HOPE

Hope!!!   YES, THIS IS BIG HOPE. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS FILLED WITH HISPANICS, PERSONS OF COLOR, LGBT, THE DISABLED AND MANY MORE. MOREOVER. PEREZ PUT KEITH ELLISON IN AS DEPUTY CHAIR....HE IS MUSLIM. WE ARE GOING TO UNITE ALL MINORITIES AND NEVER TAKE OUR EYE OFF THE BALL AGAIN. WE WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT PAY ATTENTION AND DO NOT VOTE. WHEN HISPANICS, PERSONS OF COLOR, MUSLIMS, THE ELDERLY AND THE DISABLED VOTE WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED. THIS IS A GOOD DAY AND MY SUN IS SHINING THROUGH THE CLOUDS!!!!

Tom Perez Elected Democratic National Committee Chair

The former labor secretary was backed by top Obama administration figures.

huffingtonpost.com|By Zach Carter

MORE HOPE!

Dems Win Special Election, Hold on to Delaware State Senate

Democrats now have control of the Delaware state Senate!!!!

By Associated Press and David Chang

TODAY IN DELAWARE RACHEL TALKED ABOUT AN IMPORTANT RACE TO SEE WHICH WAY THE DELAWARE LEGISLATURE WILL GO. ONE VOTE LOST WOULD HAVE MEANT A WIN FOR REPUBLICANS IN A STATE LIKE DELAWARE WHERE VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WORKED TO GET THIS DEMOCRAT SEATED. GUESS WHAT? SHE WON!!!THAT MEANS SOMETHING AS SMALL AS IT MAY SEEM TODAY IS BIG.

TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES ARE HATED NOW AND THOSE WHO SUPPORTED HIM HAVE BUYER'S REMORSE. HIS TIME IN THAT OFFICE IS LIMITED. SUPPORT DEMOCRATS ALL ACROSS THE NATION. IF YOU DON'T YOU SEE WHAT LIES AHEAD -- SICKNESS, WAR, DEATH, CORRUPTION AND A REPUBLICON PARTY THAT DOES NOT GIVE A RAT'S PETUTI ABOUT YOU!! RESIST AND GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE IN 2017 -- YES I SAID 2017 BECAUSE MANY ARE UP FOR REELECTION. SHOW THEM WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND WHO THIS NATION TRULY IS! ONWARD TO 2018 MIDTERMS AND 2020.  WE ARE TAKING BACK THE HOUSE, THE SENATE AND THE PRESIDENCY.  TRUMP'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED -- ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dems-win-special-election-hold-to-delaware-state-senate/2017/02/25/d24c896a-fbd6-11e6-aa1e-5f735ee31334_story.html?utm_term=.cdd4a289aa20

RESIST in Our Time -- Important please read

My Comment: The post below entitled, "Dark Venting," by Leanne Coffman which speaks of the similarity between Trump and the Holocaust. I think it correct.  I would, though, point to our huge organization and resistance all over the nation and the world against this Trumpian madness that has infected our country.  All that Ms. Coffman says may be true.  We MUST, nonetheless, not give up and try to oppose Trump. Many more are on our side and we should not lose sight of that fact. 

I am a Jew and the storm cloud of the Holocaust hovers over me BUT Jews of the Holocaust went to their deaths, for the most part, like lambs to the slaughter. Except for the Warsaw Ghetto there were few who resisted. I ask always why? If one is surely going to one's death what is lost by fighting and trying to defend ourselves?  Answer: Nothing and so we must do so in our time and RESIST by any legal means necessary!
 
This essay was shared by, Tom Degan, a Facebook friend.  His political ally, Leanne Coffman, A Jewish woman, wrote it and sent it to him.  It is called "Dark Venting."  I urge you to take the time to read it and think on my Comment above.

Dark Venting by Leanne Coffman

A Jewish friend wisely pointed out to me that I/we should not be too cavalier in making comparisons with the Hitler era to that of Trump now. This week, another friend, who is a German citizen, and I had a conversation about the type of government and societal conditions that existed during the 1920-1940s. Both were correct in that we are not seeing a mass extermination of a race and/or religion of people so we should not equate anything of the Holocaust to present events because that would be quite insensitive.

However, I still find the dictators of that era and the white nationalists who follow Trump similar.  I am concerned and for these reasons:

1) Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler, were keen on blaming liberals, immigrants and minorities for societal ills.

2) They despised any in the press that were honest or against them and prevented them from freely speaking.

3) The charismatic, narcissistic leader, Trump, whose speech is populist bombastic adds to that image. Mussolini said, “Italy wants peace and quiet, work and calm. I will give these things with love if possible and with force if necessary.” Trump essentially paraphrases that. A dictator wants to rule and does so if need be by force. I place Trump in the role of dictator-wanna-be, not because he seems to actually be smart enough to figure out its complexities but because his narcissism seeks to be fed and he has surrounded himself with people from a right wing extremist group, who are about white nationalism that rules by force and lies, but not through diplomatic compromise.

4) The callousness of a significant percent of our electorate is hideous. I see a lot here in the rust belt where care for society is met with hatred, disgust and sometimes threats by Trumpian followers.

5) Additionally -- knowing that a person such as Bannon is at the right hand of Trump, along with others who share similar ugly views, is not comforting to me. Bannon has been quoted as saying that he comes to "destroy" aspects of our government and I truly believe he means it. His brand of racism and hatred have no business shaping our policies or whispering in the US President's ear.

This cannot end well. I honestly do believe that martial law is not far behind. In fact, I could imagine that martial law and/or extreme civil unrest is only months away.

I can also imagine people being destroyed for speaking the truth, either professionally or personally, through threats or real actions by this government and/or the groups who align with Trump.

Fear of reprisal will most certainly be a tool used by this administration if this continues.

There will never be a period in time that compares to the horrors of the Holocaust but I do believe millions will be harmed here and around the world by this presidency, from loss of healthcare (which will impact the poor and fragile the most) to environmental harm that will impact the planet.  Our people will lose their rights and their freedoms.  Potential wars and civil unrest will become the norm.

We will never recover from this in our lifetimes because, I believe, it takes longer to rebuild than to destroy.

Our global reputation has been damaged. Even if we elect someone else in four years that is markedly different, the world knows there is a significant percentage of Americans who align with at least some of Trump's policies. Racism in our country will not diminish in four years and we have shown its ugliness to the world.  

The environmental losses from climate change and the healthcare onslaught will cost at least some Americans the quality of their lives and could result in their untimely deaths.  The refugees we could be saving will perish due to our callousness and immigrants' lives will be destroyed by the Trumpian roundup crackpot insanity.  Those things are realities from which we may not recover.  No new election will bring back those lives.

The America I loved is not dead, but her pulse is weak. I will fight for her life as I have means to do so but I'm well aware that neither I nor anyone reading this may see a full recovery in our time.

The Beat Goes On -- Anti-semitism in my time

Anti-Semitic acts are not new to me. Throughout my life I have experienced them often. I add to the veracity of those who encounter this hate and are voicing their hurt and anger today. I empathize with other minorities who are now suffering from the bastardization of an allegedly democratic Trump presidency. It is no coincidence that hate crimes across the nation are significantly higher. Our complaints about Anti-Semitism are real as it simmers under mankind's historical surface rearing its ugliness, in our time, when social, cultural and historical events dictate. We are able to even wax predictive of its emergence.

I remember well the experiences of this, the longest hatred, throughout my life. Sometimes I fought back and other times I did not want to get into an emotionally-charged blood-pressuring raising event. Now, I would not hesitate to defend myself and my people, the DNA of whom I share. 

​​Some examples:

When we first moved into our home I played with children in my neighborhood. At the age of about 8 one girl with whom I was playing told me Jews were Christ killers. I stood incredulous, did not know what she meant nor how to defend myself against an attack which I had never heard but knew then ​I was innocent. It was explained to her by another older girl in the neighborhood that the Jews did not kill Christ and that the Romans did. That, what should ha​ve been ​​an unnecessary explanation mantra, would be repeated by me again like a nursery rhyme with a bad ending I had learned. At​ ​​​eight years old I had to begin thinking about a 2000 year-old hatred that the mind of a child could not comprehend.

Another girl in third grade told me the same thing. Equipped with my new retort, that the Romans did it, we verbally sparred. The teacher refereed the dispute but was not, I thought, as vociferously against the girl who levied the accusation. It was, after all, the 1950's when we did not talk about such things. This is an era in which Trump and his minions ​would like to return to "make America great again.” One will pardon me if I think it was not so great then.

​A new German girl enrolled in my elementary school. We sat together in the lunchroom. When she saw my Jewish star I wore around my neck, she picked it up off my chest, scowled angrily and threw it back down. I sat silent​​ly.

In my workplace some women were discussing what they bought and one said that she "Jewed" a guy down to get the best price reflecting the stereotype of Jews and money. ​It felt as if she shot an arrow into the bulls eye of my heart​ but I said nothing​.​
​​
The worst though, by far, was a verbal exchange with an older woman with whom I worked as we discussed the 1978 television mini-series "Holocaust." She said and I quote "Well that's what you get for killing one of your own." She meant, of course, ​​the killing of Chris​t, who was after all, a Jew, was justification for the Holocaust. ​​I will never forget that.

One hears t​hose things ​repeated by anti-Semites today. After 2000 years the mantra of the responsibility for deicide STILL haunts the Jew. I believe that accusation above any other explains​ the etiology of anti-Semitism's spread even in our time and has been justification for all the other stereotype​s ​with ​​which Jews have been tainted throughout centuries. ​As Jews dispersed from the Middle East 2000 years ago the specter of hate for the Jew morphed into the culture within the area Jews immigrated and was subject to the trajectory of its history.

Jews never do well when the government in which they live is extremist Fascist right nor do they prosper in a nation that is extremist Communist left. Jews do much better, as I aver ​most others do, in civil libertarian democracies where religion is separate from the state. The truth of this should register in the Jewish mind.

When I was a youth a country club near me was off limits to Jews. Today it is not but the social sickness of anti-Semitism is, like a polio virus, still around. If one does not inoculate oneself from its infection the consequential horror of it will, one can be sure, result. ​To stay silent today is not an option and there are 6 million reasons why it should never be.​ The beat of anti-Semitism goes on even reaching the halls of power in the radical so called "Alt Right​nativism of Trump's base ​stretching ​e​ven into the White House itself. Why am I am NOT surprised that the beat goes on and that it never seems to stop? 

Anti-Semitism is, indeed, the longest hatred stretching over continents. When will it ever end?

More Bomb Threats Close Jewish Community Centers Across The Nation

My comment: There are no words!! Trump has unleashed the wind and I HOPE will reap the whirlwind! Hosea 8:7 "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."

 America, this is whom you put into office -- a right wingnut fruitcake. Trump can declare all he wants that he loves the Jews -- that is NOT what the politicos with whom he surrounds himself say. Bannon is an antisemite you can READ what he says and he has the president's ear. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THIS PILLAR OF MENDACITY LIES. HE IS AS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE ANTISEMITIC ACTS AS IF HE DID THEM HIMSELF BECAUSE HE DID THROUGH HIS VIOLENT SPEECH AND THROUGH THOSE TO WHOM HE ENTRUSTS POWER. HE IS A BIG TIME ANTISEMITE AND I DO NOT CARE THAT HIS DAUGHTER CONVERTED AND HIS SON IN LAW IS JEWISH BECAUSE DONALD J. TRUMP DOES NOT CARE. HE CARES ABOUT HIMSELF AND WOULD SELL HIS MOTHER'S EYEBALLS FOR CASH! THAT IS HIS BIG CON. AMERICA, YOU'VE BEEN HAD!

“I’ve never seen a string of attacks like this that are targeting the same kind of institution in the same kind of way. This is new.”

By Matt Ferner

Jewish Community Centers were shaken by another wave of bomb threats, forcing evacuations in 10 states Monday.

Eleven Jewish Community Centers received threatening calls Monday, said Marla Cohen, communications manager for JCCA, the Jewish Community Center Association.

Incidents were reported at Jewish Community Centers in St. Paul, Minnesota; Buffalo and Amherst, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Houston; Cleveland, Ohio; Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin; Nashville; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tampa, Florida; and Chicago.

Law enforcement officials were investigating the threats and, as of late Monday, centers were being reopened after explosive devices were not found.

For some of these organizations, it was not the first threat made in recent weeks. There have now been at least 67 incidents at 56 Jewish Community Centers in 27 states and one Canadian province since the start of 2017, Cohen told The Huffington Post.

Monday’s incidents are part a sharp rise in threats made against JCCs around the nation since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, which was frequently criticized for winking at white nationalists and not forcefully condemning hate speech and extremism.

The far-right has become emboldened under Trump, and while the number of Americans who directly support hardened hate groups remains far lower than in earlier decades, the number of hate groups in America is rising, according to a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate and extremism around the nation.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at SPLC, said that this series of bomb threats since the new year is “unprecedented.”

“I’ve been working at SPLC since 1999. I’ve never seen a string of attacks like this that are targeting the same kind of institution in the same kind of way. This is new,” Beirich said.

She added that it remains unclear who is making these threats, if it’s one person or more, but it has rattled communities around the U.S.

“This threatens an entire community. It’s very scary,” Beirich said. “You’re terrorizing whole families and children. There are usually day care centers that serve an entire population in the area. These threats can make it impossible for those communities to function normally.”

Anti-Semitic hate crimes comprise the largest portion of religiously motivated attacks in the United States. But Trump has yet to address the issue. In news conferences last week, the president had multiple opportunities to address concerns over rising anti-Semitism, but each time he either downplayed or denied the rise. When a Jewish reporter asked Trump explicitly about the recent spike in bomb threats against JCCs, Trump cut him off, told him to sit down and told the reporter his question wasn’t fair and claimed to be the “least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”

Deputy White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters didn’t specifically address anti-Semitism, but did say in response to the latest bomb threats Monday, “Hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the promise of individual freedom,” adding Trump has “made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable.”

The Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply disturbed” by the latest wave of bomb threats this week and issued bomb threat guidance for all Jewish institutions.

“We are confident that JCCs around the country are taking the necessary security protections, and that law enforcement officials are making their investigation of these threats a high priority,” said ADL Chief Executive Jonathan A. Greenblatt in a statement.

The FBI and Department of Justice have said they are “investigating possible civil rights violations in connection with the threats” to JCCs.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with the fact that a JCC in Cleveland was also threatened Monday.

Russian Roulette??? Russian Ambassador To UN Dies Suddenly In New York

What's with the UN ambassador for Russia dying "suddenly a day before his birthday and why have I heard no condolences from Putin?  Just askin!

Vitaly Churkin would have turned 65 tomorrow

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died suddenly at work in New York on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry gave no details on the circumstances of his death but offered condolences to his relatives and said the diplomat had died one day before his 65th birthday.

“The outstanding Russian diplomat passed away at his work post,” it said.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general’s office, said: “He has been such a regular presence here that I am actually quite stunned. Our thoughts go to his family, to his friends and to his government.”

Churkin was a pugnacious defender of Russian policy, notably its intensive bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo last year to crush rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

When then-U.S. envoy to the U.N. Samantha Power accused Syria, Russia and Iran last year of bearing responsibility for atrocities there, Churkin said she was acting like Mother Teresa and forgetting her own country’s track record in the Middle East.

The Lady Plumber -- Scroll down it all to know what one person can do and endure

THE LADY PLUMBER

You wonder what criteria is used to select people for the 'nobel' peace prize. . Remember this lady? WHAT A WOMAN   Irena Sender Irena Sendlerowa Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98) Warsaw ,  Poland >  During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the  Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. Ultimately, she was caught, and the Nazis broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem  in Israel as one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations[30][31] and a tree was planted in her honor at the entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous.[32] However, there was no further public recognition of her wartime resistance and humanitarian work until after the end of communist rule in Poland. The story was suppressed by the Communist Government. In 1991, Sendler was made an honorary citizen of Israel.[33] On 12 June 1996, she was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.[34][35] She received a higher version of this award, the Commander's Cross with Star, on 7 November 2001.[36] Nevertheless, Irena Sendler's achievements remained largely unknown to the world until 1999, when students at a high school in Uniontown, Kansas, along with their teacher Norman Conard, produced a play based on their research into her life story, which they called Life in a Jar. It was a surprising success, staged over 200 times in the US and abroad, and significantly contributed to publicising Sendler's history worldwide.[37] In March 2002, B’nai Jehudah Temple of Kansas City presented Sendler, Conard and the students who produced the play with its annual award “for contributions made to saving the world” (Tikkun Olam Award).[38] The play was adapted for television as The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009), directed by John Kent Harrison, in which Sendler was portrayed by actress Anna Paquin.[39][40][41] In 2003, Pope John Paul II sent Sendler a personal letter praising her wartime efforts.[42][43] On 10 November 2003, she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian decoration,[44] and the Polish-American award, the Jan Karski Award "For Courage and Heart", given by the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington, D.C.[45] In 2006, Polish NGOs Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej and Stowarzyszenie Dzieci Holocaustu, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Life in a Jar Foundation established the "Irena Sendler's Award: For Repairing the World" (pl:Nagroda imienia Ireny Sendlerowej „Za naprawianie świata”), awarded to Polish and American teachers.[46][47] The Life in a Jar Foundation is a foundation dedicated to promoting the attitude and message of Irena Sendler.[47] In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.[48][30][49][50] On 14 March 2007, Sendler was honoured by the Polish Senate,[51] and a year later, on 30 July, by the American Congress.[52] On 11 April 2007, she received the Order of the Smile; at that time she was the oldest recipient of the award.[53] In 2007 she became an honorary citizen of the cities of Warsaw and Tarczyn.[citation needed] On the occasion of the Order of the Smile, award she mentioned that the award from children is among her favorite ones, along with the Righteous among the Nations award and the letter from the Pope.[54] . It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, In memory of the six million Jews, 10 million Ukrainians, 6 million Russians, 1 million Byelorusyns, 1 million Baltics, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred. Now, more than ever, with  Iran and others claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth', it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain. Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along.

A Cancer on This Presidency

The most mind bending, mind numbing and monumental cabinet incredulity Republicans voted to fill for the EPA slot is Scott Pruitt, a foe of the very Environmental Protection Agency he is going to run but wants to eliminate. In his former post as Attorney General of Oklahoma he sued the EPA 14 times because of its regulations of fossil fuels and other pollutants. The nerve of the EPA to want to monitor these climate destroying corporate misfits and where they want to spew and dump the poisonous waste they create. So what that these corporate Cretans want to dump their waste into ground water, rivers, and streams that are the sources of drinking water for millions.

To want to abolish the EPA created by Republican Richard Nixon in 1970 and return this nation to one big Love Canal swamp makes my head explode. I ask again do not these corporate criminals have children, do not these science denying misfits have grandchildren, do not these know nothings have friends whom they do not want to see poisoned?  Ruining the Environmental Protection Agency by eliminating regulations for companies that belch poisonous pollutants into the air and water results in the genetic damage of life. They are responsible for the killing illnesses of their byproducts? I thought they were in favor of fetal life but then again what is the "small" cost damaging the stuff of life when a fuel company can make billions while their families enjoy chugging down expensive chemo-therapeutic cancer drugs.

Does Trump not even care about his own progeny? Trump Tower is not going to protect Trump or his family. Mar a Largo, his so called winter White House, someday (maybe not that far into the future,) will be under water from the effects of climate change. I suppose he thinks he will be dead by that time and he will not care. What does one have children for if not to pass on something better to them and their descendants? I sometimes have regretted not having children but, in truth, now I know I made the right choice. I hand this nation riddled with corporate unregulated mayhem to others who will have to deal with our nation's crudeness, inhumanity, mendacity and stupidity. I wash my hands of the worry about that. Maybe my hands will be the only things washed clean and then again maybe not!

Yes, down is up and up is down in Trumpworld. What a fabulous idea returning to the radiation poisoning days of the Meryl Streep film "Silkwood" or to a nuclear power explosive risk reflected by Jane Fonda in the film "China Syndrome." Trump would do well to read Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything." Too bad our president does not read. Maybe one can get Klein's book in picture-book form.

It is an Alice in Wonderland world of the 1950's to which Trump wants to return to Make America Great Again -- NOT. As John Dean of Watergate fame said of Nixon: "There is a cancer on this presidency." I say there is a malignant Stage 4 cancer on the Trump presidency. He must be taken down by any legal means necessary and quickly if one wants life on this planet to not perish from this earth.

Transcript Please

Remember Mr. Mendacity Trump lying his posterior off about Obama's birth certificate? Well, I ask where is his Wharton or U of Penn transcript proving he, in fact, graduated from there and claims to have graduated first in his class. Where is the proof of not only graduation from Wharton and U of Penn but also his first in his class standing?

I suspect his class standing is NOT superior at all IF he even graduated. Show me his transcripts! Cut and paste this question on either your blog or email and get this question answered. If it is true that he graduated Wharton and did so first in his class as he says then I will accept the proof but I want the proof first!

Show us the money -- the Russian connection:

If I hear our orange faced know nothing president blame Hillary Clinton for the Flynn, his own self-inflicted probably very illegal national security and other breaches I may have to find that building from which to jump! Some quotes Trump should read IF he can read at all. Shakespeare: "The fault dear Brutus is not in the stars but in ourselves." President Harry Truman: "The Buck Stops Here" meaning at the president's desk. It is preposterous how many avenues of blame the nation has been offered by this inept Commandant (yes, I mean Commandant) in Chief for the Flynn scandalous episode but this president will keep on preposterously blaming Hillary Clinton for everything but the proverbial sink.

The Flynn firing OR in the alternative resignation, we know not which because Trump and his administration tell us both, indicates this scandal probably runs deep. One man cannot take the blame for a Russian liaison both before the presidential election and after it without others higher in the chain of command giving him the green light to do it. We need some meat on the so far evidence thin bone. Those agencies that are investigating this Herculean swamp need to provide the nation something -- even if it is small -- to prove what we all know is probably true before Trump replaces those in the intelligence agencies with his own cronies who will bastardize that, Illusive word in in the Trumpian dictionary -- TRUTH. I believe Donald Trump during his campaign and even long before it had massive financial involvement with Russia so much so that the word Russian blackmail of Trump comes up so frequently in the investigation.

Moreover, Trump's campaign management, including probably Trump himself, had nefarious communication with an adversary of this nation prior to the election prodding it to hack into and find DNC emails to use against Hillary Clinton. I believe our intelligence agencies and even those of our allies know the truth but the investigation of its tentacles reach so far and wide it will take an army slogging through an Amazonian jungle of information to get it.

Trump's tax returns, which can and, I believe, have been sought by a FISA court could show much of what Trump needs to hide and why Trump refuses to release them. The information in them probably would show the never ending conflicts of interest and perhaps even a plethora of illegalities by this amoral entity whom this nation so unintelligently elected president. It appears Russia has something on Trump; probably financial as Russia holds a massive amount of his debt. They also probably know and have proof of other aspects of his extra curricula life when he was in Russia which we need NOT know except that most probably can guess what the smarmy details of it might be. We do know, by Putin's own admission, that Russia has the best prostitutes.

There is an avalanche of detail to know about the Trump/Putin connection from Trump's conflicts of business interest in Russia to the Russian hacking of a US election to skew the vote toward Trump and Trump's attempt at subverting and clandestinely changing Obama sanction policies as payback for the Russian election hacking of DNC computers to help Trump. Until we see some actual documented proof it is simply speculative through the NYT, the Washington Post and other professional news services.

The electorate needs at least some authoritative proof so we can see how much our safety and security have been compromised and why our intelligence sector AND even foreign intelligence sectors do not trust this president will not take the Russian treasonous express to tell his pal Putin what he knows. The FBI, the CIA and National Security have some of the proof on the Trump/Putin love affair which monumentally upset them in the first place. In the end I believe it is pay for play at its worst. Putin hands Trump the election and Trump by eviscerating sanctions and NATO gives Putin part of his empire back. I would believe what my own eyes see. Therefore LET'S SEE at least SOME OF THAT PROOF. Yes, show us the money!

Midnight

The Trump 45 and Bush 43 presidential disasters are what happen when an administration is installed that eschews facts and dismisses science. Facts and science rule every time. Trump's so far short time in the White House has been comprised of a house of lies, an eschewing of intellect, an administration of cruelty and placing in positions of immense power crackpots who are not intellectually capable of handling the jobs for which they were assigned. It boils down to the fact said of Trump when he began his ridiculous run for the presidency: Trump is UNFIT and WHOLLY UNQUALIFIED for this office. Each scandal and appointment is reflective of that fact. He is a danger to our nation.


I can only imagine with fear and trepidation what not only our allies are thinking now that they know the Trump administration is in a state of chaos but what our adversaries are thinking. ISIS and those who support that tyrannical horror must be licking their chops. Instead of Trump making us safe, as he said that was the pivotal point of his election, he is placing us more at risk as the clock ticks closer to midnight and he has NO idea what to do.

Fractured Lands

I came upon this in depth article from the New York Times again and began to pick up where I left off.  I think there is no better analysis of the history of what went down in Iraq and the surrounding nations in the Middle East nor I do not think one can get a better understanding of this nation and its allies' contribution to the mayhem that exists until this day.  I believe it explains why this nation and its allies MUST take responsibility for the refugees that emerged from war making on a nation that did nothing to us and its resulting chaos.  The article written by Scott Anderson is breathtaking in its scope.  Read and you will know what your nation has done and continues to do in your name so that it should never happen again. 

"Watch out, Mr. President, once you break it you own it":  Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W. Bush about the danger of invading Iraq.  August 5, 2002

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html?emc=edit_ta_20160811&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=1

Just how much trouble is Michael Flynn in? AND WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

On Wednesday, national security adviser Michael Flynn told The Washington Post that he and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had never discussed the sanctions put in place by the Obama administration in a series of communications in December 2016.

On Thursday, Flynn told The Post — through a spokesman! — that, well, who could say what he and Kislyak talked about. Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up,” the spokesman said.

That's, um, bad. It strains credulity that on Wednesday, Flynn could issue a flat denial about conversations he had with Kislyak, but on Thursday, suddenly his memory of those conversations changed.

It also runs counter to the version of events that Flynn as well as then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence and several other senior Trump officials put out in the wake of the revelations that Flynn and Kisylak had been in contact, even as an investigation by the Obama administration was concluding that Russian hackers had interfered with the U.S. election process for the express purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

The two men “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” Pence insisted in an interview on “Face the Nation” in January, adding that to accuse Flynn of discussing sanctions “is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”

That runs directly counter to the information The Post gathered from nine (!) intelligence officials who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. This passage is particularly damning:

All of those officials said ­Flynn’s references to the election-related sanctions were explicit. Two of those officials went further, saying that Flynn urged Russia not to overreact to the penalties being imposed by President Barack Obama, making clear that the two sides would be in position to review the matter after Trump was sworn in as president.

“Kislyak was left with the impression that the sanctions would be revisited at a later time,” said a former official.
The FBI investigation into Flynn's contacts with Kisylak is ongoing. And the Post story is already creating turmoil within the administration.

​IF THIS IS EVER UNRAVELED THE QUESTION WILL BECOME: WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT (PRESIDENT ELECT) KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT.​

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/politics/donald-trump-michael-flynn-russia-sanctions.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

And so it begins!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/michael-flynn-russia-sancti…


Michael Flynn Reportedly Spoke To Russians About Sanctions Last Year
If that's true, Flynn would have violated a law prohibiting private citizens from engaging in diplomacy.
huffingtonpost.com

RANDY RAINBOW -- FIND ME A FACT -- "Matchmaker" Fiddler on the Roof -- BRILLIANT!

 Enjoy!

FIND ME A FACT!

https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/videos/985978234837453/

If you know someone who is gay or you simply care

Please sign the Petition. It is hard to believe that there are such CRACKPOTS in our nation who are so sick, so depraved, so inhuman, so stupid and so cruel that this legislation is even a possibility and that Trump would sign it. From what planet did Donald Trump come? From what sewer did this man Trump emerge?

Ivanka Trump is in the apparel business and comes from New York. Surely she has friends and/or coworkers whom she knows to be gay. Surely most of you have a friend, family member or coworker who are gay or, perhaps, you are simply an empathetic and humane person. I urge you to sign this petition no matter what your connection to the LGBT community is or is not.

Sign the petition: Sign the petition: No federally approved anti-LGBTQ discrimination

I just signed this petition telling Congress to push back against the First Amendment Defense Act, legislation to codify discrimination against LGBTQ people into federal…

share.credoaction.com

Trump Trumped by Putin

I have thought for quite some time about Trump's affection for the autocrat Putin and his suggestion that Putin hack the DNC email that something seemed to be awry in Trumpland. Trump's dig-his-heels-refusal to release his tax returns so that we the people can see what investments, monetary entanglements and possible conflicts of interest Trump may have with not only Russia but many nations around the world as well.  His spiderweb of investments compromise his presidency and places our nation in danger. The Manchurian candidate Trump as Russian stooge and useful idiot to the former KGB useful idiot expert Putin is suspect.  It is alleged pay to play at its worst.  Trump does not love Putin because he likes looking at him half naked on a horse and Putin surely does not love the orange mango president Trump for his money.  No, Putin has plenty of that.  Both Putin and Trump get something out of their mutual admiration society.  Trump gets debts forgiven and Putin gets to invade Eastern Europe thereby getting his old empire back.   Allegedly the FBI and the CIA are on a warpath of investigation but I advise not to hold your breath.  While Trump waits for a volcanic eruption that he thinks will never come he continues to rake in billions from the presidency.  That was what his con was all about. Trump's Washington hotel with his name on it is collecting millions for him as foreign dignitaries stay there to court favor with the American president. That is patently illegal as was his travel to Cuba when it was against the law to do so.  Remember, he could shoot someone in the middle of New York City and get away with it. 

The New York Times reported: 

It was Trump's assertion that he has "no deals in Russia" that seemed especially noteworthy. He said something similar last month in a pre-inaugural press conference, telling reporters, "I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we've stayed away."

To the extent that reality matters, Trump and his business team did not "stay away." The New York Times reported a few weeks ago:

Mr. Trump repeatedly sought business in Russia as far back as 1987, when he traveled there to explore building a hotel. He applied for his trademark in the country as early as 1996. And his children and associates have appeared in Moscow over and over in search of joint ventures, meeting with developers and government officials.

During a trip in 2006, Mr. Sater and two of Mr. Trump's children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, stayed at the historic Hotel National Moscow opposite the Kremlin, connecting with potential partners over the course of several days.

As recently as 2013, Mr. Trump himself was in Moscow. He had sold Russian real estate developers the right to host his Miss Universe pageant that year, and he used the visit as a chance to discuss development deals, writing on Twitter at the time: "TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next."

Trump once told a biographer, "I know the Russians better than anybody."

Why are his words not used as proof of his lies?

The so called M16 CIA agent who put forward the dossier on Trump's Russian connection is now in hiding and one of the two Russian agents cooperating with M16 is dead and the other is lying in a coma near death. That says something thing doncha think?  There is much to the Putin Trump Russian bromance that does not smell like a Valentine rose.  It smells toxic.

Trump has besmirched every friend of this nation from Australia to Mexico to NATO safeguarding our Eastern European allies from Russian encroachment while Trump says nary a word about the build up of Russian forces on the border of Ukraine where attacks have occurred nor does he say anything about Russian usurpation of Crimea nor Russian ventures into Georgia.  All Trump can think of is to drench a heaping dose of Putin praise on him.  Just what does he like about this murderous autocrat who kills those who dare oppose him even murdering reporters? 

As Shakespeare would say "something is rotten in Denmark."  I can smell high crimes and very serious misdemeanors a mile away.  It is the great con he is perpetrating on the American public and seemingly getting away with all of it. He is using the power of the presidency for the money he can milk from it while he places billionaires of no qualification in cabinet positions of power and former Goldman Sachs employees sit at Trump's side as advisors. One former Goldman partner and hedge fund manager, Steven Mnuchin, has even been nominated as Treasury Secretary. This comes from a man who was going to "drain the swamp."  Must I say again he IS the swamp!

The Manchurian Russian connection is by far, though, the most distressing.  I believe he is in debt to the Russian oligarchy, banks, and even to the Russian mafia for billions.  That is the guillotine Putin holds over Trump's fake orange haired head.  When asked by Mr. Conservative Bill O'Reilly why Trump likes the murderer Putin so much.  Trump says there are plenty of murderers out there and what is so clean about our own nation anyway.  Republicans must have adored their president saying that speaking almost like Noam Chomsky, the Darth Vedar of the Right. 

I say, Putin, thy name is blackmail.  Throw in some Russian prostitutes and the plot sickens, I mean thickens. Trump is scummy enough to be involved since, as he said, he cannot help himself when it comes to touching women.  I cannot prove the Russian prostitute connection but I feel it intuitively since sex tapes were mentioned within the M16 dossier context and Putin just coincidentally happened to mention how nice Russian prostitutes are. I wonder why Putin said that.

This president is the most corrupt, noxious, malignant, narcissistic liar that ever set foot into the oval office. One should NOT be afraid of Muslims one should be afraid of Trump. Donald Trump's administration is an existential threat to democracy.  It is a white nationalist and white supremacist threat from the highest echelon as he nominates white supremacist and antiSemite, by his own admission, a Leninist, Steve Bannon, as a regular attendee to the Principals Committee of the National Security Council. I believe Trump is the true Manchurian candidate sliding into the presidency just barely through the electoral college back door while Hillary received 3 million more popular votes. Trump, though, has been trumped by Putin and both know it.  I just hope we are not trumped by Putin too!

Walking in Another's Shoes-- Frontline "Battle for Iraq"

All should watch Frontline "Battle for Iraq" linked below but I know most will probably not because it is not as much fun as "Dancing with the Stars" or the Superbowl or "The Voice." According to the 2010 Census, "the population of the United States was 308,745,538. Including active duty, national guard and reserves, the population of Americans in uniform is 2,317,761, meaning that less than1 percent, .75 percent to be exact, of the country's population is a member of the military." Most of the US population sink into television oblivion while thousands to whom we pay lip service homage go to their untimely deaths or, if they are lucky to come home alive, live a lifetime with brutal disability. Think into the past when the Bush administration first invaded Iraq, a nation which did nothing to us. Think on that Shock and Awe day when an administration lied about Hussein possessing WMD which were allegedly earmarked for us. There were no WMD. Bush and his henchmen pushed lies to take the nation to war and so the Iraq War has morphed over nearly two decades into civil war, then morphed into ISIS and goes on now day after day after day after day for nearly 15 years without end as a Middle East region, too, contagiously explodes into never ending violence.

Innocents are caught in a trap they never set for themselves. Refugees desperately clinging onto life stealing a shred of hope that something will improve beg entrance into a country where Lady Liberty beckons saying "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door" but its president bars the door. Refugees beg for help but the President of the United States wants to push them away even if their refugee status was bestowed upon them by the United States of America.

ISIS says god willing, Sunnis say god willing, Shias say god willing, Christians say god willing and hypocrite of hypocrites Trump says god willing we will win. Whose side is god on anyway and why does homo sapiens man, who has the biggest brain, not question it all? God is coming to no one's rescue not even the US soldier, or Trump, or Christians or Muslims or anyone. How could that truth be more apparent and yet the mantra of god willing, god will help us, god is good, god is great, god will kill the infidel, god is angry, no god is so happy with those who blow up their bodies for afterlife bliss not ring a cacophony of screeching sound in our ears? God will NOT help anyone but man must help himself or become resigned to the permanent fact of permanent war. No amount of American fire power, no amount of US troops on the ground, no amount of presidential bluster in however many years he has to spew it will win against ISIS or will win against the Taliban in Afghanistan. One would think trump's best friend Putin would share a bit of his experience as to the impossible fight that is Afghanistan. The Russians were there nearly 10 years and left. Trump who knows no history cannot understand how futile the fight is in nearly every corner of the Middle East much less understand the many dimensions of why.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and getting the same result. Watch the Frontline documentary "The Battle for Iraq" and see into what sewer swamp our nation has been plunged. It is an eternal war that Bush could not end, that Obama could not end and that Trump will CERTAINLY not end. In fact, with Trump's loose tongue spouting confrontational verbiage alienating even our friends he just may plunge us into a deeper hell -- a nuclear hell -- from which there truly is no escape. As much as the bloviator-in-chief loves to puff up his chest to tell us we will get sick of winning so much. We may not get sick of winning so much but we surely will get sick of losing again. There is no winning Middle East wars that breed only insane violence, death, carnage and destruction. It creates an Arab mindset of hate toward those for whom there is already not much love. Who of you would want to live in this hellish place that is Iraq? Who of you would want to walk in an Iraqi's shoes? I suspect no one would!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/battle-for-iraq/