HOPE AND CHANGE!

THIS PUTS A SMILE ON MY OTHERWISE SAD FACE! 
http://www.nbcnews.com/…/women-s-march-washington-echoed-ci…

'In this together': Women's March in D.C. echoed around the world

Armies of demonstrators, equipped with their convictions and voices, lined up by…

nbcnews.com|By NBC News

IMPEACH TRUMP!!  GOD KNOWS THERE IS ENOUGH TO IMPEACH HIM ON.

CALL YOUR LEGISLATOR EVEN REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS AND DEMAND MR. EVIL BE ACCOUNTABLE JUST LIKE ANY OTHER PERSON.  HE IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW!!!!

The Final Letter

Comment of Occupy Democrats: By Colin Taylor. I could not have said it better than this introductory thoughts by Colin. The president's letter below it, of course, speaks for itself. "Today, the hearts of millions of Americans are heavy with dread and loss as our beloved President Barack Obama prepares to step down and hand over the presidency to a serial sexual predator whose legitimacy is already in serious question, as greedy oligarchs plot to gut the social safety net and the controls of our nuclear weapons and public schools are placed in the hands of idiots."

But we can take heart and hope from President Obama’s parting letter to the American people; while it is a painful reminder of the graceful and compassionate leader we are about to lose, he promises to be with us every step of the way and to stay strong in the face of an increasingly dark future.

He also charges us with a sacred task – to throw ourselves into the “joyous work” of citizenship, of coming together to fight against hatred and greed, to uplift and embody the values that made American one of the greatest nations this world has ever seen, to work to better the lives of ourselves and our fellow citizens, no matter their race, gender, sexuality, creed, or ethnicity.

My fellow Americans,

It’s a long-standing tradition for the sitting president of the United States to leave a parting letter in the Oval Office for the American elected to take his or her place. It’s a letter meant to share what we know, what we’ve learned, and what small wisdom may help our successor bear the great responsibility that comes with the highest office in our land, and the leadership of the free world.

But before I leave my note for our 45th president, I wanted to say one final thank you for the honor of serving as your 44th. Because all that I’ve learned in my time in office, I’ve learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.

Throughout these eight years, you have been the source of goodness, resilience, and hope from which I’ve pulled strength. I’ve seen neighbors and communities take care of each other during the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I have mourned with grieving families searching for answers — and found grace in a Charleston church.

I’ve taken heart from the hope of young graduates and our newest military officers. I’ve seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and wounded warriors once given up for dead walk again. I’ve seen Americans whose lives have been saved because they finally have access to medical care, and families whose lives have been changed because their marriages are recognized as equal to our own. I’ve seen the youngest of children remind us through their actions and through their generosity of our obligations to care for refugees, or work for peace, and, above all, to look out for each other.

I’ve seen you, the American people, in all your decency, determination, good humor, and kindness. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I’ve seen our future unfolding.

All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into that work — the joyous work of citizenship. Not just when there’s an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime.

I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.

And when the arc of progress seems slow, remember: America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We the People.’ ‘We shall overcome.’

Yes, we can.

Michael Moore 100 Days of resistance

Restores my faith!!!!
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/michael-moore-100-days-of-resistance-to-trump-starts-now-857912387545

Cartoon--Trump's Healthcare plan You will laugh and

then cry


http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Cartoon-Trump-s-health-care-plan…

A LETTER TO MY GAY FRIEND

I am reading over some of your messages and I must say you are NOT alone. I am along side you. Every day I get up is a day I know there will be more of the creature who is not my president, to hear and more to see. We will see him and hear about him for at least four more years. The ONLY thing that helps my significant anxiety and depression laid at the feet of this utter electoral debacle is the fact that we have known -- all of us of a certain age -- have known the life we were forced to lead when the revelation of our truth meant danger to us in so many ways. I survived that time and you did too and MOST of us I aver survived it as well.

We live now with the thought that rights gained with our blood, our sweat and our tears we had before will be taken away or maybe given to the states to decide. Even so, we STILL have more rights and will keep more rights than we did so many decades ago. The generations following us will see that remains so.

In whole -- and I believe this -- that while the courts surely can help us but may now reverse course we STILL remain truthful to our cause and to our spouses if we are lucky enough to have them. Some things they cannot no matter how many laws they pass or how many rancid excuses for human beings screaming against us from the pulpit they have, or how many court decisions may be handed down they STILL cannot take away what we think, what we feel and whom we love.

I believe, maybe I'm wrong I don't know, that Trump will not set his obliterating sites on us. We'll see. Maybe some of his Court appointees will not hurt us. It has happened before that a once conservative justice turns fair where human rights are concerned. 

Almost no one straight I know does not have a sibling, a friend, a cousin, a mother, a father, a teacher, a neighbor, even their own child or someone else they know and love who is gay. I have to believe we are better off now than we ever were before. Keep fighting!

Donald Trump is Going to be Impeached -- Mike Malloy UNCENSORED--PART 1, 2, and 3

Mike Malloy is a LOATHER of Trump as I am. He does, however, not spare the profanity that I personally would not use so continuously. I send it out because without the profanity Mike Malloy would not be Mike Malloy like the late Lenny Bruce would not have been Lenny Bruce. Malloy happens to be, on substance, in my opinion, more often than not correct. He also possesses the passion that I feel. I try not in my communiques to be profane but there are times when something is SO bad, SO objectionable and even life threatening that one should, as the great John Lewis says, SPEAK UP! If you are offended by his speech I urge to "delete." If not then I urge you to listen!

Mike Malloy on Trump Uncensored:


Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Who's who in Trump's cabinet.  Feast your eyes but be sure to have a Rolaids or Tums as it could make you physically sick!   RESIST and never give in!

 
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/11/politics/new-cabinet/

Who’s in Trump’s Cabinet?

RESIST

https://youtu.be/FB14HbLmKf8
This is why we are so pissed off."Donald Trump isn’t “draining the swamp.” He’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the



 front door – turning them loose on our government and our economy. Donald Trump’s word – his promise to the American people – is worth nothing. Today I spoke on the Senate floor about Trump’s decision to hand over the government to the worst kind of DC insiders and special interests. Take a look."

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Senator Elizabeth Warren: President-Elect Trump Already Broke Promise to "Drain "Donald Trump isn’t “draining the swamp.” He’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the front door – turning them loose on our government and our economy. Donald Trump’s word – his promise to the American people – is worth nothing. Today I spoke on the Senate floor about Trump’s decision to hand over the government to the worst kind of DC insiders and special interests. Take a look."

 https://youtu.be/FB14HbLmKf8

To Tell the Truth

This is an interview of Matt Taibbi by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now conducted today. (See link below) I just Kindled the book Matt Taibbi wrote entitled "Insane Clown President -- Dispatches from the 2016 Circus." Taibbi is brilliant, knowledgeable, qualified and an eminently principled investigative journalist. I urge you to get his latest book and/or listen to this interview.

As guardians of our nation's policy both foreign and domestic, it is important that we tell truth to power and that especially good journalists tell truth to us. It is from them we acquire much of the knowledge we have since most of us cannot go behind the scenes to get it. We the people choose what we read and to whom we listen. I try to read and listen to the most knowledgeable, humane, intellectually credentialed persons I can find. It is sometimes hard ... I would say VERY hard ... to get all the facts right. Moreover, some things to me have been intuitive.

Trump is doing just what I thought he would--filling his cabinet with the apex of rich men (and one woman.) It is the richest cabinet in this history of our nation filled not only with oil magnates and alleged inside traders, right wing extremist attorneys but also with his own whipping boys, Goldman Sachs. How his minions cannot see the hypocrisy of this I will never know. What does that say as to how he will govern? It is no surprise to me. I knew the king of mendacity could never be believed nor trusted when he utters his seemingly populist faux message to his base. At the risk of redundancy, he lies ALL the time. He will not clean the swamp as I have said many times. He IS the swamp.

Investigative journalist, Matt Taibbi, will tell you honestly, cogently and I believe objectively what the Trump is really like as he chronicled it in 2016 . You would do well to listen and/or read what he has to say.


https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/17/insane_clown_president_matt_taibbi_chronicles

Thoughts of two authors

I remember as a youth seeing Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." It left me with its profundity but it also left me with a feeling of sad foreboding as the characters of "Our Town" leave it in death one by one. In other words, all that one loves and with which one is familiar cannot be taken for granted as it will, one day, be taken from us including ourselves. I walked out of the theater as a youth chilled convincing myself that play surely did not apply to me. But it does apply to me and to everyone who is blessed for a short time to see this planet. The play teaches and provides us with a rule to take nothing for granted. Tell those whom you love that you love them while you can; try to forgive those you do not love if you are able. Our life says the 16th/17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbs is short. It is no less true today than it was then. Carpe diem Latin for seize the day says the Roman poet Horace (thank you, Wikipedia, for his name) and "do not ask for whom the bell tolls" says Ernest Hemingway. "It tolls for thee."

Ernest Hemingway in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" has much to say about war. In this book the Spanish Civil War at first imbues a sense of excitement for those who want to and will fight it for the glory of the cause as some, especially in the south, felt about entering the Civil War. Soon they learn the awful reality of war. In our time we see and fear war and yet it is still fought by some with a great joy of purpose and even as General James "Mad Dog" Maddis, soon to be Trump's Defense Secretary, talks about a sense of the joy he has for killing. Yes, he really said that. Hemingway avers quite the opposite that those who came into the war with a sense of ebullience soon lose it. The ebullience withers on the vine of violence and all the devastation it brings. How many signed up for the Iraq War with joy and patriotism only to be returned broken in body and spirit some returning in coffins of the dead. I rather subscribe to our Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman's edict that "War is Hell" which admonishes me to fight against ugly policy that convinces us to fight it and use all the powers of the written word I have to stop it.

YNET: U.S. Intel Officials Tell Israel Not To Share Info With Trump Administration Haaretz

From the Forward -- (Haaretz) Israeli intelligence officials are concerned that the exposure of classified information to their American counterparts under a Trump administration could lead to their being leaked to Russia and onward to Iran, investigative journalist Ronen Bergman reported by Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Thursday.

The intelligence concerns, which have been discussed in closed forums recently, are based on suspicions of unreported ties between President-elect Donald Trump, or his associates, and the government of Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

As Russian intelligence is associated with intelligence officials in Tehran, highly classified information, such as Israel’s clandestine methods of operation and intelligence sources, could potentially reach Iran. Such information has been shared with the United States in the past.

American intelligence officials expressed despair at the election of Trump during a recent meeting with their Israeli counterparts, Bergman reported. They said that they believed that Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump, though they did not elaborate. The American media reported on Wednesday that Russia has embarrassing intelligence about the president-elect.

According to Bergman, the American intelligence officials implied that Israel should “be careful” when transferring intelligence information to the White House and the National Security Council (NSC) following Trump’s inauguration – at least until it is clear that Trump does not have inappropriate connections with Russia.

Cooperation between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities has intensified over the past two decades, with most of the joint operations directed, according to reports, against Iran. Hezbollah and Hamas were also intelligence targets. An official agreement in 2008 for comprehensive cooperation, including the exposure of sources and methods of action, reportedly led to impressive results, including the disruption of the Iranian nuclear program.

A Note to the NYT-- Final Thoughts -- The Obama in whom I fell in love

The dignity of the president and his entire family cannot be overstated. I was with him politically from the beginning in 2008 and said so. The New York Times at that time printed my enthusiastic opinion of him from the start of his campaign because I was in awe of his brilliance and in love with his grace, charm and humanity.

I am more solidly enveloped in those Obama characteristics now than I was even then. I want to hang on to every moment there is left of his administration and hope he continues to spread his kindness, eloquence and warmth in the days ahead helping to breathe life into the Democratic Party once again.

His successor would do well to study the Obama legacy as Mr. Trump's modus operandi has been quite the opposite of President Obama's. Trump's crudity, rudeness, coarseness and mendacity is an embarrassment to the nation and the world.

I agree with John Lewis, Trump is an illegitimate president, in whose shadow team Trump cannot even walk. The start of Trump's presidency is marked with controversy dedicated, as the Republicans have been all along, to doing everything possible to thwart the humane legacy Barack Obama has bestowed upon this nation in the shadow of a treasonous alliance with a Russian butcher, Putin, to steal an election so Putin can run roughshod over Eastern and maybe even Western Europe. Trump refuses to show his tax filings and we know auditing is not the reason why. This shadow on Trump's presidency will NOT disappear into morning's light unless authoritative non partisan investigations take place and uncover buried business secrets perhaps on Russian soil and about which Russia knows something or a videotape of vile activity emerges. It would not shock me if it did as past is prelude.

I lament the passage of time allowing a crudeness of character to enter the White House. May our nation survive the onslaught of the next four years. Barack Obama, this Jewish woman loves you today and she will love you if she could live forever. Thank you, Michelle and your children for giving us the best that humanity has to offer. I will miss you all very much!

Obama Ends Exemption for Cubans Who Arrive Without Visas

According to the NYT-- LINK to the story below: "[The President] Thursday said that he was terminating the 22-year-old policy that has allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency, an unexpected move long sought by the Cuban government."

“Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.”

"The move places a finishing touch on Mr. Obama’s efforts as president to end a half-century of hostility between the United States and Cuba and to establish normalized relations and diplomatic ties with a government American presidents have long sought to isolate and punish."

MY COMMENT

I am not Christian BUT I love the humane side of the New Testament and also love the Beatitudes alleged to have been said by Christ. Again, born Jewish and matured into a significant agnostic my thoughts on this are NOT about religious dogma but they are about a standard I have set for myself many years ago. The Golden Rule is something I strive to live by as is Rabbi Hillel's teaching “That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah, The rest is commentary." Those two religious sages for me cement my humane ideological bent. I run into difficulty when my belief runs up against, on this issue, the pitfalls of reality. 

Can the US accept all those carte blanch who need to escape national brutality or the forces of nature? Half the world would want to come to our shores and what nation could support those millions who are desperately in need of help. I want to help everyone who needs it but to grant that just to Cubans fleeing a miserable dictatorship if nothing else is unfair to those millions in, for example, Haiti who are devastated by grinding poverty, natural disasters and dying from medical neglect. 

This is, of course, for Obama a political decision relaxing decades of US alienation toward the Cuban government which I support. I try always to walk in another's shoes to see how they fit but if the shoes do not fit I am sometimes prohibited by reality to change them. Cuba is changing. Life, I hope, for Cubans will improve in their own nation!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/world/americas/cuba-obama-wet-foot-dry-foot-policy.html?emc=edit_na_20170112&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=0

The Trumpian Tunnel

In the evening when I am the most upset about all of the Trumpian madness I get into a nice warm flannel sheet bed with a microwaved warmer and just lie there feeling the enveloping heat and try to shed my uber sadness about things political and worries about things to come.  I throw off the 500 pound weights that sit on my shoulders letting go all of the fear sweeping my mind free of it.  It works ... for me. That's my way of dealing with this political nightmare and the rest of the international nightmares I feel hovering overhead from it.

I turn on the news in the a.m. to learn Republicons, with pieces of stone for hearts, began to repeal Obamacare.  My heart sinks and I want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.  20 MILLION will be kicked off healthcare and, of course, the rancid Trump said yesterday that he will have the "best plan" to replace it. He is the best of everything and those who help him manufacture his evil, of course, are the best and the most wonderful of everything the Midasman of hyperbole says he touches.  It is his usual hyperbolic exaggeration and, naturally, he never gives the details of policy.  His dogs swallow the Trump steaks whole.  They love it no matter how hurtful or odious it will be for the country.  Those clapping allegedly were members of his team and not a horde of average fawners of everything Trump. It was no surprise brilliantly staged like his emergence onto the political scene by riding down the escalator of Emerald City.  The Wizard of Oz employed his cronies working behind the curtain to pay those who knew nothing of him and the utter racist divisiveness he would bring.  They stood then in ignorance, clapping and carrying Trump signs not understanding the extremist right wing terror he would unleash.  There are no words angry enough I can use to indict him or hostile enough to spew my contempt for this Beelzebub curse invading our nation.

I get tired of fighting, I get tired of the constant opposition and anger, tired of listening to racist deplorables regurgitating constant lies and stupid things.  Laughing, if it were not so sad, Trump rails about fake news but, in fact, he began the fake news of lies when he told for years of Obama's non-citizenship and said he had investigators all over the world finding, of course what else, "amazing" things about it. It was ALL lies.  He lies ALL the time.  He spews a blizzard of lies making it a whiteout of impossibility to challenge him on any of it IF he will even let media, whom he deems unfriendly or critical of him, utter a question to him about anything.  Even when he does answer his cerebral robotic computer is in campaign mode flooding us with staged volcanic feel-good-to-his-base non-answers but now the difference is he soon will be president.

I actually feel bad for the press.  He wants to negate the truth-telling many do well.  Some of the reporters covering him look tired.  Yesterday, one Republican representative collapsed and Senator Diane Feinstein needed a pacemaker placed in her chest.  Many, covering this Republican lunacy of Trump and the non stop Senate consent hearings for his often unqualified cabinet posts, look sad and fatigued, perhaps, even scared, at least to me. But part of our electorate -- millions -- follow him no matter how hurtful and mendacious he is. Now we know how Hitler arose ... no he's not Hitler ... but the comparisons to Fascism's advance in Europe dispel the incredulity I always had for its emergence in Germany.  If one controls dissent one controls everything and the Nazi Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's henchman, stated just that and I quote: 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Yes, it can happen here.

I am sitting here, between writing, staring into space because I do not know what to do or how best to resist but continuing to write more of the many opinions I have written since 2004.  The nation, I fear, is dying, and trying to save it from so many Trumpian lies and conflicts assaulting it by the Master of Mendacious is difficult to perfect.  Perfect it, though, we MUST by any and all means legally necessary.  I plod on hoping beyond hope that the fire Trump sparked to kill our nation will eat itself and burn out.  We MUST RESIST even when the end of this dark Trumpian tunnel seems so far away. 

The Latest Trumpian Vesuvian Eruption

The latest conflicts horror of the Trumpian Russia mess is pockmarked with salacious perverted details of a Russian set up of Trump for blackmail to achieve Russia's international ends. I cannot write about it .... yet. 1) We need proof and 2) The salacious details are too embarrassing to me. Buzzfeed has reported all 35 pages of it because that is what Buzzfeed does. It is easy enough to google but disgusting to read.

Below is the Huffington Post reporting which in my opinion is a more believable source without salacious details. Still we need to know the truth and there are 10 days until inauguration. If guilty of any of it the tragedy will become, in epic form, Shakespearian.


How To Understand The Bombshell Report On Trump And Russia... REPORT: FBI Sought Warrant To Monitor Trump Aides...

6 MORE SENATORS SAY SLOW DOWN ON OBAMACARE! -- WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP OTHER MADNESS

6 MORE SENATORS SAY SLOW DOWN ON OBAMACARE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/gop-senators-obamacare-repe…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/gop-senators-obamacare-repe…

Oh my god I think I'm going to faint. This is the first positive news (outside of the Ethics Office reversal) I have read in it seems years but let's say weeks since Drumpf won something he never should have won and to which he is unfit -- the presidency (See link above.) As the reversal of the shutdown of the Ethics Office by Republicons shows WE CAN SEE THAT RESISTANCE WORKS, CALLING WORKS, BECOMING INVOLVED WORKS!! Never give up, never give in, keep the pressure on this unethical rancid administration and the GOP controlled House and Senate who seem to fall in line and are frightened of Drumpf. Make sure they do NOT fall in line by making your opposition known, heard and felt!!!!! AND OH BY THE WAY JOIN THE MILLION WOMAN (AND MEN) MARCH IN WASHINGTON A DAY AFTER THE NOT-TO-BE-WATCHED-INAUGURATION OF THE WORST PRESIDENT IN POST CIVIL WAR AMERICA HISTORY.

Other insane, mean, ridiculous GOP bills that MUST be stopped: An end to the CFPB (Consumer Protection Financial Bureau), and The Reins Act:

The Reins Act By David Roberts of the Gist written in 2013 and oh so relevant today:

[REINS] would require that every “economically significant” federal regulation (one that has an annual impact of $100 million or more) be affirmatively approved by Congress. Again: no rule would go into effect until it has been voted through by both houses of Congress and signed by the president. If a regulation is not voted on within seventy legislative working days of being sent to Congress, it is “tabled.” That is, it dies.

It’s difficult to overstate how radical a change this would represent for U.S. government. It would subject fifty to a hundred regulations a year to the partisanship, rancor, and gridlock of Congress. Every rule would be a new opportunity for lobbying and industry influence. Worse, legal observers say the bill does not clearly prohibit a filibuster in the Senate, raising the possibility that a determined minority of forty senators could effectively shut down federal rule making. REINS would not overturn the Clean Air Act or shutter the EPA, but it would end forward momentum in environmental law, freezing it in place.

Obviously Republicans are FLOODING Democrats with a plethora of outrageous legislation to overwhelm us and try to force us into retreat. NEVER RETREAT, NEVER BACK DOWN, NEVER SURRENDER your life to legislation designed to hurt the middle class and the poor and hand even more outrageous power to Republicons. DO NOT LET THEM. KEEP CALLING, KEEP BLOGGING, KEEP WRITING AND KEEP PROTESTING THEIR disgusting attempt to hurt us and help the 1% billionaires to gargantuan sums of cash but who need no help. They occupy all the seats of tremendous power. They have entered the halls of power in overwhelming numbers by lying to the American public about what they intended to do. They are NOT here to help you. They are here to take all FROM you. 

There are no words for Republican mendacity and their planned eradication of the middle class while taking all we possess with them killing America and its American Dream!

Thank you for being you -- Sheer Poetry

http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Meryl-Streep-gives-anti-Trump-sp…

Meryl Streep gives astounding anti-Trump speech during Golden Globes—with note to media (Video)

"Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose." — Meryl Streep Always forthright, elegant and…

dailykos.com

The woman is GORGEOUS inside and out. She is a BRILLIANT genius in motion and her words at the Golden Globe, an indictment of Trump without stating the swamp creature's name, were STUNNING. I could have listened to her into the wee hours of the morning. She is a shining light of humanity. When we get down and think the world and those who own it make humane change impossible think of Meryl Streep. She buoyed my soul!! Thank you, Dame Streep, for being you! Click on the video link if you have not heard her magnificent words!

Poor Trump: TRUMP IS POOR AND PUTIN KNOWS IT + My Comment

Newsweek

The following report is a reprint from Daily Kos; My Comment is at the end

DAILY KOS

We tend to flag, or at least strongly resist speculation here, especially when one speculates as to facts that might support a theory. But, with respect to key aspects of Trump’s business status, and the potential conflicts with the Office of the President, we must speculate, because he simply won’t provide the facts to questions that must get asked.

So, I’m going to speculate, thus;

Trump is not only, “not a billionaire,” he carries so much debt that, relative to his hard assets, he’s poor, especially with respect to cash flow through cash intensive investments such as resorts, etc, where one has to pay large monthly bills to keep the lights on and the greens, well — green. In any given quarter, Trump faces situations where he doesn’t have the cash to keep up “appearances” and must borrow cash, at whatever rate, to maintain the cloak of worth, I mean wealth … I mean, the wealth that makes up his self-worth.

I’m not a CPA. I’m a lawyer, but not one with any business experience. This is truly a layman’s “speculation” and experts here can tell me that I’m wildly wrong – which would be good. I look forward to learning. But, let’s start putting some real easy facts all in one place, ones we all agree don’t even need citation at this point.

1. We know that he promised to “self-fund” his campaign, and yet not only did he not “self-fund” it, he charged HUGE fees to his campaign to use Trump property. We also know that he never had anywhere near enough campaign money. From the beginning, the “billionaire” had the “poorest” campaign.

2. He promised to donate all that money made in one evening to veterans groups, and had not done so when checked-in on, months later. (This is part of the larger pattern, a “Foundation” that he never paid money into, and hadn’t paid a lot of real money out of, one under criminal investigation. Most true billionaires have real foundations with real people who really help various causes because it helps business. It’s more polite to be worth billions if one can point to the appearance of “doing good” and yet Trump can’t even do that).

3. Upon winning the presidency, one of the first things he did was set up cash cow, meet/greets with his sons and various other tawdry behavior.

4. Even as President-%ucking-Elect he sells tickets to his New Years Eve party. Yet another potential conflict boil-up.

4. We know he took risks that could get a guy thrown in jail — paying off the Florida Attorney General $20,000 to drop the investigation into his Trump University and when he did it, he did so in yet another way that could get a guy thrown in jail — having his “charity” pay for it.

5. By the way, just what the %uck is a “billionaire international real estate developer” doing even setting up something as stupid as a “U” to begin with? Never mind “Trump Steaks” – Unless one simply needs easy cash?

My point is, at every single point where he could have simply made his life easier by “not charging” or “avoiding a conflict” or “staying out of jail,” he’s gone with the move that carried the most risk but picked up five figures, over and over. No, I don’t think it all can be blamed on being short-fingered.

Which leads to two relevant questions. Speculation: What if, the real reason that Trump can’t “divest” himself of his business interests is because “divestment” would leave bare that he still owes more money than he has? He’s insolvent. What if he’s willing to put up with dancing the “Presidents can’t have conflicts” line because the alternative is “My debts outweigh my assets. I’m not rich, once one has stripped away the 757 jet and gold toilet, and I’m not willing to do that.”

Of course, I’m speculating, and I’m not a CPA or CFP. And, of course, you can simply read what people who are, actually, CPAs and valuation experts, people at Bloomberg, and see what they think (they still think he’s rich, but note his debt doubled). But, Bloomberg basis its findings on something I’m not willing to trust — Trump’s reports, and specifically, they trust he’s accurately reported his debts. I find my lying eyes far more trustworthy. I scan the landscape and cannot escape one fact. Trump takes ruinous risks, monthly, to pick up $10K here or $20K there.

He has to. He’s poor.

And Putin knows it, and can prove it.

I’m speculating. Our President-Elect is free to “prove” me wrong.
_________

My Comment: What I have been talking -- no screaming -- about for weeks, the Daily Kos opinion basically sums up! There is a method to the Trump/Putin bromance. I'll make it easy: Trump is into Russia through Russian bank loans he desperately needs that US banks often will not loan to him. Beyond Russian banks he has business dealings with Russian oligarchs and allegedly, even, from what I have read the Russian Mafia whoever they may be. We need Trump's tax returns we will, of course, never get.

Putin wants sanctions lifted and he wants the Russian empire back as it was before the fall of Communism. Having a US president on Putin's side helps IMMENSELY to achieve his goal by first, the weakening if not destroying NATO. This would allow Russia a free hand to go anywhere it wants and usurp power especially in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia AND it could again annex the Ukraine all part of the old Soviet empire without worrying that the US backed by NATO would step in to save the day. With NO US interference it would, indeed, be so much easier to achieve at least one of Putin's goals while becoming a hero to his people as well. Moreover, with NATO weakened or extinct, the destabilizing of Western Europe possibly is in Putin's cross-hairs. He supports right wing Parties in western Europe fighting against Europe's left or center left he knows will weaken her. And what does Trump get? I am alleging he gets forgiveness of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt he owes to Russian banks, oligarchs and more. It will allow him free rein to operate his businesses without Russian interference anywhere. It's pay to play on a GRAND scale allowing for the expansion of Trump's many many conflicts of interest because no one has the fortitude or the power to stop him.

This is who the American electorate because of some know nothing voters in three states has unleashed upon the world. For good measure he will allowing corporations to keep drilling that oil in the Arctic and denying climate change. Watch sea temperatures rise some more. We will soon see what happens when part of the Antarctic ice shelf continues to break off ultimately raising sea levels that will someday soon drown coastal areas and take cities with it!! What Trump will do to avoid it all? Answer: NOTHING! What will we do? Answer: RESIST!

The Insulter in Chief -- the Attack on Meryl Streep

The beast Trump criticized Meryl Streep who was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. She, without mentioning him by name, elegantly shot a verbal arrow into Trump's thin skinned heart. Needless to say the fact that he critiqued her is a COMPLIMENT to Ms. Streep one of the nation's premier and greatest actresses of all time. He insultingly called her "overrated" when she reacted to his abrasive and rude mocking of a disabled reporter. I say, au contraire, Donald Trump, you are the most overrated jerk who damnably will occupy the sacred office of this nation's presidency.

Meryl, I love you and I know the wide majority of this nation loves you for the acting you do performing in works that elevate the plight of those who are different or who were not blessed with life's good fortune. She articulated brilliantly the undeserved money and position into which Drumpf has conned the entire nation to usurp his way into power that should not be his! Damn you, Trump, for the curse you have bestowed upon the nation that gave you gifts you wholly do not deserve!

RESIST

I wish I could attend the million woman (person) march on Washington the day after the jerk's inauguration to show my contempt and utter disgust for Trump and his band of immoral thieves but I cannot.

Still, my heart will be there amid the thousands who will go because they MUST go to stop this wolf in wolf's clothing demagogue (apologies to wolves whom I love) from occupying the seats of immense power and destroying not only our nation but our planet. It is the greatest con of this vermin Trump's life. I loathe him more than there are words to say how much! One word does it: RESIST!