Maybe you want a higher standard?

So, Kellyanne Conway tweeted, as she is wont to do. 

Kellyanne Conway‏

Verified account 

@KellyannePolls

Kellyanne Conway

#poll watchers: give a holler when @POTUS approval descends to that of media or Congress.

Let's consider this. I use Gallup polling numbers for consistency.

Trump Job Approval Rating Now at 34%

Congress         "             "                   16%

Media             "              "                   30%

This is what I hear.  We suck, but we don't suck as bad as these other guys.  

Kellyanne, your Twitter account makes the claim you are a Counselor to the President.  You may actually want to provide some counseling rather than massaging his already bloated ego.  

If he won't accept your counseling why do you remain?  Have you considered offering him advice on how to improve his performance and thereby his poll numbers or are you merely employed to show how he is not as bad as others?  When a ship is taking on water, you may want to considering bailing or engaging the bilge pumps instead of noting the other ships in the fleet only have their smokestacks showing.  Obviously the point of view is misdirected.  

Since you have an annual salary of $179,700 according to whitehouse.gov and are therefore on the public dole, I would like to see you take a more proactive approach instead of responding to every slight regardless of how minor, perceived by POTUS.  Your title is Assistant to the President and Senior Counselor.  If your duties consist solely of spinning the comments of others I can do that for $93,215 per year.  

I realize working in the current White House administration is difficult.  I do not covet your position nor environment.  I do think that should you make the development of the country and its citizens your primary concern, rather than stroking Donnie.   You would make for a much more pleasant environment for all.

There will be a legacy of this administration and you will be a part of it.  What part will you choose to play?

Whaduyathink?

He said it

"What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society."  Donald J.Trump

Ok, according to the constitution, you are the chief law enforcement officer of the country.  What are you doing to restore law and order and protect those innocent lives?  Do you consider your encouragement of police brutality to be an action which promotes the restoration of law and protection of the innocent.  I just wondered since you said, "I said, please don’t be too nice.    Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?  Like, don’t hit their head and they've just killed somebody -- don't hit their head.  I said, you can take the hand away, okay? "  I understand that completely.  I mean, why would you want your conduct to be superior of that of a criminal?  Go ahead, rough 'em up.  The bar of conduct for law enforcement is obviously too high.   "And I have to tell you, you know, the laws are so horrendously stacked against us, because for years and years they've been made to protect the criminal.  Totally made to protect the criminal, not the officers.  If you do something wrong, you're in more jeopardy than they are.  These laws are stacked against you.  We're changing those laws.  But in the meantime, we need judges for the simplest thing -- things that you should be able to do without a judge.  But we have to have those judges quickly.  In the meantime, we're trying to change the laws."  I hope you understand that laws are not "stacked" against anyone.  Criminal or victim, each are subject to a thing called the Equal Protection Clause.  You may not be familiar with this.  It is a part of section 1 of the 14th amendment of the U.S. constitution. Just as a reminder here's what it says:  All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. What kind of changes to law are you advocating?  Perhaps you feel Section 1983 within Title 43 of the USC is an unreasonable impediment to effective policing.  This law was originally passed as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which was intended to curb oppressive conduct by government and private individuals participating in vigilante groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.  Section 1983 makes it unlawful for anyone acting under the authority of state law to deprive another person of his or her rights under the Constitution or federal law.  Do you think false arrest, malicious prosecution, and use of excessive force are inconsequential or possibly do not actually occur?  These are the most common claims brought against police officers.

"Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"  Donald J. Trump
"They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen," Donald J. Trump
Fire and fury like the world has never seen?  What can you possibly be contemplating?  Here are a few examples of the fire and fury with which the world is already familiar.  There was the use of poison gas in WWI.  I assume you have at least a passing familiarity of the "final solution" proffered by Germany in WWII.  You may want to ask some of "your" Generals about the historicity of the fire bombing of Dresden in WWII.  For our part, we are the only nation to have actually utilized nuclear weapons.  They were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  Possibly you are of a more classic bent.  Are you considering razing cities or even the entire nation of N. Korea?  Keep in mind, razing a city is not just burning it to the ground - the entire population is massacred and/or driven into the wilderness.  The world has seen a lot of fire and fury.  However, to be honest, I think you were just engaging in hyperbole.  I don't think you are actually capable of imagining such an event, much less providing the leadership it would require to enact it.

"Excuse me, they didn't put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides."  Donald J. Trump
Wow, I think wearing swastika armbands, carrying swastika flags, and giving Nazi salutes kinda renders how they filled out the permit a bit irrelevant.  Here's the deal, Donnie.  ALL Nazi's are bad.  There are no good Nazi's.  The KKK, resplendent in their robes and hoods is not a stronghold of "very fine people" either.  The group believes that America should be a nation that is free from drugs, homosexuality and immigration.  Claiming to have extreme pride in their nation, they say that they are building a better society for everyone.  According to Frank Ancona, a former self-described Imperial Wizard the KKK’s mission was to “preserve white culture and heritage” .  Why this would require out nation to be free from homosexuality and immigration eludes me.

Whaduyathink?

Back from a Break

Came back from Florida today.  Here's what's going on.

According to President Trump, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides."

This was a comment he made during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.  Not really anything one may disagree with there.  Hatred, bigotry, and violence on ANY side should be condemned.  However, let's just try to identify the "many sides" engaged in these activities to which POTUS is referring..

1 person was killed after being struck by a car driven into a crown of protesters who opposed the views of the KKK, neo-nazis, skinheads and white supremacists.  The car was driven by James Alex Fields.  James is from Ohio.  He killed a 32 year old woman who was crossing the street.  19 others were injured, 5 of them critically.  “James Alex Fields Jr.... is charged with one count of 2nd degree murder, 3 counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop at an accident resulting in a death,” Col. Martin Kumer, the superintendent of Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, 

James was attending an event right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had planned what he called a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park.  I am not particularly familiar with Jason Kessler, but if he considers being white in the U.S. to be a condition which requires the advocacy of a rally, he obviously has a very loose grip on reality.

It is 152 years since the Civil War ended.  This period does need to be remembered in its historical context.  A bunch of rich white guys wanted to preserve and protect there investment.  Their primary labor force (slaves) was at risk.  Fearing the imminent loss of this asset they proclaimed themselves to be above the law and seceded, thereby threatening the existence of the union.  Those who proclaimed their allegiance to the Confederate States of America became rebels and were engaged in treasonous behavior.  The worst of these offenders were Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy and Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army of North Virginia.

So James showed up at an event to protest the removal of a statue celebrating the life and actions of one of the worst Americans in history.  As an aside, please do not feel compelled to inform me the rebels who died and the leaders who survived are recognized as U.S. veterans and citizens.  I am well aware of this.  They are so only by the generous auspices of the United States of America government.  That very same government which they sought to sunder.

Apparently James felt so strongly about supporting the memory of an American traitor it seemed reasonable to him to kill someone with a motor vehicle.  He was from Ohio, a state which overwhelmingly supported Trump in the Presidential election.   It would seem James and POTUS share at least 1 attribute.  James was participating in a right wing nationalist activity and, according to Steve Bannon,  “Trump is a product of a seething populism and nationalism that is the driving political force.”

However, to be fair, how many people did the counter-protestors kill or send to the hospital?  That would be 0.  For me, this makes it rather difficult to identify the "many Sides" that need to be condemned.

The side that concerns me is the people who feel it is necessary to arm themselves to be protected from the sign wielding opposition.  The side that kills people with cars.  The side that call Jews "kikes".  I am more concerned that the U.S. has a President who lacks either the courage or moral compass to call out these actual Nazis, racists, and terrorists.  It seems they constitute too significant a portion of his base to risk providing such leadership.

I am not surprised this is the action of a gutless, draft dodging, foul mouthed, entitled, dishonest, bully.

Whaduyathink?

Compelled to lie

To whom do we lie?  We lie to out enemies because they're our enemies.  We lie to our allies because we desire to protect our own interest first.  We lie to strangers because we want to seem more than we are.

Many lies are inconsequential.  You look great in that.  I'd be thrilled to.  Please, you go first.  No harm, no foul.

Then there are lies that that cause damage.  Wells Fargo creating insurance policies for uninformed customers and damaging credit and repossessing vehicles due to that act.  ExxonMobil denying climate change while their CEO, Rex Tillerson, uses a pseudonym to exchange emails concerning dealing with climate change. 

There are also lies which seem to have no purpose other than self-aggrandizement.  The result of any category of lies is a loss of trust.  This may not mean a lot amongst those with a limited relationship or common interests.  However, as the magnitude of influence, authority, and power increases so do the consequences of lying and the resulting lack of trust.

When the liar is the President of the United States I find that to be a basis for concern.  I am not talking about spin or policies I perceive to be contrary to the interest of the U.S. and the world.  He tells lies that seem to have no other purpose than to be identified as such.  I acknowledge I will be lied to and it's not even that disturbing, generally.  The thing that chaps my hide is to be told a lie that requires I be an idiot to believe. 

Here's a few for you to peruse.  On Monday, just 2 days ago,  President Trump said Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had called him to praise his migration policy.  The foreign ministry of Mexico, however, denied the claim of a phone call.  President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that after his controversial speech at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in West Virginia, the head of the Boy Scouts called him and told him it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them.  The Chief Scout Executive of the BSA actually said  "I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,".   “We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world.” (We're not, we're about 19th on individuals). 

These are lies because they are willfully spoken untruths.  Their only purpose is to mislead you and promote him.  Evidently, the President of the United States thinks you are stupid AND that his position is actually that of a television host whose purpose is to garner ratings.

We are a nation at risk (Russia, N. Korea, ISIS) and the current President is incapable of being honest.  Our enemies will exploit this character trait and our allies will be unable to counter it.

Even if lying as President is not a high crime nor misdemeanor, which could be addressed by impeachment, it can and should be subject to the 25th amendment, section 4,  Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

You may ask why would I be so upset over 3 little lies?  I have 115 examples of this compulsion and rebuttals to his statements since his inauguration.   These are not random acts of misspeaking.  He lied about the freakin' Boy Scouts of America. 

Whaduyathink?