Letter to the Editor

On Sept, 8,1787, when the “Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was winding down, the draft of the U.S. supreme law almost finished”, a few of the Founding Fathers had concerns with the powerful government they were creating, namely that a “president could become a tyrant as oppressive as George III”.  Should a president be removed from office only for Treason or Bribery?  One of Virginia’s richest planters and a major framer of his home state’s constitution, George Mason asked, “Shall any man be above justice?  Shall that man be above it who can commit the most extensive injustice?  Shall the man who has practiced corruption, and by that means procured his appointment in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment by repeating his guilt?”

Governor Morris of Pennsylvania asserted, “Should he be re-elected — that will be sufficient proof of his innocence”.  But, the Framers decided that waiting to vote-out a corrupt president prove too injurious to our democracy.   James Madison argued that the Constitution needed a provision “for defending the community against the incapacity, negligence, or perfidy of the Chief Magistrate.   He might pervert his administration into a scheme of speculation, embezzlement or oppression.  He might betray his trust to foreign powers.”  Delegate Edmund Randolph agreed,  “The Executive will have great opportunities of abusing his power, particularly in time of war, when the military force, and in some respects, the public money will be in his hands”.

“The Founding Fathers never wanted impeachment to be an insurmountable hurdle.”  In Virginia, in June 1788, they ultimately constructed an outline of impeachable offenses, such as: attempts to subvert the Constitution, and other ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’, obstruction of justice, abuses of pardoning and other powers,  violating emoluments clause, accepting payments and influence from a foreign power.   Madison said, “If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him”.

Lindsey Graham, in 1999, regarding the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton argued,  “You don’t have to be convicted of a crime.  Impeachment isn’t about punishment; it’s about cleansing the office!”   Mitch McConnell, on that subject said, “He could do the right thing or he could cling to the Presidency — regardless of the costs and regardless of the consequences  — to his family, to his friends, aides, his Cabinet, and most importantly to his country”.   Curiously — what say they now?

Trish Forsyth Voss

Stephen Miller is a 33 year-old, far-right political activist, speechwriter and senior policy adviser for president Trump.  Although raised by liberals and schooled in California, Miller began in high school or earlier being a conservative provocateur; he harangued fellow students with diatribes on how “everyone and their parents needed to speak English or leave this country”.  In college, he tried starting an all-white-male alliance; and strived to “change the political conversation in this country”. He was an “early pioneer in the politics of conservative victimization by the Left”, asserting that Duke University was trying to silence him.  He appeared on conservative talk-radio; he later served as press secretary for Michele Bachman, and communications director for then-Senator Jeff Sessions, before being attracted into the stratosphere of the Trump campaign.

Miller is responsible for some of Trump’s most “memorable public addresses from …. Inauguration day promises …. of ending American carnage to —  illegal aliens,  a crisis of the soul”.   Miller is a “chief architect of the travel ban, favors cities warehousing asylum-seekers, wants to reactivate snatching migrant children from their families, and is firmly behind the new proposal of moving and dumping detained migrants to sanctuary cities”.  He’s back of the ‘heads-rolling’ at Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service, and Immigration & Customs Enforcement.   Miller is a “True Believer in core-Trump policies”.   Miller emphatically stated last year, that “the president’s national security decisions WILL NOT BE QUESTIONED!”  Trump has told Miller, “you’re in charge”, and stated that Miller, “is an excellent guy, a brilliant person”.

Stephen Miller bears a distinct resemblance to Joseph Goebbels, if not purely physical, than at least ‘in spirit and essence’.  Goebbels was a German-Nazi politician, activist, and Reich Minister of Propaganda for Adolf Hitler.  Goebbels sought to hide his possible Jewish ancestry from the Fuhrer and others.  He began to make use of extreme provocative-speech and propaganda early in his career, pushing the ‘victimization of the Germanic people by the Jews’.   He was one of Hitler’s closest and most devoted associates.  Goebbels pressured Hitler into total war; he advocated progressively harsher discriminations, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.  From whence comes such darkness?  He was enamored by a sociopath, with which he shared such attributes.  He declared, “It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion”; “I think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

William Barr, U.S. Attorney General testified before Congress on April 9th & 10th, and has confirmed our worst fears.  His 19-page ‘job application memo’ asserting that he felt the investigation against the president was bogus, landed Barr the position of Attorney General.  Barr’s long memo asserted the reasons why President Trump shouldn’t be investigated, and Barr even wrote the New York Times that there “was more of a foundation to investigate the Clinton Foundation and ‘Uranium One scandal’ than to investigate a Trump-Russian-collusion case”.  Barr’s request for the job was a ‘roadmap of how he would conduct himself’ going forward and now we see that he fully intends to protect Trump from the evidence found by the 2-year investigation of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.  Barr is indeed Trump’s ‘Roy Cohn’.   A.G. Barr wandered into a scenario, before Congress, that he said was troubling and stated, “I think spying did occur”, and said that he would be looking into the genesis of why some of  Trump’s campaign workers had been investigated.  WOW!   D.A.G. Rosenstein signed off on one of those FISA renewal warrants associated with Carter Page, as did Sally Yates.   One Congressman did give Barr the opportunity to change his language from “spying” to possible “unauthorized surveillance”, which Barr accepted.    Nancy Pelosi has declared that, “Barr is going off the rails!”

Barr should have recused himself initially, except this is the reason for which he came onboard.  Trump threatened that his political enemies would be punished, and Barr will apparently go along with that agenda!  ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ was the FBI case file name for the investigation into a national security advisor, who was conflicted and coordinating with Russian officials, and Trump campaign chairman and volunteers with many Russian contacts.  The FBI could have leaked info to hurt Trump’s campaign (as they publicized reopening a case on Hillary Clinton), but they did not.  Yet, Trump asserts that there was “an attempted coup” against him, and calls others Traitors!

Barr’s 4-page review of the Mueller report, sought to clear Trump, when Mueller clearly stated, “this report DOES NOT exonerate Trump”.   Now Barr says that he plans to release SOME of the Mueller report within a week or so.  Barr would not answer the question each time he was asked, if he had already given the report to Trump or the White House; so that’s a YES.

Trish Forsyth Voss

On May 7, 2015, Trump tweeted, “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid”.   Trump’s 2020 budget breaks even more of Trump’s campaign promises; he proposes cutting $1.5 trillion from Medicaid, $25 billion from Social Security and $845 billion from Medicare over the next ten years, changes devastating for seniors, the poor, disabled, and all hard-working Americans.   And why should Americans have to pay the world’s highest prices for prescription drugs?

Republicans claimed they must cut these programs and more, shortly after passing the biggest tax cuts ever for the uber-rich, widening the gulf between the wealthy and middle-class. Trump promised the nation better healthcare than ACA, then cut healthcare funding.  He cut veterans benefits, SNAP, funding for cancer research, for education and student loans.  This is a ‘War-on-the-Poor and Middle-class’.  Corporations didn’t “trickle-down” those monies, to help their employees.  The corruption of all the agencies under the Trump administration has been blatant, many cabinet members forced to resign their positions, with more to follow.   And with all that is stacked in favor of the rich, still it is not enough, can never be enough for the elite in our society, who feel — by virtue of their wealth that they deserve every good thing, and care nothing about those whom their deceit and fakery excludes.  The ultra-rich, bribing universities to accept their offspring over and above other students in America who legitimately got good grades on their college entrance exams and are authentically excellent athletes, having worked hard for years to attain that stature, is just sickening!

Millions are joining the class action lawsuit of the nationwide college admission scheme which rejected worthy students at the expense of ‘locking-in purchased seats for preferred students’ into prestigious colleges.  Dozens of parents, sports coaches and college prep executives have been indicted so far, for illegally wrangling the system.  The wealthy kids, who have the best public schools, with many attending private schools, already have greater opportunities for competing and earning high grades on college exams, and for enrolling in extra-curricular sports activities through the years, but that’s apparently not enough.   Elitism, entitlement and inequality in America needs to be reined in, and WE THE PEOPLE, need to WAKE UP and MAKE IT HAPPEN!   We need to overthrow vice and corruption, in government, and in the ruination of our planet, through ignorance, denial and apathy.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The House Chairman, Jerry Nadler, has received tens of thousands of documents from his requests, sent out in February, to 81 individuals or entities; however the committee has not received a single page from the White House.  Mueller’s investigation may soon be over, but the House committees have just begun to investigate  areas of alleged obstruction of justice, abuse of powers, and suspected conspiracy with foreign leaders to interfere with our electoral processes by President Trump and others.  Elijah Cummings sent a letter to the White House Counsel’s office accusing attorneys of trying to obstruct their investigations.  Subpoenas will go out next to those who do not cooperate.  The White House cannot refuse to comply with a congressional investigation, mandated and required to be oversight on the Executive branch.

President Nixon, in July 1973, tried to refuse to turn over recorded tapes of Oval office conversations, requested by Senator Sam Ervin’s committee; Archibald Cox, Special Prosecutor, had to serve a subpoena on presidential counsel, who tried to block the investigative process, to obtain the tapes.  Nixon tried to claim Executive Privilege over the tapes, “of private conversations”,  but it ultimately didn’t work for him, and it won’t work for Donald J. Trump.  Nixon stated emphatically that he would not testify before the committee, and “the tapes will remain under my sole, personal control”.  The tapes, made in secret, contained ‘alleged’ conversations between Mr. Nixon and his various assistants “on matters relating to the Watergate break-in and the subsequent efforts to cover-up that crime”.  Nixon asserted, “the tapes would not finally settle the central issues before your committee.  The tapes are entirely consistent with what I know to be the truth and what I have stated to be the truth, and while supporting my interpretation of my Watergate role, nevertheless might be interpreted in different ways by different persons.”

Archibald Cox stated, “The one clear point is that the tapes are evidence bearing directly upon whether there was criminal conspiracies, including a conspiracy to obstruct justice among high government officials.  The stage was set for a great constitutional struggle; the ultimate arbitration, it was believed, would have to be made by the Supreme Court, but even if the court were to rule against the president, it has no independent power to compel him to act.  He is, however, subject to the impeachment powers of Congress.”  No president is above the law in America!

Trish Forsyth Voss

“Democratic Socialism is a political philosophy that advocates democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some kind of decentralized planned socialist economy”, according to Wikipedia. In simpler terms, it is an economic system wherein the “ways of making a living belongs to society as a whole instead of a group of private owners”.

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the U.S.  “We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.  We are a political and activist organization, not a party, though we use a variety of tactics to  fight for reforms that empower working people.”

The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) — original political party of socialism in America, established in 1876 (Workingmen’s Party), and the second oldest socialist party in the world, still in existence; the fast-growing party exploding from 6,000 members in 2016 to over 45, 000 today.

One of the best presidents ever, FDR, was accused of being a Socialist, but he governed more as a traditionally-moderate liberal.  “He used regulatory agencies to control economic entities.  He pulled the U.S. out of a Great Depression with his ‘New Deal’ plan, saving capitalism from it’s excesses”.  President Hoover, who preceded FDR, felt the government should not directly assist Americans in economic difficulty, which left people to beg, steal or starve.  FDR signed into law the Social Security Act in 1935.

“Pooling society’s resources to meet people’s basic needs is a tenet of social democracy, one advocated by much of the labor movement.”    Elements of social democracy: public education, subsidized housing and healthcare, earning a living wage, was attacked in the 1970s, “with pro-capitalist Reagan policies, seeking to privatize everything they could.  Few bosses became wealthier and more powerful, while wages stagnated and quality of life eroded for everyone else.”

Nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates now running are capitalists, but most are calling for social democratic reforms — like Universal Healthcare.   Bernie Sanders defines himself as a ‘Democratic Socialist’.  Senator Warren says she “is NOT a socialist, but instead favors capitalism with serious rules; it’s time for a fundamental change”.   She calls for breaking up Big Tech and other monopolies.  Progressives advocate democratic government activism in national interests.   Furthermore, most Democrats and many Republicans now back the “Green New Deal”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

I understand that lots of people voted for Donald Trump because they believed his over-the-top braggadocio about himself, that he was a great negotiator and businessman, but that was a massively-constructed fallacy or big lie.  Seeing clips from Trump’s 2 hour-long rambling rant at CPAC was nauseating!  Further embarrassment of our country, his idiotic-id on display for all the world to see.  His latest ‘summit’ with Kim Jong Un was a real bust; his remarks regarding “taking Kim at his word” about not knowing of U.S. student, Otto Warmbier’s torture in North Korea, is just too much to be borne!

Trump is not a normal person; he has not followed many presidential norms.  He shunned transparency in not showing his tax returns.  Trump failed to staff many agencies in our government, and staffed others with individuals who could be counted on to diminish the agencies they headed.   He promised us better healthcare than ACA, but only cut healthcare funds. He gave huge tax cuts to the richest in our nation, widening the gulf.   Trump over-ruled the denied security clearances for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, against strong advice and concern of U.S. intelligence, and by John Kelly and Don McGahn.  Kushner’s business entanglements with foreign leaders has led to at least 4 leaders, that we’ve heard of, trying to inveigle him for their purposes, and having some success.

Trump held national security meetings at Mara-Lago among guests, he gave classified intel to Russians in the Oval office, he continues usage of an unsecured phone, after running a campaign against his opponent regarding her having classified emails on her private server, which was NOT illegal and never hacked.  He declined to extricate himself from his businesses, transgressing the Emoluments Clause.  Trump has surrounded himself with bouncer/fixers, like Schiller, Lewandowski, Calamari, and Cohen.  The Donald defends people like Roy Moore, Paul Manafort,  Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, while he attacks and insults our FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA and other good Americans.

He revoked clearances of his political opponents.  He’s declared a national emergency for political reasons and plans to misappropriate funds.  Cohen told the nation recently, “Trump is a Racist, Conman and a Cheat”; and told Congress, “my loyalty to Donald Trump has cost me everything!”   While House Republicans only had disdain for Michael Cohen, Trump remains the “documented, biggest liar” ever.    Trump is a totally unreliable narrator!

Trish Forsyth Voss

When President Trump was in Vietnam, meeting with Kim Jong Un, White House aides worried WHAT Trump might agree to, in his haste to make big news and with his narcissistic hope that he could someday claim a Nobel trophy.  Last year Trump decided to withdraw some U.S. troops from S. Korea and suspend the military joint exercises held for decades; we later discovered that Putin had prompted that decision.   Russian television announced 2/25/19 that the U.S. had asked for advice in dealing with N. Korea before ‘the summit’ in Hanoi; subsequently we learned that Sergey Lavrov went to Vietnam also, obviously to be close for needed assistance.  Vladimir Putin threatened or warned the U.S. 2/20/19 against deploying any nuclear missiles in Europe, or else!  This coming soon after Trump pulled us out of a Cold-war-era, arms-control treaty with Russia.

Andrew McCabe, in his recent talk-show tour, discussing his book, ‘THE THREAT, How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror & Trump’, told of top intel-advisors trying to brief the president on different national security issues, and how difficult a job that is.  McCabe recalled that Trump said he didn’t believe that N. Korea’s long-range missiles could reach the U.S. (despite intel-briefings to the contrary) because Putin told him differently, and he believed Putin!   McCabe tell us that U.S. intelligence officers believe that Trump has been compromised by GRU Russians.

We learned 2/21/19 (Washington Post article) that Trump/Kushner had extensive plans to give nuclear technology to the Saudis.  I wonder if the hacking death of  Saudi Arabian author, Jamal Khashoggi, had anything to do with that secret plan?   The Trump/Kushner foreign policy involves selling out America to the highest bidders.

You can bet that Trump would have tweeted aplenty had Coast Guard Lt. Christopher P. Hasson — who had come to the attention of FBI last week for planning a mass murder of high-profile Democrats and journalists; his manifesto stated he wanted “to find a way to kill every person on earth” — been a Muslim, instead of an avowed white-supremacist.  Trump said, “I think it’s a shame”.   Let us remember the deaths of those slain in the Synagogue last year, the murders of all innocent  worshippers, the school shootings, the disturbed man who sent pipe-bombs to high-profile Democrats, the numerous attacks on journalists and many people of different ethnicities.

Awaken!  WE ARE IN A FORMIDABLE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF OUR DEMOCRACY!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Some folks need to ‘fall back’ from the “Fauxcahontas” nonsense, and stop the ‘bashing banter’ bandwagon on issues they don’t understand, as in those claiming that Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed Native American ancestry to get benefits.  Warren’s 2018 DNA test showing only a trace amount of Native American ethnicity SUGGESTS she had a distant Native American ancestor, say critics.  But DNA is a complex and complicated subject; it’s difficult to predict what level of ethnicities will be represented by your sample.   Being passionate about genealogy, having studiously and conscientiously worked on building out my family tree, having sent in my own DNA, I can tell you that ethnicity percentage results can be surprising.  I have searched out my father’s maternal Swedish lineage nearly to the Vikings, and his paternal Scots line back beyond the Stuart/Stewart royals (Mary, Queen of Scots, being my first cousin, 15 times removed; and that I’m also a descendant of the English Tudor royal line).  My mother’s paternal ancestors were Spanish and her mother’s Native American.  My ethnicity results show that I’m only 4 percent Scots and 2 percent Scandinavian, 17 percent Native American, 17 percent Spain, 53 percent Great Britain, with a few other trace results.   I love the Ancestry TV commercial of the man, who after viewing his DNA results, said he had to trade in his lederhosen for a kilt; and exclaimed that he was even in a German dance troupe!  His family history was that they were German!

I didn’t understand why Native Americans were so upset over Elizabeth Warren identifying herself thusly, as she explained that this was her family’s shared sense of their history and heritage.  She apologized to Native American Chiefs and others for identifying herself as American Indian for the past couple of decades and stated, “I can’t go back, but I am sorry for furthering confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship, and harm that has resulted”; and apologized for not being more mindful of this earlier in her life.  In a 2015 national Pew study, 68 percent of people claimed they were part American Indian.  Amanda Blackhorse, Native-issues advocate, who lives in Phoenix said, “When it comes to our land issues, our water rights, to the constant battles we have to face every single day, where are these people that claim to be Natives?   Those who determine Tribal Sovereignty are reasonably sensitive to “white’s false claims of Native ancestry” to acquire native lands and benefits.

Trish Forsyth Voss

President Trump declared a National Emergency from the White House Rose Garden, after stating that he would sign the bipartisan compromise spending bill, to avert a second government shutdown.  In a long, rambling harangue he asserted, “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country”; he warned again of gangs and human-traffickers.  Democrats and some Republicans are calling this an “unconstitutional abuse of his authority”; and Dem leaders, Pelosi & Schumer put-forth a joint statement, “This is plainly a power-grab by a disappointed president, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process”.

“Presidents have declared national emergencies under a 1970-era law 58 times, and 31 of those emergencies remain active; but most of those dealt with foreign crises and involved freezing property or taking other actions against national adversaries, not redirecting money without explicit congressional authorization.  Only twice were such emergency declarations used by presidents to spend money without legislative approval — once by President H.W. Bush and the other by President G.W. Bush — both cases responding to new events, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Al Qaeda’s assault on America, and involved moving military money around to use for military purposes.  Neither was taking action specifically rejected by Congress.”

In Trump’s ‘doozy’ diatribe he jawed long enough to diminished the argument for an emergency saying, “I could do the wall over a long period of time; I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.  I don’t have to do this for the 2020 election; I’ve already done a lot of wall for the election.”  So there you have it!  So much for a National Emergency!  Pique and politicking are the real motives!    “The goal of the national emergency is to end illegal immigration”, wrote Daniel Horowitz, conservative lawyer.  Ann Coulter, political provocateur, tweeted back, “the goal is to get Trump’s stupidest voters to say “He’s fighting!”  No, he’s not; if he signs this bill, it’s over!  The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot!”  Coulter has also said that “Trump is lazy and incompetent”; this from one of his former fans!

I must remind you all: the Republicans controlled the ENTIRE Congress and the presidency for the past two years; had they wanted a wall, they could have legislated to build that wall, but THEY DIDN’T WANT IT!

Trish Forsyth Voss