Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
We are celebrating International Women's Day today.
International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political
achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. International Women's Day (IWD) has been observed since in the
early 1900's - a time of great expansion and
turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming
population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
International Women's Day is a collective day of global
celebration and a call
for gender parity. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation,
academic institution, women's network or media
hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. Many
organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific
agenda or
cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance
than others. "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the
collective efforts of all who care about human rights," says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and
political activist Gloria Steinem. Thus International Women's Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy
and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women's
Day has been occurring for well over a century - and continue's to grow from strength to strength.
Let's praise Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen and their mother Sydney Bard - three outstanding ladies, writers and artists.
We got very interesting new info for updated Betty MacDonald biography. Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to include all
these new details and info in updated Betty MacDonald biography.
More info in Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter March.
If you'd like to join Betty MacDonald fan club you only have to press the join button on Betty MacDonald fan club blog. New Betty MacDonald fan club fans will receive a special Betty MacDonald fan club Welcome gift during March.
Send us your email address to our contact address, please.
Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography.
This
very new Betty MacDonald biography includes all the results we got
during a very successful Betty MacDonald fan club research which started
in 1983.
You'll be able to find unique Betty MacDonald treasures in our Betty MacDonald biography.
Betty MacDonald biography includes for example interviews with Betty MacDonald, her family and friends.
We got many letters by Betty MacDonald and other family members even very important original ones.
Our
goal is to publish a Betty MacDonald biography that shows all the
details of Betty MacDonald's life and work but also to present her
fascinating siblings.
Dear Betty MacDonald fan club fans let us know please what you are interested most in a future Betty MacDonald biography.
Our next Betty MacDonald fan club project is a collection of these unique dedications.
If you
share your dedication from your Betty MacDonald - and Mary Bard Jensen
collection you might be the winner of our new Betty MacDonald fan club
items.
Thank you so much in advance for your support.
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's literary event Vita Magica
is very fascinating because he is going to include Betty MacDonald,
other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor
members.
I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.
I
can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected
President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight
against these brainless politics.
Donald Trump has "no
regrets" about accusing his predecessor of wiretapping Trump Tower, the
White House press secretary has insisted. Sean Spicer said that Mr Trump's explosive allegations over
the weekend still stood, and that the president would now wait for
investigations to run their course.
Asked whether it was
not a waste of time and money for congressional and senatorial
committees to investigate Mr Trump's baseless allegations, Mr Spicer
replied that it was "not about new proof".
The White House press secretary devoted much of his press
Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.
Lately,
it appears Trump has gone back into the field to drag in a whole new
bunch of State contenders.
My favorite is Representative Dana
Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of
even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head
of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.
Poor World! Poor America!
Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.
The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career
Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
You
took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without
consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour
with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult
case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................
Betty MacDonald was sitting on her egg-shaped cloud and listened to a rather strange guy.
He said to his friends: So sorry to keep you waiting. Very complicated business! Very complicated!
Betty said: Obviously much too complicated for you old toupee!
Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.
The old man could be his great-grandfather.
The
boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is
talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed. Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.
He always called her the most corrupt person ever and repeated it over and over again in the fashion of a Tibetan prayer wheel.
She is so corrupt. She is so corrupt. Do you know how corrupt she is?
Betty MacDonald couldn't believe it when he said: She
has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we
owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.
Afterwards old toupee praised his parents, wife, children, siblings and friends.
He asked the same question like a parrot all the time: Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? I know you are here!
Betty MacDonald answered: No Pussy they are not! They left the country.
They immigrated to Canada
because they are very much afraid of the future in the U.S.A. with you
as their leader like the majority of all so-called more or less normal
citizens.
Wolfgang
Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty
MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his
very funny poems and stories.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State. Tell us the names of this mysterious couple please and you can win a very new Betty MacDonald documentary.
The series premiered on September 3,
1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1,
1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty
attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later
known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John
Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as
Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald. I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Donald Trump has 'no regrets' about accusing Barack Obama of wiretapping, says Sean Spicer
Donald Trump has "no
regrets" about accusing his predecessor of wiretapping Trump Tower, the
White House press secretary has insisted. Sean Spicer said that Mr Trump's explosive allegations over
the weekend still stood, and that the president would now wait for
investigations to run their course.
Asked whether it was
not a waste of time and money for congressional and senatorial
committees to investigate Mr Trump's baseless allegations, Mr Spicer
replied that it was "not about new proof".
The vast majority - 113 – were released by George W Bush.
And
the Twitter storm came, as ever, during the morning breakfast shows. Mr
Trump appeared at times to be live-tweeting Fox News, joining in the
conversation with their Twitter handle @FoxAndFriends. He then launched a defence of his six-week old
administration, amid a series of reports at the weekend detailing
blazing, expletive-filled rows within the Oval Office, and staff members
being “grounded” in Mr Trump’s fury. “Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big
infighting in the Trump Admin. We are getting along great, and getting
major things done!” he tweeted. He also then went on to express his support for the
Republican plans to repeal and replace the hated Obamacare health
system, which were unveiled on Monday night.
Democrats
reacted with predictable anger, pointing out that there was no detail
on how the scheme would be paid for and saying it would harm poorer
Americans. “Trumpcare doesn’t replace the Affordable Care Act, it
forces millions of Americans to pay more for less care,” said Chuck
Schumer, the Democrat leader of the senate. More worryingly for the Republicans, many within their own
party expressed concerns. Rand Paul, the high-profile Kentucky senator,
described it as “Obamacare light,” saying it did not go far enough.
The
Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, also described it as
“flawed”, and on Tuesday night the Freedom Caucus, a group of around 30
hard-liners in the House who criticised earlier versions of the bill,
will meet to discuss the health-care bill, and consider presenting a
list of demands to Republican leaders.
Jason
Chaffetz, the Utah congressman who is chair of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, made a clumsy defence of the plan, and
brushed off the suggestion that it could lead to less coverage for
low-income Americans. “Americans have choices, and they have got to make a
choice,” he said. “So maybe rather than getting that iPhone they just
love, that they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they
should invest in their own health care. They’ve got to make those
decisions themselves.” A new iPhone currently costs around $700 (£575). But a year
of health insurance for an individual is over $6,000, meaning that an
iPhone is only slightly more than one month of insurance.
Donald Trump's travel ban:
President facing new legal threat as FBI investigate 300 refugees for links to Isil
President Donald Trump
on Monday signed a long-awaited new travel ban as it emerged that the
FBI is investigating 300 people admitted as refugees for links to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The ban was immediately met with threats of legal
action. Eric Schneiderman, New York's attorney general, said he was
scrutinising the new order and stood ready to challenge it.
“While the White House
may have made changes to the ban, the intent to discriminate against
Muslims remains clear,” he said. “This doesn’t just harm the families
caught in the chaos of President Trump’s draconian policies – it’s
diametrically opposed to our values, and makes us less safe.”
Mr Trump signed the executive order into effect on
Monday following conference calls from his staff explaining the provisos
in the law.
At
the same time, the department of homeland security told congressmen
that the FBI was investigating 300 people admitted as refugees for links
to the so-called Islamic State. The 300 refugees were part of 1,000
counterterrorism investigations involving Islamic State or individuals
inspired by the militant group, congressional sources said. No details
were given as to the cases, or the time frame.
But the news was clearly timed to boost support for Mr Trump’s ban. According to his executive order, all refugee arrivals will
be stopped for a period of 120 days. Unlike in the previous text, Syrian
refugees are not singled out for a permanent ban on entry. Furthermore, citizens from six countries will, from March
16, be prevented from entering the United States, unless they have
previously been granted a visa.
Iraq
has been dropped from the list of six countries – now only citizens of
Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen are banned. And the new ban does not priorities entry for “persecuted
minorities” – a proviso which critics said unfairly blocked the entry of
Muslims. Mr Trump’s first attempt to implement a travel ban, in
January, was a chaotic series of announcements, clarifications, wrongful
detentions, protests and court cases that culminated in an appeals
court ruling that it was unlawful. Nigeria - a country not on the list -
on Monday warned its citizens not to travel to the US after many were
sent home at the airport. But this time round the administration was determined to ensure that the roll-out of the ban was smooth. Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, on Monday used a
press conference to reassure US allies that the measures would be
implemented in an “orderly” way.
“As threats to our security continue to evolve and change,
common sense dictates that we continually reevaluate and reassess the
systems we rely upon to protect our country,” he said. “While no system
can be made completely infallible, the American people can have high
confidence we are identifying ways to improve the vetting process and
thus keep terrorists from entering our country.
“To our allies and partners around the world, please
understand this order is part of our ongoing efforts to eliminate
vulnerabilities that radical Islamist terrorists can and will exploit
for destructive ends.” He explained that the
decision to drop Iraq from the list of countries was due to an “intense
review” of security procedures, and a realisation that the state
department and the government of Iraq were already working on a rigorous
screening programme. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, then laid out why the
government felt the ban was necessary, stating that “the majority of
people convicted in our courts for terrorism-related offenses since 9/11
came here from abroad.”
He
added: “The department of justice believes that this executive order,
just as the first executive order, is a lawful and proper exercise of
presidential authority.” John Kelly, the homeland security chief, said: “Unregulated,
unvetted travel is not a universal privilege, especially when national
security is at stake.” The roll-out was greeted with approval by most Republicans – even those who initially criticised the first attempt. Paul Ryan, speaker of the house, praised it while Lindsey
Graham, a Republican senator known for his scathing response to many of
Mr Trump’s actions, said he thought it would withstand legal challenges. "It's drafted in a fashion as to not be a religious ban, but
a ban on individuals coming from compromised governments and failed
states,” he said. “This executive order will help achieve President
Trump’s goal of making us safer."
Bob
Ferguson, the attorney general for Washington state - who successfully
challenged Mr Trump's initial travel ban in court – said the president
"has capitulated on numerous key provisions blocked by our lawsuit."
They
include banning legal permanent residents, visa holders and dual
citizens from entering the country, as well as explicit preferences
based on religion. But critics of the travel ban were not impressed by the new
wording. Amnesty International described it as “wrong-headed and
counter-productive.”
Ben Carson tries to clarify slave comments
Ben
Carson, the new secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), is facing a backlash after referring to slaves
brought to the United States against their will as "immigrants", writes Chris Graham. In an introductory speech to staff at the HUD after he was
confirmed by the Senate last week, Mr Carson shared anecdotes from his
past career as a neurosurgeon and praised immigrants who worked long
hours to build a better life for their children.
Trump, Offering No Evidence, Says Obama Tapped His Phones
President Barack Obama and
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Inauguration Day. Mr. Trump has
praised Mr. Obama repeatedly since taking office. But on Saturday, he
called his predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy.”Credit
Damon Winter/The New York Times
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama
of tapping his phones at Trump Tower the month before the election,
leveling the explosive allegation without offering any evidence.
Mr.
Trump called his predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy” on Twitter as he
fired off a series of messages claiming that Mr. Obama “had my ‘wires
tapped.’” He likened the supposed tapping to “Nixon/Watergate” and “McCarthyism,” though he did not say where he had gotten his information.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama said any suggestion that the former president had ordered such surveillance was “simply false.”
During
the 2016 campaign, the federal authorities began an investigation into
links between Trump associates and the Russian government, an issue that
continues to dog Mr. Trump. His aides declined to clarify on Saturday
whether the president’s allegations were based on briefings from
intelligence or law enforcement officials — which could mean that Mr.
Trump was revealing previously unknown details about the investigation —
or on something else, like a news report.
But
a senior White House official said that Donald F. McGahn II, the
president’s chief counsel, was working to secure access to what Mr.
McGahn believed to be an order issued by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court authorizing some form of surveillance related to Mr.
Trump and his associates.
The
official offered no evidence to support the notion that such an order
exists. It would be a highly unusual breach of the Justice Department’s
traditional independence on law enforcement matters for the White House
to order it to turn over such an investigative document.
Any
request for information from a top White House official about a
continuing investigation would be a stunning departure from protocols
intended to insulate the F.B.I. from political pressure. It would be
even more surprising for the White House to seek information about a
case directly involving the president or his advisers, as does the case
involving the Russia contacts.
After
the White House received heavy criticism for the suggestion that Mr.
McGahn would breach Justice Department independence, a different
administration official said that the earlier statements about his
efforts had been overstated. The official said the counsel’s office was
looking at whether there was any legal possibility of gleaning
information without impeding or interfering with an investigation. The
counsel’s office does not know whether an investigation exists, the
official said.
Last
month, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, came under fire
for asking a top F.B.I. official to publicly rebut news reports about
contacts between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government.
Sean
Spicer, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that the
“White House counsel is reviewing what options, if any, are available to
us.” Mr. McGahn did not respond to a request for comment. He was
traveling on Saturday to Florida to join the president at his estate,
Mar-a-Lago.
The
president’s decision on Saturday to lend the power of his office to
accusations against his predecessor of politically motivated wiretapping
— without offering any proof — was remarkable, even for a leader who
has repeatedly shown himself willing to make assertions that are false
or based on dubious sources.
It
would have been difficult for federal agents, working within the law,
to obtain a wiretap order to target Mr. Trump’s phone conversations. It
would have meant that the Justice Department had gathered sufficient
evidence to convince a federal judge that there was probable cause to
believe Mr. Trump had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a
foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal investigation or a
foreign intelligence one.
Former
officials pointed to longstanding laws and procedures intended to
ensure that presidents cannot wiretap a rival for political purposes.
“A
cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House
official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the
Department of Justice,” said Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Mr. Obama. “As
part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House
official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.”
Mr.
Trump asserted just the opposite in a series of five Twitter messages
beginning just minutes before sunrise in Florida, where the president is
spending the weekend.
In
the first message, the president said he had “just found out” that
“Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” before the election. Mr.
Trump’s reference to “wires tapped” raised the possibility that he was
referring to some other type of electronic surveillance and was using
the idea of phone tapping loosely.
The
president was adamant in conversations with several people throughout
the day on Saturday that he believed he was right about the wiretaps,
according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations.
Two people close to Mr. Trump said they believed he was referring to a Breitbart News article, which
aides said had been passed around among his advisers. Mark Levin, a
conservative radio host, had also embraced the theory recently in a push
against what right-leaning commentators have been calling the “deep
state.”
The
Breitbart article, published on Friday, claimed that there was a series
of “known steps taken by President Barack Obama’s administration in its
last months to undermine Donald Trump’s
presidential campaign and, later, his new administration.” Stephen K.
Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, once led Breitbart News.
If
Mr. Trump was motivated to take to Twitter after reading the Breitbart
article or listening to Mr. Levin, he was using a presidential megaphone
to spread dark theories of a broad conspiracy aimed at undermining his
presidential ambitions, and later his presidency.
Even
with the Breitbart article circulating, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers
were stunned by the president’s morning Twitter outburst. Those
advisers said they were uncertain about what specifically Mr. Trump was
referring to; one surmised that he may also have been referring to a
months-old news report about a secret surveillance warrant for
communications at his New York offices.
One
senior law enforcement official from the Obama administration, who has
direct knowledge of the F.B.I. investigation into Russia and of
government wiretapping, said that it was “100 percent untrue” that the
government had wiretapped Mr. Trump. The official, who asked for
anonymity to discuss matters related to investigations and intelligence,
said the White House owed the American people an explanation for the
president’s allegations.
Ben Rhodes, a former top national security aide to Mr. Obama, said in a Twitter message
directed at Mr. Trump on Saturday that “no president can order a
wiretap” and added, “Those restrictions were put in place to protect
citizens from people like you.”
Mr. Trump claimed the Obama administration ordered the phoned at his building in New York tapped.Credit
Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
The
House and Senate Intelligence Committees are moving forward with their
own investigations into Russia’s efforts to influence the election, and
they have said they will examine links between Mr. Trump’s associates
and the Russians.
Senator
Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said on Friday that he believed
there were “transcripts” that would help document those contacts, though
he said he had not yet seen them.
“There
are transcripts that provide very helpful, very critical insights into
whether or not Russian intelligence or senior Russian political leaders —
including Vladimir Putin — were cooperating, were colluding, with the
Trump campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our
election,” Mr. Coons told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. “I believe they
exist.”
In
a written statement on Saturday, a spokesman for Mr. Coons said that
the senator “did not imply that he is aware of transcripts indicating
collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” The spokesman,
Sean Coit, said Mr. Coons had “simply stated that a full review of all
relevant transcripts and intelligence intercepts is necessary to
determine if collusion took place.”
The
New York Times reported in January that among the associates whose
links to Russia are being scrutinized are Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s
onetime campaign chairman; Carter Page, a businessman and foreign policy
adviser to the campaign; and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican
operative who said he was in touch with WikiLeaks at one point before it
released a trove of emails from John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s
campaign chairman, last August. Mr. Stone later said he had communicated
with WikiLeaks through an intermediary.
Mr.
Trump appeared on Saturday to suggest that warrants had been issued by
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He claimed that the Obama
administration had once been “turned down by court” in its supposed
efforts to listen in on conversations by Mr. Trump and his associates.
In
the fall, the F.B.I. examined computer data showing an odd stream of
activity between a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank, one of
Russia’s biggest banks, whose owners have longstanding links to Mr.
Putin. While some F.B.I. officials initially believed that the computer
activity indicated an encrypted channel between Moscow and New York, the
bureau ultimately moved away from that view. The activity remains
unexplained.
There
is no confirmed evidence that the F.B.I. obtained a court warrant to
wiretap the Trump Organization or was capturing communications directly
from the Trump Organization.
During
the transition, the F.B.I. — which uses FISA warrants to eavesdrop on
the communications of foreign leaders inside the United States —
overheard conversations between the Russian ambassador to the United
States and Michael T. Flynn, whom Mr. Trump had named national security
adviser.
Mr.
Trump has pointedly and repeatedly questioned in conversations how it
was that Mr. Flynn’s conversations were recorded, and wondered who could
have issued a warrant.
After The Washington Post reported
that Mr. Flynn and the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, had discussed
sanctions that the Obama administration had just imposed on Russia, Mr. Flynn was pushed out of his post by the White House because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of the calls.
The
Breitbart article cited mainstream news reports and concluded — going
beyond the public record — that the Obama administration had “obtained
authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring
the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then
relaxed the N.S.A. rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within
the government.”
Mr.
Levin, a day earlier, railed about what he called a “much bigger
scandal,” claiming — again with no proof — that Mr. Obama and his aides
had used “the instrumentalities of the federal government, intelligence
activity, to surveil members of the Trump campaign and put that
information out in the public.”
Several
senior members of Mr. Trump’s White House staff did not respond to an
email requesting on-the-record responses to more than a half-dozen
questions about Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts.
Representative
Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee,
denounced the “willingness of the nation’s chief executive to make the
most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of
evidence to support them.”
Even
some Republican lawmakers questioned Mr. Trump’s accusations. Senator
Ben Sasse of Nebraska issued a statement demanding that the president
reveal everything he knows about any wiretaps or warrants.
“The
president today made some very serious allegations, and the informed
citizens that a republic requires deserve more information,” Mr. Sasse
said, adding that “we are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis
of public trust.”
Taping
calls seems to hold a spot in Mr. Trump’s consciousness. He spent many
years taping his own phone calls as a businessman. During the campaign,
Mr. Trump’s staff members told reporters they feared that their offices
were being bugged.
But Mr. Trump’s latest allegations represented a sharp change in his tone toward Mr. Obama.
The
current president has frequently spoken about how much he admires Mr.
Obama for the gracious way he handled the transition. But since taking
office, Mr. Trump has frequently clashed with the intelligence agencies
over the Russia inquiries, including efforts to examine the attempts by
that country to influence the presidential election and the contacts
between Mr. Trump’s aides and the Russian government.
In
recent days, the president has appeared increasingly angry about leaks
of information that he believes are coming from law enforcement and
intelligence officials who are holdovers or recently departed from Mr.
Obama’s administration.
People
close to Mr. Trump have described him as determined to stop those
people from sabotaging his administration. One adviser said on Friday
that the president had been discussing a possible plan to try to prevent
leaks from occurring. The adviser declined to elaborate on what the
plan might entail.
Two
senior administration officials said Mr. Trump had tried for two days
to find a way to be on an offensive footing against the news articles
resulting from leaks; one person close to Mr. Trump said his explosive
claim was a result of that.
Mr.
Trump’s mood was said to be volatile even before he departed for his
weekend in Florida, with an episode in which he vented at his staff. The
president’s ire was trained in particular on Mr. McGahn, his White
House counsel, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Mr. Trump was said to be frustrated about the decision by Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, to recuse himself from participating
in any investigations of connections between the Trump campaign and
Russia. Mr. Trump has said there were no such connections. Mr. Trump,
who did not learn that Mr. Sessions was recusing himself until after the
decision was made, told aides that it gave an opening to his critics on
the Russia issue.
Donald Trump
flew out of Washington on Friday but was unable to leave a gathering
storm of allegations, intrigue and unanswered questions about his ties
to Russia behind him. The US president’s joint address to Congress this week was well
received but was rapidly overshadowed by revelations that his attorney
general, Jeff Sessions, had twice spoken with the Russian ambassador during last year’s presidential election. As it has emerged that other members of the Trump campaign –
including his son-in-law Jared Kushner – also met with the ambassador,
Sergey Kislyak, the Kremlin connection seems destined to be the putative
scandal that will not go away for the White House.
The relentless drip-drip of evidence has prompted comparisons with the Watergate affair that felled President Richard Nixon. It has also become regular sport for comedians on late-night TV.In Florida, the president was due to visit a school and meet
Republican leaders on Friday but Democrats kept up the pressure in
Washington. They argued that Sessions’ meetings with the ambassador
contradicted his own sworn statements to Congress during his
confirmation hearing. Sessions claimed on Thursday that he met the
ambassador in his capacity as a senator, not as a campaign surrogate.On Friday, the White House tried to steer criticism of Trump
associates and their meetings with Russian officials away, by drawing
parallels with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who was
photographed meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in
2003.In a characteristic diversionary tactic, Trump tweeted an old photo of Schumer
and Putin smiling and snacking together with the message: “We should
start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia
and Putin. A total hypocrite!”Schumer swiftly replied: “Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin
& his associates, took place in ’03 in full view of press &
public under oath. Would you &your team?
Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer)
Happily talk re: my contact w
Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press
& public under oath. Would you &your team? https://t.co/yXgw3U8tmQ
Speaking to reporters, the White House deputy press secretary Sarah
Sanders echoed the president: “I mean Chuck Schumer sitting and having
drinks with Putin and that’s not a news story, but apparently a
volunteer for a campaign bumping into one at a conference where there’s,
again, dozens of other ambassadors is newsworthy.”Nancy
Pelosi, the House minority leader, said the attorney general’s decision
to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian-backed hackers’
interference in last year’s presidential election did not go far enough.“Everybody knew that there was something completely out of order that
was going on, so for him to say, well, I was just meeting with him in
the normal course of a senator meeting with an ambassador, the Russian
ambassador, everybody knew was hacking our system is beyond naive,” she
told an event organised by Politico in Washington. “It’s almost
pathetic. It’s almost pathetic.“So he did not tell the truth, and now it has come out that he did
not tell the truth, and now what you see is there are other people in
the Trump administration
who have met with the Russian ambassador, in view of some one of the
biggest intelligence officers of the Russian government, in Washington
DC.”Some US media reports have suggested that Kislyak acts as a spy recruiter, a charge that Moscow has ridiculed as paranoia.
Pelosi added: “So this recusal is an admission that something went on
but it’s not sufficient. There are two things. One is the recusal as a
surrogate of then candidate Trump’s campaign and having communication
with the Russian government knowing they were hacking our system. That’s
what the recusal is about, however narrow it is.“The other part of it is the possibility of perjury, which is
punishable by law for anybody else. Certainly we should have that be
standard for the highest-ranking law enforcement person in our country.”Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse Trump for president,
told his confirmation hearing in January that he “did not have
communications with the Russians” and did not know of any by other
campaign staff.Democrats have variously called on him to recuse himself from all
potential investigations, retestify before Congress, resign or be
charged with perjury, while demanding an independent commission to
investigate. Richard Blumenthal, senator for Connecticut, urged the
embattled attorney general to return to the Senate judiciary committee
to “testify under oath” about the conversation at his office with
Kislyak.“I’d like him to explain what was said during that September 8
meeting,” Blumenthal told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program. “And what came of
it, and also what other meetings there may have been, because if he
misled us as to that meeting, what other meetings might he also have
failed to disclose?”
The congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House
intelligence committee, has called for Sessions to quit, saying he
“clearly misled” the Senate about contacts with Russian officials, and
demanded that a special prosecutor be appointed.
Schiff also accused the FBI director, James Comey, of
withholding crucial information about its investigation into Russian
meddling in the election, and raised the prospect of subpoenaing the
agency.“I
would say at this point we know less than a fraction of what the FBI
knows,” the California Democrat told reporters after a briefing with
Comey. “I appreciate we had a long briefing and testimony from the
director today, but in order for us to do our investigation in a
thorough and credible way, we’re gonna need the FBI to fully cooperate,
to be willing to tell us the length and breadth of any
counterintelligence investigations they are conducting. At this point,
the director was not willing to do that.”Speaking to Fox News on Thursday evening, Sessions, a former senator
from Alabama, reiterated that he did not discuss the campaign with
Kislyak. “When I campaigned for Trump, I was not involved with anything
like that,” he said. “You can be sure.”Despite the conclusions of US intelligence agencies, Sessions refused
to say whether Putin favoured Trump over Hillary Clinton in the
presidential race. “I have never been told that,” he told the host,
Tucker Carlson. “I don’t have any idea, Tucker – you’d have to ask
them.”
Trump has consistently denied business or political ties with Russia
but has also been conspicuously reluctant to criticise Putin and raised
the prospect of reviewing sanctions against the country. Opponents
argue there is circumstantial evidence that Trump colluded with Moscow
to help his campaign but definitive proof has remained elusive.Last month Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was
forced to resign amid controversy over his discussions with Kislyak in
late December.On Thursday, it emerged that Kushner joined Flynn
at a private meeting with the ambassador at Trump Tower in New York.
Another campaign aide, Carter Page, did not deny meeting Kislyak during
the Republican national convention. And the Wall Street Journal reported
that Trump’s son, Donald Jr, was probably paid at least $50,000 for an
appearance late last year at a French thinktank whose founder and wife
have strong ties to Russia.Trump, meanwhile, said that Sessions was the target of a “witch-hunt” and declared his “total” confidence in him.He tweeted: “This whole narrative is a way of saving face for
Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to
win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election,
and now they have lost their grip on reality.”
Since you’re here …
…
we’ve got a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian
than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. Advertising revenues across
the media are falling fast. And unlike some other news organisations, we
haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism open to all.
So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s
independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and
hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective
matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.
Traditional Russian wooden dolls depict Donald Trump and Vladimir PutinCredit:
AP
Less than a month into his tenure, Donald Trump's White House became embroiled in scandal as questions swirl about links between his campaign staff and Russian officials. So far, the controversy has claimed one political scalp,
with the resignation of Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser on
the grounds that he misled the vice president about his contacts with a
Russian ambassador.
Some
senior Republicans have issued their boldest challenge with a vow to
get to the bottom of the matter, while Democrats have demanded an
independent probe. Yet even from early on in the Republican's bid to be president, Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin have loomed large. From warm words between leaders to a salacious dossier
compiled by a former MI6 agent, here are the links to Russia that have
overshadowed both Mr Trump's candidacy and his presidency.
The Trump and Putin 'bromance'
It was in the midst of the Republican primaries, with Mr
Trump's place as the party's frontrunner for the nomination far from
assured, when eyebrows were raised at the warm words exchanged by the
Russian leader and the Republican presidential candidate. Speaking after an annual televised press conference in December 2015, Mr Putin said the Republican candidate was "a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented". "It's not up to us to judge his virtue, that is up to US
voters, but he is an absolute leader of the presidential race," he
added.
Show more
Asked
how he how felt about the praise coming from "a man who kills
journalists, political opponents and invades countries", Mr Trump
said: "He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, you know,
unlike what we have in this country."
Mr Trump made headlines again in September when he compared Mr Putin favourably to Barack Obama. "The
man has very strong control over a country," Mr Trump said of the
Russian leader. "It's a very different system and I don't happen to like
the system, but certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more
than our president has been a leader." Mr Trump said he felt he could get along with the Russian
president, and was glad to have received a compliment from him. "Well I
think when he called me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, okay?" Mr
Trump said. "Look, it's not going to get him anywhere. I'm a
negotiator." Having won the election in November, the then president-elect continued to woo his Russian counterpart, praising Mr Putin as "very smart" for not engaging in a tit-for-tat row with the US over the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats accused of espionage.
Instead
of taking retaliatory action, Mr Putin said: "Further steps towards the
restoration of Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of
the policy which the administration of President D. Trump will carry
out."
Jeff Sessions recuses himself from Russia probe
Just three weeks after
being confirmed as the country's attorney general, Mr Sessions faced
calls to resign after it emerged he had two conversations with the
Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign
season last year. Mr Sessions, an early supporter of President Donald Trump
and a policy adviser to the Republican candidate, did not disclose those
communications at his confirmation hearing in January when asked
whether "anyone affiliated" with the campaign had contact with the
Russians. “I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. “I
have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I
did not have communications with the Russians.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said "there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer." As attorney general, Mr Sessions oversees the justice
department, including the FBI, which have been leading investigations
into Russian meddling and any links to Mr Trump's associates. Mr Sessions insisted he had done nothing wrong and was acting in his capacity as a senator. But he said he was happy to follow the counsel of his ethics advisers at the department of justice who said he should step aside from the FBI’s investigation. Nancy Pelosi, the house Democratic leader, led calls for his
resignation. "Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation
hearing before the Senate," Ms Pelosi said in a statement released on
Thursday. "Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement
officer of our country and must resign."
Michael Flynn and the lifting of sanctions
In the biggest blow to Mr Trump's nascent presidency, his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned after it emerged he held secret talks with Russia before entering the White House. Mr Flynn admitted in his resignation letter he took several
calls with the Russian ambassador to the US before entering the White
House, which is potentially illegal under the 1799 Logan Act. Mr Flynn, who has argued for closer ties with Russia,
has acknowledged being paid to give a speech and attend a lavish
anniversary party in December 2015 for the state-controlled RT
television network in Moscow, where he sat beside Mr Putin. But he
hasn't said who wrote the check or for how much. An RT video from the
Moscow event showed Mr Flynn rising during a standing ovation following
the Russian leader's address.
According
to the Washington Post, Mr Flynn "privately discussed US sanctions
against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States
during the month before President Trump took office." As president-elect, Mr Trump suggested he scrap the sanctions
- imposed by the Obama administration in late December in response to
Moscow's alleged cyber attacks - if Moscow proves helpful in battling
terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington. "If you get
along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have
sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?" he told the
Wall Street Journal.
Trump campaign's 'contacts with Russian spies before election'
US law
enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications
around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was
trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the
Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said, according to
the Times.
The
intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign
was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to
influence the election, the newspaper said. The officials interviewed in
recent weeks said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far,
it said. However, the intercepts alarmed U.S. intelligence and law
enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was
occurring while Mr Trump was speaking glowingly about Mr Putin.
The Associated Press reported in August that Mr Manafort
helped a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party secretly move $2.2
million to two major Washington lobbying firms. The transfers were
reportedly set up using a non-profit organisation - to obscure the
Ukrainian party's attempts to influence US policies.
Mr
Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning that the accusations were "merely an
attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing
campaign". He
added: "Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes
& @washingtonpost by the intelligence community".
However, it was his business dealings in Russia and Ukraine that ultimately led to his resignation as campaign chairman.
Paul Manafort, in May last yearCredit:
EPA
US
law requires lobbying firms to register and report in detail to the
Justice Department any ties to foreign political parties or leaders.
Furthermore,
the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau claimed a secret ledger
showed Mr Manafort had been earmarked $12.7 million in off-the-books
cash payments from the pro-Russian political party of Viktor Yanukovych,
Ukraine's former president. Mr Manafort called the allegations "unfounded, silly, and nonsensical". Yet the damage was done.
The former MI6 spy's dossier
Arguably the most explosive reports concerning Mr Trump's
dealings in Russia was a dossier compiled by a former MI6 agent that
emerged in January, shortly before he was due to enter the White House. The file was compiled by former British spy Christopher
Steele and was initially funded by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by
Democrats. The 35-page document alleges
the Kremlin colluded with Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and that the
Russian security services have material that could be used to blackmail
him, including an allegation that he paid prostitutes to defile a bed
that had been slept in by Barack and Michelle Obama.
Mr
Trump said the publishing of the report was "something Nazi Germany
would have done" and called the dossier "fake news" and "phony stuff". It also meant his already strained relationship with the
intelligence community deteriorated further. "I think it was
disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any
information that turned out to be so false and fake out there," he
said.
Carter Page
A foreign policy adviser to Mr Trump during the campaign, Mr
Page resigned in September after a number of reports about his links to
Russia. The former adviser to Gazprom, Russia's state gas behemoth, raised eyebrows last July when he blasted the United States for showing "hypocrisy" towards Russia,
during an address in Moscow. Page said the US and other Western
countries unfairly vilified Russia for its problems, including
corruption, which he said was just as easily found at home.
The
New York Times has reported that FBI agents examined last summer
numerous possible links between Russians and members of Mr. Trump’s
inner circle, including Mr Page and Mr Manafort, as well as computer
activity between the Trump Organisation and an email account at a large
Russian bank, Alfa Bank. Donald Trump's campaign explicitly denied a claim the Trump Organisation used a private server to communicate with Alfa Bank.
One
of Mr Sessions' conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak occurred
at a July event on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention
in Cleveland. At that same event, the ambassador also spoke with Mr
Page, a person with knowledge of the discussion told AP. In an interview with MSNBC, Mr Page said: "I never met him anywhere outside of Cleveland."
President Trump, an Unlikely Champion of Affordable Child Care
Snack time at the Willard Community Center child-care program in Lincoln, Neb.Credit
Kristin Streff/The Journal-Star, via Associated Press
In
his address to Congress Tuesday evening, President Trump leaned on some
of his standard crowd pleasers: immigration, jobs, terrorism.
But
he also revived one of his more surprising proposals, first introduced
on the campaign trail last year: “My administration wants to work with
members of both parties to make child care accessible and affordable,”
he said.
That
rhetoric makes Mr. Trump sound more like Hillary Clinton than Ronald
Reagan. And a potential debate over child-care policy could offer the
rare opportunity for the president and Democrats to cooperate — or at
least have a dialogue — over the coming year.
Mr.
Trump is not the first Republican president to demonstrate an interest
in child-care policy. During his 1968 campaign, Richard Nixon promised
to expand access to government-funded day care. But three years later,
influenced by the rise of the Christian right, Mr. Nixon vetoed the only universal child-care bill to pass Congress.
Although
a few of today’s mainstream Republicans, like Senator Marco Rubio of
Florida, have promoted child-care proposals, the official G.O.P.
platform does not mention the issue. Conservatives tend to view
government-funded child care as an expensive and unwanted intrusion into
family life. The position of House Speaker Paul Ryan — whose support
Mr. Trump would presumably need to enact a child-care plan — is a case
in point. In his 2014 report on poverty, Mr. Ryan fretted over the results of research on Quebec’s public child-care program, which is known for its lax educational standards.
Such subsidized care “encourages married women to enter the labor
force,” the Ryan report said, leading to “a number of negative
behavioral and health outcomes for the children.” (What Mr. Ryan didn’t
mention: a competing body of research showing that high-quality day care helps children thrive academically.)
Arguments about the wisdom of working motherhood tend to ignore the fact that working motherhood is the norm. More than half
of American mothers work in the year after giving birth, as do 64
percent of women with children under the age of 6, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Working parents require child care, and the
typical American family spends 29 percent
of its after-tax income on child-care costs, compared with 10 percent
or less in many other Western democracies, where child care is provided
for or heavily subsidized by the state. Average annual tuition at an
American day care center is nearly $10,000, and as much as $30,000 for a high-quality program in cities like New York and Los Angeles.
The
issue has been something of a political orphan in recent years.
Feminist organizers have focused more on equal pay and paid parental
leave, while education reformers have rarely emphasized the period
between birth and pre-K enrollment — even though those years are crucial
for cognitive development. President Barack Obama’s 2015 plan to increase existing child-care tax credits to a maximum of $3,000 a child from $1,050 went nowhere.
As
a presidential candidate, Mrs. Clinton introduced an ambitious proposal
to cap child-care costs at 10 percent of a family’s income. But during a
campaign season dominated by scandal, Mrs. Clinton’s plan got little
attention. Mr. Trump’s tentative forays into child-care policy and paid
parental leave — another traditional Democratic issue that he mentioned
Tuesday in his speech — have attracted more interest, in part because
they are unexpected from a Republican standard-bearer.
In the past, both Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spokecritically
about mothers who work outside the home. But the child-care cause is
important to Mr. Trump’s older daughter, Ivanka. In recent weeks, Ms.
Trump has met with business leaders and members of Congress to promote the child-care proposal her father first rolled out last September.
Under
the plan, individuals earning up to $250,000 a year, and couples
earning up to $500,000, would be able to deduct from their taxable
income the average cost of child care in their states. The benefit would
be modest; for example, a reduction of $840 in federal taxes for a
family earning $70,000 a year and paying $7,000 for child care. The plan
would offer low-income workers child-care rebates, paid once a year
through the earned-income tax credit. The proposal also calls for
dedicated savings accounts in which families could invest pretax income
to cover child care and elder care costs, as well as incentives for employers to provide child care in the workplace.
Those
without wages, like unemployed single parents seeking work or attending
job training, would not benefit from the Trump subsidies and are
underserved by existing programs. The Child Care and Development Block
Grant was created in 1996 as part of welfare reform and was intended to
help the poorest parents afford day care. Those benefits currently reach
only one out of every 10 eligible children, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Despite its limited reach, the Trump plan is expensive. An analysis
by the Tax Policy Center found it would cost $115 billion over 10
years, most likely making it a nonstarter for Republicans. The proposal
also offers little to the working poor, a potential problem for
Democratic champions of child care, like Nancy Pelosi and Bernie
Sanders. The average annual benefit would be just $10 for families
earning $10,000 to $30,000 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center.
It
is difficult to square President Trump’s child-care plan with his other
budget priorities. Carrie L. Lukas, managing director of the
conservative Independent Women’s Forum, supports Mr. Trump’s efforts to
help families with child-care costs. But “he also talked about the need
for tax simplification,” she said, “which is inconsistent with using
deductions” as a social policy strategy.
Still,
Ms. Lukas is enthusiastic about some aspects of the Trump proposal,
including the fact that married couples with one stay-at-home parent
would be able to claim the same tax deduction as many dual-income
couples whose children are enrolled in child care. That is an unusual
element of the plan; after all, parents who care for their children at
home do not incur costs for day care tuition or nanny salaries.
Traditionally,
many European nations that enacted government-supported child care had
the goal of encouraging maternal employment. More working women means
more tax revenue, and better, more accessible child care helps convince
parents that they can afford to have more children, who in turn will
become future taxpayers supporting the welfare state.
That
is not a conservative vision. “It shouldn’t be about pushing to get
people into 9-to-5 jobs and kids into day care,” Ms. Lukas said. “That’s
not an appropriate role for government. I’ve got five kids, and there
are a lot of nonworking parents in my community. They are not only
taking care of their own kids, but they are volunteering at school.”
Though
she describes herself as a “a libertarian conservative type of person,”
Ms. Lukas enrolled her own children in Germany’s government child-care
system when the family was stationed in Berlin for her husband’s job.
The day care centers “were very expensive for taxpayers,” she said, but
she was impressed by the quality of the staff, whose training is
subsidized by the German government. “It’s a very serous profession, a
very respectable career to pursue,” Ms. Lukas said. “That’s not always
the case in America.”
Indeed, the median salary of an American child care worker is about $20,000 a year, a problem the Trump plan does not address.
Elaine
Maag, senior research associate at the Tax Policy Center, said the
president’s proposal would not “increase the amount of child care
available, nor will it increase the quality of care that low-income
families will be able to access.” However, Ms. Maag said she was willing
to give the president at least a little credit. “I would characterize
the plan as identifying an important problem,” she said.
Donald Trump's Congress speech (full text)
Updated 0554 GMT (1354 HKT) March 1, 2017
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP'S ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
Remarks as prepared for delivery
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America:
Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black
History Month, we are reminded of our Nation's path toward civil rights
and the work that still remains. Recent threats targeting Jewish
Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last
week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation
divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning
hate and evil in all its forms.
Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and
justice --- in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present.
That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the
world. I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength,
and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.
A new chapter of American Greatness is now beginning.
A new national pride is sweeping across our Nation.
And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp.
What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit.
Our allies will find that America is once again ready to lead.
All the nations of the world -- friend or foe -- will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.
In 9 years, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary
of our founding -- 250 years since the day we declared our Independence.
It will be one of the great milestones in the history of the world.
But what will America look like as we reach our 250th year? What kind of country will we leave for our children?
I will not allow the mistakes of recent decades past to define the course of our future.
For too long, we've watched our middle class shrink as we've exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries.
We've financed and built one global project after another, but
ignored the fates of our children in the inner cities of Chicago,
Baltimore, Detroit -- and so many other places throughout our land.
We've defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own
borders wide open, for anyone to cross -- and for drugs to pour in at a
now unprecedented rate.
And we've spent trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled.
Then, in 2016, the earth shifted beneath our feet. The rebellion
started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds
--- families who just wanted a fair shot for their children, and a fair
hearing for their concerns.
But then the quiet voices became a loud chorus -- as thousands of
citizens now spoke out together, from cities small and large, all across
our country.
Finally, the
chorus became an earthquake -- and the people turned out by the tens of
millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial
demand, that America must put its own citizens first ... because only
then, can we truly MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
Dying industries will come roaring back to life. Heroic veterans will get the care they so desperately need.
Our military will be given the resources its brave warriors so richly deserve.
Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges,
tunnels, airports and railways gleaming across our beautiful land.
Our terrible drug epidemic will slow down and ultimately, stop.
And our neglected inner cities will see a rebirth of hope, safety, and opportunity.
Above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people.
It's been a little over a month since my inauguration, and I want
to take this moment to update the Nation on the progress I've made in
keeping those promises.
Since
my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank,
Lockheed, Intel, Walmart, and many others, have announced that they will
invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of
thousands of new American jobs.
The stock market has gained almost three trillion dollars in value
since the election on November 8th, a record. We've saved taxpayers
hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of the
fantastic new F-35 jet fighter, and will be saving billions more dollars
on contracts all across our Government. We have placed a hiring freeze
on non-military and non-essential Federal workers.
We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by
imposing a 5 year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials --- and a
lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.
We have undertaken a historic effort to massively reduce
job‑crushing regulations, creating a deregulation task force inside of
every Government agency; imposing a new rule which mandates that for
every 1 new regulation, 2 old regulations must be eliminated; and
stopping a regulation that threatens the future and livelihoods of our
great coal miners.
We have
cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access
Pipelines -- thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs -- and I've
issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American
steel.
We have withdrawn the United States from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.
With the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we have formed a
Council with our neighbors in Canada to help ensure that women
entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets and capital they need
to start a business and live out their financial dreams.
To protect our citizens, I have directed the Department of Justice to form a Task Force on Reducing Violent Crime.
I have further ordered the Departments of Homeland Security and
Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National
Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the
criminal cartels that have spread across our Nation.
We will stop the drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning
our youth -- and we will expand treatment for those who have become so
badly addicted.
At the same
time, my Administration has answered the pleas of the American people
for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally enforcing
our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save
billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We
want all Americans to succeed --- but that can't happen in an
environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of
law to our borders.
For that
reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our
southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when
finished, it will be a very effective weapon against drugs and crime.
As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and
criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad
ones are going out as I speak tonight and as I have promised.
To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I
would ask you this question: what would you say to the American family
that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America
refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?
Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the
United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our
Nation from Radical Islamic Terrorism.
According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast
majority of individuals convicted for terrorism-related offenses since
9/11 came here from outside of our country. We have seen the attacks at
home --- from Boston to San Bernardino to the Pentagon and yes, even
the World Trade Center.
We have seen the attacks in France, in Belgium, in Germany and all over the world.
It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry
from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high
honor of admission to the United States should support this country and
love its people and its values.
We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America -- we
cannot allow our Nation to become a sanctuary for extremists.
That is why my Administration has been working on improved vetting
procedures, and we will shortly take new steps to keep our Nation safe
-- and to keep out those who would do us harm.
As promised, I directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan
to demolish and destroy ISIS -- a network of lawless savages that have
slaughtered Muslims and Christians, and men, women, and children of all
faiths and beliefs. We will work with our allies, including our friends
and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our
planet.
I have also imposed
new sanctions on entities and individuals who support Iran's ballistic
missile program, and reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State
of Israel.
Finally, I have
kept my promise to appoint a Justice to the United States Supreme Court
-- from my list of 20 judges -- who will defend our Constitution. I am
honored to have Maureen Scalia with us in the gallery tonight. Her
late, great husband, Antonin Scalia, will forever be a symbol of
American justice. To fill his seat, we have chosen Judge Neil Gorsuch, a
man of incredible skill, and deep devotion to the law. He was
confirmed unanimously to the Court of Appeals, and I am asking the
Senate to swiftly approve his nomination.
Tonight, as I outline the next steps we must take as a country, we
must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited.
Ninety-four million Americans are out of the labor force.
Over 43 million people are now living in poverty, and over 43 million Americans are on food stamps.
More than 1 in 5 people in their prime working years are not working.
We have the worst financial recovery in 65 years.
In the last 8 years, the past Administration has put on more new debt than nearly all other Presidents combined.
We've lost more than one-fourth of our manufacturing jobs since
NAFTA was approved, and we've lost 60,000 factories since China joined
the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Our trade deficit in goods with the world last year was nearly $800 billion dollars.
And overseas, we have inherited a series of tragic foreign policy disasters.
Solving these, and so many other pressing problems, will require us
to work past the differences of party. It will require us to tap into
the American spirit that has overcome every challenge throughout our
long and storied history.
But
to accomplish our goals at home and abroad, we must restart the engine
of the American economy -- making it easier for companies to do business
in the United States, and much harder for companies to leave.
Right now, American companies are taxed at one of the highest rates anywhere in the world.
My economic team is developing historic tax reform that will reduce
the tax rate on our companies so they can compete and thrive anywhere
and with anyone. At the same time, we will provide massive tax relief
for the middle class.
We must create a level playing field for American companies and workers.
Currently, when we ship products out of America, many other
countries make us pay very high tariffs and taxes -- but when foreign
companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost
nothing.
I just met with
officials and workers from a great American company, Harley-Davidson.
In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles,
made in the USA, on the front lawn of the White House.
At our meeting, I asked them, how are you doing, how is business?
They said that it's good. I asked them further how they are doing with
other countries, mainly international sales. They told me -- without
even complaining because they have been mistreated for so long that they
have become used to it -- that it is very hard to do business with
other countries because they tax our goods at such a high rate. They
said that in one case another country taxed their motorcycles at 100
percent.
They weren't even asking for change. But I am.
I believe strongly in free trade but it also has to be FAIR TRADE.
The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned that the
"abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government [will]
produce want and ruin among our people."
Lincoln was right -- and it is time we heeded his words. I am not
going to let America and its great companies and workers, be taken
advantage of anymore.
I am
going to bring back millions of jobs. Protecting our workers also means
reforming our system of legal immigration. The current, outdated
system depresses wages for our poorest workers, and puts great pressure
on taxpayers.
Nations around
the world, like Canada, Australia and many others --- have a merit-based
immigration system. It is a basic principle that those seeking to
enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially.
Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule, straining the very public
resources that our poorest citizens rely upon. According to the
National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs
America's taxpayers many billions of dollars a year.
Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled
immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have many
benefits: it will save countless dollars, raise workers' wages, and
help struggling families --- including immigrant families --- enter the
middle class.
I believe that real
and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the
following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen
our nation's security, and to restore respect for our laws.
If
we are guided by the well-being of American citizens then I believe
Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that
has eluded our country for decades.
Another Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, initiated the
last truly great national infrastructure program --- the building of the
interstate highway system. The time has come for a new program of
national rebuilding.
America
has spent approximately six trillion dollars in the Middle East, all
this while our infrastructure at home is crumbling. With this six
trillion dollars we could have rebuilt our country --- twice. And maybe
even three times if we had people who had the ability to negotiate.
To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to
approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the
infrastructure of the United States -- financed through both public and
private capital --- creating millions of new jobs.
This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American, and Hire American.
Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace
Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs,
and at the same time, provide better Healthcare.
Mandating every American to buy government-approved health
insurance was never the right solution for America. The way to make
health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health
insurance, and that is what we will do.
Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple
digits. As an example, Arizona went up 116 percent last year alone.
Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky just said Obamacare is failing in his
State -- it is unsustainable and collapsing.
One third of counties have only one insurer on the exchanges --- leaving many Americans with no choice at all.
Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor, and keep your plan?
We now know that all of those promises have been broken.
Obamacare is collapsing --- and we must act decisively to protect
all Americans. Action is not a choice --- it is a necessity.
So I am calling on all Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to
work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster.
Here are the principles that should guide the Congress as we move to create a better healthcare system for all Americans:
First, we should ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions
have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for
Americans currently enrolled in the healthcare exchanges.
Secondly, we should help Americans purchase their own coverage,
through the use of tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts ---
but it must be the plan they want, not the plan forced on them by the
Government.
Thirdly, we should
give our great State Governors the resources and flexibility they need
with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out.
Fourthly, we should implement legal reforms that protect patients
and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance
-- and work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs and bring
them down immediately.
Finally, the time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase
health insurance across State lines --- creating a truly competitive
national marketplace that will bring cost way down and provide far
better care.
Everything that
is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved.
And every hurting family can find healing, and hope.
Our citizens deserve this, and so much more --- so why not join
forces to finally get it done? On this and so many other things,
Democrats and Republicans should get together and unite for the good of
our country, and for the good of the American people.
My administration wants to work with members in both parties to
make childcare accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents
have paid family leave, to invest in women's health, and to promote
clean air and clear water, and to rebuild our military and our
infrastructure.
True love for
our people requires us to find common ground, to advance the common
good, and to cooperate on behalf of every American child who deserves a
brighter future.
An incredible young woman is with us this evening who should serve as an inspiration to us all.
Today is Rare Disease day, and joining us in the gallery is a Rare
Disease Survivor, Megan Crowley. Megan was diagnosed with Pompe
Disease, a rare and serious illness, when she was 15 months old. She
was not expected to live past 5.
On receiving this news, Megan's dad, John, fought with everything he
had to save the life of his precious child. He founded a company to
look for a cure, and helped develop the drug that saved Megan's life.
Today she is 20 years old -- and a sophomore at Notre Dame.
Megan's story is about the unbounded power of a father's love for a daughter.
But our slow and burdensome approval process at the Food and Drug
Administration keeps too many advances, like the one that saved Megan's
life, from reaching those in need.
If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our
Government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles like Megan.
In fact, our children will grow up in a Nation of miracles.
But to achieve this future, we must enrich the mind --- and the souls --- of every American child.
Education is the civil rights issue of our time.
I am calling upon Members of both parties to pass an education bill
that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of
African-American and Latino children. These families should be free to
choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school
that is right for them.
Joining us tonight in the gallery is a remarkable woman, Denisha
Merriweather. As a young girl, Denisha struggled in school and failed
third grade twice. But then she was able to enroll in a private center
for learning, with the help of a tax credit scholarship program. Today,
she is the first in her family to graduate, not just from high school,
but from college. Later this year she will get her masters degree in
social work.
We want all children to be able to break the cycle of poverty just like Denisha.
But to break the cycle of poverty, we must also break the cycle of violence.
The murder rate in 2015 experienced its largest single-year increase in nearly half a century.
In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone --- and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher.
This is not acceptable in our society.
Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community,
to attend a great school, and to have access to a high-paying job.
But to create this future, we must work with --- not against --- the men and women of law enforcement.
We must build bridges of cooperation and trust --- not drive the wedge of disunity and division.
Police and sheriffs are members of our community. They are friends
and neighbors, they are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters -- and
they leave behind loved ones every day who worry whether or not they'll
come home safe and sound.
We must support the incredible men and women of law enforcement.
And we must support the victims of crime.
I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an
office to serve American Victims. The office is called VOICE ---
Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to
those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special
interests.
Joining us in the audience tonight are four very brave Americans whose government failed them.
Their names are Jamiel Shaw, Susan Oliver, Jenna Oliver, and Jessica Davis.
Jamiel's 17-year-old son was viciously murdered by an illegal
immigrant gang member, who had just been released from prison. Jamiel
Shaw Jr. was an incredible young man, with unlimited potential who was
getting ready to go to college where he would have excelled as a great
quarterback. But he never got the chance. His father, who is in the
audience tonight, has become a good friend of mine.
Also with us are Susan Oliver and Jessica Davis. Their husbands
--- Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis --- were
slain in the line of duty in California. They were pillars of their
community. These brave men were viciously gunned down by an illegal
immigrant with a criminal record and two prior deportations.
Sitting with Susan is her daughter, Jenna. Jenna: I want you to
know that your father was a hero, and that tonight you have the love of
an entire country supporting you and praying for you.
To Jamiel, Jenna, Susan and Jessica: I want you to know --- we
will never stop fighting for justice. Your loved ones will never be
forgotten, we will always honor their memory.
Finally, to keep America Safe we must provide the men and women of
the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war and
--- if they must --- to fight and to win.
I am sending the Congress a budget that rebuilds the military,
eliminates the Defense sequester, and calls for one of the largest
increases in national defense spending in American history.
My budget will also increase funding for our veterans.
Our veterans have delivered for this Nation --- and now we must deliver for them.
The challenges we face as a Nation are great. But our people are even greater.
And none are greater or braver than those who fight for America in uniform.
We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a
U.S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William "Ryan" Owens. Ryan
died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero --- battling against terrorism
and securing our Nation.
I
just spoke to General Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, "Ryan
was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of
vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future
against our enemies." Ryan's legacy is etched into eternity. For as
the Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down
one's life for one's friends. Ryan laid down his life for his friends,
for his country, and for our freedom --- we will never forget him.
To those allies who wonder what kind of friend America will be, look no further than the heroes who wear our uniform.
Our foreign policy calls for a direct, robust and meaningful
engagement with the world. It is American leadership based on vital
security interests that we share with our allies across the globe.
We strongly support NATO, an alliance forged through the bonds of
two World Wars that dethroned fascism, and a Cold War that defeated
communism.
But our partners must meet their financial obligations.
And now, based on our very strong and frank discussions, they are beginning to do just that.
We expect our partners, whether in NATO, in the Middle East, or the
Pacific --- to take a direct and meaningful role in both strategic and
military operations, and pay their fair share of the cost.
We will respect historic institutions, but we will also respect the sovereign rights of nations.
Free nations are the best vehicle for expressing the will of the
people --- and America respects the right of all nations to chart their
own path. My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent
the United States of America. But we know that America is better off,
when there is less conflict -- not more.
We must learn from the mistakes of the past --- we have seen the war and destruction that have raged across our world.
The only long-term solution for these humanitarian disasters is to
create the conditions where displaced persons can safely return home and
begin the long process of rebuilding.
America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new
partnerships, where shared interests align. We want harmony and
stability, not war and conflict.
We want peace, wherever peace can be found. America is friends today
with former enemies. Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought
on the opposite side of these World Wars. This history should give us
all faith in the possibilities for a better world.
Hopefully, the 250th year for America will see a world that is more peaceful, more just and more free.
On our 100th anniversary, in 1876, citizens from across our Nation
came to Philadelphia to celebrate America's centennial. At that
celebration, the country's builders and artists and inventors showed off
their creations.
Alexander Graham Bell displayed his telephone for the first time.
Remington unveiled the first typewriter. An early attempt was made at electric light.
Thomas Edison showed an automatic telegraph and an electric pen.
Imagine the wonders our country could know in America's 250th year.
Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people.
Cures to illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope.
American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream.
Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect.
And streets where mothers are safe from fear -- schools where
children learn in peace -- and jobs where Americans prosper and grow --
are not too much to ask.
When we have all of this, we will have made America greater than ever before. For all Americans.
This is our vision. This is our mission.
But we can only get there together.
We are one people, with one destiny.
We all bleed the same blood.
We all salute the same flag.
And we are all made by the same God.
And when we fulfill this vision; when we celebrate our 250 years of
glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter
of American Greatness began.
The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us.
We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts.
The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls.
And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action.
From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears ---
inspired by the future, not bound by the failures of the past ---
and guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts.
I am asking all citizens to embrace this Renewal of the American
Spirit. I am asking all members of Congress to join me in dreaming big,
and bold and daring things for our country. And I am asking everyone
watching tonight to seize this moment and --
Believe in yourselves.
Believe in your future.
And believe, once more, in America.
Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless these United States.
February 27, 2017
Floats mock president
Donald Trump rapes Statue of Liberty at German Carnival
Trump raping Liberty - a political message on a Carnival float in Düsseldorf, Germany.FOTO: afp, PST
Düsseldorf.
Political
messages are a tradition in German Carnival parades. This year, the
city of Düsseldorf has a special one for Donald Trump: On one float, the
President is seen raping the Statue of Liberty. On another one, Lady
Liberty is beheading Trump. The slogan painted on her chest: "America,
Resist!"
The Statue is smiling victoriously, holding up the
President's separated head, the constitution in her other hand. Both
floats followed one another in Düsseldorf's Carnival parade this Monday,
telling a story for the spectators: The constitution is under attack -
and retaliates. Crowds were cheering when both floats were displayed.
On the following float, Lady Liberty is seen with the President's separated head. FOTO: ap, mm Carnival parades take place all over Germany from Sunday
till Tuesday. The ones in Düsseldorf and in Cologne are the biggest of
their kind, each broadcast live in German television, and each with
1-1,5 million spectators on the streets."Carnival has a big tradition in Germany, it is famed for
its exuberance and its exaggerated images", the US embassy's press
department in Berlin stated, wishing a good time to all revelers. Carnival floats designed as political caricatures are a
big tradition in Germany, their motives publicly discussed. Last year, a
Düsseldorf float showed Donald Trump screaming at the Statue of
Liberty; "Make fascism great again" was the slogan painted on his hair.
Pictures of the float went viral in social media; international media like the "Washington Post" covered it.
Fotos: Die Mottowagen von Tilly beim Rosenmontagszug 2017FOTO: dpa, tba More pictures of this year's parade floats are available here - captions are in German. Responsible for the floats at the Düsseldorf Carnival
parade is Jacques Tilly, artist and cartoonist. This year, populist
movements around the world (including Germany) are the main topic of his
work. "We're experiencing a right-wing populist revolt, and it's
attacking the values of democracy", Tilly said about his creations.More about the Düsseldorf Carnival parade (in German)Hier geht es zur Bilderstrecke: Die Mottowagen von Tilly beim Rosenmontagszug 2017
Thanks a Million, dear Letizia Mancino. You are an outstanding writer and artist.
We are so proud and happy to have you with us.
Letizia writes: One should not underestimate Wolfgang Hampel’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty MacDonald’s friends.
We agree. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang Hampel for doing this. You founded Betty MacDonald Fan Club with four members.
Now we have members in 40 countries around the world. A dream came true.
Mary Holmes did an excellent job in translating this great story. Thank you so much dear Mary Holmes. We are really very grateful.
All the best to Letizia, Wolfgang and Mary and to all Betty MacDonald Fan Club fans from all over the world!
Lenard
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino All rights reserved translated by Mary Holmes
We
were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said
to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s
how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two
hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy
to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival. They
were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s
surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not
underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends,
even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards
between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was
ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several
parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the
heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw
out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the
Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I
turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from
Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short
journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw! Our
hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the
16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me
too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this
Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were
enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night. We
immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had
arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On
the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I
spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic
Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.” Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But
I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront
where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are
so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why
hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the
drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the
red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly
as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my
balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects
where I could and staggered down. In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!” “ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I
went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster
I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The
Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed
of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into
the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky-
scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy! “Betty,
are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for
wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and
noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?” I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No
Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the
men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry
terminal in West Seattle.” Betty explained to me “The island lies in
Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must
have seen it when you were landing!” “Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here? “Sure
to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to
Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the
waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and
enjoy it.” “Thank you Betty!” I find a table on the
terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is
wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the
blue water. Betty plays with my words: “Vashon Island is a big
cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your
eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and
beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.” “Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!” But
I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I
sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off
my chair! “ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I
confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces
made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!) “Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters. “Geoduck no good for you!” Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.” “Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear! “Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.” During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite. “Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But
why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very
quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What
did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a
good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid
of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a
nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re
right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi
and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks
broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh
Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence,
how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many
coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please,
leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the
Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you
can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And
also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An
artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your
notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty
was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No,
she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in
her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the
hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness. “Isn’t it
wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk
in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying
attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds
me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I
begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree Which has been entrusted to my garden Offers a feast of secret significance, For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing. That has become divided within itself? Are these two who have chosen each other, So that we know them as one?
The
friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the
tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust
between us. “Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was
in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and
supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from
the east and one from the west!” “A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty
was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me
felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America,
Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty,
I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what
dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The
bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the
table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one
has to order something else. “That’s why all those people gossiping
at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many
massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like
dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically
unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so
enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her
and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the
waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about
how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in
August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad.
The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a
book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who
thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die
after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come
four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was
on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the
unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards
the rising sun.
Hello 'Pussy' it's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking: 
