Trump Presidency Is Dragging Us Down

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC By-SA2.0

I now understand why watching dog and cat videos online has become so popular. These wonderful critters simply make us feel a little better no matter what, and as a country we sure need something to smile about.

Four months of Donald Trump's time in office have left us reeling. The intensity of the daily dose of stress emanating from the White House is taking a toll greater than I believe most anyone expected. He talks the talk and walks the walk of a man who, as I noted months ago, is out of his league. The stakes were high when we elected a man with no governing experience as President. They have now reached close to a number 9.0 on the Richter Scale.

Diplomacy is not conducted like a business. Government is not just about brokering deals. The nuance so badly needed in a president is something that comes with experience and knowledge, neither of which our President has shown interest in accumulating. 

Our allies are questioning the future sharing of intelligence with the United States after Trump's unfathomable breech of sharing classified information during his White House meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. One day after firing FBI Director James Comey, Putin apparently called Trump asking for the meeting, and now appears emboldened by the move. President Trump is reeling from its fallout. 

Russia and Trump. This is the relationship that stands out above all else in the Trump administration, and it will become its historic marker. No matter what Russia is accused of doing to challenge our democracy, the president continues to view them as an ally and treat them as a partner. They have become the diversion extraordinaire.

None of this makes us feel good or tended to. The polls that Trump used to love to tout are blasting out numbers bound to haunt him. The latest poll released by Public Policy Polling shows nearly half (48%) of Americans now say they support impeachment proceedings for the president. That in itself is astounding but not unexpected. 

We're reaching a limit as to how much we can take. President Trump has become a walking crisis machine, and our country deserves better. We have been floundering in the midst of too many days of crisis and too few days of governance under his so-called leadership.

The appointment of Robert Mueller, a former FBI Director under Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, as special counsel sets the underlying tone going forward. With investigations into the alleged involvements by Russia in the 2016 election and Trump's campaign as well as the potential of presidential obstruction of justice, the Trump White House has been compromised. His presidency has reached a critical turning point, and we can't even be sure that he recognizes it. The incompetence level continues to shock.

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"I Am Not A Crook" - Second Generation

May 10, 2017 President Donald Trump and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak/Russian Embassy photo

President Trump's extraordinary move firing FBI Director James Comey in the midst of an investigation into potential Russian involvement with Trump aides and the 2016 election has ramifications that are only beginning to unfold. Comey is the second FBI Director to ever be fired. Trump’s action has potentially set up his own downfall. 

As timelines continue to unfold, it's becoming clear that Trump apparently made the decision to fire the FBI Director after learning of Comey's request for increased resources to continue the Russia investigation. President Trump was aware Federal prosecutors had recently issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

It’s a swirl of presidential firings and investigations that repeatedly focus on Russia. Trump is doing whatever he can to shut them down.

On Monday the president, along with the rest of the country, watched the testimony of two additional people he's fired, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. They appeared before a Senate Judiciary Committee not only providing details about Flynn, but revealing the intelligence community was looking into Trump's business ties to Russia. 

The plausibility of President Trump's continued denials of Russian involvement in the election or his business dealings has become increasingly difficult to believe. The man doth protest too much. He went so far as to allude to his innocence in the second paragraph of his curtly worded termination letter sent to James Comey:

"May 9, 2017

Dear Director Comey,

I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.

While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.

It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.

I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors,

Donald J. Trump"

President Trump has let his paranoid insecurity show to the world in a historically important action. It is something we have witnessed before in a president, and it did not turn out well.

President Richard Nixon's well documented paranoia took over during the Watergate investigation even though the actual Watergate events did not involve the firing of then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The three times Trump's letter states his thanks to Comey for letting him know that he's not under investigation is as close as you can come to Nixon's now infamous words that preceded his downfall.

On November 18, 1973, President Nixon held a news conference defending his record in the Watergate case, and stating he had never profited from his years in public service.

“I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life I have never obstructed justice.”

“People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.”

Reading The Washington Post reporting of that event now becomes slightly eerie:

“Mr. Nixon was tense and sometimes misspoke. But he maintained his innocence in the Watergate case and promised to supply more details on his personal finances and more evidence from tapes and presidential documents.”

Summing up, he declared that the White House tape recordings would prove that he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in, that he never offered executive clemency for the Watergate burglars, and in fact turned it down when it was suggested, and had no knowledge until March 21, 1973, of proposals that blackmail money be paid a convicted Watergate conspirator."

Nixon resigned from office on August 8th, 1974.

President Trump’s judgement is becoming clouded. The morning after firing former FBI Director Comey, he began his day meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, who has been a focal point in the Russian investigation. The only way we found out about the strange meeting was through pictures taken by Russia’s state news agency and put on Twitter. No American journalists were allowed in.

And if that wasn't enough mingling with the wrong people at the wrong time, the president held another White House meeting shortly after with Richard Nixon's former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. All within a matter of hours. The photo op of President Trump sitting next to Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office with investigations focusing on yet another White House feeds the worst fears of a presidency in danger. 

A Unique Anniversary of Gender Equality

Religions have not always been known for equal opportunity practices. They remain the focus of an evolutionary process of defining the growing roles for women in each faith. As a Jewish woman born to parents who believed that girls should have the same opportunities as boys long before it was fashionable, today is an important marker in my personal and spiritual life that creates unique historic perspective. Sixty years ago on May 3, 1957, I became one of the early girls in the country to have a Bas Mitzvah.

It was the first Bas Mitzvah in our small Jewish community in northern Indiana. Don't get carried away thinking it was about the party. In fact there really wasn't one, but instead a very special small reception with four generations of our family surrounded by friends in the downstairs hall of our synagogue. I vivdly recall my cake being like something I had never seen. A beautiful opened Bible. The entire event was considered almost radical at the time with my parents forging brave new terriority as a young couple. I remember them asking me how I felt about having a Bas (spelling eventually changed to Bat) Mitzvah and obviously saying "Yes, I'll study". They then set about having to convince the Rabbi, my father's father who was a founding member of the B'Nai Israel synagogue, the Board (all men), and the Board of Education over which my father presided. My mother pulled in her own clout as head of the synagogue women's organization.

My mother and father were quite a team. They worked hard to assure the traditionalists that tradition would be upheld which meant that it wouldn't be like a traditional boy's Bar Mitzvah that was held on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and I wouldn't read from the sacred Torah in Hebrew as only the men in those years could do. They carefully crafted a scenario that allowed me to have a Bas Mitzvah at the age of 13 to be held on Friday night (the beginning of the Sabbath), read a separate portion of Hebrew scripture, lead some responsive reading and give a speech addressing the entire congregation. For a young girl to be allowed to stand on the Pulpit and lead and participate with such responsibility was indeed standing where no young girl in my hometown had stood before and where few across the country were standing. I was simply very nervous.  

Marking the right of passage into Jewish adulthood had long been a ceremony reserved only for boys. A Bar Mitvazh culminated a period of study after which a 13 year old boy came to the Synagogue and fully participated in the service. He then officially would be counted as part of the adult community and considered a man. Girls received no such community recognition and for many years were segregated into the women's gallery where they could listen and pray, separate from the men. The tradition of a Bar Mitzvah has come down through the ages. Until the 'ages' caught up with tradition.

On this day so many years ago I officially became a woman in the eyes of my religion just like the boys who took on their role. They may have gotten to wear their first suits, but I got to shop for a new dress with my mom. It was appropriately conservative and very pretty. The really big deal was the service.

My parents were smart. They made religion fun for my brother and I as well as an important part of our lives. They led by example fighting for what they believed in, and knowing that equality for everybody is an important part of life. Today I treasure it all as part of my living heritage.