“Czar or President?”

June 16, 2018

It is inevitable when we read the evening news to ask this question:  “Does our President prefer dictators to democratically elected leaders?”  We see President Trump cozying up to Kim Jong-Un, who has slaughtered many of his own people, including his own brother.  Trump remarks to the media how much he admires him, since he had to do so much as a young man.  Trump is shown saluting a North Korean general, which is a rather odd gesture for an American President.  Trump calls all this “buttering him up” so to obtain a more favorable deal.

Many are now analyzing body language, handshakes as well as verbal cues to see what else is being said in these unique and troubling conversations.  We have a deal to “denuclearize the Korean peninsula”, but it is not a “verifiable one,” as this language was left out of the communique.  When the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was asked about this obvious admission, he became testy to the reporters, saying, “No this is what Kim Jong-Un means,” without actually saying it.  But then, he has said this kind of thing before.

President Trump says he plans to invite Putin of Russia to the White House soon.  This is during the time his former White House official Paul Manafort and Trump lawyer is likely to be convicted of laundering money through Ukraine and witness tampering.  Trump and his family are being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for “collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.”  Trump denies it, but those around Trump seem to have been involved, how not the President?  This is odd, but given how Trump tears up every paper after he reads it, it would not be too unreasonable to believe if there was collusion with Russia, then those working for Trump will do their best to be sure it remains obscure.

This week we had the new word that Trump’s Non-Profit Foundation is being charged with unsavory behavior, with the foundation used to buy personal items for the President and other such things as this.  The Trump children are all being banned from its board.  What does this tell us about this President?  Does he believe the normal rule of law does not apply to him and his family?  Rather than admitting any guilt or wrong-doing, in classic Trump style, he finds a scapegoat in “the witch-hunting Democrats of New York,” who are out to harm his agenda.  We all know that a crime has been committed.  But can a state court charge a sitting President?  As the chief law officer of the United States, can he not simply pardon himself and those around him, including his own children, if, God forbid, they are caught red-handed breaking the law?  Of course, this is only the law in the state of New York.  Is it true that the laws of New York State are not as important as the laws of the Federal government? Or perhaps the law of a state is also the law of the land, unless overturned by the Supreme Court of the nation.  Being from New York State, is this president not also subject as a private citizen to the same laws as all the people who reside in the great state of New York?

I lay out the news statements from this past week, simply to show the bizarre nature of what is happening in Washington, D.C. by this rather bizarre President.  Yet he has no check and balances!  Where is the House of Representatives who should be curtailing the actions of this President?  President Trump imposes tariff sanctions on China, citing loss of our Intellectual property?  Are $50 billion in new tariffs the way to best solve this problem?  What happened to the World Trade Organization, which we helped found?  Why are we not appealing to them to help with this dispute? Why have we not asked Canada, Mexico and our European partners to help us in the negotiation with China, if this is such an issue of national security?  We are using 1920 methods to try and solve 21^st century problems.  Is President Trump really this uneducated?  Does anyone in their right mind want a trade war with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union?

Again, where are our representatives who represent the interest of the Pork producers, of those who grow soybeans, or who make wine?  How will stopping a part for a new car not raise the price in N America for the whole car?  If I were a smart Chinese businessman, I would first sell any goods under tariff restrictions to those in Japan who wanted to make a profit.  The goods could then be sent to the United States without tariffs, and sold at a lesser price.  If I can figure this thing out, what about the Chinese businessman or woman?  I expect they have already done so.

I wonder at what point the Republican Party will simply decide, “We have had enough of this Trump!  It has been a bizarre 2 years, but have we not had enough of this man?”

The erosion of our shared democratic ideals is what is concerning many, including myself.  How long can we have our President behaving like a dictator or czar and not begin to believe this is the new norm?  I am here to protest this new norm with everything in my power to do so.  Perhaps my words will outlast my life!  There is a lot more to say, but that is enough for now.  More say be said later, but this is enough for now!

Bill W

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June 20, 2018

Addend:  The horrifying images of babies, young children, toddlers being stripped from their parents and placed in detention centers, concentration camps for “tender care” is beyond belief!  Pediatricians in Texas who have observed the wailings and forlorn cries of little ones separated from mothers say these children, our refugees, will be forever emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives!  What is this President doing?  His fascist policies, his brutal inhuman tactics, his words describing this policy as being “necessary to enforce the law” is horse shit.  He is simply a brutal man, a fascist dictator no better than any other fascist dictator who has ever marched iron boots across the earth—and to think we are allowing this to happen in our country.  We are no more the “home of the free, the home of the brave.”  We have become a haunt for evil spirits, zombies, gnomes and creatures of the night and fearful representatives afraid to cross the President.  “F…. you!” says the intern serving in the capitol Washington, D.C. upon seeing the President stride across the Capitol rotunda.   This one word speaks for all of us who love liberty, righteousness, justice, compassion and truth. You are a sorry specimen of a human being. You should never have been elected President!  You are not morally fit to hold this high office, nor to represent the United States of America!

Bill W.