Voter Data

Letters to the Editor (Published July 6, 2017)

The Post & Courier

Charleston, SC

Dear Editor,

I am 110% opposed to South Carolina sending any voter information to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, beyond what is available to any South Carolinian and only if the Commission pays for it like a citizen would have to do.  

There are approximately 175,000 voting precincts in America. No one knows the exact number, as it may vary from year to year. But every one of these is usually staffed by good, local people volunteering to oversee the most important act of citizenship. 

To allege, as President Trump does, that widespread fraud in voting across America deprived him of a plurality in the popular vote, is nonsense. It is not supported by any facts from any state, or by anyone or any organization who conducts legitimate poll watching. 

The President’s comments are a vicious, undeserved slander on the good, hard-working, women and men who voluntarily staff the polls.

I have run for local and state office and won and lost. I never questioned the integrity of the process or the counting of the votes.

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Send comments to:  arch@archibald99.com

Those who need Driver Training

Normally young people are the most logical candidates for driving lessons from a driver’s school. An older friend taught me how to drive when I was coming out of high school, but when he thought I was ready for my driver’s test he recommended I take some commercial driver school training. I took three hours, went for the test and aced it. 

There are exceptions. My mother and an uncle learned to drive when they were in their fifties and each learned under the guidance of driver’s school instructors.  My mother got her license but never drove. My uncle got his, bought a car and enjoyed the experience which came to him late in life.  

There is another identifiable group of people who will undoubtedly benefit from a licensed driver’s school - government executives at all levels who enjoy the luxury of chauffeurs and government cars during their service. For many years in some cases, they are ferried everywhere and then one day they are on their own. 

A reliable and knowledgeable source told me Mrs. Robert Mueller said when her husband left the FBI after 12 years, “The first thing we are going to do is get him some driving lessons. I’m not riding with him and the grandkids aren’t either.”

In 1975, Joseph L. Schott, a former FBI agent, wrote “No Left Turns” in which he told the story of J. Edgar Hoover riding in a chauffeured bureau car in Texas, and while making a left turn the car was almost hit by an oncoming vehicle. After Hoover returned to Washington, the Bureau sent out a notice to all Field Offices that when chauffeuring the director there was to be “no left turns.” 

Hoover served for 42 years. Would you have ridden in a car driven by a man who wouldn't make a left turn?

Think of presidents, vice-presidents, cabinet officials, agency heads, leaders of Congress, senior military officers, and who knows who else, who haven’t been behind the wheel for years and one day they are out of office, back in private life, and the wife says, “Honey, drive down to the drug store and get a bottle of aspirin.”

Government officials worldwide are just like Americans. They could use refresher driver training. In Nixon’s memoirs, he told the story about Soviet President Brezhnev driving at Camp David.

"He got behind the wheel and motioned me into the passenger seat. The head of my Secret Service detail went pale as I climbed in and we took off down one of the narrow roads that run around the perimeter of Camp David….

At one point there is a very steep slope with a sign at the top reading, 'Slow, dangerous curve'….

Brezhnev was driving more than 50 miles an hour as we approached the slope. I reached over and said, 'Slow down, slow down,' but he paid no attention. When we reached the bottom there was a squeal of rubber as he slammed on the brakes and made the turn….

'You are an excellent driver,' I replied. 'I would never have been able to make that turn at the speed at which we were traveling.'

Diplomacy is not always an easy art.”

At the state level, there are officials starting with the governor and the lieutenant governor and other state office holders who serve for years and ride in chauffeured cars. One day they will find themselves on their own. 

In the private sector, there are also thousands of executives - men and women - who would benefit from driver’s training after they leave the company and no longer have the privileged perk of being chauffeured. 

The late William F. Buckley, founder, and editor of National Review rode to work daily from his home in Connecticut to his office in Manhattan in the back seat of a chauffeured stretch limousine so he could work en route. If Buckley had decided to drive one day, would Mrs. Buckley have ridden with him?

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Leaking sensitive government information

President Trump has pledged his administration will get to the bottom of alleged leaks of information coming out of the government and put stop to this practice. He is not the first president to stake out this position, particularly when it puts him in a bad light.  Not only presidents but cabinet officers, senior government officials, Generals, and Admirals, also have made the promise to “get to the bottom of this” and send someone to prison. Much of this is bombast to placate the public. 

Many leaks from the government are planned, well-thought out, desirable, and often serve an official purpose. An official can leak something and if the public outcry is against it, the official’s identity, reputation, sanity, and job are not at stake. Masters of the convenient leak are found in the executive branch of government and the Congress. Supporting all these officials are thousands of workers from attorneys to file clerks who may also leak information for various reasons. Leaks have occurred since the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to form a more perfect union. 

In 1953, I was a young airman in the USAF and assigned as the senior clerk in the Sabotage & Espionage Branch, Counterintelligence Division, HQ, USAF Office of Special Investigations, (OSI). There were six officers serving under the Branch Chief, a Lt. Col. We had two civilian secretaries. We all shared a rectangular office with four desks lined up on one side and five on the other side. Conversations among the officers were open affairs. 

These were the days when hardly a week went by that muckraking columnist Drew Pearson didn’t publish something that someone in the government fed him. Whether it was true, accurate or fair, did not matter to Pearson.

One day a particularly inaccurate and offensive Drew Pearson column dealing with Air Force business appeared in print and the matter came to the attention of OSI. Senior Air Force officials were furious and characterized the story as a mixture of bad information, half truths, and blatant inaccuracies. Three officials in the Air Force were suspected of being the source who leaked to Pearson. 

A plan was hatched by the officers in the S&E Branch. It called for putting together a classified report to be circulated to the three suspects with minor variations in each suspect’s copy. The fabricated report would be close to reality and the type of story Pearson would jump at. Based upon what Pearson published it would be highly possible to identify the source based on the variation revealed.

The plan was worked and re-worked and ready to be put in play. Appropriate officials in the hierarchy of OSI and the Pentagon were briefed. Then the word came down from on high. Scuttle the operation. No one wanted to learn the identity of the leaker.  

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The world has lost one of the good people

The call came shortly after eight a.m on Friday from my daughter, Martha, informing me that “Jo Rogers died last night.” She was 90 years old. 

This saddened me and brought tears to my eyes. It was as if a member of the family had died. My friend Karen Spica was with me at the time and she put her arm around me to comfort me.

Josephine (Jo) Rogers was the best friend my late wife Mary (1931-2010) ever had. They met in 1964 and instantly bonded. They were two mothers with young children who met in Hanahan where we lived for decades. Our families went to the same church forever, or at least it seems that way, and Jo and Mary were part of the parish activities that unite people and make life happy and worth living. 

Our children went to Catholic and public schools together and the Rogers girls, Ann and Laura, became life-long friends to my daughters, Martha and Wynn.  Ed Rogers, Jo’s son, and my son, Patrick, are friends to this day. Billy Rogers and my sons Frank and James also attended school together and hung out in early life. 

Jo and Mary would confide in each other like only sisters could do. They shared the happy moments and the times when one was in the pits for something or other. When Jo came to the house Mary always fixed her a cup of tea. Jo was not a coffee drinker like Mary. They would sit at our kitchen table and talk to each other and give each other friendly advice if such was needed or enjoy something to laugh about. 

Jo and her late husband, Jim, met in New York While he was in the Navy. They were married over 50 years. Jim died several years ago. Jo had asked me to speak at his funeral and as I was dressing that morning to do so I had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) and had instead to go the hospital. Jo was understanding in speaking to me later. 

She had the good quality of being able to see and deal with life in its many perspectives, pitfalls, humor and exhilaration. At a low point in my life, in the late 1980s, she bought me a book to read, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Jo was that kind of a caring person. She was a friend for the ages, for my wife and our family, and all who knew her.  The world has lost one of the good people. 

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The President's First Trip Abroad

President Trump is on track to make the first foreign trip of his presidency. “Aides said he would leave Washington on May 19 and stop first in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before moving on to Jerusalem and then Rome. He will attend a NATO meeting in Brussels that opens on May 24 and then fly to Sicily, where the leaders of the Group of 7 will meet starting May 26.”

The New York Times reports President Trump, who is somewhat of a homebody, would like the trip shortened to five days instead of the nine planned. Obviously, this would require massive re-scheduling on the part of foreign nations and would send the wrong signal to foreign leaders, diplomats and the common people who would perceive it as a slight or lack of interest in them by the leader of the free world. 

From John Kennedy on, Presidents have been aware of the impact their visit overseas has on the world. Practically everyone wants to see the American President up close. To say that the red carpet is laid out for the President wherever he goes is an understatement. Nothing is left to chance and no expense is spared. 

The eyes of the entire free world will be on President Trump, and here at home, we can only hope he stays on script and surprises us with a successful nine-day first foreign venture. The prestige of the United States is at stake. 

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The next FBI Director

Back in the day, Boston bus tour guides would ride tourists from the Dakotas, Kansas and other parts of middle America past the Boston Shipyard and tell them that during the war the Shipyard was guarded by the FBI. Then with a chortle, he would explain, “Foreign Born Italians.” Jokes aside, a new FBI Director is to be appointed.  

In days to come, President Trump will nominate a person to be FBI Director for the statutory term of ten years. The President begins the appointment process by selecting and vetting his preferred candidate for the position. The vetting process for presidential appointments includes an FBI background check and financial disclosure. 

The nomination will be forwarded to the Senate and then to the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee usually holds hearings regarding nominations to be FBI director. The committee may then vote to report the nomination back to the Senate favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. Once reported, the nomination is available for Senate consideration. If the Senate confirms the nomination, the individual is formally appointed to the position by the President.

At this point, only the President knows who his nominee will be. It is worth considering, however, what the initials F.B.I. represent and what the country has a right to expect from the nominee and should settle for nothing less.

Fidelity: faithfulness to a cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support: he sought only the strictest fidelity to justice.

Bravery: courageous behavior or character.

Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness: he is known to be a man of integrity.

Let the process go forward. 

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Trump 's Very Strange World

The firing of FBI Director James B. Comey via President Trump's letter on May 9 is the latest craziness to come out of President Donald Trump’s administration in recent days. Does the President really believe we need a daily shock or surprise to get through each day, as he seems to?  

Or, is the FBI getting too close to uncovering collusion between Russian President Putin’s government and the Trump campaign team during the 2016 Presidential election? 

Never mind that in the firing letter, President Trump thanked Comey for telling him on three separate occasions he (President Trump) was not under investigation. What the devil does that have to do with “You’re fired?”

Does President Trump believe he is going to get an FBI Director who will do his bidding like the White House butler who brings him coke whoever he presses a red Coca Cola button on the Presidential desk?  Go back and read the fate of L. Patrick Gray who tried hard to please President Nixon, 

Another piece of weirdness the administration sent to congress would butcher the federal tax code to obscenely benefit the rich and cut the corporate rate from 35 to 15 percent. The Alternative Minimum Tax and the Estate Tax would also be scrapped. All of this will enrich the Trump family, if he is as rich as he claims to be. 

More importantly, it will stick working people in America with an additional $7 Trillion in national debt over the next ten years. 

Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin, a well-educated and successful businessman, stepped forward with a straight face, looked right into the cameras and said President Trump’s tax cutting proposal will promote extraordinary growth and “pay for itself.” This bit of pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking has never happened in the history of this country. It is a carryover from the days of Ronald Reagan. (Probably something that card reader in California told Nancy Reagan.)

Of course, by the time the national debt goes up another $7 Trillion, President Trump and the millionaires and billionaires in his administration will be long gone from office and probably sitting around in some country club smoking cigars and drinking 40-year old Scotch while enjoying their windfall gains.

Hooting and hollering galore broke out when House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans were keeping their promise when the administration on its second try successfully twisted the arms of enough Republican Congressmen and women to pass a measure to replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Never mind it will likely cost 14 million Americans their health insurance and screw over those with cancer, physical and mental disabilities, or other pre-existing conditions. 

And that wall that is supposed to be built between Mexico and the United States, well forget it. The latest spending bill did not include any money for the wall. Add to this “minor detail,” Mexico says it will not pony up a dime and then there are pending lawsuits filed by Texans to protect private lands, disruption of wildlife issues which will probably also wind up in court, a 1970 treaty prohibiting blocking a river, erosion and drainage issues, etc. etc.ad Infinitum. 

Harper's Review of the Week

I am tweeting this for the record in the sure and certain knowledge that even the smallest detail of our American experience should be recorded and remembered. 

Hope you enjoy. 

A special offer for Weekly Review subscribers: Click here to get 12 issues of Harper's Magazine for only $21.97! PUBLISHED BY HARPER’S MAGAZINE (EST. 1850)

May 2, 2017 By Joe Kloc          U.S. president Donald Trump, who once hosted a radio show on which he discussed how there was "no question about it" that Britney Spears had "gone down" in sexiness because she got married, gave himself an "A" for his performance in his first 100 days in office, a time period during which he implied Frederick Douglass was still alive at a breakfast celebrating the start of Black History Month; said on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day that Georgia representative and Freedom Rider John Lewis was "all talk"; commented at the National Prayer Breakfast that he wanted to "pray for" Arnold Schwarzenegger's "poor ratings" on The Celebrity Apprentice; accused former president Barack Obama of "wiretapping" Trump Tower in Manhattan, which the FBI had legally surveilled for two years as part of an investigation into the money-laundering ring of a Russian mafia boss known as "Little Taiwanese"; ordered the launching of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles valued at $60 million at an airfield in Syria, which he described as an attack on Iraq that he carried out while eating "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake" and which his secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, referred to as "after-dinner entertainment" that "didn't cost the president anything"; and played golf more than twice as often as the previous three presidents combined, despite having once criticizing Obama for golfing "while America goes down the drain." "I don't stand by anything," Trump said. Trump told interviewers that he thought being president "would be easier," and that the constitutional system of checks and balances is "a really bad thing for the country." Reince Priebus, Trump's chief of staff, said that Trump, who has tweeted that the media is "the enemy of the American people," was considering abolishing the First Amendment. Trump, a former casino owner who once paid $1 million for an ad campaign alleging that the Mohawk people were cocaine traffickers and on another occasion claimed he "might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians," said that his campaign for president was "most like" the "very mean and nasty campaign" of former president Andrew Jackson, a slave owner and frequent cockfighting gambler who signed legislation that forcibly removed indigenous tribes from the southeastern United States. Trump praised as a "smart cookie" North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has executed hundreds of people for offenses such as slouching and having a bad attitude, and invited to the White House Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, who has been accused of ordering the extrajudicial killings of 8,000 people. "I am tied up," responded Duterte, who added that he had already made plans to visit Russia, the government of which the FBI and both houses of Congress are currently investigating for interfering in the 2016 presidential race in order to elect Trump, whose Las Vegas steakhouse was once shut down for serving customers two-week-old tomato sauce and a five-month-old duck. "We," said Press Secretary Sean Spicer, "want to start talking about the next 100 days."  Sources are footnoted at the permanent URL  for this Weekly Review. Comments, clarifications, and corrections are always welcome at harpers-weekly@harpers.org. Please note that your letter may be included in next week's mailing and on Harpers.org. © 2017 Harper's Magazine Foundation

After the first 100 days

The first 100 days of the President Trump administration has gone by. Nothing spectacular has been accomplished, although much was promised. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as its detractors like to call it, is still with us. 

Tax reform is promised for this week, although many in Congress are skeptical until President Trump releases his earlier tax returns and legislators can see how and if he will benefit from proposed tax code changes. And, everyone should be concerned about who will benefit from proposed changes - the top 1 or 2 percent, the middle class or even those lower on the economic ladder.

I had a discussion last week with a lady who is a Trump supporter and who believes the news media has been too critical of the new president. There is no doubt the media has been robust and reporting on the flaws and goofs coming out of the administration. But better a free and reliable media with its criticisms than a cheering section for ignorance and stupidity. 

One action, in particular, disturbs me: the Attorney General’s decision to stop looking at police departments across the country when citizens and groups file protests. AG Sessions tried to delay implementation of a continuing review of the Baltimore police but a court ordered it to go forward. The majority of American police departments are stacked with good men and women and conduct themselves in the ritual of Preserve and Protect. But when citizen complaints are made they need to be looked into, and this has been the responsibility of the Justice Department. This must continue.

It appears that Steve Bannon’s role as chief strategist to President Trump is a thing of the past. His “America first” ideas are ill-advised and out of touch with reality. Since World War II, America and the American President have been at the forefront of world leadership and we cannot neglect, ignore or discard that duty. The world is too big and volatile for the number one super power to step aside and let things sort themselves out. I told a friend a couple of weeks ago that Bannon will be gone by Labor Day. I stand by that statement. 

Global warming, terrorism around the world, security of nuclear weapons, world trade and finance, poverty, refugees, roads and bridges in America, are all calling for leadership and action. 

New jobs must be created and an aging workforce assisted with training to fill those jobs. Opening up the mines and other industries will not automatically result in more jobs. Robots and automation are always going to cut into what were once good jobs for men (and women). 

There is not much to show for the first 100 days of this Presidency, but we can hope that the administration ship will be righted to an even keel and sail on to better days for the U.S. and the world. 

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Irritants

The one continuing thing that absolutely PMO is Donald Trump’s ignorance about how to carry out his role as President of the United States and leader of the free world. 

Then there are lesser, but still mind-warping, irritants - and this weekend I had two on the same day within hours of each other.

Mind you, these occurred while Trump is consistently PMO.

Driving from North Carolina to my home in South Carolina on a nice Sunday morning I  stopped for gas at a name brand station. The first pump had an out of order sign on it.  OK. No big deal. I pulled around to a second pump. I put my brand loyalty card in the slot. Did I want the cash reduction? Of course. I followed with a credit card and went through the usual litany of questions. Each one requiring me to punch an answer on the display panel, which, by the by, was almost too dirty to read, Is this a debit or credit card? Credit was the answer. So then I had to enter my ZIP code and did I want  a receipt. Yes, I want a receipt.

After all the bookkeeping was done I lifted the handle, pushed my choice and proceeded to fill up. When it finished, I put the pump back, screwed my gas cap on tight and closed the side panel. I turned for my receipt and instead got a message telling me to see the clerk. 

Irritant #1. No receipt paper in the pump is becoming an all too frequent occurrence. It happens at brand name stations, and the “Have a happy Trump day” gas station I used - out of necessity - in Florida a couple of weeks ago. The operator there gave me this greeting when I walked in to pay. (His pumps didn’t take credit cards.) He gave me the same greeting when I went back in to use the men’s room and when I (thank God) finally got out of there. 

Back to North Carolina. I walked to the store and opened the door. Eight people were standing in the one open line. At the head of the line, a customer was buying a candy bar and a soda pop with a debit card and having difficulty working the credit card machine. Smoke was coming out of the ears of the seven people behind him. I left. Eff the receipt.

Since this see the clerk is happening all too often, I believe failure to keep receipt paper in the pumps is a gimmick to lure customers into the store hoping they will make an impulse purchase. They must be some automatic way of knowing when a pump is out of receipt paper, or the first time someone walks in to ask for receipt ought to be enough of a clue. 

Number Two. I went back on the road and got home. No Sunday morning paper at my door. This is the fourth or fifth time since I subscribed in late January that my paper has not been delivered. I called the newspaper and was greeted, as on all other occasions, with recorded messages on about how important my call is to someone who is never available to answer the phone. I will spare the reader further details, but on Monday I canceled my subscription via email. A woman from the paper called and left a message, so I decided to be friendly and return her call. She was not available and her message box was full.

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Big butts

 "The Chinese government responded to toilet-paper thieves in Beijing's public restrooms by installing dispensers with facial-recognition software, which allows each visitor only one sheet, approximately two feet in length, every nine minutes. 'The sheets are too short,' said one visitor." (Source: Harper's Weekly Review, Online, March 24, 1957)

Which raises the question: Why do Beijing residents steal toilet paper? China is where paper was invented, it ought to be cheaper than rice.

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Defend Freedom of the Press

Last fall when the Green Bay Packers won and lost record was 4 and 6, their outstanding quarterback Arron Rodgers told everyone to relax and said the team could run the table. Under his leadership, they did exactly that. They won the final six games of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs until they lost to Atlanta in the NFL championship game.

As thrilling as this epic sports story may be, it is not a guide as to how everyone should react to the threat facing freedom of the press at this moment in the history of our country.

President Donald J. Trump labels the press the enemy of the people. His outrageous and inaccurate public statements, ridiculous and sometimes insulting late night twits, along with denying accredited reporters access to press conferences in the White House are all part of the same objective: to weaken the confidence of the American people in the press and news media. The goal is to manipulate public opinion to his interests. Throughout history, people like President Trump and members of his White House staff believe if a statement, “alternative fact” or absolutely stupid utterance, whether true or not, is said frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

As Americans, regardless of how we voted, we cannot just sit back and hope the U.S. Supreme Court will come to the aid of freedom of the press as they did on June 30, 1971, when it overturned the Nixon administration’s effort to restrain The New York Times and The Washington Post from publishing a top-secret history of the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers.

We must be proactive. Freedom of the press depends on every citizen in every walk of life, What can Mr. & Mrs. Average America do? First and foremost: stay informed. Subscribe and read a variety of news publications, e.g. dailies, weeklies, and monthly magazines. Another good way is to watch a variety of news broadcasts and talk shows as time permits. Do not be taken in by glib statements about promises kept.

Thomas Jefferson said a lot of things; the one I remember the most is that given a choice of government without a free press or a free press without government, he would choose the latter. I side with Jefferson. 

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Lost appetite

As Published in The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, 

Feb. 10, 2017

Dear Editor:

It is Sunday morning. I am enjoying my coffee and have finished the front and Opinion sections of the newspaper. As I start on my second cup, I pause to express my dismay to learn from Steve Bailey’s “S.C.’s poverty wage trap.” a  worker at Church’s Chicken in North Charleston is paid $8 an hour. In this day and age? In this community? In an environment where food workers have minimum opportunity for tips this is unsatisfactory to this reader who enjoys fried chicken occasionally. But not anymore from Church’s.

Sincerely,

/s/ Francis X. Archibald

The horrific cost of racial prejudice

A reminder...

Years ago, I wrote book reviews for The State, Columbia, S.C. These were of new books thought to be of interest to eclectic readers of the newspaper. It isn’t necessary, however, for a book to be fresh off the publisher’s presses to warrant a review.

If a stimulating book hasn’t been read earlier a review is still justified in spite of its having been published more than 15 years ago. I finished such a book this week.

In 2000, David Lehr, M.D., published “Austria Before and After the Anschluss,” sub-titled, “Personal Experiences, Observations, and Comments.”  (Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222, 361 pp.)

In this memoir, Dr. Lehr, the Professor Emeritus at New York Medical College, whose research work has been published worldwide, succeeded in reminding us of the horrific cost of racial prejudice.

Dr. Lehr was born in Austria and had completed his studies as a doctor when the Germans took over Austria in March 1938. Rather than being the first victim of Hitler’s Germany, as some Austrians claim, Austria welcomed the Nazis, according to Dr. Lehr. In many instances, Austrian Nazis outdid their German counterparts in hostile actions against Jews and other minorities. Antisemitism was the order of the day. 

(Germany began some material compensation of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution around 1951, while it took Austria more than another 40 years to follow suit.)

In Vienna, Dr. Lehr writes, Jewish-owned automobiles were confiscated, homes and businesses looted and taken over, bank accounts seized, students kicked out of school, and men, women. and children were assaulted in the streets, all simply because they were Jews. 

Jews who wanted to emigrate while it was still possible were unable to take any money with them and had to sign over all their possessions before they could obtain an exit visa. Without a friend or relative in a foreign country willing to help people were stranded without recourse. Eventually, most of these same people were rounded up, sent to concentration camps, and ultimately killed.

(Holocaust victims are estimated to number 11 million, six million of which were victims simply because they were Jews.)

In his 90th year, Dr. Lehr wrote of his struggle throughout the 1930’s with his medical studies, some eventful incidents in his practice, and the personal tragedy of his family, which miraculously managed to be united years later in the United States. When the Anschluss occurred on March 13, 1938, life for Jews took the most unimaginable and dreadful turn. The horror which awaited them (and the other Jews of Europe) was unknown, unprecedented and terrible in its outcome. 

There were isolated positive encounters with “the very best and noble in Austria’s truly patrician stock,” but these were few and far between before and after the Anschluss. Dr. Lehr makes the point that remembering a positive act by a caring person stands out forever in a maelstrom of horror. 

Dr. Lehr felt a responsibility “to lay bare the tragic truth of the Austrian Holocaust.” He felt it was owed to the fallen Jews of Austria and to history. I believe he has done a good job of it. 

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Hidden Figures

When the credits began to roll at the end of Hidden Figures I sat in my seat and then began to clap my hands and slowly other customers joined in and applauded the film and the captivating story based on actual events it portrays. The applause continued for a minute or so and then we began to file out of the theater.

Variety's chief film critic Peter Debruge has nailed a detailed review of this film spot on. If you think a story about three talented, capable, strong and determined African-American women and the race to put Americans in space and on the moon is some sort of fantasy, then read his review and better yet go see the movie. 

It is a wonderful film, suitable for all ages and makes me proud to be an American. Not proud of race relations in the last century, but proud that an overwhelming majority of Americans overcame prejudice and recognized the talents of people whose skin color was different from ours. 

In these, the early years of the 21st Century we still have a long road to travel to truly be "one nation under God," but the story of these three women should help us travel that road. 

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Leave your dog at home

On Sunday I saw a picture in The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, of Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster sitting at his desk in the Lt. Gov.’s office playing with his bulldog Boots. McMaster is due to become Governor of SC when Mrs. Haley moves on to the United Nations next week. Will the dog be in the Governor’s office?

I thought this is some kind of crapola. Who does McMaster think he is bringing his dog to the office? Bobby Kennedy, who brought some big hound called Brutus, I believe, to the Attorney General’s suite in the Justice Department, and scared dozens of government employees. Franklin Roosevelt who had Fala by his side all the time; I cut FDR some slack since the White House was where he lived and worked. 

Obviously, I am out of touch with many current opinions and practices. Today men marry men, women marry other women, some men take up with goats, etc, etc. You get the picture that yesterday’s “aren’t done's” are today’s “par for the course.” 

Nestle’s, for example, allows its 1,000 plus employees to bring their dogs into its City Place headquarters in Gatwick, Scotland, daily.

Slate has published an extensive article on the subject. I found it interesting among these pros and cons someone finally asked, “what does the dog think about all this?” 

Personally, I believe if a dog likes to run around, bark at the delivery man, chase cats, and bite people who think his tongue hanging out of his mouth is an invitation to pet him, he should stay home and greet you at the door with a tennis ball in his mouth.

Now all the dog lovers in the world need not jump all over my bones. It is simply this man’s opinion that dogs are probably better off at home and non-dog owning employees ought to be allowed to get on with the work at hand without having to acknowledge the boss's dog. 

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Putin Influenced the 2016 Election

President-elect Donald Trump’s ego is so huge he cannot let himself believe his election was aided by Russian preference for him over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Yet, the American Intelligence Community has made the assessment that the Russian government, at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, did in the 2016 election cycle conduct an influence campaign combining cyber activity with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state funded media, third-party intermediaries and paid social media users or “trolls.” (The full report can be found here.)

The goal of this influence campaign was to discredit Secretary Clinton, compare her unfavorably with Candidate Trump, and cast doubt on the fairness of the democratic election process in America. 

There is no evidence that voting machines or ballot counting processes were compromised. Such was not the goal of the influence campaign. The goal was to work on people’s minds, on their thinking and ultimately affect their decisions. We know Secretary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million. (President-elect Trump claims he won the popular vote “if you discounted millions who voted illegally.” No one has found those illegal voters.)

The election was decided by the voters in three key states: The differences are in Michigan 11,900, in Wisconsin 22,871, and in Pennsylvania, 68,236. These three states account for 46 electoral votes. If Clinton had won these states, she could have sealed the presidency with 274 total electoral votes.

South Carolina is where I have made my home since 1959. I am originally a native of Massachusetts, but I have come to deeply love South Carolina and the people in it. All of this despite the fact that this is a Red state, one of many, and the good lord himself, running in this day and age as a Democrat, would likely run second. 

South Carolina was one of only six states to vote for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and has voted Republican since, except in 1976 when it voted for fellow southerner Jimmy Carter. Voters in South Carolina were not likely targets of the Russian influence campaign, many were undoubtedly unaware of it and have difficulty, like President-elect Trump, in believing it. 

The Russian influence campaign was not aimed at Red states. It was aimed where people are likely to shift from time to time, to put it bluntly where thinkers still live. It doesn't take much to swing a vote. If you can find a little doubt that is where to go to work. Plant a seed, nurture it, repeat it over and over and a vote is swung. This was the purpose of the Russian influence campaign designed to be helpful to now President-elect Donald Trump.

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