The Buck Starts Here

President Harry Truman kept a sign on his White House desk that read, "The Buck Stops Here." This referred, of course, to the fact that he made the final decisions, called the last shots. No more passing of the buck to someone else when an issue had to be resolved. That's not how our new president works. With him, when there is a buck to be passed, he is the one who passes responsibility and blame onto someone else. He did it as a candidate and he is doing it now. Yesterday when a reporter asked him about the fact that his national security advisor had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak even before the inauguration and advised him not to worry about President Obama's sanctions on Russia, that the new president would "reconsider" those sanctions, Trump claimed he knew nothing about it. That, then, must be the fault of someone who should have advised him and didn't. The buck started on Air Force One as the president prepared to fly off to Florida for the weekend. Shouldn't he have know about this issue before the press did? Trump's answer was either an enormous lie or a shocking truth.

And then there are the alternative facts of Kellyanne Conway. This woman is so slippery that even Donald Trump can't grab her. I know about alternative facts, though. I used to use them when I was a kid trying to avoid a spanking for something I definitely had done. One outstanding failure of my alternative facts occurred when my sister and I went into the chicken house and threw all the fresh eggs against the wall just to see them splash. When Daddy caught us we swore our innocence, claiming that the hens had done it. My butt still stings whenever I remember that spanking. Some people just don't buy into alternative facts.

So, off to Florida--or is it New York and Troglodyte Tower?--for Donald and Malania. Fresh air for the weekend for Washington, DC.