"Conservative podcast host Steve Bannon defended former President Donald Trump's call for a 'termination' of the U.S. Constitution over his 2020 election loss."
Steve Bannon is a white nationalist, white supremacist, spreading his agenda around the White House during the Trump administration. It is thought John Kelly, Trump's Chief of Staff, was instrumental in the resignation of Bannon, after which Bannon dissed many on Trump's staff and went on with his anti-American program. Steve Bannon is supposed to be in jail but just a month ago...
"Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon will be allowed to remain free as he appeals his conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot."
Bannon opposed most everything that opposed Donald Trump, but now that Trump
wants to abolish the Constitution, the expected of course, he supports the ex-White House maniac all the way. Steve Bannon even went to the extent of quoting Donald Trump's Truth Social post on his podcast...
"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution."
The Trump organization was just found guilty on all counts of tax fraud by the N.Y. atty. general with more charges of Trump personally being investigated. Bannon barely got a reprieve from jail time and more of Donald Trump's minions are already serving time. As you can see from the visual, above, and also from a Republican, David Rockefeller, the government should be the servant of the people, not their master. The latter is what Steve Bannon and Donald Trump want.
New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow, says, "Extremism Is on the Rise … Again." And here I thought it had never abated. But Blow, being the excellent journalist he is, qualifies his headline, written before the Nov. 8 elections, citing one startling fact...
You can see the 291 deniers in the "on the ballot" link, above, with names you will recognize like Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Kari Lake, Herschel Walker; you get the idea. But Blow reports...
In a major speech Wednesday night, President Biden described election denial as “the path to chaos in America.” “It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.” But in truth, the extremism, racism and white nationalism are neither un-American nor unfamiliar.
There are comparisons with the William Howard Taft administration in 1908, later Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on an “America First” platform, which soon became "associated not just with isolationism, but also with the Ku Klux Klan, xenophobia and fascism." Wilson was a racist from the South and is measured against Donald Trump who Blow says...
"is one of the worst presidents — if not the worst — that this country has ever had."
More matching between Wilson and Trump...
It was Wilson who screened “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, a film that pushed the “Lost Cause” narrative and fueled the rebirth of the Klan.
Assessing threats of political violence and rising extremism
on the far-right...
Trump hosted a screening of “2,000 Mules” — a fact-checker-debunked documentary that purported to show widespread voter fraud carried out by “mules” who stuffed ballot boxes with harvested ballots during the last presidential election — at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has called the Southern White House. That film has helped boost his followers’ belief in his lie about the 2020 election.
Civil war has been talked up by Republicans and now they are targeting their own with in-fighting over the upcoming Dec. 6, runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. This is a must win for the GOP and it all boiled over recently between Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott of Florida...
"A long-simmering, mostly private tension between the two men and their allies came to a head this week as their respective political consultants resorted to publicly insulting each other, particularly over how each was approaching the upcoming Georgia election."
Democrats would welcome Republicans keeping their extremism internally as long
as there is no spillover to the rest of the country. Annihilating each other could be the answer to saving our democracy. Neither Trump nor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has offered Walker help, and some say the GOP big guns are not so enthusiastic about Herschel Walker because his win will not give them control of the Senate. And finally, more talk of civil war, this time between Republicans...
"Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is ready [to] unleash a civil war in the Republican Party after its poor showing in the midterms.
"The Georgia congresswoman also indicated she would throw her support behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast."
Have you heard the talk recently from a past GOP congressman who said Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House in name only? He said Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the actual Speaker.
Karen Fann, radical conservative Republican, who ordered an audit of the election results in Maricopa County, hiring a firm that was founded by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist who promoted false claims of fraud. It cost Arizona residents $5.7 million. Fann made a false allegation, later amplified by Trump that Maricopa County election officials deleted the voter database after the election. Another lie by Fann confirmed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican who oversees elections. Fann is not running for reelection.
Kelli Ward, after losing three Arizona elections, was chosen as chair of the Arizona Republican Party in 2019. Following the 2020 United States presidential election, in which incumbent President Donald Trump lost in 25 states, including Arizona, she filed lawsuits seeking to nullify the state's (AZ) election results. She had no evidence of wrongdoing in the election and by December 9, federal and state judges had dismissed all challenges against President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Arizona. She was also involved in the state's fake electors scheme. Once endorsed by Steve Bannon, she continued to support the Trump lie, in defiance of Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Kari Lake, the armpit candidate and a not so good TV news anchor at a no-news Fox TV station. She turned politician in 2021, when Arizona welcomed its newest lunatic politician. Republican, of course. I did a recent post, "Kari Lake Invites Jesus Christ to Arizona," where I pointed out the fact that 'Kari Lake compared herself to Jesus." Earlier I did posts on Twitter and FB of how Lake accused her opponent in the governor's race, Katie Hobbs, of a vote on legislation, completely false, because Lake can't read a bill. She is, of course, an ardent Trump supporter.
Okay, this isn't a hanging but it is clear that these three totalitarians are doing their best to assassinate our democracy. Arizona is a hotbed of this kind of stupidity, as is Florida and Texas, with the GOP determined to take 2022 and 2024 elections and maneuver America to an eventual catastrophe. VOTE DEMOCRAT IN NOVEMBER AND AGAIN IN 2024!
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.”
"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.
This country thought it had left fascism behind when it defeated Germany and Italy in the 2nd World War. It took a raving maniac to open the door to its re-entry into to the United States. Donald Trump is the benefactor to a dictatorial form of government his pathetic supporters are willing to tolerate. Trump lost to Joe Biden but has never admitted his loss. Since then, the President has had to muster forces to combat Trump's continuing attacks on democracy.
Biden has also had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which, again, Donald Trump holds the responsibility for letting the virus get out of control, resulting in a major problem for the Biden administration. But one thing continues to mystify me in all that is transpiring: why the hell would Trump followers want to succumb to a dictator, especially one that is a lowlife like the ex-president. And why would the apathetics from the left who don't vote seem to endure this lunacy?
One of this country's major allies, Germany, seems to be headed to the radical right, according to AlterNet...
"Germany’s gift to the far right is the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, the public-policy arm of the country’s most prominent extremist party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Erasmus, a Dutch humanist of the Renaissance best known for his ironic essay “In Praise of Folly,” would have been appalled at such a grotesque misappropriation of his name. The AfD, after all, has built its political base on a series of follies diametrically opposed to humanism, from its initial anti-immigration screeds to its current overtures to the anti-vaccination crowd."
One must wonder, with a new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, just taking office, who is a
member of the Social Democratic Party, plus working closely with Angela Merkel in the past, is he on board with all this? I mean the AfD will be funded to establish outposts of hate throughout the world. The authors' comment...
The far right hasn’t had this kind of opportunity for global expansion since fascism’s heyday in the 1930s."
And it is clear that the Republican Party is regularly doing its part to kill democracy, raising autocracy to new heights. But although Donald Trump persecuted Hispanics and totally shut down Muslims from entering the United States, five fascism experts said the ex-president did not qualify as a fascist...
"Every one of them stated that to be a fascist, one must support the revolutionary, usually violent overthrow of the entire government/Constitution, and reject democracy entirely."
Trump was...
"too individualist for the inherently collectivist philosophy of fascism, and not sufficiently committed to the belief that violence is good for its own sake, as a vital cleansing force."
In other words, he was more into himself that he would embrace a movement like fascism. Steve Bannon, though, is another thing. The Daily Beast reports...
"Bannon may be the poster child for far-right “populism” and “economic nationalism”—euphemistic slogans for neo-fascism and neo-Nazism—but The Brink (in theaters March 29) is no puff piece on the founder of Breitbart News, whose role in the Trump campaign, and subsequent stint as White House Chief Strategist, helped make him an extremist celebrity power broker."
Steve Bannon is definitely an authoritarian who many thought was Donald Trump's brain. It is interesting to note that, as late as October of this year, Bannon was quoted as saying, "You need to kill this [Biden] administration in its crib." But there is still hope and it comes from the state of Georgia, and the far-left of the Democratic Party, a faction I recently criticized. The fact is I have been a Progressive for years but recently tired of the "Squad's" antics.
If You’re Not Scared About American Fascism, You’re Not Paying Attention...
AlterNet starts with quoting the recent low black turnout in Virginia then turns to South Fulton, Georgia, the state’s eighth most populous city, where Khalid Kamau, a “prominent Democratic Socialist… got 59 percent of the vote.” Here's the scenario...
On December 2, the paper noted that two city council members with a combined “four-and-a-half decades of experience” on the panel “were ousted Tuesday by younger, more progressive challengers.” (One victor, 34-year-old Antonio Lewis, is among the activists featured in “The Georgia Way.”)
This may very well point the way to more Progressive candidates from the left, but it does not open the door to stone-walling tactics. And turning back to the original question, "Did Donald Trump Reintroduce Fascism to America?', probably not, but not because he didn't want to. This maniac would have done anything to stay in office, denies losing, and continues to run for president in 2024. Trump has held several rallies since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection but Iowa was the worst.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with other state politicians joined Trump in October at a rally that CNN's Dean Obeidallah described as "the most alarming by far." Here is Obeidallah's take...
"Some of these very same people, who just nine months ago were slamming Trump for his role in the Capitol riots, were now only too happy to be seen supporting him. This is politics at its worst -- and at its most dangerous for our democracy."
The most hypocritical of the bunch is Sen. Grassley...
who on January 6 was escorted by his security detail to a secure location to protect him from the pro-Trump mob that had laid siege on the Capitol. Grassley, who voted to certify the 2020 election, made a veiled reference to Trump in his statement, noting that the lawsuits filed after the election had failed and that "politicians in Washington should not second guess the courts once they have ruled."
Iowa can do without Chuck Grassley. The U.S. Senate can do without Chuck Grassley. This country can do without Chuck Grassley, just like an abundance of other Republicans in Congress. If we don't stop the GOP's attack on democracy, the U.S. doors will swing open, eventually welcoming a government promulgated by nutcases like the freaked out five, Matt Gaetz, M.T. Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorne and Paul Gosar. Any one of these could lead us to fascism.
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
"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."
"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.
Racism is worse than that old weather saying. People have been talking about it for years, but no one has seriously done anything about it...
My take is that it is definitely a dirty word, even many racists would agree with that, but it is like one of those rogue genes that are the basis for a particular kind of behavior which allows those who have it to justify what they do. I grew up in the South, fighting with racists all my life, even within my own family, and when I finally left in the 1960s, there were still lynchings of black people, their houses being burned to the ground, all orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan.
Like the Mafia, the Klan slowly faded away, but as is the case for both, there is still evidence of their activity around. Here's a scenario from NPR...
"For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone."
NPR adds, "The watchdog group blames President Trump, his administration, right-wing media outlets and the ease of spreading hate on social media platforms for the alarming increase." Trump has promoted and encouraged white nationalism since being inaugurated, hiring people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, of which the latter is still on his staff. Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project said...
"The numbers tell a striking story — that this president is not simply a polarizing figure but a radicalizing one."
Excellent video on the Trump-Miller relationship...
This added...
"Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as presidents of both parties have done, President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to act on their worst instincts."
"Stephen Miller, the highly influential advisor to President Donald Trump, is the end result of a shadowy network made up of racist organizations and PAC’s designed to push a white nationalist worldview from the fringes into deep inside the White House."
The Confederate battle flag
Now there are even rumbles that Steve Bannon is attempting to work his way back into the White House. The combination of Miller and Bannon, especially should there be a Trump second term, God forbid, and with the White House maniac at his highest level of mental instability since entering office, could turn this country into a national Confederate States of America. What would a new flag look like? Would future elections even be allowed?
Miller was a close ally of John Tanton, an Ophthalmologist from Michigan, founder of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and considered by SPLC the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. Stephen Miller, practicing Tanton's ideology, is considered the architect of Donald Trump's immigration policies. The Beast's Mark Potok reports...
"Miller is both a promoter and, to some extent, a product of a much wider racist network aimed at preventing non-white immigration into the United States.”
He also thinks there is little chance of Miller leaving the administration, able to now influence, as I stated earlier, a much more mentally unstable Donald Trump, who is already making the worst of bad decisions. I would surmise when the black community sees this rampant racism originate from the highest office in the land, they feel there is just no hope. And they may very well be right as long as Trump occupies the White House and Mitch McConnell controls the Senate.
Donald Trump has abandoned the ship when the U.S. has normally served in the captain's roll, both at home and internationally.
The Oval Office lunatic has abdicated his throne, which has been scaring Americans for weeks, now is terrifying the rest of the world. We are depended upon to stand tall and come up with the answers to crises like the coronavirus pandemic, leading others to a solution to solve the problem. It isn't even certain that Donald Trump knows what the problem is, let alone have an answer to deal with it. He is pathetically missing in action.
"The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that are undermining efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic and left the international community without a traditional global leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts."
Leading CEO grouses on Trump...
In other words, the leader's chair is empty, and since the United States has always filled it. there is an international disaster brewing while the world starves for leadership. CNN adds...
"Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its push to punish China and have other nations choose sides."
When you have someone sitting in the White House who is completely incompetent in what he is doing, and also refuses to accept the failures of his ineptness, you have a disaster and that is what Donald Trump is. It is now being fostered on America and also globally, simply because of this implied expectancy from history that we have always been in control. Well, we aren't, and won't be as long as Donald Trump commands the ship.
Brad Reed in RawStory reports "Americans see Trump as the ‘main source’ of COVID-19 misinformation," and there is no one even close in comparison. We are used to this idiot's lies, 18,000, as of mid-April, adding more every day, and, unfortunately, he has an international reputation. But the news media is held responsible for 33% of the misinformation, and I would attribute the majority of this to Fox (misinformation) News.
And here is the misinformation specialist...
When it comes to blogs, there are those with a highly credible standing like Huff Post, Politico, Slate, etc. Their biggest asset is the size of their staff that can confirm news stories to ensure their accuracy, something that small bloggers like myself lacks. In my case, Nasty Jack Buzz is a political opinion blog, which some view as less accurate than a news blog. That is not true, at least in my case, because I am careful to clarify news sources from more than one site.
“We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “It’s a risk we accept so we can move about.” President Trump also took up the bogus argument while deploying his trademark exaggeration, insisting that car-related deaths are “far greater than any numbers we’re talking about.”
Are Republicans the death party?...
It would seem to me that Republicans have been on a death watch since the coronavirus first hit, and people began to die. In a Dallas newspaper: "Republicans: The party of death during COVID-19." This was during a rash of comments by GOP members musing over whether some Americans were just destined to die of the virus, primarily directed toward the senior population. Some were shocked, others just passed it off as inevitable.
There is talk that Steve Bannon wants to return to the White House, and in T-rump's current desperation, he just might welcome this white nationalist, racist back. Here's one of his radical comments made when he was there before...
“The real opposition is the media,” Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, once told the journalist Michael Lewis. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”…
"Donald Trump is asking us to enter even further into his house of mirrors. He is asking us to live within a lie, to live within his lie, for four more years. The duty of citizenship in America today is to refuse to live within that lie."
September 4, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Donald Trump completely unqualified for his office
And that's an exaggeration
“He’s unqualified, he is unfit, he’s a child, he’s reckless, he’s erratic, he’s a narcissist, he’s mean, he’s cruel and he lies every time he opens his mouth.” That was a Republican talking about Donald Trump, not a Democrat. It was former Rep. Joe Walsh from Illinois, and the above tirade was followed by Walsh's assessment that the "GOP is in big trouble." There's more in this article reported by RawStory...
“If he’s our nominee in 2020, the Republican Party is going to get spanked because young people don’t like Trump, women don’t like Trump and people who live in the suburbs don’t like Trump,” Walsh explained. “I heard you earlier, Joe, the Republican Party right now is at a real crossroads and because of Trump they’re in trouble.”
You have to understand here that Joe Walsh is challenging Donald Trump in the Republican Primary. Then MSNBC's Joe Scarborough asked former RNC head Michael Steele...
“You have run the Republican Party before and it’s looking like another political tsunami is coming the Republican Party’s way if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket,” he prompted.
“Yeah, it will be very hard for the president to sustain the races beneath the presidential campaign,” Steele conceded.
Joe Walsh challenging Trump in 2020 Republican Primary...
"his [Donald Trump's] first victory was a miracle. A second, after four years of embarrassments and betrayals in office, might take an act of God."
There's more and it's classic...
The best you can say for Trump is that he became less scary to a lot more people, and the devil you know is always preferable to some.
The magazine continues with its assessment of Donald Trump on everything from gun violence to trade tariffs, and most of it isn't complimentary, but it's definitely worth reading. Salon/AlterNet reports on a Steve Bannon statement from the 2016 election, “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Donald Trump took it from there with his lies and racism, concluding...
"Nearly three years into Trump’s tenure the American news media is still struggling with how to cover a president and an administration that have no use for democratic norms, the Constitution, the rule of law, and the truth or reality itself."
Republicans exit the House en masse...
Now here's an interesting viewpoint...
"The media covers President Trump because it must — and because he is highly entertaining and good for ratings. Those two factors together mean that Trump the president and TV character is highly profitable for the corporate media. He stands at the center of the country’s and the world’s attention in two roles. He is both the Mad King and the King of the American Kakistocracy."
CNN’s “New Day,” contributor John Avlon highlighted the exodus of GOP House members who have chosen to step down and not run for re-election under Donald Trump, calling the sheer number of them “stunning.”
The results: “Since Trump took office, the House GOP has seen a stunning 38 percent turnover." It can only bode well for Democrats, but will 2020 come too late?
Many in the media and groups like So. Poverty Law Center have warned of Donald Trump inciting violence with his racist targeting of women of color in Congress. Jim Cavanaugh, a retired ATF special agent-in-charge was interviewed by Anchor Joy Reid on Friday evening’s “The Last Word.” She asked...
“So those threats beginning about two years ago, increases in white nationalist activity. Have you ever heard of these kinds of increases in hate and potential hate crimes being tied to a president of the United States?”
Reid answered, “No,” he replied. “That’s very, very unusual, Joy, to have that happen.” Reid added...
“You know, when you get more power, your words carry more weight. When you get into this undercurrent of the Nazis and the white nationalists and the klansmen, they feed off of this. They feed off of public figures — on the regular media, in the government, congressmen, senators, the president — saying the things they always say,” he explained. “It bolsters them. It gives them strength and power.”
You can't get much more power than that of the President of the United States, so it is safe to say the white supremacists have the capacity of the greatest nation on earth. And that is very, very scary. The Oval Office lunatic has even primed these Nazis recently with his attacks on the four congresswomen, and there appears no abatement for Trump's racism. This country may be doomed to relive the race wars of the 1960s.
Stephen Miller is a far-right political activist who serves as a senior advisor for policy for President Donald Trump. He took over as the chillingest member of Trump's team when Steve Bannon left. Although I don't consider Fox New generally credible, I do think Chris Wallace, because of his father Mike, to be honest and believable. Wallace adamantly shut down Miller as the latter repeatedly tried to defend T-rump's racism.
Here's an example from Think Progress...
"Wallace also pointed out that Trump has criticized the four lawmakers for comments he deemed critical of America, yet attacked the nation, and Obama, with comments that were far more negative. President Obama is ignorant, this country is killers, on and on.'”
"Miller attempted to spin a 'fundamental distinction' between 'people who think we need to lean into and strengthen American’s core values' and 'people who think we need to turn America into Venezuela.' But Wallace again responded with Trump’s own quotes that were explicit attacks on America."
Chris concluded the interview with...
“I’ve never called any of his tweets racist,” Wallace admonished Miller. “But there’s no question he is stoking racial divisions.”
The Hill says Trump has nothing to fear from Robert Mueller testimony
There are disagreements with this statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who is convinced that Robert Mueller's report "presents very substantial evidence" that President Donald Trump "is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors." There is no reason to ask who is right since there can be no real right or wrong until a court, probably eventually SCOTUS, interprets sections of the report.
Here's what Mueller said: “The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.”
Here's what House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said: "Democrats on the committees plan to get around this reluctance by having Mueller read from his report, and by asking him for commentary about what he’s read."
It may even be a strategy welcomed by Robert Mueller.
Robert Reich talks about Donald Trump's "deep
state," (ie. Steve Bannon) but concludes the Oval Office has now
progressed to Trump’s Corrupt State. He adds...
"Not since Warren G. Harding’s sordid administration
have as many grifters, crooks and cronies occupied high positions in
Washington."
Just look at the resignations of do many top people in the
administration; Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, Tom Price, and Michael Flynn. It was
recently reported that "a real estate company partly owned by Trump
son-in-law and foreign policy advisor, Jared Kushner, has raked in $90 million
from foreign investors since Kushner entered the White House." Thus
signifying the fact that Donald Trump bought the presidency for the purpose of
establishing a money machine.
The corruption is compounded by the conclusions by the
media, private sector, and some in government that, "this is a White House
out of control, with a Commander-in-Chief not in charge." Here's a shocking
example from CNN’s Alexander Marquardt, a Senior National Correspondent
focusing on National Security...
"He makes clear Trump’s not the one calling the shots,
and is only making decisions to fend off internal bickering and power plays in
his administration."
Bob Cesca of Salon says...
"Worse yet, there are millions of Americans who will do
anything to circulate Trumpism until it becomes fact and therefore the basis
for governing the country from now on. In the face of all this, too many news
outlets refuse to act in accordance with the challenges of this existential
crisis."
He points to a recent interview by Chuck Todd of NBC's “Meet the Press” with Donald Trump Cesca termed, "another example of the perpetually nauseating confluence of Trump’s gratuitous lies and a TV news reporter too timid to treat him like the despot he is." Cesca comments that Trump voters simply believe "Trump’s worthless word" and "repeated as truth the following whopper lies told to Todd the other day."
Want a laugh? Watch Chuck Todd, Donald Trump interview...
Typical of Trump's lies in perpetuity, still using former
President Barack Obama as his customary whipping post, Trump tells Todd...
"'Congress never approved Obama’s Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, aka the “Iran Deal.' Since it wasn’t a treaty, Congress didn’t
have to approve. But Congress passed legislation, signed by Obama, allowing
legislators to evaluate the terms of the deal. To his credit, Todd caught that
lie."
What is so pathetic,
and also fearful, is that Chuck Todd treated Donald Trump in such a way to
legitimize the Oval Office lunatic who is far from earning it. Cesca says...
"Let’s put it this way: When Trump starts to act like a
president, then maybe he’ll earn the right to be treated like one."
I think most of us will agree that will never happen.
Remember Donald Trump's often touted book, "The Art of the Deal," something he hasn't been able to accomplish since being in the White House? Well there's another twist from the book's co-author, Tony Schwartz, who revealed a shocking observation...
“To know Trump is to hate Trump,” said Schwartz. “Meaning everybody who knows him, deep down, hates him completely.”
Not really shocking is it? Actuall,y that isn't the real shocker; This is even closer to home, that his oldest daughter, Ivanka, "despises him," can't stand him anymore. Of course it's hard to tell with all of the "sweetness" we see between her, Jared Kushner and Daddy Warbucks. Schwartz's reasoning...
“When you’re around a person who devalues you, humiliates you, ignores you, shames you, what possible other reaction could you have other than to despise him?”
Trump was in Orlando last week to kick off his 2020 presidential campaign--many say that he's never stopped campaigning since 2016--but is it significant that Orlando is a city completely enclosed by swampland? This is certainly appropriate considering the Oval Office lunatic's promise entering office was to drain the Washington swamp. He didn't and what we ended up with was an even bigger quagmire of corruption led by none other than the professed liberator.
Joe Biden on Donald Trump
But it is even more laughable that just hours before Trump's campaign kickoff in Orlando, the Orlando Sentinel announced that it would endorse anyone but Donald Trump. The newspaper commented...
"After 2½ years we’ve seen enough. Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies. So many lies — from white lies to whoppers — told out of ignorance, laziness, recklessness, expediency or opportunity."
Wow! That's a statement that perfectly clarifies the maniac that had been inhabiting the White House now for around two-and-one-half-years, posing as a head of state for the most powerful nation in the world. Or at least it was until T-rump took office. But the Democrats don't get an official nod out of this from a paper that has a history of endorsing Republicans, rather, it's more a mandate that Donald Trump must go.
And finally, Trump has lost the support of one of his largest 2016 supporters, the wealthy Mercer family. Here's the loss...
"The Mercers supported Trump aggressively in 2016, donating at least $15.5 million to pro-Trump organizations..."
According to sources, the Mercers have become disillusioned with Trump for a variety of reasons. One, they favored Steve Bannon; Trump fired him. There were others but supporting Steve Bannon tells you enough about this family to place them in a category of the radical right of the Republican Party. Donald Trump can't afford to lose too many of this brand since it is the thrust of the GOP in all elections. One can only hope that the entire Trump campaign fails...soon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
