Showing posts with label Stephen Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Miller. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Are You Ready for America's Civil War II

 

Once again Charles M Blow is on top of the latest in the war on democracy. We could have a civil war, he says, which looks like it already started on January 6, at the U.S. Capitol insurrection. He references Texas' violation of the Constitution and federal laws by passing legislation forbidding abortions. 

Then, SCOTUS let the law stand, but with a slight compromise, allowing abortion providers to sue. Here's the scenario...

Anyone who assists in providing an illegal abortion — from the provider down to the person who gives a woman a ride to the clinic — can still be sued. Roe v. Wade has essentially been overturned in the state, and soon that astonishing reality may not only become permanent there but may also spread to other states.

Ridiculous, but that is what we have come to expect from Texas' moron governor, Greg Abbott. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was furious in her dissent...

“This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to ‘veto’ or ‘nullif[y]’ any federal law with which they disagreed.”

And who is John C. Calhoun? The answer from Blow...

"I found the invocation of South Carolina’s Calhoun striking. Yes, he was a strong believer in nullification, the idea that states could nullify federal laws, but he was also a raging racist who went further than the slave owners who saw slavery as a 'necessary evil,' seeing it instead as a positive good."
THIS IS SCARY: Kim Iversen: Is CIVIL WAR Looming? Americans SUPPORT Red States, Blue States Seceding From US...


Having grown up in the South, and in the 40s and 50s when the Ku Klux Klan was running rampant, as a very young boy I once witnessed the lynching of a Black man. The experience was ghastly and tortuous as I knew the man had done nothing to deserve this. And I had no prejudice against Blacks since it just didn't make sense to me that I should hate somebody just because of their color. There were many incidents over the years where I disagreed with friends, even family.

That was then, but racism has once again reared its ugly head, somewhat due to Donald Trump's openness for white supremacy, strongly supported by advisers like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. This has not gone unnoticed by Charles Blow...
"I see too many uneasy parallels between what was happening nearly 200 years ago and what is happening now. I see this country on the verge of another civil war, as the Calhounian impulse is reborn."

As Blow surmises we won't see the number of deaths experienced in the Civil War starting in 1861, lasting to 1865, even though there has already been violence and some lives lost in the current turmoil. Contrary...

"this new war will be fought in courts, statehouses and ballot boxes, rather than in the fields."

And with this less people will die, but more of democracy will be lost...perhaps all of it forever. 



 

 

 

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

3 scary Republicans worth watching

 

Liz Cheney has bucked the Republican Party by voting to impeach Donald Trump and, although she has taken flack for it in Wyoming, she stands by her vote. But can you believe this?...
"More Americans questioned in a new survey said that they think Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is representative of the Republican Party than Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), underscoring the rightward drift of the GOP."

The Hill reports...

"According to the Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday, 28 percent of Americans said Greene represents the GOP, while 25 percent said the same of Cheney. Forty-seven percent did not offer an opinion."

Although Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) once approved of calls for the execution of Democrats, Republicans still love her and that's why she bears watching. Greene did lose all of her House Committee Assignments, but Rep. Liz Cheney retains her position as No. 3 leader. Kevin McCarthy's take...

"But as Wednesday's internal showdowns concluded, McCarthy and the House GOP decided against punishing two of their most high-profile women, whose views enrage opposite ends of the party's spectrum. The moves were typical of McCarthy's preference to avoid ruffling feathers as he charts his path to someday becoming House speaker."

God forbid the latter happens. 

Steve Bannon has been scary since the first day he walked into Donald Trump's


White House. I have done a number of blog posts on Bannon, most of which on the dark side. Donald Trump accepting Bannon's political cynicism is one thing; the whole Republican Party just illustrates how deeply troubled the GOP has become. Greg Sargent in the Washington Post describes Bannon' comeback...
"Trump’s former adviser is now elevating his profile as spokesman for the pro-Trump wing in a way that usefully illuminates the ugly depths of the GOP’s ongoing radicalization."

Steve Bannon was pardoned by Trump, but the New York Atty. Gen. has just asked for his financial records and plans to compare them with Donald Trump's, which they just received. The two are talking again as Trump becomes desperate for any hand in the storm. Sargent makes it clear, and most on the left agree, Democrats must demand "a full accounting into Trump’s most recent crime against the country, the effort to incite the violent overthrow of U.S. democracy."

And, in Stephen Miller, one of the scariest of Donald Trump's recent aides; always in the background, always proposing the doomsday. Miller was the nucleus of Trump's immigration program exclaiming re. Biden's moves on the issue, "This is madness!" Here are Miller's words...
"This is a policy choice disguised falsely to the court and to the country as a resource issue!" Miller shouted. "That is a lie and it's a lie that threatens public safety."

Stephen Miller has been branded an "Extremist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, where you can find the best documentation of hate groups in the United States. Here is SPLC's take on Miller...

"Stephen Miller is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda."

Stephen Miller is an ardent follower of Jared Taylor, a mouthpiece for white supremacist ideology, said, "The races are not identical and equivalent." Miller queries: who will pay for these immigrants, but it is clearly his views on white supremacy that guide his ideology. The Guardian said "Stephen Miller: the white nationalist at the heart of Trump's White House." Trump is no longer in the White House, but the heart of the current Trump movement is still white supremacy.




Sunday, February 28, 2021

America in Conflict

 


Starting a series of random posts illustrating the struggle the United States is going through today, emphasizing the moral drought of our political system.

A president impeached twice with absolutely no remorse for what he did to the United States during four catastrophic years in the White House. Read more...

As one columnist put it, "The United States is visibly in an early stage of disintegration," like Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," only the giant insect is the country we live in.

Evangelicals courted Donald Trump throughout his four years in office despite his despicable behavior, particularly his abuse of women. Read more...



Republican lawmakers proposing laws to prevent liberals from voting, targeting blacks and Hispanics. Read more...

And this is one of those 'can you really believe this?' pieces. The Washington Times suggests replacing Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski with Sarah Palin. Read more...

Here's a whopper, "Conspiracy nuts think Bill Gates helped Biden generate 'synthetic snow' to make Texas look bad." Don't know for sure but do believe we can assume this group supports Donald Trump.


With 390 million guns on U.S. streets in a country of 329 million people, one would expect gun violence. And we got it with a 50% increase in mass shootings in 2020, plus in the first seven weeks of 2021, there have been 63 mass shootings. Read more... 

President Biden appointed more Postal Service Board members, but nothing is done about the arrogant and incompetent Postmaster Louis DeJoy. Why is Biden dragging his feet on this? Read more...

Stephen Miller is the sneaky behind the scenes Donald Trump work master for white supremacy in what the Washington Post's Greg Sargent calls a "shadow war" against Joe Biden. This administration shouldn't let Miller out of its sights. 
Read more... 


SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, obviously an ardent Donald Trump follower, seems to be overstepping his bounds by becoming a supporter of the "fixed 2020 election," movement. Read more...

Joe Biden mirrors Donald Trump if he lets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman get away with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We keep warning China's Xi Jinping about human rights in his country. But, then, he doesn't have any oil. Read more...

As you may know the CPAC convention got under way last Thursday, and one of its speakers, Ted Cruz, mocked the wearing of masks when the COVID-19 pandemic has now claimed 524,480 deaths. Maybe he should just go back to Cancun and stay. Read more...


Speaking of CPAC, have you heard of the life size gold metal statue of Donald Trump served up to the emperor during the convention? By the way, it was made in Mexico, probably by the kind of people he described as drug dealers, criminals, rapists. Read more...

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the U.S. Representative who was stripped of all of her key House posts due to radical views, is attending CPSC with the rest of the Republican lowlife to praise the recently dethroned dictator. Not sure if she brought her baseless QAnon conspiracy theories with her. Read more...

You can thank Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for being one of the first-rate idiots in the attempt to overturn Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election. He the epitome of untruth with his ongoing claims of rampant voter fraud rampant voter fraud with absolutely no evidence. Read more...





Matt Gaetz, the moron congressman from Florida, pushes Donald Trump for 2024, by comparing Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," with Gaetz's new version, 'The Art of the Comeback.' Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said it best, "That guy [Gaetz] is
not an adult". Read more...



Friday, May 29, 2020

Is racism still a dirty word, or...just accepted today?


Racism is worse than that old weather saying. People have been talking about it for years, but no one has seriously done anything about it...


My take is that it is definitely a dirty word, even many racists would agree with that, but it is like one of those rogue genes that are the basis for a particular kind of behavior which allows those who have it to justify what they do. I grew up in the South, fighting with racists all my life, even within my own family, and when I finally left in the 1960s, there were still lynchings of black people, their houses being burned to the ground, all orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan.

Like the Mafia, the Klan slowly faded away, but as is the case for both, there is still evidence of their activity around. Here's a scenario from NPR...
"For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone."

NPR adds, "The watchdog group blames President Trump, his administration, right-wing media outlets and the ease of spreading hate on social media platforms for the alarming increase." Trump has promoted and encouraged white nationalism since being inaugurated, hiring people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, of which the latter is still on his staff. Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project said...
"The numbers tell a striking story — that this president is not simply a polarizing figure but a radicalizing one."
Excellent video on the Trump-Miller relationship...


This added...
"Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as presidents of both parties have done, President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to act on their worst instincts."
"Worst instincts," resulting from that rogue gene that wallows in racism. And here's more on Stephen Miller from the Daily Beast...
"Stephen Miller, the highly influential advisor to President Donald Trump, is the end result of a shadowy network made up of racist organizations and PAC’s designed to push a white nationalist worldview from the fringes into deep inside the White House."
The Confederate battle flag

Now there are even rumbles that Steve Bannon is attempting to work his way back into the White House. The combination of Miller and Bannon, especially should there be a Trump second term, God forbid, and with the White House maniac at his highest level of mental instability since entering office, could turn this country into a national Confederate States of America. What would a new flag look like? Would future elections even be allowed?

Miller was a close ally of John Tanton, an Ophthalmologist from Michigan, founder of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and considered by SPLC the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. Stephen Miller, practicing Tanton's ideology, is considered the architect of Donald Trump's immigration policies. The Beast's Mark Potok reports...
"Miller is both a promoter and, to some extent, a product of a much wider racist network aimed at preventing non-white immigration into the United States.”
He also thinks there is little chance of Miller leaving the administration, able to now influence, as I stated earlier, a much more mentally unstable Donald Trump, who is already making the worst of bad decisions. I would surmise when the black community sees this rampant racism originate from the highest office in the land, they feel there is just no hope. And they may very well be right as long as Trump occupies the White House and Mitch McConnell controls the Senate.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Donald Trump responsible for hate crimes


July 22, 2019: TODAY'S NEWS BYTES  

Hate crimes tied to a president unheard of  

Donald Trump-White Supremacist

Many in the media and groups like So. Poverty Law Center have warned of Donald Trump inciting violence with his racist targeting of women of color in Congress. Jim Cavanaugh, a retired ATF special agent-in-charge was interviewed by Anchor Joy Reid on Friday evening’s “The Last Word.” She asked...
“So those threats beginning about two years ago, increases in white nationalist activity. Have you ever heard of these kinds of increases in hate and potential hate crimes being tied to a president of the United States?”
Reid answered, “No,” he replied. “That’s very, very unusual, Joy, to have that happen.” Reid added...
“You know, when you get more power, your words carry more weight. When you get into this undercurrent of the Nazis and the white nationalists and the klansmen, they feed off of this. They feed off of public figures — on the regular media, in the government, congressmen, senators, the president — saying the things they always say,” he explained. “It bolsters them. It gives them strength and power.”
You can't get much more power than that of the President of the United States, so it is safe to say the white supremacists have the capacity of the greatest nation on earth. And that is very, very scary. The Oval Office lunatic has even primed these Nazis recently with his attacks on the four congresswomen, and there appears no abatement for Trump's racism. This country may be doomed to relive the race wars of the 1960s.

Read more...

White Supremacists love Donald Trump...


Stephen Miller-Donald Trump's scariest aide

Stephen Miller is a far-right political activist who serves as a senior advisor for policy for President Donald Trump. He took over as the chillingest member of Trump's team when Steve Bannon left. Although I don't consider Fox New generally credible, I do think Chris Wallace, because of his father Mike, to be honest and believable. Wallace adamantly shut down Miller as the latter repeatedly tried to defend T-rump's racism.

Here's an example from Think Progress...
"Wallace also pointed out that Trump has criticized the four lawmakers for comments he deemed critical of America, yet attacked the nation, and Obama, with comments that were far more negative. President Obama is ignorant, this country is killers, on and on.'”
"Miller attempted to spin a 'fundamental distinction' between 'people who think we need to lean into and strengthen American’s core values' and 'people who think we need to turn America into Venezuela.' But Wallace again responded with Trump’s own quotes that were explicit attacks on America."
Chris concluded the interview with...
“I’ve never called any of his tweets racist,” Wallace admonished Miller. “But there’s no question he is stoking racial divisions.”
Read more... 

The Hill says Trump has nothing to fear from Robert Mueller testimony

There are disagreements with this statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who is convinced that Robert Mueller's report "presents very substantial evidence" that President Donald Trump "is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors." There is no reason to ask who is right since there can be no real right or wrong until a court, probably eventually SCOTUS, interprets sections of the report.

Here's what Mueller said: “The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.”

Here's what House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said: "Democrats on the committees plan to get around this reluctance by having Mueller read from his report, and by asking him for commentary about what he’s read."

It may even be a strategy welcomed by Robert Mueller.

Read more...

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Political Satire: Donald Trump makes white supremacy notorious



White nationalism or white supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society. It's hard to believe this kind of concept could persist in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, it has been prevalent over the years since the Civil Rights Act of 1968 also known as the Fair Housing Act. There were others before it but Lyndon Johnson thought he was putting on the final touches with his late sixties bill. Although there was some noticeable breakthrough, racism in its purest form still exists.

What we never thought possible in this country is the fact that, even though there have been racists presidents before him, no other administration has ever prided itself in stocking its staff, even its cabinet, with white nationalists. Donald Trump not only welcomes their company, he encourages their participation in the sport by regularly practicing his own. It's like who can one up the other. As Salon's headline expressed...
Donald Trump’s white nationalist “genius bar”: Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Michael “Decius” Anton and beyond
 Further: "Donald Trump’s administration is built around a brain trust of white nationalists." Folks, these crackpots are all proud of a trait that normal, civilized people consider abhorrent. In addition to the above, Donald John's new Atty. General, Jeff Sessions, has been a racist most of his adult life. And according to the Washington Post, half of Trump supporters are racists, proving my earlier point that racism has been prevalent over the years, in spite of targeted legislation. We are a truly pathetic nation that allows these lowlifes not only to exist, but also to proliferate.

Said it once and here it is again, "How about concentration camps for racists?" my headline from an earlier post. May sound far-fetched but wouldn't it be fun to visit their compound and flip them the bird through the chain-link fence...with barb-wire around the top, of course.

The real story...

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...