Stop The NRA By Not Allowing Them To Elect Our Politicians

Because I cannot write anymore grief stricken words about the tragedy of the lives lost and lives forever scarred as the result of school shootings, mass shootings and the shootings that take place every day, I am providing you with a list of members of Congress who have taken money from the National Rifle Association, the biggest and most powerful gun lobby in the country.

The National Rifle Association and its affiliates spent approximately $50 million in political advertisements in the 2016 election supporting those who towed their line, and going after Democrats who propose stricter gun laws. $50 million dollars.

Donald Trump was the biggest winner of the NRA's 2016 election advertising, buying Trump's support with $11,438,118 million dollars. They gave $19,756,346 to groups opposing Hillary Clinton.

It's not by chance that Trump didn't call for stricter gun control laws after the horrific school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a semi-automatic rifle was used to kill 17 people and injure 17 others. 

The National Rifel Association has done their best to buy our politicians and prevent stricter gun control regulation. If the only thing that these people understand is money, put your money elsewhere. The names of every politician who accepts money from the NRA is a list that cannot be circulated enough. It has been compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. 

TOP MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WITH HIGHEST AMOUNT OF NRA & AFFILIATE CONTRIBUTIONS IN 2016

Ted Cruz (R, Texas) $360,727

Marco Rubio (R, Florida) $176,030

Paul Ryan (R, Wisconsin) $171,977

Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin) $165,498

Rand Paul (R, Kentucky) $155,605

Pat Toomey (R, Pennsylvania) $ 79,908

Ryan K. Zinke (R, Montana) $ 79,068

Martha McSally ( R, Arizona) $ 77,063

Todd Young (R, Indiana) $ 73,785

Joe Heck (R, Nevada) $ 68,520

Rob Portman (R, Ohio) $ 64,877

Kelly Ayotte (R, New Hampshire) $ 64,796

Mia Love (R, Utah) $ 63,350

Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) $ 53,380

Roy Blunt (R, Missouri) $ 49,430

Richard Burr (R, North Carolina) $ 47,300

Kevin McCarthy (R, California) $ 42,000

John McCain (R, Arizona) $ 38,260

A Shutdown: Government Of The People, For The People, By The People

President Abraham Lincoln's strong and poignant words delivered in the Gettysburg Address should be ringing across our country as it once again splinters apart. The war we face as Americans today is again an internal war, but this time the foot soldiers are those we elected to represent our country. We have a president and a Republican led Congress who seem to care not for the people as a whole, but choose to challenge our democracy as it was built by appealing only to the interests of a few.

As our government teeters on the edge of a shutdown, President Donald Trump, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan look to lay blame everywhere but on themselves. They are the ones to be held responsible for leading the discord and divisions and the tragedy they have made of politics. The misguided are in control of our government, and we the people are paying the price.

While the world watches the dysfunction occurring in Washington, D.C., our country’s stability is questioned near and far. Let's be clear. Children are at the core of the battle in Washington. Families are at the core. Republicans appear unable to come together with Democrats on their behalf. A government shutdown is an excuse to cover all else.

The GOP cannot agree on the money needed to continue funding the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, which provides care for nine million children in need. They cannot agree to continue support of the Dream Act for those immigrant children covered by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

These acts have protected approximately one million young people who came to this country illegally as children. They have been protected from deportation because they came here through no fault of their own. Now the children and their families are living day to day with constant heart-wrenching uncertainty needlessly being continued by the president, Congress and its captains.

Will a child be able to have a critical medical procedure? Will a child be forcefully removed from the only country she or he has ever known? Children are being held hostage by the political idiocy taking place in the White House and on Capitol Hill. And so, it seems, are the rest of us.

The man elected president one year ago has turned to a mean and vengeful style of governing, and the Republican party has often followed suit. They are playing dangerous games of brinkmanship while showing little concern for humanity. It is the antithesis of the government that Lincoln worked so hard to reunite.

President Lincoln's words at Gettysburg remain striking in their reminders today:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The current leaders of our country have strayed too far. They have lost the ability walk in the shoes worn by all citizens, and those who came to our shores for a better life. 

Oprah's Passion Translates To The Political World

Dreamstime image

Today, no matter your political persuasion, you cannot ignore Oprah Winfrey. Anyone who watched the Golden Globes saw a presidential candidate who was a tour de force. I hadn't plan to write about Oprah, but it is impossible not to do so. 

As a former broadcaster and political observer of many years, I respectfully say that the timing of Oprah’s entry onto the political stage is as near perfect as a potential candidate could want. The reason the speech she delivered at the Golden Globes is resonating so strongly with so many is because she had the ability to give a speech that's exactly what much of our country has been yearning to hear. Consciously or not.

If you missed it, read it.

Her passionate words spoke to women as well as men, young as well as old, black as well as white, and rich as well as poor. She inclusively pulled us in with heart and smarts. When you can do that, you've hit a political home run. Especially if you're a woman who happens to be black. Especially if you're thinking of running for President of the United States.

Oprah has been masterful in her ability to translate the past tragedies of abuse and poverty in her own life into extraordinary professional success. That couldn't have happened without enormous inner strength, and an instinctive understanding of what it takes to do more than survive. Her success has been based on relatability. No matter how wealthy she has become, or the media empire she has built, or her acting achievements, Oprah has perfected the ability to touch the humanity in people. It's a quality that only the best politicians possess. 

The current state of political affairs in our country is its own tragedy. Leadership is not a guiding light of hope, but rather something that’s creating epic proportions of divisiveness and anger. It speaks of a bleak future that is pulling too many down and lifting too few up.

Is it any wonder that a speech delivered at a Hollywood gathering, one that was able to address the good and the bad while aiming for a better tomorrow, has been received as it has? With the strength of great oratory, Oprah's closing words were met with resounding applause that rang from the entertainment capital to living rooms across the nation:

"In my career, what I've always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave. To say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere and how we overcome. I've interviewed and portrayed people who've withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say "Me too" again."

Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. This time it was an award that launched a political career for a woman whose star has risen yet again - if she wants it.

Doug Jones Fit For Office

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA2.0

Women's voices were finally heard when they helped pull off an upset Senate victory in Alabama defeating a man accused multiple times of sexual misconduct, Republican Roy Moore, and electing Democrat Doug Jones. Through a deafening bluster of lies and denials emanating from Moore and his chief supporters, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump, one alleged sexual predator was defeated in his attempt to win a seat in the Senate. One more sits in the White House. The state of Alabama has shown Donald Trump an opening to the exit door.

Jones threw our country a life raft at a critical point in time. We have finally begun to ask out loud - how low will we allow ourselves to sink? A known, though I will use the word alleged, child molester was being touted by President Trump and the Republican National Committee as the right man to elect for the Alabama Senate seat.  

We owe a brave woman named Leigh Corfman a debt of gratitude. She was the first woman to come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against candidate Roy Moore. Corfman was 14-years-old when she says 32-year-old Moore "seduced her", initiating a sexual encounter. Moore was an assistant district attorney at the time. That's called child molestation, and the term officially became linked in a Senate election. 

Moore has refuted the accusations made by Corfman as well as those made by eight other brave women who came out with their own stories of sexual misconduct by Moore. Wendy Miller. Debbie Wesson Gibson. Gloria Thacker. Beverly Young Nelson. Tina Johnson. Gena Richardson. Becky Gray. Together with Leigh Corfman, these women became a plague on Roy Moore's house and another window into the depth of sexual harassment and abuse women have endured.

All of Moore's accusers were called liars. Many people in Alabama didn't believe them. Nor did some people around the country. But a majority of Alabama voters decided they had had enough, and pulled off an extraordinary victory defeating Republican Moore in a solidly red state in the deep south. Donald Trump won Alabama in the 2016 presidential election. 

During the campaign, Doug Jones repeatedly referred to the list of Moore's accusers as proof that Moore was unfit for office. Trump and the Republican National Committee didn't see it that way. They chose to ignore women's voices just as they did in the 2016 presidential election. What a difference a year can make.

Trump has his own list of 19 women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct before he was elected president. He himself spoke of his predatory behavior toward women in the now infamous Access Hollywood tape. The man was unfit for office in 2016. He remains so today. What has changed is the impact of women's voices speaking out against abuse, and being heard.

The Days of Reckoning Began With Trump Ineptitude

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0

With the indictments and unsealed guilty pleas of Trump campaign associates on October 30, 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller let President Donald Trump know there's no denying facts. Few have been able to previously achieve such a feat. 

Mueller's detailed twelve count indictment against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner and campaign associate Rick Gates include conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and being unregistered foreign agents. Both men pled not guilty to the charges largely emanating from their work with the pro-Russian Ukraine government.

But It was the guilty plea of George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, that has opened the floodgates of information further than anyone expected at this point. Papadopoulos has admitted lying to the FBI. His cooperation with investigators is revealing critical details of the attempts by Russian intelligence services to contact him in an effort to gain influence in the campaign. Potential collusion is on the books. 

Who's swamp is being drained now? As a man who prided himself on being a brilliant businessman and Washington outsider who knows how to get things done, President Trump has seemingly failed himself. His choices as a candidate laid the groundwork for a presidency now forever married to the first criminal charges and admission of guilt in the investigation of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. If he thought he could escape it by firing James Comey, he was wrong.

Donald Trump put together a campaign team who either knew less than he did about presidential politics, or whose questionable pasts were well known to anyone who cared to look deeply. He kept his children and son-in-law, Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Jared Kushner, closest to him even though they had no political experience. Trump chose Corey Lewandowski, a man who had never worked on a national campaign, as his first campaign manager. Lewandowski was a short-tempered divisive man who fed into Trump's darker side while alienating allies as well as Trump's children, and wrecking havoc with the campaign.

In June 2016, Trump fired Lewandowsky and named Paul Manafort as his new campaign chairman. Paul Manafort, viewed as a veteran Republican strategist, was originally brought into the campaign in March 2016 to assist with delegate count. In Manafort, Trump saw a wealthy man close to his age who had an apartment in Trump Tower. He seemed to look no further. But they had a past.

Roy Cohen, famed McCarthy era lawyer and Trump's mentor, originally introduced Manafort to Trump in the 70's. Trump was doing business with Manafort's old consulting firm, Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly. In the Political & Otherwise piece written June 30, 2016  "Trump Wears New Clothes", Manafort is described as a man who "has a particular knack for taking autocrats and presenting them as defenders of democracy". Trump knew what he was getting. Until he didn't.

Trump asked for Manafort's resignation in August 2016 after new reports continued to surface about his past work for pro-Russian political elements in Ukraine. Rick Gates had come along for the Trump campaign ride as Manafort's long time business associate. But he continued to work for the campaign after Manafort left and stayed on through Trump's inauguration.

Steve Bannon became Trump's third presidential campaign manager/CEO. He had never worked in a national political campaign. Breitbart News, a far-right publication, was Bannon’s claim to fame along with being a controversial character. None of that seemed to bother Trump.

President Trump has continually lauded himself for running an unconventional campaign, and now an unconventional presidency. He has taken his love affair with choosing inexperienced people for jobs of political importance to the White House with seemingly little regard for the consequences. Trump has never really left campaign mode, and that now takes on an entirely different light.

The old adage that you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with rings loudly for President Trump. When poor judgement, bad decisions and recklessness become known as major hallmarks of a winning presidential campaign, something has gone terribly wrong.       

Special counsel Mueller's investigation has just begun. We have yet to learn all of the facts about Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Carter Page and the family entanglements of Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The closer Mueller gets to the truth about Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign, the louder the calls become for the investigation to end.

A Timely Trump Flashback

Recent history often provides clarity on the circumstances of today. Sometimes people change. Donald Trump does not.

One year ago on October 11, 2016, the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took place in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a tumultuous month in the historic 2016 campaign. Trump's campaign appeared on shaky ground, the U.S. announced that Russia was trying to interfere in the election, and WikiLeaks was dumping new controversy into the race. 

As we watched both candidates on the debate stage, Donald Trump laid out the pattern we see being played out today. Trump used distraction to cover up his lack of substance on issues, no matter what Hillary said. No matter what anybody said. Distraction remains his continued modus operandi with only one difference - Trump is now President of the United States and the world is his stage. 

Days before that debate, the now infamous Access Hollywood tapes had been released showing Trump's mentality and despicable behavior toward women. He had been exposed.  Rather than contrition, Trump carried his anger into the debate lashing out and using his physical presence to stalk Clinton on stage. He became the omnipresent bully.

Donald Trump is an angry man. We saw it in the candidate. We see it in the President. He's a man who believes that the way to succeed is to evoke intimidation and fear spreading anger wherever he can. There's no greater good in his mind other than what works for himself.

I described Trump as "seriously out of control" a year ago in the column appearing below. Tragically nothing has changed. In October 2017, time has become the controlling factor. How much time will it take for the Trump presidency to be brought down? 

Sex. Lies. Groping. Video Tape. and a Debate/ October 10, 2016  

St. Louis Debate

We have gone through many stages of Donald Trump during this 2016 Presidential Campaign, but we now have reached the numbing effect. He went to the bottom of the barrel in the St. Louis Presidential Debate and did not come up cleansed. In an attempt to save himself after the release of sleazy video and audio tapes of self described sexual ways and encounters, he stooped even lower in full public view. 

In a move few could believe, Trump brought four women, three of whom accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the '90's, to the Washington University in St. Louis campus shortly before the debate began. Donald Trump held a photo op with all of them. Then his friend Rudy Giuliani escorted the women to their seats in the main debate room directly in front of Hillary Clinton. Trump apparently felt that humiliating her in a cheap and tawdry way in front of a world audience watching the debate was the best way to redeem himself.

This is the same Donald Trump who told us after the first debate, "I'm really happy I was able to hold back on the indiscrestions in respect to Bill Clinton. Because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton." The same Chelsea Clinton who was now forced to sit rows apart from women who had played a very painful role in the Clinton family life when she was a young girl. The same Chelsea who was seated in the St. Louis audience next to her father, the former President of the United States. The same daughter whose good friend Ivanka Trump was also sitting close by next to her sibilings and Melania Trump. 

That's what Hillary Clinton saw as she looked out at the audience in the relatively small debate area that had been set up.

And that's exactly what it was. A set up. Trump had wanted to intimidate her.

The Debate was held on a fine midwestern college campus. In normal times, it would have been a great opportunity for students to have the presidential candidates debate on their campus. But what took place last night was something that should never have been seen by any of us as part of the presidential political process.

Donald Trump came on to the debate stage an angry man backed into a self made corner. You can no longer be dispassionate about Trump. His behavior at the St. Louis Debate was repulsive and wrong. He created what was too often an abusive encounter mixed with psychological warfare. He tried to make Hillary guilty for her husband's alledged indescretions. Trump showed continual disrespect for the former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State, telling her if he were in charge "you'd be in jail."  He refused to stop interrupting and shouting at her. And this was a Presidential Debate.  

The one thing Donald Trump didn't do last night was offer the American people a major apology for his behaviors. Not the thirty second late night one quickly put together two days before. He wasn't man enough to do the right thing, and what many were waiting to hear. 

So much damage had been done to this debate by a defiant and arrogant Donald Trump that it was hard to focus on whatever substance there was. What we saw was a candidate seriously out of control.

Equifax Doesn't Deserve Our Information

The Equifax hack of 143 million American's personal and credit information is a total breach of whatever privacy we have left in this digital age. Those affected will be dealing with its ramifications for a very long time. Equifax can be viewed as either having abused its power or being negligent in its lack of protection of collected data.

When was the last time you agreed to allow a credit reporting agency to obtain your private information? Never, would be the right answer. Equifax, Transunion and Experian have built their businesses by collecting our most sensitive personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers, without our consent. They retain this information without having us check the box that says "I am not a robot" or pledging that 'in credit agencies do we trust'.      

These entities have been allowed to create a unique big brother mode of vast control over some of the most important aspects of our lives. Whether it's buying or renting real estate, obtaining insurance, loans, utility service and so much more, that ominous credit score in the sky rules over more than we would like to think. Most of my friends don't know my mother's maiden name or my driver's license number, but credit agencies do.

Equifax, Transunion and Experian not only collect our private information, they market it and sell it. And they really know how to sell. The big 3 credit reporting agencies have become huge businesses creating multi-billion dollar empires that use our information as their product. Pretty amazing when you think about it. Equifax reported 2016 sales/revenue of $3.14 billion. Transunion reported 2016 sales/revenue of $1.7 billion. Experian 2016 sales/revenue of $2.81 billion.

The extent of information obtained by credit reporting agencies is, for the most part, not public knowledge. It should be. Experian is reported to have a marketing division which sells the "names of expectant parents and families with newborns" that are "updated weekly." Equifax "collects detailed salary and pay stub information". The more we know, the more outrageous it gets.

Our social security numbers have long been considered a sacrosanct part of personal information. Once we get that number, we have it for the rest of our lives. According to the Social Security Agency, "the number was created in 1936 for the sole purpose of tracking the earnings histories of U.S. workers, for use in determining Social Security benefit entitlement and computing benefit levels." Can it be called progress to know how far we have come from its original intent?

While our SSN numbers remain the determining factor for Social Security benefits, credit reporting agencies have taken those numbers to an entirely different level. Equifax, Transunion and Experian have created their own form of social security commodity exchange, selling those numbers, and any accompanying information, to anyone they deem a likely prospect. They mine data collected from us to enhance their bottom line.

A 2012 Equifax news release provides additional insight: 

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced the launch of Equifax B2B Marketing Compass™, a powerful end-to-end marketing analytics solution that enables organizations to optimize the performance of their business marketing and sales strategy by defining the ideal customer profile and identifying hidden market and wallet share.

Utilizing market-leading, multi-sourced business databases to identify insights in customer portfolios, Equifax's B2B Marketing Compass employs customer profiling and market penetration analytics to enable users to identify winning customer segments and market penetration. Users of the solution can also:

With little to no government regulation or enforcement, Transunion and Experian are as guilty as Equifax in abusing our information. They just haven't been hacked. Yet. The Fair Credit Reporting Act passed in 1970 was supposed to regulate credit reporting agencies and "compel them to insure the information they gather and distribute is fair and accurate". Despite several updates, the law is outdated. It doesn't deal with the marketing and selling segments of the credit reporting business, data breaches or the theft of personal information.

Congressional hearings are being scheduled and lawsuits will pile up. Consumers - you, me and everyone else - need to demand greater protection of our personal information. No one can get back what has been stolen from nearly half the people in this country.  

Including me. As I was nearing the end of writing this piece, my telephone rang and a text alert came in. The first of my credit cards has been hacked by someone claiming to be "an IRS charitable donation".

Ivanka and Jared: There Is No Hiding

Photo by Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress

President Donald Trump's outrageous and dangerous support of the Unite the Right rally that brought white supremacists and neo-Nazis together in Charlottesville, Virginia will help enrich his standing with the alt-right, while he secures his position as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. He has burdened our country with his betrayal of morality.

When chants of "Jews will not replace us" came out of the mouths of marching extremists who were carrying flaming torches and wearing swastikas and any other form of Nazi look-alike paraphernalia, shivers went down the spines of Jewish people across the country. Another group of armed neo-Nazis stood across the street from a synagogue chanting “Sieg Heil” as members of the Jewish community prayed inside during their Sabbath service. The President of the congregation, Alan Zimmerman, published a blog post recounting the fears and threats posed to those inside. The congregation had hired an armed security guard after Charlottesville police reportedly refused to provide the synagogue with a guard during the protests.

The August 12th rally tragically turned deadly when a man ran his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others. President Trump condemned the violence but refused to call out the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. His response was unconscionable:

“You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

President Trump lived and built his business in the largest Jewish city in the world, New York City. The Trump-Kushner family are Jews. Ivanka went through a well publicized Orthodox conversion to Judaism before the couple married. The president’s grandchildren are Jewish.

But Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were silent as anti-Semitism and racism reared its ugly head in Charlottesville. They went away for the weekend. They hid, choosing to spend the time in a Vermont get-away. What would make them think that going away was the right thing to do when they knew what had been scheduled in Virginia? They had an opportunity to speak out strongly against what took place, but instead took the cowardly approach. 

I believe that Ivanka has probably learned to compartmentalize her life for the sake of parental love during a troubled childhood and her parent’s very public divorce. Over the years, no matter what, no matter how disgusting her father's behavior or remarks have been, Ivanka has stood at his side. And she did it once again after Charlottesville.

The ignorance of a father need not be reaped upon the daughter - unless the daughter so choses.

By Sunday morning August 13th, Ivanka tweeted, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis.”

On Monday, Ivanka Trump went back to work as an aide to her father. Jared Kushner went back to work as an aide to his father-in-law.

A few hundred miles away another father - and mother mourned the death of their daughter, Heather Heyer, the young woman killed by an alleged neo-Nazi protester during the Charlottesville rally. Heather died standing up for what she believed.

Trump and Vacation Stress

Translation: Trump: six months of tumult for few results

I went on vacation to try and get away from it all, relax and refresh. It's something we all like to do, when possible, that's become a mixture of tradition and sometimes near necessity to break the daily stresses of life. I committed to not reading or sending emails on my phone while away with the decided form of communication being text to my son. I bought a good novel to read on the trip, with a plan to drift into another place for a couple of weeks. I think it's called escape. But my best efforts to do so were not foolproof. Arriving at the hotel in Paris, the second thing I saw after checking in at the front desk were newspapers and magazines graciously laid out for guests. Most of those publications had what appears below as a theme and variation:

The miles I flew may have been great, but nothing it seems could get me away from seeing Donald Trump on front pages. Or hearing continued talk of disbelief and concern at his behavior among people not just from France, but from too many other parts of the world. 

I returned home to find more Trump news involving North Korea threatening the U.S. and President Trump threatening North Korea. 

Which brings us to judgement. Can we trust our President's judgement? This is certainly a time when the world is watching and we would like to do so, but Trump lacks any kind of firm knowledge base of international affairs let alone diplomacy. What he does know how to do is bully anyone who attacks him while carelessly throwing around the weight of his words. Unfortunately for all of us, he's taken that behavior into the ring with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader is well known for using his own bully power whenever it suits him, even if that means killing off members of his own family, which he has repeatedly done. 

Hair trigger personalities and knee jerk reactions are the last thing the world needs when nuclear weapons are involved, and that's exactly where we appear to be right now. 

Kim Jong-un on Thursday said a plan is being prepared to fire four missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam. Hours later President Trump responded at a news conference, doing nothing to calm the nerves of everybody watching: 

"If Kim Jong Un does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before."

Threats and more threats. Somehow Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comment one day ago telling Americans they "should sleep well at night" struck me as a weak Churchillian response to a concern that is keeping a lot of people awake at night. 

When The Trump Family Business Became Politics

President Trump has boldly made the presidency an extension of his family business, crossing all boundaries and all lines because nobody has yet stopped him from doing so. Whether or not his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr. are currently ensconced in the White House, they're firmly attached to their father's hip running the other family business in New York. They reportedly speak frequently to their father. Daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner are positioned with jobs inside the White House, knowing few boundaries while dealing with affairs of state. The Russia connection has now officially become a family affair by nature of how President Trump operates.

As far as Trump was concerned, positioning Hillary Clinton as crooked and untrustworthy was the key way he could win the 2016 presidential election. "Lock her up" was the chant he encouraged and with which he thrived. Anything to do with Russian interference in the 2016 election, however, is something that Trump has repeatedly said was a complete fabrication.

Trump lied then, and continues to lie now. The angry grandiosity of his claims remain a great cover up posing a great question mark in itself.

Hillary lost. Donald won. We have intelligence community confirmation that it was more than Trump supporters who helped him win the election. The story of Russian involvement in our election is being revealed almost daily as the result of top notch reporting, continuing investigations, and the Trump family themselves.

Using Twitter, the instant media drug of choice for the Trumps, Donald Trump Jr. has now affirmed his position as a focal point in the Russian saga. On July 11, Trump Jr. released details via tweets of his meeting with a Russian government connected lawyer alleging to have "damaging information about" Hillary Clinton. Donald Jr. came forward with the information as the New York Times was about to break the story. The meeting in Trump Tower took place after his father had won the nomination and included campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

Donald Jr. continued to publicly change the facts of this seemingly important meeting as the pressure on him increased. He did so, true to his father’s style, despite being positioned to take a significant part of the fall.

It should come as no surprise that Donald Jr. neglected to report his meeting with a Russian lawyer about the presidential campaign to the proper authorities, including the FBI. It's the way the Trump family business has operated. They've never had to report to anyone except the IRS and investors. Reporting information to the outside world has only come when Trump Sr. deemed it beneficial. 

President Trump and his kids knew little about what was to become the new family business of politics and governance when they began a quest for the presidency. It’s become obvious that they felt no need to learn all that goes into the jobs of running a campaign ethically and responsibly, let alone running our country.