The Beat Goes On -- Anti-semitism in my time

Anti-Semitic acts are not new to me. Throughout my life I have experienced them often. I add to the veracity of those who encounter this hate and are voicing their hurt and anger today. I empathize with other minorities who are now suffering from the bastardization of an allegedly democratic Trump presidency. It is no coincidence that hate crimes across the nation are significantly higher. Our complaints about Anti-Semitism are real as it simmers under mankind's historical surface rearing its ugliness, in our time, when social, cultural and historical events dictate. We are able to even wax predictive of its emergence.

I remember well the experiences of this, the longest hatred, throughout my life. Sometimes I fought back and other times I did not want to get into an emotionally-charged blood-pressuring raising event. Now, I would not hesitate to defend myself and my people, the DNA of whom I share. 

​​Some examples:

When we first moved into our home I played with children in my neighborhood. At the age of about 8 one girl with whom I was playing told me Jews were Christ killers. I stood incredulous, did not know what she meant nor how to defend myself against an attack which I had never heard but knew then ​I was innocent. It was explained to her by another older girl in the neighborhood that the Jews did not kill Christ and that the Romans did. That, what should ha​ve been ​​an unnecessary explanation mantra, would be repeated by me again like a nursery rhyme with a bad ending I had learned. At​ ​​​eight years old I had to begin thinking about a 2000 year-old hatred that the mind of a child could not comprehend.

Another girl in third grade told me the same thing. Equipped with my new retort, that the Romans did it, we verbally sparred. The teacher refereed the dispute but was not, I thought, as vociferously against the girl who levied the accusation. It was, after all, the 1950's when we did not talk about such things. This is an era in which Trump and his minions ​would like to return to "make America great again.” One will pardon me if I think it was not so great then.

​A new German girl enrolled in my elementary school. We sat together in the lunchroom. When she saw my Jewish star I wore around my neck, she picked it up off my chest, scowled angrily and threw it back down. I sat silent​​ly.

In my workplace some women were discussing what they bought and one said that she "Jewed" a guy down to get the best price reflecting the stereotype of Jews and money. ​It felt as if she shot an arrow into the bulls eye of my heart​ but I said nothing​.​
​​
The worst though, by far, was a verbal exchange with an older woman with whom I worked as we discussed the 1978 television mini-series "Holocaust." She said and I quote "Well that's what you get for killing one of your own." She meant, of course, ​​the killing of Chris​t, who was after all, a Jew, was justification for the Holocaust. ​​I will never forget that.

One hears t​hose things ​repeated by anti-Semites today. After 2000 years the mantra of the responsibility for deicide STILL haunts the Jew. I believe that accusation above any other explains​ the etiology of anti-Semitism's spread even in our time and has been justification for all the other stereotype​s ​with ​​which Jews have been tainted throughout centuries. ​As Jews dispersed from the Middle East 2000 years ago the specter of hate for the Jew morphed into the culture within the area Jews immigrated and was subject to the trajectory of its history.

Jews never do well when the government in which they live is extremist Fascist right nor do they prosper in a nation that is extremist Communist left. Jews do much better, as I aver ​most others do, in civil libertarian democracies where religion is separate from the state. The truth of this should register in the Jewish mind.

When I was a youth a country club near me was off limits to Jews. Today it is not but the social sickness of anti-Semitism is, like a polio virus, still around. If one does not inoculate oneself from its infection the consequential horror of it will, one can be sure, result. ​To stay silent today is not an option and there are 6 million reasons why it should never be.​ The beat of anti-Semitism goes on even reaching the halls of power in the radical so called "Alt Right​nativism of Trump's base ​stretching ​e​ven into the White House itself. Why am I am NOT surprised that the beat goes on and that it never seems to stop? 

Anti-Semitism is, indeed, the longest hatred stretching over continents. When will it ever end?

More Bomb Threats Close Jewish Community Centers Across The Nation

My comment: There are no words!! Trump has unleashed the wind and I HOPE will reap the whirlwind! Hosea 8:7 "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."

 America, this is whom you put into office -- a right wingnut fruitcake. Trump can declare all he wants that he loves the Jews -- that is NOT what the politicos with whom he surrounds himself say. Bannon is an antisemite you can READ what he says and he has the president's ear. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THIS PILLAR OF MENDACITY LIES. HE IS AS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE ANTISEMITIC ACTS AS IF HE DID THEM HIMSELF BECAUSE HE DID THROUGH HIS VIOLENT SPEECH AND THROUGH THOSE TO WHOM HE ENTRUSTS POWER. HE IS A BIG TIME ANTISEMITE AND I DO NOT CARE THAT HIS DAUGHTER CONVERTED AND HIS SON IN LAW IS JEWISH BECAUSE DONALD J. TRUMP DOES NOT CARE. HE CARES ABOUT HIMSELF AND WOULD SELL HIS MOTHER'S EYEBALLS FOR CASH! THAT IS HIS BIG CON. AMERICA, YOU'VE BEEN HAD!

“I’ve never seen a string of attacks like this that are targeting the same kind of institution in the same kind of way. This is new.”

By Matt Ferner

Jewish Community Centers were shaken by another wave of bomb threats, forcing evacuations in 10 states Monday.

Eleven Jewish Community Centers received threatening calls Monday, said Marla Cohen, communications manager for JCCA, the Jewish Community Center Association.

Incidents were reported at Jewish Community Centers in St. Paul, Minnesota; Buffalo and Amherst, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Houston; Cleveland, Ohio; Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin; Nashville; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tampa, Florida; and Chicago.

Law enforcement officials were investigating the threats and, as of late Monday, centers were being reopened after explosive devices were not found.

For some of these organizations, it was not the first threat made in recent weeks. There have now been at least 67 incidents at 56 Jewish Community Centers in 27 states and one Canadian province since the start of 2017, Cohen told The Huffington Post.

Monday’s incidents are part a sharp rise in threats made against JCCs around the nation since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, which was frequently criticized for winking at white nationalists and not forcefully condemning hate speech and extremism.

The far-right has become emboldened under Trump, and while the number of Americans who directly support hardened hate groups remains far lower than in earlier decades, the number of hate groups in America is rising, according to a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate and extremism around the nation.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at SPLC, said that this series of bomb threats since the new year is “unprecedented.”

“I’ve been working at SPLC since 1999. I’ve never seen a string of attacks like this that are targeting the same kind of institution in the same kind of way. This is new,” Beirich said.

She added that it remains unclear who is making these threats, if it’s one person or more, but it has rattled communities around the U.S.

“This threatens an entire community. It’s very scary,” Beirich said. “You’re terrorizing whole families and children. There are usually day care centers that serve an entire population in the area. These threats can make it impossible for those communities to function normally.”

Anti-Semitic hate crimes comprise the largest portion of religiously motivated attacks in the United States. But Trump has yet to address the issue. In news conferences last week, the president had multiple opportunities to address concerns over rising anti-Semitism, but each time he either downplayed or denied the rise. When a Jewish reporter asked Trump explicitly about the recent spike in bomb threats against JCCs, Trump cut him off, told him to sit down and told the reporter his question wasn’t fair and claimed to be the “least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”

Deputy White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters didn’t specifically address anti-Semitism, but did say in response to the latest bomb threats Monday, “Hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the promise of individual freedom,” adding Trump has “made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable.”

The Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply disturbed” by the latest wave of bomb threats this week and issued bomb threat guidance for all Jewish institutions.

“We are confident that JCCs around the country are taking the necessary security protections, and that law enforcement officials are making their investigation of these threats a high priority,” said ADL Chief Executive Jonathan A. Greenblatt in a statement.

The FBI and Department of Justice have said they are “investigating possible civil rights violations in connection with the threats” to JCCs.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with the fact that a JCC in Cleveland was also threatened Monday.

Russian Roulette??? Russian Ambassador To UN Dies Suddenly In New York

What's with the UN ambassador for Russia dying "suddenly a day before his birthday and why have I heard no condolences from Putin?  Just askin!

Vitaly Churkin would have turned 65 tomorrow

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died suddenly at work in New York on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry gave no details on the circumstances of his death but offered condolences to his relatives and said the diplomat had died one day before his 65th birthday.

“The outstanding Russian diplomat passed away at his work post,” it said.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general’s office, said: “He has been such a regular presence here that I am actually quite stunned. Our thoughts go to his family, to his friends and to his government.”

Churkin was a pugnacious defender of Russian policy, notably its intensive bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo last year to crush rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

When then-U.S. envoy to the U.N. Samantha Power accused Syria, Russia and Iran last year of bearing responsibility for atrocities there, Churkin said she was acting like Mother Teresa and forgetting her own country’s track record in the Middle East.

The Lady Plumber -- Scroll down it all to know what one person can do and endure

THE LADY PLUMBER

You wonder what criteria is used to select people for the 'nobel' peace prize. . Remember this lady? WHAT A WOMAN   Irena Sender Irena Sendlerowa Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98) Warsaw ,  Poland >  During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the  Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. Ultimately, she was caught, and the Nazis broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem  in Israel as one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations[30][31] and a tree was planted in her honor at the entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous.[32] However, there was no further public recognition of her wartime resistance and humanitarian work until after the end of communist rule in Poland. The story was suppressed by the Communist Government. In 1991, Sendler was made an honorary citizen of Israel.[33] On 12 June 1996, she was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.[34][35] She received a higher version of this award, the Commander's Cross with Star, on 7 November 2001.[36] Nevertheless, Irena Sendler's achievements remained largely unknown to the world until 1999, when students at a high school in Uniontown, Kansas, along with their teacher Norman Conard, produced a play based on their research into her life story, which they called Life in a Jar. It was a surprising success, staged over 200 times in the US and abroad, and significantly contributed to publicising Sendler's history worldwide.[37] In March 2002, B’nai Jehudah Temple of Kansas City presented Sendler, Conard and the students who produced the play with its annual award “for contributions made to saving the world” (Tikkun Olam Award).[38] The play was adapted for television as The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009), directed by John Kent Harrison, in which Sendler was portrayed by actress Anna Paquin.[39][40][41] In 2003, Pope John Paul II sent Sendler a personal letter praising her wartime efforts.[42][43] On 10 November 2003, she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian decoration,[44] and the Polish-American award, the Jan Karski Award "For Courage and Heart", given by the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington, D.C.[45] In 2006, Polish NGOs Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej and Stowarzyszenie Dzieci Holocaustu, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Life in a Jar Foundation established the "Irena Sendler's Award: For Repairing the World" (pl:Nagroda imienia Ireny Sendlerowej „Za naprawianie świata”), awarded to Polish and American teachers.[46][47] The Life in a Jar Foundation is a foundation dedicated to promoting the attitude and message of Irena Sendler.[47] In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.[48][30][49][50] On 14 March 2007, Sendler was honoured by the Polish Senate,[51] and a year later, on 30 July, by the American Congress.[52] On 11 April 2007, she received the Order of the Smile; at that time she was the oldest recipient of the award.[53] In 2007 she became an honorary citizen of the cities of Warsaw and Tarczyn.[citation needed] On the occasion of the Order of the Smile, award she mentioned that the award from children is among her favorite ones, along with the Righteous among the Nations award and the letter from the Pope.[54] . It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, In memory of the six million Jews, 10 million Ukrainians, 6 million Russians, 1 million Byelorusyns, 1 million Baltics, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred. Now, more than ever, with  Iran and others claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth', it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain. Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along.

A Cancer on This Presidency

The most mind bending, mind numbing and monumental cabinet incredulity Republicans voted to fill for the EPA slot is Scott Pruitt, a foe of the very Environmental Protection Agency he is going to run but wants to eliminate. In his former post as Attorney General of Oklahoma he sued the EPA 14 times because of its regulations of fossil fuels and other pollutants. The nerve of the EPA to want to monitor these climate destroying corporate misfits and where they want to spew and dump the poisonous waste they create. So what that these corporate Cretans want to dump their waste into ground water, rivers, and streams that are the sources of drinking water for millions.

To want to abolish the EPA created by Republican Richard Nixon in 1970 and return this nation to one big Love Canal swamp makes my head explode. I ask again do not these corporate criminals have children, do not these science denying misfits have grandchildren, do not these know nothings have friends whom they do not want to see poisoned?  Ruining the Environmental Protection Agency by eliminating regulations for companies that belch poisonous pollutants into the air and water results in the genetic damage of life. They are responsible for the killing illnesses of their byproducts? I thought they were in favor of fetal life but then again what is the "small" cost damaging the stuff of life when a fuel company can make billions while their families enjoy chugging down expensive chemo-therapeutic cancer drugs.

Does Trump not even care about his own progeny? Trump Tower is not going to protect Trump or his family. Mar a Largo, his so called winter White House, someday (maybe not that far into the future,) will be under water from the effects of climate change. I suppose he thinks he will be dead by that time and he will not care. What does one have children for if not to pass on something better to them and their descendants? I sometimes have regretted not having children but, in truth, now I know I made the right choice. I hand this nation riddled with corporate unregulated mayhem to others who will have to deal with our nation's crudeness, inhumanity, mendacity and stupidity. I wash my hands of the worry about that. Maybe my hands will be the only things washed clean and then again maybe not!

Yes, down is up and up is down in Trumpworld. What a fabulous idea returning to the radiation poisoning days of the Meryl Streep film "Silkwood" or to a nuclear power explosive risk reflected by Jane Fonda in the film "China Syndrome." Trump would do well to read Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything." Too bad our president does not read. Maybe one can get Klein's book in picture-book form.

It is an Alice in Wonderland world of the 1950's to which Trump wants to return to Make America Great Again -- NOT. As John Dean of Watergate fame said of Nixon: "There is a cancer on this presidency." I say there is a malignant Stage 4 cancer on the Trump presidency. He must be taken down by any legal means necessary and quickly if one wants life on this planet to not perish from this earth.

Transcript Please

Remember Mr. Mendacity Trump lying his posterior off about Obama's birth certificate? Well, I ask where is his Wharton or U of Penn transcript proving he, in fact, graduated from there and claims to have graduated first in his class. Where is the proof of not only graduation from Wharton and U of Penn but also his first in his class standing?

I suspect his class standing is NOT superior at all IF he even graduated. Show me his transcripts! Cut and paste this question on either your blog or email and get this question answered. If it is true that he graduated Wharton and did so first in his class as he says then I will accept the proof but I want the proof first!

Show us the money -- the Russian connection:

If I hear our orange faced know nothing president blame Hillary Clinton for the Flynn, his own self-inflicted probably very illegal national security and other breaches I may have to find that building from which to jump! Some quotes Trump should read IF he can read at all. Shakespeare: "The fault dear Brutus is not in the stars but in ourselves." President Harry Truman: "The Buck Stops Here" meaning at the president's desk. It is preposterous how many avenues of blame the nation has been offered by this inept Commandant (yes, I mean Commandant) in Chief for the Flynn scandalous episode but this president will keep on preposterously blaming Hillary Clinton for everything but the proverbial sink.

The Flynn firing OR in the alternative resignation, we know not which because Trump and his administration tell us both, indicates this scandal probably runs deep. One man cannot take the blame for a Russian liaison both before the presidential election and after it without others higher in the chain of command giving him the green light to do it. We need some meat on the so far evidence thin bone. Those agencies that are investigating this Herculean swamp need to provide the nation something -- even if it is small -- to prove what we all know is probably true before Trump replaces those in the intelligence agencies with his own cronies who will bastardize that, Illusive word in in the Trumpian dictionary -- TRUTH. I believe Donald Trump during his campaign and even long before it had massive financial involvement with Russia so much so that the word Russian blackmail of Trump comes up so frequently in the investigation.

Moreover, Trump's campaign management, including probably Trump himself, had nefarious communication with an adversary of this nation prior to the election prodding it to hack into and find DNC emails to use against Hillary Clinton. I believe our intelligence agencies and even those of our allies know the truth but the investigation of its tentacles reach so far and wide it will take an army slogging through an Amazonian jungle of information to get it.

Trump's tax returns, which can and, I believe, have been sought by a FISA court could show much of what Trump needs to hide and why Trump refuses to release them. The information in them probably would show the never ending conflicts of interest and perhaps even a plethora of illegalities by this amoral entity whom this nation so unintelligently elected president. It appears Russia has something on Trump; probably financial as Russia holds a massive amount of his debt. They also probably know and have proof of other aspects of his extra curricula life when he was in Russia which we need NOT know except that most probably can guess what the smarmy details of it might be. We do know, by Putin's own admission, that Russia has the best prostitutes.

There is an avalanche of detail to know about the Trump/Putin connection from Trump's conflicts of business interest in Russia to the Russian hacking of a US election to skew the vote toward Trump and Trump's attempt at subverting and clandestinely changing Obama sanction policies as payback for the Russian election hacking of DNC computers to help Trump. Until we see some actual documented proof it is simply speculative through the NYT, the Washington Post and other professional news services.

The electorate needs at least some authoritative proof so we can see how much our safety and security have been compromised and why our intelligence sector AND even foreign intelligence sectors do not trust this president will not take the Russian treasonous express to tell his pal Putin what he knows. The FBI, the CIA and National Security have some of the proof on the Trump/Putin love affair which monumentally upset them in the first place. In the end I believe it is pay for play at its worst. Putin hands Trump the election and Trump by eviscerating sanctions and NATO gives Putin part of his empire back. I would believe what my own eyes see. Therefore LET'S SEE at least SOME OF THAT PROOF. Yes, show us the money!

Midnight

The Trump 45 and Bush 43 presidential disasters are what happen when an administration is installed that eschews facts and dismisses science. Facts and science rule every time. Trump's so far short time in the White House has been comprised of a house of lies, an eschewing of intellect, an administration of cruelty and placing in positions of immense power crackpots who are not intellectually capable of handling the jobs for which they were assigned. It boils down to the fact said of Trump when he began his ridiculous run for the presidency: Trump is UNFIT and WHOLLY UNQUALIFIED for this office. Each scandal and appointment is reflective of that fact. He is a danger to our nation.


I can only imagine with fear and trepidation what not only our allies are thinking now that they know the Trump administration is in a state of chaos but what our adversaries are thinking. ISIS and those who support that tyrannical horror must be licking their chops. Instead of Trump making us safe, as he said that was the pivotal point of his election, he is placing us more at risk as the clock ticks closer to midnight and he has NO idea what to do.

Fractured Lands

I came upon this in depth article from the New York Times again and began to pick up where I left off.  I think there is no better analysis of the history of what went down in Iraq and the surrounding nations in the Middle East nor I do not think one can get a better understanding of this nation and its allies' contribution to the mayhem that exists until this day.  I believe it explains why this nation and its allies MUST take responsibility for the refugees that emerged from war making on a nation that did nothing to us and its resulting chaos.  The article written by Scott Anderson is breathtaking in its scope.  Read and you will know what your nation has done and continues to do in your name so that it should never happen again. 

"Watch out, Mr. President, once you break it you own it":  Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W. Bush about the danger of invading Iraq.  August 5, 2002

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html?emc=edit_ta_20160811&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=1

Just how much trouble is Michael Flynn in? AND WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

On Wednesday, national security adviser Michael Flynn told The Washington Post that he and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had never discussed the sanctions put in place by the Obama administration in a series of communications in December 2016.

On Thursday, Flynn told The Post — through a spokesman! — that, well, who could say what he and Kislyak talked about. Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up,” the spokesman said.

That's, um, bad. It strains credulity that on Wednesday, Flynn could issue a flat denial about conversations he had with Kislyak, but on Thursday, suddenly his memory of those conversations changed.

It also runs counter to the version of events that Flynn as well as then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence and several other senior Trump officials put out in the wake of the revelations that Flynn and Kisylak had been in contact, even as an investigation by the Obama administration was concluding that Russian hackers had interfered with the U.S. election process for the express purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

The two men “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” Pence insisted in an interview on “Face the Nation” in January, adding that to accuse Flynn of discussing sanctions “is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”

That runs directly counter to the information The Post gathered from nine (!) intelligence officials who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. This passage is particularly damning:

All of those officials said ­Flynn’s references to the election-related sanctions were explicit. Two of those officials went further, saying that Flynn urged Russia not to overreact to the penalties being imposed by President Barack Obama, making clear that the two sides would be in position to review the matter after Trump was sworn in as president.

“Kislyak was left with the impression that the sanctions would be revisited at a later time,” said a former official.
The FBI investigation into Flynn's contacts with Kisylak is ongoing. And the Post story is already creating turmoil within the administration.

​IF THIS IS EVER UNRAVELED THE QUESTION WILL BECOME: WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT (PRESIDENT ELECT) KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT.​

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/politics/donald-trump-michael-flynn-russia-sanctions.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

And so it begins!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/michael-flynn-russia-sancti…


Michael Flynn Reportedly Spoke To Russians About Sanctions Last Year
If that's true, Flynn would have violated a law prohibiting private citizens from engaging in diplomacy.
huffingtonpost.com

RANDY RAINBOW -- FIND ME A FACT -- "Matchmaker" Fiddler on the Roof -- BRILLIANT!

 Enjoy!

FIND ME A FACT!

https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/videos/985978234837453/

If you know someone who is gay or you simply care

Please sign the Petition. It is hard to believe that there are such CRACKPOTS in our nation who are so sick, so depraved, so inhuman, so stupid and so cruel that this legislation is even a possibility and that Trump would sign it. From what planet did Donald Trump come? From what sewer did this man Trump emerge?

Ivanka Trump is in the apparel business and comes from New York. Surely she has friends and/or coworkers whom she knows to be gay. Surely most of you have a friend, family member or coworker who are gay or, perhaps, you are simply an empathetic and humane person. I urge you to sign this petition no matter what your connection to the LGBT community is or is not.

Sign the petition: Sign the petition: No federally approved anti-LGBTQ discrimination

I just signed this petition telling Congress to push back against the First Amendment Defense Act, legislation to codify discrimination against LGBTQ people into federal…

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Trump Trumped by Putin

I have thought for quite some time about Trump's affection for the autocrat Putin and his suggestion that Putin hack the DNC email that something seemed to be awry in Trumpland. Trump's dig-his-heels-refusal to release his tax returns so that we the people can see what investments, monetary entanglements and possible conflicts of interest Trump may have with not only Russia but many nations around the world as well.  His spiderweb of investments compromise his presidency and places our nation in danger. The Manchurian candidate Trump as Russian stooge and useful idiot to the former KGB useful idiot expert Putin is suspect.  It is alleged pay to play at its worst.  Trump does not love Putin because he likes looking at him half naked on a horse and Putin surely does not love the orange mango president Trump for his money.  No, Putin has plenty of that.  Both Putin and Trump get something out of their mutual admiration society.  Trump gets debts forgiven and Putin gets to invade Eastern Europe thereby getting his old empire back.   Allegedly the FBI and the CIA are on a warpath of investigation but I advise not to hold your breath.  While Trump waits for a volcanic eruption that he thinks will never come he continues to rake in billions from the presidency.  That was what his con was all about. Trump's Washington hotel with his name on it is collecting millions for him as foreign dignitaries stay there to court favor with the American president. That is patently illegal as was his travel to Cuba when it was against the law to do so.  Remember, he could shoot someone in the middle of New York City and get away with it. 

The New York Times reported: 

It was Trump's assertion that he has "no deals in Russia" that seemed especially noteworthy. He said something similar last month in a pre-inaugural press conference, telling reporters, "I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we've stayed away."

To the extent that reality matters, Trump and his business team did not "stay away." The New York Times reported a few weeks ago:

Mr. Trump repeatedly sought business in Russia as far back as 1987, when he traveled there to explore building a hotel. He applied for his trademark in the country as early as 1996. And his children and associates have appeared in Moscow over and over in search of joint ventures, meeting with developers and government officials.

During a trip in 2006, Mr. Sater and two of Mr. Trump's children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, stayed at the historic Hotel National Moscow opposite the Kremlin, connecting with potential partners over the course of several days.

As recently as 2013, Mr. Trump himself was in Moscow. He had sold Russian real estate developers the right to host his Miss Universe pageant that year, and he used the visit as a chance to discuss development deals, writing on Twitter at the time: "TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next."

Trump once told a biographer, "I know the Russians better than anybody."

Why are his words not used as proof of his lies?

The so called M16 CIA agent who put forward the dossier on Trump's Russian connection is now in hiding and one of the two Russian agents cooperating with M16 is dead and the other is lying in a coma near death. That says something thing doncha think?  There is much to the Putin Trump Russian bromance that does not smell like a Valentine rose.  It smells toxic.

Trump has besmirched every friend of this nation from Australia to Mexico to NATO safeguarding our Eastern European allies from Russian encroachment while Trump says nary a word about the build up of Russian forces on the border of Ukraine where attacks have occurred nor does he say anything about Russian usurpation of Crimea nor Russian ventures into Georgia.  All Trump can think of is to drench a heaping dose of Putin praise on him.  Just what does he like about this murderous autocrat who kills those who dare oppose him even murdering reporters? 

As Shakespeare would say "something is rotten in Denmark."  I can smell high crimes and very serious misdemeanors a mile away.  It is the great con he is perpetrating on the American public and seemingly getting away with all of it. He is using the power of the presidency for the money he can milk from it while he places billionaires of no qualification in cabinet positions of power and former Goldman Sachs employees sit at Trump's side as advisors. One former Goldman partner and hedge fund manager, Steven Mnuchin, has even been nominated as Treasury Secretary. This comes from a man who was going to "drain the swamp."  Must I say again he IS the swamp!

The Manchurian Russian connection is by far, though, the most distressing.  I believe he is in debt to the Russian oligarchy, banks, and even to the Russian mafia for billions.  That is the guillotine Putin holds over Trump's fake orange haired head.  When asked by Mr. Conservative Bill O'Reilly why Trump likes the murderer Putin so much.  Trump says there are plenty of murderers out there and what is so clean about our own nation anyway.  Republicans must have adored their president saying that speaking almost like Noam Chomsky, the Darth Vedar of the Right. 

I say, Putin, thy name is blackmail.  Throw in some Russian prostitutes and the plot sickens, I mean thickens. Trump is scummy enough to be involved since, as he said, he cannot help himself when it comes to touching women.  I cannot prove the Russian prostitute connection but I feel it intuitively since sex tapes were mentioned within the M16 dossier context and Putin just coincidentally happened to mention how nice Russian prostitutes are. I wonder why Putin said that.

This president is the most corrupt, noxious, malignant, narcissistic liar that ever set foot into the oval office. One should NOT be afraid of Muslims one should be afraid of Trump. Donald Trump's administration is an existential threat to democracy.  It is a white nationalist and white supremacist threat from the highest echelon as he nominates white supremacist and antiSemite, by his own admission, a Leninist, Steve Bannon, as a regular attendee to the Principals Committee of the National Security Council. I believe Trump is the true Manchurian candidate sliding into the presidency just barely through the electoral college back door while Hillary received 3 million more popular votes. Trump, though, has been trumped by Putin and both know it.  I just hope we are not trumped by Putin too!

Walking in Another's Shoes-- Frontline "Battle for Iraq"

All should watch Frontline "Battle for Iraq" linked below but I know most will probably not because it is not as much fun as "Dancing with the Stars" or the Superbowl or "The Voice." According to the 2010 Census, "the population of the United States was 308,745,538. Including active duty, national guard and reserves, the population of Americans in uniform is 2,317,761, meaning that less than1 percent, .75 percent to be exact, of the country's population is a member of the military." Most of the US population sink into television oblivion while thousands to whom we pay lip service homage go to their untimely deaths or, if they are lucky to come home alive, live a lifetime with brutal disability. Think into the past when the Bush administration first invaded Iraq, a nation which did nothing to us. Think on that Shock and Awe day when an administration lied about Hussein possessing WMD which were allegedly earmarked for us. There were no WMD. Bush and his henchmen pushed lies to take the nation to war and so the Iraq War has morphed over nearly two decades into civil war, then morphed into ISIS and goes on now day after day after day after day for nearly 15 years without end as a Middle East region, too, contagiously explodes into never ending violence.

Innocents are caught in a trap they never set for themselves. Refugees desperately clinging onto life stealing a shred of hope that something will improve beg entrance into a country where Lady Liberty beckons saying "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door" but its president bars the door. Refugees beg for help but the President of the United States wants to push them away even if their refugee status was bestowed upon them by the United States of America.

ISIS says god willing, Sunnis say god willing, Shias say god willing, Christians say god willing and hypocrite of hypocrites Trump says god willing we will win. Whose side is god on anyway and why does homo sapiens man, who has the biggest brain, not question it all? God is coming to no one's rescue not even the US soldier, or Trump, or Christians or Muslims or anyone. How could that truth be more apparent and yet the mantra of god willing, god will help us, god is good, god is great, god will kill the infidel, god is angry, no god is so happy with those who blow up their bodies for afterlife bliss not ring a cacophony of screeching sound in our ears? God will NOT help anyone but man must help himself or become resigned to the permanent fact of permanent war. No amount of American fire power, no amount of US troops on the ground, no amount of presidential bluster in however many years he has to spew it will win against ISIS or will win against the Taliban in Afghanistan. One would think trump's best friend Putin would share a bit of his experience as to the impossible fight that is Afghanistan. The Russians were there nearly 10 years and left. Trump who knows no history cannot understand how futile the fight is in nearly every corner of the Middle East much less understand the many dimensions of why.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and getting the same result. Watch the Frontline documentary "The Battle for Iraq" and see into what sewer swamp our nation has been plunged. It is an eternal war that Bush could not end, that Obama could not end and that Trump will CERTAINLY not end. In fact, with Trump's loose tongue spouting confrontational verbiage alienating even our friends he just may plunge us into a deeper hell -- a nuclear hell -- from which there truly is no escape. As much as the bloviator-in-chief loves to puff up his chest to tell us we will get sick of winning so much. We may not get sick of winning so much but we surely will get sick of losing again. There is no winning Middle East wars that breed only insane violence, death, carnage and destruction. It creates an Arab mindset of hate toward those for whom there is already not much love. Who of you would want to live in this hellish place that is Iraq? Who of you would want to walk in an Iraqi's shoes? I suspect no one would!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/battle-for-iraq/

The Malignant Machinations of a Corrupt Presidency

This post was sent to me by someone I trust. It is hard, though, to wrap my brain around it although I suspect it true. It simply staggers me. I do not know if a government here could get away with this but I do not put it past trump to try so I send it out for you to know. While plausible this could not happen without many many refusing to act on the most unconstitutional of orders even with the sanctioning of 9/11 law which was meant for terrorist acts NOT for political opposition. In view of the protest at an Executive Order and opposition to the trump presidency in general it would be a very difficult and an enormous task to for them to implement what is essentially murder. Still, I play it safe as I know how corrupt and malevolent this "administration" is and what the capabilities of a malignant narcissist trump might be. Nothing surprises me now!!

The Post:

Yesterday, the President downgraded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence from the National Security Council. They will now attend on an ad hoc basis. They have been effectively replaced with Steve Bannon. Bannon has no government, intelligence, or high-level military experience; his experience is leading a propaganda outlet (Breitbart News) that peddles nationalist and white nationalist viewpoints.

This would be deeply concerning in and of itself. But one of the jobs of the NSC is to oversee a secret panel that authorizes the assassination of “enemies of the United States Government” – including American citizens. These targeted killings are fully authorized by law under the Congressional military authorization act following 9/11. There is no trial, no due process, and no public record of the decision or the assassination itself.

Just to recap the absurdity: the President of the United States has appointed a known propagandist, nationalist, and white supremacist to replace the highest military advisor in the country on a council that authorizes secret, legal, targeted killings of American citizens (and others) without due process.

What You Can Do:

- Call your Senators and Congressperson this week and demand that they publicly and legislatively oppose Trump’s appointment of Steven Bannon to the NSC.
- Spread the word about this news to your networks, since this is not getting a lot of coverage right now.

Please COPY AND PASTE this update as opposed to sharing the post so that it will have a greater reach.

- Post courtesy of Brad Marshland.

The President's Heart

In the confounding era of a Trump presidency I must wax clear my concerns as a Jewish woman where my sentiments about being a Jew lie, how strongly or not I support the Jewish state now, and my concerns about my Jewishness within a Trumpian administration that is unclear to me in its opaque verbosity against purposeful antiSemitic, anti-Muslim and other racist hate-filled acts that have become more plentiful as Trump's campaign and his assent to the presidency takes place.

I have been politically invariant through the decades. I have through my college years and beyond taken a decidedly left of center seat and remained in that chair ever since formed in part through an empathy with the "other." I was born three years after the most cerebrally indelible event that has been burned into the Jewish mind -- the Holocaust -- which erased from the face of the earth, through unspeakable horrors, 2/3rds of the Jews of Europe. At 10 years old I saw for the first time pictures of the liberation of Auschwitz shown in a Newsreel before the main show in theaters of that era. I became nauseated at the sight. I was thankful to be living in a nation where I thought that would not happen again and where the specter of antiSemitism was, I also thought, gone. My young eyes saw the vicious slings and arrows of Nazism but thought being a Jew in our nation meant I would not have to feel the fear of such a horrific thing happening to me.

In present time, however, and as a politically sophisticated adult the reality of ever present antiSemitism rings true and it is especially true now by the surprising Trump victory and its attendant racial overtones. We are seeing fires at mosques, desecration of Muslim graves as well as Nazi Swastikas painted on houses by thugs as the Trumpian fog of white nationalism hangs in the air of the White House.

Several things about Trump are worrisome. It is more than alarming to me that one of the main actors in the Trump administration is Steve Bannon who not only is in the president's administration with an office close to him but has been promoted to chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon, the former head of Brietbart.com has been a trafficker in extremist right wing conspiracy theories, sexist beliefs and antiSemitic thought. According to Political Conundrum Forum Trump reorganized the National Security Council which now gives Bannon a regular seat on the principals committee — the meetings of the most senior national security officials, including the secretaries of defense and state.

What does this say about an administration that looks the other way as members of the so called Alt Right give the president a Nazi-like salute, where David Duke KKK arch racist and antiSemite praises the president while "understanding" why Trump cannot invite him in and when the president commemorates National Holocaust Remembrance Day by conspicuously omitting the word Jew or Jewish when mentioning it? It has been my experience that those who are less than sympathetic to the suffering of the Jew as the prime recipient of the Final Solution during the Holocaust often leave out that fact or tell us that there were more than simply Jews who were the recipients of Nazi madness.

It gives me no solace that Trump pays lip service to the support of the State of Israel while advocating for policies that would destroy the Jewish state not help it thrive. Those who think he is a friend
of the Jew because he has a Jewish son-in-law err in their naiveté. His friendship with Putin, no friend of the Jew, and his reliance on Bannon who according to his ex-wife did not want his children schooled with Jews speaks loud and clear as to what the president harbors in his heart if he, in fact, has a heart at all.

Ex-KGB Chief Who Leaked Incriminating Trump Info Found Dead In The Back Of A Car In Russia -- [The Man Who Knew Too Much]

 
By John Prager on January 28, 2017 5:07 pm ·

Trump and his allies expect us to dismiss the 35-page dossier that details Donald Trump and his team’s ties to the Russian government, but a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening that makes it impossible.

When it was just former MI6 agent and author of the report Christopher Steele, who is in hiding to protect himself from both Trump and Putin’s goons, saying that President Asterisk’s closet is overflowing with skeletons (and Russian hooker urine) it was one thing, but the existence of audio and even video of Trump engaging in incriminating acts was confirmed by at least four sources, including one in the American intelligence community. Israeli intelligence officials have also been warned about sharing intel with Trump’s administration for fear that it will be leaked to Vladimir Putin. And then there’s the little matter of what happened to a gentleman who helped Steele compile his incriminating yet not entirely verified report…

Oleg Erovinkin was a former general in the KGB and the FSB. He is suspected of feeding information to Steele, and he was found dead in his car on Boxing Day. Russian state-run media initially reported that foul play was involved when “Erovinkin’s body was “found in a black Lexus… [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue.” Since then, the cause of death has been downgraded to “heart attack.” The Telegraph reports:

Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.

Erovinkin has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mr Steele writes in an intelligence report dated July 19, 2016, he has a source close to Sechin, who had disclosed alleged links between Mr Trump’s supporters and Moscow.

The death of Erovinkin has prompted speculation it is linked to Mr Steele’s explosive dossier, which was made public earlier this month. Mr Trump has dismissed the dossier as “fake news” and no evidence has emerged to support its lurid claims.

The Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Erovinkin’s body was “found in a black Lexus… [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue”.

No cause of death has been confirmed and the FSB continues to investigate. Media reports suggested his death was a result of foul play.

It was later claimed he died of a heart attack. Christo Grozev, an expert on Russia-related security threats, believes Erovinkin is the key source to whom Mr Steele refers in his dossier.

“Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately as ‘Sechin’s treasurer’ and ‘the go-between between Putin and Sechin’. One thing that everyone seems to agree – both in public and private sources – is that Erovinkin was Sechin’s closest associate,” Grozev says. “I have no doubt that at the time Erovinkin died, Mr Putin had Mr Steele’s Trump dossier on his desk. He would – arguably – have known whether the alleged… story is based on fact or fiction.”

“Whichever is true, he would have had a motive to seek – and find the mole,” he adds. “He would have had to conclude that Erovinkin was at least a person of interest.”

At this point, it will be difficult for our own intelligence agencies to get to the bottom of this situation. Recently, for example, Trump decided to retain James Comey — yes, the guy who interfered in the election on his behalf — as the head of the FBI. The Donald also has the power to fire Comey if the ongoing investigation is not positive for Trump. At around the same time as the announcement, the Bureau cleared Michael Flynn of any wrongdoing in his numerous, suspicious calls to the Russian ambassador.

Our country is in a bad place and we need more information to correctly determine what is going on with any of this — information the current administration and his despotic allies will go to any lengths to hide.

Was Erovinkin murdered because of his knowledge of information that could greatly hurt Trump and his BFF Putin? Maybe, maybe not. Putin is exactly the sort of person who has been known to leave a trail of dead journalists in his wake for reporting too much. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that he had a former KGB agent murdered for knowing too much.

Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/Twitter

COURT STEPS IN DEPORTATIONS HALTED SOME GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE!!!

COURT STEPS IN DEPORTATIONS HALTED


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/court-blocks-trump-refugee-ban_us_588d4b53e4b0b065cbbc6a6f?xnlfqhm52qpioogvi&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

TRUMP SLAMS THE DOOR--PIC --- PLEASE LOOK AND SCROLL DOWN -- SHORT COMMENT

TRUMP SLAMS THE DOOR

Trump Targets Muslims, Refugees In New Executive Order Issued On Holocaust Remembrance Day

“We don’t want them here,” he said.

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE; TRUMP WILL KILL THIS NATION.  WAR WILL BREAK OUT ESPECIALLY

WHEN HE VOMITS THAT HE WANTS TO STEAL IRAQ'S OIL!!   THIS IS A PRESIDENCY

OUT OF CONTROL.  HE HAS CLOSED VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS, CLOSED THE WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE LINES, FIRED LONG TERM NEUTRAL STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES AND AMBASSADORS WHO ARE DEDICATED CIVIL SERVANTS OVER MULTIPLE PRESIDENCIES KEEPING US SAFE!!!  HE HAS FIRED
EMPLOYEES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY AND PLACED A GAG ORDER ON ANY WHO ARE THERE, ORDERED THE SCRUBBING OF
COMPUTERS.  HE IS ALIENATING ONE OF OUR CLOSEST ALLIES, MEXICO, ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER; HE IS THREATENING TO WITHHOLD FUNDS FROM SANCTUARY CITIES INCLUDING BOSTON; THIS IS NO JOKE.  TRUMP MUST BE STOPPED.  CALL YOUR CONGRESS PERSONS AND TELL THEM EMPHATICALLY THAT THEY ARE DONE IN CONGRESS IF THEY DO NOT OPPOSE THIS -- ESPECIALLY REPUBLICANS BUT DEMOCRATS TOO!!  THIS CANNOT GO ON.  I AM NOT BEING OVER EMOTIONAL.  OUR LIVES TRULY ARE AT STAKE!

RESIST!