I’m Tired
(Copies of my book can be purchased retail at Amazon.com, BN.Com or at a reduced price from me by emailing me at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for instructions.)
By Hank
Silverberg
You know
what? I am tired. Oh, I try to get enough sleep, but that’s not the issue.
I’m tired of
waking up every morning to some new revelation in the continuing investigation
of our dysfunctional president.
I’m tired of
his lies, his attacks on anyone he doesn’t like or who criticizes him.
I’m tired of
hearing journalists deliver their product with exasperation in their voices
because they know they’ve been lied to again.
The country
is getting tired too. And it may be
stressing Americans out.
After all
those years as a reporter, I tend to hold back on partisanship on most issues, but I have been unable to do that with Donald Trump. He is just so far off from what America
is supposed to be that just the thought of another four years of this raises my
blood pressure. But much of my opinion here is still based on facts.
There are a
lot of other reasons for stress, but the Trump presidency may be making
Americans sick. First there’s simply the polarization of America, which has
gotten worse since NBC highlighted this issue two years ago.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/could-stress-trump-presidency-make-americans-sick-n769441
Add to that
the health care mess, which has made mental health care difficult to get and
hard to afford. Then there is an administration and a Congress which have made no efforts or no proposals to
change that.
We’ve all
had increased stress before. The entire nation suffered from it after 9-11 when
we worried about frequent terrorist attacks. They didn’t happen as much as we thought they would, thanks to some
hard work by law enforcement and our military.
But somehow
the stress went up again after Donald Trump’s election, and not just for his
opponents. His supporters deal with it too. For some of them it's disappointment
that he hasn’t been able to do much of what he promised—mainly because he
doesn’t know how. For others its anger that he is constantly attacked and for
still others it’s regret about their vote and for the embarrassment he has
become at home and abroad.
For those
who oppose him, and there are many who do, the list of reasons why grows every day.
One of my
Facebook friends, a classmate from high school whom I won’t name, confessed he
loves Trump (he is proud of it) and he posted this meme.
Lots of
people agreed with him. But many others did not. NO surprise. I sent him a list
of reasons not to support Trump.
Just writing
the list was a great stress release for me. I have added more things here than to the short list I posted to his meme.
1) Adulterer (with a porn star he paid $130K in hush money).
2) Consistently spending some down time
at his own resorts and golf courses so he can charge the government for the
stay and enrich his own company.
3) Cozying up to authoritarian leaders like Kim
Jung Un and Vladimir Putin, both of whom time and again have
murdered opponents. Trump has endangered U.S. interests by doing so.
4) Ruining 70 years of foreign policy in
Europe put in place by bi-partisan American presidents thereby alienating our allies.
5) Taking what had been a modest success in Syria
in defeating ISIS and turning it into a disaster that is killing our Kurdish
allies and revitalizing ISIS.
6) Eliminating decades old pollution
controls on air and water. The latest example was loosening auto emission
standards.
7) Pushing through a massive tax cut
that has increased the federal deficit dramatically with little gain for the
average middle or working class family in the United States.
8) Taking us out of two key treaties—the one that
had some limited success with preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and
the other which had put the USA among the leaders in trying to stop climate
change.
9) And perhaps the most un-American thing of
all—putting children in cages, which is not good for any reason!
There are
more, but those are the highlights.
Notice I
didn’t say anything about collusion or impeachment. Like many Americans, I believe that Congress can investigate the President's behavior completely as they are SUPPOSED TO DO under the
U.S. Constitution as an equal branch of government. It’s their job!
So, I’m
tired. Trouble is, all these issues make it hard to get a good nights' sleep.
News Notes:
Watch the birdy? Maybe not much longer. A new
report from the National Audubon Society says climate change is producing
rising temperatures and is threatening the
habitat of 389 species of birds. They will either be killed off and become extinct or migrate elsewhere for a
better climate. That could make 12 U.S. states birdless. You can read the details here:
You
should also take note of this:
Ten
cities across the country say the Trump campaign has not reimbursed them for the costs of added security for Donald Trump’s political rallies. Those rallies are campaign events and not
part of his official function as President, so his campaign must pay for the
added security. Most of it is police overtime for traffic and crowd control. So far, the campaign hasn’t paid up. The debt totals more than a million dollars.
El
Paso, Texas, billed the campaign $570,000 for a visit in February. Lebanon, Ohio, says the campaign owes the
city $16,000 for an October 2018
event.
Of
the 10 cities listed in a Center for Public Integrity report, Tucson, AZ, Green Bay and Eau Clair, WI, Burlington,
VT and Spokane, WA, are owed money dating back to Trump’s run in 2016.
To
be fair, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders also have some unpaid
bills from 2016.
But
It’s not like the Trump campaign doesn’t have the money . The Republican
National Committee raised $125 million in just the last quarter.
This
is a pattern for Trump. A USA Today investigation in 2016 found at least 60
lawsuits and more than 200 liens against Trump and his companies for failing to
pay scores of employees and businesses for their work.
The
Trump campaign also owes Washington, D.C. more than $7 million in unpaid
bills from his 2017 inauguration.
(Your comments and suggestions are
welcome)
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