John Rhodes

Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski: A Profile In Courage, Principle, And Decency!

Ronald 4 Comments

The Republican Party in the 1970s had members of Congress who spoke up against the abuses of power under President Richard Nixon, most notably the Watergate Scandal.

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (Mr. Conservative); Pennsylvania Senator Hugh Scott (Minority Leader); and Arizona House Minority Leader John Rhodes all showed true statesmanship, by going to the White House and telling Nixon that he would not survive an impeachment trial.

Sadly, fifty years later, Republicans in Congress, with a very few exceptions, refused to take action against the abuses of Donald Trump in his first term.

And now, in his second term, and being much more abusive and law breaking in just two months in office, almost all Republicans in Congress are overlooking what is going on, as they are terrified that Elon Musk will “primary” them for their next election, if they dare to speak up on principle against Trump.

At a difficult time like this, there is at least one major exception to this cowardice, and that is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has been in office since 2002, and won reelection as an Independent in 2010 against Republican and Democratic Senate opponents. She voted to impeach Trump in his second trial in 2021. She has managed to be truly courageous, principled, decent, and honorable, and speaks her mind, and has been criticized by Trump and Musk, but she carries on with no fear.

Mirkowski has great respect from Alaska voters, and at a difficult time such as now, she is a rare case of someone who will speak her mind, and criticize and oppose Trump, unafraid to condemn his abuses of power.

So Lisa Murkowski is a true “Profile in Courage”, and if another book, such as the one published by Senator John F. Kennedy in 1956 on courageous Senators is ever published in the future, Murkowski should head Chapter One!

Donald Trump Has Committed Negligent Homocide And Needs To Pay The Price For This Crime Against The American People!

Ronald 6 Comments

As bad and evil as Donald Trump has been, no one in their right mind would imagine that the 45th President would commit negligent homocide.

Bob Woodward’s new book with taped statements of his interviews with Trump show that the President knew how serious the CoronaVirus Pandemic was early on, but went ahead and kept it from the American people, supposedly to avoid a “panic”, which is preposterous on its face!

Trump has been promoting chaos, anarchy, and mayhem for the entire time since he announced for President in June 2015. He is not unwilling to stir anxiety.

But to keep the truth from the American people, and attack mask wearing, and refuse to allow scientists to lead policy, Donald Trump has not only committed an impeachable case on its own, but also a human rights crime against 200,000 Americans who have died, and the many tens of thousands who will still die. This is not even counting those who get very ill, suffer, but fortunately recover.

Donald Trump has no ethics, morals, decency, empathy, or compassion for human suffering!

And the Woodward book shows he has no sense of white entitlement, and unwillingness to understand how African Americans feel about their plight of degradation which has gone on without pause for 400 years, and now is making them, along with Latino Americans, the largest number of victims of the pandemic.

It is impossible to imagine, under any circumstance, that after this revelation, along with many others in the last month, including the book of Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, that the President could possibly win a second term honestly.

That would require a total mental illness takeover of a majority of the American people, and that cannot be conceived to occur!

But by all justification, the Republican Party in Congress should be going to the White House and demanding and pressuring Trump to resign, just as courageous Republican leaders, including Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, and John Rhodes did in August 1974 regarding Richard Nixon.

But so far, not a peep has come from Republicans, and what it means is that by all moral standing, the Republican Party needs to be destroyed as an entity, as it has besmirched the history of the party that gave us some outstanding Presidents, and members of Congress, and state government leaders.

There is a dire need for total reconstruction and reorganization of those decent Republicans and conservatives not in office, but having a conscience.

Donald Trump needs to be held accountable in a court of law, for the mass deaths on his watch without any rationale, and to spend the rest of his life in prison, and no pardon by Mike Pence should be considered if he succeeded by resignation of Trump to a short term Presidency!

Mike Pence is also guilty of the crimes that Trump perpetrated, as he had to know the truth about the CoronaVirus Pandemic, and was totally a sycophant!

There is no excuse for either Donald Trump or Mike Pence, the worst combination President and Vice President in all of American history!