Quote of the Day -- On Trumpism

 

It is revealing how a political movement that claims to be dedicated to the recovery of national greatness has so readily and completely abandoned many defining national ideals. Donald Trump’s promise of American strength has involved the betrayal of American identity.

One of the most important strands of our founding ideology is civic republicanism. In this tradition, the common good is not automatically produced by a clash of competing interests. A just society must be consciously constructed by citizens possessing certain virtues. A democracy in particular depends on people who take responsibility for their communities, show an active concern for the welfare of their neighbors, demand integrity from public officials, defend the rule of law, and respect the rights and dignity of others. Without these moral commitments, a majority is merely a mob.

What type of citizen has Trump — and his supportive partisan media — produced? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) still holds her job in Congress because she is representative of ascendant MAGA radicalism. Those who reflect her overt racism, her unhinged conspiracy thinking and her endorsement of violence against public figures are now treated as a serious political constituency within the Republican Party. Trump has come down firmly on Greene’s side. One participant in the Jan. 6 attack sent a video to her children saying: “We broke into the Capitol. . . . We got inside, we did our part. We were looking for Nancy [Pelosi] to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.” The detail that gets to me? She sent this to her children. She was living in a mental world where vile, shameful things are a parent’s boast. And she saw her actions as the expression of a public duty — an example of doing her part.

From the article:

Trumpism is American fascism

Links:

Michael Gerson - Wikipedia

Fascism | Definition of Fascism by Merriam-Webster

Where This President And His Followers and Republican Party Have Brought Us

Did you see the latest? It's come far closer to home now.

Kansas mayor resigns over violent threats for backing mask mandate: ‘I do not feel safe anymore’

A bit of the story.

The emails and voice mails to Dodge City, Kan., Mayor Joyce Warshaw began pouring in last month, after the city commission voted to require everyone in town to wear masks indoors.

Some anonymous messages told her that she was restricting civil liberties, Warshaw told The Washington Post. Others said she should go to jail over her vote.

But after the western Kansas city’s uphill battle against the coronavirus pandemic was highlighted in a USA Today feature on Friday, the messages grew more frequent and aggressive: Burn in hell. Get murdered. One person simply wrote, “We’re coming for you.”

So after nearly eight years in government, she called it quits Tuesday.

“They were loud, and they were aggressive, and they frightened me and my family,” said Warshaw, who had been serving her second stint as mayor. “There’s a strong part of me that wants to say they are only words. But people are angry right now, and I don’t know that for sure.”

So here we are. Thanks so very much, Mr. President. Thanks, Republicans. In the middle of the worst, most killing, deadly international pandemic of the last more than 100 years, now you're threatening local, legally elected government officials who are, by the way, just trying to get and keep us safe, trying to keep us well and alive.

Y'all must be so proud.

One of the Biggest Reasons Our Nation Is So Divided and Polarized

Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the Fairness Doctrine:

“The devolution of the American press began in 1986 when Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine.

We had a law in this country that we passed in 1928 that said that the air waves belong to the public. The broadcasters can be licensed to use them, but only if they use them to promote the public interest, to inform the public and advance democracy. That’s why we have the 6 o’clock news. They didn’t want it. The broadcasters didn’t want that because the news departments were chronic money losers.

But they were forced to put on the news at 6:00 and even today you hear news on the music radio stations and that’s an artifact of the Fairness Doctrine. They said, if you’re using the broadcast air waves, you have to do that…

They no longer have an obligation to serve the public interest. Their only obligation is to their shareholders. They serve that obligation not by informing us, telling us the things we need to understand to make rational decisions in a democracy, but rather by entertaining us...

We know we’re the best entertained, the least informed, people on the face of the world. They got rid of their investigative reporters. 85 percent of them lost their jobs in the last 15 years.

They got rid of their foreign news bureaus so the Bush and Cheney administration can say to the American people, ‘Oh, we’re gonna go into this 800-year-old fist fight in Mesopotamia and they’re gonna meet us with rose petals in the streets’ and the Americans believe them.

The Canadians didn’t believe them because the Canadians still have a Fairness Doctrine…

England has the same kind of rules and in Europe, but in our country, we lost those rules and, as a result, we know a lot about Britney Spears’ gradual emotional decline and we know a lot about Charlie Sheen, but we don’t know much about global warming or the fact that the Appalachian Mountains essentially no longer exist.”

Another Insane, Obscene Ruling From This Supreme Court

Did you see this?

Supreme Court: religious schools can discriminate when hiring

In one of these cases being tried, a teacher was fired from a religious school because she it was discovered she had breast cancer.

You would think religious schools would fight to make sure organizations COULDN'T discriminate when hiring. Dear God--pun intended--I hope they don't call or consider themselves Christians.

More Right Wing insanity.

And hypocrisy.

Thanks, Republicans.

Republican Party America

Click on the picture for easier reading.

A Letter To Santa From Trump's America (guest post)

I saw this yesterday and thought it very true and pretty darned complete.

A letter to Santa from Trump's America

Dear Santa,

We've been naughty. We elected a woman-degrading, racist-appeasing, megalomaniac to be President of the United States. There are many reasons this happened some understandable, some vile. I wouldn't blame you for removing the United States from your Christmas Eve flight plan altogether this year, but just in case you decide we are worthy of a few gifts I'm sending you a Christmas list because there are a few things we really need:

• the wisdom to rediscover those truths that once seemed self-evident but have proven not to be: that we are all equal and deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
• the courage to stand up for people who are mistreated because of their race, religion, gender, sexual-orientation, or country of origin;
• the confidence to stand up for ourselves when others wrong us;
• the foresight to nurture the foundations of our children's futures: education, the environment, and empathy;
• the strength to speak out against tyranny;
• the insight to discern fact from fiction;
• the self-awareness to admit what we do not know;
• the curiosity to never stop learning;
• the passion to make art or support those who do;
• the freedom to speak and write what is on our minds, including the freedom to rebut the statements of others no matter how powerful they may be;
• the humility to admit when we are wrong;
• safety in our homes and neighborhoods;
• protection from mass surveillance and other forms of oppression;
• food and shelter for those in need;
• health and longevity (particularly for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg);
• peace in our communities and around the world;

And if you are feeling really generous, a couple of tickets to Hamilton.

Sincerely,

An American who still believes

America, You're In a Bad Relationship. And You're Being Abused

Yes, America, Americans, we seem to be co-dependent just now. We seem to be drawn to a person, a man who is decidedly not good for us.  And he really is abusing us.

Donald Trump and his past, his recorded past, on audiotape and video, both, have shown him to be, once again, sexist, misogynist, racist and a whole array of ugly, negative aspects. These are his traits, this is his character.

Yet, here we are and he's still, still one of the two top candidates for the highest government office in the nation and the most powerful position in the entire world.

Things he's said and done so far, in the last 2 years, no one could have ever gotten away with. He just keeps plodding along, going forward.  People are still behind him, however dwindling but there they still are.

At one point, we all know he famously said he "...could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters."

We all laughed, at the time, and just thought him crazy but now, honestly, there seems to be more than a little bit of truth to it.

32 Worst Things Donald Trump 

Has Ever Said

Social media reacts to Trump's explicit remarks 

about women

An Abbreviated List of Every Bonkers Thing 

Donald Trump Has Done

This one came out last May, for pity's sake.

7 Disqualifying Things Donald Trump 

Has Done in the Past 48 Hours

Yet, with all that, with all we've seen and heard from Mr. Trump, he's still in the race and we're still in this relationship.

Donald Trump is not who we should be. He's not "the better angels of our nature" and far from it. Quite the opposite is true, it seems clear. 

So how can we get out of this ugly, abusive relationship?

Can we text him it's over?

The Real Eric Greitens

It's clear Eric Greitens, Republican candidate for Missouri Governor this year, wants to tell one tale of  himself, that of Navy Seal, good or even  great American soldier, etc.  And that's fine. He can say anything and all he wants about himself, naturally.

But this is what his fellow Navy Seals have to say about him, in sharp contrast.



And for proof, for backup on this video, there is this, from earlier this year:

Navy SEALs claim credit for video 

critical of Greitens

I hope plenty of people will see this video. At 2:49, these actual Navy Seals point out that, and I quote, "Despite the opportunity, Greitens has never served in a Seal Platoon."

I think it's important to know this all and to get it out there to as many Missourians as possible.

Eric Greitens Has Started Getting Into Trump Territory

Eric Greitens, Republican, far Right Wing candidate for Missouri's next Governor (shudder) is starting to send out messages that he's very like Donald Trump. That is, not just wrong but misguided and downright scary. His latest TV ad got me both scared and even angry.

President Obama, the "worst President of (his) lifetime."

Forget that President Obama helped bring us back from the worst economic downturn in 8 years since the last Great Depression.

Forget that President Obama saw to the saving of General Motors which has since come roaring back, saving literally millions of jobs. 

Forget that the stock market has gone to new highs during his Presidency. Forget that employment has gone WAY up during this same Presidency.

Forget that the deficit has shrunk, actually, factually shrunk during our current President's administrations.

Deficit shrinks by $1 trillion in Obama era

Forget and ignore that 20 million more Americans have health care insurance than used.

More Americans Than Ever Have 

Health Insurance Coverage

And then ignore or forget that, because of "Obamacare", America is spending far less on health care.

Health spending post-Obamacare seen 

$2.5 trillion lower 

And a lot more. 

Yeah, forget all that. 

Just call President Obama the worst President in your lifetime, completely forgetting the laws broken by Ronald Reagan and the nationally and internationally illegal war George W. Bush got us into in Iraq, by his choice and lies. 

Iran-Contra and Arms-for-Hostages Scandals: 

Ronald Reagan

Then, also forget that the same George W. Bush totally and completely ignored his Daily Presidential Brief, warning him Osama bin Laden was planning and preparing an attack on our nation, resulting in over 3000 lives lost that fateful day, 9/11. 

Forget, too--if you ever even knew it--that George W. Bush flew planeloads, literally planeloads of our own money, US cash, straight from the Federal Reserve into Iraq after he "liberated it", only to have it squandered because, yeah, that really happened.

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. 

And watched it vanish

NY Fed's $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail

So, yeah, if you forget and ignore all that and a lot more, I guess you could come to the rather bizarre, slanted and misguided conclusion that President Obama is the worst President of your lifetime.

It isn't President Obama and his work and his successes, his personal ones and his successes for our nation, that I find offensive.

It's Eric Greitens and his ads and lies and all like him and any who believe this scary nonsense.

Be afraid, people. Be very afraid when people like Donald Trump and Eric Greitens and heck, for that matter, Catherine Hanaway and others like them are all out there, successfully getting money from the wealthy and corporations, just so they can peddle their extremist, Right Wing fear and even, yes, lies.

Better yet. Get out there and vote.

Links:

THE List of 371 Obama Accomplishments so far, With Citations

Names I'd Like to Never Hear Again

Herewith, then, just that--a list of names of people and places I could go through the rest of a long, healthy, very happy life having never again heard.

Trump

Fiorina

Cruz

Paul (when preceded by Rand)

Rand (when preceded by Ayn)

Carson (when preceded by Ben)

Huckabee

Bush (absolutely, never again another Bush)

Christie

Walker (when preceded by Scott)

O'Reilly

Hannity

Rove

Murdoch (when preceded by Rupert)

Limbaugh (never again and it can't be soon enough)

Cheney

Ramadi

Mosul

Erbil

Falluja

Bagram

Kandahar (and let me be clear, I'm not an isolationist)

Wolfowitz

Ailes

Hutus

Tutsis

Netanyahu

Hitler (I mean, really)

Blunt (anyone from that Missouri, government-leeching family)

Reince (when used as a first name)

Preibus (when used as a surname)

McConnell (when preceded by Mitch)

I'm sure there are more but that's enough for now.

How about you? Any people or places you'd prefer to never hear about or from again?

Religious Fundamentalists: America vs. the Middle East

This is magnificent. There are only two problems with it.

First, it doesn't make its point in 60 seconds or less and

second, the people who should see it won't and worse, even if they did, they either wouldn't get it or would deny there's any truth to it.

For the rest of us, enjoy.

Could We All Give Up On This Idea Now?

Different people, different organizations, all with the same idea, the same "solution."

Maybe we all should try a new strategy.

On Donald Trump, Our National Politics and All of Us

Just the average statements and opinions of Donald Trump alone show it all to be an indictment, not just of his ignorance and crudeness but yes, of our political system and so many of us, honestly, who would support this man for the highest leadership position of the nation.

The Way Republicans Used to Think and Be

Long, long ago, they used to be for the nation, as a whole, not just for the advancement of their own political party.

It would be nice if we---they---could get back to this.

Further Insanity from The Donald

The number one most popular person, nearly unbelievably, in polling regarding the race for the White House, for the presidency in 2016 and he now said the following stupid thing:

Trump: I Will Absolutely Use A Nuclear 

Weapon Against ISIS

Oh, yes he did:

NEW YORK, NY – In response to a question regarding his policy on ISIS, Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Donald Trump told Meet the Press on Sunday that as Commander-in-Chief, he would authorize the use of nuclear weapons to combat Islamic extremism...

Mr. Trump said he’s already conferred with a number of high-level active military officials and has put together a comprehensive strategy to defeat the Islamic State within his first one hundred days in office. “It starts with the deployment of four or five of our Ohio-class nuclear submarines to the Persian Gulf,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them and we’re going to hit them hard. I’m talking about a surgical strike on these ISIS stronghold cities using Trident missiles.”

The Trident is a submarine-launched ballistic missile equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs. With a payload of up to fourteen reentry vehicles, each carrying a 362-pound thermonuclear warhead with a yield of 100 kilotons, a single Trident has roughly seventy times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Not only is he willing to use nuclear weapons and on the Middle East but read that last sentence---"a single Trident (missile) has roughly seventy times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki..."

Insane. Truly insane.

More:

Trump’s plan to use thermonuclear weapons against ISIS-held areas such as the Syrian city of Al-Raqqah would result in an astronomically high number of civilian casualties, according to CNN military analyst Peter Mansoor. “Al-Raqqah alone has a population of over two hundred-thousand people, the vast majority of whom are not affiliated in any way with the Islamic State,” Mansoor said. “A strike of this magnitude would not only result in the loss of millions of innocent lives and infrastructure, but it would set diplomacy and stability in the region back at least a hundred years.”

Not to be done there and certainly not to be outdone, The Donald also thinks it a good idea to have our military, our American soldiers, in the war theater, too:

Trump's foreign policy plan includes 

boots on the ground

So not only does he think he can rather willy-nilly bring about the use of nuclear warheads on the Middle East, on the planet, but that American soldiers should also be "on the ground" there, too, if---heaven forbid---he should be elected president.

To whom does any of this, any of it, make any sense?

Quote of the Day -- Guest Post

A Facebook friend of mine, Kent Hartland, wrote and posted this today. I couldn't agree more.

My country has decended into a quagmire of wickedness where somehow prominent, self-important people strive to outdo one another in their shitty diatribes to achieve ever-higher status among the hate-baiters that own my nation.

I grew up in a God-loving home, as most folks did. Most of the truly good people in the world were also of the same cloth. I was taught from infancy to love and respect others, whether a different skin, disabled, mentally challenged or poor. We are all alike. Love your brothers and sister. Hold the door for a lady, say "Please" and "Thank you", "Yes, Ma'am" and "Yes, Sir." One of my earliest memories was taking food to old people in what we used to call a poor house or old folks home. I remember the dirt floors in some of the cabins.

Since when did religious folks, i.e. "Conservatives", identify with the same crowd that burns crosses, loves guns, defends the slaughter of first-graders as "unfortunate", says teachers need a fist in the mouth, blows up women's health clinics, assassinates doctors, bombs buildings where dozens of babies lie in their nursery, scream obscenities at immigrant children trying to escape the horrors of war, beat homeless people because "Trump is Right" or "Rush is Right" and who thirst for ever more war and spend fortunes seeking ways to further stigmatize, disenfranchise and decimate the poor?

Indeed. Wth, America?

What We're Dealing With From the Right Wing and Republican Party

Kansas' Republican Ugliness is Getting a Lot of Coverage

Seems there's just no good news coming out of Kansas lately--or in the last few years, at least.

And the fact is, because of it all, the state and people are getting bad press, at least on social media--none more so than on Facebook. An example:

Kansas City, Kan., school district lays off 31 staff members and cuts pay for 850 others

Kansas' infamous tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while putting the state's tax burden on the lower-, middle- and working-classes and making it easier for the already-wealthy, just keeps having bigger and bigger and uglier ramifications, as so many of us know. Now, the latest breakthrough is that these same, again, working-, middle- and lower-class students and parents and families take a hit at and on their schools. The rich? You can bet they don't.

Then, there's this, on Kansas' wacko gun culture and how out of control and totally unnecessary it all is. It's gotten bad and it's getting worse. These "Brownback years" have been tough.

America's Right Wing Religious Caliphate

Mrs. Betty Bowers does it again, calling them out for what and who they are.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition