I have decided to interrupt my queue, my discussion of millennials and their issues.  To join in with several hundreds of others for today’s discussions, as proposed by the Boston Globe.

Today is the 16th day of August. It is the 5th of Elul. That latter date means that the 40 days of atonement, when we reconsider the actions of our past and our efforts for the future, is already 5 days gone.

But, the real subject for today’s blog is that it is day 572 of TheDonald’s presidency. Where truth is an afterthought- if it ever occurs to the administration that there is a truth. Where the media is considered the enemy. Where those that recognize the errancy of the administration action are subject to venal slurs- and even the removal of security clearances or the firing of an FBI agent, whose Office of Professional Responsibilty determined that a demotion and days of probation were the proper course of action.

It is absolutely clear that if TheDonald could muster a police force that would do his personal bidding, he would arrange for the imprisonment (and perhaps torture) of those who find him abhorrent. Who demands personal loyalty via non-disclosure agreements from federal employees, in contravention of US custom and jurisprudence.  (And, we thought TrickyDick [Richard Nixon, if you are too young to not have learned his earned sobriquet] and his enemies list was bad!)

But, I am not among the journalists who have decided that today is the day to remind the world that a free press is crucial for a democratic republic to flourish. But, I am a sci-tech professional and a financial executive who spends hours each week researching facts to share and improve the knowledge of his readers. Who does not and has not ever taken money- or succumbed to political pressure- to provide the sort of BS that is dispensed from TheDonald and his ilk.

Decades ago, I served as a the scientific advisor to a multinational firm that was being attacked by the EPA. An agency whose mission and goals I fully supported- and did until recently. (Since TheDonald it has become more difficult to support the EPA since it no longer stands for the Environmental Protection Agency; it is now the Energy Producers Advocacy or perhaps the Environmental Pollution Acceptancy.) Despite the claims of the EPA that this firm was harming the environment by superchlorinating waste to render it harmless and disposable (a viable technique for smaller municipalities), I proved that the system produced water effluent that had lower levels of halomethanes than 7-Up had in its bottled pop, lower levels of other chlorinated organics than was already present in any water system of the US (with the exception of New York City). That wasn’t done for the money (yes, my firm was paid); we took the case because we understood that value of this waste treatment system (Purifax).

When Dr. Andrew Wakefield began spewing his version of TheDonald truths that vaccines were harming children, we flew into action. We explained how this BS science was only going to leave slews of children- the next generation of the world’s leaders- at risk.

Just like I still do now, when folks who mendaciously aver that climate change is not happening, who are leaving all of us at risk of the increasing fire and rainstorm damage (a recent blog about the California fires and the Eastern derechos), of coastal flooding (please go visit Norfolk or Tangier Island [both in Virginia] or examine the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, to see the falsehoods that contradict these deniers.

Yes, facts are a problem in politics. Consider two statements about 20 years apart from Thomas Jefferson, the founder of UVa, our first Secretary of State, and our third President.

“Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a            government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” [The year the US Constitution was adopted.]
“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” [After serving his term as President.]

Or, as Jefferson’s pal (later in life), John Adams (the first of the only two father and sons in the White House) stated, “The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom.”

But, SCOTUS (the Supreme Court of the United States) stated the facts clearly for all of us:
Public discussion is a political duty. [It must be] uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, [despite the fact that it] may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. [NY Times v. Sullivan, March 1964 ]

I wasn’t an adherent of the “RESIST” movement until TheDonald’s acts of this week. (Please note that Resist is separate and apart from the violent AntiFa terrorists; akin to the difference between the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Weathermen.) The political pressure imposed upon the FBI to fire the reprehensible Peter Strzok and the stripping of the security clearance of John O. Brennan. (I have clearly opposed TheDonald’s administration of destroying the missions of the US agencies- HUD, EPA, Education, Interior, among others, plus his incessant untruths, anti-Semitism, and racial biases. That’ s common sense- not RESIST.)

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