealthy, at a cost of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and now say they must cut the social safety net, which mostly benefits the nation’s children and elderly, to pay for it.

Republicans may not implement their plans to slash social programs, but the increasing costs of those programs are real, as are the spiraling deficits generated by Trump’s tax cuts and huge hikes in military spending. If denying Americans needed benefits (to beneficiaries who earned their entitlements) is the GOP plan to restore fiscal sanity, that’s disturbing. And if that awful scheme isn’t the GOP’s way to restore fiscal sanity, then it has no plan at all.