Month: August 2018

There’s been a “hot mess” this past month in Washington D.C.

One can expect stinky goings-on when a sleazeball is elected to office, and that’s what’s happening now…in spades. Nary a day goes by without word of another scandal, someone cutting a deal with prosecutors, another henchman getting sentenced to prison, etc.

Donald Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, the guy who has “fixed” his bosses legal and personal peccadilloes for many years, has evidently turned on The Donald. Michael Cohen, the guy who paid hush money to Trump’s girlfriends so that the salacious frolicking was kept hidden for the 2016 election, has now dropped a dime on his ex-boss.

This is significant, because the act constitutes a Federal elections crime. Cohen says that Trump knew all about it.

What is more significant is that Mr. Cohen knows many secrets about President Trump, and he appears to be plea bargaining with those assets.

According to Trump (who is an expert at this), Cohen is lying.

Another of the President’s closest buddies, ex-Trump for President Campaign Director Paul Manafort, ran into Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s legal buzzsaw this past week. Manafort was convicted of eight counts of banking and tax fraud.  He faces quite a few years in prison for these misdeeds.

Unfortunately for Manafort, he also faces two more trials…the real serious ones…on charges that he and his cronies in the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to sway the 2016 election.

“Never happened”, says the President. Unfortunately for him, his two sons have publicly contradicted him.

No wonder the Special Prosecutor is sniffing around.

As the charges and convictions mount, there will be increasing pressure on Paul Manafort to cut a deal with prosecutors. President Trump is feeling the pressure…

The whole Trump family is sweating out the so-called “witch hunt”.

Yesterday, the CFO of the Trump Organization (i.e. the Trump family business), Allen Weisselberg, was granted immunity by the Special Prosecutor for his testimony in the Cohen hush money scandal. Weisselberg testified that he authorized Trump money to reimburse Cohen for his costs in bribing two women not to blow the whistle on Trump’s extramarital affairs. Weisselberg is one of Trump’s closest partners; his history with the Trump family goes all the way back to Fred Trump, Donald’s father.

In another matter relating to Trump’s affairs and the 2016 election, David Pecker, the Chairman of American Media, Inc. (the publisher of the National Enquirer), testified that he bought, and “killed”, stories of infidelity that would have harmed Trump’s  candidacy. For many years, Pecker has been one of the President’s closest political allies.

What do you expect from a guy named Pecker?

In the coming months, we can expect more revelations, as once-dutiful and -loyal Trump associates begin to hear Special Prosecutor Mueller’s footsteps. The floodgates appear to be opening…

As we all remember, candidate Trump promised that he would hire “only the best people” to work in his Administration.

Curiously, one of the first people he hired was Omarosa Manigault Newman…a lady that Trump had fired three times on his Apprentice television reality shows.

Evidently, this three-time loser was just the right person to serve as Assistant to the President and Director of Communications of the Office of Public Liaison (whatever that is!). She was the right hire because she was an African American…the only one in Trump’s White House. (“See how diverse we are!”)

Predictably, President Trump fired her, for a fourth time.

And, then, just as predictably, hothead Omarosa wrote a “tell all” book about her short stint within the Administration. When the Mr. Trump publicly called her a “dog”, Mrs. Manigault-Newman produced audiotape of conversations from the Situation Room in the White House…and promised to have more of them. OMG, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

President Trump absolutely hates news that doesn’t put him in a good light, and he hates the people who publish negative stories. And, he despises reporters who won’t put a positive spin on fake information that he quotes from Fox News broadcasts, the National  Enquirer, or Neo-Nazi websites.

(BTW, if a “news” show opens up its broadcast with a “monologue”, isn’t the show really an Op-Ed opinion piece? It seems to me that virtually all of the Fox News output consists of talking heads giving their opinions on a range of topics. Where is the actual “news”? Answer: It’s not real, it’s entertainment/propaganda. In a word, it’s fake news.)

The President has begun to call mainstream reporters “the enemy of the people”, and some of them have been barred from White House press briefings. So much for Freedom of the Press.

The thin-skinned President, who also has a habit of disparaging the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., recently threw a tantrum when he was criticized by former C.I.A. Director John Brennan regarding the summit meeting with Russian President Putin. In response, Trump revoked Brennan’s Top Secret security clearance, which is quite unprecedented. Our cadre of ex-intelligence officials is a valuable resource, and it is short-sighted to summarily dismiss those with a different opinion.

Then, again, the only opinion that matters to narcissist Donald Trump is his own.

Publicly criticizing, smearing, and libeling politicians and public officials was a sport that Donald Trump excelled in before he became President. It was great fun to claim that Barack Obama was not born in America, that our military leadership was “stupid”, that our trade deals were “giveaways”, and that Hillary Clinton was a “crook”. The guy could really dish it out.

But, he sure can’t take it, now that it’s his turn in the spotlight, and he, his family, and close associates are being publicly chastised as crooks, cheats, and traitors.

“Lock ’em up!”

Almost all of President Trump’s legal and public relations problems are self-generated. He likes to hear himself talk, and he spews out whatever comes to mind…unfiltered. And, he lies a lot.

President Trump is a Special Prosecutor’s wet dream.

In other news, Cadet Bone Spurs’ proposed Grand Military Parade, which he championed earlier this year, isn’t going to happen anytime soon. It was an event that no one besides the President had any stomach for, particularly given the stench of the hot mess in Washington D.C.

Predictably, Trump blamed Washington D.C. city politicians for the collapse of his bad idea: he claimed that they wanted to much Federal money to host the darned thing.

Wouldn’t you know it?…the President blamed the Black guys. That should play well with his political base.

Recall how furious the Prez becomes when someone repudiates him or fails to back his bad ideas?

Senator John McCain is one of the few elected Republicans who has has the moral conviction and intestinal fortitude to stand up to Donald Trump. Serving his country to the bitter end, McCain died of brain cancer this past week.

Our petty/juvenile President then displayed his lack of maturity and judgement by ordering the White House flag flown at half-mast for …ONE DAY (instead of the typical seven days).

Message sent to the bereaved McCain family…and to anyone else who would dare to disagree with Emperor Trump.

If there actually was one patriotic American politician left in this country, it was Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican Presidential standard-bearer. He was a fighter pilot who was shot down, confined for seven years, and tortured by his North Vietnamese captors…before becoming the distinguished U.S. Senator from Arizona. He shed blood while underclassman Trump was chasing skirts in college, thanks to phony deferments.

Our President’s public, childish snub of a true American hero was not taken lightly by the Veterans of Foreign Wars…a key component of Trump’s political base. They were insulted and mad…and publicly dressed-down the Prez.

Cadet Bone Spurs immediately reversed himself and ordered the traditional one-week honor for patriot/Senator McCain.

Oops.

Our clueless, self-centered Commander in Chief just can’t get out of his own way. It’s no wonder why the idiot can’t get anyone to support his military parade: his idea of patriotism is having people salute him.

Way back in 1920, famed journalist H.L. Mencken predicted the election of a narcissistic fool like The Donald:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until Charlie gets back from her brief train trip to Southern California, the dogs and I are reduced to staring at each other, trying to think of something fun to do.

Life is a bit different with my wife gone.

For one thing, there’s lots of room at night on our Queen bed. Booger and Baby normally sleep on it, lodged against Charlie and I in whatever space they can find.

Actually, the both of them are pretty good sleepers; they don’t move around a whole lot once they’ve figured out their niche on the bed. Booger usually lays atop the down comforter, like a 25-pound fire hydrant, while  Baby typically wants to tunnel down underneath it, and splay out her pointy feet and paws. They are both warm bodies, which is helpful in the cooler climes, but is totally undesirable when the weather gets hot. There’s nothing like sweltering in bed, and then having one of the (hot) dogs cuddle up against you. (And, then, kick you in the testicles.)

JayJay luxuriates in his own bed, which is adjacent to the foot end of our platform bed. It’s plenty big for him, and he sprawls out on it, typically on his back,like a Snow Angel, and snores like a fat pig.  JayJay’s noise could wake up the dead.

I wear earplugs every night, because, between his loud, staccato racket and Booger’s unusual noises and Baby’s purring…in addition to Charlie’s snoring…the bedroom portion of our RV sounds like a factory at full-throttle.

Another thing that is different with Charlie gone is the morning dog pooping routine.

In this park, with a nice, enclosed dog run only fifty yards away, I take the dogs over there first thing in the morning. Because Charlie is gone, that chore must be done with three dogs on leash at one time…not such an easy task with three 18- to 25-pound tuggers jostling me in different directions. Thank God that they’ve figured out where the enclosed “poop zone” is, and they have the decency to wait until they get there to let loose.

Unlike the other two, who can’t wait to unceremoniously dump their turds, JayJay likes to draw out the process, peeing and sniffing every raised object and the leavings of other dogs. Sometimes, he doesn’t give up his load, and I am forced to take him back over there later in the morning. Maybe that’s just his way of sneaking an extra walk out of me? The bastard.

Which brings me to another change since Charlie railroaded herself out of here: strolling with the dogs.

Since walking three leashed dogs at a time is suicidal, I can only walk two at a time and leave one in the RV for a later solo outing. The dogs need to get some fresh air and exercise several times a day, and, since I’m retired, it typically falls to me to help out in this regard. So, I’ve been doing the two plus one gig for awhile now, with the caveat that it’s not really advisable to leave Baby alone in the coach because she gets lonely/upset/whiny. Who knows what she might do if she gets pissed off?

The problem with two on a leash (no matter which two) is that the dogs are very different from each other. Therefore, they have different agendas while on the leash. Booger is a socialite (i.e. has to greet all humans and dogs while on her tour) and a hunter (for lizards, squirrels, etc.). JayJay, our guy dog, feels it necessary to sniff and pee on every shrub, tree trunk, and immovable object, and then do his “burning rubber” routine with his hind feet, to spread his scent for the benefit of all who follow him. Baby, on the other hand, is looking for fun: she knows where the park is, and she’s bound and determined to drag me over there as soon as we leave the rig. So, walking her is a misnomer: she walks me…briskly.

What I’ve decided to do, with Charlie gone, is to do many walks, and do them individually. That way, each of the hounds gets to enjoy their “thing” without the distraction of the other two. They seem to like this a lot, particularly Booger, because there are a lot of squirrels and foreign dogs here in the park. (BTW, it’s nice to see Booger enthusiastic and active after her ill health for the past several weeks. She’s back to being a Booger!)

Another thing that is different with Charlie gone is hunger…I probably eat more from the boredom. (Now I know how my large brother Terry feels!)

I’m obviously not any hungrier than I was a week ago, and I don’t really need more sustenance, but it’s easy to lose self-control when you’re just by yourself: snacking increases, and portion sizes balloon, as well. Also, I have the opportunity to indulge myself in delicacies that Charlie doesn’t care for, like red meat, curry, spicy sausage, etc. I’ve got so many opportunities…but only four nights to check off items on my culinary bucket-list. Damn!

If I had a large oven on board, I’d probably buy one of those large Costco pizzas and eat it all by myself…all 12 million calories in one sitting! Shame on me, but it’s true.

One last thing that is different with Charlie gone: watching TV.

We have dish TV here in the rig, and we use the DVR to record all sorts of stuff for later viewing, sans commercials. Charlie likes home remodeling shows, veterinary and zoo reality shows, and murder mysteries. I like them, too, but I also like to watch (or, more likely, re-watch) action movies, history channel stuff, and weird science shit. So, as soon as Charlie rolled out of town, I was re-watching “Goodfellas”, James Bond movies, a historical piece on mining in the Old West, and a couple of pieces on the making of cult movies (“Scarface” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation”).

Tonight,  I’ll get to watch “Taken 3” with Liam Neeson for the umpteenth time, “Internal Affairs” with Richard Gere, and maybe Brad Pitt in “World War Z”. What the Hell.

And, maybe I’ll do that while munching on some penne pasta with spicy sausage.

Charlie doesn’t do spicy…

…although, she is one “a-spicy a-meatball”!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie’s gone.

We miss her!

One of the good things about Ocean Mesa RV Park in Goleta, California is that it is only a $57 Amtrak ride down to Oceanside, which, in turn, is very near to our home in Bear Creek.

Yesterday, Charlie took the morning train south. The dogs and I bid her goodbye at 9:24 a.m. in Santa Barbara, about a 20-minute drive down Hwy 101. My wife has an ultrasound procedure tomorrow in Murrieta.

The 200-mile trip is a good excuse to check out our house, see her good friends Karin Pace and the Bosanko’s (Jeannette and Ivor), get a pedicure, do some shopping, and generally enjoy some “girl time”. She deserves some, for sure, having been cooped up with a guy and three dogs for 3-1/2 months.

My wife and I are both in our Seventies, and, as with most older couples, we get cranky with each other from time to time, bicker about stupid little things, and say hurtful things when we’re tired, frustrated, and pissed off. We enjoy our RV, but, even though it is a very nice and spacious one, existing for months at a time with little elbow room and mental “space” takes its toll.

So, I’m glad that Charlie has this opportunity to let her hair down with old friends and decompress a bit. She needs to laugh and smile more.

It’s been a stressful year, what with our home for sale, our son Jonathan trying to absorb Charlie’s bookkeeping business, plus the knowledge that we are going to be permanently moving from the Bear Creek gated community, where we have lived for the past 30 years.

In addition, we’re having a new home built in Nevada, and that project comes with a lot of decisions, second-guessing, budget concerns, and such. We are both very anxious to move into our new home and tweak it with art, furniture, and landscaping enhancements: lots of decisions ahead!

So, we’ve probably argued and bickered more this year than in the past. To be honest, I dread the afternoons, when my wife has a drink or two to decompress from the day (usually she’s been on the phone or computer tutoring Jonathan or tending to some client matter that Jonathan isn’t ready for). While she relaxes and the alcohol takes effect, a predictable stream of nitpicking ensues on very minor stuff that is going on in our lives. Most of it stems from the desire by Charlie, who is a very verbal person, to just talk to someone.

My wife talks out loud on the phone, while she texts (via Siri), and while she watches TV and simultaneously shops on Amazon Prime. She also talks to the dogs, and to herself. And, to me. She’s quite chatty.

I am more cerebral than verbal, and I honestly get annoyed by talking just to talk. If you ask me a “Yes” or “No” question, you’ll get a one word answer. With Charlie, the response might go on for a paragraph, meandering off-topic, and including queries about your family, your health, etc. It’s just who she is, and God Bless her for that.

When we were both working all day, and had other people to talk to, and were socializing in Bear Creek, Charlie’s need to chat was not as apparent to me. Now, I am her only in-person audience, so it has become my station in life to become as best a listener as I can. And, to make matters worse, my hearing is not what it used to be. So, sometimes Charlie will start talking (to me!) and I’m not aware that her conversation is directed to me. This pisses her off.

But, my wife loves me, and I love her totally, so it’s just a part of the getting older process, coupled with living cooped-up in an RV with three dogs. Her occasional sniping at me is subconscious and not malicious, I’m sure,  and she usually forgets what the dust-up was about by the next day.

A hug and a kiss is all it takes to smooth things out. As we get older, we need to do more of those things.

We’ve been together now for about 45 years, and we rarely argue about anything important. Even though we are two completely different human beings, we must share some common attributes that make us “click” together, because, at the end of the day, we still love each other.

I can honestly say that, on the rare occasions that we are apart, I miss her terribly, despite the fact that I am surrounded by my three other closest friends: Booger, JayJay, and Baby.

There is a distinct VOID in my life when Charlie isn’t in it.

We’ve been on the road for about 3-1/2 months now, and are running out of stuff to watch on our Dish TV. We have the digital recorder running pretty much all day and night, trying to vacuum up the few “gems” that we’ve missed, but there aren’t many.

Lately, we’ve been watching a lot of “Law and Order” re-runs. That series ran for twenty years, so there are maybe 1,000 hour-long episodes to see. Anyway, the plots are interesting and move along briskly, and the regular, and guest, cast members are all good actors and actresses, so an episode or two fills an otherwise boring evening in the coach.

One of the main Law and Order characters is Adam Schiff, played by Stephen Hill. He plays a savvy, no-nonsense District Attorney who runs the shop of legal eagles. Schiff has some young bucks working the cases for him who are idealists/true believers (in the law), while the D.A. himself has to concern himself (and his office) about costs and politics as well as doing the right thing.

As I watch Schiff (Hill), I am reminded of the best boss I ever had: Larry Parrish.  Stephen Hill could be Larry’s brother, except that Mr. Parrish was a much more natty dresser. The thing that they both possessed, in spades, is wisdom.

I had been working for the County of Riverside for about twenty years when Larry Parrish was hired as its Chief Executive Officer. Earlier in my career, I had staffed the Board of Supervisors and worked in the Executive Office, but, in 1994, I was on assignment, managing the County Fairgrounds in Indio. I had been there approximately five years when I suffered a back injury while skiing, and, after the surgery, I needed to reduce my commute time (it was then 90 minutes each way!).

I had met Larry earlier that year, as he made the rounds to introduce himself to, and evaluate, the heads of all the County departments. I forget what we talked about in general, but he asked my opinion about a particular County manager who was doing a lot of economic development work in the Coachella Valley (where the fairgrounds was located) and I was straightforward in my response…the guy was out of his league. He thanked me for my honesty and he left.

Anyway, when my back went bad, I asked the Board of Supervisors if they could find a job for me back in Riverside (i.e. the county seat). The next thing I knew was Mr. Parrish calling me and inviting me to join his Executive Office Staff, as Deputy County Executive Officer.

I worked in that position for ten years; it was the best time of my life.

Riverside County, at that time, was the fastest-growing large county in the United States; now, it is the 10th largest county, in population and in GDP. I like to think that I had something to do with that.

Mr. Parrish headed up an organization of 12,000 employees divided up into scores of departments, with an annual budget of about $1 billion. Each department head (for example, the Sheriff) was responsible for executing that department’s budget, as approved by the Board of Supervisors. The day-to-day operation of each department was directed by an elected or appointed department head, but that officer needed to obtain Board approval for major budgetary or policy changes.

The Board had their public meeting every Tuesday. There were five Board members, and Mr. Parrish sat up at the dais with them, next to the Chairman. Anything that came to the Board, for their consideration, had to have already been processed through the Executive Office, and each item coming before the Board had to be signed-off by one of Mr. Parrish’s management staff. So, the CEO knew what the issues were, why a recommendation (For or Against) had been made by Executive Office staff, and was ready to provide answers if any of the Board members had a question. Typically, Parrish’s brain trust was in the front row of the Board meeting room, and he might call on one of us (or, a Board member might do the same) to flesh out some issue.

99.9%

That’s probably the Executive Office’s record on recommendations that we made to the Board of Supervisors while I worked there. (I can’t remember any item that I sent to the Board where they rejected my recommendation, but…I’m old. What do I know!)

My role as Deputy CEO was to lead a small group of analysts who made policy recommendations to the Board relating to the following County departments: Transportation; Planning; Building and Safety; Airports; Parks; Flood Control; Waste Management; and, 128 special taxing districts scattered throughout the County. My staff also had to manage staff at about a dozen of those special districts, which involved landscaping, parks, street lighting, road building, and community centers.

I was also the County’s lead player on Development Impact Fees. Actually, I had helped start the ball rolling on this program some twenty years earlier when I was in the Planning Department and, later, working with the Board of Supervisors. The DIF program was in full swing when I returned to the Executive Office, but it was in need of a major overhaul. This we accomplished, working cooperatively with the Building Industry Association. Because of this program, the county’s infrastructure was allowed to keep pace with the rapid growth in the County and spur economic development.

Larry Parrish was a great Boss. He told you what your job was, and then got out of the way, allowing each manager to use his/her brain, experience, and people skills. And, he had your back with the Board of Supervisors, with whom he had a very special rapport.

Mr. Parrish was an experienced public sector manager. After a long career in the Probation Department (in Santa Barbara County), he was appointed Chief Executive Officer there. Later, he became CEO of Orange County, one of the most prosperous counties in America. Larry was probably about 25 years into his public sector career when he came to Riverside County, and he was CEO there for about 15 years before retiring.

Needless to say, running a major county government in the United States is a significant task, and a very political one. Larry Parrish was never fired by any Board that he worked for; that tells you something right there.

Unlike the rank-and-file employees working in county government, who have certain civil service protections (due process, etc.), the top brass in County government (i.e. the CEO, his staff, and the various un-elected Department heads) “serve at the pleasure” of the elected Board of Supervisors. What this means is that each of those high-ranking employees can be fired whenever the Board desires, for whatever reason. I’ve seen a few management guys sent packing, usually because they’ve pissed off the Board or got caught doing something unethical or illegal. It’s rare, but it happens, much like it does in private sector organizations.

(I worked “at the pleasure” of the Board of Supervisors, in one capacity or another, for the last 22 of my 30 years with the County of Riverside. The elected Board changed a number of times during that period; lots of different personalities and agendas. I just went about my duties and didn’t think about the possibility that I could be unemployed the next day.)

Working at the top of a public sector pyramid is “political”, for sure, but our role, in the Executive Office, was not to be political; that was the job of the elected officials. Our job was to give the Board members our best judgment (whether financial, logistical, strategic, tactical) on departmental policy issues coming before them…and let them apply the political factor.

Larry Parrish had so much experience in this stuff that he was almost a fatherly figure to the five Board members; in fact, they joked that he was a “sixth Board member”.

Anyone, with any qualifications, can be elected to the Board of Supervisors…as long as they get enough votes. But, when they get seated on the Board, it soon becomes evident to most of them (typically, the one’s who haven’t served on a City Council or such) that they are in way over their heads, at least for the first couple of years.

Mr. Parrish, and the Executive Office, provided useful, practical knowledge, and institutional memory to the elected rookies. Some of them, in their campaign, had promised to change everything, root out waste, cut taxes, etc….the typical campaign rhetoric. But, when they got elected, they quickly realized that the scope of the task is monumental, and many things are not really under their control. Frustration sets in, and they lash out. Luckily for them, they had Larry Parrish (and staff) there to hand-hold them, show them how things work, and inform them what’s been tried and what’s worked (and, what hasn’t). And, thus, try to steer them in productive directions, so that their policy objectives might be achieved in a smooth and cost-effective manner.

Most citizens haven’t dealt with politicians up-close-and-personal. They are typically smart people with large egos. It takes a guy with a lot of wisdom to guide such people…it’s like herding cats. Any five politicians have five different personalities, dispositions, and agendas, and they each typically like to claim credit for successes. There is a certain amount of jostling, even within a Board that generally gets along. Over the years, under Larry Parrish, there was a pretty strong detente, despite substantial policy differences between individual Board members. Each got his chance to preen in public or shoot his mouth off, but, in the end, the Board moved the ball in a positive direction. A lot of credit has to go to the wisdom of Mr. Parrish.

We had a great crew in the Executive Office. Both of the other two top managers in the office were old friends of mine. Ken Mohr had been in the Executive Office in my earlier tour, and Tony Carstens had worked with me in the Planning Department when I first came to work in Riverside. The three of us, plus Larry, would often go out to lunch together and shoot the bull. I think that lunch was the major meal of the day for Larry, who put in long hours and then had to drive 90 miles to his home in Palm Springs. So, he had a good appetite, and we sampled many eateries around the Riverside area. I gained about maybe fifteen pounds during those years.

At these lunches, Larry would often give the three of us insights into his closed-door dealings with Board members…some of the political stuff that we didn’t have to deal with, but was nice to know.

Every Tuesday, after the Board of Supervisors meeting, Larry would conduct a staff meeting to go over the day’s events, comment on Board members’ comments, their gratuitous speeches and votes, and make sure every loose end was assigned to be chased-down before the following Tuesday.

In the midst of this monologue,  Larry would entertain us with his great sense of humor, lampooning department heads, citizen gadflys, and Board members. It would have appeared to an outsider as disrespectful, I suppose, but it helped to cut the tension and bring all of the staff together as a team “in the know”. Everyone in the office, including secretarial staff, attended those Tuesday meetings. We loved them.

(I was just thinking about something like this in my earlier life. I was once an X-ray technician, and I used to have to work in surgery occasionally. Most people would think that in such a serious, sterile, precision-based activity there would be absolute silence except for the surgeon saying, “Pass the scalpel”. No, that was not my experience. Probably as a way of cutting the tension, many of the operating rooms featured music, sometimes rock ‘n roll, and the doctors and nurses did their duties while chatting and making small talk. It actually made coming to work a pleasurable experience, which should always be a management goal.)

I retired in 2003, and Larry Parrish followed me out the door a couple of years later.  The County of Riverside is now on their third CEO in the past 14 years since he retired.

Larry Parrish left some big shoes to fill.

 

I may be “old fashioned” but, as far as I am concerned, integrity is what separates the good guys from the bad ones.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It has been my pleasure to have known many people of integrity. Their word is their bond, to use an old phrase. In other words, if they make a promise, they keep it; if you loan them money, they will pay you back.

In addition, individuals of high integrity don’t play games with facts. If a person tells you “You can take that to the bank!”, it’s supposed to mean that what was said is the absolute truth and can be verified by a third party source. Someone with a reputation for integrity doesn’t have to utter that reassurance: it’s a given.

Integrity seems to have fallen from favor in recent times. It has become fashionable for many people to make promises that they never intend to keep and to tell so many lies that they confuse even themselves. Some individuals will tell a lie when the truth would serve them better. Our current President seems to be afflicted with this malady.

And, in today’s society, it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s a national sickness.

Lack of moral character is pervasive, from the average guy right up the food chain, in personal and business matters. People lie on credit applications, cheat on their taxes, are unfaithful to their spouses, etc. In recent years, society’s take on such matters seems to be that it’s acceptable… as long as you don’t get caught.

We have a President who is a pathological liar. Period. What does his behavior teach the young people in this country?

Is teaching children to lie and cheat part of the goal to “Make America Great Again”?

When it’s acceptable in society to lie, cheat, and do immoral acts, can we really call that society…civilized?

Laws exist in the civilized world to regulate immoral behavior, and the “Rule of Law” is defined as the “restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws”. That means that everyone in society, from pauper to King, is supposed to be bound by the same set of laws.

Call me a Boy Scout, but I have respect for the Rule of Law: I do my best to live in an honest manner, and I hope that I have instilled this aspect of character in my children.

How many like-minded citizens are left in the United States? Quite a few, I’m sure, but my feeling is that the number is diminishing at a rapid rate.

The latest news is all about the “Manafort” trial. It is the first trial of the so-called RussiaGate affair, being prosecuted by ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller. Many other individuals who broke the law in regard to this matter have taken plea agreements and some of these scoundrels have agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution.

Without going into great detail, the current case against Paul Manafort seems to be focused on his slimy business dealings, his creative bookkeeping, and tax evasion schemes to hide tens of millions of dollars from the I.R.S. “So what?”, you might say. “That goes on everyday in business.” (Yeah, but it’s lying and cheating, isn’t it? But, we citizens expect it, and, so, condone it.)

Well, in this case it is significant because the high-flying, international political consultant Paul Manafort was, back in 2016, the head honcho of the Donald Trump for President Campaign Committee.

Manafort was reluctantly relieved of this position by Mr. Trump, after the Republican nomination was secured, because the press became aware of his significant political and business ties to the Russian government. Trump was pissed, claimed there was nothing to the flap, called it a “witch hunt”, etc. FAKE NEWS he tweeted at the time.

(Of course, later, as the facts became known, the now-President stated that Manafort had relatively little to do with his campaign; he hardly knew the guy!)

The current Manafort trial is about money-laundering and tax evasion, something that the F.B.I is expert at uncovering. This trial is a precursor to additional trials later in the year regarding Mr. Manafort’s failure to register as an agent of a foreign country and some of his activities on behalf of foreign countries while he was leading the Trump campaign. Federal law prohibits such things.

It appears, from the early going of the trial, that Paul Manafort and his associates would do, and actually did, just about anything under the sun for gobs of money. The character of this guy, and his lack of integrity, must have been well-known to Donald Trump, who personally hired him and entrusted to him his entire campaign operation and his prospects for being elected.

And, Manafort’s chief assistant, Rick Gates, who was a key player in the Trump election machine right up to the Inaugural, is now being grilled by the Special Prosecutor. Gates is turning out to be every bit as slimy as Manafort, with money laundering, tax evasion, marital affairs, embezzlement, and other evil deeds to his credit. Whoa, Nellie!

Who knows where this RussiaGate thing is going?

It appears that the Special Prosecutor is methodically putting his grand case together by knocking off the small fry, getting convictions against them for various crimes, in the hopes that they will then have motive to spill their guts about the “big picture”. This is how the F.B.I. successfully prosecuted the Mafia.

Of course, the RussiaGate scandal involves much more than tax evasion, money laundering, and slimy businessmen. There is the fact that the 2016 election was manipulated by Russia-sponsored hackers, there are the subsequent policy changes favorable to Russian interests, and there is the peculiar, fawning behavior that candidate, and then President, Trump has exhibited toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, credible news reports now suggest that Russian money flowed to the Trump campaign after being laundered through the National Rifle Association. That trial should be enlightening.

It is obvious that the Russians wanted Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, elected President of the United States, and they took measures to insure that outcome. Vladimir Putin has publicly admitted this at his recent summit with President Trump.

The big question in all of this, which hopefully will be answered by the Mueller investigation, is: Was the Trump Campaign working hand in hand with the Russians?

 

If so, a number of Federal laws were violated, not to mention the fact that a guy was elected President of the United States with covert Russian assistance! Both Donald Trumps, Senior and Junior, are sweating.

 

Going back to the subject of integrity, it is amazing how many political celebrities (of both parties!) lack that honorable ingredient. As the politics of the nation has become more and more partisan, lying, cheating, and dirty tricks have become the norm, rather than the exception. It’s no wonder that the public can’t figure out what is up or down, what is the truth, and who said what to whom.

We’ve all been inundated with so many silly lies that we’ve become numb to it all…a spectacular lie is not even news anymore, and corruption, in the business and political spheres, is…expected.

The Washington D.C. “swamp” that candidate Trump harangued about at rally after rally during the campaign has gotten worse, rather than better, during the past few years. Scandal after scandal have beset the Trump Administration.

Not to pick on Donald Trump and his cronies; this stuff has been going on in Washington D.C. for a long time. Had Hillary Clinton won the election, a different crew of crooked, lying, corrupt individuals would have sidled up to the government trough and eaten their fill.

That’s the dilemma that faces the electorate: dishonesty and greed have become so commonplace (and, accepted?) that it doesn’t seem to matter who we vote for…corruption is going to happen anyway.

Where is Abe Lincoln when we need him?

No wonder so many Third World countries bristle when America tries to shove democracy down their throats; it doesn’t even work that well in the United States!