Ms. Vanderbuilt died...

Character and substance are hard to define, easier to appreciate, and rarely to be perfected. Many of the "rich and famous" have striven to present themselves as the exception to the ordinary, to actually be more wonderful, beautiful, and worthy of our attention. They reach many of their goals, and then, they to, unavoidably, and unjustly, die. Many of them were, and are, "bigger" humans than the average ranger. But the average ranger is, in my not so humble opinion, really superior to them. Without coercion the average person believes, "thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife". The "rich and famous" got the memo, they just didn't believe it applied to them. And it probably didn't. But only because we the people were solid, good, hard-working, child-raising, family-supporting, good people. The rich and famous, torn by mankind's "un-perfectibility", rebelled against the norms, the caring, the hopes of mankind, and scandalized us by doing the attention grabbing foolish things they did for personal attention. I envied their ability to use their wealth to effectively scoff at our "normalcy" and try and force us to attend to their indifference to our normal way of life of working hard, marrying, raising a family, and trying to make a better world. They failed because I would rather be "normal" than a show off trying to tell others I am abnormal, and you should strive to be abnormal too.

Trump in England and NYT Editorial

Of course the liar, cheater, and thief in chief is mocked all over the world. Sanity requires the mockery. If we cannot laugh at this inept, corrupt, Republican in chief who can we laugh at? But of course, the Laughable President is really an American tragedy. Some may think he is a Machiavellian villain but he is simply an inept New York petty gangster who has no morals, no dignity, a 600 word vocabulary and all the bluff and audacity of a the "poor fool". Until America becomes an Actual Democracy, where the people directly vote for the laws under which they live, directly vote for the Executive Officers, and directly vote for the Judges, we will continue to be pawns to what Rousseau called our elected Aristocracy. See assocactualdemocracy.com.

The Republican Philosophy: lie, cheat, and steal money and power

The Republican philosophy of "lie, cheat, and steal" to get ahead, to get money and power from the people and then use that power, gotten from the people, against them so they cannot and will not share in the use of that power. The examples of Hoover, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr. and Trump display the Republican Presidents applying lying, cheating, and sealing that resulted in The Depression, in cover up and resignation for unlawful "lying, cheating, and sealing"; in pardoning a target of impeachment even though the Constitution excepts pardon in cases of impeachment; The "Iran Contra Affair" where laws prohibiting dealing with Iran and the Contras were consciously violated; Where members of the government who violated the laws in Reagan's administration were pardoned; where war was started because of non-existent weapons of mass destruction; and now, the liar,cheater, thief supreme, Trump, has violated his oath of office, as all these previous Republican liars, cheats, and thieves of money and power had done: Conspired to steal an election with the help of Russia and successfully did steal that election and then covered up that fact by obstructing the investigation assigned by his Department of Justice to determine how he conspired with Russia to get elected and how he hoped to also make billions of dollars in league with Putin. The Republicans have lied, cheated, and stolen the money and power from the American people and will continue until they are stopped.

Politics and "Our better Angels"

This is a clash of "our better angels" and our belief in "survive, even prosper, anyway you can". Both are group think or gang think. I phrase it as "lie, cheat, steal" against "truthful, honest, communal": it takes a thief or it takes a village. The Republicans have finally exposed their philosophy that capitalism and democracy favor the lying, cheating, stealing philosophy, what a poet called "red of tooth and claw", the idea that justice is "an eye for an eye" as opposed to "love thy neighbor" and "all men are equal". There is a projection of these opposing philosophies: "There's a sucker born every minute" and " A house divided cannot survive". Since Henry Cabot Lodge subverted America's joining Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations after World War I, which may have logically and politically undermined Democracy throughout the world, even America; down through Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, and, now, Trump. The move toward Republicanism, toward "take care of yourself and we'll be better off" opposed to "work together and we'll be better off": turn off the Unions by subverting them, turn them into a business themselves, address human greed and use it to bring the opposition into the Republican camp. Be cruel when necessary, be crooked, when necessary, undercut the Constitution, when necessary. Damn our better angels, they cost too much and are too whiny and weak to run a country. Jefferson has lost the argument, power and greed have overcome community and Justice for all.

To Impeach or not..

It is imperative that impeachment articles get voted on in the House of Representatives; and, if they pass then they get voted on in the Senate after the prosecution takes place. I say this not just because The President must be held to obeying the law as we all are, but because the votes of the Representatives of this congress need recorded. I believe what the impeachment process should focus on is very clear and simply understood: Are we for the Rule of law or are we against the rule of law and for anarchy. If the President has violated the law against obstructing justice then he should be held accountable for violating it. There are ten arguments in the Mueller Report that show, conclusively, that the president would have been and should have been indicted for those ten separate actions. So, the Congress, our Representatives, must stand before the world, before history, and vote for the rule of law, and impeach the President; or, the Congress will vote for anarchy and the President will continue to violate any law he cares to because the Congress is for Anarchy over the rule of law.

Reply to NY Times Arpaio is a sadist article

Sadism is the result of ignorance and smallness of humanity. None-the-less, people who know they, or "their kind", are superior to "the other" people, justify their sadistic attitudes by dehumanising the "inferiors". Arpaio, Trump, Mcconnell, most Republicans, start from that position. The result is that they choose to "Rule the others" and not to serve the people. It is the story of Jefferson against his fellow founders: they believed "man is not wise enough to govern themselves" and have the landowners, slave owners, and well educated make the laws and "govern ( or rule)" the people. Jefferson said, "If man is not wise enough to govern himself, he should govern others?" Representative lawmaking has failed democracy. We must fire our Representatives and vote directly on the laws ourselves, directly on the Executive officers, and directly on the Judicial officers. Our government must be "our" government and officers of the government must be responsible to the people: see assocactualdemocracy.com, join up and support it. Freedom is the freedom to decide one's own fate.

Hair on Fire ... Putin's open confession at Helsinki

I have been running around with my "hair on fire" since I saw and heard the Helsinki questioning/interviewing of Putin and Trump.

First Trump says Putin told him, forcefully, that he and his associates, all of the Russian government, had nothing to do with interfering in the U.S. election in 2016.

Then, when asked if he believed Russia interfered in the election, Trump answered, in part, "Why would they?"  Effectively saying he believes Putin over the professional people of the U.S. CIA, NSA, and FBI.  He gave aide and comfort to the enemy.  He put Putin's denial over the evidence presented to him, multiple times, again and again, since he took office.  But that's who he is and how he lies.

My hair caught on fire when the reporter asked Putin if he, Putin, had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 election and did he Putin, have his people work toward that end.  Putin listened to the translation and immediately said, "Yes, yes I did."

This is, in front of the whole world, to open cameras and microphones, a full confession that Putin DID, indeed did, interfere in the U.S. election of 2016.  In so confessing, Putin confessed to interfering with the internal affairs of the United States Government and therefore violated the United Nations Charter. he U.N. Charter forbids, in those words, "no nation shall interfere in the internal affairs of another Nation".  Putin not only contradicts Trump when he said he wanted Trump to win and had his people working toward that end, effectively that Putin did interfere in the election, but Putin admitted to violating the U.N. Charter and the United States Sovereignty.

Why hasn't this been jumped on by our media, scholars, DoJ, CiA, and Congress.

Trump is a Traitor and Putin is an enemy aggressor who violated our sovereignty, they both said so at Helsinki..