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May 31, 2017
Raising Our Voices All Together: What Else Can We Do?
By William P. Homans
Adding my keyboard voice to those who understand the urgency of redress and change
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We don't know when, or what the camel-straw will be. But he's just really shown his unfitness to be a chief executive all over Europe (bravo to Pope Francis, who did the maximum that he could do, told him not to leave the Climate agreement). He's divulged secret information to high-level Russian officials in his own office.
And Jared Kushner, one of Trump's family, has shown his utter unfitness to hold his portfolio (I'm not going to believe he's actually a traitor, he hasn't got the experience or ideological axe to grind to be that), which speaks to Trump's inability to make good appointments. Generals Mattis and McMaster are exceptions, because Trump doesn't KNOW ANYTHING about Healthcare, Energy, Interior lands policy, the environment, and so forth.
There's a whole steaming pile of stuff about which he hasn't a clue. He doesn't actually know anything about military matters, but he HAS to deal with those every day as crisis piles on crisis.
There are almost no ambassadors STILL because Trump has no capacity to consider diplomatic qualifications. Apparently former Governor and Ambassador Jon Huntsman was nominated as Ambassador to Russia in the first days of the Presidency.click here
But if I were Huntsman, I'd be keeping my head way down, as Trump and his Twitter and his son-in-law have made US-Russian ambassadorial diplomacy moot.
Trump, through his incompetence, his pathological inability to consider the past-- to reflect-- to say nothing of his thin-skinnedness and confrontational nature-- is an existential threat to the national security of the US, and beyond that, of the world. Angela Merkel, probably the most important politician in the world-- not Jiping, not Putin, Merkel-- has already signaled that she and Germany are looking past Trump.
He cannot, he must not serve a full year, or the Republicans will be unable to run away from him and will be slaughtered in the 2018 midterms. The cynical American might say, "Oh, well, go ahead then, bumble on, Donald, and drag the Republican Party down to utter darkness, perhaps even end the dominant duopoly political system."
But the other thing that the continued presence of Donald Trump in the White House does is cheapen, demean, dumb down, make moot, the dialogue among Americans. Anti-intellectualism is clearly expressed through a number of key Trump appointees: Pruitt. Perry. Devos. Even Tillerson.
Americans don't LIKE each other as much. However, the polarization is of a different nature than that which occurred over the Vietnam War.
At this point, what those who voted for Trump, or who have willingly worked with him, have at stake is that they will have to admit they made a mistake, and that it must be fixed within the boundaries of democracy. That will cause a great deal of strain among people living next to each other in countless communities, who are, or should be, friends.
I can only think that as the Trump phenomenon has gotten progressively more politically and socially damaging, the top GOPers have been formulating their plan for what must be done after Trump's removal.
The Vietnam War could plausibly be blamed on our leaders. The actions and consequences of the Trump Presidency must be blamed on ourselves, We the People, both Trump voters and the Democratic insiders who subverted their Party's democratic process.
My name is William Perkins Homans the third, but probably more people know me as the bluesman (and artist) Watermelon Slim.
I've been in the fight against war, fascism, injustice and inhumanity for 47 years. I was at MayDay, 1971, and at the moratorium March the week before. I was one of the leaders of the Great New Jersey Turnpike Stall on my birthday, April 25, 1971.
I bear the scar on my left shin from a neoNazi jackboot, when I was one of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who bounced the NSWPP from Flamingo Park at the Republican National Convention of 1972. My father fought the Nazis in the North Atlantic and Anzio, and I met their spawn in Miami.
My formal education has been first-rate. I wouldn't trade my degrees for Harvard ones. I was raised in the finest private Catholic and Episcopal high schools.
I earned my BA in History and Journalism from the University of Oregon/Eugene. I was also captain of the U of O bowling team, 1984-1986. High game 299. Mentors: Dr. W. Gordon Rockett, Dr. Daniell Pope
1997-2000: Oklahoma State University. M.A., History, 2000, plus the school-teaching curriculum. Mentor: Dr. Ronald Petrin
I am a world survivalist. My politics transcends right and left, perforce. I watch for signs we may transcend in some yet-unknown fashion the vectors and indicators in my environmental and geopolitical analysis.
As Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, every one!"