Author: reillymgray

The Mueller report (redacted) was released to the public this week.  It is 448 pages long and is broken into two volumes.  The first volume addresses conspiracy and the second obstruction.

In this week’s post, I am going to briefly discuss volume I.  It begins with the statement that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a sweeping and systematic fashion.  The investigation began due to this Russian meddling (not the Steel dossier or some political vendetta). The investigation identified NUMEROUS links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.  

Even though, the investigation could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the campaign did not coordinate with the Russian government, it did nothing to protect the United States and the election process from foreign influence.  It did nothing to protect our national security.  Maybe the campaign was not legally obligated to report the foreign contacts, but it was morally obligated to do what is right and honorable.

Some of the reasons that the investigation could not conclusively prove coordination or conspiracy were that witnesses lied, invoked the Fifth Amendment and destroyed evidence in deleted emails and texts.  The report stated that “The office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on the events described in the report.”

Exonerate means to absolve (free from guilt) from blame of wrongdoing.  The attempts to undermine, discredit and stop the investigation (better known as obstruction of justice) seem to be overwhelming evidence that the President believed that he had engaged in wrongdoing related to Russian contacts during the campaign.  The Russian meddling / conspiracy portion of the report covers nearly 200 pages of information.  Even though, charges of conspiracy were not recommended, there is plenty of evidence of wrongdoing by the President and the campaign.  Exoneration is a FALSE CLAIM to hide the truth from the American public.

President Trump appointed William Barr to replace Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General of the United States because Jeff Sessions followed the law and recused himself from the Special Counsel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.  Many Republicans and Democrats praised Barr and said he was an institutionalist and a straight shooter in that he would put the rule of law above partisan politics.  However, his first two actions has proven otherwise.

First, his refusal to release the Mueller report to congress and, secondly, insinuating that FBI investigators were “spying” when they  engaged in court approved surveillance has shown that he is committed to the bidding of the President and not to uncovering the truth and upholding the law.  I don’t understand how a man who has a distinguished career that he worked to develop over a lifetime would suddenly throw it all away.  Is it fame or power or some convoluted idea that he is doing the right thing in some alternative Trumpian reality?

I just think it is unfair that the American taxpayer is footing the bill for Donald Trump’s “Criminal Defense Attorney.”  Barr needs to do the right thing before it is too late to save his legacy.  The American people need the truth!

My understanding of current reality is confirmed by others, yet debunked by some.  Things that I see as obvious and immutable are not to everyone.  Out of respect to all, I am striving to understand.

In the stage play “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” Lily Tomlin’s bag lady character says that reality is nothing more than a “…collective hunch.”  Today, however, I feel that the collective hunch is divided and possibly scattered.  Maybe author, Lynn V. Andrews provides a more accurate description on how reality is perceived when she writes that “…each mind is a world unto itself (not sure this is a direct quote as I am recalling this from a book I read about 15 years ago).”

Author William A. Galston writes  in the article “The Populist Challenge to Liberal Democracy (4/17/18 brookings.edu),” that “All to often, liberal democracy is conflated with the spread of cultural liberalism at odds with custom and religion.  The combination of economic dislocation, demographic change, and challenges to traditional values has left many less educated citizens feeling that their lives are outside their control.”  The author suggests that this has created a loss of confidence in liberal democracy, including a loss of confidence in key liberal democratic principles such as, the rule of law, freedom of the press, and minority rights; consequently, this opens the door for authoritarianism.  We are witnessing these authoritarian tendencies in our current president and to my bewilderment not everyone is objecting.

Galston attributes this loss of confidence in liberal democracy and by insinuation the election of an authoritarian leaning president to the less educated citizens of our country.  This leads me to question why are there a multitude of educated people supporting this president and denouncing liberal democracy?  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s money and/or power that makes them willing to belie their true values.  This complete disregard for the truth makes it really difficult for those of us who are in search of the truth.

Some hold on to what they think is the truth and refuse to assess its validity.  Validating the truth is hard work and not everyone is willing to do it.  Some are benefiting by not telling the truth at the expense of those who are not willing to validate the truth.  We all need to strive to understand other views and to meet in the middle and create a government for the people by the people, all people.

Decency is what made and makes America great.  Our decency is a foil to autocrats around the world.  Putting human rights before money has been our hallmark until now as a homegrown plutocrat has usurped our democracy.

What is a plutocrat?  A plutocrat is a person whose power derives from their wealth and NOT from their talent, ability, intelligence, insight, character, morality, service, leadership or decency.

The lack of these noble characteristics were apparent during the campaign and into the presidency.  Adam Schiff listed some of the unacceptable behaviors including trying to establish a back channel between the campaign and Russia, not reporting Russia’s attempts to contact members of the campaign team to the FBI, meeting with the Russian’s in the Trump Tower and lying about the purpose of the meeting, trying to procure a business deal in Moscow for another Trump Tower and lying about it to the American public, and hiring criminals to run and work in the campaign (e.g. Manafort, Gates, Cohen, Flynn…).  And, not addressing Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.  Schiff said IT’S NOT OKAY!  IT IS UNPATRIOTIC AND CORRUPT!

We are in desperate  need of a truly intelligent leader of great moral character.  We need a return to decency.  Your vote is essential to the survival of our democracy!

It’s NOT immigrants, socialists, inner-city poverty, rural poverty,  gangs, drugs, hostile foreign powers, war, Russian spies, ISIS, foreign influence or anything else you can think of.

IT IS INCOME INEQUALITY!!!

An insatiable upper class puts wealth before humanity and the common good and is stealing the wealth that was generated by us all.  Honest toil has been devalued even though it is essential for the wealth and the well-being of our democracy.

We don’t need fancy philanthropy, we need livable wages and benefits.  We need to honor hard work and stop idolizing ego feeding wasteful wealth.  Democracy is good for everyone and must come first!  We need legislation that benefits all Americans, not just the powerful and wealthy.  According to a John Stossel special I saw years ago, money does not buy happiness beyond basic needs.  He stated that happiness does not increase with money once a modest lifestyle is achieved.

We need to remember that the greatness of our country, since post World War II, was founded on a majority middle class that was mostly public educated.  People who were willing to work a 40 hour work week regardless of their level of education could easily enter the middle class.  I realize that many ordinary jobs today require more training, but shop classes in high schools and certificate programs in community colleges could readily remedy this problem creating success for many and the well-trained workers that employers seek.

We need to support and honor the dignity of work with livable wages and benefits in order to save our democracy!

How are we supposed to react to childish bullying and name-calling from an adult?  Sixteen candidates in the 2016 Republican primary were unsuccessful in their response to adolescent taunting as they tumbled one by one.  Not even one ridiculous, outrageous or derogatory claim phased the perpetrator and all reasonable responses were ineffective.  I’m still befuddled how such unacceptable, juvenile behavior became an effective political tool in the American race for president.  Fortunately, I have witnessed what may be the perfect response.

This week Beto O’Rourke announced his run for the 2020 presidency.  When Trump was asked what he thought about this, he went on a lengthy critique describing Beto’s hand movements when he talks while Trump contributed nothing of relevant substance.  When Beto was asked what he thought about Trump’s characterization of his hand gestures, he simple and smartly said… “I have nothing to say about that…”  Not giving Trump’s middle school comments attention or credence is the best response.  This is a lesson that Elizabeth Warren could have benefited from when confronted with the “Pocahontus” taunts as her DNA testing backfired in denouncing Trump.

So the answer is to ignore the immature remarks and to continually address in great detail the issues that are important to Americans.  Argue the issues not the school yard goading.  You will find that your opponent does not have the tools to compete with you.  He only has one tool in his box.  Shut it down by ignoring it!!!

As a product of the dignity of work, I can only guess what it is like to be in the realm of wealth.  People who engage in the dignity of work perform essential tasks for our society and have specialized skills.  They dutifully and reliably go to work for 30 or 40 years in order to have a few carefree years to spend time with family and maybe travel or take up a hobby in the last years of their lives.

Over the course of my life, I have seen the dignity of work greatly devalued by our society.  I have witnessed legislators favoring the wealthy and depleting worker protections.  I have seen CEO pay increase to 500 times the pay of the workers.  It seems that those in the realm of wealth have lost touch with the reality of most Americans.  Most Americans today are living paycheck to paycheck as wages have not kept up with the cost of living.  Many work more than one job and many others work full-time jobs yet live in poverty.

I know that Paul Manafort does not represent all wealthy people, but he seems to represent an attitude of money first, money before ethics, morality and empathy.  According to reports I’ve heard on television, Manafort worked for a very wealthy, unsavory, pro-Putin oligarch in the Ukraine who acquired his wealth through illegal means.  As awful as all of this is, I am really troubled by Manafort’s insatiable appetite for money and things.  He apparently blew through $80,000,000 and then borrowed another $20,000,000.  In my estimation, this represents the life’s savings of 200 middle class workers who collectively toiled for 8000 years to truly earn that much money.

The dignity and value of work must be supported and protected.  Those in the realm of wealth need to be aware of the human infrastructure that is the bulwark of our country.  It is the foundation on which their ability to acquire wealth rests.  This foundation only requires a livable wage for an honest day’s work.  80% of Americans make up this foundation and need to vote for economic justice.

According to Beta Candy (The Cult of Masculinity 11/4/08), the cult of masculinity is where a man finds his identity and value.  Some find this identity in toughness and strength, in smartness (not in IQ or college degrees, but in the skill of outsmarting the other guy), and in autonomy that includes resentment of authority and rules (source: Into the Abyss: A Personal Journey into the World of Street Gangs by Mike Carlie Ph.D 2012).

These gang values, outlined by Carlie, seem to describe the behavior of President Trump. Disturbingly, some are attaching their identity and values to these behaviors.  This attachment allure is exponentially increased by the power Trump has been given by the Presidency.  Those who have internalized the identity and value put forth by this President may be engaging in blind loyalty.  They are no longer able to see things as they really are.  They have abandoned their true values and shut down their critical thinking.  They have lost touch with what is really important.  They need to know that wealth and power are temporary and temporal, and that human relationships and love are paramount and everlasting.

Can their blindness be healed?

Purely capitalistic economies have never existed.  Most western democracies have mixed economies that consist of free enterprise and government regulation that are in constant negotiation to find a reasonable balance.  Sometimes government gets a leg up and other times free enterprise gets a leg up.

Both are necessary as a sturdy foundation is required for innovation and production, while that latter is necessary to support the foundation.  The foundation is built and maintained through wage labor while innovation and production is created by capitalists.  Both are necessary and when they are out of balance the country suffers.  When business is favored we end up with a large class of working poor and when workers are overly favored innovation and production may suffer.  Livable wages for all should be a national goal.  Most people are not looking for handouts.  Most people take pride in hard work.

Unregulated capitalists (the minority) gain unfair power and exploit the working class (the majority).  They tend to prioritize profit over social good, natural resources and the environment and can become an engine of inequality, corruption and economic instability (Wikipedia capitalism).  We must find a balance.

Since the 1980s the capitalist class has been favored through deregulation resulting in stagnated or lower wages and lost benefits (pension & healthcare) for the working class while prices have risen.  When I was growing up the working class was the middle class, but now the working class is just surviving paycheck to paycheck.  We must find fairness.

Capitalists and the governing class have formed an oligarchy in which the masses are ruled by the few and allowing the oligarchical class to abscond with the country’s wealth that was built on the back of labor.  They would have us believe that anything that regulates the “free” (which does not exist) market economy is un-American or unpatriotic.  They want to label anything that helps the working class as “socialism” thereby connecting it to the former Soviet Union and communism, our mortal enemies since the 1950’s.  They want us to believe that socialism will steal our freedom when, in fact, it will curb their freedom to exploit the working class.

It isn’t an either/or thing.  It’s about balance and fairness and not letting the rich and powerful exploit labor.  Supporting affordable healthcare, housing and education for all is not unpatriotic.  Don’t let regulation that provides fairness for the working class be dismissed by the label of socialism.  It is a ploy by the capitalist class to maintain their control and power that exploits labor.  Let’s vote for fairness and balance and don’t be fooled by labels.

One of the reasons that I find the behavior of President Trump unacceptable may be that I am not accustomed to dealing with narcissists.  I grew up in an environment of humble,  kind, hardworking people.  As a child, I was reprimanded for bragging or acting superior and praised for being considerate of others.  I find many of his behaviors to be repulsive.

I came across an article this week written by someone who was raised by two narcissists and who has a greater understanding of how to deal with them.  “Being Raised by Two Narcissist Taught Me How to Deal with Trump” by Karen Greier (vice.com 2/13/2019) provides some valuable insight.  First, the author outlines “patterns of behavior” exhibited by narcissists.

1. meltdowns – public tantrums over the tiniest slights that are held up as great injustices.
2. dressing down –  forcing someone to listen to a complete accounting of all the ways they’re terrible.
3. wagon fixing – teaching someone a lesson for imagined slights by doling out an outsized punishment.

She continues, narcissists “…are all about wielding control over people” and don’t care how mean or bad they look doing it.   They “…do what is needed to elicit behaviors from the people around them to ensure they get what they want” and finesse situations to their advantage.  They make “… their opponents feel like they don’t have any moves left.”  Furthermore, “narcissists do not show remorse, they are incapable of shame.”  They can’t see how they have wronged others because they don’t hold them in “… high enough esteem.”  They have no sense of decency and want to hold their power over others.  They know how much leverage they have and will always use threats to get what they want.  THEY NEVER CHANGE.

So we are stuck.  Our President has no shame filter, doesn’t care what others think and does not have the ability to change his behavior.  He exerts his power while having an aversion to complexity and limited knowledge of the real and important facts needed to support his inflated sense of his ability.  In Team of Vipers Cliff Sims (St Martin Press, NY 2018) writes “Everything is personal to Trump – everything.”  He is incapable of seeing the other person’s point of view unless it agrees with his.  Everything he does is for himself and is incapable of anything else!  ALL WE CAN DO IS VOTE!