John

Although we are three hours behind Washington D.C., we were already in the field harvesting that morning.  Allison came a bit late and told us of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  The towers had not yet fallen and people were jumping to escape the flames.  Later that day I asked an older man in our community if he could remember Pearl Harbor, “Yes, that is exactly how it feels, it feel just like that”!

I thank Amy Klobachar for the following statement.

As we mark the 18th anniversary of 9/11 today, we remember the 2,977 innocent Americans who died. I will never forget the horror and heartbreak of that day, but I will also never forget the resilience of this country as we recommitted ourselves to the values and freedoms that the terrorists sought — and failed — to dismantle. Americans are strong, and together we can overcome any challenge.

Today is a day to honor the memory of those we lost and to recognize the incredible bravery of our first responders. Let us pay tribute to them by remaining strong, proud and dedicated to the values we share as Americans.

The Supreme Court says the Trump Administration can force refugees from Central America to remain in Mexico while waiting for their claims of amnesty to be processed.  I’ve previously suggested these claims can be made at U.S. Embassies and Consulates but people do not leave their homelands, friends and family without a reason.  They do so in desperation.  While we need a secure boarder, one of my first actions to stem the flow of refugees, would be to work with the leaders of the various Central American nations to improve conditions in those countries.

I would never have selected John Bolton as National Security Advisor in the first place but hope his departure will lessen chances of war with Iran.  I felt we were trying to bait Iran into war with extreme sanctions and those sanctions continue.

This week President Trump said Israel would show “great weakness” if it allowed U.S. Representatives Omar and Tlaib to visit.  The only weakness is the bully in the White House who cannot stop attaching these young congresswomen.  Representative Tlaib, among other things, wanted to visit her grandmother in Israel.  Israel also did itself no good by refusing entry ….. like they can’t stand a little criticism even if the congresswomen did mouth off.  Might have been a chance for them to learn more about Israel.

Meanwhile our President wants to buy Greenland, cut foreign aide except for his daughter’s pet projects, claim an award that does not exist, enforce a gag rule on women’s health clinics and institute more cruel and repressive immigration policies.  Just Crazy.

Gilroy, El Paso, Dayton, I try to remember each and every one yet there have been so many.  Thank you Mr. Biden for your advice to families of the victims on how to carry on after these tragedies.  It says much about the man that you are.

In each case, an assault rifle was the weapon of choice.  Republicans, Mitch McConnell in particular continue to block additional gun laws in the Senate.  Yes, universal background checks would seem to have made no difference in these attacks.  However, increased background related to purchase of an assault rifle (why not call it extreme vetting?) might well have revealed the troubled and extreme views of these individuals.

Our president, in another example of bargaining with people’s lives, wants to link gun legislation to immigration.  For God’s sake Mr. President, people are being slaughtered in the streets, Dayton the 250th mass shooting.  Where is your brain?  Words matter Mr. President, your hateful rhetoric sets off some of these nut cases.  And it is not everybody else’s fault, it is on your watch that this is happening now.  The El Paso shooter wrote a manifesto using your language Mr. President and is said to show no remorse.  And it is domestic terrorism Mr. President, isn’t that a real emergency?

I certainly support universal background checks as do most Americans and elevated background for purchase of assault rifles or assault ammunition.  I support Red Flag laws and support prohibition of extended magazines, bump stocks and other accessories that make these rifles more lethal.  Our veterans know how lethal these weapons are, it is not video games.  Any gun can kill but assault weapons are designed as killing machines and Americans must understand the rate of fire, velocity and the tumbling, ripping impact of assault ammunition.

There is no way the government can keep track of all the crazies and unbalanced individuals can radicalize quickly. If you see something, or hear something, tell the police. SAY SOMETHING!

I don’t need to build a monument to myself.  I will use a mix of strategies to secure the southern boarder including barriers in some areas.  There are no large amount of drugs coming across the open desert, guys packing individual 40 kilo packages.  It does not happen that way.  Drugs are shipped by the ton in trucks and boats as seen in recent busts by the Coast Guard.  There is/was no emergency because congress did not do what Trump wanted.  I don’t need a monument and I don’t need a symbol of hatred toward people different from myself.  We hold these truths …..

In follow up, it seems that most of the money taken from the Pentagon budget will be used to replace existing barriers which are outdated.  This is something the congress might have funded if the replacement use had been clear.  Any barrier still needs to be patrolled and guarded.

I do not agree with the Supreme Court decision on this because it is based on a phony emergency.  Real emergencies are imminent threats to human life.  Should a president be allowed to use emergency powers, without that imminent threat, just making it up.

I don’t do anger well.  And I suppose I’ve become sort of numb to the almost daily racist and hateful statements from our President.  So I find myself repeating, over and over the most important words in our Declaration of Independence, ” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  This is leadership and the foundation of our nation.

Vice President Pence is fond of comparing President Trump to Ronald Reagan.  Hogwash.  I cannot remember Reagan saying a mean or hateful thing about anyone.  I do remember a couple things he said.  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  and about immigrants to our southern boarder, “these are good people” even as we need a secure boarder.

The congress is preparing a resolution of censure for President Trump’s most recent racist mouth off.  Rightly so.

I wonder that the Supreme Court gets so tangled in legalisms that they forget about the rights of the individual, the equality broadly conceived in our Constitution.  That wealth can be used to amplify some voices above all the others ….. where did that come from?  And yesterday, that it is not the role of the courts to stop gerrymandering ….. drawing the maps so that so that some individuals are underrepresented.  Even Justice Roberts acknowledges this practice is destructive to our democracy but can’t find a way to uphold the equality of individual people in the face of runaway partisanship?  That is certainly not my reading of the Constitution.

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans refuse to pass bipartisan legislation to prevent foreign interference in the 2020 election.  These bills include requiring social media to post who pays for political advertising and requiring any political candidate to report to the FBI any offers of assistance from Russia or other foreign governments.  In 2016 the Trump campaign received numerous offers of assistance from Russia but did not report them.

Trump continues to deny the conclusions of the Mueller report that the Russians tried to interfere systematically in the 2016 election, rather only that there was no evidence of conspiracy by the Trump campaign and that a sitting president could not be charged with obstruction but was not exonerated.

I think the Trump administration is trying to pick a fight with Iran.  Not that Iran is blameless but the economic sanctions imposed on them are crushing for ordinary Iranians.  I’m not surprised that some faction like the Republican Guard might do something crazy like sabotage to oil tankers ….. or maybe it was a Saudi trick, trying to get us to attack Iran.  Maybe a war with a muslim country would play well with Trump’s base?

And President Trump opened his 2020 campaign yesterday saying that ICE would begin next week deporting millions of illegal immigrants from this country.  Really ….. deport millions of people?  There has been too much cruelty already.  We need a secure border, Yes.  We do not need to rip out people who have been here many years, families, businesses and important parts of communities all across this country.

This is the guy that thinks Kim Jong Un is a friend.  Who ignores the killing and dismemberment of an independent journalist probably ordered by the Saudi Prince and sees “two sides” when one of them is the Klu Klux Klan!

The President of the United States needs to be a moral leader for our country and the world.  He need to be a champion of human rights, the vision of our founding fathers and our Constitution.

End the cruelty, end the cruelty, end the cruelty!

Another mass shooting, this time in Virginia Beach.  Details not yet clear but my thoughts are with the families of the victims and the survivors, always.  The shooter came armed with multiple extended magazines intending to kill as many people as he could.  What insanity grips our nation that these mass murders keep happening ….. copy cat killings, the twisted notoriety of being the center of the news, the madness of entitlement.  Beyond gun safety, there are issues of mental stability and early detection and intervention ….. and national leadership.

Bi-partisan opposition to our President’s decision to use increasing tariffs on Mexico as a means to force action to prevent immigrants, refugees really, from arriving at our southern Boarder.  Ultimately it is American consumers who pay for those tariffs in increased costs of food and consumer goods.  In a previous post I outlined my approach to the refugee problem, immediately increase the numbers of Boarder patrol agents and the numbers of immigration judges while working with Mexico and Central American neighbors to improve conditions in the origin countries.  Learn from experience, far fewer Mexican nationals now trying to come to the United States because economic conditions in Mexico have improved.  Can’t say now how this tariff thing will shake out, it should be abandoned, but Mexico may retaliate in the same way that China has recently done.  Stop buying Soy Beans or Corn from the United States.  So the farmers take the brunt of it again while average Americans pay more.

In the last couple weeks the 150 year celebration of the transcontinental railroad.  Thousands of people turned out in every town, at every grade crossing and view point to watch a famous restored steam engine travel from Wyoming to Promontory, Utah for the event.  Lincoln told the builders of the Union Pacific railroad to “bind the nation together with bands of steel”.  We so need that vision today.

Yesterday President Trump threatened to close the southern Boarder and has tried to leverage Congress to change our immigration laws.  Be clear that these laws have been on the books since 1951, the Immigration and Nationality Act which recognizes claims of Asylum.  Many administrations and both political parties made and carried out these laws.

What is new is the large number of refugees from Central America, specifically Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.  While large numbers of Mexican men came to the United States, some invited, in the past, we have not previously seen a refugee migration from Central America.

We are also seeing a seasonal surge in arrivals, which surely could have been foreseen, when it is possible to travel on foot through the desert.  Understanding life in the desert is part of understanding what is happening at the Boarder.

This is not a National Emergency, it is an issue that multiple administrations and Congress have addressed over many years.  The numbers are not as great as sometimes in past, but they are large numbers.

Most certainly I would have planned ahead for this situation and could have done so within existing law.  Doing what we can to improve economic conditions and public safety in these countries is a necessary step.  Cutting off the small amount of aid currently provided does not help and makes the problem worse.  Review the aid package to see it is being used correctly and see what more can be done.

At the Boarder, immediately increase the number of immigration judges to handle asylum cases.

Recognize that the people currently arriving from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are refugees from intolerable conditions in their home countries. This is not an “invasion”.  These people are desperate and mostly turning themselves in to immigration authorities on arrival but some also do not have a valid reason which is why we have immigration courts.

Allow and encourage refugees to apply for asylum at U.S. Embassies and Consulates in their home countries or in Mexico.

Not all immigrants need to be detained.  Particularly family units can be released on their own recognizance because their strong desire to make a successful asylum claim motivates showing up for a court date.

We recognize the historic humanitarian right to seek refuge from persecution.  I support a family based priority for legal immigration and recognize it has been the hard work of disadvantaged groups of immigrants who have made our country great.  I recognize the right of every person to due process.

Most certainly I could have foreseen and planned ahead for the current situation at our southern Boarder.  I would not cause great economic harm and disrupt the lives of U.S. citizens, nor Mexico, by closing the Boarder.

As I have written on this site in past, we need a secure Boarder, but cruelty is not the answer.  Leadership begins with understanding and compassion.

“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities” I still have questions and will come back to the issue of collusion.

There was good reason for this investigation and not just the dossier but other intelligence sources as well as President Trump himself fanning the flames with near constant denial and attacks on anyone who questioned him.

Without seeing the report, I think Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein probably made the right decision regarding obstruction of justice. There are plenty of cases throughout our court systems where a crime may have been committed but the evidence is insufficient, mixed or simply not strong enough to result in a conviction “beyond reasonable doubt”.  One prominent example is Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server for some State Department business involving classified information. Mr. Mueller could have decided to leave the obstruction decision to others because much of President Trump’s inflammatory criticism was directed at the Special Counsel and the investigation itself. Senator Grassley recommended that the President say as little as possible about the investigation but that is not what happened.

Coming back to the question of collusion, the Trump campaign did not have to conspire or coordinate with the Russians, who were already interfering in the election to Mr. Trump’s benefit. An agreement or coordination was not necessary and would have been dumb. Just some “make nice” with Putin and a stated intent to drop sanctions would do ….. or maybe a wink and a nod and the lure of a penthouse appartment. From years of experience, Hillary Clinton had Putin’s number and was not fooled. The Russians clearly preferred Mr. Trump and used their election interference to his benefit. I would like to know how many offers of Russian assistance were made to the Trump organization, to whom, and were those offers reported to the FBI?

I don’t get President Trump’s affinity for Putin. I especially don’t get his disregard of our intelligence services and private meetings with Putin even to the extent of confiscating the interpreter’s notes. It smells really bad to me.

My hero this week is New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern in her strong and compassionate response to the hate motivated mass murders of Muslim worshipers in her country. As President I hope I would do as well. The qualities that define a true leader are thoughtfulness, compassion, honesty and toughness when necessary.

The most important thing that our President and chief executive can do is to make our representative system of government work as well as it can.

I see no need to tear down the Affordable Care Act. As president I would be happy to work with a bi-partisan congressional committees to make it better.