#6 RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!

I don't intend to speak to President Trump’s recent executive order to, how shall I say it, modify the travel plans of certain individuals into the United States.  I understand that this is very sensitive topic, on which reasonable and fair individuals may differ, and I can see both sides of the argument.  Nor do I intend to speak to the confusion which emanated over the roll out of the new policy with members of Congress, our allies and with the government workers who are expected to implement this new policy.  On this later point, Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary acknowledged that while the roll out was immediate and may not have been perfect, there was a need to retain the element of surprise, purely for security reasons.  The argument goes that if we were to telegraph our actions ahead of the ban, “the people who want to harm us would flood into the country”.  While there has been discussion that “the flood” would be avoided by current policies, reasonable people may agree or disagree with this, the point is not completely void of  merit.

However, the point I do wish to speak to today, is the clearly massive security breach which was caused by one of President Trump’s key security consultants, Rudy Giuliani, who has had the President’s ear for a long time now.  .

Here is today’s reporting from Business Insider, and I went back and watched the Fox interview to which it refers, to confirm that this reporting does not represent a distortion by the liberal press. It does not.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox in an interview on Saturday (1/28/17) that he helped draft President Donald Trump's "extreme vetting" executive order after Trump called him and asked how to do a "Muslim ban" "legally."

"When he first announced it, he said 'Muslim ban,'" Giuliani, who served as the vice chairman of Trump's transition team, told Fox. "He called me up. He said 'put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.'"

Giuliani then put a commission together with Judge Mike Mukasey, Congressman Mike McCaul, Rep. Pete King, and a "whole group of very expert lawyers on this," he said.

"We focused on, instead of religion, on danger," Giuliani continued. "The areas of the world that create danger for us.  Which is a factual basis, not a religious basis.  Perfectly legal, perfectly sensible. And that's what the ban is based on."

Now it seems to me, Mr. President, that if you do wish to institute a Muslim ban and your goal is to circumvent the constitution, and you want to be sure you do it legally, by all means, you may certainly try. More power to you, Sir.  You are the legally elected leader of our country, and you have every right to exercise all the powers granted to you under the constitution. But here is a thought, Mr. President, one thing you might want to avoid, in cases like this, is actually telling the world that you are actively trying to circumvent the constitution and trying to do a “Muslim Ban” “legally”, and worse, actually having YOUR White House Cyber Security Advisor brag about it to the world and look so happy doing it!  

Now Mr. Giuliani has served his country well, and gets high marks for his leadership in New York City days after 9/11, but I am baffled by his apparent desire for outright transparency on this topic. It's not clear to me if Rudy is a few cards short of a full deck these days, or if his ego took such a blow by not being named Secretary of State that he feels compelled to show the world just how brilliant he really is, or maybe, just maybe, he was kidnapped and tortured by radical Islamic terrorists, and they got him do to what all torturers want of their victims – to tell the truth

Whatever the explanation is, if I am Shawn Spicer or Kelly Anne Conway, I would immediately begin work to remove Rudy from his role and put him out to pasture, as soon as humanly possible. You certainly don't want someone in your administration who is so honest, so transparent, so open, so….truthful.

#5 I LIVE IN THE GREAT STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Tonight, our Republican Governor, Charlie Baker gave the annual State of the Commonwealth.   I need to emphasize our REPUBLICAN Governor, in Liberal, Democratic Massachusetts.  It seems shocking doesn't it? Well it shouldn't be.  The fact is the last five out of the six Massachusetts governors have been Republican starting with Bill Weld (before he had his second or third mid-life crisis and became a Libertarian) Paul Celluci, Jane Swift, Mitt Romney (yes, the original architect  and secret devotee of Obamacare), followed by Democrat Deval Patrick, and now Charlie Baker.

Well, Charlie was on fire tonight and it was a love fest from the get go, and it didn't stop until, well, when it stopped.  A love fest with the predominantly Democratic Legislature ( I think the Democrats hold somewhere between 105% - 110% of all the seats in the state) who were clapping and hollering, and hollering and clapping.  You would have thought Tom Brady himself was at the podium showing off his Fifth Super Bowl Ring and telling Roger Goodell to "Deflate this!"

Charlie went on to deliver the good news of the day.   Massachusetts has the lowest unemployment rate of all time - 3.7%, Our schools are number one in country for the sixth year in row.  We stole General Electric right out from under the nose of the state of Connecticut (my condolences to my old home state)  Bloomberg Business rated us the most innovative state in country for the second year.   The MBTA ran on time a couple of times last week  (thank you God!).  It when on and on, and each time Charlie would get met with a standing "O".....from the Democrats!

I just wanted to run out in to the street and hug someone.

But here was the magic of the night.  As he spoke, he actually thanked everyone for working together and he complimented Democrats by name, by name!   And the real beauty was in his closing. He closed by addressing the divisiveness in our country.   I cant say it any better him, so I will let him say it again.  Here is  an excerpt from his closing

“In closing, on behalf of Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, our Cabinet, our team and the people of Massachusetts, I want to thank you, the legislature, for your goodwill.  This may seem like a small thing.  But it’s not. Too much of what passes for political dialogue these days isn’t dialogue at all.  It’s talking points. Character assassination. And deliberate misrepresentation. Wedge issues may be great for making headlines, but they do not move this Commonwealth forward.  Success is measured by what we accomplish together.  Our obligation to the people we serve is too important to place politics and partisanship before progress and results.

The changes in Washington don’t change this powerful obligation.  Our jobs remain the same.  That is to represent Massachusetts to Washington and not Washington to Massachusetts.

God Bless This Commonwealth.  God Bless the United States of America.”

Mark my words, Charlie will be running in 2024 (against whoever the Democrats run in 2020.) You heard it hear first. 

And yes, I live in the great state of Massachusetts.

#4 DAY TWO OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION - THE WOMEN WALK

Generally speaking, the Women's March on Washington was a pretty impressive showing, a real example of Americans exercising their constitutional rights and protesting peacefully, and if Mr. Trump was impressed with the crowds he drew during his own campaign, now, President Trump, should (if he could be impartial) be equally impressed with the crowds that gathered in Washington and 600+ other locations around the country.  If Democrats can build on this momentum, they might actually have something going into the election cycle, but just as I have called out our new president for (just some of) his poor behaviour during his campaign, I have to call out the organizers of the March for, at least in my opinion, some errors in judgment

• The number of women who said, that Mr. Trump was not "their" president.  Maybe this a pet peeve of mine, but please, stop it, you're killing me.  You are entitled to your opinion on him, and you may not like him, but if you are an citizen of the USA, then he is your president. To say otherwise, is just false.  And here is the bigger picture. If every Democrat keeps insulting the President, so they can feel better, we never move forward.  I understand, you don't like the way Republicans treated Obama, and maybe you can't stand much of what President Trump has said, but expect more of yourselves, break the cycle and be the better man - or in this case, be the better woman.   
• Hollywood Screenings - I don't understand this.  Didn't the organizers of the March think it was a good idea to have their Hollywood speakers actually audition for their roles? This seems like a reasonable thing to me.  Ask them what they plan to say and ask them how they are going to say it.  And if they don't bring their A game, you don't put them on the stage.  They can still walk with all the real people.  Madonna clearly brought her F game, and I am not even sure, they should even have let her walk.   Ashley Judd completely overdid the Nasty thing, picking up on Mr. Trump's commentary about Hillary, but really, do Democrats have to stoop so low and emulate the man they were protesting this day? There just has to be a better way.  Scarlet Johanson was better.  At one point, she actually called President Trump her president. Thank you Scarlet, your honesty is refreshing (and I thought you were great in the Avengers, I can't wait for the sequel)
• Here's the point Democrats, Hollywood didn't do any favors for Hillary the last time around.  If you continue to go this route, at a minimum, you must learn to be more discriminating. Because when you're not, you turn off middle America, and I would hope you know by now, you need middle America.
• I only saw this reported once, so I am personally not certain of its accuracy.   CNN had a correspondent from the USA Today on one of their round-table panels, who reported that some Pro-Life women were either asked or told not to participate. If it's true, it's just another opportunity lost.  If you are Pro-Choice, you want to look for common grounds with Pro-Life supporters.  If President Trump just happens to be the catalyst (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), then go with it.  You need a bigger tent, bring people in, don't kick them out.

But overall, despite my criticisms, the Democrats, led admirably by the women, had a very good day, 

# 3 INAUGURATION DAY

On Friday, the country inaugurated Donald Trump as it's 45th President, so history will now include him as an equal to George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and most recently, Barack Obama.  And yet his path to the White House was decidedly different for all the reasons we know and aren't necessary to repeat today, with one exception, that being that the country has now elected its first business person and someone who has never run for public office before, as its president.

By itself, this is an astounding fact.  During the recent presidential election, there was much said about having Hillary Clinton (for whom I voted) possibly becoming the country's first female President, but there was proportionately less of a focus on Mr. Trump being a businessman and proportionately more of a focus on him, well, just being The Donald.   Now, this was all Mr. Trump's doing. But the more interesting question for me is - could he have still won the White House if he ran a more civil campaign ? Could we have all been spared the needless episodes of Season One of his new realty TV show staring Lazy Jeb, Little Marco, Lying Ted And Nasty Hillary?  Could he have shown more respect for John McCain and less for Vladimir Putin and still won?  Based on the fact that his win was such a surprise and because he was running against such a flawed opponent (more on this topic another day), yes, absolutely, he still could have won.

And in the process, we could have avoided all the needless, wasteful and very painful noise that became such a large part of the presidential campaign. Enough Americans were feeling left out and ignored by a larger world, and the hope and change offered by Barrack Obama failed to materialize for them.  Frustration with a government that wasn't getting anything done was permeating a large part of middle America.  So while a business person may not have been a super hero, it was the next best thing to those voters who so badly wanted real change.

By itself, electing our first business person president would not have led to led the bigger news, which occurred on day two of the new administration, the Woman's March on Washington, but we elected more than a business person, we elected the Donald, and because of that... the March was on.

(commentary on the March to follow tomorrow)

#2 MLK DAY, 2017

WHEN THEY GO LOW, WE GO HIGH

By now, we all heard this phrase from Michelle Obama used toward the end of our recent presidential campaign, and while it clearly resonated with some, it was possibly considered by others to be, in equal parts, idealistic, unrealistic and ineffective.

Please put me in the camp with which it resonated.  Yes, admittedly in these unusual times, it's probably idealistic of me to expect that when one party has been deeply offended by another party, that the offended party can just turn the other cheek, and take the high ground and not lash out at the offending party.  It's only natural, it's only...human.

But the way I figure it,  I am entitled to be idealistic today, it is after all the day we celebrate the man who was the architect of non-violent protest, the man who learned to turn the other cheek, despite great opposition and despite being hated by many.  He led by example, and while he was sadly a victim of the violence he so abhorred, he opened the eyes of the world and his message endured, idealistic as it originally was.

With this perspective, I have to say I was bothered by the recent statement made by Democratic Congressman John Lewis from Georgia, who marched side by side with the man we celebrate today, that our new President-Elect will not be a legitimate president

I share Congressman Lewis's concerns about Mr. Trump, for a multitude of reasons, and a large majority of America, including many Republicans, does as well.  However, Mr. Trump was elected according to the current rules with which, we the people, let me say that again, we the people, govern ourselves.  And we must, no matter what, honor and respect those rules.   Congressman Lewis may not like many aspects of the recent presidential campaign, and he we may feel wronged, but he should channel his efforts in a more productive manner and not challenge the legitimacy of the current President-Elect. Instead, he should challenge the President-Elect on any and all legitimate current topics or policies.

Most importantly, he should recall Michelle Obama's recent message to us all, that when they go low, we go high.   On Martin Luther King Day, it's only fitting.

(Note to all- While I have chosen only to address Congressman Lewis's recent statement, I could easily spend equal time commenting about the appropriateness of Mr. Trump's tweets and responses to Congressman Lewis's original comment, but I will leave that to Alec Baldwin.  Admittedly, he's much better at that than me)

#1 ELECTION DAY 2016

While I was not a supporter of Mr. Trump in this election,  it is my sincere hope that he will reach across the aisle and work to unite our deeply divided nation. Specifically I hope that his polices will work to improve the lives of those Americans who need the most help.  If he can do this, history will regard him as one our country's greatest Presidents.

Most importantly, I will not behave like some Republicans who actively hoped Barack Obama would fail, just so that they could get their candidate elected in the next election. I will put country over party and support our President-elect with the goal that America will remain the wonderful, country that it truly is today, and that it continues to shine its light all around the world.

I mean all of this, from the bottom of my heart.

However, if over the next few years, these things do not come to pass, I do have a fall back plan.  I can now grow marijuana in my basement.