#39 - The Pastor vs. The Patriots

As reported by Tim Funk of the Charlotte Observer a few days ago:

North Carolina-based evangelist Franklin Graham says the New England Patriots should be ashamed of themselves. His reason: The 2017 Super Bowl champions have announced they’ll be the first NFL team to sponsor the “Gay Bowl,” the national championship tournament for LGBTQ flag football teams.

Gay Bowl 17 will be held in the Boston area in early October.

In a Facebook post last Friday, Graham – CEO of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – wrote that “I’m disappointed that a great team from such a wonderful area of the country would promote a sinful lifestyle like this. Shame on them.”

Graham even deputized Facebook followers to echo his latest venture into moral policing by contacting the NFL franchise: “Let the Patriots know that you don’t support this move.”

His Friday post was shared by nearly 8,000 people, and “liked” by about 26,000.

The Gay Bowl was created in 2002, and the Patriots have long shown support for the LGBTQ community and gay athletes.  In 2003, the team sent former player Andre Tippett to that year’s Gay Bowl to officiate over the tourney’s ceremonial coin toss. In 2015, the team as well as Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft signed an amicus brief supporting same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court’s subsequent decision legalized marriage between same-sex partners.

Kraft “was unequivocal in lending the support of the Patriots simply, he said, because it’s the right thing to do,”

When discussing Gay Rights, I do my best to be very respectful of any one's belief in their own God and in their own religion.  One of the founding principals of our country is religious freedom, and if someone tells me because of their religious beliefs that they disapprove of gays, I will acknowledge that they have their right to their opinion,  

And I have a right to my opinion as well, and I want to say that I completely agree with Robert Kraft who has lent his support to the LGBTQ community and gay athletes simply because  “it’s the right thing to do”.    My opinion is based on what I believe is right in my heart, my mind and my soul. When it comes time for God to judge me, I am OK with that.  

And, I am happy to say, that despite the efforts of Reverand Franklin Graham and his 8,000 homophobic deputies, Gay Bowl XVII will go on in Boston on October 6 to October 8.  

That’s the way WE ride, up here in the great state of Massachusetts.

#38 - Memorial Day 2017

I was watching CNN this morning, and they were previewing pictures of Arlington National Cemetery, ahead of the planned ceremony where President Trump would lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the images of the rows of identical tombstones reminded me of an experience I had over 40+ years ago.

I backpacked through 11 countries in Europe for six weeks with a friend after I graduated from college.  It was a wonderful trip, despite the fact that we slept in youth hostels and did our best to scrimp by on $15 a day.   And while specific memories definitely do fade after 40+ years, the most striking memories have nothing to do with Europe of centuries past but, for me, still stand head and shoulders above the rest.  The first was our visit to Dachau, the location of one of the German concentration camps.  To say that it was a stark reminder of evils some men commit against others is an understatement.  As you leave the memorial there, it is hard to speak.  The second was our visit to the cemeteries in Normandy, where rows and rows of beautiful white crosses seem to drift on for as far as the eye can see.     All equal in size and shape, the whiteness standing out cleanly against the pristine green lawn.  Knowing the history of that sacred ground, you can’t do a thing to hold back your tears.     For me, the memory of my visits to Normandy and Dachau represent the most appropriate bookends to any visit to Europe.

The CNN segment this morning included an interview with Lt. General Mark Hertling, who spoke of the memories of some of the soldiers who died serving under him in Afghanistan.  The topic shifted to today’s professional military where less than one percent of those who are eligible to serve, choose to do so.    Host David Gregory asked Lt. General Hertling what those who have not served could do to better connect with those who have served.   The General responded that people always thank him and other members and veterans of the military for their service, but he tells them to instead honor those we honor today, and instill their memories in our daily life and make this country better.

So, in my small way, I thought I would take a moment to write and remember the fallen Allied soldiers in Normandy on June 6, 1944 and the week that followed, and to remember my father, my uncles, by wonderful father-in-law, all of whom served in WWII.  They rarely spoke of their experience, and they never boasted, despite the fact that there collective actions clearly made the world a better place.  They just served. 

#37 - All Things Hillary

I voted for Hillary Clinton for President last November.  In Massachusetts, most of the time it doesn't matter, but I still wanted to exercise my right to vote.  There is something about it that makes me feel good.  Even though we were voting in a new town for the first time in over 30 years, it still felt the same, and while I knew my vote wouldn't matter, showing up at the polls made me feel connected.

Despite my dissatisfaction with her personally, I truly believed she would be a much more competent president than Donald Trump.  And on this point, I am not ashamed to say that I held out hope in the beginning that I would be wrong and Trump might, just because he was different, show us some better ways of governing, I have a better sense now.  That was just wishful thinking on my part.  But, I digress, today, the topic is Hillary.

My issues with her began to take focus when the email server story broke in the summer of 2015. As so many others have written, it was troublesome that she didn’t feel she had to conform to a process that applied to everyone else.  It was equal parts arrogance, stupidity, and showed a genuine lack of common sense.   And yet, it was typical Hillary.  Even though she clearly knew she was going to be running for President after she left the Obama Administration, she still cozied up to Wall Street for large speaking fees.   Maybe this is acceptable or just routine for Republicans or for a Democratic president after a full completion of two terms, but generally speaking this is not a good move for anyone who wants to be the future of the Democratic Party.  And then there was the Clinton Global Initiative which despite its significant good work, has not been unfairly painted as an avenue to increase consulting fees for another very selfish person, her less-than-ethical husband.  I have always believed that if she had dumped him 20 or so years back, it would been a much better move on her part, personally and politically.

Nonetheless, given my belief that the alternative offered us much greater risk than reward, I willingly and hopefully submitted my ballot with her name on it.  Her loss didn't shock me, not in the least.  And while the surprising presidency of Donald J. Trump was personally disturbing, the bright side of this was that, overnight, Hillary had lost her relevancy.   (Whenever possible, I try my best to be a glass-half-full kind of guy).

Then on the second day of May, roughly six months after her astounding defeat, my sense of dread returned, as Hillary emerged from her personal exile. I was done with her by then, and personally I had no desire to hear her thoughts on anything.  She had everything going for her, a stellar resume including the positions of First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State.  She had the support of the current President and the underlying support of the Democratic National Committee (much to the dismay of Bernie Sanders).  But throughout it all we had difficulty really knowing her, knowing what she stood for, and most of all trusting her.   And so she would prove some early prognosticators to be visionaries, the ones who observed that she could be the only viable candidate in the Democratic Party who could actually lose to Donald Trump.  It turns out she was very good at that.   

So instead of explaining to Americans who she was, and providing voters with a vision of how she would provide them with a better life, much of her time on the campaign trail was spent attacking Donald Trump.   When she did attempt to deliver a positive message for her presidency, it was disjointed and inconsistent.   In the process she failed to connect with anyone outside her base, and she failed to inspire.  While I am sure she would have made a very good president, she was a very poor candidate, and without the later, you don’t get a shot at the former.  It may be unfair, and it may mean that we don’t always get the best people as president, but that's how it works in our still wonderful, but clearly imperfect democracy.

So Hillary reappeared that day and sat for a 45 minute interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN at the Women for Women international Conference in New York City.   She joked briefly about her loss, how she was still feeling the pain, but went on to declare that "If the election had been held on October 27, I would've been your president", a reference to former FBI Director’s James Comey’s disclosure that the laptop of Anthony Weiner was, now, front and center in the now revived email investigation. 

Stop it, stop it, stop it, you are killing me!  That's like Matt Ryan, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, stating "If the Super Bowl had ended with one minute left in the game, we would be World Champions,"  In both examples the response is - but that's not the way the game is played…. 

In Matt Ryan's defense, he never made any excuse for his team's loss, and he lost out to a high quality opponent, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, five time Super Bowl Champions (ok, yes I am biased, but this is no alternative fact)

Hillary had no defense, and in the interview she feigned responsibility for the loss, but went on to blame Comey, the Russians, sexism and the Vienna Boys Choir.  She didn’t use the same words but it was her “vast right-wing conspiracy” all over again.   Sadly, she could not admit that she just turned out to be poor candidate who turned in a very poor performance.    She couldn’t say that she foolishly neglected the good people in the Midwest who once represented a strong piece of her base, that her failure to set foot in Michigan and Wisconsin and barely give the time of day to Pennsylvania would cause her to lose a paltry 100,000 votes and the Presidency.  She couldn’t admit that it was her failure which gave which rise to the surprising success of Donald Trump.   She couldn’t admit that she should have been leading by 10+ points going into the final minutes of the game and that the Comey announcement should have a been a non-issue.  

All of this was bad enough, I didn’t want to hear any more, but in closing, after telling everyone, it would all be in the book (cha-ching $$$$), she told Christiane that she “Would now be an active citizen and part of the Resistance”.  

Ugggh... Days later, it was more of the same, as she announced she would formally funnel money to groups resisting Mr. Trump's policies through a new  political action organization called Onward Together 

I understand that many Democrats want to "resist" and attack just about every aspect of the Donald Trump' Bizarro Presidency, it’s only natural, but that job can managed by the lower levels of party members with assistance to the left leaning press and even clue-less amateur bloggers such as myself.  But Democrats need and should expect more from the leaders of their party, who should be laying out a path for the future and developing a message and an agenda to build on in the years ahead.  And that's where the disappointment sets in.   For with Hillary, even after six months of rest reflection, a time during which she could have chosen a different path, she continues to deliver a message which tells the world what she is against.  

Today, Hillary delivered the commencement address at her Alma matter, Wellesley College, and the message was more of the same.    She spoke of the "assault on truth and reason" and referenced Richard Nixon's actions leading up to his resignation in order to avoid impeachment, a clear parallel to her desired outcome for President Trump.  Again, it lacked a vision for the future, something all graduating collegians need and deserve.

The real shame is that Hillary has it in her do more, or at least she did.  These words were spoken by her 48 years ago, when her fellow students nominated her to speak at their commencement, when she was President of the Wellesley College Young Republicans.

"We've had lots of empathy; we've had lots of sympathy, but we feel that for too long our leaders have viewed politics as the art of the possible. And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible possible."

Perhaps if the older, more experienced Hillary could have reached back in time to speak with her younger, more inspirational self, perhaps the Presidential election might have had a different outcome.

#36 - Let's... Go to the Tape!

Just when I think President Trump can't do anything more to sabotage his own administration, he takes it up yet another notch.  I can't help thinking that former President Reagan, if he were alive, would want to pull him aside, and softly, gently, lovingly, whisper in his ear.... "There you go again"

Beyond all the actions of the Trump team in looking inept at their decision, their rationale and the execution of the firing of James Comey, Trump just couldn't let it go, he had to fire out one last Tweet.

 "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

I know, I am stating the obvious here.  Something that 99% of the Free World will understand.  If you are going to go to the trouble of secretly taping some one, you don't then hint that you are secretly taping them.  Ask Richard Nixon how that all worked out for him,

Ken Starr, former independent special prosecutor into Bill Clinton's Real Estate Investments (now there's a serious reason for a special prosecutor), observed on This Week with George Stephanopoulas that Congress is fully within its rights to subpoena those tapes for their own investigation.  So that means, even if the Deputy Attorney General doesn't name an independent prosecutor,  Congress can still pull the tapes.   So the Donald, through no one's fault other than his own, just opened the barn door wide for all to enter

But that's not the worst part.   Now going forward, when the President wants to have confidential conversation with any Democrat, Republican, fellow businessman or a foreign leader, they are ALL going to mute their advice, if they think they are being taped and their comments might come back to bite them.  For the man who wrote the Art of the Deal, and for the man who demands loyalty from all around him, he does little to earn their trust in return.

Maybe working with others is not so important to this president, maybe he really believes that he doesn't need anyone else to fix the Country.  Maybe he believes, that he alone can fix it.

#35 - The Silence of the Lambs

I understand loyalty, I really do.  But when the leader of your party so consistently flies off the rails, how can you sit back in silence?   How can you let him take down your party?  How can you let him take down the country ? When are good Republicans in Congress and in the Trump Administration itself going to stand up and call out this man for what he is ? At what point does personal integrity become more important than party loyalty?  

The man is equal parts ignorant, egotistical, selfish, unethical, immoral, intellectually lacking in curiosity, and most notably untethered to the real world.  And did I say certifiably insane ? If I missed that one, it should have been first on the list. 

He has now proven that he can't even lie in a competent fashion.   If there was one skill that I thought he had honed to perfection, that was it, and now we have to throw that one out the window. 

In one interview with Lester Holt, he contradicted all of his talking points on his firing of James Comey, that he had sent his talking heads out in to the world to deliver just 24 hours earlier.   They weren't just run over by a bus. They were drilled into the ground by their own tank     How much Kool-Aid do Kelly Ann Conway, Shawn Spicer, Sara Huckabee and VP Pence have to drink to get out of bed in the morning to go to work?  How can they look at themselves in the mirror?  Are we to believe that they are all collectively incompetent, or do they just believe their actions are noble ones and their role is to look like fools to serve their emperor?

And now Trump is hinting that it wouldn’t be a bad idea if he does all the press conferences himself, because....he just moves too fast for his team.  So much for his campaign promise to hire the very best people for his administration. 

If the outright lies emanating out of the Trump White House weren’t bad enough, who in their right mind would, one day later, let their President be seen shaking hands with Chief Spy of Russia in the Oval Office?  Couldn’t we have called in Jared for this photo op?  And why would they only let the Russian Press take pictures? Did they really think that Putin would just put them in his scrap book?

And so now, Republicans in Congress have to wake up and stop believing that Trump is their savior, that their ends justifies their means. Their own personal anger and frustration for having to live under Obama for eight years will have to take a back seat for the good of the country. They have to speak the truth. They have to call this man out for what his is, a fraud.   Our country deserves better, we deserve better.

The lambs in the Republican party must speak out. Their silence can no longer be excused.  

****************************
This was completed last night before the latest news of Trump's revealing of classified information to the Russians.   It's really hard to keep up with this guy...but this latest blunder might actually wake up a few folks in the GOP.

#34 - Human Resource 101

The Human Resources departments have reported in to me in my last five jobs over the last 30 years. I have ended up managing the group because it was administrative and policy oriented and, in some cases, quite frankly simply because no one else wanted to deal with it.  And while it was never a discipline that I studied in school, you can't help but learn a few things over the years.   

One of the very basic things you learn and one of the toughest things  you will ever have to do is terminate an employee.  Whether the termination is a layoff (loss of position), for poor performance, for disagreements in style or for Cause (typically defined as something illegal, immoral or in clear contradiction with company policy), it doesn't matter.  You learn very quickly to go the extra mile to   insure that your company handles that termination with as much care and respect as possible.  

There are two reasons you do this.  First, in almost all the cases, the employee deserves it.  The company and the employee may not have been a good match, but that doesn't mean that the company can't take the high ground and treat the employee with an over abundance of dignity.  When you get down to it, it's just the right thing to do.   Second, you don't want to inflame the emotions of the terminating employee any more than they already will be in dealing with this deeply personal and difficult event in their life.  You don't want to provide the employee with additional motivation to retaliate against the company in any way.  Stated another way, if in the few very rare instances, there is some momentary satisfaction with the termination of an employee, it is just that, momentary.  It adds no value to the company going forward.  None.  For these reasons, any and all terminations should be thought through, planned appropriately and executed as flawlessly as possible.

This brings me to this past week's termination of former FBI director James Comey by President Trump.  No matter what Trump's motivation was for terminating Comey (more on this topic in a future post), you have to ask yourself what heinous act Comey must have committed to receive word of his termination from the television news while he was addressing a group of agents on the West Coast.  This is so far beyond treating the person with care, respect and dignity that its off the charts.  Why couldn't Trump just man up, and call him into his office, when he was actually in Washington DC, and deliver the message personally that he was not Trump's guy, that Trump wanted his own guy in the role, and ask for his resignation?   By all accounts Comey would have complied willingly.  And even if he didn't, Trump could have then fired him in good conscious.  But Trump doesn't work that way.  Instead, he had to embarrass the guy.

I haven't heard a rational explanation from anyone even those most ardent Trump supporters as to what necessitated this approach.  The only conclusion appears to be that it was just, personal. Maybe Trump needed this small moment of satisfaction because he misses the sense of real power he once commanded on all those episodes of The Apprentice.  Maybe it provided some very brief moment of gratification to Trump, that he is the winner, and that Comey is the loser.  Trump often views issues in the world as a zero sum game, so this simple explanation may be the one that is closest to the truth, 

#33. - Listen to the Words of Your Next President

Vice President Mike Pence, when asked about the firing of of former FBI director James Comey, said it had nothing to do with the investigation into Russia. 

“That’s not what this is about,’’ he told reporters at the Capitol. “The president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and the security of the American people first.’’

I am going to have say as politely and as possible, that I severely disagree with the statement from this man.    It attempts to paint a false portrait of the greatness of the man to whom he owes his political life, because his last one in Indiana was going down the toilet.   It attempts to camouflage the selfish motivation of the current man in the Oval Office.  


More simply, it is an weak attempt to put lipstick on a pig.  

Note though, how he speaks in platitudes, offering no specificity on how the president arrived at his decision, and completely ignoring the question of the timing of the decision.  I listened to the full 2:03 minutes he spoke on the topic, so I know, he said nothing during this time.   He is a skilled politician. 

He knows how to (i) remain above the fray and (ii) continue the charade in order to show loyalty to his boss.  And  why shouldn't he?

He is next in line for the crown.   He can just bide his time and let it come to him. 

#32 - Perception...is 9/10ths of the Law

I had to go back through all my earlier posts to be sure, but my assumption was correct.  With the exception of calling out Democratic Senator Nancy Pelosi for overreacting and calling for Jeff Sessions to resign, I have been  silent on all this Russian stuff.  That is because I just couldn't believe there was much to it, so I barely touched it.   Oh, I certainly believed that the Russians were guilty of hacking in to  John Podesta's emails.  And maybe one of Trump's cronies, whether it was Flynn, Manafort, Sessions, Jared or Page, all of whom spoke with the Russians more than the Democrats prior to Trump taking office, did something stupid.  It wouldn't be the first time, 

But I really just didn't believe that there was any substance to claims that they pro-actively colluded with the Russians.  While I have continued to point out the ongoing incompetence routinely exhibited by the Trump administration (there just aren't enough hours in the day), I just couldn't believe that they would do something so outwardly stupid, illegal, immoral and most of all unpatriotic.   I just couldn't believe it.

Last night, my opinion changed dramatically.  While Democrats clearly view the firing of FBI director James Comey as Nixonian, and numerous Republicans have expressed the sentiment that the timing of this was disturbing, disappointing or troubling, Trump's team still says this has nothing to do with the Russian investigation and its all about restoring public confidence in the FBI,   Personally speaking, I now believe that the Trump administration is capable of much worse than stupidity and incompetence, and I want to know who is going to restore public confidence in the executive branch of our government, because it's not the current guy sitting in the Oval Office. 


It may very well be there has never been any collusion with the Russians on the part of anyone within the Trump campaign team or the Trump Administration, that remains distinctly possible.  


But you sure wouldn't know it by the way they are acting.

#31 - Profile in Courage

I watched the ceremony at the JFK Library in Boston tonight, awarding the Profile in Courage Award to President Barack Obama.   In his acceptance speech, there was no mention of President Donald J. Trump, but in enumerating qualities and courage required to serve, the differences were apparent.

He touched on the Kennedy family history of service which began with John and Bobby and Ted and continues today, and he reminded all in the audience that "we need courage to listen to each other" and that "each one of us can make a difference and all of us ought to try"

Not only was our former president articulate and eloquent in all of his commentary, but he took the opportunity to remind us of the importance of looking back at our history to see how far we had come, so we could better see where we must go.

When he spoke of courage, he spoke of examples of other individuals who had exemplified courage in his life time.   There was no focus on him, no replay of his accomplishments, no reflection on his ...greatness.  It was a breath of fresh air.

He remains today, one of the few adults in the room. 

#30 - Will the Adults in the Room Please Stand and Be Counted?

Reports indicated that House Republicans were giddy about yesterday's upcoming vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and they entered the chamber to the theme song of (you can’t make this stuff up) .... “Rocky”!  Yo, Adrian! Are Cuff and Link in the audience? Is that Paul Ryan getting in his workout with a slab of Wisconsin beef?

Not to be outdone, after the vote passed, the Democrats taunted their Republican rivals singing "Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye" (does that song actually have a title?)   I must be mistaken. I thought we were in the hallowed halls of our government, not at a high school basketball game or watching the closing scene to "Remember the Titans".  I thought we were dealing with people's lives.

Is this the best we have to offer? Truly, both parties must share the blame, as politicians on both sides scramble to deal with the new world order set by our reality TV star president, who in his perverted attempt to drain the swamp has in the process only presided over the removal of the last remaining shreds of dignity in our government and taken us to new lows.

And yet the passage of the House bill, at its most basic level, does represent progress. Whatever your belief or position is on healthcare, for the first time in seven years we have 'movement', and this point should not be understated.   Obamacare, despite its problems has done one important thing.  It elevated the standard that the federal government must now be involved in health care.  Questions abound over what that involvement should be, but there is no denying the fact that the bar has been raised.  

As it relates to the passage of the AHCA in the House, Democrats will argue that the lack of CBO rating, the loss of coverage for millions of Americans, the added burden on the poor and the elderly, and the tax break for the rich, are all motivated to provide President Trump with a short term victory showing he can actually get something done.  Republicans will argue that Obamacare was collapsing under its own weight, that more and more insurers were dropping out of local markets, that the system was inefficient and premiums were going through the roof. Democrats have said they are willing to make changes to Obamacare.   Republicans have required that it be repealed.  When you get right down to it, that's what this has all been about - ego.  Everyone's ego.  And while President Trump has talked about bringing people together during the campaign, his own massive ego, has been a major impediment to that goal.

But again, whether you like or dislike this bill, it is now moving on to the Senate, where the few remaining adults in the room must now take on the most important role of their lives.  Senate Republicans have an opportunity to take a deep breath, wait and analyze the CBO rating, and buff and polish or tear and re-write the plan put forth by their House counterparts.  The Senate Democrats, who have said they are willing to fix Obamacare, now must step up to the plate and actually provide some specifics.  And while I won't get my hopes up too much, with the Senate balanced 52 - 48,  I want to believe that this represents the perfect opportunity to achieve a bi-partisan win for both parties, and for our country, if the adults in the room behave like adults.  It's been a long time, so I am not really certain, but I think this is how the history books said democracy is supposed to work.

Of course, if they are able to reach a consensus in the Senate, then it’s back to the House, where we may need a heavenly miracle to pull out a last minute kick save.  But I never thought the Pats were going to pull off their stunning come-from-behind Super Bowl win this year, so if you asked me now, I would say, yes, I do believe in miracles.

Speaking for myself, I don't care if we repeal or replace.   I just want to live on a country where we can offer health insurance in an effective and cost efficient manner, to everyone, especially to those who can least afford it today.  If my taxes have to stay up or go up even further, I could care less. It will be some of the best damn money I ever spend in my lifetime.

#29 - 100 Days of Solitude

Much has already been said and written about Trump’s first 100 days, in large part because during his Presidential campaign, he touted all the steps he would take during this time to make America great again.  Trump, the avid well-read historian that he is, has declared it one of most successful in all of history.  The Liberal scum media, and some renowned presidential historians have a decidedly different take.

No matter what your position is on promises delivered or opportunities lost, I think the underlying story line that is missed by all the political pundits on both sides of the aisle is just how lonely President Trump has really been feeling during these first 100 days.

In the 1984 movie, The Lonely Guy, Steve Martin and Charles Grodin are so lonely and socially inept that they throw a party with good-looking, life-size card board cut outs as party guests.   In their search for love and acceptance, their judgement suffers, and so…. they get a little desperate.  While we feel sad for both of these lonely guys, there is actually something to be said for their invited guests.  They don't drink all the booze, they don’t spill red wine on the oriental rug, and most importantly, when their host says something stupid, obnoxious or patently false, they won’t call him out.

Several of the card-carrying members of the Trump administration are not much different than those cardboard cutouts, and in following their leader they have vocalized numerous “Oh, I can’t believe that actually came out of my mouth” moments themselves.  Mr. Trump is very accepting of those members, in part because of the pride he feels, knowing that he has taught them well, but also because their presence allows Mr. Trump to feel loved and accepted, and provides a moment’s respite against the inherit pangs of loneliness that permeate his soul.  But for Mr. Trump their real value-add is that they are ready and willing, at the drop of a hat, to remind Mr. Trump how just how great he really is, which comes in handy when his sense of loneliness enters the danger zone (that feature costed extra).

And just in case, President Trump’s hired cardboard cut-outs aren’t up to the job, he brought in daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared to bat clean-up.  They have had years of experience bowing down to Trump’s super human talents; it is a skill they have honed and refined, in part because of their pure love for this great man, but more because of the over-sized inheritance they will receive upon his passing.   So, it’s no surprise that Mr. Trump has made them a critical piece of his political team.  Let’s face it, if you are the leader of the most powerful country on the planet, you want to surround yourself with the best of the best.

And with the administration's first 100 days now behind us, Trump’s own cardboard cutouts have been moving at light speed all week long trying to justify they own accomplishments.  Reice Priebus, Sean Spicer, Kelly Ann Conway and other lesser known talking heads, armed with lists of all good things Trump, have been let loose on the media to remind the liberal scum just how great this president is and how far we have come in Making America Great Again.

But if you look at Mr. Trumps so-called accomplishments, it’s not much more than a list of executive orders, which, when issued by President Obama, was something that he railed against prior to his election.  But now, Mr. Trump claims those executive orders have made his first 100 days, the best of any presidency, ever.  Ah, right, too bad several Presidential historians are already calling it one of the worst ever.  One thing we have all known about Trump, and this includes his supporters, was that he was never going to be in the running to claim the moral high ground, and he has not disappointed on this one.

Probably his biggest executive orders, not including the one naming his favorite poem, the Snake, the official poem of America (including that other one down south), were the ones that flopped before they even got out of the gate.   His “No Trespassing” Immigration Bans, version 1.0 and version 2.0, were summarily rejected by the courts which have questioned the constitutionality of the ban.  And as I have previously written before, NT 1.0 was so horribly conceived that included on Trump’s banned list of bad hombres were all Iraqis, one of our most important allies in the Middle East, and Green Card holders, the most heavily vetted group of foreign arrivals, and it required implementation 24 hours after signing.  I just hope that the incompetence oozing out of Trump’s White House, isn’t contagious.   

His most recent order to defund sanctuary cites was again put on hold by the courts.  Notice a theme here?  Mr. Trump still thinks he is running a family business and that everybody will be beholden to him and will just roll over and accept his almighty wisdom. Somehow, Trump, the historian, missed the fact that it doesn’t quite work that way in a real democracy.

Listed as his biggest accomplishment was the selection of Neil Gorsuch to take the slot vacated by the untimely death of Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.  Please, this is an accomplishment?  My dog could have pulled this off.  She’s cute and fluffy, but not the brightest pooch you ever met.  Really thanks to Mitch McConnell’s willingness to hold up government…. again, and delay the consideration of Obama’s selection for 10 months, this accomplishment was a done deal before Trump set foot in the White House.  VP Pence, representing conservative Republicans put a list of 12 names in front of the Donald and said “Pick One”.  Wow, talk about heavy lifting.

Absent from Mr. Trump's list of accomplishments were the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, tax reform, an infrastructure bill, and the building of the wall, all major theme's he pushed throughout the campaign.  Granted, maybe it was too much to ask that any or all of these would be accomplished within the first 100 days, but what is truly disappointing (if you are a Trump supporter) or laughable (if you are not) is that there appears to be no consensus, no framework for an agreement on any of these topics just within the Republicans themselves, who, in case you missed it, control the House, the Senate and the White House (well, on paper anyway).

On Obamacare, he can’t get the Freedom Caucus (the Far Right Republicans) and the Tuesday Group (the sane ones) to align on an approach.  One of the most recent changes in a bill winding its way through the House would permit the removal of pre-existing condition rule at the state level, something Trump himself said several times during the campaign was a non-starter.  You mean, you actually believed everything he said when he campaigned, and you said he was different from all the others?  Well, yes that part is certainly true, he certainly is different. 

On the wall, the Trump administration has already pulled back from making this a requirement in the upcoming spending bill, so now it will have to wait until the fiscal 2018 year, but near as I can tell, the Mexicans haven’t yet offered to pick up the tab on this one. I don’t know, but maybe they took offense at Trump’s “murderers and rapists’ comment, which was really just blown out of proportion, after all Trump did clarify his position by stating, “that some of them, I suppose are good”.  Maybe if he had just said that some of them are definitely good, they would have been happy to pay for it all.

As for tax reform and an infrastructure bill, both of which were supported by the Obama administration years ago, but which were held up by the Republican leadership who refused to give Obama anything resembling a victory, they are no closer to realization then at any point in time.  Oh, and don’t get me started on Trump’s formal push for the removal of the estate tax which will personally save Ivanka and Jared a few billion dollars. I already have half of a blog ready and waiting on this one.

And all throughout the first 100 days, Mr. Trump has continuously worked to relive the past and bath in the glory of his surprising election victory. Despite the fact that the election was almost six months ago, the Donald just can’t let go of the moment, so rather than govern, he spends his time holding campaign rallies, when he's not jetting off to Mar-a-Lago to play golf, which he said he wouldn’t have time for when he got into office.  He did it again Saturday night, when he skipped the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.  Qualified psychiatrists would tell you this fits the profile of typical lonely guy. His behavior is clinical.  The lonely guy lives in the past, and he needs to remind others and by extension, himself, just how great he really is, because he just doesn’t want to acknowledge the sad truth.  And Mr. Trump has taken living in the past to extreme levels.  When the past isn’t good enough for his massive ego, he just re-writes it.  His inauguration ceremony was the biggest ever. Period.  End of sentence. He won the popular vote, when eliminate the votes from all the green Martians who cast votes in multiple blue states.  The former President personally tapped Trump Tower, because he secretly wanted to hear the passionate love making between Trump and his beautiful wife, who dutifully has learned to walk 10 paces behind her great man.

The best CEO's in America focus on making the lives better for all of their constituents.  This includes their customers, their employees, their shareholders, and even their venders.  They understand the enormity of the role, the trust that so many people have placed in them, to nourish, to guide, to protect, and to lead.  They are motivated by their own inner drive not to let their constituents down. They must listen and think and strategize. They are motivated to shepherd their company into the future.  They are motivated to serve.  They are motivated to serve others.

If they do these things, if they succeed, they also know that good things will accrue to their own personal benefit. But for the CEOs who make it all about themselves, it truly is lonely at the top, perhaps because no one wants to be there when they fail.