August 26, 2018 2:00 pm
A team of Washington Post reporters wrote this story.
The veil of secrecy is falling away.
Yesterday a writer compared him to MacBeth. Maybe he should be compared to Lady MacBeth. “Out, Out, damned spot.” She can’t wash the blood off her hands.
He can’t wash away a lifetime of criminal entanglements.
“President Trump’s wall of secrecy — the work of a lifetime — is starting to crack.
“His longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last week to breaking campaign-finance laws and said he had arranged hush-money payments to two women at Trump’s direction. A tabloid executive — who had served Trump by snuffing out damaging tales before they went public — and Trump’s chief financial officer gave testimony in the case.
“All three had been part of the small circle of family, longtime aides and trusted associates who have long played crucial roles in Trump’s strategy to shield the details of his personal life and business dealings from prying outsiders.
“But, as their cooperation with prosecutors shows, a growing number of legal challenges — including the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and a raft of lawsuits and state-level probes in New York — is eroding that barrier.
“The result has been a moment in which Trump seems politically wounded, as friends turn and embarrassing revelations about alleged affairs and his charity trickle out, uncontained. In coming months, certain cases could force Trump’s company to open its books about foreign government customers or compel the president to testify about his relationships with women.
“The myth of Trump is now unraveling,” said Barbara Res, a Trump Organization executive from 1978 to 1996. “He’s becoming more obvious, and people are starting to know what he’s like and what he’s doing.”
“Whether the president faces legal peril is not clear, but his presidency is at a precarious point. Recent polls suggest his repeated attacks on Mueller for leading a “witch hunt” have lost their effectiveness. And if the Democrats win a majority in at least one house of Congress in the midterm elections, now less than 10 weeks away, they would gain the power to investigate or even impeach.”
State attorneys general are going after him.
Most ominous—and not mentioned in this article—is the investigation of the Trump Foundation and the entire Trump Family by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.
The president can’t pardon anyone with a state conviction.
The wall of secrecy is eroding, and the menace is getting closer every day.
If and when the Democrats take the House, prepare for hearings about corruption and gross incompetence.
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Here is the main reason Trump, Pence, and all their greedy, fossil fuel-loving, Climate Catastrophe-denying cronies should be arrested, convicted, and imprisoned:
EPA Coal Plan Could Cause Up to 1,400 Premature Deaths Annually
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/epa-coal-plan-could-cause-up-to-1400-premature-deaths-annually/
Trump’s EPA readily admits that the new coal plan will kill 1,400 people (and that’s most likely a conservative estimate).
Imagine a U.S. politician or military officer stating that a new policy would result in the avoidable, premature deaths of more than 1,400 Americans, but that new policy would be put into effect anyway.
What do you call such a person who knowingly causes the deaths of more than 1,400 of his/her countrymen?
I call that person a traitor.
Trump’s irresponsible, mass death-causing environmental policies are the real reason he and his greedy, fossil fuel-loving, Climate Catastrophe-denying cronies should be impeached and convicted and imprisoned, not Russiagate.
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By Ed on August 26, 2018 at 2:17 pm
Dump is a traitorous liar.
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By Yvonne Siu-Runyan on August 26, 2018 at 2:21 pm
1400 annually. In ten years that grows to 14,000.
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 26, 2018 at 3:08 pm
Ed,
I hate Trump’s environmental policy as much as you.
But they are not an impeachable offense.
Conspiring with a foreign government to corrupt our elections is.
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By dianeravitch on August 26, 2018 at 4:56 pm
Hopefully, environmental issues will be acceptable cause for impeachment.
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By Máté Wierdl on August 27, 2018 at 7:32 am
People are such creatures of habit that they will continue to think the most absurd things if those are the things that they thought previously. In the US, environmental issues have LONG been considered to have the same importance as, say, the color of the trash bags purchased for the kitchen trash can. People don’t cast their votes based on such issues, even though we are hurtling toward utter disaster.
Ours is not a highly educated country. We have some highly educated people, but the population at large–well, almost half of these people voted for G.W. Bush, Jr., TWICE and for Agent Orange.
Few know that over 75 percent of flying insects have disappeared in the past quarter century or that, in the same period, a third of all wild vertebrates have. They don’t know the difference between a report by an international team of climate scientists and the spewings of Professors Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. So, no, Agent Orange will not be impeached for environmental policies that are killing people. Not an impeachable offense is, sadly, correct. Ranting incoherently isn’t either, or this toxic buffoon wouldn’t have made it past the first day.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 8:03 am
Bob: I think we found a majority of those insects at a beautiful Bowdoin NWR on. Hot July day in Montana last summer.
All kidding aside, the challenges which face our environment fail to motivate even those who know about them. Falling populations of birds, reptiles, and mammals cannot be herald of anything but woe.
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By Roy Turrentine on August 27, 2018 at 12:48 pm
Imagine that something had killed off a third of all humans over the past 25 years. This is what has happened to wild vertebrates, worldwide, according to the 2010 report, Biodiversity: Global Outlook, by the UN Convention on Biodiversity. It’s difficult to find language to express how very serious this is. It’s breathtaking.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 3:25 pm
As always, Roy, your comment is a delight to read. Here’s that report: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Animals in the ocean are dying from the garbage that permanently floats in the oceans. Mankind is not taking care of this planet.
……………………………….
We Depend On Plastic. Now, We’re Drowning in It…National Geographic
BY LAURA PARKER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RANDY OLSON
…Because plastic wasn’t invented until the late 19th century, and production really only took off around 1950, we have a mere 9.2 billion tons of the stuff to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste, a staggering 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin—a figure that stunned the scientists who crunched the numbers in 2017.
No one knows how much unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean, Earth’s last sink. In 2015, Jenna Jambeck, a University of Georgia engineering professor, caught everyone’s attention with a rough estimate: between 5.3 million and 14 million tons each year just from coastal regions. Most of it isn’t thrown off ships, she and her colleagues say, but is dumped carelessly on land or in rivers, mostly in Asia. It’s then blown or washed into the sea…
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/
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By carolmalaysia on August 27, 2018 at 4:40 pm
A Facebook friend of mine is a microbiologist. Studies phytoplankton, the basis of the ocean food chain. There has been a dramatic decrease in their numbers. Toxins and warming.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:02 am
Don’t forget all the plastic breaking down out there changing the ocean environment.
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 29, 2018 at 11:03 am
As you know, the Lakota used to place their dead on a scaffold and let the elements take them. This is illegal across the US now. One reason given for the law is that by the time we’re old, our bodies are so full of toxins that WE endanger the environment.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:06 am
I think the Buddhist Tibetans do that too — carry their dead up to the top of one of their sacred mountains and let vultures eat them.
How about calling our species Homo Mephitis. I’ve read that humans are listed as one if not the stinkiest creatures on the planet.
“Humans stink worse than other animals”
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/02/24/3147589.htm
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 29, 2018 at 4:22 pm
La mer est la mère.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 31, 2018 at 10:34 am
Our profound stupidity makes our self celebratory Latin name — homo sapiens — very funny indeed.
Homo hubris would be far more apt.
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 27, 2018 at 10:21 pm
Origin of Homo sapiens
1795–1805; < New Latin: rational man
“rational man”? Trump is a rational man? The entire GOP is rational? Bill Gates is rational? Betsy DeVos is rational?
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 27, 2018 at 10:50 pm
I have long used the term Homo ignorans
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:02 am
Its not just Trump and tge GOP.
Is it rational for the US and Russia to have thousands of nuclear tipped missiles on hair trigger alert pointed at one another?
Is it rational to have an economic system based on the assumption. Of eternal exponential growth, which actually violates physics?
Is it rational for the US to spend so much of it’s wealth on waging senseless wars all over the planet that actually make us less — not more — safe while many of it’s people do not have enough to eat or even a home to live in?
Is it rational to treat the Earth as our personal session pool?
By any reasonable measure, Homo sapiens is an idiot.
The chance that we are going to survive as a species for even another century is very small and grows smaller by the day.
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 7:02 am
Preach it, brother. Testify!
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:04 am
Signify!
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:04 am
“sess pool”
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 7:04 am
Yay.
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By Yvonne Siu-Runyan on August 26, 2018 at 2:19 pm
When all of this is over, Merriam-Webster may have to replace the word hubris with trump, keeping the definition. Nemesis in this case would be decency and truth.
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By GregB on August 26, 2018 at 2:31 pm
Or at least put his picture next to the word narcissism in the next edition
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By Bob Shepherd on August 31, 2018 at 10:35 am
Well, then, the “distractions” continue, & we will soon be at war w/Iran or N. Korea or China or all 3.
Or he will continue to pick on & blame Jeff Sessions for everything…which is just fine w/me…
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By retiredbutmissthekids on August 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm
None of this matters until something he does affects the unattentive middle class, undecideds, and maybe a few in his base. Cheat? Lie? Avoid some taxes? Women? Race? Eh, that’s just Washington and this guy – it’ll pass.
It’s the now normal of Washington noise to which all are numb. Truth. Lies. Spin. Yesterday’s news.
The real press writes about indictments, links to oligarchs, WH firings, allies who hate us, killing the environment, privatizing schools, Russia.
Another day. Another “breaking news” gotcha. Who won the ball game? Film at 11.
Then he tweets and goes to rallies “blah blah blah WALL” “blah blah blah Hillary’s emails and Obama’s anything” “blah blah blah protecting spotted owls” “blah blah blah NFL players” He rants. His base salivates.
Most people don’t care. Democracy will survive. Their taxes aren’t going up. We’re not at war. 70% will still not vote. He controls all three branches. He could be indicted – even release his taxes – and he’d still get at least 40% of the votes.
I know, I know, people who read this blog and the NYT and WP, who watch MSNBC and think long term do care. But we’re in the minority.
What is scary is that LOCAL voters don’t care if the the epresentatives and Senators are more loyal (and scared) to the president than their constituents.
What I hope is that folks in my state understand the golden boy GOP Senatorial candidate is funded by dark money (it’s on his ads), will obey the president, will vote party first – and he couldn’t care less about voting what is best for the State and the majority of the population.
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By Wait, What? on August 26, 2018 at 3:27 pm
I don’t know if “democracy will survive” this, at least the way we have been used to it. The U.S. is careening towards authoritarianism, and I worry for our Constitution.
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By Threatened Out West on August 26, 2018 at 11:50 pm
Yes, Trump is a threat to the Constitution, but that threat would not be as serious if the GOP wasn’t supporting him by ignoring his endless lies and campaign of hate. The Republican Party is the real threat. If it wasn’t Trump, it would be someone else that might be worse.
The 2018 midterms will be the canary in the coal mine. If the Democrats don’t take back at least one House of Congress, the Constitutional crises we find ourself end will only get worse.
If the Democrats take both Houses and reverse the loss of states to the GOP by taking back half or more than half of the states, then the odds will shift and the U.S. Constitution might survive.
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 27, 2018 at 1:01 pm
The man was going bankrupt, and suddenly a lot of Russian kleptocrats showed up with suitcases full of CASH with which to buy multi-million-dollar condos and homes from the Trump Organization. Agent Orange used the bankroll from his money-laundering for the Russian mob to finance his run for the presidency, and the Russian siloviki pulled out the stops on the dirty tricks machine to get him elected. Agent Orange’s collusion is long-standing, disgusting, and deeply treasonous. The man makes Aldrich Ames and Edward Lee Howard look like Eagle Scout choir boys.
Putin is, literally, a judo master. He even wrote a book on the subject. You know, judo, which is about throwing your opponent off balance. What better way to do this than to give us Agent Orange? A complete disaster. The whole thing is sickening and horrific. Lord knows what damage has been done. It’s going to take our intelligence services a long, long time to sort this one out.
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 8:55 pm
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 9:05 pm
I hasten to add that I have no special knowledge of this. I just read the news reports. And what I read is very, very disturbing. If it quacks like a duck. . . .
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 9:24 pm
They have ways of making you talk, Bob.
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 27, 2018 at 10:24 pm
LMAO. Send me those honey traps!
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By Bob Shepherd on August 29, 2018 at 11:03 am
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-pattern-russian-money-laundering-testimony-article-1.3764964
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 9:08 pm
https://www.metro.us/president-trump/russians-bought-86-trump-properties
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 9:12 pm
http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/
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By Bob Shepherd on August 26, 2018 at 9:14 pm
If he is ousted before his term ends then we have Pence and perhaps ASAP a theocracy?
I wish I could be more optimistic on where all this ends. So many people seem to think that the economy is booming and unemployment is low, so what could be wrong with having another “I am in awe of Trump” in office.
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By Laura H. Chapman on August 26, 2018 at 9:31 pm
With all due respect, Laura, a suggested edit:
WHEN he is ousted
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 12:53 am
Off topic- The website, Axios, which is where the journalists who left Politico, now publish, posted this summer, “Billionaires Fuel State Charter School Groups”.
After senior staff left Politico and formed Axios, Politico’s articles, IMO, began to show right wing bias, which was reflected in an article posted last week. A description in an article included the following, “…decadent homosexual lifestyle”.
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By Linda on August 26, 2018 at 9:48 pm
Dear Agent Orange:
“O for breath to utter what is like thee.”
“Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of the Nile.”
“Methink’st thou art a general offence.”
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 1:09 am
Trump has shown us that there are thousands of people who are just like Trump and he will be replaced by another one. Nothing has changed nor will change the hate is out of the bottle for all to see and the pictures of children locked in cages that have yet to be found is haunting and will be forever in my mind. Get out and vote, get rid of school boards that don’t work and union leadership that is in love with being on TV vs anything else. Corporate America has taken away the souls of our children with the support of willing adults.
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By Beata on August 27, 2018 at 9:39 am
Who needs clean air? Yes, it is hard on coal miners but the nation’s health and the environment of the world is at stake. This was put out by the WH. Someone must work full time to find news affirming that Trump can do no wrong. How wonderful that Scalise is looking forward to continuing to work with Trump. Blah, blah, blah, blah…
…………………….
Rep. Steve Scalise: Trump ends Obama’s war on coal
…During his administration, former President Barack Obama declared a war on coal and worked to strangle American energy. Today, I’m thankful for the results being delivered by Trump to reverse these misguided rules, especially with his revisions to the Clean Power Plan.
In just the two years working with Trump, we have been able to end the war on American energy to the benefit of hardworking families. Our Republican Congress has worked to roll back hundreds of harmful regulations that have stifled the economy. Now, the economy is booming, and American energy producers are growing and creating good jobs while providing affordable energy to consumers. I look forward to continuing to work with Trump on achieving American energy dominance, to strengthen our national security, and finally give economic opportunities to millions of people who were left behind…
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/rep-steve-scalise-trump-ends-obamas-war-on-coal
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By carolmalaysia on August 27, 2018 at 11:17 am
McCain’s final letter to us, read by Rick Davis.
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By Akademos on August 27, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Akademos: I am grateful for McCain’s vote against the destruction of ACA. Other than that, he talked a lot of good but didn’t do much. As it states here, he voted with Trump 80% of the time since 2016.
………….
Obit Omit: What the Media Leaves Out of John McCain’s Record of Misogyny and Militarism…Democracy Now
MEDEA BENJAMIN: … I just spent the last weekend with Veterans for Peace, people who are atoning for their sins in Vietnam by trying to stop new wars. John McCain hasn’t done that. With his life, what he did was support wars from not only Iraq, but also Libya. He called John Kerry delusional for trying to make a nuclear deal with Iran, and threw his lot in with the MEK, the extremist group in Iran. He also was a good friend of Mohammad bin Salman and the Saudis. There was a gala for the Saudis in May when the crown prince was visiting, and they had a special award for John McCain. He supported the Saudi bombing in Yemen that has been so catastrophic. And I think we have to think that those who have participated in war are really heroes if they spend the rest of their lives trying to stop war, not like John McCain, who spent the rest of his life supporting war…
McCain voted with Trump 80 percent of the time since 2016. He wasn’t some great rebel in actions. The thing about John McCain was he was great at rhetoric. The actions didn’t always match the rhetoric. And that is what the media gave him cover for….
And yet, we’re being told for the last 48 hours that John McCain was the embodiment of civility in U.S. politics, he was a bastion of decency. Even Bernie Sanders used that phrase. And yet, even McCain himself probably wouldn’t recognize that description. He was a well-known cranky and rude and abusive figure. He called antiwar protesters “low-life scum.” He mocked Chelsea Clinton as ugly. He made jokes about rape and spousal abuse. He famously called his Vietnamese captors “gooks” and said, “I won’t apologize for that.” He used the C-word against his wife in public. He has a long history of not behaving in a civil manner. He ran a presidential campaign in 2008, Amy, where at the rallies of McCain and Palin people shouted out “terrorist,” “traitor,” “off with his head,” “kill him,” in reference to Barack Obama. Today we condemn Donald Trump for holding rallies where they say “lock her up.” Where is the condemnation of those rallies in 2008 that John McCain presided over?..
MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, that’s right. I think we should really look at this in the larger context of the glorification of militarism, the way McCain was in favor of the expansion of NATO, threatening towards both China and Russia. This is all in the benefit of the weapons industry. We can see Lockheed Martin doing a eulogy, which they did for John McCain. So, let’s remember, we want to thank those who don’t fight in wars, the conscientious objectors, the peacemakers, and recognize John McCain of a symbol of the glorification of military that we have to fight against…
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/27/obit_omit_what_the_media_leaves
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By carolmalaysia on August 27, 2018 at 2:48 pm
I think “De mortuis nil nisi bonum” shouldn’t apply to politicians. The article is great, carolmalaysia.
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By Máté Wierdl on August 27, 2018 at 3:02 pm
D.C. decisions for years, have been steered by McCain, McConnell, Hatch, Lindsay Graham, the Koch’s politicians, Paul Ryan, Schumer, Pelosi,…
Where is the nation after their tenure of power?
One out of 5 children are born into poverty. Six heirs to the Walton fortune have wealth equivalent to 40% of Americans combined. Bill Gates has staked claim to America’s most important common good. The nation’s ugly legacy of bigotry is again, front and center. The share of national income going to labor is at its lowest point in recorded history. Wall Street drags down GDP by 2%. Unlike every other industrialized nation, the U.S. has a health system that is so costly that a catastrophic illness bankrupts a family. U.S. voters elected a President who threatens world stability by carrying out Putin’s plans. The U.S. democracy fell and was replaced with oligarchy.
The flag should be lowered to half-mast but, not on the occasion of a politician’s death. It should be lowered in recognition of how much Americans have lost to the richest 0.1%, among them, John and Cindy McCain.
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By Linda on August 27, 2018 at 5:07 pm
I honor John McCain for his service. Last January, I visited Vietnam and saw the quarters where he was a prisoner. As the son of an admiral, he was offered an early release by his captors. He refused the offer and said he wouldn’t leave until all of his fellow prisoners were released. This kept him in captivity for years more.
I also honor him for being the decisive vote that blocked Trump’s plan to kill Obamacare.
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By dianeravitch on August 27, 2018 at 5:19 pm
On the other hand, how is McCain’s record on education?
He voted to confirm DeVos. I guess in the name of preserving the “unity” of his party.
Here he is on school choice, titled “Why I support school choice and charter schools (and you should, too)”
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/01/27/sen-john-mccain-why-support-school-choice-and-charter-schools-and-should-too.html
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By Máté Wierdl on August 27, 2018 at 6:56 pm
Máté Wierdl: McCain said, “…the 6,700 individual charter schools that have opened nationwide are serving as incubators of the most forward-thinking leaders in public education.”
Thanks for the article. I see John McCain as a difficult person to understand. He went through extreme trauma in his early years in Vietnam but supported war. He was very outspoken against Trump but voted with him 80% of the time.
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By carolmalaysia on August 27, 2018 at 7:03 pm
McCain was in office for 36 years. He claimed a signature concern was campaign finance reform. He voted to confirm the judges who delivered the Citizens United decision. He cared so much about his country that he selected Sarah Palin as his V.P.
How many POW’s have flags flown at half mast for them?
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By Linda on August 28, 2018 at 8:31 am
Linda,
John was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for heroism and wounds in combat. This heroism has been played up in the press and in his various political campaigns. But it should be known that there were approximately 600 military POW’s in Vietnam. Among all of us, decorations awarded have recently been totaled to the following: Medals of Honor — 8, Service Crosses — 42, Silver Stars — 590, Bronze Stars — 958 and Purple Hearts — 1,249. John certainly performed courageously and well. But it must be remembered that he was one hero among many — not uniquely so as his campaigns would have people believe.
[…]
It is also disappointing to see him take on and support Bush’s war in Iraq, even stating we might be there for another 100 years. For me John represents the entrenched and bankrupt policies of Washington-as-usual. The past 7 years have proven to be disastrous for our country. And I believe John’s views on war, foreign policy, economics, environment, health care, education, national infrastructure and other important areas are much the same as those of the Bush administration.
https://www.alternet.org/story/95825/i_spent_years_as_a_pow_with_john_mccain%2C_and_his_finger_should_not_be_near_the_red_button
No doubt, McCain has made the most of his suffering as a POW. To many (including himself) he was an expert on war: when to go and how to treat soldiers. Apparently, vets were not crazy about him
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandon-friedman/mccains-non-support-for-t_b_131046.html
From this blog, I think, it’s difficult to see McCain in a positive light.
The story of McCain reminds of the story of Auschwitz. There are many people in Hungary who made a living by playing up their families’ suffering in Auschwitz. This is not exactly surprising, since Hungary had the largest number of victims in the camp according to this pic I took in the camp this summer
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PRz5A1pHGsrgaS1y6
But much more people simply went on with their lives after their families’ encounters with the camp.
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By Máté Wierdl on August 28, 2018 at 10:31 am
For politicians, the best rule is “De mortuis nil nisi boneheadum”
Of the dead, say nothing but “bonehead”
Restricting ones criticism of politicians in this way is actually a compliment in many cases.
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 9:33 am
“Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father”– John McCain
Decency on many levels.
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 11:09 am
PR machines whitewashed McCain, labeling him a maverick when he was no such thing. Similar PR makes the public perceive Bill Gates as a philanthropist when he is an investor in the largest for-profit seller of schools-in-a-box. If Gates was a philanthropist, more than he is an opportunist, his wealth wouldn’t continue to guarantee his rank as richest man in America.
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By Linda on August 28, 2018 at 11:24 am
“It’s tough being Bill Gates”
He gives it al all away
And yet, remains so rich
What more is there to say?
Philanthropy’s a bitch
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 11:51 am
A boomerang it is
This money is a curse
He thought it would be bliss
But nothing could be worse
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By SomeDAM Poet on August 28, 2018 at 11:56 am
It’s a shame that Gates and Arnold can’t take their money to hell with them.
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By Linda on August 28, 2018 at 4:07 pm
I think it would be better to send them to hell and take all their wealth and use it to fund a national early childhood education system that is not turned over to the private sector but kept in the traditional public schools.
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By Lloyd Lofthouse on August 28, 2018 at 8:28 pm
Just this though:
Speaking of country’s best qualities, McCain wrote that “we weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all corners of the globe.”
“We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been,” Davis, holding back tears, said as he read McCain’s message in Phoenix.
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By Akademos on August 27, 2018 at 3:07 pm
THIS
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By Bob Shepherd on August 27, 2018 at 3:35 pm
Eugene Robinson: GOP should honor McCain’s legacy by showing a spine
…The man now living and working in the White House is uniquely different from, and worse than, his predecessors. All of them. Other presidents have been venal, bigoted, corrupt, divisive, ignorant or unstable, but never all of these things at the same time, in such lavish measure.
When Trump used a huggy-kissy interview with Fox & Friends last week to rail against “flipping” — the standard practice by prosecutors of offering a member of a crime organization a lighter sentence in exchange for testimony against higher-ups — he didn’t just sound like a mob boss who knows he’s being ratted out. He sounded like a man who would do anything, and I mean anything at all, to keep the investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York from uncovering secrets whose exposure threatens him and his family…
https://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/columns/eugene-robinson-gop-should-honor-mccain-s-legacy-by-showing/article_e4411932-aa3b-11e8-9585-03c586619920.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
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By carolmalaysia on August 28, 2018 at 7:04 am
Analysis: Trump often unwelcome and unwilling to perform basic rituals of the office
Ashley Parker, The Washington Post Published 6:31 am CDT, Tuesday, August 28, 2018
…”We’ve kind of elected this apex predator, and you don’t sit T-Rex down at the dinner table,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant and strategist. “I think civilized society doesn’t want him behaving crudely at the dinner table, and he has no interest in their pretensions.”
At his recent rallies, Trump has taken to expounding on his lack of acceptance by the so-called “elites,” proclaiming it as a badge of pride. And his disdain for what he terms political correctness is similarly applauded by many of his supporters.
“The thing to realize is that Donald Trump’s base revels in him playing the transgressive jerk,” said Rick Wilson, author of “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and a veteran of Republican campaigns.
Wilson added that with McCain in particular, the funeral snub perhaps stings more than most, in part because Trump can’t abide not being the main focus of adulation. “You know what is making Donald Trump the craziest right now is he’s not the center of attention,” Wilson said. “He’s crawling the damn walls because they’re running story after story on John McCain and he hates it because he’s not the center of attention.”…
https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Analysis-Trump-often-unwelcome-and-unwilling-to-13187418.php?utm_campaign=email-desktop&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&utm_medium=social
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By carolmalaysia on August 28, 2018 at 7:58 am
When I see the wealthy at events like this, it makes me want to puke. The whole Trump family is rotten and corrupt. It shows what going to expensive private schools produces. ………………
Ivanka Trump Smiles With Pastor Who Thinks Marriage Equality Is Satan’s Work
TIM TEEMAN 08.28.18 1:18 AM ET
Ivanka Trump, one-time LGBT rights supporter, showed up at the White House evangelicals’ dinner to pose for selfies with guests like homophobic Pastor Jim Garlow…
As pointed out by author Jeremy Hooper on Twitter—himself quoting GLAAD’s extensive rap sheet on Garlow—at the Family Leadership Summit in 2017, Garlow said: “The Bible starts with the marriage of a male and a female, and it ends with the wedding in Revelation of a bride and groom.
“The bottom line is this, If I were Satan, I would want to destroy on the earth the image of God….
Pastor Jeffress told CBN that Trump had a 77 percent approval rating among evangelicals and was “the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, and pro-conservative judiciary president in history which is why evangelicals continue to support him enthusiastically.”
Strangely, Pastor Jeffress had nothing to say on such subjects as Trump’s alleged adultery and his desire to grab women by the pussy, or at the lack of respect Trump accorded John McCain in death…
https://thebea.st/2MT2nFk?source=email&via=desktop
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By carolmalaysia on August 28, 2018 at 10:41 am
Excuse me, but who officiated at the wedding of Adam and Eve? The snake?
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By dianeravitch on August 28, 2018 at 1:25 pm
How low-down vile can this Orange creature of the swamp get? He lies and stirs up nonsense. These people are not ‘Christians’ if they are devoted to Trump.
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Donald Trump warns privately of ‘violence’ if GOP loses midterms
…“In a private meeting with Christian ministers, Donald Trump warned of “violence” if Republicans do not maintain control of Congress in the midterm elections, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the New York Times.
At a state dinner for evangelical Christian ministers on Monday night at the White House, Trump urged religious leaders to use the power of their pulpits to make sure that “all of your people vote” in November, the New York Times reported.
“You’re one election away from losing everything you’ve got,” Trump reportedly told them.
If Republicans lose Congress, “they will end everything immediately”, the president said, seemingly referring to Congressional Democrats.
He went on: “They will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently. And violently. There’s violence. When you look at antifa, and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people.””…
Trump’s comments appear to echo the rhetoric of political advertisements from the rightwing National Rifle Association. In a much-criticized videoadvertisement last year, the gun rights group used footage from street protests to paint the entire American left, and all Americans who oppose president Trump, as violent thugs who “bully and terrorize the law-abiding”. The ad’s incendiary rhetoric was sharply criticized, with one critic calling it “a whisper shy of a call for full civil war”…
https://gu.com/p/995fn/sbl
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By carolmalaysia on August 29, 2018 at 7:50 am
This is unbearable.
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The United States is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question..WaPo
The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border with Mexico of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown on their citizenship.
In some cases, passport applicants with official U.S. birth certificates are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. In others, they are stuck in Mexico, their passports suddenly revoked when they tried to reenter the United States.
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By carolmalaysia on August 29, 2018 at 7:31 pm