Category: Impeach

WHAT IS PATRIOTISM?

Trump’s Attempt to Modify Meanings

I grew up in America and anyone who has spent any time with my musings on this blog and the book: Donald Trump: Repeal, Replace, Impeach will know that I am loyal to my country and to which it stands. It can be nicely wrapped in the phase, “Liberty for All.” I truly believe those who stand against anyone or any power that wants to take away our freedom is a hero and patriot. Whether they protect us with a gun or a keyboard or a video, they play an important role in keeping this beloved country on the right path.

Last night (10-16-2017), when John McCain was accepting the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal, he warned us of something he feels quite strongly about:

“To fear the world the US has led for the better part of a century and abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe and refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is unpatriotic.”

In those words, we have a viewpoint of someone I would have no problem saying is a patriot, and we should be listening to him. Aside from the “Keating Five” scandal, McCain was a member of that shameful group of politicians, he has a wonderful record of service to his country. Rather than parse every detail of his career from military service, P.O.W. story, voting records and failed attempt to become President of the United States, we can simply say that John is not a half-baked nationalist.

While our current Commander in Chief stood before the press for more than 40 minutes yesterday trying to cover up the fact that he has major problems with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, he dropped lies like birds drop poop after a good feeding. Trump sure spent a lot of time talking yesterday. He told us that former Presidents didn’t call or comfort the families of our fallen patriots; a bold-faced lie, just thrown out there. When confronted, he used the old, weak excuse, “I was told that.” When will this guy finally realize he cannot make things up in such a dangerous world? And if you are following along at home, count the number of times he is saying, “to be honesty with you…” which is usually said a lot by insecure liars.

Donald J. Trump is a broken man. I am not sure who broke him, but more and more people want to return him and get their vote back. There is a strange concept happening, when you bring up Trump, unless the person has been lured into the cult and is continually drinking the Kool-Aid, they would rather just not talk about it. There were people in Germany who did the same thing in the late 1930s. No, Trump is not Hitler. Adolf stayed on message and never strayed from his mission. Trump is all over the place. He says he hates the press, but cannot go a day without being on TV. He’s addicted to power and publicity.

Today, his nomination for the position of Drug Czar, which, by the way, sounds like a Russian idea, mysteriously evaporated. Representative Tom Marino, President Donald Trump’s nominee, withdrew his name following reports that he played a key role in weakening the federal government’s authority to stop companies from distributing opioids. We can thank the Washington Post and CBS’ Sixty Minutes for breaking this story and doing the hard work to vet this person. This is why the First Amendment is what makes America great. However, within 24-hours Trump will Tweet more lies to the world and then attack anyone who has a critical thought about his words.

Just as John McCain said last night, Trump would rather find scapegoats than solve problems. I firmly agree. Donald’s actions are cowardly and unpatriotic. He is too busy with his tweets, lies and self-aggrandizement to be a leader of anything, let alone our great nation. It’s time to impeach the son-of-a-bitch; and you can quote me.

 

The First 200 Days Of Trump

These daily diatribes from a delusional blogger give you a day by day overview of the 45th President’s first two-hundred days in office. Follow Donald Trump through the tough times on his way to impeachment. Kindle Version HERE, or Get the printed book now, CLICK HERE.

 


THE PRICE OF LOYALTY

Trump Continues to Drain His Own Swamp

It would be easy to make a joke about the Price being wrong, or that every politician has his Price, but the mess that has been uncovered within the Trump Administration is embarrassing, to say the least.

As I have written here before, I don’t like Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price. So, when it was disclosed that he racked up more than a million dollars in government jet use for personal travel, I wasn’t surprised. He is a superficial, first-class B.S. artist.

Knowing some of his constituents in Georgia colored my view of Price before Trump placed him in his cabinet. Many Georgians complained about Price’s lack of attention to details and his slow or absent response to letters that were written to him about critical local issues. His “nobody is home” M.O. was a troubling elitism that the Donald obviously didn’t uncover in his “extreme vetting” of the team he assembled to help run the administration.

Trump will probably justify this firing by the total failure of the health care bills and the fact that Congress couldn’t repeal and replace of Obamacare; a sin worthy of dismissal, if only we knew what the President’s plan really was. There was never any concrete legislation created by the White House. If our great Orange Leader was depending on Tom Price to write that, well, it never got done.

The Washington Post (9-29-2017) claimed, “House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and former House speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia had pushed for the then-congressman to lead HHS, arguing that Price’s medical and policy expertise and congressional ties could help Trump deliver on his vow to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” It’s too bad that President Trump can’t fire Newt Gingrich and expunge his ill-effect on government. We already know that Paul Ryan is a classic politician who does whatever the party says, rather than what America wants.

It was rather obvious that some of Tom Price’s stock trading in the medical and pharmaceutical industries was in direct conflict with his duty as a representative in Congress. It wouldn’t take Inspector Clouseau long to figure out that something was rotten with Dr. Price.

And this points to a serious problem with the talent pool on Capitol Hill. Just because Price was a doctor and a member of Congress, wouldn’t that make him, theoretically, a member of the sleazy underworld that Trump dubbed “the swamp?” Why do we have so many doctors in Congress? Maybe they can make more money in Congress than private practice? Time to investigate them all!

Politico broke the story about Price’s misuse of government funds to the tune of more than $400,000, with another $500,000 tacked on for overseas flights. The most brazen offense being a $25,000 jet flight from DC to Philadelphia, which would have cost no more than $700 round trip on a commercial airliner or a $265 first class ride on Amtrak. You know, the one that Joe Biden used to take every day.

The fallout on this one proves that Donald J. Trump is unaware of how the government works and how people will scam their way around rules and policies, just like he does. This PriceGate shows the fallacy about the belief that America needs a good business man to run the government. We must have gotten a bad one.

So far, Trump has fired more people in nine months than most administrations dismiss in four years. And some of the reasons for these firings were damn good: lying, creating conflict, leaking, using extreme vulgarities, ignoring the Logan Act, being ineffective communication, treason and bilking taxpayers out of money. Where did Trump get these people?

Tom Price is only the tip of the iceberg in an administration which is being run like a family business, with the patriarch and owner existing in a shiny world of hyperbole and vagueness. Trump truly believes that as long as he peppers his speech with catch phrases and slogans, everything back at the office is running smoothly. There seems to be no oversight until it’s too late or until some First Amendment outlet gets in the way.

The United States of America is a public company, Donald, and the stockholders are the millions of hard-working Americans who deserve a real president. Either step up and lead, or get out of the way. We don’t care what you think about football players. That is not your domain.

We care about repairing peoples’ lives in Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico. We care about help needed by the middle-class and how the rich should not get more benefits than they deserve. Of course, the heath care issues still need attention as well. And by the way, we have countries vowing to destroy us and you can’t afford to take your eyes off that ball. So how about starting to work on these things instead of draining your swamp?

The First 200 Days Of Trump

These daily diatribes from a delusional blogger give you a day by day overview of the 45th President’s first two-hundred days in office. Follow Donald Trump through the tough times on his way to impeachment. Kindle Version HERE, or Get the printed book now, CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

 


THE PRESIDENT AND PUERTO RICO

Out-of-Focus Trump Ignores His People

When the President of the United States takes his oath, we all assume that the words, “…will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” also means he or she will protect its people. Recall that President Trump has stated many times that the reason we need a travel ban is to protect the people of this country.

For years, Puerto Ricans have debated whether they should be the 51st state of America. Many don’t realize that the island was given to the United States, along with Cuba and the Philippines, after our victory in the Spanish-American war. Cuba and the Philippines gained their independence, while Puerto Rico took a different path.

On July 4, 1950, President Harry S. Truman signed an act that not only let Puerto Ricans draft their own constitution, but also granted the country a commonwealth status. People who are born on the island are citizens of the United States because Puerto Rico is a US territory.

The people of Puerto Rico have a non-voting representative in Congress, but they don’t get to vote for President. This brings me to the dark thought that Trump’s attention span on Florida and Houston doesn’t extend to Puerto Rico because he loses nothing in the voting game with his inaction. Until he finally heard the cries and made plans to go there next Tuesday.

100% of Puerto Rico lost power for days, while the President was sitting on the john blabbing about NFL football players. While people were without water for five days, the great Orange Leader was out making speeches for Luther Strange running for Congress in Alabama. When does Donald Trump become the President of all the citizens? Finally, after six days, the President turns his thoughts to Puerto Rico with this tone-deaf Tweet: “Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble. It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well. #FEMA” They know they have financial problems, why talk about that when they need our help most?

The President has two major issues going on with North Korea believing our country declared war on them because of Trump’s stupid comments on Twitter. And major weather events have changed millions of American lives. Judging by the number of Trump’s tweets on the subject, the kneeling-arm-locking at football games is a pressing problem that must be solved. Really?

When I saw Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, bring his team to the field, before the Anthem was played, and take a knee in Arizona, I was so proud. I was proud of America’s team and proud of the NFL and proud of our freedom of speech. Trump won’t back down, and that is exactly why people must speak out. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers said, “[America] It’s the land of the free. But we still have problems just like everybody else and when we have those problems, we have to figure out a way how we come together and be as great as we can be as a people. Because the people run this country. Not one individual. And damn sure not him.”

So, how do we convince an out-of-focus President to concentrate on important issues and put out the flames of unimportant controversies? How do we get the President to stop adlibbing what he thinks is funny to a small crowd of rabid fans? It’s time for him to stop running for office and actually do the job to which he was elected. He is a flawed person and a damaged politician. Trump is a failure in so many ways. I laughed when someone from the cult said, “But he’s gotten so much done.” Really, what has he gotten done?

There will be time to dissect this presidency by historians in the future but, for the present, would someone please save our country from this madman? Yes, he and the “rocket man” are both deranged guys who are not good for the world. When do the men and women in Congress finally wake up and realize that this president must be stopped?

Ask people in the South Florida Keys, Houston neighborhoods and the millions in Puerto Rico if this President has their back. He has to step up and do something for our citizens. Let’s forget about that stupid wall and start to re-build the infrastructure in all our communities. Why do you take a knee on important issues Mr. Trump? Stand up and lead!

The First 200 Days Of Trump

These daily diatribes from a delusional blogger give you a day by day overview of the 45th President’s first two-hundred days in office. Follow Donald Trump through the tough times on his way to impeachment. Kindle Version HERE, or Get the printed book now, CLICK HERE.

 

 


FIRE THE SONS OF BITCHES

Trump Protests Protesters, Huh?

At one of the ego-booster Trump campaign rallies in Alabama Friday night, Donald Trump weighed in on the kneeling protests we all see during the National Anthem before NFL games. Once again, the Donald wants to fire them all and, in effect, blacklist those players. Not only is he suggesting a walkout of the fans, but now he has disinvited the NBA Champs, the Golden State Warriors, who were scheduled to visit the White House.

The Donald is confusing the Pledge of Allegiance with the playing of the National Anthem. When we take the stand in court to testify, we have a right to simply “affirm” that we will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No gods, Bibles, or anything else religious need to be involved. So, what is this all about really?

Donald Trump has a tender spot in his ego for the NFL. When he owned the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, he manipulated the owners of that upstart league to move their games to the fall to directly compete with the NFL. Trump convinced those same owners to sue the NFL in an attempt to force a government sanction monopoly to merge with his new league. That would have increased the value of the new league’s teams. The USFL owners won damages of only $3. Yes, three dollars. The jury saw through the ruse and signed a death sentence for the new league. Trump lost lots of money.

This latest harangue of our great Orange Leader is the latest assault against people he doesn’t like, the owners in the NFL. He was spanked by them and the court when he wanted to enter their club. Trump has made some really stupid statements about the value of teams in the past. According to the Washington Post (9-24-2017), he once tried to buy into the NFL, “In 1988, he made a bid for the New England Patriots but ultimately bowed out. In 2014, Trump said he offered $1 billion for the Buffalo Bills, but he was bested by a $1.4 billion offer.”

Donald Trump’s lack of business acumen in sports is glaring. He laughed when Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million, a team that many experts believe is currently worth almost $5 billion. Who is the genius business person now?

But let’s get back to the political cloud over the President’s put down of players who are protesting under the loose banner of Black Lives Matter, and the obvious move of the Justice Department to the white side of the story with police maleficence and racial imbalance with incarcerations.

The President is now linking this process with disrespect of the flag. It’s not the flag we stand for, it’s the anthem itself. It’s showing respect for a song about America, a song rooted in war and blowing things up. Hey, I would prefer “America The Beautiful” be the National Anthem, but I didn’t get a vote on that one.

What is Donald Trump trying to do? Why would a President use such inflammatory language in the demand that the owners see things his way and fire the players who will not stand? We saw the reaction before every football game on Sunday. Players and teams locked arms and stood up for those kneeing on the sidelines. And it’s not surprising that the majority of the players kneeing are African-American. This is Trump’s problem and he does nothing to soothe or address the issue, he just makes it worse.

Trump has decided that pushing around black people from a stage in Alabama is more important than being a role model for all Americans. He is incapable of understanding the core of American ideals and the number of people who see black football players as heroes.

Donald Trump is truly like the chemical Agent Orange being sprayed into the air for white supremacists to breathe. I must say it’s apparent that the pronouncements of his White Nationalism are not just slams, they are little pills of truth we all must swallow.

The antidote for this poison in the White House is impeachment. The President doesn’t understand why people react so negatively to him. He is beyond tone-deaf, he is actually DEAF.

The First 200 Days Of Trump

These daily diatribes from a delusional blogger give you a day by day overview of the 45th President’s first two-hundred days in office. Follow Donald Trump through the tough times on his way to impeachment. Kindle Version HERE, or Get the printed book now, CLICK HERE.

 


THE CURSE OF BANNONISM

Trump’s Special Advisor and Puppeteer

When a president leaves office, they usually create a library to house the papers and books that played a major role in the shaping of their term. With Donald J. Trump, we won’t need a library, because he doesn’t read books. His legacy will simply be a building with pictures of people who had his ear, TV screens playing Fox News broadcasts and digital displays of pages from right-winged web sites.

When I watched the Charlie Rose interview with Steve Bannon on CBS’ Sixty Minutes, I was first disappointed that they would give him such a powerful platform. As the program commenced, however, little bombs of truth started to penetrate my frontal lobes. It became very clear that Bannon was the biggest influence on the 45th President and Bannon’s destructive dogma clings to Trump.

I have long said that Team Trump has no concern for political parties. The Donald is neither Republican nor Democrat. He’s a reactionary personality who believes that his charisma can carry him through any challenge. The flaw in Trump’s  thinking is the belief that people like him. Bannon in the interview actually made that same observation. So, Bannon is allowed to critigue the President.

Steve Bannon, clearly not a likeable person, propels his elitist and subversive views in everything he says. He opens by taking a shot at the Grand Old Party, accusing them of trying to nullify the 2016 election. This “civil war” he is flaming is bad for the party in power. Here is an important area of focus. Bannon says the GOP is trying to thwart Trump’s economic nationalist agenda. No one would argue that our business practices should produce positive results for our country and our people, but there seems to a Bannon agenda, darker and more negative than most Americans envision.

Bannon extends his aggression against certain Republicans with the promise to defeat them. Putting his money (well, other people’s money) where his mouth is means he will be buying ads supporting those running against these “rogue” politicians. He talks about “holding them accountable,” which pushed me to ask the question, “Should the elected official behold themselves to a president or their constituents?” The executive branch didn’t appoint them, they were elected by local counties, cities and states.

Bannon’s reveal that following the election the administration embraced the establishment due to the influence of Jared Kushner, was nullified by his comparison to the way he and Jared dress. Really? Are we in high school? Was Kushner’s desire to work with the “establishment” driven by his wardrobe?

Bannon continued to stir the pot with his opinion that Gary Cohn should have resigned if he didn’t like Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville. I see, you can be critical of things Trump does, but the other guys have to be loyal. Maybe Bannon actually thought he was the President.

The common thread here is that both Gary and Jared are Jewish and would obviously despise anything less than total denouncements on Neo-Nazis. It would be too easy at this point to suggest Bannon exposed a constantly rebuffed anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant grounding by this former Navy officer. But hey, he does mention pearls, limousines and the Hamptons in his put-down of the establishment. This is funny coming from a man who made millions in Hollywood.

It seems draconian to purge someone from the administration because they said the great Orange Leader made a mistake in handling the Charlottesville press conference. Why is Bannon so critical of honesty? He said that “a Darwinian environment for ideas is a positive.” Really, Steve, well Jared and Gary are still there and you are gone. I guess it was the survival of the strongest.

This idea that your “work was done” inside of the White House and you will continue the fight outside of the government is a lame ass excuse for being fired. Bannon called himself a “staffer,” with a kind of snobbish air suggesting that his position was beneath him. You were fired because you were opening your mouth, Bannon, and the White House couldn’t trust you. They are distancing themselves from you now, Mr. Alt-Right winged hooey.

We get that you hate the Bushes, Obama and others who have come before. Your abhorrence and vitriol oozes from our President’s narrow mouth. This concept of saying, in a very forceful declaration, that, “… they know, I know and YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE!” is what Donald Trump uses when he feels confronted. This was a giant poker player “tell” for me. Bannon fed Trump the notion of taking down the Washington Monument and Donald’s little brain spit out that argument. Steve said that the President was taking it to a higher level and he was the only one defending him. Really? You must have a loose screw somewhere because the President, at best, sounded uninformed.

The most repulsive attempt to re-write history by Steve Bannon happened when Charlie Rose suggested that immigrants helped build this country and Bannon replied, “You couldn’t be more, dead wrong. America was built on her citizens.” Okay, so Africans weren’t citizens but did most of the work, yes? Italians, who later became citizens, paved all the brick streets in my hometown. Were they not working and helping to build America? What a stupid thing for Bannon to say.

And when he said that DACA Dreamers will just “self-deport” in six months and there will be no amnesty for their parents either, he made it clear that he is anti-immigrant and that is where the President was getting all his hogwash.

I am sure the 11 million people here illegally would love to help rebuild Houston and Florida for a chance at citizenship. What about that idea, Mr. President?

I don’t care what Steve Bannon says about the Catholic Church. I don’t care about his agenda to make America a whiter place. And I don’t respect his proclamation that the worst modern political decision was the firing of James Comey. If that was so, why didn’t he stop the President? The “I-told-you-so” Bannon dished out was so annoying, with zero enlightenment.

It’s obvious that Bannon was the puppeteer and Trump was the puppet who would say and tweet anything without any logical filter or understanding about the effect of those words. I am glad Steve Bannon is no longer a government employee. He should never have been hired. And, hopefully, the fake news won’t give him any more air time.


MANY SIDES OF DONALD, MANY SIDES

It’s all a game to the President

As Hurricane Harvey messes with the state of Texas, Donald Trump continues his role as Addlepate-in-Chief of our great nation. Yes, it means he’s confused and it shows. The many sides of Trump were on display this past week (8-22-2017) in his many speeches to many people on many sides but his words did little other than giving us conflicting sound bites.

We heard from Teleprompter Trump restating the same strategy in Afghanistan that Obama used for the last eight years. We saw Impromptu Trump in Phoenix where he, like the little boy who lied to his parents, kept restating what he said, only leaving out the parts that people were so pissed about. And of course, we heard directly from the center of his botched brain with Twitter Trump.

While all the boring pundits and fake experts in the media are saying what it all means, I must add a thought. While many are focusing on the cult of personality, Trump is moving the government, and thus our country, to the far right. He’s ready to pardon Joe Arpaio and end the Dreamer (DACA) program taking 1,451,195 kids out of the workforce and into a quandary. With no respect for the courts and no respect for people, we allow this Orange Poison to stay in the room and destroy people’s lives.

Donald J. Trump gets splattered across the media for whatever he does, and that is too bad. The President should be working on the duties of being president not out wasting jet fuel to campaign for the next election in four years. His travel is squandering massive amounts of taxpayer funds. The Donald should be getting things done rather trying to get reelected. Tweeting against his own party should be an alarm to those in Congress. When are those lame-ass self-delusional Republican grandfathers in Congress going to wake up and realize that your President is NOT A REPUBLICAN? He will destroy you.

And while every critic in the land is making a big point of the President of the United States not uniting us as a people, don’t fall for the bullshit rhetoric Trump strategically placed in his speech about coming together. We do remember that Hillary Clinton’s slogan was Stronger Together and, while that is true, the great Orange Leader has no chance of achieving it. As a matter of fact, he has no desire to bring us together. He cares only about his appearance and getting his way. We made a big mistake.

So, for all those wishful thinkers who thought that the White House without Steve Bannon would magically turn into a place of moderate thought, think again. Remember that Bannon’s pet name for Trump was Archie Bunker, meaning the problem wasn’t Bannon but rather Trump himself. The White House has less credibility than a White Castle in Toledo, Ohio.

Speaking of Ohio, the rumor mill is churning the idea of John Kasich challenging the sitting president to be the Republican nominee in 2020. And there will be others. The party is splitting like atoms in a North Korea reactor. Even Mitt Romney might give it another try. Here are some of the things I would love to ask Donald Trump. Why do you think so many people don’t trust you? Why is the percentage of people who think you are unfit for office so large? And why aren’t you listening to the other 61% of the people who are vehemently opposed what you are doing?

We will soon get to the point where more and more people will be talking about how to get rid of the 45th President. I was at a family gathering this week, with lots of people who voted for the Donald and believe in him. They actually deny that Trump has lied about anything, even when the truth is laid before them. They are in his rapture just as much as they are excited about the religious rapture. But deep down inside, they have their doubts. The one question I got many times was, “Do you really think he could get impeached.” I just smiled.

When someone asks, “Why don’t you give him a chance?” I will answer, “Why doesn’t he give me a chance?” Why is he not listening to what I think? All presidents take a stand and make their decisions based on what will please their base or help them get elected. I am a grown man, I know that, but after hearing Trump saying over and over that we have to get out of Afghanistan because it’s such a waste of money, we see that he got sucked right back in. He broke a promise. While he says that it was a thoughtful decision, to many supporters it was damn flip-flop.

And as winter comes in America, we will learn more about who Donald Trump is and how he tears us apart as a nation. He exposes a little more of himself each day, and the people who speak on his behalf are nothing but damn, professional liars. The anger from the 61% will grow and more people will be asking the Senate, “What exactly is it that you do again?”

 


MORE BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Trump Takes Back Campaign Promise

After President Trump’s speech about Afghanistan (8-21-2017), Breitbart’s Steve Bannon called it a flip-flop, setting up a new war with Fake News. It is true that one of Trump’s campaign promises was to get out of Afghanistan, the never-ending war.

With his words last night, President Donald J. Trump extended the war until, well, we don’t know. It’s something like a television network announcing they have renewed a show with no timeline and no end in sight. Thanks to our great Orange Leader, we still have the “Obama strategy”, as it was described by one of the Breitbart editors, but there are “no timelines, facts or figures.” We are going to continue the war, but now with Trump’s approval and ownership. Oh, how things change when you are President and sitting in the Oval Office, sir.

Trump said his first instinct was to pull out. There is a joke there, but I’ll let it be and continue this diatribe. After feedback from “his Generals,” Trump has decided to let them run the war and help him make critical decisions. Boy, those Nazis really turned Trump around. Or was it that he no longer had to stare at that extremely “white” board in Bannon’s office with all the campaign promises. Like Moses’ tablets, those were laws not to be broken. Now that the Neo-Moses and Alt-Right loon Bannon is gone, we can erase the board and move forward.

We entered Afghanistan for all the right reasons. They were harboring radicals and extremists who carried out attacks on US soil in 2001. See, in a country that has this hardened religious foundation in their history, it’s hard to know where the bad guys stand on the circle of political alignments. For sure, though, they have about four or five self-proclaimed jihadist’s groups and, of course, the Taliban, their version of the minute men on horses.

We are dealing with the tribal nature of a very large country that has more diversity than most Americans can understand. Did we also mention that Afghanistan grows poppies. The opium poppy is used to make morphine, heroin, and a number of other painkillers. We have to stay in Afghanistan not only for the potential of more radical groups using the country as a training base, but something Trump didn’t talk about last night was is fact that our opioid crisis starts in that country, not Mexico.

You can’t blame Teleprompter Trump for his words last night, they were expertly crafted to have a push back on hate, a little flag-waving and USA USA USA in there. To prevent being beat up by the lefty media, all the important stats were redacted. But it’s okay to say there isn’t a timeline, because history will likely show that we will never leave Afghanistan. Ask the Russians whether winning was worth it. They were there for ten years, didn’t win and all their aggression gave the world was Bin Laden.

I was very proud of our military at Fort Myer for not cheering and being quiet during the President’s speech. I am sure they were given orders to clap only when the speech was finished. That kind of seriousness is needed when the President is going to send some 4,000 fresh troops into unsafe territory. He might not say what he is doing, but the figures will be leaked by the Pentagon.

What was lacking in Trump’s speech was a clearly defined goal. He said he wants to bring peace to the region, but he didn’t say when. He said he doesn’t want any nation building, but will ask Pakistan to help with the terrorists on the border while using a veiled threat of taking away their US aid. He asked India to assist, which means that he wants them to help fund this war. I am sure that Prime Minister Modi would like to help get rid of bad people in Pakistan, but he has a big bomb to do that, if he wants.

Might I remind the reader that Pakistan also has nuclear capabilities and they certainly will need our 1.5 billion dollars in aid to lube their fighting machines. Without recognizing the Taliban and sitting down and talking with them no real peace can be achieved. The Taliban, which some estimate is 30,000 strong, will always be taking land and attempting to put those they control under Sharia Law.

Remember, it is the Taliban’s fatwa that condemns to death anyone who draws a picture of Muhammed. This is what Trump inherited and, he is correct, it’s a mess. But he needs to stop complaining about the past and focus on tomorrow. It is now his war and his army and his political legacy that is on the line.

Trump has failed domestically. He cannot afford any further mistakes. We need Teleprompter Trump now, not Impromptu Trump, who ruffles too many feathers. And it would best if Twitter Trump would take a long golfing vacation. Things are serious now Donald, get your head on straight, right now.

 


CTRL-ALT-RIGHT-DELETE

Trump Dumps Bannon, Finally

The writing was on the wall and in this blog that Alt-Rightist Steve Bannon was a huge anchor around President Donald Trump’s leg. And as Trump was quickly sinking lower into highly negative seas this week, it was most likely John Kelly who cut that anchor from the great Orange Leader, hoping he would surface in calmer waters.

The number of dead bodies floating outside the Oval Office is astounding. The poorly vetted National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, lied to the VP and was out a little over twenty-days into the Trump administration. Anthony Scaramucci was brought in to shake things up and Sean Spicer immediately resigned on July 2, 2017. John Kelly was transferred from Homeland Security to Chief of Staff, and Reince Priebus was sacked on July 28, 2017. And now, Steve Bannon was fired by the president on August 18, 2017. No previous administration has had so much turnover in such a short time, and this speaks to the Donald’s abysmally poor judgement and a broken vetting system.

There are some who think that the departure of Stephen K. Bannon will change the direction of the White House and help Donald J. Trump pivot. Ha! After watching the cable news networks over the weekend, I have learned how much those talking heads don’t know:

CNN: Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, BREAKING NEWS, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.

Fox News: Blah, Blah, OUR PRESIDENT, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,

MSNBC:  Blah, Blah, Blah, IMPEACHMENT, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,

As long as Donald Trump is the President of the United States nothing is going to change. Through his own words, Trump has clearly shown us that he is a not only a horrid communicator but also a racist. The goal of people who care about the real America hasn’t changed but, hopefully, Trump will do something which will bother Bannon. Then the right-wingers at Breitbart will start to nag him and create backlash in the Alt-Right faction of Trump’s base. This will help America. If anyone thinks that just because Steve Bannon has left the building Trump will magically become reasonable and focused on the people’s business, they are wrong.

The fact is that Bannon never left Breitbart and he was pulling the strings of that website just as deftly as he was pulling the strings of our puppet president. Now is the time for everyone to look up the addresses of their representatives in the House and the Senate (they’re listed on this website) and write your representative a strong letter of rebuke.

Congress doesn’t need to censure President Donald Trump, they must impeach him. Censure is nothing more than a formal, symbolic condemnation of an individual whose actions run counter to the group’s acceptable standards for individual behavior. We’ve already reached that point.  More action is needed!

It’s time for YOU to communicate your views and feelings to those who run our Congress. Removal from office is the singularly decisive protection from an extremely bad president. Never stop acting and never stop believing.

 


ECLIPSE OF THE ORANGE SUN

Trump Goes Dark and Dim

As the moon moves in front of the sun, the president is feeling the heat of his own party. Many loyal red-blooded Americans can’t understand why Trump will not condemn Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists and the KKK. He seems to have the same problem with Russia. Is Trump really a typical American?

The debate about confederate memorabilia around these lands was started by those who want to clear the air. When a young boy looks up at a big statue of a soldier, he automatically thinks that person must have been a hero. The meaning of the word confederate is a person who works with others, especially in something secret or illegal. A confederate is an accomplice, while a hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. You know, like a war hero.

The statues exist to celebrate the values behind the war by the KKK in the 1920s, not something that would have been appropriate right after the Civil War. Imagine if someone suggested we put up statues for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were convicted spies. The people we are protecting under the guise of history and culture were traitors to the United States of America.

The only reason all those “great” Confederate leaders weren’t executed is because the people who signed the peace treaty wanted to heal America. Let’s put it in perspective. If ten of our current generals commanded a division of US forces to attack America, those officers would be charged with treason. If convicted, they would be executed. Surely, we wouldn’t build a statue to honor the guy who killed our soldiers at Fort Hood. No, of course not. Ironically, Fort Hood was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood.

After the civil war ended in 1865, the clear and calm minds in the US government decided to get beyond, as it’s called in the south, “our recent unpleasantness” rather than pouring salt in the wound. Today, we are tearing off the bandage. For what? It might not seem important to President Trump, but 620,000 people died in our Civil War, so it’s a little more than an argument over moonshine.

We aren’t going to spend tons of money today to remove the carvings from Stone Mountain in Georgia and Mount Rushmore is not going to be altered, but no one can defend Robert E. Lee by carrying a Nazi flag. That makes no sense. When you carry a Nazi flag, you are saying you believe that Jews should be killed. Really? Where is our great orange leader’s defense of the First Amendment? Oh, he probably hasn’t read that lately, if ever.

The Alt-right can carry the “stars and bars” (Confederate flag) and parade around claiming that they are defending white people from the diversification of America, but that would make them foolish, or as Steve Bannon declared, “A collection of clowns.”

I may sound a little “Yankee” here, but when I see the stars and bars flag on a truck, I think, “There goes another redneck.” And what makes a redneck bad? Nothing really, but behind the flag is, at least, a small symbol of racism. It instills fear in some African-Americans and presents a distorted view of the war between the states. The U.S. flag doesn’t instill fear, it instills pride. Big difference.

Abraham Lincoln freed more than three million people from the chains of slavery. Trump cannot change history. The Civil War was fought over SLAVERY. You cannot purify the southern cause of the war by leaving the statues up.

We rightfully celebrate Lincoln, but we should also remember he was assassinated by someone who thought the same way as many of those people marching in our streets to protect those statues today. Is that Donald Trump and the Alt-right want to be associated with? An assassin?

The radical right might be saying, hey, I don’t want to kill anyone, I just want this beautiful statue to remain in my park because I want to protect my “history and culture.” But what you are truly saying is you want to celebrate Southern trader soldiers to protect “white” peoples culture.

Yes, it was more than “recent unpleasantness.” This bigotry elected Donald Trump and we see it at work as he attempts to exploit the terrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia to his advantage. Hopefully my grandchildren won’t have to march in the streets to get Donald Trump statues torn down. We don’t see that many Richard Nixon statues, do we?

Not all people who live in the southern states carry ethnic hate, but Donald Trump fails to understand that his language carries weight and hurts people’s feelings. He has no soul or empathy with matters of political correctness or human suffering. He has just equated himself with the KKK and Neo-Nazis, does he realize that?

If you treated people with respect, you would see that your confederate flag-waving is a little wink-wink for the White Nationalists. If you want to protect your heritage and culture, erect a statue of a large pig on a spit with a bowl of grits and leave racist politics out of it. And if you are making grits, would you please add cheese? I prefer a little color in mine.