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Showing posts with label Hillary Clinton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillary Clinton. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2020

It's Nearly Unbelievable This Man Even BECAME President


There is an excellent article out from the end of June on this President.


And it spells exactly that--100 reasons why this man, this Donald J Trump is provenly unfit to be President.  It's a stunning list, even though most all or all we are familiar with. Herein are just the first 18 which gets us only to the Fall of 2016.

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1   1985-1994

Reported $1.17 billion in business losses over the decade. Trump “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer,” according to the New York Times.

2    May 1, 1989

Took out $85,000-worth of full-page ads in New York newspapers calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five—whose convictions were later vacated after DNA evidence proved their innocence. Trump never apologized.

3   1990s

Contrary to his story of being a self-made billionaire, Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real-estate empire, much of it transferred through suspect tax-dodging schemes.

4   1991-2009

Declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his various businesses six times.

5   2005

Bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy” in a conversation with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush picked up on a hot mic.

6   2011-2016

Promoted birtherism against President Barack Obama—the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States, that his birth certificate was fraudulent, and that therefore he was constitutionally ineligible for the presidency.

7   2015-2016

Attacked in sexist and demeaning ways women who raised critical questions about his character. See: Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina, Hillary Clinton.

8   2015-present

Denies accusations of sexual misconduct, ranging from unwanted kissing to rape, by calling the women “liars” and not “his type.”

9   June 16, 2015

Announced his presidential campaign by describing America as “a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.” Mexicans coming to America, he said, were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

10   July 18, 2015

Said Vietnam POW John McCain is “not a war hero” and “I like people who weren’t captured.”

11   November 22, 2015

Claimed that “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey’s Arab communities cheered on 9/11.

12   2016 campaign season

Encouraged violence. Said that he’d like to punch a protester “in the face”; that his supporters should “knock the hell” out of protesters—“I promise you, I’ll pay the legal bills”; and that the police should not protect suspects’ heads when loading them into squad cars.

13   May 11, 2016

Refused to release his tax returns for public inspection after having previously promised to do so. On other occasions, he falsely claimed he could not release them because he was under audit. When, in 2019, Congress subpoenaed Trump’s tax returns, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin refused to comply—kicking off cases that went to the Supreme Court.

14   May-June 2016

Said Judge Gonzalo Curiel is unfit to rule on a lawsuit filed by Trump University students because “he’s a Mexican” (in fact, the judge is an American citizen born in Indiana). Trump would later settle the lawsuit for $25 million.

15   July 27, 2016

Called on Russia to hack and release Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails.

16   July 30, 2016

Denigrated the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 while serving in Iraq, after Khan’sTrump University father delivered remarks at the Democratic National Convention.

17   July 30, 2016

Broke with U.S. policy of supporting Ukraine over Russia’s invasion of Crimea, saying: “The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”

18   Fall 2016

Before Election Day, repeatedly hyped unfounded fears of a “rigged” election. Then, after Election Day, he stated, without any evidence, “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Money, ladies and gentlemen. Money, big money from corporations and the already-wealthy and then heavy gerrymandering, coast to coast, and voter ID laws and so, then, the Electoral College, all got this man, this small, thoughtless, ignorant, reckless, now dangerous man into the highest office of the land, the presidency of our United States.

To that I must one more time say, thanks, Republicans!  That's quite the guy you foisted on us all.

This is all on you. For eternity.


Monday, November 13, 2017

The Unkept Promises of Donald J. Trump



Observations from Robert Reich, American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997

So what promises HAS Trump kept?

One year after the election. An update for Trump voters on his election promises:

1. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you. Instead he's sabotaging the ACA causing premiums to increase even more)

2. He told you he’d cut your taxes. You bought it. But the tax “reform” bill he and House Republicans have produced won’t cut your taxes. Half of the middle class would see their taxes increase. The bill would cut corporate taxes and give millionaires a huge is tax break, and explode the national debt by at least $1.5 trillion.

3. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure.

4. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants (one of them hired and fired in a little more than a week) that no one knows who’s in charge of what.

6. He said he’d close “special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers.” You bought it. But he picked Wall Street financiers to head every economic policy job, and his tax bill still retains the “carried interest” loophole that benefits Wall Street private-equity and hedge fund partners.

7. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by making deals with drug companies. You bought it. But now the White House says that promise is “inoperative.”

8. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he met with China’s president Xi Jinping and declared "China is not a currency manipulator.” Ever since then, Trump has been cozying up to Xi.

9. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. But then he bombed Syria.

10. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You believed him. But there’s no money for that, either. Chief of staff John Kelly says it is “unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”

11. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. But in his first 9 months he has spent nearly 25 percent of his days at one of his golf properties for some portion of the day, according to Golf News Network, at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $77 million. That’s already more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama cost in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.

12. He said he’d keep Muslim immigrants out of America. But his executive orders to prevent citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States have been stopped by the federal courts, on grounds they violate the Constitution.

13. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be “consequences” for companies that shipped jobs abroad. You believed him. But despite their promises, Carrier, Ford, GM, and the rest have continued to ship jobs to Mexico and China. Carrier (a division of United Technologies) moved ahead with plans to send 1,000 jobs at its Indiana plant to Mexico. 

Notwithstanding, the federal government has rewarded United Technologies with 15 new contracts since Trump's inauguration. Last year, Microsoft opened a new factory in Wilsonville, Oregon, that was supposed to herald a new era in domestic tech manufacturing. But in July, the company announced it was closing the plant. More than 100 workers and contractors will lose their jobs when production shifts to China. GE is sending jobs to Canada. IBM is sending them to Costa Rica, Egypt, Argentina, and Brazil. There have been no “consequences” for sending all these jobs overseas.

14. He said he’d create coal jobs. You believed him. He hasn’t. But here’s what he has done: Since 1965 a federal program called the Appalachian Regional Commission has spent $23 billion helping communities in coal states fund job retraining, reclaim land, and provide desperately needed social services. A.R.C. helped cut poverty rates almost in half, double the percentage of high-school graduates, and reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Trump’s proposed budget eliminated A.R.C.

15. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But according to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings so far this year, including 58 people killed and hundreds injured at a concert in Las Vegas, and 26 churchgoers killed and 20 injured at a church in Texas. Trump refuses to consider any gun controls.

16. In referring to his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, he said he’d “lock her up.” But he has not locked her up. In the United States, unlike dictatorships, presidents do not prosecute and punish their political opponents. Trump has expressed frustration that he cannot order the FBI and Justice Department to do whatever he wants them to do."

Links:








Sunday, September 17, 2017

Donald Trump, USA President, Today



From former NPR reporter Jacki Lyden today, from her Facebook page.

What did you do with your morning?

Kiss the kids, hug the spouse, walk the dog, pour coffee for the friend, chat to the neighbor?

Phone abroad, pull a weed?

In some way, be glad you were alive?

The leader of the free world (I’m fairly certain) did none of that.

In a 15-tweet-tweetstorm, the day before a UN roll-out, amid N Korea threats and Prez Taunts (now we’re down to taunts like Rocket Man) and post-Irma & Harvey, he woke up with tweet indigestion.

He put misogyny into the mix, re-tweeting from an anti-Semitic account fantasizing that this oaf could possibly swing a golf club hard enough to Hillary Clinton in the back, without getting a hernia. The meme splices in a clip of Clinton visiting Yemen.

Jealousy over Clinton's book reception likely triggered it (as well as raging jealousy over her accomplishments as a female Secretary of State-- (heaven help Ivanka) but -- racism and misogyny and paternalism/white supremacy are absolutely at the core of Donald Trump's id. (I would never reflect on the state of his soul. That remains to be developed.)

Every single day, Americans who worry about the myriad obliques and angles threatening modern life, must additionally worry that this unstable man will further undermine what remains of our democracy, society, and civility.

Every hour.

Columnists write columns about their rising blood pressure (see Dana Milbank, "Trump is Killing Me).


The best antidote, of course, is to prevail with those principles Trump cannot affect -- morality, civility, decency, and courage. It's not about "moving past" Trump's latest outrage -- it's burned into our psyches already. Short of removing this completely unfit human from public office, we must do all we can to hang on to our own characters, which are, of course, already going to be tested by the ungrateful kid, horrid neighbor, food poisoning and dog that bites. 

My point being that life is a series of intended and unintended feints and parries, an equilibrium forever poised on the precipice of eclipse, but with this president we can count on poison and only on poison. 

There are no legislative political accomplishments, and of course, he is politically impotent. 

And knows it. 

Remember we need health care, mental health parity, community need, a fight against ethnic cleansing, fairness for the the frail amongst us, an environment and planet health we must improve. 

Perhaps the test for us is that in addition to never overlooking his sickness--for he is a sick man, very sick--we must expand our empathy gene in direct opposition to Trump’s failure to affect anything except hatred. 

We must speak out. 

That to me is indeed but one good reason to get up in the morning and carry on-- because someone this sick and desperate can make everyone a little more sick and desperate and would revel in doing so if it made him feel powerful. 

There is no moral compass there, just an id. 

So onward friends, in the engagement of your best self, best talents, best friends, best heart. We struggle, but at least, we struggle together.

Links:

Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Outrageous, "In Your Face" Presidency of Donald J. Trump


There is a fascinating, if not insulting, article over at ThinkProgress today on the Trump Presidency:



Here's the "meat" of the headline:

...on Saturday, Trump headed to a golf course for the 12th time during the nine weeks he’s been president. And by visiting the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia, Trump — who repeatedly ripped President Obama for his much less-frequent golf outings and promised he “would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done” during the campaign — has now visited a Trump-branded property for eight straight weekends. That covers all but the very first weekend of his presidency.

But there's so much more to the article, and to this Presidency so far, it's difficult to think of anything but the outrageousness of it all. Here's another example:

White House pool reporter Adrian Carrasquillo reports that it’s unclear what Trump is doing at his golf course.

"After multiple inquires, (the press) pool still does not know who the President has met with today over the last 3 hours. It is unclear why the Trump Team can not find out this information for the pool. Will update if any information becomes available..."

What this means, ladies and gentlemen, is that, in spite of being President and in spite of what he said on the campaign trail about how he'd never go on vacation and how much work there is to do, not only is he not doing said work and not only is he down there on our Federal dime (dollars), not only is he not doing anything constructive in his job, he's also in no way beholden to the press--read: to you and I--as to what he's doing and/or with whom he's meeting or with whom he might be talking.

He's not done there, either, in his chutzpah.

Trump’s latest trip to one of his properties comes a day after Forbes broke news that Eric Trump plans to give his father quarterly updates about how Trump’s sprawling business empire is doing financially. Trump has refused to divest from his business, putting him in a unique position to profit off the presidency.


“Yeah, on the bottom line, profitability reports and stuff like that, but you know, that’s about it,” Eric Trump said, in reference to what he’ll brief his father on. “My father and I are very close… I talk to him a lot. We’re pretty inseparable.”

Those statements contradicted what Eric Trump told the Forbes reporter less than two minutes earlier.

“There is kind of a clear separation of church and state that we maintain, and I am deadly serious about that exercise,” he said. “I do not talk about the government with him, and he does not talk about the business with us. That’s kind of a steadfast pact we made, and it’s something that we honor.”

In January, Trump discussed his plan to hand over day-to-day management of the Trump Organization to his sons while retaining ownership of the company.

“My two sons, who are right here, Don and Eric, are going to be running the company,” Trump
said at a press conference in New York. “They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They’re not going to discuss it with me.”

But Eric’s comments about the quarterly briefings he plans to give his father aren’t consistent with the plan Trump outlined.


Just look at what he, Trump, has done since he was sworn into office:

Memberships at Mar-a-Lago doubled in price to $200,000 shortly after the inauguration (taxes and $14,000 annual dues not included). For that price you get access to the president — perhaps even while he’s trying to deal with an international crisis in a dining area.

Then, to make things worse and to capitalize yet further with his/this Presidency, he wants to exploit it and us all even further.

Meanwhile, the head of Trump’s hotel-management company recently
announced plans for “an ambitious expansion across the U.S.” that would triple the number of Trump-branded hotels in the country.

Bottom line:  Trump didn't divest himself from his business, from his company or companies in any way. It seems he had no intention of doing so, too, in spite of what he said, again, during the campaign. He's blowing the Emoluments Clause of our own Constitution, right out of existence. (see below).

Besides being full of nerve and arrogance, it likely is already unconstitutional, this Presidency, this administration. Based on the Emoluments Clause alone. I said it before, between all this and the fact that he lost the American popular vote in November by 3 million votes, this administration should be ousted and the real winner of it all should be installed, inaugurated.

And post haste.

Meanwhile, here, ladies and gentlemen, are the first less than 100 days of this Presidency.


Honestly, again, God help us.

Links:

Emoluments Clause - Wikipedia

Why Trump Will Violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause - The Atlantic

Check out the irony and hypocrisy of this headline, too.

Report: Trump angry Kushner took vacation during health debate

I'm telling you, this man lacks nothing if not chutzpah.

Meanwhile, here's a good idea from some Democrats in Congress:

Dems Try To Force Trump To Publish Club Visitor Logs With 'MAR-A-LAGO' Act

Meanwhile, Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected, says don't fret:

Trump signals new hope for overhaul of ObamaCare, says 'Do not worry'



Thursday, March 23, 2017

This President Won't Even Have to be Impeached


According to The Independent out of the UK, the FBI has information suggesting Trump aides coordinated with Russia to damage the Clinton campaign.



If true, and it seems already clear it is, when you put this together with the fact that Hillary Clinton also got 3 million more popular, American votes in the November election, it becomes also extremely clear this administration should be ousted and Mrs. Clinton and a new administration should be installed President and soon as possible.

Impeachment shouldn’t even be necessary.

He and his people, both, are so monumentally bad at their jobs and what they're supposed to be doing and what they're supposed to be working for, they won't have to be ousted by impeachment. They've already been this far beyond the law.

Throw them out of the White House and charge and try them all for treason, no impeachment necessary.

Links: 



Tuesday, March 7, 2017

What We Wouldn't Have With That Other President


From Facebook yesterday--

trump and hillary on fishing

A reminder of what Hillary Clinton WOULDN'T be doing right now if she were the President she should be, given that she earned 3 million more American votes than the current occupant:

-Taking away your healthcare

-Rolling back your Social Security benefits

-Rolling back your Medicare benefits

- Choosing which religions are okay for you to practice

- Slowing tourism to the United States

- Punishing people for being gay or transgender

- Destroying the EPA and the Dept. of Education

- Rolling back clean water and air protections

- Deregulating Wall Street

- Allowing companies to dump waste in waterways

- Appointing people who hate government agencies to run them

- Attacking the press

- Wasting $22 billion on a useless wall

- Giving racist organizations encouragement

- Giving Russia encouragement

- Appointing Supreme Court justices who oppose gun legislation and Roe V. Wade

- Destroying climate change regulations

- Golfing every weekend

- Taking 

- Defunding Planned Parenthood

- Shamelessly shilling for her family businesses, hotels, clothing lines, jewelry

- Refusing to make public her taxes

- Ending funding of the Arts and Public broadcasting

- Paying to secure three "White Houses" in three states

- Rolling back your democratically chosen option to smoke marijuana.

There's more but already, that's a long, long, even scary list.

How long are you going to tolerate this, America?





Thursday, December 8, 2016

Quote of the Day -- On the President-Elect



From Professor Robert Reich today from his Facebook page.

The 538 members of the Electoral College will meet December 19 to choose the president. Below you will find the list of those presidential electors, by state.

States in which a majority of citizens voted for Trump have electors who will presumably cast their ballots for him. But no federal law requires them to do so.

In fact, the reasons the framers of the Constitution created an Electoral College that could override the will of a majority of voters (who in 2016 chose Hillary Clinton by a majority of over 2.5 million votes) was to avoid


(1) a demagogue, or 
(2) someone controlled by foreign powers, or 
(3) someone incompetent to serve office.

Trump fits all three categories.

Texas elector Christopher Suprun wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Monday that he does not plan to vote for Trump because the president-elect is "someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office." He urged others to rally behind a Republican alternative.

I ask you to find the addresses of the Trump electors, write to them, and ask them to use their authority under the Constitution to choose someone other than Donald Trump, for all the above-mentioned reasons.



Sunday, November 13, 2016

SNL Was Powerful Last Night


If nothing else came out of the show but their "cold open" and the opening monologue, they outdid themselves.





Have a good week, y'all and heaven help us.


Friday, November 11, 2016

Let's Be Clear On This Election


Image may contain: 2 people , text and closeup
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happened this past Tuesday. This is what took place, the above. And it occurred because the Republicans and Republican Party has done four things to load the votes and elections their way.

First, they have loaded state after state and district after district with gerrymandered and heavily gerrymandered districts. They make those districts snake through areas in order to give themselves more votes. It's well-known and documented.

Second, they write, propose and get passed as many "voter ID" laws as they can, in their obvious and direct efforts to get fewer of the elderly, Blacks, Latinos, Hispanic, Mexican, minorities, poor and physically-challenged to vote. By doing this, they've made clear they get fewer Democrats in the voting booth.

Third, they helped tear down the Voting Rights Act in recent years so, again, they can get fewer minorities in general but Blacks, specifically, to vote.

Finally, all of this helps load the Electoral College their way so what happened Tuesday, what's shown above, happens. More vote for someone but the Electoral College snaps that vote away. Candidates like Al Gore, first, in 2000 and now, Hillary Clinton, this year, win the popular vote but don't officially win the election.

If you go to this link, it shows Hillary Clinton got nearly 6 hundred thousand more votes than Trump.

US elections 2016 live results


We cannot and we will not merely bemoan the system.  We must change it from within.


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Imploring


God forgive us. (At least, forgive those who voted for this guy).

God help us.

God save us.


Dear America: Now That That's Over...



An open letter to America.

Dear America,

Now that that's over, now that Donald J. Trump was (soundly, roundly and decidedly) defeated in this presidential election, it's important, very important, that we all, all of us, come back to sanity and logic and kindness and intelligence and discernment and rationality and all things good and true and compassionate and back away from anything and everything he stood for.

All the racism and sexism and misogyny and bullying and emotion and every negative, ugly thing he represented.

All of it.

Let's all come back, away from the ledge of negativity and even ugliness he too often presented.

Let's all come back to civility and cooperation and working together and being Americans. Again, together.

And let's demand our government office holders do the same. No more "party first", people and "nation be damned."

It's not us vs. them.

Let's do this.

Let's work together for the benefit of all of us. For the benefit of America.  Heck, for humankind and all the world.

Let's be and stay the United States of America. No matter our political party or leanings, let's be Americans first and go from there, from our problems, together, to solutions.

Sincerely and very truly yours,

All of us.

(Note:  This was written on the afternoon of October 20, 2016, the night after the third and final presidential campaign debate).


Link:  Is Reconciliation Possible After the Election?

On Nov. 9, let's pretend Donald Trump never happened

Bernie Sanders outlines post-election plans in Globe opinion piece

Whether Trump or Clinton Wins the US Election, What Follows Is Up To Us


Sunday, November 6, 2016

More Signs Pointing to a Hillary Clinton Rout



Yet another couple of reasons, this week, why Hillary Clinton will win the presidency on Tuesday and Donald Trump will be roundly, soundly defeated.

First, these were revealed and released this week.

US Added 161000 New Jobs In October; 

Wages Rise By 10 Cents



Check that out. More hired, more employed and higher wages for us workers.

And check out that price of gasoline, in the middle of Kansas City, from last evening.

Not just $2.00 per gallon, not just under $2.00/gallon but decidedly less than.  Fantastic.

Then check this out. I saw this last evening.


It's all the people Trump has insulted and isolated and alienated as well as all the people Hillary has working and voting for her.

The Biggest GOP Names Backing Hillary 

Clinton—So Far




And then there's the fact that Donald Trump as president actually, rather rightly, scares plenty of Republicans and Right Wingers.


And then, keep in mind, the people with money, the people from Wall Street are also against this guy.




I tell you, folks, it's going to be an electoral slaughter.

We can't take anything for granted, of course, and we have to get out there and vote but between this kind of information and facts and the fact that Donald Trump insults so many people, including those who should be in his own base, Republicans, no less. I believe strongly we're going to see a monumental loss for Mr. Trump and his Republican Party. I think it's going to be a very Truman/Dewey election result, if not even more so.

Here's hoping.

Vote, folks! And vote blue!

Links:

Hillary Clinton Is Leading In A Greater Portion Of Polls Than Obama Was In The Last Two Elections

Florida Latinos set records in early vote numbers. They could swing the election.

Clinton Has Solid Lead in Electoral College; Trump's Winning Map Is Unclear


Trump Won't Win, But You Still Need to Vote


Saturday, November 5, 2016

Eight Years Ago Today


Eight years ago today, one Barack Hussein Obama was elected into office, the highest office in the nation and the most powerful office in the world.

Image result for president obama

Don't forget. We can never forget.

Image result for hillary clinton

And now, let's do it again, with and for the first woman, this coming Tuesday.

Vote.

And vote blue.


Friday, November 4, 2016

The Outrageous, Ridiculous False Equivalence of This Presidential Election


Bill has it down. (Note: expletives)



The ridiculous, supposed equivalence of our 2 current, final presidential candidates at this moment is the absolute worst thing of our media and this campaign of the last 2 years.