It’s time for retired Admiral William H. McRaven to topple another tyrant, in a special operation that will not be nearly as dangerous, nor as bloody, as the one he engaged in eight years ago.   In that operation, nicknamed “Operation Neptune Spear,” McRaven organized and oversaw the execution of the U.S. Special Ops raid that ended the reign of terror of Osama Bin Laden.

This time, the dictator, also born into a wealthy family, is not hiding in a sprawling cement compound in Pakistan, but in an historic White House in the center of Washington, D.C.   This time, by using ballots not bullets, “the fate of the Republic depends on” the success of this mission, as McRaven recently wrote in an Op Ed in the New York Times entitled “Our Republic is Under Attack From the President.”

Not only is the Admiral, a decorated 37-year military Veteran who has dedicated his lifetime to serving his country, the right person to lead this urgent mission, but he brings the clear-eyed strength of character, uncompromising integrity and willingness to sacrifice all for a worthy cause which the nation so desperately needs now, after Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to tear up the Constitution, and undermine American National Security Interests.

In a mere matter of weeks, Trump’s catastrophic decision to pull US Troops out of Syria, betrayed our Kurdish allies who lost 11,000 lives fighting ISIS for us, allowed  the Turks to wage their long sought campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kurds, freed hundreds of ISIS terrorists, witnessed demoralized US troops abandon and bomb our own military outposts, and enabled Vladimir Putin to redraw the map of the Middle East, installing  the Russians into a permanent position of occupation in Northern Syria.  And none of those foreign policy atrocities includes the now well-documented illegal shakedown of the Ukrainian government, under siege by the Russians on that country’s eastern front, for dirt on a political opponent, in exchange for Ukraine’s desperately needed military assistance from the US, already authorized by Congress.

The need to oust Trump from the Oval Office is as clear to Admiral McRaven, as it was to his colleague and fellow war veteran, former Ukrainian Ambassador William Taylor, whose scathing testimony before Congress this week, made it clear—under oath—that Trump himself was responsible for the illegal attempted shakedown of the Ukrainians.  With 13,000 Ukrainians having already been killed in the 5-year war with the Russians, Taylor wrote in his opening statement, “more Ukrainians would undoubtedly die without U.S. assistance.”   Trump was not only playing politics and abusing his power, he was playing with human lives, as he carelessly did when he sacrificed the Kurds to the fever dreams of a Turkish tyrant, who carved up the new Syria with Putin, the ultimate beneficiary of all of Trump’s anti-American actions.

The best way for Admiral McRaven to save the nation now and for the long term is to become the Democratic Nominee for President.  There’s still time—about one month–for him to do it through the Democratic Presidential Primaries, by winning some delegates to have his name placed in nomination at the convention in the summer of 2020 in Milwaukee, if no single candidate has secured a majority of the 1885 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot.

In California, for example, where our Presidential Primary is being held on March 3, 2020, “Super Tuesday,” along with 9 other states, McRaven still has until November 26—four weeks away– to file notice of his candidacy for President with the Secretary of State’s office.   Under California election law, McRaven (or anyone) would have to meet only one of several criteria to qualify as a candidate on the primary ballot.

The simplest criterion for McRaven to meet in the shortest period of time is the one which requires the candidate to establish a Presidential webpage or website, after setting up an authorized Presidential Campaign Committee with the Federal Elections Commission.   Once those requirements are met, ,  a “written request submitted on behalf of the candidate by a party qualified to participate in the Primary Election, to the Secretary of State, requesting that the candidate be placed on the ballot,” is all that’s needed.   In other words, if McRaven wants to run for President, and sets up an official campaign committee and a website to prove it, any qualified, registered Democratic Primary voter in the State of California can request that the his name be placed on the ballot.  I volunteer to do it.

Additionally, the Admiral would have until November 26 to provide the Secretary of State with his Federal Income Tax returns for the past five years, a new requirement in the State this year.  Since California alone has 495 Democratic delegates and it’s not a winner take all state, McRaven would have a good shot of picking up some support, particularly when current Statewide polls show Warren, Sanders, Biden, Buttigieg and Harris splitting the vote into lots of pieces.  A McCraven candidacy would electrify the electorate looking for a candidate who could clobber Trump and the GOP nationwide.

McRaven’s presence anyplace on the Democratic National ticket in 2020 would, by his very stature, stand in stark contrast to Trump, or any Republican who heads the ticket, since all of them have enabled Trump to abandon our allies and sell-out US National Security Interests.  The Admiral’s Texas roots—where he grew up, went to college and served as University of Texas Chancellor after his military service—would also aid the Democrats in turning Texas blue.   Coupled with a running mate like Elizabeth Warren, Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris, a McRaven-led ticket could help the Democrats not only take back the White House, but take control of the U.S. Senate as well.

There is still a small window of opportunity to actually make this happen, especially if someone like Mike Bloomberg is willing, for the good of the nation, to help fund the McRaven for President effort.   The only remaining question is whether the Admiral wants to embark on one more Special Operation to save the nation.

After all, as McRaven wrote:  “The fate of our Republic depends on it.”

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(Trump’s acting Director of US Citizenship & Immigration Services, Ken Cucaracha)

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Can no longer walk too far —

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Where his legs were is a scar!

What doesn’t he have? What doesn’t he have?

Is a backbone or his feet.

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Sold his parts for just one tweet!

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Stepped in the cesspool of his King —

And when he looks down, and when he looks down,

His legs and spine were both missing!

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Can no longer walk too far —

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Where his balls were is a scar!

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

White Supremacist is he.

Ken Cucaracha, Ken Cucaracha,

Crushed by Lady Liberty!

(A constituent of Congressman Mike Thompson’s (D-Napa/Sonoma Counties) strongly urges him to get off the fence on Impeachment)

It was painful to witness.

I like our local Congressman Mike Thompson. A Vietnam War Veteran who won a Purple Heart, and has a strong record both for environmental protection and common sense guns laws, Mike always shows up for the community. I first met him at an event at Congregation Beth Shalom in Napa a few years back. He is approachable, listens well, and genuinely cares about human beings. I lived in Jerry Nadler’s Congressional District on the West Side of Manhattan and in Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco, before moving up to Napa. Thompson is in a class with the best Members of Congress. So, I do like Mike.

That’s why it was so tough to see him being so out of touch with many of us who have consistently supported him at his packed Town Hall meeting at the Calistoga Community Center in upper Napa Valley this week. The standing-room-only crowd was full of people of all ages, mostly white and Latino, with young parents holding their children, and older citizens holding copies of the Mueller Report. The overwhelming majority of us wanted Congressman Thompson to get off the fence, and support an Impeachment Inquiry of the President.

I asked the first of a flood of Impeachment questions, and his rehearsed response was less than satisfying to many of us.

“I don’t think an Impeachment inquiry does anything more for us than the present committee investigations underway,” Thompson said, noting that he was on the House Ways & Means Committee that was demanding Trump’s tax returns.

“I also don’t want to risk losing the House Majority that Speaker Pelosi worked so hard to get,” he added several times throughout the meeting.

Thompson was patient in hearing all of us out, giving some of us an opportunity to ask more than one question, even if it was another question about Impeachment. I pressed him again on his “go-slow” mantra.

“To clarify, Congressman,” I said, “there are many lawyers and legal scholars who believe that there is a significant difference between what Congress is doing now, and the fact that an Impeachment Inquiry would be a judicial proceeding, entitling Congress to Grand Jury information and preventing the stonewalling that’s now occurring from the White House. It’s just a much more powerful investigative tool to get the evidence.”

Thompson responded with a chuckle that “lawyers can disagree,” without acknowledging that an official Impeachment proceeding gives Congress far more authority to proceed, and that its’ subpoenas must be obeyed.

A young father standing behind me, holding his toddler, was much more direct.

“Congressman, “ he said, “ we greatly appreciate your meeting with us this morning, but it’s very clear that regardless of what the House Leadership might want, your bosses — that’s us — want you to support Impeachment.” The young father received a round of applause.

Just then, a CNN bulletin came across my I-phone’s newsfeed, announcing that Rep. Salud Carbajal — who represents Santa Barbara’s Congressional District — became the 118thDemocratic Member of Congress to announce his support for an Impeachment Inquiry. I raised my hand and informed Congressman Thompson that there was now a majority of House Democratis supporting Impeachment, correcting an error he made earlier when he told us that “only” 112 of his colleagues were supporting Impeachment.

“I’m still going to stick with Speaker Pelosi,” Thompson said. “She got us to where we are, to be the majority in the House.”

Mike Thompson’s statement was not entirely accurate. WE, his constituents, and people just like us all over the country — deeply concerned over the future of our democracy — got the Democrats to be the majority in the House last year. We travelled to swing Congressional Districts in California and around the nation to knock on doors. We made phone calls and addressed letters to thousands of voters in cities, towns and suburbs from coast to coast. We donated thousands of dollars to crucial Congressional races in California, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, Florida and every other place where Democratic candidates stood a chance to win back the seat.

In the end, it was OUR hard work, commitment, money and sense of urgency that resulted in the Democrats winning 41 seats in the House of Representatives to flip the House and save the nation. And we did it, because Donald Trump has already done enormous damage to the country, is unfit for any public office, and must be Impeached. Just look at the harm to human life Trump’s hate speech against immigrants did in El Paso this weekend, where 20 people were slaughtered by an act of Domestic Terrorism aimed directly at immigrants and Mexicans — the very people Trump has vilified. We must hold him directly accountable for his hate speech which contributed to their deaths.

Despite Congressman Thompson’s lament that the US Senate would never remove Trump, it’s not important whether the Moscow Mitch McConnell-controlled Senate gets to vote. In fact, a smarter House Democratic strategy would be to conduct the Impeachment inquiry over the next year, continue the investigations, release all grand jury reports, tax records and documents, then draft the articles of impeachment, and submit them to ALL Americans — not just to financially conflicted Senators — the week before the Election, in November 2020, after both Houses of Congress have gone home to campaign. Allow us Voters to be the final arbiters on Impeachment, but, as with any judge or jury, we cannot do it without all of the evidence that only an Impeachment inquiry can properly obtain.

I like Mike, but I love my country more.

They were always there, right in front of me: Harry Chapin, and John F. Kennedy, Jr., linked in death on the same exact date — July 16.

They died 18 years apart, their age difference, when they were both killed in terrible accidents at 38 years old. Chapin’s brief, shooting-star-of-a-life ended in the fiery crash of a small car on the Long Island Expressway; JFK, Jr.’s, in the crash of a small aircraft, somewhere off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

They were brothers in death, but their families — guided by strong women — and their mutual love for life were intertwined in ways that one of Harry Chapin’s five children, Jason, would come to experience first-hand, in his work directly with JFK, Jr. and his “Reaching Up” non-profit organization. The son of President John F. Kennedy founded “Reaching Up” in 1989 to give greater access to higher education and training to healthcare givers working with individuals with disabilities. The organization’s work not only enlarged the scope of the Special Olympics founded by JFK, Jr’s Aunt Eunice Shriver, but it also shared the compassion and common sense of the life-saving work done by a national non-profit co-founded by singer/songwriter Harry Chapin at the peak of his fame — WHYHunger — still tackling food insecurity in local communities 44 years after it was formed, as well as providing job skills to lift people out of poverty. Chapin and Kennedy were answering similar calls to serve others.

Jason Chapin, who worked with Governor Mario M. Cuomo and was elected to two, four-year terms on the New Castle Town Council in Westchester, County, NY, has, along with his four siblings, carried on his father’s work for WHYHunger and local food banks since 1975. He is the only Chapin to know JFK, Jr., and work with the “Reaching Up” organization and its City University of New York partner (CUNY) from 1995 to 2001.

“John was extremely passionate and dedicated to the organization, “ Jason Chapin said. “ I will always remember our Board Meetings which John chaired. He politely greeted everyone in the room when he arrived. He attended all of the annual Reaching Up Kennedy Fellows Convocations and was very friendly with the Fellows.”

It was precisely the same way JFK, Jr., greeted me at an early 1996 non-profit breakfast at New York’s Plaza Hotel which I attended as a guest of Jason Chapin’s. I was representing Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, and wearing a “We Believe in Brooklyn” button to boost Brooklyn’s visibility among the Manhattan political and media elite. JFK, Jr., who sat a few seats away from me at the circular table, spotted my button as soon as we got seated. He leaned over to me and whispered.

“My family believes in Brooklyn, too,” JFK, Jr. said. “We believe deeply in the Bed Stuy Redevelopment Project,” an important initiative started during the too short Senate term of his uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, when he was NY’s U.S. Senator, from 1965–68. What JFK, Jr., may not have known then was how important Jason Chapin’s grandfather, John Cashmore, was to his own father’s election as President of the United States in 1960. Cashmore, Brooklyn Borough President from 1940–1961, delivered 66% of Kings County’s vote to JFK, helping him beat Nixon in New York State by five percent, and win NY’s 45 electoral votes, giving Kennedy the 303 Electoral votes he needed to win the Presidency.

I told JFK, Jr. how important the BedStuy project was to Central Brooklyn, the community served by our public hospital, and how important his own father’s example of public service was to me in guiding my life’s work.

“You probably get tired of hearing that from so many people of my generation,” I said to JFK, Jr.

“I never get tired of hearing it,” he said. “It makes me proud to see how many people my father inspired.”

Over the more than three decades I’ve known Jason Chapin, I’ve heard him say, with unending politeness and grace, the exact same words about his father, when people tell him Harry Chapin inspired them to commit their lives to fighting poverty, or improving public health, or helping refugees find access to food or shelter.

“I’m always amazed by how many people my father reached, how many lives he touched,” Jason says again and again.

Harry Chapin, like the Kennedys, was not content to sit still, and unafraid to use his celebrity to do good, performing 2000 concerts during his 10-year music career, with half of them as benefits, raising more than $6 million to fight hunger, and millions more on his radio “Hungerthons” with WHYHunger co-founder Bill Ayres, a former Catholic priest who Marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963.

As with JFK, Jr., Chapin was encouraged to take his activism, courage and compassion full-time to Washington, and run for the U.S. Senate from New York.

Harry recognized, as JFK, Jr., did with the creation of “Reaching Up” in 1989, that his name attached to any project could attract politicians, the media, the public and funding to the cause. His crusade against hunger and poverty, and his successful campaign to create a Presidential Hunger Commission with the help of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.) and President Jimmy Carter, exhibited the same instincts that propelled JFK, Jr., to launch “Reaching Up” and George Magazine : they knew that politics and pop culture had merged, and that those in a position to use their fame to improve human existence, and to demonstrate their love for life, had a responsibility to do so.

(Steve Villano is at work on the official biography of Harry Chapin entitled Citizen/Artist: Why Harry Chapin’s Life and Work Matter More Than Ever, to be published in 2020. Villano’s previous book Tightrope: Balancing A Life Between Mario Cuomo & My Brother, was published in 2017 by Heliotrope Books, NY, NY.)