Trump, Russia and Hate

I wondered if anyone saw a fabulous "On Assignment" with Richard Engel. He talks about definite ties between Russia/Putin AND Trump. It gives a little history back to the good old anti-Communist days of Ronald Reagan. You know something is wrong with a progressive if those days begin to look good to me. 

It is CHILLING that the American Rightwingnut Christians extremists across the nation see no problem with a US tied to Russia. They rather like it ESPECIALLY at gun shows galore and most especially Russia's attack on LGBTs. 

Attacks on LGBT human beings are normal in Russia as were attacks on Jews during the era of pogroms the very reason my grandparents got out and came here. They never knew when they would be attacked. Same thing with gays. More worrisome is attacks here are up. Thank you Mr. Trump for your most humane influence (I JEST) on American culture. Nothing but the very best haters. 

It is time to unite against this cancerous curse of Trump that has invaded our nation. I KNOW we are more than Trumpian Republicans; I know we are better than Trumpian Republicans and I know we must loudly and strongly say so! RESIST!

Chad Ludington’s Statement on Kavanaugh’s Drinking and Senate Testimony

 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/us/politics/chad-ludington-statement-brett-kavanaugh.html

Chad Ludington, a Yale classmate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s who said he often drank with him, issued a statement on Sunday saying the Supreme Court nominee was not truthful about his drinking in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Here is the full text of the statement:

I have been contacted by numerous reporters about Brett Kavanaugh and have not wanted to say anything because I had nothing to contribute about what kind of justice he would be. I knew Brett at Yale because I was a classmate and a varsity basketball player and Brett enjoyed socializing with athletes. Indeed, athletes formed the core of Brett’s social circle.

In recent days I have become deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale. When I watched Brett and his wife being interviewed on Fox News on Monday, and when I watched Brett deliver his testimony under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, I cringed. For the fact is, at Yale, and I can speak to no other times, Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker. I know, because, especially in our first two years of college, I often drank with him. On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.

I do not believe that the heavy drinking or even loutish behavior of an 18- or even 21-year-old should condemn a person for the rest of his life. I would be a hypocrite to think so. However, I have direct and repeated knowledge about his drinking and his disposition while drunk. And I do believe that Brett’s actions as a 53-year-old federal judge matter. If he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences. It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges.

I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth.

I felt it was my civic duty to tell of my experience while drinking with Brett, and I offer this statement to the press. I have no desire to speak further publicly, and nothing more to say to the press at this time. I will, however, take my information to the F.B.I.

I hope it is not too late

 

 

 

 That is EXACTLY right.   Kavanaugh is a beast if he thought it was so smart to put that in his yearbook for all time. Are we supposed to say HA HA?  NO, I say I think I want to throw up at the thought of putting this sickening slime on the most powerful prestigious court of intellect and wisdom in the now so called "free world." How did we sink so low? I place the blame everywhere in an anything goes culture! The blame as I have thought for a long time must be placed in many parts of our culture.

I loved the late Sixties throwing off the stagnant, hypocrisy of the Fifties.  I thought the late Sixties to be an era that meant a humanitarian sea change for the poor, the sick, the elderly, the sad and the dispossessed bestowing those rights that had been given to everyone else but held back from particular others whose skin was a different color or whose orientation was different from the majority.

I thought the Sixties meant love and not hate. I thought it meant instead of killing human beings we would help them out of poverty and war. The only thing our sad excuse for a president that was used by him and now his SCOTUS choice, Kavanaugh, was unbridled, lewd, licentious and lascivious, talk and behavior that said if it feels good do it no matter who it hurts. NO, to me the Sixties meant the freedom to conduct one's physical life without fear of physical harm, shame or guilt that lead to suicide. It meant a release of the bonds of social servitude.

As usual our species took it to the heights of Everest allowing many to hurt especially weaker women and weaker people anyway they, the privileged white few men, wanted. The metamorphosis of the Sixties did not mean that to me. I never thought about the political right with presidential support morphing it into a permanent culture of hate.

What have we become as a nation? This administration has ushered in the unbridled debauchery of Rome at its worst -- the barbarians at the gate. I blame myself too for thinking there would be finally in this nation a humanitarian example to the world and not begin the potential destruction of a nation. I did not mean this to be so. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. . After the barbarity of Trump we must right a host of wrongs including those to our planet.  I hope it is not too late!