Is this America?
Pipe bombs directed at the leaders of a major political party. Today, a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and multiple fatalities. Neo-Nazis and white nationalists marching in public and beating up protesters. Efforts to suppress the votes of blacks and Hispanics in multiple states. Transgender people stripped of their rights. Mobs chanting “Lock her up” at presidential rallies, referring to the candidate who lost the last election. Attacks on freedom of the press. Bombs for the media. On and on the hatred goes, rolling from group to group, growing in intensity.
Guns everywhere. Military-style weapons freely available at gun shows and on the Internet. A powerful lobby controlling the votes of elected officials, who protect the right of gun-sellers to traffic in guns without any limits.
Racism. Misogyny. Homophobia. Xenophobia. Anti-Semitism. These are not new phenomena in American history. Until now, government and the law and the mainstream media actively opposed bigotry and hate crimes, and public schools taught tolerance, anti-racism, understanding.
Hatred knows no bounds. It invites and unleashes more hatred.
Where is the poison coming from?
Who cleared the way for this toxic effluence?
Why now?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think a better question is: Is this the America we the people want?
Obviously, it isn’t what we the majority of American People want because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3,000,000 votes.
And if we the people that don’t want America to be like this want to send a LOUD message that we don’t want the America Trump is building, we must vote on November 6th.
A NO vote is the same as a vote for the America Trump and his deplorable supporters wants.
We, the Americans that do not want the purtrid swamp that Trump is building, outnubmer the Always-Trumpers.
FiveThirtyEight updates How unpopular Donald Trump is every day. Today it is 52.5 vs 42.4 percent. Ten point one percent might not sound like much until you translate it into raw numbers. I think these numbers are based on polls that focus on people who vote and not on the total elligible to vote.
Pew Research says, “A record 137.5 million Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.”
That translates to:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=irpromo
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Agree totally. Voting is very important, it’s the basic starting point for any kind of possible progress in this country. I hope my fellow New Jerseyites will vote for Bob Menendez, even with all his baggage, because the alternative is to give more power to Trump and Mitch McConnell who wants to put the axe to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and whatever is left of the New Deal and the Great Society.
I also agree with Diane’s comments, we are indeed swimming in a sea of toxic effluence. The appalling thing is that so many Americans have signed on to this hideous mind set and nastiness, they think that Trump is fighting for them. Unreal!
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In the movie, Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore tells the audience that 70-75% of Americans favor progressive policies like Medicare for all.
Four individuals who wanted to dismantle American democracy- Rupert Murdoch, Charles and David Koch and Putin.
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All three of you are on the right track. In my view, the most important brain-washing that has been perpetrated against regular people is the framing of the left-centrist-right spectrum of political opinion by the Right. I think when an idea consistently polls higher than 60% approval, we can rightly consider it to be a “centrist” issue. Universal health care, mandatory gun background checks, secure funding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, environmental protection laws, good road and bridges, investment in public transportation, and legalizing marijuana are not issues of the left or the center-left, they are issues of the broad center. Need I mention public education issues?
As I have argued many times here, the United States has no left-right spectrum because there is no far left of any consequence in this country. The policies identified with Bernie Sanders are centrist to center-left. Even the policies the Right tries to vilify as “far left” are, when considered alone and without having personalities attached to them, anything but.
There are no organized far left equivalents of the American far right. Repeat that a few times. Certainly not when measured by power, influence and numbers. So we need to quit accepting the opposition’s framing of the political parameters. Our ideas are not fringe, they are supported by broad swaths of the American population…too bad many of them don’t understand that and continue to be puppets of special interests as they chant USA, USA.
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Among other things an uneven profit centered economy – a profit centered media – and bully philanthropism invading our schools. We need a publicly funded and completely independent media – a people centered economy – and school leaders that have the courage to call out what is not good for students.
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Couple this with the end of the fairness doctrine and social media that can allow bigots to live in their own work of reinforced hate, this is what you get. We need real public education where all children attend school together as fellow members of the same “tribe”, learning to respect and enjoy the experience of human diversity. All education is as important as “STEM” and the recent pushing aside of the arts, the humanities as well as physical education has contributed to the mess we are in.
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“world” not work!
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STEM in part, in my opinion, has been necessitated by the premature introduction of technology in the lowest grades. The insistence that the PARCC state test be taken on computer for grades 3,4,5 has robbed many of our youngest students one important early opportunity to learn how to “make” letters look graceful through cursive or script instruction. This instruction has been dropped in districts to make room for PARCC preparation on computer. Precision is a great part of such learning – basic skills so necessary for effective engineering and design.
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Just as in Europe, forced austerity by the right wing created resentments and divisions among the population. The villains include the American Enterprise Institute (Frederick Hess), Republican Party funders who seek to concentrate wealth (Charles and David Koch), the disaster capitalists in the financial sector (Dan Loeb) and tech industry (Bill Gates),…
The plot is spelled out in detail in the Paul Weyrich training manual posted at Theocracy Watch.
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In addition to voting, join a CeaseFire or Moms Demand group in your area. We have to lobby the elected officials who hold office now.
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Republican congressional members won’t even schedule town hall meetings with constituents.
If your name is Gates, Koch, Uhlein, Mercer, Adelson, or you’re a lobbyist for one of the industry PACs, you will be heard. Otherwise, all other pleas will fall on deaf ears. Republican legislators and DINO’s vote and introduce legislation at the direction of groups like ALEC, funded by the richest 0.1%. The U.S. is an oligarchy, a point proven in the research of Princeton Professor, Martin Gillens.
If enough people vote Democratic in 2018, possibly, democracy may have a chance.
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There have always been mass shootings, but we have never had a President that has encouraged violence and hatred and LAUGHED about it when his followers hurt anyone who dares to disagree with him. This is truly appalling and it seems like it is going to be very very bad.
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Thank you – I will read. Today, over 50% of German population watch public media as opposed to US where it is perhaps not even 5%. Each resident pays an annual television tax.
Further, I see no reason to pay a “star” multi-millions for reading off a teleprompter when the camera operators and TV control room personnel, writers, etc. get peanuts. How awkward that must be in that work environment. GODS and paupers.
Arte – a French/German public broadcaster is wonderful – I am a huge fan of Arte Journal Junior – https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/RC-014082/arte-journal-junior/ – a broadcast for young people 10-14 and wish we had something like it for our young people. It is in French and German – the content and quality can be seen even if you do not understand. How lucky for the young people in these countries. It airs every weekday morning before school.
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The GOP is determined to destroy and eliminate public broadcasting, radio or TV, because the right wingers perceive PBS and NPR to be far left liberal. Which is total nonsense. PBS and NPR are still worth having though the corporate billionaires may have made some in-roads.
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Personally, I’d like to see PBS go back to be being the “educational television” it was years ago. Rather than bombard us with pseudo-artistic pablum, British repeats, or fancy soap operas, there should be more content like “Frontline” and “Nova” and many of the other shows that inform.
I’d even like to see week-long themes built on James Fishkin’s ideas of deliberative polls, but instead of bringing in a focus group and taking the time to explain the background and nuances of an issue in isolation and in discussions with each other. Being conveners of national discussions about important ideas in history, science, culture, etc. is what many thought PBS might become. It certainly won’t become that anytime soon, but it is fun to speculate.
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Sorry for the run on sentence there. Should be:
“…deliberative polls. But instead of bringing in a focus group, broaden the discussion toward a national audience by taking the time to explain the background and nuances of an issue. Being…”
Must learn to proofread.
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The percentage of Jewish people voting Republican in presidential elections more than doubled between 1992 and 2016 (Wikipedia). Trump received 24% of the Jewish vote. The Republican Jewish Coalition’s policy platform includes school prayer and reform of Social Security, welfare and the government, in other words, the Koch/evangelical agenda.
53% of White women voted for Trump.
Many in the Black and Hispanic communities did not vote in the 2016 elections.
Under different circumstances, Trump would not have been elected. He could not have spewed his hatred from his position as America’s President. He would not have emboldened the alt right.
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“Trump received 24% of the Jewish vote.”
In other words, 76% of the Jews voted Democrat, making it one of the strongest reliable pro-Democrat groups in the USA.
There is a reason this alt right right wing murderer targeted Jews. It’s a safe target for Trump to scapegoat for their own deaths.
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Trump said easy access to guns is not a problem. He also said the synagogue should have had security. Thats called blaming the victim.
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Pew Research identifies 71% voting for Clinton and 24% voting for Trump.
An understanding about voting rationales is out of my wheel house but, the trend is troubling for Democratic candidates. In 2000, the percentage voting Democratic for President was 79%. In 2012, it dipped to 69%.
Without knowing how the votes are spread in terms of the electoral college, the effect on election outcome is unknown to me. RJC states it has 47 chapters throughout the U.S. Another unknown to me is, the impact of political funds raised by those in the Jewish faith for candidates in both parties.
An understanding about a possible political connection between murders at a S.C. baptist church and a Pennsylvania synagogue, again an analysis beyond me, might provoke significant questions and with hope, suggest a path forward.
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Why in the world are we pretending that we are not a country whose solid foundations are based on racial hatred . Lynching, rounding up the Japanese during World War Two and putting them in concentration camps. Currently rounding up children and putting them in cages, killing unarmed minority men by all of the police departments within this country. Gene frication putting people out of their homes taking away jobs and sending jobs to South America for corporate greed. Closing schools and turning them into charter schools paying white management to ensure that minority children never have a chance to go to a good college. Looks good on the Wall Street leger. Legacy is ok for white folks and affirmative actions has to be done away with.
I am so tired of being sick and tired of the racism, hatred that is widespread in America and you Diane pretending that this all started with Trump. It has been going on for decades and Trump has just opened the door for all to see.
Please spare us your concern because unless it helps your so called liberal cause you could care less. Just continue to pretend you have had a great life and could care less about the kids on the street and the school buildings falling down in Mississippi
After thirty years liberals and President Bush care about us, people have come and died and nothing has changed we still have the worst public schools and we have educators in charge who are more than stupid but racist. . We have seen your results of caring and let me tell you nothing has the word of hatred has been changed to the word caring. Minorities are not fooled by all of this hand wringing.
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I do not disagree with you, but why are you pretending we have a one-sided legacy? You overlook the flip side, the sheer complexity, of every issue you raise. You overlook when they have won and when they have keep on keeping on. You overlook the legacy of Lincoln, the first amendment, of countless individuals who have sacrificed for a better future, and many, many other things my friends here know better than me. I’ve incorporated many of your grievances into my world view. Perhaps you could think about some of mine? I suspect you do since you took the time to write this.
Make no mistake, I agree with Tucholsky aphorism that the most gruesome of beings is a patriotic mother. I think patriotism is a bad thing. Reasoned love and respect for country, warts and all, is quite another.
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Wow, where did this tirade come from! Your first paragraph was fine but then your attacks on Diane and the public schools were totally unwarranted. No one has done more for our public schools, civility and sanity than Diane. Just say thank you. I do not think we have the worst public schools, if anything, I think they have improved in spite of the terrible assault by the billionaire privatizers.
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Correction, I do disagree about the Diane and those attacks! I’ll stop writing now.
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Beata, I have read your comment three times and I am still trying to understand you. Do you prefer people like Trump who openly voice their racism or “liberals” like me who want a better world for you, your children, and my grandchildren?
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Beata,
Your generalizations reflect anger about injustice, a condition characterizing the U.S., for too long. (If you are a Russian-paid troll, trying to foment racial division, shame on you.)
Your generalizations warrant reflection. Racist Georgia Governor Talmadge’s proposed privatization has been successfully thwarted for decades. Diane works against its racist origins and its current racist advocates by fighting against the grifters from the hedge funds and the tech industry.
There are reasons to suspect that teachers in religious/Republican-affiliated schools and, the schools of “philanthropic” opportunists’ are bigoted. But, there is no corollary to assume the same about public schools.
One to three per cent of the population are sociopaths. No work environment can be rid of them entirely. The greater the control by local communities, the less likely sociopaths will be attracted to the environment and stay employed. Abuse by pedophiles nested in a patriarchal, religious education environment. Child abuse is statistically much higher in home schooled children.
The influence of Charles and David Koch, John Arnold, ALEC, Mitch McConnell, Congressmen Rohrbacher and Nunnes, the Federalist Society, tech tyrants like Gates and Z-berg reflects a perfect storm, unique to history. The rise of this element resulted from regressive taxation, which can be addressed by confiscation of their wealth.
Diane can be credited as one of many concerned citizens who exceed all expectations for their work to make the U.S. a place where there is diminished power for oligarchs and where the U.S. is a place of equal justice.
Law enforcement must strive to do better. A colonialist society of the richest 0.1%, is not the remedy for police bias
Beata, If your point is that wealth concentration and the power of the anti-democracy forces are too great to stop, then there are those who agree with you and predict a revolution.
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Beata: “Please spare us your concern because unless it helps your so called liberal cause you could care less.”
What are you talking about? We liberals care about a lot of issues that work to help people who are struggling. Is there something offensive in doing this?
“We have seen your results of caring… ” You have NOT seen the results. We are trying and getting rebuffed at every turn. I don’t have the power to change things but I do care. I vote at each election. I go to protests and carry homemade signs. I write letters to the editor naming the abuse that is currently occurring inside this country. I regularly contact my state and Federal senators and representatives. The problem is that I can’t donate a million dollars so that my voice can be heard.
My life while growing up was one of abject poverty. I understand what poor people go through. I am in disgust over the worship of the wealthy who get ever more and more while people are starving and struggling to survive. This country has all the natural resources to provide for its citizens. It is the lousy politicians and the wealthy who want every more for the top.
Just how am I supposed to stop corporations from going overseas so that people can earn a decent salary?
Is there something grandiose in Trump’s opening the door of racism and hatred? I’d rather it stayed under the rocks where it belongs. This hatred is spreading and growing. Everyday Trump spews another crisis and his hatred and fear-mongering never end.
Our schools are struggling but we do NOT have educators who ‘are more than stupid but racist”. Shame on you for putting down hard working teachers who get paid little and put up with shoddy, horrific working conditions. I am a retired teacher and I know exactly what is happening. We do NOT have the worst public schools. We do have poor students who are traumatized by their environment and nothing is being done to help them.
Yes, there are horrible things going on inside this country. Blaming Diane and us supporters is not the cause. We are all tired of the hate and the waste of our children’s future. We are tired of the extreme hatred that spews out of Trump’s mouth daily. Blaming the media, blaming Democrats…blaming all but himself.
This country would be in a much better position if Trump didn’t openly support hate groups. His one ability is to con people into believing in more hatred and fear towards those who are struggling. Immigrants are destroying the economy while the tax breaks are helping? We are supposed to be satisfied with healthcare that is getting more expensive each month? The poor are greedy and don’t need anything because it is much better that they learn to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’?
Don’t blame any of us. We are hoping and working for a better world.
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The killing of innocent people will never stop until we get some very stringent gun control laws. it works in other countries. Shame on those who can’t live without their guns. Find something else to love.
Hatred seems to be doing very well. Add the number of guns floating around and it is a recipe for disasters that won’t end.
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The Washington Post
Democracy Dies in Darkness
News Alert Oct 27, 3:25 PM
11 killed and six wounded by gunman at Pittsburgh synagogue, city official confirms
The gunman attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday morning services. Lynette Lederman, executive assistant to City Councilman Corey O’Connor and former president of the Tree of Life synagogue, confirmed the death toll. The gunman opened fire inside the synagogue during a baby-naming ceremony, Pennsylvania’s attorney general told the Associated Press. Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Robert Bowers, 46, a man with a history of making anti-Semitic statements online.
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Here’s a bit of information that is a little off topic but one that is connected to the workings of Trump who appoints people who want to further pollute our air. It seems that car pollution, wildfires and power plants that burn fossil fuels are causing damage to our heart, lungs and brains. Profits always come before health. And healthcare for all isn’t considered important.
This comes from Quartz.
You may have never heard of PM2.5. But if you plan to continue breathing, it should at the top of your vocab list.
PM2.5 is the technical term for fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. It’s the smallest unit of air pollution, the kind spewed out of wildfires, car exhaust, and power plants that burn fossil fuels. It’s small enough to invade human airways and slip into the bloodstream.
Exposure to PM2.5 air pollution has detrimental effects on the heart and lungs. It hits babies and the elderly hardest, and exposure in the womb has long been associated with an array of adverse outcomes that include preterm birth and low birth weight.
There’s also mounting evidence that PM2.5 can penetrate our brains. In the US, scientists found that counties with higher levels of PM2.5 had higher rates of dementia—and that when PM2.5 levels fell, dementia prevalence decreased.
There are still many unanswered questions, including how long it takes for the particulate matter to damage our cells, or if it’s possible to recover by breathing cleaner air later on. But scientists estimate that, globally, PM2.5 exposure caused 4.2 million deaths in 2015. They can also calculate the health impact increases in particulate matter will have on a population. For example, we know that the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of Obama-era coal regulations could lead to up to 1,400 more premature deaths a year in the US.
A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report postulated that bringing global PM2.5 exposure down to levels it says are protective of human health would eliminate the same number of deaths as globally eradicating breast and lung cancer in terms of life spans.
However, right now 95% of the global population is exposed to PM2.5 levels exceeding the WHO’s recommended levels—and that pollution has steadily increased in the past decade.
As the science on what these tiny particles can do to us matures, checking local air quality conditions—and transitioning to cleaner fuel sources—will hold more and more meaning for our health.—Zoë Schlanger and Katherine Ellen Foley
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Diane said: Until now, government and the law and the mainstream media actively opposed bigotry and hate crimes, and public schools taught tolerance, anti-racism, understanding. Hatred knows no bounds. It invites and unleashes more hatred.
Then she asked: Where is the poison coming from? Who cleared the way for this toxic effluence? Why now?
I am not a historian. Diane and others have pointed to influences.
I am a shade older than Diane, but in my memory…the poison spread into government and law and the media with the help of live TV broadcasts of Joseph McCarthy and his sidekick Roy Cohen looking for communists everywhere and drumming up “loyalty oaths” like the one required of me in my first teaching job. https://deadline.com/2018/06/roy-cohn-documentary-senator-joseph-mccarthy-donald-trump-julius-and-ethel-rosenberg-1202418885/
Add the horrs of the Vietnam war
and segregation forever George Wallace,
Add radio personalities Rush Limbaugh (conspiracy theories).
Add radio jock Howard Stern (Trump-like vulgarity)
and the lesser known but still influential dirty trickster and master of vitriol
Lee Atwater, the latter with a direct line to Paul Manafort’s work on the Trump campaign as traced in this account. https://www.facingsouth.org/2017/11/paul-manaforts-role-republicans-notorious-southern-strategy
Add cynicism from the economic meltdown, failues of prosecutions for that corruption, and more.
The poisonous creep, toxic effluence has also been aided and abetted by numerous right wing organizations, some of these listed with founding dates, leadership, and activities summarized here. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/
I Ihave not even mentioned educational policies with my awarness of the political tradeoffs and opportunism associated with these beginning in the mid-1960s “Great Society” programs.
I am working hard to think ahead, with hope. It is hard work, but necessary.
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I think the McCarthy era was the 2nd step. The first step was The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
“It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. …
When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, she or he faced deportation. …
” In 1943 Congress repealed all the exclusion acts,” …
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47
But I might be wrong because the history of racism and hate goes back to the struggle to end slavery before the Civil War and after the Civil War, there was the Jim Crow south.
“Jim Crow law, in U.S. history, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. … The term came to be a derogatory epithet for African Americans and a designation for their segregated life.”
The US has a long history of racism and hate crimes and there seems to end in sight, and it doesn’t help that Donald Trump encourages hate and racism.
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As you say yourself, the original sin of our society was slavery and racism. The Chinese Exclusion Act comes along much later. We have a long history of racism and exclusion, but we grew up thinking we could reverse the wrongs of the past. We thought we were making progress. As I think back to the president’s over the course of my lifetime, I can’t recall one as openly bigoted and racist as Trump. He reverses many decades of trying to be better. He is the master of moral relativism and whataboutism. One of his comments today was that there is a rise of hatred everywhere around the world, and it was hard to know why. He sloughed off any responsibility for his own words and deeds in encouraging that outburst of hatred. He gives fascists permission to come out of the darkness.
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I read an interview with all of DT’s biographers and they all agrees that Trump is incapable of admitting he is wrong or guilty of anything. Whatever he does or says that loses money or causes deaths or injuries, the fallout is always someone else’s fault.These five authors probably know Trump better than anyone does.
Maybe it was in this piece from Politico Magazine:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/donald-trump-2016-biographers-214350
Trump and his family have made it clear that if the GOP loses the majority in the November election, it isn’t his fault. It is theirs.
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If they win, Trump takes the credit. If they lose, it’s not his fault.
Heads I win, tails you lose.
Perfect con man.
Never loses.
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Diane,
I made a similar statement a few months ago online, and a dear friend of mine, who is a person of color, absolutely blasted me, writing comments similar to Beata’s, above. (I am white.). I was reduced to tears and nearly unfriended her. I didn’t. I’m so glad I didn’t.
Instead, I worked hard to understand where she was coming from. It wasn’t easy. But I tried hard to put myself in her shoes, and tried to understand the context of her comments. As a Liberal, white, middle class American, I rarely have had such hatred directed at me, personally. I have worked, literally, my entire life, to try to make the world better for people of color and other marginalized groups: I am an educator, I teach, I march, I confront, I encourage, and I listen. I thought I was doing all the right things. And the things I was doing were good. Though small, they have been helpful and important to the individual children of color in the communities where I have worked.
But though I did all of those things, and they were good, in a way, I still didn’t completely understand. I didn’t understand how the remark I made on social media, where I expressed a similar disbelief about where had all this hatred came from, could be taken from the reference point of a person of color. To my friend, it came off as a complete disregard for the life she and her family lead every single day, and a complete disregard for the lives her parents, her grandparents, and her ancestors led, even before our country even became a country. And it has never stopped. She and her family live with this hatred day in and day out, and have for centuries.
Each of us, across this country and across our world, have worked to make changes in the lives of individual children. Some of us have even worked to make systemic change. I know there are Freedom Riders who read this blog, and people reading this blog who are currently working to combat the voter suppression of persons of color in some of our states.
The dialogues that we are having here are important to have. If we want to have real change, which clearly we continue to need, it is imperative that each of us continues to create dialogue which will leave the doors of communication open, and the doors of our hearts open, too.
Beata is telling you that this hatred had it’s roots centuries ago. And while some of us who are white have not seen this level of hatred in such a pubic way, and now we can due to social media, people of color have always known that was alive and well because they’ve continued to see it all the time. Every. Single. Day. And despite laws, and education, and good intentions, and even some good results, this hatred refuses to die. I think that Beata wants you to see that cloaking our society in our intentions and laws has, in fact, not produced the results we’ve intended at all, and this hatred started long before Trump and social media. I also believe that Beata is also tell us that all the laws and education and the good we have done, have lulled society into a place of complacency, and this has served to increase the anger of some people of color, who know that in some ways, very little has changed.
We need to make sure that we see underneath the cloak of our good intentions, that the emperor still is wearing no clothes.
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amazing post. thank you.
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Let Them Learn- Agree.
The election of Pres. Obama to two terms and his popularity which greatly exceeds Trump’s defines America more than Breitbart does, more than Richard Spenser does, more than McGinness’ Proud Boys do, more than Steve Bannon does,..
The esteem in which the Southern Poverty Law Center is held is more of a bellwether than the bigotry of Fox, Carl Pallidino’s insults and Milo Yiannapoulis’ blather.
The tearing down of prominent confederate statues is more of an indicator than hitler fans in basements of run down houses, bigoted customers at Walmart shouting racial epithets and DiSantis’ dog whistles.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for your thoughts, BRK. I hear you and I heard Beata. And I heard Derrick Johnston, president of the NAACP, who spoke at the NPE Conference a week ago about how little had changed for people of color. I understand the rage but I believe that it is important to build coalitions and not attack your allies. I learned from Bayard Rustin, who was an eloquent proponent of coalition politics. He was a close friend.
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Which is why I wrote:
“If we want to have real change, which clearly we continue to need, it is imperative that each of us continues to create dialogue which will leave the doors of communication open, and the doors of our hearts open, too.”
Gotta leave those doors open.
Walls will never produce the society we desire.
Maybe that’s the real issue:
DIffrerent groups/leaders want a different society.
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Thank you for this post.
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I’m going to suggest you see the film “The Hate U Give”. If you haven’t seen it, you might discover some answers in that film.
I saw the film last Wednesday and it is a powerful film. Everyone should see it. If it doesn’t pick up a few nominations from the Academy Awards, I’m going to be pissed.
Take some tissues with you.
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Our school district has an advocacy group for African American families and we read “The Hate You Give” together. Very powerful novel. I definitely recommend it.
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The Hate U Give is now a film too, a powerful film and the novel came first.
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What goes around comes around.
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“Where is the poison coming from?”
And where is it going?
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Take a look at these quotes and tell me there is no difference between the Repubs and the Dems.
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“Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences. But I just don’t think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence … The president and I have different styles, but the president connected to the American people because he spoke plainly.” – Vice President Pence
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Someone is finally getting the guts to stand up to this horrible Orange Monster.
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Jewish Group Tells Trump To Stay Away From Pittsburgh: ‘You Are Not Welcome’
By Ed Mazza
The progressive organization says the president should not visit until he decides to “fully denounce white nationalism.”
The leaders of a progressive Jewish organization in Pittsburgh said President Donald Trump should not visit the city as it mourns the 11 people murdered in a mass shooting at a synagogue until he changes his tone.
“President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism,” the leaders of the local chapter of Bend the Arc wrote, adding:
“For the past three years, your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement. You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”
The group said Trump’s rhetoric had not only led to attacks on Jewish people, but also “deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.”…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pittsburgh-donald-trump-jewish-group_us_5bd66a3de4b0d38b5884ee66
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I thought that Trump only watched Fox. Here he is verbally slamming billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer as a ‘crazed & stumbling lunatic’. Trump has such a way with words. Guess its now okay to not only body-slam people, it’s okay to drag their names through the mud. Our ‘Great Leader’ has spoken.
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Jake Tapper
✔
@jaketapper
Thanks for watching CNN, Mr. President!
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Just watched Wacky Tom Steyer, who I have not seen in action before, be interviewed by @jaketapper. He comes off as a crazed & stumbling lunatic who should be running out of money pretty soon. As bad as their field is, if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!
12:05 PM – Oct 28, 2018
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What a vile man. He will never change or evolve. He thrives on belittling others and lying to his followers.
Can’t wait to say, one day soon, “Loser!”
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Reblogged this on It's Not Easy to Have Faith and commented:
Two steps back…again!
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I love good news!!! I’m in favor of crooks getting caught.
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Trump, Children Accused of Fraud in New Lawsuit: NYT…2 HOURS AGO
For allegedly endorsing sham companies in exchange for lavish payment.
A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Monday accuses President Trump of endorsing sham companies in exchange for hefty, undisclosed fees, according to a report from The New York Times. Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr. are also named as defendants. The lawsuit, which has been underwritten by a company whose chairman has donated to Democratic candidates, claims that Trump and his children were secretly paid to promote three businesses—telecommunications marketing company ACN, vitamin-marketing company Trump Network, and real-estate advice company Trump Institute—that were actually “get-rich-quick schemes,” the newspaper reports.
https://thebea.st/2OXrKI5?source=email&via=desktop
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Here are some quotes by Trump. Guess this is his idea of ‘peacemaking’.
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On Violence
“I love the old days, you know? You know what I hate? There’s a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed punch back anymore….I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya.” —on how he would handle a protester in Nevada, sparking roaring applause from the audience, February 22, 2016
“There may be somebody with tomatoes in the audience. If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” —encouraging violence at his rallies, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Feb. 1, 2016
“That was so great. Who was the person who did that? Put up your hand, put up your hand. Bring that person up here. I love that.” —praising two audience members who tackled a protester at his rally in South Carolina, Feb. 16, 2016
“The press is now going, they’re saying, ‘Oh but there’s such violence.’ No violence. You know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? I think, like, basically none except maybe somebody got hit once. It’s a love fest. These are love fests. And every once in a while…somebody will stand up and they’ll say something.…It’s a little disruption, but there’s no violence. There’s none whatsoever.” —on his campaign rallies, despite documented evidence to the contrary, March 14, 2016
“You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard. I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor… I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn’t know what the hell happened… I was going to hit a number of those speakers so hard their heads would spin, they’d never recover. And that’s what I did with a lot – that’s why I still don’t have certain people endorsing me: they still haven’t recovered.” –Donald Trump, reacting to the Democratic National Convention (July 29, 2016)
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