Dear John Bolton, Have you grown bone spurs?

Dear Ambassador John Bolton,

I understand you are originally a Baltimore man, of solid blue-collar stock, born to Virginia Clara Bolton, a housewife, and Edward Jackson Bolton, a fireman. In due time you earned a BA degree from Yale, with honors (1). I am also of solid blue-collar stock from the Chicago suburbs. My mother was an administrative assistant and my father was an airplane mechanic, having learned his craft while volunteering in the Vietnam War. I assume you were similarly raised to value hard work and courage.

Both our fathers put themselves at risk to help others and to care for their families. My father used to relate stories of his foreman at United Airlines pressuring him to sign off on airplanes, but my father would refuse if there were unresolved issues; he wouldn't put the lives of passengers at risk. As a fireman, your father probably raised you on stories of irresponsible people who led to the fires that caused the deaths of others through their bad actions. It is the contentiousness of everyday people like them that permeates this country, men and women who understand the consequences of their actions and try to do the right thing for all of us.

For a long time now, you have been a prominent voice in the Conservative party, described as a forceful defender of our Nation and strong opponent to Russia aggression. But your relationship with Russia gets a bit twisted in recent years.

In 2013, while you worked with the NRA you participated in a video presentation, orchestrated by Maria Butina, promoting gun ownership in Russia (2). In 2014, Mercer, the founder of Cambridge Analytica, gave your Super PAC five million dollars. Your Super PAC then hired a company, founded by Mercer, for one million dollars to support the party and ultimately help get Trump elected (3). You have come to earn and manage quite a lot of money for the son of a fireman from Baltimore. But perhaps the cost was greater than the worth.

The company you hired was the now defunct Cambridge Analytica, and the contract specified "behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging" (4). designed to psychologically profile Americans, and ultimately, to manipulate them. You were one of their first customers. We later learn from UK Parliamentary investigations that Cambridge Analytica data was accessed by Russia and may have been used against Americans in Russia's disinformation campaign that helped Trump win the election (6).

This is the opposite of Democracy, by the way. This is mass social engineering. It is the manipulation of an entire society to affect their thinking and ultimately change their actions to achieve the preferred ends of one man. It is more power than any single person should have, and you really mucked it up.

You and Russia, and others who participated in this scheme were the real coup against The People of the United States. Now, we are simply trying to wrest control back. And we will, for as our founders knew, we, The People, are the true source of power behind the Constitution.

Our founders felt freedom and self-determination was a human right. My mother's ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War for that right. Later, our country fought a civil war that resulted the ability of slaves to claim the same right.

There is no greater American value than that of self-determination. Every word in the Constitution is crafted to achieve that end. We've shed rivers of blood to claim that right and you, who undoubtedly still feel love of country, tried to take that right away in some shady back-room data deal, subverting our free will to your choice.

This is a vile act, but it may be so new that we may not have laws against it, sans Foreign Country involvement. It is a vile act, born of arrogance rather than maliciousness, I suspect. Perhaps, your Yale education, your success, and your relative fame led you to lose touch with your humble beginnings. So, you decided your assessment of how America should vote was better than The People arriving at their own assessment, uninfluenced by psychological manipulation. This is the folly of a man who never understood that it is the combined will of all The People that brings the best results. The left, center, and right balance each other. We must make choices together.

Still, even your critics believe you to have a vein of solid patriotism running through your curmudgeonly heart. And I believe it too. But it has been dirtied up over the years. I imagine your solid blue-collar upbringing, your decades of support for conservative values, and your own complicity in the Russian attack on our Nation, all, combined with your patriotism, caused quite a storm of inner turmoil in you after you realized the full import of what you had done. Perhaps I'm overly optimistic and give you too much credit; it's a fault of mine. I even imagine you took the job with Trump to attempt your hand at damage control. An arrogant man would do just that, and that, in my view, is likely your primary fault that led you to this point.

Yet you left the job half-done. Tsk, tsk, tsk . . . My father would scold for that.

But, I digress. Back to Russia . . .

By the time of the election I'd say you were more than a little bit dirtied up by Russia. Perhaps you were even compromised. It is no wonder you adamantly avoid discussing Russian collusion with journalists.

You were recently called to testify in the Trump Impeachment hearings about the Ukraine scandal. In a letter to the House of Representatives, your attorney informs The People's House that you have much relevant information to share. But you demure, willing only to testify if ordered by a court of law. Yet, you freely share details at private paid speaking engagements about impeachable offenses Trump committed. That you scorn him is clear.

Many speculate you duck the hearings because of your pending book deal. Have you truly grown so far from your father's example that you would let Trump violate the Constitution freely, and let Russia gain further purchase in our country so you can gain more wealth?

I think not. Not now that you see how you have already mucked things up. You are arrogant, not stupid.

It's far more likely that you fear questions asked of you under oath, given your own Russia entanglements. Or worse, perhaps Trump or Putin has Kompromat on you. Why did Butina reach out to you for that Video so long ago? It was no coincidence, is my guess. Were you a mark from the beginning, identified as a key player in Conservative politics on her scouting mission?

Russia continues their disinformation campaign against The People to this day, and Facebook still collects our data and willingly spreads political disinformation. The People have not yet received justice for that, but I assure you, we've not forgotten. Justice will be ours in the end. If you played a part in knowingly sharing our data with Russia, there will be a price to pay.

But, let's put that aside for the moment and talk about your duty. Your highest duty is to your fellow countrymen.

Not to the President.
Not to the Office of the Presidency.
Not to a Party.
We are the Nation.
We are the power imbued in the Constitution.

If you are a true patriot, you owe allegiance to us, all of us regardless of party. You owe allegiance to us. together, as The Nation. You have done enough harm. It's time to come clean, damn the consequences to yourself. Let The People hear your testimony, sworn under solemn oath in the Hall of Congress, so we can judge this President with the full truth. Neither subpoena nor court order should be necessary. Only reclaiming your honor is required.

I ask you to remember the example of your father. Sometimes we must risk ourselves to help others. Your Nation needs you now. That should mean something to you. In fact, from your public statements, your desire to expose Trump is practically palpable. I suspect you have simply grown a bad case of bone spurs.

As my father would say,

    "Get over it. It's time to face the music."

My father, love him as I do, is not exactly inspirational. Instead, he gets quickly to the point. If that isn't enough for you, then let me leave you with this some lines from the timeless Mother Goose poem (6). It is well worth reflecting on.

There was a Crooked Man
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Imagine if all the Crooked Man had wrong with him were a bad case of bone spurs. He would only have to shave them off to walk straight again for the rest of his life.



In expectation of your illuminating testimony before Congress,

Lisanne Lombardo
Citizen of the United States of America
Advocate for Democracy and Self-Determination
http://wethepeople-liftourvoice.blogspot.com

**************

Sources

(1) Wikipedia, John Bolton
Public Encyclopedia, found November 23, 2018
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton

(2) Mother Jones, The NRA Welcomed Maria Butina—Even as She Worked to Arm Anti-American Thugs Abroad
By Mark Follman and Hannah Levintova, February 7, 2019
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/nra-russia-maria-butina-putin-crimea

(3) SLATE, The Real Value of Cambridge Analytica
By Carrie Levine and Dave Levinthal, July 16, 2018.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/john-bolton-had-5-million-reasons-to-work-with-cambridge-analytica.html

(4) The New York Times, Bolton Was Early Beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook Data
By Matthew Rosenberg, March 23, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/us/politics/bolton-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-data.html

(5) The Guardian, Facebook data gathered by Cambridge Analytica accessed from Russia, says MP
By Press Association, July 18, 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/18/facebook-data-gathered-by-cambridge-analytica-accessed-from-russia-says-mp-damian-collins

(6) Poetry Foundation, There was a Crooked Man
By Mother Goose, date unknown.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46948/there-was-a-crooked-man-56d22710e66f5