Bad Principals

The big news is not the refugee ban.  We knew it was coming.  Relying solely on his bungling band of brothers ensured a disorderly roll out of his executive order.  That incompetence has fortunately amplified the push back.  The ban poses a short and long term security threat by radicalizing Muslims.

But the greater threat is reconstituting the Principals Committee, the senior interagency committer for national security.  Ultra-nationalist, conspiracy theorist, Steve Bannon is in.  At the same time participation by the Director of National Security and the Head of the Joint Chief of Staff is limited.  The latter two, need to be included to have the broad picture necessary to protect this nation.

Bad principals, coupled with Trump's bad principles, imperil the security of the United States.

Donald Endangers Democracy

Elections have consequences.  Give a new president a chance and wish him well. These platitudes have power in a normal election.  Progressives can hardly expect to love a Republican agenda.  If my qualms with Trump were merely on policy grounds, I would hope for the best, and work politically, to fend off the worst.

Unfortunately, Trump is not a normal president.  Democracy in its purest form is a clash of ideas.  But the battlefield must be composed of a common set of facts.  Alternative facts and the conspiracy theories they foster, tear the fabric that unites America.  A plurality of Trump supporters believe that George Soros paid women to march on the 21st of January.  The president believes massive voter fraud deprived him of winning a majority of the popular vote.  You cannot argue with crazy.  Democracy suffers when discourse dies.

Equally troubling is the Russia connection.  First lets examine the facts.  Trump has had a campaign manager and foreign policy advisor with close ties to Putin and Russia,  His soon to be Secretary of State received the highest award that can be given to a non-Russian, directly from Putin.  Russia used information from cyberattacks to help Trump and to discredit Hillary.

Trump has taken pro-Russia and pro-Putin positions for no obvious reason.  He changed the plank in the platform supporting the Ukrainian efforts to fend off Russian attacks.  He has floated plans to remove sanctions on Russia and called NATO obsolete.  The pro-Putin stance is almost as unpopular with his supporters as it is with his detractors.  He gains nothing politically.  Trump has fired the senior State Department Officials best positioned to oppose a pro-Putin policy.  The fired four served under multiple presidents.  They were fired on no notice, without replacements ready.  One of the four was on a plane to Rome to attend a non-proliferation conference, and was ordered to turn the plane around and clean out his desk.

Whether it is emotional, financial, or even darker, Putin has an untoward influence over our President.  Absent tax returns, we cannot know if his enterprises our in debt to Russian oligarchs.  Then there is the dossier that alleges that Putin is able to blackmail Trump.  The dossier is not alternate news.  The source is a former British MI6 agent who  has been a reliable source.  The claims in the dossier may not be immediately verifiable.  They may be false.  But the terrible truth is they could be real, and would explain both Russian support of Trump's candidacy and Trump's strangely pro-Russian positions.

T. Price is not Right

Rep. Tom Price is Trump's choice for Secretary of HHS.  Clearly if the price is right he will support legislation.  He has recently profited by buying stock shortly before voting for a bill specifically helping his new portfolio entrant.  Troubling, but if corruption was dis qualifying there would be no Trump presidency.

More pungent is his passion for contracting medical coverage.  His state of Georgia has among the highest rates of uninsured, and the worst healthcare outcomes for patients.  Tom wants to build on this success for the entire nation.  He has voted against any expansions coverage including the State Children's Healthcare Insurance Program that covered 6 million children.

We will pay a high price if this grim reaper controls the health and well being of all Americans.

GOP Car Sellers

What would you do if a car salesman asked you to trade your car in, but would not show you the car you are buying?  Worse yet, he will not tell you the specifications, the cost or the delivery date.  Welcome to the GOP controlled government.

How can we evaluate the repeal of Obamacare without a peak at the replacement, if any.  Republicans have had 7 years to build the shiny new plan, but have failed.  Now they are rushing production with ill matched think tank spare parts.  Healthcare is a life or death decision.  Hardly something to be left in the grimy hands of partisan used car sellers.

True or False

Trump has called the dossier alleging Russian ties, and blackmail potential, "false news."  False news, like Hillary's pizza parlor child prostitution ring, is without fact or substance.  The dossier is real. The source is a former British MI6 agent, who has provided solid intelligence in the past.  The allegations, may or may not prove correct, but the allegations are real news.

Oddly amidst allegations of financial improprieties, and using Russian supplied information to assist his campaign, his only specific defense is to the sexual allegation.  He parades his germ phobia, as proof that his glee for gold excludes golden showers.  Even this flows false, since he was alleged to be a spectator not a participant.

That we are even talking about such things, bodes ill for the next 4 years.

Profit Plan

As fond as the president elect is of walls, he cannot build a Chinese wall around his business.  He knows the assets and nature of the business.   Unless he lacks all business acumen, he will know what policies will help or hurt his business.

The solution is to donate to charity all profits directly or indirectly related to laws and policies during his term in office.  A bipartisan panel of economists would make the assessment.  Ironically, Trumps promises to charities would finally be fulfilled.

The second prong is to deleverage his business.  During the campaign, Trump made the patently false claim that his businesses  were not leveraged.  Make that the first campaign promise that he keeps.  Owing money, particularly to foreign interests, is unprecedented for a president.  A third party could be appointed to deleverage prudently, without damaging the business.

Americans deserve a president focused like a laser on their needs and interests.

4 Americans in Cuba

My above titled book is now being converted for Amazon, iBook, and Google Play.  After reading the Forward, I hope you will look forward to its release in the 1st quarter of this year.

FORWARD

For Americans, Cuba has been the forbidden fruit—a skin of Detroit sheet metal covering a center of tasty rum, swirling cigar smoke and sandy beaches. 

Until January of 2016, when the people to people exception opened independent travel to Americans, there was no role for this guidebook.  Legal travel to Cuba was through planned tours ranging from 7 to 13 nights.  Those tours, at QE II stateroom prices, enveloped travelers in an all-inclusive bubble.    Backpackers defying the embargo, were travelers on a shoestring tightly holding Lonely Planet, while scrolling through backpacker social media. 

My intended reader is neither unwashed (great or otherwise) nor anointed.  Cost is an object, but so is comfort.  She recognizes the danger of a luxury cocoon as well as the tedium of a shared bathroom.

Money is only one resource to marshal.  Equally important are time and energy.   Although I welcome youthful backpackers, I don’t assume my readers have the boundless energy of the young.  I don’t.  Travel should be a stroll, not a marathon.   

Similarly, time should be savored, not wasted in endless lines, that can be part of life in Cuba.  I have a few tips that will save you hours.  I caught one error in Lonely Planet that may save you days.   

This book has nearly two hundred pictures.  Is a picture worth a thousand words?  I have seen horrible pictures that were worth only a few expletives.   But I’m advising you where to eat, sleep and sightsee.  Pictures provide you with a tool to make your own decisions, piercing the hyperbole of the intrepid travel writer.  I took most of the pictures.  Those taken by Jan Sanders will be followed by a “JS”, those by Jacqueline Heskett a ”JH”, and those by my wife an “RS”.

I do have the big picture.  Pictures are big.  A picture contains more data than a thousand words.  Be patient.  Downloading will take a little extra time.

To fully enjoy this book, please read it with a computer, tablet, or color e-reader.  Otherwise, the pictures will be in fifty shades of grey.