Month: February 2018

A Doctor In Michigan, A College Professor In Kansas, An Afghanistan Army Veteran From Illinois: All Facing Deportation

Lukasz Niec (Poland)—-Syed Ahmed Jamal(Bangladesh)—Miguel Perez, Jr. (Mexico)–these are just three victims of Donald Trump’s nativism, accomplished through heartless policies of the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

Nativists, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House Counselor Stephen Miller, and ICE’s Director Thomas Homan, are leading a Reign of Terror on all undocumented immigrants of all ages and longevity in America, and having a clean record without any crimes is not enough.

So we are having people here 30-40 years in many cases, who have no memory of the country they were born in, have no family connections, do not know the language of their native country, and in many cases will be endangered and possibly killed by returning to a strange land, facing deportation.

As the three mentioned above, a doctor in Michigan, a college professor in Kansas, and an Afghanistan Army veteran in Illinois–ripped apart from their homes, businesses, jobs, and family members–a despairing situation which will insure these monsters in government and the administration of Donald Trump, will be condemned in history, with Fortune Magazine already lowering the rating of the United States as a democracy which pursues human rights, to a lower category of a flawed democracy, similar to Poland, Mongolia, and Italy among other nations, for the first time in American history.

This violation of civil liberties, and the threats against sanctuary cities by the federal government, are a sign of Fascism and authoritarianism taking over, and it cannot be allowed to stand, by all decent Americans.

We have not learned from past violations of civil liberties and civil rights, and we are living through a dark period of American history.

A Military Parade To Salute Our President Reminiscent Of Authoritarian Dictatorships, A Break From American Traditions!

It is hard to believe that we are about to start a new tradition in a democracy, a military parade to salute our President, reminiscent of authoritarian dictatorships, such as the old Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Kim Jong Un’s North Korea.

There is absolutely no need for such a parade, as we honor veterans and the military on Memorial Day in May and Veterans Day in November.

It is true France does this on Bastille Day, and it is a democracy, but that is not an excuse for doing it.

It is simply to stroke Trump’s ego, which already is too inflated.

It is another sign of Trump trying to change American culture and history, and it must be prevented.

But seeing the generals around Trump–the disgraceful bigot John Kelly, and also James Mattis and H. R. Mc Master– now makes it clear that having military people in government by special dispensation was and is a horrible mistake, and must not be allowed to happen in the future.

Trump Administration Horrors Grow By Leaps And Bounds, And Full Fledged Fascism Advancing Every Day, Endangering The Nation’s Future!

Nick Mulvaney—Thomas Homan—Sarah Huckabee Sanders—John Kelly—Stephen Miller—and so many others in the Trump Administration utter statements and take action that moves America closer to full fledged Fascism, not any different than historically in Fascist Italy, Fascist Argentina, Fascist Chile, and present day Turkey, Philippines, Egypt, and other authoritarian dictatorships of the Right!

Mulvaney, former South Carolina Republican Congressman, is acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and also head of the Office of Management and Budget, and is doing everything possible to victimize consumers, the poor, and racial minorities, and is not apologetic for it. He intends to destroy the CFPB and has said it is not the job of government to monitor discrimination of Wall Street against the poor and minorities.

Homan, head of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is totally hard line and uncaring on enforcement of deportation orders against as many immigrants as possible, with no concern about breaking up families and threatening direct action against sanctuary cities who harbor and protect immigrants. He has no concern about deporting people who have been here in America, without any criminal record, for up to 30-40 years.

Sanders lies incessantly every day, and has no ethical or moral basis in her utterances as Press Secretary, and is influenced by her father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has become totally prejudiced and extremist in his statements and actions, as compared to when he first ran for President in 2008 and seemed fairly moderate.

Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, who many felt would have a good effect on Donald Trump, instead has become a noticeable nativist and racist, making false statements regularly, and promoting the hard line of White House Adviser and Speechwriter Stephen Miller, who has disgraced his own Jewish heritage with his racist, nativist, and Fascist advice and influence on Trump. Kelly has the gall to say that “Dreamers” are “too lazy to get off their ass”, a shocking statement that is so false, but shows the true nature of Kelly.

So Trump Administration horrors grow by leaps and bounds, and full fledged Fascism is advancing every day, endangering the nation’s future.

Decent people cannot sit by and just accept what is happening, as this has become by far the most dangerous threat to America since Richard Nixon and Watergate, and far greater in its evil.

Mass marches and demonstrations must be organized immediately, or the nightmare we are living through will become entrenched and destroy American democracy!

88 Months of Job Growth, All Time Record, So Future Is Economic Recession, Just A Question Of When And How Severe

America has experienced 88 months of job growth and an improving economy, an all time record, so the future is economic recession, with the only question being when and how severe it will be.

It is like gravity, in that what goes up must come down, and Donald Trump has been bragging as if he created the economic growth, when it was the contribution of Barack Obama, who was overseer over the greatest economic recovery in American history, and without war.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is credited with helping to solve the Great Depression in the 1930s, but it took until war spending for World War II for the recovery to be totally successful, while Obama avoided a major war, and created the economic conditions that now Trump is making it as if he did it all by himself in the past year.

Trump came into office with a great economy, while Obama came in at the worst time since Herbert Hoover, and had to deal with what we call the Great Recession.

As I write this, the stock market has had its two worst days in two years, losing 666 points on Friday, and 1175 on Monday, making for the greatest two day loss in stock market history. The market actually went down 1579 before it revived to 1175 by the close of trading. So it went down in the past two days by 1840, a total of seven percent of the stock market.

It will be interesting to see how Donald Trump reacts to this, since he loves to give himself credit for the improvement in the stock market, even though it was steadily rising under Barack Obama, who he will never give credit to on anything.

if the economy falters, Trump will lose a lot of his supporters, and his public opinion polls will collapse into the 20s instead of the low to mid 30s where it is right now.

Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan A Total Disaster, Caving In To Donald Trump, And Undermining Congressional Authority Against Presidents

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has become a total disaster, caving in to Donald Trump, and undermining Congressional authority against Presidential abuses.

Ryan has helped to undermine the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian collusion, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, money laundering, violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, and sexual harassment and abuse by President Trump.

There are rumors that he plans to retire from Congress this year, and not too soon, as he has failed to play the role of a Speaker who puts the good of the nation ahead of politics.

He also is despicable in his craving for cutting the Social Safety Net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as cutting back on essential regulations of labor conditions, the environment, health care, and education.

He is presiding over a House of Representatives which is way out of the norm of American politics, caving in to religious extremists and the Freedom Caucus, which is anarchistic in its hatred of the federal government.

This author and blogger condemned Ryan back in 2012 when he was Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate, and his position on Ryan has not changed.

By comparison, John Boehner, with all his shortcomings, was nowhere as horrible as Ryan has been.

Randy Bryce is running as the Democrat trying to unseat Ryan from his Wisconsin Congressional seat, if he chooses to run, and whether Ryan runs or not, hopefully, Randy Bryce can be part of the expected Democratic “Blue” wave coming in November 2018. Bryce is an Army veteran, a cancer survivor, and iron worker running to give American workers in the First Congressional District of Wisconsin an opportunity to have one of their own background representing them in Washington, DC.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein And Special Counsel Robert Mueller In Danger Of Being Fired, Undermining Russian Investigation

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is in danger of being fired by President Donald Trump, in order to stop the investigation of the Russian collusion scandal by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, appointed by Rosenstein after the firing of FBI Director James Comey last May.

If that were to happen, it seems likely that Trump would try to find someone else, maybe Rachel Brand, the next ranking person in the Justice Department, to fire Mueller.

Both Rosenstein and Brand are Republican appointments, and Mueller was the former head of the FBI, appointed by George W. Bush, so this is not an issue of Democrats being in danger, but rather Republicans, as Trump works to cover up his involvement in Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential campaign, as well as money laundering, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

This would provoke a situation similar to the “Saturday Night Massacre” under Richard Nixon in October 1973, when Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, in the midst of the Watergate Scandal, the first step in the move toward impeachment of Nixon, and his eventual forced resignation in August 1974.

This would create a constitutional crisis greater than Watergate, and the American people must rise up to prevent what Trump is trying to do, create a dictatorship, in which a President is unaccountable for his illegal behavior, and a situation where his party in Congress is unwilling to take a stand against executive abuse of power.

Donald Trump has done so much damage already in so many ways, and he must be stopped now, before we lose our democracy and our image of ourselves as a nation based upon the rule of law and the Constitution.

Trump Tax Cuts Already Undermining Budget, And Threatening Social Safety Net Of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

The Trump tax cuts are already, just as they are going into effect, causing a massive shortage of government funds, and threatening the stability of the Social Safety Net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and as well as educational, environmental, consumer, and labor laws.

This is precisely what the Republican Party of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Trump White House wants, to destroy the entire social and economic reforms and regulatory laws of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of the Lyndon B. Johnson, and the reforms of Barack Obama, along with lesser reforms of Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The Republican Party is now an extremist right wing party controlled by the Freedom Caucus and evangelical Christians, who will not be satisfied until they take America back to the 1920s and the Gilded Age.

And this past week, the beginning of the end of what is now 88 months of economic expansion and job growth is evident, as today, the stock market collapsed with a 670 point drop, and a 1,000 point drop over this entire week. This is the biggest drop in two years, about 2.5 percent in the past week. It is also the biggest drop since the financial crisis of late 2008, which led to the Great Recession.

This was predictable, as no market or economic growth can continue to expand forever and already, the seven years and four months of expansion, since the last months of 2010, is an all time record.

We will go through very rough times from now on, and yet the wealthy top one or two percent will continue to gain massive tax cuts, while the rest of America suffers.

We are on the road to potential social uprising, as the American people realize that a President who lost the popular vote, and has engaged in illegal acts, works to undermine the investigation of Russian collusion, money laundering, abuse of power, violating the emoluments clause, and obstruction of justice, at the expense of the American people, but makes sure his class of wealthy people continues to benefit.

The Trump public opinion rating in the mid 30s is likely to collapse into the 20s at this rate, but will the Republican Party try to rectify itself in Congress, or will they continue to collaborate in treason and corruption, and destroy their historical legacy long term?

We shall see in the months leading up to a likely massacre in the midterm elections this November.

The Key To A Majority Of Democrats In House Of Representatives: Gains In New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, California

Five “Blue” States for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have a total of 42 seats of Republicans in the House of Representatives—New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, California.

All of these states, except Illinois, presently have Democratic Governors, with Bruce Rauner in great trouble in trying to win reelection in Illinois, including the possible Democratic challenger being Chris Kennedy, one of the sons of Robert F. Kennedy.

Five out of nine in New York; four out of five in New Jersey; four out of seven in Virginia; four out of seven in Illinois; and eight out of fourteen in California—these are the vulnerable seats, a total of 25, with the Democrats needing 24 seats to gain majority control of the House of Representatives.

Not all will be won, of course, but some of these Republicans have decided not to seek reelection, which makes their seats even more likely to switch. Altogether, 25 of the 42 seats that are presently Republican in these five states are in play.

of course, there are many other vulnerable seats for Republicans, but if a high percentage of these seats in the five “Blue” states go Democratic, then it is assured that the Democrats will gain majority control in November 2018.

Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania also have contested seats that could go Democratic, so the real battleground is the five “Blue” states and these three states that went to Donald Trump.