Here is your Mueller Report - Part IIC

If you have been with me, my friend, through the entire series, just skip this paragraph – you know it by heart. If not, may I say that I am a voting, tax-paying citizen who loves to read and longs to know the truth about her government and its leaders? My goal has been to study the Mueller Report (and Volume Two does, indeed, require studying!) for the purpose of first informing myself and then informing the 97% of Americans who will not read the Report.

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Here is your Mueller Report - Part IIB

This is the effort of one tax-paying, voting citizen to assist the vast majority of other U.S. tax payers/voters who will never read the 448-page Mueller Report. It is my conviction that we, as voters, have an obligation to get as close to the truth as possible. In addition, since I have paid my taxes religiously all my life, I feel a rightto know the truth. I like to read, so I’m happy to share with you that truth, found in the Mueller Report, to the best of my lay-person’s ability.

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Here is your Mueller Report - Part IIA

As I explained in Part I, I read the Mueller report because I am a tax-paying, voting U.S. citizen, and I have a civic duty to know the truth. While I believe all Americans have that duty, I understand the vast majority will not read the 448-page report. For them I offer my own shorter report, as objective as I can possibly make it without sacrificing my personal “style.” I strongly recommend reading Here is your Mueller Report - Part I first, but that is not absolutely necessary. Part I covers Volume One of the Mueller Report. This article covers about one-fourth of Volume Two - and they are vastly different, those two volumes. Part IIB, Part IIC and Part IID will complete the review of Mueller’s Volume II, and Part III will cover the appendices, which include the written answers of President Trump. 

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Here is your Mueller Report - Part I

I read the Mueller report because I want to get as close to the truth as possible; I think it’s my civic duty as a voter to do so. I am writing this report, as a layperson with no legal or government training, because I think it’s also your civic duty to get as close to the truth as possible. When I read an important or particularly enjoyable book, I write a report, hoping to convince others to read it as well. This time around, while I hope someof my readers will face down that 448-page report themselves, I don’t believe most American voters will. For that large segment who will not read firsthand, I will do my best to give you enough of the report to be “somewhat informed.”

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When the Flames Hit the Christmas Tree…

My house has been on fire twice. I’m not talking about the house I live in now in Green Bay’s Olde Preble neighborhood. I mean the house in Astor neighborhood where Tom and I raised our kids. That one’s in Green Bay’s historic district; the plaque from the National Register of Historic Places says it was built in 1917. Yeah, that one – twice on fire.

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Democracy in Danger - that book again!

About a year ago a journalist I find most trustworthy recommended a book that seemed well suited to my unease about the direction our nation was headed. Fareed Zakaria pitched How Democracies Die by Steven Livitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. I read the book; it did not quell my fears for our country. In fact, it convinced me that our democracy might be in more serious danger than I’d first thought. 

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I've Never Been Afraid to Speak ... Before

Hard to believe, but public speaking is still the #1 fear of American adults. Twenty-five percent still list this as their biggest fear – greater than their fear of heights, bugs, snakes, drowning, blood, needles, claustrophobia and flying. As one who has taught public speaking and done a lot of it herself, I can only conclude that people afraid of public speaking might overcome that fear simply by engaging in some good instruction and coaching.

But that’s not the kind of “speaking” to which I’m referring today.

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Who Reads What You Read?

At this time of year, I like to look back on the traffic to this web site and, more specifically, to the Speakeasy blog, and see what I can see. I think it’s fun to tell my readers in whose company they might have found themselves, were they able to look around and see other visitors. I also think it’s fun to know how many people shared their reading preferences. 

It’s a fascinating story this year (at least it’s fascinating to me). I hope you enjoy a quick look back, this time over two years: 2017 and 2018.

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A Fun Book for Everyone - unbiased, straightforward

What a breath of fresh air! A book in 2018 that has no political bent and no ax to grind. Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford doesn’t even claim these are the fifty most important inventions. He just treats us to a delightful history of fifty inventions and shows the undeniable impact each has had on today’s economy. Even if you’re not a student of the economy, it’s a fun read with no hidden agenda and no allegiance to any political party.

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Changing Minds - a Magic Wand?

Probably not. But have we ever seen a period in our lifetime when more people hoped more fervently to change more minds – but were ever so nervous about trying to do so? Did you ever before walk on eggs like you’re walking on eggs now? Biting your tongue? Holding back with strangers – nice, friendly folk you genuinely like – because they might be “on the other side”? Carefully remembering not to tread on certain ground with family because one can never be sure who’s in what camp? 

But, oh, how we’d like to change their minds! And how they’d like to change ours! In many cases, I think, we also long to change our own minds.

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