Harvest had begun when wildfires broke out here in Lake County, California. While I wait to re-enter the evacuation area, the political fires consuming our Nation are foremost on my mind. As an independent candidate for President, the issues that affect our people where they live, the security and health of our Nation and the working of our democracy are the crop I raise.
I do not see evidence that our current President conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election but I’m surely concrned about the number of associates with Russian contacts. For a Trump Tower meeting supposedly about adoption, there was a lot of horsepower present. The Russians certainly did attempt to influence the 2016 election and continue to do so. The only way I will be convinced there was no collusion, is that the Mueller investigation be allowed to turn every stone. As President I would, of course, maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia and work to resolve differences.
I would not tolerate meddling in our elections and would do everything I could to prevent it.
The cruelty of separating children from their parents is still on my mind. Our government did not even keep track of which children belonged to which parents. Re-uniting these families would weigh heavily on me far before Putin summits or political rallies.
I’m sure that Brett Kavanaugh is a decent man and loving father. Do his views reflect the mainstream of American opinion and a middle ground reading of the Constitution. In academic and legal accomplishments he would seem highly qualified for the Supreme Court. Does his career in Washington bring understanding of how decisions of the Court affect people on main street? The Senate treated Merrick Garland very badly refusing to even give him a hearing. For equally partisan reasons the Senate leadership wants to advance Brett Kavanaugh. That is why I would urge the Senate to return to normal previous rules and require 60 votes for Supreme Court nominees. I would insist any candidate I nominated receive 60 votes to insure that person does understand the mainstream of American values and opinion as well as the Constitution.
Sometimes a President will need to acknowledge errors of judgement, back up and start over. Although we all hoped for the best, it now seems clear that North Korea has no intention of giving up nuclear weapons. It is a most vexing problem as it has been for previous administrations. We have to maintain military rediness, including cooperatioon with South Korea and Japan while encouraging North Korea to give up their nukes and be part of the international community.
The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land and has helped many people. I have no need to tear it down but rather make it work as well as it can while advancing bi-partisan efforts in Congress to make it better. Healthcare is a basic human need. We expect people to work. One must be healthy to do so.
My first measure of how the economy is doing, is how is the middle class doing? The Gross National Product means litle if it is going to a smaller and smaller segment of our population.
While on the subject of fires and natural disasters, I believe the human contribution to global warming is real and a serious problem which requires world wide cooperation. No single weather event tells us much. The information is in world wide averages over time. The science is clear. The politics is muddy because of the economic changes of advancing clean renewable energy for our country and the whole world. It should be our future.
