Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is on fire.  

It’s an uncontrollable raging fire - the center spire (la flèche) collapsed into the cathedral... the inferno burst through some of the stained-glass windows - people stood (some singing) looking on in horror at the charred stone facade.  The main structure and the bell towers were saved, as was the organ.

** The blaze was brought under control by 400 firefighters, one firefighter was seriously injured - the firefighters did a heroic and strategic job protecting historic relics and paintings in the cathedral.

Civilization is built and it is rebuilt.  Notre Dame will be rebuilt.  From the ashes there will be new life.

Notre Dame is the heart of Paris on the Ile de la Cite’ (island in the Seine).  Opposite the main entrance on the cathedral square is the small octagonal brass plate set in the ground considered the official center of Paris, and the spot from which all distances throughout France are measured (in relation to Paris).  

Frances Garfield (Brown)

So sad. Paris is my favorite city. I hope it can be saved, at least part of the cathedral.

Jack Edmund Bookwalter

Ronald I. Zager

Stewart,

I, too, read "Fear" but did not learn much new as the publication had been heavily covered by the mass media and all the juicy tidbits were already were widely reported.  You might like "Team of Vipers" by Cliff Sims, a former and current tr*mp supporter who spent 500 days on the West Wing staff.  It was interesting to hear from an apologist for the president how they sometimes had to tie themselves in knots trying to justify the president"s (bad) behavior.

Happy spring!

Ron

Stewart Myrent

Ron, I agree that a lot of what's in "Fear" was heavily covered by the media, but I have made a couple of notes on some stuff I thought was noteworthy, that I will include in a future post, as soon as I'm done with the book, which will be soon, as I have been racing through the book, partially because my laptop blew up (I am already over halfway through the book).  But thanks for the heads-up on "Team of Vipers", which will probably be my next read, if I can find it here at the library. I hope to get my laptop replaced in the next few days.

Stewart Myrent

Ron, I picked up "Team of Vipers" yesterday & already started it this morning (I picked up the one copy at the library, as I didn't know if it would be here today), as I did finish "Fear - Trump in the White House" yesterday, after 4 days.  A few observations about "Fear - Trump in the White House".  In a passage about Hope Hicks, 28-years old & Trump's Communications Director & later Trump's  Director of Strategic Communications (a position created for her), "Hicks was convinced the media had 'oppositional defiance syndrome', which is a term from clinical psychology most often applied to rebellious children.  'Oppositional defiance syndrome' is characterized by excessive anger against authority, vindictiveness and temper tantrums.  As far as she was concerned, that described the press."  How ironic!  Isn't it?  Also from the book, Lindsey Graham, in May, 2017 to Trump, on his wanting to pull troops out of Afghanistan, "Do you want on your resume that you allowed Afghanistan to go back into the darkness and the second 9/11 came from the very place the first 9/11 did?"  "Well", Trump asked, "how does this end?"  "It never ends", Graham said.  "It's good versus evil.  Good versus evil never ends.  It's just like the Nazis.  It's now radical Islam.  It will be something else one day.  So our goal is to make sure that the homeland never gets attacked from Afghanistan."  Fairly existential comment from Lindsey Graham.  I know he said it - if he believes it, I have a better understanding of where he's coming from & I get it.  Something else caught my notice (on page 447), "On August 21, Kelly and Porter issued two memorandums to all cabinet officers..."  I'm pretty sure that "two memorandums" should be two memoranda.  Will highlight excerpts from "Team of Vipers", after I get further into it.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Where is Robert Mueller?  

We’ve had a month of Barr,

standing as a human shield protecting Trump.

Respect and esteem for AG Barr are hanging by a thread.  He is doing everything he can to undermine the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice.  

The Constitution’s on fire.

Barr should let Mueller’s report speak for itself.

Release the Mueller Report.  

The Department of Justice and White House lawyers have been in communication about the Mueller Report to prepare the White House rebuttal.  

Why attend Barr’s morning press conference? 

Trump expects loyalty - from FOX News too.

Robert Mueller and his team will be called to testify to Congress.

Day 818 of Trump presidency.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The Mueller Report describes Trump cursing in reaction to the special counsel's appointment: Trump told Sessions, "This is the end of my presidency, I'm f***ed.  How could you let this happen Jeff?"

The Mueller Report is rife with instances of collusion and obstruction.  

"Obstruction by Trump failed because aides refused to 'carry out orders'."

The Russians "interferred in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion."

Where’s the outrage?

"further 'thorough' FBI investigation may have uncovered Trump crimes."  (Appendix C is redacted.

37 instances: "I have no recollection/ I do not remember" in Trump's written responses for Mueller.

Barr has done a disservice to the country; he has furthered conspiracy theories.  He's been watching too much FOX TV.

Barr's reach to exonerate Trump does not reflect Mueller's Report.  There is no exoneration in Mueller's Report - both Barr’s 4-page letter and his 9:30 AM Thursday press conference are objectively false.  Our attorney general has been corrupted and expected/ hoped to corrupt us.  

Evidence is evidence.  The Mueller Report details key obstruction evidence against Trump.

Mueller rejects Barr opinion that POTUS "can't" obstruct justice.

Question: What now to faithfully execute the law? 

(Trump cannot set precedent for unchecked emboldened behavior of POTUS...

(nor Barr for the Department of Justice...

What conduct do we accept from our president (and attorney general)?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

“Let reason into the arena of passion.”  

As a country, we are not in a good place.

Until we engage we cannot move forward.

We all must read as much of Mueller’s Report as we can.

We need to hear directly from Robert Mueller to break through the noise.

We need to understand Mueller’s reasoning.

Paul Richard Hain

Wishing you all a blessed Passover and a Happy Easter.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

We are Americans - I do not want to lose that at this holy time that brings theology and politics into the same arena.

The Mueller Report gives us a stark picture of the president we elected in 2016.

As we celebrate 

           Liberation - and - Resurrection

take time to reflect on Senator Romney’s response to Mueller’s Report:

“a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders.”

If you haven’t read Mueller’s Report, Senator Romney has not yet digested that Mueller found evidence of multiple instances of obstruction of justice - Special Counsel Mueller could not recommend indictment because of Department of Justice policies, but he left a clear roadmap for Congress to investigate.

Wishing you all a Happy Passover and a Happy Easter.  

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Steve, you are reading the same redacted report I’m reading.  Mueller’s Report gives dates, times, and quotes to the shocking behavior of our president in the White House.  I too have watched FOX News opinion makers - apparently they watched Barr’s pre-release of the Mueller Report press conference and decided that that was sufficient - it is NOT.

Both Barr’s 4-page letter and his press conference are factually false.  

Before people speak publicly about Mueller’s report, they should read The Mueller Report.  Barr misrepresents Mueller’s report and Senator Romney has not yet digested The Mueller Report.  It is a lot to chew on.

I hope Congress holds televised public hearings so we can better understand the depth of the facts and the issues.  

Russia did interfere with our elections.

Unless hosts and commentators and members of Congress have read/ studied The Mueller Report their talk is chatter.  This isn’t about politics, it’s about the future of our country.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Some of the most derogatory scenes in the Mueller Report were attributed to the recollections and notes of former White House Counsel Don McGahn - McGahn has broken his silence to confirm that details in the Mueller Report were “accurately described.”

In Volume II of the Mueller Report, there are 180 pages on obstruction - a prosecution memo for Congress.

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 21st, 9-11 PM eastern time on MSNBC Mueller Report Special with Ari Melber (attorney and journalist for NBC News). Ari continues to read and study the Mueller Report.

The redacted Mueller Report is free to read,

it’s also a best-seller.

(The Washington Post is publishing it as a book).

Donald Henry Kuehn

Steve,

In discussing the pressures he faced in trying to win major amateur and open golf tournaments in the 1920’s and into 1930, Bobby Jones once famously said “there’s golf and then there’s tournament golf...”

in today’s world, there’s golf and then there’s trump golf. The two (apparently) have nothing in common. However, it s not surprising that a person of so little character, integrity or honor would desecrate the game as t-rump does.

But I am just as disgusted by the parade of notable professionals (including Tiger and Jack) who show up at T Doral whenever he is in town (often) to play along with this charade. They are enablers and tarnish their own reputations by taking part in the kinds of antics reported by so many and refuted by none.  

DK

Alan A. Alop

Soon it will be National Favorite Book Day.  When he was president, Bill Clinton announced his favorite book to be Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.  George W. Bush volunteered that his favorite book was The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. And Barack Obama let it be known that his favorite of all time was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yesterday President Trump let reporters know his favorite book of all time.

“No question about it,” Trump declared.  “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown.  Trump recited his favorite lines: “Goodnight moon, Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.”

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders added that "countless FBI agents had called her to echo the president's sentiments."

Stewart Myrent

There's something that's been troubling me for the past few weeks, that I haven't mentioned.  My fear is that sometime in the next year, before the 2020 presidential election, Trump will get us involved in a terrible war (with either North Korea or Iran), as he probably knows that war-time presidents are generally re-elected.  My guess is that the electorate does not feel comfortable changing who's in charge, in the middle of a war.  I hope I'm wrong, but this sentiment has been developing in my mind, for some time now.  And if I'm right, I will take no pleasure in being right.  In this season of religious devotion, I do not understand how far we've come from normalized expectations.  I am literally scared out of my wits at my, deservedly pessimistic, outlook on our current situation.  I have come to realize that Trump will do anything, to stay in power & I realize that in almost any other country, he might be the guy who stays in power, for life.  If you're religious, PRAY for us all.

Marvin Irving Blusteln

As a semi-lurker,  I follow the opinions and commentary of all who post. I have landed on the idea that we need little green men or women to land on earth and save us from ourselves.

Stewart Myrent

Just finished "Team of Vipers", by Cliff Sims.  I was slightly disappointed in the book, as Cliff Sims is, first of all, a Trump loyalist, but also a Trump apologist, although he tread very lightly, when recounting some of Trump's more outrageous & embarassing episodes.  But, there were several things in the book that I found interesting.  From the chapter, "Killers", Sims recounts, "Killer. This was the single highest compliment that Donald Trump - not the President, but the man - could pay another human being, and it had been for decades.  In Harry Hurt III's Trump biography, 'Lost Tycoon', he wrote that Trump's father, Fred, used to tell his sons, 'You are a killer...You are a king...You are a killer...You are a king.'  He'd gotten it honestly.  It was deeply ingrained in his psyche since childhood.  So if you're trying to make sense of almost any action he took as President, this is the prism through which everything should be viewed."  Later, in the chapter, "Frenemies of the People", he states, "That afternoon, the President hosted an event in the Oval Office with three of the thirteen surviving Navajo Code Talkers...right after the event, he saw me helping the audio-visual crew take the podium and other equipment out of the Oval Office, and waved me over.  His thoughts were, as it turned out, not consumed by the Navajo.  'What'd you think about the fake news trophy {that he had announced earlier that day}?', he asked, barely concealing his amusement over his tweet and the reaction."  I remember that specific event & was appalled for two reasons: (1) Trump attacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, by saying, "I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people.  You were here long before any of us were here.  Although we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time...longer than you...they call her Pocahontas!" (No one calls her that, except for Trump), and (2) above the president & the three Code Talkers, was a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the 'Trail of Tears', when roughly 17,000 Cherokees were forced out of Georgia at gunpoint & moved to present-day Oklahoma.  Thousands of Cherokees died on the journey.  Sims didn't mention either the Pocahontas remark, or the portrait of Andy Jackson, taking it all in.  My guess is that Jackson would have been so proud of Trump's remarks.  Then, in the chapter titled, "Black Eyes and Broken Glass", Sims recounts, "I know people out there - many people - have no sympathy for Sarah Sanders.  In their view, she willingly excused, covered up for, and lied about the actions of the Trump administration.  Sometimes spokespeople in any White House knowingly give misleading statements, other times they're just left out of the loop (yeah, right - MINE) or sent out with false or incomplete information to unwittingly bend the truth on someone else's behalf.  In my experience, Sarah typically endured the latter.  But not always.  Sometimes she knew she was being sent out to talk to the press with information that would likely prove to be inaccurate.  She didn't press as hard as she should have for the rock-bottom truth."  And finally, in "Epilogue: Outside the Bubble", he says, "I'd remember how it felt in Trump Tower when we were a gang of bandits with nothing to lose.  And I'd sense the tension that I believe nags Trump the most, at least subconsciously: nothing about being President has ever reached the high of becoming President.  This is one of the reasons he loves to relive Election Night 2016 over and over again.  I think I'm going to check out "Fire and Fury", by Michael Wolff, next.

Ronald I. Zager

Stewart,

I think you will find "Fire and Fury" an excellent read.  As to "Team of Vipers", Sims comfirmed what the Mueller report suggested, that many of those surrounding the president would slow-walk ar even totally disregard his demands knowing that to follow them promptly would be disastrous for the country--or for him legally--and that his short attention span would have him forgetting yesterday's commands while he moved on to his next tweet storm.

Biden and "Mayor Pete" in 2020?

Ron

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I know you are an Amy Klobuchar backer, but I just saw Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on "The View" this AM (That's right - I watch "The View" to stay in touch with my feminine side).  I could agree with most of what she was saying, but I have to say, if she can somehow get the Democratic nomination & then win the general election, she will easily be the most attractive president we've ever had.  But the bar is low, considering she would be compared to old white men.  But, I saw something else today, that indicated that the female candidates are having difficulty gaining any traction in the race, compared to their male counterparts.  I don't get it, because many of her male predecessors (Presidents), have, by and large, been relatively ineffective.  Once again, I have to blame the women of this country, for not backing one of "their own".  Women have had the vote in this country for almost 100 years (next year will be the century mark).  So, in a century, you women have not been able to elect ONE woman as president.  As you know, in virtually every election since women got suffrage, the MAJORITY of the electorate has been women.  A woman finally RAN for president in 2016, from a major party.  I hope that next year, a woman will finally break that "glass ceiling" & become our 46th president.  Whomever it may be, could not possibly be any worse than the current CIC, or most of her predecessors (all men).  You women really need to get it together & elect a woman who is intelligent, empathetic & effective.  I don't know, but do you think that women are blindly following their husbands' leads & are hesitant to elect a woman President?  I'm fairly certain that the U.S. is the ONLY modern democracy, that hasn't yet had a female leader.  If it's not obvious that it's time to elect a woman President, I don't know what else it will take to convince the electorate.  I am primarily blaming women for this, because you've had the vote for almost 100 years & haven't gotten the job done.  As opposed to those who say that a woman would be too emotional & too weak to be President, I say let's give it a try.  How could she possibly be any worse than what we have now?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, in the main, women leaders have been elected by parliamentary - not by direct - election.  I must say I am disappointed your comments about Kirsten Gillibrand focus on her appearance.  

I do not (yet) have a candidate in this race though I am paying attention (my husband is not).  

I will vote for the Democratic nominee in the General Election.

I will say I supported Nancy Pelosi for Speaker, despite her age (and not because of her gender).  I do not feel the same support for Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden - I am ready to pass the presidency to a younger generation.  

I do not believe anyone deserves to be president -

I am prepared to vote for a woman or a man -

if we nominate a Democratic man to defeat Trump so be it.  

My question for male candidates: Will you run as VP on a ticket headed by a woman?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

In “Song of the South” Brer Rabbit begged Brer Fox and Brer Bear not to throw him into the briar patch.  Of course that's what they did thinking they had finally gotten rid of him - what they’d done is given him his freedom by sending him to the very place where he felt most safe.  

Donald Trump seems to be singing that song - about impeachment - inviting it on every turn.  

If Democrats begin impeachment proceedings without the real goods and broad public and bi-partisan support, they will give The Donald exactly what he wants - the opportunity to play victim and direct our attention away from all the corruption and misfeasance of his administration.

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I was extremely disappointed in your comments that you were extremely disappointed in my reference to Kirsten Gillibrand, as being (if she winds up being elected) easily the most attractive President, compared to her male predecessors.  You've got to be kidding me.  I thought if you were going to take umbrage at my remarks, it would be because I was blaming you women, for your inability to elect a female president.  I don't believe I said anything controversial or disrespectful, relative to her appearance, but I will say again, if she can get the Democratic nomination & win the presidency, she will be the most attractive president we've ever had.  I'll leave it to you, to decide which president was more attractive than she.  Or is it that I shouldn't have brought up her appearance, at all?  I would probably get that, as her appearance has absolutely nothing to do with if she would be a good President.  Please don't be as judgemental about my comments, as I was being only half-serious about her appearance.  I understand your previous disappointment & disgust with Joe Biden & I wouldn't suggest that he's just a harmless, old man, but it seems that his recent campaign announcement has been gaining some traction in the past few days.  Although, I agree that it's probably wisest to hand the reins of the country, to someone of a younger generation. 

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Eighteen months is not too long to wait for “sand castles in the air.” (Anne Frank)

with attribution to Lawrence O’Donnell

Stewart, we’ll see how this all plays out -

there are now 20 Democratic presidential candidates.

I want to hear all of them -

first Democratic debate(s): June 26th & 27th.

There are candidates opening the way to new and better solutions to problems that confront us.

Biden introduced his candidacy as the better choice compared to Trump.

I will vote for the Democratic nominee.

Kirsten Gillibrand is one of 6 women running for president.

I miss Al Franken too much to jump on Gillibrand’s bandwagon just yet.  

I am not a zero-tolerance person.

Did you watch The View this morning?

I like Joe Biden - 

Joy Behar tried to spoon feed him to help him make it right with Anita Hill, but...

Joe Biden says he won't judge Anita Hill for thinking his call (decades later) to tell her he’s sorry about the way she was treated during the Clarence Thomas hearing is insufficient.  

Biden was the Judiciary Comm Chair - he held the gavel, Anita Hill took a polygraph test and had corroborating witnesses who weren’t allowed to testify.  I am disappointed Joe Biden has not (yet) taken responsibility for what he let HAPPEN... I am waiting to hear real accountability on Biden's part.

Day 827 of Trump presidency.

Ronald I. Zager

Stewart,  Ignore physical attributes--ignore tr*mp's bubble-butt.

Nancy,  Warren and AOC?  (I'd like to hear from others on their early choices)