Charles Blow writes a regular opinion column for the New York Times.
This is one of his most blistering.
He writes about Trump’s recent visit to the New York Times. He says he was almost obsequious in praising the Times, which he has regularly lambasted in tweets. Blow didn’t attend the meeting. He didn’t want to.
He does not expect to “get along” with Trump. He explains why and is thankful that he will be there to stand up for principle.
You are a fraud and a charlatan. Yes, you will be president, but you will not get any breaks just because one branch of your forked tongue is silver.
I am not easily duped by dopes.
I have not only an ethical and professional duty to call out how obscene your very existence is at the top of American government; I have a moral obligation to do so.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, but rather to speak up for truth and honor and inclusion. This isn’t just about you, but also about the moral compass of those who see you for who and what you are, and know the darkness you herald is only held at bay by the lights of truth.
It’s not that I don’t believe that people can change and grow. They can. But real growth comes from the accepting of responsibility and repenting of culpability. Expedient reversal isn’t growth; it’s gross.
So let me say this on Thanksgiving: I’m thankful to have this platform because as long as there are ink and pixels, you will be the focus of my withering gaze.
I’m thankful that I have the endurance and can assume a posture that will never allow what you represent to ever be seen as everyday and ordinary.
No, Mr. Trump, we will not all just get along. For as long as a threat to the state is the head of state, all citizens of good faith and national fidelity — and certainly this columnist — have an absolute obligation to meet you and your agenda with resistance at every turn.
I know this in my bones, and for that I am thankful.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This Thanksgving I am grateful for people like Charles Blow who are not afraid of writing the truth. Thank you!
. . . when Trump puts his hand on the Bible and swears an oath to uphold the Constitution, . . . I will be in the bathroom puking my guts out.
About puking–I should have waited till after Thanksgiving to say that. . . . Sorry. So let me maybe fix it?
I am thankful for Blow and for those who, like him and Diane, have sustained voices; and so I am most grateful for the prescience of those who wrote the First Amendment: May it and what it represents Stand Forever.
About puking no need to apologize. Bob Herbert used to be my favorite Times Columnist. Charles Blow may rightfully take his place.
I always love to read reasonable and level-headed responses to the nations problems, particularly on the one day of the year we should be coming together for the good of mankind. That’s why I’ve been ignoring Charles Blows columns for years.
Here is a reasonable response to Demagoguery. You are not my President . You will never be my President. For the good of the American people I wish you nothing but failure and even ill health. .
For your success will not be prosperity for the overwhelming majority of Americans . The OVERWHELMING majority of which did not vote for you . That includes the 2million + majority you lost by and the 40% who did not vote at all.
You have not only demonstrated by your actions and words during your revolting campaign that you deserve no cooperation or respect .
Your choice once headed into office, to surround yourself with those who dwell at the bottom of the swamp with decaying matter and feces, has reinforced the notion that you must be objected to by all Americans with any moral fiber.
“You will never be my President. For the good of the American people I wish you nothing but failure and even ill health.”
This is pretty much what I read Rush Limbaugh said on his radio-hate talk show the day after Obama won his first election. Limbaugh even blamed Obama for the national debt more than two months before Obama took the oath of office to become President. The only thing Limbaugh left out was “for the good of the American people,” because Limbaugh, and the other conservative talking heads of hate, don’t care about the American people or this country.
I heard yesterday that Trump says he can do his business from the Oval Office. I want to verify, but if that’s true (and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was), forget what would have happened if Hilary had said such a thing. I don’t know of anyone from any party who would think that way.
Trump shrugs off concerns: ‘The president can’t have a conflict of interest’
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/22/trump-on-business-conflicts-the-laws-totally-on-my-side.html
And here’s what the LA times has to say about Trump using the presidency to help his own business interests.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-business-conflicts-20161122-story.html
Lloyd Lofthouse: Thanks for the link. Here’s a snip from the LA Times: ““We hope that Mr. Trump doesn’t use his power to interfere, considering he has a financial interest in the outcome,” said Bethany Khan, spokeswoman for Culinary Workers Union Local 226.”
And you think he might not do so because . . . .? (pick one)
(1) Trump knows the difference between capitalist and democratic-governmental principles.
(2) He’s a nice guy and cares deeply about the well-being of the American people.
(3) He likes to eat at expensive restaurants.
.
“We hope” is the same as praying to God to save us from whatever. For instance, will hoping and/or praying save humanity from whatever climate change brings as the ice continues to melt and the oceans continue to rise?
I wonder if any of the 90-million registered voters that did not vote in this election hoped and prayed the next president wouldn’t be Trump.
Diane
By the way, no sarcasm, hidden humor or any ambiguity interned in that remark.
Lloyd Lofthouse
It has worked out pretty, pretty well ,for them hasn’t it . Perhaps the American people respect a little straight talk. Time for those of us on the left to take the gloves off . Or we can pretend to be civil and just keep getting are asses kicked all the way back to the, I said 1920s yesterday Diane more appropriately said 1890’s today. You bet ya, I am happier than a hog in shit that Scalia dropped dead . I would be just as happy to see Trump join him.
We have discussed Obama and Clinton in the past. I was extremely critical , you came to their defense. Neither is to be be compared to this swamp dweller.
A few Rush Limbaugh’s on the left for Americans to listen to and we might not be in this mess.
Even reasonable commentators like Schultz and Uygur are removed from the air by the corporate owned media. Even the one that portrays itself as LIBERAL.
The Young Turks aren’t gone. They still have a voice through You Tube.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks
The Young Turks.com
https://tytnetwork.com/
The Young Turks claims to be “the world’s largest online news show” based on the number of YouTube hits for the main TYT channel.[19] As of April 2013, TYT had approximately 4,000 paying subscribers online.[17] By August of 2016, Cenk Uygur reported that number had increased to more than 23,000.[20] On April 20, 2013, The Young Turks announced that its YouTube channel had received over 1 billion video views.[21] By October 2016, the total number of views for the TYT Network’s YouTube channel had surpassed 3 billion.[22] The program’s YouTube channel averaged a daily hit count of 750,000 views per day in April 2012, increasing to more than 2,200,000 per day by November 2016.[23]
The Independent described it as “the most-watched online news show in the world.”[9] In a September 2006 article, U.S. News & World Report contributing writer Paul Bedard described TYT as “the loudly liberal counter to the right-leaning presets on my Sirius Satellite Radio.”[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Turks#Reception
our not are
Thank you Charles Blow and Diane for speaking truth to power, to an ugly cancer that has taken over our government.
I wonder how Trump would write this piece – 4th grade reading level, I’m sure, – with a lot of repeating to make sure his supporters heard what he didn’t mean or maybe meant, because who knows what Trump means or is going to do next except make money while cheating everyone he can and even those he can’t?
The day after the election, I thought, “I will give Trump a chance to prove me wrong. Everyone deserves a chance. His first hundred days will be long enough.”
I didn’t have to wait his 1st hundreds days as President, because he has already proven he’s still a con-man bucket of scum and sludge with most of his cabinet selections, in addition to using his daughter to drum up international business using Trump’s presidential title and his future power in the White House, and Trump is still only the president elect, future president in title only.
“I didn’t have to wait his 1st hundreds days as President, because he has already proven he’s still a con-man bucket of scum and sludge with most of his cabinet selections,”
Perhaps we are on the same page. I may have misunderstood your comment about Limbaugh.
Ever consider doing a talk radio show.
Liberals aren’t allowed on talk radio. Talk radio is about 95% hard right wing flame throwers from sea to shining sea. Thirty and more years of this toxic sludge have taken root in this country.
Liberals get access to the public via the Internet, podcasts and live streaming. I listen/watch to Mike Malloy and TYT via the computer and for months Mike has been saying that Trump would become president. I thought he was being hyperbolical and over the top. Boy, was I wrong.
LOL
Me doing a talk radio show! I’d be a horrible failure. I’ll leave the talk shows up to someone like the Young Turks, or HBO’s John Oliver.
Joe
if you followed the thread between Lloyd and myself you would know that my point was: that Liberals who do not toe the line are not allowed on supposedly liberal corporately owned media like MSNBC, no less Talk radio well here is one of the few |
http://www.thomhartmann.com/radio/stations
I love Rachel Maddox show but she won’t invite me on. I met her at makeup room at NBC in 2010 and asked her. She changed the subject. Wonder why? I was on the Ed Show and Chris Hayes.
Not Rachel.
dianeravitch
So your the reason Ed is gone. (LOL Joking only kidding you didn’t get my 4/5s remark )
MSNBC hosts are allowed to attack Republicans all they want but when they go after Republicrats ( Much better tha the Neo-thing ) they have stepped over the line at MSNBC. Your presence on the show would dispute a narrative that corporate was trying to push. It would have cast doubt on their inside man OBAMA . If you remember Uygur started going after Obama for his actions in the first term. He was called into the corporate office and asked to tone it down. When he refused they were going to banish him to Sunday morning. It didn’t matter that he was the first host to beat Fox in the ratings war. He probably could have gone up against O’Rielly. He told them to take their job and shove it .
I had to stop watching Rachel for a while during the primaries.
We should all recall what the retoric part of the presidency means. Trump’s supporters will never feel jilted just as Reagan’s supporters still call his name as though he was holy. He could remind them of the real enemy, the liberals, and that was enough for them. Even though Reagan never submitted a balanced budget, he was successful in convincing a generation that he and the Republicans were the ones for he balanced budget. Reagan knew that a balanced budget was not going to happen while he was in office, but instead of saying it, he continued to blame the usual “liberal” culprits to stir up his base. They still think he saved America.
More importantly, even though his actions were opposite his speeches, he spawned a generation of conservatives that took him seriously when he intoned that it was government that was the problem. This is why we have people today who see no contradiction in their behavior when they govern poorly, then blame the government. The old adage that actions speak louder than words does not apply to the presidency. Words breed beliefs.
So what of Trump? Will he continue to bash foreigners, hate the media that do not come to kiss the ring? Will he continue to use language that will delight those who think that only a select group of Europeans have the blessing of God? I fear that my daughter will grow up in a world where there will be more hostility and violence. I fear that many conservatives now in their twenties will come to admire Trump for his directness and confrontational attitude, and will accept his authoritarian xenophobia as part of the package. They will come to political maturity just in time to push the country farther to the right, repeating a process that has been going on my whole life.
I have often been kidded for being so middle of the road. Now I find myself in the left lane, having never moved. I see a semi coming very fast. I think it is time to build some lanes on the left.
I think its time for everyone left of extreme right to learn how to use firearms and toughen up for the struggle to survive Trumpism.
I never thought you were right abut that till now. Standing Rock would look a lot different if they were dealing with Ak47s instead of peace pipes.
Let’s not forget that the bloodiest war, based on U.S. troop casualties, the United States has ever fought was our own Civil War. If Trumpism leads to the 2nd U.S. Civil War, the casualty count could end up much higher.
War should always be the last resort when nothing else has worked to stop the march of tyranny.
about
Gandhi got it done with a little textiles. Sorry. I am a peaceful guy. Got it from my father.
Everything is relative to the individual.
My dad was an alcoholic, a gambler, and a womanizer who often cheated on my mother; even with her best friend, my Catholic godmother. My parents were both high school dropouts, and they never voted. The only thing my dad had to say about politicians was that they were all crooks and couldn’t be trusted, and it was a waste of time to vote.
As you can see, I didn’t learn about Ghandi from my parents. I didn’t learn about Ghandi from anyone. I learned about Ghandi from the 1982 movie.
By then it was too late, because I joined the U.S. Marines out of high school and ended up in combat in Vietnam in 1966. What the Marines taught me stuck. There’s an old saying, that once a Marine always a Marine. It’s true. I enjoyed watching the Ghandi film, but what I saw in the Ghandi film didn’t take the Marine out of me.
My father was a republican isolationist who believed that money got us into WWI. Interested in Gandhi as a young agriculture student in the depression, he taught Sunday school to a whole generation of kids who fought in WWII in Sunday school but he did not go himself. During the war he carefully figured how much money the war made him and gave it to the Methodist Church. I do not know if he ever demonstrated against scrap metal sales to Japan, but his Methodist friends did.
I do not think he ever was able to,square his pacifism with the things we learned about the Nazis after the war. To a country boy, the final solution was a few more milk cows. He was not much for geopolitical understanding. Though he was a wonderful, gentle man, some folks held it against him that he did not fight.
I have often wonder what I would have done. Too young for Vietnam, too old for more recent fights, i have been spared the vicissitudes of life in many ways. Except for having a kid at 50.
I wouldn’t wish going to fight in a war on anyone who didn’t want to go. I wouldn’t even wish it on those who want to go.
Have you seen “Hacksaw Ridge”? It’s a recent film about a true story of a conscientious objector who joined the military in World War II to save lives instead of kiling. He became a medic and refused to carry a weapon. He’s also the only American conscientious objector to ever win the Medal of Honor. If you see the film, when you get to the part where he starts earning that medal, it is jaw dropping unbelievable what he did and survived.
Up to comments about MSNBC–I, too, used to love Rachel Maddow. I rtopprd watching her show after the NV Dem Meeting (on a Sat.), when the chair cut off comments from Bernie Sanders supporters, & they responded by shouting, frustrated, trying to bring up their important points. It was reported (falsely) that “they were throwing chairs.” Someone had video’ed it w/a cell, & no chair-throwing could be seen. I’d bet you big that had Bernie people actually thrown chairs, the DNC would’ve had that on video, & it would have been on every MSNBC & CNN show, w/repeated airings. Anyway, on the Monday following that meeting, that was Rachel’s lead story, delivered w/her crooked grin & sarcasm. However, before showing the actual video clip, she showed a Hulk Hogan WWE match where audience members were throwing chairs into the ring. Flash back to her grinning, & explaining that that was what took place Sat.
This enraged me (& many, many others). I thought that she might apologize for this piece, with some commentary as to her lapse in journalistic quality, & that her show is, indeed, news, & NOT “Weekend Update” from Saturday Night Live; she’s on MSNBC, NOT NBC. It was at that point that I’d lost all respect for her. & now, reading that not only did she not have you on her show, Diane, but she “changed the subject?” That’s akin to ignoring you (rude & disrespectful)–right up there with your “interview” on CNN w/Randi Kaye* (I still can’t forget seeing her on “Anderson Cooper/Kathy Griffin’s New Years Eve”–CNN had her traveling around bars–tasting & reporting on all the drinks! (Don Lemon was sitting in a hot tub w/celebrants,& reporting on that experience.)
Anyway, both stations have joined the infotainment party &, as such, look at the 2016 Election Cycle & the results.
I still like & respect Chris Hayes–his show had some very good & very fair coverage.
Ditto for Lawrence O’Donnell. & Ed Schultz (thank G-d!) can still be seen anchoring the news on–gasp!–RT (hey, even Larry King is on RT–tonight, on his show,”Politicking,” he had a terrific interview w/Cenk Uygar).
&–someone please correct me if I’m wrong–wasn’t Ed Schultz fired from MSNBC for asking POTUS where he & his walking shoes were when all that trouble was brewing in Madison, WI? (Remember that, in his 2008 campaigning, Obama told us (unions, working people) that he’d “put on his walking shoes” & stand with us? Never did once…& still doesn’t (Standing Rock would be a good place to “cement” your legacy, Pres. Obama).
Also, can’t recommend Lee Camp (called “the John Oliver of RT”) enough–you can watch his “Redacted Tonight” anytime on YouTube.
*Remember, at the time of the Randi Kaye interview, the Chair of Worldwide CNN was…a Walton.
That’s why i stopped watching Rachael> I agree with you especially about O’Donnell. Schultz’s demise came in I think early 2015 when he went after Obama on Trade and the Pipeline.> The Turks story lays it all out. When you are called out for going after a political figure, the president, when your criticism is not even harsh . This is not journalism any longer. .