Trump may not be removed by the Senate — but he’s still terrified of his trial. Here’s why

My Comment: This article below expresses exactly what I have been saying.  It is beautifully written and is right on point.  Why is Trump's base even in view of the fact that Trump's economic policies do not show that he gives a rat's petuti for their economic interests but really only cares about the interests of the top 2% as his permanent tax cuts for the rich show as do the trade tariffs which have wreaked havoc on farmers and others in the middle and working classes. So why do they support him no matter what he does, no matter how unethical he is, no matter how many crimes he commits and no matter how much he destroys our system of checks and balances the Founders so brilliantly bestowed upon us over 200 years ago.  The answer of course lies in racism, sexism and homophobia.  As long as Trump delivers on those things which he does his nearly all white base will continue their allegiance no matter if he betrays their social and economic class. This author below sees it the same way and writes about it more completely: 

Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon January 17, 2020

 

Donald Trump is scared. The Senate trial following his impeachment for a blackmail and campaign cheating scheme starts next week, and it’s driving him to distraction. He was supposed to host a lame event at the White House on Thursday to bolster fake concerns that white evangelicals are being oppressed, but blew off pandering to his strongest supporters for an hour, likely because he couldn’t pry himself away from news coverage of the impeachment trial’s kickoff. After ending the event swiftly, Trump then tweeted angrily, “I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!”
(As with most things the president says, this was untrue — he was impeached weeks ago, in December.)

Trump’s cold sweats are significant, because everyone who has been following this case knows that the Senate will acquit him. Not because he’s innocent — no one who has actually consulted the evidence is foolish enough to believe that — but because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who control the Senate decided long ago that they would cover up for their shamelessly corrupt president no matter what he does. With such an assured outcome, Trump’s fears seem overblown and silly, even for someone crippled by sociopathic narcissism and its accompanying paranoia.

But it’s also true that high-profile travesties of justice, such as the one Senate Republicans are currently preparing to commit, can often provoke major political backlash. Getting a jury to acquit the obviously guilty can, as history shows, cause a public that’s already outraged about the crime to get even more furious. That, I suspect, is what Trump is sweating.

What the Senate is about to do is akin to the practice of jury nullification. That’s where a jury decides that either they don’t think the crime should be a crime at all, or that they believe people like the defendant should above the law, and so refuse to convict no matter how guilty the defendant is. This something that in theory, and sometimes in practice, can be used for good as when a jury refuses to throw someone in prison for a low-level drug offense, or refuses to enforce a law restricting free speech. But historically in the U.S., jury nullification has tended to be used to uphold injustice and reinforce racist or sexist systems of power.

In other words, exactly what Senate Republicans are planning to do. That becomes more obvious every day as more evidence of Trump’s guilt comes out, from the revelations by Rudy Giuliani’s former associate Lev Parnas to the Government Accountability Office declaring that Trump broke the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine.

The most disturbing and frequent historical examples of jury nullification come from the Jim Crow South, where it was normal for all-white juries to acquit Klansmen and others who committed racist murders — not because they genuinely believed they were innocent, but because they believed it should be legal for white people to murder black people in cold blood.

The most famous of these cases was that of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, two white men who murdered a black teenager named Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955. That the men had committed the crime was not in doubt — they described the murder in great detail to a reporter for Look magazine. But the all-white, all-male jury refused to convict, and didn’t really bother to hide the fact that they did so because they didn’t think white men should be punished for killing black people.

Unfortunately, this problem of white jurors refusing to convict in cases where the victims are black has not gone away. For instance, in the 2012 Florida killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a nearly all-white jury voted to acquit Zimmerman, even though Martin was apparently just walking home after buying some snacks and Zimmerman had been warned by a 911 operator not to pursue him — and even though Zimmerman’s only basis for suspecting Martin of anything was his race. The one woman of color on the jury has since publicly lamented the process and describes what sounds a lot like bullying from the white women in the room.

The defendants in those cases walked free, but the outrage that followed had political ramifications. Till’s murder helped draw national attention to the evils of the Jim Crow South and helped bolster support for the burgeoning civil rights movement. Martin’s murder, decades later, helped build support for what became known as the Black Lives Matter movement.

Sometimes the backlash to injustice can be earth-shaking, as happened in 1992, when Los Angeles was torn up by riots in the wake of the acquittal by a majority-white jury of four cops who were caught on video severely beating Rodney King, a black motorist they had pulled over for speeding.

These are all racially loaded cases, of course, which sets them apart from Trump’s impeachment over his efforts to cheat in the 2020 election and his cavalier willingness to use government resources to force foreign leaders to help him do so. Trump’s inevitable acquittal in the Senate won’t be quite the gut-punch so many people feel when white men get sprung for committing racist crimes.

Still, the social circumstances of Trump’s upcoming acquittal go straight back to those same forces of white supremacy that have led to so many other travesties of justice in the past. After all, the main reason Senate Republicans are averse to taking what seems to be an easy way out — convicting the obviously guilty Trump and letting his Republican Vice President, Mike Pence, take over — is because they fear crossing the notoriously loyal Trump base, who represent their only possible chance of holding onto the Senate or retaking the House this November.

And the reason that base is so loyal, as with many things in this country, relates to racism. Trump’s base is motivated by what sociologists delicately call “racial resentment,” which is a nice way of saying that these white people see changing demographics in the U.S. and growing challenges to white domination, and they’re angry about it. Furthermore, they see President Trump, a blatant and shameless racist, as their best weapon to fight to preserve a system of white supremacy.

As long as Trump keeps delivering on the racism — which he has done in a myriad of ways — his base doesn’t care what crimes he commits. After all, Trump committed his crime to hang onto power so he can continue to inflict cruel racist policies on our entire nation. In that sense, this case shares a common root with those more explicitly racist acquittals of the past. They’re all part of the long and ugly American tradition of letting white people get away with crime, so long as they do it in the name of white supremacy.
But watching obviously guilty people get away with it can also have a galvanizing political effect, and not just when the crime itself is racially provocative. As the #MeToo movement and the Women’s March demonstrated, Americans have also been roused to outrage when men commit sexual assaults and get away with it. And the ongoing fascination with gangsters who finally get caught after evading justice for years — Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, John Gotti — suggests a real hunger to see bad guys pay for what they do.

That’s what Donald Trump fears: That his acquittal will not be read as an exoneration, but as yet another famous miscarriage of justice that leads to outrage across the nation. Let’s hope his worst fears come true.

I Pray for Our Nation

We all need  to work tirelessly to rid ourselves of the plague of Trump.  The latest is that Lev Parnas, Giuliani's go to man in Ukraine, working with another Republican low life from Connecticut has coughed up a trove of the most incriminating documents seemingly threatening the wonderful Ukrainian  Ambassador Yovanovich as they, if one can believe it, were monitoring her, her computer, her cell phone and her comings and goings in Ukraine and to remove her from office.  One might think we lived in a third world nation controlled by Mafia-like figures. 

The greatest gift we can bestow on the American people and us is to rid ourselves of Trump Corruption, Inc. either through impeachment conviction or by the secured vote. I ask all Dems and those who sympathize with us to monitor the vote to make sure Republicans do not corrupt it.  Republicans win when they cheat and Democrats stay home.  Get out the Democratic vote!

Look up the latest Trump fiasco in Ukraine, the subject of the Articles of Impeachment, to listen with incredulous ears to what has been going on with Trump minions in Ukraine.  It is guaranteed to make one ill.

I pray for our nation at this most unsettling time!

 

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-intelligence-committee-handwritten-notes-ukraine_n_5e1e4746c5b674e44b8f362e

Russians Hacked Ukrainian Gas Company at Center of Impeachment--My Comment: from the inside out

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/politics/russian-hackers-burisma-ukraine.html?fbclid=IwAR2ittLz3udPr_KihbQipumSU4eVl0QjH9kkCEh7EY4LNC2p9UjXVdu7dQY

This is so unacceptable in our democracy it makes my head explode. Where is the FBI, where are other institutions that should be preparing for something Mueller told us would happen? Russia will and is stealing the 2020 election for Trump.  Why am I not surprised?

This president will do all he can to allow Russia to do this encouraging Russian hacking those entities that could get Trump to steal an election yet another time to get him elected. This is an abomination. The FBI, the CIA, the NSC and Homeland Security should be working at this NON STOP to halt this Russian (or any foreign government) from attacking and interfering in this nation's democratic process. This is an act of war as if a nation dropped a bomb on it attempting to destroy it. Russia is desirous of pulling this nation apart and destroying it from the inside out

"Chris Cuomo Exposes Trump’s 2020 Strategy: ‘Keep People Pissed Off And Frustrated’

The CNN host said the president needs 'Orwellian double-speak' to win."

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chris-cuomo-donald-trump-2020-plan_n_5e1d7402c5b6da971d1bb9b9

‘When They See Us’ Wins Big At Critics’ Choice Awards After Snubs -- My Comment -- It's about time

"When They See Us" wins at Critics Choice Awards after rejections: I cannot think of one film that deserves it more than "When They See Us." The horror of the Central Park jogger and the rush to white judgment arresting the wrong young black and Latino teenagers  is front and center about the dastardly issue of race in this nation. Persons of color have suffered since the first slave ship dropped off its accursed cargo in 1619 in Virginia.

Things change from generation to generation, of course, but being born black in this nation always was and still is fraught with danger and unjustifiable racism. Hollywood is finally waking up to the contribution persons of color have made. It's been a long journey from Gone With the Wind's Mammy to "How they See Us." All I can say is it's about time! 

 

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/when-they-see-us-win-critics-choice-awards_n_5e1bc64bc5b6da971d1814a5

Soleimani's dead. Do I feel safer?

The assassinated Soleimani was a very big player next in line to the leader of Iran. A million Iranians came out to grieve him. Although he was an enemy of the US he was loved by many Iranians. Trump could have taken out anyone or secured the bases he says were under constant threat even though they cannot be named.  Whether one hates Soleimani or not, the order to assassinate him ratcheted up exponentially a widening war worry.  Worse, the jet liner that was either mistakenly or not-so-mistakenly taken out by an Iranian missile carries with it the possibility and fear of a rationale for a widening war. Iran is removing the evidence of the air crash so those neutral entities like Ukraine, Canada and even the NTSB from the US will not have important pertinent wreckage for analysis.

Further, Manuchin just announced new sanctions which will devastate the Iranian economy even more. I don't think Iran will simply say ho hum okay we understand. No, it is yet another provocative act by this incompetent administration to send chills down our spines.  Do I feel safer now that Soleimani is dead? Answer: No most definitely not!

War With Iran Is Nothing To Worry About, Men Who Launched Iraq War Promise--My Comment: Iran Wins

Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, Joe Lieberman and others, if one can believe it, the Iraq war lovers and promoters of the worst foreign policy decision in US history, Bush's decision to invade Iraq on a lie creating chaos in that region are trying to justify it again and a war with Iran to boot. Do they think we are morons? A war of hell in Iraq we are still waging occupying Iraq after 20 years, the ramifications of which we are still suffering, deaths of our troops and Iraqis numbering in the hundreds of thousands and a Shia ally created for Iran since Sunni Hussein of Iraq hated Iran and had a war with it! Now Shia Iran owns Shia Iraq.

These Cretans STILL are coming back to push an immoral, unethical war based on lies, the Iraq War. Did they leave their conscience on the cutting room floor when they were born? These jerks have zero credibility!! America, GET INFORMED BEFORE YOU ACQUIESCE TO ANOTHER WAR, ONE WITH IRAN, THAT WILL DECIMATE THIS NATION, costing TRILLIONS more in bucks and thousands more in blood. Is this what you want for your children and grandchildren to be in that region for 20, 30, 40 or even 100 additional years costing trillions more for which your progeny will have to pay?

Leaders pushing your children to fight and die in war means that you must question everything asking who is advocating for it and what do they have to gain. Most importantly have these pushers of war ever fought in battle before or like our mendacious so called "president" did they yell bone spurs and weasel out of serving in Vietnam getting an educational deferment four times and a so called "medical" deferment once.

My conclusion: War is hell, cost trillions and kills millions. The weak caretaker government of Iraq is simply another proxy for Iran. Iran wins!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iraq-war-hawks-sell-iran-war_n_5e165473c5b61f701948c11c?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaHVmZnBvc3QuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHm4HI3obtMw8cdAd7g635cndWMqIQLWWRUVVJQjFkFXtW96Ah0FXdpigmEOFwckd4P6Qc4lZoGOJiiVt8ht4PcOBWawgdORIz08HjEINRrg4jFGewQ01ZfZIgZW_O0G_aX6hNrhXgeHRdLSEekhQUMf8RC6DB4B-dlHAZXgrIiY

New York City medical examiner who reviewed the photos of Jeffrey Epstein obtained by ‘60 Minutes’ argues that it doesn’t add up to suicide.

Jeffrey Epstein's death does not add up to suicide.  Big surprise. Jeffrey Epstein knew too much about too many powerful white men around not only the country but the world. I have thought for a long time that this was a Mafia-like hit job and not a very well done one at that. The camera that photographed who went in and out of his cell was broken. Epstein's neck was fractured in an unusual way commensurate with murder not suicide. His cell had clean orange sheets strewn throughout it but his neck in the autopsy showed thin bloody lines more appropriate of wire.  Moreover, he had no one in his cell at all when he was supposed to have a cell mate. These omissions occurred when Epstein was such a high value prisoner. One would think they would have moved heaven and earth to protect him.

Who would do something so ugly and illegal as murder or direct others to do it?  One can speculate orders came from on high but how high?  There must be evidence.  It is only speculation because too many things do not add up. Truthfully, though, it is like pulling teeth for those in the executive and/or Republican sphere to conform to investigation and law for the "smaller" things much less allow an investigation for murder. It would, it seems to me, be stopped at every turn.

What would it take to conduct a proper investigation and go after wherever the signs point?   My guess is it will never happen. The only one with a vested interest in justice is the brother of Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein never married and seemingly had no children.  The only relative that could vie for a prosecution is Epstein's brother Mark. Maybe someone somewhere believes in justice. Jeffrey Epstein deserves what he got but the prosecution of a case for murder seeks justice against those who would perpetrate such a crime.

Justice, justice, justice that is all I want for the perpetrators of massive crimes against our nation and crimes against humanity whether it is for the illegality of the quid pro quo hold on weapons for Ukraine or the massive blunder that now is Iran. Lives are at stake.

Hispanic children and families in cages at the border are held and dying every day at the hands of the cruelest, most immoral and unethical Cretan who is our so called president.  He must be removed from office whether through the Constitutional means of impeachment and conviction or at the ballot box.  Vote blue everywhere you can.  Remove, too, immoral and unethical Republicans who are blocking trial in the Senate and blocking transparency of crucial evidence.

Remove Republicans from office everywhere you can.  Save our nation and, indeed, our planet from eternal destruction.

Before Emmett Till, 23-year-old George Armwood was dragged from jail, hanged and burnt in 1933. My Comment

The examples of racist actions against persons of color in this nation are heartbreaking. Who could ever perpetrate a violent act against a human being only because their skin is dictated by melanin DNA? It's ridiculous on its face. Nonetheless it is the essence of who some of us are. I did not learn its reality until my college years. I remembered though a girl in my high school class who was a person of color and also was running for secretary of the class. When she told me she was running she said she knew she would not win. I asked her why. She said at that time because she was black. I was incredulous because she was extraordinarily smart and nice. She was also right because she did not win as she knew she would not. It makes me sad that I did not realize it then but surely I do now. Black people in this nation have been much sinned against. I can only do what I can do and vote for those who understand racism's place in US history and make sure I do not perpetuate the sin!

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/before-emmett-till-23-year-old-george-armwood-was-dragged-from-jail-hanged-and-burnt-in-1933?fbclid=IwAR3mlTAklKdJEoVTD9Mj4Y36d3IHbp16ynDzExZk4Zn-4INlzz3vBCh3ce4

Pompeo says God may have sent Trump to save Israel from Iran -- My Comment -- Coming soon to a theater near you.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47670717

Oh sure God sent a sexual predator, a liar, an extreme narcissist, a spasmodic antiSemite and a general racist to this nation to save Israel.  Trump knows nothing and reads nothing. The assassination of the Iranian major force Soleimani will surely not expedite peace in that region or help Israel.  In fact, it will promote more violence.  Our Secretary of State is as delusional as Trump.

The mentally incompetent unfit-for-the-presidency Trump has ensured the fact that this nation without democratic allies alienated by Trump will be at war with a nation Iran almost 4 times the size of Iraq and with twice as many people.  "Iran has over 5 times as many military personnel as Iraq" according to Capitol Comments.  We know how swimmingly the war in Iraq went for the US as thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were sacrificed for a lie. The US is still there.  The war in Iraq destabilized the entire Middle East region. A war with Iran will do the same except by multiples. 

After the defeat and removal of Sunni Saddam Hussein, Iraq has been ruled by Shia, the Sunni adversary.  The Iran/Iraq war cost more than a million lives.  Iran would be willing to lose many lives in its war with the US.  Iraq has become a proxy state for Shia Iran and has a caretaker government that will act on the command of Iran hitting US troops at Iran's will.  Iraq may even kick out all American military personnel.

The assassination of Soleimani is making and will make the Middle East world more explosive and will have implications for millions on every continent.  Iran has proxy states all over the Middle East and, in fact, the world to do Iran's violent bidding wherever it wants and at a time of its choosing. 

The war weary US cannot and I aver will not endure yet another decades long endless Middle East war costing trillions with the potential for even the ultimate involvement of other adversarial world powers such as China and Russia on the side of Iran.  The US by this one careless, impulsive, foolhardy action by Trump going against, we now know, many of Trump's advisers to the extent he has any left, assassinating Soleimani, in Iran a much loved and powerful leader who commanded insurgents all over the world will do nothing but create more violent explosions and the US knows not where or when.  Indeed, Soleimani has already been replaced.

There will be more eternal war without end and with no plan either to proceed or for an exit coming to a theater near you soon! 

Trump is now facing two significant foreign policy crises — and he has nowhere to turn for help

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/trump-is-now-facing-two-significant-foreign-policy-crises-and-he-has-nowhere-to-turn-for-help/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3360

I am afraid we are in real trouble. The Beast does not have a clue. He is in way way way over his head.  N. Korea knows it and is taking advantage of it expanding its nuclear force. If I were S. Korea or Japan I would be shaking in my boots. The US cannot be trusted to protect either let alone itself. 

According to Alternet:  "Likewise in Iran, Trump’s failure is also on display. He tore up the Iran deal President Barack Obama had established with no good justification, insisting that being tough on the country could induce it to accept even more punishing terms. But the international community largely rejected Trump’s abandonment of the deal, leaving the United States isolated on the issue. And Trump seems no closer to a new deal with the country than he ever was."

Trump as most of us know is a fraud and a conman.  He was able to con 1/2 of the white supremacist part of our nation because of his racist appeal to support him.  If one cannot see that this is true and is the greatest con ever told then you need eyes to see.

If the Republican Party would see that the life of our nation is at stake as are the many lives Trump would sacrifice then we might have a shot at ending this nightmare.  This should be passed to every Republican congressman or woman it is  possible to get that they should do an about face, save the lives of themselves, their families and remove this cancerous core at the center of our body politic!

Democrats' 2020 split risks handing Trump a big advantage

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-2020-split-risks-handing-trump-big-advantage-n1109371?fbclid=IwAR0vS0_zkbuki9D50HZsiHYjFsFqmXhFBrczOYkQTTZW4OJRffAnoacCjN8

Whoever the Democratic nominee is from the primaries WE SHOULD STICK TOGETHER AND SUPPORT WHOEVER IT IS UNLESS YOU WANT THE BEAST TRUMP TO SLIDE IN ON AN ADVANTAGE HE SHOULD NOT HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!   VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO OR SEE THE DEATH OF YOUR DEMOCRATIC NATION!

Pass this on to anyone you know so that they can save their lives and the lives of those they know and love!

The Useful Idiot

I thought Larry O'Donnell covered the Ukraine scandal very well vis a vie the three senior advisors to Trump -- Bolton, Pompeo and Mick Mulvaney -- standing around Trump's desk trying to dissuade Trump from withholding Ukraine aid. They must be called as witnesses in the Senate trial as this is not hearsay but direct evidence.  I kept thinking, though, one rationale not talked about enough was the Russian reason behind Trump's withholding aid. That aid composed of grenade launchers and Javelin missiles among other weaponry is lethal aid that could (1) help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression into it and (2) Could increase Russian casualties as well. 

As Nancy Pelosi said all roads lead to Putin. It is clear Putin has a self interest in withholding the Congressionally mandated US aid. Withholding this aid helps Russia while hurting Ukraine's fight against it. Perhaps Trump's rationale to work against the most formidable election opponent, Joe Biden, is a smoke screen or the icing on Trump's cake but the real winner is Putin whose position of aggression against Ukraine is advanced if US aid is withheld. The omnipresent question becomes as it has throughout the Trump so called "presidency": what does Putin have against Trump that compels Trump to do everything he can to ease US opposition to Putin?  Will we ever find out?
 
I believe Putin wants Ukraine back as it was in the old Soviet orbit, a Russian proxy. Is Trump Putin's useful idiot? Answer: YES! Vote Blue and tell all your family and friends to as well and save your nation from Russian influence if not dare I say near takeover. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my allies against Trump and even if there is one on my list who incredulously is not in the Democratic camp I wish you a happy new year too. I wish I could say I am looking forward to 2020. I'm not.  I am slowly looking for that window out of which I can jump if the Beast is god forbid elected again. I jest.  I promise I will not jump but may return to the fetal position and hide under the covers.

The holiday gift you can give all you love and/or about whom you care is to vote Democratic blue up and down the ticket!  Democrats may not be perfect but compared to the mendacious

con man thief and most Republicans who give him all their support Dems are infinitely better.  There is no comparison.

Wishing you health and of course happiness in the coming year.

"Donald Trump Is The Loneliest Man In America Those close to the president say he has no one close to him." + My Comment

He has only himself to blame and those around him who are cowards and don't know when it is time to end a disaster. Now we the American people are sucked into this morass of instability and threats from those tyrants whom he thinks are his friends but only want to do this nation and all democracies harm. We are in perilous times. This poor excuse for a president must resign and FAST!

This president is mentally ill but being a narcissist he does not know it and would never admit it. Those around him in his "acting cabinet" should do what is right for the nation and forget the demise of the Republican Party. If they do what is needed via the 25th Amendment to remove him perhaps breathing life into a near dead Party will help their own cause or they could convict on the impeachment.

Judge allows Georgia voter purge to go ahead

Republicans win only if they cheat.  Fight this action that will take place wherever there are Republicans in state offices to do this malevolent thing.  Who is the target of those purges?  If you

said Democrats you would be correct.  Write, smoke signal and protest any way you can to stop these democracy killing measures initiated by Republicans.

Wisconsin too has its Republican cronies enacting this anti democracy measure by purging and suppressing thousands of votes in an important electoral state of Wisconsin where Trump won by only 10,000 votes.  Say NO and say it loud!  Do not let Republicans steal another election!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/16/1906009/-Judge-allows-Georgia-voter-purge-to-go-ahead?detail=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3jS5pjAJmtGd19aTOXKydL2-W6C_9oHwzteLavoBcFd18nYPM38b1qRBM

Uncovering lost music: written by prisoners in concentration camps during the Holocaust

My comment: In my life I took many years when I was younger to develop my political philosophy. I studied political philosophy from the left and from the right. I wanted to make sure I saw the truth and could chose the most humanitarian belief system. I am a liberal left of center Democrat because there is no other political group whose essence is to care, to empathize, and to identify with the other -- those rejected souls who want to breathe free but cannot.

The reality of the Holocaust, the six million of my brethren to have experienced the most extreme brutality in human history gave voice to my politics. I have never wavered. Progressives cared about the treatment of persons of color for centuries who were treated by those who owned them as sub human and so I cared too. I care about the brutalizing of Hispanics on our borders with children packed in cages and dying of the flu and other maladies one in captivity might experience. I care about them. I care about the poor who cannot get treatment for medical conditions because they do not have the money. I care when my government takes food away from children and refuses to give medical treatment to those who cannot afford it. I care because I am part of a political party that cares seemingly the only one Party in this nation that does care. I care that the Hitlerian politics we see in this nation when the white only few raise their arms and their voices to support the brutal pathologically narcissistic sadist of an uncaring mendacious misogynist President whose name I try not to utter when using the title of president. We MUST defeat this Trumpian scourge, we must never give in to it we must as Churchill once said never surrender!
 
I urge you to watch the Sixty Minutes segment "Uncovering lost music: written by prisoners in concentration camps during the Holocaust" linked above. Then work as hard as you can to wipe the political scourge of Trump from our midst and install normal humans with empathy and humanitarian spirit to lift up the least of these to a better life and truly say never again.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/

People call for Hallmark Channel boycott after network drops ads that feature brides kissing

Glad the Anita Bryant side did not have the last word. The LGBT side has a say and is yelling loud on Facebook and Twitter to counteract the so called American Family Association's million mom petition which only showed 25,000 signatures. The ADL and SPLC voiced the LGBT position. I'd like to see the American Family Association be as vociferous about child hunger as they are about opposing two women in a marriage ceremony showing affection to each other by one measly kiss. Here is a bulletin: marriage is legal now between same sex couples. See Obergefell v. Hodges. 

I think now that the Hallmark Channel cow towed to hate the LGBT side should vigorously promote its own boycott of the Hallmark Channel and other entities owned by Hallmark and voice loud support for Zola which paid for the commercial. The gay community should organize big support for Zola and make their commercial rake in big bucks for them. Kudos Zola for celebrating all love and not hate. After all as a movie about a gay relationship once was entitled "It's a Question of Love!" Get used to it!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/15/1905812/-People-call-for-Hallmark-Channel-boycott-after-network-drops-ads-that-feature-brides-kissing?detail=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0KYi8Bw--1erpPRryq3e4dle8UjxA_iO4FTecJUs7OQVVHvrReDZvt0QU

All that glitters: how Chump (Trump) exploited people--Beacon Free Press -- My Comment: Why I loathe, detest and despise Trump. Where is justice?

http://brooklinebeacon.com/2018/10/30/all-that-glitters-how-chump-exploited-people/?fbclid=IwAR3uWuL-bQu7FuTmml3AG4WKzlZCwm1IzJVv9zwN5k7Z1fz8tCRiusJwT60

False Romance of Russia

There was a fabulous discussion on A.M. Joe of The Atlantic article written by Anne Applebaum referenced above and linked below about the American right's intellectual support of once our greatest adversary, Russia.  It gave me much food for thought as well as ratcheting up my proclivity for worry!  After a stunning conservative party of Brexit victory in the UK and right wing tendencies showing up in Hungary, Poland  and elsewhere in Europe I keep wondering being a confirmed liberal Democrat where on earth do I move if populist nationalism takes over in Europe, the US and in other nation states.  This conservative so called intellectual phenomena are extraordinarily racist.  Even Johnson's win in the UK is very racist anti black so much so some blacks are are moving or thinking of moving out of the UK. 

Trump has fueled the fires of the acceptance and even love of Russia while he tolerates white supremacy putting forth a weak rejection of it.  He commits crimes against humanity by his incarceration of immigrants and children in cages recently desiring an unspeakable unlimited detention of them.

The kleptocracy of Russia must be seen for what it is representing a nation with a weak economy and an authoritarian leader who has a penchant for allegedly assassinating those forces which oppose him.  Russia has zero plans for the transitioning of power as well.  It will have no clue as to what it should do when and if Putin were not in power.  

We must as both conservative and liberal lovers of American democracy, acceptance of diversity and adoration of free thought mobilize our huge base and defeat this

cruel, rude, narcissistic, inhumane excuse for a president, Trump, before he helps destroy the fabric of freedom throughout the world. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/false-romance-russia/603433/

Trump’s Strongest Allies In Congress Don’t Care How History Will Remember Them--My Comment

No they do not care at all. They do not care about their legacy, they do not care how cruel the policies they support are, they do not care that the Beast wants indefinite detention of 60,000 human beings. They care only about two things: money and the power it brings. That's it. Just like the Nazis they will do the unthinkable simply to win and their followers in totally blind allegiance will support them, raise their arms and shout zeig heil! Sickening. 

The instant question at hand is how on god's earth do we get the albatross off our necks?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-allies-congress-history_n_5defdc34e4b0a59848d161dd?fbclid=IwAR3wY7YDZhrVFuDKUWuLuwftzq8TzreFyphdiB1crwjvILAc3wcEPJ-anLI

Jersey City Shooting: Suspect Published Anti-Semitic Posts, Official Says

Since the administration of Donald Trump hate crimes across the nation have occurred in great numbers targeting a number of groups. Hate crimes against Jews have also increased where most places where Jews pray have security cameras and other preventive measures to try to prevent such attacks which heretofore have been thought unthinkable.

The president sets a national example and it is imprinted in its milieu. It is no accident that they are occurring with greater frequency during the presidency of Donald Trump. Just the other day he spoke to a group of Jewish real estate brokers. He with antisemitic venom said "A lot of you are in the real estate business because I know you very well. You’re brutal killers. Not nice people at all." In an era when the president cannot censor the gross, hate filled, vituperative and ugly comments that come out of his mouth it is no wonder the statistics on hate crime are trending up.

Trump to sign order to interpret Judaism as a nationality--This won't fly

I do not think this will fly withstanding a court challenge as Trump wants to stop universities from allowing on their campuses boycott, divestment and sanction protests against Israel. He cannot limit political protests on universities it is a first amendment right and will only serve to ratchet up anti Israeli protests on universities and elsewhere.  If one is Russian can the state stop anti Russia sentiment on colleges, universities and elsewhere?

It is particularly egregious and the height of hypocrisy as Trump just gave a speech loaded with antisemitic sentiments. It was awful calling Jews real estate Jews who are horrible people but must vote for Trump as they have no choice. He is devoid of thoughtful analysis, does not read, and is ignorant. He probably will do this to recapture the Jewish vote he alienated during his speech also saying some Jews do not support Israel strongly enough. Who the hell is he to tell anyone who to support or how strongly to support it? There still is the freedom to advocate or not for political sentiment and policy in this country at least for the moment.

Death and Love in Auschwitz

This story linked below appeared in the New York Times and was written by Keren Blankfeld.  It is entitled "Lovers in Auschwitz Reunited."  The story is one for the ages guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye as it did mine. The tear fell when, as the narration related, the Allies were approaching Auschwitz and the liberation of it was at hand.  The prisoners in Auschwitz thought the Soviet army was at their doorstep but it was not the Soviet army it was the American army.  A feeling of pride washed over me as I remember an age before Trumpian fascist hate and madness when those imprisoned by authoritarian dictatorships breathed a sigh of relief that America, a democratic nation with a leader of abundant humane empathy, came to save those imprisoned in hell. 

I yearn for those feelings again as this nation continues to lock up children and many others in cages amid horrific unsanitary conditions resulting in disease and death.   This Trumpian nation has turned its back on the asylum seekers and some accept as good or are indifferent when a father drowns face down on the shores of the Rio Grande with his daughter's arm around him trying to make the arduous journey to freedom in America. Washington Post: "Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month old daughter, both Salvadoran migrants, were swept away in the river waters in a last-ditch attempt to reach Brownsville, Texas." We all should be ashamed.

Now we live in a Trump nation that could be charged with crimes against humanity because of the cruelty of the unfit-for-office president who shows zero care or concern for those who suffer the slings and arrows of tyranny.  Many innocents, including our allies who fought the terrorism of ISIS with us, have died because Trump turned his back on them and ran.  Can one imagine if  a Trump were in power as Hitler and the Nazi onslaught approached?  Who can say for certain that Trump at that time would not have supported Hitler?  Trump, a man who reads nothing allegedly has Hitler's Mein Kampf on his night table. That says it all.

VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET AND SAVE OUR NATIONAL HUMANITY!

The marvelous story, "Lovers in Auschwitz Reunited" is linked below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/nyregion/auschwitz-love-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3zlN2B7co-fAhTtnfWpsD1yVo1v2FGVM9g7zA6nPH07a3HX5Fz4jzCNjs

More Than 500 Legal Scholars Say Trump Committed Impeachable Acts

Their open letter comes as House Democrats are drawing up articles of impeachment for a full floor vote.

 

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/more-than-500-legal-scholars-say-trump-committed-impeachable-acts_n_5deab5a0e4b00149f74037f4

"Dirty John" a Netflix film based on a true story that will curl your hair. I see the con man Trump in all of i

There is a Netflix film that reminds me of Trump. It is stunningly frightening and based on a true story. Its title is "Dirty John."

 

One can see Trump in "Dirty John" and it is staggering the damage that can be done by the lies of one con man!

Times one million if he is president of the United States.

Said much better than I ever could. Boot's opinion is 100% spot on correct!! Cellphone madness

By
Max Boot
Columnist
Dec. 6, 2019 at 1:36 p.m. EST

If there were a global competition for insincerity, President Trump would have won the equivalent of an Oscar, a gold medal, a Ballon d’Or and a Vince Lombardi Trophy combined. You simply could not be more two-faced; it is not humanly possible. His picture belongs in the dictionary under the very word “hypocrisy.”
Trump, recall, spent much of 2016 leading chants of “Lock her up!” because Hillary Clinton made the mistake of employing a private server for some of her official emails as secretary of state. Trump still routinely refers to the former first lady and secretary of state as “Crooked Hillary” as if she had actually committed a crime. Never mind that the Justice Department decided not to prosecute and that a lengthy State Department investigation, completed during the Trump administration, found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”
And yet, while castigating Clinton for supposedly mishandling classified information, Trump has been engaging in far more egregious examples of the very same sin.

Trump began his presidency, in February 2017, by reviewing classified documents and having a highly sensitive discussion about North Korea with the Japanese prime minister not in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) but in front of fellow diners on a packed terrace at Mar-a-Lago.
In May 2017, he revealed top-secret intelligence to the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador during a meeting in the Oval Office, thereby potentially blowing a source of information about the Islamic State. In 2018, he reportedly discussed with wealthy donors at a Manhattan fundraiser the classified details of a battle between U.S. forces and Russian mercenaries in Syria.
In October of this year, Trump revealed details about the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that, as NBC News noted, “were either highly classified or tactically sensitive, and their disclosure by the president made intelligence and military officials cringe.” And, according to a White House whistleblower, Trump overruled the opposition of security officials to grant top-secret security clearances to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

But all these security breaches pale by comparison with Trump’s promiscuous use of a cellphone to conduct top-secret conversations. My Post colleagues Paul Sonne, Josh Dawsey, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller report that “Trump has routinely communicated with his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and other individuals speaking on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russian and other foreign intelligence services.”

This shocking security breach became clear from the cellphone records obtained by the House Intelligence Committee during its impeachment investigation. There are numerous calls between Giuliani and a blocked number listed as “-1” that is widely suspected to belong to Individual 1, i.e., the president of the United States. We also know, of course, that Ambassador Gordon Sondland talked with Trump on an unsecure cellphone from the middle of a restaurant in Kyiv.

The impeachment inquiry into President Trump has exposed troubling cracks in the political system. (Video: Joy Sharon Yi, Kate Woodsome/Photo: Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)
The Post notes that Trump resisted the efforts of former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly to stop using a cellphone and to employ only White House landlines because he didn’t want his aides to have a log of his calls. It is hard to imagine why Trump would be so paranoid about being monitored by his own aides if he weren’t doing something very wrong — which, as we know from the impeachment proceedings, he clearly is.

Trump has now at least been persuaded to use a more secure government cellphone, but it doesn’t matter if he is routinely conversing with people like Giuliani or Sondland who are employing ordinary cellphones: The security of a call is only as good as its weakest link. It’s a sure bet that any halfway competent foreign intelligence service is monitoring the cellphones of people close to Trump such as Giuliani and Sondland — and the Russians are undoubtedly all over them with both physical and electronic surveillance when they visit Ukraine, which Giuliani is doing again this week.

According to The Post, John Sipher, former deputy chief of Russia operations at the CIA, and other sources said “that it is so likely that Russia tracked the calls of Giuliani and others that the Kremlin probably knows more now about those conversations than impeachment investigators.” This opens up the possibility that Trump, who may already be vulnerable to Russian kompromat because of his past business dealings and his campaign’s collusion with the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign, might be vulnerable to blackmail again because of his attempts to force Ukraine to intercede on his behalf in the U.S. campaign. This also gives Russia invaluable leverage it can use in its negotiations with Ukraine at a time when many Ukrainians are already worried that, as the New York Times put it, President Volodymyr Zelensky “may be too willing to make concessions to Moscow” because he has “no clear American diplomatic backing.”

The only thing more appalling than Trump’s cavalier disregard for the basic requirements of handling classified information is the complete lack of concern by his followers who were once so exercised by Clinton’s far more innocuous security lapses. They are championship hypocrites too. I never want to hear about Hillary’s emails again as long as I live.
###

Court Directs Banks To Provide Trump Financial Records To House Democrats

"Trump is expected to appeal the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court." 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-banks-financial-records-house-democrats_n_5de68ac1e4b0913e6f862663

A blogger wrote: I see the SC refusing to hear the case and let stand the lower court ruling. Even the rightists and Tumpists on the court know they are lifetime appointees and will be around after Trump. If they want to be respected and taken seriously and in one case avoid impeachment , they would have to rule with the constitution in mind, seeing they are strict originalists. Congressional oversight is a primary responsibility listed in the constitution. No lifetime judges at this level would want to be associated with being a Trump apologist ignoring black letter law. Trump should be careful what he wishes for when it comes to the Supreme Court.

My Comment:  I hope the blogger is right.  It remains that these "conservative" justices do not have to be conservative if they do not want to and since they travel in the circles they do and were put on the court by Trump they may not want to either incur his wrath, ruin the Republican Party and defeat Trump in an election because of all the illegalities that it is alleged his finances would show.

Republicans have shown time and time and time again that corruption is their middle name. They will do anything for power and money including kiss an adversary's behind. Trump is SO clearly guilty of all of the impeachment charges as stellar witnesses' testimonies have shown but the Republican Senate will twist themselves into a pretzel to somehow someway give excuses and rationales for their voting with Trump and not removing him as he SO mightily deserves. SCOTUS could do the same, destroying the balance of power our Founders so judiciously created. It would be the end of democracy as we know it.

More worrying

Hoping when the Sup. Ct. says they will take up the case of the finding of the lower court that the law breaker-in-chief must produce his taxes that the Sup. Ct. will put an end to Trump's delaying tactic and find FINALLY that he must respond to Congress's request and produce his taxes that we have a system of checks and balances and he is not a king and above the law so he must produce them. I worry though that so many so called "conservatives" on the Sup. Ct. that Trump with his side kick McConnell who stopped O'Bama's superb pick of Merritt Garland that this will have a deleterious effect on decisions which should go a just way. That is I hope the Supremes will not reverse the lower court and say Trump has the executive power to stop a demand of Congress to submit his taxes to Congress. 

We shall have to wait to see. It would have been a just decision if the Sup. Ct. let the lower court's finding stand which would have meant he must submit his taxes so that the American people can see if Trump is a crook which everyone knows he is. His claim of executive power should ring hollow in view of so many other decisions that order him to obey Congress, the first branch of our government. I hope that decision comes down in the people's favor and fast putting an end to this breach of the public trust and enshrine the institutional nature of a checks and balances system in the same way Nixon had to produce the tapes that proved his guilt even though Nixon thought too that he was above the law. He wasn't and neither should Trump be above the law. This has profound influence on future presidencies.

Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Subpoena For Trump’s Tax Returns

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-blocks-trump-tax-returns_n_5ddc6625e4b00149f72266cb

While this is not a ruling that Trump can get away with not showing what Congress, the first branch of government, it seems to me, should have the right to subpoena, it does give Trump until December 5 to file his brief. If they want his brief filed then it would mean, in my opinion, that they will want to read the briefs and take another 5, 6 or more months until the Sup. Ct. makes its decision which Trump, the master of court delay probably wants. Perhaps, the Supremes felt that this is a decision, much like the Nixon tapes, which carries such gravity that they must weigh in in detail.

It is hard to imagine that even court justices picked by Trump as extreme right wing justices would deny Congress its just powers that the first branch of government should have. Still, it may be that these justices will not foil a president who put them in office and face scorn in the so called "conservative" circles in which they associate.

This worries me that an opinion so obviously just and so important for future presidencies that Trump should, with haste, provide that which Congress has asked through proper subpoena on balance of power grounds. Trump is determined, though, to be seen as a unitary executive with dictatorial king-like powers who can do anything he wants casting aside into the dust bin of history the balance of power foundation upon which our form of government sits and his right wing justices may just let him do it. I worry.  Stay tuned.

How Russian intelligence officers interfered in the 2016 election--Why it could not be Ukraine

 60 Minutes had wonderful segments last night one being an explanation in some detail of the Russian hackers. It brought the issue into focus in particulars so one could see just who hacked the computers of the DNC and Democrats even on local levels. It showed the complexity of the Russian plan and how Russia was the only nation state with the understanding of espionage and ​had ​the huge institutional operation to do it. Russia after years of being a Communist state with a spy network already in place was the only state that could attempt such a feat. Russia had the means and the desire to throw an election to the best person to achieve their goals of re-establishing the Russian dominance over the US as well as take control again of its Eastern European empire after the fall of Communism in 1989.

Clearly there was NO way Ukraine was large enough nor did it have the huge ability and infrastructure it took as well as the historical reality of being an adversarial nation to the US to ever be able to perfect a presidential election hack nor would Ukraine want to nor could it perfect a takeover of the 2016 election as Russia did. Russia had institutions like the old KGB that they could call on and add to the ability to hack an entire election against the US. 60 Minutes showed the incontrovertible evidentiary truth of what happened in 2016.

Trump and his cronies including Giuliani with Nunes  we now know as a sidekick as well as others ​like the nefarious characters of Lev Panas and Igor Fruman indicted on violating campaign finance laws simply wanted to cast doubt on the upcoming 2020 Democratic leader Biden to win 2020 for Trump. Hear Democrats, too, as the ones who were hacked relate what happened from their angle. Is this Watergate II. Yes, it is except instead of a break into a building to steal secrets of the DNC it perpetrated it on modern computer systems with the ability to get vast piles of documents

and information. 

GO TO THE SIXTY MINUTES WEB PAGE TO VIEW IT OR CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR THE SEGMENT. THEN SEND THIS TO ANYONE YOU CHOOSE!

https://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/

Trump administration notifies owners it will survey land for border wall--eminent domain MY COMMENT

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/21/politics/eminent-domain-border-wall/index.html

There are legal challenges against eminent domain but you can bet if Obama did what Trump is doing he would be impeached and convicted post haste.  Trump simply gets away with everything especially of a racist nature.  There is nothing that 40% of this nation will not do to crush people with brown or black skin and Trump is the leader for them. It is ugly but has been the underbelly of this nation until now when a fascist like creature from the depths of the sea managed to get elected. 

The loss of Hillary Clinton has had the most profound negative consequences. I keep thinking why did she not go multiple times to Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the rust belt states she lost?  She should have but was so sure of getting their vote she passed.  Now we the middle class, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, gays, women to name a few groups are paying a hefty price.  We will pay with a loss of civil liberties and with a loss of progressive judges who can overrule racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynist policy especially in the higher courts.  Most importantly, there is a constant worry about the complexion of the Supreme Court turning white supremacist too.  Trump has nominated over a hundred right wing judges some extremists and has had them confirmed by Republican Moscow Mitch McConnell rushing their confirmation through.

I wish I were not alive for this time in history as all the progress progressives have made for immigrants, women, gays, abortion rights, minority rights, health care and many more things have been and/or will be derailed if the Trump gets a second term.  Even the baton around the world is being turned over to authoritarian dictatorships since Trump has never seen a dictator he does not love and want to emulate. A second term of this plague Trump will, of course, mean more of a demise of this nation and Lady Liberty's light.  The light will be extinguished and this nation as we have always known it will cease to exist.  Climate change may save all of us the problem as the planet may die taking all of us with it before Trump can hair spray his sticky ugly fake blond hair.

Howard Zinn said to me it matters not how high the mountain is we must climb we must climb it nonetheless and never give in.  For now I will still climb it.  I will hope even when hope seems elusive that the 2020 election is a resounding defeat for Team Trump and we can take back the place of honor among nations we have relinquished to a criminal!

VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET, GET OTHERS WHO ARE LIKE MINDED OUT TO VOTE THEREBY SAVING ALL OF OUR LIVES AND THE PLANET'S LIFE TOO.

Jewish Groups Demand Stephen Miller Resign From White House+ My Comment

 I, a Jew, join those groups.

It is the height of incredulity that a man whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors and who owes his very existence to the defeat of the ethical horror of white nationalism in Nazi fascist regalia would be the cruel designer of the immigration nightmare of asylum seekers fleeing certain death in their country of origin and looking toward the US for help. They do not find help but they and their children too do find the malignity of imprisonment (and sometimes death) in the American version of concentration camp prison. 

Miller is like the Hitlerian beasts who were ultimately responsible for approximately 50 million killed in the theater of WWII. If I were to create a film about the rise of Nazism Stephen Miller could, right out of central casting, play Gobbles's or Himler's part!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jewish-groups-stephen-miller-resign-white-nationalist_n_5dd69935e4b0e29d72800575

A harsh historical judgment

Fiona Hill was a phenomenal witness as were so many of those who ​have ​testified​ in the impeachment hearings of Donald J. Trump. Many were career diplomats with advanced degrees and possess a commitment to our nation, its national security and not to a political party. They have and Fiona Hill has served both Republican and Democratic presidents. Trump's trumped up desire for investigation of Ukraine and the Bidens for the hacking of the 2016 election is not only self serving and wrong but is a strike at the heart of this nation's national security by the president of the United States who would rather cast blame onto Ukraine, an ally in the center of Europe and gateway to Russia, while he absolves Russia and Russia's Putin for its obvious crime of 2016 US election hacking many times indicted by US national security agencies​ as well as ​Special ​C​ounsel Robert Mueller​'s​ indictment of ​ 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election, charging them with conspiracy to defraud the United States​.

​
This is not only wrong but, is, in my opinion, a treasonous high crime as Trump appears to be acting as a Russian witting, unwitting agent or useful idiot playing into the hands of Russia, an adversarial power, while he jumps in bed with his love Putin, a corrupt demagogue. It is stunning. Nothing less than NATO is at stake and 75 years of crafting post WWII western alliances. Putin sees Ukraine as Russia's because of its fall out of Russia's orbit since the ​demise ​of the old Soviet Union. Russia would like it back as its invasion of Crimea and its hot war against Ukraine's Donbass south eastern portion reflects. It is clear Russia's objectives are an undermining of NATO, the west while creating a divided US and a weakening of US support for Ukraine with the hold up of much needed US weapons to defend itself against Russian aggression. Putin sees this as his ticket to ride roughshod trying to regain Russia's former eastern block nations at the expense of those nations that want western culture and democracy.

If the Republicans in the senate vote to acquit Trump on the articles of impeachment charges brought by the House, which I have every reason to believe they will, they will, as I see it, be an accessory after the fact of treason. History, one hopes, will judge them harshly assuming they even care about that. Trump's guilt of bribery as well as obstruction of Congress is as plain as Trump's bleached blond hair!

CNN: Flat Earth conspiracy is growing especially among born again religious zealots--THE JOKE IS ON US!

Is this a joke? No.  This is why Charles Pierce wrote a book entitled: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free," which can be purchased on Amazon, and why Marx said religion is the opiate of the people. I am most definitely NOT a Marxist and believe in regulated capitalism but on this one issue Marx was right. Extreme religious fundamentalist fanaticism and orthodoxy keep our nation from scientific and cultural advancement incapable of replacing irrational superstitious hocus pocus with indisputable fact.

As one of my FB friends pointed out Stephan Hawking said "greed and ignorance will make humans extinct."  Scientific truth cares not whether one believes in it. Science will do what it will do despite man's rejection of it to the detriment of us all.  The joke in the end is on us!

A quote from the link below:

Trump constantly lies and the elected Republicans in Congress support him in these lies. These people take the word of Rush Limbaugh, a high school graduate, over well-respected academic institutions and the mainstream media which neither supports the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party. It is pretty neutral. They do not listen to mainstream science. They do not do the hard work that scientists have done to reach their conclusions. They simply find some person (hopefully famous, maybe somebody way out of the mainstream of science whose views have been proven false, an eccentric) who support (or whose words can be twisted to sound like they support) their views. We have lost our ability to think critically and determine accurate, unbiased sources of truth and information. We have lost the notion of objective truth ! And all of this is extremely dangerous !!!

VOTE BLUE, THE PARTY OF SCIENCE AND TRUTH TO SAVE THE PLANET AND US -- Send this opinion to anyone you choose.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/17/1900204/-CNN-Flat-Earth-conspiracy-is-growing-especially-among-born-again-religious-zealots?detail=emaildkre

Another quote from Malcolm Nance's book "The Plot to Betray America."

"In the Plot to Betray America" "I detail how Donald Trump, his political team, his family, and his most loyal American followers deliberately tried to get away with the greatest act of treachery in the history of the United States--an open in-your-face betrayal of he oath of office for money, power, and the chance to fundamentally break the traditional American system of government and damage our national security to benefit Trump's allies in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and a newfound friend in North Korea. Trump has tried to make America essentially a Moscow-backed autocracy filled with obscene corruption. Gone is the accountability and image of transparency in a constitutional democracy that so many Americans would find they had taken for granted." 

"The Plot to Betray America" "is the story of how equal measures of hatred, ambition, ignorance, and superstition have come to tear America apart. It is a nightmarish take, two parts political thriller and one part spy novel, of how the formerly hardline anti-Communist Republican Party has turned on a nation's norms and shredded its belief in the Constitution to cover up the crimes of a pathological liar. History has revealed that Trump is a man who could barely construct a comprehensive sentence on tangible policy to the American people but has managed to use raw power of the Oval Office to subjugate the 60% of American citizens who oppose him and to ignore any law that suits him. This man has created a for-profit concentration camp system and was publicly overjoyed when he separated thousands of Central America, Honduran, Guatemalan, and Nicaraguan children from the parents and caged them in desert prisons. The worst part of the story is how easily one third of the nation has been brainwashed into backing a man who thought the pinnacle achievement of his life would be to construct a building emblazoned with the word Trump in Moscow, the capital of our enemy."

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE OF THIS SPELL BINDING BOOK BUY IT OR KINDLE IT.  YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

SEND THIS TO ANYONE YOU CHOOSE. 

A quote from Malcolm Nance's book "The Plot to Betray America"

"America is the greatest power the world has ever seen simply because it harnesses the strengths of all those who seek her bounty. Where the transgressions of parents could always be atoned for by the children who stood firm to refine the American promise."

Malcolm Nance -- "The Plot to Destroy America"

FABULOUS segment and interview on Joy Reid of that brilliant scholar on American national security, Malcolm Nance.  His most recent book "The Plot to Destroy America" is a must read.  I intend on downloading it to my Kindle.  He is riveting.  I hope others in my top six MSNBC commentators, Ari Melber, Nicole Wallace, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Larry O'Donnell have him on at length with, perhaps, Steve Schmidt to discuss our national treasonous betrayal by Donald J. Trump and his corrupt minions to subvert our democracy by reaching out to Russia, once rejected by the right and now loved.  The eternal question is why.  I believe Malcolm Nance answers that question. 

Senate Confirms Wildly Problematic Trump Court Pick Steven Menashi

"He’s never tried a case. He condemned women’s rights and diversity. He refused to answer senators’ questions. Republicans confirmed him anyway."

At the risk of sounding looksist, this is one ugly beast inside and out. All I can say is elections matter! Vote blue up and down the ticket.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steven-menashi-republicans-senate-confirms-trump-judge_n_5dcd9beae4b00b9293bff09a

"The Plot to Betray America" Inquiring minds want to know

Malcolm Nance has written​what I think is​ a very good book entitled "The Plot to Betray America." It involves Trump cancelling a routine Navy maneuver around the Black Sea attendant to national security because he thought it would threaten Putin! ​ Malcolm Nance, ​​according to Wiki, "​is an American author and media commentator on terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture. He is a former United States Navy senior chief petty officer specializing in naval cryptology. ​​Nance is an intelligence and foreign policy analyst who frequently discusses the history, personalities, and organization of jihadi radicalization and al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL); as well as counterinsurgency and asymmetric warfare. Schooled in Arabic, he is active in the field of national security policy particularly, in anti- and counter-terrorism intelligence, terrorist strategy and tactics​ ... .​​  I​n 2016, he published the book, Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe,​ ​and published The Plot to Hack America the same year​."​

The subject of this book if true​ is stunning​. If anything can be labeled treason​ against this country​ this can. I continue after a thousand days of this Cretan's ​acting ​presidency ​to ​want to know ​what​ on god's earth Putin has on Trump that he continues to want to court his favor, continues to be enamored with the substance of Putin's dictatorial leadership and continues to be in love with Putin​'s personality​ specifically so much that he will do anything ​not ​to offend him even if it means he commands ​reversal of ​a policy at the expense of US national security. Trump was furious and stopped Navy routine maneuvers around the Black Sea that were within the proscribed limits​ and that the US and other nations conduct all the time​. He was furious because he thought it would offend Putin. Really? Routine US military exercises around the Black Sea made this acting president furious because he thought it would offend Putin? I am stumped.

If Trump were a closeted gay I would think Putin was the love of his life. Yes, I surely know Trump has no homosexual proclivities. That is clear. B​ut​ what I cannot account for is Trump's sycophant behavior towards Putin. Putin the former KGB member, the former good Communist when Russia was Communist Trump admires. Is it only money or real estate? Is that the tie that binds? Or is it something else no one has guessed. Inquiring minds want to know!

Iran-backed Islamic Jihad Says 'We Are Going to War' With Israel After Assassination

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/iran-backed-islamic-jihad-says-we-are-going-to-war-with-israel-after-assassination-1.8118638

NOT good. Elections matter. Netanyahu may be singularly going to war with Hamas which means judging by what they delivered after Netanyahu ordered the assassination of a top Hamas leader and killed his wife in the process Hamas showed it has strength with a retaliation of 50 rockets only 20 of which Israel stopped. One hit Tel Aviv coming close to two cars on a highway which it thankfully missed.

A policy of war and not diplomacy has implications for the world equipped with nuclear capabilities on both sides. How is our own useful idiot beholden to Russia and Putin going to respond to this?