While Trump and the GOP are aggressively destroying our law-enforcement system, the careers of dedicated public servants, and the Congressional process, the Democratic leadership responds with--a limp warning. Specifically, that the firing of Rosenstein and Mueller "could precipitate a constitutional crisis."
Shouldn't that be "WOULD constitute a constitutional crisis," Senator Durbin?
In their Year of the Long Knives Trump and the GOP haven't been sitting idly by. They got Comey. They got Yates. They got McCabe. They have identified, publicly, out in the open. that their next targets are Rosenstein and Mueller. They've nuetered Sessions and Wray. They are arguing from the floors of Congress and in the media that being a Democrat and being a traitor are synonymous. They and Fox News have successfully engineered a steep drop in the public's faith in the FBI and the DOJ and convinced millions that Mueller's investigation--which they claimed to support a year ago--is dead on arrival. They have purposefully misinterpreted classified information and released it to the public to help Trump without allowing the release of any rebuttal. These people have no taste for governing, but when it comes to destroying government and the rule of law, they are working it.
The response by the Democrats in Congress has been to issue toothless statements of outrage, engineer a confused and squeamish government shutdown that lasted about two minutes, and to beg the Republicans to please release their memo, too.
Surely, at this point in the active war against our national system, with real bodies piling up and with 35% of the population being constantly whipped into a froth against our law enforcement agencies, Congressional Democrats should be making it crystal clear that firing either Rosenstein or Mueller will absolutely mean--no ifs, ands, or buts, no compromises--a complete legislative shutdown and the active mobilization of massive public protests. STAND FOR SOMETHING, DONKEYS! RESIST!
The fix is in
One by one the GOP is picking off, like birds on a wire, every career public servant who could damage Trump. Sally Yates fired. Comey fired. Sessions publically humiliated into submission. McCabe fired with no objection from FBI chief Christopher Wray.
Rosenstein is next. The upcoming release of the phony memo written by the GOP staff of the House Judiciary Committee is being done explicitly to provide the rationale to fire deputy attorney general Ron Rosenstein.
After the Ken Starr disaster, Congress rewrote the special prosecutor law. Under that law, Mueller has to send his findings and recommendations not directly to Congress but to the attorney general, who then has to decide what to do with that report, including making it public or passing it along to Congress for action. Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, so it is Rosenstein who will receive Mueller's recommendations and decide what do to about them. Without Rosenstein's support, the Mueller report won't see the light of day (legally) or lead to any action being taken against Trump.
Trump will soon fire Rosenstein based on the rigged House memo. No doubt he will fire Mueller too, but even if he doesn't all he has to do to bury Mueller's report is to find a new deputy attorney general who would be willing to do that. In a Washington full of Republicans who are willing to destroy the FBI and the DOJ in order to save Trump, that won't be very difficult.
DACA is dead
DACA is dead. Senate Democrats just ensured its demise. Let the deportations begin.
The Senate passed a compromise bill on comprehensive immigration reform in 2014 with 68 votes. Boehner and Cantor made sure that House was never even allowed to vote on it.
The Democratic Party made a commitment to support DACA. A few days ago they actually showed that commitment by shutting down the government unless a DACA agreement was part of the budget bill. Today they folded with a totally vague agreement that a DACA bill will be brought to the floor of the Senate by February 8.
This morning's surrender includes NO commitment from either Ryan or Trump that the House would EVER vote on a DACA bill, even if one does get passed by the Senate.
DACA is dead. Chuck Schumer (who yesterday offered Trump $18 billion for his wall) may have saved Heidi Heitkamp's seat in North Dakota, but in doing so he has engineered a epic disaster for this country--especially for the 800,00O DACA recipients, for all our Hispanic citizens, for progressives, for millenials, and for the Democratic Party. Shameful. A truly terrible day.
Angela Harris
This is Angela Harris. She's a hero of mine.
I had the privilege of working with Angela for several years at Microsoft. She's whip smart, incredibly capable, and a caring person who wants to make a difference. Like millions of us, Angela was shocked when Trump was elected. But after a lot of focused reflection, Angela--who has a demanding day job and a family--decided that the only appropriate response was to serve her community. Angela ran for a seat on the Port Commission in her hometown of Edmonds, Washington. And she won! This photo shows her at her swearing-in ceremony.
On this first anniversary of the Women's March, I'm giving it up for Angela and the thousands of other women across America who are running for elective office this year. These women are an inspiration!
The real shithole
The real shithole is the empty, frozen wasteland inside Trump's rotten carcass where an American heart should be beating. And his tiny, pursed mouth permanently stained by his constant, racist vomiting.
I want to see the Americans stand up loudly and clearly, with no equivocation. I want to see Republicans rise up and call bullshit on this racist President. No hemming and hawing. No comments about a "new normal" or "a unique approach to the Presidency" or requests for an apology. No dodging the questions. No more support of blatantly racist immigration legislation.
When Trump spewed his nakedly racist comments about Haiti, Africa, and Norway across the conference table during his meeting with Congressional leaders of both parties, who, if anyone, spoke up to condemn him to his face?
No Democrats knuckling under and compromising with a racist President and a racist majority party on immigration reforms.
If you support this President, who spends his minimal working hours defecating on each and every one of the aspects that are supposed to define the United States--a respect for the law, a rejection of totalitarianism, a commitment to a free press, a desire to be a force for good in this country and in the world, the championing of opportunity for all, the understanding that we are a nation of immigrants, a commitment to help the less fortunate--you need to look deep in your heart and refresh yourself on what has made this country great. You've lost your way--and the right to call yourself an American. You're a Trumpist, which is something else entirely.
The shallow state
Trumpworld is a reality that is tough to comprehend for those of us who born before last year. It helps if we understand the science behind this new order instead of react emotionally. The physics that drive Trumpworld were put in motion by an explosion last January (popularly known as the "Big Blunder") that created a universe designed not to expand over eons but to quickly destroy itself.
This fundamental Death Force, administered by a "shallow state" of Trumpist bureacrats, explains why every bad thing in Trumpworld is self inflicted and why "truth" and "logic" are irrelevant in it. Just this week there have been some excellent examples of this.
A book is published by a well-known incendiary journalist who was allowed to set up shop in the White House. The book claims that the Oval Office is a completely chaotic and incompetent place. The Trumpian shallow state vigorously attacks the book, which makes it an instant blockbuster and also proves the point that only a chaotic and incompetent administration would allow a well-known incendiary journalist to set up shop in the White House.
Said book includes hair-raising testaments from the White House staff that Trump has the mind of a child and is mentally unfit to be President. Trump responds by releasing childlike, unhinged tweets claiming that "I am like really smart," "I went to the best colleges," and "I am a stable genius."
Methodical, close analysis of the actions of the shallow state will deliver daily--if not hourly--proof that Trumpworld is hurtling toward its own demise.
Bernard Law
This earthly realm never punished him, but Bernard Law is hopefully getting his just rewards as he transitions not to celestial glory but to a much, much warmer destination. As Cardinal of the Boston archdiocese, Law admitted covering up sexual assaults of children by his priests for decades and to knowingly perpetuating that abuse by reassigning pedophile priests to new parishes. The attorney general of Massachusetts wrote that "the mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable." The archdiocese paid out $85 million to 552 victims. Law, despite his admissions, was never indicted and retired to the cushy confines of the Vatican. Law didn't believe in justice for his innocent victims, but he believed in Hell. He certainly deserves one of the hottest rooms in that dark hotel.
It's not a witch hunt if the republicans are running it
Fox News and Congressional Republicans are making an aggressive case that the special prosecutor’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election is a completely biased witch hunt run by the Democrats.
I was initially skeptical of this claim, but after looking into it there is no longer any doubt in my mind that the Russian investigation is nothing but a carefully orchestrated Democratic smear campaign. Don’t believe me? Just look at the following facts and timeline:
The Republican head of a special House committee spends 28 straight months conducting multiple investigations into Hillary Clinton’s actions in the Benghazi incident. No charges are filed.
The Republican head of the FBI leads an investigation into claims that Clinton improperly stored and transmitted information on a personal email server and decides that no charges are warranted.
The Republican head of the FBI launches an investigation into whether Russian operatives colluded with the Republican presidential campaign to influence the upcoming election.
The Republican former director of intelligence, who is secretly meeting with Russians, appears at the Republican national convention and leads the Republican delegates in chants of “lock her up, lock her up.”
The Republican head of the FBI announces just days before the election that the Clinton email investigation is being reopened. No charges are filed, but the news throws the Clinton campaign on the defensive and contributes to a Republican victory.
The newly elected Republican President appoints the Republican former director of intelligence as national security advisor, a Republican former member of his transition team as attorney general, and another Republican as deputy attorney general.
The Republican national security advisor meets with the Russians and discusses the lifting of sanctions.
The new Republican White House counsel is informed by the Justice Department that the Republican national security advisor has lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
Weeks later, news reports appear detailing meetings between the Republican national security advisor had the Russians.
The Republican President fires the Republican national security advisor, saying that he was doing so because the Republican national security advisor had lied to the Republican Vice President.
The Republican attorney general testifies before Congress that he had no contacts with Russians during the campaign. When that statement is proven to be inaccurate, the Republican attorney general amends his testimony and recuses himself from any Russian investigations. This means that the Republican deputy attorney general will direct such investigations going forward.
In testimony to Congress, the Republican head of the FBI reveals that his agency has been investigating Russian interference with the election and possible collusion with the Republican presidential campaign.
The Republican President meets with the Republican director of the FBI and asks him whether he was a target of the investigation and requests that he end the FBI’s investigation of the Republican national security advisor.
The Republican President lets the Republican attorney general and the Republican deputy attorney general know that he is going to fire the Republican head of the FBI and asks them to prepare a written justification for that firing.
The Republican President fires the Republican director of the FBI, using a letter from the Republican attorney general and the Republican deputy attorney general as justification.
The Republican President then goes on national television and states that he had decided to fire the Republican director of the FBI before hearing from the Republican attorney general and the Republican deputy attorney general and that Russian investigation was a factor in that decision.
The Republican President meets with the Russian ambassador and discusses the firing of the Republican director of the FBI, calling him “a nut job” and noting that “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
A week after the Republican President fires the Republican director of the FBI, the Republican deputy attorney general announces the appointment of a prominent Republican as a special prosecutor to look into Russian interference with the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Several Congressional Republicans hail the Republican special prosecutor as an ideal choice for the role.
The Republican special prosecutor moves quickly, and within five months files charges against the Republican former chairman of the Trump campaign, the Republican former deputy of the Republican former campaign chairman, the Republican former national security advisor, and the Republican foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. The Republican former national security advisor and the Republican foreign policy advisor plead guilty to lying to the FBI and agree to cooperate with the Republican special prosecutor by telling what they know about the activities of other Republicans.
Despite the Republican President repeated insistence that no one in his election team or administration had any contacts with the Russians, the following members of the Republican President’s team had meetings with the Russians before or after the election: the Republican President himself, the Republican son of the Republican President, the Republican Secretary of State, the Republican Secretary of Commerce, the Republican campaign manager, the Republican deputy of the Republican campaign manager, the Republican attorney general, three Republican foreign policy advisors, a Republican campaign advisor, the Republican President’s Republican lawyer, the Republican real estate advisor to the Republican President, and the Republican brother of the Republican Secretary of Education.
Which brings us to the critical juncture that we have reached today, when it is completely obvious to the entire world that there is zero substance to the Russian investigation, that the investigation has not accomplished a damn thing, that there was absolutely no contact between the Trump campaign and the Russians, that Trump will be completely exonerated, and that this whole mess is just another plot by the lame stream media and the traitorous Democrats to ensure that America never becomes great again. It's easy: All you have to remember is that it’s not a witch hunt if the Republicans are running it!
Two views of the same problem
I've become confused trying to follow the Facebook comments about Al Franken and Roy Moore. Which of these two perspectives is the right one?
The first woman to accuse Franken is a conservative. This is nothing more than a character-assassination plot to take down a Democratic Senator. The women who are accusing Franken are overreacting to the playful behavior of a former professional comedian, and he was wrong to apologize. Al Franken has an excellent, progressive voting record. He’s been a staunch defender of women’s rights. What Franken is accused of doing is not as bad as what Donald Trump and Roy Moore did. Until Republicans start paying a price for their behavior, we can’t be cannibalizing our own. If we do we’re being played once again by the Republicans, who never get punished for anything. This is a slippery slope. Other Democrats will be accused or framed, and we’ll lose lots of Congressional seats just when we need them the most. Franken only won his seat by 300 votes. If we let him resign, we’ll lose the Senate seat in Minnesota. Let’s clean house in terms of sexual harassment after the midterm elections, when we’ll have a new, Democratic Congress. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Franken deserves due process. Let the Ethics Committee do its work.
The women who accused Moore are liars. They are being paid by the Washington Post and George Soros. This is a lamestream media plot to take down a decent man just before an election. It’s not uncommon in the South for older men to date younger women. Roy Moore has stood up for God and the Constitution for his entire life. He stands for Alabama values. Let the Alabama voters decide the outcome. The Democrats who are calling for Roy Moore’s head are the same people who defended rapist Bill Clinton. We have a new President who has a strong, conservative agenda and we have a very narrow margin in Congress. The last thing we need is another liberal ally of Nancy Pelosi in the Senate. If Doug Moore is elected, the things we want to achieve are at risk. Roy Moore has never been charged with any crime. If he is elected, the Senate Ethics Committee will take the appropriate steps.
A special place in hell
here is a special place in hell for those who prey on children. I have no reason to doubt these young women." -- Ivanka Trump on GOP Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore
"Roy Moore denies it. And by the way he totally denies it. I can tell you one thing, we don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat. I've looked at Doug Jones' record--it's terrible. Women are very special. I think it is a very special time, people are coming out and I think that's good for our society and I think it's very good for women and I'm very happy." -- Donald Trump today
After twelve full days of cowardly silence--during which Roy Moore was denounced as a child molester by the three largest newspapers in Alabama, GOP Congressional leaders Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, the Republican National Committee, the National Senatorial Republican Committee, the Alabama Young Republicans, Attorney General and former GOP Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Alabama GOP Senator Richard Shelby, and GOP Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Jeff Flake, John Cornyn, Cory Gardner, Orrin Hatch, Todd Young, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, John McCain, and Steve Daines--Donald Trump (who himself stands accused by 16 women of sexual harrassment and who bragged about committing multiple sexual assaults on tape) has finally put the Republican Party on record as an amoral tribe that puts partisanship above the safety of children. The leading Republican, who ran last year as the first openly racist candidate for President in modern times, has finally made it clear that the GOP prefers a sexual predator and a liar to any Democrat. A known predator who was banned from his local shopping mall and YMCA for harrassing young girls is more deserving of a Senate seat than a former prosecutor with a spotless record. And that's because the Democrat (who made his reputation putting Ku Klux Klansmen in prison for life for the murders of four young African American girls) is, according to Trump, "soft on crime."
Murdering children and sexually assaulting 14-year-old girls are not crimes in the mind if the President if the United States--get your head around THAT new reality, if you can.
This is the Republican Party today: the supporters of partisanship over human decency, the proud proponents of racist policies, the hit men for the rich and powerful, the traitors who welcome foreign interference in our elections, and the enemies of a free press and the rule of law.
Unemployment rate for republicans on the rise
Savoring an election night for a change. Northam, who many considered to be a weak candidate who might lose, wins the Virginia governorship by exceeding Clinton's 2016 vote totals in that state. Democratic voters showed up at the polls. The Democrats swept all three statewide races in Virginia tonight. Virginia voters felt that the most important issue--by far--was health insurance. Murphy handily puts an end to the dark Christie era in New Jersey. The Democrats will pick up many seats in the Virginia legislature. Sweetest of all is the victory tonight of Danica Roem, who became the first open transexual to win a seat in the Virginia legislature by beating Republican Bob Marshall, a 26-year veteran of the legislature, by double digits. Marshall sponsored an anti-LGBT bathroom bill, refused to refer to Roem by her correct gender, refused to debate her, and proudly called himself "Virginia's homophobe in chief." Tomorrow he'll begin looking for a new job.
Trump lashes out at Gold Star widow
She buried her husband just days ago. She is thirty-one years old. She is pregnant and the mother of a four year old and a six year old. All must be provided for. The government has yet to respond to her basic questions: How did my husband die? Why can't I see my husband's body? Where did my husband die? Why was he missing action for 48 hours?
Ponder how it would feel to be grappling with those issues.
Now imagine that on top of all this calamitous heartache and confusion you find yourself under attack from the alt-right, the White House Chief of Staff, and the President of the United States. The President is a Vietnam War draft dodger who during his election campaign pointed to working long hours in the real estate business when asked if he had ever made a personal sacrifice. When he wasn't busy this week publicly attacking this widow and her husband's legacy, he was sending rushed letters of condolences to Gold Star families via overnight mail after assuring the country that he had already contacted all of them.
If this country ever had a moral compass, it's now a ghostly chimera quickly receding in the rearview mirror.
TRUMP RESPONDS TO LAS VEGAS TRAGEDY BY BANNING TRAVEL TO NORTHERN EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA AND REFOCUSING WALL EFFORT ON CANADIAN BORDER
Speaking from the White House in front of a group of Americans who have lost relatives to Anglo-Saxon terrorism, President Donald Trump announced sweeping new security measures in reaction to the horrific shooting last night in Las Vegas.
“My biggest job,” Trump stated, “is to keep America safe. Guns don’t kill people, so don’t give me that tired old stuff. Who are the people who are doing this killing? That’s the question. I am a businessman, and the way this businessman thing works—if you wanna be successful at it, and, believe me, I was phenomenally successful at it, some people say that I was the best at it—is that you have to know how to run the numbers. And when these numbers are run we see that the fact is—the mainstream media won’t tell you this, but I will—that Americans are ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE times more likely to be killed by a white American than by a foreign terrorist.”
The President condemned in the strongest possible terms radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism and the philosophy it represents. “We cannot let this evil continue,” Trump stated. “Nor can we let the hateful, perverted ideology of Anglo-Saxonism – its oppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers – be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries.”
Trump announced that he was taking the following steps to protect Americans:
Immediately instituting a total ban on travel between the United States and northern Europe and Scandinavia. “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Anglo Saxons entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Shifting the focus of his border-wall effort from the southern border to the northern. “Since I was inaugurated,” said Trump, “I have learned—among other things, I have learned many things—that Canada is full of Anglo-Saxons and that they are pouring over our northern border. This stops TODAY.”
Taking the war on radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism to Anglo Saxon strongholds in the United States. “We’re going to hit them and we’re going to hit them hard,” Trump said grimly. “I’m talking about a surgical strike on these Anglo-Saxon stronghold cities using Trident missiles.” The White House later qualified that the first targets would be the ten most Anglo Saxon cities in the United States: Hialeah, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boise Idaho; Laredo, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Gilbert, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Bringing back torture. The President announced that he was authorizing the military and all intelligence agencies to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Anglo-Saxon prisoners. “Torture works--okay, folks? Believe me, it works. Just ask Jeff Sessions.”
Taking revenge on the families of Anglo-Saxon terrorists. “You have to take out their families,” Trump insisted. “They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”
The President promised “total victory” in the war against radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism. “Americans have defeated other threats before—unions, science, universal health care, voting rights—and we’re going to defeat this one with a force and fury that the world has never seen.”
TRUMP RESPONDS TO LAS VEGAS TRAGEDY BY BANNING TRAVEL TO NORTHERN EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA AND REFOCUSING WALL EFFORT ON CANADIAN BORDER
Speaking from the White House in front of a group of Americans who have lost relatives to Anglo-Saxon terrorism, President Donald Trump announced sweeping new security measures in reaction to the horrific shooting last night in Las Vegas.
“My biggest job,” Trump stated, “is to keep America safe. Guns don’t kill people, so don’t give me that tired old stuff. Who are the people who are doing this killing? That’s the question. I am a businessman, and the way this businessman thing works—if you wanna be successful at it, and, believe me, I was phenomenally successful at it, some people say that I was the best at it—is that you have to know how to run the numbers. And when these numbers are run we see that the fact is—the mainstream media won’t tell you this, but I will—that Americans are ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE times more likely to be killed by a white American than by a foreign terrorist.”
The President condemned in the strongest possible terms radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism and the philosophy it represents. “We cannot let this evil continue,” Trump stated. “Nor can we let the hateful, perverted ideology of Anglo-Saxonism – its oppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers – be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries.”
Trump announced that he was taking the following steps to protect Americans:
Immediately instituting a total ban on travel between the United States and northern Europe and Scandinavia. “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Anglo Saxons entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Shifting the focus of his border-wall effort from the southern border to the northern. “Since I was inaugurated,” said Trump, “I have learned—among other things, I have learned many things—that Canada is full of Anglo-Saxons and that they are pouring over our northern border. This stops TODAY.”
Taking the war on radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism to Anglo Saxon strongholds in the United States. “We’re going to hit them and we’re going to hit them hard,” Trump said grimly. “I’m talking about a surgical strike on these Anglo-Saxon stronghold cities using Trident missiles.” The White House later qualified that the first targets would be the ten most Anglo Saxon cities in the United States: Hialeah, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boise Idaho; Laredo, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Gilbert, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Bringing back torture. The President announced that he was authorizing the military and all intelligence agencies to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Anglo-Saxon prisoners. “Torture works--okay, folks? Believe me, it works. Just ask Jeff Sessions.”
Taking revenge on the families of Anglo-Saxon terrorists. “You have to take out their families,” Trump insisted. “They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”
The President promised “total victory” in the war against radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism. “Americans have defeated other threats before—unions, science, universal health care, voting rights—and we’re going to defeat this one with a force and fury that the world has never seen.”
Hurricane Trump
Hurricane Katrina was a defining disaster for George Bush because it revealed two fatal flaws: his administration’s incompetence and its callous disregard for the safety of people of color. Trump’s response to the calamity in Puerto Rico makes it clear that his White House is similarly afflicted.
But Trump has done what no other failed President ever did publicly: enthusiastically embrace--in language so plain that it is not subject to interpretation—naked, vicious cruelty.
Cruelty is the defining aspect of his tenure in the White House, and it has put a bleak, nasty public face on this country.
Trump is a wartime President. To this point Trump has not declared war on a foreign adversary--not, certainly with the Russians who interfered in our election--but on most Americans: everyone who voted against him last year, women, the press, his own party, the opposition party, his own Cabinet, his own White House staff, Congress, the judiciary, the U.S. military, every U.S. intelligence agency, Hispanics, African Americans, American Muslims, disabled people, government employees, Puerto Ricans, Californians, New Yorkers, the residents of Washington D.C., Facebook users who disagree with him, the National Football League--the list grows daily.
Anyone or anything that does not obsequiously kiss that increasingly vast, pale Trumpian ass is quickly subjected to shaming, bullying, obscenities, character assassination, slurs on their parentage, and attacks on their patriotism. Trump’s tweets this morning sneering at and blaming the victims in Puerto Rico are particularly cruel, but they are just the latest in the never-ending, daily stream of proofs that our President is not only a disaster but a truly mean, vile bastard.
the white moderate
"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
"I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."
--Martin Luther King, "Letter From a Birmingham Jail"
If he only had a heart
Like my fellow naïve leftists, I have been waiting for Trump’s base to turn on him. They didn’t become disenchanted when he didn’t defeat ISIS in thirty days. They didn’t get disgruntled when he helped to torpedo the Obamacare repeal attempt. All those insanely expensive golf vacations? No problem. Filling his Cabinet with Wall Street swampers? They can live with that. The failure of the travel ban? That was the courts trying to keep America lame. The wall? That was a big metaphor, basically. The base didn’t even flinch when Trump cut a deal with those agents of Satan Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on the debt ceiling. Of course, it makes zero sense to expect that the tribe that believes that americafirstarmedgodfearingpatriot.com is a legitimate source of “news” would ever return to the reality fold.
There’s been a lot of press on Steve Bannon’s comment last week on “60 Minutes” that the Comey firing would go down as the biggest mistake in the modern political era. In the same interview, Bannon also pointed to the DACA debate within the Republican Party as a possible cause of the GOP getting hammered in the 2018 midterm elections.
I don’t believe that Trump won primarily because he spoke to a class of people who had been ignored by mainstream economic policies. That was a factor, but I think what really energized his campaign was his relentless, aggressive focus on the dark, zenophobic, anti-immigrant, put-the-white-man-back-on-top, rotten piece of the American psyche. That’s why the wall was always the biggest applause line at his frenzied rallies.
Well, Trump may have finally booted it with his base yesterday, when news came out that he had brokered another deal with Schumer and Pelosi: to re-legislate the DACA “amnesty” program that he had just killed the week before. And to NOT get funding for his stupid wall in return.
This reversal may be different, if the initial reaction from the media and political influencers within the Trump cult is any indication.
As of today, Ann Coulter asks “Who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?” Breitbart’s screaming headline yesterday was “Amnesty Don,” and the comments under the accompanying article included “Put a fork in Trump. He is done” and “I can reconcile Trump caving on virtually any issue.Amnesty and not building the wall are not one of them.” Lou Dobbs’ tag line yesterday was “Deep State Wins, Huge Loss for #MAGA.” Sean Hannity laid down the gauntlet on Twitter: “If @POTUS doesn’t keep that promise, and goes for amnesty, it will be the political equivalent of ‘read my lips, no new taxes.” Congressman Steven King, who dreams about young Mexican drug smuggles with calves the size of cantaloupes, tweeted the coming apocalypse: “If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible.” John Walsh piled on: “Trump got screwed by Chuck and Nancy. Trump just screwed his base.”
Worse yet for Trump, Jeff Flake THANKED him in his tweet last night.
It’s really difficult to figure out what is going on. The one and only talent Trump seemed to possess was a deep, instinctive understanding of his base. Only a week ago, when he announced the end of the DACA program, he seemed to be once again laser focused, against all political odds, on pleasing his tribe. The Dealmaker of All Dealmakers may have just driven the first wedge between himself and the voters who propelled him to victory—a self-inflicted gunshot to the head that may be just as lethal as the Comey firing. This DACA dive could be the incident that starts a long, inexorable peeling away of his base.
Why is Trump doing this? No doubt he wants to get DACA over with—he never could figure out which way to go on it—and get on with tax reform. No doubt he despises McConnell and Ryan and is trying to rub their faces in a series of deals with the Democrats.
Most intriguing of all, Trump is indicating through his tweets that he has a lot of sympathy for the Dreamers. Could that really be true? Could that empathy—instantly translated by the unwashed Trumpist hordes as the apostasy of “amnesty”—be driving a wedge inside his own feverish cranium between Trump the manipulator of white-pride voters and Trump—dare I say it?—the human being?
Fourth and Forty five
There is thinking. And hoping. And promising. And talking.
But then there is the doing part.
Trump thinks, wishes, promises, and talks a lot. But he has no understanding of the separation of powers or the legislative process and no interest in pausing "Fox and Friends" long enough to learn about them. With Trump, passing legislation is three consecutive fumbles setting up a 4th-and-45 situation and then a punt out of his own end zone--back to the Republicans in Congress.
Trump the candidate promised to kill Obamacare. But Trump never even bothered to learn what was actually in the various Trumpcare bills, so therefore he couldn't help get more votes for it. He yelled at Republicans because he didn't have the knowledge to persuade them or compromise with them. That backfired spectacularly, especially with Murkowski and McCain. When the bill failed, he blamed his own Congress and insisted that they keep trying to pass a bill--any kind of bill, as he still has yet to offer any guidance to his own legislators because he has no real personal opinion on what the solution should be and no interest in taking the time to learn how health insurance works. So he punted health care back to Congress and threatened them with primary opponents if they don't pass something.
Trump promised endlessly during the campaign that he would get Mexico to pay for a border wall. Now he admits that the American taxpayers will pay for it. But he has no real personal opinion on how that wall should be funded or any interest in taking the time to learn the various ways in which funding could be secured. So he has punted the wall back to Congress, threatening to shut down the government if they can't get the money.
Trump the candidate unequivocally swore to end DACA. Trump the President hinted at reversing himself, saying that he "loved" the Dreamers, that they had "nothing to fear" from him, and that he would provide a solution for them that would show "a lot of heart." He had in effect backed himself deep in his own end zone. Trump has no personal opinion of how DACA should actually be ended, so he demanded that his advisors give him "a way out." In the end, he punted the Dreamers back to Congress, giving them six months to figure out what he couldn't figure out. (In the end, he didn't even want to convey this directive himself because of the considerable political downside, so he even punted the public announcement of his decision--to Jeff Sessions, the lap-monkey attorney general who Trump has repeatedly waterboarded in public.)
There's no doubt at this point that we will see the same total absence of leadership and accomplishment from Trump in the coming months when it comes to raising the debt ceiling, passing a budget, providing relief for the hurricane victims, reforming the tax code, and on and on and on. It's entirely possible that Trump will not pass a single piece of major legislation in his entire term, much less before next year's midterms. The third-string waterboy who has been too busy tweeting to read the playbook has become the quarterback, and from here on out it'll be threats to his teammates in the huddle, three plays and nothing but dust followed by ever more feeble punts. The only real action will be the intra-team fist fights on the GOP sidelines during commercials for MAGA hats.
Trump and my great grandparents
I can understand people feeling that they are powerless within the political system (although I don’t agree with them), but I don’t get it when people say that “politics has nothing to do with me.” Politics affects every aspect of everyone’s life and our national culture.
Today White House Advisor Stephen Miller took to the podium at a press briefing to unveil, in chilling fashion, a new immigration bill that the White House is sponsoring along with GOP Senators Cotton and Purdue.
Trump was elected on a openly rascist, xeonophobic, and profoundly un-American platform that included a blatantly false narrative that illegal immigrants were streaming into this country and committing mayhem against us. As late as two months ago, Trump stated that he had no desire to limit legal immigration.
The bill rolled out today has NOTHING to do with illegal immigration. Its goal is to cut LEGAL immigration in half. And if anyone has any doubt as to what half of the immigrant population will be cut out, Miller’s rewriting of Emma Lazarus’ poem that is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (which he publicly scorned) leaves no doubt as to the Trumpists’ goal when it comes to immigration:
“Give me your skilled, your schooled
Your English-speaking people yearning to be free
From the wretched refuse back at home
Send only these, the privileged and familiar, to me
And I wiil douse my lamp beside the closing door!”
Politics is personal, and Trump’s is a vicious insult to me, my family, and our country.
The two gentlemen shown above are my maternal great-grandparents, Francois Lemoine and Charles Johnson. They both came to this country in the 1800s—from France and Sweden, respectively. Neither spoke English. Neither came to this country with money. Both became model citizens who made great contributions to—and sacrifices for—their new country.
Trump, Bannon, and Miller are using politics and the media every day to transform the United States from the country that welcomed my forebears (and yours) into a haven for rich white people. Their America is the kind of country in which the Justice Department attacks not crime but affirmative action, the NAACP issues a travel warning against the state of Missouri, the nominee as chief scientist of the USDA brands progressives as “race traitors,” Congressional districts are designed to ensure that minorities are not represented, and non-whites are systematically denied the right to vote.
That’s not the America that convinced my great grandfathers to pull up stakes and leave all that was familiar with no money, no advantage, and no language. This could not be more personal to me. My great grandfathers would expect nothing less from me than total resistance to this monstrously evil vision for the country that welcomed them and made room for them.
My great grandfathers Francis Lemoine and Charles Johnson
How a bill does not become law
The GOP House wrote their "health care" bill in one month with no public testimony and the rejection of 100 Democratic amendments, then they had to pull their first bill because they couldn't get enough votes from their own party members, then they passed a second version that was passed by one vote after adding language that the GOP claimed would protect people with pre-existing conditions, so then Trump declared that this was "a great plan," but the CBO said that it would result in higher premiums and 24 million Americans losing their health insurance and it turned out it didn't really protect people with pre-existing conditions and the bill turned out not to be a health-care bill at all but instead a big tax refund for the super rich, so only 17% of Americans approved of it, so then Trump said that it was "a mean bill," so the GOP Senate said that it would write their bill from scratch, so thirteen male Republican Senators wrote a bill in secret in six weeks leveraging large parts of the House bill, but this version couldn't get enough GOP votes because the CBO said that it would raise premiums and cause 32 million Americans to lose their health insurance, so the vote was delayed until John McCain could return to Washington, then Trump threatened GOP Senators at a really nice White House lunch that they had better not leave town until they had passed some kind of bill, so a new version of the bill was presented and a vote was taken on whether to bring the bill forward, so then Murkowski and Collins voted against that, but then John McCain arrived to cast the deciding vote to begin debate, and then McCain announced that he would vote against the actual bill, so a bill "repeal and replace" new bill was distributed to Senators and voted on 90 minutes later, but it failed even though McCain reversed himself and voted FOR it, so then the Interior Secretary threatened Murkowski with the state of Alaska's financial ruin and Trump told the Boy Scouts that DHS Secretary Price would be fired if the GOP bill didn't pass, and then the Senate voted on the same "repeal now and replace later" bill it had passed in 2015, but this time six Republican senators who had voted for the bill in 2015 changed their minds and voted AGAINST it, so that bill also failed, so then McConnell decided to create a fake bill called a "skinny bill" that was only created so that it could be sent back to the House so that the House GOP could conference with the Senate GOP and create a whole new bill that would be the real bill that Trump would sign into law, so then the CBO came out and said that the "skinny bill" would raise premiums and cause 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance, and the top health insurers and the AMA begged the GOP to kill the bill, but then GOP Congressman Mark Meadows told Senator Lindsay Graham that there was a danger that the House would just skip a conference and pass "skinny" into law, so then Senatots Graham, Johnson and McCain held a press conference saying that the "skinny" bill was "a fraud" that would lead to a "disaster" that the GOP would be blamed for, and then they said that they would vote "no" on the "skinny" bill until Paul Ryan gave them an ironclad guarantee that the bill they were trying to pass would never actually get passed, so then Ryan said he would do that, but he said it in a way that didn't seem ironclad, and Ryan also demanded that the actual real bill that Trump would sign would have to be written by the Senate GOP and not the House GOP because he knows that he can't tell the GOP Senate what it wants to actually pass, so then the Senate GOP produced the actual text of the "skinny" bill, which was voted on three hours later, but then McCain voted against the bill and it was defeated, and McConnell said he was disappointed and Schumer said they should work together to fix Obamacare, and then all the senators went home at 2 a.m.