Trump in Saudi Arabia

  There is so much news about Frump everyday that by the time I get around to sending an email there are multiple new stories to write about.  So this is a two day old email that has been bouncing around my cranium.

       I took anti nausea medication and listened to most of Frump's speech.  I thought his speech  was as good as he could do.  This is, however, a very low bar.  He was not bombastic.  He stayed on script, reading as best he could  from his teleprompter.  He actually mentioned Netanyahu as well as the State Of Israel.  

      My praise of Frump ends there.  His entire speech was almost entirely about fear mongering.  Basically all he spoke about was terrorism.  He could not have been more effusive in his praise for Saudi Arabia.  He said he was not going to lecture about how the Saudis should act.  This was a code  for not addressing human rights.  For that reason I have attached an article about women's rights in Saudi Arabia. It is chilling. In addition to denying women basic human rights, Saudi Arabia does not have anything resembling democracy,  It has nothing resembling a decent legal system.  In fact it practices an extreme form of Sharia law.  It jails dissidents.  It does not allow freedom of speech and assembly.  It still blames women who are victims of rape.  Its death penalty rate is sky high.  And we can never forget that the roots of 911 are in Saudi Arabia. I could go on.

      For me the worst part of Frump's speech was his hateful demonization of Iran.  I recognize that Iran does bad things.  Iran, however, has a system which is much closer to being a democracy than Saudi Arabia.  Look at the results of its last election. Its women  have much higher levels of education than in Saudi Arabia.  Its women are actually allowed to drive. Irani  women are not required to have a male guardian from the time they are born to the time they die, as in Saudi Arabia. Its young  people have shown time and again that they want better relations with the United States. There is clearly a second revolution taking place in Iran. President Obama was brilliant in trying to bring Iran into the  the world order rather than radicalizing the country.  If that continues we can have a more peaceful planet.   Frump continues the lie that the Iran nuclear deal was a disaster.  Frump bragged at an AIPAC convention that he knows more about the nuclear deal than anyone.  Many of the delegates could barely contain their laughter.   I wish I could bet right now that Frump could not name the countries which were signatories to the Iran Nuclear deal, let alone recite any of its provisions.  Fortunately, up to this point, Frump has not carried through his threat to rip up the Iran deal.  Hopefully,  it will be one more example of his disingenuousness.   

       Frump's speech did nothing to assuage my fear of what the future holds under this crazy man.  The news between the Saudi speech and today, however, suggest that his time in office may be short lived.  Let's hope.  Take care.

                                                                                    Richard

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia  

                                         

My two cents - Comey and Trump

Hi all,

      I am at a disadvantage when commenting on Comey's firing.  I get my TV information from MSNBC and CNN.  I don't get the Fox News perspective. In any event, here's my take.

      Comey may be competent, but he is deeply flawed regarding his public statements.  Everything Rosenstein wrote in his letter to Sessions is true.  Nevertheless, the firing is nothing more than a blatant attempt at covering up all investigations into Trump.  The Russian connection stinks.  So does Trump's enrichment of himself and his family by reason of his presidency.  I have said for a long time that investigations into Trump look very much like Watergate.  I said about Watergate that it was like peeling an onion.  It takes time, but eventually you get to the stinking core.

      To recap a little history,  Rod Rosenstein was recently confirmed by the Senate as assistant attorney general after Sally Yates was fired.  In his position, Rosenstein is in charge of investigations into Trump Russian connections. Mr. Rosenstein had broad bipartisan  support.  He promised to run an independent investigation.  Now he has sent a letter to Sessions which led to Trump firing Comey.  How is it that Rosenstein came to investigate Comey? He certainly had lots of other things on his plate  (e.g. the Trump investigations).  There can be only one answer.  He was tasked to do it by Sessions.  Why would Sessions want Comey to do this?  There can be only  one answer, Trump wanted him gone.  Why did Trump want him gone?  We know that answer.  The firing did not start with Rosenstein.  It started with Trump.

       This stinks on so many levels.  I won't bore you with my endless analysis.  Let me make just two points that jump out at me.  First, Jeff Sessions.  As Mark Twain said,"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."  Sessions has a problem with the truth.  He testified under oath that he would recuse himself from anything touching an investigation into the Russian connection.  Firing Comey was all about Russia.  Don't take my word.  In his letter to Comey, Trump explicitly referred to the Russian investigation.  The irony of the firing is that the Rosenstein letter said he should be fired because Comey treated Hillary unfairly.

        The second thing that smacks me in the face is the difference between the handling of Flynn and the handling of Comey.  Trump was told that Flynn was a danger to our country.  Trump  did nothing about that and perhaps never would have, if the Washington Post had not written that Flynn had lied to Pence.  And the lie had little to do with Sally Yates' warning.  Nevertheless, it took 17 days after the warning to fire Flynn.  In the Comey case, There was a letter recommending firing on one day and he was fired within 24 hours.  This despite the fact that there was already an ongoing investigation into Comey by the inspector general of the justice department.  There was only one reason for the abrupt action taken by Trump and Sessions, they wanted to end all investigations into Trump.  I remain confident that more layers of the onion will be peeled back.  Unless Trump somehow becomes a dictator of our democracy, his day of reckoning is coming. There is a hint that some Republicans are jumping ship.  It's not a question of if, only when.

        One more thing:  Trump is a chickenshit bully.  He didn't have the guts to call Comey personally to tell him about the decision. He called others, but not Comey. Instead he sent his personal bodyguard (thug) to deliver the letter to Comey.  The thug is currently being sued for assaulting a protester at a Trump rally.  Trump's letter to Comey  could not have been more ugly.  Not a surprise considering the source.

         Thanks for listening.

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                                                                               Richard