Letter to the Editor

Walls closing in!  Don McGahn, Legal Advisor for The White House, (not the president’s attorney) will be OUT this fall, “after Kavanaugh is confirmed (hopefully) for Supreme Court”.   McGahn was notified via Twitter.  That decision came days after Trump discovered that McGahn had been talking to Mueller (for some 30 hours).  Trump tweeted that he ‘learned’ via Fox, that “China hacked Hillary’s server” (as Sec of State) and obtained “many Classified emails”; the FBI rebutted this, but Trump wants us to believe that FBI and DOJ are corrupt.  He attacked Google for “rigged searches”, acting as if he might need to control it;  if any information doesn’t fit his narrative he labels it”fake news”.  In Trump’s alter-universe, the Fox & Friends TV station-anchors are his cabinet secretaries, his ‘go-to’ people for encouraging counsel.

After hailing Manafort as a “brave man”, who didn’t “break”, he then heard that Manafort’s lawyers were trying to obtain a plea-deal (while the jury was deliberating) to avoid more charges.  In a Trump interview with a Fox-anchor recently, he renewed his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Senators like Graham and Grassley were strongly defending last year, but they’re now singing the tune: “the President deserves an AG he can trust”.

Trump is beseeching his base to disbelieve “anonymous sources” in news stories; rich irony, as Donald Trump, for decades, used to call news agencies to plant stories, pretending to be John Miller or John Baron.  Today’s journalists don’t work that way.  Allusions to the Orwellian novel “1984” have been discussed; “a dystopian novel, published in 1949, was set in 1984, when most of the world population have become victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation”.  Trump mouthpiece, Rudy Giuliani recently said, “Truth isn’t Truth!”  Trump urged followers at a Missouri rally, “Just remember, what you are seeing and reading is not what’s happening.”

Steve Schmidt stated, “Forty percent of the country has surrendered their intellectual sovereignty to Donald Trump.  There is, for them, no such thing as objective truth anymore.  What is true is what the leader says is true.   We are moving very quickly towards an hour where we’re going to test the premise in this country whether the president is above the law or not.  Trump is pursuing the strategy to try to incite his base, smaller but more intense; extraordinary and frightening; it is not the majority of the country!”

Trish Forsyth Voss

“More than 40 percent of Democratic nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives so far are women; fewer than 10 percent of Republican nominees are women.  Republican women have long resisted identity-politics”; none seem willing to stand against Donald Trump.  With the misogynist-in-chief wretchedly running this country, there is a clarion call for a new generation in leadership!  And thankfully “Democratic female candidates are overperforming in the primaries”, and what an awesome crop of women they are!  Imagine a ‘female democratic John McCain’.  Many of these women are the true heroes our nation needs at this perilous time.       I offer introduction to a few of these exemplary women, and beseech you to Google: Amy McGrath video, Runway, and MJ Hegar video, Doors.  McGrath won the Kentucky primary for 6th Congressional District; Hegar won the 31st Congressional District primary for Texas.  The following won primaries in these districts: Katie Porter, California’s 45th,  Kara Eastman, Nebraska’s 2nd,  Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania’s 4th, Susan Wild, Pennsylvania’s 7th, Deb Haaland, New Mexico’s 1st.  Michelle Lujan Grisham won the New Mexico gubernatorial primary race, after having served New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District as Congresswoman since 2012; served as Bernalillo County commissioner and spent 16 years as a cabinet secretary for three governors. Stacey Abrams won the Georgia primary for governor, and NOW Georgia is planning on closing 7 of the 9 polling locations in the majority black county, because they are not handicap-accessible!  Georgians, don’t be voter-suppressed!

Please view YouTube video on Nazis, by Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey, running for U.S. Congress.  She’s a federal prosecutor;  was a Navy ‘Sea-King’ pilot.  Google: ‘2018 women candidates for U.S. Congress and statewide’, and ‘Potential Candidate Summary – 2018 CAWP’.   The drive to elect women is defining the 2018 Democratic primaries, as women’s voices are more trusted on issues such as healthcare, education, gun control, immigration, etc.  We seek a distinct change in governance, which educated women will provide.  For those of us celebrating diversity, “two Democrat women are poised to become the first Muslim women in Congress, Somali-American, Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota state lawmaker won her MN primary and faces a challenge in November; and Palestinian-American, Rashida Tlaib won her Detriot-area primary in Michigan and runs unopposed”.   Christine Hallquist, a transgender woman, won the Vermont Governor’s primary this month.  WE WILL OVERCOME the hate, prejudice and fear, and Make America Safe Again!   The Dalai Lama made the prediction in 2009, “The World Will Be Saved by the Western Woman”!

Trish Forsyth Voss

TFV

Trump is running so scared and stepping-up his attacks daily.  Peter Strzok’s controversial firing from the FBI does not seem fair, for texting his opinions on political candidates to his gal-pal on his FBI phone, but there’s not much ‘margin of error’ in some government positions, so be it.  However, Trump demonizing the FBI and DOJ, declaring them: ‘The Deep State’ is just getting old!   Trump and his coup d’ etat is: The Deep State, and  those of us who follow real news know this, and are waiting patiently for Special Investigator, Swamp-drainer-extraordinaire, Robert Mueller, to work his way up to the big fish.  For mobsters, racketeers,  gangs and presidents, cases are built meticulously.   Mueller put John Gotti and Sammy the Bull Gravano behind bars; some things are worth the wait.  For those who feel that is ‘hateful’, I would assert that our country used to hang people for Treason, so those of us wanting impeachment and imprisonment for Donald Trump, that’s mild in comparison. 

The vast extent to which a large portion of our citizenry chooses to be unaware, unschooled, misinformed is just incredibly-staggering and sad!  “Let’s hear all the facts before we jump to conclusions”?   Where are they going to hear them from?  They obviously haven’t been able to connect-the-dots so far, haven’t yet heard of all those indicted, those who pleaded guilty, cooperated, turned federal evidence, been granted immunity, have stood trial; and their deep connections with the Trump campaign and administration.   “Outrageous claims”?  They obviously aren’t paying much attention to real news sources.  I wonder if they’ve heard how many Republicans are quitting, retiring, turning into Democratic voters? 

Republican Michael Gerson said recently, “In a democracy a vote is usually not a matter of good and evil.   The possible outcomes this November come down to this: Trump contained or Trump triumphant.  A triumphant Trump will complete his takeover of the Republican party (which is already far along); even a murmured dissent will be silenced.  The GOP will be fully committed to a 2020 presidential campaign conducted in the spirit of George C. Wallace — a campaign of racial division, of rural/urban division, of religious division, of party division that metastasizes into mutual contempt; this would leave many Americans entirely abandoned in U.S. politics.   A Republican vote for a Democratic representative will be an act of conscience”.

Heather Heyer said, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention!”

Trish Forsyth Voss

T’he War escalates; the chasm deepens!   With each passing day the battle intensifies …. between legitimate news coverage and fake ‘news’ sources, spawning huge casualties.  The Truth is being eviscerated!   There is a significant difference between opinion pieces, and ‘stories’ told knowingly with lies, malice and the intent to incite violence.  Political discourse can be and often is coarse and inflammatory.  Our present political climate is poisonous and malignant.  The current president is the most consistently untruthful and divisive ever!  He spews outright lies about nearly every single issue that confronts us.  People want to believe their president and elected officials in charge of government; we want to believe that they have the good of our union and democracy at heart.   The majority of Americans want to see the DOJ investigation continue to its full conclusion, and many of us are clamoring for Impeachment.  Each day brings us closer to the constitutional crises that is hurtling toward us like a spinning comet.

At Trump’s rally in Tampa on 7/31 , Trump incited his angry-mob to bitterly bellow at journalists, his enemies.  It was UGLY and Scary!  Did you notice attendees wearing “Q” t-shirts and holding placards stating: “We Are Q”, which stands for QAnon, whose advocates are extreme right-wing conspiracy theorists, who push insane stories like Pizzagate, where Hillary and Podesta were running a child-sex-ring, from the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor.  Q is anonymous, on the web, and “claims to have high-level government clearance and access to insider information”.  The avid followers, called the army, react with fervor attacking the new targets, like accusing  Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks as pedophiles.  The ‘army’ seems like “Deplorable on bath salts”.  The latest is: “Q is really John F. Kennedy Jr, who faked his own death 20 years ago”.   Lives are ruined, people act on these stories, like the man with a gun, who was arrested in D.C., in 2016, when he showed up to deliver justice at Comet Pizza.  Alex Jones, INFOWARS hate-talk, radio-show host and conspiracy theorist, is now returning suit  in a defamation trial, brought by the parents of murdered Sandy Hook children, because Jones has claimed vehemently for years that IT WAS ALL A HOAX, and several of the parents have had to relocate amidst death threats.  SAD!   ‘BREAKING HATE’ is a MSNBC television documentary, scheduled for Sunday, Aug 12 at 9 p.m. EST.   Hate on the Rise in America.  Let’s tune in.

Trish Forsyth Voss

How inconceivable would it have seemed a couple decades ago that Russians would have infiltrated every sector of our security and energy infrastructures as well as our electoral processes in the 21st century?  Who would have believed that the NRA and other conservative groups would be in cahoots with such attempts and attacks on our democratic systems?   With Maria Butina’s arrest, Red Sparrow-style, the spy-gal offered sex in exchange for positions to influence political leaders, she worked with the NRA to funnel Russian money to Republican campaigns; those Republicans are compromised!  There is leaked information regarding Butina and another Russian, meeting with U.S. Treasury Department officials in 2016.   The Patriots that fought for our country are rolling in their graves!   Anyone seen pics of Confederate-flag-waving Americans now waving Russian flags?  How are people so naïve or misdirected?  And for those who keep repeating the false-mantra: “there is no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign” …. these chanters are either extremely misinformed OR they constantly seek to misinform any who will listen to them.  Several members of Trump’s campaign have been indicted — more to come.

George Washington, in his presidential farewell address urged Americans, “to remain on their guard against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government”.  He spoke of his hope that our nation “as a free, enlightened, and at no great distant period, a great nation, would give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence”.  Instead we have a totally unfit person in the presidency telling the electorate that a “free press is the enemy of the people”, coming out with autocratic enemy lists, disputing our own intelligence agencies, aiding and abetting the very enemy who authorized cyberattacks against our democracy.

Senator Jeff Flake tweeted, “The Russian ambassador says that ‘important verbal agreements’ were reached at the Helsinki summit.  What are those commitments, Mr. President?  Congress needs to know!”   Ex-Republican Steve Schmidt answered Flake, “Senator, working with Senator Corker, you have the ability to find out the answer to this urgent question by taking control of the U.S. Senate and removing McConnell as Majority Leader.  You could make certain the U.S. interpreter is called before the Intelligence Committee”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Dan Coates, Director of National Intelligence alerts, “the warning lights are blinking red again … our digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack!”  Russia has successfully hacked the U.S. power-grid, water, energy, nuclear and commercial facilities”, since at least the spring of 2016.  They’ve used malware and spear-phishing to infiltrate and interfere with our power plant’s control systems, and our elections.  Cyberattacks of this level are acts of war!  So, why did Trump abolish by Executive Order the Cyber-security Coordinator Role in May 2018?   It was decided that National Security Advisor, John Bolton, could fill that role; is he a cyber-security expert?   Paul Ryan said, “There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine our democracy here and around the world.  President Trump must appreciate that Russia is not our ally.  There is no moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia”.

Former CIA Director , John Brennan said, “Donald Trump’s press conference in Helsinki rises to and exceeds the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors.  It was nothing short of treasonous.  Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.  Republican Patriots: Where are you???”   Senator Jeff Flake said, “I never thought I would see the day when our American president would stand on the stage with the Russian president and place blame on the U.S. for Russian aggression.  This is shameful!”  Putin wants the Magnitsky Act sanctions overturned NOW!   That was one attempt at collusion with the Trump campaign.  Trump is soon bowing out of Syria?  Why?  Russia is growing stronger with each passing day.  Russia exports oil and soybeans; they stand to export more soybeans soon due …. to Trump’s tariffs; the U.S. will be exporting less.  Who is Trump serving?

A reporter in Helsinki asked Putin if he had wanted Donald Trump to win the presidency.  Putin responded, “Yes, I did; yes I did, because he talked about bringing the U.S. – Russia relationship back to normal”.

Deputy Rosenstein reported 7/14/18 on Mueller’s latest round of indictments for: 13 top Russian GRU military officials for cyber-hacking, theft, interfering in our electoral processes, for hacking state electoral databases, and money-laundering.  Maria Butina, alleged Russian agent, was arrested 7/17/18,  and it is alleged she infiltrated the NRA to establish ‘back channels’ with political groups.   “Rigged, Witch-Hunt”?   I think it’s more likely to be a “Warl0ck-capture”; one coven located in D.C., another in Moscow.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Let me assure readers that I do take care to express my opinions purposefully; “words are powerful”, as can be witnessed by our entire nation in seeing the results of the divisive rhetoric from our Divider-in-Chief.  Violence and hate-crimes are abounding in this atmosphere of hatred and bigotry.  Trump indeed has the majority of the populace “bewildered, perplexed, baffled, and reeling”; I would add: appalled and horrified!  For those upset by writers using labels like: Nazis, let me point out as I did two years ago …. American Nazism is resurging….so much so that people are being emboldened to run for public office on the platforms of white-identity politics and outright bigotry.      The following are just a few examples: Arthur Jones, a long-time neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denier won the primary for GOP congressional office in Illinois.  Paul Nehlen (R-WI.) is running to replace Representative Paul Ryan. Nehlen appeared on fascist, white-power podcasts, making racist, anti-Semitic remarks on social media, promoting “conspiracy theories that Jewish people supposedly have undue influence in the media and other industries” (the same exact prejudice urged on by Hitler in Nazi Germany to justify his later exterminations).     Sean Donahue ran to replace Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA.) and has claimed that Black Lives Matter and Antifa are preparing an armed insurgency in the U.S.   In 2017, Donahue was convicted of making terroristic threats against a PN district attorney.  John Abarr, a white-supremacist ran for the Montana State House of Representatives as a Democrat, though he has run for office before as a Republican; his website shows his key platform is “pride and dignity for whites”.      Corey Stewart, defeated in his primary run for U.S. Senate in Virginia; during his failed 2017 governors race he made several joint appearances with white-supremacist Jason Kessler, the organizer of the deadly Charlottesville rally.  A few dropouts of races: Augustus Invictus, Tom Tancredo, Seth Grossman; google them.  There are plenty flirting with white-supremacists, a few of which are Representatives:  Matt Gaetz, Dana Rohrabacher, and Lou Barletta.      Joe Arpaio, convicted for criminal contempt, was pardoned by President Trump; former sheriff in Arizona, where at least 160 detained persons died, many by supposed suicide, in his jails, which HE called “concentration camps”.   Arpaio is running for Senate in Arizona.  Steve King (R-IA.) — up for re-election this year has tweeted, “diversity is NOT our strength”, a phrase borrowed from white-supremacists.  He once said that, “America shouldn’t apologize for slavery”.   SCANDALOUS!

Trish Forsyth Voss

‘U.S. Representative Maxine Waters advocated that ‘We The People’ should confront and “protest members of Trump’s cabinet in public spaces”, which instigated an onslaught of attacks from President Trump against Ms. Waters, whom he referred to as “a very low intelligence person”, and said Waters and Pelosi are the “unhinged face of the democratic party”.   Waters was responding to situations like Kirstjen Nielson, secretary of Homeland Security, and Stephen Miller, president’s senior policy advisor, who were harassed and left restaurants before being served.  Point of irony: both were trying to obtain service from a Mexican restaurant as they were carrying out abhorrent policies against immigrants and their children coming into America from Mexico and beyond.  Paul Ryan and others calling on Waters to apologize is pure misogyny and racism.

Ryan claimed, ‘There is no place for this”.   I say that NOW in AMERICA is exactly the PLACE and TIME for this!  ‘Nevertheless she persisted.’  Waters responded, “If you want to talk about civility, you start with Trump”; she characterized him as the “chief instigator of toxic rhetoric in the current political discourse”.  We can clearly see increased violence since he took office.  Sarah Sanders was not “chased from a restaurant”; the owner respectfully asked her party to leave and they did.  Anyone who cheered for the baker refusing to bake a cake for gays, should also champion the restaurant owner’s right to serve only those who don’t ‘dishonor’ her moral convictions.  Martin Luther King Jr said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”.

Today’s news:  Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision to retire from SCOTUS in July.  If we play by the GOP rules, we will not allow confirmation votes on a SCOTUS nomination during an election year.  ‘Ex-Republican’ Steve Schmidt asserted today, “Democrats need to Hold the Line and strenuously Resist”.  Schmidt quit the Republican party this summer lamenting, “It is fully the party of Trump”.  Schmidt proclaimed, “The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities.  I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda.  I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.  Trump must be Obliterated. Annihilated. Destroyed”.    My own quote:  “angry snowflakes unite to form huge hail-storms, so watch out!”

Trish Forsyth Voss

What’s sadder and more horrific than the “Border Trail of Tears”?   Where ICE gestapo troopers rip children from their parent’s arms and place them in separate internment camps, even “Tender Age” camps for babies!  For those who have never seen the movie: Sophie’s Choice — rent it.  In Nazi-occupied territory, Sophie has to choose which child to give to the Nazis; she got to keep one, for awhile.  Children being loaded on train-cars to be shipped somewhere, reminds me of  Nazi Germany,  where — men, women and children were loaded on train-cars and shipped to death camps.  ICE officials supposedly told children they were going to get baths — in order to separate them willingly from their parents; it was a trick.  Reminds me of Jews, led into gas chambers, having been told they were showers. Our country is becoming increasingly authoritarian under Trumpian ideals.  He recently tweeted, “Democrats are the problem.  They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country, like MS-13.  They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!”  He is constantly spewing his hateful propaganda.  The MS-13 gang started in Korea-town, in LA, USA.  And Democrats are in the minority in the House and Senate; Dems are not calling the shots in Congress.   People are pouring across our borders to flee violence and certain death in El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, the Congo, elsewhere.  What can the international community do about these situations?  What global fixes can we employ, without creating further devastation? In 1883, American-born Emma Lazarus wrote the sonnet, engraved on the Statue of Liberty, also known as the Mother of Exiles:  “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me,  I left my lamp beside the golden door”.   This was the ideal for America; we are a nation of immigrants.  I ask all the Pro-Life people to have compassion for the world’s children.  And more biblical than obeying man-made laws is obeying God’s Word.  Isaiah 43: “Fear not for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west”.  Exodus 23:9 “Do not oppress a foreigner, because you were foreigners”.   And Jesus beseeched us, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Before his tardy-entry at G7 Quebec meeting, Trump told the press that he feels that Russia should be allowed back in to ‘what was G8’.  After insulting our allies with his ‘my way or the highway’ tariff plans, Trump departed early.   Trudeau/Macron hinted that the Summit might become G6, was definitely not interested in letting Putin back in.  At the summit’s close, Trudeau announced that “the leaders had managed to agree on a statement highlighting the importance of free, fair and mutually beneficial trade and investment and to continue to fight protectionism”.  Trump, hearing the announcement on Air Force 1, tweeted that he withdrew his endorsement of the summit communique, stating Trudeau “is dishonest and weak”!   Trudeau responded, “We Canadians are polite and reasonable, but we will not be pushed around”, and stated they would move forward with retaliatory measures.

A spokesman for Trudeau called Trump “a pathetic, little man-child”.  Trump’s  trade advisor Peter Navarro said, “there’s a special place in hell for weak, dishonest Trudeau …. trying to stab Trump in the back”.  Trump “told Macron that the EU is worse than China” on trade!  John McCain tweeted, “To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values.  Americans stand with you (allies), even if our president doesn’t”.

Trump must feel that Kim Jong Un will respect his tough stances with our supposed allies, but he always goes back on his words.  Lindsey Graham was shown on television Sunday, asking Dems to back an “authorization of force against North Korea and China, in case the (Trump-Kim) talks fail”.  Rand Paul told Wolf Blitzer, “Lindsey Graham is a danger to the country by even proposing ideas like authorizing war with North Korea; he believes war is always the answer and that also means that expenditures for war are always the answer, and I think that’s bankrupting our country”.  This was the day before the Trump-Kim nuclear summit.

“Two liars walked into a room” …. who besides the totally brain-washed are going to believe anything that is said about this meeting?   Some Republicans are very upset about the proposed tariffs, which aren’t going to be positive for our country.  What are they going to do?   My favorite ‘recovering republican’ Steve Schmidt said, “The Republican majority is filled with cowards who are servile supplicants to the most unfit POTUS ever!”

Trish Forsyth Voss