Saturday, December 31, 2016

Donald Trump is my ex-husband

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/14/1580837/-Donald-Trump-is-my-ex-husband?detail=emailclassic&link_id=3&can_id=ea7a82e12e8e6d519ea471f1107c4381&source=email-trumps-wife-posing-with-gun-thong-and-boots-and-they-had-a-problem-with-michelles-bare-arms-3&email_referrer=trumps-wife-posing-with-gun-thong-and-boots-and-they-had-a-problem-with-michelles-bare-arms-3&email_subject=trumps-wife-posing-with-gun-thong-and-boots-and-they-had-a-problem-with-michelles-bare-arms


This will tear your heart out. How on god's earth did this happen? This is SO dangerous. It was dangerous to Trump's ex-wife certainly but it will be worse for a nation and the world. He needs to GET OUT. Yes, even Pence is better. He's horrible policy wise but at least I think he will not start a nuclear war!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

While Democrats Slept


I suggest Republican politics in our time is dangerous to those who are the poorest and most vulnerable in our nation. It is even dangerous to the world by its denial of human contribution to climate change to which 98% of all scientists who are not part of the fossil fuel industry agree. Our parties have diverged in polar opposite directions -- Republican policy favors the 1% richest, dedicated to eliminating Wall Street oversight and regulation, erasing healthcare and the elimination of the so called entitlements of Social Security, Medicare (Medicaid) privatizing them risking middle class economic well being to economic recessions and depressions which history shows are the pitfalls of capitalism and are sure to come. The Democratic Party is dedicated to helping the poor, the disabled and the dispossessed to achieve our nation's promise of justice within the American Dream that has been denied them for so long. It is dedicated since FDR, when the economic times dictate, to allowing a needed government assist and hand up when necessary. The Democratic Party is dedicated to ensuring the civil rights of all of its citizens and is dedicated to reducing climate change by advocating not only for more fossil fuels but by strongly advocating for alternative energies and planet saving fuels which in turn will create a plethora of jobs. The Democratic Party is the Party of science. We believe in science and its ability to improve and save lives.

In view of that I believe we must strengthen the Democratic Party nationally by employing a 50 state strategy and by electing both young and experienced Democrats with academic and political ability like a Keith Ellison to shore up our base leading the Democratic National Committee and support a charismatic and articulate Tim Ryan from the all-important state of Ohio to, at some point, win the job as Speaker of the House. We MUST have solid leadership and Democrats must be ORGANIZED in a non argumentative style committed to even compromise among ourselves while never letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Moreover, we must, I think, mirror the modus operandi of our opposition and that is fill governorships as well as state and local legislatures with our own. Democrats should copy the Republican Party's playbook which depleted Democratic ranks through the gerrymandering of districts thereby filling them with Republican majorities. It was done with little notice or caring by Democrats across the nation. Now, we should, ourselves, stand strong and deny those Republicans in power EVERYTHING they want. Republicans in the numbers minority nationwide have won it all while Democrats slept. Republicans own the governors' seats, the state legislatures and even the courts all across the nation. Worse, they own the federal legislature of both houses of Congress and soon will hold the majority in the Supreme Court because of our nation's temporary insanity electing the least qualified and even a possibly mentally ill Republican candidate to the presidency. It is all hazardous to all of our health. 


Worse, still, Republicans, used nefarious new Jim Crow tactics of voter suppression aimed against those persons who usually vote Democratic. These states that do that must be brought swiftly to justice by any and all legal means necessary even with SCOTUS weakening the Voting Rights Act. We must find a way. Republicans cannot and must not be allowed to get away with these tactics of injustice used against those who do not have the means to fight them. All Democrats in power and of means must do the fighting for our bretherin's rights that they cannot do on their own. Most of all Democrats need to ensure our constituency GETS OUT TO VOTE. Opposing racism and access to economic ascendance is our Party's promise and we should fulfill it in our time. Doing anything less is unacceptable as our nation's democratic survival depends upon it. RESISTANCE to Republican Trumpian crackpot politics of demagoguery is mandatory.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Trump Taps His Race-Baiting Propagandist To Write Inauguration Speech

It just keeps getting better and better .... UGH disgusting. So this is what this nation has become?

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/26/1614612/-Trump-Taps-His-Race-Baiting-Propagandist-To-Write-Inauguration-Speech?detail=email&link_id=5&can_id=ea7a82e12e8e6d519ea471f1107c4381&source=email-why-trump-voters-are-not-welcome-in-my-house-this-holiday&email_referrer=why-trump-voters-are-not-welcome-in-my-house-this-holiday___146631&email_subject=trump-taps-his-race-baiting-propagandist-to-write-inauguration-speech

Praying for Time

"Because of the media, the way the world is perceived is as a place where resources and time are running out. We’re taught that you have to grab what you can before it’s gone. It’s almost as if there isn’t time for compassion. ... No event inspired the song, just life in general,’’ Michael said at the time. “It’s my way of trying to figure out why it’s so hard for people to be good to each other.”-- GEORGE MICHAEL

While discussing “Praying for Time,” in Huffington Post the writer states "Michael’s first single off the album, which included the line “the rich declare themselves poor” and talked of people trying desperately to keep hold of their possessions, Michael expressed his fear that the modern media were making people paranoid of one another, rather than worried about one another." The interview of George Michael articulates some of the most profound thoughts -- linked below -- that present, I believe, apt descriptions of our time. He gives, I think, credible rationales for the sorry state of man and iterates profound truths about our human condition in our time better than I ever could. I urge you to read it.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/george-michael-media_us_586198cbe4b0eb586486fa38?ewro0iivfdxs3v7vi

Monday, December 26, 2016

A Thank You Note to Hillary -- and My Comment

Stuff that Needed to be Said by John Pavlovitz -- see link below
My Comment:
This makes me cry. I am STILL so sad, so sickened, so angry about the object of my hate and disgust that I wish so I could shake off the shackles of this nation's racist chains and leave but in truth there is nowhere for me to go even IF I physically could. This is an exceptional nation? I suspect not at least not now.

I am scared, filled with rage and fear that each day becomes a challenge to endure when I read things like Trump will have 100 judicial appointments to fill and he plans to change the trajectory of the judiciary for at least the amount of time I have on earth. Our cause was SO close; it was SO close I could taste it snatched from my tongue by a poisonous asp. If I personally feel this way I cannot even imagine how Hillary must feel. Her life's dream gone in a nightmarish insane instant by thug, a bully, a malevolent maggot and do overs impossible to attain.

Yes, I thank her and hope she keeps in mind the 3 million more of us who loathe the character of Trump and his success but would have rather loved a win for her!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Happy Hanukah -- on my new keyboard

Yes, I am sending this on my new keyboard my very generous partner gave me for Hanukah.  Apropos to that this is my first post on it and I link it below to a Hanukah song.
I happen to love Jewish music because invariably it is composed in a minor key even when the song is about joyous celebration as this one is.  A minor key has a sadness woven into it and I believe it translates to the difficult and often sad journey the Jewish people have had to take throughout a long and tortured history. 
Although I am not religious I love my people who have endured so much sadness even unto this day.  It is why I support peace in Israel with the Palestinian people who,too, have endured through difficulty.  If I have heart for one I can have heart for the other and for ALL people who suffer.

Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  If you pray for anything pray for peace!



https://youtu.be/XTdcLe0btiY

The Real History Of Hanukkah Is More Complicated Than You Thought

I thought this link below that was on Huffington was so interesting. It gives what I think is a true historical account of the rationale of Hanukah over and above the religious myth that is perpetrated and surrounds ALL religious holidays. It gives one an intellectual perspective and the ability to discern fact from fiction.

One can surely do the same for Christianity and all other religious faiths. Faith means that one must accept stories handed down from generation to generation that have absolutely no proof of their veracity. I cannot do that and it is why though I love my own Jewish culture and its symbols I am a cultural and secular Jew but not a ritualistically religious one.

I cannot accept things without proof simply because one "authority" says one has to. I say no I do not have to. Faith obviates ones quest for truth by alleviating the perpetrator of faith the burden of proving what he says exists because he, of course, cannot prove it.

I link the history around Hanukah which is to me much more fascinating than merely the traditional celebration of the Hanukah story and involves Hellenistic or Greek culture spreading its influence into Jerusalem. It had a profound affect on many Jews of that age much like assimilation has done to Jews in our era. We absorb the culture in which we live, we intermarry and the faith becomes diluted. We can see from this account that is exactly what ultimately the more traditional Jews of that age feared and why they went to war over it with those Jews in their community who took on Greek culture and even its deities. It is, I think, a historically truer and realistic explanation of the holiday celebrated today.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/real-history-of-hanukkah_us_585ea38ae4b0d9a594587fd3

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Barack Obama's remarks at his last White House Hanukkah party are just exceptional

My Comment: The academically excellent President Obama said words below that brought tears to my eyes. Mr. President, there is an emptiness in my soul, a hole in my heart because you are leaving us for a private life and entrusting this presidency to a man without a heart and a body filled with hate. I LOVE you, Mr. President, and will love you until my days end on earth. Thank you for all you and Michele have done, all the abuse you have taken with dignity that your adversaries did not and could not possess. Thank you, Mr. President, for being you!

The President's remarks are below:
Inline image 1
By David Nir -- The Daily Kos

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, starts late this year—not until Dec. 24. (The Jewish holidays, tied to the lunar Hebrew calendar, always seem to be either early or late—never on time.) But on Wednesday, Barack and Michelle Obama hosted their final Hanukkah party at the White House, and the president shared a reflection on the meaning of the holiday with his guests. His words were stunning and brought tears to my eyes.
 
In this harrowing moment, when religious minorities, especially Jews and Muslims, are the open targets of a campaign of hatred instigated by the president-elect, Obama’s message means so much to me, and I hope to you as well. It’s hard to know which parts to excerpt, but these passages moved me greatly:

This is the season that we appreciate the many miracles, large and small, that have graced our lives throughout generations, and to recognize that the most meaningful among them is our freedom. The first chapter of the Hanukkah story was written 22 centuries ago, when rulers banned religious rituals and persecuted Jews who dared to observe their faith. Which is why today we are asked not only to light the menorah, but to proudly display it—to publicize the mitzvah. […]

Everybody in America can understand the spirit of this tradition. Proudly practicing our religion, whatever it might be—and defending the rights of others to do the same—that's our common creed. That's what families from coast to coast confirm when they place their menorah in the window—not to share the candles' glow with just your family, but also with your community and with your neighbors.

The story of Hanukkah, the story of the Jewish people, the story of perseverance—these are one and the same. Elie Wiesel taught us that lesson probably better than just about anybody. In one of his memories of the Holocaust, Elie watched a fellow prisoner trade his daily ration of bread for some simple materials with which to piece together a makeshift menorah. And he wrote that he couldn't believe the sacrifices this man was making to observe the holidays. A stunned Elie asked him, "Hanukkah in Auschwitz?" And the man replied, "Especially in Auschwitz." [...]

Through centuries of exile and persecution, and even the genocide of families like the Wiesels endured, the Hanukkah candles have been kindled. Each wick an answer to the wicked. Each light a signal to the world that yours is an inextinguishable faith.

Jewish leaders from the Maccabees to the Wiesels, to the college students who proudly sing Hebrew songs on campus, reaffirm our belief that light still drives out darkness, and freedom still needs fighters.
Each wick an answer to the wicked. So they have been for two thousand years, and so they will be this year as well.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Trumps on a Plane -- Confronting Ivanka

A passenger was removed from a JetBlue flight after confronting Ivanka Trump, who was on the same flight, with a tirade. My thought as an ardent Democrat emphatically progressive is why waste one's intense protest on something that will do nothing but add to those who support the illness of Trump while getting oneself arrested and removed from the place of protest. In addition to that, the man perpetrating the incident will now have to hire an attorney, pay lots of cash and IF -- I say IF -- he gets off will be relegated to a watch list they I am sure, as I write this, probably have his name on now. There is very little return on the investment one makes to personally confront and protest any of the Trumps.

The goal instead should be to join permanent protests or create organizations of like-minded people and scream that we are MAD AS HELL and are not going to take it anymore and then GET OUT AND VOTE DEMOCRAT like your life depends upon it which it does. That can and should be perfected with legal, nonviolent and intense tactics. Most all else especially violent or aggressive protest works to the detriment of our cause.

The violence perpetrated in 1968 by radicals on the left at the Democratic convention got us exactly nothing and, in fact, did quite the opposite the effects of which we experience to this day. It created the beginnings of a rightwingnut mass movement -- the so called "moral majority" -- and added to Republican ranks by permanently incorporating Dixicrats and other conservatives to elect the uber crook Nixon. That movement has been waxing more extremist in our time allowing heretofore fringe violent right wing malevolent nativists and other neo-Nazi-like elements of the so called Alt Right into their ranks.

Violent outbursts on the left, though I agree with the substance of their protest, will do NOTHING to achieve our goal of ENDING the right wing nativist extremist madness that has gripped our nation by the election of Trump with the potential of ending life on this planet as we know it through climate change or the horror of Trumpinsanity nuclear war.

The politics and presidency of Trump will work against those who were responsible for his incomprehensible election as much as it will affect everyone else who is not a member in good standing of the 1% wealthiest in this nation. Republicans will leave the middle class and the poor ultimately in due time with nothing -- no home, no money, no job, some forced to live on the street with no health insurance and many will die. Our national debt will soar as tax cuts are given to those who should be paying more and the military industrial complex will reap a fortune. The debt will be on the backs of the middle class where it has been for decades. Republicans want, as the billionaire Leona Helmsey termed us, "the little people" to pay taxes while they take it all including our measly Social Security check for which we worked, our access to healthcare and to Medicare or Medicaid for the poor. Pick your poison and Republicons are exactly about doing any or all of that. Confronting Ivanka Trump on an airline will do exactly nothing for our cause!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Beautiful



Things political are devastating me so I'm pulling away from the most destructive politics that I cannot fathom.  If I lived to be 100 I would NEVER have predicted this.  So for those of you who feel as deeply as I do about humane civil human rights and what has happened to destroy such hard fought for change, who care about how your children will navigate what soon will be .... well I won't go there.  A wonderful friend send me the following to make me realize just how beautiful the world is.  We must appreciate it and all we love while we can.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g?rel=0

McDonald's McTrump

Sent to me by an FB friend:

Thoughts from a very good friend of mine, who is a senior loan originator in CA.

'My business is down 90% because of interest rate hikes due to salivating Wall Street traders eager to cash in on Trump's deregulating. When stocks go up (to hedge ostensibly against inflation), then investors take money out of the 10 Year Bond market, which drives interest rates lower. I will need to retrench and strategize in 2017. It will be twice the work.

I think, from all the financial websites that I read daily, that this A-Hole Trump is going to ultimately bring this country down to its knees. His policies strongly allow the rich to 'loot' the system. The poor and medium income people are going to suffer tremendously.

With everything that he is promising, I see that the exact 'opposite' is going to happen. Medical fees will skyrocket, wages will be depressed, and there will be fewer jobs than what Obama created. The environment, education, women's rights, etc. will all suffer.

The real risk is his 'bull in a china shop' mentality in foreign affairs. This asshole will most definitely get the US into a major conflict. It will be MAJOR. He continues to 'double down' with his stupidity.

All the people that voted for this con man will finally see what they've done. It will be too late. This will take 1.5- 2 years to fully manifest. The best options will be to buy gold.

In Israel, just as in all his picks for Cabinet and other posts, he will fuck this up as well. I don't know, however, if there will ever be a 'two state' resolution as the Palestinians continue to trust leaders that lie and cheat (sort of like a bunch of Trumps). They can't even recognize Israel as able to exist. However, Netanyahu is too much of an aggressive hawk when it comes to new settlements.

The main issue with Trump, I feel, is his blind ignorance in international affairs and that you cannot treat country leaders as you would in business transactions. There will be major repercussions against the US. It will not be pretty. We will all suffer.

People today want fast results. I call Trump the "McDonalds President'. He's fast food with no redeeming value; no nutrition. Yet hes' the most marketed. People don't realize that he leads to obesity and health problems.


It's just like Floyd Mayweather, the boxer. He had a reality TV show for a couple of years. He was/is an excellent fighter. However when you ask people, especially millennials, who the 'greatest fighter of all time' was, a majority said that it was Mayweather. They had no memory nor reason to research any other fighters from 20-50 years back. No memory nor desire to eat except what is fed to them.

In this case, we are knocking on the door of WWIII. It's in tandem with Dutarte, Ergodan, what's happening in Italy, and other countries - populism + strongmen. It's a direct comparative to 1937-1938. We're going up shit's creek. It's best to live the next 2-3 years out as best as possible before the meltdown happens."

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

James Comey for prison: warrant he smeared Hillary Clinton with is now public, and it’s a sham -- linked

READ THE LINK BELOW.  IT WILL MAKE YOU SICK. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED AND THIS UTTER TREASONOUS FBI DIRECTOR COMEY SUPPOSEDLY KNOWN FOR HIS ETHICS HAD NONE AS HE SCREWED HILLARY AND THE NATION. 

Sleep well Comey as you take our nation to the brink of disaster with a know nothing narcissist psychopath occupying the most powerful position in the nation arguably the world!


 What could be more treasonous?!

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/james-comey-prison-warrant-used-smear-hillary-clinton-total-crap/510/

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

China Returns U.S. Underwater Drone Taken From South China Sea--How an unfit president-elect responds and why our lives are at risk


China’s seizure of the unmanned underwater vehicle triggered a diplomatic protest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-returns-us-drone_us_5858c3bae4b0b3ddfd8e7ff2

Bloomberg: Trump slammed the Chinese navy’s capture of the vehicle in a message to his 17.4 million Twitter followers.

“China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters -- rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act,” Trump wrote Saturday hours after the Chinese government said it had been in touch with the U.S. military about the incident.

In a follow-up Twitter message, the president-elect said: “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back -- let them keep it!”


My Comment

While Obama was quietly negotiating with China for the release of the drone so as to not escalate the incident further our illustrious president-elect Trump was Twittering away like a kid whose toy was stolen protests "let them keep it" in a his own inimitable snarly way.


We are in deep trouble. The president elect is hold up in Trump tower NYC at taxpayer expense not using the Washington facilities made just for a presidential transition also at taxpayer expense while he keeps the press out because it is a private place doncha know! I wonder why. Answer: He does not want to answer questions from the press. Is this how it will be for four more years or god forbid eight assuming our democracy survives and we survive as a nation along with it ?
He is so ugly in character, so cruel, so mean and so stupid I cannot even breathe when I think how dangerous he is!

How Republics End


Many people are reacting to the rise of Trumpism and nativist movements in Europe by reading history — specifically, the history of the 1930s. And they are right to do so. It takes willful blindness not to see the parallels between the rise of fascism and our current political nightmare.

But the ’30s isn’t the only era with lessons to teach us. Lately I’ve been reading a lot about the ancient world. Initially, I have to admit, I was doing it for entertainment and as a refuge from news that gets worse with each passing day. But I couldn’t help noticing the contemporary resonances of some Roman history — specifically, the tale of how the Roman Republic fell.

Here’s what I learned: Republican institutions don’t protect against tyranny when powerful people start defying political norms. And tyranny, when it comes, can flourish even while maintaining a republican facade.

On the first point: Roman politics involved fierce competition among ambitious men. But for centuries that competition was constrained by some seemingly unbreakable rules. Here’s what Adrian Goldsworthy’s “In the Name of Rome” says: “However important it was for an individual to win fame and add to his and his family’s reputation, this should always be subordinated to the good of the Republic … no disappointed Roman politician sought the aid of a foreign power.”

America used to be like that, with prominent senators declaring that we must stop “partisan politics at the water’s edge.” But now we have a president-elect who openly asked Russia to help smear his opponent, and all indications are that the bulk of his party was and is just fine with that. (A new poll shows that Republican approval of Vladimir Putin has surged even though — or, more likely, precisely because — it has become clear that Russian intervention played an important role in the U.S. election.) Winning domestic political struggles is all that matters, the good of the republic be damned.

And what happens to the republic as a result? Famously, on paper the transformation of Rome from republic to empire never happened. Officially, imperial Rome was still ruled by a Senate that just happened to defer to the emperor, whose title originally just meant “commander,” on everything that mattered. We may not go down exactly the same route — although are we even sure of that? — but the process of destroying democratic substance while preserving forms is already underway.

Consider what just happened in North Carolina. The voters made a clear choice, electing a Democratic governor. The Republican legislature didn’t openly overturn the result — not this time, anyway — but it effectively stripped the governor’s office of power, ensuring that the will of the voters wouldn’t actually matter.

Combine this sort of thing with continuing efforts to disenfranchise or at least discourage voting by minority groups, and you have the potential making of a de facto one-party state: one that maintains the fiction of democracy, but has rigged the game so that the other side can never win.

Why is this happening? I’m not asking why white working-class voters support politicians whose policies will hurt them — I’ll be coming back to that issue in future columns. My question, instead, is why one party’s politicians and officials no longer seem to care about what we used to think were essential American values. And let’s be clear: This is a Republican story, not a case of “both sides do it.”

So what’s driving this story? I don’t think it’s truly ideological. Supposedly free-market politicians are already discovering that crony capitalism is fine as long as it involves the right cronies. It does have to do with class warfare — redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy is a consistent theme of all modern Republican policies. But what directly drives the attack on democracy, I’d argue, is simple careerism on the part of people who are apparatchiks within a system insulated from outside pressures by gerrymandered districts, unshakable partisan loyalty, and lots and lots of plutocratic financial support.

For such people, toeing the party line and defending the party’s rule are all that matters. And if they sometimes seem consumed with rage at anyone who challenges their actions, well, that’s how hacks always respond when called on their hackery.

One thing all of this makes clear is that the sickness of American politics didn’t begin with Donald Trump, any more than the sickness of the Roman Republic began with Caesar. The erosion of democratic foundations has been underway for decades, and there’s no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover.

But if there is any hope of redemption, it will have to begin with a clear recognition of how bad things are. American democracy is very much on the edge.

Monday, December 19, 2016

How the Trump Stole America



By John Pavlovitz
In a land where the states are united, they claim,
in a sky-scraping tower adorned with his name,
lived a terrible, horrible, devious chump,
the bright orange miscreant known as the Trump.

This Trump he was mean, such a mean little man,
with the tiniest heart and two tinier hands,
and a thin set of lips etched in permanent curl,
and a sneer and a scowl and contempt for the world.

He looked down from his perch and he grinned ear to ear,
and he thought, “I could steal the election this year!
It’d be rather simple, it’s so easily won,
I’ll just make them believe that their best days are done!
Yes, I’ll make them believe that it’s all gone to Hell,
and I’ll be Jerk Messiah and their souls they will sell.

And I’ll use lots of words disconnected from truth,
but I’ll say them with style so they won’t ask for proof.
I’ll speak random platitudes, phrases, and such,
They’re so raised on fake news that it won’t matter much!
They won’t question the how to, the what, why, or when,
I will make their America great once again!”

The Trump told them to fear, they should fear he would say,
“They’ve all come for your jobs, they’ll all take them away.
You should fear every Muslim and Mexican too,
every brown, black, and tan one, everyone who votes blue.”

And he fooled all the Christians, he fooled them indeed,
He just trotted out Jesus, that’s all Jesus folk need.
And celebrity preachers they crowned him as king,
Tripping over themselves just to kiss the Trump’s ring.

And he spoke only lies just as if they were true,
Until they believed all of those lies were true too.
He repeated and Tweeted and he blustered and spit,
And he mislead and fibbed—and he just made up sh*t.

And the media laughed but they printed each line,
thinking “He’ll never win, in the end we’ll be fine.”
So they chased every headline, bold typed every claim,
‘Till the fake news and real news they looked just the same.

And the scared folk who listened, they devoured each word,
Yes, they ate it all up every word that they heard,
petrified that their freedom was under attack,
trusting Trump he would take their America back.
from the gays and from ISIS, he’d take it all back,
Take it back from the Democrats, fat cats, and blacks.
And so hook, line, and sinker they all took the bait,
all his lies about making America great.

Now the Pantsuited One she was smart and prepared,
she was brilliant and steady but none of them cared,
no they cared not to see all the work that she’d done,
or the fact that the Trump had not yet done thing one.
They could only shout “Emails!”, yes “Emails!” they’d shout,
because Fox News had told them—and Fox News had clout.
And the Pantsuited One she was slandered no end,
and a lie became truth she could never defend.
And the Trump watched it all go according to plan—
a strong woman eclipsed by an insecure man.

And November the 8th arrived, finally it came,
like a slow-moving storm but it came just the same.
And Tuesday became Wednesday as those days will do,
And the night turned to morning and the nightmare came true,
With millions of non-voters still in their beds,
Yes, the Trump he had done it, just like he had said.

And the Trumpers they trumped, how they trumped when he won,

All the racists and bigots; deplorable ones,
they crawled out from the woodwork, came out to raise Hell,
they came out to be hateful and hurtful as well.
With slurs and with road signs, with spray paint and Tweets,
with death threats to neighbors and taunts on the street.
And the grossest of grossness they hurled on their peers,
while the Trump he said zilch—for the first time in years.

But he Tweeted at Hamilton, he Tweeted the Times,
And he trolled Alec Baldwin a few hundred times,
and he pouted a pout like a petulant kid,
thinking this is what Presidents actually did,
thinking he could still be a perpetual jerk,
terrified to learn he had to actually work,
work for every American, not just for a few,
not just for the white ones—there was much more to do.
He now worked for the Muslims and Mexicans too,
for the brown, black, and tan ones, and the ones who vote blue.
They were all now his bosses, now they all had a say,
and those nasty pantsuited ones were here to stay.
And the Trump he soon realized that he didn’t win,
He had gotten the thing—and the thing now had him.

And it turned out the Trump was a little too late,
for America was already more than quite great,
not because of the sameness, the opposite’s true,
It’s greatness far more than just red, white, and blue,
It’s straight, gay, and female—it’s Gentile and Jew,
It’s Transgender and Christian and Atheist too.
It’s Asians, Caucasians of every kind,
The disabled and abled, the deaf and the blind,
It’s immigrants, Muslims, and brave refugees,
It’s Liberals with bleeding hearts fixed to their sleeves.
And we are all staying, we’re staying right here,
and we’ll be the great bane of the Trump for four years.
And we’ll be twice as loud as the loudness of hate,
be the greatness that makes our America great.
And the Trump’s loudest boasts they won’t ever obscure,
over two million more of us—voted for her.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

A Dangerous Choice for Ambassador to Israel Indeed

The NYTimes editorial board's opinion entitled "A Dangerous Choice for Ambassador to Israel" linked below hit the nail on the head.  Trump's utterly reckless choice of bankruptcy attorney David Friedman as ambassador to Israel is one of significant stupidity.  It will get hundreds, who knows maybe thousands, killed over time further imperiling and relegating the existence of a peaceful Jewish state to never ending war.  Friedman is an extremist of extreme right wing religious zealot and cannot possibly love the Jewish state if he thinks his fanatical policies will wrap a security blanket around it.  His policies will do just the opposite. 

Why do these know nothings chose policies that step on their own toes and break their own feet? What does this Cretan president-elect's  ambassadorial choice for Israel think that Palestinians will welcome policies that (a) kick dirt in their face by relocating the Jewish state capitol from Tel Aviv to contentious Jerusalem and (b) by building more Israeli settlements on the disputed West Bank land?   Does he think Palestinians will welcome these policies with open arms and go quietly into the night closing the door of Israel behind them to relocate to another place from land that has been their home for generations? 

Trump will alienate not only Palestinians but the entire Arab world's most stable and even unstable regimes perhaps even involving the major nuclear-equipped powers.  It is both naive stupidity and gross inhumanity which will do the opposite of generating peace.  It will ensure eternal war to that beleaguered-over-centuries sad land.  David Friedman as the US ambassador to Israel is just another crackpot choice by a crackpot president-elect!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/a-dangerous-choice-for-ambassador-to-israel.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

Friday, December 16, 2016

U.S. Army Returns Tanks to Europe as NATO Eyes Assertive Russia


A recent study concluded that Russia would be capable of overrunning NATO…
nbcnews.com|By NBC News
What Trump has wrought turning a cold shoulder to NATO!  As I said he will be played like the useful idiot for Putin. Champagne corks are popping in Russia with Trump's win.

God help us.  RESIST!!!

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Putin's Useful Idiot

A Facebook Blogger wrote: I'm more concerned with Sweden moving their ballistic missiles closer to the Russian boarder. And Russia moving her tanks and platform launch missiles to the boarders of Sweden and Norway. The three Baltic States preparing for a Russian invasion and being told by the rest of NATO not to count on NATO to help. And let's not forget China flying nuclear capable bombers over our ships in the South China Sea and using their ships following ours around in international waters.

I'm hoping Canada and the UK can step up and help fill some of the void we leave. President Obama was right when he said no other nation was capable of filling our role. Check out the world without us. It's about the world with an isolationist United States.


My Comment:

This gives me a rather altered view of post WWII US foreign policy which I often criticized and still do to an extent but I rethink things as events change. There are reasons for things. This is not a soft and fuzzy world. Of course, I still maintain the most EGREGIOUS US foreign policy blunder in our nation's history was the Republican W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and its destabilization of the entire tinderbox Middle East setting up this so called clash of civilizations the effects of which are so dangerous to our nation, the world and the planet.

 
The potential horrors with this insane dolt Trump as president rearranging the allied configuration since WWII, that is the consequential problem. I can surely see now, although I did not want to see it this way in the past since Vietnam, why some of US foreign policy was and is now necessary until it will be torn apart and fractured when this essence of evil takes the presidency. The US has been and, yes, not always rightfully, a massive check on the almost innate aggression of man. Putin does not give one rat's petuti about Trump nor Tillerson. What he does care about is hegemony and power probably set to invade the Baltic states to regain Russian power since its "Iron Curtin" days. This nation under Trump will do exactly nothing because the Nazi-like extreme nationalist so called "Alt Right" Bannon large part of the Republican Party likes Putin as a white Christian bulwark against their perceived threat of brown Islam and as for Trump he has debts to pay.

They talk about a clash of civilizations and they just may get what they want. Unfortunately, we of progressive goodwill and advocates of democratic humane and peaceful policy will be kicked to the side of the road UNLESS we demonstrate vociferous opposition to this vile unfit humanoid getting set to take the most powerful office in the world and ally himself with one who wants all the useful idiots he can get!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Donald Trump Is Gonna Get Us Killed by Michael Moore

A week has gone by since Donald Trump admitted he's only been to "two or three" of his daily presidential national security briefings. There have been 36 of them since the day he secured enough electoral college votes to be appointed president next Monday when the Electoral College meets.

Most would agree the #1 job of the leader of any country is to keep its people safe. There is no more important meeting every day for the President than the one where he learns what the day's potential threats are to the country. That Trump would find it too cumbersome or too annoying to have to sit through 20 minutes of listening to his top intelligence people tell him who's trying to kill us today, simply boggles the mind.

Of course, our minds have been so boggled so many times in the past year by this foolish man no one seems that surprised or concerned. He can get up at 5 in the morning and send angry, childish tweets about how he's being portrayed on SNL ("Not funny! Unwatchable!"), or belittling the local elected union leader in Indiana, but he doesn't have time to hear about the threats to our national security.

So, my fellow Americans, when the next terrorist attack happens -- and it will happen, we all know that -- and after the tragedy is over, amidst the death and destruction that might have been prevented, you will see Donald Trump acting quickly to blame everyone but himself. He will suspend constitutional rights. He will round up anyone he deems a threat. He will declare war, and his Republican Congress will back him.

And no one will remember that he wasn't paying attention to the growing threat. Wasn't attending the daily national security briefings. Was playing golf instead or meeting with celebrities or staying up til 3am tweeting about how unfair CNN is. He said he didn't need to be briefed. "You know, I think I'm smart. I don't need to hear the same thing over and over each day for eight years." That's what he told Fox News on December 11th when asked why he wasn't attending the security briefings. Don't forget that date and his hubris as we bury the dead next year.

We had a president like him before. He, too, lost the popular vote, a majority of Americans saying they didn't want him in the Oval Office. But his governor/brother and his ex-CIA chief/dad's appointees to the Supreme Court put an end to that, and he was installed as Commander-in-Chief. On August 6, 2001, he was on a month-long vacation at his ranch in Texas. That morning, the White House Counsel handed him his daily national security briefing. He glanced at it, set it aside and then went fishing for the rest of the day. Below is the photo of that moment which I showed the world in "Fahrenheit 9/11". The headline on the security briefing reads: BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE INSIDE U.S. On the top page it tells how bin Laden will do this: with planes. George W. Bush didn't leave the ranch to go back to work for the next four weeks. In the fifth week, bin Laden attacked the US with planes on September 11th.

It's one thing to have a president who was asleep at the wheel. But, my friends, it's a whole other thing to now have a president-elect who REFUSES TO EVEN GET BEHIND THE WHEEL! This utter neglect of duty, a daily snub at the people who work to protect us, the first Commander-in-Chief to literally be AWOL and announcing proudly he isn't going to change -- this, I assure you, is going to get a lot of innocent people killed.

To you, Mr. Trump, I say this: When this next terrorist attack takes place, it is YOU who will be charged by the American people with a gross dereliction of duty. It was YOUR job to pay attention, to protect the country. But you were too busy tweeting and defending Putin and appointing cabinet members to dismantle the government. You didn't have time for the daily national security briefing. Don't think we're going to let you use a modern-day burning of the Reichstag as your excuse to eliminate our civil liberties and our democracy.

We will remember that while the plot to kill Americans was being hatched, your time was consumed by whom you saw as the real threat to America: Alec Baldwin in a wig.

Democratic Party condemnation leaves out myriad critical, countering facts

My Response to the "Jewish Journal's" editorial entitled "Trump and the Obama Legacy." Journal editorial linked here 

http://jewishjournal.org/2016/12/08/editorial-trump-and-the-obama-legacy/

 My response:

May I humbly suggest that your editorial entitled "Trump and the Obama Legacy" is, in large part, both presumptuous and erroneous.

Trump, indeed, won the electoral college (which is, in my opinion, an 18th century anachronism formulated in 1787, when states did not vary in size as they now do), that gave him the presidency. But as you deem the Democratic party an unelectable failure, you fail to recognize or state that Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million -- and counting -- more popular votes than Trump -- indeed, more than President Obama received in 2012 -- and many of those votes were, indeed, white.

I proudly add, as a Jew of Ashkenazi extraction, that 71 percent of Jews voted for Hillary as well. I am even prouder to say that Jews, since voting has been dissected, have always voted majority Democrat. Your analysis, especially in a Jewish newspaper, is skewed at best, as it omits this fact.

Hillary's vote total was the single-largest popular vote swamp by Democrats against a Republican to go on to lose the electoral college in US history. It was even greater than was Al Gore's popular vote lead over Bush.

To me, that means something. Democrats did not "slice and dice" the electorate, but rather went after votes they knew would be cast for them -- by those in the electorate that heretofore in US history had been ignored -- while holding the white progressive vote as well.

As to Republicans retaining state legislatures and governorships, Republicans have done a fantastic job at gerrymandering districts, both on the state and federal level, while they suppress the Democratic minority vote by stunningly nefarious means. If Republicans in these states kept the vote available to more persons of color for longer periods of time, perhaps the outcome would have been different.

You deem the recovery "slow and weak." You decline to acknowledge that Obama inherited an economic mess from Bush, and yet he decreased the unemployment rate by half; saved the auto industry; and for the first time, offered health insurance to insure 20 million people who otherwise would have gone uninsured, and filled emergency rooms. Obama eliminated the preexisting condition that had been a rationale insurance companies used in order to not insure those who needed insurance most. Is the ACA perfect? No, but under a Hillary Clinton administration, it would have been perfected. Now it stands to be, God forbid, repealed -- and I am sure not replaced -- so yet again, people will not be treated, and may consequently die.

To say Democrats thought of white Republicans as the "other" is simply ludicrous. From day one of President Obama's first administration, Republicans met at dinner and were committed to the passage of exactly nothing the president wanted. In other words, if they could not defeat the President by the ballot, they would defeat any and all proposals he might try to pass. The President's entire message, from the beginning of his administration to well into his second administration, was to work with Republicans on initiatives they both might benefit from. His mantra was always "compromise." He would continuously espouse the mechanics of government to be rooted in getting a little, and giving up a little, of what one wanted, in order to craft legislation with which both could live. But no matter which cheek the President turned, Republicans would slap him on the other.

Trump's initial foray into things political began with a racist and ridiculous disparagement of the President as not having been born in the United States, an obvious insult and falsehood Trump was forced to retract much later, during his run for the presidency.

The President has been besmirched by white Republicans time after time. One cannot forget South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson's famous insult, "you lie," directed at Obama during his State of the Union speech.
Never has such rudeness occurred at a State of the Union address given by a white president.

Nor can I forget the President's attempt at racial inclusion convening the so-called "beer summit which involved a black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. going into his own home and being arrested wrongly by a white Cambridge police officer. The president here yet again tried to calm a racially tense situation through discussion.

One can only deduce that no matter what the President did, or however he did it, he would be overruled by a portion of the mostly white electorate, through their representatives who could never accept a black President. Are these the votes you would have wanted the Democratic nominee to pursue?

The fact that white men in the Rust Belt thought Hillary Clinton would destroy their coal and oil jobs was, perhaps, one area that stood better clarification by her, and she should have spent more time in those states doing precisely that. She did not want to eliminate coal and oil jobs entirely, but said that she wanted to transition workers from coal and oil jobs to those more environmentally-friendly, certainly healthier for them (I heard an interview one day on NPR where a coal miner praised G-d for sending Trump to restore coal production. Later in the interview, he incredulously said that both his father and grandfather had died of black lung disease) and thereby, reduce the carbon load on the environment. Who could argue with climate change amelioration? Trump and his minions, that's who.

Ultimately, I believe Hillary's main difficulty to those white men in the Rust Belt was that it was a woman transmitting the message -- and that is too bad. Nothing less than the planet's life is at stake!

From a Canadian Friend: My comment I cry

I cry for the last of the vets of WWII who saved the world and saved my Jewish family from certain death if Nazis won. I cry for my friend a soldier who died in Vietnam before he married and his sister, my best friend, who died later of cancer with no family left. I cry for soldiers today sent to those hell holes, I cry for horrible policies that send them there while those who make policy are warm, safe and never saw war. I cry for their sacrifice for so many they do not know. I cry for what I saw on the news re: Syria ... innocents, women, children, elderly, disabled walking and walking and walking away fleeing from those that want their blood. Unfathomable to me. Russians/Syrians bombed four hospitals....hospitals can you imagine doing that to the sick and doctors who try to help them? And our soon to be fearless leader loves Putin. I just cry because so much is so sad and my efforts to help so weak!
Sent to me from a friend and sent to him from a Canadian friend
> > A Different Christmas Poem
>
> The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
> I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
> My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
> My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
> Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
> Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
>
> The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
> Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
> My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
> Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
> In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
> So slumbered I, perhaps I started to dream.
>
> The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
> But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
>
> Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
> Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
>
> My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
> And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
>
> Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
> a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

> A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
> Perhaps a Trooper, huddled here in the cold.
>
> Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
> Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
>
> "What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
> "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
>
> Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
> You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
>
> For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
> Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
>
> To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
> Then he sighed and he said "It's really all right,
> I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
>
> "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
> That separates you from the darkest of times.
>
> No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
> I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
> My Gramps died in Europe on a day in December."
> Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
> I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
> But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
>
> Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
> The red and the white ... A Canadian flag.
> I can live through the cold and the being alone,
> Away from my family, my house and my home.
> I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
> I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
> I can carry the weight of killing another,
> Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.
> Who stand at the front against any and all,
> To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
>
> "So go back inside," he said, "Harbour no fright,
> Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
> "But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
> "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
> It seems all too little for all that you've done,
> For being away from your wife and your son."
> Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
> "Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
>
> > To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
> To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
> For when we come home, either standing or dead,
> To know you remember we fought and we bled.
> Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
> That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
>
>

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Trifecta

There are three people of great foreign policy importance and power in Trump's presidency who are kissing Putin and he is kissing them back: Trump the president who knows nothing about foreign policy -- Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State (who must be confirmed and probably after bruising questioning will be) and knows nothing about foreign policy and Michael Flynn - National Security Advisor (who does NOT have to be confirmed) and knows nothing about foreign policy. He is, as I have read, a mentally unstable wingnut to boot.

Foreign policy BIG BIG BLUNDER right out of the gate. Before this nincompoop president-elect even took the oath of office he accepted the allegedly congratulatory phone call from Taiwan chilling ... no freezing ... our relationship with one state China who refuses to consider Taiwan a separate nation state and made that as a condition we accept their one state definition of China if the US wants a relationship with mainland China. I suspect we do want a relationship with the second largest economy in the world.

I postulate, as one expert did, what if North Korea rears its ugly head and presents Trump with his first major potentially violent crisis? China is the ONLY state that has diplomatic relations and leverage (other than nuclear) to deal with N. Korea and to whom N. Korea listens if it wants to survive. We have NOTHING to deal with N. Korea, a nuclear armed nation, except with our own nuclear weapons. In ordinary times we might use back door diplomacy with China to talk sense into the often senseless Kim Jong-Un but this is no ordinary time. What would new President Trump who considers himself a genius do now that he has thrown a monkey wrench into the Chinese/US relationship?

And oh yes, another question, why do these three important people have a three way love affair with Putin anyway? Who said follow the money in the Nixon years -- doesn't matter -- follow the money. No, follow the BIG money. Can you say oil, bank loans and arctic drilling?

Monday, December 12, 2016

Greatest Con Ever Sold



Democracy exists by the consent of the governed but balances itself like a fiddler on the roof. It is, I think, especially so, in this nation marked by the size of its land mass and huge numbers of its population. The fact that it has held together this long with many diverse interests vying for power I attribute to the miraculous genius of our Founders.

The Civil War era chaos that threatened to pull the nation apart presented no guarantee the union would survive. The secessionists of the south, at least in the beginning, took the military advantage and the pivotal social construct of slavery, the rationale for which the war was in large part fought, would not to go down with ease. In fact, with the fight to end slavery many whites in the north refused to take up the union cause and there were draft riots in NYC.

Race and racism in these United States has been, was and still is woven into the dark soul of this nation. Clearly, we are NOT a "post racialist society" as the Supreme Court almost laughably, if it were not so serious, used as the rationale to gut the Voting Rights Act which ensured voting rights to millions of persons of color. Literacy tests once a requirement in the south to vote and used against persons of color are now replaced by other Republican voter suppression techniques which serve to do the same and suppress the minority vote. Most assuredly, the election of Donald Trump is evidence that the issue of race has not gone away and Trump was at least smart enough to understand how to use it. One cannot separate racism from the tapestry of this country. It is sadly in the marrow of the nation's bones. The question before us is will we now ever be able to become a post racial society as over time one protection after the next to create a more level playing field is being legally undone by Republicans in both state legislatures and at the federal level.

Trump capitalized on the animus that sat seething in the rust belt and other areas of the nation since the Great Recession of 2007 as jobs are sent by big companies to other nations whose labor costs are significantly lower. He knew a resentment existed, too, among whites that immigrants undocumented and otherwise, persons of color and Muslims fleeing nations on which this nation made war were at the heart of white rage. Trump used that resentment and played unapologetically and charismatically to it.

Trump has no intention, as one can observe now, by his choice of potential cabinet nominees of ever bringing jobs back by levying taxes on companies that send jobs overseas or by taxing the rich. To the contrary the former Democrat Trump turned Republican allies with those Republicans who want to gut social safety nets constructed during FDR's New Deal to ameliorate the devastation of the Great Depression and crafted over the decades to include Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. If safety nets are removed millions of middle class, the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled will die as healthcare becomes even more unaffordable and the oligarchs like Trump and his 1% will care nothing if they do. Our healthcare and, indeed, our retirement will be held hostage to the whims of Wall Street. What the market giveth it can taketh away but Trump's minions are not savvy enough to understand that the capitalist system has great booms and bust flaws intrinsic within it and it cares nothing for the welfare of those who through no fault of their own need help to survive. It is the rationale for government to help but with Trump it will be government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich exactly what induced the Great Recession under Bush.

We are and will continue to be an oligarchy ruled, bought and sold by the 1%. Trump lied to millions of his supporters that the end of government corruption through lobbyists was near and that the he will drain the swamp. By not revealing his taxes he proved he has something to hide as audits are no excuse against tax revelation. Thus, I aver, he IS the swamp and most probably paid no taxes over decades. In fact, Nirvana for the 1% is just beginning as he floods his cabinet with oil magnates, generals and Goldman Sachs retreads. Watch while the anemic but important regulation of Wall Street goes into the ash bin of Trump history. What could possibly go wrong? Elections have consequences and those that voted for Trump will be hurt the most by him.

Trump has lied and still does lie his way into power and used the cruel, dark and hateful forces that have always subliminally and sometimes not so subliminally existed in this nation to his advantage. Shockingly he took the White House. So much had been achieved over so long a period of time for the middle class, the poor, the sick, the elderly and the disabled of this nation but now stands to be erased in a heartbeat unless we the champions of the middle class and the poor of this nation fight for their cause and ours.

Yes, we take democracy for granted but one surely can now see how it can be undone and will, through the insanity of the 2016 Trump election when the most unqualified candidate in our nation's history occupies arguably the most powerful office in the world. All the social good crafted over decades, indeed a century, for the middle class, the elderly, the disabled and the poor will be undone by the greatest con ever sold.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

The Real Moral Majority

NFL players, Brandon Marshall and Nikita Whitlock, have been targeted by ugly racist verbiage written in letters and as graffiti written on the walls of their home. Please know, Mr. Marshall and Mr. Whitlock, as bad as these cruel acts are there are people of ALL ethnic groups who empathize with you and are on your side.

LB Brandon Marshall and Nikita Whitlock, these are disgusting heinous acts that have been directed at you, the innocent. It shows that part of a nation is filled with hypocrites and hate which has been emboldened by the campaign and election of Trump as president. They want to return to an era where this vile speech was spewed continuously and murderous acts committed without consequence.

We will NOT I say NOT return to that era. More of us stand with you LB Brandon Marshall, Nikita Whitlock and others. We WILL NOT abandoned our resistance against racism. Irrespective of Trump's supporters we, the moral majority, stand in support of you!

A GEORGE SONG ENTITLED "SERIOUSLY" SUNG BY LESLIE ODOM, JR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8TCA3fJcs

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Donald Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Ally of Fossil Fuel Industry, to Lead E.P.A.

The fox guarding the chicken coup! Up is down and down is up in rightwing world. Why is it if one can think of a cruel, unscientific and inhumane policy the right wingnuts love it? Follow the money? You bet. Just what Jesus would love -- NOT Sick!
Photo
Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Wednesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, a transition official said, signaling Mr. Trump’s determination to dismantle President Obama’s efforts to counter climate change.
Mr. Pruitt, a Republican, has been a key architect of the legal battle against Mr. Obama’s climate change policies, actions that fit with the president-elect’s comments during the campaign. Mr. Trump has criticized the established science of human-caused global warming as a hoax, vowed to “cancel” the Paris accord committing nearly every nation to taking action to fight climate change, and attacked Mr. Obama’s signature global warming policy, the Clean Power Plan, as a “war on coal.”  [See link]
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/158dabc414af9d89?compose=158dad0ca3f27a5d



LADY GAGA A GEM -- A video worth viewing

Tears stream down my face as Lady Gaga shows again her humanity and kindness while revealing something about herself most do not know. Sometimes all it takes is one person to make one realize there is, indeed, hope for mankind.

Lady Gaga is a gem and a role model for all of us. I urge you to watch the video linked below !


http://www.today.com/video/lady-gaga-talks-about-rape-and-ptsd-encourages-young-people-to-share-kindness-825006147827

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump


Christopher Suprun who wrote the New York Times article entitled above and linked below is a Republican. He stated succinctly and in well-written form exactly what I would say making the case against voting for Donald Trump if one were an elector. His thoughts are bipartisan. I will not reiterate those reasons as one can read them in his opinion.

It has been clear to me since Trump's staged ride down the escalator in Trump Tower announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, and in the days promoting his campaign that this man Donald J. Trump is as far away from possessing the qualifications necessary to run a nation of 350 million people as would be a Barnum and Bailey clown. As president he will pose a clear and present danger to not only our nation but, indeed, the world by his lack of intellect and curiosity about it. If one cannot see that one is truly myopic as his behavior has made those facts crystal clear for all to see. 


Franklin Roosevelt In his 1941 "Four Freedoms" State of the Union address stated the fourth freedom was the freedom from fear. I have never in my many years observing the political scene felt a sense of dread and fear at a man this unqualified who will assume arguably the most powerful office in the world. There is a sense of incredulity and terror at what this nation has done. If one does not care about one's life and the lives of succeeding generations placed at risk by the eternally confounding Trump as president then there is nothing more I could say to change one's mind. Read Mr. Suprun's article and then ask God to help us, the only world and the only planet in which we live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html?_r=0

Friday, December 02, 2016

Donald Trump Speaks To Taiwan’s President, Reversing Decades Of U.S. Policy--HUGE BLUNDER!

This is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE foreign policy blunder and he is not even sworn in yet! The Department of State must be having heart attacks.

This chutzpah has not happened in 37 years. The US treads CAREFULLY where Taiwan is concerned so as not to vex the BIGGEST nuclear power beside the US, China. China does not even admit Taiwan exists. See link below.
It is possible this lummox is SO stupid and SO unqualified that he got someone like John Bolton to suggest he call Taiwan without him knowing this was SICKENINGLY awful -- lead to nuclear war type awful.

This is the idiot you bought, America, the world's GREATEST CON just like Romney said except now Romney got conned. Romney got played and will never be secretary of state! What a joke except the joke is on us!

Anyone know where can I get a good bomb shelter?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-calls-taiwan_us_5841f96be4b017f37fe4bcae

SUPPORT COVENANT HOUSE PROTECTING LGBT YOUTH -- MY COMMENT


Quoting the president of Covenant House:  "What we've learned during out 45 years of caring for homeless kids is that nearly 40% of these young people identify as LGBTQ. That's because "coming out" often means getting kicked out." - Kevin Ryan, President of Covenant House
Covenant House is a nonprofit charity serving homeless youth with a network of shelters across the Americas.
covenanthouse.org
Not affiliated with Facebook

My Comment:

Parents who kick their own child out for something that is biologically predetermined possibly hormonal in the first few weeks of pregnancy is just plain ugly. I have to believe it is out of parental ignorance and religious dogma not out of intrinsic evil of the parents who do that.

I am Jewish. I turned my back on it and religion in general after thinking, in part, about the devastating passages in Leviticus from the Old Testament which my own people crafted 5000 years ago. It haunts, devastates and crushes LGBT youth even to this day. Fundamentalists have chosen the OT over the NT to justify their hate of LGBT people even if it is their own children and even though Jesus, whom they call god's son, said absolutely nothing about homosexuality. This Levitical OT Biblical passage and code has ruined lives, caused suicides and even murders. I was just plain angry.

Judaism, however, and some sects of Protestant (Unitarian, Congregationalist and others) change as the culture changes and advancements in science show in this case a biological link to one's sexual orientation perhaps even a genetic chromosomal link at conception.

It is sad that these passages in Leviticus have caused so much pain to LGBT youth but the progressive change in some religious sects such as Reform and even some Conservative Judaism is testament to man's ability to adapt as science and LGBT's own youth clarifies that they felt homosexual for as long as their memory clarifies it.

I would say it gets better BUT then there is Trump who marries his campaign to the Bible, which I suspect he does not read nor believe, appealing to Fundamentalists to get their votes. Trump has encouraged regressive hate yet again as hate crimes against gays and other minorities are, of course, up.

We must resist, we must persevere and work hard to electorally overthrow a mean, cruel and regressive Republican controlled Congress led by its mean, cruel, and regressive president who not only had three marriages (something Jesus would not have sanctioned) but has been unfaithful to all those to whom he was married! Can you spell hypocrite? My motto: onward!

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Democracy Now

Listen to education experts talk about Trump's nomination of "Public Enemy No. 1" as Education Secretary Betty deVos the most unqualified person to occupy this seat. She is a wingnut religious fanatic whose sole purpose is to eradicate the public school system as we know it and replace it with for profit charter schools and vouchers, a direct threat to public education supporting her own world wingnut religious view.

She is yet another billionaire whose husband is the founder of Amway and whose brother is Eric Prince the founder of the mercenary army Blackwater accused of many war crimes in Iraq.

If you want REAL news go to Democracy Now online (see link below) where you will get unfiltered views which is a far cry from our corporate news universally skewed to the right broadcasts!

https://www.democracynow.org/

Bribery at Carrier Swamp -- It's a Brave New World

Trump's so called jobs saving effort convincing Carrier Air Conditioning not to ship its American jobs to Mexico is a sham. Yes, jobs were saved as Carrier says it will not move BUT at what expense? Trump achieved the agreement at the expense of the Indiana taxpayer when Vice-President Elect Pence remaining as governor of Indiana until the January swear-in saw to it that "Indiana taxpayers will pay $700,000 a year and Pence will approve the expenditure on the 13th. It does not need to go through any review or voting process." [citation unknown.] It is essentially a bribe using state taxpayer money so Carrier would not relocate from the US to Mexico. Where is Trump's fabulous business negotiating skill and promise NOT to use taxpayer money but rather to make the corporation pay? It's shocking -- NOT!

Trump said he was going to drain the swamp but, as I have said repeatedly, he IS the swamp. He said he was going to make companies that take their jobs overseas pay a hefty tax when they want to sell their goods back into the US and screamed against the DC legislators' swamp when it uses taxpayer money written into one bill or another as a bribe for corporations to get what they want but that is EXACTLY what he did this time at Indiana taxpayer expense. If a Democrat did that the uproar would be cacophonous! Can you spell LIAR? So what else is new? Trump and his minions lie by the carload.

Will Nancy Pelosi, the newly re-elected Speaker of the House and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer do something so that we in the progressive majority of the nation are not crushed by the Republican national minority which has sought power and gotten it through the gerrymandering of state districts and suppression of minority votes especially black and Hispanic votes? Persons of color should vote no matter what obstacles unethical Republicans put in their path. That is easy for me to say but it must be done, in truth, to save what remains of a democratic middle and working class nation. Democratic leadership should ensure it be done. Democrats loudly and unbowed must hold Republican feet to the fire!

The Democratic National Committee and others who care about justice should help minorities vote if the hardship is too great for one to bear and bring all the power Leader Pelosi's and Senate Minority Leader Schumer's Democrats may have to bear (1) to elect Democrats to both federal and state offices (2) to scream loudly and clearly for investigation of soon-to-be President Trump's Constitutional Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) violation that his massive foreign business holdings incur (3) implore the Democratic National Committee to do what it can to help Democrats vote upending Republican vile, nefarious and unethical voter suppression of persons of color in both state and federal elections.

Trump is doing what he said he never would and that is placing in high cabinet positions the lap dogs of Wall Street most especially the oft hated by Trump, Goldman Sachs. I am SO surprised -- NOT! If Democrats held even one tier of Congressional power Republicans and Trump would NEVER be allowed to do what they are starting now to do even before Trump is sworn in. The House under the contemptible Republican say one thing but do another Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refuses to allow investigations into Trump's massive conflicts of interest his national and most especially problematic his international holdings present. Chafetz held House hearings galore into everything Hillary which went nowhere but cost the taxpayer MILLIONS! Surely, the obviousness of Trump's flouting Constitutional law demands scrupulous investigation. If this doesn't then nothing does.

Where is the public outrage at Carrier Swamp? Welcome to Brave New World!

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...