In every local community in America it is apparent that the lies and misdeeds of Washington's La-La Land impact our nation's standing and tarnish our country's reputation and place each and every community's safety in peril! Now is the time for us all to act locally as one to protect those principles that our Founding Fathers created. In the end we will exit this cloudy and murky historic period, and the Star Spangled Banner will proudly wave over our land of the free and the home of the brave!

Each and every day the misdeeds and lies become more apparent to us all as our free press gains access to more information. The misdeeds are numerous and growing much like a cancer on the heart of our nation. Most recently, Donald Trump's private attorney has disclosed that President Trump did in fact OK in advance the meeting with Russian agents by his son in Trump Tower to get helpful information for his campaign. This is in contrast to all of his prior false statements surrounding this disgraceful event. Working with a foreign adversary is a major crime against our country. Oh! By the way, his lies as of Aug. 1, 2018, stand at 4,229 and are increasing in frequency! His recent actions at the Russian-American summit have cemented his connections with the Russian leader and point out his weakness as our leader as he is not looking out for our national interest and is beholden to Vladimir Putin. Trump's performance cowered to Putin in front of the American public at the summit. Then Putin stated in front of the cameras that he supported and ordered his agents to help Trump in the 2016 election. Who will ever forget Trump during the campaign on TV telling Russia to get the emails of his opponent? All this is extremely bad for American security and bad for Trump.

La-La Land's irrational leadership moves have also impacted our national trading relationships, which in turn impact local communities. The most notable, the tariffs he has irrationally imposed, without any prior thought, on most of the world's nations. Now Midwest farm income has plunged and will undoubtedly drive some farmers out of business. To counter this, he has decided to use the taxpayers' pocketbook to help the farmers out of the mess he created! The average Joe will start to see the rise of all prices because of tariffs. Even the price of a can of beer and Coke will skyrocket because of tariffs on steel and aluminum. One mess after another as our national debt has hit the highest ever at $21 trillion under Trump after his tax cuts for mainly the wealthy and corporations. All this after he had promised in his campaign to get rid of our national debt?

National security is certainly at risk with his off-the-cuff type of negotiations with North Korea without any advanced preparation or set goals and no verification protocol. Today, we see no solid results with the continued factory production of intercontinental missiles at North Korea factories. But Trump continues his braggadocio, puffing up his success when none exists with no existing verification protocol or even an agreement.

Pulling out of the Iran deal was another misstep without proper advanced thinking. It frees Iran to build nuclear weapons with no inspection protocol allowed and has alienated vital allies. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have all expressed their disgust with the U.S. action. It also limited the likelihood of success in the later dealings with North Korea when they saw that we do not stand behind our commitments. Off-the-cuff La-La Land negotiations have proven they do not work in the real world.

Splitting up asylum-seeking immigrants' children, with absolutely no plan for reunification, was the height of irresponsibility and cruelty, but has become standard unthinking policy by this administration. Trump has clearly stated that this program was instigated to deter others from seeking asylum. His own words were used in court to stop the evil practice. This is just one of many blots on our country's history as a beacon of freedom caused by this administration's actions, and as of today, there are still more than 500 children who have not been reunited with their families.

Our national leader's head is certainly in the clouds of La-La Land for what appears to be the long haul. More misdeeds pop up each day, such as his propensity to tweet either with ignorance of the law or his obvious arrogance or more likely both. In early August, he tweeted that the attorney general should fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, apparently not knowing that this is public evidence of obstruction of justice.

So how do we get ourselves out of Trump's La La Land and back to reality with every community safe from our nation's foes and from insane moves to kill free trade? Our Founding Fathers created a system of checks and balances in our national government. But today congressional checks are not being exercised. It is time for us all to become loud and vocal, insisting on checks on this administration. We all need to VOTE in the upcoming midterms, as your family's safety and prosperity are at stake! 


Ken McCalip is a North Santa Barbara County native who holds degrees in history, cultural geography, and law. He can be reached at [email protected]. Send your thoughts to [email protected].

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