We are quickly losing this war.

I’m not too sure that we really know when it started.  Some say it is recent and started last summer.   Others say that it has been in the mind and heart of one man for decades and it really got started on December 31, 1999 when Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин took the reigns of government from Boris Yeltsin.  Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин is the Russian name of Vladimir Putin.

Regardless of the initial date of the beginning of this war, it has now surfaced on the collective psyche and has been recognized by most people on the left and the right that we are and have been at “war” with Vladimir Putin and his powerful team of Russian hackers and media manipulators for some time now.  AND WE ARE LOSING.

It is well established and well documented through his actions invading Georgia in 2008,  his fight with Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine to keep them from even thinking about joining the European Union or NATO and his takeover of the Sudentenland, I mean Crimea, that Putin’s greatest desire is to restore the pride and glory and power of the Russian state to the good old bad days of the Soviet Empire with Putin as Czar for life.  Yes, it seems like mixed up metaphors: Communism and a Czar but it is a perfect analogy for the way his mind works.   Ultimate power:  the Czar.   Ultimate strength and control:  Communism.  Ultimate goal:  Putin President for life of the strongest world power.

So, what is standing in his way?  Just one thing:  The United States of America.  No other country, no other power (he doesn’t believe in God) and no other force on the entire planet except the good old United States stands between Putin and his life’s goal.

But how do you defeat the world’s most powerful country?   Militarily would destroy a great part of the wealth of both countries and he could lose.  Terrorism might just backfire and the country could become stronger.  But somewhere, at sometime, someone came up with the solution:  “let the Americans destroy themselves from within…with just a little help from Russia.”

During World War II we called that kind of strategy to be Fifth Column Activity or Espionage.  Often it was performed by our own citizens working with a foreign government.   But that kind of covert strategy was dated and Putin or Putin’s strategist (similar to our Steven Bannon) came up with a new twist.  Fuel the divide, create a real civil war from within, make brother hate brother based on their political views, add more petro to the already building fire that it will not just burn in the hearts of the people but burn down the very halls of American Democracy.

So, at some point it started.  And it got more sophisticated and then the election came and I believe that Putin recognized one thing:  “anybody but Hillary.”   She would be his match and she could be a real bitch.  So, misinformation, fake news and a constant refrain from what most on the right believed to be creditable right-wing news sources kept yelling the name of “BENGHAZI” over and over and over.   Even after numerous Republican house and senate committee’s could find no “smoking gun” the refrain of “BENGHAZI” was still being kept before the American people.

Putin didn’t pick Trump.  The American people picked Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate for President.  But in Trump, Vladimir Putin found his most perfect gift any Czar of Russia could ever have hoped for.  A novice in foreign affairs who could be flattered into ‘liking’ you.  He returned to his Leningrad days at Primary School Number 193 and remembered that to get the bully to like you, you could flatter them into thinking you were a follower and admirer of them.   It had been easy as a child and it would be even easier with Trump.

I personally believe that there is much more to the Trump/Putin connection.   I’ve written about it in previous posts and it is based on a little bit of hard fact, some coincidences and a great deal of conspiracy theory.   But I am not including any of that here.   It isn’t germane to our real theme, but you are welcome to refer to my ramblings with the link below:

TRUMP OFFERED 19% OF RUSSIAN OIL TO LIFT SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA. SOUND FAIR?

Now, I have not written a column since sometime in February.   I have been silent for a couple of reason:  number one I am and have been ill and weak, number two I have been  thinking about writing this very column for over a month and wanted to wait for the perfect and most obvious time.   Well, this is the week.  (I almost said, “this is the weak.” and I wouldn’t have been wrong…we, as a nation, as a democracy, as a people are weak because of the success of the attacks by Putin and his people.)

If you will, please, scroll to the top of the this column and take a good look at the image of the young lady looking at her reflection in the funhouse mirror.   I am a liberal Democrat but I am going to attempt to shed that skin and just be an American.   The young lady is the Republican voter, the Democratic voter, the Independent voter, the US. Senator from Arizona, the President of the United States, Chuck Schumer from New York; the young lady is each of us looking in the mirror that has warped the reality of our world view and  the truth through the influence of Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин.  I used Putin’s Russian name because I want to emphasize that this is FOREIGN to our values as Americans.

So, what is so important about this week?

• #1 The Democrats are threatening to filibuster a Supreme Court Nominee – this has NEVER been done in the entire history of Democracy  (again, I’m not a liberal Democrat, I am looking at this as just an American)
• #2 Mitch McConnell is threatening to use the nuclear option and change the Senate rules that were established by our Founding Fathers to allow for a simple one vote majority to confirm a Supreme Court Nominee.
• #3 Syrian children, women and men were gased in an attack
• #4 North Korea and 33 year old Glorious Leader Kim Jong-un are becoming stronger, bolder, more convinced of the American threat and more unstable.
• #5 The Mar-a-lago Club Summit with President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China can alter the balance of world power and ability to deal with North Korea.

It is my firm belief that part of the reason that the first two political events are taking place is because of the disfigured shape from that funhouse mirror that both parties are taking as reality but which has been manufactured and disseminated by tweets, Facebook and fake news all prepared by Putin and his people.  (please, note that I don’t say Russia…it is Putin and not the Russian people who are creating this war.)  We are playing into the hands of Putin when we start to destroy our own history of cooperation, working between party lines and bipartisan negotiation.

I think it is most appropriate to use the symbolism of the “nuclear option” to describe what McConnell is planning to do in the Senate.   It will destroy ANY HOPE of working for the United States and it will go a very long way in fulfilling Putin’s ambitions.

It is so very sad to realize that the first nuclear strike to hit America is coming not from a foreign power but from within our very own American Senate.

My friend, Senator John McCain, called such action “STUPID.”    McCain has been acting, of late, more like an American and less like a political puppet.   There needs to be many more of them.

Syria has the terrible mix of innocent civilian, Russian military, Turkish military, Iranian military, and Bashar al-Assad and his weakened almost non-existent military.  And Rex Tillerson and President Trump must do something other than blame the former President for what he did or should have done five years earlier.

North Korea was at the top of former President Obama’s message to incoming President Trump when he left that traditional note in the top drawer of the Resolute Desk.   But then novice incoming President accepted a call from Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, an insult to China’s President Xi Jinping and an action in direct defiance of our ‘One China’ policy.  President Trump’s Tweets have gone a long way in creating a dangerous rift with one of our largest trading partners:

This is a complex and dangerous week.   And one made even more dangerous because we are not looking at a TRUE picture of the TRUTH when we look in the mirror.  We see an American world that is at war with itself.  We see virtue in destruction of our fundamental principles of democracy.  Principles established by our Founding Fathers and unchanged for over 200 years.   How will Putin’s flattery influence this new President in his decision to react to Syria?  How will the incendiary Tweets influence Xi Jinping to help with North Korea?

We need to realize that we are losing this war.  Putin is winning and winning much faster than he could ever have imagined.  His game is for the long term.  Decades or centuries down the road.   With America weak and NATO gone, there will be nothing to stop Russia and Putin from absolute power.

We need to smash those mirrors.  We need to see Republicans and Democats as friends not enemies.  We need to state our principles, stand for them, but be willing to negotiate with the different view from our own to get the best solution for the American people.   We need to stop demonizing the opposition.   The real opposition is Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин and he is a foreigner who is out to destroy America.  The Republican don’t want to destroy America.   The Democrats don’t want to destroy America.  It is time to lay down our nuclear options and filibusters and cooperate, negotiate and create.

It is time to return to being first an American.

And that is my view from The Hill

I am an Enemy of The American People.

For forty years I have spent my life teaching and encouraging the young people of America to grow up to be Enemies of The American People.   I attempted to instill in them a reverence for accuracy.  I can recall over 45 years ago when my first publication was printed and delivered and one of the editors came to me upset because she had found an error in our reporting.   It was a spelling error and she was in tears.   Accuracy and truth mattered to me and to my young students.

Even in a high school or college environment, when a story was big; when it contained explosive or controversial information, my student editors knew enough to not just get one source, or two sources, but we had to have three different, unrelated, and reliable sources before we would print our publication.  And one particularly important story that resulted in the dismissal of a faculty member we insisted on five different sources and one member of the faculty.  Yet, the President of The United States calls me and my thousands of students Enemies of The American People.

Before my young charges could begin to write their first sentence, we studied the history of the freedom of the press in America.  We studied about patriotic truth-sayers such as John Peter Zenger who in 1734 was brought to trial by the Governor of New York charging him with Criminal Libel after the publication of satirical attacks. The jury acquitted Zenger, who became the iconic American hero for freedom of the press.  We studied about the brave men and women who first fought the British Government and then the newly formed American Government to assure that every person had the freedom to express their opinions and to share the news of the day with their fellow citizens.  But President Trump calls us Enemies of the American People!

Of course, not everyone has taken journalism in high school or in college.  So, allow me to share with you the piece of paper that every journalist keeps somewhere on their desk and is surely hung up in multiple places in every news room of America; including @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, and @CNN.  And even at FOX:

So, this is the document that guides THE ENEMIES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

I know I have said this countless time; but history does repeat itself and sometimes it doesn’t exactly repeat but it rhymes:

“There is nothing to see with Russia!”                         “I am not a crook!”

I stand here today, PROUD to be An Enemy of The American People and a Journalist

And That’s My View From The Hill

What does one do with trash?

And that’s my View from The Hill…the day after Betsy Devoss became Secretary of Eduction and Elizabeth Warren was silenced on The Senate floor.

Remember that “leaked” dossier from a former British spy, Christopher Steele, that claimed that Donald J. Trump enjoyed his ‘Russian Golden Showers?’   Well, there seems to have been a lot more in that dossier than just that one gross image that many Americans are trying very hard to get out of their heads.

Well, there was a little more information that was eclipsed by ‘The Golden Showers.’  But it was information that should have been the story and may just now be leaking out as a much larger problem for the people of The United States than just how their new President may or may not get his ‘wet’ kicks.

And it is a little complicated, but much more important than a shower:

This summer The Russian state oil company, Rosneft, offered former Trump ally, Carter Page and his associates, a 19% stake in the oil company in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Russia by the United States government should Trump become President of the United States.

Now, pay real close to this:

That was 19% and it was offered in the summer of 2016.

The dossier from Steele, said that the offer was made in July of 2016, when Page was giving a speech in Moscow at the Higher Economic School.    It further claims that Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, was adamant about making sure that the personal and the corporate sanctions by the western countries be lifted and that he was very willing to provide the 19% stake in his company.

The dossier said, “In return, Page had expressed interest and confirmed that were Trump elected U.S. president, then sanction on Russia would be lifted.”

Page has called the sanctions against the Russian company, “sanctimonious expressions of moral superiority.”  Page was considered “a brazen apologist for anything Moscow did” by an official of the United States who served in Russia.

There is also evidence that Page met with senior Kremlin internal affairs official, Igor Diveykin while he was in Russia.   Diveykin hinted that the Kremlin ‘possessed compromising information about Trump.’

By October, 2016, it was obvious to Sechin that Trump would not be able to pull off a win for the White House.   So, Rosnfet pressed to find a foreign investor.

Then November 8th happened.  Trump won the Presidency.

Now, pay real close attention to this:

December 7, 2016 (one month after the election)

19.5% of Rosneft was sold to an unknown buyer.

That amounts to approximately an $11 billion sale.   But the real important item to notice is the added on .5%  which seems very close to a ‘brokerage fee.‘

This purchase was the largest since the sanctions from the Obama White House took effect in 2014.   Reuters reported, “The ’11th hour deal was ‘so last minute,’ that it appeared it would not close in time to meet the government’s deadline for booking money in the budget from the sale.”

The sale took place on December 7.   Carter Page, the Trump ally, was back in Moscow on December 8.  He was there ‘to meet with some of the top managers’ of Rosneft.

In an article from Reuters United States edition on Commodities, Wednesday, January 25, 2017, “More than a month after Russia announced one of its biggest privatizations since the 1990’s, selling a 19.5% stake in its giant oil company Rosneft, it still isn’t possible to determine from public records the full identities of those who bought it.”

Some of those public records reveal some very troubling information.   For one it was disclosed that the stake in the oil company was a 50/50 split with one of the owners being the Swiss oil trading company, Clencore, and Qatar.   However, the records show that of the $11 Billion, Gencore’s contribution was only $324 million, less than 3% of the purchase price.  Qatar added $2.5 billion or approximately a fourth of the purchase price.

And as just about anyone could have predicted, public records show that the ownership structure of Rosneft oil company ultimately includes a Cayman Islands’ company whose owners cannot be traced.  

Using shell companies owning other  shell companies in the structure of the Rosneft privatization is what in Russia they call a “Matryoshka”  It would certainly be interesting to keep opening each one of this Matryoshka dolls and reveal the next doll and the next and the next until you finally come out to the person who benefits the most from this oddly timed sale.

And that’s My View from The Hill

I’m not sure how often you will hear this quote in the next four years but I will bet it will be multiple times a week.

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

It has been said in one form or another for centuries.   And the reason I can’t cite the source is because so many wise men and women have said the exact same sentiment for literally thousands of years that it can’t be credited to it’s earliest source.  Most likely a caveman or cavewoman or a cave-grandfather uttered it first.

I think the same thing can be said about literature.  It is often prophetic.  And those who don’t learn; don’t read.  Those who don’t learn from literature aren’t paying attention to what they are reading.   One quote from George Orwell just became reality on Saturday, one day…that is ONE DAY into the Trump Presidency:

TRUTH It’s the new hate speech

And since we are on the subject of literature, allow me to introduce you to one of my heroes of American linguistics, literature, thought, and journalism: H.L. Mencken.  Mencken was an American journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English.  Known as the “Sage of Baltimore”, he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century.  (from Wikipedia)  He died in 1959.  So, the following quote is chilling in it’s prophecy:

Okay, he did get it wrong that it would be a moron.  Donald J. Trump is no moron, but all the rest, well, you be the judge.

Sorry, that was just a side comment and cartoon that I had to interject, I hope you don’t mind.

Back to Truth is the new hate speech.

TRUTH

When Donald J. Trump ran for President, he realized that every time he became a SUPER HERO to the voting people was when he had a SUPER VILLAIN.

TRUMP SUPER VILLIANS

Now, as President with having vanquished all of his opponents, Donald J. Trump, The President of The United States of America, the most power man of the entire FREE WORLD must find a new SUPER VILLAIN. For you can’t be a SUPER HERO without a SUPER VILLIAN.

Enter The Press. The News. Your newspaper. Your television news station. Your news feed on your iPhone. NPR.

Here is the new NEWSPEAK:

ALTERNATIVE FACTS!???!!!

Here are a couple of “alternative facts” you might be hearing from The White House in the next couple of years:

“There is no such thing as human being’s affecting Global Warming. There is no warming and if there were it would be God’s plan.”

“Public School don’t teach your children anything. They learn nothing in public schools. You must send your children to for-profit Christian Schools in order for them to learn.”

“NATO is bad; Russia is Good.”

“Those people are queers and they aren’t REAL AMERICANS. They are sick. There are ways to cure them of their ‘queerness’ through Mandatory Therapy Camps.  We will cure them.”

“In order to totally eradicate those terrible “Islamic Terrorists” we must totally eliminate Islam from the face of the Earth.”

“Mexican-Americans are not citizens. Send those Mexicans back to Mexico, NOW!”

“So, you lost your health care. Tough for you. So, go work on Wall Street and get a better job and then you can afford health care. Take care of your family, you loser!”

“Making the richest Americans richer just helps the lower and middle class have a hope for the future when they can make enough to join the other billionaires who control ALL of AMERICA…including your schools.”

“We will teach all Americans in our classrooms to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.”

And That’s my View of The Truth from The Hill

I’m dying.

I have diabetes and my body has been slowly shutting down for several years now.  It started decades ago when I could no longer feel me toes: a very weird feeling.  Now, I have no feeling at all in my toes, my feet or my legs other than pain.

I take lots of medicine.  LOTS OF MEDICINE.  Now, I can no longer walk and have a wheelchair that has a motor.  Fortunately, for me, my wife still goes to work every single day as a teacher.  We have excellent health insurance through the Fairfax Independent School District in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C.

But she worries every day about what is going to happen to me when she leaves her job as a teacher.  She has taught for over 40 years.  It is time for a rest for her.  But with the new administration in Washington and the cavalier manner that Republicans have about slashing health care, medicare, social security and what THEY call entitlements, (entitlements that we both paid into for over 40 years) we are both frightened for her to quite.   To put it frankly, the future is not as crystal clear as it once was.  And what we had PLANNED for years, could easily be taken away by a bunch of Republicans who only care about being reelected rather than care about the welfare of the people who allowed them their precious seat in congress or the senate.

• Legislatures make from $174,000 to $223,500  plus free health care, free postage, free foreign travel on military aircraft and $75,000 for expenses around the office.
• Out of the 365 days of the year, they work around 135-150.  So, about three days a week.
• However, after serving their district, they do receive a “retirement” on average of about $65,000 per year.  It is figured on 80% of their last salary.

One way to understand any problem or story is to use one example to understand the whole.  Writers have done this for millennia.  That is why you get interested in the main character and want to follow them through to the end.

So, let’s take one typical character and follow him from his “country first” stance and wanting to work “for you” his constituents.  Let’s pick one of my favorite states, Colorado.  Gosh, I love Colorado.  The mountain air and the beauty and now the pot!  What a place.

Well, a former Marine, Michael “Mike” Coffman (born March 19, 1955) is the U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 6th congressional district he has been serving his constituents since 2009. He is  member of the Republican Party.

Let’s get to know him a little better.  Here is one of his own ads for election:

“Country Comes First”

“My duty is ALWAYS TO YOU.”

“Work hard and serve YOU.”

Gosh, what a guy.   So, this is what happened today:

“What do I do?    What am I supposed to do?”

VOTE HIM OUT

And that is my View From The Hill

Okay, I get it.

You had the absolute best intentions.  Your minister at your local Evangelical Christian Church kept preaching about how God was going to select Trump to do God’s work.  And we should not look or listen to the bad things that he did or said.  God would take this lump of clay and form him into something WONDERFUL.  Don’t THINK; just have FAITH.

WOW!  It is less than a week from the time that the Trump and Pence team take over TOTAL CONTROL of the largest military complex in the entire world and the future of every man, woman and child in America.  And his approval rating is one of the lowest in American history for a man about to become President, Trump is down and dropping.  He was at 45% last week.  And just from the Tweets alone, it looks more like that ‘lump of clay’ may be turning more into a ‘pile of shit.’  Well, both do look a great deal alike.

But I REALLY do understand why you voted for Trump and Pence.  All of your conservative buddies where telling you that they finally had someone who spoke their language and understood their problems.   This GUY was for REAL and he UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEMS OF THE COMMON MAN.  He talked just like we did and he was ONE OF US.  He wasn’t one of those damn ELITES like that LIBTARD, Meryl Streep and her fancy HOLLYWOOD out-of-touch cronies.  Donald J. Trump was a self-made man who believed just like we all do and he was ONE OF US.  He was going to take the failed eight years of Obama and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.   Yes, he was just one of the guys and we should all support our own:

I have a picture almost exactly like that of my family.  Except I have a daughter who never sat on top of a lion, and my wife’s dresses never seemed to have a mind of their own as Melania’s seems to have and my two chandeliers weren’t made out of Waterford Crystal and I didn’t live in a penthouse and have furniture that was trimmed in real gold and I didn’t have columns in my living room, or a great view of anything except a tree I planted once…BUT I DID ONCE OWN A RED TIE.  So, hey this guy is JUST LIKE I AM and that is why you voted for him.

Don’t feel as if you are alone either!   There is a great deal of ‘buyer’s remorse’ out there.  But who were you going to vote for?  Hillary?  I don’t think so!    You really had no other choice, didn’t you.  I get it.  I understand your dilemma!

Well, I once bought a ‘Flowbee’ off the television to cut my own hair.  So, don’t feel bad about your choice.  We all do something stupid.  But I ended up with a haircut that made me look like Moe from the Three Stooges for six weeks.   But did you just put a psychopath in the White House?  You must feel pretty bad.   And those tweets!@?#@!!!  Is the MAN INSANE?   No, we had him tested.  And I don’t think he is insane either.  However, if you take a serious and long-term look at the tweets, outbursts, speeches and actions of the unscripted Donald Trump even a working psychologist will ask is he a psychopath, a sociopath or just an unbelievable narcissist? And now, you and your friends have put him in power and you have endangered us all through your actions.

Now, I am NOT a psychologist (my daughter does have her Ph.D. in Psychology, but not I.)  However, I believe it important to understand who you have put in the White House and what alarms the ‘intelligent elite’ that many of the common man now denigrate.

Let’s start with the most obvious:  Narcissist.  

It is a commonly accepted diagnosis by just about anyone that Donald J. Trump is a narcissist.  So, what is a narcissist and why are they a danger?

The word originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.

People with Narcissistic Personality Disorders have an inflated sense of their own importance, a strong sense of entitlement, a deep need for admiration, yet a lack of empathy for others.  They use verbal abuse for power and control.

But is Narcissism a mental illness.   Does it make our new President CRAZY?  It is classified as a cluster B personality disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 of the American Psychiatric Association (“DSM”) which currently represents the most definitive compilation of mental disorders followed by the mental health profession in this country.

Narcissism  is also characterized by exploitive behavior to achieve personal gain, exaggeration of skills and accomplishments and intolerance of the views of others. Pathological narcissism is also associated with derogation and insults of others and an inability to tolerate disagreements or criticisms.  Well, that certainly does sound familiar doesn’t it.

Okay, so it is pretty much accepted by anyone with half-a-brain, such as us Libtards, that Donald J. Trump is a narcissist.  However, he ain’t crazy at this point.  Just a B personality disorder.   Well, the Presidency was full of them.

How about sociopath or psychopath?   A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience. and a psychopath is a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.

In the January 22, 2014 issue of Psychology Today, Scott A. Bonn Ph.D. in his article, How to Tell a Sociopath from a Psychopath says,

“Key traits that sociopaths and psychopaths share include:

• A disregard for laws and social mores
• A disregard for the rights of others
• A failure to feel remorse or guilt
• A tendency to display violent behavior

In addition to their commonalities, sociopaths and psychopaths also have their own unique behavioral characteristics, as well.

Sociopaths tend to be nervous and easily agitated. They are volatile and prone to emotional outbursts, including fits of rage. They are likely to be uneducated and live on the fringes of society, unable to hold down a steady job or stay in one place for very long. It is difficult but not impossible for sociopaths to form attachments with others. Many sociopaths are able to form an attachment to a particular individual or group, although they have no regard for society in general or its rules. In the eyes of others, sociopaths will appear to be very disturbed. Any crimes committed by a sociopath, including murder, will tend to be haphazard, disorganized and spontaneous rather than planned.

Psychopaths, on the other hand, are unable to form emotional attachments or feel real empathy with others, although they often have disarming or even charming personalities. Psychopaths are very manipulative and can easily gain people’s trust. They learn to mimic emotions, despite their inability to actually feel them, and will appear normal to unsuspecting people. Psychopaths are often well-educated and hold steady jobs. Some are so good at manipulation and mimicry that they have families and other long-term relationships without those around them ever suspecting their true nature.”

Well, just from this little bit of information, I don’t believe anyone should ever call Trump a ‘sociopath.’  But a psychopath?  Well, I’m not a doctor, but I’m losing my patients…with Trump and his manipulation of your trust!

And That is My View from The Hill.

(Dr. Scott Bonn is professor of sociology and criminology at Drew University. He is available for consultation and media commentary. Follow him @DocBonn on Twitter and visit his websiteDocBonn.Com)

A month ago I was getting a constant barrage of “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along” memes and cartoons from the few friends who I have left who voted for and still support Donald Trump.  Now, a week before the Inauguration, not so much.

As a matter of fact I haven’t seen one since 2016.  This was the last one I remember:

Wow!  The Eagle even looks pissed off at me because I’m not ready to board the Trump Wagon, heal and work together to Make America Great Again.  And he’s got that wavy American flag going on behind to add to his majesty and outrage.

Well, the election is over.   Donald J. Trump did win that election in the electoral college.   The electoral college met and agreed on his election and the President of the Senate read the results to both houses of Congress on January 6.    The impossible became the possible on November 6, 2016.

I remember when Richard Nixon won in 1968.  Wow!  That really stung.  I mean with the Vietnam War still being waged and I had a low draft number.  Nixon said he had a ‘secret plan’ to win the war.   There was no secret plan.  He just wanted to be President and lied.  I never thought Nixon would win.  I had been for Robert Kennedy until he was killed in the summer of 1968.  Then it was HHH:  Hubert H. Humphrey.   But Nixon beat Humphrey and he became my President on Monday, January 20, 1969.

I was confident that America would still be America under Nixon.  And I hoped that he would use that ‘secret plan’ and win the war before I got drafted.  He didn’t and I got called up.  But I didn’t blame Nixon.  He just wanted to be President and had lied.  I still thought he was basically a good person, a good husband, a good parent and he wanted the best for all Americans.  And he even went to church.  So, I didn’t have to like him, but I supported him as my President.  I was even proud of him, when he opened up Red China.

Well, we all know how Nixon turned out.  So, if I could accept “Tricky Dicky” as my President, then why in the world can’t I just accept Donald J. Trump as my President.   Hell, I was much more an idealist in 1968!  I still believed in Camelot and the lure of The Kennedy Family.   Now, almost fifty years later and a lot of government corruption and way more knowledge than I had in 1968 why can’t I just accept Donald J. Trump?

I’ll be totally honest with you, I wasn’t 100% for Hillary Clinton.  Not like I was for Robert Kennedy.  I liked the “IDEA” of the first woman president, breaking the glass ceiling, and continuing the legacy of Barack Obama.  But I would have been happy with Bernie or Joe Biden or several others.  So, it wasn’t losing the election.  I’m not a sore loser.  I’m really not.  I’ve lost a lot in my life: jobs, friends, books, money, lots of money, more jobs and more, even better, friends and I’m not sore at losing any of it.  Most of it was my fault.

But I am 100% sure of one thing in 2017.  Donald J. Trump may be the President of the United States, but he will never be MY president.

 It is not a political stand that I take it is a moral stand.

“Donald J. Trump will never be MY President.”           ~Rick Hill 

I was brought up in the Methodist church.   My mother was the church organist and I had to go to church and Sunday school every single Sunday.  My parents were great parents and they taught me along with my time in church that there are things much more important in life than life itself.  One of those things is standing up for what is morally correct.  I NEVER lost that lesson in my life.  It has cost me two different jobs.  It has cost me some friends.  It has cost me some money.  But I have always believed it is better as a human being to stand up for what is right rather than just go along with the crowd or the majority.

I remember watching my mother stand up to a woman in the grocery store who was slapping her child.  I was shocked that my mother would yell at someone and call for help. I was scared but I was proud of her actions.   I remember my dad standing up to a customer at our Oldsmobile dealership who had called our oldest worker a ‘nigger.’   He lost a sale to defend a friend who just happened to be black.  I was proud of my dad.  I learned from their actions much more than just what they said.  They lived a Christian life; they didn’t just go to church.  They lived their morals…despite the consequences.

And so, I come to an area of my own life that I dearly love, my country, America, the beautiful; America, the land of the free; America, the home of the brave; America, the land of opportunity for anyone of any race or religion; America, the great experiment in Democracy for all people; America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea; America: MY HOME.  MY…HOME…MINE!  

I tear up just thinking of my love for this country.  And it is because of that love that I must RESIST.

• I must RESIST intolerance
• I must RESIST misogyny and the denigration of any woman
• I must RESIST the destruction of public education
• I must RESIST replacing public education with Private for profit Christian Schools.
• I must RESIST discrimination against Muslim-Americans
• I must RESIST discrimination against my LGBT friends and family
• I must RESIST the mocking of people with disabilities or who are different than I
• I must RESIST the destruction of our environment and my grandson’s future by our own government
• I must RESIST the attempt of one political party to keep anyone from voting
• I must RESIST the attempt to alienate one part of our country from another by any political party or politician regardless of his or her rank or position
• I must RESIST the temptation to be complacent and accept evil when I can change it through my action and through advocating others to take action
• I must RESIST the inclination to become angry, to become cynical, to become negative about the hope that together we can change this country and its destructive  direction

So, you see, it has NOTHING to do with politics.  It is my moral duty, to my country, to resist that which is just wrong.

 What I do not understand are the millions of moral Americans who faithfully go to the church of their choice and worship the God of their choice, but who have acquiesced to accepting Donald Trump and intolerence, misogyny, discrimination, mocking of people who are different and the hate of those who are just not the same race, religion or ethnicity.  You call yourself religious; yet you have accepted this kind of an America?  It makes no sense to me.

And that is my moral View from The Hill.

If you are or have been a teacher:

STOP AND LISTEN UP

Besty Devos will Destroy Public Education

The most dangerous person to confront the public classroom teacher is Elisabeth “Betsy” DeVos, an American billionaire, businesswoman, philanthropist, and education activist from Michigan. DeVos is known for her advocacy of school choice, voucher programs, and ties to the Reformed Christian community. The closest that DeVos has come to public education was attending Holland Christian High School where their educational mission is to, “Equip minds and nurture hearts to transform the world for Jesus Christ.”

DeVos is convinced that God has placed her great wealth at her feet for the purpose of bringing down the lies of public education and replacing them with God’s truth. Here are a few of those lies:

• Big Bang   ~   (Christian school will teach God created everything in seven days)
• The universe is 14 billion years old.   ~    (It is only six thousand years old)
• Dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago.   ~    (Jesus rode dinosaurs)
• The flood of Noah was not world-wide.    ~   (Was so)
• Life formed on earth over millions of years. The process is called evolution.  ~(Creationism)
• Women didn’t come from an old extra rib of some guy named Adam.   ~    (women are man ribs)
• Math: A tool that is useful because it seems to work in manipulating the natural world   ~    (A reflection of the mind of an orderly God)
• English: Literature must be representative of all cultures, which are seen as having equal value, and has no inherent meaning   ~    (Literature is appreciated as a demonstration of common grace and interpreted in the light of God’s Word)
•  Teachers: Varied backgrounds Christianity or some other religion, humanism, atheism; may be straight or gay    ~   (Born-again, committed believers seeking to model Christ before their students – no gays, atheists or fatties need apply)
• Peers: Varied religious backgrounds, often receiving little moral instruction or values at home or church   ~    (Students from Christian homes who are there because their parents support Christian values – oh, and they have whiter whites and brighter brights)
• Science: Naturalism – everything comes from matter, time, and natural selection (God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things; science involves knowing God through knowing His world)
• History: Controlled either by autonomous man or by an impersonal process (Controlled by an omnipotent God who knows the end from the beginning – so, just sit back and watch God control everything)

The Christian Educators Association International, an organization that sees the nation’s public schools as “the largest single mission field in America,” aims to show Christian teachers how to live their faith — and evangelize in public schools. They don’t seem to care about teaching but about saving souls. I thought we had churches for that and public schools for education’

I AM BEGGING YOU TO WRITE A LETTER, CALL or EMAIL  YOUR DEMOCRATIC OR  REPUBLICAN SENATOR AND DEMAND THAT

BETSY DEVOS NOT BE CONFIRMED BY THE SENATE.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Appointments Clause, empowers the President of the United States to appoint certain public officials with the “advice and consent” of the U.S. Senate. All Cabinet members are nominated by the President and then presented to the Senate for confirmation or rejection by a simple majority (although, before use of the nuclear option during the 113th US Congress, they could have been blocked by filibuster, requiring cloture to be invoked by 3/5 supermajority to further consideration) *cloture is a procedure for ending the debate and taking a vote.

The Senate is poised to vote on her confirmation on Tuesday, January 17.

And that is my impassioned View from The Hill.