This is a running commentary on contemporary social, political and religious issues. From the Introduction of James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty -- Truth, Lies and Leadership" "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary" Reinhold Niebuhr
Copied from a friend... Not over yet, peeps. If you live in CA, FL, IA, NY, OH, PA, TX, VA or WA--you can help! See below.
If 11 GOP House Reps change their votes, the horrific tax bill can be
defeated. Here is the list of HR1-yes-voting reps most susceptible to
pressure (because they're in Dem-leaning districts). If you're a voter
in any of these districts, call, write, visit their offices, ring their
doorbells, give them no rest. Ask yourself if you know anyone who might
live in one of these districts. If so, urge them to call, write, etc. CA-10: Denham (202) 225-4540 CA-21: Valadao (202) 225-4695 CA-25: Knight (202) 225-1956 CA-39: Royce (202) 225-4111 CA-45: Walters (202) 225-5611 CA-49 Issa (760)-599-5000 CO-06: Coffman (202) 225-7882 FL-26: Curbelo (202) 225-2778 FL-27: Ros-Lehtinen (202) 225-3931 IA-01: Blum (202) 225-2911 NY-22: Tenney (202) 225-3665 NY-24: Katko (202) 225-3701 OH-10: Turner (202) 225-6465 OH-14: Joyce (202) 225-5731 PA-06: Costello (202) 225-4315 PA-08: Fitzpatrick (202) 225-4276 PA-15: Dent (202) 225-6411 TX-23: Hurd (202) 225-4511 VA-10: Comstock (202) 225-5136 WA-03: Buetler (202) 225-3536 WA-08: Reichert (202) 225-7761 For those who do vote for this tax bill, 2018 is just around the corner...
THE
TAX VOTE IS NOT OVER YET FOR THE SENATE AND HOUSE TO MERGE THEIR
BILLS. HERE IS WHAT TO DO TO RESIST!! SEND THIS TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO
CAN HELP RESIST!!!TRUMP
WE KNOW LIES AND HE LIES ALL THE TIME. THIS IS NO CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO
THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THE POOR. IT IS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THE TOP 1%
AND WILL RAISE THE DEFICIT BY 1 TRILLION OR MORE AND DESTROY HEALTH
CARE IN THE PROCESS. DON'T KILL US KILL THE BILL!!!!
Click below for a sample script and the number to call:
Dear Natalie,
In the early hours of Saturday morning, cruel and craven Republicans in the Senate rammed through the Trump Tax Scam.1 But there is still time to fight this dumpster fire of a bill.
The focus now shifts back to the House of Representatives, which may
vote as early as this week to send the version of the bill passed by the
Senate to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
Key Republican representatives know that their constituents
overwhelmingly oppose the Trump Tax Scam, and now they have one more
chance to stop the bill that will hurt middle- and lower-income families while giving Trump and his wealthiest friends a huge tax handout.2,3,4 As we showed when we stopped Trumpcare, our collective action makes a difference. We must keep up the fight. Call
key Republican Representatives: No tax handouts for the wealthy and big
corporations. Click here to get started with your calls.
Republicans are desperate to deliver a win to their corporate donors
and the Trump Tax Scam is a massive handout to corporations and the
wealthiest Americans. They are trying to pull the wool over their
constituents eyes with the false promise of tax cuts for working
Americans, but in reality the Trump tax scam would be devastating.5
Here is just some of what is in the Trump Tax Scam:
The Trump tax scam would:
Repeal the deduction for state and local taxes, used by the majority of middle-class taxpayers, and strain budgets for local services. 6
Allow massive amounts of wealth to accumulate untaxed by raising the cap and then eliminating the estate tax – a tax paid only by the ultra-wealthy.7
Slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to just 20 percent – less than what most workers would pay.8
Allow tax dodgers to get away with refusing to pay their fair share
by eliminating the alternative minimum tax, which has been a safeguard
against the ultra-wealthy like Donald Trump paying virtually nothing in
taxes.9
Sneakily undermine health care by repealing the individual mandate.10
Increase the burden of health care costs by eliminating the deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses.11
Strike an intentional blow to abortion rights and lay the
groundwork for banning abortion outright by enshrining the language
“unborn child” into the federal tax code.12
Make higher education even more unaffordable by
eliminating the deduction for student loan interest and ending
exemptions for graduate students paid for research work or teaching
while in school.13
Reduce incentives for consumers to purchase clean energy vehicles.14
Jeopardize the fragile natural environment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by opening it up to drilling in order to pay for corporate tax handouts.15
Republicans need to know that going along with Trump’s greedy and cruel tax plan will be devastating for everyone but the 1%. Last
time there was a vote in the House on the Trump Tax Scam, CREDO
activists made tens of thousands of calls to key House Republicans and
two of them voted the right way.16 Will you call now to tell
them we are watching and that it's unacceptable for them to do anything
less than fully resist Trump’s tax scam?
Call key Republican Representatives: No tax cuts for
the wealthy and big corporations. Click the link below to get started
with your calls. https://act.credoaction.com/call/Stop_Trump_Tax_Plan_keyRcalls?t=7&akid=26244%2E10053904%2E8--4pf Thank you for speaking out,
Kaili Lambe, Director of Organizing CREDO Action from Working Assets
Click below for a sample script and the number to call:
eep thinking I'm in a life nightmare, I will wake up and realize none
of it will will be true; that Drumpf is nothing more than a Saturday
Night Live comedy skit and that Hillary Rodham Clinton is President.
Then my furiously angry scared to death mind returns to reality
understanding that my worst nightmare of nuclear war, once seemingly
preposterous so many decades ago, is now possible because we "elected"
the world's worst most unfit for the office of president of the United
States, Trump.
As the unconstitutional and illegal
behavior
al actions
allegedly committed by Drumpf and his advisors
pile up and his "loyal" advisors are not so loyal when jail for them is
in sight, my dream that Donald J. Trump will resign or be successfully
impeached and convicted for high crimes and misdemeanors will become
reality.
Events sometimes are so important that they must be addressed. Though I grow weary of formulating opinion this time I must.
Senator
Corker, I am writing to you because I love this nation. I am not a
Republican but I care about the well being of our nation and our
democracy. I am staggered with fear of this president. I wake up and
immediately think that something is very wrong. I think about the danger
in which our nation exists because this chief executive holds the keys
to life and death of all of us and he is massively dangerous and inept.
I
believe this is the worst era in my historical memory. In a way it is
almost worse than the milieu of WWII because there is a nation, North
Korea, waiting for an excuse to use nuclear weaponry which probably now
could reach Washington and there is a US president that is just as
threatening as Kim Jong Un.
Larry
O'Donnell interviewed an excellent Harvard professor of psychiatry, a
Dr. Dotus, who diagnosed the president as psychotic and felt he was
qualified to diagnose him as such. He said Trump is the most dangerous
psychotic because he exhibits a thin veneer of sanity. But, he said,
when the president is stressed he goes off the rails and is irrational.
Bringing up the citizenship of Obama yet again when Trump won the last
election or questioning the veracity of the Access Hollywood tape saying
it's not his voice is a man who is out of touch with reality. The
psychiatrist thought that there is a grave danger of nuclear war because
when the president is stressed he cannot think rationally and contain
himself. It is a more dangerous kind of psychosis because of his thin
veneer of sanity.
One
usually thinks of psychotic as someone talking incomprehensibly. This
president does not exhibit that BUT it does not, he said, make his
psychosis any less so and, in fact, makes it more of a grave danger to
everyone. His supporters either cannot admit he is out of touch with
reality or if they do admit it they don't care and delude themselves.
Where are the Republican leaders to corral the Republicans in Congress
into facing reality and remove this out of touch man from office?
I
call on you, Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and other
rational Republicans to move to remove this psychotic president post haste before there is no nation from which to remove him!
Since Drumpf smashing into the oval office and especially since this
tax insanity increase on the middle class and the poor, blow up of the
deficit not to mention the obliteration of health care this
administration is killing this nation. Moreover, they are gutting the
State Department when we need it most with N. Korea nearing the
acquisition of a nuclear bomb that could hit Washington I simply cannot
write anymore or at least must take a break from things political in
written form. I know I've said it
before but I loathe injustice so and Republicans know nothing else but
harming the weak and powerless that I risk my health if I allow our
national nightmare to rock my life.
It's so bad that I am afraid to greet the next headline every morning.
This tax bill given to the megga rich on the backs of the middle class
and poor killing health care for millions will be crushing. Say bye to
your property and other deductions. The rich can expect their
beneficiaries will duck an estate tax they should pay. The 2% who will
get their taxes cut big time the savings of which will NOT trickle down
to us. It will trickle into their bank accounts. The nation will run
an extra trillion or two deficit and Republicans will try to pay for it
by eventually taking Medicare, Medicaid, and even Social Security away.
George Carlin the great comedian and social critic in his "American
Dream" act I have shown, before he died predicted just that. Yes, it is a
piece of brilliance. I warn it has some profanity but is stunning in
its prescience. What Republicans are doing to this nation is more
profane than anything else could be. I will post the George Carlin link
below. He says it all.
Add to the insanity a religious wacko pedophile no less will be taking a seat in the senate. I give up!
Why men (and some women) of power and good will cannot stop this
speeding train headed for a cliff into oblivion I have no idea. The
nation is dying and will take me down with it if I let it. I won't! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPNYxIOGTIU
Our vile president Drumpf made a "joke" about his nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, “Pocahontas,” during an event honoring Native Americans Monday at the White House. "Trump was recognizing Native American Code Talkers who
served during World War II when he made the remark about Warren.
Native American Code Talkers were largely Navajo Marines who transmitted
commands over the radio to soldiers overseas in their native language
during World War II,
after both sides became more adept at decoding encrypted messages.
Native American code became more reliable than Morse code in the war,
notably aiding U.S. efforts in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Trump
made his comments Monday while standing in front of a portrait of
Andrew Jackson, the former president who signed the Indian Removal Act
of 1830 that resulted in the tragic Trail of Tears. Thousands of Native
Americans died of cold, starvation and disease during the harrowing trek
to the undeveloped Western territories." (See link below for the
story)
Drumpf
said ″You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump told Code
Talkers during the event. “Although we have a representative in Congress
who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
Drumpf
is an IDIOT of IDIOTS and those Indian men Code Talkers who gave their
service to this nation to help win WWII should NOT shake that asshat's
hand. He is
NOT their friend. He is a friend to no one but himself. Doing what he
did to these native Indian individuals while honoring Native American
vets is RUDE, CRUEL
and MORONIC, all appellations I would use for Drumpf not to mention
insulting to a US Senator whose boots this rancid imbecile so called
president could not shine!
Drumpf
is simply a cruel and insensitive bastard to (1) make the
racist insulting comment to Native American Indians and (2) to do it in
front of a picture of Jackson the rancid president who was responsible
for the Indian Removal Act and the
Trail of Tears one of many treaties with American Indians this nation
would break. Drumpf is an ignorant BEAST.
The depths of injustice I see in this world is what
fuels the fire of my eternal resistance. I cannot stand the injustice as
I sit in my warm house with plenty of food, heat and water at my whim.
Why is it like that I always as a youth asked. Why when some have so
much others are condemned to that woman's harsh existence in poverty.
The child she holds will be another recipient of the madness and nothing
will change. Why, why, why, is always my question.
Communism, a good idea except human beings pervert the idea of equality, rape their own people they claimed the wanted to help and oligarchs steal the people's cash.
Socialism a good idea that does not in practicality work. Trumpian
Nationalist Fascism the opposite form of government to socialism in
cruelty, sadism, and perversion threatens to come down on all of our
necks except the select rich few will be spared its wrath. Why does it
have to be this way when the nations of plenty ignore the sad plight of
so many, the haves stuff their pockets with the people's cash, fill their bodies with
food and after a Thanksgiving feast peacefully sleep
and with kindness help those who cannot help themselves? Happy Thanksgiving and a
prayer that someone in this nation of ours replaces
the savage beasts of Trump with
the humanitarian
leaders
we lost
in days gone by
and with kindness help those who cannot help themselves.
I
was in a check out line in the supermarket. There was an elderly man
in the line checking out what he had bought. He had a baseball type cap on
with veterans things on it one of which was a WWII Vet patch.
Did you
ever kick yourself for not doing what your impulse said you should to do? I wanted
to walk over to him and thank him for his service in, perhaps, the only
"good and moral war" this nation has waged in the 20th century and in
this century in my memory.
I was born after 1945 but WWII is remembered
often by me perhaps because I am Jewish but also because of the tenor
of unity this nation felt at that time. It is something I love about that era and wish that unity were
here now.
I did not thank him as I became shy but now I wish I had. I
will never get the chance to do that now but at least on social media I can make a
public statement to those vets of WWII -- THANK YOU SO MUCH. This
nation saved my grandparents and some aunts from certain Nazi
annihilation in the Poland and the Ukraine if they remained there. I thought that episode of
anti Semitism was over but it is not over as it rises again because the
immoral president Trump makes room for right wing Nazis,
KKK and Jew hating extremists. In Europe nationalism and its accompanying antisemitism hovers over that continent
like the plague of death. Poland recently had a nationalist parade of
thousands in the street accompanied by what else Jew hating extremists
which were so much a part of Polish and Eastern European culture. They
hated the Nazis in Poland but many loved when Jews were taken from their
midst saying "Bye Jews, bye Jews."
So I thank in spirit that elderly
man whom I wish now I thanked in person while he and I are alive. Thank
you, sir, for your service!
Our
nation is crumbling and the beast in the oval office can only try to
get his signature tax bill a HUGE windfall for the 2% wealthiest on the
little guy's back passed. Drumpf stands to gain at least a BILLION
bucks and
with the inheritance tax waived his putrid offspring will get it all.
Teachers won't be able to deduct the supplies they pay for out of their
own pocket for their students but the 2% will get their billions. Many
will get no state property taxes deduction as the 2% wealthiest drown in
their tax cuts. You, the middle class, will get a tax increase.
Our national debt will increase ultimately by trillions. Billions will
be taken out of health care as he sneaks the eradication of the ACA
mandate to kill it just as more people are signing up. He will make
Medicare more expensive for seniors who are hurting. This is how he
pays for his tax cuts to the billionaires. They are tax cuts for the
rich and tax increases for everyone else. He will and has cut food for
children and will cut more programs for the poor. He flouts the
Constitution's emoluments clause and laughs all the
way to the bank making money on us, we the people and we let him just
what our Founders did NOT want.
No
one knows how much god save me I hate that man in the oval office and
what ugly offspring sprung
from his ugly loins. He is the evil antiChrist the Evangelicals talk
so much about. Look to yourselves Evangelicals is THIS what you think
Christianity is all about -- multiple divorces, multiple harassments,
multiple businesses where he does NOT pay the people who worked for him,
multiple conflicts of interest and unsavory Cretans even the Russian
mafia and money launderers with whom he
associates. He is the Judas of our time and the name TRUMP on buildings
is the 30 pieces of silver he trades for betrayal of a nation. You may
call it betrayal but I call it treason!
Putin
has got something HUGE on this beast and the beast
knows it which is why he kisses Putin's ring every chance he can get. He
is MADNESS incarnate and will get us all killed but keep voting for
these Republicons and you will reap what you sow. You will pay
through the nose while the 2% takes the money and runs to Panama the
laundering capital of the world only to make more money than they
already have but do not need. You will see no jobs, no money nothing as
we have seen through decades that trickle down economics does not work
it does not create jobs.
Unfortunately those who are the ethical among us will be taken down this unethical path with him.
RESIST THE REPUBLICAN TAX BILL WHICH YOUR CHILDREN WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR.
I love Al Franken and think
this woman, although I support her right to speak out, is making much ado about not very much. By the way, in
the photo Franken is not touching the woman but making a gesture like
he was
and thinking it funny. It of, course now, is not funny but holy god
pillorying Franken for this is ABSURD when our chief executive is guilty
of so much more and Roy Moore's actions against teenage girls by an
adult man are DISGUSTING. He refuses still to
admit them though the women are eminently believable.
Pray
why doncha, Roy Moore you alleged man of god hypocrite, who
proselytizes to others that they should reform their ways. Only god, if
there is one, can forgive your putrid
actions. The fact that the religious wingnuts cannot see the forest
through the trees is just plain sad. They by acquiescing to this
behavior are complicit in it.
I direct these so called "religious" wingnuts to what Jesus said since they claim to love him so much:
"Suffer the little children to
come unto me ... But who so shall offend one of these little ones it
were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto
the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come;
but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"
Take
that, Roy Moore, you pedophile hypocrite sickening excuse for a human
and shame to those who protect this vile man! I remind you also of
another Jesus admonition:
"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
My Comment: Clearly we, indeed, are in a
Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment of women moment. Joe Biden is NOT
Harvey Weinstein nor is he Donald Trump and certainly he is not smarmy
hypocrite Judge Moore. As is characteristic in this country of nearly
every political movement whether it is the protests of the late 1960's
or the Tea Party of contemporary time it is taken to an irrational
extreme thereby negating in it some good for which it stands.
I believe not only because I love Joe Biden but because
he stands for progressive policies that are pro women and more with
which I agree and because he is pure and simply a nice, humane and compassionate man.
If
we have come to a place where innocent comments of a woman being pretty
or innocent pecks on some woman's cheek by a man of power can be
labeled sexual harassment then this nation is headed over a nihilist
cliff where nothing or no one can be taken seriously.
It
is a far cry from a man simply giving a woman a peck on the cheek or
telling her she is pretty to the sickening sexual things Trump,
Weinstein and religious wingnut Judge Moore have done. Joe Biden is NOT Donald Trump nor
is he surely Judge hypocrite Moore.
Let's not take
this to an extreme we as a nation do so often when movements form. We
ruin them. Joe is Joe and Moore is Moore. Like Justice Potter Stewart
said of pornography "I know it when I see it" I know what a sexual
harasser of women is and Joe Biden unlike the sick harassers Trump and
the religious hypocrite Moore, Joe Biden is not it!
These
Republican beasts NEVER take a breath [see link below.] This is the so called
"Christian" way? Take health care away from those who need it but
cannot afford it? This is what they want to do to the nation? This is what their base elected them to do?
Oh yes, and don't forget, Republicans, send a pedophile to the US Senate. That ought to help our world wide reputation!
To Be or Not: Politics is so slimy and so bad that my motivation to
overcome it and help save the humane nation I once knew has ebbed. The
Republican Party thinks Democrats are wrong and evil. God knows the
Democrats, including me, think the opposition is ugly in character,
unintelligent, unthinking and evil so no one listens to each other. It
is hard when neither Democrats (me) nor Republicans (them) can budge.
It is impossible for me to cooperate with white supremacists, part
of the Republican essence, who are intent on killing the nation and us
who think the way we do and who by genetics's command are in it. I live
in constant contemplation of what to do and is it up to me to help do
this seemingly impossible task?
Shakespeare's brilliant Hamlet soliloquy written it is estimated
between 1599 and 1602 contemplating whether he should live or die trying
to overcome his tragic realities is one for our age over 400 years
later. Think on it as it relates to our national present dilemmas. What
can we do to save ourselves and rectify the plethora of unjust national
wrongs our nation has committed? What can we do when violence is not
the answer and the obstacles are so seemingly insurmountable?
HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep-- To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels (burdens) bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprise of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action. ..."
NOT GENERALLY? GENERALLY BUT THE OLD SEX PERVERTED CREEP MEANS SOMETIMES? And
he usually asked their mother for permission. Are you kidding me?
Would a woman in her 30's need her mother's permission to go on a date?
Generally
means to me sometimes; he did sometimes have sexual relations with a
teenage girl but not GENERALLY meaning NOT USUALLY but SOMETIMES after
he asked her mother for permission. Such a pious man who put the 10
commandments in his courtroom -- BESTIAL HYPOCRITE. There must be a
commandment that says "Thou shalt NOT have sexual relations with an
underage person!" One can be sure if the accuser were male Moore's
supporters would melt away. Should not matter. Sex with an underage
person is sex with an underage person period end of story.
Our
classless president will feel very comfortable with Roy Moore in the
Senate. I think he can relate to him. DISGUSTING! Makes one ashamed
to be an American and surely has made America not so great again!
This
vile story is about whom the state of Alabama may and probably will send
to our illustrious body, the US Senate. Read it and weep for how
depraved the Republican part of our electorate who would do this has
become. This takes our nation to a new low if Alabamians decide to send
this pedophile defending and perpetrating Cretan Roy Moore to the US
Senate because they would rather vote for a pedophile Republican
candidate than a Democrat. No more of Moore: See story below and send this to whomever you chose. RESIST!
By: SemDem posted in the Daily Kos
It was an open and shut case. A daycare center employee, Eric Higdon,
raped a 12-year old child. He was found guilty under a sodomy statute
specific to minors by all members of the 9-judge panel supreme court in
Alabama.
Actually, make that all 9 members except one.
Judge Roy Moore.
Moore stated there was “no evidence in this case of an implied threat of serious physical injury.” A child was raped. What kind of “judge” says that?
The exact same judge who sexually assaulted a 14-year old girl in a court custody case!
It’s not like Alabama GOP voters didn’t know about Moore’s awful
decision: his primary opponent blanketed the airwaves with ads attacking
him for it. Alabama GOP voters just didn’t give a ****. They voted for
him overwhelmingly anyway.
(What got lost in Moore’s scandals was the fact that he was entirely unqualified to begin with--Moore was twice removed from the Alabama’s top court for violating the U.S. Constitution.)
But now, Alabama GOP voters recently learned that Moore took a 14-year old child—whom he promised her mother he would watch while she attended a custody hearing—
to his home in the woods, gave her alcohol, stripped her, slobbered
over her, and tried to guide her hand to his private area.
I wanted it over with. Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over! --Leigh Corfman on Roy Moore’s sexual assault to the Washington Post
Moore didn’t ask forgiveness, and in fact, is currently fundraising off this incident.
That should have been the end of his political career. But those
same so-called “God-fearing” voters rushed to his defense. They didn’t
argue that this wasn’t true, mind you, just that it was OK.
Then Alabama State Rep. Ed Henry, Donald Trump’s Alabama campaign co-chairman, asked if there were any pictures.
That’s it. I’m out.
Hey, Trump voters: I don’t care what Bernie or anyone else says about your needs, anxieties, or economic troubles.
When you can justify the rape or assault of children, I’m done with you.
You pedophile-loving, sexual-assault defending, Bible-thumping,
Putin-worshipping, evil, authoritarian racist losers can all drown for
all I care. (Or, what would be more likely, shoot each other up.) If
these are the values of the so-called “heartland”, than f*** the
heartland.
You embrace hatred of your fellow man, yet promote lust for someone’s
else’s child. Then you have the sick audacity to say you promote
“family values”. You don’t need economic help--you need psychological
help. The only people worse than you are the GOP silent enablers who
excuse every monstrous thing because speaking out might mean they won’t
get to kick a poor person in the teeth anymore.
You can have them...
To be blunt, there are too many rational people with a basic sense of
decency that we need to be courting. Hell, there’s a ton more people
who are already on our side that we can go after that simply don’t
bother to go out and vote! (Although your constant assaults on their
families are helping fix that.)
I used to listen to people who said we need to try to align because
we are both being used by the establishment. No more. You folks deserve
every piece of suffering you inflict on yourselves. Do this nation a
favor and leave. GO somewhere far where you won’t hurt anyone else—your
own land where you can fetishize assaults—albeit women, children or
rifles. This is who you are now and what you do. Go burn in hell.
We’re done with you.
Last night's
bellwether election was won by the forces of light. It was won by those
of us who want to embrace our diverse nation the culture of which was
formed by men of genius nearly 250 years ago. It has been called the
world's last great hope for the blessings of liberty and a nation which
is not ruled by the whim of tyrants but by the compassion of the people
and its laws. It is and always has been a work in progress. Over the
past year and really before that this nation has been tested whether the
forces of evil, hate and darkness will force it to go the way other
cultures in other centuries have gone killing hope only to bring tyranny
and oppression upon those who have no power, no money, no health and no
hope to stand up against it. Our lives and theirs are at risk if we,
cannot stop the evil among us who through never ending mendacity, never
ending meanness, never ending crudity and and never ending malevolence
try to pit us one against the other.
The fight is not over through one election cycle.
It is a never-ending war of ideas without violence but our opposition,
if they deem it necessary, will not hesitate to use violence. Over 300
million guns they hold in their hands which hands are itching to use.
The weapon we will use will be through the ballot, the most lethal weapon on earth.
We need to take last night's victory of hope and go on to win more much
more never giving up, never faltering and never failing. We will
continue to see the minions of madness carrying the Tiki torches of dark
light. We will continue to see KKK crosses that light up the night sky
and will not hesitate to murder the powerless innocent. Worse, a major
Party, the Republican Party, has taken those dark forces in, placed
their arms around neo-Nazis and other nationalist ministers of doom and
have given them voice, taking them out of their hiding place and placing
them in the halls of power with a man who has allowed them that power.
Through his small hands Trump can light up a July 4th sky that inflicts
massive destruction, war, suffering and the death of innocents.
The
magnificence of Churchillian eloquence appending Martin Luther's King's
thoughts of non-violence I find energizing: "... whatever the cost may
be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing
grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight
in the hills; we shall never surrender." One can be assured the evil,
the cruelty and the hate of this Trumpian era has not gone away. The
Tiki torches will still with poison burn and those that carry them will
continue to say "Jews will not replace us" yelling "blood and soil," a
familiar Nazi phrase. Trump and his minions, messengers of hate and
division, cannot stand. Trump, taunts an unstable youth and,
ironically, becomes a clone of Kim Jong Un, a tyrant he alleges to
despise. He will continue to taunt that man Kim Jong Un who needs but
one excuse to explode the only commodity North Korea can export -- a
nuclear device. The innocent of Asia, the innocent thousands of
American lives and, indeed, the innocent around the globe will be
enlisted to wage a massive war, the fear of which has been reignited by
the sickening forces of Trump.
The
baton was passed to us by the Greatest Generation and now when the
light of our batons has ebbed we must pass it to the next generation to
be passed by them on to the next. This nation must be a nation of free
men and women whose great Lady Liberty standing with perpetual light in
New York Harbor, has been the beacon of hope to immigrant millions, my
own grandparents among them, hearkens and in pertinent part says: "Keep
ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she with silent lips. Give me
your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the
tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The
political fight against Trumpian tactics and mendacious madness goes
on. We must fight them as Martin Luther King said with "non-violence
the only road to freedom." A political war must continue to be waged
against an incompetent man on whom some in this nation have seen fit to
bestow unimaginable power. Trump is a narcissistic bully who got lucky
in
life and who managed to acquire great wealth first through inheritance
then developing that wealth, often through unethical means to ultimately
hoard it and con a nation into the oval office to reap its immense
taxpayer wealth for himself.
The
forces of evil that exist in some of this land that allowed him to
prevail must be unceasingly resisted. I hope justice will prevail and
Trump will reap the nation's Muellerian harvest. Trump must not
win and we must not let him. We must see to it that this cancer does not
spread throughout our body politic. We are better than that. It
requires our vigilance and our attempt to seek that power through the
ballot, the strongest power on earth, to stop him.
Last
night was a first step on a journey of many steps. If he wins the
light of Lady Liberty's torch goes out and Benjamin Franklin's famous
quote to a woman who asked him what the Founders had given us; he said
"A Republic if you can keep it." I would answer Dr. Franklin by saying
keep it we will!
As
a lifelong ardent Democrat I have seen this Party snatch defeat out of
the jaws of victory. What does internecine warfare get us? Answer:
nowhere. Let the bickering go. It does nothing to achieve the policy
on which most Democrats and Progressives agree.
Chuck
Todd and other mainstream reporters will milk the Donna Brazille story
for all its worth pitting Democrats against other Democrats. Do
not
let them. The election is over. Now it is time to unite even if we do not get everything we want.
Generally Democr
ats
agree on the big issues so stop squabbling which allows Drumpf to take
full advantage of it as the media often does. The media wants you to
tune to sell its commercials and does not care if the story is about a
bear eating someone's lunch or if Democrats are fighting with other
Democrats. It will sensationalize it as if that story is the most
important when, in fact, there is a combustible world on the brink of
total war with a sick know nothing at the helm carrying the football
toward a destructive end zone. The media is about how many viewers and
it can get at our expense IF we let it. Do not or we get Trump; maybe
someone as bad or even worse if that is possible!
I
am dismayed because every time I think Drumpf is sunk I turn on the
news and see them trying to make a negative story about anything else
they can. This time Democrats are front and center which should not be
front page news. Depression sets in but we must turn that off and
concentrate who we are.
Whatever
the Democratic strategy the essence of the Party will be and is a
thousand times more humane and accepting of human difference than what
the Republican Party is as a Party of the 2% wealthiest with old very
old dogma proven false. The wealth of the richest 2% by lowering its
tax rate will NOT trickle down to you and now a Party where the KKK and
neo Fascist racists Nazis can find a hiding place in plain sight.
Whatever Democrats are they are infinitely better than that!
DEMOCRATS RESIST TRUMP AND RETAKE THE CONGRESS IN 2018 AND SOON THE PRESIDENCY IN 2020!
Attacks
on innocents make
me sick. Most are naturally appalled by it again and again and again.
Terror attacks on the defenseless have been perpetrated in nearly every
continent on earth by religious or political extremists (including right
wing extremists.) They make me ill and, worse, make me feel impotent
to stop any of it. Memories take me back to childhood when at 10 years
old thoughts swam around my head that I was so lucky among millions
around the world who did not share that luck that in this nation I could
say anything, go anywhere and associate with whomever I wished without
fear for my life or fear of arrest by powers that did not approve of my
thoughts or my friends.
It
is crystal clear those days of historical good fortune, the
geographical luck permitting our safety and the freedom from fear have
fled. In all probability, within my lifetime those feelings of what it
is like to be truly free and feel safe are forever gone. No longer can
one do the simplest act like shopping or movie going or riding a bike or
even walking or window shopping without risk in the most benign
settings. It is abundantly clear that mantra swimming around in my head
is now "if you see something say something" and I cannot stop that
thought swimming in my mind like fish swimming in an aquarium as it
keeps going round and round and round without end. If you see
something say something even if it is so seemingly non-threatening as an
empty bag or a truck rental. The reality that bag could explode and
kill innocent hundreds is chilling. Our nation's civilians, too, are
armed to the teeth even though most here do not have guns but the few
that do have multiples of them and possess attachments to them that
create a slaughter like Las Vegas. Outrage of it goes silent.
It
has been said more attacks have come in the west because ISIS is taking
its last breath defeated in the Middle East in their capital Raqqa
cities of Mosul and more. I believe, though, ISIS is not defeated
because it is an idea easily spread from one alienated human and
religious fanatic to another and most especially on that ubiquitous
invasion of all of our lives the Internet. Moreover, ISIS is setting up
camp now in Africa. ISIS may be gone in their once stronghold Raqqa
but the ideas of ISIS will never be gone and require constant vigilance
and upgrades of those forces who want to prevent the poisonous ideas
that injure often permanently and kill so many. ISIS is an entity in
and of itself and is a murderous belief for which most major religions
do not advocate.
Our greatest challenge is to resist the indictment of all because of the perpetration of the few.
The fear I loathe along with all the innocent lives upended going for a
bike
ride in New York on a gorgeous fall day is that the murderer, Saipov,
according
to the NYT, came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010, and
according to the Times had a
green card that allowed permanent legal residence. That gives Trump
and those who support his indictment and hatred of the many for the
actions of a few ammunition for imposing his travel ban and other
discriminatory acts so far restrained by the courts until Trump places
in the courts extremist right judges who will sweep up those they do not
politically like under the guise of keeping everyone safe. If that
becomes reality none of us will be free or safe --- ever; not here not
abroad nor in our living room at home fearing the ubiquitous knock at
the door questioning our patriotism.
It
should not be lost to our minds and surely will not be lost to history
that ISIS would NOT have been born if it were not for the fracturing
beyond recognition of the Middle East through the US imprudent, illegal
and certainly immoral invasion of Iraq, a war killing thousands in a
country that did nothing to us. All those innocent human beings
killed by ISIS
one can trace back originally to the civil war in Iraq because George
Bush and his cohorts knew nothing of history and much less about the
history of Iraq and certainly not of the Middle East as a whole. ISIS was never in iraq until the US invaded it.
Millions have been slaughtered and millions of refugees are running for
their lives as the sectarian divisions became exacerbated when the US
shock and awe invaded Iraq ostensibly in retaliation for 9/11. Except
the perpetrators of 9/11 were not from Iraq. ISIS and those like it are
the fruits of insane US military
actions, poorly thought out, and ignorant of history. Now we are
existentially threatened by a presidential know nothing mental danger
who occupies the oval office in the White House
with nukes! Attacks on the west by ISIS give Trump cover for his
murderous actions and ideas bathed in hate. Elections have consequences. The ignorance of Trump should strike terror in all of our hearts.
For story click on the link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-chief-staff-john-kelly-defends-confederate-monuments-n815886
MY COMMENT: I'm sure Europe would look kindly on statues in Germany of Hitler and Goebbels because it's, well, history.
Yes, General Kelly, I am SURE if you were born black you would have thought compromising your status as a slave to work for free from dawn until night in 98 degree heat of the south would be the way to go. I am sure you, General Kelly, would be fine to keep slavery in certain states as a "COMPROMISE!" I'm also sure, General Kelly, you have ZERO empathy and I can only WISH you were born a person of color. But alas it cannot be so.
I have a great idea to build empathy: Why don't you, General Kelly, get up at dawn, work until dusk in 98 degree heat with no shoes and rags for clothes no matter if you feel well or not and pick cotton like sticking your fingers on rose bush thorns and worse worry about the congeniality of your white masters that they don't take a whip to your broken body because you looked to the left and not the right. Then tell me you think compromise with that would have been a DANDY thing.
Excuse me, General Kelly, for not showing the proper respect for a general but you, sir, are a horse's ass!
Trump
said during his campaign that we will experience winning. In fact, he
said that there will be so much winning people will not want to "win"
anymore. This was, of course, one of the more ridiculous lies among many
he would continuously tell and those who make up his adoring base cheer
the lies because few can discern them and most do not want to know the
truth.
The truth is Trump tax reform is not winning but it is
winning for Trump himself and the top 2% wealthiest of the nation. The
enormous "win" according to Trump means that the top 2% will get a
significant tax cut .... bully for them ... but the rest of us in this
game of thrones will pay for it. We lose because he will be raising our
tax rates to pay for the ones he lowers for the top 2% wealthiest. For someone to win at the game of taxes someone else must lose and
that would be, under Trump, us. He is leaving the Republicans in
Congress to sort out the details because, in truth, our president
although according to him has the greatest smartest Ivy League brain
ever knows nothing about nearly everything. Through various schemes and
loopholes like an elimination of the Estate Tax for those making $10
million or more the Trump tax cut for the rich will be a win for the
richest among us but everyone else will lose -- to quote a Trumpism --
"bigly!"
Winning
for Trump and his zero ethics administration is lowering the tax rate
for them but raising it for everyone else. He will lower it by, well,
simply lowering it but also, in part, by taking away certain state
deductions on which the middle class of many states have come to rely.
They will not be happy. Beyond that decreasing Medicare for the elderly
and surely taking a hatchet to Medicaid for the white and black poor
will be in the Republican cross hairs with Republican eyes, in the long
run, ultimately eliminating them. Prescient gerrymandering by
Republicans over decades while Democrats slept have carved out voting
districts to allow them to win as well as allowing Republican state
majorities all over the nation to suppress votes for persons of color
about whom Republicans do not give a whit. It is the political slimy
swamp Trump said he would eradicate but instead he and his cronies
became the swamp and made it swampier.
Republicans
have set their erasures on ultimately removing Medicare, vital for
saving lives of the elderly, and Medicaid too, for saving the lives of
the poor, who in the Republican heart of stone are expendable. The prime
plum for Republicans would, of course, be the erasure of Social
Security into which most of us throughout our working lives have paid.
Thanks a lot. I rather enjoy breathing, need Medicare and double need
Social Security. Trump also talks about lowering contributions to
401K's from a high of $20,000 to a low of $2500. With Medicare rates
lowered, Medicaid for the poor erased, and tax cuts for the richest 2%,
tax increases to the middle class and the poor those who make America
run will be relegated to a journey to the bottom of the earth a metaphor
for death. Worse it will increase the debt trillions Republicans claim
to care about so much but in fact will fall on the shoulders of their
posterity to pay.
If
these Republican excuses for humanity with no empathy erase Social
Security which is their ultimate goal then a life of poverty awaits but
this misfit Trump and his Republican deplorables will get their tax
cuts. That would be a so called "WIN" for this president of
Vesuvian ignorance but a loss for the middle, working classes, the poor
and immigrants who make this country run, who cut the grass of the 2%,
iron the clothes of the 2%, take care of the children of the 2%, clean
the homes of the 2%, cook the meals of the fat cat 2%. If Republicans
and Trump get their way it will be a gargantuan loss for the middle
class sightless who put them in office. Death is the true beneficiary.
A Trump tax cut win for himself and the richest 2% will NOT bring back jobs.More
jobs will still be outsourced to foreign workers who will take payments
of $1.35 an hour from those who own them. Trickle down is the same
trickle up of this tired story that screws the middle class but is
Nirvana for the rich. Trump's so called base is duped by Trump and his
cronies. A tax cut for the 2% richest will be a "win" for the top 2% but
the national debt, Republicans claim to care about so much, will be in
the stratosphere for future generations to pay or worse endure an
economic collapse. A win according to Trump and Republicans will be
another loss for the middle class and the poor creating trillions in
debt and ultimately the loss of jobs. With the eventual budget scoring
of this tax cut you will NOT talk about "winning." You WILL be talking
about losing. If Trump gets what he wants it will be a huge loss for the nation to quote a know nothing president "BELIEVE ME!
