Category: Trump

Ah, America. We Have A Problem…

Okay. It’s Official. Donald Trump and his Banana Republicans have rhetorically incited their base to outright hate their Democratic opponents. Whether he acknowledges it or not, his preposterous radical lies are strategically intended to demonize his political rivals and to “stir up his base.” Now some of them are a serious threat to the heart of Democracy in America.

Trump may or may not have specifically intended to prod one or more of his “base” to terrorize the nation via package bombs addressed to his detractors, but in reality that is exactly what he did.  Like the leaders of Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc., he refuses to accept that he has any responsiblity for his actions, in this case his irresponsible acid rhetoric.   It is very important to point out that well into the second day of this continuing saga, his condemnation of these heinous acts has been perfunctory at best.  His immediate instincts are not to bring folks together under the banner of Democracy, but to find a way to be able to blame someone else.  Not at all surprisingly, if it’s not his fault (it never is), the “media” must be to blame.

His strategy is reprehensible, but not new. History tends to repeat itself.

“Baby Boomers” like me, were fathered by American soldiers after they returned from their triumphs over Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II.  Those with first-hand memories of that war and what America and our Allies fought for, are mostly gone by now.  Those who remain are few in number, long in years, and honored, but have little voice left.

We Baby Boomers by default have become the most heavily invested keepers of the lessons taught by those who survived the effort to put down the aggression of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany and Italy. It’s up to us to remember what was learned in the single largest global event in the lives of our parents.  Their generation paid a heavy price to defeat narcissistic, autocratic bullies, drunk with power and ideas that their supposed superiority gave them a mandate, not to govern, but to rule.  (Sound familiar?) It now falls to us and our progeny to preserve American Democracy’s dedication to the ideals of truth, mutual respect, civil discourse, and to the notion that we are a nation of diverse people who share in equal rights to life, freedom and opportunities for happiness and prosperity.

Unfortunately, that is a very tall order in the context of the polarized politics in America today. The middle ground between the two major parties is now a wide no-man’s land in the middle of an intensely hateful battleground.  Personalities and personal agendas now “trump” fundamental Democratic Ideals of respect for contrary opinions, empathy, and (God forbid) compromise.

In less than two years since taking office, a blustering, malignantly egomaniacal, pathological liar of the highest order has driven a stake into nearly all that Democracy stands for, and opened a huge chasm in American politics.  He clearly incites “his base” to deeply hate Americans who oppose him.  He lies prolifically all the while charging professional journalists, who take great pains to verify all that they report, with creating fake news.  He occasionally admits his lies (Surprise, he finally fessed-up that Middle Eastern terrorists are NOT among the Hondurans’ caravan of would-be immigrants in Mexico. April fools.  Note, however, he has not yet conceded that his ridiculous claim that the caravan was funded by a wealthy Democratic fundraiser was another lie, just a part his harmless little “game.” No harm, no foul. So what.. the fundraiser was sent a pipe bomb.. big deal.

And can you believe it, two weeks before the mid-term election he announces he’s about to roll out an additional 10% tax break for middle class Americans.  Seriously now, can you believe it?   

Yeah.. yeah.. a middle class tax break.. that’s the ticket!

Evidently, no one in Congress or any other corner of the government is aware of this beneficent plan.  His own party, (having further bloated the national debt by enriching corporations and the financial elite with this year’s tax reform) is in the midst of fleecing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for the emoluments they made to their masters.  And now Trump is dangling another tax break instead.

But they’re not really worried.  We and they know the whole middle class tax cut idea will whither away after the Mid-Term elections are done.  Bring on the April fools again.

Trump figuratively slaps the nation across the face when he boldly justifies his lies by saying, “hey, they worked” (e.g., fooled you suckers again). When anything goes seriously wrong in his administration, which is most of the time, he always, without fail, finds someone else, preferably an enemy, to blame.  He calls this “counter-punching.”  I call it the automatic reaction of a bully when he’s caught out.

The “unbelievable,” has become the norm.  Even when he admits his lies to his base, they love him for it and ask for more.

The snake is selling snake oil and the swamp has fast become a cesspool.

Mockery, mimicry and parody, being the most offensive types of personal bully humor, are top among Trump’s favorite tools in the stand up comedy shows he calls “political rallies.” Trump rallies are where his base comes to re-confirm their baseness.  Members of his own party who he demeaned with derogatory nicknames and relentless ridicule have figuratively crawled on their knees to surrender all semblances of their pride, honor and patriotism before Trump’s Throne.  This is what he thrives on. He wants blind loyalty far more than real integrity from his sycophants.

Wow, what a leader: heartless, cruel, arrogant, degrading, disgraceful, lecherous, amoral and uncivilized.  Is this what defines American Democracy at its best?  Or is this what my father’s generation went to war to defeat?

This last full week of October 2018, in an ugly turn of events, America heard the news that a terrorist or terrorists sent bombs to prominent leaders of the Democratic Party. Coincidentally, all of the bombs’ targets had been specifically named by Trump as his enemies at his hate rallies.  In that event at least one sicko crossed a line that may shift our president from despicable to fatally dangerous.  The escalation of the animosity encouraged by Trump was only a matter of time.  A bunch of lies, innuendo, and grade-school comedy was bound to light a fuse like this.

The survival of our Democracy from enemies from within has been laid on the table.

A certifiably deranged egotist is in the White House.  Now that John McCain is no longer with us, who among Mitch McConnell’s merry band of spineless racists in the Banana Republican Party will step up for Democracy, real Democracy?  Don’t count on many Repugnican legislators, administrators, or judicial officials to step out of line and fight for the rights of all.

Apparently, true Democracy is just not in their DNA.

 

James C, Ash – October 26, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trading the Obama Nation for an Abomination

Never in my life did I expect to even consider thinking that I am ashamed of my country, the United States of America, but I truly am.  My father, a proud World War II veteran, must be rolling over in his grave.

My statement is not made lightly, but patriotically. My father risked his life for the American principles that he taught me.  He instilled in me that protecting those principles is a duty.  They need to be protected now.

Donald Trump, a person whose actions and objectives are diametrically opposed to what makes America great, now presides over my country.. He is seriously and purposely attacking the soul of our nation for his own selfish purposes and autocratic aspiration.  We Americans should have a zero tolerance policy for anyone governing our Democracy who blatantly manipulates the Truth with reckless abandon in order to shower himself with undeserved glory.  The man is the personification of an abomination and has not a shred of common decency.  He is dismantling the pillars of strength that have defined our country since its inception.

It is unfathomable that any true American could, for any reason, create the  cruelty of cold-heartedly separating children, including infants, from their downtrodden parents at the border.  He and his sycophantic minions literally decided that stealing babies is the American way to discourage people seeking asylum from corruption and the predators in their native lands.

Do we now really equate innocent victims fleeing from gangs of thugs with the very gangs who prey upon them?  Can we not tell one from the other?  How can we tell these people to legally cross into America at designated border crossings, when those crossings are closed?  When did America become a Catch 22 nation?

The border policy (not law) imposed solely, soullessly, and maliciously by the Trump Administration is despicable.  It is shameful.  It is morally loathsome.  Trump metaphorically pointed a gun at the helpless in an attempt to blackmail legislators into doing his bidding.  When they didn’t comply, he opened fire, disingenuously blaming Democrats for not giving in.  This is the act of a childish bully, not a leader. He has literally and cowardly taken helpless hostages under the American flag and has disgraced that flag in the process.

This is not making America great again.  Trump is trying to re-make America in his own greedy malevolent image. And he’s doing it with the silent complicity of the cowardly Republican leaders and followers who control the Legislative houses of our government. Worse yet, he’s counting on the silent complicity of American citizens as well.  Those who follow or fail to contest evil are themselves accountable for that evil.

Do you see what he is doing to us?

How has America become so fractured that any of us would tolerate, never mind advocate, stealing children to use as pawns in an effort to achieve a political agenda?  Have we become so hardened by Trump’s outrageous antics that we’ve forgotten to recognize when true outrage is needed?

Raise your hand if you are proud to see this abomination and then, if you are not an atheist, think about God’s agenda.  No matter what religion you may practice, no concept of a benevolent God could condone, let alone enact, the systematic stealing of children and fracturing of families.  Does your God’s notion of family values end at the border?

This is nothing short of extreme governmental terrorism that could well spawn equal or worse terrorism in reprisal for decades when these innocent children grow up damaged and corrupted by what we are doing to them.  We are sowing bad seeds.

These are children whose already victimized families were purposely broken under the auspices of America’s/our, name!

Is nothing sacred any more?  Can you let yourself be led by someone so self absorbed and heartless as the President of the United States of America?

Please God, help us to save America before it’s too late.

 

Who’s Fooling Who?

It is now beyond doubt that Vladimir Putin’s cyber troops contaminated the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.  Under any other Presidential Administration that would have been treated as nothing short of an Act of War against the United States.

Under the ironic banner of Make America Great Again Americans who were poisoned by Russia’s undercover propaganda campaign refuse to accept the fact that they were caught up in a cyber-Pearl Harbor attack executed by Comrade Putin. The result of that invasion was that it installed a shady, greedy, lecherous businessman, who is deep in both financial and (now) political debt to Russia, as President of the United States. What could be better for Vladimir?

After great subterfuge involving social media, the attack triggered classic shock and awe on Election Night.  America never expected the results.  The coordinated attack was so surgical that it took aim at Electoral College votes rather than the popular vote, which Trump still refuses to concede he lost by millions of votes.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, the truth has pretty much surfaced, the President and his followers remain in denial, and America has done virtually nothing to retaliate for these attacks or to defend against them happening again.

Just ask the Director of the Defense Department’s National Security Agency:

“Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, made some pretty blunt statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Rogers acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably believes he’s paid “little price” for the interference and thus hasn’t stopped. He also said flatly that Trump has not granted him any new authorities to strike at Russian cyber-operations….

Summarizing what he’d heard in Roger’s testimony, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said, “ …essentially, we have not taken on the Russians yet. We’re watching them intrude on our elections, spread misinformation, become more sophisticated, try to achieve strategic objectives that you [Adml. Rogers] have recognized, and we’re just essentially sitting back and waiting.”

Washington Post:  February 27, 2018

 Why is President Trump still doing nothing about the Russian cyber incursion?

Undermining a presidential election is no minor offense. Many of the best military minds in the country predicted years ago that our next major war would be a cyber war.  Our military has prepared long and well for that; all the President has to do is release the hounds.  In light of that, Trump’s “leadership” on this issue makes absolutely no sense, in fact, it is probably a serious dereliction of his presidential duty.  We are already a year-and-a-half behind in terms of what should have been done. Why has Trump virtually sabotaged our military’s mission to protect America?

Either The Donald is afraid of the Russians or he owes his allegiance to them. He’s incredibly self-serving, but I don’t think he’s a coward.  Even if, as he claims, he wasn’t in collusion with Valdimir before the election, it looks like he is now.  Why else would he ignore the Russian attack by tying back our military’s hands?

Let’s add another log on that fire.

Against the strident advice of nearly all in government and commerce, Republicans and Democrats alike, Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States, unilaterally announced that he will place a substantial trade tariff on imported steel and aluminum, ostensibly to fulfill an ill advised “America First” campaign promise. The tariff may breathe life into this manufacturing sector for a while, but it is sure to raise prices on steel and aluminum that will inflate the operating costs of American and global businesses that use these products.  They in turn will pass on those price increases to consumers – you and me.

What countries will be most adversely affected by the import tariff?

Russia ?      No.

How ‘bout China?     No.

Well if not them, who are the targets of Trumps tariff?     In a nutshell, that would be most of our largest trading partners, a.k.a. our allies.

Canada?    Pardon in 11th hour might yet be revoked. Damage to our relationship done by melodrama nonetheless.

Mexico?      Ditto Canada.

What about the European Union?       Oh yeah, they’re really ticked off.

Australia?        Definitely!

South Korea must be exempt, right?       They’re not, at least not yet.

Analysts and other folks with brains predict that if not altered before imposed, Trump’s Tariff will ignite a Trade War, not with our enemies but with our allies! (e.g. Putin’s enemies).

Brilliant Donald.  You ignore malicious and damaging cyber attacks from Russia and then declare war on our allies.  Your Vietnamese-manufactured red hats should have read “Let’s Destroy America’s Leadership of the Free World.” Apparently that’s what your America First mantra has been about all along.

Could it be that the antics of the current President’s Administration are more aligned with Vladimir Putin’s objectives in America than with American best interests and (dare I bring them up) ideals?

Certainly Putin has never been happier.  He ought to have forgiven at least some of Trump’s personal/business loans by now.

The Red Hats will never accept the truth about whose national interests Trump really serves.

But the rest of us know.

Make America ADT Again

Donald Trump disappointed the world once again on February 27, 2018 with his announcement that he will run for re-election in 2020.

The cheers of the nation were inaudible.

Of course, we all understand Trump still needs to get Vladimir Putin’s permission to run again and that’s not a sure thing, but it’s looking good right now. According to reliable sources Comrade Putin is overjoyed with Trump’s undermining of the US military, intelligence departments, and law enforcement efforts to retaliate against the Kremlin for its indisputable and embarrassing cyber attacks on us. You remember them, the social media tricks Putin used to put his yellow helmeted puppet in the White House. [Coincidentally, Putin with an extra space is Put in as in, “Putin put in Trump.” It’s easier to remember the core problem this way.]

Everyone in America was sucker-punched when, with or without Trump’s complicity, Russia  contaminated the Presidential Election of 2016 to make The Donald The President.  “They ate our lunch,” one former US intelligence agent said, “and now the President won’t let us fight back.”  The unspoken next question is: “Who’s side is Trump really on?”

The answer is headline obvious.

Never in the history of the United States of America has a President been so blatantly corrupt as Trump. Abusing his office as President, he has tied the hands of our cyber soldiers while our nation remains under direct, relentless, and quite effective cyber attack by Russia.

Is America’s true Public Enemy #1 Chuck Schumer or Vladimir Putin?

Deceased former presidents are rolling in their graves. Trump, The Traitor in the White House (the title of his upcoming biography), owes Russia way too much money and political capital to even consider getting in Putin’s way. Doing nothing to retaliate, Trump is willingly paving the way for our worst enemy to divide our nation by undermining our faith in our government and in one another.

Trump is the most egocentric, self-serving, greedy and insolent head of state since Caligula (who was, coincidentally, also sexually depraved).

After his announcement, the buffoon king of hubris told reporters on camera that he was sure that, given the opportunity, unarmed he would surely have run into the school (presumably with his red cape fling behind him) to face down the latest assassin of students and heroic teachers. So ridiculously easy to say, so incredibly impossible to believe. How Trump-ish: after the fact, he to claims to have the courage, love and human regard that inspired the truly heroic teachers who sacrificed their lives to protect their students. What really happened was he saw the opportunity to dump another load of BS, this time to try to share the mantle of heroism. His incredibly asinine off the cuff speculation was offensive and degrading to the dignity of every genuine hero. Throughout his life Trump has displayed no interest in protecting anyone but his sorry self.

It’s not just Trump’s hair that is yellow.

And so, for all these reasons and many more, I am proud to announce that, if he’s not impeached beforehand, I will vote against Donald Trump and any who support him in 2020, assuming I am still alive and Putin doesn’t cancel the election.

I encourage all who are Against Donald Trump (ADT), to find a way and to announce your intentions for voting in the elections in 2020.  Let’s make ADT a badge of honor for the two plus years before the next Presidential election.  He has to go.

 

A User’s Guide to Donald Trump: Appendix 1

The American public has never had to deal with anyone like Donald Trump in the White House. Most of us are aware of that. But it’s important to identify the aspects of The Donald that set him apart from all previous 44 Presidents of the United States, with perhaps the exception of Warren G. Harding.

For many years Donald Trump was a member of/financial contributor to the Democratic Party. Why then did he suddenly declare his candidacy for the Presidency in the Republican Party primaries in 2012?  First, his motivations for his party affiliations and contributions were, like always, strictly self-serving. They were pragmatic, not ideological. The money he “donated” and his affiliations were intended to be profitable in the long run.

So when he smelled an opportunity that he could never have among the Democrats, it was natural for Trump to change sides. Although he was never interested in running (and losing) against the incumbent Barack Obama in 2012, he was hungry to join the legion of Republicans who sought the presidential nomination. This was an irresistible chance to invent and introduce a new facet of his image, downplaying his amoral, audacious real estate escapades and reckless, amoral, playboy persona. Here he would test fly himself as a potential statesman.

No one took him seriously in 2012; he gathered very few percentage points in the primaries. But that didn’t matter. He wasn’t in it to win it back then. He’d accomplished his objective of planting seeds of quasi-political respectability. He’d shared the stage shoulder-to-shoulder with life-long politicos whose names were, in most cases, lesser known by the general public than his. He wedged his way in and gave his eventual presidential aspirations a precedent.

Over the next four years, he created and burnished his supposed executive leadership credentials with his new popular television show, “The Apprentice.”   Sitting on his regal executive throne, he disparaged and humiliated young business school graduates with his denegrations of their performances in difficult assignments that ostensibly tested their chops. His image took on a hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners attitude and a demi-god-like impatience with the fools he had to tolerate. As intended, he presented himself as a tough boss who demanded results. Contrary to his 2012 primary showing, his television ratings were astounding. Not satisfied with besting unknown job applicants, he then gathered a bunch of celebrities whose fading stardoms were in dire need of any kind of boost, and thrashed them around to get ever-higher ratings. He proudly proved he could easily control and inflict failure on characters whose names were recognizable having once been popular but who were now stuck in the minor leagues.  Meanwhile, Trump’s popularity rose.

Like a mountain of bubbles in a bathtub, there was little real substance in the political image Trump created for himself by 2016. He had no real steak to offer, but he had more than enough sizzle.

The rest is history. He tossed his Vietnamese-manufactured “Make American Great Again” hat into the crowded ring and immediately stood out boldly against the stable of Republican wannabes who were virtually indistinguishable from one another.  His cast away opponents either went home to lick their wounds or prolonged their agony by embracing his campaign.  Trump squeezed out what little value they had left and then left them by the roadside (see Christie, Chris).

With active and illegal complicity, his de facto campaign manager Vladimir Putin crafted and executed a masterfully deceitful strategy for the general election. Hacking into Democratic leaders’ e-mails and making other well-timed cyber moves and Wiki leaks, Putin’s minions created a growing series of questionable concerns about Hilary Clinton. With heavy strategic applications of paid advertisements on major social media sites, The Donald’s allies in the Kremlin pushed all the right buttons to plant propaganda into the willing ears of those living in the heartland. Their strategy’s climax came at the either unwitting or cunning announcement by FBI Director James Comey that more Clinton e-mails were under investigation less than 48 hours before the polls opened. The Hammer & Sickle banner was raised to new heights as the Trump/Putin campaign successfully turned the tide of reason in the electorate just enough for the Electoral College to negate the popular vote.

Gleeful high fives in Moscow.  Trump was in.

God help us.

Now that he is president, it’s important to understand what motivates Trump as he plays the ringmaster over his circus. We caught more than a hilariously stupid glimpse of what is in store for the next four years very early in his administration. In the face of indisputable evidence to the contrary, Trump launched his administration by adamantly insisting that his Inaugural crowd was the largest ever, dwarfing President Obama’s crowds.  In other words, Trump’s presidency began with what 99.4% of sane people in the world knew was the boldest of bold-faced lies. His humiliated Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, was ordered to support those outrageously false assertions in his first press briefing from the White House. Trump and Spicer were the only two people who made those farcical assertions. Everyone knew that neither believed it.

And that was just the inauspicious beginning.

Many political commentators have since grasped the obvious and reported that Trump has absolutely no fundamental political beliefs to inform his decision making. Instead, his decisions waffle depending on what works best for him at a given time. Believing in nothing is very advantageous to someone cares nothing for the truth and wants to remain pragmatically flexible.

Regrettably “pragmatically flexible” is a new piece of Washington-speak that is the equivalent of “unpredictable,” or in Trump’s case “wildly unpredictable.” Trump is definitely that. Those who try to read his mind have to realize he is fundamentally a spoiled and over-inflated bag of pure ego.   Not unlike his counterpart in North Korea, Trump expects his people to, not only accept, but applaud loudly, his blatantly self-serving lies.  Unfortunately, many who invested their support in him find they either have to turn a blind eye to the nature of the man and his shenanigans or admit to a big mistake. Understandably, obstinance favors the former option.

Unpredictability is a strategic tool that fools people and keeps Trump in the limelight where his bleached comb-over and pink cheeks look best.  He stirs the pot, which is not necessarily a bad thing but can be very dangerous in some instances.  I think we all have reason to worry about whether he knows the difference.

Ultimately, Trump has no ideology or morality in the foundation of ‘What’s Best for America.’ The true bottom line is that whatever Donald Trump does is driven by what’s best for Donald Trump. It has always been that way; he knows no other way to live.

Certainly some people, his family, his unstable inner circle, his daughter’s wedding planner, and his business associates have benefitted from some of his decisions and actions, but those are collateral consequences. Trump seems to firmly believe that what is good for The Donald is always the equivalent of What’s Best for America.  So far, I contend that our American values and his stances have never been aligned and are becoming further distant by the day.

A User’s Guide to President Trump – Warnings:

  • Do not expect the truth from The Donald; Fact check whatever he says, even if it is something you think might be true.  It’s a shame to have to do this, but it comes with the territory.
  • Always keep in mind that Donald Trump is his own favorite cause, topic, and person. Donald Trump NEVER does anything that doesn’t primarily benefit Donald Trump. Interpret anything he says or does accordingly. From this vantage point, what he says and does will make more sense in a perverse way. It might not be acceptable or make you feel better, but it is easier to work with than total chaos.
  • Donald Trump will often surprise his allies and detractors by doing the polar opposite of what they expect. He unapologetically contradicts himself often. He is unpredictable simply for no other reason than shock value. He loves creating unexpected change because it almost always grabs his favorite elixir: attention.
  • Oh, one more thing, and this is a big one. Beware: At all costs, whatever you do, don’t let Trump’s reckless bravado start a nuclear w

 

“To the Mattresses”

 

“President Trump and his advisers, seeking to contain the escalating Russia crisis that threatens to consume his presidency, are considering a retooling of his senior staff and the creation of a “war room” within the White House, according to several aides and outside Trump allies.”

“ ‘Go to the mattresses,’ a line from the film “The Godfather” about turning to tough mercenaries during troubled times, has circulated among Trump’s friends, said two people close to the war room discussions.”

Washington Post, May 28, 2017

The troops are gathering, officers are plotting their strategies, the reserves have been called up, allies are joining the cause, munitions and propaganda factories are gearing up.  No, this isn’t Germany in the late 1930s. This is Donald Trump going to war against his greatest enemy: the Truth.

This strategic threat posed by the Trump Legion has the aura of a true test of whether America will allow itself to be overtaken by  bombastic false promises, personal greed, and flat out dishonesty.

Already the Trump Legion has begun to:

  • Renege on promises in rhetoric aimed directly at the “common man.”  The swamp is not draining, Cabinet Meetings are filled with Goldman-Sachs executives and other financial super heroes. NAFTA is still here and China won’t be tagged as a currency manipulator.  April Fools; he had his fingers crossed when he promised.  As anyone with a seven-year old’s mentality knows, promises don’t count then.
  • Undermine America’s relations with Democracies in Europe and with NATO in order to align America behind (not beside or in front of) Russia. Apparently Trump’s personal hero is Vladimir Putin.  And why not, it could well be that Putin put Trump into the White House.  If so, unless Trump’s America falls in line Putin can threaten to expose how Trump really was elected.  That is why it is so important to us that the Kremlin/Trump relationship needs to be so thoroughly investigated.  It’s also why it is so important to Trump that it’s  not investigated.  If Trump has nothing to hide, why is he going to war to try to stop the investigation?
  • Attack the credibility of the FBI and CIA and all others investigating the secret and perhaps treasonous activities of the Trump campaign and administration. Again, if there’s nothing to hide there’s no reason to go to the mattresses.
  • Give yet another round of huge tax breaks to businesses (including The Donald’s) and to mega-wealthy people (including himself and many of his Legionnaires). Economists warn that these gifts to wealth will inflate America’s deficit quicker and more severely than ever before. We saw the trickledown theory of Reaganomics completely fail to materialize, but let’s try again.  This time we’ll put even more money into the hands of the rich and then see how that magically benefits the average American.   Alternatively, we might do better to remember that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
  • Leave the common citizenry to carry both a hugely disproportionate portion of the US tax burden and an even more overinflated national debt.  Ultimately, it will not be the wealthy who solve the problems in our economy, simply because most of the wealthy are themselves among the biggest problems in our economy. The divide between poverty and wealth is getting larger every day.  When the economy is skewed to benefit the very, very few, it exacerbates the already deplorable conditions suffered by the growing numbers of the poor.  Trump, along with his fellow Republicans, are among the worst enemies of the poor. Trump’s proposed budget has already heavily attacked the poor by gutting programs that are the last lifeline for millions of Americans impoverished by the shameful distribution of wealth in our nation.  He wants to give the money to the impoverished Pentagon instead. Despite his promises, he has never been an honest advocate of the poor or the shrinking Middle Class.  What he promises and what he actually does are as far apart as the rich are from the poor.
  • Work hand in glove with his Republican Congress to turn the Affordable Care Act into the unaffordable American Care Act, leaving somewhere between 20 million to 25 million Americans with no viable health insurance options at all. And those will be the folks who especially who need affordable insurance the most – those in poverty and those with pre-existing conditions.  Since when have Americans become so selfishly ugly as to turn their backs on their unfortunate countrymen and callously condemn them to suffer and die?
  • Incredibly seek to not only to leave the poor and people with pre-existing health conditions in the dust, but try to demonize them by claiming their poverty and their sicknesses are their own fault for not doing “the right things.” (Self-anointed arrogance at its worst.)
  • Seek also to demonize the press by calling their disciplined reporting and genuine search for the Truth (another of Trump’s worst enemies) “fake news.”
  • Send thousands upon thousands more troops back into Afghanistan. (What was that definition of insanity again?)
  • Bamboozle Americans into thinking that he can single handedly bully Mexico to pay for his preposterous campaign promise – The Wall.  Trump hopes we will never think this through, but if Trump has his way the American people will ultimately pay for The Wall up front and again after it’s built.  Trump proposes to build the thing with billions from the US Treasury and then recover the cost of The Wall by putting tariffs on Mexican goods crossing our borders.  He’d like us to think it’s that simple, but the process doesn’t actually end there.  If/when he imposes those tariffs, what do you think Mexican exporters will do?  Obviously, they will charge more for their goods to offset the tariffs.  And who will pay those increased prices? The American Consumer. So ultimately the American Consumer will re-pay the American Taxpayer for The Wall by way of Mexico. Mexico will simply pay the tariff with one hand and collect it back with the other. The Trump Legion knows that full well, but their propaganda is designed to make us believe that ultimately Mexico will pay.

The Fourth Great Lie  + Trust me, I’m Donald Trump +

So now the Trump Legion is preparing for War.  Their enemy?  Anyone who realizes the threat the Trump Legion poses.  The Trump Legion is declaring war on the fundamental rights and well being of anyone who sees that Emperor Trump wears no clothes and says so. Given enough power, anything and anyone will be fair game for the Donald and his cabal of wealthy business friends: the Constitution and Bill of Rights, over 240 years of history (Did you know that Andrew Jackson hated the Civil War even though he died 15 years before it started?), and the scores of millions of Americans who actually recognize that freedom and the rest of America’s ideals are in serious jeopardy.

Trump is about to campaign again, this time on a war footing.  The Trump Legion always fights dirty. Nothing is sacred, especially the Truth.  There is nothing so low as to be beneath them.

The rest of us need to defend those who the Legion attacks and defend ourselves in the battle for the attention of the American people.  We need a presence everywhere Trump goes to point out the Bullshit that comes with him. Let that be our chant, Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit.  Let’s fill the streets with crowds whose chant can overwhelm their lies.

The Trump Legion has provided us now with ammunition we never had before.  We can see their end game in their blunders, lies, appointees, policies and positions.  They are all aimed at punishing the poor and paving the way for big business and the rest of the already financially powerful to openly rule this land.

This may well be this generation’s most important war.  The principles and existence of our nation are at stake.

God Bless America and Help Us Protect Our Beloved County!

“the love of money is the root of all evil.”  R.W. Emerson

 

 

Tell me again, why…

Why:

  • … do the rich need more big tax breaks? Don’t they have enough already?  Isn’t the definition of “rich” already having significantly more than average wealth?  Haven’t we trickled down this road before?
  • … is Trump/Ryancare really an improvement to Obamacare if 24 million of our fellow Americans will lose their insurance because their premiums will increase beyond affordability?  Is the purpose of the Trump/Ryan “American” Health Care Act (notice  no longer “Affordable”) to provide or to remove affordable health care insurance for Americans?   Is this how one fixes a problem? If Ryan was a car mechanic, when fixing your flat tire he’d also disconnect your brakes.
  • … is Lecherous & Lying Donald removing nearly all programs that support the impoverished and jobless Americans who elected him, while at the same time increasing their numbers?
  • … does the president’s budget proposal give the Pentagon an extra $54 billion that even the Generals and Admirals (who are, by the way, the worst shoppers in the world) didn’t even ask for?  How can we trust the Pentagon to spend any taxpayer dollars wisely?
  • … were many hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent by these protectors of our freedom on overinflated supply contracts with a world class briber? [Likely Fat Leonard is not the only briber living large on taxpayer millions.]
  •  … did these Navy and Marine Corps officers not realize, or choose not to care, why Fat Leonard regularly provided them with lavish gifts and $50,000 parties, complete with expensive hookers? (Hey Captain. New in town?)  They knew full well what they and he were doing. Who wouldn’t spend a million dollars on entertainment in order to pocket an extra unearned hundred million out of the Pentagon’s coffers? [Might this be a much better place than Planned Parenthood to cut back funds and begin to reduce the deficit?]
  • … are widespread betrayals of our country like this not considered a financial form of treason?  Does not the siphoning off of defense funds impair our national security?
  • … in a civilized and mature nation, would greedy L&L Donald and his cabal of advisors try to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts, Public Television, and many other scientific, educational, cultural and social support programs?  Are we a nation of Neanderthals?
  • … in a natural environment recklessly abused by greed, does L&L Donald want to disassemble nearly all efforts of the Environment Protection Agency?   Are so many of the industrial rich so self-centered that they don’t care whether life on earth survives after they themselves are dead and gone?
  • … does a lunatic fringe of our citizenry, unfortunately including key members of our lunatic administration, deny the plentiful and dramatic evidence of Global Warming and the nearly unanimous concerns expressed in the scientific community.  The hubris of the fools on the hill in denying proven facts could very well doom our species to early extinction.
  • … does L&L Donald continually make completely unsubstantiated (e.g., blatantly false) accusations in speeches and on Twitter, whenever the mood hits him? And why does he get away with it? Is this paranoia or is it just that L&L Donald doesn’t fully grasp that he is no longer a candidate, but is expected to live to a higher standard of truth and reliability as president?
  • … does Kellyanne Conway never give straight-forward answers to interviewers’ straight-forward questions?
  • … don’t interviewers either ignore her altogether or doggedly continue to reiterate their questions until she answers them?
  • … did it take so long for L&L Donald’s accountants to find the only two pages of his past 20 or more tax returns that indicate he may have actually paid some taxes more than ten years ago?
  • … are the Russian connections of L&L Donald, his campaign staff and his current Administration not being aggressively pursued and updated in the public domain?
  • … does it turn my stomach to see the President of the United States acting like a petulant and spoiled 7-year old, blatantly ignoring and insulting Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, when she was America’s guest at the White House.  What, does he really think he can treat every woman the way he treats his wife?
  • … does it not surprise me that L&L Donald was not only inexcusably rude to the leader of one of our greatest allies, he was at the same time woefully ignorant about how NATO is funded and operates.  His continual bouts of Ready, Fire, Aim are much more than just embarrassing, they are dangerous to all citizens he swore to protect.
  • … are most, if not all, of these issues in L&L Donald’s campaign and first hundred days as president, unprecedented?  Could it be that the previous 44 Presidents were intelligent?

Is he draining the swamp or filling it with champagne?

What is Wrong with the Greatness of America?

There’s little question that the United States of America, a comparatively young nation in the civilized world, has been the “greatest” and most influential country on the planet for over 100 years.  Nonetheless, recently the sound bite “Make American Great Again” resonated with a goodly number of righteously disgruntled voters.

They may well be right.  American Greatness should never be taken for granted. But many of the problems they’ve been led to believe plague America are the subjects of propaganda designed to divert people’s attention from the real threats to our nation. We need always to remember America now has an untrustworthy, conniving, malignantly narcissistic President who seems to change his rhetoric about as often as he changes his neck ties.

A President who tweets echoes of baseless blather he heard on late night Fox News is probably not going to keep America great.   If Sweden has supposedly had a dramatic spike in rapes and robberies due to the recent influx of Muslim refugees as Trump alleged in one of his recent rallies, no one in Sweden is aware of it. These must be secret rapes and robberies, known only to him.

No President in history has made such an idiotic, misinformed and embarrassingly false proclamation in such a public forum.  But hey, he’s Donald Trump – give the guy a break.

This is what happens when a President of the United States relies on “intelligence” gathered by Fox News and eschews briefings from the nation’s experienced intelligence agencies.  How can any public office holder rely on anthing Fox News reports without getting a confirmation from some trustworthy source, like maybe the CIA?

Unfortunately, Trump has learned that he can get away with anything he says, so long as at least part of his audience is willing to believe it. It is shocking how easily his trumped up allegations against Muslims turned all disciples of Allah into scapegoats for a fictitious outbreak of atrocities that simply have not happened.  How does Trump’s demonizing of Muslims in America differ from the demonizing of Jews in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s?  How does this Make America Great Again?  Was Hitler not elected as Chancellor on the promise to Make Germany Great Again?  His playbook must be around here somewhere.

What Makes America Great?

Let’s consider what has made America great:  Is it our dedication to freedom?  Is it the strongest and best equipped military in the world?  Is it our Constitution?, our justice system?, our free press?, our states’ rights?, our civil rights?, our religious freedom?, our history?, is it the freedom of expression that’s in our DNA?, our aversion to oppression?, or perhaps our leading edge technologies?, our ability to invent?, our entrepreneurial vision?, our robust national economy?, our leadership of the free world?, our diversity?, our common ancestral and/or contemporary immigration to America in search of freedom? (Ironically, true native Americans whose ancestors were here long before most of the rest of our ancestors, have virtually lost most of their freedom to make room for ours.)

It’s all of this and more.  All of these American traits come from America’s values that have always been the grassroots tools of our Greatness. Today these include:

  • Truth;
  • Fair Play/Equal Opportunity for all;
  • Honesty;
  • Individual Respect;
  • Tolerance of Differences in Ancestry, Opinion, Ethnicity, Race, Intelligence, Customs, Gender;
  • A Government Accountable to the People and Not Vice-Versa;
  • Personal Privacy;
  • The Right to be Heard;
  • Rule of Law and Civil Disobedience of Law that Violates Our Rights and Values;
  • Mobility, and
  • The Sanctity of Human Life.

America – An Experiment in Progress

The radical socio-economic experiment that is America has been amazingly successful, so far.  We have found ways to blend the survival of the fittest foundation of economic Capitalism with the generosity and respect of a Social Conscience that tries to assure that the basic needs of all citizens are met.  The balance between Capitalism’s competition and the “no one left behind” tenet of Socialism is never static, but they do coexist. Because the pendulum swings back and forth, the search for equilibrium in the experiment is definitely not finished.

In fact, the American experiment will never be finished until and unless it fails.

Like all human endeavors, America constantly operates in social, political, scientific, economic, ethical, and international environments that are always in a state of change.  Figuratively, all of these arenas carry weight and collide with one another in various and unpredictable ways, creating massive tension just below the surface of our lives.  So far, when the socio-economic pressures have erupted and surfaced, America dealt with the damage and siphoned off similar pressures to avert repetition of the eruption.

A Parade of Challenges

The American Civil War was probably the country’s most costly and bloody eruption of pent up pressure ever.  America was literally blown apart into two distinct governments for a few years. The intense divide – slavery and a regional, nearly regal, agrarian economy versus a more heavily populated abolitionist region and its industrialized juggernaut – was driven by two irreconcilable sets of American values.  While the Union was preserved 150 years ago, regional tensions from the war still exist.  A century after the end of the Civil War, insidious, unresolved racial stress fractures in the nation’s experiment erupted again leading us to define, re-confirm and protect the value of Civil Rights for all Americans, regardless of race, creed, gender, or religious belief.  Anti-war movements, women’s suffrage and later women’s rights in the workplace, abortion rights, gay rights, a World War against Fascist oppression, the Great Depression, similar periodic economic crises, and a host of other eruptions are among the litany of challenges that have threatened the viability of the experiment.

Today, some issues have been resolved but others still require a good deal more work. Our American values have matured and reshaped our nation to meet our challenges and to keep the experiment that is America alive and well.

But is there a potentially insurmountable challenge in our midst that could destroy the American Experiment?

A Fundamental and Difficult Conundrum

Ugly new challenges to America’s greatness are quickly growing before our eyes today.  The electorate’s discontent with, and righteous distrust of, our elected representatives is a cancer that threatens the whole organism of our nation.  The sources and symptoms of the disease are fairly plain to see.  The cure, however, is not.

The love of money and the political power it buys has infused a pernicious, potentially fatal disease in our national and state legislatures and executive offices.  The one common element necessary to prevail in any election in this country today is no longer a candidate’s intelligence, leadership ability, moral integrity, dedication to the truth, sincerity, fairness, heroism, or reverence for motherhood and apple pie.  It is money, money, and more money.

Absent considerable amounts of money, a candidate has a snowball’s chance in Hell of being elected to what is supposed to be a position of service to the “public trust.”  The Number 1 priority of nearly every national and state elected official is re-election.  The day after they’re elected most of our vaunted representatives begin “dialing for re-election dollars,” a 365-day, annual, unwritten requirement of survival in their jobs.

The conundrum of this reality is clear.  Any effort to curtail or remove the sale of influence by legislators, regulators, jurists, and others will have to be initiated and supported by the very people who owe their financial and political success to the purchasers of their influence.  In order to truly represent the interests of a majority of one’s constituents, somewhere along the line a representative would have to betray his/her financiers and seriously jeopardize his/her chances of re-election.   Except in rare instances, like Bernie Sanders’s crowd funding of his 2016 presidential campaign, legislators and members of the executive branches personally have little or nothing to gain by biting the hands that feed them.  The office-holder is the supplicant and the money-holder is in control.

Is it any wonder that the political influence of the wealthiest 10% of the nation’s electorate is greater than collective political influence of the remaining 90% of voters in this nation? What majority of politicians will coalesce to successfully legislate the boundaries necessary to break this stranglehold on our elected representatives?  There’s that snowball in Hell again.

Absent the will to break the financial bonds that tie elected officials in the Congressional Branch and Executive Branch, what hope is there?

A Pivotal Failure

The judicial system of the US, intended as a check and balance when things go constitutionally awry in our country’s legislative or executive branches, has failed miserably in its crucial role of preserving the integrity of elected officials.  Citizen’s United is an insulting misnomer for both a Political Action Committee and a Supreme Court case that far more accurately should be called Corporations United, or better yet, Corporate Bribery United.

The sanctity of the Supreme Court should never come into question, but somehow I cannot rule out what should be the impossibility that one or more of our “conservative” justices may have been corrupted.  It is difficult to find any good reason for their swinging wide the gates of secret corporate money to further solidify the hold of the moneyed interests on our government.  If this was what the “Founding Fathers” intended, we need to re-write all American History books.

And the Beat Goes On

In the name of “Making America Great Again,” today’s spin doctors pervert the truth while Foxy “news” outlets openly identify themselves as commentators disguised as reporters.  Talk radio crackles the air waves with hatred as “commentators” instigate listeners with unfounded vitriolic charges designed to create and capitalize on divisions among the ethnic, racial, religious, and even gender allegiances of Americans.  The bigger the lie, the more it is believed.

Simply stated, the virtually unbridled influence of money in politics may be the force that ultimately kills the American experiment for all time.

The concentration of political power in the hands of a few, elite, self-anointed masters of the universe is already pretty far advanced on the road to dictatorial power behind the scenes. When Russia’s “elected” dictator, Putin, is held out as a role model by the President of the United States, something evil must be afoot. And when Russia brazenly and sucessfully manipulates the outcome of an American Presidential election, something unquestionably needs to be done to Make America Great Again. 

Putin recognizes the importance of the opportunity of having the perfect stooge in the White House. Accordingly, the complicity of the Trump political organization in Putin’s scheme needs to be vigorously and impartially investigated. There are strong indications that Putin may have wasted little time in purchasing the egomaniac’s influence along with that of his small cadre of “advisors.”

Business Insider, January 17, 2017  –  Memos: CEO of Russia’s state oil company offered Trump adviser, allies a cut of huge deal if sanctions were lifted

“A dossier with unverified claims about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia contained allegations that Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russia’s state oil company, offered Trump ally Carter Page and his associates the brokerage of a 19% stake in the [$350 -$450 Billion] company in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Russia. … In return Page confirmed that were Trump elected US president, sanctions on Russia would be lifted.”

Perhaps the reason the Trump Administration has has yet to fill more than 600 job vacancies in the Executive Branch is so he and his cabal won’t have to share the wealth. With no one on the phones or texting from them there is little  danger of a whistle blower exposing the plot if all the desks are empty. When (not if) Trump removes the sanctions and this deal is consumated, worldwide consumers of energy  will provide Russia ample funds to de-rail the American experiment. There is nothing Putin wants more, and let’s face it, Trump & Co.’s complicity could easily be part of “the art of the deal” for the right price.

The “alternative truths” and baseless rallying cries of division and hate that have found homes in the minds of many Americans are proof positive that skillful propaganda still works.

In a relatively short span of time, the money-and-power hungry are well advanced in their own greedy interests in America.  They are not overt, but they are unquestionably greedy. They work diligently to cultivate the outright support of Americans agitated by their propaganda while they pick Americans’ pockets, protections and rights at the same time.

Indeed it is a Crucial Time to Make America Great Again.

Donald Trump can only lead America into oblivion. The question is, do we take our American values seriously enough to fight to preserve America’s greatness?  One thing is certain, it will take a massive grass roots effort to regain our nation from the wealthy manipulators of the truth, if it is not too late already.

For Goodness Sake, Calm Down

Never before in the history of the United States of America has a President of our country been an outright self-centered, evil human being.  Being an accomplished malignant narcissist, Donald Trump has never felt the slightest amount of empathy for anyone but himself.  He lies constantly and is unapologetically sadistic, like an immature and undisciplined playground bully who enjoys attaching firecrackers to frogs and other small animals just to watch them explode.  He makes rash decisions motivated solely by selfish wishes. And he usually gets away without a scratch.

Anyone who would use his bully pulpit to complain about the falling ratings of his trumped up television show, The Apprentice, at a major prayer breakfast of clerics from a huge variety of religions, is seriously demented, disrespectful, conceited, and unstable.

Summing up, we have a President of the United States who is incapable of empathy, is malignantly self-centered, is a blatant and lifelong liar, is unreliable, seriously demented, evil, disrespectful, and unstable.  He has executive powers, controls our nuclear arsenal, and in his first 10 days in office has created opportunities to insult both our allies and our enemies with reckless abandon.

So what in heaven’s name are so many people worried about?