#StandingwithUkraine @White House, Lafayette Park

A reporter conducts an interview at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022. The sign says: "I AM NOT UKRAINIA but I SUPPORT YOU"/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

His sign says:  "I AM RUSSIAN and I SUPPORT UKRAINE." I cropped his face so that Putin's assassins in Washington would not hunt him down. At the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

#StandingwithUkraine at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022. When Trump was in the White House, he had a 12-foot high wrought-iron railing fence installed around the White House and the People's Park, Lafayette Park to keep the people out. He was afraid of the people who were charged $1.5 million for his fence. President Biden took it down.  Thank you, President Biden!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

#StandingwithUkraine at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

Next Putin stop:  Alaska?  The sign in Lafayette Park at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

#StandingwithUkraine at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

The center sign says: "President Zelenskyy you are my Hero." The sign on the left says: "Georgia  Ukraine." At the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

#Standingwith Ukraine at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Carrying Ukrainian flags, a group marches over to #StandwithUkraine at the White House in the early evening hours, Feb. 27, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

Patricialesli@gmail.com

John Bolton's hilarious 'Room' of their own

You just thought Trump's White House was chaotic. Readers, not only was it chaotic, but John Bolton is here to tell you it was lots more than that!

I may not agree with the author's politics, but I can sure laugh at his anecdotes from his short (17 months) tenure in the Wild House. It's nothing short of rockhouse madness.

Bolton must have carried a secret microphone/recorder inside his breast pocket for his recollections of so many fine details of the day-to-day chaos in Trumpland, described in The Room Where It Happened.

I detected no conceit, no self-applause, no boastings in his memoir. When Trump complimented Bolton's "'troika of tyranny'" speech, Bolton reminded him that one of the president's own speechwriters had written it (p. 249). 

Bolton's snide comments ricochet throughout the book; some of the highlights:

He writes more than once:  "You couldn't make this up" referring to the daily frenzy engulfing the administration (258). 

His background on Venezuela and the Middle East makes all those WAPO editorials easier to understand. 

"God only knew who he [Trump] was talking to or whether he had just gotten a case of the vapors* because things were still uncertain." 

After an attack in the Gulf of Oman, Trump believed "that if you pretended bad things hadn't happened, perhaps no one else would notice" (392).

("I found these weekly trade meetings so chaotic I largely left them for {Charles} Kupperman to attend, which punishment he didn't deserve, but life is hard" (460).)  Kupperman was the deputy national security advisor. 

At the G20 trade summit in Buenos Aires, no one knew "from one minute to the next" what Trump would say. He envied Xi Jinping's lifelong term as Chinese ruler and told Xi, "that people" in the U.S. were clamoring for an end to the president's two-term limit. 

Writes Bolton: "I was aware of no such chatter" (297).

Bolton didn't like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin too much. 

At the G20, Bolton writes Mnuchin spent the day "beavering" with China's #3 man, Liu He (296).  After all, Mnuchin was a "panda hugger"(290).

Munchin got all excited at China's agreement to purchase more soybeans "just as if we were a Third World commodity supplier to the Middle Kingdom" (297).

During the Venezuelan revolution, Mnuchin worried about the banking sector and the risk to credit card companies. Bolton reminded him that the thousands protesting in the streets, "the poorest people" did not have, nor were they "thinking about Visa and Mastercard!" (269). 

Bolton was only too happy to announce to principals that he thought "Treasury was not entitled to its own foreign policy" like Mnuchin desired (273). 

Mnuchin spent so much time in the White House, on presidential trips and in California ("who for some reason was in California again" (258)*) that they "'hardly recognize him in his building,' said [John] Kelly disdainfully" (241).

Mnuchnin, was "basically a Democrat" who maintained "his campaign for doing nothing" (252).

Bolton was not a big fan of Defense Secretary James Mattis either whom he continually portrays as a cry baby. 

If "his view didn't prevail, which was standard operating procedure for him: stress that timing was urgent, which is what Mattis said when it suited him, and predict doom and gloom if he didn't get his way" (176).  "Mattis obstructionism at work" (190) ....Trump never liked him either: "a Democrat." 

Preparing for the meeting with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Bolton worried about the "daily explosions everyone became inured to in the Trump White House."

Bolton says another Trump-Kim Jong Um summit looked "depressingly inescapable" for Trump was hot-to-trot and get a deal done with Kim. It was not to be.

With his good buddy, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Trump lamented the fact that Abe's father was unsuccessful as a World War II kamikaze pilot, forgetting that, had his father achieved his goal, there would have been no good buddy Abe, born after the war. "Mere historical details." says Bolton (345).

Remember the columnist, Charles Krauthammer (1950 - 2018)? Not a Trump fan. He told Bolton he'd been wrong to characterize Trump as an 11-year-old: "'I was off by ten years'" (8).

While leaving the White House after his job interview, Bolton writes he felt like he was in a college dorm, with people going in and out doors. Wasn't there a crisis underway to try and repeal Obamacare? Bolton didn't recognize the place (18).

At the Trumps' first state ceremony with French President Emmanuel and Mrs. Macron: "Sadly for the press, nothing went wrong" (68). 

"Later, the black-tie state dinner was very nice, if you like eating until 10:30" p.m. With the John Kellys, the Boltons skipped the after-dinner entertainment and went home (70).

At Trump's Turnberry* Scottish golf resort, Greenpeace* breached security by flying an "ungainly contraption," akin to a "a bicycle with wings" hauling a flowing banner which said Trump was "below par." The Secret Service hustled Trump and later, Bolton and Kelly, inside before anyone could look at it too long, although Bolton wanted to prolong his viewing.

On a visit to London and Scotland, Trump called the US and UK relationship, "'the highest level of special,'" which Bolton called "a new category."

Trump repeatedly instructed his staff to avoid criticizing Russia too much publicly (179).

In a "discussion" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump told the Turkish leader that Christians were "going crazy" about Turkey's incarceration of American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and Erdogan responded that Moslems in Turkey were "going crazy" and Trump interrupted him to say "they were going crazy all over the world."  

Writes Bolton: "If possible, the conversation went downhill thereafter" (184-185).

Don't forget Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. Not only were the Turks unable to understand what she was trying to negotiate, neither could the Trump team (186).

The "Haley Problem" included her belief that the US ambassador to the UN was the Secretary of State. 

From everything Bolton heard "including directly from Trump, she and Tillerson [Rex Tillerson, secretary of state] cordially detested one another (well, maybe not cordially)." She wanted to visit India and visit the Dalai Lama:  "The purpose of this trip was unclear, other than getting a photo op with the Dalai Lama, always good for an aspiring pol" (238).

When Bolton was at the Justice Department, "we called the Southern District [of New York] the 'Sovereign District of New York' because it so often resisted control by 'Main Justice,' let alone the White House" (185-186).   

Discussion about the Korean War and its aftermath involved a continual re-education of the president as Bolton tried to enlighten him about that history.  

Why "were we still there?" Trump complained. "Every few days, someone would inadvertently press a button somewhere, and Trump would be repeating his lines from the same movie soundtrack" (210).

It's easy to understand why Trump did everything he could to stop, to stall, to change the content of this book (491). Like so many tomes, it reveals him to be the Emperor of No Content. 

* Although there are several references to Mnuchin and his trips to California, California is omitted from the otherwise good index, as are other words (vapors, Greenpeace, etc.). 

Coming up: I rate the Trump books!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Thousands rally in D.C. for George Floyd, Black Lives Matter

At the corner of I Street and 16th Ave. NW., Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

You could register to vote at this tent set up at I and 16th to cast your ballot in November, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the corner of I and 16th streets, this building owner joined the message.Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Recyclers will have this all picked up by tomorrow morning. This was at the new Black Lives Matter Plaza but there were too many people to see the new mural Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned for the street. Thank you, Mayor! Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In front of St. John's Episcopal Church at Black Lives Matter Plaza, the Revs. Joshua Daniel from St. Columba's Episcopal Church, left, and Patrick Keyser from the Washington National Cathedral dispensed water.  They said they didn't know who brought the water which constantly re-appeared. They thought (were hoping? It was hot!) they were on shift patrol. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From the portico at St. John's Episcopal Church, looking out on Black Lives Matter Plaza and the Hay-Adams Hotel. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From St. John's portico. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

St. John's portico offered shade, a place to sit, and excellent viewing. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is the place at St. John's where President Trump stood on June 1, 2020, waving the Bible, and (no doubt)  to become the site of an historical marker. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This stairwell at St. John's leads to the nursery where an arsonist set fire May 31, 2020. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A della Robbia at St. John's Episcopal Church.  Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At St. John's Episcopal Church. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The St. John's building housing parish offices and classrooms on H Street N.W.
Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Next door to St. John's on H Street is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

June 6, 2020, Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The fence borders Lafayette Square Park, the "people's park," which Google estimates is 1.7 miles long, and surrounds the White House and its grounds. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On H Street, protesters knelt and shouted "I can't breathe," the last words of George Floyd .The yellow building is St. John's Episcopal Church and next to it, the Veterans Administration building. To the right (unseen here) is Lafayette Square. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A new plaza is born at the corner of H St., NW at St. John's Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the fence, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On H Street in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building across from Lafayette Square.
Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A helicopter flies back and forth above Lafayette Square.  The absence of the police matched the absence of violence which must be the subject of a dissertation somewhere. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What? Who? Had the New York Times Square cowboy come to D.C.? Here, "a figure" makes "adjustments" at the corner of Lafayette Square at Decatur House, Connecticut and H streets. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie.

Do these boarded-up windows at the Renwick Gallery mean they were broken?  I hope not! At the corner of 17th and Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

American University students gave out water and snacks on 17th. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Former Washington Nationals star Jayson Werth came, too! Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I believe this throng on 17th came from the Lincoln Memorial. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

17th Street, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On 17th, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Her sign says: "When justice becomes law, resistance become duty." Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On 17th with the Washington Monument in the background.  Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On 17th. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Resting on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What would Abe say? Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At  Mamadouba's food truck at the corner of 23rd and Constitution, a single mango slushie ranged in price from $7.70 to $23.90 (if you didn't pay attention). Does D.C. have an Office of Consumer Affairs? Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Protestors kept their signs and this one at the Lafayette Square fence was the only unclaimed one I could find. Washington, D.C., June 6, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Casual observation revealed more whites than blacks showed up at the rallies which popped up all over downtown Washington June 6 on a day when the temperature climbed into the 90s.  

Washington's beautiful shade trees offered protection from the sun, while volunteers of various organizations stood behind loaded tables of free fruit, snacks and coolers of iced bottles of water to offer them to protesters. 

Dogs on leashes likely outnumbered the small number of children who came with their families.

It did seem like there was "a party going on" outside the fence at Lafayette Square when thousands joined their brothers and sisters to march for racial affirmation and to honor the memories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others.  

Music occasionally wafted over the streets where the protesters shared a spirit of unity and a common goal. A grassroots day of memorials, sponsored by the people who long for new leadership, direction, and recognition.

patricialesli@gmail.com 

Just another day in the White House neighborhood

On Friday the Sikhs for Justice held a rally in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House /Patricia Leslie 

Over at the White House Friday it was another day in the neighborhood at Lafayette Park, the scene of a rally by the Sikhs for Justice who, from a distance, looked like, well, it was the color of their turbans and the time of year which drew attention.

The Sikhs for Justice in Lafayette Park Friday/Patricia Leslie

The Sikhs for Justice in Lafayette Park at the White House Friday/Patricia Leslie

Who are the Sikhs for Justice?  I didn't know either.  From their website:

Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) has launched an international campaign to have United Nations investigate the killing of Sikhs in 1984 and declare it Genocide.

The 1984 Yes It’s Genocide campaign will obtain more than 1,000,000 signatures requesting the UN to independently investigate the organized killing of Sikhs. It is clear that India is unable to objectively investigate itself.

After almost 3 decades and 10 Commissions, India is no closer to figuring out who organized the killing of Sikhs. One thing everyone agrees on is that the killing on Sikhs were indeed organized and well planned, as stated in Justice Nanavati’s Report.

Many academics, politicians and media personal have been given false narratives to the point where only a handful of people know the reality. The killing of Sikhs during 1984 was not spontaneous anger. The Indian Government's Commissions has proven the same.

The signs say "PM Singh's Party Killed"  and in red letters below that, "30,000+ Sikhs In Three Days".  Listed at the bottom is a website, www.1984yesitsgenocide.org/Patricia Leslie

And who are the Sikhs?  Wikipedia says Sikhs in India are the nation's fourth-largest religion which has existed more than 500 years beginning with the birth of the founder, Guru Nanak.  They are mostly located in Punjab.

The essence of Sikh teaching is summed up by Nanak in these words: "Realization of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living".Sikh teaching emphasizes the principle of equality of all humans and rejects discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, and gender.

Baptised male Sikhs must wear turbans (females have the option) and have the surname "Singh" which means "lion." Female surnames are often "Kaur" which means "princess." 

The U.S. has the third highest number of Sikhs in the world (500,000) after India (19 million +) and the United Kingdom (760,000).

patricialesli@gmail.co