Trump is a master at appealing to the lowest fears and hatreds of the Swamp that is his base.
Like other demagogues in history, he knows how to unleash rage and envy.
He says he is a “stable genius.” He says he is the “least racist person” you will ever meet.
He teaches us what? Lie. Boast. Bully. Insult. Demean all those whom you see as a threat. Demean those who not like you. Demean the Other.
Now he says that certain members of Congress should “go back where they came from.”
How low can he go?
When you think he has touched bottom, he goes even deeper, reaching into the subconscious to stir fear, anxiety, hatred among his base.
I try to ignore him, to never watch or listen. But his pudgy little finger controls the nuclear codes.
He has taught us a lesson about who we are. We are not exceptionable. Any country that could nominate a man with no character, no ethics, no morals, no principles, must look hard in the mirror and ask “Who are we?”
The Republican Party has destroyed itself by falling in step behind the least qualified man, most vicious, most incompetent man in our history. Their silence speaks volumes. They have become spineless creatures in Trump’s Swamp.
If only he would go back where he came from.
https://apple.news/A3T3DtsypRMy8uC1lUTlvJg
Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe said it best in her daily Fast Forward column:
Trump’s racist tweets Sunday telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to their countries — all are US citizens and three were born in the US — isn’t really about those four young women. It’s about all of us.
It’s about all among us who are people of color, awaking today to a world deliberately made more dangerous for them by the occupant of the Oval Office. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said, Trump’s tweets make them targets in a country full of guns.
It’s about all of us who are too gutless to condemn the phrase popular with white supremacists — “Go back where you came from” — and the divisive us vs. them mentality that is the hallmark of the Trump presidency.
It’s a phrase one expects to hear on the street from knuckle-draggers, not from the West Wing.
British PM Theresa May condemned the tweets — “The language that was used to refer to these women was completely unacceptable” — but a) she didn’t mention Trump by name and b) she’s a short-timer with nothing to lose.
Yet even she was more forthright than Republicans in Congress, only two of whom have addressed the issue. Representative Chip Roy of Texas tweeted: “POTUS was wrong to say any American citizen, whether in Congress or not, has any ‘home’ besides the U.S.”
And then came the predictable “but:” “But I just as strongly believe non-citizens who abuse our immigration laws should be sent home immediately, & Reps who refuse to defend America should be sent home 11/2020.” In other words, “Sorry for criticizing you, boss; I’m really on your side so please please please don’t hurt me.”
Ditto Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who this morning offered mealy-mouthed advice to Trump — “Aim higher” — before launching his own attack against the young women, calling them anti-Semitic and saying they hate the US.
The calculus of GOP members of Congress is purely political: They are deathly afraid that Trump will primary them, finding more sycophantic Republicans to challenge them. They value power more than principle, incumbency more than integrity, muscle more than morality.
This feels like a turning point in our country: When there are no repercussions for racism, what’s next?
Remember when Hillary Clinton said during the 2016 campaign that Democrats have to understand and empathize with Trump supporters who “feel that the government has let them down?” And that many others belong in a “basket of deplorables” because they have racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic tendencies that Trump elevates and celebrates, and the world went nuts that she would dare to call them out?
What’s funny is that many Americans wish Trump would go back to the country where his allegiance really lies: Mother Russia. I hear the meatloaf in the Kremlin is delicious.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He’s a MORON & a SADIST. I hope America finds its brains and soul soon. I do worry about KARMA getting this country. One never escapes mother nature and karma.
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Trump IS our karma.
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Trump’s latest outrage in a very long line of outrages is just another putrid step closer to a bloody, shooting Civil War between the majority and Trump’s minority of hate-filled, weak minded, deplorable supporters.
And Trump’s basket of deplorable supporters has already started the Civil War. The rest of us are not defending ourselves against them … not yet. America is a heavily armed country so it is only a matter of time. If Trump loses really big in 2020, the U.S. might avoid blowing up and burning its cities and slaughtering millions of its own citizens while the rich and powerful who helped start it fly to other countries to wait until the blood bath is over.
“Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/22/trumps-rhetoric-does-inspire-more-hate-crimes/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.64874af7671b
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“Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes” Now I may want the SOB to have a coronary as I type. But that is a meaningless stat. It could mean that a county that had had one hate crime had two.
As are probably half the 10,000 lies the WaPo fact checker notes. I am sure 5000 is closer to the number. But the fact that he has made it past 500 says a whole lot.
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Wearing our educator hats –
If he were a high school student, he would be in violation of the Safe Schools Act, any anti-bullying laws, internet use policy, admitting to sexual misconduct, plagiarism and more – and he’d have been suspended hundreds of times, possibly expelled, and hotline called.
And, if he were an administrator he’d be in violation of human resources anti-discrimination policy, falsifying public records, violation of Freedom of Information, harassment….
And to think in the old days we debated about athletes as role models – ha! How about Presidents
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That “basket of deplorables” comment was spot on and instead of being recognized for how insightful it was, it was mischaracterized by the far right and picked up by mainstream media which loves to destroy Dems to prove how “fair and balanced” they are.
While some Trump voters did feel as if the government had let them down — which it had! — too many of them were drawn to his ugliness and scapegoating.
And now we see that ugliness and scapegoating is now what the entire Republican party is all about. They are allowed to say and do anything without any consequence. Notice how quiet all the Republicans have been. If you want to criticize Trump, you must leave the Republican Party.
These are very frightening times. The empowerment of the deplorables is the precursor to fascism.
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Nah, there’s always a problem with name-calling. Name-calling = #*@!
Here it is with some context: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up… but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change…”
Those who fit the description are blind to their own faults, & will automatically ascribe it to the [#@!] characteristics of the [#@!] person who said it [and the rest of their #*@! group]. Those who don’t either have a chip on their shoulder & assume they’re the target, or the unfairness gives them an infusion of angry team spirit. They all started reacting & stopped listening before she got to the second “basket.”
HRC did a good job of clarifying that mess the next day—but that never works. You can’t unring this bell: “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.”
Never mind the intricacies of where she should have campaigned & didn’t in that last 60 days. This remark alone probably hardened a good number of voters who were on the fence.
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Is there a kinder word to use for people who are neo-Nazis and racists than “deplorables”?
I don’t think that remark hardened the vote of anyone who planned to vote for Trump anyway or was on the fence. Remember, Trump still has well over 40% approval now. The people who voted for him were going to vote for him whether HRC called them deplorable or not. They still like him despite him saying some ugly, horrible things about women.
HRC lost because too many people on the left believed she was a corrupt, dishonest neoliberal who planned to sell out every progressive idea to please her corporate masters (which had nothing to do with her deplorables remark!) and too many people who agreed with her were disenfranchised or didn’t bother to come out and vote. Comey’s actions the last 10 days did much more damage than the deplorables remark.
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Hillary’s remarks implied that by – what– watching Trump campaign rallies?—she ascertained that 50% of Trump support came from folks w/deep character flaws (& named those flaws). I doubt she intended such a slur—even soft-pedaled it as “gross generalization”– but those were the words people heard.
The question is not whether neo-Nazis and racists are deplorable. She did not interview a representative sample of of Trump supporters & find them to be neo-Nazis and racists. The question is whether a politician trying to garner votes is wise to characterize her opposition—a significant proportion of whom were wkg-class former Dems who’d lost a long tradition of union mfg jobs—as 50% bad people. Sadly it betrays a simple lack of social skills/ communication. Her after-the-fact apologia corrected this by pinning specific Trump actions/words to whipping up bad actors, but too late, damage done.
While I agree w/you on Dems sitting at home instead of voting for “more of the same [neoliberal ccrap],” that applies to Sanders thumb-suckers as well– but the election was lost by some 70-90k votes spread across the rust belt – many of them conceivably could have been on the fence. I see the Comey crime as simply confirming the Hillary-haters, not as clinching it for former union wkg-class types.
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Ok, she shouldn’t have said it.
But clearly it was true! The fact that Trump can tweet the most vile and racist things and still have more than 40% of the country’s approval speaks volumes. I grew up in the rust belt and plenty of working class people did not support Trump because of that racism and they were far too smart to believe this con man’s promises. And others had absolutely no problem with his racism and lies. What does that tell you?
Just do the math! Trump didn’t even win the popular vote! He got 50% of the vote but over 40% of the entire country still approves of this racist President tweeting reprehensible things about women who are not white. That must mean that even more than 50% of Trump voters are fine with the leader of this country being so deplorable himself.
I think it is naive for anyone to think the Dems or progressives will ever win the votes of people who still approve of Trump. Instead they should concentrate on the more than 50% of the country who know his racism is vile and don’t pretend that it isn’t a big deal for this country’s leader to be racist. They should concentrate on stopping the targeted disenfranchisement of the voters who don’t approve of that and the gerrymandering designed to empower the minority of voters — but majority of Trump voters — who are fine with it.
I am still doubtful that anyone in the rust belt who previously was perfectly willing to vote for Trump despite his many instances of racism, xenophobia, and all around vile behavior and lies (Remember when Ted Cruz’ dad helped assassinate JFK?) would have ever changed their minds if only HRC hadn’t talked about deplorables. I think it is just as likely that many people who might have been on the fence heard her say that and realized “hey, you know Trump is saying pretty vile things and actually some of my friends who are his most rabid supporters do say lots of racist things themselves. I certainly don’t want to make him the most powerful man in this country because I’m not like that.”
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“The Republican Party has destroyed itself by falling in step behind the least qualified man, most vicious, most incompetent man in our history. Their silence speaks volumes. They have become spineless creatures in Trump’s Swamp.”
Yes. Well said. Even jelly fish, sting rays and alligators can be tamed in some measure by human beings who feed them. Trump is counting on the soaring stock market and tax breaks for the super rich to bring in cash, feeding those in and beyond the swamp. The looks forward to a second term. it is clearly important in fully capturing the Supreme Court, keeping the Senate, and satisfying his supporters who populate many statehouses, cities, towns, and rural areas.
Look for his sadistic vocabulary, voice, frowns, and other biometric features to be migrated by techies to “others” so his own ugliness actually seems to be coming from someone else, anyone who opposes him. The technology is there. The fake transformations are very difficult to detect.
The problem is that first impressions, even if poor fakes, are sticky–difficult to override and disremember. Trump’s routine shouting about fake news is a crude version of the really persuasive cons that techies can create and then send out on social media. The scale and variety of deceits headed our way is of no concern to Trump supporters. This tsunami is not receiving enough attention from those who oppose him. The old-fashioned pamphlets and single sheets of oppositional venom with neighbor to neighbor circulation are also easy, inexpensive, and in the mix.
These and other techniques of persuation (e.g., FOX and friends) keep me in a state of worry and wonder about the future.
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Every time this sicko puts his foot in his mouth or makes a deafening blunder, I think to myself, “Is this a bridge too far?” Like a teflon Phoenix he arises from the ashes with his cult intact and ready for his next cringe worthy policy or statement. When is enough, enough?
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The return of the Teflon Don
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The Teflon Don died in prison.
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Riddle me, riddle me, riddle me this . . .
Who am I?
I am. . . .
From New York
In the construction/building trades
Launder money for mobsters
Evade taxes
Do lots and lots and lots of big cash deals
Brag constantly about my wealth and my genius
Keep my tax returns and sources of income secret
Have a violent temper
Demand loyalty oaths from subordinates
Thrive on obsequiousness from those around me
Am constantly paranoid about betrayal
Constantly ridicule others
Think that the unimaginative, belittling nicknames that I came up with for opponents are really funny
Am casually racist
Am extraordinarily narcissistic
Have a comb-over
Wear expensive, dapper suits
Mangle the language
Am a blowhard
Cannot utter a sustained, coherent thought
Conduct business out of my “club”
Constantly complain about “fake news”
Am surrounded by dirty lawyers
Am subject to lots of investigations that don’t stick
Brag about how they will never catch up to me
Gotti? Trump? Hard to tell
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Indeed, Joel. Perhaps history will repeat itself. It looks as though this will be so.
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Trump does not love America. He doesn’t care about putting Americans in danger. He doesn’t care about cultural regression by a century or two. Our version of the transforming and disguised neo-nazi movements in Europe is headed by an addled con man.
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A president who denies climate change and guts the EPA and all science in every Department does not love America.
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FWiW, I don’t think Trump is personally racist. That would require caring enough about another person to notice what race they are, and I don’t think Trump is capable of that. He is, however, capable of (and skilled at) playing to the racist ideas and fears of his base, which is why they’ll support him to the bitter end.
However, I’ll say it again. By focusing on this kind of stuff, you’re only giving him power. He has freedom of speech the same as anyone else, regardless of what we think of such speech. He loves it when people react to what he says. Don’t let him play that game. Focus on what he does, not what he says or how he says it.
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When the President of the United States makes racist remarks, they can’t be ignored.
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What good is it doing reacting to it?
Seriously, an eyeroll is the proper response. You don’t need more than that. We all know you’re not racist – you don’t need to prove it by reacting to every racist remark the president says.
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You do the eye roll.
I will complain out loud.
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Silence is complicity.
Exactly.
FYI — it is so much easier to say “just roll your eyes” when you are white and not Muslim you are not the object of the hatred that the leader of your country is engendering.
Trump is racist. Saying racist things makes you a racist. I do not understand how anyone can possibly insist that it does not.
Sometimes I think there are people far more worried about offending white racist Trump voters than worried about non-white Americans who are the objects of Trump’s attacks.
Any white person who gets upset if a Democrat calls out Trump’s racism is just racist. Period. Progressive should not try to win by obsessively worrying about offending those white people. They are the deplorables.
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^^^Oops, meant this to post to agree with Bob Shepherd’s post at 3:22
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Dienne77
What good does it do.
Silence is condoning. “Well – no one complained”
You can eye roll
I’ve already written to both of my red senators and will call. Will it make a difference? Doubtful. But imagine if 1,000 people did that?
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A note to the Republican Party.
All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to remain silent.
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“All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to remain silent.”
Recent experience shows that a lot of bad men and women remain silent as well.
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Racism is instinctive with IQ45. Everything is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump
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What good does it do? you ask? Well, one of the most powerful of forces, in human relations, is social sanction, positive and negative, and this is why whenever we encounter racism, sexism, homopobia, ageism, and other denigrations and objectifications of the Other, we must call them out. Silence is complicity.
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dienne77 says: “I don’t think Trump is personally racist.”
Bernie Sanders disagrees with you. Bernie Sanders tweeted this not long ago:
“I’ve said all along that Trump is a racist. He is proving that point yet again by attacking Reps. @IlhanMN, @RashidaTlaib, @AyannaPressley and @AOC.
Split a contribution between their campaigns and ours to send a message that his racism will not stand:”
(I hope no one says that Bernie should just have rolled his eyes and shut up.)
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The only people that think Trump is not a racist are racists themselves and they think that way because what Trump does is perfectly acceptable to them and is normal and nothing is wrong with Trump and what he says and does.
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If Donald Trump isn’t a racist, then who is? That comment simply doesn’t make any sense. Yes, he is completely amoral and will do anything, anything, anything at all that he thinks (if one uses that term very loosely) might further his immediate (that is, having to do with the next thirty seconds) goals. But he has amply, amply illustrated that his instinctive reaction is going to be that of the racist. And he even subscribes to the simple-minded genetic determinism of the white supremacists–talking about his “race horse breeding” theory of relative human value and how he applies that to his own family (“How about that Ivanka, huh? Great genes.”) and to women in general.
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“I don’t think Trump is personally racist.”
I guess one can write that if one sticks one’s head in the sand for years and/or ignores all evidence to the contrary. FFS, Sigh!, I thought you were better than that.
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Also, what does it say that Trump knows that the best way to appeal to his base is to be repellently racist! If that doesn’t mean his base is deplorable, then what other word is there to describe Trump’s base?
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I maintain it’s important to react every time Trump breaches govtl norms. This is not equivalent to parental reverse psychology, i.e., choosing when to withhold reaction from one’s two-year-old’s behavior for fear of incentivizing more negative behavior. Not to react makes Trump’s way the new norm. You have to draw a line in the sand; it’s the only language he understands. When the public holds that line & rains down approbrium, he backs off. When the Senate licks his boots by swallowing negative reaction in fear of retribution, he further imposes.
I agree w/dienne77, Trump [pre-presidential campaign] was never particularly racist (I watched him, early ‘70’s-early ‘90’s as a NYC denizen, & from NJ since then), nor was he particularly conservative, & definitely not religious let alone concerned w/abortion et al evangelist concerns – even tho he displays all those features today. He is simply an opportunist [& narcissist]. He has an accurate ear for what floats the public’s boat, & twists chameleon-like to fold pop whims into his “platform.”
Trump represents the first real opportunity for the public to begin questioning the amount of power that has been ceded over 60 years by congress to executive branch agencies, and more specifically, to the power of the presidency. Clearly, if he can be elected, anyone can.
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I’m pretty sure Trump’s non-stop questioning of President Obama’s birth certificate was about as racist as it gets.
Trump was the leader of the birther movement long before the 2016 campaign. And he and his dad have a long history of racism in their apartment renting.
Just because Trump found it more financially rewarding not to express his vile racism in the 70s – 90s does not mean he wasn’t racist.
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My usual yardstick is one I grew up with, my rabidly racist—tho well educated!—grandfather, who carried a poor-kid chip on his shoulder into his by-yr-bootstraps upper-midclass adult life, along w/the attitudes of the urban German-Irish nbhd of his youth. Prompted by this thread, I perused a Vox article https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history which directly addresses whether Trump’s birther activism was opportunist vs racist.
Have to admit O’Donnell’s 1991 quote about black vs Jewish accountants (which Trump agreed he probably said) could have come straight from my grandfather’s mouth. The sense that Trump was “not particularly racist” came from seeing him converse reasonably face-to-face w/black political figures over the years, picking up on a vibe expressed by Ben Carson [“I’ve had an opportunity to interact with racist people throughout my life. And he is not one. He is so easy to be around, so relaxed, and treats you with the utmost respect”] – something no one ever said about my gfthr, who would have ostentatiously snubbed any supposed “peer” who was AA.
With that research under my belt, I can view his face-to-face reasonableness thro the coward/bully lens: Trump avoids IRL confrontation unless he is throwing red meat to core in that moment; will cozy up to anyone who can provide something he wants; any AA paying him homage becomes a friend for life (or until he needs something different). My gfthr’s racism (& sexism & borderline-personality behavior) was a danger only to himself, & may even lie behind his retiring from a solid corporate career while still in his fifties. Trump’s ability to restrain himself when politically advantageous— & to channel a decent inner self when unthreatened– makes him very dangerous indeed.
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I STRENUOUSLY disagree. Trump is a hard-core racist. Through and through. He’s been showing this since 1973, and yet people still don’t believe he’s racist. He’s racist.
And we HAVE to speak out on “This kind of stuff,” because it’s TERRIBLE. We as educators especially, HAVE TO SPEAK OUT. If you don’t agree with that, I can’t even talk to you. I”m sorry.
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Trump,“I am the least racist person you have ever met.”
People who care about other races do not verbally put them down as criminals, rapists and drug dealers. They do not put down members of Congress who aren’t ‘pure’ white by telling them to go back to where they came from. These women are ALL US citizens.
Trump is everyday proving that he is a white supremacist. We are a multi-racial society and Trump is catering to the fears of those ‘good people’ on both sides. No there aren’t ‘good people on both sides’. White supremacy reeks of the hatred and fear of no longer being THE sole power running this country.
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Call him what he is: a white supremacist.
His father belonged to the KKK. The Apple did not fall far from the tree.
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Trump and his vile ilk can’t stand the changing demographics of the country. They are grasping at anything with which to build walls to hold back the tide of history. Soon, his like will be the ugly Before picture. I have to believe that in these ugly times. I look to the young people. They give me hope.
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INT. OVAL OFFICE – DAY
Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Camera back to reveal Rod Serling standing to one side.
His name, Mr. Little. A man will little education, little taste, little knowledge, little concern for other people. A black hole of neediness, he used Daddy’s money to build big, erected his name in Midas-gold letters across the landscape; cheated and harassed and ridiculed the unfortunate, the stranger, the down and out; appealed to the basest instincts of the basest among us; huffed and puffed and blew himself to gigantic proportions, at least in his own little brain. A twisted, malignant, metastasizing tumor of narcissism and knee-jerk nastiness, Mr. Little doesn’t know much, but the biggest thing he doesn’t know is that he just stepped over into a place where everything is bigger than he is, where everything is just beyond the grasp of his little mind and little hands. He just stepped over into . . . The Twilight Zone.
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Aka Donald (J. for Jabba) the Trump; President Pinocchio; Vlad’s Agent Orange; the Don, Cheeto (Little Fingers) Trumpbalone; Trumpty Dumpty; Don the Con; The Dapper Don in Diapers; Child-Man in the Promised Land; Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue; Our Racist in Chief; The Great Trumpkin; Moscow’s Agent Governing America (MAGA)
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Bob Shepherd: WOW! I’m impressed.
I was frightened by the Twilight Zone and as a kid didn’t watch many episodes. I’m more frightened by the Swamp Monster.
You are better than Trump at coming up with names. I give you an Oscar award for best creativity. May the world recognize your great genius. [Sorry, I don’t give out Nobel Prizes.]
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BTW, speaking of divisive and racist tweets, Kamala Harris says that Colin Kaepernick taking a knee was “not a thing” until the “Russian bots” made it one: https://twitter.com/i/topics/news/e-1488924864?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email
If we’re going to yelp about Trump’s racism, this is far worse. Harris of all people should know better.
Incidentally, speaking of Russian bots – do you remember those Russian companies that were indicted and we all assumed they’d conveniently never be brought to trial? Well …. https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/12/concord-management-and-the-end-of-russiagate/
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His taking the knee NEEDED to become “a thing.” That’s how a protest works, Dienne.
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Twitter is an absolute cancer.
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Disagree. Twitter isn’t a cancer. The ugly and racist people who use twitter to promote ugly and racist things would be doing so via some other platform if not twitter.
Twitter didn’t “make” someone try to normalize and minimize Trump’s racism by comparing it to a perfectly reasonable thing for Kamala Harris to say and claiming that what Kamala said was “far worse” than Trump’s racism.
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Double-disagree. I can’t spend more than a few minutes on Twitter without sinking into a (deeper) pit of despair. By design, there is no discussion. There’s only tribal signaling via memes and snideness. Half the users are bots and most of the other half may as well be. Of all the social media with cancerous effects on our social and political discourse, none is worse than Twitter. So far. It’s a good marketing tool, though, I suppose.
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I agree with you. Tried out Twitter, but it is a cesspool. Trying to stick with musicians’ feeds to keep up with new albums and tours. It’s good for that!
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I’m not so sure, FLERP, that all social media are cancerous. When I started teaching in a South Florida high-school, I fully expected to encounter among my students the same sort of racism that is so common here in the Deep South. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were a few (very few), but they were consistently shouted down by the other students. So, what’s happening? I know that social media isolates older folks on their own private Galapagos islands in which they develop extremist traits, but the young use social media intensely for social interaction, and when someone posts some awful sexist or racist or homophobic comment, others pile on. The young are more susceptible to peer pressure–to negative social sanction–than their elders are, and I suspect that this negative sanctioning of such attitudes is having a net positive effect on them.
I also think that there is a selection bias that happens with media reports about social media phenomena. Stories about negative events involving social media are great click bait. Less so are stories about the life-enhancing communities that emerge online–breast cancer survivors talking to others going through treatment, groups dedicated to a hobby or art form, from Greek cooking to flamenco guitar to EDM to permaculture gardening to Klingon language and literature, lol.
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I admire your optimism as always, Bob. But the forecast looks much darker to me.
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Well, if we survive, . . . . [dark laughter]
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In any event, surely it is beyond cavil that Twitter itself is a cancerous cesspool. I don’t consider YouTube “social media,” but I do find it a (huge) net positive thus far. Emphasis on “thus far.”
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I agree about Twitter. I started using it and then just. . . couldn’t. And when have I ever been able to limit myself to 280 characters? Some readers of this blog might wish for such a thing.
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It’s easy to exceed the character limit if you attach a photo to the tweet and add more words to that.
I belong to a few ReTweet groups that are authors and/or bloggers and we support each other’s tweets often getting thousands of retweets a week.
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I use YouTube to mostly to watch music videos sometimes for hours when I have better things to do. My subscribed list of singers and/or songwriters is getting too long.
For instance, Karolina Portsenko, a ten-year-old girl that plays the violin to always large crowds in Santa Monica and seems to be making a lot of money for her music. And I’m not alone. She has about 1.5 million subscribers.
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Isn’t AOC doing an excellent job of using twitter?
What I find most brilliant about her is her ability to make a clear and important point in just a few words.
Maybe it’s just that other progressives need to do that, too!
Among her more recent tweets:
“It’s important to note that the President’s words yday, telling four American Congresswomen of color “go back to your own country,” is hallmark language of white supremacists. Trump feels comfortable leading the GOP into outright racism, and that should concern all Americans.”
and “I see @LindseyGrahamSC’s biggest issue w/ Trump’s racism is that it doesn’t go far enough – Graham wants to bring back 1950s McCarthyism, too. GOP is doing this because they have no plan for our future. We’re the ones fighting for healthcare, edu, good jobs, & they got nothing.”
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^^And sorry, I can’t resist one more brilliant AOC tweet:
“You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder. You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it. Yet here we are.”
If twitter depresses you, follow AOC and the other Congresswomen Trump attacked.
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What???
Am I missing something? What is wrong with what Kamala Harris said?
“If we’re going to yelp about Trump’s racism, this is far worse.”
And how in the world do you get offended by this and not Trump’s racist tweets?
How is Kamala’s tweet “far worse”?
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^^^Never mind. I see that every single rabidly pro-Trump right wing news outlet is now making this Kamala Harris non-issue into a fake issue. They never quite explain why what she said is bad, and definitely never explain why it is so much worse than Trump’s rabid racism, but making sense is never important when your object is to defend the great leader and attack anyone with a D after their name.
Still, it is shocking to see Fox News right wing propaganda posted on here as if it is legitimate news with a comment about how what this Democrat says is so much worse than Trump’s racism and that’s what we really need to focus on.
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The Trump outlets feel compelled to change the subject and find a scapegoat.
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I understand why Fox News and other racist sites and their racist followers are attacking Kamala.
I just don’t get why anyone else who isn’t a racist Fox News follower would believe that what Kamala said was “more divisive and racist” than Trump.
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The entire Republican Party is now associated with open racism. And what about the entire country?
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By their silence, Republicans are complicit in Trump’s racism.
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Absolutely.
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I fear immigration is the rock that will sink the Democrats’ ship. I don’t think Democrats get it. Forget about white people, a surprising number of the non-white immigrants I met while I registered voters in the Central Valley were pro-Trump. They want law and order. They see the flood across the southern border as disorderly and lawless. Even many Latinos want a reduction of immigration and better control of the border. It strikes me as somewhat hypocritical for us liberals to cry “rule of law” when it comes to Trump’s actions, but then ignore the law when it comes to border crossing; conservatives probably notice this too. One Mexican-born Trump supporter told me Mexico IS a sh**hole country. He’s not the only Latino who agrees with Trump about this and fears that this mess will be imported if the high rate of immigration retards assimilation. Liberals gaslight the public by pretending that these countries aren’t a mess, or that the mess is purely America’s fault (I somewhat agree, but try explaining that to the masses). Giving the death-sentence term “racist” to anyone who wants less immigration is a bully move that silences people and precludes honest, mutually respectful conversation but engenders deep hatred and resentment. This is why Trump gets passionate love when he takes the “racist” bullet for his base. He is their champion. He’s standing up to the elite liberal mob for them. When the Democratic candidates say they want to give health care to undocumented immigrants and want to decriminalize border crossing the masses read this as: “Open borders” and “We prefer non-citizens to citizens like us. Does citizenship mean anything anymore? The Democrats are our enemy.” The candidates’ display of compassion may be admirable, but I fear it’s strategically stupid. Please, talk about something besides immigration and race, Dems! Not only are you losing white votes; you’re probably losing many non-white immigrants’ votes too.
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[T]he commandment to care for the stranger is mentioned more times than any other commandment in the Torah — more even than the command to love God (v’ahavta). According to the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer the Great noted that “the Torah warns 36 times, and some say 46 times, not to oppress the stranger” (Babylonian Talmud, Bava M’tzia 59b). . . .
“For the Eternal your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, providing food and clothing — you too must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).
— Reuven Firestone
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OK, so all we have to do is get evangelical Christians to embrace a version of Christianity that radically differs from what their minister expounds. Easy!
Bob, I desperately want a more charitable government. But it seems to me we Democrats have to be Machiavellian before we can be Christian. In fact one of Machiavelli’s main points is that in order to have a good government, you have to delve into impure means. He is right. This is a time when Democrats must be impure to get power. Without power, their charitable impulses will never come to fruition.
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35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? . . .
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. –Matt 25, KJV
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I wish more of the Bible loving, right wing Christians were more Christ like and less hypocritical.
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You would enjoy knowing about Harald Poelchau. Perhaps I should take a stab at translating this: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1120401523
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Wow, Greg. Thank you for sharing this material about this remarkable man, of whom I was completely ignorant. And your review, as always, beautifully, movingly written.
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You motivated me to reread Matthew 25 and I was struck by the final verse, 25:46, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
If RW “evangelical Christians” truly believe as they claim they do—and I doubt they do (know they do not)—then the first part should scare them straight. But it won’t because they see biblical verse as a pick-and-choose, tactical political tool of justification
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Yes, by their own lights, this should scare the Trump out of them.
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Most of the current refugees are coming from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. These are very tiny countries.
Guatemala: 16.91 million (2017)
El Salvador: 6.378 million (2017)
Nicaragua: 6.218 million (2017)
Honduras: 9.265 million (2017)
A little aid would go a long way. We need a Marshall Plan for these countries. And consider this: what Trump has spent on the military at the border OR what he has spent on his golf trips at taxpayer expense would have bought every refugee family that has sought asylum during his misadministration land to farm on the other side of the border. But ofc, dealing with this situation humanely would be of no propaganda benefit to Don the Wannabe Leader for Life and his Minister für Propaganda, Herr Miller.
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Ha, ha–of course you are right, Bob, but IQ45 won’t even give aid to Puerto Rico. He called Puerto Ricans ” lazy” & that they hadn’t helped themselves as in other parts of America (wherein the infamous book Whose Boat is This Boat? was written! ) where there have been hurricanes. He threw paper towels at them!
So, seriously, this Admin. is going to give any money at all to these countries? A one-word answer: Wall!
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Even Latino leaders think Dems are hurting themselves on immigration:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-are-pushing-for-drastic-change-to-immigration-policy-will-it-help-them-win-hispanics/2019/07/12/a97698bc-a347-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html?utm_term=.2f744081fb58
Trump is smarter than Dem leaders. He understands our working class. Dems only understand Oberlin graduates.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/29/trump-hispanic-support-poll-2020-1136373
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The word “Hispanic” also refers to Americans with Spanish surnames. The Caucasian Spanish ruled over what is known as Mexico today for three-hundred years starting in the early 16th century.
For instance, my 2nd wife’s last name is Castanada, but her American ancestors arrived in Texas with a land grant where Houston exists today from the king of Spain long before there was ever a Mexico or the United States. One of her great, great … ancestors lost that land in a card game and according to Jeanne, he married a Cheyenne Native American woman and had children with her, too. Jeanne looked Latin probably because of that Native American DNA but didn’t speak much Spanish. The only language she was fluent in was English although I think she could talk to cats.
Many “Hispanics” in the United States are not from south of the Border and they are of all political persuasions and many of them are or look like Caucasians because Spaniards are Caucasians, so they don’t look like they belong to a minority with brown skin.
Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably though they actually mean two different things. Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish and/or are descended from Spanish-speaking populations, while Latino refers to people who are from or descended from people from Latin America.
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Did not know that. Thanks, Lloyd.
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I more or less agree, Ponderosa. Answering you under general response below, to get more para space.
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“Giving the death-sentence term ‘racist’ to anyone who wants less immigration is a bully move that silences people and precludes honest, mutually respectful conversation but engenders deep hatred and resentment.”
Very well said. Immigration is an absolutely sticky wicket & Democratic candidates need to do far better at threading the needle than they have so far. “Running against Trump” is one thing—countering his over-the-top position on immigration w/an equal-but-opposite stance is a really bad idea.
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Thanks. That’s about as far through the sticky wicket I’m prepared to go at the moment. “Minefield” is another metaphor that comes to mind.
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https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/stephen-millers-own-uncle-calls-bs-on-him?fbclid=IwAR3B4ykdk78g9FeSzA5OXiEmLj1LMdMko13Jfr7r-GbEsJBuTpwKtW1RqQ8
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I do not have the words to adequately describe this worthless degraded ignorant pile of filth.
………………………………….
Trump’s Asylum Ban 2.0 Is Broadest Attack Yet on the Asylum Process
July 15, 2019
Today Trump’s team announced its broadest assault yet on the asylum process: a regulatory change filed with the Federal Register saying that anyone who passes through another country to reach the United States would be ineligible to claim asylum here. Because it is an interim rule, it does not need to go through the regular and lengthy approval process. As a result, unless the courts intervene, at the stroke of a pen Trump will have gutted decades of American asylum and immigration policy, essentially preventing all Central Americans from claiming asylum.
This assault is in keeping with the most important trend of the last few months: Trump’s ramped-up nativism, and his bending of the Federal bureaucracies to his will on the matter…
Check out this article: https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-asylum-ban-2-0-is-broadest-attack-yet-on-the-asylum-process/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=mashshare&utm_campaign=mashshare
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Trump and his blatant discrimination and hatred never ends.
………
Trump: Dem Rep ‘Squad’ Must Apologize to Me, America, and Israel, Too
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated 07.15.19 12:56PM ET /
Published 07.15.19 5:04AM ET
Donald Trump on Monday upped the ante on his tweets telling four U.S. congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from, by demanding on Twitter that the lawmakers apologize to him, as well as America and Israel, for their “foul language” and the “terrible things they have said.” As critics around the world condemned the president for his previous shocking comments, he went further, referring to the four women as the real racists: “So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions! If Democrats want to unite around the foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
In tweets posted late Sunday, Trump hit out at people who called his initial tweets racist. “So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion,” he wrote. “Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, ‘RACIST.’ Their disgusting language and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged.” Pelosi said Trump’s original tweet was evidence that “his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hits-out-at-everyone-who-called-his-tweets-racist?source=email&via=desktop
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Trump’s approval rating has moved up only about two percentage points in recent weeks, according to the polling from Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight. Between 42 and 45 percent of Americans approve of his performance.
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Somewhat related. Corporate Democrats are doing all they can to aid and abet Individual-1, led by our nemesis Hakeem Jeffries (no surprise there):
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pelosi-has-lost-control_n_5d2cb605e4b032ea741220ad
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GregB: “A competent House speaker wouldn’t allow party energy to be squandered this way.”
Pelosi is attacking people in the Dem party. Not a good move.
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Since standing up to Individual-1 on the government shutdown and the SOTU, she has been a HUGE disappointment. The “interview” or, as call it, the catty coffee klatsch, was a real low point. And since then, she seems to sink even lower.
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…catty coffee klatsch with Maureen Dowd…
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I’ve been wondering a lot lately what Trump has on Pelosi.
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Putin has something on Individual-1, Individual-1 has something on Pelosi, and seemingly everyone has something on Sen. Blanche Graham. But nobody got nuthin’ on Bernie!
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LMAO. Yes.
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
–Augustus De Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes
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Graham has certainly mastered his sniveling prostrations before the occupant of the Whiter House.
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Bumper sticker?: Don’t Make the White House Whiter
The only bumper sticker I ever wrote was when David Duke ran against J. Bennett Johnston for Senate: Don’t Be Hoodwinked
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So back to the Teflon.
The GOP Senators and Representatives ARE THE TEFLON.
Their silence causes this crud to bounce off the president.
This weekend alone…
* The president Told 4 U.S. Legislators to leave the country
Called them out with racist comments and abusive language
ANd – all women
We learned the president NEGOTIATED NUCLEAR WEAPONS WITH IRAN BASED ON HIS OBSESSION WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA. No not on military intelligence. No not on what advisers or generals or legislators said.
the president CONTRADICTED HIS VICE PRESIDENT PENCE after the VP witnessed and spoke about the horrendous conditions in the border camps. The president claimed the camps were clean and the men were healthy.
Spoke kindly of a perverse billionaire sex trafficker and NOT A WORD ABOUT THE VICTIMS
IF IF IF IF a dozen GOP Senators would call him out for this racist, sick,decision by personal vengeance, lying rants – maybe – just maybe some of his corporate cronies and suburban women (and men) – and even a few closet good people who attend his goosestepping rallies – would pay attention that he and this is really bad.
They shield him by their fear and silence.
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It’s interesting to watch the president condemn The Squad. I thought he said there are “some very fine people on both sides.” I guess that only applies to Nazis.
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Bernie said (as did every media outlet other than FOX) that Trump’s tweets are racist:
I got this email (I get similar emails from every candidate):
Diane –
When I call Donald Trump a racist, this is what I’m talking about:
@realDonaldTrump: …and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how…
This was a racist attack against Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is unacceptable, and we must stand in solidarity with these young legislators.
That is why today I am asking you to respond to Trump’s racist attack by splitting a contribution between their campaigns and ours.
Please split a contribution today between Reps. Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, and Ocasio-Cortez, and our campaign for president. Your contribution will send a message that Trump’s racism will not stand.
If you’ve saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will automatically be evenly split between Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders:
EXPRESS DONATE: $54
EXPRESS DONATE: $108
EXPRESS DONATE: $189
EXPRESS DONATE: $270
EXPRESS DONATE: $540
OR DONATE ANOTHER AMOUNT
I have said all along that this president is a racist and a xenophobe. And now he is proving that point, yet again, by turning his hate against these four members of Congress.
We must stand together for justice and dignity toward all. Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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(from the NYT link:) “The president has moved beyond invoking the obvious racial slanders of 50 years ago — clichés like black neighborhoods ‘on fire’ — and is now invoking the white supremacist mentality of the early 1900s, when anyone who looked ‘not white’ could be labeled as unwelcome in America.”
I recently read “The Great Trials of Clarence Darrow” (McRae), which included the murder trial of black physician Ossian Sweet around a 1925 block-busting riot that resulted in a shooting death. I was struck by how little white middle-class attitudes changed between 1925 and the violent racial incidents of the ‘60’s around block-busting & school integration. Between ‘20’s & now (90 yrs later), one can measure incremental change: black professionals can generally find decent, non-ghetto housing w/o nbhd riots. But there are still plenty of old whites around who empathize w/’60’s segregationist rioters & respond to the same “you don’t belong here” rhetoric [presumably Trump voters].
There’s no question that my metro-NYC area is still residentially segregated, & we were a big center of block-busting animus in the ‘60’s… But… though I read about neo-racist youth, I don’t see much of it here. There are some hot spots on LI & elsewhere, but for the most part, NYC/NJ urban centers which cater to youth have noticeably multi-racial/ multicultural nbhds, bars, entertainment venues, bands, dating, etc. I think there is hope for the future.
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Yeah, I suspect, Bethree, that the country is going to have to wait for our generation to die off before the decisive break is made from the sickening legacy of oppression. I see the same among the young. This gives me hope. So, if we survive. . . .
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It’s hard to imagine that Trump has sunk this low. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. He is calling a Democratic member of Congress an Al Qaeda sympathizer and telling all four that they can leave the US anytime. This type of CR*P is winning over his followers? Gad. This country stinks.
…………………………………….
Trump Says Four Democratic Congresswomen Hate the U.S. and Are Free to Leave
The president also accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of making racist comments.
The congresswomen vowed not to be baited into a sprint to the bottom with a president they condemned as racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and criminal. Their leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pledged to put a resolution on the floor condemning the president’s language — putting Republicans in the House on defense.
But Mr. Trump showed no sign of relenting. Even as the four spoke, he was on Twitter calling them “radical Democrats” and Twitter-shouting, “IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!”
It was a message the president appeared determined to amplify throughout the day.
“They’re free to leave if they want,” Mr. Trump said on Monday morning of the congresswomen, referring to Representatives Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts. On Sunday, he tweeted that the social-media-savvy women known as “the squad” should “go back” to the countries they came from, a well-worn racist trope that dates back centuries.
On Monday, he added that Ms. Omar, a Somali refugee and the only one not born in the United States, was an Al Qaeda sympathizer — a false charge that she said she would not “dignify” with an answer.
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& of course he misspelled Al Qaeda!
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I understand that if Al-Qaeda starts a sentence, the Al starts with a capital letter. If al-Qaeda doesn’t start a sentence, the “a” is not capitalized.
The Republican Party of Lincoln died with President Reagan and has been rotting with growing, every growing corruption of every kind ever since.
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To all LAW MAKERS:
Where are those creating law. protecting law and called LAWYERS? Are you educated in America? Are you born in America?
Please defend all Americans who are helpless by a liar and bully authority.
He should be exiled in Russia or China in order to understand what he tweeted.
He is not worth it for good citizens to reasonably write and talk to his administrative staff. Back2basic
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RE: Ponderosa post at 3:55 pm 7/15: “I fear immigration is the rock that will sink the Democrats’ ship…”
I more or less agree, Ponderosa. Dems could probably get some traction with actual, specific proposals on how to “fix” the “broken” immigration law. Not talking about N Triangle asylum-seekers, just garden-variety applicants for citizenship.
For contrast to the tales of current immigration below, consider the path of a friend who emigrated from India in the ‘70’s. At that time there were quotas for each country, & a strict policy of, you can’t come unless you are providing skills we need, i.e.,you may not take a job from an equivalently-qualified American. My girlfriend was a Muslim in India, & the only daughter, discriminated in Indian society & job market, & even in her own home (when her youngest brother married, she had to give up her bed to them & sleep on the floor). She was a math teacher w/a Masters degree. That wasn’t good enough for a work visa, as Americans could do that. It happens that she was partially deaf due to childhood illness. Thanks to the largesse of a naturalized-American uncle, she studied at Gallaudet School for the Deaf & obtained BA & MA in teaching for the deaf, got the work visa & FT employment, & citizenship w/n a few yrs.
Haven’t you always heard that if you marry an American, you get citizenship? It worked for Melania, right? I have a friend who is sponsoring her Venezualan daughter-in-law in what will be yrs-long effort to get citizenship. Son had been dating his [student-visa] colleague at a FL college for 2 yrs, then they became engaged. Two weeks before his & fiancée’s graduation, US changed law so that if she didn’t get a work visa w/n 10 wks of college graduation she’d be deported (used to be 6 mos). [Meanwhile her Mom & Dad were hunting cat meat to survive in Venezuela– but her elder brother was married, employed, naturalized citizen living in WA state which apparently counted for squat]. So they quickly got married. Then began a long & bizarre interlude where she was basically under suspicion of marrying to get a work visa [meanwhile Mom-in-law scurrying from one govt institution to another in effort to make it happen]. The two moved to another state for his new job—but she was not allowed to work part-time or even volunteer ! just had to sit in small apt twiddling thumbs… Last I heard, they’d moved to France where they could both work & live like human beings…
Meanwhile my son’s erstwhile college colleague & former bandmate has had no such problems. He is a Mexican national, & would agree w/you that it’s a s***hole country, which is why he decided as a teen he could never raise a family there, & set his sights here. He has repatriated occasionally as needed [with his wealthy, industry- & politically-connected DF family], but now is happily married to his Austin sweetie & a FT employed homeowner on the path to citizenship. So easy for him, so hard for my friend’s Venezualan dghtr-in-law, wonder why [Not].
My conclusion is: distrust any media generalizations about immigration. The path to citizenship today for immigrants (not asylum-seekers) is all about $ & connections, just like everything else in this freaking country.
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Hi bethree5:
Yes, I completely blow away from your realistic information. I thought that all academic teachers are naive.
In the past, those Chinese academic scholars were very hard core patriotic and very naive to Mao Trach Dong. Similarly to this, all current American military leaders are kind of to succumb to rules and regulations from liar, bully, flip-flop named called and senile authorities. This circumstance will eventually be awakened in the near WWIII, won’t it be?
It may be not too late to acknowledge that half of the world will die from starving, thirsty and many other natural disasters. And other half will endure the man-made horrible sickness/diseases, the WW III, and then who will survive with peace??? Sigh!!!Back2basic
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