Third Veteran Dumped By Trump Because Of Military Service

Col. Charles Beattie served in Vietnam, but was denied a job with Trump Shuttle because of his military service.

• Christina Wilkie National Political Reporter, The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — The myth of Donald Trump reached its zenith in 1988, the year that his book, The Art of the Deal, was published. That year, Trump bought the Plaza Hotel, a crown jewel of New York real estate; he also bought a 282-foot yacht, and a fleet of airplanes owned by Eastern Air, which he renamed the Trump Shuttle.
This airline would be among the first of Trump’s companies to be sued for violating laws aimed at protecting the jobs of military veterans who are called up for service.
Fast forward 30 years, and Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, having mounted a successful outsider’s bid in part around his promises to take care of America’s veterans.
Yet in at least three cases, Trump’s companies have either fired, or refused to hire, military reservists because of the time commitments demanded of them by their service in the armed forces. The veterans involved have sued Trump for violating the laws meant to protect them from precisely these types of penalties. And in all three cases, Trump and his companies have settled the suits.
The Huffington Post already reported on the first two of these cases — one involving an Air Force senior master sergeant fired from the Trump Institute in 2007, and one an Army staff sergeant fired from her job at Trump University that same year.
These two cases, however, have a predecessor. On May 27, 1988, United States Air Force Col. Charles Beattie submitted orders to his bosses at Eastern Airlines, where he worked as a pilot.
According to the orders, Beattie was to attend the elite Industrial College of the Armed Forces for nine months, starting in August. As required by law, Eastern Airlines granted Beattie a leave of absence to fulfill his military service commitment.
While Beattie was deployed to the Industrial College, a high-flying Donald Trump, just 42 years old, bought Eastern Air for $365 million.
Beattie and Trump were practically the same age. Beattie had graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1967, just a year before Trump got his degree from Wharton. After college, Beattie flew C-130s in combat during the Vietnam War.
Trump, however, avoided serving in Vietnam — he got four student deferments from the draft and a medical disqualification for bone spurs in his foot. When Beattie returned home from combat, he stayed in the reserves, retiring from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1993 as a full colonel.
Everyone, including Eastern Air executives, thought Trump had paid too much for the troubled carrier. But Trump, determined to put his name on a fleet of jumbo jets, was ecstatic. At the launch of the new Trump Shuttle, guests were treated to a string quartet and champagne. Asked by a reporter whether the airline takeover was boost to his ego, Trump replied, “Truthfully, it was great for the Trump ego.”
As part of the deal Trump signed with Eastern for the shuttle service, Trump was required to offer employment to all Eastern personnel. All told, Trump Shuttle hired around 200 pilots from Eastern Air. But it did not hire Beattie.
According to a judicial opinion in Beattie’s 1990 lawsuit against Trump Shuttle, the new company insisted that all pilots be available to start work on Feb. 1, 1989.
Beattie had applied for a job with Trump Shuttle, like the rest of his fellow Eastern pilots, but his orders from the Army college required that he stay until June to complete his assignment. For his would-be bosses at Trump Shuttle, that was a deal-breaker.
According to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Flannery, this is how it played out:

(1) Trump extended offers of employment to all Eastern employees based upon their seniority status; (2) Beattie was an Eastern pilot possessing the requisite seniority; (3) Trump declined to hire Beattie based upon his unavailability on the specified commencement date; and (4) Beattie’s unavailability was caused by his military commitment.

In response to Beattie’s legal claim, Trump’s lawyers argued that Beattie had been denied a job because he was “unavailable,” not because he was a reservist. They also claimed that Beattie’s attendance at the Army college was “voluntary,” and therefore not a real military “obligation.” The judge threw out these arguments. According to case files, Beattie’s case was settled with a consent judgment in November of 1991.
Trump Shuttle, which never turned a profit for Trump, was turned over to his creditors in early 1992, as part of the assets Trump had to sell to settle the first of three corporate bankruptcies.
Beattie died in 2014, and attempts to reach his surviving relatives were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not respond to an inquiry from The Huffington Post about Beattie’s case.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Iraq War Vet: Trump University Fired Me ‘Because I Was In The Military’--Her boss allegedly called her military reserve duties a problem.

[My Comment Below the article]

By Christine Wilkie -- Huffington Post Reporter

Iraq War veteran Corinne Sommer is not allowed to talk about the settlement she reached with Trump University after she was fired in 2007.

But in a deposition first made public on Tuesday, Sommer said she believed the real estate seminar provider terminated her because her military commitments as a reservist interfered — a little — with her work as an events planner for the company.

“I was fired because I was in the military,” she told attorneys as part of an unrelated fraud case against Trump University. “At the end of my [performance] evaluation, they wrote that it was a problem that I was in the military.” Sommer was an Army staff sergeant who had deployed to Iraq in 2003.

Veterans’ issues have become a central theme of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This week, the presumptive Republican nominee revealed some long-awaited details about the $6 million, give or take, that the billionaire helped raise for charities that aid military vets. Trump has also promised to “put our service men and women on a path to success” if he is elected president.

But at the Trump-owned Trump University, the time required by some reservists to fulfill their military commitments clashed with the demands of their seminar-providing duties. And some of their managers were seemingly unaware that it is a violation of federal law to penalize an employee for absences caused by military service.

A few months before Sommer was fired from Trump University in 2007, another veteran, Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Richard Wright, was fired from his job as a mentor at the Trump Institute, an affiliate of Trump University. Wright had just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan when his bosses told him that “all of your absences” had forced the company to “reevaluate your position with the Trump Institute.”

In some ways, Sommer is an atypical veteran. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in cultural photography, she enlisted in the Army in May 2001 and deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, in the early months of the 2003 U.S. invasion.

“Imagine driving to work everyday and having to worry about getting shot, IED’d (improvised explosive device) or RPG’d (rocket-propelled grenade),” Sommer told the Danbury News-Times in a 2004 interview from Iraq. “Imagine going to sleep listening to explosions going off around you. Imagine walking to chow and listening to a whizzing of mortars overhead, and thinking, oh God, don’t let it hit me. Imagine listening to your friends tell stories how they were hit by an IED and the pure terror they felt. And then imagine your friends who were not so lucky to tell that story.”
 
Three years after she returned home, Sommer started working for Trump University.

There, she said in her 2012 deposition, her boss David Highbloom “complained when I would take days off to do my military service.” Sommer said that she would take those days off during the week so that she could be at Trump U events over the weekend. Her reservist commitment amounted to two days a month, she said.

Her supervisors at Trump University wrote that she was a “weekend warrior” on her performance review, according to Sommer. She considered that term “derogatory ... especially when I’m an Iraq veteran.”

The Huffington Post left messages for Sommer at her home and Highbloom at his workplace. Neither of them returned calls.

According to the deposition, Trump University would claim that Sommer was fired for poor performance. But she said the company was pushing her to work even more hours just before they fired her. She refused and returned home from a vacation trip to learn that she didn’t have a job anymore.

In her employment lawsuit, Sommer recalled, she accused Trump University of firing her because of her military commitments and of discriminating against because of her age (she was in her early 20s at the time).

She said she “won” her case when the company agreed to settle with her, rather than go to trial. “They found that there was probable cause enough to settle,” she said. The exact resolution of the case is covered by a “confidentiality provision,” Trump U’s lawyer noted in the deposition.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization told HuffPost, “While we do not comment on the circumstances surrounding the termination of employees, the allegations in Ms. Sommer’s lawsuit were completely meritless and Trump University in no way admitted the allegations in settling the dispute.”

Trump University, which closed down in 2011, is now facing fraud charges in multiple states. Thousands of former customers and staff, including Sommer, contend that the real estate seminars were little more than a two-bit scam.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has sought to defend those seminars while also downplaying his involvement in the company.

The class action lawsuit in California alleging fraud by Trump is moving forward, and is expected to go to trial in late November.

This story has been updated with a comment from the Trump Organization.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

My Comment: Trump committed an illegal act IF he fired an employee because they took too much time in the military. How STUPID can a alleged sharp businessman be? When all is said and done it would not shock me if the entire Trump charade is left with nothing. Can one see Trump on the street with a cup wondering why he ever ran for the most powerful office on earth and why he EVER thought he would not be scrutinized with a microscope EVEN by members of his own Party? What WILL defeat Trump? His RUDE mouth and his pathologically sick ego! Just my opinion.

TRUMP IS DEAD MEAT IF there is evidence to prove these deadly allegations! Hillary did NOTHING wrong. She did what other Secretaries of State did and what others in the State Department did because they all were protecting private emails and other ones they wanted to remain private. Should she have done it differently? Yes, she admits that BUT her INTENT was NOT to do harm to this nation. As to the other NON issues like Benghazi she has testified for HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS about them and she did so successfully. Ambassador to Libya Stevens KNEW the risk of remaining in Benghazi and chose it anyway. The fake Republicon outrage was the disloyal's opposition to anything Clinton. The Republican killing machine of all things Democrat is unjustified always significantly aimed at her and her husband. As they say in my ethnic lingo Republicons have BUBKAS ... NOTHING ...on her and they know it. Go Hillary go, jump over the obstacle course that is Sanders and the worse one by far that is Trump. Then crush the entirety of the Republican disloyal opposition.

WORK LIKE HELL FOR THE ELECTION OF DEMOCRATS EVERYWHERE!

The Wizard of Trumpville

The lengths to which Trumpet has gone to deceive all those around him and especially the Federal Government is astounding (See link here or below.) By paying no taxes he gets a free ride on middle class backs who pay to keep him safe. Do Republicons get that government keeps us safe, that regulations can and do rein in the greed of the private sector and that public education is a necessity for a culture to advance?

Yes, sometimes individual human beings in government fail to do their job BUT in reality it is amazing a nation as huge as ours succeeds at all. It has succeeded up until Republicans gerrymandered (creating districts) their way to take over state governments and Congress creating tax laws and loopholes that take money out of middle class hands and put it in the hands of billionaires. To the extent one sees decay in our nation it is because Republicans have seen to reduce Federal funding of programs that repair things and work for all of us. 

Republicons have created phony wars costing TRILLIONS stuffing the pockets of their cronies through military contracts worth billions. After all, to them, people of color, the poor and many others in the middle class do not matter save to fight the wars created in the echelons of power and waged for the very rich.

The 1% matter and are the only ones who matter to the Trumpites and those like them. They have succeeded in bamboozling those who have little power or wealth and buy into their SCAM leaving the majority without a middle class and jobs because their jobs have gone overseas. They pay nothing for their dastardly acts and incur no penalty to those corporate schemers exporting jobs taking advantage of trade agreements which hurt the rest of us.  It means huge riches for the 1% and little for anyone else. WAKE UP, AMERICA, DONALD J. TRUMP IS JUST ANOTHER BILLIONAIRE CARNIVAL BARKER EXAMPLE OF THOSE WHO WILL NAIL YOU TO THE WALL, PAY NO TAXES, WALK AWAY LAUGHING AND VERY VERY VERY RICH at the nation's expense.  Trump University is a mirror reflecting the essence of Donald Trump and corporate raiders like he who know the art of the con.

Tell me Jesus of the New Testament Trump SAYS he loves so much but cannot quote a verse from it would pat him on the back and say good job you screwed 98% of the middle class and the poor out of trillions.  

Trump University is a metaphor for all that is ugly in this nation.  It is STUNNING that Trump gets the amount of support he does to win the Republican nomination for president. TRUMP CANNOT WIN THE PRESIDENCY OR we will not have a country left – no banks in which money can safely be deposited, no roads on which to drive, no bridges on which to cross, no education for your children and no EPA or Consumer Protection Bureau to keep you safe from toxic polluters and Wall Street hucksters. Hell, you will have no planet as Republicons like Trump do not believe in climate change 98% of scientists who are not tied to the fossil fuel industry do. 

The Mexican Judge (as Trump puts it in racist fashion for his ignorant supporters) has pulled back the curtain of the Wizard of Trumpville creating transparency for the scheme of Trump University for ALL to see.  Perhaps, even Trump’s high priced lawyers will not keep HIM safe this time. One can only hope!

DEMOCRATS MUST UNITE, PUT A DEMOCRAT IN THE PRESIDENCY, TAKE BACK THE SENATE AND GAIN SEATS IN THE HOUSE.  THAT THIS IS A NECESSITY FOR OUR NATION TO SURVIVE IS CLEAR. GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE EVERYWHERE!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-university-playbook_us_574dff7ee4b0af73af95b726

A MEMORIAL DAY STORY -- TODAY I CRIED

I attended a Memorial Day remembrance service in my hometown.  I attended it not only because the horror of war compels me to remember those who serve but also because, as Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address over 150 years ago, "... that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."

Our veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice or who still, today, carry the wounds of war both physical and psychological deserve something from us especially since war has become a volunteer sign up.  Now, a very small percentage of our nation sees military service and an even smaller percentage sees the explosive brutality of war.  The world-wide reality of the potential savagery of man cannot be denied.  Our nation blessed by geographical fortune must rely on those few who volunteer for military service so that we may live.  They do so even when policy makers send them for less than efficacious reasons.  I am still thankful for their service if not thankful for the policies of politicians with seemingly little regard for life send them into a hellish reality and sometimes a hellish end when those leaders have never donned a military uniform or have never seen war up close and personal.

In final analysis, I want our nation to survive not subservient to any religion, to any Trumpian demagogue, or to any ideological dictatorship.  I want it to survive free; able to question, debate, deliberate and protest if necessary.

I also went to the Memorial Day service held in the hall of remembrance of my town because the dead of years gone by rose for me this day.  When I was young my father told me the story of a family with whom my parents were friends and whom they loved much.  Their last name was Barker and my mother's picture bears testament to having known this family as she sat next to their beautiful Christmas tree when invited into their home.  My father recounted to me the story of their wonderful son, Malen Barker, who saw military service in Korea.

It was told to me that before leaving for Korea Malen stopped by our home.  I was probably less than a year old placed in a carriage on our porch.  Malen picked me up, kissed me goodbye, hugged both my parents and said he was saying goodbye because as they quoted him "I will not be back."  He spoke the truth.  He was killed in Korea in 1951 at the age of 21.  Today, he was given posthumously the Medal of Liberty and I wanted to be there for that for him.  I wanted to say thanks to a man I never knew but whom my parents knew well.

I cried today when they sang the National Anthem, I cried today when they sang America the Beautiful, and I cried today when they bestowed the Medal of Liberty to Malen, a man who, today, resurrected for me a time and people long gone by.  Thank you, Malen, and thank you to all the Malens who have given their last full measure of devotion so that our nation may live.

YES, IF YOU WANT THIS NATION TO  LIVE GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE!

Donald Trump, The Psychopath by Steve Becker -- LCSW

An expert in the narcissistic spectrum personality disorders, all along I’ve taken the position that Donald Trump is really a classic narcissist. When people have asked me, “So…whattaya think about Trump?,” that’s been my take–utter, text-book narcissist.
But now I’m thinking Trump is more than a text-book narcissist. With every next  reckless, audacious pronouncement tumbling from his provocative mouth, I’m thinking differently. With every next glib utterance meant simultaneously to exploit and stoke herd-like fears and anxieties, I’m thinking differently. With every next display of jaw-dropping contempt and the glib demonization of huge swatches of populations to whom he ascribes inherently frightful qualities, I’m thinking differently. With every next manifestation of his callousness and remorselessness, I’m thinking differently.

What I’m thinking is, Trump really is quite psychopathic, not just the “narcissistic carnival act” I thought he was. Trump meets the criteria of the “charismatic psychopath.”
I see him, paradoxically, as a “deeply shallow” man which, of course, would be just fine (as there are millions upon millions of “deeply shallow” men)–except that when you’re a charismatic psychopath, “deep shallowness” enables the “perverse rubbernecking” self-amazement at seeing oneself pulling the “puppet strings” of gigantic, susceptible, suggestible audiences; and if you’re a charismatic psychopath, as I believe Trump is, that is as good as crack to a crack addict, which is to say it is the charismatic psychopath’s equivalent “crack high.”

Charismatic psychopaths aren’t deeply, personally invested in what they’re selling or preaching. As they witness the succumbing of their adherents to their glibness, charms and persuasiveness, they may convince themselves that they’re dedicated to their “cause.” But this is mostly a self-delusion. What most intoxicates them is their power to manipulate others.

I question seriously whether Trump has deep convictions about much of anything he says. I’m with those who question whether he really wants to be President. I think it’s possible that Trump, on some level–because I don’t really think he wants to be President–might even be a little unnerved, sub-consciously, that he’s getting himself in “too deep” in a direction he neither anticipated nor wanted to be moving-in, with what is now a somewhat building, chilling momentum.

Now…I could be wrong about that. Maybe Trump really wants to be President and win this thing. But like all charismatic psychopaths, Trump strikes me as embracing and enjoying this “presidential run” as a “big game.” He seems to be enjoying the deployment and impact of his considerable manipulative powers with a perverse delight, perhaps even with a certain incredulity as he sees what he’s doing–even factoring in a malignant ego one would think would be unsurprised by any effect he could pull.

But most importantly, and most indicative of the charismatic psychopath, Trump relishes “the game.” Like so many psychopaths, he positions himself as “persecuted,” in this case making the “liberal media” (among others) his adversary, provoking and waging battle after battle with the latter more for his own amusement–to spar, shock, brandish his oozing contempt–than from a deep conviction about anything.

Trump’s positioning of himself as the “misunderstood, maligned outsider” is a classic stratagem of the charismatic psychopath, a calculated way to recruit, with cult-like cunning, the “disenfranchised” who feel unheard, misunderstood. It is his way of saying, “I, like you–we together–are outsiders! So, you see, I can relate to you! Now follow me and watch what we can do!”

This is his calling card. It’s almost eerily similar to how terror organizations, yes like ISIS–against whom Trump fulminates with his reckless bravado–recruit their followers, appealing to their primitive feelings of estrangement with promises to be heard, taken seriously, taken care of.

When does a joke no longer become funny? When it’s starting to be taken seriously–when the joke-teller, and his audience, no longer recognize the joke, and the joker.
Donald Trump was an absolute joke. But now he’s not so funny. Now he’s not such a joke.

Now, he’s a charismatic psychopath with a real grip that’s really scary–with a real grip on enough people that to talk about him as a serious presidential prospect is now real, and very unfunny.

(This article is copyrighted (c) 2015 by Steve Becker, LCSW)
Here are links to my website, and my latest book (available on Amazon), “The Inner World of the Psychopath: A Definitive Primer on the Psychopathic Personality.”
http://www.powercommunicating.com
http://amzn.to/1HmQqy2
http://unmaskingthepsychopath.com

Drumpf's BIG MOUTH

Trump's race baiting may have gotten him into a bit of a sticky wicket.(See link below.)  Sit back relax and enjoy the show. This time his rotten BIG mouth possibly got him into plenty of trouble.

HRC, will go after this blowhard with a torch. Ultimately, Drumpf could end up in jail or at least paying a nice tidy sum to all those he allegedly defrauded with the fake Trump University if he is ordered to pay a tidy sum.  It could even be referred by the judge to a criminal proceeding. 

He race bated the judge but the judge WILL have the last laugh as Trump must produce about 1000 pages relating to the big con. I cannot think of a more deserving piece of trash than Donald J. Racist Trump who this time his Mexican race bating a Mexican judge will backfire. I hope the judge squashes Drumpf like the bug he is!

 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-orders-release-of-internal-trump-university-documents/2016/05/28/2e960e5e-24f9-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html

The President's Speech at Hiroshima -- Making Sense of the Senseless

Click on the link below and listen to the video of Obama's speech at Hiroshima.  He is the first sitting US president to have gone where the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan 70 years ago by the United States that ended WWII. 

The speech is delivered as only the eloquent Obama can deliver it.  It brings tears to my eyes and strikes a spear to my empathetic heart.  In that one city alone, on a crystal clear blue sky morning, 140,000 human beings disintegrated and their entire city destroyed.  All should see the president and listen to him as he tries to make sense of the senseless.  His speech is NOT a moral indictment of this nation as the only nation to have dropped an atomic bomb for that analysis of policy should be left to historians to judge its efficacy.  It is also NOT an apology to the Japanese people as his Republican opposition would want us to believe it is.  It is, however, a reckoning of the ultimate destructive capacity man now possesses.  Man has the existential ability to eradicate himself, all he has created and indeed the very earth itself.  The president’s speech is one of realistic understanding of not only the technologically possible outcome of war but a warning that nuclear war must never happen.

War spans the civilizations of man since the beginning of time but the weapons of war, through time, have advanced.  Weapons now are not merely spears made out of flint but sophisticated complex bombs that harness the atomic stuff of life itself that can eradicate all life on earth.  The president warns and speaks of man’s ability and, indeed, his necessity to never allow the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war to happen.  Hiroshima shows us it can and why it must not. 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/obama-becomes-1st-sitting-u-s-president-visit-hiroshima-n581496

 DONALD TRUMP IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THIS NATION!  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE!

TRUMP'S NEO-NAZI BACKERS

I paste the story here and below. The full title is: "Trump’s Neo-Nazi And Jewish Backers Are Both Convinced He’s Secretly On Their Side -- Which works out great for him"

I take issue with the title of the story. This racist bastard Trump's response to his neo-Nazi loving supporters is basically NO response at all. Truly, if Trump is not dangerous to the Jewish people, Muslims, and the peaceful transition of power in this nation, too, then I do not know who is.

Threats to the lives by Neo Nazis for Trump made to Jewish conservatives, conservative Jewish journalists and their families are chilling including their desire to send Jews back to the ovens! That brought ZERO response from Trump.

Trump MUST be stopped. I do not care who stops him nor do I care about a gd Hillary email server that did NOTHING but serve to add a can of gasoline to the RepubliCON'S arsenal. I am NOT critical of Secretary Clinton. I think she did what other secretaries of state before her did despite what the IG report said and that this nation's security was NOT compromised. Our national security SURELY is compromised by the presumptive presidential nominee of one of the two major US parties accepting without comment the support of the most extreme anti-Semitic right wingnuts in our nation. The neoNazi group Storm Front calls Trump their "glorious leader" while Trump, remains MUTE in silent acquiesce of their support.

I personally know of NO Jewish conservative backer who would countenance neo Nazi support of Trump nor would they countenance his many racist spewings calling the eminent professor Senator Warren, whose shoes he is NOT fit to shine, an American Indian slur which I will NOT state.

Those so called "conservatives" supporting the Republican Trump can call themselves a host of different names but they cannot call themselves patriots. They are traitors to our nation. How do I know they are traitors? Well, as the conservative Justice Potter Stewart said when he tried to define hard core pornography: "I know it when I see it." 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-neo-nazis-jews_us_5747397be4b0dacf7ad4480e?mowcc0c7ynwmi

A MUST SEE -- felony convicted Wall Street guy Elliot Broidy now heads Trump's Victory Fund

A MUST see as Rachel Maddow explains the corruption of NYstate comptrollers who were paid big time bribes by Wall Street guy Elliot Broidy of Mark Stone Capital so he and his firm could manage NY's $250 million in pension funds.

NY governor Cuomo busted the case. NY state Comptrollers went to jail BUT Wall Street guy Broidy who paid the bribes plead guilty and received a slap on the wrist. NO jail time. He is now Vice Chair of the Victory Fund of Donald Trump and there is more. Watch the Rachel Maddow video of last evening at her show's web site and be surprised -- or not surprised given the rancid state of our politics especially post Trump's vying for President of the United States and prospective nominee of the Republican Party!

Here or below.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

How much more do you have to see to know how horrendous Donald J. Trump is and how he NEVER should become the President of the most powerful nation on earth in control of its nukes?!

CNN Report -- WHY THEY HATE US -- narrated by Fareed Zakaria

This should be required viewing of everyone who cares about mayhem in the Middle East and how US foreign policy figures into the dynamic. It is important, it is necessary to know, and it is life-saving IF we the people want to have some -- albeit ANY -- control on the nefarious things our government does in our ignorance accounting, ultimately, for the rationale behind the massive loss of life here and explosive upheaval around the globe.

Watch and learn what our government has done in our name and maybe one can make sense of the nonsensical!

I paste the link here and below. [There are short commercials within the documentary] or click on the specific short videos below it. Better still search for it within your cable system to watch on your TV.
I also paste text which gives an even clearer accounting of US actions in the Middle East bringing into focus the etiology of so much of the historical hatred against us. Salon gives, perhaps, the best accounting that explains the mayhem and our historical part in it.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/opinions/why-they-hate-us-zakaria/index.html

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/18/this_is_why_they_hate_us_the_real_american_history_neither_ted_cruz_nor_the_new_york_times_will_tell_you/

A Profundity

This is linguistically and cognitively challenging but it is a challenge on which I thrive. In other words: I love it. I urge those who see this link below to wade through it and absorb what are its profundities.

And then, of course, work for Democrats -- ALL Democrats -- to win in November. It is the only choice we have.


http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/22/1528098/-The-sociological-imagination-racism-and-Donald-Trump?detail=email&link_id=15&can_id=43868f2bdc18a23209a08fcec3703cec&source=email-donald-trumpa-psychiatrists-opinion-and-concerns&email_referrer=donald-trumpa-psychiatrists-opinion-and-concerns&email_subject=donald-trump-a-psychiatrists-opinion-and-concerns

Loving

"In 1967, interracial couple Mildred and Richard Loving made history when they helped strike down the law that made their marriage a crime (Youtube below.)" taking their case Loving v. Virginia to the Supreme Court.

What a Dickensian name Loving is for a couple the marriage of whom was all about love and the racist edict in place that prevented their marriage ironically was all about hate. In the 1950's, the glorious time to which Trumpites would love to return and make their nation great again, one could kill a person of color with impunity, but love between black and white human beings could quite possibly get one killed or, at the least, land one in jail.

June, 2017 will mark the 50th anniversary of that monumental decision.  Imagine, it required a Supreme Court finding to allow two people to love each other.  When one thinks of this nation's horrific racist past from slavery even unto this day as certain states still try to deny persons of color the vote and a Roberts Court weakens the 1964 Voting Rights Act, one sees we are not so far from our 1860 Civil War historical past.

Yet again, in different ways from literacy tests and grandfather clauses, states in our time of the now Republican south and elsewhere in this nation try mightily to make voting more difficult for persons of color and the poor.  Moreover, in many states, persons of color have been killed with impunity for often the least offensive non-violent crime, no crime or the crime of simply being black.  We have taken baby steps in the panorama of over 300 years in the nation's efforts toward inclusiveness of persons of color, brought here against their will and in chains, only to find Herculean mountainous obstacles to happiness and the prohibition of rights whites take for granted. The case, Loving v. Virginia is one of the most flagrant examples of entrenched racism that still finds a home in the sinew of a nation which continues to attempt to deny the vote and sometimes even the life of a person of color.

The phenomenon of Trump is the latest example against a besieged people and other minorities – citizens of this nation.  I do not care if FIFTY Trumps are elected, quoting Ted Kennedy from his 1980 Democratic convention speech: "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." The indelible stain of racism in a nation allegedly all about freedom must be, as the civil rights song says, "overcome one day" permanently erased from our nation’s racist past and present-day shame.

https://www.facebook.com/PopSugarCelebrity/videos/10154238616269824/

VOTING DEMOCRATIC IS ONE'S MORAL OBLIGATION.  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE OR TRUMP WILL BE THE NEXT RACIST REALITY!

"She is as fit to be president as Trump is not" -- Why Hillary by Richard North Patterson

An excellent opinion on point: Here or below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/why-hillary-clinton_b_9829044.html

In case you have a penchant for Republicons

DUMP TRUMP bumper stickers, et al

For those who loathe and detest as I do the thought of Trump walking into the oval office below is a link to Amazon where you can purchase bumper stickers. Can also get T-shirts etc. if you search for it there. 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_1_1_hso_sc_smartcategory_3?rh=n%3A15710001%2Ck%3Adump+trump&keywords=dump+trump&ie=UTF8&qid=1463921344&sr=8-1-acs

GETTING BURNED

Sorry all my compatriots who are Bernie lovers, I am now completely not one although I see his appeal among many progressives. If Bernie truly loved the nation and truly did not want to see Drumpf, God forbid, in the oval Bernie would bag his ego, take the influence he has had on the Democratic Party which is huge and soon get out of the race. He needs to take the concessions the Democratic Party is offering him and throw his support STRONGLY to Hillary as well as to other down-ticket Democrats knowing it will keep the horror that is Trump from the halls of power. It will, perhaps, return the Senate to Democrats ensuring a progressive Supreme Court justice replacement for the devastation the now deceased Justice Scalia caused. It will keep all the humane policies Obama created safe from the clutches of those who want to repeal his entire presidency and plotted to do so from the very beginning of it. This must not happen.

Politicians (and Bernie is a politician) often care about their own ego before anything else like the good of the country. Bernie has run so hard he cannot stop even though he must to unite the Democratic Party. If he does not unite the Democratic Party and the Democratic split is responsible for a Trump win Bernie will forever be relegated into the ignominious ash bin of history as Ralph Nader was sixteen years ago ultimately handing the nation 9/11, thousands upon thousands of deaths and a fractured volatile Iraq-driven Middle East courtesy of the know nothing Bush.

The chances of Bernie getting the policy he craves with a Trump presidency is zero. Hillary has been forced to run to her left and that is a good thing. Bernie's candidacy did that. It is time to stop, take stock of one's chances, see that they are zero and unite the Democratic Party. Most especially there can be NO violence lest a Republican Nixonian result occur as it did in 1968. There is NO OTHER WAY but to unite the Democratic Party. I do not care how idealistic one is -- reality speaks! When the doctor says someone is sick and gives one a prescription to get better one does what one is instructed. Getting electorally burned again is not a prescription for wellness. It is a prescription for the cancer that is Trump and the Republican Party returning power to reactionary Republican hands. This is unacceptable. Unite the Democratic Party and save the nation from a fatal burn!

WORK FOR AND UNITE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO SAVE THE NATION FROM THE CANCER THAT IS TRUMP!

FRONTLINE: THE SECRET HISTORY OF ISIS

WHY DONALD J. TRUMP CANNOT BE ALLOWED WITHIN 2 FEET OF THE OVAL OFFICE.  FRONLINE'S EPISODE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ISLAMIC STATE SHOULD BE VIEWING FOR ALL.

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS PROOF POSITIVE WHY A KNOW NOTHING TRUMP SHOULD NEVER BE ELECTED PRESIDENT IF YOU WANT YOUR NATION TO SURVIVE.  I AM NOT BEING OVER DRAMATIC. I AM BEING TRUTHFUL AND ONCE YOU VIEW THIS EPISODE YOU WILL SEE WHY! DEMOCRATS MUST UNITE!



Here or below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/

TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH NBC NEWS!!!

NBC: Tell the whole truth about the Clinton v. Trump polls: 

RCP Average 4/22 - 5/17 -- -- 46.2 42.3 Clinton +3.9
FOX News 5/14 - 5/17 1021 RV 3.0 42 45 Trump +3
Gravis 5/10 - 5/10 1574 RV 2.5 48 46 Clinton +2
PPP (D) 5/6 - 5/9 1222 RV 3.2 47 41 Clinton +6
CNN/ORC 4/28 - 5/1 890 RV 3.5 54 41 Clinton +13
Rasmussen Reports 4/27 - 4/28 1000 LV 3.0 39 41 Trump +2
IBD/TIPP 4/22 - 4/28 814 RV 3.5 47 40 Clinton +7

All General Election: Trump vs. Clinton Polling Data -- Rasmussen and Fox News are traditionally conservative polls but the rest tells a better story!!

Split????

Are you kidding me? A violent split has opened up among Democrats who what are jealous of Republicans because they split their Party in two? At the Democratic convention in Nevada fights broke out allegedly between environmentalists and labor which prohibited Barbara Boxer from speaking. How democratic!

I was witness to the 1968 split in Democratic ranks. You know what it brought us? If you said Republican Richard Nixon you would be right. We are still feeling the effects of that as Republicons gained more muscle reshaped their base and took advantage of the general electorate hating violent so called "hippies" in the street.




Is that what you want? You want to hand the presidency to Trump the most unqualified and demagogic woman hating candidate ever? That is what you will do IF we don't unite. Bernie Sanders supporters and Hillary supporters in the end MUST MUST MUST unite.

Do not make me want to jump off a bridge if that carnival barker takes a walk into the oval office. We will lose the Supreme Court for generations, will lose control of our own bodies, will lose health care and have a foreign policy loaded for bear and the bear is nuclear weapons.

HEED WHAT I SAY. THE CANDIDATES MUST MUST CALL FOR UNITY. THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE. REPUBLICANS LOOK AT A SPLIT IN DEMOCRATIC RANKS WITH GLEE AND ARE SALIVATING AT THE MOUTH. DON'T GIVE THE DISLOYAL OPPOSITION OBSTRUCTIONIST REPUBLICAN PARTY THE SATISFACTION. UNITE!!!!

KUDOS to Charles Blow NYT editoral: "Trump's Asymmetric Warfare"

If there is a better editorial writer than Charles Blow I do not know who they are. The article entitled above was brilliant.

He is the best of the best in commentary!

I paste it below for your enjoyment!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/opinion/trumps-asymmetric-warfare.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fcharles-m-blow&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE.  I SAY THAT IN MY SLEEP.  IS THERE ANYTHING MORE IMPORTANT?  ANSWER: NO!!!

Loving the McAuliffe Library -- Freedom's Feast

I was persuaded to take a look at the new Christa McAuliffe Branch Library on Water Street in Framingham. If you have not had the supreme pleasure of seeing it I wholeheartedly suggest you do. It was a tremendously gratifying experience. The library inside and out is gorgeous. A walk inside, where everything is on the first floor, is simply as wonderful as it is beautiful. It has state of the art everything from computers to books and many books on tape to borrow. It is staffed by host of lovely people willing to help answer any questions you may have. Best of all it is, of course, free. One should take advantage of one of the supreme gifts the public can enjoy. It is truly our First Amendment working for all of us at freedom's feast.

I was reminded of a non-fiction book that was the subject of a book discussion group I ran. It was entitled: "The Promised Land" by Mary Antin. The synopsis of the book on Amazon said it best:  

"Mary Antin arrived in the United States from Russia in the 1890s at the age of 12. Her memoir vividly recaptures scenes from both Old and New World cultures, chronicling the poverty and oppression of Czarist Russia as well as the excitement and challenges of her assimilation into American life at the turn of the twentieth century.

Although she arrived without knowing a word of English, Antin wholeheartedly embraced her new home. "A kingdom in the slums," her Boston neighborhood afforded freedom and intellectual riches in the forms of a secular education, public library, and cultural activities ..."

Her amazement as a young girl at the sight of a public library where she, a Jewish girl, could actually read books for free was emblematic of her amazement at and love for this nation.

The Christa McAuliffe Branch of the Framingham Public Library is fine testament to one of our town's most notable and beloved women, Christa McAuliffe. I am sure Mary Antin would think so too.

DONALD TRUMP MADOFF

Anyone with one half a brain has understood from the beginning that nearly everything Donald Trump says could be proven a lie.  Those who count the lies candidates make have said during the debates and on the campaign trail at least 71% of what comes out of the carnival barker Trump's mouth is a lie.

Now that he is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party his statements, his life and the lies he tells will be microscopically analyzed by the Fourth Estate (hopefully) and regurgitated for the scrutiny of public review.  Running for the presidency in the general election we know is a lot different than running against fellow Republicans in a primary campaign.  Trump will be subjected to a layer-by-layer microscopic examination of his life.

It has begun as I write this since we now know the picture of the presidential race.   Today, the Washington Post revealed that Trump for a long time had called into talk radio programs with various descriptions of what was going on in his private life including his sexual prowess and indiscretions pretending it was not Trump who was calling but someone else revealing the dirt about him.  The tapes were, in fact, ALL Trump and -- don't be stupid, Trump supporters, -- tapes of one's voice can be subjected to the analysis of science which has already occurred.  The voice on the tapes is, in fact, Trump's voice because science has said it is.  He cannot deny it.

The financing scam of his primary campaign is just as it was revealed by savvy politicos months ago.  One merely had to read.  Trump said -- no he bragged -- that his primary presidential campaign was self-funded beholden to no superpac thus not compromising his "policy."   We now know for the general election this has changed and that he is accepting outside funding. In fact, for the primary Trump took out a $36 MILLION dollar loan which now that his campaign will be accepting outside funding from Pac money for the general election the $36 million he borrowed for the primaries can be paid off by the general election funding that he will receive.  That's legal except he did not want the electorate to know it.   To put it another way, Trump waited until the general election before raising funds from Pacs so that his debt in the form of a $36 million dollar loan for the primary election could be paid off in the general election courtesy of Pac money he will accept.  Could this be robbing Peter to pay Paul?  Who could have guessed? Cute very cute even Bernie Madoff would approve.

Then there are his taxes.  He refuses to release them as he says they are being audited.  He is counting on the low level intelligence of his know nothing supporters to accept what he says even though he does not have to wait for an audit to be completed to release them and, indeed, can release other years of his tax reports that are completed.  If he had nothing to hide and was telling the truth he would reveal his tax reports as it would add to the veracity of his campaign.  I aver there probably is something, even many, bombshells to hide. By his own admission he pays as little taxes as possible while you, the middle class, carry the national freight.  The abominations add up.  No doubt there will be infinitely more. 

The Republican elite knew of Trump's deceptions and worked hard to form a Never Trump third Party campaign but alas they were too late.  Apparently, those who work for and support Trump do not think any of the plethora of the lies he tells will matter.  Except in national and international policy they will matter and their consequences will be life threatening and even, potentially, nation ending. 

Donald Trump, there are few places where one can hide anymore.  If you are not on tape you will be on video.  You can run but you cannot hide.  I hope your legs, Mr. Trump, are bigger than your tiny hands because you will need them to run away from the truth as fast as you can. 

The butler, Senecal, with a _____, in the White House

For those of you who remember the game Clue you will recall it was a game the final goal of which was to determine who committed a murder, what they used to commit it and where the dastardly deed was perpetrated. The end looked something like this: The murder was committed by 1. Colonel Mustard 2. with a wrench 3. in the library. There were numerous names, tools and places from whom and from which to choose as one progressed to the final revelatory goal and the win.

The heinous, unspeakable Facebook rants of Anthony Senecal, Donald J. Trump's one time butler elevated by Trump to family historian, come complete with disgusting profanity, murderous desires and unspeakable sentiments calling for the assassination of President Obama and equally vile insults of the First Lady, Michelle Obama reminded me of the game, Clue.

The exception, of course, is Clue was a game and these are real life thirsts placed in writing by a longtime friend and employee of the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for President, Donald J. Trump. Senecal has been known to and employed by Trump for 30 years. I think that is important because Senecal stands in line with host of hateful rightwing nationalists, white supremists and extremist supporters of Trump including but surely not limited to David Duke, the once former grand wizard of the Knights of the Klan whom Trump claims to not know conveniently forgotten by him now. He did know him and said so at another time. There are many others with similar ugly hate-filled political sentiments that gleefully support the unqualified-for-the-presidency, Trump.

My mother used to say a person is judged by the company he keeps and Trump keeps a host of noxious advocates who make up the lowest common denominator and character of part of our national politics. The recessive hateful gene which exists in the national DNA sitting unexpressed and simmering, waiting for the right moment to violently strike or for the right candidate to support its ugly advocacy.

Trump can disavow knowledge of a variety of hate organizations and crackpots who support him but he CANNOT claim ignorance of a man who was employed by and known to him for 30 years. This time the answer to the Clue mystery could be the butler, with an unknown weapon in the White House.

one can be sure if a Democrat had employed someone for 30 years who wrote as Senecal did against a sitting Republican president and that candidate did not disavow and fire him he would never have seen the inside of the oval office and neither should Trump.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/trump-butler-anthony-senecal-facebook-kill-obama

YOU KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE -- GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE ALL OVER THE NATION OR FACE A NATION SATURATED WITH THE POLITICS OF HATE!

This is with whom Donald Trump hangs around and why he is so dangerous! Never read anything so disgusting

If you wonder why rightwingnuts like David Duke and the KKK love Trump wonder no more. Read the following if you can stomach it!

BUTLER BOMBSHELL!

Longtime Trump Staffer Calls For Obama's Execution... Trump Camp: 'Has Not Worked At Mar-A-Lago For Many Years'... NYT Profiled Him Two Months Ago... Estate's 'Unofficial Historian'... 'Close To The Trump Family'...
LAST JUNE: Trump 'My Employer And Friend'...

Anemic Pink

It's weird here. That is spring has not sprung but has limped in.

It is slow BUT worse than that my gorgeous flowering cheery tree that always flowers in spectacular deep floral pink with BIG flowers this year I label them anemic pink. The tree still flowered but the flowers are small, dying more quickly and look an unhealthy light pink.

Is global climate change to blame? My personal opinion: A RESOUNDING YES!! What would a Donald Trump win do for the obvious weather disintegration of our nation and the planet on which we reside? NOTHING because the narcissistic blabbermouth says he does not believe in climate change. Why? I suspect not because he holds that view. I am sure he does not care and will hold any view that can get him elected. In this case his know nothing supporters do not believe in the climate change that 99.999% of global climate change scientists do, say climate change is REAL and that the evidence indisputable.

Trump says he loves dumb people. WELL HE'S GOT THEM and PLENTY of them; know nothings trying to elect a man who will go in for the oval office kill and, if he gets there, will dismember our nation. Trump is an abomination. This narcissistic fool MUST NOT get near the oval office if one wants a nation left! He is disgustingly profane and an embarrassment in front of the world. The part of our nation that thinks he's the next thing to Nirvana and heaven is in one word DUMB, the cerebral status he says he loves. We who love science, value rational thought and like to think of ourselves as humane say DUMP TRUMP!

Like Columbo would say -- just one more thing: Can you see 11 MILLION human beings allegedly "undocumented" some who have lived here for generations establishing a family life -- leaving their children born here or taking their children with them going quietly into the night while they are scooped up by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) with probable military assistance to be repatriated? What could possibly go wrong? This nation would then lose a trillion GDP bucks while the markets sink. Those workers actually contribute to our nation and spend the money they make!

Force Trump aka Drumpf to release his gd taxes and then when one sees his avoidance of paying them as the middle class does DUMP him like a bad dream into the ash bin of history!

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH: GET THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE OUT AND THEN PRAY THAT STUPIDITY DOES NOT WIN THE DAY INSTEAD OF SANITY AND RATIONAL THOUGHT!

America the Unexceptional -- Excerpt from "American Power Under Challenge" (link below)

"The next target of the sledgehammer was Iraq. The U.S.-UK invasion, utterly without credible pretext, is the major crime of the twenty-first century. The invasion led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people in a country where the civilian society had already been devastated by American and British sanctions that were regarded as “genocidal” by the two distinguished international diplomats who administered them, and resigned in protest for this reason. The invasion also generated millions of refugees, largely destroyed the country, and instigated a sectarian conflict that is now tearing apart Iraq and the entire region. It is an astonishing fact about our intellectual and moral culture that in informed and enlightened circles it can be called, blandly, “the liberation of Iraq.”

Pentagon and British Ministry of Defense polls found that only 3% of Iraqis regarded the U.S. security role in their neighborhood as legitimate, less than 1% believed that “coalition” (U.S.-UK) forces were good for their security, 80% opposed the presence of coalition forces in the country, and a majority supported attacks on coalition troops. Afghanistan has been destroyed beyond the possibility of reliable polling, but there are indications that something similar may be true there as well. Particularly in Iraq the United States suffered a severe defeat, abandoning its official war aims, and leaving the country under the influence of the sole victor, Iran."

"The sledgehammer was also wielded elsewhere, notably in Libya, where the three traditional imperial powers (Britain, France, and the United States) procured Security Council resolution 1973 and instantly violated it, becoming the air force of the rebels. The effect was to undercut the possibility of a peaceful, negotiated settlement; sharply increase casualties (by at least a factor of 10, according to political scientist Alan Kuperman); leave Libya in ruins, in the hands of warring militias; and, more recently, to provide the Islamic State with a base that it can use to spread terror beyond. Quite sensible diplomatic proposals by the African Union, accepted in principle by Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, were ignored by the imperial triumvirate, as Africa specialist Alex de Waal reviews. A huge flow of weapons and jihadis has spread terror and violence from West Africa (now the champion for terrorist murders) to the Levant, while the NATO attack also sent a flood of refugees from Africa to Europe."

"Yet another triumph of “humanitarian intervention,” and, as the long and often ghastly record reveals, not an unusual one, going back to its modern origins four centuries ago."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noam-chomsky/american-power-under-challenge-who-rules-the-world_b_9866204.html?utm_hp_ref=yahoo&ir=Yahoo
 
NO NEED TO SAY WHAT A DONALD TRUMP WOULD DO IF GIVEN THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM.  MAKE SURE HE DOES NOT GET THEM!

AN EXCELLENT POST BY A FELLOW BLOGGER

"I kind of wonder how the Republicans will feel after they realize that they have done their "party" in for good. The chickens are coming home to roost. They have spent their political capital over the years gerrymandering districts, making it harder for people to vote and pushing a failed ideology. Before I get jumped all over about that failed comment, keep in mind; conservative Ideological purity in both Kansas and Louisiana have left both states near bankrupt, unable to provide the very basic services a state needs such as medical care,hospitals and education. Even the football program at LSU is under the knife due to lack of funding. Cant help but notice that all those wealthy individuals who benefited from the huge tax cuts that caused these problems are not trickling down to save these or other programs. We only prosper as a nation when we all prosper. So they will run against Trump because he is not a "principled conservative", subvert the will of millions of (r) voters and lose anyway. The idea that they could get 270 electoral votes in this scenario is as delusional as, well, they are."

Sue Brief fellow blogger and compatriot!.

King Coal

EXCELLENT article by Scott Leigh in the May 8, 2016 Boston Sunday Globe entitled "Trump and Clinton campaign in Coal Country" linked here or below. Secretary Clinton's opinion on coal said in West Virginia to miners may not have won the day when she said it and Trump may now be considered King Coal but Clinton speaks the undeniable truth that coal is losing jobs and will be losing more for a reason and the reason is man's reliance on fossil fuels, including most especially coal, that cause global climate change. West Virginians, of course, did not want to hear that. If the media played the rest of Clinton's speech they would have heard that she wants to turn lost miners' coal jobs into other clean energy and infrastructure jobs to compensate for the loss of coal jobs in W. Virginia. But the media sounds bites are geared for the average American attention span of about 10 seconds and its love of sugarcoated happy ending stories. Myth will serve them just fine. Reality check: Trump will NOT return coal jobs to W. Virginia because science has the last word on everything no matter how hard one wants to deny its truth.

If coal were the wave of the future jobs would be booming in West Virginia but it's not. Those cheering for Trump deliriously are deluded and sometimes uneducated. I can understand their worry BUT climate change trumps (pardon the pun) all. One CANNOT deny science and 99.99999 percent of all neutral scientists who work in the field of global climate change who say it is real, it exists and there is ample proof for evidence. Gravity exists, bacteria cause disease, vaccinations do not cause autism and fossil fuels cause climate change. Science tells us their truth. Believe what science tells us or believe a carnival barker who cares nothing about you but cares about winning the day for himself. Having a cold winter means NOTHING and why would anyone think it does but extreme weather events do. If one cannot see what is right in front of ones eyes all over the nation and the world (witness the massive explosive fire caused by extreme climate change drought in Canada which is still burning its smoke trailing down to Florida seen from space) then we are a doomed hopeless species.

Vicious weather events will pay a visit to even coal country soon if they haven't experienced it already. But, go ahead all you ostriches who bury your heads and want to hear only things that make you cheer and feel good as horrific droughts, extreme hurricanes, massive tornadoes, and floods galore have already come to our nation en masse displacing thousands costing billions and will be paying a visit to your town and you sometime soon.

DEMOCRATS, PROGRESSIVES AND PEOPLE WITH A BRAIN WE ARE IN TROUBLE IF GOD FORBID A THOUSAND TIMES, TRUMP THE BLOWHARD WINS. DO NOT LET HIM. GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE. YOU WILL SAVE A LIFE AND ME FROM JUMPING OUT THE WINDOW!

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/05/07/coal-miners-struggle-reinvent-themselves/

Dirty Laundry--My NYT opinion online

Today Trump was at an all time INSULTING high from the class act Elizabeth Warren whom he called a "doofus" as this uncouth blowhard insults her, to Clinton's sexual indiscretions and Hillary's "enabling" to insulting so many in his own Republican Party. This guy is a loose cannon for sure who could have his hands--small though they may be--on the nuclear codes. Hillary could not have given a more apt appellation of Trump.I do not mind admitting I am scared when Trump says he wants to conduct a foreign policy that would eliminate our longest most strategically successful alliance, NATO, to leaving Japan and South Korea without our protection allowing them to develop nukes like their sane next door neighbor N. Korea. What could possibly go wrong?

The hypocrite Trump should not talk about the splinter in the other guy's eye when he has a log or logs in his own. Since the Bible is his favorite book one wonders if he has read that thought allegedly uttered by the head CEO of Christianity, Jesus Christ himself. Trump's own sexual indiscretions by his own admission are legion -- married three times, by his wife's own words allegedly raped her, and speaks near incestuous talk about his own daughter. He even enjoyed a stint on Howard Stern's Sirius radio broadcasting his own filth to the immediate world. This coming from a possible occupier of the oval office? Why after listening to his sexcapades do I feel like I need a shower? Trump is disgusting and SO bad I don't know whether to laugh at him or cry. How did someone who is a bully blowhard as neurotically close to psychotic as he get this far? I am embarrassed for other nations to see our dirtiest laundry. Cannot someone please do a wash?

DEMOCRATS AND ALL HUMAN BEINGS WITH AN OUNCE OF HUMANITY ARE IN EMERGENCY MODE TO ERADICATE THIS REPUBLICAN CANCER FROM OUR MIDST LESS IT SPREAD FAST AND KILL US. FOR YOU, YOUR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED. VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS AND SIGN UP ALL THOSE WHO NEED TO BE ENROLLED TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS IN NOVEMBER. THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE!

Trump Against Gay Marriage-- A Vote Against ME--My personal thoughts and then some

My Thoughts: How do you think it would make YOU feel if someone who is a potential nominee of one of the two major parties running for president said YOU could not get married to the one you love and that YOU are a second class citizen of the United States; that YOU do not have rights that everyone else has; that YOU cannot adopt children; that YOU cannot teach in schools if a state says you cannot because of your sexual orientation and that YOU cannot buy flowers from a business because the owner of that business simply does not like your sexual preference.  It offends him.
Step in the other person's shoes for awhile and just think how YOU would feel.  And then think of some of the people you know and love who told you of their orientation and that they were frightened by a Cretan who just may take the presidency because he wants to eliminate what should be rightfully yours and that he is a threat not only to the quality of your life but to your life itself.  

If you thought about all of that then I will tell you I have too because, big surprise, I am gay.  Yep, knew it from age 3.  Is that convincing enough that it is NOT a choice but a genetic orientation?  I hope so because if you are against all those things that Trump is against then YOU are against ME and if you are against ME then it is my survival that is at stake and I WON'T without a fight let anyone take what has become, after decades if not centuries of struggle, rightfully ours.  Think on that for awhile before you ever think of voting for the hater Trump because a vote for him is a vote against me!

Glad's (Gay and Lesbian Defenders)
Taken from Glad (link):  https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=trump+to+rid+of+gay+marriage&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001
"Donald Trump has started throwing gay and lesbian families under the bus as part of his celebrity businessman act, using his platform to argue against giving these families the same protections that other families have access to."

Donald Trump on marriage equality:

"I'm not in favor of gay marriage. They should not be able to marry."
"I just don't feel good about it. I don't feel right about it. I'm against it… I'm opposed to gay marriage."

"Trump recently appeared on Fox News and made his position clear by emphatically saying once again, “I'm against gay marriage.”

Trump is out of step with many Americans, who are increasingly supportive of marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Last week CNN released the fourth credible poll in the past eight months to show an outright majority of Americans in favor of marriage equality.  
Trump is sending the message to the 1 million gay couples who are raising approximately 2 million kids in the United States that they shouldn't be treated equally. He wants their viewership for his shows and their money at his properties (Gay and lesbian travelers spend an estimated $17 billion a year for tourism), but Trump doesn't want to allow them the same dignity and respect as all loving couples and families. This is both an unfair and unwise business practice.

Trump has taken to disparaging the families of gay and lesbian couples as a tactic to get attention for his candidacy. Using Trump's own famous catch phrase, we would like to tell him "You're fired!"
 

Photos of Bush on 9/11 (linked below)

He was told that bin Laden to attack the US in his PDB and did nothing but go to Texas and cut brush and then, play a round of golf. After the catastrophe he then invaded a nation, Iraq, based on lies because he could and for other reasons too numerous to state. 5000 Americans and still counting have died. Iraq turned into a blood bath after he stated Mission Accomplished in his flight suit outlining his genitalia. Sickening. Some mission accomplished as Iraq exploded in sectarian violence. Bush, et al had NO plan for what came after did not know a Sunni, Shite from a baseball. The Middle East exploded more and now look at it courtesy of George W. Bush.It is awful. ISIS and AQAP never before there is now and is sweeping many Middle Eastern countries. War, famine, brutality and refugees is the Bush legacy.

Don't let Trump say he was against the Iraq war. Initially like most everyone else he approved. He was for it until he was against it. Ashamedly, I believed the president and never thought he would lie about such a serious enormous thing. He fractured the entire Middle East has sent refugees by the millions to Europe and beyond. Death and destruction is everywhere. This is what the Bush administration gave you, America, and a Trump administration will give us worse MUCH worse. God forbid that blowhard know nothing ever comes near the oval office. As Oppenheimer said after the construction of the nuclear bomb taken from the Bagavad Gita I say about Trump: "Now I am become death destroyer of worlds."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/exclusive-new-photos-show-bushs-response-to-911-attacks/


BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY DO NOT LET A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BECOME REALITY. HE IS A BRUTAL BUT SMART BEAST WITH NO MORALITY, ETHICS, OR CHARACTER. DO NOT LET HIM TAKE THE OVAL. WORK AS HARD AND AS MUCH AS YOU CAN FOR DEMOCRATS!

PHOTO OF A DIGNIFIED MAN!

Obama is such a dignified man

Winning Democrats

GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE