The Least Boy Scout

History of the Boy Scouts of America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent"--Boy Scout law.

For decades, the Boy Scouts of America has invited nearly every President of the United States since Franklin Roosevelt to speak at its Jamboree, which is held every four years in West Virginia.  This year, it was Donald Trump's turn.

Most Presidents used their message to the Scouts to extol the virtues of patriotism, public service and the promise of a better future, not to discuss politics.  It wouldn't be appropriate for an audience who either couldn't vote yet, or just think it is so irrelevant to their lives.  Trump, as we all know, is not most Presidents.  He just had to go there.

In front of nearly 40,000, Trump bragged about how he won the election for the millionth time, ripped his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and the "fake news" media, threatened his Health and Human Services secretary with his job if Obamacare isn't repealed, and made loyalty to him a priority.  Well, at least he got one part of the Scout law right.

Parents and former Eagle Scouts went wild.  This isn't the kind of thing you'd say to young people, even if you're the President.  Right?  Wrong.  This is Donald Trump we're talking about.  You can't count on him to stick to the script, let alone escort an old woman across the street without making a lewd remark.

The BSA, which has had its own public embarrassments over membership restrictions regarding gays and transgenders until they decided to let them in, has apologized for Trump's speech.  The organization, which says it's non-partisan, deserves a demerit badge for this one.

Here are other recent examples of Trump repeatedly violating Scout law:

• He tweeted an order banning transgenders from serving in the military, which is something that caught the Pentagon (and most everyone else) by surprise.  It came on the anniversary of when President Harry Truman in 1948 ordered the Armed Forces and other federal agencies to be desegregated.
• Letting his attorney general Jeff Sessions twist slowly in the wind because he recused himself from the Russian hacking probe, before he is eventually fired.  Special prosecutor Robert Mueller has, for all practical purposes, also been put on notice.  Meanwhile, the President is considering ways to pardon himself and his family should the worst happen.
• The White House media staff has been reshuffled with Anthony Scaramucci as the new communications director.  Press secretary Sean Spicer, who for months was in over his head and then mocked by Melissa McCarthy's impersonation of him on "Saturday Night Live", has been replaced by Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
• Trump has threatened to disown any Republican senator who dares to vote against repealing Obamacare.  So far, the Senate has voted down two proposals, and is considering another one as we speak.  That one's not looking so good, either.

There is one Boy Scout motto that applies not only to President Trump, but also to those who either work for him or cover him whenever he takes to Twitter, or says something outrageous in public.

That motto is:  Be Prepared.

Dial 9-1-1 for Murder

Minneapolis Police Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We have unfortunately become accustomed to news reports of police officers who shoot unarmed citizens during routine stops, and what happens in the aftermath.  This has usually happened to African Americans and other minorities who get pulled over for nothing more than a minor traffic violation, then end up paying the price.

But something happened recently to change the narrative.  In a south Minneapolis neighborhood not usually associated with crime, police responded to a 9-1-1 emergency call regarding a possible sexual assault matter.  The woman who made the call, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, was talking to one of the officers when she was shot and killed.  The alleged assailant, Mohamed Noor, an officer who had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for less than two years, apparently shot Damond through an open window in his patrol car.

No charges have been filed against Noor or anyone else at the scene, as of July 25.  There is not much information about what else happened.  Body cameras on officers were never used, so police are interviewing witnesses the old-fashioned way.  Noor and his attorney have not made any kind of statement, not even to local authorities, much to the consternation of Damond's family, local officials and those in her native Australia who have been following the case.   (By the way, whatever happened to that sexual assault case?)

Taking the fall for this incident is Janee Harteau, who had been Minneapolis' Chief of Police until mayor Betsy Hodges (who faces re-election in November) asked for her resignation and got it.  Before that, Harteau couldn't be reached for days because she was backpacking in Colorado.  When she did return to town, Harteau told the media that Damond "didn't have to die" and that body cameras should have been used.  Hodges named assistant chief Medaria Arradondo to be acting chief, pending City Council approval.

Harteau, who became the first openly gay chief of police anywhere in 2012, was not let go simply because of a poorly-timed vacation.  She and her department had been under fire for such high-profile mishaps as the handling of the officer-involved shooting of an unarmed African American named Jamar Clark, which resulted in the refusal of the Hennepin County attorney to bring charges against the officers involved.  More recently, two officers were caught on security video shooting at barking dogs in somebody's back yard.

The lack of body camera footage in the Damond case is because, in Minneapolis, police officers aren't required to use them.  It's also possible that the cameras were turned off by the rank-and-file in response to the way Harteau and Hodges had been running things.

Noor is a native of Somalia, whose citizens came to Minnesota to escape the war and violence in their homeland.  With all the scrutiny Somalis have been getting from federal officials about young men who are allegedly joining terrorist organizations, and from others who have reacted negatively to their presence, the alleged shooting is just one more thing for them to deal with.

But most of all, incidents like the Damond case (and Jamar Clark and Philando Castile, etc.) have decreased our trust in law enforcement to protect and to serve.  You know those old movies and TV shows where the victim pleads with the lead character not to involve the police in their dangerous situation because (A) the hostage would be killed, or (B) the cops are such incompetent fools that not cooperating with them would be a plus.  When it gets to the point in real life where someone gets shot for making a 9-1-1 call like Justine Damond did, or for getting stopped for a minor traffic violation like Castile did, something's wrong.  Something is terribly wrong.

UPDATE (3/20/18):  Eight months after the incident took place, Noor surrendered and has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.  Should Noor be convicted in a court of law, he could be serving up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge and up to ten years on the manslaughter charge.

Like Father, Like Son?

Description: Trump Tower, in New York City Author: Photo by Martin Dürrschnabel, Benutzer:Martin-D1, user:Martin-D (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the 45th President of the United States, is not a government official.  He is the executive director of The Trump Organization, the family-run business that oversees all of their properties which include hotels and golf courses.  But Junior wasn't above helping his old man out during last year's presidential campaign.  That helps explain why father an son are in trouble today, caught up in the ongoing Russian election hacking scandal.

Most of it was explained in the e-mails Junior voluntarily released before the New York Times could:  On June 9, 2016, Junior, Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law and presently his senior advisor) and campaign director Paul Manafort met with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya and a lobbyist or two at Trump Tower in New York, hoping to hear whatever dirt the Russian contingent said they'd had on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.  Instead, the half-hour meeting centered on what to do about a U.S. law imposing sanctions on Russian individuals, and President Vladimir Putin's response of suspending adoptions of Russian children by Americans.

What's wrong with this picture?  Let's start with numbers, such as the number of times Junior has changed his story.  The number of people who may or may not have attended that meeting (reports tell us it is now eight).  The amount of money in campaign contributions that may or may not have been exchanged.  And maybe Junior should have notified the proper authorities before the meeting took place?

In defending his son (as every father would do, even when it involves national security), the President went on his usual Twitter rant, saying the whole thing was a 'witch hunt' and 'that's politics'.  He also claimed he didn't know about Junior's meeting until recently.

Donald Trump, before he entered the White House, was a businessman who made his name using tough negotiating tactics to buy and sell properties.  Donald Trump Jr. has apparently learned many of the same things, except he may have done his father one better.  He just might have helped sell his country down the river.

Make America Wince Again

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

AS Americans celebrated what might be one of the last July Fourths as a free country, President Donald Trump provided the fireworks.  He does that every week, actually.  Some of them happen to be duds.

At the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Trump did not say or do anything stupid--which is a change from the last time he visited Europe.  He even let his daughter Ivanka save a seat for him during one of the meetings.  How sweet.

What was noteworthy during the summit were the latest examples of American prestige in freefall since Trump took office.

• Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin finally met face to face.  You might say it was a one-sided discussion with Putin doing most of the talking, no matter how much the White House tries to spin it.  From what we heard, there were questions about whether there was a serious back-and-forth between the two leaders over the Russians' alleged hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  You might also say that Trump wouldn't dare offend the man to whom he owes his job.
• The rest of the G-20 leaders reiterated their commitment to the Paris climate accords, telling Trump in so many words that his decision to take the United States out of the agreement is non-negotiable.  Hoping to pick up the slack, many American states and cities have said they're going to abide by the climate agreement with or without the federal government's help.  However noble that gesture is, it just wouldn't be as effective without Washington's backing.

Another sign of American weakness comes from North Korea, where they launched an experimental ICBM that's supposedly capable of reaching Alaska.  Short of war, there's not much Trump can do to put a lid on Kim Jong-Un's destructive ambitions except impose more economic sanctions.  China could help, but they've apparently decided that a united Korea with U.S. troops at its border would not be in their best interests.  Meanwhile, we wonder how the International Olympic Committee feels about staging its Winter Games in a potential war zone.  It's scheduled for Pyongchang, South Korea next February, and who knows what might happen by then.

The gulf between the President and the "fake news" media grows ever wider.  At the summit, trump did not hold a news conference.  His secretary of state Rex Tillerson did hold one, but only with no cameras present.

Before leaving for Europe, the President took to Twitter to pick fights with CNN and the "Morning Joe" program on MSNBC, whom he believes are guilty of not being as deferential to him like the hosts of "Fox and Friends" are.  So he tweets about "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski's appearance in an unflattering manner, much like he's done with other women in the media.  He also retweeted a video showing him punching out a man with the CNN logo on his face at a pro wrestling match.  Classy.

Some believe Trump should be kicked off of Twitter for his constant violations of their policy.  But Twitter's not going to do that.  Just like Republicans and other Trump supporters are looking the other way, not seeing what he's doing to them.  He's the President of the United States, for goodness sake.  Nobody wants to do anything about him.

In the six months since President Donald Trump took office, he's done more through his actions to diminish the status of the United States at home and abroad (except maybe Russia) than any other leader in recent memory.  And we're just getting started.

Supreme Partial Justice

U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As another U.S. Supreme Court session concludes for the summer, we're getting the usual run of controversial decisions and what cases the justices want to hear next fall.  All this with a full bench too, as Neil Gorsuch joined in halfway through after being confirmed.

This year's prize for the most controversial decision goes to the Court's partially upholding President Donald Trump's travel ban.  It bars people from six Muslim-majority countries--Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen--from entering the U.S. unless they already have an existing relationship such as relatives, students and workers.  It's not the total ban the President sought in the name of national security, nor is it the repudiation of Trump's executive orders that lower courts have blocked in the name of civil liberties.  But it'll have to do until the Court decides on the constitutional issues in the next session.  By then, the 90-day ban should be over with.

Elsewhere, the Court ruled in favor of same sex couples in Arkansas who claimed that they were discriminated against because their kids' birth certificates were treated differently than other couples.  The justices will also hear the case of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a same sex wedding, citing religious beliefs.  They won't, however, hear arguments for and against carrying guns in public.

The makeup of the Supreme Court is always a concern, and if the reports are true, the Republicans and President Trump will soon be picking someone who will make the Court more conservative than it already is.  Justice Anthony Kennedy is reportedly thinking of stepping down, either before the next term or afterwards.  If that is the case, the fate of the Constitution lies in whoever replaces them.

Random Thoughts 2017, Volume 1

Official portrait of United States Senator (R-KY) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Republican Senate is making another attempt to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act with its own version of the health care law the House passed recently.  Despite all the secrecy majority leader Mitch McConnell surrounded the bill with, Senate Democrats complaining about the lack of their input and the haste with which this is all being put together before the July Fourth recess, not much has changed.  Medicaid will be cut way back, tax breaks for the wealthy are included, and penalties for skipping out on health care will be retained.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, however, 22 million folks will end up without any kind of health insurance if the law passes--15 million in 2018 alone.  More to the point, most everybody outside the GOP and President Donald Trump hates the Senate bill.  But there are those GOP senators who need to be convinced that this is a good idea, so the vote will be close.  Meanwhile, more and more health insurance companies are getting out of state exchanges, so something needs to be done.

UPDATE (6/27/17):  The vote now won't take place until after the July 4th recess.  Maybe that'll get some of those senators to actually read the bill.

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The Russian hacking scandal was enlivened by the testimony before Senate committees and national TV audiences of former FBI director James Comey and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, neither of whom succeeded in nailing Trump and his cronies to the wall on whether they had anything to do with it.  Instead, the headline was that the closer special prosecutor Robert Mueller  got to the truth, the more the President is inclined to fire him.  Meanwhile, a Washington Post article seems to have put the blame on former President Barack Obama for not doing enough to stop the Russians during the 2016 campaign.  Trump, as usual, gloats over Twitter.

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Recent special elections in which Democrats keep losing to GOP candidates should have told the party to come up with a different message besides being anti-Trump.  And to start thinking beyond Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi.

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Why are there no cameras allowed at White House press briefings any more?  Does Trump and his staff hate the American people and their representatives in the media so much  that we're now on a "need to know" basis?  And why is the mainstream media putting up with this?

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The family of Philando Castile has reached a $3 million out-of-court settlement with the city of St. Anthony, Minnesota, after one of their police officers was exonerated for killing Castile during a traffic stop--with the whole world watching.  No amount of compensation will be enough to ease the pain and suffering of Castile's family.  But if it takes a bad cop off the street, it's a small comfort.

America in Black and Blue, Revisited

Before we begin, we should tell you that this is an update on a post we did nearly a year ago, with new information added and/or substituted.

The United States is about to celebrate its 241st birthday with fireworks, Pentagon-sponsored salutes to the troops at Major League Baseball games, tweets and speeches from President Donald Trump boasting about Making America Great Again, and heightened security at public venues prompted by terror attacks in Paris, London and Manchester, England.

Land of the free, home of the secure.  Unless, of course, you happen to be African-American.  It's all part of what's been going on since the murder of Trayvon Martin and the disturbances in Ferguson, Missouri:  Misguided police officers who target African-Americans for even the most minor offenses,  No matter how much of a model citizen you are, if you take one step out of line, you're dead.  Or get sent to prison if you're lucky.

Friday, after a long trial and almost a week of deliberations, a jury in St. Paul, Minnesota acquits a police officer from nearby Falcon Heights named Jeronimo Yanez, who shot and killed an African-American man named Philando Castile during a traffic stop for a broken tail light on his car.  Yanez believed Castile was about to reach for his gun, when he was really fishing for his ID.

There was video of the incident taken by Castile's girlfriend (who was driving the car), which was shown live on Facebook.  The jury apparently thought there was more to this story than the camera did not cover, and chose to believe Yanez' side of the story.  Which is unfortunately not surprising, because juries more often than not would rather side with the men and women in blue in spite of damning evidence to the contrary.

After the verdict, Castile's supporters and others reacted in a form of protest that's become unique to Minnesota.  They didn't just take it to the streets, they also chose to make their stands by blocking traffic on the freeway.  On past occasions, such venues as shopping malls and the entrance to the Minnesota State Fair (which just happens to be in Falcon Heights) were also used for staging protests.  The majority of them have been peaceful, but there have been some arrests.  These situations, while understandable, do tend to leave ordinary (white) folks angered and confused over whether the unorthodox protesting is really accomplishing anything.

Not all police officers are trigger-happy racists, but there are enough of them to make everyone uncomfortable no matter who you are.  And using military-style weapons on Main Street, especially tanks and 'robot bombs', is not a good look.  This isn't Kandahar or Baghdad.

Just as law enforcement expects us to follow the rules put down by society, we expect them to treat everyone with the respect and dignity we deserve.  Having said that, how can they respect us if they know they're not going to be prosecuted for some of the reprehensible things that they do?

In 2017, we don't need al-Qaeda or the Islamic State to come over and kill Americans.  We can handle that job ourselves, thank you very much.  Every mass shooting, every racially-motivated murder-by-cop, and every dollar sent to the National Rifle Association to make sure that Congress keeps the Second Amendment intact just adds to the perception that we never really left the Wild West.

As long as guns--its misuse by criminals, authority figures and reputed racists remain facts of life, the potential for catastrophe remains high.  We need a real solution, and no more wasting time on prayers, flags at half staff, moments of silence and expressing condolences.  What's it going to take?

Happy birthday, America.  How many more?