Month: April 2017

Donald Trump, The Warmonger: ISIL, Syria, North Korea, Iran—The Military Training School 14-18 Year Old Bully Gone Mad!

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Donald Trump was a bully as a kid and a teenager, and his misbehavior made his parents decide to send him to a military training school for his high school years from age 14 to 18, and Trump never matured beyond that stage.

As an adult, with a “gift” of one million dollars from his father, Donald Trump set out on a career of bullying people, harassing women, and demonstrating racism, misogyny, nativism, and willingness to cheat workers, contractors, and fellow businessmen, and possessing no moral compass or ethics.

Now he is the 45th President, and is showing he is a warmonger, a man who is determined to show the American imperialistic bent that became part of the 20th and early 21st century under most of his predecessors in the White House, and sacrificing generations of young Americans, most of them poor whites or minorities, who see the military as their last bastion of a chance for success in life.

America has not “won” a war since 1945, and has engaged in wars that have undermined the American reputation in the world, first in Korea, then in Vietnam, then in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with many interventions in nations we did not have a long term commitment of troops.

Donald Trump lives in his own parallel universe, however, and seems to think that being a warmonger against four adversaries at once is a smart idea, as he has now challenged ISIL (ISIS), Syria, North Korea, and Iran, along with using the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) in Afghanistan.

Thinking that he can wage four wars or more at once is a sign of maniacal behavior, of insane behavior, that will make our military cannon fodder for Donald Trump’s imperial ambitions.

It is something that should not be allowed to happen, as it will cause massive casualties and deaths to glorify a man who is dangerous to world stability and peace.

The Urgency Of The Democratic Party Taking Back The House Of Representatives, And State Governorships And Legislatures In 2018

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Jon Ossoff, the Democratic front runner in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia (Atlanta suburbs), fell just short of the 50 percent needed to win that seat in the House of Representatives, and avoid a runoff.

Now he will face Republican Karen Handel on June 20, and it will be more difficult to gain the seat, a traditionally GOP district in the past 38 years since Newt Gingrich won the seat in 1979, followed up by Tom Price, the Health and Human Services Secretary, who vacated the seat to become part of Donald Trump’s cabinet.

One can be assured massive amounts of money will be spent on both sides of this race, which, if Ossoff wins, would be a major blow to Donald Trump and his agenda.

The 24 point swing in Kansas’s special election for the House, and now the 10 point swing in Georgia, in the first round, are signs that the Democrats COULD regain the majority in the House of Representatives in 2018, after eight years in the “wilderness”.

It is simply a sign of the reality that the Democratic Party, at a low point, having lost so many seats in both houses of Congress in the Barack Obama era, along with governorships and state legislatures, have the urgency to work very hard to start their revival.

The average number of seats gained by the “out” party in the midterm elections is 23 in the House of Representatives, and right now, the Democrats need 24 seats to regain control, so it is within potential gains that one might expect.

The US Senate will be nearly impossible to win seats, however, as only 8 Republicans are up for reelection in 2018, as against 25 Democrats.

Looking at the GOP held seats, the only possible gains, and not easily, might be Jeff Flake’s seat in Arizona, and Dean Heller’s seat in Nevada. The only other possible hope would be if somehow Ted Cruz could be unseated in Texas, but that is highly unlikely. So at this point, the most that could be expected is a 50-50 tie in the Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence able to use his vote in a tied Senate.

One must realize that while many of the 25 Democratic seats are seen as safe, a large number are not so, including Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Jon Tester in Montana, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Bill Nelson in Florida, and Bob Casey in Pennsylvania. Note that Heitkamp, Manchin, and Donnelly tried to protect their flank by voting for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, but McCaskill, Tester, Nelson and Casey did not do so.

But beyond Congress, it is urgent that state governorships be gained, as well as control of more state legislatures, all in planning for the next census of 2020 and the redistricting of House seats and state legislative seats that will come after 2020, with the evil reality of gerrymandering affecting the next decade.

Is Donald Trump The Third President Without A Party, As Was The Case With John Tyler And Andrew Johnson?

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We have had two Presidents who lacked support of a party, and we may now have a third one in Donald Trump.

Two Presidents were elected Vice President as part of a “fusion” team to help elect the Presidential nominee, and then quickly became President upon the death of the President.

John Tyler, a Democrat, ran on the Whig Party line with William Henry Harrison in 1840, and Harrison died of pneumonia 31 days after the inauguration.

Tyler disagreed with the Whig Party principles, and came into conflict with Whig leadership, including Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and Congressman John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts.

His entire cabinet resigned after a few months, with the exception of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, and Tyler had great troubles with confirmation hearings, with four cabinet appointments and four nominees for the Supreme Court rejected by the Whig controlled Senate. The Congress refused to pass funding for fixing of the White House, which was in disrepair, and an attempted impeachment was prevented only by the Whigs losing the House of Representatives in 1842.

So John Tyler was a man without a party.

The same can be said of Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, who was the Vice Presidential nominee with Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864, with Lincoln concerned about reelection, so choosing a loyal Southern Democrat to shore up support among some Northern Democrats.

When Lincoln was assassinated 45 days after his second inauguration, Johnson became President but clashed quickly with Radical Republicans over Reconstruction policy, and when he vetoed significant legislation, and went out and campaigned against them in midterm congressional elections in 1866, an open split was clear, and Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prevented the dismissal of any cabinet officer appointed by the President, without majority backing by the majority of both houses of Congress, an unconstitutional action.

Johnson now faced impeachment on flimsy charges, and was found not guilty, but it weakened his ability to govern, and he was unable to gain the filling of a Supreme Court vacancy, and was truly a President without a party.

Now, Donald Trump has alienated many Republicans, who are willing to investigate his Russian ties and possible collusion in the Presidential Election of 2016. He has denounced the Freedom Caucus membership which prevented his health care legislation from passing, and many US Senators, including John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse, and others, have been strong critics. Additionally, he has hinted at working with Democrats, even though he has also antagonized them repeatedly with his utterances and policies. His public opinion rating is the lowest for any new President, since the beginning of polling 80 years ago.

The possibility of impeachment is there, as even top Republican leadership, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have found it difficult to work with a President who is constantly tweeting and criticizing, in a very divisive way.

So Donald Trump could end up being the third President without a party, recalling that for a long time, he was sounding years ago like a liberal Democrat!

Presidential Family Members And The American Presidency

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The growing influence of Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, is a significant factor in Donald Trump’s approach to the Presidency.

His reliance on and loyalty to his daughter and son in law demonstrates the power of family.

Other Presidents have also utilized family members as follows:

John Adams relied on John Quincy Adams as Ambassador to Prussia.

Woodrow Wilson had his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, conduct cabinet meetings after he had a stroke in October 1919.

Franklin D. Roosevelt relied on his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, for advice on so many domestic and foreign policy issues, and in his last two years, his daughter, Anna, also was available to assist him.

Dwight D. Eisenhower used his son John Eisenhower as a staff aide in the White House.

John F. Kennedy had the most prominent relative in his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, serving as Attorney General of the United States for the entire time of the Kennedy Presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson leaned on his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, for much advice.

Ronald Reagan followed the advice of his wife, Nancy Reagan, on a host of issues, including developing a relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Bill Clinton utilized his wife, Hillary Clinton, on a proposed national health care program, as well as a host of other issues.

Barack Obama capitalized on the advice of wife Michelle Obama, as they were a very close couple.

But notice how mostly it was First Ladies who were engaged in helping their husband, with only John Quincy Adams, Anna Roosevelt, John Eisenhower (children) and RFK (brother) as important aides to the President, and Ivanka and Jared are in many ways unique in their growing role, with only RFK being of an equal or greater significance.

Are We On The Brink Of A Nuclear War, Or Another Massive Infusion Of Troops In The Korean Peninsula, As In 1950?

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Today is Easter, and any sensible person is on tenterhooks as we seem to be on the brink of a nuclear war, or another massive infusion of troops in the Korean Peninsula, due to the crazy North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, striving to be a threat to the United States mainland and to his Asian Pacific neighbors.

Kim Jong Un is unstable, unpredictable, mercurial, dangerous, reckless–but so is our President, Donald Trump.

Trump seems to be on an ego trip over his bombing of a Syrian airfield, and the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) dropped on an ISIL (ISIS) stronghold in Afghanistan in the past week.

Military leaders are running the show, while Trump says the North Korean issue will be settled one way or the other.

The ratcheting up of rhetoric on both sides is terrifying, and it means we have the possibility of all out war coming, either by use of nuclear weapons for the first time since World War II, or more likely, a massive infusion of American troops into the Korean Peninsula after an expected North Korean invasion of South Korea, and the raining down of missiles on Seoul, the capital of South Korea, with more than 10 million people, by the North Korean regime.

If a ground war develops, we could see massive loss of life on the part of South Koreans, and Japan is also in danger, as well as the 28,000 American troops already present in South Korea, the reminder that we have had troops in South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

So 64 years later, nearly two thirds of a century, we may be soon engaging in another major war, which could, if things do not go well, lead to the decision to restart the military draft of young Americans, even though there has been no draft since 1973, and only registration required since 1980.

There is no question of the threat of North Korea, but to have an unstable egomaniac in Donald Trump dealing with this, instead of the sane and experienced Hillary Clinton, is a true concern.

Donald Trump had said he wished to put “America First”, and not engage in foreign wars, and yet now, he seems likely to engage in a war with North Korea, that will not easily be won, along with hints of ground troops in Syria, causing a confrontation with Russia and Vladimir Putin.

We must recall that the Korean War was not won, but was simply a truce, and there are no simple answers to this crisis, but we can sense military leadership taking over from civilian leadership, as Trump allows Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster to make final decisions on intervention that could undermine the nature of our democracy for the long term.

Let us not forget that when we commit troops to foreign war, in an age of no draft, who are the victims? They are primarily poor whites, as well as racial minorities, who commit themselves to a military career as the best alternative of occupation in a nation that has a growing poverty level, and the rich getting ever richer while the middle class sinks.

Instead of spending another $50 billion on defense, we should be spending on domestic needs, as we already have a bigger defense budget than the next eight nations combined.

Donald Trump Dangerous To The Mental And Physical Health Of Tens Of Millions Of Americans

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It is now clear, 85 days into his Presidency, that Donald Trump is dangerous to the mental and physical health of tens of millions of Americans.

Trump’s erratic, immature, reckless, and constantly changing behavior is a danger to America and the world community, as he is totally unpredictable, and he clearly has no principles or beliefs other than his own glorification and self aggrandizement.

We have had strong egotists before in the Presidency, including Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon, but nothing on the scale of Donald Trump.

Trump has caused serious mental depression and heart problems in tens of millions of Americans, who wake up daily worrying how their lives will be affected, and the fear of more foreign wars caused by his Twitter feed and loose mouth, by a President who has the sick need to express every waking thought so that we all know it and pay attention to him.

Imagine what it is like to be a senior citizen, a disabled person, a person of color or of Muslim faith, an immigrant, a woman, a gay or lesbian or transgender person, with all of these groups being targeted to be harmed by radical changes in government policies and programs, administered by the most mean spirited, narrow minded, intolerant, uncaring cabinet officers in all of American history!

Imagine how hate groups and leaders, such as David Duke and Richard Spencer, are being emboldened by the race baiting, nativist, antisemitic rhetoric emerging from the Trump Administration.

Donald Trump is a true nightmare, who is not only working to deny 24 million Americans from having health care altogether, but also undermining the health of at least as many Americans who will see their lives shortened, by the high level of stress, and the resultant danger of overdosing with medication, and causing planned or unplanned suicide of people in danger, but knowing their government does not give a damn about them, only wealthy people of white Christian heritage.

Jeff Sessions,Tom Price, Nick Mulvaney: Former Members Of Congress Working Against Civil Rights, Health Care, And Common Decency Toward The Poor!

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Three former members of Congress have become leading figures in the Trump Administration, as it works against Civil Rights, Health Care, and common decency toward the poor, and one has to wonder how these three men can look in the mirror and feel they are doing what is proper in any society.

Jeff Sessions, former Alabama Senator, is doing everything he can as Attorney General to undermine the rights of all racial minorities, women, gays and lesbians, and transgender Americans, trying to take us back to the way things were in the era before the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s, and trying to deny the role of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation in American society. Jeff Sessions has a hardened look on his face, and anyone can see what a nasty racist, nativist, and misogynist Sessions is.

Tom Price, former Georgia Congressman and a medical doctor, is Secretary of Health and Human Services, and has engaged in corrupt conflicts of interest regarding stock profits given to him by companies that the department must deal with. And now, Price is so eager to knock 24 million Americans off health care completely. What kind of doctor, and basically any human being, would be so hardhearted and cold and distant about the basic life and health of people who are elderly, disabled, poor? The man has such an evil look on his face.

And then we have former South Carolina Congressman Nick Mulvaney, who is head of the Office of Management and Budget, who is out to promote extreme tax cuts to the wealthy by cutting all programs that help the poor to survive just barely, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, as well as health care, education, food stamps, used by poor women and their children, as well as disabled and elderly. Mulvaney sees the poor as a group to exploit and make their miserable lives ever more downtrodden. Mulvaney is Robin Hood in reverse, and is a despicable, uncaring man, who has no conscience.

The thing that unites all three is that they are all “religious”, “good Christians”, in all the hypocrisy of such terminology!

If this is religiosity, to oppose the message of their savior Jesus Christ, who happened to be Jewish, then no wonder so many people are so cynical about religion!

April 12–Day 83—Complete Turnabout By Donald Trump On Russia, China, NATO, American Foreign Policy In General: Is It For Real?

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Yesterday, April 12, 2017, was the 83rd day of the Trump Presidency, and we witnessed a complete turnabout by President Trump on Russia, China, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and American foreign policy in general.

This is absolutely startling, and the question is whether it is for real, or will Donald Trump change his mind next week or next month, or even the next day?

The shift in American foreign policy puts Donald Trump into the mainstream, when he was anything but that during his campaign and his first two and a half months in office.

Is this being done as a ploy to hold off and deter an investigation of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Presidential campaign in favor of Donald Trump?

Is this being done because of the leaving of Michael Flynn and the likely soon to be leaving of Stephen Bannon from the administration, and if so, is it an indication that Donald Trump finally gets the message of the destructive behavior he engaged in toward allies and friendly nations after the election and until now, in mid April?

We are learning that having an inexperienced and ignorant President creates uncertainties and concern about the direction that the government is going in, and not only in foreign policy, but also in domestic policy.

Can we trust Donald Trump that he believes anything he says today will be the same at any time in the future?

The answer is NO, so we face difficult days ahead as we explore uncharted territory with a man who has no secure principles or beliefs, other than his own advancement.

Donald Trump’s Slights Toward The Jewish Community Another Reason Why He Should Be Removed From Office

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Donald Trump may have Jewish relatives, including son in law Jared Kushner and his converted daughter Ivanka, but there is simply too much evidence of his latent antisemitism.

Failure to acknowledge the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day is unacceptable.

Associating with, and refusing to repudiate the antisemitism of David Duke, Richard Spencer, and other white supremacists, is unforgivable.

Deciding not to attend a Passover Seder in the White House, while he is upstairs, is totally uncalled for, particularly after Barack Obama participated in Passover Seders all eight years he was in the White House, a tradition begun by George W. Bush.

Having his Press Secretary Sean Spicer claim that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons in World War II, and that six million Jews were sent to “Holocaust Centers”, rather than concentration camps, where they were systematically executed, is a sin which only a summary firing by Donald Trump, and Trump’s own public apology, added to that of Sean Spicer already, can possibly rectify.

But seriously, this is simply another reason why Donald Trump should be removed from office, as his administration has already victimized immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, gay and lesbian and transgender people, and women, simply by establishment of bigoted, racist, and misogynistic policies in 80 days in the White House!

Will Donald Trump Be A Wartime President?

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In the midst of tension over Syria using chemical warfare against civilians in their civil war and Trump ordering the bombing of an airfield in Syria, and the growing North Korean threat, and with Donald Trump a novice at dealing with foreign policy, the idea that Trump might be a wartime President is becoming a more serious thought.

Trump had said he wanted to avoid involvement in other nations’ affairs when he ran for President, and to concentrate on America, but his rhetoric and tactics have stirred controversy which might lead to potential warfare with Russia, China, Iran, and ISIL (ISIS), without much planning as to how to conduct such military actions. Also, not much thought has been put to how to avoid such conflict.

Trump certainly is aware that he can gain some additional American support temporarily if the nation engages in war, but at the expense of alienating large percentages of the American people long term, who do not desire to see further loss of life and treasure if it can be avoided.

Trump’s lack of experience with diplomacy, and his tendency to “shoot from the hip” on Twitter and in public statements, may lead to unexpected and tragic results.

The military-industrial complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in his Farewell Address in January 1961 is still at full strength, and the fact that so many former generals are key advisers is a warning that in many ways, we are under the control of the military mindset, emboldened by Donald Trump’s egotism and maniacal behavior.