MITCH SNEED EDITOR (256) 234-4281 X213
editor@alexcityoutlook.com
EDITORIAL BOARD Steve Baker Mitch Sneed
Outlook RUSSIA’S ELECTION INVOLVEMENT: TWO VIEWS The
www.alexcityoutlook.com
Page 4
Now more than ever, we need an unfettered free press
T
here is a word that some have doggedly dismissed that the news of last Tuesday – July 11 – demands not be ignored. It starts with a “c” and ends with “–ollusion.” On July 11, we learned that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the president of the United States, had emails that cracked open the Trump campaign’s walnut of willful deceit concerning its potential collusion with Russians to harm the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. (One must consider, at this point, whether the word “potential” is any longer necessary in the preceding sentence.) In fact, Trump Jr. himself produced the damning emails! When he joyfully (“I love it,” the president’s namesake son said in one of the emails he made public) accepted a meeting with a Russian attorney who claimed to have information that would likely damage his father’s Democratic opponent, Trump Jr. was, at the very least, guilty of, in a manner of speaking, sleeping with the enemy. Call it what you will – collusion, cooperation, collaboration, naïveté, treason or by some wholly different name – but Trump Jr.’s action in that acceptance ran counter
DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
to some 240 years of principled democracy in our great republic. His action was unprecedented, if not unlawful. And though Trump Jr. contends the meeting turned out to be about adoptions Russia’s end to American adoptions of Russian children in response to sanctions levied against the Putin regime and, he said, was a waste of 20 minutes (after all, discussions of adoption are wasteful, right? But destruction of a political opponent? Now, that’s a big deal!), he clearly accepted the meeting expecting far more. What must Vladimir Putin, a man who doesn’t think twice about ridding himself of whatever opposition within his own country rankles him before snuffing life from them, be thinking? He’s likely enjoying a potato soda and a constant stream of hearty laughter thinking, “We are destroying them from within.” What’s more, they’re doing it
without any real effort. It’s all Trump and his genepool-centric “gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” as the late great Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jimmy Breslin referred to schizophrenic New York hoodlum Joseph Gallo’s crew. In fact, there have been schizophrenic episodes in Trump’s sevenmonth presidency, too, where he says one thing and then tweets something totally counter from his easy chair and cell phone. Frankly, I am more worried about my beloved country than ever. Trump Jr.’s emails are the latest in a string of disturbing developments from this administration, though many of the president’s own tweets and actions have been equally so. But, for me, it’s not that Hillary or Bernie Sanders lost the election to the New York megalomaniac that is the root of my worry. It’s the large chunks of our population who have fallen in lockstep with this president, believing his side of every story despite his history of lies and halftruths, supporting him in every loony legislative logarithm he posits (read: TrumpCare, which has apparently died another agonizing death) regardless of how ridiculous, heartless and/ or self-serving whatever the man
says or does may be. A convenient and disheartening close-to-home example is Alabama’s own junior Sen. Luther Strange, who recently told a Montgomery candidate forum, “President Trump is the greatest thing that’s happened to this country. I consider it a biblical miracle that he’s there.” Strange read a different Bible than the one from which I was taught as a child. In mine, no philandering, lying, vain individual would ever have been called a “miracle,” much less a “biblical” one. But Strange’s strange comment serves him politically. Unfortunately, Alabama politics seems to have devolved into a contest to see which candidate can out-Trump the other, the latest in a frightening accumulation of evidence that we need a new Age of Enlightenment in this country to illumine both our hearts and our minds. And, now more than ever, we need an unfettered free press to point us in the direction of the truth, despite whatever attempts at distraction and denigration Trump, Trump Jr. and their minions may concoct. David Granger is an editor with Tallapoosa Publishers.
DONALD TRUMP JR. AND OTHER MET WITH RUSSIANS. IS THAT A BIG DEAL? We want to know what you think about the recently released emails from the president’s son that show he and others from the Trump camp met with three people who claimed to have information obtained from the Russian government. The indications are that the meeting was supposed to include delivery of potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton that would help the Trump campaign. Fact or fiction? Big deal or no deal? Write a letter to the editor and give us your opinion. Send your comments, 300 words or less to The Outlook at editor@ alexcityoutlook.com
Know Your
Officials
T.C. Coley represents District 1, including half of Coley Creek, the Andrew Jackson subdivision, the southern part of Indian Hill, North Central Avenue, part of Pearson’s Chapel Road, the Northside community and portion of Spring Hill T.C. Coley community. His phone number is 256-212-9316. His address is 2316 North Central Avenue, Kellyton. Steve Robinson represents District 2, which includes the southern part of Alexander City, the Cedar Creek area, Ourtown and Willow Point. His phone number Steve Robinson is 256-654-0047. His address is 300 Heritage Drive Alexander City. John McKelvey represents District 3, which includes Jackson’s Gap, Hackneyville, New Site and Daviston. McKelvey currently serves as chairman. His phone number is 256-794-4405. His address is 1285 Freeman John Road, Dadeville. Emma Jean Thweatt represents District 4, which includes Dadeville, Pace’s Point, northern Camp Hill, Buttston, Dudleyville and part of Eagle Creek. She can be reached at 8254207. Her address is 585 Brookwood Circle, Dadeville.
McKelvey
Emma Jean Thweatt
George Carleton Jr. represents District 5, which includes southern Camp Hill, Red Ridge, Walnut Hill, Union and Pleasant Ridge. His address is 630 Turner Road Road, Dadeville.
George Carleton Jr.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Today’s
Quote
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs
Today’s
Scripture
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” – Isaiah 43:1
alexcityoutlook.com
Daily Poll Tuesday Question: Have attended any Sun Festival events this week?
Yes – 9 No – 26
Wednesday’s question: Have you ever called law enforcement to report suspicious activity that you have witnessed? To participate in this daily poll, log on each day to www.alexcityoutlook.com and vote. Find out the vote totals in the next edition of The Outlook and see if your vote swayed the results.
Our
Mission
The Outlook strives to report the news honestly, fairly and with integrity, to take a leadership role and act as a positive influence in our community, to promote business, to provide for the welfare of our employees, to strive for excellence in everything we do and above all, to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Gde myaso: Russian for where’s the beef Political campaigns are full of liars and fabulists. From the candidate who promises to repeal Obamacare root–andbranch, to the volunteer who lies about how many doors he knocked, campaigns attract people who are, as Mark Twain observed, “Economical with the truth.” I know because I spent almost 40 years working in elections all over the U.S. and in a handful of islands. Think of all the dysfunction and outrage you’ve ever endured in any organization where you’ve worked. Then condense the burned microwave popcorn in the break room, the ideastealing colleague, the boss who doesn’t give the promised raise, the boasting braggart and the job description that changes monthly into a timeframe of only a few months. That’s a political campaign. The people outside the campaign who want to “help” are often no better. The relative that meddles, the donor with advice on campaign commercials and the family friend who has negative information that’s going to “blow the opponent out of the water.” The Trump campaign had to deal with all these annoyance on the largest scale possible. This brings us to Donald Trump Jr. He’s a businessman with zero political experience. On June 3, 2016 he gets an email from a music publicist, who tells him a Russian singer says his dad met with the “Crown prosecutor of Russia,” who in turn said he had documents related to Hillary’s Russian dealings that would incriminate her. The only difference between
The office is as imaginary as the documentation.
MICHAEL SHANNON Syndicated columnist
this and typical campaign fantasy mongering is the information wasn’t for sale. Media hindsight is currently spinning this third-hand account of potential Russian government “help” as the latest confirmation of the Axis of Internet hacking conspiracy. What this “evidence” really proves is the Russia collusion scandal is the leftist equivalent of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy. Neither the timeline nor the result stand up to objective scrutiny. When Donald, Jr. received the initial email Trump wasn’t even the nominee. Instead he was the presumed nominee - although John Kasich had recently stopped taking his medicine and was attempting to organize other bitter-enders in an effort to seize the GOP convention. Those of you who are counting may list this as the first attempted coup against Trump. If you are as credulous as the Opposition Media it makes perfect sense the Russian security service, the FSB, would use a music publicist sending an unencrypted email as part of a nefarious plot to derail Our First Female President. The situation was significantly different from Junior’s viewpoint. The message refers to a so-called “Crown prosecutor of Russia.” But it may as well have been the “Clown prosecutor of Russia.”
Google the phrase and you get 40,800 results that refer to the news stories about the email. For Trump the primary motivation for the meeting isn’t a sit-down with some shadowy Russian. Donald, Jr. is maintaining a business relationship. The singer’s dad is a Russian big-shot Trump, Inc. has done business with in the past. The rule of thumb for operating in an oligarchy is: Keep the Oligarchs Happy! A meeting with a potential crackpot is a small price to pay to stay in the Russian market. If the Russian “agent” does have information, so much the better. One thing his motivation couldn’t have been was joining some Russian conspiracy to steal the election. That’s because the alleged Russian DNC hack wasn’t announced until AFTER junior’s meeting. Trump Jr.’s meeting went like most of these negative hypefests do. Rosa Klebb walked into the meeting, excuse me Natalia Veselnitskaya, and all she wanted to talk about was Russian sanctions, not Hillary shenanigans. There was no Russian help. No Russian collusion. No beef at all. The meeting was such a waste of time Jared Kushner walked out halfway through and resumed living a normal life. I would recommend obsessed members of the Opposition Media discard their tinfoil hats and do the same. Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr@ gmail.com.
How to
Subscribe
The subscription rate is $136.00 per year in Tallapoosa and Coosa counties and $177.99 outside the area. Periodicals paid at Alexander City, AL. Newspapers are available at 100 news racks in our area at 75 cents for The Outlook and 50 cents for The Record. We would love to deliver a paper to your door. Call David Kendrick at 256-234-4281, Ext. 204 or e-mail david.kendrick@alexcityoutlook. com.
What’s your
Opinion?
We’d like to share your thoughts and opinions with the greater Lake Martin community. It’s free and it only takes a few moments of your time. We have two ways to get your opinion in print: letters to the editor and guest columns. The main difference is length. Letters to the editor are up to 250 words, while guest columns can be up to 500 words. Letters and columns may be sent to P.O. Box 999, Alexander City, AL 35011, faxed to (256) 2346550 or e-mailed to editor@alexcityoutlook.com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Send us your thoughts today!
Follow us
On the Web
Follow The Outlook on the Internet on our website or on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Log on to http://www.alexcityoutloook.com. There you will be able to view stories and multimedia posted by The Outlook. You can also click on the Facebook link to join The Outlook’s fan club or click on the Twitter link to start receiving tweets on your phone as we post updates. You can also subscribe to our RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed on the Outlook’s home page. Check it out today.