Author: reillymgray

Impeached President Trump craves power, but isn’t using it to protect us.  This self-proclaimed “war-time president” isn’t living up to his mental fantasies.   He needs to step up and federalize the production and distribution of mobile hospitals, medical equipment and personal protection equipment for first responders and medical professionals on the front-lines.  Our country is in crisis, a crisis that could have been less severe if it hadn’t been downplayed by Impeached President Trump causing us to be weeks behind in preparedness and prevention.

Impeached President Trump swore an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States which means us, “We the people.”  This affirms that the government of the United States exists to serve, and I might add protect, us.  And in the midst of this crisis, Impeached President Trump seems more motivated by his re-election chances than the health and safety of the people he swore to serve and protect.

Instead of stepping up, he’s allowing the states to fend for themselves causing bidding wars for equipment, for instance a seventy cent N95 face mask now costs seven dollars!  As a result, we are not getting what we need to survive this crisis.  Many will die unnecessarily due to the impotence of this feckless leader.  He has no clue how to be a war-time president!

He’s not a president, he just attempts to play one on TV.

As of this morning, there are 102,110 documented cases of the Coronavirus with 1,606 deaths in the United States.  The numbers doubled nearly every third day this last week.  There is no sign that it is stopping or slowing down.

Earlier this week, Impeached President Trump said he would like to negate social distancing in time for Easter Sunday so we can all go to church together.  It’s a beautiful thought that is not backed by science and health experts.

It is very scary that whether I live or die relies on the decisions of a man who went bankrupt six times not because he was a clever business man, but because he was impulsive and excessively overpaid for things.  His business reputation is so bad that American banks will not loan him money to fund his projects.  This has left the Trump Organization to rely on Germany’s Deutsche Bank who is known for money laundering for Russian Oligarchs.

Apparently, Impeached President Trump is motivated more by money and his re-election than the health and protection of the American people which he swore to do when he took the oath.  It became okay to sacrifice those 60 and older for the sake of the economy and his re-election, when someone on Fox News said the “…cure is worse than the disease” in referencing social distancing, unemployment and lost revenue.  The 60 plus portion of the U.S. represents 70 million people or 1 in 5 Americans.  This thought leaves me speechless.

I knew this day was coming late at night on November 8, 2016 when a sense of dread came over me as I learned that an incompetent, mullti-failed business man would become our President.  From day one, I had no confidence that this person could keep us safe and maintain our fragile democracy.  I did hope that he would be surrounded by sounder and keener minds that would keep us safe, but for now I can only hope that this is true.

New Jersey schools were closed on Friday, March 13, 2020 by the health department to curb the spread of the Coronavirus.  Parking lots of local restaurants are nearly empty and the restaurants are posting handwritten signs letting us know takeout and curbside delivery are available.  I’ve been to the grocery store arriving before 7 A.M to avoid a crowd.  I had secured a grocery delivery for tomorrow a week ago, but was notified yesterday that all deliveries have been canceled due to product shortages.  I’ve been engaged in remote learning for my students all week.  Nothing is normal.

As of this morning, there are 19,775 infections and 276 deaths in the United States.  Wasn’t it like a week ago, there were only 15 U.S. cases?  There are currently 890 infections and 11 deaths just in New Jersey.  There are currently 47,000 infections and 4,000 deaths in Italy.  This is important because we are only a few weeks behind and on the same trajectory.  Social distancing is our only fight as there is no vaccine nor treatment.  And, its the only way to prevent a healthcare crisis as hospitals are running out of beds and safety equipment for healthcare workers.  Non-essential workers are being furloughed and told to stay home many or most without pay.  This is creating a second crisis, a financial crisis.  Claims for unemployment insurance are skyrocketing nationally.  The Stockmarket had its worst week since maybe the 1930s.

Some suggest that this social distancing could be required through August and might have to be reinstated beginning around Christmas through January and February.  We’re 12-18 months away from a vaccine.  So maybe summer 2021, life can begin to return to normal.  But, we might be changed forever, just like our parents and grandparents were forever changed by living through the great depression.  Stay strong and follow all the precautions as we need to get through this together.

This is the most serious world health crisis of my lifetime.  It’s the first time I felt truly at risk since I am now over the age of 60.  I wrestled going to work these last few days, especially yesterday.  I was torn between being loyal to my employer, my co-workers and most importantly my students, and quarantining myself at home in an attempt to save my life.  Even though I was concerned, I went to work, but still contemplated the idea of using half my 20 years worth of accrued sick days starting next week to hide from this potentially deadly virus.  Luckily, I didn’t have to make this decision because the County Health Department shut the schools until April 20th when spring break is included.

We have provided the parents with online learning programs and a packet of materials to complete homebound instruction for 2 hours per day with follow-up communication through phone and computer.  Even, though closing the school has relieved my fear of future exposures from students and staff, I’m still worried that I may have already been exposed even though there is zero evidence that anyone I was with was sick.

Even though, I feel better about not being in a smallish classroom with 9 students and 5 other adults, I’m still feeling unsettled in that my new daily routines are going to be quite different.  Should I go grocery shopping or have them delivered, if possible?  Should I go out to lunch to a small sandwich shop or go to church or stay home for the next 5 weeks?  This is not at all like summer break when life is a bit more carefree.  I don’t know what this is like because I never experienced it before.

I’m feeling some anxiety and am having some difficulty sleeping at night.  It’s not because I’m thinking about anything specific, its just a systemic feeling of life as I knew it has changed and I’m experiencing a greater sense of uncertainty.  This is unknown territory.

Republican, Democrat, Independent, citizen, immigrant, male, female, straight, gay, rich, poor or in the middle and anyone else not listed are in the same boat and we need to work together.  Together we need to make sure we are more prepared for the next pandemic which is sure to come.  The greatest and smartest country in the world needs to lead in preparedness.  We need competent leadership and not someone who makes it up as he goes along wasting valuable time.  A successful president needs to surround him/herself with experts and then be quiet only speaking to reassure Americans that we are doing everything in our power to protect us all.

The coronavirus that started in China and has killed more than a dozen people in Washington state has made its way to Burlington County, New Jersey.  Much of the news has been dominated by reports of its spread, how it may effect us over the next few weeks or months and how our government and its agencies are handling it.  Right now we are experiencing a bit of uncertainty and it has caused the stock market to tumble.  Not sure how it will all turn out!

On the hopeful side, the moderate side of the democratic primary consolidated in what seemed like an instantaneous flash.  Biden was performing poorly in the early primaries and the moderate voters were floating between Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and maybe even Warren.  Then South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn in an emotional speech endorsed Biden.  As a result, Biden won South Carolina and the momentum carried into Super Tuesday and made Biden the new frontrunner.  Then Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Warren suspended their campaigns leaving only Biden and Sanders.  Now moderate democrats have a focus and can join together to elect Biden and defeat Impeached President Trump and return to normalcy, decency and integrity.

On another hopeful, positive, note, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton rebuked Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the Mueller Report questioning his “principal conclusions” letter and whether it was calculated to help Trump politically.  The day that he delivered that letter to the public left me bewildered.  It was an obvious coverup of the facts laid out in the Mueller Report and it left me wondering how can the head of the ‘justice’ department derail a legitimate report that should hold the president accountable?  I am hopeful the truth will win!

All of this week’s news, gave us a long-needed break from endless coverage of Impeached President Trump’s antics, half-truths and outright lies.  Let’s pray for the good health of all!

According to David Corn, a group of prominent conservatives in Washington – including the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (Ginni Thomas) and journalists from Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner – has been meeting privately since 2013 to concoct talking points, coordinate messaging, and hatch plans for  “a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation,” believing they are losing the messaging war with progressives.  This group know as “Groundswell” met (and still meets) weekly in the offices of Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group where they cooked up battle plans for their ongoing fights against the Obama administration, congressional Democrats, progressive outfits, and the Republican establishment and ‘clueless’ GOP congressional leaders.

They fear big government policies, socialism, communism and the “evil left who is purposely destroying the greatest country in all of world history.”  They were anti-Obama and are anti-immigration reform, anti-gay marriage, and pro-voter ID to name a few of their preferences.  They believed they were failing the propaganda battle with progressives.  They stated “We must reclaim the language and put ‘a face’ on our message, tell stories and write articles on a 4th grade level.”  The repeated right-wing talking points we hear over and over again, came from Groundswell (and brought us Impeached President Trump).

They mistakenly believe that somehow the professional / wealthy class made America great all by themselves.  They want to keep all the wealth we generated together for themselves.  They don’t think they need to invest in public education or social programs that help those in need to succeed.  If it wasn’t for the New Deal that created the biggest middle class in the world, the United States wouldn’t have achieved the number one standing.  More importantly, they don’t understand that the only way to maintain our standing is by working together including the middle and working classes and the immigrant class that is needed to grow our economy.  These “conservative elitists” are tragically wrong in their thinking.  They have separated themselves from average Americans thinking we are somehow a drain on their wealth, when we are the foundation on which it is built.

Sadly, this group has the ear of Justice Thomas through his wife.  Are his decisions being unfairly influenced?  We can’t know for sure.  All I know is that we need to do what is good for all Americans, not just the top few.  Finding the truth behind the propaganda is our uphill battle.  What is good for the least of us is good for all of us!

Michael Bloomberg is the 12th richest person in the world with over $60 billion.  During the democratic debate this week, one of the moderators asked if someone this rich should even exist?  Bloomberg replied that he was lucky and that he worked hard!  Really?  Most people I know work very hard and still fall in the bottom 50% of earners.  Many people who work very hard qualify for food-stamps.  Most of us are lucky in that we have found a job and that we are physically and mentally capable of performing that job.

How can we begrudge Bloomberg for becoming an American success?  Don’t most people on some level dream of becoming rich?  Bloomberg is a philanthropist.  But, boy, was I angered when he attributed his great wealth to hard work.  Similarly, back in a December 2017 post called “Who are the poor in the U.S.?”, I wrote that multi-millionaire Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) thinks that people who are not rich are lazy and spend their money on booze, women and movies.  It is apparent that both Bloomberg and Grassley have no clue what it is like to be an average hard working American, yet, they are in positions or want to be in positions to make decision that impact our lives.

Bloomberg used his natural talent, experience and Harvard Business degree to develop a computerized financial system back in the 80s that delivered high-quality business information delivered through technology, The Bloomberg Terminal.  It became the business standard in computerized trading and brought in more wealth than that owned by the bottom 120 million Americans combined.

All hardworking Americans deserve a livable wage.  Over the last four decades, legislation has favored only the top earners and the wealthy class of which many do not even work at all.  Trickle down does not work!  Hardworking Americans don’t want handouts, we just want a fair deal!

Growing up I often heard adults warn to never discuss politics or religion at social gatherings.  I didn’t really understand the warning on a deep level until recently.  Now that we live in a time of rampant political divisiveness, I often find people who have completely opposite world-views and each person not only believes that the other is wrong, but completely ignorant in their understanding of reality.  Each side has their mind made up and discussion is futile.

As I’ve been pondering how to understand people who represent the “other” from my perspective, I came across an Apple podcast from Innovation Hub called Teamsmanship. During the podcast authors Mark Hetherington and Lillianna Mason were interviewed.  Mark and his coauthor Jonathan Weiler wrote Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide.  Lillianna Mason wrote Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity.

My takeaway from the podcast is that each of us is drawn to our respective sides from a deep seated feeling.  We either believe that our lives are threatened by terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants and our priority should be to protect ourselves OR we believe its a big beautiful world mostly full of good people and we must find a way to embrace each other and not allow ourselves to be isolated.  We then interpret information in a way that makes our party seem better and the other party seem worse.  In fact, we are hardwired to try to find information that makes our team look good and to find ways to disprove information that makes the other team look good causing us to  think in a completely biased way without knowing that we are biased.

The team becomes more important than policies or I might add even the truth.  We all are experiencing implicit bias.  The authors suggest that we should not try to discuss politics with the other until we build something together toward a common goal with the other.  The only way to stop implicit bias is to actively acknowledge that it is happening and then to work on slowing down our automatic responses that are going to be immediately biased to anything partisan.  We need to ask ourselves, what are the things that I automatically do when I think about the other side?  And, then I can slow those things down.

Let’s recognize our own implicit bias, seek the truth and build a better world together.

It seems that the wholesome, cordial, compassionate and principled world in which I was born has become rude, crude, abusive and uncivil.  I have read that energy follows thought and that we create our own reality.  However, when our thoughts are influenced by negativity and lies, our collective reality becomes adverse, dubious and hostile.  I realize that there has always been a negative undertone in our culture, but what is unsettling is that this negative undertone has risen to the surface and is spreading to the detriment of us all.  When I look back on my 60 plus years, I see notable moments where this negativity was breaking through.  The moments I will be listing are not the only moments they’re just the ones that standout to me.  Here we go.

1980’s – Tennis star John McEnroe engages in unsportsmanlike behavior, ranting, raving and name-calling without consequence.

1982 – David Letterman takes over the “Tonight Show” from Johnny Carson.  Letterman’s irreverence challenges and changes what’s acceptable on TV.

1987 –  the movie “Wall Street” tells us that corporate raids and hostile takeovers of businesses that took a life-time or more to build is not just ok but clever and celebratory, and that “greed is good.”

1988 – Rush Limbaugh’s radio talk show becomes nationally syndicated spreading negativity, half-truths and even lies.

1992-1999 – TV show “Melrose Place” in which a bunch of self-abosorbed young professionals are only concerned with their own personal goals, drives and desires, and have no concern of how they treat others.

1995-1999 – Newt Gingrich becomes Speaker of the House and undermines political decorum and democratic norms thereby hastening political polarization and partisanship.   He used combative, hateful language, and false accusations.  He was charged by the Democrats with eight-four Ethics violations and reprimanded.

1996 – Roger Ailes heads Fox News.  Ailes was a Republican consultant beginning with Nixon and ending with the Trump campaign when he died in 2016.  He used false allegations, distraction and television production techniques to promote his candidates.  He used a false narrative and partial facts to promote Republican talking points on Fox News which is currently rated as 85% untruthful.

2017 – The Trump administration enters the Whitehouse and includes despicable persons, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.

2019 – The House of Representatives impeaches Trump for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.  The Republican majority Senate acquits.

2020 – Impeached President Donald Trump fires several public servants who told the truth under oath just like a third world dictator.

Is it too late to return to decency in America?  I hope not.  Will electing a respectable President change the downward flow into total incivility?  Let’s vote and find out!!!

I’ve been watching parts of the Senate impeachment trial of Impeached President Donald Trump this past week.  The house managers laid out their case and the Whitehouse counsel picked apart the process in what seemed like an endless repetitive loop.  It leaves an average person like me (non-lawyer, non-politician) at times confused and angry.

The Senate had the opportunity to hear from first-hand witnesses, but voted 51-49 to deny the calling of new witnesses.  Two Republicans joined the Democrats and Independents in favor of hearing witnesses, but it wasn’t enough.  Two more votes were needed to carry the motion.  This vote denied me and my fellow Americans the clarity we deserve and wanted as 75% of polled Americans favored more witnesses.

A. Lamar Alexander, Republican Senator from Tennessee, basically said that the managers proved their case.  Impeached President Donald Trump committed an illegal quid pro quo. Even though, Alexander said this behavior was inappropriate, he feels it is not impeachable and he voted against hearing from more witnesses.

So all the arguments I tried to process all this week were summarized by Alexander’s simple statement.  HE (Impeached President Donald Trump) DID IT and the Senate is going to do NOTHING ABOUT IT.

THIS WAS NOT A FAIR TRIAL, IT WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A REPUBLICAN COVER UP.

The Senate has left it up to us.  It is our duty to vote this corrupt, impeached president out of office. VOTE!!!

ONCE IMPEACHED ALWAYS IMPEACHED