Remembering a September Morning...

(The following is an updated repost  of an entry from Sept. 11th, 2011)

Tomorrow the media, and the blogosphere will undoubtedly be full of all sorts of remembrances and commentary around what is the 17th  anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

To be honest I really don't like to dwell on the topic. Not out of any sense of personal pain, but more out of respect, for those people I know who were far closer to the events of that day than I was. My experience that day was a somewhat surreal one.

I had gotten up very early and caught a flight from Chicago Midway to Houston. I was heading there for work. It was about 20 minutes into the flight, the seat belt sign had just turned off, and people where shifting about, getting comfortable. I had just pulled out my laptop to work on the presentation I was going to be giving later that day. Suddenly the seat belt sign came back on, and the crew announced that everyone was to return to their seats and prepare for landing, the flight would be returning to Chicago.

The Pilot then came on the speaker system to say that there was nothing wrong with the plane, and we were returning to Chicago because the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) had ordered the flight to return to "clear air traffic". He said that was all the information they had, and he apologized for the inconvenience.

Everyone on the plane thought the same thing. (Not terrorism.) Chicago Midway had upgraded to a new Air Traffic Control System earlier in the Summer and a few weeks prior, there had been a series of glitches that had delayed several flights.  Everyone groaned, made comments about "Government Efficiency" assuming it was yet another problem with Midway's system that was going to mess up  our day.

This  assumption that was bolstered when the captain came back on the loudspeaker  and announced  that we were not returning to Midway but rather we were diverted to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The woman sitting next to me was happy about this thinking at least it might be easier to get on the next flight out to Houston. I nodded, and said "I hope so", thinking of how I might salvage the rest of my schedule that day and make my afternoon meetings on time.

It took us about 30 minutes of circling over O'Hare before we could land. Sitting in a window seat I watched as the line of planes waiting to land stretched to the far horizon and oddly enough, no planes were taking off. I commented on this to the woman next to me, and she said "wow Midway's systems must be really screwed up!" I laughed and said that what we get for Ronald Reagan having fired all the good Air Traffic Controllers. She laughed and said she had forgotten about that.

We landed and had to wait an additional 20 minutes to get a gate. but finally pulled up to a jetway , and we all lumbered off the plane into the gate area I was getting annoyed because people were not clearing the area in front of the door but were all standing around the televisions that were tuned to the CNN Airport Network. I was about to say a loud "excuse me!" when I happened to look up at the TV and saw CNN  replay footage from ABC of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center.

CNN then cut to live shot of a column of smoke and ash where the World Trade Center Towers were supposed to be, but weren't. I called my office and my boss told me not to come in, The area in downtown Chicago around the Sears Tower was being evacuated. I called my parents and let them know I was not in Houston, got on the CTA Blue Line and went home.   The rest of that day I did what most Americans did, watched the news, and when the images became overwhelming, I put on my roller blades and went blading along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

It was brilliant sunny day. One of those late Summer, early Fall days that you get in Chicago that make you appreciate what a beautiful city it is. As I stopped at Oak Street Beach and admired the downtown Chicago skyline, I didn't think that somehow the "world had changed". But rather I found myself thinking how the United States had  sadly, finally  joined the rest of the world.

Before that that morning, Terrorism was something that happened in other places, Israel, Lebanon London, Belfast , places far away. Even the first World Trade Center bombing for many people, didn't seem like international terrorism. After all, the people responsible were caught when they tried to get the deposit back on the rental van they had used. (How sinister could people that dumb be?)    That is what changed I think, it was the moment America lost the illusion that somehow our two oceans would keep us safe from global terrorism.

For friends of mine who lived in New York on that day,  I understand  that  today  is a much different  experience for them.   A  friend of mine is  a New York City Police Officer  who  lost an arm in the attack that day.   Another friend of mine worked  for an investment bank housed in the  North Tower,  she had a doctors appointment so she didn't go into work  that morning.   For her, today  is a reminder of  the  friends and co-workers  she lost  that day.

For the numerous friends of mine who have served, and currently serve in the Middle East  with the American and British Armed Forces, they deal with the effects September 11, 2001 on a far different level than most people ever will.

So as people all over the world will remember the events of that day, pray for those who were lost, and show solidarity and support for friends and family for whom this anniversary is far more personal than political.

God Bless America, God bless us all.

John McCain's Final Legacy - Contrast.

The Great and the Good is a phrase often used to describe those who assemble at occasions such as the official memorial service for the late Arizona Senator, John McCain.

The service, held yesterday morning  at the  National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.,  had all the moments that you would expect  such an occasion to have.

 

Senator Joe Lieberman shared personal moments from his long friendship with McCain. Sharing stories of old friends ribbing each other, celebrating each others' successes and supporting each other through their failures.

Then Former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger gave context to McCain's political career by giving us an eye witness view to how John McCain's  experiences in the Vietnam War shaped his character and his world view.

Then his two greatest political rivals, former Presidents George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, each took a turn sharing their thoughts on the legacy John McCain has left to our country. A legacy of duty, service, and sacrifice.

All these speakers, coupled with Megan McCain's  emotional tribute to her father,  provided what may turn out to be John McCain's final and potentially most impactful legacy. 

 Contrast between his view of America and that of the current occupant of the White House.

Saturday's service was nothing less than an American State Ocassision. As a nation, we have very few of these, by design. Our founding fathers rightly saw them as the trappings of Monarchy, steeped in the old world's quest for  empire.

So aside from the Inauguration of a President, and  Join Sessions of Congress. like the State of the Union, such State Occasions here,  tend to be few and far between. Yet when we do have them, they are pivotal moments in our National Life where we as a country come together in an expression of our shared American Values.

It is an awful fact, that the sitting President of the United States was not in any way
a suitable attendee for this occasion. That we as a people had to manage the risk that he would have detracted from those values, and instead would have sought to pull focus and attention from this National moment, and make it about himself.

It does not take a great deal of imagination  to picture that cringe-inducing performance.   One that would have undoubtedly focused on  the Electoral College score of 2016, accusations of "Fake News!",  and would have concluded with ridiculous claims, outright lies and even imagined quotes to claim how much the deceased hero, had really  admired him.  

It was for this reason, the sitting President of the United States was not welcome at this American State Occasion. Not out of partisan rancor,  but because he would have been incapable of rising to it.  

The contrast on display yesterday was , between two these two men.   One  who strived throughout his life to put service to country above self, and  the other, who  puts glorification of self above all else, including above country. 

I did not vote for John McCain when he ran for President. But I was always glad when the people Arizona returned him to the Senate. He was a fiery, at times unpredictable, but always principled American Statesman; whose life stands in sharp contrast to the insecure narcissist who will undoubtedly take to Twitter in the days to come, and prove that his exclusion yesterday, was truly warranted.

This contrast  tells us, and the rest of the world all we need ever know about the difference between the small petty individual golfing in VA, and the Man America collectively paused to remember.

Leave Donald Trump Alone!

Here’s an idea…. Leave Donald Trump alone. Don’t impeach him. Don’t indict him, don’t force him to resign. Leave him right where he is, in the White House.   Huh?   No I have not lost my marbles or become a MAGA Hat wearing , “Lock her up!: chanting dimwit.

So hear me out on this.   Today we saw the felony conviction of the former Trump Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort for Tax Fraud; and the felony guilty plea by Donald Trump’s long time personal lawyer Michael, Cohen for multiple election law violations. Crimes that in his guilty plea, Cohen stated flat out that he committed at the express direction of Donald Trump. 

Now is not the time to be nice. Now is time to tar every single GOP candidate with the Donald Trump toilet brush.

But even before these two legal bombshells today, the already shaky likelihood of the Party of Donald Trump retaining control of the House of Representatives was becoming even less likely. So for once, I hope the Democratic party will NOT do what it usually does; which is try to be nice.

Left leaning pundits are salivating at the possibility of a “Blue Wave” come this November. The most realistic victory scenario is one where the Democrats take the House and hold the line in the Senate and pick up one senate seat. (Yes Dean Heller, we are looking at you …)

Should this come to pass the understandable urge to pummel Donald Trump and his whole swamp with a massive congressional inquiry leading to the impeachment of the 45th President of the United States will be nearly overwhelming.

Don’t do it. Seriously. Don’t. Leave him right where he is. Impeachment and resignation are too easy. With a Democratic super majority in the house, and an increased number in the Senate, We can undo most of the damage this nightmare Presidency has done, and at the same time enjoy the spectacle of Donald Trump forced to sit by and watch it all, helpless.

Don’t Impeach Trump, render him irrelevant.

  

I want a Democratic super majority to wield all of the tools crafted by our founding fathers in the Constitution to completely undo the Trump Presidency and I want to enjoy the sound of Donald Trump wailing in impotent rage while it happens.   I want to watch every Trump executive order get nullified, every budget demolishing tax break for his swamp repealed, and every common sense regulation he has attacked, reinstated.

Then, when Trump vetoes all that , I want to enjoy the sight of congress swiftly overriding it.

I want the White House Press Corps to stop covering the daily White House Press briefing. Leaving Sarah Sanders whine to Fox News, Breitbart, Alex Jones and Russia Today. (Also, it’s not like she will have anything of importance to say anyway.)

The founding fathers made the executive branch the weakest of the three branches of the government for a reason.  They knew that someday a nut-job with dreams of monarchy might become President. So they put in safeguards. The Legislative branch is empowered with oversight, control of the purse strings, the power to declare war and the veto override.  All designed to reign in exactly the sort of President who now squats in the oval office.

Lets not forget who is waiting in the wings. If you impeach Trump, you get Pence. The voices in Mike Pence’s head have been telling him that God wants him to be the unelected President of the United States. It’s time to show Mike Pence that God has better things to do.  So lets make it so Mike Pence  will just have to sit on the porch of the VP Residence at the Naval Observatory and complain to “Mother” that he is being denied his destiny.  

So do I just want to to see Trump and Pence suffer?    No. This about more than just Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dumber.    This is about what the Republican Party has become.

The GOP needs to be made to sit in a corner for while and think about what they did. They enabled this monstrosity. They cheered on the racism, the misogyny, the fiscal hypocrisy and the destruction of America’s influence on the global stage, and turned a blind eye to Russian attacks on our very democracy. All for the sake of tax cuts.

The Republican Party needs to face the consequences of their actions. 

Impeachment is too nice. It’s time to give Trump and his entire political party a time out. Let him sit and tweet in useless rage, while Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg run the country.

The White House Just Colluded with Russia to Kill the Truth

 This is not what I planned to be doing this week…

I had intended to take a week or more off and unplug from social media, a much needed “digital detox” where I would turn off and tune out the noise the news, and the nonsense.

Well, so much for that.

Writer Uri Friedman at the Atlantic Magazine was the first to notice something odd about the official White House transcript from last week’s press conference with Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The official White House version both in printed transcript and in posted video, edited out what was the biggest moment of the entire event.

That moment was when Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked Putin directly if he had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, and did he direct any one to help make that happen. Whereupon Putin answered just as directly that he had in fact wanted Trump to win and went on to give his reasons why.  

In the White House’s new “alternative reality version” of that exchange, things are remarkably different.

From The Atlantic:
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If you watch the White House live-stream of the press conference or look at the transcript published by the White House, the first half of Mason’s question is not there. Without it, the meaning of the exchange is substantially different.

Compare this transcript, of what actually happened, to the White House’s version. Here is the record of what took place, starting with the last part of Putin’s comments before Jeff Mason’s questions. Putin is describing his willingness to assist with Robert Mueller’s probe (bolding is mine):

Vladimir Putin: That could be a first step, and we can also extend it. Options abound, and they all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.

Jeff Mason: President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?

Putin: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.–Russia relationship back to normal.

And here’s the key section from the White House transcript, which makes it seem as though Putin is still talking about the Mueller probe: 

PRESIDENT PUTIN: That could be a first step, and we can also extend it. Options abound, and they all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.

Q: And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?

PRESIDENT PUTIN: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.–Russia relationship back to normal.

Another strange wrinkle comes from the Russian government’s English-language transcript of the press conference. In contrast to its footage of the press conference, which features what really happened, the transcript does not include any piece of that key exchange.

Transcripts published by the Federal News Service and Bloomberg Government mirror the White House transcript, while NPR’s contains the full exchange. Confusing matters further, C-SPAN’s footage contains Mason’s full question but only the second half of Putin’s answer.
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Now this could be chalked up to the White House just trying to get their spin on something out front and center, and many reporters , now somewhat numb to the Trump Administration’s complete disregard for facts and truth that they don’t like, let this pass. Then on this past Sunday in the middle of an epic meltdown on Twitter, Donald Trump tweeted this;

So Trump is actively trying to erase evidence that Vladimir Putin was supporting him in 2016, while at the same time tweeting out that Russia (in Trump Reality) is supporting Democrats.

 It's hard to follow the  dumpster fire that is the Trump Administration.  But  some journalists will see two seemingly unrelated burning bits  and connect the dots.  Rachel  Maddow breaks it down.

So just to be clear.  BOTH the White House and the Kremlin edited the transcript  of the Helsinki press conference to try to delete the moment where Vladimir Putin admits he was actively supporting Donald Trump to win the election in 2016. 

You just saw the White House actively collude with the Kremlin to wage a disinformation campaign against the American People.  Which raises a few key questions  for three specific groups of people.

1) The White House Press Corps. -  If  Journalists (and this includes  FOX News) do not raise bloody hell  and actively fight against  the White House hacking and  re-editing their reporting to fit Trump's "Alternative Facts"  then the free press in the United States is truly dead and  our democracy is in lethal peril.

 Sadly some journalists are scared to stand up and fight for a free press.    Over at the Washington Post, Phillip Bump assures us this was all just an innocent mistake and "No, the White House didn’t intentionally edit a question to Putin out of a video.   Sorry Phil, yes they did.    Anyone watching the live feeds from CNN, MSNBC, BBC  and listening on NPR  all clearly  saw and or heard Mason's FULL question. 

Yet  the White  House video  just happens to miss the first half of the question but not the 2nd?  Making it look like Mason was asking a follow up to  the previous question about the Mueller probe and NOT about who Putin wanted to win in 2016?

Oh yeah... and the omission was brought to the attention of the White House shortly after the transcript was posted and remains uncorrected.   So Really Phil? I know you folks at the Post are feeling under siege from this President, but your op-ed tries so hard to carry water for the White House that it's just embarrassing.

2) Congressional Republicans -  Are you patriotic Americans?   Or are you Kremlin sedated sheep who will accept a President who is Putin's stooge, and who is actively working for Russia's interests against  the United States?  Will you continue to  accept anything this White House tells you because it is less painful than admitting you sold your souls for tax cuts?  Are you really that willing to destroy our nation rather than admit a mistake?

I, like many Americans am not thrilled by idea of President Pence, or Vice President Ryan,  but it's  time for President Pence.   Or is your  fear of upsetting the "Trump Base" more important than the good of the Nation?   So "Country First"  really was just a catchy slogan, and wasn't something  you  actually meant?

3)Trump Voters - You are supporting a known Traitor.  That makes you a participant  in that Treason.  If you  really love America as much you claim to,  It's time  to stop supporting  Trump and his Party.  If you believe in such a thing as TRUTH,  if you believe the President of the United States should be a BETTER AMERICAN  than the President of  Russia, then it's time to STOP feeding this dumpster fire of a Presidency. 

If you can't  do that  then you are the mindless sheep that George Orwell  tried to warn us all not to become.

Happy Fourth of July

MARY LOUISE KELLY,

And I'm Mary Louise Kelly with a document from a deeply divided time. It was a time when Americans turned against each other.

STEVE INSKEEP,

A man in Philadelphia declared the rich, the poor, the high professor and the profane seem all infected with a grievous disorder, so the love of our neighbors seems banished. The love of self and opinions so far prevails.

KELLY: If the language seems old-fashioned it's because the time was 1776. The United States was early in its Revolutionary War. Even those who opposed British rule disagreed on what to do.

INSKEEP: And it was in this atmosphere that a few dozen men - the Continental Congress - drafted the document which John Adams called a declaration of independency. Its principles have guided the country ever since.

KELLY: Not all people were then held as equal, yet this document declared them so.

INSKEEP: American colonists were not entirely free to speak their minds. Indeed, their denunciation of British rule was considered treason punishable by death. Yet they signed the paper insisting on their freedom of speech, which Ben Franklin had once called a principal pillar of a free government.

KELLY: On this Independence Day, their words are read by our colleagues, NPR journalists.

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The Declaration Of Independence

Steve Inskeep


When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Rachel Martin


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.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. --

David Greene


That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Julie McCarthy


Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;

Sam Sanders


and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Don Gonyea


But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —

Deborah Amos


Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Joe Palca


The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Audie Cornish


He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Shankar Vedantam


He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Lulu Garcia-Navarro


He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

Sylvia Poggioli


He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

Frank Langfitt


He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

Cheryl Corley


He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Nina Totenberg


He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.  He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.  He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

Michel Martin


He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

Elizabeth Blair


He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton


For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:  For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

Mary Louise Kelly


For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:  For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

Mara Liasson


For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences  For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

Linda Wertheimer


For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:  For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

Sonari Glinton


He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

Jackie Northam


He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

Gene Demby


He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

Ari Shapiro


He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.  In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

Eyder Peralta


A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.  Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

Susan Stamberg


We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

Scott Horsley


They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Cokie Roberts


We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;

David Greene


that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;

Rachel Martin


and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

Steve Inskeep


And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Mary Louise Kelly


Two-hundred forty (two) years ago today, church bells rang out over Philadelphia as the Continental Congress adopted this draft of the Declaration of Independence.
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Music - (SOUNDBITE OF ERIC WEINBERG'S "DAWN AT YORKTOWN")