Waxing specific: Donald Trump and his 'bunch of criminals' By Steve Benen

02/28/18 01:06PM 

  When Donald Trump's White House was originally pressed to explain some of the more scandalous people in the president's orbit, the original line was to pretend they were peripheral figures whom Trump barely knew. Paul Manafort? A volunteer who was only around for a few months. Carter Page? Never heard of him.

This week, however, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders what it says about Trump's judgment that some of his campaign staffers "turned out to be criminals." She replied, "Look, I think that those are issues that took place long before they were involved with the president."

Strictly speaking, that's not even close to being true. Michael Flynn, for example, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the president's transition period. Rick Gates pleaded guilty to a crime he committed literally this month. We're not talking about misdeeds from these guys' college years; these are recent transgressions.
But Sanders' obviously deceptive argument notwithstanding, let's not miss the forest for the trees: the broader point is that during Donald Trump's brief political career, he's surrounded himself with a fair number of criminals.

The Atlantic's David Graham had a good piece this week on the scandal that's "already in plain sight."

Every administration ends up producing examples of corruption and lying, but most presidents take years, and often more than one term, to produce a ledger even half so extensive as what Trump has managed in barely a year in office.
It's an old trope to imagine how lonely the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who famously walked around with a lamp seeking an honest man, would feel visiting the American capital. In Trump's Washington, even the hard-bitten cynic might despair.

The first place to start is with the number of people from the president's political operation who've already pleaded guilty to a series of crimes: Flynn, Gates, George Papadopoulos, and others.

Then there's Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who hasn't pleaded guilty, but who's already been indicted on a lengthy list of charges.
Of course, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is hardly done, and we know others whose actions have drawn scrutiny -- including the president himself, who may have obstructed justice.

NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin noted the other day that pollsters and pundits often say that explaining the Trump-Russia scandal can be difficult, but “it’s still surprising to me Democrats haven’t found some simple message just around having a bunch of senior figures tied to the president indicted, full stop.”

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had a recommendation: “The president hired a bunch of criminals to run and staff his campaign and put one in charge of national security.”

But there’s no need to stop there. An alarming number of members from Trump’s cabinet have faced a variety of other misdeeds, which may not be criminal, but which involve serious allegations of ethical lapses and possible misuse of public funds. One such cabinet member has already resigned In disgrace.

In many administrations, there’s something known as “the second-term curse.” The idea behind the phrase is that a White House team will cut corners and make avoidable mistakes in their first terms, and these misdeeds start to catch up with them in their second terms. For example, before Trump, only two American presidents have ever been the subject of federal criminal inquiries – Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton – and both ran into trouble in their second terms. One was impeached, the other resigned.
Trump appears to be on an expedited schedule.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/donald-trump-and-his-bunch-criminals

The Real-Life Black Panthers Liberated Concentration Camps and then click on the link to a poem "The Black Messiah" by Sonia Weiz, a Holocaust survivor

Susie DavidsonCommunity Contributor to the Forward

My FB friend: Susie Davidson is a Boston-based contributor to the Huffington Post, the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and other media. She has authored books on the Holocaust and written two poetry collections. Her next book will examine the continuing social and political influences of punk rock.
read more

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

The Real-Life Black Panthers Liberated Concentration Camps

• February 27, 2018

National ArchivesNegro Marines, attached to the Third Ammunition Company, take time out from supplying ammunition to the front line on Saipan. Riding captured…bicycle is Pfc. Horace Boykin; and left to right, Cpl. Willis T. Anthony, Pfc. Emmitt Shackelford, and Pfc. Eugene Purdy.

The superhero film ‘Black Panther’ pulled in a record-breaking $192 million on its debut weekend. It was also the highest grossing opening weekend of any February, and one of the top 15 global debuts in history.
“Black Panther” will likely also break the box-office record for a movie directed by a black filmmaker, currently held by Sidney Poitier’s 1980 comedy Stir Crazy.

Clearly, Disney’s mythical King of the African nation Wakanda has charmed the public — The Black Panthers will surely once again serve as a major point of pride for people of African descent all over the world.

Once again?

The original Black Panther story is even more heroic than its fictional counterpart.

The original Black Panthers were the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-Black armored battalion of World War II. Their logo depicting a black panther, as well as their nickname, was later adopted by the radical 1960s group.

The unit’s 36 officers included baseball star Jackie Robinson, although he did not see action in Europe because he was embroiled in a court battle stemming from his refusal to give up his seat on a military bus. Charges against his Rosa Parks-esque action were eventually dropped.
The unit’s 676 enlisted men, who endured racist taunting in the U.S. as well as from some fellow GIs and officers in Europe, only got to go overseas because of the pleading of Eleanor Roosevelt. Once there, and in spite of this shameful start, they battled superheroically — in the truest sense of the term.

The Black Panthers fought major battles in six European countries, and were part of four major Allied campaigns, despite nightmarish weather, impossibly challenging terrain for tanks, a consistently massive enemy presence, the loss of 71 tanks, and the general horrors of war.

Beginning on November 7, 1944, the Battalion served for over 183 consecutive days at the head of Patton’s Third Army. Most units served for one or two weeks only at the front line, but there they fought, suffering a 50 percent casualty rate, in the Battle of the Bulge in Tillet, France, the Battle of the Rhine, and many other major conflicts.
The unit bored a hole in the Siegfried Line, through which Patton’s 4th Armored Division advanced into Germany. The 761st fought in France, Belgium, and Germany, and at the River Steyr in Austria, they were one of the first American forces to join with the Soviet Army of Ukranians in Austria.

In May, 1945, they participated in the liberation of Gunskirchen, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Sonia Weitz, who was liberated from Mauthausen, wrote about The Black Panthers’ role in her poem The Black Messiah.
The Black Panthers captured, decimated or helped to liberate over 30 towns, as well as four airfields and three ammunition supply sites, and took out 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns, and thousands of weapons.

The State of Israel officially recognized the Battalion, as did President Jimmy Carter, who issued a Presidential Unit Citation for Extraordinary Heroism to the 761st.

Unit members also received four campaign ribbons (for battle in Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe), 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars, and approximately 300 Purple Hearts.
As for Patton, he told them that he did not care what color they were, as long as they “went out and killed the kraut sons of b******.”
“Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you,” he told them. “Most of all, your race is looking forward to your success. Don’t let them down, and, damn you, don’t let me down!” They most certainly did not.

Read more: https://forward.com/scribe/395196/the-real-life-black-panthers-liberated-concentration-camps/

A Beating Heart

There is so much that is so bad for a nation in the hands of the chief executive schemer Trump, the biggest conman ever sold.  Our nation is in a national security nightmare, compromised beyond reason by the know nothing in the oval office and his Republican enablers.  The king of bankruptcy president of the most powerful nation in the world no one can stop and worse many Republicans do not want to stop him. We are trapped and I see no way out except through the brilliant efforts of the Republican special prosecutor.  Mr. Mueller, you are in democracy's emergency room trying desperately to save a nation on the brink of flat-line.  Trump's offenses are too gargantuan to mention here but the stealing of the 2016 presidential election by Russian meddling is the arrow that pierced our nation's heart attempting to fatally wound it.  The president does nothing to stop the bleeding.

If Democrats were doing all that this know nothing president is doing with a majority in Congress making it possible Democrats would be existentially crushed.  If a Democratic president had the plethora of business conflicts around the globe and hired a team of self interested traitors to captain the ship, if Democrats allowed an adversarial Russia to attack the very heart of our democracy, they would be pilloried, impeached at the top and convicted in a heartbeat second.  Yet now we are stymied. How can a party whose anti Russian policy was the centrifugal force of who they were now simply fold like a wilting flower allowing Trump-sanctioned Russian illegalities to continue?  Has this president attained that much power that all the agencies responsible for our national security can do nothing? Does the minority in Congress have so little power that they, too, cannot put end to this treasonous madness?

I do not get it! My hopes are on Special Prosecutor Mueller but I worry.  Can he do it all and worst of all will the psychotic-in-chief fire him and pardon the treasonous? 

The most power in a democracy lies with the electorate. Even now Democrats are flipping once deep red seats in special elections all over the nation.  Even Texas could emphasis on could turn blue.  We must continue to thwart this menace to our democracy through the 2018 election and on to the 2020 presidential as our crackpot president is now unashamedly preparing for his reelection.  A horrific reelection possibility must NOT happen.  We will be, if not presently we are, a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia and even of other adversarial nations as blackmail by them is in the air. Our allies, too, do not trust us and are deserting this nation like rats on a sinking ship.  The Titanic America is going down and only YOU can prevent it from sinking into the abyss.

RESIST as you have never resisted before and pass this on to anyone in any state you wish! Vote Democrat in 2018 and 2020 to resuscitate the nation that once had a beating heart!