This Washington Post editorial rightly calls out Trump’s unseemly behavior, first, by calling on Attorney General Sessions to open a criminal investigation of his defeated political opponent, who was previously investigated by the FBI; and second, by turning the Boy Scout Jamboree into an opportunity to belittle former President Obama and call the nation’s capitol a “cesspool” and a “sewer.” Trump even said (falsely) that Obama had never spoken to the Boy Scouts. In a matter of minutes, someone produced a photograph on Twitter of…Obama speaking to the Boy Scouts.
Some on Twitter have likened Trump’s disgusting performance before the Boy Scouts as akin to a Hitler Youth Rally.
This man is–dare I say–un-American. He ignores and dismisses cherished traditions, like upholding the independence of the judiciary. He uses his bully pulpit and his itchy Twitter finger to harass those who dare to disagree with them. He has embarrassed the national leadership of the Boy Scouts by bringing his partisan rant before the assembled scouts, who believe in service and fair play, concepts that are alien to Trump.
Everyone is simply a tool to be used by him. When they no longer serve his purpose, he tosses them away, as Sessions is now discovering.
Will Trump remove Sessions so he can find a pliable Attorney General who will fire Mueller?
When will the decent Republicans say “enough is enough.” Trump will destroy the Republican party and destroy everything good that our nation is supposed to stand for.
How low can he go? He showed us at the Boy Scout jamboree. For this man, there is no bottom. He just keeps diving and trying to drag the rest of us down with him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“How low can he go?”
Really? You have to ask? After all we’ve seen? Literally absolutely nothing the man says or does should shock anyone at this point. He could drop his drawers and take a dump on the White House lawn and it would be par for the course.
The thing is, focusing on his disgusting antics is what he wants. He feeds on outrage. It’s a wonderful distraction to get everyone all in a dither about his latest outrage. He’s having great fun doing it and loving the attention he’s getting from it.
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Dienne,
You suggest ignoring his words and behavior?
To do so is to accept them as normal.
This is not normal.
He is not normal.
We have to keep reminding ourself that he is a pathetic showman who wandered onto the wrong set.
He has a shriveled moral sense, possibly completely dried up and dead.
He has no ethical Core.
He is a walking blob of narcissism.
He disgraces the Republican Party.
He disgraces the nation.
He and his family are grifters.
He is a walking testament to the (temporary) triumph of ignorance, self-aggrandizement, and stupidity.
God save America.
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I agree. Too many Americans ignoring his words and behavior was exactly how Trump got elected.
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So what do you think you’re accomplishing by reacting to his nonsense? Is it changing him? Is it convincing any of his supporters to oppose him? Has anything changed?
As far as all the other things you listed, everyone with a shred of decency knows that. You don’t need to point it out. As my parents taught me growing up, “don’t dignify it with a response.”
As any good teacher knows, sooner or later when a kid is acting up just to get attention, you stop giving him attention because otherwise you’re just feeding the problem.
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Incidentally, Diane, if you need to direct your outrage somewhere, direct it (in this case) at the BSA for giving him a platform to begin with (what did they expect after all?) and for not cutting his mic.
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Apparently, the BSA always invite the president. They should have cut his mic. He has a dirty mouth. He is a vile person. He is no role model.
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Dienne: I have called the BSA, but of course, they wouldn’t have been able to decline to invite Trump. There would have been howling at the moon. The BSA walked a fine line here. I agree that they should have cut his mic, or, at the very least, talked with the boys afterwards. They DID try to discourage chanting–they posted about it and discussed it beforehand. This was a tough situation for them.
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“…they wouldn’t have been able to decline to invite Trump.”
Why not? They’re a private organization, they can do what they want. Sure there would have been a lot of howling. That’s what happens when you do the right thing.
The problem is that the Boy Scouts have chosen to be a right-wing organization pandering to right-wing “values” (sic), so, yeah, I guess in that way they “had” to invite Trump, but that’s on them to begin with. The Girl Scouts are in no similar pickle because they’ve chosen more liberal values all along, so their membership and leadership wouldn’t expect the likes of Trump to be invited.
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Dienne,
I’m just saying that Trump’s behavior shouldn’t be accepted a normal.
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Agreed.
This man’s brain should be studied for the demagogue gene
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Uh, Trump is the president, his actions or inactions will directly affect the health care of millions, his economic policies will affect millions, his international policies could get us into another war? How do you ignore these life and death decisions and and their results? Believe me, I’m doing my utmost to ignore Trump and his buffoonery but his words and actions keep smashing through the barriers I have put up against this travesty of a man. Should we ignore Betsy DeVos and all her buffoonery? Ignoring Trump is like trying to ignore a hyena that has broken into your house. Oh, just ignore that hyena, he’ll tire of gnawing on your leg and eventually leave the house.
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Do you not get the difference between policies and bloviation? I’ve said over and over we need to ignore the bloviation (like the nonsense at the BSA event) and focus on the policies.
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Once again, you channel my thoughts more clearly than I could, Joe. Your critic fails to see the clear connection between bloviation and public policy. The hard core supporters of our Dear Leader, like those in Youngstown last night, believe bloviation is policy. And his supporters in Congress vote and take positions the way they do because they understand this base can continue to be fooled. Your critic’s comment is as ridiculous as saying there was no difference between Hillary Clinton and our Dear Leader. Oh wait…
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A friend of mine also used the word “antics” recently to described Trump’s wacky, unpresidential behavior. Antics? Where do Trump’s antics end and our nation’s public policies begin -as “Joe” pointed out in his comments here?
And, would we tolerate “antics” from other people who hold vital jobs in our society…..people who make life or death decisions that affect us and our kids? Imagine if Trump was the pilot of a 747 as we approached JFK. “Hey, folks, just to let you know I’m the best pilot ever so believe me when I say that one of the engines is about to blow up! Oh….I didn’t really mean that. Ha, ha , ha…” Or, how about a doctor who like Trump regularly lied to you? “Yeah, keep on smoking…it’s good for you.” You know, I think when the overwhelming majority of Americans visit the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, none of us expect to see “antics” from the elite group of soldiers who guard that site. Nor, from any one of the visitors who gather at that solemn place.
Love it or hate it, Donald Trump is the elected leader of our country. And his outrageous behavior has defamed and dishonored his office and our nation. As citizens of that nation we can’t help but be dishonored, too.
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John,
I often think the same thing. If this were your doctor or your lawyer or your school principal who lies, bullies, obfuscates, contradicts himself, calls others names, etc., would you stand for it? Would that person be fired? I often think that many people really like guys like Trump because they like the idea of having a lot of money. People with money have “made it” and they’re better than most people because of their money. They would like to be rich themselves. They would like to be able to call their boss names and basically say, “F you” to everyone and get away with it because they have money and power.
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“Would that person be fired?”
Of course they would, but Trump is not “that person”. He’s President of the United States. Who’s going to fire him? Congress, being entirely his own party, is hardly likely to do the deed. It’s a pipe dream to think that some legal entity is going to step in and declare the election null and void and anoint Hillary instead. So how do you propose to get Trump “fired?” When someone has an answer to that question, I’m all ears. (Hint, it’s going to take millions of bodies in the streets of every major city in the country – think Arab Spring.) Until then, focusing on his “antics” is just what he wants you to do.
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He just keeps diving and trying to drag the rest of us down with him.
How does one disengage from this horribleness? He makes all of us feel dirty and yet he is doing pretty much what he wants. Are there no decent republicans left? His presence mid affecting my mental health and sense if well being. I am not as nice a person as I was before his bullying and belittling and every other negative action appeared. Help.
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“How does one disengage from this horribleness?”
Don’t get caught up in it. You only control yourself. You act with dignity. Let Trump make a fool of himself if that’s what he needs to do.
Rather than focusing on the antics, focus on how you want the world to be and start working to make it that way. If everyone could do that, Trump would be irrelevant.
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“He makes all of us feel dirty”
You got fleas, Jeannie??
He has no such effect on me nor on anyone I know.
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Duane,
I agree with Jeanne. He sullied all of us. If you don’t see the dirt, your eyes are closed.
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No, he doesn’t “sully all of us” and my “eyes aren’t closed”. That’s a nonsense statement on your part and demeans me personally. I don’t appreciate it but it doesn’t sully me anymore than what The Idiot in the White House does to me. I plainly see the dirt and have from the start. I just do not allow what other people do to be thrown onto me. You cannot and do not speak for me in this case.
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I apologize Duane for assuming you are as offended by this buffoon as I am
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I have learned to not be “offended” by the buffoonery and murderous tendencies of all the occupants of the Oval Office. I may be upset, ticked off, etc. . . but personally offended no. And, no need to apologize for your assumption. I’m a big boy (literally and figuratively) and can handle it.
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Duane,
I hope you don’t lose your health care. You may not. I won’t. Millions of other people will. I don’t see how we ignore that.
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I haven’t ignored the health care aspect and currently I won’t lose my insurance, I’ll be paying $600/month for the coverage I got from the district through COBRA. Don’t know how long I can afford that though. The only answer to this country’s health care coverage problems is single payer and I’ve been pushing that concept for decades with anyone who would listen. But hey, that’s commie pinko socialist stealing from me to pay for someone else and is unAmurikan. Stupid Americans who have been duped by the insurance industry into thinking that anything less than the insurance companies skimming/extorting 35-40% of our health care dollars is communistic socialistic thinking and would be the ruin of this nation.
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Jeannie,
You will not feel dirty if you get involved. Even if it’s just to call your Senators or stand out in front of their offices and make your voice heard. I am uplifted and excited by those who are out there fighting this man. He is an embarrassment to our country but we have a say!!
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I disagree with you on this one vehemently, Duane. He and his enablers, from those who voted for him to Congress to his administration, sully us all. Having recently returned from a trip to the Netherlands and Germany, I was shocked how quickly our nation’s standing has dropped in the perception of average people. Throughout my life, I always met people who were genuinely interested in the United States—what we were like, how we thought, about our history, our geography. Now they don’t care about those things. They wonder how a cultural and societal insanity has been translated into widespread political nihilism. They fear us. They pity us. They have no interest in spending their vacation time here. Germans who have had to endure constantly having to apologize for the atrocities for WWII, even though they are many generations removed from that time, even though they have forged the second oldest federal democracy in the world, even though they have created one of the most progressive societies in history, now ask how fascism has crept into roles of leadership in this country, yet they are still compared with Nazis. So yes, Duane, if you are an American citizen, whether you support this travesty or not, you have been sullied. Perhaps irreparably.
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We’ll agree to disagree, then. I have not been sullied. Hell, then Unca Ronnie, Billie Blow Job, Georgie the Least and the Obomber with their insane , inane and illegal actions sullied us also. Which I don’t agree that their actions sullied me or anyone else except those who helped those perpetrators of the many presidential breeches of their Constitutional duties and mankind’s human rights.
You all who presuppose yourself and all are “sullied” are sadly mistaken and you should not put that nonsense onto your own shoulders for you are not the guilty party.
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Duane E Swacker: In the SOCIAL-POLITICAL ORDER, we are all sullied in others’ eyes insofar as we are Americans and have (as GregB says) “Dear Leader” as our president. As, far as my own self-respect is concerned, that’s another story. Like you, I am unsullied, at least not by him. Does that work for you?
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Works better.
I guess I just don’t see supposed “leaders” as having that much power/influence/sway over anyone, much less over me. I am not persuaded that those who choose to be in positions of authority for whatever reasons they may have, make them any better, worst, different, special, etc. . . . I do not worship at the altar of power nor the tabernacle of authority so that the proclamations of those in those positions do not affect me in the manner folks here are suggesting.
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Duane E Swacker: “. . . in others’ eyes.” Neither you nor me nor anyone else controls that.
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Duane,
I think we use the word “sully” differently.
May I say that I feel deeply ashamed that this man represents my country, and enraged that he is at war with the rule of law?
That’s my feeling, perhaps not yours.
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And I can easily accept and agree with that statement, Diane.
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Duane, I like how we can disagree and still respect each other. So rare these days. Sorry I’ll miss you on Oct. 14, I have another work commitment in another city. And I also think Diane stated it well.
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Thanks for the kind words, GregB! I’m used to disagreements as many of my closest life-long friends are economic conservative, libertarian America first and greatest types. I’ve had lots of experience in debating with them many topics over the years. Of course I’m still a commie pinko socialist America hater and taker after all these years but that’s okay by me and we still are good close friends who would do anything for each other if needed (as we have many times in the past). For whatever reasons I am lucky to have so many really good friends that I have known, literally, all my life.
Probably the thing I dislike most is when people put words in my mouth, distorting and twisting what I have said. I refuse to back down and will call that kind of crap out for what it is.
Sorry you can’t make to the NPE. I put my reservations in for a camping spot in the Anthony Chabot Regional Park about an hour away. $29/night fits this retired teacher’s budget better than $185/night for a hotel. I’m just a skinflint but I also just prefer the woods to the city.
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Here are lines from a poem by British writer Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) written before Trump was born. (Source: The Great Thoughts, compiled by George Seldes (1985).
“Don poor in Bed and worse at Table
Don stuttering, Don with roving eyes,
Don nervous, Don of crudities,
Don dull, Don brutish,
Don hypocritical, Don bad,
Don furtive, Don three-quarters mad’
Don that shall never be my friend.”
Prophetic, huh?
Edd Doerr
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Both of my sons are Eagle Scouts, as is my husband. And I am beyond appalled at the orange slimeball’s behavior yesterday. What a scumbag.
Why didn’t the BSA leadership ask him to stop? Or at least have spoken to the young men afterwards that this isn’t the BSA way. I have already expressed my dismay to the national headquarters of BSA.
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He goes LOWER OVERTIME and ALL the TIME.
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Is this a surprise? This is exactly as he was during the campaign and how he has been his entire life. He spent five years claiming that he had proof that Obama was a born in Kenya and told the world that Ted Cruz’ dad helped assassinate JFK.
And people who should have known better were so warped by their hatred of Hillary Clinton that they enabled him to become President while blaming everyone else for their own gullibility.
He is exactly as bad as I feared. And he is being enabled by Republicans like John McCain who should know better. This is how fascism starts and the people who don’t realize it are the same ones who insisted that Trump was no worse than Hillary Clinton.
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GREAT insight: so many now blaming everyone else for their own gullibility.
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I hate to go all Godwin’s Law here, but…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co
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I always think of that chilling scene in Cabaret. I saw it as a kid and re-watched it a few months ago to see if it was just as frightening as I recalled and it was.
The expression on the old people’s faces watching and knowing how deluded these children are says more than any words could.
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DJT is so fixated with his numbers and his fame, his large crowds. Everyone should be loyal to him and they should have his back. He is just digging himself into a deep hole.
Trouble is, when he goes down, he will take the entire party with him. He will roll on everyone of them that knew how deep he is.
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Diane The Republican Party has a different but relate problem beyond “Trumpism.” That is, at its core, and as is plenty-evident in Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Grover Norquist and the so-called “freedom caucus,” it has traded (1) the ideas of collaboration and compromise in the Halls of Congress in the interest of what’s good for ALL who are created equal for (2) (guess what) the ideology of the predatory corporation: winner take all, zero sum game, my way or the highway, destroy your “enemy,” and, the people? . . . “Who?”
This whole movement was reflected in John McCain’s speech today where he called for a recovery of (1) above. Some exceptions, of course, in both parties; but the Constitution and the oaths office taken by most of the Republican Party are just empty words with no meaning. And Trump? Who is not aghast at him? I’ll say this again: Look to the people who elected him–that’s where we’ll find the real, long-standing problem–and it’s not going away any time soon.
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Maybe all of this is political theater. Might the real plan all along have been President Pence – owned by ALEC? Pence could not have won alone but putting him in as VP to someone who is exhibiting the signs of mental illness/dementia is a brilliant play. People will be begging to have Trump removed just as they will beg for safety in the form of marital law. How many of these personalities are merely useful tools? We fuss about personalities and party lines…… the real deal is about principles. We all are being played.
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Speaking of ALEC, here’s a frightening idea they are sponsoring:
“ALEC’s Model Bill to Repeal the 17th Amendment
The “Draft Resolution Recommending Constitutional Amendment Restoring Election Of US Senators To The Legislatures Of The Sovereign States” is scheduled to be debated by ALEC’s Federalism and International Relations Task Force in Denver.
The resolution reads in part:
Section 1. The 17th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. Senators shall be elected exclusively by the state legislature, upon a majority vote of legislators present and voting in a joint session. If a vacancy shall exist for more than 180 days, then the governor shall appoint the senator to serve the remainder of the vacant term. This procedure may not be modified by state initiative or referendum.
One only needs to examine the electoral map to understand why ALEC is pushing for a repeal of the 17th Amendment now.
With the majority of states under GOP control, Republicans could snatch some 17 US Senate seats from Democrats if the state legislatures are given the right to pick Senators.”
http://billmoyers.com/story/alec-koch-industries-gerrymander-denver/
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Makes sense. Gerrymandering on steroids and speed.
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“We all are being played.”
Yes we are. Like a cheap fiddle.
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Not that we are being played, Mary. The fundie xtian right has been working toward this moment in time for decades now. It has been out there if one looked (and I did and didn’t like what I saw/read/heard) but most everyone foolishly denied what the goals of that fundie xtian extremist right was/is. It’s more like self delusion by the masses not to recognize what that fundie xtian regressive right was/is doing. And they almost have what they want.
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UGH .
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My wife and I drove over to Scranton, PA today to do some shopping and have a nice lunch. The valley there, with its narrow, hilly streets and coal mines cut deep underground, has long been a traditionally solid Democratic bastion. It was also one of the last stops Donald Trump made on the evening before the election. The rally in Scranton that night got particularly rabid with shouts from the packed audience of “drain the swamp, drain the swamp….”. And, It was those voters who directly tipped the balance putting Trump in the White House. http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trumps-closing-message
I can report that Scranton, PA this afternoon does not look one iota different from the day I was there last October right before the election. Meanwhile, the “swamp” in Washington sounds like it’s murkier and more corrupt than ever…and now with a clown convention in town.
Scranton has a wonderful mine tour. Visitors go down into an actual coal mine. I took my first history class there 30 years ago and the guy who gave us the tour was a former miner himself. He was a solid barrel of serious muscle. And, despite the fact that my teenage students were in a hurry to get through the tour and have lunch at McDonalds, when that miner spoke let me tell you those kids listened -for sure. At the end of a dead end tunnel, the old guy took off his helmet and said he wanted a moment of silence for his friends who had died working in the mines. He then showed us what total darkness was like, shutting off the lights. For 20 seconds or so, I saw and heard nothing.
No 24 hour news babble, no hate radio, no fake news, no twitter nonsense. It wasn’t part of our universe back then.
I can’t imagine that former miner and the other hardworking people who really built Scranton would be laughing right now at our Buffoon-in-Chief. (Never mind those loud mouths and fakes who rally these days around a phony vision of what America never was.) It’s been my experience that the men and women who really made our country great, to use the classic phrase, tend to not “suffer fools gladly”. And, six months in, the evidence seems clear: we have a fool for our president.
Diane could not be more right. Trump is a disgrace to our nation. God save our country.
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That miner or a slightly younger miner is probably not a Trump supporter .He lived at a time that Unions were raising the living standards of American workers . Looking `at the crowd at the Ohio rally last night . Most did not look like the beleaguered working class.
I suspect that most of the workers Union or not who voted for Trump. No longer have income stability,are caught in the race to the bottom. That they turn to a fascist demagogue is nothing new or surprising.
As a history teacher you might be interested in this link. To which I had a very, very small connection. It explained why my parents had chose a summer community. What it shows is the effect of declining economies on workers. We have been here before.
http://portside.org/2017-07-17/remembering-peekskill#sthash.G72yALEQ.gbpl
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Really interesting. Wow…1949. I read it through once but will need to take a closer look at the piece. Thanks, Joel.
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What should be more shocking, is that this was less than 50miles from NYC .
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Tropes don’t come much more effective or clear than “Itchy Twitter finger.”
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If Trump is “un-American,” then what does that say about the 62 million people who voted for him? What does it say about the ‘leaders’ in the Republican party, who see him as the vehicle by which they can implement their oligarchic policies? What does it say about state and local officials who send voter data to what is – in essence – his national voter suppression committee?
Think it’s time for American public education to abandon it’s emphases on SATs and ACTs, and Advanced Placement, and STEM, and refocus on democratic citizenship?
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democracy: **”Think it’s time for American public education to abandon it’s emphases on SATs and ACTs, and Advanced Placement, and STEM, and refocus on democratic citizenship?”
Exactly–IF the powers that be don’t destroy public education first. And if Trump’s supporters’ desire to clear out Washington was legitimate, and if they voted for him because they believed what he said; NOW WHAT?
Call me “elite” all you want. But now it’s obvious that Trump supporters have NO IDEA how dangerous he is to the democracy we and they live in. If WE didn’t know how politically stupid his supporters were before the election, we do now.
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EVERYONE … how are we going to get him out…..? Can we please concentrate on that?
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CMW,
We must flip the seats of 30 Republican members of Congress in 2018 and take away his ability to divert money to his pet causes.
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How do we get DeVos OUT OUT OUT??????? Is it possible that we might have to wait for the duration of the first installment of the presidential term??? Please tell me no!
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Speaking of DeVos, here’s a look at the damage caused by relentless stalking of student loan borrowers, a group from whom DeVos intends to strip even more protections:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-studentloans/
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DeVos will be there until she gets bored.
We have to be sure she gets a suitable welcome wherever she goes.
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Imagine a teacher or principal making crude (locker room?) statements like t’s at a scout dinner or in an assembly.
Imagine a teacher or principal making statements about any republican at a scout meeting or assembly – all hell would break loose (well, that’s happened)
Diane wrote: “When will the decent Republicans say “enough is enough.” Trump will destroy the Republican party and destroy everything good that our nation is supposed to stand for.”
PLEASE Diane, keep saying this over and over and over and readers share it, call their newspapers and republican offices on it – and most importantly – that the DNC and local campaigns keep track of the silence and hypocrisy so it’s all documented a year from now before elections.
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