Leadership and the Free Press - First Amendment is essential

"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent, free press and we're not willing to have one ourself," said Bush.

Former President Bush was speaking on the NBC Today Show to support the publication of his book "Portraits of Courage", in an interview with Matt Lauer.

Donald Trump is so thin skinned, he lost his ability to be objective about his responsibility to accept the Free Press in support of American Democracy. In fact, Trump calls the news he disagrees with "fake-news" and declared war on the media as being an enemy of the people. Donald Trump's obsession with criticizing the media is, frankly, against the law. It's doubtful he ever read the First Amendment in the US Constitution, that requires "Free Speech". President George Bush '43 agrees with the Constitution. So does Admiral William H. McRaven, the Chancellor of the University of Texas system as does Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

It's past the time for Donald Trump to uphold what he swore to do on January 20, 2017, when he placed his right hand on a Bible and swore to uphold his oath of office. In fact, Trump should be leading the argument for Free Speech rather than creating unnecessary controversy about the basic tenet of democracy.  

Former President Bush said he spent a great amount of time trying to convince people, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, to accept the notion of an independent press, but Trump's adversarial relationship is making the message a difficult one for the United States to deliver.

"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent, free press and we're not willing to have one ourself," said Bush.

Bush took office in 2001 after a controversial election that ended up being decided by the Supreme Court, and during a time when the nation was also divided, but on Monday he said it is hard to compare what was going on then with what's happening now.

"One thing is for certain, the job is a tough job," said Bush. "Everybody looks at the presidency when they campaign one way, then, they get in office and find out there's a reality to the job." Former President George W. Bush faced his share of criticism from the media during his time in office, but he said Monday that unlike President Donald Trump, he considered the media "to be indispensable to Democracy," and not as an enemy of the American people.

"We need an independent media to hold people like me to account," Bush said during an interview with NBC's "Today" anchor Matt Lauer.

"I mean, power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power. Whether it be here or elsewhere."

Bush said when he got out of college, the nation was "really divided," and it "requires a lot of people coming together to try to make us united."

Meanwhile, Trump has only been in office shortly over a month, and Bush said he thinks Americans need to take Trump for his word, that he wants to unify the nation.

"We'll see if he's able to do so," said Bush. "It's hard to unify the country with the news media being so split up. When I was president, you mattered a lot more because there were three of you. And now, there's all kinds of information being bombarded out, and people can say things anonymously. And it's just a different world."

(MaineWriter- Dear Mr. Bush, it isn't the media or the "anonymous sources" that gave the "free press" the label of "fake-news".)

Bush also spoke out about Trump's travel ban from seven Middle Eastern countries, saying that he does believe that it's important for people to be able to worship freely.

However, it's "hard to fight the war on terrorism if we're in retreat, and I think we learned that lesson," said Bush.

"If the United States decides to pull out before a free society emerges, it's going to be hard to defeat them," said Bush. 

"The enemy is very good about exploiting weakness. It's going to be important. If that's the goal, to defeat ISIS, which I believe it should be, that we project strength."

But Bush wouldn't say specifically if he's for or against the travel ban. "I'm for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law," said the former president. (Maine Writer: In other words, the travel ban as proposed against 7 mostly Muslim nations was decided to be illegal, as ruled by two courts.

So, in terms of Donald Trump versus the First Amendment of the Constitution, the experts have spoken. Creating "fake-news" is, frankly, a terrible, not to mention, also illegal, way for any American president to lead a Democracy.

A terrifying new world order- Trump Putin narcissism bowl

These bookend portraits could be the movie trailer for an international horror story. Which one is the "patsy"?

America's "angry white men" and their wrong minded cohorts decided to vote for Donald Trump. They supported Donald Trump and his angry rhetoric rather than vote for the super well qualified Hillary Clinton, a woman, to lead the free world. Sadly, I sincerely doubt these same #fakenews voters were thinking about the horrible new world order their vote tacitly endorsed.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Donald Trump must stop saying he has additional information about Russian hacking. In fact, Trump has zero information. Rather, Trump is damaging his credibility by even talking about Russian hacking.  Obviously, Trump knows nothing, will not provide any "revelation" because he has no morals.  Trump prefers to defend Russia than to believe the US intelligence information. Outrageous!

Indeed, even Trump's round head press secretary Sean Spicer can't defend the statements his boss is "trumping", when asked to do so by Matt Lauer, on The Today Show. All Spicer sort of said is "wait and see" (or neologisms to that effect).....that's absolutely unacceptable double speak in defense of Trump's inability to criticize Vladimir Putin for the evil wrong doing Russian interference in the US election. Incredulously, Spicer said that maybe the punishment for the interference didn't fit the crime? Unmitigated hypocrisy! Because, if the interference had caused Trump to loose the election, the Republicans would be calling for far worse retaliation than what President Obama did by expelling a few dozen Russian operatives who were living in the US.

Obviously, the new and chilling world order is now humming with a Russian directed duet. Trump looks like a Putin hugging "patsy". Two horrifying individuals, the men are obsessed with their puffed up importance. Trump and Putin evidently want to join hands and rule the world. In my opinion, Donald Trump was never elected to be Vladimir Putin's best friend. In making America great again, no one, not even Trump's white supremacist supporters, voted to create this chilling new world order. 

In the narcissism bowl, the looser will be the American people- we never voted for the mess Donald Trump intends to make by creating a chilling new world order.

Moreover, in the New 2017 year, I make this prediction about Donald Trump and his round head Press Secretary Sean Spicer: They will both fail in their unqualified attempts to be Russian apologists.

Donald Trump must explain his kinky obsession with Vladimir Putin

It's really kinky but Donald Trump "can't quit Putin".
From The Boston Globe by Michael Cohen

"... the idea that somehow Putin is preferable to Obama is unpatriotic, un-democratic, and reflects an utter lack of appreciation for the basic ideas and principles that define American democracy." wrote Michael Cohen.

On the deck of the USS Intrepid CVS 11- a symbol of US Navy victory at sea: Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin while criticizing American military leaders. 

Although Michael Cohen says he's been following American politics for a long time, he doesn't think he would ever be able to see the day when a presidential candidate — no less a Republican presidential candidate — would favorably compare a Russian leader to the president of the United States.

Well, believe it or not, here we are, wrote Cohen in The Boston Globe.

Since the beginning of this campaign, Donald Trump has had kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

None of it has made much sense, but earlier this week Trump went a step further and said of the Russian strongman that he had been a far better leader “than our president.” 

In fact, Trump even cited Putin’s 82 percent approval rating in a country that is not a democracy, as supporting evidence. When NBC’s Matt Lauer began to point out some of Putin’s many political and democratic transgressions, Trump said, “Do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does at the same time?”

There are so many aspects of this line of argument from Trump that are difficult to fathom, but first and foremost is the fact that Putin has been a terrible leader for his country, particularly since his second run as Russian president.

Due in large measure to a drop in global oil prices and Putin’s ill-advised seizure of Crimea, the Russian economy has been in freefall. In 2015 it contracted by 3.7 percent, hundreds of billions in foreign capital has left the country because of international sanctions imposed because of Putin’s actions in Ukraine, and the value of the Russian ruble dropped 127 percent. The number of Russians living in poverty has sharply increased and real wages have fallen while inflation continues to rise. In short, Russia is an economic basket case and the country has become isolated on the international stage — and in large measure because of Putin’s disastrously bad foreign policy decision-making.

Moreover, there is the fact that Putin’s intelligence services are interfering directly in America’s presidential election — something that Trump encouraged back in July. Trump regularly says wouldn’t it be great if the United States and Russia got along, but is utterly oblivious to the fact that the main reason the US-Russian relationship is frayed is because of Putin and his provocative acts.

Candidate Donald Trump sat on the deck of the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier where Americans lost their lives defending our nation in World War II and served again in Vietnam, but disregarded this sacred place and, instead, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, with interviewer Matt Lauer.

Four years ago, Republicans regularly and falsely attacked Obama for conducting an “apology tour” – in 2016 they’ve nominated a candidate who is an apologist for an un-democratic thug who regularly acts against U.S. interests and interferes with our presidential election.

But even if all of this wasn’t true – even if Putin wasn’t invading his neighbors, bombing hospitals in Syria and acting against basic global norms - there is nothing about Putin’s leadership that is worthy of praise from an American politician. Putin is an authoritarian leader with virtually no institutional checks on his power. He has rolled back democratic reforms and is strongly suspected of having had journalists and political enemies killed.

Incredulously, the idea that somehow Putin is preferable to Obama is unpatriotic, un-democratic, and reflects an utter lack of appreciation for the basic ideas and principles that define American democracy. In America, strength comes not in popularity (a concept that an individual as needy for veneration as Trump may find hard to understand), but in adherence to the rule of law in respect for the will of the people. Putin has none of those characteristics. His leadership represents the opposite of virtually every principle that this country was founded on.

In the end, I have no idea why Trump is so solicitous of Putin. Maybe he’s protecting his business interests in Russia. Maybe he prefers the authoritarian manner in which Putin wields power. Maybe he can’t say anything bad about someone who says “really nice things” about him.

Your guess is as good as mine. And to some extent we’ve all become so anesthetized to Trump’s habitual violation of basic democratic norms that many Americans aren’t even paying attention to what Trump says about Putin. But a presidential candidate who praises a leader like Putin as “effective” and “strong” and better than a democratically-elected American president not only understands nothing about America, but has made himself unworthy of the political office he is seeking.

Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.

Surely, the American people can't vote for a candidate who praises Vladimir Putin.  The two men have a politically "kinky" relationship.

When "unqualified" means totally unqualified - why don't Republicans understand?

Obviously, from his stupid answers to Matt Lauer, it's clear that Donald Trump does not know more than the US Military Generals and Admirals about anything. It's time to fire Donald Trump.
(By the way, what was this Mike Pence "nonsense" about wasting his time in California, stumping at the Reagan Library? See story below.)

How do Trump supporters brains function? What is it about unqualified that they just don't "get"?

Donald Trump has dangerously wacky ideas.  In fact, Putin and his new Best Friend (BFF) Trump can't "fix" the Middle East or Syria.

President Barack Obama says:
"The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions on what he says, which appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas."

Trump supporters are supposed to understand the cerebral functions associated with making judgements. They're most likely literate and aware about the job requirements needed for successful political leadership. So, what is it that Donald Trump supporters don't understand about the obvious? Donald Trump is clearly unqualified to be the leader of the free world. Here are at least 9 reasons why he must be canned as a GOP presidential (I gag at writing this word) nominee, as he demonstrated in the Commander in Chief forum on September 7th broadcast by NBC, from the USS Intrepid in New York City.  From "First Read":

In 24 minutes, Trump made nine controversial statements

In last night's NBC/MSNBC Commander-in-Chief Forum, which served as a kind of scrimmage before the presidential debates, Hillary Clinton struggled. She immediately found herself on the defensive -- once again -- over her emails. 

Moreover, she promised she wouldn't have U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria (even though we already do have some forces there). Yet, those struggles paled in comparison to what we count were nine controversial statements Donald Trump made in his 24 minutes on the stage.

Unbelievable, Trump sat on the deck of the USS Intrepid and criticized U.S. military generals, while trying to explain why he knows more about ISIS than they do. Incredible.

"I think under the leadership Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing for our country."
Suggested that he'd fire current generals if he becomes president

"Well, they'll probably be different generals" -- in response to a question about how he accepts their advice after saying they've been "reduced to rubble."
Praised Vladimir Putin

"Well, he does have an 82% approval rating, according to the different pollsters, who by the way, some of whom are based right here." (FYI: In the May NBC/WSJ poll, just 8% of American voters said they had a favorable view of Putin, versus 59% with an unfavorable one.) WATCH
Said Putin is a stronger leader than President Obama

"I mean, the man has very strong control over a country. And that's a very different system and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly in that system he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."
Said that, by reading the body language of the intelligence officials who gave him his intelligence briefing, he could tell these people aren't happy with President Obama

"I'm pretty good with the body language. I could tell they were not happy." (OMG- National Security professionals do not "do" body language.)

Said his trip to Mexico was a success because official who was responsible for it resigned

"I think if you saw what happened in Mexico the other day, where I went there. I had great relationships, everything else... And if you look at what happened, look at the aftermath today where the people that arranged the trip in Mexico has been forced out of government."
Defended his tweet suggesting that sexual assault in the military is due to men and women serving together in military

"Well, it is-- it is-- it is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that that's absolutely correct. And we need to have a strength." (Trump's tweet from May 2013: "26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?")WATCH
Repeated his claim that the United States should have taken Iraq's and Libya's oil: "If we would've taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS. Because ISIS formed with the power and the wealth of that oil." WATCH
And explained that you take the oil by "leaving a certain group behind"

"We would leave a certain group behind and you would take various sections where they have the oil: "They have-- I-- people don't know this about Iraq. But they have among the largest oil reserves in the world-- in the entire world... You know, it used to be the victor belong the spoils."

Clinton: "We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again"

As for Hillary Clinton's statement about group troops in Iraq/Syria, here is exactly what she said: "We have to defeat ISIS. That is my highest counter-terrorism goal. And we've gotta do it with airpower. We've gotta do it with much more support from the Arabs and the Kurds who will fight on the ground against ISIS… We're going to work to make sure that they have the support. They have special forces, as you know. They have enablers. They have-- surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance help. They are not gonna get ground troops. We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again. And we're not putting ground troops into Syria. We're to defeat ISIS without committing American ground troops." To parse that statement, Clinton was admitting that you might have U.S. special forces and intelligence operatives in Iraq and Syria, but you won't have a substantial land army there. Still, that's quite a promise if she ultimately becomes president. What if her military commanders need additional troops to help the Kurdish and Arab allies in the region? 

Obama on Trump: "I don't think the guy is qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed"

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Laos (in Southeast Asia), President Obama reacted to Trump's comments at last night's forum. "I don't think the guy is qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed," he said. "The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions on what he says, which appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas."

Yes, indeed, Colin Powell instructed Clinton how to avoid email scrutiny
The Wall Street Journal: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told Hillary Clinton at the start of her tenure at the State Department that he used a personal computer to conduct government business and took steps to ensure his digital correspondence wasn't 'going through the State Department servers.' An email exchange released by House Democrats on Wednesday night reveals new details of Mr. Powell's candid advice to his successor for avoiding State Department computer systems and the scrutiny they bring due to federal records preservation and disclosure laws."

On the trail Hillary Clinton held a rally in Charlotte, NC, at noon ET, and later delivered a speech to the National Baptist Convention in Kansas City, MO at 6:00 pm ET… Donald Trump gave an education speech in Cleveland, OH at 2:00 pm ET… Mike Pence delivered a national-security speech at the Reagan Library in California (OMG this was a wonderful use of Trump campaign money, no new votes will come out of this California "Pence nonsense"!) at 1:00 pm ET… And Chelsea Clinton stumped in Scranton, PA.

Frankly, anybody with the cerebral function of a responsible 12 year old would be able to make an informed judgement about who won the NBC "CIC" forum on the USS Intrepid.

It was the candidate who was the most knowledgeable, intelligent, expert on the issues and articulate. Secretary Hillary Clinton is qualified to lead and worthy to be elected the US Commander in Chief.

Countdown to first presidential debate: 18 days

Countdown to VP debate: 26 days

Countdown to second presidential debate: 31 days

Countdown to third presidential debate: 41 days

Countdown to Election Day: 61 days

No facts - no sympathy Donald Trump gets more free media

On a morning on March 22, 2016, when the world is mourning even more terrorism attacks in Brussels in Belgium, with dozens dead resulting from bombing attacks at the Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro, the Today Show decided to interview Donald Trump. So, Donald Trump gets even more free media time, but what does he do? He offers "NO facts- NO sympathy" and no information about what he would do if her were (God forbid) elected president or leader of the free world. 

Terrorist bombing in Brussels Belgium March 22, 2016

Instead, Donald Trump opened his free interview talking about his crazy poll numbers. After that, he then said he would close all US borders. HELLO? So, will Americans form a human chain along all of the US Canada and Mexico international borders? How would Trump-Drumpf close the US borders? Trump did not explain how to close US borders. In fact, closing borders is irresponsible and, indeed, even impossible. Rather, the right answer is to build excellent communications with Canada and Mexico to prevent illegal immigration between all three nations.

Rather than open his interview with Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer, with appropriate messages of sympathy to the Europeans and the entire Belgian population during this sad time, Trump spoke about his poll numbers instead of offering useful information.

Shame on Today for giving stupid Donald Trump even more free media time, when the wanna-be president, leader of the free world, contributed no facts about the Brussels bombings.

Although the surrogate NBC correspondent, Kelly O'Donnell, went on Twitter to explain how the 2016 presidential front runners were invited to be interviewed, but only stupid Donald Trump responded, that was a weak excuse for giving free media time to a candidate. Obviously Ms. O'Donnell, American only has one president at a time and stupid Drumpf-Trump is not the one.  

In the event Donald Trump had something to add to the Belgian condition, other than stoke more fear, then, maybe, there was a reason to include him in a free media blitz. Otherwise, Trump's "no facts-no sympathy" interview was a total waste of time and denigrated quality journalism.

NBC employs classy journalists like Pete Williams, Richard Engel and Tom Costello. Therefore, it makes absolutely no sense to pay for experts to report the news instead of wasting important media time creating news with the "no facts-no sympathy" commentary by Donald Trump. 

My sympathy to the people of Europe and particularly the Belgians.

These are terribly tragic times, but Donald Trump is not the person to improve our human condition.

Catholics oppose Donald Trump

Out of respect to Maine Writer readers, I want to apologize for the horrible spectacle we're witnessing in the presidential 2016 primary elections.  

Three thoughtful and well spoken candidates are being obliterated by the news media, because of Trumposities. Rather than ideas, Donald Trump receives media free air time to degrade minorities, imitate Adolf Hitler, name call his opponents, and sell commodoties in infomercials, like wine, beef and even magazines. On the other hand, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor John Kasich are the thoughtful candidates, but the news media only gives them sound bites.  In fact, Secretary Clinton's eloquent post March 8th primary speech was only broadcast on MSNBC-cable network. 

As far as I can see, the following groups are obviously in opposition to Donald Trump's unlikely presidential candidaccy:
1.  Establishement Republicans
2.  Supporters of Governor Mitt Romney
3.  Black caucus voters
4.  Labor Unions
5.  Muslims
6.  Registered Democrats

"..(Trump) ....demagogue and danger to the nation and the Republican Party."- NCRonline.org

Jesus spoke to the Apoltles about how difficult it is to enter the kindgom of Heaven. (Matthew 19:24). Donald Trump certainly doesn't have a spiritual message, but he's somehow mezmerizing his supporters with infomercial style political messages.  Can a rich man enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

"And Jesus said to His disciples, 'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24'. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' 25When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?'…" http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-24.htm

Hopefully, Roman Catholic voters can be added to the above list of opposition. Here is an open letter from The National Catholic Reporter on-line:

In an appeal to the voters, 40 conservative Catholic leaders have denounced GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a demagogue and danger to the nation and the Republican Party.

The open letter appeared in The National Review on March 7, one day before the Michigan Republican primary, which could give Trump an almost-unbeatable delegate lead in the GOP nominating race if he posts a strong win.

Robert P. George, of Princeton University and George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, headed the charge, and the appeal was also signed by opinion leaders from academia and religious media.

The letter denounces Trump for "vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and -- we do not hesitate to use the word -- demagoguery."

Worse, they wrote, he's the opposite of what Catholics should seek in a leader.  George and Weigel wrote of Trump that there is "nothing in his campaign or his previous record that gives us grounds for confidence that he genuinely shares our commitments to the right to life, to religious freedom and the rights of conscience, to rebuilding the marriage culture, or to … the principle of limited constitutional government."

Those causes have been championed by the GOP, the authors wrote, but a Trump nomination would threaten the party's commitment to those issues.

The appeal, in the pages of the magazine founded by conservative icon author William F. Buckley, Jr., comes less than a month after its editors issued a similar denunciation of Trump in its January edition.

On Jan. 21,Trump fired back on Twitter:

"National Review is a failing publication that has lost it's way. It's circulation is way down w its influence being at an all time low. Sad!"

Ahead of Tuesday's Michigan primary, a new Fox News-funded pre-election poll of likely Republican voters showed the New York billionaire was a popular choice among Catholic voters.

Trump's recent kerfuffle with Pope Francis (who called the candidate's stance on immigration "not Christian") has not dissuaded Catholics.

According to the poll, Trump, with 52 percent of Catholic voters, leads Sen. Marco Rubio (16 percent) Ohio Gov. John Kasich (14 percent) and Sen. Tex Cruz (11 percent) with Catholics.

Although Donald Trump gets to promote his magazine in free infomercials, the National Catholic Reporter doesn't have equal time on progams like The Today Show with Matt Lauer.  

Again, to end, I apologize to Maine Writer readers around the world, about America's convoluted and disappointing presidential primary process and the unlikely outcomes.  Although, I may not be influential, as Donald Trump would likely blast about me, but I am morally opposed to supporting any bomabastic person who is somehow mezmerizing the American electorate.