This is a running commentary on contemporary social, political and religious issues. From the Introduction of James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty -- Truth, Lies and Leadership" "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary" Reinhold Niebuhr
By John Pavlovitz In a land where the states are united, they claim, in a sky-scraping tower adorned with his name, lived a terrible, horrible, devious chump, the bright orange miscreant known as the Trump.
This Trump he was mean, such a mean little man, with the tiniest heart and two tinier hands, and a thin set of lips etched in permanent curl, and a sneer and a scowl and contempt for the world.
He looked down from his perch and he grinned ear to ear, and he thought, “I could steal the election this year! It’d be rather simple, it’s so easily won, I’ll just make them believe that their best days are done! Yes, I’ll make them believe that it’s all gone to Hell, and I’ll be Jerk Messiah and their souls they will sell.
And I’ll use lots of words disconnected from truth, but I’ll say them with style so they won’t ask for proof. I’ll speak random platitudes, phrases, and such, They’re so raised on fake news that it won’t matter much! They won’t question the how to, the what, why, or when, I will make their America great once again!”
The Trump told them to fear, they should fear he would say, “They’ve all come for your jobs, they’ll all take them away. You should fear every Muslim and Mexican too, every brown, black, and tan one, everyone who votes blue.”
And he fooled all the Christians, he fooled them indeed, He just trotted out Jesus, that’s all Jesus folk need. And celebrity preachers they crowned him as king, Tripping over themselves just to kiss the Trump’s ring.
And he spoke only lies just as if they were true, Until they believed all of those lies were true too. He repeated and Tweeted and he blustered and spit, And he mislead and fibbed—and he just made up sh*t.
And the media laughed but they printed each line, thinking “He’ll never win, in the end we’ll be fine.” So they chased every headline, bold typed every claim, ‘Till the fake news and real news they looked just the same.
And the scared folk who listened, they devoured each word, Yes, they ate it all up every word that they heard, petrified that their freedom was under attack, trusting Trump he would take their America back. from the gays and from ISIS, he’d take it all back, Take it back from the Democrats, fat cats, and blacks. And so hook, line, and sinker they all took the bait, all his lies about making America great.
Now the Pantsuited One she was smart and prepared, she was brilliant and steady but none of them cared, no they cared not to see all the work that she’d done, or the fact that the Trump had not yet done thing one. They could only shout “Emails!”, yes “Emails!” they’d shout, because Fox News had told them—and Fox News had clout. And the Pantsuited One she was slandered no end, and a lie became truth she could never defend. And the Trump watched it all go according to plan— a strong woman eclipsed by an insecure man.
And November the 8th arrived, finally it came, like a slow-moving storm but it came just the same. And Tuesday became Wednesday as those days will do, And the night turned to morning and the nightmare came true, With millions of non-voters still in their beds, Yes, the Trump he had done it, just like he had said.
And the Trumpers they trumped, how they trumped when he won, All the racists and bigots; deplorable ones, they crawled out from the woodwork, came out to raise Hell, they came out to be hateful and hurtful as well. With slurs and with road signs, with spray paint and Tweets, with death threats to neighbors and taunts on the street. And the grossest of grossness they hurled on their peers, while the Trump he said zilch—for the first time in years.
But he Tweeted at Hamilton, he Tweeted the Times, And he trolled Alec Baldwin a few hundred times, and he pouted a pout like a petulant kid, thinking this is what Presidents actually did, thinking he could still be a perpetual jerk, terrified to learn he had to actually work, work for every American, not just for a few, not just for the white ones—there was much more to do. He now worked for the Muslims and Mexicans too, for the brown, black, and tan ones, and the ones who vote blue. They were all now his bosses, now they all had a say, and those nasty pantsuited ones were here to stay. And the Trump he soon realized that he didn’t win, He had gotten the thing—and the thing now had him.
And it turned out the Trump was a little too late, for America was already more than quite great, not because of the sameness, the opposite’s true, It’s greatness far more than just red, white, and blue, It’s straight, gay, and female—it’s Gentile and Jew, It’s Transgender and Christian and Atheist too. It’s Asians, Caucasians of every kind, The disabled and abled, the deaf and the blind, It’s immigrants, Muslims, and brave refugees, It’s Liberals with bleeding hearts fixed to their sleeves. And we are all staying, we’re staying right here, and we’ll be the great bane of the Trump for four years. And we’ll be twice as loud as the loudness of hate, be the greatness that makes our America great. And the Trump’s loudest boasts they won’t ever obscure, over two million more of us—voted for her.
The
NYTimes editorial board's opinion entitled "A
Dangerous Choice for Ambassador to Israel" linked below hit the nail on
the
head. Trump's utterly reckless choice of bankruptcy attorney David
Friedman as ambassador to Israel is one of significant stupidity. It
will
get hundreds, who knows maybe thousands, killed over time further
imperiling
and relegating the existence of a peaceful Jewish state to never ending
war. Friedman is an extremist of extreme right wing religious zealot
and cannot possibly love
the Jewish state if he thinks his fanatical policies will wrap a
security blanket
around it. His policies will do just the opposite.
Why do these know nothings chose policies that step on their own toes and break
their own feet? What does this Cretan president-elect's ambassadorial
choice for Israel think that Palestinians will welcome policies that (a) kick
dirt in their face by relocating the Jewish state capitol from Tel Aviv to contentious
Jerusalem and (b) by building more Israeli settlements on the disputed West Bank land? Does he think
Palestinians will welcome these policies with open arms and go quietly into the
night closing the door of Israel behind them to relocate to another place from
land that has been their home for generations?
Trump will alienate not only Palestinians but the entire Arab world's most
stable and even unstable regimes perhaps even involving the major nuclear-equipped powers. It is both naive stupidity and gross
inhumanity which will do the opposite of generating peace. It will ensure
eternal war to that beleaguered-over-centuries sad land. David Friedman
as the US ambassador to Israel is just another crackpot choice by a crackpot
president-elect!
A recent study concluded that Russia would be capable of overrunning NATO…
nbcnews.com|By NBC News What
Trump has wrought turning a cold shoulder to NATO! As I said he will be played like the useful idiot
for Putin. Champagne corks are popping in Russia with Trump's win.
A Facebook Blogger wrote: I'm
more concerned with Sweden moving their ballistic missiles closer to
the Russian boarder. And Russia moving her tanks and platform launch
missiles to the boarders of Sweden and Norway. The three Baltic States
preparing for a Russian invasion and being
told by the rest of NATO not to count on NATO to help. And let's not
forget China flying nuclear capable bombers over our ships in the South
China Sea and using their ships following ours around in international
waters. I'm
hoping Canada and the UK can step up and help fill some of the void we
leave. President Obama was right when he said no other nation was
capable of filling our role. Check out the world without us. It's about
the world with an isolationist United States.
My Comment:
This
gives me a rather altered view of post WWII US foreign policy which I
often criticized and still do to an extent but I rethink things as
events change. There are reasons for things. This is not a soft and
fuzzy world. Of course, I still maintain the most EGREGIOUS US foreign
policy blunder in our nation's history was the Republican W. Bush's
invasion of Iraq and its destabilization of the entire tinderbox Middle
East setting up this so called clash of civilizations the effects of
which are so dangerous to our nation, the world and the planet. The
potential horrors with this insane dolt Trump as president rearranging
the allied configuration since WWII, that is the consequential problem.
I can surely see now, although I did not want to see it this way in the
past since Vietnam, why some of US foreign policy was and is now
necessary until it will be torn apart and fractured when this essence of
evil takes the presidency. The US has been and, yes, not always
rightfully, a massive check on the almost innate aggression of man.
Putin does not give one rat's petuti about Trump nor Tillerson. What he
does care about is hegemony and power probably set to invade the Baltic
states to regain Russian power since its "Iron Curtin" days. This
nation under Trump will do exactly nothing because the Nazi-like extreme
nationalist so called "Alt Right" Bannon large part of the Republican
Party likes Putin as a white Christian bulwark against their perceived
threat of brown Islam and as for Trump he has debts to pay.
They
talk about a clash of civilizations and they just may get what they
want. Unfortunately, we of progressive goodwill and advocates of
democratic humane and peaceful policy will be kicked to the side of the
road UNLESS we demonstrate vociferous opposition to this vile unfit
humanoid getting set to take the most powerful office in the world and
ally himself with one who wants all the useful idiots he can get!
A week has gone by since Donald Trump admitted he's only been to "two or three" of his daily presidential national security briefings. There have been 36 of them since the day he secured enough electoral college votes to be appointed president next Monday when the Electoral College meets.
Most would agree the #1 job of the leader of any country is to keep its people safe. There is no more important meeting every day for the President than the one where he learns what the day's potential threats are to the country. That Trump would find it too cumbersome or too annoying to have to sit through 20 minutes of listening to his top intelligence people tell him who's trying to kill us today, simply boggles the mind.
Of course, our minds have been so boggled so many times in the past year by this foolish man no one seems that surprised or concerned. He can get up at 5 in the morning and send angry, childish tweets about how he's being portrayed on SNL ("Not funny! Unwatchable!"), or belittling the local elected union leader in Indiana, but he doesn't have time to hear about the threats to our national security.
So, my fellow Americans, when the next terrorist attack happens -- and it will happen, we all know that -- and after the tragedy is over, amidst the death and destruction that might have been prevented, you will see Donald Trump acting quickly to blame everyone but himself. He will suspend constitutional rights. He will round up anyone he deems a threat. He will declare war, and his Republican Congress will back him.
And no one will remember that he wasn't paying attention to the growing threat. Wasn't attending the daily national security briefings. Was playing golf instead or meeting with celebrities or staying up til 3am tweeting about how unfair CNN is. He said he didn't need to be briefed. "You know, I think I'm smart. I don't need to hear the same thing over and over each day for eight years." That's what he told Fox News on December 11th when asked why he wasn't attending the security briefings. Don't forget that date and his hubris as we bury the dead next year.
We had a president like him before. He, too, lost the popular vote, a majority of Americans saying they didn't want him in the Oval Office. But his governor/brother and his ex-CIA chief/dad's appointees to the Supreme Court put an end to that, and he was installed as Commander-in-Chief. On August 6, 2001, he was on a month-long vacation at his ranch in Texas. That morning, the White House Counsel handed him his daily national security briefing. He glanced at it, set it aside and then went fishing for the rest of the day. Below is the photo of that moment which I showed the world in "Fahrenheit 9/11". The headline on the security briefing reads: BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE INSIDE U.S. On the top page it tells how bin Laden will do this: with planes. George W. Bush didn't leave the ranch to go back to work for the next four weeks. In the fifth week, bin Laden attacked the US with planes on September 11th.
It's one thing to have a president who was asleep at the wheel. But, my friends, it's a whole other thing to now have a president-elect who REFUSES TO EVEN GET BEHIND THE WHEEL! This utter neglect of duty, a daily snub at the people who work to protect us, the first Commander-in-Chief to literally be AWOL and announcing proudly he isn't going to change -- this, I assure you, is going to get a lot of innocent people killed.
To you, Mr. Trump, I say this: When this next terrorist attack takes place, it is YOU who will be charged by the American people with a gross dereliction of duty. It was YOUR job to pay attention, to protect the country. But you were too busy tweeting and defending Putin and appointing cabinet members to dismantle the government. You didn't have time for the daily national security briefing. Don't think we're going to let you use a modern-day burning of the Reichstag as your excuse to eliminate our civil liberties and our democracy.
We will remember that while the plot to kill Americans was being hatched, your time was consumed by whom you saw as the real threat to America: Alec Baldwin in a wig.
My response: May I humbly suggest that your editorial entitled "Trump and the Obama Legacy" is, in large part, both presumptuous and erroneous.
Trump, indeed, won the electoral college (which is, in my opinion, an 18th century anachronism formulated in 1787, when states did not vary in size as they now do), that gave him the presidency. But as you deem the Democratic party an unelectable failure, you fail to recognize or state that Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million -- and counting -- more popular votes than Trump -- indeed, more than President Obama received in 2012 -- and many of those votes were, indeed, white.
I proudly add, as a Jew of Ashkenazi extraction, that 71 percent of Jews voted for Hillary as well. I am even prouder to say that Jews, since voting has been dissected, have always voted majority Democrat. Your analysis, especially in a Jewish newspaper, is skewed at best, as it omits this fact.
Hillary's vote total was the single-largest popular vote swamp by Democrats against a Republican to go on to lose the electoral college in US history. It was even greater than was Al Gore's popular vote lead over Bush.
To me, that means something. Democrats did not "slice and dice" the electorate, but rather went after votes they knew would be cast for them -- by those in the electorate that heretofore in US history had been ignored -- while holding the white progressive vote as well.
As to Republicans retaining state legislatures and governorships, Republicans have done a fantastic job at gerrymandering districts, both on the state and federal level, while they suppress the Democratic minority vote by stunningly nefarious means. If Republicans in these states kept the vote available to more persons of color for longer periods of time, perhaps the outcome would have been different.
You deem the recovery "slow and weak." You decline to acknowledge that Obama inherited an economic mess from Bush, and yet he decreased the unemployment rate by half; saved the auto industry; and for the first time, offered health insurance to insure 20 million people who otherwise would have gone uninsured, and filled emergency rooms. Obama eliminated the preexisting condition that had been a rationale insurance companies used in order to not insure those who needed insurance most. Is the ACA perfect? No, but under a Hillary Clinton administration, it would have been perfected. Now it stands to be, God forbid, repealed -- and I am sure not replaced -- so yet again, people will not be treated, and may consequently die.
To say Democrats thought of white Republicans as the "other" is simply ludicrous. From day one of President Obama's first administration, Republicans met at dinner and were committed to the passage of exactly nothing the president wanted. In other words, if they could not defeat the President by the ballot, they would defeat any and all proposals he might try to pass. The President's entire message, from the beginning of his administration to well into his second administration, was to work with Republicans on initiatives they both might benefit from. His mantra was always "compromise." He would continuously espouse the mechanics of government to be rooted in getting a little, and giving up a little, of what one wanted, in order to craft legislation with which both could live. But no matter which cheek the President turned, Republicans would slap him on the other.
Trump's initial foray into things political began with a racist and ridiculous disparagement of the President as not having been born in the United States, an obvious insult and falsehood Trump was forced to retract much later, during his run for the presidency.
The President has been besmirched by white Republicans time after time. One cannot forget South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson's famous insult, "you lie," directed at Obama during his State of the Union speech. Never has such rudeness occurred at a State of the Union address given by a white president. Nor can I forget the President's attempt at racial inclusion convening the so-called "beer summit which involved a black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. going into his own home and being arrested wrongly by a white Cambridge police officer. The president here yet again tried to calm a racially tense situation through discussion.
One can only deduce that no matter what the President did, or however he did it, he would be overruled by a portion of the mostly white electorate, through their representatives who could never accept a black President. Are these the votes you would have wanted the Democratic nominee to pursue?
The fact that white men in the Rust Belt thought Hillary Clinton would destroy their coal and oil jobs was, perhaps, one area that stood better clarification by her, and she should have spent more time in those states doing precisely that. She did not want to eliminate coal and oil jobs entirely, but said that she wanted to transition workers from coal and oil jobs to those more environmentally-friendly, certainly healthier for them (I heard an interview one day on NPR where a coal miner praised G-d for sending Trump to restore coal production. Later in the interview, he incredulously said that both his father and grandfather had died of black lung disease) and thereby, reduce the carbon load on the environment. Who could argue with climate change amelioration? Trump and his minions, that's who.
Ultimately, I believe Hillary's main difficulty to those white men in the Rust Belt was that it was a woman transmitting the message -- and that is too bad. Nothing less than the planet's life is at stake!
I cry for the last of the vets of WWII who saved the world and
saved my Jewish family from certain death if Nazis won. I cry for my
friend a soldier who died in Vietnam before he married and his sister,
my best friend, who died later of cancer with
no family left. I cry for soldiers today sent to those hell holes, I
cry for horrible policies that send them there while those who make
policy are warm, safe and never saw war. I cry for their sacrifice for
so many they do not know. I cry for what I saw on the news re: Syria ...
innocents, women, children, elderly, disabled walking and walking and
walking away fleeing from those that want their blood. Unfathomable to
me. Russians/Syrians bombed four hospitals....hospitals can you imagine
doing that to the sick and doctors who try to help them? And our soon to
be fearless leader loves Putin. I just cry because so much is so sad
and my efforts to help so weak! Sent to me from a friend and sent to him from a Canadian friend > > A Different Christmas Poem > > The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, > I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. > My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, > My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. > Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, > Transforming the yard to a winter delight. > > The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, > Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. > My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, > Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. > In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, > So slumbered I, perhaps I started to dream. > > The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, > But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear. > > Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, > Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. > > My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, > And I crept to the door just to see who was near. > > Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, > a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight. > A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, > Perhaps a Trooper, huddled here in the cold. > > Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, > Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. > > "What are you doing?" I asked without fear, > "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here! > > Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, > You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!" > > For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, > Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts. > > To the window that danced with a warm fire's light > Then he sighed and he said "It's really all right, > I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." > > "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, > That separates you from the darkest of times. > > No one had to ask or beg or implore me, > I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. > My Gramps died in Europe on a day in December." > Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers." > I've not seen my own son in more than a while, > But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile. > > Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, > The red and the white ... A Canadian flag. > I can live through the cold and the being alone, > Away from my family, my house and my home. > I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, > I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat. > I can carry the weight of killing another, > Or lay down my life with my sister and brother. > Who stand at the front against any and all, > To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall." > > "So go back inside," he said, "Harbour no fright, > Your family is waiting and I'll be all right." > "But isn't there something I can do, at the least, > "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast? > It seems all too little for all that you've done, > For being away from your wife and your son." > Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, > "Just tell us you love us, and never forget. > > > To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone, > To stand your own watch, no matter how long. > For when we come home, either standing or dead, > To know you remember we fought and we bled. > Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, > That we mattered to you as you mattered to us." > >
There are three people of great foreign policy importance and power in Trump's presidency who are kissing Putin and he is kissing them back: Trump the president who knows nothing about foreign policy -- Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State (who must be confirmed and probably after bruising questioning will be) and knows nothing about foreign policy and Michael Flynn - National Security Advisor (who does NOT have to be confirmed) and knows nothing about foreign policy. He is, as I have read, a mentally unstable wingnut to boot.
Foreign policy BIG BIG BLUNDER right out of the gate. Before this nincompoop president-elect even took the oath of office he accepted the allegedly congratulatory phone call from Taiwan chilling ... no freezing ... our relationship with one state China who refuses to consider Taiwan a separate nation state and made that as a condition we accept their one state definition of China if the US wants a relationship with mainland China. I suspect we do want a relationship with the second largest economy in the world.
I postulate, as one expert did, what if North Korea rears its ugly head and presents Trump with his first major potentially violent crisis? China is the ONLY state that has diplomatic relations and leverage (other than nuclear) to deal with N. Korea and to whom N. Korea listens if it wants to survive. We have NOTHING to deal with N. Korea, a nuclear armed nation, except with our own nuclear weapons. In ordinary times we might use back door diplomacy with China to talk sense into the often senseless Kim Jong-Un but this is no ordinary time. What would new President Trump who considers himself a genius do now that he has thrown a monkey wrench into the Chinese/US relationship?
And oh yes, another question, why do these three important people have a three way love affair with Putin anyway? Who said follow the money in the Nixon years -- doesn't matter -- follow the money. No, follow the BIG money. Can you say oil, bank loans and arctic drilling?
Democracy exists by the consent of the governed but balances itself like a fiddler on the roof. It is, I think, especially so, in this nation marked by the size of its land mass and huge numbers of its population. The fact that it has held together this long with many diverse interests vying for power I attribute to the miraculous genius of our Founders.
The Civil War era chaos that threatened to pull the nation apart presented no guarantee the union would survive. The secessionists of the south, at least in the beginning, took the military advantage and the pivotal social construct of slavery, the rationale for which the war was in large part fought, would not to go down with ease. In fact, with the fight to end slavery many whites in the north refused to take up the union cause and there were draft riots in NYC.
Race and racism in these United States has been, was and still is woven into the dark soul of this nation. Clearly, we are NOT a "post racialist society" as the Supreme Court almost laughably, if it were not so serious, used as the rationale to gut the Voting Rights Act which ensured voting rights to millions of persons of color. Literacy tests once a requirement in the south to vote and used against persons of color are now replaced by other Republican voter suppression techniques which serve to do the same and suppress the minority vote. Most assuredly, the election of Donald Trump is evidence that the issue of race has not gone away and Trump was at least smart enough to understand how to use it. One cannot separate racism from the tapestry of this country. It is sadly in the marrow of the nation's bones. The question before us is will we now ever be able to become a post racial society as over time one protection after the next to create a more level playing field is being legally undone by Republicans in both state legislatures and at the federal level.
Trump capitalized on the animus that sat seething in the rust belt and other areas of the nation since the Great Recession of 2007 as jobs are sent by big companies to other nations whose labor costs are significantly lower. He knew a resentment existed, too, among whites that immigrants undocumented and otherwise, persons of color and Muslims fleeing nations on which this nation made war were at the heart of white rage. Trump used that resentment and played unapologetically and charismatically to it.
Trump has no intention, as one can observe now, by his choice of potential cabinet nominees of ever bringing jobs back by levying taxes on companies that send jobs overseas or by taxing the rich. To the contrary the former Democrat Trump turned Republican allies with those Republicans who want to gut social safety nets constructed during FDR's New Deal to ameliorate the devastation of the Great Depression and crafted over the decades to include Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. If safety nets are removed millions of middle class, the poor, the elderly, the sick and the disabled will die as healthcare becomes even more unaffordable and the oligarchs like Trump and his 1% will care nothing if they do. Our healthcare and, indeed, our retirement will be held hostage to the whims of Wall Street. What the market giveth it can taketh away but Trump's minions are not savvy enough to understand that the capitalist system has great booms and bust flaws intrinsic within it and it cares nothing for the welfare of those who through no fault of their own need help to survive. It is the rationale for government to help but with Trump it will be government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich exactly what induced the Great Recession under Bush.
We are and will continue to be an oligarchy ruled, bought and sold by the 1%. Trump lied to millions of his supporters that the end of government corruption through lobbyists was near and that the he will drain the swamp. By not revealing his taxes he proved he has something to hide as audits are no excuse against tax revelation. Thus, I aver, he IS the swamp and most probably paid no taxes over decades. In fact, Nirvana for the 1% is just beginning as he floods his cabinet with oil magnates, generals and Goldman Sachs retreads. Watch while the anemic but important regulation of Wall Street goes into the ash bin of Trump history. What could possibly go wrong? Elections have consequences and those that voted for Trump will be hurt the most by him.
Trump has lied and still does lie his way into power and used the cruel, dark and hateful forces that have always subliminally and sometimes not so subliminally existed in this nation to his advantage. Shockingly he took the White House. So much had been achieved over so long a period of time for the middle class, the poor, the sick, the elderly and the disabled of this nation but now stands to be erased in a heartbeat unless we the champions of the middle class and the poor of this nation fight for their cause and ours.
Yes, we take democracy for granted but one surely can now see how it can be undone and will, through the insanity of the 2016 Trump election when the most unqualified candidate in our nation's history occupies arguably the most powerful office in the world. All the social good
crafted over decades, indeed a century, for the middle class, the
elderly, the disabled and the
poor will be undone by the greatest con ever sold.
NFL players, Brandon Marshall and Nikita Whitlock, have been targeted by ugly racist verbiage written in letters and as graffiti written on the walls of their home. Please know, Mr. Marshall and Mr. Whitlock, as bad as these cruel acts are there are people of ALL ethnic groups who empathize with you and are on your side.
LB Brandon Marshall and Nikita Whitlock, these are disgusting heinous acts that have been directed at you, the innocent. It shows that part of a nation is filled with hypocrites and hate which has been emboldened by the campaign and election of Trump as president. They want to return to an era where this vile speech was spewed continuously and murderous acts committed without consequence.
We will NOT I say NOT return to that era. More of us stand with you LB Brandon Marshall, Nikita Whitlock and others. We WILL NOT abandoned our resistance against racism. Irrespective of Trump's supporters we, the moral majority, stand in support of you!
The fox guarding the chicken coup! Up is down and down is up in rightwing world. Why is it if one can think of a cruel, unscientific and inhumane policy the right wingnuts love it? Follow the money? You bet. Just what Jesus would love -- NOT Sick!
Photo
Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Wednesday.Credit
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, a transition official said, signaling Mr. Trump’s determination to dismantle President Obama’s efforts to counter climate change.
Mr.
Pruitt, a Republican, has been a key architect of the legal battle
against Mr. Obama’s climate change policies, actions that fit with the
president-elect’s comments during the campaign. Mr. Trump has criticized
the established science of human-caused global warming as a hoax, vowed to “cancel” the Paris accord
committing nearly every nation to taking action to fight climate
change, and attacked Mr. Obama’s signature global warming policy, the
Clean Power Plan, as a “war on coal.” [See link]
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 !
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.
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!
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
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!
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!
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!
RepubliCONS do not start your celebration quite yet! http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/28/democrats-demand-trumps-tax-returns-investigation-conflicts-interest.html
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!
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!
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!
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 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.
"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.
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.
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.
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."
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!
