POOR LITTLE DONNIE

The Martyr King of Queens

You know, I am getting sick of the routine. The act is sour. It’s the same old song of how America has been taken advantage of and the martyr in the White House will get even with everyone who doesn’t believe in him. Our President is not hitting the notes and more and more hard-working people are starting to question the original premise. There is no harmony in the land of the free.

Donald Trump believes there is some evil force against America and him. But here is where a perversion creeps in. North Korea and Russia are the good guys in his maniac reality, and long-term allies are somehow the enemy. The cooperative efforts to create a global economy has challenged the American worker and that’s what Trump exploited to get elected. In reality, his actions didn’t fix the problems. In fact, most of his moves have made things worse.

If America was in a bad financial place before the Donald became president, then how could he have made so much money? Oh, maybe that million-dollar paycheck he received from his father at age five helped a bit, but who convinced this guy he was somehow disadvantaged by our economic structure? The fact that he blames everyone who has come before is NOT a solution; it’s just a whinny little-boy excuse for being incapable of doing anything great.

Trump’s words reveal his narcissistic personality disorder, which is a mental condition in which a person has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, pervasive troubled relationships and a lack of empathy for others. Every time I read that definition; Donald Trump’s face floats into my mind.

Another President Trump personality disorder is martyr complex, which is also called “victim complex.” This person enjoys and projects a martyr status for their own sake, seeking out personal persecution or suffering because it feeds either a psychological need or a desire to avoid responsibility. This avoidance of responsibility can be extremely dangerous when it comes to running a country. If our president doesn’t like you, you are ignored. Ask Puerto Rico. Watch him closely; the martyr always blames another.

Trump truly believes that everyone is out to get him, ignoring all logic, facts and science. He refuses to listen to experts and experienced government veterans because he knows better than everyone else. If you disagree with him, you are not just contrary, you are the enemy. He cannot stand anyone who sees things differently. The mistakes of zealots like John Bolton and Peter Navarro, who reverberate what Trump wants to hear, could destroy this country. Bolton is a lousy diplomat and Navarro is a phony economist.

Trump doesn’t realize that Kim-Jung Un has played him. While Kim expands his arsenal and nuclear capabilities, our president keeps talking about their great relationship. He’s blinded by the premise that making nice to bad guys is good and treating good guys like shit will get them to do what he wants. Allies will simply work around him and wait out the time until someone else becomes President. Reasonable people deal best with sensible humans. They cannot depend on anything Donald Trump says because he is a pathological liar.

Russian interference in our election is seen by Trump as a good thing. Shouldn’t that alone disqualify him for the office? He allegedly has told members of his team to build a wall and if that means breaking the law, no problem because he will pardon the lawbreakers. That’s obstruction of justice and grounds for impeachment, but Trump doesn’t care.

James Mattis laid out the truth in his recent op-ed. His experience with Donald Trump forced him to resign even though he believes that without a strong buffer Trump could do something to hurt the world order and weaken the security of America. There are some real problems here and when the good guys jump ship we should all be worried about who is left to navigate.

Can a rich kid from Queens fully comprehend the range of challenges and tasks of being the “leader of the free world?” Does the narcissistic personality disorder so distract this half-baked-dictator-wannabe that important aspects of government are not being accomplished? It’s clear the martyr complex drives Trump’s overly emotional approach to problem solving. While a hurricane was bearing down on Puerto Rico, Donald Trump was more interested in saying terrible things about the government there and berating the outspoken mayor of San Juan. How is that productive?

Trump’s choice to be a martyr rather than president of all citizens means we will never achieve greatness. Problems will go unsolved and life will become even worse for those negatively affected by the global economy. The trade war with China is the clearest example of getting even being more important than finding solutions. The man keeps talking about how much money the treasury is taking in rather than admitting that our farmers are being killed by the tariffs. Prices of many everyday items will soar just to win a perceived war. Trump ignores the facts, blames others for all the problems and leaves the very people who elected him holding the bag. And that bag is full of shit. Thanks, Donnie.

Read About The Country We Love

The book that tells it like it is…

Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs shows how we’ve wasted our GOLD on bad wars and corruption. While GOD is there for many people as a spiritual enrichment and the provider of glowing feelings, the truth is just praying and believing will not change our major arc. We don’t determine who gets a GUN. We aren’t sure if we have paramilitary groups ready to storm the White House or a White Castle. There is no control of weapons. The GOOFBALLS with the power constantly try to manipulate us into spending more money on bombs and tanks and wars. When all of our institutions are infected with neglect and fall in disrepair, we will only have ourselves to blame. This book is not an antidote for the left or right, it’s an accelerant to move the middle off their collective asses to go do something positive for America.

Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.

THE TAO OF THE DEAL

Xi Jinping versus DJT

Tao means a road, a path, a way in which one does something. It’s a method, doctrine, or principle which includes simplicity, patience, and compassion. The Chinese way of thinking is very different from our western mindset. They concentrate on the principles of yin and yang, signifying that that all things exist as indivisible and contradictory opposites that are in harmony with the natural order.

The Tao of dealing with China and Chinese people in governance and business is straightforward. They need to feel comfortable with you. More will be accomplished at a large meal with copious amounts of alcohol. They charge for everything and you are never sure if this is just local corruption or simply the way things are done. You either pay to open the office and play by their rules or you don’t get into the market. Surely Donald Trump has discovered that Chinese business dealings are different, but he doesn’t bring compassion or patience to the table… and he doesn’t drink spirits.

The American news media have been trying to interpret every word of every tweet in Trump’s trade war. His language has a great effect, and more and more people are becoming nervous about his bull in the china shop mentality. Keep your eyes on the health of the world economy. It appears that Trump is out to wreck it, but could he be right in the long run?

I wonder if The Donald understands that he’s not just bullying some local vendor. He’s going up against one of the largest economies in the world. Can he distinguish his enemies from his friends? He’s thrown out all the good advice sent his way and is navigating solely within his prejudges and conspiracies. His fatal flaw is a belief that a win for him means someone else must lose and hurt. Trump wants to pour salt into any wound he thinks he creates. This is not how Chinese people think.

There is a measure of truth within the Tao way. A man’s word carries weight and a lie is not to be taken with salt. As Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching, “The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.” Donald Trump brags that he has “the best words,” but his use of bullshit and lies is in direct conflict with ancient Chinese philosophy.

Trump is playing the stock market like a video game. He gets off on seeing his tweets turned into actions and responses from his fans and enemies. The President believes he can comment the market up and Wall Street has proven this to be true. If Trump says he’s ready to make a deal with China, the market goes up. When a few moments later he announces he won’t make a deal with China until the election is past, the market goes down. This is more than irresponsible.

Donald Trump reminds me of a third grader attempting to get the attention of his classmate by pulling her ponytail. He gets a scream but loses the bigger long-term deal. The reason he keeps talking about the stock market is simply to get camera time. When he feels like he’s losing, he says something outrageous and then sits back to watch the result of his bombast. If the press were really against him, like he claims, they would simply stop covering him.

The Chinese want to find a solution quietly and, as you can see, President Xi Jinping is hardly ever quoted. His silence drives Trump crazy. If our president really understood the Tao of the deal, he would know that silence is not lack of attention. But it’s too late to change Donald Trump. This person in the wheelhouse of our economic ship is a madman like Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty. Unfortunately, the rest of his crew are blind Republicans who couldn’t muster a revolt if their lives depended on it.

The Chinese will come to the table sooner or later, but their goal will have nothing to do with making Donald Trump look good or bad. They will focus on the principles. They have determined the natural order, not the whims of our orange fake-tanned President. They gather strength from their 3,000-plus years of history, understanding that the USA has not reached even 300 years. They know they hold the cards and, like a good poker player, they don’t gloat or show.

The Tao of the deal is simple. The Chinese hold much of our debt as a country. If China wanted to be a player in Trump’s game, they would call their loans. That would bring the US to its knees and destroy its economy. China won’t do that, however, because of the harm it would inflict on the world economy. The simplicity is not in winning but crafting a deal that brings a win-win to all involved. If only Trump, a self-proclaimed Christian, could comprehend that this “Godless communist country” is just as capitalistic as we are. The difference is how they manage their money.

China has 1.386 billion mouths to feed, while the United States has only 327.2 million people. Mao Zedong, the leader of the conversion to communism, lived in caves and ate insects during the revolution. Donald Trump’s only sacrifice in life was taking the silver spoon from his mouth to spout nonsense and conspiracies. He’s an empty blue suit with no real desire to learn about the ways people act and react.

The sooner we get rid of Donald Trump, the sooner we will get back to the natural order of things. If he had kept his mouth shut, the economy would have gotten him reelected. Now, smart money is seeing the weakness in his inflexibility and lack of knowledge. He’s simply the wrong guy to run the economy.

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A PREGNANT ECONOMY

Trump’s Denial of Umbilical Connection

Donald Trump has been railing against globalism for a long time. Perhaps he fails to understand the structural foundation of trade, or, worse doesn’t have the knowledge and facts a true world leader should.

As President, historians will note either what you did you to help people (Obamacare) or what you did to hurt people (#TrumpTradeWar). There’s nothing a person can do to change facts or repair their narrative. Trump just may be writing a one-term reality.

If you see the stock market as the sole indicator of economic stability in America, you are only half right. Only 50% of working citizens own stock, the rest usually hold debt. Trump is so far from middle-class reality that he cannot possibly understand the challenges of a working family. Rather than show empathy, he transmits tropes of hate and fear.

I’m noticing that the shelves at Target and Walmart seem to have less inventory. Some stores have reconfigured with wider aisles, so that fewer choices aren’t so glaring. There is a wait and see attitude regarding buying based on tariffs and customer demand.

Macy’s CEO warns that the trade war could force stores to raise prices and send a message to President Trump that his consumers do not have an appetite for higher prices. Brick and mortar retailers are nervous. Will American malls become the next shuttered structures, victims of globalism and bad trade policies?

Like a pregnant woman engaging in risky behavior, Trump is wielding significant damage to not only our economy, but to the world’s monetary structure. China is only part of Trump’s problems. The Donald’s bullheadedness is killing our farmers and the insulting act of throwing them scant domestic aid while their soybeans are rotting is shameful and un-American.

Trump’s use of Twitter as an economic weapon against the central bank and its chairman is beneath the presidency. He continually equates experts and hard-working people to enemies when they suggest a different position than his. Trump’s ego appears to be his sole priority and his fear of recession might be the only reality that gets his unfettered attention. He seems to comprehend that a bad economy will be sure death in the voting booth for him.

The Donald is going to kill the baby. He refuses to take the doctor’s advice because he thinks he knows better than anyone else. He’s bad for the environment. He’s bad for the economy. He’s bad for America. And, oh yeah, he’s a racist. It’s time to abort his presidency. We have a fool in the White House.

GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

Trump’s Unsolvable Katrina

We have all heard the banal “thoughts and prayers” utterance so often that what was once a caring response now sounds limp and lifeless.

In an op-ed article called: “We have studied every mass shooting since 1966. Here’s what we’ve learned about the shooters” the writers spell out our challenge. If you didn’t read it, here is a link. If you want to know something about the people who wrote the piece, Jillian Peterson and James Denlsey, check here. I will now cover the major points with comments.

People who have committed mass shootings (using gunfire to wound or kill more than four people in a public place) have common points that we must examine. Many of the perps of these heinous crimes have suffered from trauma or exposure to violence at a young age. They may have experienced parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence or severe bullying. Each had significant breaking points in the months or weeks leading up to their act and all suffered a perceived grievance either in the workplace or in their personal life. They often study others who have committed these crimes in the past and use the internet seeking comfort and motivation from other like-minded troubled souls. The computers of offenders typically reveal they studied their targets and locations before taking the step. Peterson and Densley point out that 80% of these shooters got their weapons from family members, while the others purchased their guns legally.

The researchers offer solutions. One is making the soft targets less accessible, which to my way of thinking means more security people, more cameras and more invasion of our privacy. But just like we lowered the number of airplane hijackings by well-designed airport security, we are moving toward these kinds of pat downs in our society. We already security check at concerts and sporting events and this seems to keep us safer. Could malls be the next place we must clear a metal detector just to shop?

The writers of the study also say we must better control our weapons. Ahh, doesn’t that mean better and more gun control? Yes it does, and that means a bigger more interactive background check system with a constantly updated database detailing every purchase, even sales at gun shows. You know, like the databases used for drug purchases. I cannot fill the same prescription at two different pharmacies.

Another of their suggestions was making it harder for the damaged to acquire validation for their planned actions. This directly slams into the First Amendment protections of the Constitution. Are we really going to babysit the internet and engage in moderation or censorship, attempting to protect the frail minds of malcontents wanting to commit mass murder? On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but when our superficial president blames the internet, violent videogames and movies for the violence in our society, shouldn’t we censor him from promoting violence and hate at his rallies? Why does he get to censor when no one analyzes or edits him?

Remember, Donald Trump has said that he would like someone to punch a protester at his rally and even volunteered that he would pay the legal bills. What is the difference between Donald Trump and some asshole using the internet to put down immigrants and retweet Trump’s “invasion” theories about those seeking asylum? You see, Trump is the source of the echo chamber of hate. He retweets conspiracy theories that could promote violent actions against certain people. In fact, the Hillary Clinton pizza shop sex trafficking conspiracy lead to an armed assault to liberate the Washington, DC pizza joint. The Trump campaign promoted these hoaxes to get elected. Isn’t it ironic that a friend of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, was allegedly involved in sex trafficking?

Now, the same propaganda machine is promoting a theory that Bill Clinton killed Jeffrey Epstein AND TRUMP RETWEETED the message, aiding and abetting the volatile firebombing radical right winged messengers. Trump constantly sides with those who promote harm. When someone violates Tweeter policies and is taken down, Trump attacks Twitter… ON TWITTER! This is crazy. Now Trump is ordering the Federal Communication Commission to police public media, which puts us in dangerous waters. No matter which party is in power, censorship is UNAMERICAN.

If we need more control over sick minds, who will determine which of us are sick and who will treat the mentally troubled? If mental illness is the real “demon” here, then why did the government cut the CDC’s funding of gun violence research? And why do we spend most of our annual budget on military might and ammunitions? We spend more than $700 billion on tanks, guns and weapons of mass destruction, yet we are totally blind when it comes to healthcare, mental health and real threats within our borders?

Thousands of journalists, pundits and writers are publicly analyzing Donald Trump’s mental well-being and capacities. Some believe he has several serious impairments. This is no longer a joke. This President seems to side with Kim Jong-Un about whether he can violate UN policies of missile testing. Why?

Trump usually does the opposite of what he preaches. After meeting with the Governor of Alaska, Trump ordered the EPA to take away a law that protected the salmon runs from mining pollution. Trump didn’t drain the swamp; he is the swamp. I guess I won’t be eating Alaskan salmon.

Trump has a gun and arsenal and shows evidence that he is a danger to the entire world. If the “red flag” law passes on the federal level, a crafty legal scholar could use the same law to take away the Donald’s guns. And the FCC could ban him from the internet. The very legal bodies Trump uses to do his bidding and censoring could turn on him and spay this mentally ill dictator. Wouldn’t that be an interesting turn of events?

Here’s a simple formula. If you want to get rid of gun violence, get rid of the guns. If you want to get rid of stupid people saying stupid things on social media, get rid of social media. And if you want to get rid of hate, send Trump back to New York. But consider this, dear reader. When Trump is gone from Washington, hate, violence and white supremacy will not end. It’s all much bigger than Trump. Once Trump returns to the comfort of his black, evil tower of steel in New York City, we will still have to deal with the social contagions and desperate people doing heinous things. Trump and many of his appointees are the germinators of hate. They should be punished and removed ASAP!

Read About The Country We Love

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POLITICAL APPETITE

Two Words Say It All

I used to think people were superficial if they used short phrases and clichés to communicate. But then I observed that some people use common metaphors, analogies and word economy to share their thoughts. It’s not wrong, but in the spirit of words mattering we can detect true feelings and deeper attitudes by examining the words people use.

When Donald Trump was confronted by reporters before he left for Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, he was asked if he would support a ban on assault weapons. He quickly replied that he could see an appetite for “red flag” laws, but that there wasn’t a “political appetite” for banning assault weapons. And there, with those two words, President Trump revealed his true governing driver. He’s not making decisions or advancing legislation based on what is good for America, he’s concerned only with the appetites of those fat white men who support him in Congress. It’s all about guaranteeing adulation, rather than protecting the nation from the next mass shooting.

Trump has already heard from the National Rifle Association and they have “warned him” about going forward with any improvement to background checks. And as we have pointed out on these pages in the past, the NRA spent more than $30 million to help elect Trump; they control the President. The Donald is nothing more than a dancing puppet on the strings of a lobbying group. He’s totally in their pocket. How can this man ever promote reasonable gun control when he kowtows to every desire of the NRA? Just as the NRA is complicit in the deaths of citizens of the USA, Donald J. Trump has blood on his hands because of his inaction and inability to lead.

What Trump admitted on the White House lawn is that he doesn’t have the power, ability or desire to affect that political appetite. He struts about in his ill-fitting blue suits and unreasonably long red ties while doing nothing. He’s worse than a drunk uncle because he has the power to ruin the lives of 330 million people.

While Trump was going to Dayton and El Paso, ICE was rounding up 700 undocumented food processing plant workers in Mississippi. Many children weren’t picked up by their parents after the first day of school because mom, dad or both were in detention centers. No one needs to ask if Trump is a racist. It’s clear that he has a sick singular hatred of Hispanics. And why the disregard for children?

Who else would carry out such a destructive action, while claiming he was going to the sites of mass shootings to comfort the wounded and families of the dead? It was just another photo op, no different than shaking the hand of a known murderer and tyrant in North Korea. Donald Trump has no soul. He’s an immoral man with nothing but his money and fame.

This just in folks, from the Washington Post: “None of the eight victims of the El Paso mass shooting still being treated at University Medical Center agreed to meet with President Trump when he visited on Wednesday, the hospital’s spokesman said.” Clearly, the President was attempting to use these poor people as political pawns in a sick game of imaginary empathy. What piece of shit person would do this to anyone suffering so deeply? The hospital protected their patients, and that is how it should be.

Trump must truly believe that most people in the US are so stupid they won’t see through his lies and ruses. It’s not political anymore. It’s not a party thing. It’s human worth, spiritual unity and basic human values that are being attacked.

I know that presidential events must be crafted to make the leader of the free world look good. I get that. But when Trump claims that his rhetoric brings people together, and then blasts political rivals, maybe Representative Tim Ryan is right. Trump could be losing his grasp on reality and his mental acuity.

The shooting didn’t happen in Toledo; it was Dayton. The teleprompter showed Texas and Ohio. What else has Trump gotten wrong? Perhaps he has misread the America people. Not everyone treated the President like a “rock star” in Dayton and El Paso, despite the tweets of the White House communication people. These sycophants will have their day in court, or perhaps at the pearly gates, depending on what God they believe in.

If you kill my farm business with reckless tariffs, separate children from their parents and fire up an evil white supremist who then shoots people in this country, how can we possibly count on you to represent America on the world stage? I can truly say that Trump will never be able to heal the country, unite the people or ever be respected by this American. He’s just another puss filled blemish on the face of American politics.

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MESSAGE TO REPUBLICANS

Take the Money and Run

Math has always been a secondary reality for me, but I have managed to make and spend a lot of money in my life. I am like many in our country. I carry a little more debt than I should, but hey, why not live a comfortable lifestyle? When my kids wanted something, I usually found a way, and now that they are having kids, I expect them to make sure their children are neatly clothed, properly nourished and unconditionally loved. That brings me to Donald Trump.

I woke up this morning to this headline on the CNBC Financial Network: Trump’s tariffs cost US businesses $3.4 billion in June. Because the current liar-in-chief sits in the Oval Office, his misdirection is far beyond a game. Trump is going to damage the core American business model. True Republicans know free markets and they understand that controlling spending by balancing budgets make sense, but currently there are NO REAL REPUBLICANS. They are just Trump lemmings following him over the cliff. Not to pour salt into Republican wounds, but the People’s Bank of China said this, “The Chinese side advises the U.S. to leap over the cliffs and return to the correct track of rationality.”

There is a theme here and Republicans should cut ties with the maniac in the White House who listens to no one and, like a snapping turtle, stays clenched and hyper focused solely on what he wants, even when it hurts hard-working Americans. Most experts warned Donald Trump that his theory on how to change world economics was flawed and thought he demonstrated a lack of knowledge on how global markets work. This has now been proven, much to the chagrin of those who know better.

The best thing Senator Leader Mitch McConnell can do is call his chamber back to work right now to address several important issues. Not only is there a genuine need to pass reasonable gun control measures but having the Senate in town to talk to Trump about what the Trade War is doing would be productive. Someone needs to massage some patience and reasoned strategy into his thick skull. The 1% has made enough money and the tax cuts were mostly used for stock buybacks, not wage increases. According to AP, “Companies in the S&P 500 spent $806 billion on stock buybacks in 2018, blowing away the previous record of nearly $590 billion set in 2007.” Maybe the Republicans should sell all their stocks and begin buying real estate. In short, they should take the money and run. Their party is about to end.

Trump supporters in Congress should reevaluate Trump and his destructive policies. Everyone wants America to do well, and part of that is the stock market. However, the middle class of this country is focused on paying for housing, diapers, backpacks and waffles. As prices soar to pay for Trump’s vindictive trade fiasco, all the benefits of the tax cuts have been eroded by an overzealous demigod.

Why have we put our faith and economy in the hands of a man who has taken countless companies and enterprises into bankruptcy? Why did millions of Americans believe Trump would make things better? Are we all that stupid? Why can’t we hear the truth when it hits us in our heads? I remember when the stock market was crashing in 2008 and Senator John McCain said that he believed the fundamentals of the economy were “strong.” As pensions were drying up and 401Ks were imploding, McCain showed his misunderstanding of the market and economics. Between that and Sarah Palin, McCain sunk his chances to be president.

By electing Trump, the Republicans have forced themselves to the edge of a cliff based on his lack of knowledge about global economics. Trump has always been against globalization, but that never stopped him from taking his own brands around the world. Assuming for a second that Trump actually knows what he’s doing, that would mean that all he does is meant to create hate toward countries and people in order to get elected. Wow, how shallow and immoral. Just to put a bow on this bag of shit, most of the Trump MAGA hats are made in China.

The Donald keeps talking about how bad things are in China, which begs the question why is that good for the world? He claims that companies are returning their bases to America, but why would they? With uncertainty and tariffs, is it wise to move an operation to a country without a firm economic foundation?

When will a Republican knowledgeable about economics and global supply stand up and state, in clear language, that the current tactics with China will ripple through the world and perhaps cause a global recession? No one wants to be negative, but without some sense of realism in the Oval Office, we are putting all our chickens in one basket. And one person controls that basket. WHY?

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THE BURDEN OF POWER

Trump’s True Catch-22

The cost of change this time includes dead bodies in the streets of American cities. Donald Trump’s burden of power was something that he probably never imagined would be difficult, but then he just assumed running a country would be easy. Our President has an ongoing desire to entertain rather than embrace the empathy necessary in a great leader. He would call me a hater, but he would never take the time to read my thoughts. I feel sorry for him, but he should not be allowed to get in the way of our country’s safety, our prosperity and our morals.

Our younger readers might not understand the term “Catch-22.” This concept arises when trying to escape a dilemma or difficult circumstance with mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. President Trump finds himself now dealing with the mutually conflicting and dependent conditions he has created. But at the risk of blaming him for everything, we should look at the dilemmas and suggest solutions.

First, Trump married himself to the NRA and they spent more than $30 million to help him get elected. They give a lot of money to many other candidates and they are more like a political action committee than a non-profit organization. What they do is legal but causes a conflict of interest with those who have received their contributions. Trump sees their endorsement as important. He has never stood up to them. This needs to end.

Trump rose to political power by attacking immigrants. He berates them much like past tyrants who focused on minorities and ethnic groups to create dangerous conditions and harmful attitudes against them. Trump’s rhetoric has also stoked the hatred and fear of immigrants, aliens and asylum seekers. When reading the manifestos of mass shooters, we see the same phraseologies and viewpoints toward those ethnic groups and the people they’ve attacked.

In his speech to the nation and world (8-5-2019), President Trump said that he’s ready for discussion on gun laws and he touted his small legal moves such as banning the “Bump-Stock.” His words fell short, however, because they came from “Teleprompter Trump” not Candidate Trump. Can these tragedies guarantee that at his next rally he won’t double-down on previous incitements? Probably not.

Trump wants the Justice Department to make sure “domestic terrorists” receive a swift death penalty, but that’s not likely to deter most of these crazy murderers who expect to die during the carnage they reap. Killing the mass shooters will make them the kind of martyrs that ISIS fighters are to their followers. The hate websites will continue to breed this dogma of death and destruction, but what will the leadership of this country do to stop them? Can they protect our First and Second Amendment rights while making this problem go away? This is the true burden of power.

Here’s the Catch-22 in all of this. The TV talking heads express sorrow about the sweet little kids who were gunned down in El Paso, while a few miles from the attack site children of Mexico and Central America are living in chain-link detention centers lacking basic human comforts like hygiene, warmth and love. You cannot be on moral ground protecting one class of human being while dehumanizing another. Trump has already showed his true colors by doing everything he can to eliminate or bypass America’s asylum laws. In 1940, he would have turned away ships bringing Jews and other Europeans to America attempting to seek asylum from Hitler.

And now, Trump tries to apologize to the President of Mexico for those citizens who lost their lives in El Paso. His feeble attempt is most likely intended to placate their leader who said that Mexico would be seeking legal action for the deaths of their citizens on our soil. Perhaps one of Trump’s advisors warned him of a law that could be used against him.

Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. With Trump inciting violence toward immigrants, be they legal or illegal, he is clearly in violation of Article 20. He could be brought before the World Court.

Remember the Trump rally in Florida when someone answered his question of what to do with all these people coming across the border by yelling, “Shoot them?” The President of the United States didn’t explain that would be against the law. No, he offered a joke, “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with this stuff.” Referring to that area of Florida that borders Alabama, Trump seemed to endorse violence against people coming into America.

The Republicans playbook tells us that mass shootings are executed by mentally ill people, not the guns themselves. Video games and the internet are promoting violence, not the words of leaders who seemingly give permission to perpetrate political retribution against the “others” as defined by the President himself.

When the words are printed, you see it clearly. In his tweets, Trump used the term “invasion” more than a half of dozen times. And the manifesto of the shooter in El Paso stated, “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.” That was not Trump, those were the words of a person who killed twenty-two people in Texas.

If we are in a Catch-22 situation that is difficult to escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions, then we need smarter leaders to help us resolve them. This time, it’s not the economy stupid or the bully’s need for some payback against so-called bad deals. There are human lives at stake. I have no faith in Donald Trump, the man who took an oath to protect America and the Constitution. Neither he nor Mike Pence are equipped to disentangle this Catch-22.

Maybe we should start doing little things and see what works. Begin by banning and buying back all auto and semi-automatic weapons. Get rid of high capacity clips that give shooters advantages over the police. If someone could kill nine people in a minute in Ohio, how many others would have been murdered if the killer had just a little more time? We can’t take away every gun, but we should try to keep weapons out of the hands of unstable people. The paralysis of those in power is repulsive. Trump is only part of the problem but getting rid of him would be a great start.

Read About The Country We Love

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WE HAVE THE WRONG PRESIDENT

America Must Act, Trump Must Go

America, we have a problem. For all the rhetoric and endless number of tweets, the current government in our country is not equipped to deal with the violence of mass shootings. Regrettably, there is no preventative effort on the part of the President and his minions of “yes” men and women around him.

There have been too many events of “active shooters” and “mass shootings” for us to bury our heads in the sand. As of this writing, 2019 has seen more than 250 mass shootings, with a death toll of 281 human beings. If you want to keep track of these horrible events there’s a website. It changes weekly and sometimes daily. Here’s where one can use the word “sad” and feel the true meaning.

Some experts boil it down to our higher accessibility and ownership of guns. We have 120.5 firearms per one hundred people, and the USA ranks number one in gun ownership around the world. Most believe that mass shooters suffer from some form of mental illness. Certainly, premeditated murder is the result of a sickness.

Clear minds state that a failure of government background checks due to incomplete databases and staff shortages puts guns in the wrong hands. Organizations like the NRA can say the Second Amendment is more important that protecting the lives of America citizens, but the gun problem in this country has been promoted by their actions and policies.

Certain experts point to the gap between people’s expectations for themselves and their actual achievements in life. This is where we get to the hate crimes and the driving force of getting back at OTHERS who they perceive have gained more at their expense. It’s another kind of sickness, this driving force of revenge as motive.

Some of these perpetrators have a desire for fame and notoriety, they seek their fifteen minutes of fame. The mass media coverage of the shooters and the social media sites that glorify them often downplay the victims, handing a prize to the person of hate.

Then we have an evil “copycat phenomenon,” where the acts of one person are taken by another human as a green light for further deeds of hatred. The notion of “suggesting” may be happening with Donald Trump’s rallies and his fear mongering toward people of color, immigrants and those who disagree with him. Trump’s harangues become a trigger for sick minds, but he will never admit it because he doesn’t believe there is anything wrong with using a tactic of hatred to get reelected. He would rather win than solve problems.

When Donald John Trump was sworn in as President, he said, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” But the “carnage” is not ending, it’s getting worse. Some defend Trump’s political lack of action, but most will agree his messaging to motivate the nation away from hate and violence is scarce and weak. When he said that “there were fine people on both sides” right after a white nationalist plowed a car into peaceful counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, injuring many and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, our 45^th President gave a license for violence and killing to the KKK, white nationalists, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. For them, “Might is right.” After the chants of “Jews will not replace us” die down, the country still has no moral leader. Mr. President, they’ve killed Muslims, Jews, children and immigrants while you sit back, neglecting your obligation to protect our country.

Trump can repetitively chant about MS-13 and ISIS, but hundreds of people are dead on our soil from domestic terrorism. These shooters didn’t come from Syria or Mexico, they came from the white suburbs of America. They are being poisoned by Nazi, KKK and white nationalists online and the manifestos of these hateful shooters spell out their dogma in clear language. They believe that Trump supports them.

It’s too late for the Donald to undo the damage that he has rendered. He has no creditability to speak to the nation and give us fatherly advice on guns. His sons own lots of guns and he doesn’t even care about the number of weapons out there, unless they were to be used against him. Should that ever happen, we would have gun restrictions within hours. That happened in the streets of San Francisco when the Black Panthers decided to poke a hole in the Second Amendment by carrying loaded rifles in the streets. Gun laws changed dramatically then.

There are some who will claim that blaming Trump for mass shootings is unfair. Okay, that might make you happy for a few minutes but what are we going to do about the problem? Congress waited until hundreds of thousands of citizens were murdered by opioids to act against the pharmaceutical industry and their middlemen who were getting rich by death. People who write the laws of the land have never taken up arms against arms.

What if a strong denouncement of hate and threat of reckoning with these hate groups by the President happened NOW? If it stopped just one person from loading a gun and killing our people, that would be something good. Trump has the power, but he doesn’t have a strong enough command of the English language to pull it off. His lame tweet after the Saturday shooting in El Paso says it all, “God be with you all!” On Sunday morning, after another shooting in Dayton, Ohio, Trump tweeted “God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio.” This is what we get from Trump. It’s obvious that he doesn’t know what to do or even what to say. He’s not the Pope, he’s the fucking President of the United States and if he doesn’t do something about the hate and violence in America, he is clearly not worthy of the presidency. He must go.

Impact of Trump on America

The book that tells it like it is…

Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.

BOY, GLAD THAT’S OVER

Democratic Debacle in Detroit

The staging and hype were mostly embarrassing. Perhaps all the democratic candidates ought to get off the road, have a meeting and write a fucking platform, then restart this clown car with a unified message. The debates were a low moment for politics, the Democratic party and CNN, but let me share my true feelings.

Think back to your high school debates. You were given a position to defend and it didn’t matter if you agreed with the premise. I remember when I had to defend war during one of those exercises. But this was not a debate in the traditional sense. This was a political debate with many people and views. The forced opening and closing remarks were worthwhile, but what came in the middle was a shit sandwich.

CNN’s steering of questions to certain candidates and managing the on-screen minutes of each participant was horrible. I understand why a TV producer would want to produce drama. You cannot achieve drama without conflict. But the artificially injected arguments got in the way of what could have been a united Democratic front. The candidates deserve equal blame because they took the bait and plunged into dangerous waters. Pointing out weaknesses or hypocritical parts of the Obama administration might work for someone trying to gain points with the far-left progressives, but that action was mainly doing Trump’s job for him. This, more than anything else, demonstrated the damage that over-zealous political operatives can wreak.

The day after smell from the pundits was unified, pointing out that the attacks on Joe Biden resulted in destroying any sense of a cohesive message for voters. There are intense problems during this ridiculous effort to get noticed, and someone must lead the Democrats from self-destructive policies. That is supposedly the role of the party leader, Tom Perez, Chair of the Democratic National Committee. However, there’s little he can do to steer the candidates into line because of what was exposed in the Russian hack of the DNC and the releases on Wikileaks. No one at the DNC, or any party headquarters, must ever appear to be picking winners.

Many Democratic candidates believe that if they don’t win points now, they won’t be able to continue their quest to replace Trump. During the 2016 campaign, Bernie Sanders damaged Hillary Clinton more than Donald Trump did. Sanders positioned Clinton as being in bed with Wall Street, which turned off the far left and progressives. When Bernie wasn’t nominated, many of those voters pulled back from the system, or worse, voted for Jill Stein.

Some of the more sarcastic talking heads on TV were quick to point out that the debate presentation was pure reality TV show and suggested American’s love of that genre led to the election of a reality TV star to the presidency. It’s all wrong and counterproductive. It makes Democrats appear unorganized, splintered and illogical. With the internet going wild over Marianne Williamson’s presentation on night one of the debates, the spilled blood on night two became more important.

Williamson’s magnetic personality attracts people who can see through the shallow performances and phony vibrato of many on the debate stage. Williamson became an illusion, playing the part of Sybil the Soothsayer in the movie Network. If you remember, Sybil would predict the future on a TV news show. Marianne might not be able to predict her own political future, but her comments on anti-depressants and vaccines really makes her a person of the past, not the future. While some of the debaters articulated their plans, millions of Americans went to the fridge to get a beer. Those politicians are stupid if they think that anyone will remember what they said, let alone their names.

This brings me to a word that Trump has been using for about three years, collusion. Now there’s nothing wrong with a bunch of people from the same party getting together early to determine their overarching message and crafting language to share it with voters, but the network would probably find that boring. To beat a known “colluder” people must work together to accomplish the goal.

Democrats, please have a meeting NOW and compose a united platform. Figure out the best reform for the healthcare system and make sure each of you say it over and over again for the next 400 days. Take a stand on tax reform and clearly promote it. Finally, stop this diabolical use of the past. What are you going to do to make America great in the future after Trump? That is the most important question.

Impact of Trump on America

The book that tells it like it is…

Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.