Risen

Recognizing that I am hardly one to write about religion, in general and Easter, specifically, there is no doubt in my mind that Easter is the very reason Christianity exists. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the message that this resurrection brings us, there is no reason to believe anything beyond our poor, paltry existence here on this earth.

Sad that this Son of God had to be put to death in the most horrible way imaginable, in order to lead the way to mankind’s eternal salvation, His death and resurrection bears witness to the fact that all of us are something more than the flawed human bodies we inhibit. It vouchsafes the eternal nature of our souls, that the time we spend here on Earth is but a sliver of the sum total of our existence, and that we are more, much more, than merely organic deposits with finite shelf lives.

So, whether or not you celebrate Easter, please allow me to extend my heartfelt best wishes to you and yours, for a blessed and happy Easter, and to those of you who are my Jewish friends, please allow me to wish you good Pesach on this week of Passover.

To all, Peace and Happiness, always,

-Drew Nickell, 30 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Drew Nickell is back on Radio Today, Thursday March 29th at 1:00, EDT

I will be back on the radio once again today, Thursday, March 29th, at 1:00 pm EDT, and filling in for Nora Wahl Firestone on her show at WKQA-AM, Freedom 1110 AM in Hampton Roads, VA. During the broadcast, I will be discussing the Omnibus Spending Bill,  California’s lawsuit against the federal government, Saturday’s protest march and the 2nd Amendment , and the Stormy Daniels interview .

If you live outside Hampton Roads, and would like to tune in on the internet, here is a link to that live broadcast :

http://lightningstream.surfernetwork.com/Media/player/view/WKQA-AM_gsl.asp?StreamingServerName=nick11&OnDemandServerName=nick10&targetWidth=1000&targetHeight=800&call=WKQA-AM&od=0

Here is the link to the replay of this broadcast on Facebook’s live video feed.

https://www.facebook.com/drew.nickell.7/videos/10209140349385866/

Enjoy !

-Drew Nickell

Sanctuary Suffrage and the Left’s War on the Constitution

Every ten years, the United States is compelled to take a constitutionally-mandated census of its citizens. Primarily used to re-apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the census has also been used to allocate federal dollars across a host of taxpayer-funded projects- roads, schools, healthcare assistance, etc. The information gathered on this decennial snapshot tells us who we are as a nation, and what variables amongst us describe our race, sex, age, where we live and how we are related to our household members- all in addition to the counting of how many of us we are.

Up until the last census, taken in 2010 (and previous censuses going back to 1965), we were asked whether or not we were actual citizens and, if not, what was our immigration status. That last detail was deemed necessary to determine equal representation in the House, as such representation is solely based on the number of citizens being represented in each congressional district, with the aim of making each House seat representative of an equal number of constituents. Given the priorities of the Obama administration, counting citizens was deemed to be irrelevant, as they and their Democrat allies sought to apportion congressional districts to include non-citizens as well, in direct opposition to the mandates of the U.S. Constitution. States thus having large populations of non-citizens like California, as compared to other states like Wyoming, would then be over-represented in the apportionment of House districts, presumably favoring Democrats over Republicans. Hence the purpose behind Democrat opposition to including the citizenship question in the upcoming 2020 census- it’s a bold play by Democrats to include non-citizens in the apportionment of congressional districts, and in so doing, enable these districts to receive a dis-proportionate share in federal funding. That’s it in a nutshell, despite their egregious claims that including the question amounts to racial intimidation.

In essence, the Constitution be damned if non-citizens can’t have what’s coming to them, too- including the right to vote. Yes, it’s true. An illegal alien in California can qualify for a driver’s license and/or a state ID card. With either, the non-citizen is then granted suffrage- the right to vote in state elections, including federal elections, because federal elections are administered by the respective states. The State of California has also declared itself a sanctuary state, essentially absolving itself from cooperation with Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When ICE attempts to enforce deportation orders, or serve criminal warrants against illegals who have committed violent crimes, state and local officials are proscribed from cooperation with federal authorities. In essence, what this really means is that California- given these two examples, has effectively declared war on the United States Constitution, all in pursuit of partisan political power…and it doesn’t end there…

In the Senate and in the House of Representatives there is a growing number of legislators, mostly Democrats but also anti-Trump/NeverTrump Republicans, who are bound and determined to prevent President Trump from making good on his campaign promise to build a wall on the southern border of the United States. Their vociferous opposition to the construction of the wall merely confirms the fact that what they seek are open borders, which allow unfettered access to illegal aliens- aliens who will then be granted voting suffrage, all in the pursuit of partisan political power.

Ironically, it was yesterday when retired Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an article for The New York Times on MSN.com advocating for the outright repeal of the Second Amendment- a stance even many gun-control advocates recognize as extreme. It should be noted that this is the same Justice Stevens who authored the dissenting opinion in District of Columbia vs Heller (2008), opposing the verdict that re-affirmed the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, irrespective of affiliation with a state militia. While Stevens’ opposition to private gun ownership is well-documented, it also says much about a former associate justice who wants to tear up the Constitution. While many gun-control advocates say they don’t want to outright repeal the Second Amendment, having a former Associate Justice advocating such repeal merely reinforces the argument of gun-ownership advocates, and the NRA particularly, that the right to bear arms is well under siege.

These are but two examples of how the political left has declared war on the Constitution of the United States, a war that has been percolating since the late 1960s and which has its roots in academia, going back to the earliest decades of the 20th century. To radical anti-American extremists in university faculties across the country, the Constitution is merely a relic of history whose very meaning and structure is something to be ignored in much of what they advocate, including what constitutes free speech on their very own campuses. In their world, students who echo their own radical sentiments are to be guaranteed the right to express their opinions, but those who oppose this ideology are to be censured and made silent- a very dangerous mindset that, over a generation, can lead to complete destruction of individual liberty and a dissolution of constitutional rights.

Without the Constitution of the United States, the United States of America simply does not exist…and behind the left’s war on this Constitution lies their real intent to overthrow the nation and replace it with a totalitarian socialist state.

The first step in this effort, is to rid the nation of its duly elected president, one way or the other. Once Donald Trump is no longer President of the United States, they can proceed with implementing the rest of their nefarious agenda.

-Drew Nickell, 28 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

In the Distance I Hear the Drums- a poem by Drew Nickell

In the distance I hear the drums-
The drums of war, and all that comes
With all the death that will ensue,
And all our words and deeds we’ll rue;

The momentary peace between
The wars we’ve waged and wars unseen-
The wars we’ve fought and ones we’ll fight
So long as there is day and night;

In hearts we seek a path to peace,
Yet in our words the odds decrease
The likelihood that never more,
Will sound again the drums of war;

In ages gone to history’s dust
Man has fought for what was just-
Certain that his cause was right
With honor carried to the fight;

Yet with scenes of death abound-
Attendant misery all around,
And from this darkness, once again,
The graves of men and women lain

And as the war-worn people age,
Their children find, anew, the rage
That heightens tension all around
And, once again, the war drums sound;

I hear the drums of war approach,
Regardless of the stern reproach,
To selfish quest and power sought-
The reasons that such wars are fought;

The darkness comes and steals the light
And takes us to an endless night
And, once again, just as before,
We find ourselves, again, at war…

-Drew Nickell, 27 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Republicans Rolled by Democrats- Trump Signs Dirty Deal to Fund Military

If ever there was a time to “ditch Mitch,” that is to say Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the proof in that pudding came with this week’s dirty dealing that he and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) put together with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Not even giving their own caucus a chance to read the 2,300-page, $1.3 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill, which essentially funds most all of the Democrats wish list- Planned Parenthood, ObamaCare and VA hospital supplementals, building maintenance for unoccupied federal buildings and a host of other spendthrift wastes of taxpayers’ dollars, the Republican leadership nevertheless agreed to a bill completely devoid of the promises President Donald Trump made in winning the 2016 presidential election. Absent was any substantial funding for a border wall, save for nominal maintenance and repair of existing and outdated fencing, absent was any reinforcement for, and additional hiring of ICE agents, or any provision to cut federal funding from sanctuary cities- cities blatantly in violation to federal immigration laws.

It was as if McConnel and Ryan said to Schumer and Pelosi, “You can have anything you want, just as long as we can restore funding to the military that was denied during the eight years of the Obama administration.”

So delighted that they were able to force this dirty deal upon a Republican majority in both houses, Schumer and Pelosi were ebullient in what they were able to pull off against their impotent and feckless counterparts, McConnell and Ryan. Schumer even added, “Today, we as Democrats were able to achieve more in the minority than we ever were able to achieve when we were in the majority.”

Force-fed to their caucus twenty-four hours before yet another government shutdown was to take place, cowardly Republicans hurried to vote for the measure before immediately splitting town to begin their spring/Easter break, dumping the dirty deal into the president’s lap and putting the onus on him to avoid a government shutdown. Only ninety-five members of the 238-member House Republican caucus, and only twenty-four members of the 51-member Senate Republican caucus, had the courage to oppose their leadership and vote against the bill. Hence, the majority of the Republican caucus (143 Republicans in the House and 27 Republicans in the Senate) effectively turned on the president, as well as the electorate who swept them into office, and joined with Democrats to dump a dirty deal onto the nation.

Trump immediately saw this dirty deal for what it was, even musing (and tweeting) about vetoing the bill, citing inaction on DACA and inadequate funding for construction of a border wall. In the end, however, Trump caved into signing the bill at the behest of his Defense Secretary James Mattis, who stressed the urgent need for increased military funding, to offset the decay in military readiness that was the result of Obama-era sequestration. While many who support the president wished that he had forced the issue, and veto the spending bill, it was Trump who decided to place military readiness over fiscal restraint, and sign the dirty deal, after all.

In signing the legislation, the president vowed that he would “never again sign such a bill,” and called for Congress to pass legislation allowing line-item veto authority to a president, something that all but a few state governors already have to effect fiscal restraint. His call for line-item veto authority will undoubtedly be ignored in the House, where that chamber jealously guards their spending authority.

Trump also called on the Senate to end the filibuster rule, which enables only a few members of the minority party in the Senate to control budgetary and spending legislation. Trump’s calls for ending the filibuster rule will nevertheless be ignored in the Senate, because those ego-maniacs will never surrender the power they hold over the rest of the country, and McConnel is more wedded to Senate tradition than serving the needs of the nation- a stance quite common to anti-Trump/neverTrump Republicans, like Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

In forcing this dirty deal onto the president, Republicans in Congress seem bound and determined to surrender their majority status, by abandoning their president and thus enabling Democrats to seize the majority, so that they can then impeach a president on the grounds that they just don’t like him.

Outside the insidious beltway surrounding the political “red-light district” that is Washington, D.C., there is a substantial base of Trump’s electorate who demands that Republican leadership fulfill its oft-made promises of fiscal and budgetary restraint, and to enact the president’s legislative agenda. Sadly, this base is not represented in a Congress where partisan differences are practically non-existent, and Republicans have become merely a laughing stock to Democrats, like Schumer and Pelosi, who are able to pursue a nefarious agenda unfettered by minority status.

Inside that same beltway, however, resides a lone crusader who is willing to take on the establishment, who seeks to upend business as usual, and save his country from its own demise. The deep state of government tries to sabotage his presidency at every turn. The media who covers him, with lies and deceit, will stop at nothing to bring him down. His own party has abandoned him, colluding with the opposition to wreck his efforts and it is these Republican weasels, who sell their souls to the almighty dollar and thus do so at their country’s peril.

Yet, this lone crusader, one Donald Trump, plods on in a quest to “Make America Great Again.” In the face of almost-universal opposition and obstruction, he is a man who just wants to make good on his promises to the people- the very people who have lost any semblance of representation in our nation’s capital.

-Drew Nickell, 24 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

The Mueller Probe- America’s Punishment for Electing Trump

After ten months, and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, to punish America for electing Donald Trump president, the time has come for the Mueller investigation to come to an end.

The Mueller investigation, instigated by a vicious lie, cooked up by a cabal including the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama administration, including his Justice Department, his FBI, his State Department, his CIA and NSA, was put together for three purposes:

To exonerate Hillary Clinton for crimes relating to her illegal use of a private server, willful destruction of evidence, and distribution of classified documents to unauthorized personnel, which were subsequently hacked by foreign governments- all felonies punishable with imprisonment;

To slander and libel Donald J. Trump in a coordinated effort to prevent his election by utilizing FISA warrants to spy on Trump and his associates, based on a Hillary Clinton/DNC paid-for dossier assembled by a foreign national, Christopher Steele of Fusion/GPS, and submitted as evidence to a FISC court to obtain such warrants under false pretenses;

To then sabotage the presidency of duly-elected Donald Trump, through renewing these illegally obtained FISA warrants, so as to create a false scenario of collusion with Russians and obstruction of justice, all in order to prompt a fishing expedition whose sole purpose is to bring down the Trump presidency by any means necessary, so as effectively to overturn the election of 2016.

In the history of the United States, there has never been a more sinister effort, spread across the federal government, including the departments of Justice, State, Treasury, as well as the FBI, NSA, CIA, IRS to use the power of a deep state to sabotage any presidency, namely the Trump presidency, and effectually attempt a coup d’état.

Evidence that this attempt to overturn an election and, in effect, punish the American people for not electing Hillary Clinton, reaches to the highest level of the Obama administration, including President Barack Obama. It has grown well beyond the limits of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and has prompted increasing calls for an independent counsel to investigate these crimes.

The Mueller investigation, prompted by the illegal leaking of classified information to the New York Times by fired FBI Director James Comey, is nothing more than a diversionary tactic put into place to cloak the very real misdeeds of both Clintons and the administration of Barack Obama- deeds so horrendous in their very nature, and so widespread amongst senior officials across governmental entities, that even Trump’s own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has thus far refused to appoint this independent counsel because of the potential ramifications involved with criminally charging two ex-presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Ironically, it was the Clintons and Obama who attempted to cover up their own corruption, by accusing Donald Trump of committing the very same crimes that they themselves committed. Bill and Hillary Clinton, through their foundation, were paid $145 million, in advance of the sale of U.S. uranium assets to Uranium One, a holding company partially but substantially owned by the Russian Federation. The sale and transfer of this uranium stockpile was subsequently approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This committee included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, and Office of Science and Technology Policy Chairman John Holdren, all of whom were Obama appointees. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, former CIA Director John Brennan and former NSA Director James Clapper, all Obama appointees, all signed off on the transfer as well, and would go on to play key roles in the attempted take-down of Donald Trump.

Firing Robert Mueller is perfectly within the legal purview of President Donald Trump, and the time has long passed for his investigation to come to a close. In ten months, it has failed to show a scintilla of evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton. It has failed to show anything close to obstruction of justice, on the part of the president, and now has taken the desperate steps to investigate the Trump organization for activities taking place prior to Trump’s run for the presidency- in essence, a fishing expedition with no end in sight, and no limits to the breadth and scope of this inquisition.

Sadly, if Trump was to do so, the neverTrump/anti-Trump Republicans, including senators John McCain, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and a host of others, would join hands with Democrats in the Senate, to demand impeachment proceedings against the president in the House of Representatives, and thus prompt a constitutional crisis of enormous proportion, and the potential for permanent damage to representative democracy would so ensue.

Away from the cameras, and away from the ever-present news coverage which is as biased as any in American history, two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, two former Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, two former Attorneys General, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, along with Susan Rice, James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Samantha Power and a host of others like Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, are all delighted in the punishment that they have exacted upon the American people, for having gone against their collective will to elect Donald Trump President of the United States.

President Donald Trump, who can’t even trust the weasels in his own inner circle, who take delight in illegally leaking classified information to their co-conspirators in the media, has been effectively placed before a political firing squad, and is forced to face the onslaught of those who are set to deny him and his electorate, what he has earned through a fair and free election, and it is President Trump who is utterly alone and without the support of even his own party…

…and we all must ask, is Hillary worth it?

Well, is she?

-Drew Nickell, 22 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Drew Nickell is back on Radio Today, Thursday March 22nd at 1:00, EDT

I will be back on the radio once again today, Thursday, March 22nd, at 1:00 pm EST, and filling in for Nora Wahl Firestone on her show at WKQA-AM, Freedom 1110 AM in Hampton Roads, VA. During the broadcast, I will be discussing the president’s pending face-to-face with Kim Jong Un, the firings of Rex Tillerson and Andrew McCabe, the Mueller investigation, and review all that’s happening with media coverage and the upcoming mid-term elections. If you live outside Hampton Roads, and would like to tune in on the internet, here is a link to that live broadcast :

http://lightningstream.surfernetwork.com/Media/player/view/WKQA-AM_gsl.asp?StreamingServerName=nick11&OnDemandServerName=nick10&targetWidth=1000&targetHeight=800&call=WKQA-AM&od=0

Please note, I will also be airing this broadcast on Facebook’s live video feed.

Hoping you can tune in, one way or another.

-Drew Nickell

Here is the link to the replay of this live broadcast:

https://www.facebook.com/drew.nickell.7/videos/10209089916325071/

First Day of Spring

First day of spring, a lovely thing, so we’ve been told
And yet, outside, a “weeping bride,” left in the cold-
Her tears of rain, and winter’s pain- they’re still around…
Where is the sun? Spring has begun, yet cold abounds…

So, we must wait, until it’s late, for spring to come,
And in our wait, yet with our fate, it’s worse for some
Who are alone, and as they moan, their teardrops fall…
First day of spring, why won’t you sing, for one and all…?

-Drew Nickell, 20 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
http://www.drewnickell.com

McCabe Fired- The Great Unraveling Begins

Twenty-five hours before payments from his federal pension were about to begin, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was summarily fired from the bureau by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

In a late Friday night announcement, the Justice Department announced McCabe’s immediate termination as the result of findings, by the bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), that McCabe had lied to investigators on more than one occasion, regarding his involvement in both the Hillary Clinton e-mail and in the alleged Trump/Russia collusion investigations. “Lack of candor” by any and all employees of the FBI are grounds for immediate termination, period. McCabe’s firing also vouchsafes that this policy applies to all, and it should serve to allay any doubts from low-level FBI agents throughout the country, who might otherwise have felt that senior-level members of the bureau get a pass on this policy.

By waiting for the OPR’s official recommendation, issued this past week, Sessions managed to avoid accusations that this decision was purely “political.” The OPR is very much apolitical by nature, comprised of career civil servants, and would not have made this recommendation without just cause. Immediate cries from both Democrats, and McCabe himself, that it was all President Trump’s doing, only serve to confirm the evidence of their own bias, when it comes to both the FBI and the Mueller investigations. Had Attorney General Sessions rebuffed the OPR’s recommendation, and allowed McCabe to retire with his pension intact, he would have merely repeated the Obama administration’s allowing disgraced IRS official Lois Lerner to retire with full benefits. Such a refusal would have also provided President Trump with yet another reason to terminate Jeff Sessions as AG.

McCabe, who facilitated the illegal use of a Hillary Clinton-funded GPS/Fusion dossier to pursue FISA warrants against Trump’s campaign associates, and was part of efforts by Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and others to sabotage Trump’s campaign and subsequent presidency, also colluded to absolve Hillary Clinton of criminal charges following her unauthorized use of a private e-mail server, illegal distribution of classified documents and destruction of evidence related to both. If the findings of Inspector General Michael Horowitz regarding McCabe, and others, lead to the appointment of a special counsel, criminal charges could well follow, and the loss of McCabe’s pension could be the least of his problems. Furthermore, none other than former FBI Director James Comey could also face criminal charges for his own misconduct regarding Hillary Clinton’s e-mail investigation, and illegal release of classified documents to the media, which prompted the Mueller investigation.

Also revealed last night were text messages between Strzok and Page that may serve to impugn FISC Judge Rudolph Contreras, a friend of Strzok, who suddenly recused himself from further involvement following his ruling on Michael Flynn’s indictment. That, in and of itself, calls into further question the FISA applications being approved by the FISC court, and many more indictments could follow, as well.

With so many careers destroyed, and with so many criminal indictments surely to follow, the one question that needs to be asked is simply this…

…was blind loyalty to Hillary Clinton worth it?

Well, was it?

-Drew Nickell, 17 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Drew Nickell is going to appear at a book signing, Saturday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) at the

Barnes & Noble, Booksellers-Virginia Beach Town Center

4485 Virginia Beach Blvd
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
757-671-2331

Drew will be signing copies of his book, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, EDT

about Drew’s Book:

Bending Your Ear—A Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times delves into the political issues facing America at a crucial moment in this country’s history, where we find ourselves struggling with our national identity and the direction in which we are headed. We have been bombarded with contradictory and confusing messages by the political and media classes to the point where we have collectively lost our way, forgotten our history, and lost touch with what it actually means to be an American. We need to be reminded that “we the people” have the ability to think for ourselves, and recapture all that has made this country the greatest country the world has ever known.

Drew Nickell pulls no punches with regards to both the sociological and political states in which we find ourselves. He assesses the current events of American politics and offers solutions, at a critical time when we decide which direction we took in the 2016 general election. Now is the time for anyone who cares deeply about America, to read what is contained in Bending Your Ear—a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times.

Tillerson Out, and Pompeo In as Secretary of State

Of all the cabinet-level appointees of the President of the United States, none is more important, nor carries more prestige, than the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is the very face of the president to the world at large and is the nation’s chief diplomat in all things external to the United States. The Secretary of State is the U.S. equivalent of a Minister of Foreign Affairs, in parliamentary systems of government, and even in the United States with its representative republic, the position was originally known as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, from 1781 to 1789.

Robert Livingston was the nation’s first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, before he was replaced by John Jay, who went on to become acting Secretary of State prior to the first actual Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. Since Jefferson, sixty-nine Secretaries of State have held the position, either as acting or formally installed, and no fewer than six of the first seventeen Secretaries of State went on to become President of the United States (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren and Buchanan).

Once roundly criticized by Democrats for his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin while serving as the CEO of Exxon-Mobil Corporation, Rex Tillerson’s approval by the Senate was largely along partisan lines, as most all of Trump’s cabinet appointments have been. Tillerson was first recommended to the position by George W. Bush’s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Robert Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense under Bush and Barack Obama, and it seems that he has remained at odds with President Trump practically from the beginning of his tenure. Because of its relative importance, when compared to other cabinet-level positions, a Secretary of State must be in lock-step agreement with the president under whom they serve, so it was no real surprise when President Trump gave Secretary of State Rex Tillerson his walking papers.

For instance, Rex Tillerson had taken the position that Iran was abiding by their commitments under Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), much to the dismay of his boss who opposed the Iran deal from its inception. Tillerson opposed the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, opposed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), opposed Trump’s desire to renegotiate the Clinton-signed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and, most recently, voiced his opposition to the decision of the president to place tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. When President Trump last Thursday accepted the invitation from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to meet with him to discuss de-nuclearization, Tillerson objected, saying that it was “pre-mature” for any such discussions to take place, and this proved to be the final straw on the back of his own undoing.

Acting more in concert with Trump’s globalist/internationalist predecessors, it is no wonder that Trump fired Tillerson, and then decided to replace him with his own CIA Director, Mike Pompeo. Pompeo, who has given most of the daily intelligence briefings to the president, has won the trust of Trump and there is no doubt that his tenure over the State Department will more closely align with that of the president’s. In replacing Pompeo, Trump has wisely decided to elevate Deputy Director Gina C. Haspel, a career CIA professional since she joined the agency in 1985, as opposed to the more-typically appointed political operatives so prevalent in past administrations. Having over thirty years of experience with the CIA, and a level of expertise uncommon to previous CIA Directors (she once served as Deputy Director of CIA’s National Clandestine Service, which oversees covert operations around the world), Haspel is well equipped to direct the agency once notoriously headed by the likes of John Brennan and, oddly enough, George H. W. Bush.

For his own part, Mike Pompeo is highly respected for his professionalism and his high intellect. Graduating first in his class (1986) at West Point, with a degree in mechanical engineering, he might seem an odd fit to oversee all of those Ivy League graduates, with their degrees in international relations, who have made the State Department a morass of discombobulation and ineffectiveness. Nevertheless, Pompeo will faithfully serve a president who has ordered a 31% reduction in the State department operating budget- a good start in “draining the swamp” that is “Foggy Bottom.”

So, while all of the “experts” of statecraft wring their hands at the dismissal of Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State whose very nomination they so vehemently opposed, confirming Mike Pompeo as Tillerson’s replacement (and Gina Haspel as Pompeo’s replacement) will surely reopen the circus that is the Senate approval process. No doubt, all of the posturing and demagogy attendant to such proceedings will surely fill the airwaves of late March and April.

Meanwhile, the presidency of Donald Trump proceeds unabated and, now that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has formally cleared the president of any alleged collusion with the Russians, the president can proceed with having the State Department at his back- something altogether new in his service to the nation.

-Drew Nickell, 13 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Kim’s Invitation to Trump: Real Breakthrough or Déjà vu?

It didn’t take twelve hours for the mainstream media to turn a collective “about face” on President Trump’s decision to accept the invitation from Kim Jong Un, to meet in the next couple of months for the purpose of discussing de-nuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

When the announcement was made by South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong last Thursday, March 8th, just outside the entrance to the west wing at the White House, initial reaction to the announcement amounted to stunned approval from unlikely media sources who, unprepared for such a seeming breakthrough in the stalemate between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, were caught tongue-tied and flat-footed. After all, how could Trump- crude, brusque, undiplomatic and recklessly accelerating us towards nuclear war, ever leverage a discussion from “Little Rocket Man” about de-nuclearizing the entire Korean Peninsula? Hell, de-nuclearization wasn’t even dreamed about by his Democrat and Republican predecessors, who relied on trained “professionals” in the State Department to leverage concessions from Kim and his father- concessions that were as worthless as a liar’s promise.

In 1994, Bill Clinton offered boatloads of cash, and following delivery, Kim’s father, Kim Il Jong, immediately resumed nuclear research, despite the “deal” to the contrary that Clinton so foolishly touted. In 2001, George W. Bush agreed to remove all nuclear missiles in South Korea, once aimed at North Korea, in exchange for yet another promise to halt nuclear weapon research, and Kim Il Jong reneged, yet again. Five years later, North Korea successfully detonated its first atomic weapon, and the march towards the development of nuclear missiles began in earnest. At least Clinton and Bush tried- a far cry from Barack Obama, whose policy of “strategic patience” provided him a convenient and irresponsible excuse to do nothing, and kick the can down the road to Donald Trump. By the time all of this “kimchi” landed in Trump’s lap, Kim Jong Un was well on the way towards being able to nuke the continental United States with an ICBM.

From the get-go, Trump has made it clear that there was no way the United States would abide a North Korea capable of a missile strike against the U.S., or its allies, and summarily applied pressure on China to join in a U.N. resolution to apply the most stringent sanctions against North Korea. The president even took to openly tweeting insults, referring to Kim as “Little Rocket Man,” and issuing threats of “fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen” to the North Korean dictator, causing State Department “experts” to swoon at the thought of such provocative pokes coming from a U.S. president. They wailed and whined about the “reckless” president, who would push the world towards World War III.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

It was Kim Jong Un who came with an invitation, to sit down with his nemesis and discuss the possibility of de-nuclearization- something all of the “experts” never dared suggest. After initial jubilation at the thought of such a breakthrough, the legion of Trump-haters: NeverTrump Republicans, Democrats, the so-called “experts” like R. Nicholas Burns (George W. Bush’s Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs) and Peggy Noonan (Reagan’s speech-writer), and their friends in the media, all got their messaging together and then went on a plethora of interviews to bash Trump, yet again, and tell the world the president was flimflammed by a rogue dictator, who tricked the president into agreeing to meet. One might think that all of the “talking classes” are rooting against the president, just because he didn’t seek out their advice and consent, before taking matters into his own hands and boxing Kim into a corner.

Well, their own bruised egos aside, it seems that our president figured out that if one is going to deal with a tyrant, then one needs to speak in the language that the tyrant understands, and now who has approached Trump, hat in hand, and requested a bi-lateral meeting, without all of the time-consuming and trivial trappings of a brokered summit? Such a summit would take far-too-long to bring about, under the “rules and regulations” the experts swear by, and both Kim and Trump haven’t the time to wait for all of that to take place. Kim won’t wait because he knows, that Trump knows, he is merely months away from having an operational ICBM with a nuclear warhead- something Trump has promised will be preceded with military action, which is why Kim has requested a meeting by mid-May. The threat of American military action looms large for the little dictator, primarily because he believes Trump is just “mad” enough to follow through on his threats, and annihilate North Korea in the process. For his own part, Trump knows that the only way to prevent an inevitable military showdown is to give Kim this one last chance to back off his nuclear stance, and thus preserve his regime, or else bear witness to American military might.

The Trump-haters who seem to hope that the effort fails, just so they can say, “…see, I told you so,” don’t realize that their slandered “warmonger” president really wants to avoid war, and is willing to extend the olive branch this one time in order to prevent it. They insist that Kim is so smart (and that Trump is so dumb), that he will snooker the president the way his dad did Clinton and Bush, and gain sanction relief and other concessions on the front end of a commitment he doesn’t intend to keep.

Well, so far, it is Kim who has made all of the concessions, including a halt to missile testing and abiding U.S./South Korea military exercises, designed as rehearsals for a possible invasion of the North. Beyond agreeing to sit down with Kim, Trump has promised nothing, and both sides understand that financial pressure and international sanctions will remain in place while the two sides prepare for this historic meeting- the first between a U.S. president and a leader of North Korea. Kim wants to see a formal agreement to bring to an end to the Korean War, sixty-five years after a cease-fire was declared, leaving a “hot” war turned “cold” but, technically, not over. Trump might be willing to abide this, once Kim turns over all of his nuclear weaponry to the U.S. and once U.N. inspectors thoroughly verify that de-nuclearization has actually taken place.

Trump won’t be stupid like Obama was with the Iranian mullahs, when his predecessor forked over billions in cash for nothing in exchange. Trump won’t be taken in, the way Clinton and Bush were taken in, and he has already promised to make it a short meeting if he senses that Kim is trying to pull one over on him. What would then follow would show a watching world that the time has come for a military response to the Korean crisis- one that Trump wants to avoid, but is willing to exact, if that is what it will ultimately take to de-nuclearize North Korea.

Don’t expect that these efforts, if successful, on the part of Donald Trump to avoid war with the North Koreans, will land the president anything close to a Nobel Prize for Peace. No, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who awarded to Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for achieving nothing more than his own election, and to Al Gore for convincing the world that man-made global warming would melt the polar icecaps by 2013, would more likely give the prize to Kim Jong Un, instead. Perhaps they should rename the prize the “Nobel Prize for Political Correctness,” but that is a subject for another day.

So, whether a real breakthrough is achieved or whether this is just an unfortunate case of déjà vu, is really up to Kim. He either comes in earnest or he comes to deceive, at his own peril. Kim may be crazy, but he is not stupid. While only a fool would trust him to keep his word, his actions are the only way he will avoid his own demise and the destruction of his country, and Trump knows this all too well, because time has run out.

Perhaps, it is time for all of the “experts” to start rooting for an American president, rather than licking their chops at the prospect of his failure…but don’t hold your breath…they are still hoping that Trump colluded with the Russians.

-Drew Nickell, 12 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Drew Nickell is back on the Radio Today, Thursday March 8th at 1:00, EST

I will be back on the radio once again today, Thursday, February 8th, at 1:00 pm EST, and filling in for Nora Wahl Firestone on her show at WKQA-AM, Freedom 1110 AM in Hampton Roads, VA. During the broadcast, I will be discussing discussing tariffs, Jeff Sessions, school shootings, media coverage and the upcoming mid-term elections. If you live outside Hampton Roads, and would like to tune in on the internet, here is a link to that live broadcast :

http://lightningstream.surfernetwork.com/Media/player/view/WKQA-AM_gsl.asp?StreamingServerName=nick11&OnDemandServerName=nick10&targetWidth=1000&targetHeight=800&call=WKQA-AM&od=0

Please note, I will also be pod-casting this broadcast on Facebook and hope you can tune in, one way or another.

-Drew Nickell

Here is the link to the replay of this broadcast:

https://www.facebook.com/drew.nickell.7/videos/10208993931965522/

http://www.drewnickell.com

The First Dog- a Short Story by Drew Nickell

We have all heard the oft-repeated phrase that a dog is “man’s best friend”, and there is ample reason that we should believe this. For thousands of years, dogs and their masters have had a special relationship with one another. Dogs help men at work and play, they comfort us when we are sad and lonely, they protect us from the dangers that we may encounter and they’ve even been known to aid in the healing of the sick.

Yet, no one really knows how or when this special relationship began. We’ve always assumed that wolves began to follow prehistoric tribes on their hunting parties; waiting to devour the remnants of the beasts that were killed so that man might eat. No one can really say, with any certainty, which of these wolves became the first domesticated “dog”. This tells that story. . .

Once upon a time, long ago, there lived a clan of cave people who called themselves the Keepers of the Flame. They were a clever people, for they had discovered how to make fire from flint. By striking an ordinary rock against a piece of flint, they were able to create fire whenever it was needed. Before this, fire could only be had when lightening would strike a tree, so the Keepers of the Flame had a marked advantage over other tribes which had not learned about the secrets of flint.

One of the boys in this tribe was named Lag, because he had a habit of lagging behind the others when they would go in search of food. Lag was often scolded by the tribal elders for this, but it was no use, for like many bad habits, this one just would not be broken. Because Lag often showed up late for supper, he was given the task of gathering up the bones and carcasses and taking them out to the wolves that had been following this clan for some time. The tribal elders had realized that giving such scraps to the wolves served the dual purpose of sanitation and keeping the wolves at bay. So it fell on Lag to do the dirty work of feeding the wolves.

Little had anyone in the tribe realized how the wolves were becoming attached to Lag. Nevertheless, the wolves would whine and wag their tails whenever they caught sight of Lag, even if he had nothing to offer them. The rest of the tribe would be growled at by the wolves, but the wolves knew that Lag was their source of food. As such, Lag was even able to touch the wolves, who would wag their tails and lick his hand when he would stroke their gray coats of hair.

When the tribal elders saw how Lag was able to approach and pet the wolves, they were amazed that Lag had the ability to do this without being bitten or even growled at. Over time, they came to appreciate, and be awed by, what they considered to be a special power that Lag had over the wolves, for it never occurred to them that the wolves were merely showing Lag their gratitude for having fed them.

One night, as the Keepers of the Flame had finished feasting on a buffalo which they had roasted on a campfire, they called out for Lag to carry away the scraps, but he did not answer the call. Strangely enough, the wolves who had been following the tribe for many months, were nowhere to be found, either. Another day passed and the tribe began to wonder where Lag and the wolves had gone.

Late that next evening, the tribe was startled by a single wolf who was barking at the entrance to the cave. They tried to shoo away the wolf, by throwing stones at him, but the wolf just dodged the stones and continued to bark at them. One of the men said that the wolf would stop barking if they killed him, but the chief stopped this man as he was raising his spear.

“I believe that this wolf is trying to tell us something,” said the chief. “Perhaps he knows where we could find our lost member, Lag.”

Sure enough, the wolf led the men of the tribe straight to Lag, who had fallen some three miles back, and had broken his ankle. Surrounding Lag was the rest of the wolf pack, who had fought off other wolves as they tried to get at Lag. They had even brought to Lag a squirrel to eat, and only now backed away from Lag when his fellow tribesman reached down to pick him up and carry him back to the cave.

For the rest of his days, Lag would walk with a severe limp, as .a result of the injury to his ankle. For the wolves who had so protected Lag, when he had fallen, there was to be no more growling at the other Keepers of the Flame, who in turn, allowed the wolves to sleep in the cave when the weather was bad. Sleeping next to Lag, regardless of the weather, was the one wolf who had summoned the tribe to his aid. He stayed with Lag always, as a matter of fact, and this wolf became known as “Lag’s Dog”.

This dog, Lag’s Dog, was the very first dog.

-Drew Nickell

© Copyright 1995, by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

http://www.drewnickell.com

To Tariff, or Not to Tariff- that is the Question

Last week, President Donald Trump announced his intention to place specific tariffs on imported aluminum and steel, as a means to preserve aluminum and steel manufacturing in the United States. Almost immediately, globalist Republicans and economists, alike, began to howl at the notion of placing such tariffs- warning that doing so would lead to trade wars and would ultimately hurt American consumers of products utilizing these materials. Interestingly many Democrats, who traditionally embrace this kind of protectionism because it favors industries dominated by labor unions, have joined in the criticism of Trump’s plan to levy a 25% tariff on imported steel, and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum. Had such a proposal been brought forth by a Democrat president, Democrats would have rejoiced at such a prospect of protectionist policy, which only goes to show that they are going to oppose Trump, at any and all levels, for the mere sake of opposing the president who they despise to their very core.

Meanwhile, in the face of such criticism, President Trump maintains that the imposition of such tariffs is the only means left to prevent the entire shutdown of aluminum and steel manufacturing, here in the United States. Because these two commodities are so vitally important to the manufacture of armaments, the president has couched this policy in terms of ensuring our national defense, especially in times of war. Admittedly, it is impossible to manufacture weapons of war without ready access to these materials, and any scenario which would see the United States solely dependent on the importation of these materials, in times of war, is a prospect no responsible president would dare embrace. Hence, the need to preserve the last remnants of aluminum- and steel-making capacities before they, too, altogether disappear from our domestic manufacturing mix.

Critics cite the failure of a tariff once placed on imported steel, imposed temporarily by the George W. Bush administration in 2002. These temporary tariffs were intentionally set to expire in 2005, but were rescinded well before that date, largely because the Bush administration caved in to protests from the World Trade Organization (WTO). The 2002 tariffs exempted Canada and Mexico, because their inclusion in the imposition of these tariffs would have meant the placement of fines against the United States, under the Clinton-signed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This is the same NAFTA which Donald Trump has long opposed, since its inception in 1994. Trump’s opposition to NAFTA, along with the prospects of placing tariffs on imported aluminum and steel, were key components of his 2016 presidential campaign, alone amongst sixteen other Republicans vying for that year’s Republican nomination.

Once again, the issue comes down to the difference between globalists like both Bushes, both Clintons and Obama, who have steeped and vested interests in the maintenance of a global economy pursuant to a “new world order,” and nationalists like Donald Trump, who favor putting American interests ahead of those interests favored by the WTO. Such internationalists have, during the last seventy years or so, made “tariff” something short of a dirty word- that is to say when the “tariff” to which they refer, is one imposed by the United States. Since the end of World War II, the United States has generously allowed foreign countries to impose tariffs against the United States as a means of rebuilding their respective post-war economies, even when the imposition of such tariffs have wrecked many U.S. industries and cost hundreds of thousands of American manufacturing jobs in the decades since.

Bethlehem Steel, and the history of steel manufacturing in Sparrows Point, Maryland, just east of Baltimore, is a primary example of what has happened to the steel industry in the advent of internationalist policy. Once Maryland’s largest employer, there was a time when steel manufacturing at Sparrows Point employed some 65,000, including my uncle who would sacrifice his lungs to the production of steel, as his job involved lining the great ovens with asbestos brick at that plant. By the time I was selling personal protective equipment to the plant in the mid-1980s, the employment at that facility was down to about 6,700, and it was all dependent upon the successful implementation of a new technology, developed here in the United States, of continuous casting in the manufacture of steel. That effort proved to be too little, too late, and by the second decade of the twenty-first century, steel manufacturing at Sparrows Point ceased to exist. The gargantuan plant, which had once been the world’s largest manufacturer of steel, became a hollow monument to what was once the power and might of the American workforce.

The seeds of this economic globalism go all the way back to the presidency of Woodrow Wilson who, interestingly enough, began the process of shifting federal tax revenue away from tariffs and duties on foreign imports, and onto personal income. It was Woodrow Wilson who in 1913 imposed the first permanent federal income tax onto the American people, via the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and it was Wilson who initiated the first payroll tax at the beginning of his presidency. That same year incidentally saw the creation of the Federal Reserve System, which has overseen monetary policy ever since. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who later imposed the Social Security Income tax in 1936, and it was Lyndon B. Johnson who first imposed the Medicare payroll tax in 1965. Essentially, three of the most powerful Democrat presidents ever elected are largely responsible for all of the federal taxes withheld from American paychecks, and it is these policies which have largely shifted funding for the Unites States government away from tariffs, and onto the backs of American wage earners.

All of these years later, it was the presidency of Donald Trump who pushed through the largest income tax reduction on individuals and businesses, in the Tax Reform and Jobs Act of 2017, and now it is this same administration who seeks to unravel seventy years of unfair trade policies, in a twilight attempt to recover American economic pre-eminence, after seventy years of propping up other world economies. The United States, alone among world powers, has both rebuilt post war economies in nations with whom we were once at war, and has maintained and provisioned the defense of European and Asian allies since the end of World War II, now seeks to level the playing field when it comes to international trade. While resistance to Trump’s tariffs from other nations is quite predictable, in spite of the largesse Americans have availed to the world, resistance to tariffs on steel and aluminum, from our own politicians in both parties, speaks to the extent that globalism has largely superseded Americanism in economic policy.

Any nation which comes to depend upon other nations for the strength of its national economy, and the ability to arm and defend itself in times of war, is a nation whose continued safety and security has become the property and purview of foreign interests, and not their own. The same holds true for American interests…something that Donald Trump has understood for decades, but something found repugnant to those who place the world’s interests above our own.

-Drew Nickell, 5 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2

Recusal and Refusal – the Curious Case of Attorney General Jeff Sessions

The only thing certain about Jeff Sessions is the fact that, for reasons known only to himself, he is bound and determined to be the Attorney General of the United States.

Sessions was a well-liked and comparatively successful senator from Alabama, whose own re-election was virtually perpetual for as long as he wanted to serve in the Senate. Sessions was respected by both sides of the Senate aisle- that is, until he decided to accept President Donald Trump’s nomination as the nation’s eighty-fourth attorney general. From the first day of his confirmation hearings, Sessions subjected himself and even his career to wholesale slander, particularly on the part of fellow Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ), alleging that the Alabama senator was a de facto racist who should not receive Senate confirmation. After an excruciating inquisition by Booker, and his fellow Democrats on the senate Judiciary Committee, desperate to find some reason to reject their fellow and once-liked fellow senator, Sessions was nevertheless approved on an 11-9 strictly partisan vote in committee, and an equally-partisan 52-47 vote in the U.S. Senate.

Sessions wasn’t in the new job a month when he decided to recuse himself from all matters related to the investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. So broadly applied was this recusal, that Sessions has since maintained more than an arm’s length distance between himself and any investigation, even remotely connected to the Russian/Trump probe. This recusal (and, in essence, refusal to pursue investigation) even precludes his participation in anything to do with Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal, FBI illegal use of a Clinton-funded dossier to get FISA court authority to spy on members of the Trump campaign, and probing into the Clinton Foundation/Uranium One collusion, which resulted in the transfer of 20% of our uranium stockpile to Russian interests. Obviously, Sessions had nothing to do with any of these scandals but, so far, he has used his recusal to avoid anything related to these revelations, as well.

In essence, Sessions’ recusal has effectively taken the Justice Department away from the Trump administration, and placed it into the hands of Obama-appointed officials, and under the oversight of Rod Rosenstein, whose inexorable ties to the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, as well as Bob Mueller and James Comey, render him unable to judiciously pursue investigations and indictments against these former officials.

Worse, because of cowardice on the part of Senate Republicans, the Democrat minority in that chamber has effectively blocked President Trump from firing Sessions. Doing so would place the entire Justice Department under Rosenstein’s direction until Sessions’ replacement can be confirmed- something that Senate Democrats vow will never happen as long Trump remains president. Gutless Republicans would roll over in such a scenario, allow their Democrat colleagues to block a second Trump AG appointment, and then Democrats would use such a firing to prompt impeachment proceedings in the House, under the guise that Sessions’ firing would somehow be construed as obstruction of justice.

So, the president is boxed in on the subject of Sessions and is thereby reduced to periodic humiliation of his own attorney general, in the form of comments via Twitter, to try to get him to resign his post. No one can rightfully blame Trump for his frustration with not having an effective attorney general as part of his administration. After all, Kennedy had his brother, Bobby, Nixon (for a while) had John Mitchell, Reagan had Ed Meese, Clinton had Janet Reno, Bush had his triad of John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, and Obama had the tag-team of Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. All of the aforementioned attorneys general did their level best to serve the presidents who appointed them.

Who does Trump have? Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from anything related to serving the interests of his own president. In his recusal, he refuses to get involved- even when it comes to pursing indictments against Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and their apparatchiks, who have clearly violated several criminal statues when it came to the covering up for Hillary Clinton, and using the powers of the Obama-led federal government to attack Donald Trump.

In all of this, Sessions is a quandary, in and of himself. On surface, the most loyal of Trump’s supporters, he was the first U.S. Senator to endorse, actively support and even work for Donald Trump’s nomination, back when no one else even dared to do so. He worked tirelessly to help Trump beat sixteen other candidates for the Republican nomination, and he remained in place to help Trump win the fall election. He weathered an unbelievable storm of invective, inquisition and indignation to survive Senate scrutiny and become Trump’s attorney general. Yet, in this role, he has effectively abdicated any sense of running the Justice Department and, through his all-too-timid and time-consuming responses to Republican demands for criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, he has virtually assured that none of these bad actors will ever face criminal consequences for their own actions, as long as he stubbornly remains in place.

All of which brings us to the inevitable question, “Is there another, ulterior motive in Sessions’ dogged pursuit of, and stubbornly remaining in this office?”

… and that question prompts dozens more in the curious case of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

-Drew Nickell 2 March 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
now available at Amazon

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:
http://www.drewnickell.com
Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2