LADY GAGA A GEM -- A video worth viewing

Tears stream down my face as Lady Gaga shows again her humanity and kindness while revealing something about herself most do not know. Sometimes all it takes is one person to make one realize there is, indeed, hope for mankind.

Lady Gaga is a gem and a role model for all of us. I urge you to watch the video linked below !

http://www.today.com/video/lady-gaga-talks-about-rape-and-ptsd-encourages-young-people-to-share-kindness-825006147827

Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump

Christopher Suprun who wrote the New York Times article entitled above and linked below is a Republican. He stated succinctly and in well-written form exactly what I would say making the case against voting for Donald Trump if one were an elector. His thoughts are bipartisan. I will not reiterate those reasons as one can read them in his opinion.

It has been clear to me since Trump's staged ride down the escalator in Trump Tower announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, and in the days promoting his campaign that this man Donald J. Trump is as far away from possessing the qualifications necessary to run a nation of 350 million people as would be a Barnum and Bailey clown. As president he will pose a clear and present danger to not only our nation but, indeed, the world by his lack of intellect and curiosity about it. If one cannot see that one is truly myopic as his behavior has made those facts crystal clear for all to see. 

Franklin Roosevelt In his 1941 "Four Freedoms" State of the Union address stated the fourth freedom was the freedom from fear. I have never in my many years observing the political scene felt a sense of dread and fear at a man this unqualified who will assume arguably the most powerful office in the world. There is a sense of incredulity and terror at what this nation has done. If one does not care about one's life and the lives of succeeding generations placed at risk by the eternally confounding Trump as president then there is nothing more I could say to change one's mind. Read Mr. Suprun's article and then ask God to help us, the only world and the only planet in which we live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html?_r=0

Donald Trump Speaks To Taiwan’s President, Reversing Decades Of U.S. Policy--HUGE BLUNDER!

This is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE foreign policy blunder and he is not even sworn in yet! The Department of State must be having heart attacks.

This chutzpah has not happened in 37 years. The US treads CAREFULLY where Taiwan is concerned so as not to vex the BIGGEST nuclear power beside the US, China. China does not even admit Taiwan exists. See link below.
It is possible this lummox is SO stupid and SO unqualified that he got someone like John Bolton to suggest he call Taiwan without him knowing this was SICKENINGLY awful -- lead to nuclear war type awful.

This is the idiot you bought, America, the world's GREATEST CON just like Romney said except now Romney got conned. Romney got played and will never be secretary of state! What a joke except the joke is on us!

Anyone know where can I get a good bomb shelter?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-calls-taiwan_us_5841f96be4b017f37fe4bcae

SUPPORT COVENANT HOUSE PROTECTING LGBT YOUTH -- MY COMMENT

Quoting the president of Covenant House:  "What we've learned during out 45 years of caring for homeless kids is that nearly 40% of these young people identify as LGBTQ. That's because "coming out" often means getting kicked out." - Kevin Ryan, President of Covenant House

Support us in protecting our LGBTQ youth.

Covenant House is a nonprofit charity serving homeless youth with a network of shelters across the Americas.

Donate Now

covenanthouse.org

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My Comment:

Parents who kick their own child out for something that is biologically predetermined possibly hormonal in the first few weeks of pregnancy is just plain ugly. I have to believe it is out of parental ignorance and religious dogma not out of intrinsic evil of the parents who do that.

I am Jewish. I turned my back on it and religion in general after thinking, in part, about the devastating passages in Leviticus from the Old Testament which my own people crafted 5000 years ago. It haunts, devastates and crushes LGBT youth even to this day. Fundamentalists have chosen the OT over the NT to justify their hate of LGBT people even if it is their own children and even though Jesus, whom they call god's son, said absolutely nothing about homosexuality. This Levitical OT Biblical passage and code has ruined lives, caused suicides and even murders. I was just plain angry.

Judaism, however, and some sects of Protestant (Unitarian, Congregationalist and others) change as the culture changes and advancements in science show in this case a biological link to one's sexual orientation perhaps even a genetic chromosomal link at conception.

It is sad that these passages in Leviticus have caused so much pain to LGBT youth but the progressive change in some religious sects such as Reform and even some Conservative Judaism is testament to man's ability to adapt as science and LGBT's own youth clarifies that they felt homosexual for as long as their memory clarifies it.

I would say it gets better BUT then there is Trump who marries his campaign to the Bible, which I suspect he does not read nor believe, appealing to Fundamentalists to get their votes. Trump has encouraged regressive hate yet again as hate crimes against gays and other minorities are, of course, up.

We must resist, we must persevere and work hard to electorally overthrow a mean, cruel and regressive Republican controlled Congress led by its mean, cruel, and regressive president who not only had three marriages (something Jesus would not have sanctioned) but has been unfaithful to all those to whom he was married! Can you spell hypocrite? My motto: onward!

Democracy Now

Listen to education experts talk about Trump's nomination of "Public Enemy No. 1" as Education Secretary Betty deVos the most unqualified person to occupy this seat. She is a wingnut religious fanatic whose sole purpose is to eradicate the public school system as we know it and replace it with for profit charter schools and vouchers, a direct threat to public education supporting her own world wingnut religious view.

She is yet another billionaire whose husband is the founder of Amway and whose brother is Eric Prince the founder of the mercenary army Blackwater accused of many war crimes in Iraq.

If you want REAL news go to Democracy Now online (see link below) where you will get unfiltered views which is a far cry from our corporate news universally skewed to the right broadcasts!

https://www.democracynow.org/

Bribery at Carrier Swamp -- It's a Brave New World

Trump's so called jobs saving effort convincing Carrier Air Conditioning not to ship its American jobs to Mexico is a sham. Yes, jobs were saved as Carrier says it will not move BUT at what expense? Trump achieved the agreement at the expense of the Indiana taxpayer when Vice-President Elect Pence remaining as governor of Indiana until the January swear-in saw to it that "Indiana taxpayers will pay $700,000 a year and Pence will approve the expenditure on the 13th. It does not need to go through any review or voting process." [citation unknown.] It is essentially a bribe using state taxpayer money so Carrier would not relocate from the US to Mexico. Where is Trump's fabulous business negotiating skill and promise NOT to use taxpayer money but rather to make the corporation pay? It's shocking -- NOT!

Trump said he was going to drain the swamp but, as I have said repeatedly, he IS the swamp. He said he was going to make companies that take their jobs overseas pay a hefty tax when they want to sell their goods back into the US and screamed against the DC legislators' swamp when it uses taxpayer money written into one bill or another as a bribe for corporations to get what they want but that is EXACTLY what he did this time at Indiana taxpayer expense. If a Democrat did that the uproar would be cacophonous! Can you spell LIAR? So what else is new? Trump and his minions lie by the carload.

Will Nancy Pelosi, the newly re-elected Speaker of the House and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer do something so that we in the progressive majority of the nation are not crushed by the Republican national minority which has sought power and gotten it through the gerrymandering of state districts and suppression of minority votes especially black and Hispanic votes? Persons of color should vote no matter what obstacles unethical Republicans put in their path. That is easy for me to say but it must be done, in truth, to save what remains of a democratic middle and working class nation. Democratic leadership should ensure it be done. Democrats loudly and unbowed must hold Republican feet to the fire!

The Democratic National Committee and others who care about justice should help minorities vote if the hardship is too great for one to bear and bring all the power Leader Pelosi's and Senate Minority Leader Schumer's Democrats may have to bear (1) to elect Democrats to both federal and state offices (2) to scream loudly and clearly for investigation of soon-to-be President Trump's Constitutional Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) violation that his massive foreign business holdings incur (3) implore the Democratic National Committee to do what it can to help Democrats vote upending Republican vile, nefarious and unethical voter suppression of persons of color in both state and federal elections.

Trump is doing what he said he never would and that is placing in high cabinet positions the lap dogs of Wall Street most especially the oft hated by Trump, Goldman Sachs. I am SO surprised -- NOT! If Democrats held even one tier of Congressional power Republicans and Trump would NEVER be allowed to do what they are starting now to do even before Trump is sworn in. The House under the contemptible Republican say one thing but do another Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refuses to allow investigations into Trump's massive conflicts of interest his national and most especially problematic his international holdings present. Chafetz held House hearings galore into everything Hillary which went nowhere but cost the taxpayer MILLIONS! Surely, the obviousness of Trump's flouting Constitutional law demands scrupulous investigation. If this doesn't then nothing does.

Where is the public outrage at Carrier Swamp? Welcome to Brave New World!

Democrats Demand Trump’s Tax Returns And An Investigation Into His Conflicts Of Interest

RepubliCONS do not start your celebration quite yet!
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/28/democrats-demand-trumps-tax-returns-investigation-conflicts-interest.html

The Power of Fear

https://www.facebook.com/Mediamatters/videos/10154084955956167/


Antidote:  RESIST

Spinning

Has the entire nation gone insane? I feel like I've been having a nightmare and when I wake up the reality I wake up to will NOT have a President Elect Trump in it. This nation is in deep trouble as our nation's adversary, the Republican Party as it has now morphed, is poised to take it all and they are trying to and have done it already through gerrymandering and voter suppression. They will have the Presidency, the House and Senate majority.  Worse they soon, when Trump is in office, will have the courts and by the way they control much of the media's message.  Another justice such as Scalia will tip over the civil libertarian progress honed over decades and place power into the hands of mostly white oligarchs returning this nation to the 1950's and earlier robber baron eras. Trump will be nominating Jeff Sessions for attorney general who will go after the rest of the Voting Rights Act. All the human rights legislation created under Lyndon Johnson such as the Civil Rights Act which saw a new day for those who were, for 200 years, kept out of this nation's bounty is at risk of falling halting our nation's human rights progression and returning it to those previous eras. 

We will and are now beginning to know what the face of fascism looks like. America, you have just sold out your nation because you just simply do not like the color of a person's skin!  This is the most horrific historical time I have ever experienced bar none. I now realize what my parents saw as the rise of Adolph Hitler stood imminent for them.  At least during WWII the Democratic president fought for the values of the founding of this nation as the nation put Roosevelt in office four terms to save it.
When the media is controlled the news is controlled and there is no bulwark Fifth Estate to stop the Trumpian madness. I now can understand how those Germans who loved democracy must have felt before it fell as fascism and the Nazis came to power through the ballot. They thought Herr Hitler would never do what he said. We now know he did and 70 or more million dead throughout the world was his legacy and proof of it.  President Roosevelt and a Winston Churchill fought for the democratic values that founded this nation. The nation in our time progressed. It is now poised to regress. What happened to us that we let this Republican Party run amok and those of us who love democracy were asleep at the switch?  What happened that a corrupt minority in this nation could gain such immense power to rule over the majority negating every positive civil libertarian legislation so many have given their lives to craft? 

Trump's conflicts of interest are legion and stagger the mind.  He claims the president is immune from requirement to divest himself of those businesses which could and will conflict with national policy so he will not do that and his children are NOT blind trusts.  The nation will be his personal cash cow using taxpayer money to enrich him and his family beyond their wildest dreams.  Will Democrats meekly shrink as they often do from their responsibility to stop this madness? One hopes not!  I am buoyed that those beings with some humanity still exist in the majority of this nation as it faces through nefarious means rule by the minority. Trump said he was going to drain the swamp but he IS the swamp and claims the president is immune from the requirement to divest himself of those businesses which could and will conflict with national policy. 

We have never faced a democracy obliterating president such as Trump.  Will Democrats meekly shrink as they often do from their responsibility to stop this madness? One hopes not!   Democrats, progressives, persons of color, Hispanics, Jews and yes, American Muslims, the disabled and others who amount to the majority of this nation should not let the minority create the impending doom of our democracy. Keith Olbermann in his last opinion in GQ on the Internet mandates the nation RESIST; Resist non violently but resist and do NOT let up. Our Founders now are beginning to spin in their graves!

Castro Dead

That was one of Trump's brilliant tweets when he first heard of Castro's death -- "Fidel Castro is Dead"  Oh, Trump, one of your more heart stopping tweeting perceptions!

 
One hopes, as man usually does, this will not be screwed up with violence breaking out between Castro's brother Raul into whose leadership Cuba has been entrusted and those who want to overthrow him on the right. Will the US help them along? Who knows?  It would NOT surprise me if the CIA sends in the drones to lend an assist. Stay tuned! Think Bay of Pigs II.

A bit of irony Trump writing uncomplimentary words, of course, about Castro when he went against the law to develop businesses in Cuba which was illegal at the time. According to the September 28, 2016 Daily News: "The "Castro Connection" story claims Trump spent at least $68,000 in 1998 for a business foray into Cuba — even though any corporate activity in the Caribbean country was completely illegal without government approval at the time."

How about the DOZENS of right wing dictatorships the US supported for which often the US was behind a coup -- Example Allende in Chile much loved leader duly elected in Chile but replaced by CIA nefarious activity installing Pinochet a brutal military dictatorship and killer of anyone who opposed him.

Oh yes,  there was the Iran Contra affair where Oliver North tried to overthrow the Nicaraguan Sandanistas sanctioned by Reagan going against the Boland Amendment prohibiting such acts. No problem, just pardon them all!

Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Donald Trump where are your words of condemnation for the many right wing military dictatorships the US supported if not singularly tried to create through coups and overthrows. I remember US history. Please do not forget the United Fruit Co. Per Wiki:

"The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was a covert operation carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed dictators who ruled Guatemala."

Multiply that by dozens more!  Fidel Dead?  Yes, and so is American Democracy.  Benjamin Franklin's words:  You have a Republic if you can keep it. Obviously we can't.  When Trump takes the oath (assuming he does) I will be wearing a black armband for the death of a nation whose democracy was once the envy of the world.  Trump was right on one thing.  The 2016 election was rigged.  It was rigged NOT by Hillary Clinton but by him!  He will NEVER be my president!

Do we have a deal?

He says things one minute and reverses them the next. One can never believe what he says. Okay my mind wanders. What if this is the biggest con ever sold to Republicrats? What if he does truly help this nation by not doing all those sickening things he said he would?  Well, I would rethink my anger and hostility toward him BUT he also MUST not go after immigrants or Muslims then we may have a deal!

Good going America -- Here is what you bought!

NOT TO MENTION A PRESIDENT WITH AD INFINITUM WORLD WIDE BUSINESS CONFLICTS WHICH HE SAYS A PRESIDENT CAN HAVE.  I BEG TO DIFFER -- "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.  Article I, Section 9, Clause 8" Emoulement's Clause - US Constitution

The Gap and the Glory

The task of scrupulously monitoring the presidency soon to be before us is daunting and depends much upon Republicans many of whom if not most in Congress seemingly have lined up like good soldiers behind the authoritarian Trump.  The motivation behind the two thousand opinions I have written since 2004 has crashed. I feel like Sisyphus pushing that massive rock up the mountain only to be smacked down by its weight making him begin all over again. 

As President Obama's term winds down I have wanted to write two opinions: one about the massive gap between the right and left and what makes us so entirely different.  What makes one group want to embrace the variety of human beings on the planet, care about them and help them but the other on the right wants to obliterate them as they seek world domination of their own singular (white) tribal group?  What make one loathe war and the other love the fight's killing?  What makes these groups so opposite and their fight for power between them so verbally and sometimes physically so bloody? How did we get an Alt Right sympathetic president paying homage to American Nazis or Nationalists putting Steve Bannon, the champion of the right wing extremist sometime conspiratorial Brietbart.com just 5 feet from the president's ear.  Why is the media of sensationalist origin paying homage to a right wing nationalist Nazi-like Party that shows outstretched Heil Trump Nazi-like saluting arms?  This is an America I do not recognize and worse this cancer is globally spreading courtesy of Trump.

The subject is vast requiring, perhaps, a well researched book.  My question is not only about the extremes but everywhere in between them.  It encompasses psychology, sociology, economic philosophy and more.  It is the difference between the extremes of Karl Marx on the left and Ayn Rand on the right. In short, why is the right's philosophical base characterized by giving an inhumane uncaring cold shoulder to the poor but possessing a feverish heat for world dominion and the left is noted for its compassion toward those who have less and are dogged by fortune's flight.  The right of center George W. Bush, who made war on a people who did nothing to us and eternally fractured the entire Middle East, called himself a "compassionate conservative."  I always thought if one had to put that adjective in front of "conservative" then conservative must be noted for its lack of compassion and cruelty without conscience.  Who would say compassionate liberalism?  Liberalism by it very definition is inherently compassionate.

The other opinion I wanted to write is a thank you note to President Obama whom I wish could occupy a Rooseveltian presidency for more years than 8!  He seems to me now so wonderful despite those within the Democratic Party who decried some policy.  President Obama is a giant intellect arguably made for the highest most powerful office in the world.  We get now, compared to him, a deranged narcissist, anti-intellectual, ignorant, incompetent and unfit-to-occupy-the presidency, Trump, lining up to take President Obama's place.  I shudder at the thought.  Yes, I am indescribably scared.  What on god's earth will Trump do with his legion conflicts of interest?  He has over 500 businesses in all parts of the globe.  He sometimes says he will put it in the protection of a blind trust within the Trump family.  That is NOT I repeat NOT a blind trust.  The con Trump will use the presidency as his cash cow with taxpayer money and there is no one to blame but 1/2 of this vast nation who put him in office. You will get the president for whom you voted.  The gap between left and right and between Obama and Trump is as wide as the oceans. 

I saw the president, yesterday, bestow 21 Medals of Freedom on a most diverse array of humanity who have contributed so much to this nation and the world.  The president said that the Medal of Freedom was “a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better.” Those who received the medal from Michael Jordan and Karem Abul Jabar to Ellen DeGeneres, whose tears receiving the medal welled up in her eyes, are what excellence looks like and is composed of what America is or has been.  Ellen made me cry too.  All those wonderful artists from all walks of life received this nation's tribute of the Medal of Freedom from a president whose academic brilliance shines like a star in the heavens.  Those who received it were a rainbow flag of color as Obama tried to project his presidential legacy in the little time he has left to occupy the office.  The subjects about which I am thinking require a Herculean effort.  My mantra is always onward.  I hope I and all of us can now live up to the glory of its calling. 

The Generation of Hate

"Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list."  See link below.

If one reads the link below one will see how much -- the middle class, minorities, the poor and many others who are among the unlucky ones to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune -- have to lose. The Trump presidency with their Congressional Republican majorities is poised to pass devastating legislation obliterating decades of hard-fought-for-programs and enacting massive tax cuts for the 1% unless the usually spineless Democrats in the minority can muster unusual-for-them explosive opposition. This time, however, President Obama will not be there to veto but a Trump presidency will be there to sign it.

Ultimately, over years, the national debt will balloon to trillions more as the fantasy of trickle down economics lives up to the progressive indictments of it. It will fail but the richest 1%, of course, as the last 2007 Great Recession proved, will not suffer. In fact, they will gain. The middle class will be devastated the most as it shoulders yet again the burden of another Great Recession to come or even a revisit to the 1929 Great Depression. Regressive time travel is Trump and his Republicans' recipe for progress but it will not be progress for the middle class and the worker. It will be a Mar-a-Lao table of opulence set for the top 1% and we will be their servants or we will be dead and who will care?

I fear the protests against Trump's hateful policies we saw after his election will stop or significantly slow just as Occupy Wall Street did because it is hard to keep momentum of that especially in the cold winter months. Legislation will pass that is devastating to the middle class and the poor but euphoria to the top 1% richest. This nation, at least part of it, has elected the single most ugly and the single most destructive elements to power who will devastate those who have little and will fall like a ton of bricks on the immigrant, persons of color, the poor and anyone else who is considered a minority or the other.

Brace yourself even though the other is truly the majority who voted for Hillary Clinton by a projection of 2 MILLION popular votes. We are the mandate but lost our power to the machinations of the outdated and archaic electoral college.

Internationally, this nation is now and will be the feared among nations as The Greatest Generation fades into history and a new era -- The Generation of Hate -- emerges.


http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/house-republicans-donald-trump-231636

Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $25 Million in Trump University Settlement

What a LYING son of a ****. So much for he NEVER settles anything and that he would win this suit. YEAH RIGHT that mendacious piece of tripe.!! What fraud Trump University is just like the fraud he is! Only 85 more suits to go. What about the alleged rape of a minor case? I suspect that settled too.


NYT: November 18, 2016 by Steve Eder


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/politics/trump-university.html?emc=edit_na_20161118&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=0


Donald J. Trump has reversed course and agreed to pay $25 million to settle a series of lawsuits stemming from his defunct for-profit education venture, Trump University, finally putting to rest fraud allegations by former students, which have dogged him for years and hampered his presidential campaign.

The settlement was announced by the New York attorney general on Friday, just 10 days before one of the cases, a federal class-action lawsuit in San Diego, was set to be heard by a jury. The deal, if approved, averts a potentially embarrassing and highly unusual predicament: a president-elect on trial, and possibly even taking the stand in his own defense, while scrambling to build his incoming administration.

It was a remarkable concession from a real estate mogul who derides legal settlements and has mocked fellow businessmen who agree to them.

But the allegations in the case were highly unpleasant for Mr. Trump: Students paid up to $35,000 in tuition for a programs that, according to the testimony of former Trump University employees, used high-pressure sales tactics and employed unqualified instructors.

The agreement wraps together the outstanding Trump University litigation, including two federal class-action cases in San Diego, and a separate lawsuit by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general. The complaints alleged that students were cheated out of thousands of dollars in tuition through deceptive claims about what they would learn and high-pressure sales tactics.

“I am pleased that under the terms of this settlement, every victim will receive restitution and that Donald Trump will pay up to $1 million in penalties to the State of New York for violating state education laws,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “The victims of Trump University have waited years for today’s result, and I am pleased that their patience — and persistence — will be rewarded by this $25 million settlement.”

The settlement marks a significant reversal from Mr. Trump, who had steadfastly rejected the allegations and vowed to fight the lawsuits, asserting that students filled out evaluations showing they were mostly happy with what they had learned in seminars. When political opponents pressed him on the claims during the campaign, Mr. Trump doubled down, saying he would eventually reopen Trump University.

“It’s something I could have settled many times,” Mr. Trump said during a debate in February. “I could settle it right now for very little money, but I don’t want to do it out of principle.”

He added: “The people that took the course all signed — most — many — many signed report cards saying it was fantastic, it was wonderful, it was beautiful.”

But the position of Mr. Trump and his legal team appeared to soften soon after his election on Nov. 8. At a hearing last week, Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, expressed interest in moving toward a settlement. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s lawyers were seeking to delay the trial in one of the California cases until after his inauguration on Jan. 20, while also requesting that he be allowed to testify on video.

“The time and attention to prepare and testify will take him away from imperative transition work at a critical time,” Mr. Petrocelli wrote in the request to the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, last week, noting the “thousands” of appointments that President-elect Trump needed to make in the weeks ahead.

Mr. Curiel, the federal district court judge who is hearing the two California cases, was thrust into the limelight of the campaign in May when Mr. Trump spent several minutes at a rally denouncing the judge’s decisions in the case, calling him a “hater” and questioning his impartiality because of his Mexican heritage.

“I’m building the wall, I’m building the wall,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Times in June. “I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.”

After he faced days of criticism for his remarks on the judge, Mr. Trump released a statement saying his words had been “misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage.” He also asserted that he was justified in questioning the fairness of his trial, given various rulings in the case that went against him. Still, he concluded, “we will win this case!”

Even before he was in the throes of his presidential bid, Mr. Trump began mounting a vigorous public defense of himself and Trump University. A website, 98perentapproval.com, touted high marks it received from students. A New York Times report in March, though, showed how some students recalled being pressured to give positive reviews.

Trump University, which operated from 2004 to 2010, included free introductory seminars across the country, focusing largely on real estate investing and learning Mr. Trump’s secrets. Students could then purchase more expensive packages costing up to $35,000.

Documents made public through the litigation revealed that some former Trump University managers had given testimony about its unscrupulous and exploitative business practices. One sales executive testified that the operation was, “a façade, a total lie.” Another manager called it a “fraudulent scheme.”

Other records showed how Mr. Trump had overstated the depth of his involvement in the programs. Despite claims that Mr. Trump had hand-picked instructors, he acknowledged in testimony that he had not.

Protests Continue around the Country

Join a protest... do NOT let up. That is what this maniac hopes is that the protestors will tire.....don't. Do shifts, take a protestors place, bring food if you can and, if you can, offer what you bring...DON'T GIVE UP or it will make me think I have to just give up and forget about the humane things that have been a part of me all my politically aware life and that would be the end of my life. Trump's "victory" makes me think like it is because the media do not tell our side especially now that Drumpf will be president. Trump is transitioning to a team of horrors. True racist Sessions of Alabama for Attorney General? Bolton who wants war with Iran???? Find protests where you can but find them and don't give up! Pass this around to anyone you want. See story below.

And btw: Pelosi needs to be defeated in her position of Democratic leadership in the House. We have lost a ton under her leadership. A Rep interviewed by Rachel Maddow last night was WONDERFUL. His name is Tim Ryan and he's from the rust belt Ohio. He speaks to what SHOULD be OUR constituency of blue collar workers. Check him out and write to Democratic congressmen to support him. He is articulate, handsome and very very smart!!

It's been more than a week since Donald Trump became president elect and protests haven't let up. Some involved say they are challenging things bigger than Trump — such as the electoral college.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We're more than a week past the moment when Trump became the president-elect, and the news is still bringing people out into the streets. NPR's Sam Sanders has been asking protesters what drives them.

SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: The protests continue more than a week since Donald Trump's win. At Temple University in Philadelphia last night, dozens of students chanted...

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Not my president.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Not my president, not my president.

SANDERS: ...Over and over and over. Lady Torres was one of several students behind the megaphone near the bell tower at Temple. When I asked her exactly what she was protesting about Trump, she told me it was a feeling.

LADY TORRES: A lot of us are in fear for our own lives. And I don't think it's an exaggeration at all.

SANDERS: You fear for your life?

TORRES: I do.

SANDERS: How so?

TORRES: I just think that it is very obvious because of the color of my skin that...

SANDERS: Torres says Trump and his campaign have lots of Americans believe it's OK to harass people like her. Torres is Latina, a permanent resident of the U.S., originally from the Dominican Republic, so she couldn't even vote, but she says that doesn't diminish her right to protest.

TORRES: We will watch him very closely. And we are not going to just simply sit back.

SANDERS: Others involved in what people are calling the Trump resistance, they're challenging things bigger than Trump, like the Electoral College itself.

DANIEL BREZENOFF: My name's Daniel Brezenoff, and I live here in Southern California. I'm a social worker and a longtime political activist.

SANDERS: Brezenoff started a petition on the liberal website change.org.

BREZENOFF: Well, this is a petition asking the Electoral College to cast its ballots for the popular vote winner, Secretary Hillary Clinton.

SANDERS: It's got over 4 million signatures, and it got Brezenoff some threats on social media.

BREZENOFF: This guy should be dragged out and shot. Let him try this in this state. Let him - you know, if this works, we're going to have a war - things like that.

SANDERS: To be clear, it is highly unlikely that Brezenoff's petition will work. Even Brezenoff admits that. So there are other ways people are mobilizing. Since the election, the American Civil Liberties Union has raised a lot of money.

ANTHONY DAVID ROMERO: More than 7 - 7.2 - even higher now - million dollars from folks.

SANDERS: That's Anthony David Romero. He is the executive director of the ACLU. He says the outpouring of support his group has received this past week, it rivals the support they got in the direct aftermath of 9/11. That's when the group challenged many anti-terrorism policies. Romero says he expects the ACLU to be challenging the Trump administration as well.

ROMERO: Revocation of the protections for the DREAMers, creation of a deportation force, the banning of Muslims, the defunding of Planned Parenthood, the stop and frisk as a national policy.

SANDERS: They've got a long list. In Philadelphia last night, there were actually at least two protests. People also gathered outside of Philly's police department headquarters. Many there said the tone of Trump's campaign and his language about law and order, they said all that encouraged bad police officers to be even worse. But Megan Malachi (ph) also pointed out that black people like her have been protesting the police for a while.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

MEGAN MALACHI: For years before Trump was elected into office, many of the people that you see standing here have been fighting. We've been getting arrested. We've been getting brutalized. We've been getting targeted. You should have been out here before.

SANDERS: Then she stopped and smiled and told the newcomers, quote, "we are happy you're here now."

Sam Sanders, NPR News.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

A Letter to the Editor Response

The Metrowest News featured a letter yesterday entitled: "Election shouldn't have been a surprise" By Paul Landry
It stated:

For the record, Donald Trump was not my choice as the next occupant of the White House and, like so many millions, I was shocked to learn of his victory. After some reflection, however, I now believe that we should not have been so surprised by it, and that we would not have been so surprised had we not put so much trust in our liberal media. It seems that virtually every poll, every prediction, every forecast published by this self-appointed elite group assured us that Hillary Clinton had the election virtually nailed down, the only question being how much of a rout it was going to be.
In its nearly obsessive desire to see a Democrat in the White House, a woman in the White House and a continuation of the policies of the current occupant, this group completely failed to read the actual mood of our electorate. They failed to recognize that people were fed up with being ignored and forgotten by the administration of the last eight years. They failed to see the Democratic Party's loss of control of the House and then of the Senate during the latter part of the Obama presidency as a repudiation of the direction in which he tried to go. They failed to understand that even with a candidate as flawed as Donald Trump, it was time for a seismic change. These failures may have very well, in fact, contributed heavily to Clinton's defeat.

If the media is truly going to provide a valuable service to its reading or listening public, it must find a way to provide honest and complete information - information based on reality rather than prejudice. It must put its own preferences aside (except in designated opinion pieces) and refrain from making predictions, especially those which may actually influence voter decisions.

My response: Another explanation

In response to Mr. Landry's November 15 Letter entitled "Election shouldn't have been a surprise" while I agree with the substance of some of it, the so called "liberal" media he sites is often not that liberal. One cannot paint them, I think, with a huge brush. Even some more conservative media touted her victory and conservative commentators were predicting the need for a massive Republican reformation after her win. Moreover, our nation is flush with conservative airwaves featuring often the angry and mean rhetoric of its commentators.  Many if not most of the pollsters used scientific statistical analysis as the yardstick of prediction. I aver most were not "biased" but let the mathematics of their polls be their guide.  Statistics, however, no matter how mathematically precise, do not always give a clear and correct picture of the results. Romney's defeat in 2012, I think, is proof of that.  Most, including the conservative Karl Rove and the which-way-the-wind-is-blowing Fox News commentator Dick Morris, could not believe their eyes when they went on a tour of the Fox News election department and saw that Obama had, indeed, won defying predictions.
Trump waged a volcanic campaign, complete with much profanity and vituperative derogatory comments against even members of his own Party. This was unheard of in prior campaigns. The vile commentary disparaging minorities the Republican Party said it needed to win and even disparaging the military heroics of the "captured" John McCain as well as a much discussed (and disgusting) indictment of small hands tantamount to sexual penile prowess seemed unthinkable that the American electorate would actually vote for the mendacious and profanity-laced rudeness of Trump.
The crudity of the Trump campaign sadly mirrors that into which our nation has morphed. How it got that way, it seems to me, would better explain the Trumpian anger turned into votes. Our language, our sometimes unfathomable crimes we commit against each other, the violence we see in media and the loosening of cultural mores allowed Trump's campaign conduct to occur and it served as a conduit to capture a plethora of votes. I am sad that this is so and, admittedly, I am inclined and fall prey to anger invective as well.
The goodness of a nation should be measured by how well we treat one another not by how loud screams of anger and hate emerge from our voice.  Trump's talent, if he has any, was that he knew how to unleash a violent charisma no one else neither in the primaries nor in the general election knew how to ape.  That this nation fell for this huge con is a sadness with which the entire nation will have to live or die and that this unfit-for-the-presidency-carnival-barker snowed such a large part of the electoral college electorate (but failed to get what will be a Hillary Clinton 2 million popular vote Trumpain trounce) is academically staggering and it is sad very mind numbingly sad!

A Russian Dissident Ought to Know

[Excerpted from Masha Gessen, A Russian Dissident linked below] --  

"Donald Trump has promised to ban Muslims from entering the country and deport millions of people. He has threatened to loosen protections for freedom of speech and punish the press for criticism. He has boasted of committing sexual assault and said women who obtain abortions must be punished. He wishes to revive torture as an acceptable tactic, force the military to commit war crimes, and imprison his political opponents. The Trump we have seen so far is a vicious, vindictive, unhinged autocrat with no respect for the rule of law. He is a Putinesque strongman whose party controls Congress and, soon, the judiciary.

We live in dangerous times. Already we have seen a huge surge in the persecution of the very minorities whom Trump and his supporters target. Thousands of people—gay, trans, female, Hispanic, Muslim, Jewish—have been subjected to violence and harassment based on their identity in the wake of Trump’s victory. Angry, hateful people have been emboldened and empowered. This moment is unlike anything most Americans have experienced before. No, there will not be gas chambers. There will probably not be internment camps. But death squads? What else to call the work of police forces who, freed from Justice Department and judicial oversight, increasingly militarized and unconstrained by constitutional limits, can make the killing of Freddie Gray look like a practice run?

Clinton owed it to her supporters to warn them of this impending collapse of the norms fundamental to a liberal democracy. Instead, she acted as though the election of Trump was business as usual. It wasn’t, and it’s perilous to pretend otherwise. Yes, Trump is “our president,” in the sense that he won the election. But recognizing that fact does not require us to buy into the fantasy that his inevitable lawlessness will be legitimate. We should steel ourselves for a ghastly new era of violence and repression, ushered in by the consolidation of power around an autocratic maniac and his pathetic enablers. As Gessen admits, this may sound hysterical. Maybe it is. I’d like to think I’m wrong. I do not think I am."
 

My Comment: She is 100% correct and as a Russian dissident she ought to know. Trump is a maniac demagogue in whose hands we placed the life of our democracy if not the life of the nation. To say that we must resist is an understatement but I will say it anyway. WE MUST RESIST by any non-violent means necessary!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/11/11/masha_gessen_explains_why_clinton_s_concession_speech_was_so_dangerous.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_fb_bot

Click on this video. You will be amazed and yet you won't!

Click here: hw-mobile.worldstarhiphop.com/u/vid/2016/11/VAmyj5afFNep_mobile.mp4

NEVER AGAIN? YES, AGAIN!

With Bannon in the White House, “Donald Trump has chosen to champion the positions of neo-Nazis,” said one Senate Democrat. Democrats Decry Bannon Pick: No Place In The White House For A ‘White Nationalist’

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-denounce-steve-bannon_us_582a02bae4b060adb56f823e

My Comment:

This is the most dangerous time in the history of this nation maybe with the exception of the Civil War and even then the potential for out-and-out violence now is high with right wing fascist-like extremists in the White House. They actually took the election and politicos like Romney, et al and the NeverTrumps who warned us are falling into line behind them.

I loathe historical comparisons especially Nazi Germany ones but this gives me an aura of what it must have been like then in 1933. Thank God I never experienced it but my parents did. They were not worried because the White House was in the hands of a competent, brilliant, humane man. My Jewish father was NOT afraid because he said this nation would not let us down and it did not.

NOW, NOW, NOW yet again the fear of jackboots in the street is hovering except now it is within our own houses of power. Ultimately Bannon, the Chief Strategist close to a President Trump wants to see a white only America. They will go after Jews, Muslims, blacks, gays, Hispanics, Asians and God knows how many other minorities to purge this nation of its diversity that makes us who we are and try to make it a white nation -- ALL white.

Watch VERY carefully who Trump is putting in charge of the store and whatever way is comfortable for you PROTEST it with all that is comfortable for you to do!

I advocate for Representative Keith Ellison as head of the DNC

Color me blue

I go to sleep incredulous.  I wake up and the first thing I am is incredulous that Donald Trump will be in the White House.  My stomach and heart sink to my toes.  My rational mind understands that this is so but my heart still does not accept it.  His interview on 60 Minutes gave me some hope but -- and it is a big but -- he has, during his campaign, lied so much, (according to Politico 71%), turns his opinion on a dime when politically necessary that I simply do not know if the more moderate opinions he voiced during the interview are, in truth, what he thinks and ultimately what he will do.  His administration will be, assuming he gets through the next four years, scrupulously scrutinized.  Trump's days in court are due soon as he has been sued mercilessly from Trump University fraud to non payment of workers, conflicts of interest, assaults on women and unethical conduct including the definition of a "blind trust" for which he will have to answer.  Putting his businesses in his children's hands is NOT the definition of a blind trust.

My incredulity in large part is formed by the electoral win he achieved despite how many professional journalists, statisticians, pollsters, academics and many others said HRC had a 98% chance of winning.  Even all of the gambling establishment put their money on her.  When I heard and read that I wrote about what I thought was a- soon-to-be Democratic resounding victory before it even happened. Yet when the states, particularly in the so called rust belt, one by one fell for him including, incredulously, Pennsylvania, my jaw dropped.  How could I have fallen for so much and not been astute enough to read the tea leaves of those whites in the rust belt states to whom Trump's message fell on cheering ears?

In my defense, from the very first instant Trump came down the escalator and gave his speech about his presidential candidacy, I said to those closest to me that his words would have appeal.  While Jon Stewart and other comedians were having an excitement and orgy of delight over the prospect for comedy of a Trump run, I was feeling pangs of fear that what Trump was saying would have resonance for a certain part of the electorate and it did.  I never said it in my public opinions because I would not besmirch those opposed to nor would I advocate for anything Trump.

Hillary Clinton failed utterly to account for a group Democrats it once had -- white blue collar men whose milieu in which they live now looks like a bombed out Iraq with abandoned, decomposing buildings, few businesses and most importantly few jobs to be had in a once thriving sector.  When she said she was going to rid the nation of its dependence on fossil fuels and coal, those miners who have lost their coal jobs en masse did not think about getting jobs among the elite of solar or wind energy.  They simply said hey lady, what did you just say?  Calling those who support Trump deplorables did not win her friends in the rust belt either but rather fell on cheering ears of the academic northeast and west including my own.  She and we needed more of those who felt forgotten by Democrats and, collectively, the nation. 

Ed Schultz whom MSNBC stupidly, in my opinion, let go, spoke to those people when he tried and almost succeeded unseating the anti-union Republican Governor Walker of Wisconsin.  Those members of the electorate, who once were solid Democrat blue, color them Republican red now.  One hopes it is not an indelible red we cannot erase to return in 2018 and 2020 to a beautiful shade of Democratic blue!

Hope

Last evening late I sat at the computer and looked up various speeches of FDR because he was so eloquent, so brilliant and provided such hope to a nation in dire peril.  He was a father figure who was coming to the rescue of his children who were dying. 

I came upon his Second Inaugural Address.  Hearing him speak was like hearing words flowing from a golden waterfall into my ears.  It summed up that to which his administration was dedicated and spoke to the essence of who I hope I am today.  

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I thought how far away from eloquence and humanity we have come electing Trump, this utter monstrosity of narcissism, lewd crudeness, lies and hate. I went to bed actually praying, yes, praying to God that he rid us of this plague named Trump that has infected us and all the men lined up behind him ready to enact more horrific, inhumane and violent policy.  They include many war hawks who initially made preemptive war on innocents who did nothing to us.  That accounts for the many refugees now waiting to get into this country's gate and the gates of Europe.  They are met by words of hate, rejection and calls for them to be returned to the horror of those fractured lands created by the west.  I sadly cried myself to sleep. 

I woke up and thought that I am still in a sea of incredulity. This great man, Roosevelt, whose incredible policies and words of hope helped us and have kept people alive even to this day who said in his First Inaugural Address:

"... This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days."

Now we have elected a crude man, a violent man, an abuser of women, a man of hate, division and cruelty who wants to eradicate those policies of rescue.  We have elected this man to the office of the presidency an office that once held men of elegance and hope.

We must rise against this, all of us, and show the world we are the nation that rescued Europe, that we are a nation whose Lady Liberty has inscribed on her and my own grandfathers saw: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” 

How does a nation produce a humanity who has lived by those words and yet elect a man now who never spoke nor thought about them?  Trump is a man who lives for one man -- himself -- and I fear he will leave this nation to return to the dust from whence we all came.

We have a Herculean task before us but it must be done.  We need our voices to rise up loudly and say as Howard Beale said in the film "Network": 

"You've got to say, 'I'm a human being, God damn it! My life has value!' So I want you to get up now and yell, "I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"

and then go out and join groups dedicated to the task of unseating this Frankenstein monster, Trump, a monster of our own creation. 

Envy

I received another email for even more money from Democrats to try to unseat Trump through the electoral college. It received a frosty reply from me. I said:

I gave money to the Hillary campaign, I bought products, I wrote articles and opinions until my arms were going to fall off. If you think this plea for bucks is going to fall on receptive ears I think you are in error. I am MAD, mad at the DNC for subverting Bernie whom I did NOT support but regret I did not as hindsight is 20/20, mad even at the Hillary campaign hierarchy who did not see this Mack Truck coming and mad at me for making such a colossal error since I supported McGovern in 1972. This election of Trump debacle, however, is much worse than that.

I need time because right now I am sad, filled with anxiety and filled with trauma trying to figure out how we go from the academically brilliant President Obama to President know nothing Trump. Someone needs to take the blame for the biggest debacle since the Nazi Party destroyed German Democracy and ushered in a change that ultimately cost more than 70 million lives worldwide!

Trump could do the same with his finger on the nuclear codes. My mother used to say that someday the living would envy the dead. Sadly I hear her words ringing in my ears now!

What to Do

On FB I am "friends" with a famous and oh-so-smart person who probably does not know me from a ham sandwich. Her many posts are from people who do not know what to do in the face of this awful electoral scenario except to medicate and prosaic themselves to the heights. I say NO!

My comment:

There is a reason your brain and mine is seizing it is because our nation is at risk. These are NOT honest men with whom Trump is filling his cabinet. These are men who will do ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING -- Putinesque men -- who will promote this real Manchurian candidate to run and ruin our nation. The Republicon Party is FILLED with them. How to fight them is the question we must ask NOT dumbing down our brain so we can feel ever so good. We will NEVER feel good as long as this beast occupies the most powerful office in the world. The damage he can do UNLESS his stripes change which I highly doubt, is MASSIVE! I say do not shrink from your anxiety CONFRONT it and do something about it!

The Letter Aaron Sorkin Wrote His Daughter After Donald Trump Was Elected President

The Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Social Network and mastermind behind The West Wing reacts to Donald Trump being elected the 45th president of the United States in a moving letter written to his 15-year-old daughter Roxy and her mother Julia Sorkin.

Sorkin Girls,

Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible. It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has.

And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists, sexists, racists and buffoons did as well. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being “the fresh voice of an outsider” who’s going to “shake things up.” (Did anyone bother to ask how? Is he going to re-arrange the chairs in the Roosevelt Room?) For the next four years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., J.F.K. and Barack Obama, will be held by a man-boy who’ll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance against all who criticize him (and those numbers will be legion.) We’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world.

And the world took no time to react. The Dow futures dropped 7,000 points overnight. Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we’d be right to note that many of Donald Trump’s fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there is a party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn’t we give to trade this small fraction of a man for Richard Nixon right now?

So what do we do?

First of all, we remember that we’re not alone. A hundred million people in America and a billion more around the world feel exactly the same way we do.

Second, we get out of bed. The Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, “coastal elites,” educated, socially progressive, Hollywood…) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving to Canada. I won’t give them that and neither will you. Here’s what we’ll do…

…we’ll fucking fight. (Roxy, there’s a time for this kind of language and it’s now.) We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless. We don’t have majorities in the House or Senate but we do have representatives there. It’s also good to remember that most members of Trump’s own party feel exactly the same way about him that we do. We make sure that the people we sent to Washington—including Kamala Harris—take our strength with them and never take a day off.

We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it—whether it’s writing a check or rolling up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump presidency so we fight for the families that aren’t. We fight for a woman to keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly for equality—not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but for equal opportunities. We stand up.

America didn’t stop being America last night and we didn’t stop being Americans and here’s the thing about Americans: Our darkest days have always—always—been followed by our finest hours.

Roxy, I know my predictions have let you down in the past, but personally, I don’t think this guy can make it a year without committing an impeachable crime. If he does manage to be a colossal jerk without breaking the law for four years, we’ll make it through those four years. And three years from now we’ll fight like hell for our candidate and we’ll win and they’ll lose and this time they’ll lose for good. Honey, it’ll be your first vote.

The battle isn’t over, it’s just begun. Grandpa fought in World War II and when he came home this country handed him an opportunity to make a great life for his family. I will not hand his granddaughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men. Your tears last night woke me up, and I’ll never go to sleep on you again.

Love,

Dad 

https://mail.google.com/mail//0/?hl=en#inbox?compose=1585037023c5ed68

BREAKING: ACLU Announces MASSIVE Legal Action Against Donald Trump, Buckle Up

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States, and women, religious and racial minorities, and members of the LGBT community immediately began to worry about the injustices they may face under President Trump, especially as he is helped along by the Republican-controlled House and Senate. Fortunately, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a message for Donald Trump and all those who are concerned about how they will fare under his reign. Their message is simple: “Should President-elect Donald Trump attempt to implement his unconstitutional campaign promises, we’ll see him in court.”

In Vermont: 68% Clinton 33% Trump

In Massachusetts I am sure the percentage breaks down similarly. Because that is so, however, will not matter. The Federal Government's hateful policies under a Trump presidency will prevail and those states that stayed blue will have to conform under Federal law to its mandates.

We have a serious serious problem because Trump's Republicans, even the ones who opposed him, will tow the line and most, in the end, already do. They will control every branch of our federal government -- the congress, the courts and the presidency. That means every minority group under our sun in this nation could face discrimination, arrest, imprisonment, or deportation if Trump is successful in putting through all the rancid things he said he would. We do not know what he will do because he flipped policies, to the extent that he had any, constantly. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to watch him and his supporters vigilantly.

The majority in this nation thinks liberal blue but now must conform to an archaic electoral system that subverted its will twice and now elected a man who is fascistic-like in nature. The consequences, depending on Trump's whim, and those who support him could be dire. The question is what do we do about it?  Answer:  Elections, Elections, Elections!

Still Stunned

I am still stunned, sad, and yes, angry, at the underbelly of our nation that has SO much hate to elect this charlatan, racist, misogynist with NO experience and who 71% of the time lied. What about all the investigations that are ensuing around him? I am ashamed, embarrassed that we present this face to the world.

I called Hillary's headquarters and thanked her for all her decades of service to the poor, the powerless, the disenfranchised and the dispossessed. Trump will now have to work with the ENTIRE world who have their own interests at heart. The fact that Putin, a murderer times 10, a dictator sent his congratulations to him speaks volumes. Moreover, she won the popular vote. Sound familiar?

I say stay strong, do not give up our ideals for anyone or any circumstance. Some day we shall overcome, we have in the past and, I believe, we will in the future!

Hit by a Mack Truck

We feel here like we've been hit by a Mack Truck. We feel like we have the flu and we are sick. My friend who knows the markets thinks it was rigged and Russia played a part. Another felt like he got a diagnosis of cancer. I hate conspiratorial theories especially ones that could never be proven but my mind wonders if he does not have a point about Russia. How could so many get it so wrong? I do not even place the result on HRC's server or Huma Abadein's email. They are saying on Morning Joe that it was the WHITELASH and that the polls got it wrong. They are saying that people who voted for Trump did so but would not admit it to pollsters or in exit polls. Educated whites were ashamed to say they were voting for Trump, too, so nothing was accurate.

I was afraid if Hillary won big that I would have nothing to write about. Well this outcome renewed my efforts. We go on, still the same people we are, and we work another day. Howard Zinn would say to me change comes from the bottom up when we so seldom got what we wanted. This change is from the middle and the white working class who are the ones who hated that they felt ignored especially emanating from the Great Recession of 2007 and that Wall Street got it all and that they got nothing but fewer jobs and a bank account on empty.

Let's hope Trump does not ruin our international standing, that the Dow comes back from its 700 point drop yesterday, that another Great Recession will not occur, create more war or even god forbid nuclear war!

Susan B. Anthony never lived to see women get the vote. Now they did as did Hispanics, as did persons of color and so many whites, too, like we voted but not for Trump. Even most of Hollywood was on her side How much more of a grassroots effort could there be by us? My eyes opened today and the first thought I had was that there was something wrong. There is Trump is president. I think even he is shocked!

A Little Humor: "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE ELECTION" ~ 2016

blogged by Becky Werner ~

Twas the night before the election and all through the house, Little Donald wasn't tweeting, Kelli Anne took his mouse. (And keyboard, the meanie)

The children were nestled in their gilded gold beds,while dreams of daddy's fascism danced in their heads

Melania in the nude and Donald in his toupee
Dreamed of all the dumb crap he would say the next day.

When on Trump tower roof there arose such a clatter, His "Orangeness" fell out of the bed and screamed "what the hell is the matter?!?"

Away to the elevator, he stumbled and sniffed
He hit the up button on his 14 carat gold lift.

He thought about the fake breasts on his wife, so hot. What was he thinking? Sniffle brain had forgot.

When, what do you know, what should appear, But a "Nasty Old Woman" and what looked like a reindeer.
(Hard to tell with *sniff* bad vision)

Now Biden, and Barack, I'll continue your vision
Now Jay-Z and Beyoncé and all my nasty women,

Through the glass ceiling - there won't be a wall
Now dash away, dash away! Dash away all.

And the glass, like rain, started falling down
They looked like crystal tears that on Drumpf's face slid down.

Away to the White House, Air Force One flew
With a whole lot of votes and Ex-President Bill, too.

And Trump's shriveled little fingers, like after a bath, Curled into tiny little fists, so great was his wrath.

He pouted, cried and growled about fixed elections
About how "Bigly" were his hands and also his erections.

But it did not matter. The die was now cast.
America's present would not be like Germany's past.

And the only wall that Trump would be currently building, was the one around his bank accounts that were rapidly wilting.

Hillary went to the Oval Office to continue her work, and Drumpf got his Twitter back and remained a big jerk.

America took a deep breath and enjoyed the great fall. Get a good night's sleep and "Happy Election Day" to All !!!!

IF

If the presidential election result is as I think it will be Hillary Rodham Clinton will be elected the 45th and first woman president of the United States making history.

If that is so my comment is brief and that is thank you, thank you and thank you again to our Hispanic, African American and the community of women for pulling this nation and, indeed, the world, from the precipice of Trumpian destruction. You who have suffered the arrows of so much hurt for so long a period of time are ironically the groups who will lead us again from the dark of night into the joy of light in the morning.

I stand with you -- the poor, the rejected, the downtrodden and the dispossessed because I am human and can empathize with those whose fate did not align with the stars of luck. As my hero Franklin D. Roosevelt said:

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

May your fate, Secretary Clinton, align with the stars of luck tomorrow so we can call you President Elect Hillary R. Clinton!

An Empty Room

Trump is a petulant child who in his youth needed not to be sent away to a cold military school but to have a father who cared more about loving his son then creating a money machine imparting values that valued over zealous discipline instead of love.

He was asked by someone yesterday what would make him happy and he said going around the country speaking in front of groups who love him. Sorry, Donald, that is not love. The love of an amorphous group of persons with whom you have no relationship is no match for the love a father that is so important especially to a male. 

Though I am not a Christian I love many New Testament preaching like "What profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul." Donald, you are a mean, cruel seemingly pathological narcissist who cares about no one but himself. You have no soul. You are surrounded by many people but you live in an empty room. Maybe there is a God who has spared this nation your terrible onslaught!

Tapping My Foot

I'm waiting for Republicons to pull another dirty trick out of their slimy hat with one day to go before the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton to the presidency. I have no doubt they will think of something.

Every investigation of the Clintons by Republicans has failed every single time except it has not failed to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer bucks by a Party that says it cares about frivolous government spending so much.

My vitriol against them goes against my natural grain. I do not like to fight, I do not like to get into hostile verbal exchanges but I believe if progressives do not, then a rancid universe of anti-science Republican policies benefiting the mega rich while spitting in the face of the poor, the sick, the minority, and the downtrodden's civil rights will ensue. If Republicans gain power their true allies, the very wealthiest 1%, will reap the benefits from their corrupt alliance with them.

I am not, I hope, by nature a mean person but they, I believe, force me to be something that I am not -- a vitriolic loather of right wingnut religious anti-science extremism into which the Republican Party has morphed. We must stop them every time they try to gain power or as sure as is the truth of Darwinian natural selection we will perish.

They have only themselves to blame for this Trumpian fiasco excuse for a campaign that has been created by using their own cannon to blast their Party into bits. Still, I am tapping my foot waiting for yet another waste of taxpayer money by them to advance their cause and make the wealthiest 1% even richer then they already are.

As I have said and printed in my local paper--Email investigation OVER!!!!! :)

Hillary's email frenzy was the biggest abridgement of civil liberties since the infamous J. Edgar Hoover's pathetic career of secret phone taps and bugs on figures like MLK, JFK, RFK other Democrats and progressives. 

It continues to be "conservatives" who decimate the Constitutional requirement to safeguard a human being from government overreach. This was much ado about nothing and indeed Republican Comey's motives certainly were suspect. The Trump/Pence sign on his upscale home are just more evidence that this man of high level FBI stature was significantly biased and should be pursued under the Hatch Act. Let him feel what it means not to have one's rights protected. Mr. Comey, say hello to Madam President Hillary Rodham Clinton the next President of the United States to make history again.

I'm thrilled the Abadin emails were much ado about nothing. I am for now a very happy person and when the electoral college finally certifies her presidency I will be delirious with joy!

Baruch Hashem -- Translation -- Please God!

HILLARY HEATS UP POLLING BETTER THAN OBAMA AT SAME TIME IN ‘08

THE FINAL DAYS: Clinton Makes Last-Minute Campaign Stops... Goes After The Dad Vote During Sunday Night Football... Latino Vote Surges As Immigrants Panic... Could Seal GOP’s Fate... HUFFPOLLSTER: Hillary With A 5-Point Lead... 98% Chance Of A Clinton Win...