WHY HASN'T TWITTER CLOSED TRUMP'S ACCOUNT?

Twitter has a set of Rules concerning what is acceptable and not acceptable to post. One section is titled Abusive Behavior.

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

Within the Abusive Behavior section of the Rules is a subsection on Abuse and hateful conduct:

Abuse and hateful conduct

Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

The twitter account of Donald J. Trump, @realdonaldtrump, consistently violates these Rules. On April 12, Trump posted a video that appears to link Congresswoman Omar with the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11. His tweet fans the bigotry against Muslims at a time when Islamophobia is on the rise. The FBI recently (prior to Trump's tweet) arrested a man in New York who threatened to "put a bullet through [Congresswoman Omar's] fucking skull." The man said he is a patriot, Omar is "a terrorist," and he supports President Trump. 

Twitter has had many requests to close the Trump account, but has not done so. The company has made statements that the accounts of world leaders get some leeway because they may contain important information for the public. Twitter tries to achieve some sort of balance in this regard. In my opinion, the Trump account is so full of vitriol and hatred that the bad it does outweighs the good by a wide margin. 

So why doesn't Twitter shut down the Trump account for violating The Rules? This is a good question. The cynical me assumes that the Trump twitter feed brings a lot of traffic to twitter, and is therefore good for the bottom line. I might be wrong. Or maybe they are giving Trump free reign so he can continue to post evidence against himself for some future legal action - not likely. 

I have filed a complaint of abusive behavior against the @realdonaldtrump account for the recent video using Rep. Omar and the 9/11 tragedy, and asked Twitter to close the account. I encourage every Twitter user to do the same.

#Closerealdonaldtrump

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ON BEING 75

I was born in April of 1944, one and a half years before the end of World War 2. It amazes me the changes I’ve witnessed and of which I’ve been part. 

Technology has been one aspect of society that has changed rapidly in my lifetime. I remember sitting in the living room with my family when I was little and listening to programs on the radio: The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Mollie and so-called variety programs. I was there for the beginning of commercial television (black and white) and yes, we watched test patterns while we waited for a program to start. Commercial jet travel started when I was a child; I think my first airplane trip was in 1965 for our honeymoon trip to Florida. In 1983, I purchased one of the first highly successful “personal computers” (PC), an IBM with the 8088 CPU. My first camera was a simple fixed lens, black and white film camera, probably a Kodak. And I remember getting a portable, battery-powered AM/FM radio as a gift for my graduation from 8th grade in 1957. When I was little we had a party-line telephone, and there was an operator you could talk to, which is how you made a long distance call (very expensive). Telephony became mobile during my lifetime; my first mobile phone was a Motorola “brick.” 

I have in my pocket at this very moment a “telephone,” actually a combination pocket computer, telephone, camera, text messaging device, global positioning system, internet connected, movie/video viewer, radio, drawing tool, voice recording, news reader, address book, calendar, electronic mail capable, remote banking, note taking and document writing, calculator, ride hailing, travel agent machine (and so much more - I have 117 apps). 

The advances in medical science and technology over the span of my life are amazing. An example is the robot-assisted surgery I had one month ago to remove my cancerous prostate. As my home-made T-shirt reads: “Embrace your Inner Robot.” 

As a community elder, I feel very connected not only to my local community, but to the global community. We are fortunate to be world travelers, and to have internet access to global news and the so-called social media. I am a member of a photography internet site, and members of the few groups in which I participate are from many different parts of the world. I have a few blogs and a web site, and I can see that people from around the country and the world sometimes visit these. 

I have also lived through dark times. The last 1-1/2 years of World War 2, the Korean War, the war in Vietnam, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a number of smaller military events around the world. I’ve witnessed and participated in political movements for racial, gender, and marriage equality, and worked on the first Earth Day. I’ve seen many changes in these areas; however, there is still so much more progress to make. 

At the present time, the world is confronted by major crises that threaten not only our societal structures, but the quality of life itself. The climate crisis, in spite of the denial rhetoric of many politicians, threatens the stability of millions of people and the social orders in which they live. Every aspect of human society is threatened by the rapid changes humans have made to the atmosphere. Every ecosystem on the planet is changing as a result of the changing climate, with cascading effects. 

Add to the environmental crises the political crises of our time and things look very dire, indeed. The rise of authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia in the United States and countries around the world is an ugly reminder that history tends to repeat itself, and does not bode well for our future. 

And so, as I begin my 76th year of life, I marvel at the changes I’ve seen, the positive advances made by human society, and the interconnectedness of the global community. I also am keenly aware of the threats to our well being from climate change and political trends. I know that, if I’m lucky, I have another 10 to 15 years of living, and what bothers me most about leaving this life is that I won’t know how all of this turns out for my grandkids and generations after them. 

But life is good, as we always say in our family, even in the face of illness and death. I’ve had a wonderful life so far, and expect to continue enjoying it. I have a wonderful spouse, kids, grandkids and extended family and friends. I’ve had an interesting and fun career as an ecologist. I have had numerous adventures resulting in exciting stories that I tell - over and over and over….

To all the friends and family who have sent birthday messages via my wife’s social media (I don’t use Facebook or Instagram), I want to thank you for your greetings and very kind words. I am amazed and humbled by the number of people I can truly count as friends and loved ones. You all are the best! 

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MUELLER REPORT: KNOWNS AND UNKNOWNS

In the immortal words of former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld in 2002: 

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

And that truly sums up what we know, don’t know, know we don’t know, and don’t know what we don’t know about the 300+ page Mueller report. The reality is that we only know what AG Barr wrote in a 3+ page letter to Congress, and that letter hints at a whole lot of unknowns that we don’t know. 

In other words, when it comes to the Mueller report, we know what we don’t know, and we also don’t know what we don’t know. And Rumsfeld got it right, the most difficult category is the unknown unknowns - “the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” 

A close reading of the Barr letter is instructive, and I recommend everyone read it (it is easy to find on the internet). There are a lot of key unknowns between the lines. Barr’s letter is in two sections, one dealing with collusion with Russia, the second concerning obstruction of justice by the President of the United States. Let’s look at the knowns, the known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.

It is important to understand the scope of the Mueller investigation; the knowns. There were 19 lawyers assisted by 40 FBI agents working on the investigation. The work consisted of:

• >2,800 subpoenas issued;
• Executing nearly 500 search warrants;
• Obtaining >230 orders for communication records;
• Issuing almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers;
• Making 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence;
• Interviewing approximately 500 witnesses. 

Mueller issued numerous indictments and gained a number of convictions for crimes, and referred several matters to other offices (of the USDOJ and other jurisdictions). 

In regards to interference with the 2016 U.S. election by Russia, Barr quotes the Mueller report (the Report): “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” This is not the conclusion folks on the left fantasized, but it is actually a good thing that a sitting President was found not to have “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the election. 

There are some important unknowns related to this first conclusion; mainly that we don’t know anything about the evidence collected by the Mueller team about possible coordination/conspiring with the Russian government. I can think of all kinds of questions: was there any coordination/conspiring with independent Russian actors, not the “Russian government;” were there any incidents of persons associated with the Trump campaign seeking to coordinate/conspire, but did not succeed; was there information exchanged between persons in the Trump campaign and Russians that could have or did influence the election, but were not legally determined to fall into the “coordination and conspiring” categories? (In a footnote, Barr points out that the Special Counsel “defined “coordination” as an “agreement - tacit or express - between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference.””) Does this leave a question open about activities carried out by people in the Trump Campaign that were troubling, but did not exactly meet the definition of coordination?  We know that we don’t know these answers, and we don’t know what else we don’t know.  

It is also very important to consider this: the Mueller investigation found criminal wrongdoing by agencies and individuals of the Russian government, and indicted a number of Russian individuals involved in these activities. The investigation concluded that the Russian government actively worked to influence an American election. Donald Trump, however, has stated publicly that he does not agree with this conclusion, because Vladimir Putin told him that Russia did not do these things, and he apparently believes Putin more than he believes the U.S. intelligence agencies. 

In the second part of his letter, dealing with obstruction of justice, AG Barr leaves a lot of unknown unknowns hanging in the breeze. Special Counsel Mueller punted a determination on this issue to AG Barr, declining to make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment.” Barr lets us know that, for each relevant action investigated, Mueller set out evidence on both sides of the question and purposefully did not reach any conclusions, based on various considerations of law. The Special Counsel did state that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”  Whoa Nellie! Read that statement again. In other words, the Special Counsel stopped short of a conclusion regarding obstruction of justice, and left it an open question for the Attorney General to wrestle with. And therefore, AG Barr made the decision that the evidence presented in the Report is not enough to establish that Donald Trump committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. 

The problem with this is that we don’t know what the evidence is in the Report upon which AG Barr based his decision. We know that we don’t know the evidence; we don’t know what evidence we don’t know. Barr then goes on to explain that, if there was no crime committed re: coordination and cooperation with Russia to influence an election, then there can be no obstruction charge because an obstruction-of-justice offense requires an underlying crime. And the circle of known and unknown unknowns is neatly closed.

And so, as Rumsfeld pointed out, we are left with the most difficult questions, the unknown unknowns - the ones we don’t know we don’t know. The only way these unknown unknowns will become known is the release of the complete Mueller Report. AG Barr has said that he will release a redacted copy of the Report in April. This will introduce another set of unknowns - the redacted parts of the report. 

It is easy for Trump and his allies to strut and crow about “total exoneration;” however, he has not been totally exonerated, and will not be until the unknowns and unknown unknowns are known. Suffice it to say that there is enough contained in the Barr letter to cause every thinking and objective person to take pause and consider the totallity of the Special Counsel investigation, and the known facts of criminal activity, possible criminal activity, and activity that might be just short of legal lines of criminality. It is factual to say that Donald Trump surrounded/surrounds himself with shady characters, a number of whom have been found guilty of criminal activity. This is not “total exoneration” by any stretch of the imagination.

The fat lady has not yet sung. 

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