Showing posts with label Steve Bannon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Bannon. 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.




Thursday, November 2, 2017

Jared Kushner on Trump's Shit list


Who is "The Hair" waving goodbye to?
Ruled by most in the administration and Congress as the worst adviser ever to hit the White House, Jared Kushner may be at the end of his rope. Trump blames him for the James Comey firing. He also thinks he is responsible for Mueller's expanding probe, with the special prosecutor indicating he is ready to move into White House interviews. Sam Nunberg says Trump is f**ked, near paralyzed with fear of impeachment only exhibited to insiders, and his popularity rating is an abysmal 33 percent. Should he decide to fire Mueller, will the house of cards fall? With this Republican Congress, it's questionable.

Jared Kushner on the ropes...

Robert Mueller wants to interview White House aides...

Steve Bannon advises Trump to confront Mueller...

Sam Nunberg says Trump is f**ked...

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Is Steve Bannon runnnig for President?


That's Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon appears to be on a breakneck path to the White House leaving leaving Republicans in more disarray, wondering what's going on. Trump's former top adviser, a white nationalist, anti-semitist and racist, seems intent on overthrowing the GOP. Who cares about the Republicans but not with this in their place. Mitch McConnell and his gang have declared open warfare on Bannon with a year before the 2018 elections. Right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer is Bannon's banker and the scary part of all this is many of Trump's supporters are also behind Bannon.



Steve Bannon on Oval Office highway...

Mitch McConnell says no to Steve Bannon...

What is a Steve Bannon?...

More about the white nationalist who would be President...

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Racism is here to stay


Racism hasn't really changed over the years

You can talk about the strides that have been taken since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but, in a nutshell, they haven't worked. I said in an earlier post that since 1964, radical racism has simply gone underground, with those who practice this vile lifestyle, playing in the shadows, putting on the good-guy front. Until Donald Trump. Until the White House loaded up with racists, white nationalists, and a bigotry that isn't disguised, rather, put right there in the open for all to see. Steve Bannon is proud of his white supremacist label, flaunting it regularly around Washington. And Donald Trump is quick to tell you, Steve Bannon is his man.

Donald Trump afraid to offend white nationalist supporters

After days of not repudiating white nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan after the murder in the Charlottesville demonstration, T-rump finally denounced the KKK and neo-nazis. This was his statement...
  • "Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups."

The media made me do it

Daily Progress reports that the only reason Trump changed his tone--it is widely known that he does not adhere to political correctness--is that the media made him do it. What a pathetic moment in history when it takes outcry from the media to make the President of the United States do a duty that should have been his top priority the moment that woman was killed by James Alex Fields' car. But that would have insulted Donald Trump's base of double-digit IQ bigots. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "From the beginning, President Trump has sheltered and encouraged the forces of bigotry and discrimination." Why would we expect more just because of a death?

Sports personalities criticize Trump

LeBron James, basketball star, said, “Hate has always existed in America. Yes we know that but Donald Trump just made it fashionable again!” Steve Nash, another basketball great said...
  • “To defend white supremacists and then slang his [crappy] a— grape juice pretty much sums the man up.” Nash was referring to Trump’s remark that he knows “a lot about Charlottesville” because he owns “one of the largest wineries in the United States,” located there.
Seth Meyers on Trump Charlottesville news conference...


Even the Jews were included in Charlottesville protest

Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally was universal in its appeal with anti-Semitic lines like “Jews will not replace us”? Also heard, “This city is run by Jewish communists and criminal niggers,” one demonstrator told Vice News’ Elspeth Reeve during their march. The Atlantic reported, "As Jews prayed at a local synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, men dressed in fatigues carrying semi-automatic rifles stood across the street." There was more, "In the minds of white supremacists like David Duke, there is a straight line from anti-blackness to anti-Judaism." I learned from the deep South, when you learn to hate like these people do, there are no bounds.

T-rump again reverts to bad taste

Donald Trump created an analogy between his re-tweet that was eventually pulled, where the Trump train collides with a person from CNN News (logo across face) obviously killing them. He did this just three days after the white nationalist drove into the Charlottesville woman killing her. Trump literally sanctions violence; remember when he wanted to punch the Black Lives Matter protester in the face? He also recently told a group of Long Island police that they shouldn't be too nice with criminal suspects. That drew fire from people all across the country, including police departments. There is no end to the Oval Office lunatic's lunacy.

Why are people still racist? A terrifying answer

The Washington Post recently asked, "Why are people still racist?" They go on to answer using a scientific point of view. The answer...
  • “In some ways, it’s super simple. People learn to be whatever their society and culture teaches them. We often assume that it takes parents actively teaching their kids, for them to be racist. The truth is that unless parents actively teach kids not to be racists, they will be."
That is scary as hell, especially when you consider the fact that Donald Trump is President of the United States, espousing his rhetoric of bigotry.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Republicans paid millions by top polluters to dump Paris Agreement


GOP Congress 
The sleaziest of all, Senate head, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) was paid $1,975,245; Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas): $2,484,520; Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas): $3,031,956; Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri): $1,143,574. And the list goes on; view the totals for each Senator here. There is a question in my mind of what the difference in the impact of this group is over the White House nationalist, Steve Bannon, who supposedly spearheaded Trump's decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord. But politicians will take money for anything, regardless, especially Republicans.

In the Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor made a startling statement: "If Trump quits the Paris climate accord, he will lead the U.S. into the wilderness." It was the headline for his article speculating that should Trump take that course, we, the United States, go against the rest of the world. And he did. And we have. What is most interesting is that local governments across the country have rebuffed DT's decision, insisting they will support the Paris Climate Pact. At the same time the nation's top CEOs say Trump is dead wrong in his decision.

Even the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were supposedly urging Trump to stick with the Paris agreement, according to Tharoor, but Tillerson's former company, Exxonmobil ranks #2 in historic greenhouse gas emissions. There are opponents including...
"White House chief adviser Stephen K. Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic who has already set about dismantling Obama-era regulations on the U.S. fossil fuel industry."
Bannon, of course, is considered one of the architects of Donald Trump's decision to exit the agreement. The WP provides more background on the Paris agreement...
""Championed by the Obama administration, the Paris agreement created, for the first time, a single framework for developed and developing countries to work together and reduce greenhouse gases."

Former President Obama developed a network of countries that were interested in improving the ecology of the planet, including China, which is #1 in carbon dioxide emissions. The latter, in itself, was considered a major accomplishment because China had always refused to participate in any ecological agreements. The pact was signed by 195 countries, with only Nicaragua, Syria and the United States, #2 polluter, not participating. There's more fallout...
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla announced that he's quitting the president's business advisory councils because of the decision. He twittered, "Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world." Also, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he will step down "as a matter of principle" from Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.
The Forum is a group of business leaders organized by Donald Trump, to give Donald Trump advice in protecting the planet. Apparently' the Oval Office moron doesn't listen to anyone, not even industry compatriots. 

Friday, June 2, 2017

More heads should roll in the Trump administration


Call my headline in poor taste but still considering all the negative media Kathy Griffin is getting, what she did reflects the total disdain for the lunatic who currently sits in the Oval Office. Her act is distasteful because the person in question is the president of the United States and you do not disgrace that office. While in the Navy I complained because I had to salute an officer for which I had no respect. The officer I worked for told me to just keep in mind that you are saluting the rank, not the man. I choose to believe Griffin had contempt for the man, certainly not for the office.

So, to move on, and, by the way, how do those of you who denounce my headline, know I wasn't taking about the recent firing of Mike Dubke, Trump's communications director? I wasn't. Whatever, let's move on to the substance of my headline, those who should be next in line to go, starting with Jared Kushner. We know Donald Trump gloats over his overrated family, whose accomplishments all seem to stem from the Trump name. And there would be no Trump "name" if DT's father, Fred, hadn't given him $14 million to start his real estate enterprise, plus all Fred's business connections.

Now Jared Kushner's father took a different course to success than Trump's; he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, and served time in federal prison on his way to his $1.8 billion fortune. And according to Sen. Al Franken, Jared "...may have broken the law with Russia communications." Franken said further...
"White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s reported efforts to set up a back-channel line of communication between the transition team of President Donald Trump and the Russian government is a 'pretty bad breach,' one that could be against the law and should prompt consideration about a revocation of his security clearance."
Now this is the same thing we have been hearing about lately re. the fact that Kushner proposed a meeting with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. in order to establish a secret means of communications between the Kremlin and Trump’s transition team that would keep out the U.S. intelligence community. Apparently, Kushner failed to disclose his contacts with Russian officials. Franken commented, “This is a pretty bad breach. These guys, the administration, they're not acting like people who have nothing to hide.”

Steve Bannon
Another one who should go who seems to be holding on by only his relationship with Trump, is Steve Bannon, who hasn't been in the news lately. Until yesterday, when Trump announced the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, a decision most likely provoked by his chief strategist, Steve Bannon. The nationalist won, the U.S. and the world lost. Some say the Paris deal would have hurt the U.S. economy, but Dozens of CEOs have been lobbying President Donald Trump to stay in the deal. China, world's largest carbons polluter stayed in the Paris agreement.

The U.S., second largest carbons polluter, exited the agreement. There were 197 participants, 147 ratifying the agreement. But apparently Steve Bannon's whiteboard explains Donald Trump's climate decision, plus a number of other priorities on the nationalist's agenda that we can look forward to in the future. That is, if he isn't dumped with Kushner. Even the Southern Poverty Law Center says that Bannon has no business in the White House. "We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon said in July, using a term that is really just a rebranding of traditional white nationalism.
Kellyanne Conway and friend
And then there's Kellyanne Conway...what can one say. Here's what Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC said, "White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is not credible anymore, and won't be booked in the future on “Morning Joe.”  The woman can't help lying...look who she works for. If Trump should dump her, there is the possibility that she could replace Kathy Griffin on CNN's New Year's Eve show. Anderson Cooper is going to be desperately in need of someone who can make him laugh as much as Griffin. Conway's stupefaction is classic on all fronts.

If my headline has offended anyone, well, that's life under the Donald Trump administration.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Friday T-rump STUPID Roundup


After campaigning as the champion of the working class, Donald Trump has carefully organized an enclave of only the rich to advise him. "...disclosures showed that Trump’s top aides have generated millions of dollars from Wall Street, Hollywood, real estate and the media, holding a slew of investments that intensify the administration’s challenge in navigating potential intersections between officials’ personal finances and their policymaking roles." It all adds up to $2.3 billion. Being the Democratic Socialist I am, can you imagine breaking that up among the U.S. homeless?

Donald John's head of the Federal Communications Commission wants to halt small and rural Internet providers from offering subsidized broadband connections to low-income Americans nationwide. The reason given has to do with a Reagan era act called Lifeline, that provided subsidies for seniors, veterans and rural Americans that is more state run than federal. "Opponents of the decision said the move will limit struggling Americans' ability to choose a good provider, particularly in rural or low-income areas." Anyway you cut it, they're telling business what they can do.

The Daily Beast makes the statement that Jared Kushner is perhaps the only Donald Trump adviser that cannot be fired. Even if he starts WW III? And with the stupidity that surrounds this clan, and the fact that Kushner appears to be circumventing State department power, with absolutely no experience in foreign policy, I personally think it's possible. This all comes from the fact that former adviser, Roger Stone, claimed to host Alex Jones that Trump’s own son-in-law Jared Kushner was leaking information to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. Want to reconsider DJ?

What does Donald Trump do when his top adviser resorts to juvenile behavior, and it is with his second top adviser? But wait, there's another factor here; number one is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Number two is Steve Bannon, the trusted white nationalist aide who Trump has placed a lot of trust in for advice. But now Bannon has been removed from the National Security Table, as Ivanks joins her husband in complaining about Stevo's ideologies and their negative effects on daddy's issues. Like Stan Freberg said: High School Ooh Ooh.

ISIS just described Donald Trump in Arabic terms as an "idiot," which is close enough to stupid to be included in this post. And there is a reason for this they use, saying he doesn't know anything about Islam. I doubt seriously if he is well versed on the faith, but this would explain his stupidity for banning entry to the U.S. of some predominantly Muslim nations by lumping all Islamists into one group of terrorists. "Trump has pledged to 'totally obliterate ISIS,'" according to a piece in NBC News. This bit of strategy no doubt compliments of Steve Bannon.

And finally, John Oliver, host of the HBO political talk-show Last Week Tonight, has dubbed Donald Trump's Russian connection as "Stupid Watergate." Oliver says it is, “a potential scandal with all of the intrigue of Watergate except everyone involved is really bad at everything.” If Donald John is really trying to cover up something, he's doing a worse job than Richard Nixon. Devin Nunes, is out, Mike Conaway is in, wearing a Trump "Make America Great Again" cap. Odds are he could be worse than Nunes but there's no doubt who he favors from the get go.






Monday, March 20, 2017

Populism Bernie Sanders:YES-Populism Donald Trump:NO


Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon's populism seems sketchy from his past, so why is he where he is now, leading ring-nosed Donald Trump down the path for his style of populism and nationalism? Both Trump and Bannon have evoked the name of Andrew Jackson because of his populist beliefs, but Jackson also had to deal with sectionalism between the North and the South, due to the stark difference in economies. The North was industrial, the South agricultural. This became highly complicated when Congress passed the Tariff of 1828, favoring the North.

The reason I bring this up is that, although he would tell Congress what he was going to do, then do it, regardless of their concerns, he did things with a background from experience that had led to his first election in 1828. Andrew Jackson won with and governed with a substance neither Donald Trump nor Steve Bannon could ever claim. So why all the comparisons? It is Bannon's obsession with Jackson's populism and nationalism that the White House adviser intends to steer in the direction of his own version that includes white nationalism along with racism and general bigotry.

Andrew Jackson is from Tennessee. I am from Tennessee. Jackson's view on white nationalism and racism does parallel both Trump and Bannon, according to U.S. News...
"...Jackson's belief that democracy and race were inextricably bound together, that whiteness was a prerequisite for self-governance, fits neatly with Trump's own worldview – a worldview that is coming to define not just Trump's administration, but also the Republican Party."
We also know that Andrew Jackson was also a co-founder of the Democratic Party. And Democrats regularly paid tribute to Jackson for years, until the issue of racism came into focus. You see...
"His policy of 'Indian removal,' an act of ethnic cleansing that killed thousands, moved to the forefront of his legacy, as did the fact that he held nearly 300 enslaved people, the source of his significant wealth."
It was then that Andrew Jackson began to tank with the Democratic Party. It was obvious that, "For Jacksonian democracy to work, non-white people had to be subjugated, either through their removal or their enslavement (and, in later eras, through Jim Crows old and new)." But if the Democrats now shun Jackson, Republicans in the present form of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have picked up the gauntlet and are running with the white nationalism, tinged with racism and feminine hatred. Old Hickory surely had his faults but nothing to compare with the Trump/Bannon debacle.

Concourse tries to explain the insanity of Steve Bannon. The younger Bannon blames it all on the financial hard luck of his father...
"...a hardworking man who spent 50 years working for AT&T, accumulating as much AT&T stock as he could during that time in the belief that it would constitute a safe inheritance for his kids—saw the value of those shares crater during the 2008 financial crisis, and sold them at a loss in a panic."
As an afterthought Stevo contends that he was "outraged" that no one went to jail in the financial community over the chicanery during the Geo. W. Bush administration, Hell, so was I and millions more, but we didn't take it out on people of color nor did we debase women. Hamilton Nolan, the Concourse writer states...
"I am in no position to judge Steve Bannon’s honesty, so I’m willing to assume it’s true that the crash is indeed what spawned his political philosophy. If so, Steve Bannon is an insane man. Has he helped to fix the root causes of the 2008 financial crisis by guiding Donald Trump into the White House? No. He has helped to put in power an ignorant billionaire who has vowed to slash Dodd-Frank and other regulations designed to help prevent another financial crisis, and who has turned the regulation of Wall Street over to a coterie of Wall Street insiders and deregulation zealots."
The Daily Beast reported that Trump's fascination with Andrew Jackson only began in 2013, and there was another short conversation about the former president when there was talk during the 2016 election about removing Jackson from the $20 bill. DB says...
"But the reason Jackson has taken on such a physical and rhetorical presence in the Trump White House is, in fact, primarily because of Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and the former head of Breitbart. According to officials in the Trump campaign, presidential transition, and administration speaking to The Daily Beast, Bannon would often discuss Jackson’s historical legacy and image with Trump on and after the campaign trail, and how the two political figures were a lot alike."
Bannon even gave Trump a suggested reading list on Jackson. And Trump placed a biography of Andrew Jackson on his desk he frequently pointed out to reporters, but no one could ever confirm that he had read it. All nice window-dressing for an administration in the throes of taking this county back to the dark ages of racist hangings, house burnings, and a Ku Klux Klan that gave rise to the 784 hate groups that now reside in the U.S. Thanks in great part to Donald Trump adviser, Steve Bannon. Let me leave you with this from the Daily Beast...
"The simplest explanation for Steve Bannon’s actual political philosophy is 'He is racist, xenophobic, and has deep-seated resentments and anger issues with origins that we can only begin to explain.'”
God help us all! 

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Steve Bannon repeatedly endorses extreme racism...again


This is like talking about gun violence; no one seems to care anymore, or something would be done. The "this" I am talking about is Donald Trump's top White House adviser Steve Bannon, who continues to espouse white nationalism and racist beliefs. He is now joined by Steve King, House representative from Iowa, who makes me sorry I ever called the state full of common sense. If he is any example, it has just become feudal. The two of them have recently endorsed the highly racist book, The Camp of the Saints, the "favorite racist fantasy of the anti-immigrant movement."

That's what the Southern Poverty Law Center says, a non-profit that tracks hate organizations across the country. Steve King probably can't do much harm, his Iowa district is losing population anyway...understandable. But Steve Bannon? Everyday he remains in office is a threat to what the United States of America stands for.

Bernie Sanders nails it in this video...


Friday, March 3, 2017

Is Charlie Manson's "Helter Skelter" lurking in the White House?


Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's chief strategist and top adviser, has already established his credentials as a white nationalist, racist and anti-Semitic. As an avid reader, he espouses to "The Fourth Turning, a book by William Strauss and Neil Howe, that history unfolds in cycles of 80 to 100 years. At the end of the cycle, the old order is destroyed and replaced." It would appear that Stevo plans to be there at the end of the cycle and implant the Trump/Bannon, perhaps the other way around, vision of common national purpose Trump announced in his first address to Congress on Monday.

As far as the speech goes, it was well received by Republicans as one would suspect but Sen. Chuck Schumer's comment was that, "Trump's speeches and the realities are very, very far apart. Until his reality catches up with his speeches, he's got big trouble," Others said he even looked a bit presidential, hoping he might maintain that and not revert to the crude behavior he has exhibited on Twitter and otherwise since entering office. But these hopes were born and played out before and it only took one news cycle to send Donald John romping down the crass road to vulgarity again.

Here are some comments by Lacy MacAuley, an activist and member of the Washington DC Antifascist Coalition...
"I absolutely think Steve Bannon is connected to a network of white nationalists. Just in the last few years there have been contractual obligations between white supremacist James O’Keefe at Project Veritas and Breitbart."
"Mr O'Keefe was known, she said, for taking down institutions and organisations via fake news."
"I would say that Steve Bannon is the advocate for white nationalism in the White House and there’s no doubt in my mind on that. It’s not just through Breitbart, it’s through his entire line of work."
There is the indication that Steve Bannon, when recruiting to fill out the National Security Council position, added himself to the NSC without Donald John knowing. Grounds for dismissal by most anyone, except someone with a hidden agenda. He was able to do this since he was the one writing the Executive Order, not Trump. The President was pissed but the fact that Bannon stays put is evidence of just how powerful the man is. Daryle Lamont Jenkins, executive director of the anti-racist organisation One People's Project exclaims...
"We've been dealing with a cluster of white supremacists within the beltway of the Washington DC area who do just that (using theories and academia to justify their racism): they try to back up their racism and justify why they should have a separation of the races, and justify a more strident attack on African Americans in the name of 'fighting crime'."
That's about as scary as it gets. Beginning to sound like Charlie Manson's Helter Skelter, starting a war between blacks and whites. Charlie was a confirmed white supremacist who went to the extreme of carving a swastika into his forehead with a knife. He had a following he mesmerized by convincing them that he was Jesus Christ, turning them into killers that would do his bidding. I'm not saying Steve Bannon is another Charlie Manson, but I am saying that Donald Trump, normally a man who seems to need no one, is definitely enthralled by Stevo's philosophies. That's what's scary.



The UK Independent reports that last July Breitbart had "...become the 'platform for the alt-right'. Now his platform has become the government." Well, that's even scarier. Donald John has been guilty of racially insensitive remarks in the past, and during his campaign refused to condemn the white supremacists who advocated for him, like David Duke and Richard Spencer. Here are some examples during his drive for the presidency...
  • He attacked Muslim Gold Star parents
  • He claimed a judge was biased because “he’s a Mexican”
  • He questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States
  • He even trashed Native Americans
  • He stereotyped Jews and shared an anti-Semitic image created by white supremacists
Just a few, but you can see more here. Huff Post says in a blazing headline, "President Trump’s VOICE Is About Justifying White Supremacy." VOICE means, Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement. So far it sounds like... 
"...the program will be limited simply to undocumented immigrants, but will also include crimes committed by legitimate VISA holders, Green Card holders and possibly even permanent residents who are not naturalized citizens.
But then HP blasts, "Let’s call this what it is: VOICE is racist government propaganda." And isn't it interesting that Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart, had a section called Black Crime, which documented the crimes of immigrant communities, when it is known that immigrants are actually less likely to commit a crime than non-immigrants. Brian Stone of Huff Post adds...
"Creating this hate-list will do nothing except provide official government sanction to the opinions of white supremacist groups and the alt-right."
Remember Pat Buchanan, a presidential wanna-be from 1992, 1996 and 2000, who ran on a platform of right-wing populism and who also was a white supremacist? As far back as 2015, he was backing Trump along with other white supremacists, including David Duke. Buchanan regretted what he called the end of white America "...due to immigration and increasing rights for people of color." This is a statement that is hard to believe coming from someone who is supposedly educated and worldly. It can only be attributed to someone who is a true racist and white supremacist.

Most of this crowd doesn't believe in violence, a fact that is not true of Trump’s rank-and-file supporters. One such Donald John follower was Dionisio Garza III, 25, also a Muslim hater, who went on a shooting spree back in early 2016 in Houston, leaving one dead and six injured. In another instance...
"Jim Sherota, 53, [who]works for a landscaping company and attended Trump’s rally in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday, [August 2015] told The New York Times before Trump’s arrival that he hoped Trump would announce a plan to issue licenses for hunting undocumented immigrants and offer $50 for 'every confirmed kill.'”
Couldn't stand the heat
A bounty? Now that's interesting because back in 2015 just escaped El Chapo placed a $100 million
bounty on Donald Trump's head when the then candidate accused the Mexican government of letting him go tweeting...
"El Chapo and the Mexican drug cartels use the border unimpeded like it was a vacuum cleaner, sucking drugs and death right into the U.S."
Jake Tapper of CNN pushed Trump to disavow David Duke and rebuke any vote from him or any other white supremacists. It was a typical brainless meandering by the candidate...
"Trump claimed that he didn’t know anything about white supremacists or about Duke himself. When Tapper pressed him twice more, Trump said he couldn’t condemn a group he hadn’t yet researched."
A Virginia leader of the Ku Klux Klan told a TV reporter, “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in.” And that's the scariest yet. In closing, here is a list of his "white supremacist fan club" compiled by Huff Post reporters...
"The Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site; Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine; Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace."

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Even the white nationalists are turning on Trump


Iowa has always been the come-to state for Presidents and 2016 was no different for Donald Trump. He took the state 51.1% to win against Hillary Clinton's 41.7, garnering the 6 electoral votes. Des Moines, where I spent several years, went for Clinton as did another major metro area, Cedar Rapids. Iowans are considered good, down to earth, stable people with common sense. That's pretty much true as I can attest to after spending several years in the capital city, but also having experienced a hard-line cliquishness there that forbids outsiders in until proven. I never made it.

I left in the late sixties, never sorry for my decision, and have never looked back. I tell you this to qualify the fact that I am a maverick, always have been, and always will be. Mavericks don't do well in the state, although there is a basketball team there by that name who are apparently winners. But it is people like Tom Godat, a union electrician from Clinton, Iowa, that represents a state that has been a combination of Democrat and Republican in the past, but recently has been attacked by the Tea Party. It elected Joni Ernst to the Senate, something many in the state still can't believe.

But back to Mr. Godat, who has always voted for Democrats, decided to cast his vote for Donald Trump in 2016, not that he particularly thought Trump was best, but because he thought Hillary Clinton was worse. An excellent case in point to shore up the fact that Bernie Sanders should have been the Democrats nominee, not Clinton. Tom now says he is "embarrassed" over his vote. I would suspect that a lot of good people out there are also coming to the same conclusion. What I don't understand is, after viewing Trump's campaign, why wasn't Tom Godat horrified with what he saw?

There were Donald John's comments about Mexican immigrants, about women, about veterans, the disarming of Clinton's bodyguards, saying Obama was the founder of ISIS, sicking the gun nuts on Hillary, encouraging Russia to hack Clinton's campaign, more racism calling for a ban on Muslims in the U.S., saying people in New Jersey were cheering on 9/11, suggesting one of his protesters should be roughed up, referring to his daughter in a sexual way, his bizarre comments about Megyn Kelly's menstrual period, I could go on forever but you get the idea. Why didn't Tom Godat?

Washington Post reporter, Jenna Johnson, and her photographer, Michael S. Williamson, ran into "...more than 100 Iowans [who]explained why so many of them are already disappointed in the new president." It only took four days which means they encountered 25 a day. That's an impressive number of people when you consider that Iowans aren't that open and easy to get to talk to by people they don't know. And then there's Lost Nation, Iowa, where the president received 66 percent of the vote. After Trump's election, the Iowa legislature voted to dramatically scale back the collective bargaining rights of the state’s public workers, distressing my Lost Nation residents.

The Huff Post reports that "thousands" of people across the country are unhappy with their vote for Donald John, and they are tweeting it in response to the "head tweeter's" barrage of lies and misinformation. Here's an example...
“I’m starting to feel like the biggest mistake of my young 23 years of life has been voting for [Trump],” Joseph Richardson tweeted on Nov. 21.
And that's less than two weeks after the November 8, election day. Richardson said it was a bitTrump’s Cabinet picks or the 'very childish' behavior he exhibited at a press conference last week. And he does regret his vote. Sort of." Even if he did it over, Richardson says he still couldn't vote for Clinton continuing with, “I still think Trump would be the better candidate. I’d still regret it. I’d vote for him again but I’d still regret it.” Go figure. But it is this exact kind of reasoning that political pundits were clamoring over during the 2016 election.
unsettling and added, "He doesn’t like

Now here's a guy you just have to shake your head over. Not sure if he is misinformed, full of indecision or just not too bright...
"Bill said he would like Trump to act more like President Barack Obama, who he voted against twice but considers 'an extremely honorable man who served the country fantastically.'”
I could understand a statement that said, served the country "well," or "fine," or even "right." But how can you call Obama "extremely honorable" and a man "who served the country fantastically" but still have voted against him twice? Makes no sense unless there is an ulterior motive. And that's what is wrong with our political system, people voting who haven't the slightest idea what they are doing. There were some that lashed out at Donald John for not following up on his promise to investigate Clinton’s handling of sensitive emails, a decision that also puzzles some of the pundits.

Others voiced their reason to vote for Trump was his promise for change, to drain the swamp. Many of this group think the swamp is fuller than ever, but others believe Trump is following through on his promises. Even the alt-right and its white nationalists are down on Donald Trump. Remember Richard Spencer? The guy "who stood at a podium shortly after Donald Trump's election and, in a video that went viral, shouted 'Hail Trump!' while several in the crowd celebrated the victory with a Nazi salute." He's not sure now his President will be racial enough.



From what I have read, a large number of Trump voters have combined to strongly object over the fact that Donald John did not investigate, subsequently prosecute Hillary Clinton over the email issue. This is a major campaign promise that he broke, and the fact that this is one of the primary annoyances of those who voted for the man, it is yet just one more instance that reflects the amount of animosity toward Hillary Clinton. This was clear from the early 2016 campaigning right through the November election. A leading reason Democrats are in the hole they are now in.

Donald Trump's top adviser and chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, described Richard Spencer as one of the leading intellectuals of the alt-right movement. CNN reported that...
"Spencer is a white nationalist who believes that there should be a 'peaceful ethnic cleansing,' where people who are not of European descent voluntarily leave the United States."
Not that it is important since this deranged kind of thinking probably has no chance of ever being initiated in this country, but what if they don't leave voluntarily? But just maybe the thought of ethnic cleansing isn't so far out when you consider Trump has already provided the model in his latest Muslim ban of now six countries just announced in Monday's address to Congress. More from Slate on Bannon/Spencer connection...
"In August, [2016] Bannon proudly described his site as 'the platform for the alt-right,' a movement with Spencer as one of its intellectual leaders, again, according to Bannon’s own site."
It is said the Vice President is only a heartbeat away from the presidency. In the case of Steve Bannon, this is a heart beat that could change the direction of the greatest free nation of all time.


Sunday, February 26, 2017

Political Satire: Steve Bannon pursues "deconstruction" of what?


Look what we dug up
It is near impossible to find something to admire Donald trump for but Steve Bannon would. It's the fact that the engineer of this runaway train, being called the Trump administration, will never moderate on his issues. That would be commendable, except that many of his issues are insane. Take the immigration Executive Order as one example. Another is targeting Obamacare. There are more. But this is all about something Stevo calls “deconstruction of the administrative state,” and that would mean...
"...the system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president says have stymied economic growth and infringed upon U.S. sovereignty."
It was Barack Obama, a Democrat, who rescued the U.S. economy after Geo. W. Bush, another Republican, put it in the toilet.  Obama has placed it on the path to recovery and it would be in an even better position if the former President hadn't been blocked at every move he made by GOP obstructionists like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. Back to Bannon, here's another biting commentary...
"Former Ohio governor Ted Strickland (D) said Bannon is a 'dangerous person driven by an authoritarian ideology who, I fear, has more influence than anyone in the administration.
This is a mean, vicious, intolerant group. I’ve never seen anything like this in my political life.'”
Finally, for the record, When Stevo was a documentary filmmaker, he promoted former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as a conservative idol for the Tea Party wackos. Need I say more?

The real story...

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Political Satire: Trump...The clown who doesn't know he's a clown


What difference does a war make Donald
I had a friend during my younger years who acted pretty zany when all our friends got together to party. Didn't think much about it since most of us were half zwacked. The friend was displaying his normal clownish antics one evening at a fairly respectable place that expected decorum, when a new arrival to the group turned to me and said, "Geez, who invited this country bumpkin?" I suddenly realized just how stupid you can be when you have had too much to drink. Donald Trump claims to be a teetotaler, yet he still comes off as a "buffoon."

That's what Seth Myers called Trump on his "Late Night" show but he added, a buffoon "...Who Has No Friends." My friend was no Donald John, and he did have some friends, but even at the rate I put away booze at parties or outings, I could see he was definitely a buffoon. The guy was also a racist, something I learned later in our friendship, which does make him more Trumpish. When you think about it, who are the recent ruler's friends? The first name that comes to mind is Steve Bannon and that may very well be why Seth Myers said Donald Trump has no friends. Think about it.

The real story...

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...

Friday, February 17, 2017

Political Satire: White House renamed Looney Bin



The transition from a perfectly normal White House, with a normal President and his normal family, to this...
We have a President who wasn't elected by the popular vote, who is a tweet mongering lunatic and pathological liar. If that weren't enough, he brings along a family, not just to join him occasionally in the White House, but to help him run the government. Without the slightest idea of what they are doing. Of course, neither does Donald Trump as President.
 E.J. Dionne sums it up best in his Washington Post headline: "Admit it: Trump is unfit to serve"

I could stop right now, having made my case for ridding this country of a demagogue who will surely, if given the time, bring the United States down to its knees. But unfortunately there is more...
Donald John sends his son in law, Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, to the middle-east for peace negotiations because 1)he s a real estate salesman, 2) he's Ivanka's husband, 3) he's a Jew. As a comparison, a recent negotiator was former Senator and presidential candidate, John Kerry.
Donald John goes wacko when Nordstrom drops his daughter, Ivanks's, clothes line spending a couple days tweeting nonsensical tirades against the company--prompting two other retailers to do the same--mostly ignoring the job he was elected to do,. 
Donald John names Steve Bannon his chief strategist. For what, to promote an administration of white nationalists that is already lopsided with racists like Jeff Sessions, the new Attorney General, and Donald Trump himself, with his first Executive Order to ban immigrants from the country. 
And, of course, the continued cultivation of his twin pathological liar and all around ringmaster of the White House lunatics, Kellyanne Conway. If there is anyone in the lineup of Trump flunkeys that should be kept out of the public eye and cutting the White House lawn, it is KC. 
In closing, Dionne's concerns over Trump's loyalties bother me most and should matter to the wingnuts that elected him. I'm thinking, as we can hold someone accountable legally for libel, there should be a way to make Trump supporters accountable for what this maniac is doing to our country.

The real story...

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Political Satire: Trump Executive Order making Steve Bannon Presdent


Trump's latest Executive Order
Donald Trump was secretly constructing a new Executive Order when Kellyanne Conway walked into the Oval Office. She immediately asked what he was working on since Donald John looked so insidious. He told her he was afraid he might have to resign since everyone was dropping Ivanks's clothes line and there was no way he would let this country's business interfere with his business. Besides, he planned to come out with a new line of golf balls and his business advisers were telling him 'Dump the presidency." I'm recommending Steve Bannon for the job.

"Whaddaya mean, Bannon, Mike Pence is Vice President."

"That's what this Executive Order is for but don't tell Mikey or Stevo yet."

"This is bullshit, why can't I be President?" KC retorted.

"You're a woman, to begin with, and besides, no one likes you. You have to have charisma like me."

It was right then that Melania walked in. "Here's the plan to trim the White House in gold. Mitch McConnell loves it and says he'll get the budget of $100 million approved."

Donald John looked at everyone, "Maybe I'll hang around another two years; probably won't make it past the midterms anyway."

The real story...


Political Satire: 3 Musketeers replace KKK


Yiannopoulos, Spencer and Bannon
Not that we were ever free of the Ku Klux Klan, but now we have a new version of white supremacy going by the initials YSB which stands for Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard Spencer and Steve Bannon. You know who Bannon is but the other two are less well known but just as articulate. And I guess I just don't get it because I have never understood why a white Caucasian thinks the color of their skin makes them a better human being than another person of color, particularly blacks. I read the book, "Race and Reason" over 50 years ago, convinced these people were fruitcakes then.

According to the Additive Color Theory, white is a color and black is the absence of color, scientifically speaking. That could play several ways to mean what you want, but any way you cut it, it's laughable. Look at it this way...for some reason the sun gets hung up on earth and there is no darkness for six months. All us superior whites get sun tans that make us look almost black. All the blacks out in the sun non-stop are bleached out to mulatto. Yiannopoulos, Spencer and Bannon look at each other and are horrified that no one can tell the difference anymore. Peace.

The real story...

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Political Satire: Bedbugs responsible for Kellyanne Conway wackiness


Kellyanne's personal bed bug
Kellyanne Conway was lying on the exam table in the emergency room of Bethesda Naval hospital wearing only one of those gowns that open down the back, or front, or whatever. The bright florescent light glaring overhead made her squint, shading her eyes momentarily with her hand. Two doctors were discussing the situation over in the corner but she couldn't really hear what they were saying. One looked at her periodically and she didn't like the scowl on his face. Finally, the other doc said out loud, "It can't be," and KC came raring up.

"It can't be what?" and the two doctors hurriedly left the room calling for constraints.

Now she didn't know what to do. There was something wrong, no doubt, when Donald John had recommended that she needed medical help. Her family and staff agreed. Even Steve Bannon thought her behavior was beyond unusual; on a scale of one to ten, right now she was an eleven. It all stemmed from an itching in her brain that prompted her to say ridiculous things, even more ridiculous than she normally did. Like recently she made the statement that Donald Trump had decided to enter the priesthood and wanted KC to join him as a nun. This was on CNN, labeled alternative news.

It was right after that crawly, itchy feeling in her head. She likened it to liberals walking in her brain and said it wasn't a sure thing but thought it was Bernie Sanders. And then on another occasion, she walked into the briefing room, right up to the podium, and gave the press her daily briefing. Except, the press wasn't there, only a janitor cleaning who clapped loudly. It didn't go unnoticed since the security cameras were on and the secret service was on the floor laughing. Then she was jerked back to reality when the two docs walked back into her room snickering at each other.

"Ms. Conway, I don't exactly know how to tell you this but you have a cute little nest of bedbugs burrowing close to your brain. Right at the base of your skull located between your eyes," one of them said.

At that moment, KC's eyes crossed and she started screaming. "How the hell did they get in there?"

"Probably through your mouth. Is it open a lot?"

The real story...



Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Political Satire: Steve Bannon becomes President by Executive Order


Steve Bannonn
Donald Trump was sitting in the Oval Office looking at reruns of "The Apprentice" reality show when his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, walked in with papers in his hand. "I have something here that needs your signature oh great one."

"Don't bother me now, Stevo, can't you see I am tied up with something of grave importance to the future of this great country?"

"I realize the gravity of your most presidential effort, our sultan, but this too is something that will benefit our country, beyond what you might ever imagine."

"Okay, Stevo, if you insist, but just wait for this scene, here it comes, 'Your're fired,'" God, can't get enough of it. Put the paper down here (which he signs still looking at his image on TV). There, it's signed." Steve Bannon leaves the Oval Office with a huge grin on his face.

The Washington Post puts out an extra edition the next morning:
Donald Trump signs Executive Order making Steve Bannon President of the United States. No one has seen Donald John since, but three men dressed in white robes with hoods were seen leaving the White House late last evening in a pickup truck with Louisiana plates and something wrapped in a Confederate flag. No comment from the Oval Office.
Read more... 

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

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