Removing the tripwire

During the Cold War American troops were stationed in West Germany.  They were not there in numbers that could halt a Soviet invasion.  The force was too small.  They were there as a warning.  The Soviet leaders knew that if the U.S.S.R. attacked, it would be attacking American troops and the United States would retaliate.  The troops were a “tripwire.”

U.S. troops in Syria have been serving the same function.  Our number one and most faithful ally in that area, the Kurds, who were a mainstay in the fight against ISIS, were threatened by Turkey.  Erdogan, the “strongman” of Turkey, hates the Kurds and would like to move against them.  He did not dare to do that as long as American troops were there.

Now, if I understand today’s news reports correctly, President Trump says he will withdraw all American troops from Syria.  He will pull the tripwire.  The Kurds will be left to twist slowly in the wind.  

I don’t know why we even have allies.  We are not reliable.  We are not dependable.  We are the equivalent of Neville Chamberlain writing off Czechoslovakia.  

World Communion Day

Today Linda’s church (Big Creek United Church of Christ) celebrated World Communion Day.  Pastor Robison preached a very short sermon.  He said he had intended to quote Gandhi about how you could judge a government by how it treated its weakest members, but his internet search turned up empty.  He did, however, find a quotation from Hubert Humphrey, who was Lyndon Johnson’s Vice President.  

I’m paraphrasing, but Humphrey said you could judge a government on how it treated the most vulnerable people–the young, the poor, and the sick.  Yesterday an article in the Times noted that our government is making further cuts in food stamps.  I couldn’t help thinking about Trump’s efforts to gut the ACA and the kids in cages.  

In 1968 I voted for Dick Gregory for President instead of Hubert Humphrey.  I stuck to my principles.  I was pure in heart.  And I was completely wrong, because people like me helped to put Richard Nixon into the White House.  I hope I won’t do something that stupid ever again.

Rep. Dan Meuser, stirring up hate

Before Nov. 2018 my congressman was Matt Cartwright.  Rep. Cartwright is a member of a small group in the House of Representatives called the “Problem Solvers’ Caucus.”  These are Democrats and Republicans who sit down together and actually try to make things better.  In 2018, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found the Congressional districts unfairly gerrymandered and redrew the lines.  While the Court did an excellent job overall in drawing fair districts, a byproduct was that Carbon County is now in a Republican district.  In 2018 that district, the 9th, elected Dan Meuser.

Meuser is NOT a member of the Problem Solvers’ Caucus.  In fact, he echoes Trump in promoting hatred and hysteria.  Today he wrote a column in the Morning Call about how the Democrats were harming the country with the impeachment hearings.  Evidently Trump’s calls to foreign governments to destroy one of his political opponents is not a problem for Meuser.

Meuser goes on to say that the Democrats wanted a complete takeover of elections.  He said this provided “false hope to their base, including those here illegally.”  This is total crap, but it will alarm readers of the column who may not believe that a Congressman would lie.  (Note that Meuser did not come out and say people here illegally would vote.  He implied.  He used innuendo.)  The whole column is full of misleading statements or flat out lies, like the one that said the Mueller report “vindicated the president.”

He concludes his column saying the Democrats “are showing no regard for the Constitution.”  This is another Trump trick.  Accuse the other side of your own bad behavior.

It is people like Meuser, rich, unpatriotic, willing to sell this country out, who are tearing this country apart.

Those of you who are Facebook or whatever other social media sites you inhabit, feel free to spread this post.  The more people who know the kind of person Meuser is, the more likely he will be defeated in 2020.

It's not only California

You know Andrew Wheeler, head of the E.P.A., revoked California’s authority to set emission standards.  What you may not know is that other states' officials are siding with California, including Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Here’s what Shapiro said:  “The Trump administration has assaulted states’ rights, and Exhibit A is this clean cars law, where states have taken it upon ourselves to protect our citizens and now they are unlawfully trying to strip us of our authority.”

13 states had enacted California’s standards before the Trump administration declared them to be illegal.

Info for this post is from Coral Davenport, “‘Chilling Message’ in a Hard Line on California,”  New York Times, (Oct. 4, 2019), p. A12.

Politicizing Veterans

It is always an interesting phenomenon that while the Democratic Party supports programs for veterans far more than Republicans, many vets seem to think the Republican Party is on their side.  

Tonight the Carbon County Democratic Party discussed whether or not to send an official delegation to participate in the county Veterans’ Parade.  The consensus was that the parade was to honor veterans, not to score political points.  A Democratic Party contingent would be more about the party than the vets, and we should not use the parade as a political prop.

I wonder what the Republicans will do.

The poet

You just thought I posted howls of rage on this blog every night.  Guess again.  I am also a poet, with a few hundred in my backlog.  I won’t post any of them here, but I do try to get them published.  

The process is this.  I usually send for a sample copy of a poetry review.  Then I submit four or five poems that I think might get published.  Then I wait, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes over a year.  Along with the poems I send a self-addressed stamped envelope (known in the poetry business as an SASE).  Then, when that comes back I tear it open with eager anticipation to read the rejection slip.

I have been published in a few journals, including Barbaric Yawp, Coal City Review, Song of the San Joaquin, and Stirring.  The usual payment for a published poem is two copies of the journal.

I read that the last poet to make a living from publishing poetry was Robert Frost, and even he gave lectures and talks to supplement his income.

We have no choice

A great deal of speculation centers on whether the impeachment inquiry will help or hurt Trump’s re-election.  Some commentators think “the country is not ready.”  Others point out, as I have in an earlier post, that it is doubtful that the Senate will vote to impeach even if the House makes its case.  

What these commentators seem to be missing is that this has to be done.  Congress cannot allow a President to pressure a foreign government into interfering in our election process.  It can’t allow a President to withhold authorized aid to a country for his own personal advantage

The New York Times on Sunday published a long editorial on the process.  It was entitled “The Only Option.”  This kind of behavior cannot be ignored.  Even if Trump escapes a guilty verdict, at least we have set a precedent that such behavior will be called out.

If you think the process doesn’t matter, think about this.  Do you admire Bill Clinton?  Do you think that his sexual liaison with an intern was no big deal?  I don’t think Clinton should have been removed from office, but I think the process showed that he acted improperly and was reprehensible person.  Even if the House stopped all of its inquiries tomorrow, it has accomplished a great deal already.