Trump first 9 months better than Obama Presidency? Bullshit!

The insecurity of the Oval Office

Sarah Sanders, clueless mouthpiece of the Oval Office lunatic, made the statement in last Wednesday's press briefing that Donald Trump's first nine months had out performed Barack Obama's entire presidency. The accomplishments she pointed to were mostly ludicrous with the usual distortion of the truth. Like 1.7 million jobs added in that period when the latest data reveals only 1.33 million, projecting that 2017 will end short of prior years. The insecurity of this man is so obvious by always comparing with Obama and taking credit for his accomplishments. Pathetic!

The distortion of a sick presidency by Sarah Sanders 

Republicans play hide and seek with Trump 

More of Sanders' drivel

Jeff Flake says Trump deserves a bipartisan assault

How could Adam Lanza's mother not have recognized his abnormalities?

Adam Lanza pic should be enough

Adam Lanza did not just snap in the killing of 20 young children in the 2012 Sandy Hook School gun massacre. He planned it for a year while fascinated with past shootings, having "many similar characteristics and behaviors with other active shooters." He was attracted to young children implying pedophilia, he "was obsessed with firearms, death and mass shootings," and his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he killed, was concerned about a month before the shootings when he became a shut-in, covering his room windows with black plastic. Good God, what does it take?



We should have known about Newtown shooter...

Online friend experienced Lanza's odd habits...

FBI released documents paint picture of disturbing individual...

Republicans continue to take away major consumer rights

Bank corporate greed

Republicans, led by a clueless and maniacal oval office, is determined to eliminate every right to justice the American consumer has. The latest is the Senate killing their right to band together to sue their banks. A class-action suit like this is the only way consumers have of protecting their rights, with banks too powerful for the individual to go up against, and much too costly. This is just another example of the GOP favoring the corporate sector over the average American. I wonder now about those Trump supporters who are middle class and under. Are you blind or just dumb?


Consumers no longer can sue banks...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on why you should be upset...

Congress let's consumers down-What's new?...

Case for low IQ: Donald Trump infantile sparring with Myeshia Johnson

Myeshia Johnson mourns husband

Not only is Trump dumber than rocks, confirmed by many of his college professors, but he also displayed his sophomoric side in the back and forth bickering with Sgt. La David Johnson's wife, Myeshia Johnson over whether he knew her husband's name. Johnson is one of the four killed in Niger. She commented how Trump stumbled to recall the name, and that rightfully made her sad. Made worse when the Oval Office lunatic claims he has the best memory in the world. Johnson also completely confirms the statement of Florida Congress woman Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. And a clueless Congress just sits.

Ammunition for thought: Las Vegas change things?

What is it about the citizenry of the U.S. that can overlook a gun massacre like the one in Las Vegas and not come rushing to the steps of the Capitol to demand that a clueless Congress do something about it? Screw the NRA! It's a terrible thing to say but maybe these staunch gun nuts should experience a similar event involving them and their families. Then they would see the horror of what they have protected over the years. From Sandy Hook to Las Vegas, none of these gun violence tragedies has done anything to significantly change the public's mind about controlling guns.

Las Vegas concert massacre...

Cub Scout kicked out of den for advocating gun control...

Gun control advocate Amy Schumer uses gun in new film...

Arizona's Sen. Jeff Flake leaving Senate

Jeff Flake-What the GOP says

I have never thought Jeff Flake contributed to the U.S. Senate, nor to politics at all, even in the House. But today I did some solid research and uncovered this. In 2006, three out of five mayors in his home district opposed his re-election because, according to Flake, he did not "bring pork barrel spending" to the mayors' cities. In his swan song (leaving end of this term) he lambasted Trump's reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior, joining Tennessee's Bob Corker who is also leaving the senate. However, he did not once use Trump's name.

SEE: Arizona's Jeff Flake leaving Congress...

SEE: Trump's critique of Trump, impeaching him for divisiveness,moral bankruptcy, and lack of leadership...

SEE: Corker Trump at each others throats...

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.

"TRUMP LIED" James Comey denounces and indicts Donald Trump

James Comey

James Comey exclaims you can't trust Donald Trump to tell the truth. I watched his testimony and thought Comey looked, well...Presidential. The man was ultimately prepared--don't think he ever had to look at notes--and he handled himself extremely well as the professional he is. He seemed to have the respect of most of this bi-partisan Senate panel, except for Arizona's John McCain who veered off on inane questions re. Hillary Clinton's emails. The outset of the hearing is the fact that it will take the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, to get to the bottom of all this.

Although Comey would not say if he felt Trump had obstructed justice, he did have the following to say...

“I know I was fired because something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation was putting pressure on [Trump],’’ Comey said.

James Comey is a former federal prosecutor and knows the way witnesses react to save their butts in statements and testimony and said...

"...that he took detailed notes of his private talks with the president — a departure from his practice with Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama. Comey said he did so because he was 'honestly concerned’ that the president might lie about what had been said in their meeting. He said the two spoke in private a total of nine times before Comey was fired, he said."

Folks, this is the President of the United States that Comey is talking about lying. What does this tell the other countries of the world? If a top U.S. government official thinks Donald Trump is a liar, what might Angela Merkel of Germany think of her dealings with Trump? Or the other nations out there. To me, it sounded like Comey made it clear that, although Trump prefaced his comments to the FBI Director with "I hope," Comey took it as pressure to do what was asked of him. This from the President's comments, "I expect loyalty, I need loyalty."

For once, or, at least, not yet. Donald Trump has not used Twitter to vent his unbalanced reactions. He let his attorney do it and the following is interesting...

"The President likewise never pressured Mr. Comey. The President also never told Mr. Comey, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty' in form or substance."

Here's the "incoherent" questioning of Comey by Arizona's Republican Senator, John McCain:

The interesting part comes from the fact that James Comey has said he fully welcomes any tapes that might have been recorded of the conversations between the two men, and this isn't likely unless he expects them to prove him right. Trump also says he welcomes the tapes, but then this con man is known for his bluffs to get what he wants. Comey, on the other hand, has proven himself a reputable member of government service who tells it like it is. So, what's missing in all this? As James Comey said in his testimony several times, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller must now put all the pieces together. And James Comey has no doubt that he can get the job done.

How long will the Trump meltdown continue, before...

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Trump

Here's the latest headline from the Washington Post: "Trump is out of control." It is an opinion written by respected journalist, Eugene Robinson, which, in and of itself, almost worries me more than the content of his words. Someone of his stature has come to the conclusion that the leader of the free world has gone berserk. And he sits in the Oval Office where he could bring about a series of disasters that could...well...not something we want for our children. Here's Robinson's opening paragraph...

"The statements President Trump issued on Twitter in recent days lead to a chilling conclusion: The man is out of control."

Again, it's the Twitter thing this narcissistic lunatic has used repeatedly to ply his need to receive the approval from a group of double-digit followers that, with all this maniac's recent bizarre activity, must have stuck their heads in the sand. It is purely ridiculous to me that anyone, regardless of their intelligence, can't see that this man is moving this country to the point of collapse. Just like George W. Bush did with his financial crisis of 2008. In the WP article, Robinson documents many of Trump's outlandish tweets that is worth the read.

Following the terrorist attack on the London Bridge, London's Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There's no reason to be alarmed." To illustrate Donald Trump's stupidity when it comes to diplomacy, the dunce tweeted this in retaliation: "At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!" He took Khan's last sentence completely out of context, and proceeded to use it to promote himself and his U.S. travel ban. 

The apparent new White House spokesperson, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (supposedly Sean Spicer has been dispensed to cutting the White House lawn) said when asked if the president’s tweets were being vetted by lawyers or aides...

“Social media for the president is extremely important,” Sanders said. “It gives him the ability to speak directly to the people without the bias of the media filtering those types of communication.”

Meaning precisely what WP opinion writer Eugene Robinson stated, "Trump is out of control."

White House advisers were full of inane comments justifying Trump statements and Tweets like they simply aren't listening to what their boss is saying. Better yet, they're just afraid to open their mouth in rebuttal. Christopher Ruddy, a close associate of Trump and president of Newsmax Media, a conservative news organization, said...

"He’s rightly frustrated, and he isn’t always checking with his lawyers about each tweet. But he’s getting his message out there. He is relying on himself to be the messenger.”

This just proves how ludicrous the conservative media can be when referring to another conservative.

Donald Trump's ratings are tanking amid a group of White House staffers who have actually turned on him, but which are offset by party leadership and senior advisers in the West Wing, where many remain supportive of Trump’s combative posture, but are unable or unwilling to usher him toward a less incendiary approach. Interpreted, that means those that might be able to do something about Trump's imbecility have decided it is in the best interest of the country to allow a maniac to proceed, almost without any restrictions. Until what...total calamity?

Trump even worse than Nixon says John Dean

Yeah...Sure!

Watergate is the political conspiracy scandal against which all others are measured, claims John Dean, who served as President Richard Nixon's White House attorney in the 1970s. In the beginning Dean worked to protect Nixon, but then, "...flipped and helped sink Nixon by revealing the president’s involvement in the cover-up." The Los Angeles Times reports...

"As part of a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and served four months in a federal safe house. He was barred from practicing law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, moved to his wife’s home state of California and made his livelihood as an investment banker and regular on the lecture circuit."

John Dean is back, but this time his interest is in Donald Trump, and as the Times put it...

"He hasn’t been in this great a demand since his call for President George W. Bush’s impeachment — for condoning torture, among other perceived abuses of power — and, before that, as a ringside commentator during the Clinton-era Monica Lewinsky scandal."

Dean states something that is painfully obvious to the rest of the world now, the fact that Richard Nixon was better prepared to serve as President than is Donald Trump. This, of course, is laughable at this point, but Nixon's former attorney adds, although they both had an authoritarian persona, Trump is by far the most narcissistic and transparent. As an example of the latter...

"Unlike Nixon, 'Trump is surprisingly candid about himself,' Dean said. The president’s admission that he fired FBI Director James B. Comey to relieve the pressure of his investigation into Russia and the 2016 election was, to Dean’s mind, 'basically confessing obstruction of justice.'”

A Politico poll taken at the end of May shows that, "Forty-three percent of voters want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings...up from 38 percent last week." That's a significant increase, five percentage points in just seven days. The 46% who earlier were against impeachment has dropped to 45%, no big deal, unless the slide continues. Along with all this Trump's approval rating hit a new low, "...46 percent of voters approved of Trump’s job performance, and 47 percent disapproved. Much of this comes from the fact that Americans are concerned over the GOP health care bill.

If Congress is not ready to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, there are a growing number of cities and towns around the U.S. putting pressure on Congress for that reason. Politico reports...

"Brookline, Mass., became the 10th and latest local government Thursday to pass a resolution calling for impeachment, a step designed to add pressure on the state’s congressmen to launch a formal investigation that could ultimately lead to the president’s removal from office."

Already on the move are Cambridge, Amherst, Pelham and Leverett. And then there's the liberal playground of California where, "The Los Angeles city council in early May overwhelmingly passed a measure asking for impeachment proceedings to begin. Richmond, Alameda and Berkeley did the same." Not to be outdone, Chicago is drafting an ordnance for impeachment. This isn't the first time for this action; it also happened in 2006 when...

"...a group of towns in Vermont, and later the state’s Senate, passed resolutions calling for George W. Bush’s impeachment, saying he misled the country before going to war in Iraq."

According to another Politico poll, 43% of Americans want Donald Trump impeached regardless of whether or not he has committed acts of high crimes or misdemeanors, required by the Constitution. If close to half the country wants this man out of the Oval Office, based entirely on the fact that his behavior as President has been unfit for that office, good God!...what more does it take. The answer to that is a Congress that finally realizes it must do the right thing and put the good of the country ahead of the good of the Republican Party. Will that ever happen?

Bigots and racists can't fault Kathy Griffin

How can the radical right take offense at Kathy Griffin's severed head picture, considering the way Ted Nugent unleashed his numerous hateful comments against former President Barack Obama? Griffin was punished for what she did. Nugent became the White House guest of Donald Trump. Nugent is also a gun nut who, "...went on a rant onstage during a concert and said vile things about both Obama and Clinton, using expletives to refer to both. This lowlife said at a NRA convention in 2012, “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.”

Back in October of 2012, a North Carolina Tea Party racist hung President Obama in effigy, and took his presentation on a tour around the country, ending up in New York city. I conversed by email with VR Phipps, who was a Command member of the Tea Party from Faison, NC, who denied everything he had done. Including even being a Tea Party member. North Carolina also has concentrations of active hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, including Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Racist Skinhead, Neo-Confederate, Black Separatist, Anti-LGBT and Anti-Muslim.

But Griffin had this comment re. the Donald Trump bloody head photo...

"...the photo was intended to be in protest of Trump’s sexist words to journalist Megyn Kelly during a 2016 Republican presidential debate, in which he said the former Fox News host had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” when she asked him about his past comments regarding women."

That's not a photo, but it's about as graphic as it gets in terms of text illustration. In Peoplepolitics, Alec Baldwin, who has made a recent career of lampooning Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live is in full support of Kathy Griffin...

“Kathy… f— them,f___them. F— them all,” Baldwin, 59, wrote. “No one believes you meant to threaten Trump. Trump is such a senile idiot, all he has is Twitter fights.”
“Ignore him,” Baldwin continued. “Like the leaders of all the other countries in the world. Ignore him.”

AMEN!

Kathy Griffin is now taking a great amount of flak from Donald Trump and his family, and she says they are trying to ruin her career...

"As a result of the first family bullying her, she has been vilified, getting death threats, fired from multiple jobs and had multiple events canceled," Lisa Bloom, her attorney, said.

Okay, let's get down to the nitty gritty of this whole fiasco. Kathy Griffin posed with a bloody, severed head of Donald Trump, and everyone, including the Secret service goes ballistic, somehow assuming a threat against DT's life. Ridiculous, of course. But a Tea Party nut can hang Barack Obama in effigy while he is still in the Oval Office, parade this around the country including New York city, hardly drawing major attention. Ted Nugent denigrates both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and is rewarded with an invitation to the Oval Office by Donald Trump.

Kathy Griffin commented, "This is a woman thing," as is much of what Donald Trump's past problems have been. No one will forget his most famous comment about what a "star" could do to women...

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

The upside to this whole thing is that Kathy Griffin has promised not to be intimidated by all this; rather, that she will continue to use Trump as fodder for her comedic material. "I'm going to make fun of him more now," she said.

Right on, Kathy!

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. 

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.

Bigotry, racism and hate in Donald Trump's presidency

Mark Potok, Editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, said in the Spring 2017 issue...

"The campaign language of the man who would become president sparks hate violence, bullying, before and after the election."

He was, of course, talking about Donald Trump who had adverse effects on the lowlife of our country even back in 2015. The story goes, two guys left a Red Sox ballgame late one night and ran across a homeless Mexican immigrant sleeping outside a commuter rail station. They proceeded to beat him with a metal pipe, punched him repeatedly, urinated on him and called him a “wetback." Elated with what they had done, Guillermo Rodriguez was left with cracked ribs and broken fingers plus other injuries. Arrested just a short time later,  one of them, 38-year-old Scott Leader said...

“Donald Trump was right. All these illegals need to be deported.”

In another incident in Portland, Oregon, a man stabbed three people when two of them attempted to stop a man who was ranting and raving and shouting anti-Muslim insults at two young women. It was n a light-rail train where the attacker stabbed and killed the two men and seriously injured another. There were witnesses and police were able to capture 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian, of north Portland. The Southern Poverty Law Center had Christian in their records that indicated he held racist, white supremacist and extremist beliefs. Trump/Bannon related? Who knows.

It is noteworthy that Donald trump had kicked off his presidential campaign just two months prior to the attack, above, on a homeless Mexican man, with a speech describing Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers. In his article Mark Potok takes us from the attack on the Mexican homeless man through Trump's inauguration. One of the first things he did was call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the country. He attacked a Muslim Gold Star family, insinuating that Khizr Khan, whose son died in Iraq, was a terrorist sympathizer.

Here's more from Potok's SPLC article...

"He had retweeted utterly bogus claims that black people were responsible for 80% of the murders of whites. He had cozied up to some of the country’s hardest line gay-bashers. He had retweeted anti-Semitic memes and called many immigrants “not well.” He had attacked a debate moderator by insinuating that her tough questions were the result of her menstrual cycle. And his earlier boasts about grabbing women by the genitals had been revealed."

Wow! We had just elected a real gent, huh? But there's much more...

"After a Black Lives Matter activist was beaten at a Trump rally in Birmingham, Ala., he told Fox News that “maybe he should have been roughed up. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he urged supporters to 'knock the crap' out of protesters, adding, 'I promise you, I will pay your legal fees.' When a backer at a Fayetteville, N.C., rally sucker-punched a black protester being led away by police — an act described by the local sheriff as 'a cowardly, unprovoked attack' — Trump told two national news outlets that he was looking into paying the man’s legal fees."

Mark Potok has done a great job of documenting Donald Trump's bigotry, racism and hate ranting. But Donald Trump throughout it all remains oblivious to how terrible what he is doing and saying, and even makes this unbelievable statement following the beating of Guillermo Rodriguez. His reaction was, "While the attack was 'a shame,' Trump’s main conclusion was that 'people who are following me are very passionate.'" It is impossible to figure out what kind of blood runs in the veins of this lunatic or just how his brain synapses operate...or don't.

And finally...

"In the immediate aftermath of the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) noticed a dramatic jump in hate violence and incidents of harassment and intimidation around the country. At the same time, a wave of incidents of bullying and other kinds of harassment washed over the nation’s K-12 schools. The SPLC decided to make an effort to document all of this in real time."

Thanks to the Southern Poverty Law Center for the great material and I suggest you visit their site and make a donation: Southern Poverty Law Center 

Looking past Trump...How do we dispense with Pence?

The Koch Bros. were the kingpins behind the Tea Party. Mike Pence is and always has been one of its staunchest supporters. Do we want Charles Koch controlling the Oval Office? Backing up, Donald Trump is either at the point of implosion, or, any day now he will make the most awesome and dangerous mistake of his presidency and the numb nuts in Congress will finally do their job and impeach him. In either case, we end up with Mike Pence and, as you can see from the above, that could be even worse. But maybe not as bad as Paul Ryan?

So, what do we do once we are saddled with another lunatic in the Oval Office, one, by the way who is afraid to be in a room alone with a woman other than his wife.? To start with, it seems to me that the latter is an indication of some form of instability, one that does not complement the job of President. But there is much more starting with Pence's claim that...

"...he did not know of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s work on behalf of foreign governments until he learned of them in media reports."

Rep. Elijah Cummings reaction, “Either he's not telling the truth, or he was running a sloppy shop.” Now this sounds like he is mirroring Donald Trump. Like President, like Vice President? Geeez, you would think that these dufuses would at least try to come up with something original. Cummings even sent a letter to Pence as the President of Trump's transition team last November regarding Flynn’s ties to the Turkish government. The Representative's office received a receipt for the latter. Thus, the statement that Pence is either not telling the truth, or running a sloppy shop.

Cummings marveled over the fact that when you pass along information like this about someone Trump has nominated, and eventually took the office of National Security Adviser, the number one guy with America's secrets, and who was also connected to a foreign government, hundreds of red flags should go up. Thy did and Flynn was fired. Through all this Pence stood by his earlier statement-sound like someone else in the White House? It was, perhaps, Karl Rove that perfected the use of dirty politics, including lying, under George W. Bush and the GOP has just improved it.

The Washington Post expands on the Flynn allegations of lying or just dumbing down, with Pence's explanation of the James Comey firing. His version is that his boss did it on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general adding...

“There is no evidence of collusion between our campaign and any Russian officials. That's not what — let me be clear with you — that was not what this is about. That's not what this is about.”

Just one day later, Trump told "NBC News's Lester Holt that he had already decided to fire Comey and would have done it regardless of the DOJ's recommendation." WP asserts...

"Pence could argue that Trump technically did accept the recommendations of the Justice Department. But, again, that would be highly misleading, based on Trump's own comments that he had already made up his mind."

The long and the short of Mike Pence's statements to defend the Trump administration indicate a combination of the fact that he will say anything to protect the administration, and/or, he is just so far out of touch with Trump and his advisers, he really doesn't know what's going on. In either case, if Pence had to assume the presidency in an emergency, it could be even worse than it is now. So back to my headline, "How do we dispense with Pence?"

Coming up in future posts...Your comments are welcome!

The slime (Koch) Bros.are at it again

Koch Bros. slogan

I watched a recent video of Charles Koch playing the "philanthropic entrepreneur" who claims to do what he does for the good of America. But he and his brother, David, do what they do entirely for the sake of Koch Industries' bottom line. They are pouring more money into the 2018 election and particularly to, "...drive Trump's tax plan through Congress." USA Today reports that James Davis, a top official in Koch's Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, says, "The group plans to throw 'the full weight of the network' behind the campaign with the goal of passing a tax overhaul this year."

Translated, that means this group will shore up every Republican that is beholden to this family already, having done their bidding since put there by the Kochs, to make sure they are reelected in the midterms. It takes money, and they have it readily to spend to make sure they get what they want, and will do just about anything to get the job done. Back in 1989, "Investigators told a special Senate committee that a Wichita, Kan., company (Koch Industries) has been stealing oil from Indian lands for at least the last three years." Total value was $31.1 million. Just one example.

This is only one of several devious and illegal shams these brothers have pulled on the American public. If you are really interested in their illicit activities, read Sons of Wichita by Daniel Schulman. I couldn't put it down once I started. It reveals a trail of congressional investigations, and "Under the nearly five-decade reign of CEO Charles Koch, the company has paid out record civil and criminal environmental penalties," according to Rolling Stone. And here's one of the worst...

"...in 1999, a jury handed down to Koch's pipeline company what was then the largest wrongful-death judgment of its type in U.S. history, resulting from the explosion of a defective pipeline that incinerated a pair of Texas teenagers."

Yet following an incident such as this, Charles Koch will go on TV with his syrupy shit professing he can't imagine why the American public could think anything but the fact that the Koch brothers are just magnificent benefactors to all. Either this man is too stupid to realize what he does is wrong, or else he doesn't give a damn. Probably a combination of both. The Kochtopus is one of the most influential of the conservative gangs with grassroots minions in 36 states and backup operations in data processing. There are 550 ultra-wealthy donors that finance the goings on.

USA Today says they "...plan to spend $300 million to $400 million on policy and political campaigns ahead of the 2018 elections." Progressives say, we have to counter that with people who will vote for the good of the country, not for billionaires like the Koch brothers. There are only three companies that rank among the top 30 polluters of America's air, water and climate: ExxonMobil, American Electric Power and Koch Industries. Its subsidiary, Georgia Pacific alone, dumps more pollutants into the nation's waterways than General Electric and International Paper combined.

Although the Kochs deny direct funding of the tea Party, they, especially Charles, are known to be the kingpins behind the movement. Rolling Stone says it this way...

"The Koch family's lucrative blend of pollution, speculation, law-bending and self-righteousness stretches back to the early 20th century, when Charles' father first entered the oil business."

When Charles Koch took over from his father, the business flourished, because he didn't hesitate to bend or even break the law to make a buck. It was cheaper to let the Texas pipeline go without maintenance, explode and horrendously kill two teenagers then pay a court charged fine of $296 million. The Kochs appealed and later settled out of court. The dirty dealings of Charles Koch are well documented in Daniel Schulman's book, Sons of Wichita, and the Rolling Stones article, above. It will take a massive Progressive movement in 2018 to stop the Kochs and all conservatives. 

Why Memorial Day?

Saigon evacuation

Officially, Memorial Day is the day we remember all those members of the active armed services that died in a war. That would be many...

World War One-17 million
World War Two-416,800
Korean War-36,914
Vietnam War-58,220

World War One was billed as the war to end all wars. It didn't. It seems more like it set the mold for future generations to build from. Folks, this was when they fought face to face in the trenches and often, the method of killing the enemy was with a bayonet. Now that is up close. My father was in that war and he brought home a German rifle, bayonet, and two German helmets, one an enlisted man, the other an officer. He never told me exactly how he acquired them. This war started from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, then spread around the world.

World War Two was started by a dictator, Adolph Hitler, lasted for six years, and ended with the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese. As Wikipedia put it, "It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries in a state of 'total war.'" Japan surrendered and today is one of our closest allies. Before Hitler there was Benito Mussolini, then there was Stalin. Dictators have ruled from the beginning of time and will continue to as long as power is concentrated and there are people who succumb to deceptive promises.

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of WWII, when it split into two regions, each with separate governments and claiming to be the legitimate government of all of Korea. The war had its ups and downs for both sides until an armistice was signed July 27,1953, creating the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea. There were several leaders in North Korea following the war but in 1994, Kim Jong-il took control and ruled until his psych son, Kim Jong-un took over. Here's how he runs his regime...

“Kim Jong-Un has picked up where his father and grandfather left off, by overseeing a system of public executions, extensive political prison camps, and brutal forced labor,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Unfortunately, there is no Memorial Day for these deaths and others like them...

The Vietnam War was fought against America as the aggressor, and produced, perhaps, some of the worst horror stories of any before it. No one will forget that picture (above) of people trying to get on one of the last helicopter evacuating Saigon, which transported more than 1,000 Americans and more than 5,000 Vietnamese out of the city. I had a close friend, until his death, who related to me his chilling experience. He and other American soldiers were attacked by hooded Vietnamese with knives; he shot and killed two. When he removed the hoods, one was a young girl.

As they say, war is hell but currently we are stuck with a "potential" situation that won't go away. No. Korea's present leader, Kim Jong-Un, persists in rattling his swords of war and dares the United States to call his bluff. President Obama seemed close to some meaningful negotiations in March of 2016, but it all tanked when the U.S. demanded No. Korea's nuclear weapons be a part of the talks. And Kim Jong Un just tested a missile capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead. But now Donald Trump has decided to shoot down a simulated North Korean ICBM intercontinental-range missile.

I am using Memorial Day here to point out the unneeded wars that have been fought and to illustrate the fact that we just might be headed back into another one with a dictator on one side, and our very
own oligarch on the other. Will it ever end? I will leave you with a list of fatalities from all U.S. Wars and Conflicts...

American Revolution (1775-1783)                4,435 War of 1812 (1812-1815)                              2,260 Mexican War (1846-1848)                          13,283 Civil War (1861-1865)                               620,000 Spanish-American War (1898-1902)               385 World War I (1917-1918)                           116,516 World War II (1941-1945)                         405,399 Korean War (1950-1953)                            36,574 Vietnam War (1964-1975)                          58,220 Gulf War (1990-1991)                                      383 Afghanistan War (2001-present)                   2,381 Iraq War (2003-2012)                                   4,500 Happy Memorial Day!

Trump tells poor to go screw themselves

Mike Mulvaney

The White House budget was released last Tuesday and just as Bernie Sanders predicted, Donald Trump threw the poor and needy under the train, telling them to get a job now or lose all their benefits. That includes food stamps, tax credits and welfare payments, and this will be accomplished by reducing spending on these programs by $274 billion over a decade. Here's what Mike Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said to this group...

“If you are on food stamps and you are able bodied, we need you to go to work.”

Okay, there are some deadbeats out there but doesn't this mindless bureaucrat think that most of these unemployed people are already desperately looking for a job and there just might be some reason they aren't connecting. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. There are 7.1 million persons unemployed, more when you consider those no more looking. Yes, Donald Trump inherited an economy on its way up from near disaster caused by George W. Bush.

Instead of Mulvaney showing these unemployed folk the street if they don't find a job, his maniac boss should get busy with some of the jobs programs he promised. Instead, his budget proposes a 40% cut in job training programs. And then Mulvaney said,  “There is a dignity to work, and there’s a necessity to work to help the country succeed.” Can you believe this? Cut job training, then talk about helping the out-of-work. This is all insane and if we don't get rid of the source of all this chaos soon, it could be too late.

Later Mulvaney said, “We believe in the social safety net. We absolutely do. What we've done is not to try and remove the safety net for folks who need it, but to try and figure out if there’s folks who don't need it that need to be back in the workforce." The keyword here is "try," which provides great latitude in what they really end up having to do.

His staff, Ann Coulter and Twitter's Evan Williams all turning on Trump

The Trump-Coulter team

To begin with, here's what a senior administration official who also worked on Trump’s campaign said...

"Every day he looks more and more like a complete moron.”

Another person in the administration commented...

“If Donald Trump gets impeached, he will have one person to blame: Donald Trump.”

It would seem that even Donald Trump's top advisers believe that their idiotic leader's actions portend impeachment. The Daily Beast reports that T-rump had "trash talked" James Comey to Russian government officials. In this meeting "Trump reportedly promised the Kremlin more flexibility in their relationship, with 'crazy' Comey out of the picture." To Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, the Oval Office imbecile remarked, "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job.” Putin must be going into spasms about now.

Everything that comes down seems to be leaked, some saying it comes from within the administration with the hope that it could stop Trump's zany acts. Since we know that will never happen, one just might assume that many of these leaks are meant to point out the sheer desperation of a team whose morale is in the toilet. It's a cry for help with a clueless Congress completely ignoring the fact that Donald Trump is literally destroying our country. And the two most responsible are Senate leader, Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.

But perhaps one of the biggest blows to the Trump administration is the revelation of Ann Coulter that "...she’s ready to bail on President Donald Trump over his lack of delivery on promises." But that's not all, she does address his outright lunacy with the comment that he is “comically improbable" in the Oval Office. Her downfall is when she blames Congress for "...Trump’s perceived lack of success so far in his presidency." At first I thought she was talking about Barack Obama but obviously Coulter is hallucinating again.

I have a great deal of respect for Ann Coulter because of how she has risen as a top conservative pundit in a man's world. I don't agree with anything she says and believe much, if not all, of her ideology is dangerous. But I will defend her to the end of the earth to be able to say it. Here's one of her quotes: "I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am." Maybe that is the key to her success. Another example is the fact that she claims Donald Trump's quote, “immigrants are rapists,” was stolen from her.

Here is another example of Coulter quotes...

“We need to execute people like John Walker [Lindh] in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors,”

 Coulter later clarified what she meant;

“When I said we should ‘execute’ John Walker Lindh, I mis-spoke. What I meant to say was ‘We should burn John Walker Lindh alive and televise it on prime-time network TV’. My apologies for any misunderstanding that might have occurred.”

Now, Coulter washing her hands of Donald Trump is a hard hit, but perhaps what Twitter's President, Evan Williams said would dig even deeper into T-rump's psyche. Williams remarked that one of the goals of Twitter is for people to speak freely and exchange information and ideas. He added though, “If it’s true that he [Donald Trump] wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry,” Whoa, now, you are talking about the great communicator's favorite mode of staying in touch with all the blithering idiots who voted for him.

Apparently his tweeting has toppled since he learned that "... a special prosecutor would investigate his campaign for possible ties to Russia..." And it was back in March that he commented to Tucker Carlson of Fox News...

“I have my own form of media. There's been nobody in history that got more dishonest media than I've gotten. … Twitter is a wonderful thing for me because I can get the word out.”

A Twitter spokeswoman felt the need to qualify Evan Williams' comment...

“Twitter provides a platform for people to engage with and discuss issues of importance, and facilitates a more open exchange of information. We continue to see more leaders, around the world, take to Twitter to communicate with their constituents and engage in a conversation.”

Twitter will never be the same again.

Will Trump impeachment woes turn out Progressives in 2018?

Daniel Coats-Michael Rogers

In yesterday's post, I posed the idea that the Republican Congress could become so worried over Donald Trump's recent antics between the Russian relationship, Michael Flynn's problems, and what James Comey might say to Congress, they would vote for impeachment. But wait, that's not all. The dumbest of all dufuses has done it again. T-rump asked Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, two of the top intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence. Unbelievable.

The Washington Post commented...

"Trump’s effort to use the director of national intelligence and the NSA director to dispute Comey’s statement and to say there was no evidence of collusion echoes President Richard Nixon’s 'unsuccessful efforts to use the CIA to shut down the FBI’s investigation of the Watergate break-in on national security grounds,' said Jeffrey H. Smith, a former general counsel at the CIA. Smith called Trump’s actions 'an appalling abuse of power.'"

So now we have added another blunder by the master blunderer, and more fire in the furnace of growing disillusionment with Donald Trump with increasing worry for those GOP seats across the country that could go left in 2018. Marc Rotterman, a longtime Republican consultant in North Carolina, feels Trump is not fulfilling his 2016 campaign promises, and finds it hard to justify this to Trump supporters in his state. Rotterman said...

“...there still could be a course correction but that if Trump and Republicans don’t make good on their promises, they risk losing support — particularly from the blue-collar voters who helped propel Trump to victory last fall. They’re counting on him,”

As a life-long liberal, I remember when the blue-collar worker was solidly in the Democrats' camp. I do not know what happened to change their minds so radically that they would vote for someone like Donald Trump; perhaps their lack of education, which is borne out by some of the comments made by the man's supporters. And here is the best example of Trump supporter stupidity I have ever seen. WATCH THE VIDEO. It is so obvious in this video that the people interviewed, T-rump's loyal supporters, belong to the same moron club as does the blockhead they elected.

So, how is this affecting the trenches, those Republican strongholds in local, state, and national offices nationwide that were carefully expanded over the years while DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had her head up her...well, you know. Here's an assessment of the current situation from Jennifer Horn, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party...

“We cannot sustain this level of chaos from the White House and expect it will be anything less than a tragic outcome on Election Day.”

While Rotterman concentrates on the Trump blue collar vote, the candidate took 29% of the Hispanic vote, better than Romney in 2012; total Latino turnout in 2016 was 11%, which mirrored 2012. Unfortunately, Bernie Sanders didn't convince Hispanics in 2016, but he made a solid pitch to the working class, the blue-collar worker, and had he run against Trump, he might very well have taken this group, thus, eliminating one of T-rump's bases. As a point of reference, Donald Trump won blue collar workers by 40% over Clinton; men by 49%.

While it's all about Russia, James Comey and Michael Flynn right now, Barry Bennett, a Trump political adviser during last year’s election campaign, says 2018 will be all about jobs and his present feeling is that the jobs picture is good, therefore, many Republicans will be safe in the midterms. But, while Bennett's point does have some validity, I cannot believe that a rational American public will continue to settle for a bonehead like Donald Trump as the President of the greatest country in the world. You won't change the dimwits in the video above, but who really needs that mentality.