This (and it applies to Melrose politics, as well):
Michael Moore
December 27 at 9:19pm ·
5 Things You Can Do Right Now About Donald J. Trump - from Michael Moore
It's been seven weeks since Hillary beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes but lost the presidency to him. So if your head is still spinning from that mindf***, or you can't quite believe a malignant narcissist will now sit in the Oval Office, or if you are simply still working your way through the 17 stages of grief, then I am here to say to you, "There's no crying in TrumpLand -- Let's get to work!" All hands on deck! Brush your yourself off and let's get busy because: a) All hope is not lost; b) There are more of us than there are of them; and c) The roadside is littered with the ended careers of self-absorbed, narcissistic politicians whose arrogance led them to do things that caused their early resignation or impeachment. Don't think that can't happen here.
I do not say these things because I am filled with optimism. In fact, I think the first thing we all have to do in order to move on is to admit out loud what we already think privately: As bad as we know it's going to be, it's actually going to be worse. A lot worse. Now cheer up and read on...
THE FIVE THINGS EACH OF US MUST DO THIS WEEK
1. MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN. Your Senators and Members of Congress are home right now, in your town (or a nearby town), for their holiday break. Their office is open! You don't need an appointment. Just show up (to find out where the local office is click here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and type in your zip code). Go there (take a friend!), walk in and say "I'm a constituent and I'd like a few minutes with my Congressman/woman." He/she may be busy, so tell them you'd like to speak to someone on the staff for a couple minutes. Most local congressional offices are LOATHE to turn anyone away because to them you are that one vote who could vote them out of office. Tell the person you get to speak to why you want the Congressman to block all the damage Trump is going to do (cite examples). If he/she is a Republican, they will explain why they "support the new President." You then must politely tell them you and everyone you know will work to unseat them in 2018 if they don't act independently from Trump. The calmer and cooler you say this, the more they will believe it. If your rep is a Democrat, tell him/her that you expect them to AGGRESSIVELY fight the Trump agenda -- and if they don't, you will work with others to support a true progressive in the Democratic primary in 2018. Tell them that millions of us will do what the Tea Party did to the Republicans: primary them and toss them out of office. Say it politely, thank them, then leave. You actually showing up in person to do this is as powerful as 100 letters or a large demonstration on the street in front of their office. Do this and post it on social media. Post it on my Facebook or Twitter and I'll try to re-post/tweet as many as I can.
2. WRITE TO THE DNC TONIGHT. It will take 5 minutes. Send a quick email to the Democratic National Committee (http://my.democrats.org/page/s/contact-the-democrats) and tell them you want them to elect Congressman Keith Ellison as the new chairperson of the Democratic Party. He is the future and everyone else is the past. Here's what the old guard gave us: TWICE in 16 years the Democratic candidate WON the vote for President but LOST the White House. Incredible! This has to stop! Ellison and the progressive wing of the party must take us forward. Keith has the backing of Bernie Sanders and myself, but also the endorsement of some of the old guard who've come around to see the error of past ways (Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, etc.). In addition to being born in Detroit, spending his adulthood as a community organizer and now representing the Twin Cities in the House, Ellison is also the only Muslim member of Congress. He was one of the few members of Congress brave enough to back Bernie. He will fight to turn this around and, as a son of the Midwest, bring that part of the country back from the dark side. Let's flood the DNC with emails tonight (and cc: the your state Democratic Party, too - you can look up their email address on Google).
3. FORM YOUR OWN RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. By New Year's Day this Sunday, I want you to ask 5 to 10 friends, family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors to be part of your Rapid Response Team. Pick a name for it -- the "Doyle Family Rapid Response Team", the "Oak Street Rapid Response Team", the "Seabrook High School Rapid Response Team", the "Gilmore Girls Fan Club Rapid Response Team", etc. Set a plan to contact each other online as soon as word goes out on any given day to oppose what Trump and Congress are up to. Your Rapid Response Team will agree with each other to email elected reps, make calls, post on social media, go to protests and/or organize others at work, school or in the neighborhood. Through my own social media sites, as stuff happens, I will send out instructions immediately as to what we all must do. Sign up now to follow me on my Facebook (facebook.com/mmflint) and Twitter (twitter.com/mmflint) if you don't already. Form your team this week. I'm personally organizing a Rapid Response Team in the apartment building where I live. We need to get prepared and be ready now. If we wait til late January to organize, it will be too late.
4. MAKE PLANS NOW TO BE AT THE INAUGURATION WEEKEND PROTESTS! We need millions in the streets in DC -- and that's what it looks like it's shaping up to be. The big march will be the day after the Inauguration - the Million Women March on January 21st. On January 20th - Inauguration Day - a call has been gone out to non-violently disrupt the proceedings. Go to http://www.disruptj20.org/ and learn about civil disobedience on that day. Planes and trains are already selling out, as are hotels. Contact the above sites to get info on buses and housing (or charter your own bus from your town). Everyone who can should be there. If you can't make it, find (or organize) a local protest in your area. Take the day off. No one should be silent that day.
5. YOU SHOULD RUN FOR OFFICE. Yes, YOU. Why not? Who else do you think is going to do it? I'm not saying you have to be the next Senator from Michigan, but why not run for State Rep. or school board or city council? At the very least, run for precinct delegate in the local Democratic Party. It's time to stop carping about politicians and become one. But a different kind of one! I ran for and got elected to the school board at 18-years old. Form your campaign committee now for the elections in 2017 and 2018. (If you need me, I'll even offer to be your honorary chair!) You know you can do this. We have no choice. We've left it up to others - yes, Democrats - and they are inept and continual losers. Haven't you had enough? Run for office, any office!
There you go. 5 Easy Pieces. Start tonight. And spread this around. ALL HANDS ON DECK!
-- Michael Moore
Hey Resist! You lost - get over it! The Dems are in disarray and if you wait for someone like Michael Moore to lead you back to power - forget it - the guy's a fraud - please remember that he is part of the 0.1% you guys hate! He lives in a mansion, has multiple homes and lives like a king!
Find someone else to lead you to power like Pelosi, Warren, or Sanders - now there is a trio anyone could be proud of - ugh!
You liberal Dems are absolutely clueless!
of course the Melrose Public has its own special version of appalling ignorance and arrogance...
The American Public Against Trump
www.commondreams.org/views/2016/12/29/american-public-against-trump
The United States, supposedly the world’s beacon of democracy, is practicing a strange form of it nowadays. One presidential candidate won nearly three million more votes than her opponent, who, with a big assist from a hostile foreign power, was nonetheless declared the winner. Anywhere else on earth, such an event would be called a coup d’état. Here in the US, we call it the Electoral College.
It gets stranger. A Pew Research opinion poll conducted between November 30 and December 5, after the election had cast the usual victor’s glow on Donald Trump, indicated that only 37% of Americans thought Trump was well-qualified for the presidency, just 31% deemed him moral, and a mere 26% viewed him as a good role model. On the other hand, 62% thought he had poor judgment and 65% considered him reckless. And this man won?
Perhaps, despite his appalling personal attributes, Trump’s positions on key issues resonated with the electorate. As an economist, I’ll leave aside Trump’s positively frightening foreign-policy views and concentrate on the economic issues that many pundits claim put him in the White House. In fact, judging by Trump’s own statements and his cabinet picks, he’s on the wrong side of almost every one. It’s a sobering inventory.
Climate change: Only one economic issue poses an existential threat to life on earth. Yet Trump branded it a “hoax” during the campaign, and has picked a climate-change denier, Scott Pruitt, to head the US Environmental Protection Agency, which Pruitt, the attorney general of oil- and gas-producing Oklahoma, has frequently sued. This is not the policy the American public wants. On the contrary, polling data show that Americans’ concern with global warming is now at or near all-time highs. Americans really don’t want Miami Beach or lower Manhattan to be underwater.
Labor standards: Trump’s choice for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, is a CEO in the fast-food industry. Never mind that he uses crass sexual imagery to sell hamburgers. What’s more germane is that he prefers robots to human workers, doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage, and opposes the Department of Labor’s attempt to raise the salary level below which companies must pay extra for overtime.
The public could not disagree with him more. Raising the minimum wage has been winning in polls consistently for decades, and by wide margins – generally even among Republicans. And when the labor department proposed its overtime rule in May, respondents told pollsters that the overtime threshold should be set even higher.
Health care: “Repeal Obamacare” became the Republican Party’s mantra as soon as Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. So, naturally, that was the position Trump adopted while vying for the Republican nomination. Now, as president-elect, he has picked Representative Tom Price of Georgia, an avowed enemy of Obamacare – and you might say of Medicaid and Medicare (which provide coverage to the poor and elderly, respectively) – to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Unfortunately for Republicans, they haven’t figured out how to replace Obamacare, so their current policy is “repeal and delay.” In other words: “Call us back in two or three years.”
Public opinion on the ACA is difficult to discern. Polling the name often gets slightly negative reviews. But that’s misleading. For example, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted after the election found that 26% Americans favor outright repeal, while only 19% favor keeping the law as is. So does the public reject Obamacare?
Well, no. Among the remaining 47% who expressed an opinion, far more wanted to see the scope of the law expanded than scaled back. Even the Republicans know that many of the ACA’s key provisions, such as ensuring that people with pre-existing conditions can buy health insurance, are extremely popular. I suspect that many critics of Obamacare are really RINOs: repealers in name only.
Tax cuts: One of the most consistent findings in American public opinion polling for decades is that people want higher taxes, not lower, on the rich and corporations. The Republican catechism, however, has long enshrined lower taxes on both, and this became one of the few concrete policies that candidate Trump ran on.
In fact, Trump’s position is more popular than its polar opposite on only one economic issue: globalization. And on that one issue, Trump’s embrace of trade protection, hostility toward immigration, and prevention of outsourcing to foreign countries is bad news for the entire world.
Nowadays, a narrow majority of Americans seems to side with Trump, rather than with traditional Republican internationalism, on these issues. Forty-nine percent of respondents in an April 2016 Pew poll said that US involvement in the global economy is bad, because it lowers wages and costs jobs, while 44% said that globalization is good, because it opens new markets and creates opportunities for growth. Close, but here Trump is on the “right” side of the electorate.
That’s the public opinion scoreboard on the big economic issues. Unless you put almost all the weight on hostility to globalization, Trump seems to be on the wrong side of every one. So how did the candidate who is personally disrespected by most Americans, and who takes the unpopular side on most issues, win the election?
One plausible answer, offered by Clinton and many others, focuses on the role of Russian cyber operations and FBI Director James Comey’s unconscionable “announcement” (of what amounted to nothing) just days before the vote. Putin got what he wanted. Comey? I don’t know.
The election is over "Truth" so get over it - don't fight the battles of the past and don't live in the past otherwise you Dems will never won another election!
The electoral college is in the Constitution and everyone knew the rules going into the election - it is not the first time in history that the person who had the most popular votes lost the election! Thank god California and New York states do not decide who is our President of the entire 50 states! Trump winning 30 of 50 states is an electoral landslide!
Get over it and join the majority of states whose majority voted for Trump - it was a fair and honest election lost by a corrupt, deceptive, and dishonest candidate who was the first ever candidate running while under a FBI investigation - that should say much about her selection as candidate by a corrupt party - who rigged the primaries for her against Sanders! What dreadful dishonesty by a political party!
Hey "Trump", not everyone is as brainwashed as your types. You just elected a true monster, a narcissistic bully who is only interested in filling his coffers. You and your types are some of the first who will be hurt by his many harmful acts and cabinet choices. Welcome to the new Dark Ages of America. You can congratulate yourself for the nightmare already unfolding.
Listen up - doomsday prophets - Trump hasn't even taken office yet and has created more enthusiasm and hope for the common worker than Pres. Obama has in his 8 years as President! Admit it - Pres. Obama has been an abject failure for the working class of this country!
Pres. Obama will go down in history as the biggest Presidential liar with the following phrases following him everywhere: "You can keep your doctor if you like", "you can keep your health plan, if you like", "your health care costs will decrease by $2,500 per person, under Obamacare", "there is not one smidgen of evidence that the IRS targeted conservative groups" - which he said even before the investigation began, "Benghazi incident was the result of a youtube video", "Donald Trump will never be President". Obama is second only to Hillary Clinton in lying to the American people!
Case closed! Obama is an habitual liar!
I get it now - the fact that Obama and Clinton are liars is a perfect reason to vote for a total scumbag like Trump instead of standing up, growing a pair, and demanding better. Question - is it hard for you to see with your head stuffed up your a$$?
Most Trump voters believe crazy, wrong things
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Many Americans believe a lot of dumb, crazy, destructive, provably wrong stuff. Lately this is especially (though not exclusively) true of Donald Trump voters, according to a new survey.
The poll, from The Economist/YouGov, was conducted in mid-December, and it finds that willingness to believe a given conspiracy theory is (surprise!) strongly related to whether that conspiracy theory supports one’s political preferences.
Remember Pizzagate? That’s the bizarre theory that Hillary Clinton was helping run a child sex slave ring out of a D.C. pizza joint, as allegedly proved by code words in hacked Democratic emails.
Lest you think this theory was espoused by only a handful of Internet nutjobs, observe that nearly half of Trump voters believe it’s true. This result is based on a poll conducted after a North Carolina man burst into the restaurant with an assault-style rifle, leaving only when he was satisfied that no child sex-slaves were harbored there.
About half of Trump voters also believe that President Obama was born in Kenya, even though even their once-birther candidate has disavowed this conspiracy theory.
Another conspiracy theory still held by the president-elect is that millions of illegal votes were cast in the recent election. About six in 10 of his own voters agree with him. Surprisingly, about a quarter of Clinton voters agree, too.
Trump voters are unlikely to buy the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia hacked Democratic emails in order to help elect Trump, a view widely held by Clinton voters. Twenty percent of Trump voters believe this, versus 87 percent of Clinton supporters.
But on the other hand, half of Clinton voters also believe that Russia tampered with vote tallies to help elect Trump, a theory that the Obama administration has repeatedly said there’s no evidence to support. (Just shy of a tenth of Trump voters believe it, too.) This poll result is yet more proof that waning trust in the integrity of the democratic process is bipartisan, and that liberals should maybe keep any smug comments about paranoid, evidence-ignoring Trumpkins in check.
Alarming shares of both Trump and Clinton voters also believe that vaccines cause autism, despite the medical community’s reviews finding no connection (and the many outbreaks resulting from refusals to vaccinate children). Among Trump supporters, 31 percent believe this; among Clinton supporters, 18 percent.
Conspiracy theories are hardly the only arena in which Americans have proven themselves ill-informed. The same survey also found that, astonishingly, about a third of respondents believe the share of Americans without health insurance has risen in the last five years. Even a sizable chunk of Clinton voters (21 percent) believes this. Among Trump voters, the share is 37 percent.
In fact, the uninsured rate in the United States has fallen precipitously, and now stands at an all-time low of 8.9 percent. (The share among only the non-elderly population, 10.4 percent, is also at a record low.)
Some of these misperceptions and false beliefs may seem laughable. To me, they’re terrifying. They result in misused resources, violence and harassment, health risks, bad policy, and, ultimately, the deterioration of democracy. Good governance becomes more challenging when Americans live in parallel universes of facts.
Washington Post Writers Group
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article123936759.html#storylink=cpy
And thanks to our untruthful, biased, and mostly liberal media and polling outlets - mis-information will continue! Thanks for confirming this!
This website needs a garbage disposal to handle non-Melrose-oriented messages - otherwise the inmates will run the asylum.
When have we seen more crass, undignified behavior as we have from the liberal Democrats who will not accept that they lost not only an election but the trust and confidence of the American people? If there was a more appropriate time to use Hillary Clinton’s word “deplorable,” it would be to describe the behavior of these sore losers, who are embarrassing themselves on the world stage in front of billions of people. This pathetic display of a lack of grace and respect is inexcusable and speaks very much to the feelings of many American voters that it was truly time for a change in government. They're digging themselves even deeper for another debacle in 2020. Keep digging.
VVoice: You should be ashamed. Actual, real fascism is now alive and well, in the US, and thanks to the likes of you, in Melrose. Would you have saluted Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin as well? Doubtful, since you seem to care about "patriotic" values. But you have gone off the rails in your demented support of this undignified, ignorant, narcissistic nazi who's about to become president. Either you suffer from dementia and a lack of real patriotic values yourself or you actually believe/espouse the monstrous views of this incoming administration, with its cabinet of full-fledged nazi white supremacists. And if you don't think what's happening nationally should be allowed on this website, your words prove your lack of respect for our Constitution, for starters.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1540743225/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk
Why Trump Deserves Trust, Respect and Admiration Paperback – November 30, 2016
by David King (Author)
This book is full of blank pages. Despite years of research, we could not find anything to say on this subject, so please feel free to use this book for notes.
This is no time to allow the local fascism-lovers to go unchallenged. Fighting the tyranny and fascism of the incoming administration is not being "sore losers," but being actual American patriots. Village Voice is exactly the kind of local menace whose insidious remarks must not go unchallenged. Shame! Melrose is not the "nice" community I always mistakenly thought it was if this kind of person with such dangerous and backwards views are here.
"Mormons Petition Tabernacle Choir To Cancel Trump Inauguration Performance
by Tod Perry
Members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, frequently known as Mormons, have traditionally been one of the most reliable Republican voting blocks in the country. In 2004, 80 percent voted for George W. Bush and 78 percent voted for fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney, in 2012. But given Donald Trump’s lack of religious tolerance and blatant sexism and racism, Trump only earned 61 percent of the Mormon vote in 2016. 21 percent of Mormons opted to vote for conservative Independent Evan McMullin and 28 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton. So when it was announced that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be performing at Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, many Mormons have been uncomfortable with the decision.
Mormon Randall Thacker created a petition at Change.org to urge the choir not to perform in Washington, and it’s just shy of reaching its goal of 25,000 signatures. Thacker says his “heart sank” when he learned the choir would be performing for Trump. “I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The thought of this choir and Mormonism being forever associated with a man who disparages minorities, brags about his sexual control of women, encourages intolerance and traffics in hate speech and bullying, was unacceptable,” Thacker said on the petition. “I immediately knew there were probably thousands of people who felt the same way, so I created the space on Change.org for like-minded Mormons and their friends to share their feelings.”
Thursday, Jan Chamberlin, a member of the 360-piece choir, resigned in protest. Here is an excerpt from the beautifully-written resignation letter she later shared on Facebook:
I simply cannot continue with the recent turn of events. I could never look myself in the mirror again with self respect.
I love you all, and I know the goodness of your hearts, and your desire to go out there and show that we are politically neutral and share good will. That is the image Choir wishes to present and the message they desperately want to send.
I also know, looking from the outside in, it will appear that Choir is endorsing tyranny and facism by singing for this man.
And Choir’s wonderful image and networking will be severely damaged and that many good people throughout this land and throughout the world already do and will continue to feel betrayed. I believe hereafter our message will not be believed by many that have loved us and adored what we have stood for.
I know that I too feel betrayed.
Tyranny is now on our doorstep; it has been sneaking its way into our lives through stealth. Now it will burst into our homes through storm.
I hope that we and many others will work together with greater dilligence and awareness to calmly and bravely work together to defend our freedoms and our rights for our families, our friends, and our fellow citizens. I hope we can throw off the labels and really listen to each other with respect, love, compassion, and a true desire to bring our energies and souls together in solving the difficult problems that lie in our wake….
When I first auditioned and entered Choir, it was to follow deep personal impressions, and to honor my late father, who was among the best of men. Now I must leave Choir for the same reasons. My father ( who was an expert airforce bomber) hated tyranny and was extremely distraught over the holocaust. He and Mom both loved people greatly.
I have deep patriotic feelings for this country and for the freedoms of people everywhere throughout the world. I am troubled by the problems we face which seek to destroy our love for liberty and respect for humanity internationally.
History is repeating itself; the same tactics are being used by Hitler (identify a problem, finding a scapegoat target to blame, and stirring up people with a combination of fanaticism, false promises, and fear, and gathering the funding). I plead with everyone to go back and read the books we all know on these topics and review the films produced to help us learn from these gargantuan crimes so that we will not allow them to be repeated. Evil people prosper when good people stand by and do nothing."
No, this is NOT about "sore losers"! FYI, not a HRC supporter, and understand fully why she was a lousy candidate and the DNC was awful. That being said, Millie the Dogcatcher would have been a more reasonable candidate than what our country now has, someone who is already jeopardizing everything in the world, including all the things that DT voters will be rudely surprised to find get destroyed (like their Medicare and Social Security). Not that someone like VV actually wants to understand, but here is a good answer to that bogus crap being put out by the rude DT-ites:
Here’s Why We Grieve Today
It feels like living in enemy territory now, and there’s no way around that.
I don’t think you understand us right now.
I think you think this is about politics.
I think you believe this is all just sour grapes; the crocodile tears of the losing locker room with the scoreboard going against us at the buzzer.
I can only tell you that you’re wrong. This is not about losing an election. This isn’t about not winning a contest. This is about two very different ways of seeing the world.
Hillary supporters believe in a diverse America; one where religion or skin color or sexual orientation or place of birth aren’t liabilities or deficiencies or moral defects. Her campaign was one of inclusion and connection and interdependency. It was about building bridges and breaking ceilings. It was about going high.
Trump supporters believe in a very selective America; one that is largely white and straight and Christian, and the voting verified this. Donald Trump has never made any assertions otherwise. He ran a campaign of fear and exclusion and isolation—and that’s the vision of the world those who voted for him have endorsed.
They have aligned with the wall-builder and the professed p*ssy-grabber, and they have co-signed his body of work, regardless of the reasons they give for their vote:
Every horrible thing Donald Trump ever said about women or Muslims or people of color has now been validated.
Every profanity-laced press conference and every call to bully protestors and every ignorant diatribe has been endorsed.
Every piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation Mike Pence has championed has been signed-off on.
Half of our country has declared these things acceptable, noble, American.
This is the disconnect and the source of our grief today. It isn’t a political defeat that we’re lamenting, it’s a defeat for Humanity.
We’re not angry that our candidate lost. We’re angry because our candidate’s losing means this country will be less safe, less kind, and less available to a huge segment of its population, and that’s just the truth.
Those who have always felt vulnerable are now left more so. Those whose voices have been silenced will be further quieted. Those who always felt marginalized will be pushed further to the periphery. Those who feared they were seen as inferior now have confirmation in actual percentages.
Those things have essentially been campaign promises of Donald Trump, and so many of our fellow citizens have said this is what they want too.
This has never been about politics.
This is not about one candidate over the other.
It’s not about one’s ideas over another’s.
It is not blue vs. red.
It’s not her emails vs. his bad language.
It’s not her dishonesty vs. his indecency.
It’s about overt racism and hostility toward minorities.
It’s about religion being weaponized.
It’s about crassness and vulgarity and disregard for women.
It’s about a barricaded, militarized, bully nation.
It’s about an unapologetic, open-faced ugliness.
And it is not only that these things have been ratified by our nation that grieve us; all this hatred, fear, racism, bigotry, and intolerance—it’s knowing that these things have been amen-ed by our neighbors, our families, our friends, those we work with and worship alongside. That is the most horrific thing of all. We now know how close this is.
It feels like living in enemy territory being here now, and there’s no way around that. We wake up today in a home we no longer recognize. We are grieving the loss of a place we used to love but no longer do. This may be America today but it is not the America we believe in or recognize or want.
This is not about a difference of political opinion, as that’s far too small to mourn over. It’s about a fundamental difference in how we view the worth of all people—not just those who look or talk or think or vote the way we do.
Grief always laments what might have been, the future we were robbed of, the tomorrow that we won’t get to see, and that is what we walk through today. As a nation we had an opportunity to affirm the beauty of our diversity this day, to choose ideas over sound bytes, to let everyone know they had a place at the table, to be the beacon of goodness and decency we imagine that we are—and we said no.
The Scriptures say that weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning. We can’t see that dawn coming any time soon.
And this is why we grieve.
Thank you, "Response"! "Voice" (aka AK), if you really believe the kinds of things you and MD have posted about DT, you are in fact a true danger to all the most sacred principles on which the United States of America was founded. You seem not to understand at all what the party of Abraham Lincoln was supposed to be about back when it still had a moral compass (Note: it has no moral compass now!).
Here:
Chris Madden I'm in my 7th decade of my life and a VN Vet. I have never seen so many Americans so upset about who was elected for president and his being elected is ****ed scary. The stupid GOP was so desperate to take the WH back that they completely forgot about the country and got on board with this moron. Hillary would've even been better for the them than this game show barker.
or this:
I escaped Nazi Germany. I see its ideology alive in America today
By Franz W. Wassermann M.D. • Dec 30, 2016
A call to action:
I was born in Munich, Germany, in 1920. I lived there during the rise of the Nazi Party and left for the U.S.A. in 1938.
The main elements of the Nazi regime were the suppression of dissent, the purging of the dissenters and undesirables, the persecution of communists, Jews and homosexuals and the ideal of the Aryans as the master race.
The policies started immediately after Hitler came to power, at first out of sight but escalated gradually, leading to the Second World War and the Holocaust. Meanwhile most Germans were lulled into complacency by all sorts of wonderful projects and benefits.
What we see now in our country is very similar to the early days of the Nazi rule in Germany:
The Neo-Nazis and the KKK have become more prominent and get recognition in the press. We are all familiar with Trump's remarks against all Muslims and all Mexicans. But there has not been anything as alarming as the appointment of Steve Bannon as Trump's chief strategist. Bannon has, apparently, made anti-Semitic remarks for years, has recently condemned Muslims and Jews, and he and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the pick as national security advisor, advocate the political and cultural superiority of the white race. At the same time Trump is trying to control the press.
Thus the entire Nazi ideology is in place already in and around the new government. How far will it get? We can hope that our government of checks and balances will be more resistant than the Weimar Republic was. Don't count on it.
We have to counter this trend toward Fascism in every way we can. Being alert to all manifestations in word and action. Alerting our representatives and urging them to act. Writing to newspapers. Making our friends aware. Demonstrating when appropriate.
Franz W. Wassermann, M.D.
Franz W. Wassermann ...shared his story recently with columnist Jerry Large of the Seattle Times. The Seattle Story Project is an ongoing compilation of first-person reflections published at KUOW.org.
Gratitude to the last poster.
This is a group of people who call themselves members of the “party for Christian values” who just elected a spiteful, racist, bigoted, adulterer who belittles people with disabilities and is the least Christian individual this country has ever elected. You know, many of the very same people who claim to oppose same-sex marriage because they believe in the sanctity of marriage are many of the very same people who just elected an adulterer who’s on his third marriage and has had children with three different women, this last one now to be our First Lady who was a former hooker. Demonstrating real "Christian values" for our young with this "pu$$y-grabbing" monster and his cabinet of actual Nazis!
This year Republicans have proven that, not only are they okay with cheating to "win," (make no mistake, over 3 million voters on the other side and almost half the population not voting at all, proves there is no mandate for this "winner") but they have no problem with foreign enemies attacking this country — as long as the Americans they’re attacking are people they don’t like and they benefit from the results of it. Are these people still Americans? Yes, but I’m thoroughly ashamed of the fact that they are, just as it is a source of shame that posters like MFD or AK are Melrosians and claim to be patriots. They are not. They only imagine themselves to be. Their self-righteous fanatical views are totally hypocritical and now threaten the very survival of civilization. Great job! The DNC has nothing to boast about either, but at least even with their worst candidate we wouldn't be facing the very real possibility now of total annihilation! You, VV, are to be fought against, just as real patriots must fight against all who advocate such monstrous ideology.
Amen. Fighting back and fighting hard does not amount to being poor losers. It is real patriotism.
God I love Trump. Liberal tears are second only to jack daniels. This man will fix our military, our economy, our image on the world stage. All things Obama has destroyed over the last 8 years. It really is amazing, the man hasn't even taken office yet and he's already having a positive impact on the country (jobs/stock market). Of course you'll never get a lib to admit that. And any lib who responds with "the unemployment rate is 4.9%", I have have some ocean front property to sell you in Oklahoma. The labor department reports the ACTUAL number is around 9.7%. Obamas numbers do not tell the story of those who've completely stopped looking for work or those underemployed. Lets not forget the rise of government entitlements under king obama. Food stamps and welfare have SKYROCKETED under this jerk. Smallest military since wwII, race relations the worst they've been since the 60's, Putin punching obama out at any chance. There is so much more but why even continue. Some lib will "reply" to me in complete denial of anything I've said. I can see it now......"Well......Trump is a meanie!"
P.s. Thank you for putting Pelosi back in power. Libs learned nothing from this past election.
Strange that the only people who want to overturn an honest election are the liberals who claim that the other side are Nazis! Talk about delusional people! Goebbels would be so proud of our "honest" press rooting for Hillary! Sorry for those ignorant fools out there - but the only true capitalist won the election while the socialists and far left lost - I guess they will have to go back to their communist mentors to learn how to get back into power - however, the gig is up and Americans have finally figured you all out!
"however, the gig is up"
Your ignorance is only matched by your illiteracy.
"an honest election"
This was anything BUT an honest election.
The fact that the Republican Congress' first gesture is to dismantle and gut (remove from independent oversight) their own Ethics Committee says it all.
Communists don't have much to do with this (except if you're a Putin-loving Repug). The ascendancy of Nazism to the highest levels of our government in the United States is now a fact.
Michael Moore, January 2, 2017:
Before we get too far away from The Year That Gave Us Trump, I'd like to pause for a brief moment and point out some of the good that 2016 gave us (while acknowledging that 2016 is going to look like paradise after we suffer through the next 363 days of 2017).
But, hey -- enough bemoaning the future! Look at the incredible things this past year gave us:
1. Of those Americans who voted, 54% DID NOT WANT TRUMP. In addition to the nearly 3 million votes Hillary beat Trump by, another 7 million+ also rejected him by voting Green or Libertarian. That's a margin of over 10 million voters who didn't want Trump as their president. That's huge. You must never forget that the vast majority of the people who are your neighbors and your fellow Americans are OPPOSED to a Trump presidency, they despise what he says and does, and they will not support his efforts to wreck this country.
2. The Republicans in November LOST seats in BOTH the House and Senate. Which means the Democrats GAINED seats. Not many, but the Republican forward movement from the past two elections has been halted. We have 7 more seats in the House and 2 new seats in the Senate (for a total of 48, two short of half!). We must continue this trend in spite of the miserable failure of an institution known as the "Democratic Party."
3. America is still a liberal country (the majority still supports women's rights, strong environmental laws, LGBTQ rights, peace, increasing the minimum wage, etc.), and if it weren't for racist gerrymandering and voter suppression, plus an 18th-century plank in the Constitution that doesn't allow us to vote DIRECTLY for president -- a section written to appease the slave states who wanted their slaves counted to increase their individual states population (so they would then be assigned more seats in Congress and on the Electoral College) but without letting their slaves be free and vote -- we'd control Congress and the White House right now.
4. Obama has been doing some pretty incredible things lately. Pardoning and granting clemency to people who shouldn't have been jailed in the first place (please pardon more). Protecting millions of acres of undeveloped land. Standing up to Netanyahu. Behaving with grace and dignity in a way I doubt we'll see again any time soon.
5. Locally, much good is happening. New York state is raising the minimum wage to $15/hr. More states are decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana. Portland, OR, is taxing companies who pay their CEOs more than 100x the average worker. Bernie Sanders got 70% of the primary vote in the Michigan town where I live. I'm sure many of you can add to this list.
6. The New York Times and the Washington Post (and a few others), in a year when the media helped create Trump and fell down on the job, inched their way back to what they used to do - real reporting. They also published a number of important stories this year that weren't about the election. Like the one in the Times about how Harvard scientists back in the '70s and '80s conspired with the sugar industry to put out false studies that said Americans must switch to a "low-fat" diet -- which resulted in fat in foods being replaced by sugar. Result: a country that got really fat and is now 2/3 overweight. Fat in food, it turns out, is good for you - and sugar - added sugar - is the evil one. Somebody should do a documentary on the harm Harvard has done to the world - from Kissinger to this.
7. On a personal note, although as a citizen I am more distraught than you can imagine, I am also happier, much healthier and have more of the fight in me than ever before. I fought for Bernie, fought hard to stop Trump, and when he won at 2:40am on 11/9, I immediately started to help organize the resistance. I had in 2016, for the first time ever, two movies released in one year. I'm fired up and ready with some great ideas for 2017. And I'm committed to my daily walks. With you, if you'd like to join, from wherever you are.
I'd also love to hear about the good things that happened to you in 2016.
So, before we move too far into 2017, let's raise a glass to the good that came out of 2016. We're going to need all the positive reinforcement we can muster in the coming year. Well, actually the coming hours. The new all-Republican 115th session of Congress gets sworn in tomorrow. And, like the sociopath who is their party's leader, they will commence their scorched earth policy without a blink of the eye. Take what you can from 2016 and together we can perhaps pull off what tonight seems impossible.
Wow - I think you made my point about delusional!
#1: Clinton got her 3 million plus more popular vote from left wing California and New York majorities! Please explain why two states should decide who becomes President? That's why our founding fathers figured this out and the electoral college is so important to ensure the other 48 states have a say in the election of the highest office holder - long live the electoral college!Concerning the other votes given to other parties (10 million) - it should be pointed out that these people didn't like the corrupt Clinton!
#2: Concerning national political seats - The Dems lost the House in 2010, lost the senate in 2014 and now lost the Presidency, also a large majority of state legislatures are now Republicans, including a majority of governorship's. To even think that this is a minor victory for the Dems - again represents delusional thinking which is all they have left.
#3: According to this pwerson, if it weren't for the laws, rules, and the constitution - the Dems would have won the Presidency - again only delusional thinking would be able to put a spin on this loss!
#4: Grace & dignity are not the two words I would use for Obama - how about arrogance and disgrace! Arrogance - when he shoved Obamacare down the throats of Americans and passed by a single party vote - first time that has occurred on a major piece of legislation; using so many illegal executive orders that the US Supreme court came down against many of them with 9-0 votes - and others are hung up in court cases; many scandals such as Benghazi, IRS, Fast & Furious, and Clinton's personal email system jeopardizing national security and many more.
#5: Most of these have nothing to do with Obama - but are states rights to do.
#6: Both the NYT and the Washington Post have been shown to publish fake news in 2016! Their readership has sunk to new lows since they have been cited for lack of honesty and integrity in their news reporting - no one in their right mind would consider them unbiased any longer - except you!
#7: You should consider supporting our new President and give him a chance to demonstrate his leadership and to push to make our country great again! Anger, hateful dialogue and a poor loser are not American traits we should be proud of!
Here in Melrose, there are apparently too many quite willing to embrace the horror now overtaking our nation.
Preparing for the Normalization of a Neofascist White House
by Juan Cole
It is 2017, and shortly the White House will be inhabited by an unscrupulous, corrupt narcissist who has shamelessly mobilized the Neo-Nazi fringe of the Republican Party to get into power.
Despite all the cries of ‘no’ to normalization on the left, Trump will be normalized by the same corporate media that virtually boycotted Bernie Sanders. He will be respectfully called “the president” and his wishes and goals will be praised on cable news, and not just on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Fake News. He’ll flash a smile and be friendly and anchors will treat him like a buddy (despite his having threatened their colleagues with bodily harm at his rallies and despite his having pledged to weaken the first amendment and sue reporters for libel). Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is already pledging never to call Trump out when he is obviously lying. Since Trump is, like Dick Nixon, a pathological liar, this is like pledging not to cover his presidency.
Americans cultivate a myth about themselves that they are rugged individualists, but in fact they are for the most part timid sheep who worship power and are glad to defer to it if it mouths a few white nationalist keywords. French workers, for whom Americans have such contempt, would never allow themselves to be walked all over the way American workers have been. Americans who don’t go along to get along are branded traitors by fresh-faced young Neo-Nazis who have infiltrated our supposedly democratic institutions and engage in blackballing and smearing.
Just in the past week we have been treated to a number of classic fascist themes by the PEOTUS and his team.
Trump’s monstrous New Year’s message, delighting in having defeated his enemies and in their despair, displayed his typical feigned machismo (is he Frank Sinatra, that he has ever been in a fistfight?) Vindictiveness and trash talking are part of his contempt for the weak and determination to victimize them.
Another typical fascist theme is suspicion of modernity, science and the Enlightenment. Trump’s low regard for modern technology was made abundantly clear when he said last Wednesday, according to Reuters, “I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on.” He maintains that it is impossible to trace hackers (not true, though it can be very difficult).
He has now gone on to suggest that important memos be written out on paper and delivered by courier. His climate denialism goes along with this irrationality. And of course the very medium in which these irrational statements are delivered, a tortured English with impossible syntax making sweeping assertions that the truth can never be arrived at, is Newspeak of the fascist variety.
With his typical narcissism, Trump maintained that he “knows things about hacking” that others do not and will reveal them in a few days. The narcissism feeds into the fascism, since he is the great leader who should be trusted above other sources of information, even when it is obvious, as it usually is, that he does not have the slightest idea what he is talking about.
Then Mother Jones reported that Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Labor thinks workers are over-protected and that they should not get breaks. Contempt for the weak is a major theme of Trump and his team. Such huuje losers. Don’t deserve a doctor visit or a coffee break. Bah humbug.
What do you want to bet that the secretary of labor’s position never even gets discussed on a national news channel?
Trump will be normalized. All the rest of us can do is simply keep in mind that he is a fascist, and to continue to point to his record on fascism, from hatred of Mexicans and African-Americans and Muslim Americans to his contempt for women to his pledge to carpet bomb Iraq and Syria to his threat to imprison his chief political opponent. We can continue to remember his determination to deprive workers of their basic rights. We can remember that Steve Bannon, the editor of the Neo-Nazi rag Breitbart, is among his closest advisers.
All we can do is resist normalization, first of all in our own minds and then in our social circles and on social media. And when Trump begins victimizing innocent people, we have to remain prepared to mobilize. Fascism gets tossed around lightly as an insult on the internet. This is the real thing, folks. We are Italy, 31 October, 1922. Bad things are about to happen.
Wow - some people have lost a sense of reality! To the previous poster - you need to get a grip on life! Your rhetoric is somewhat frightening - hope you don't represent the feelings of too many people.
I hate to break this to you, but the poster actually does accurately represent the views of many - in fact, of a majority, given the last popular vote total.
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."
#1 and #2 have already started. #3 is in the works, except it's Muslims instead of Jews (so far).
This is from the only "mainstream" guy who called it right a year ago and said Trump could very well win, despite the claims of virtually every other pundit and leading pol (RNC & DNC).
"Michael Moore
1 hr ·
In two hours, my friends, the $hit$how begins. The Republican majority will call to order the final session of the 114th United States Congress at 11am ET. Fifty-five minutes later, at 11:55am, they will bring to a close that 114th Congress. There will be a 5-minute recess before the House and the Senate then calls the new 115th Congress to order at Noon ET.
And that's when the attempted demolition of what we hold dear in our democracy begins.
It will happen so fast, your head may spin. They can't get actual laws enacted until they have a President who can sign them. That's 17 days away. But what they CAN do is shake up the Congressional committees and change the Congressional rules. The can eliminate Congressional governmental watchdogs and redirect Congressional spending. They can do all that and more, and they won't waste a minute doing it. Unlike our side, which operates with a Kumbaya/"Can't-we-all-get-along"/wimp-induced mentality, the Republicans are already sitting on their Panzer tanks ready to steamroll themselves through the floors of the Senate and House which they both control.
In fact, last night, they decided not to wait for this morning's bang of the gavel and went ahead and gassed up those tanks. They got together privately and voted to gut the Congressional Office of Ethics, an independent group that oversees and guards against corrupt behavior by members of Congress.
But we're in a different behavioral era now, where corruption and ethics can be ****ed. We're in the Pu$$y Grabbing Era, and so it makes sense that the first thing the Republicans would destroy would be the very body that is meant to guard us from... Republicans who are led by a Grabber-in-Chief. A man who doesn't even acknowledge the very idea of ethics, or conflicts of interest, or foreign meddling in our elections, or the need for the public to see his basic tax returns.
So here we go. Less than two hours until the $hit hits the fan. Are you awake? Are you ready to fight? Can you skip your latte or your donut or your checking in on how Mariah Carey is handling her New Year's Eve debacle and take just two minutes to call your member of Congress -- NOW? Let's flood their switchboard to express our outrage at the elimination of the independent ethics office. Don't let the clock strike 12 noon Eastern Time without making your voice heard! If you don't do it now, on Day One, when will you do it?
Please call the U.S. House of Representatives at 202-225-3121 and ask to speak to your member of Congress. If you don't know who that is (and this will be the last time you don't, thank you), just give the person who answers that number your zip code and he/she will connect you.
Congress must understand TODAY that they are going to have a force of tens of millions -- the MAJORITY -- to reckon with.
That onslaught of citizen revolt starts as soon as you see the period at the end of this sentence."
Its too bad grown men and women are just learning not everyone gets a trophy.Not everyone liked the way the last two elections went but hoped he would do a good job.Who listens to Michael Moore other then to critique a box of Twinkies.You need to get some new leaders.[8-)]
What ever happened to civility? Why do some people need to vilify those who may think differently than themselves? I understand that we are a divided nation but we are still human beings who are all united in wanting to remain free in the pursuit of happiness!
We have a Constitution and the Bill of Rights to guide us to the freedom and the pursuit of happiness we all seek. Turning against each other because of a lost election does not aspire to the ideals of our foundation documents.
Sure, civility would be grand. How about asking the pu$$y-grabbing four-letter-word spewing president-elect to step down for the sake of his country and allow an actual statesman/woman to perform the solemn duties he so clearly will not and and is not capable of performing, starting with holding a civil tongue in his head and getting his filthy fingers off his compulsively tweeting phone?
For the past eight years we've had a civil and dignified statesman at the helm, whether you agreed with him or not, someone who espoused actual Christian and family values. Now we have a lying narcissistic crook and his former hooker wife about to reside in the White House, along with a pack of actual nazis in the cabinet. The very survival of our world is now at stake, not just the established traditions of hundreds of years of dignified statespeople in charge of our country, regardless of their political party. That is officially going out the window in 17 days, in lieu of a bad huckster act of someone who does not comprehend civics, civility, or any of what his office entails. You reference the Bill of Rights and the Constitution--two things this huckster clearly has not read nor has any intention of abiding by. Have you not paid an iota of attention to his stated intentions? Just who exactly are you accusing of "turning against one another"? This isn't about "sore losers." This is about the sanctity of what were supposed to be core American values, values which Donald Trump does not espouse, nor does the proposed cabinet of monsters he has selected. But that's okay, you go on pretending this is about some petty Blue vs Red jealousy. The rest of us who have eyes and ears and see what we're up against will fight for our country's survival while you live in your pretend world.
Oh sure, really hilarious the suffering and jeopardy to our national interests and security this man has already caused. You need to Grow Up!
These people appear to have no moral compass, no compassion for the working man, and no experience with which to guide our nation..... they do not belong in the White House. Just because they shanghaied the process and the electoral process is so dangerously flawed doesn't make their "win" valid or a mandate. Three million voters more than Trump's voted for HRC, and another seven million voted for alternate candidates. Another several million stayed home. This bigoted narcissistic creep does not have a mandate, nor do the horror shows in the Republican party. Trump is already the most despised president-elect in American history, and he earned this status with his despicable conduct. Surviving the next four years will take all of us WHO ARE SANE to work together to confront the actual evil this administration embodies.
Leading GOP Strategist Labels Trump and His Supporters Traitors
By Rmuse on Mon, Jan 2nd, 2017 at 11:01 am
"What’s closer to treason? Political opposition to a candidate, or siding with a hostile foreign power in the Intel war?”
The Republican operative and strategist, Rick Wilson, took to trivial Trump’s favorite means of communication, Twitter, to rail on Trump and his puerile supporters for being “lackeys, ball washers, and toadies” whose “allegiance is to Putin;” not to America. Apparently, what really set off Mr. Wilson’s tirade was his unwillingness to be called a traitor to America any longer simply because he was disinterested in supporting the traitor Trump. He said, “In the course of the 2016 campaign I don’t know how many times I was called a traitor to America for not supporting Trump.”
It is noteworthy that Wilson said he was called a traitor to America for not supporting the clumsy and inept television celebrity’s candidacy; not to candidate Trump or his own beloved Republican Party. Wilson then lashed out at Trump supporters calling them “intellectual giants [who] never bothered to understand the specific definition of treason” and yet regarded “all opposition to Trump [the candidate] was treason.” Mr. Wilson then landed a knockout punch when he asked the reasonable rhetorical question Trump or his maladjusted devotees certainly couldn’t answer without revealing that they have no allegiance to the United States of America.
News that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un announced during a New Year’s Day address that his military is on the brink of testing its first intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuke elicited a response from President-elect Donald Trump.
As might be expected, Trump felt compelled on to comment on Twitter, of course.
ADVERTISING
While U.S. officials are skeptical of Kim’s boasts — that often exhibit the same narcissistic and self-congratulatory tendencies of the president-elect — followers of Trump on Twitter worried that his saber-rattling on social media is both unpresidential and dangerous when aimed at the immature North Korean leader.
Trump’s tweets and responses below:
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump Sweetie, this is the perfect example of something you save for your Presidenting meetings, not glib little tweets.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump and Kim Jong-un: two babies but with a single thought.
— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) January 2, 2017
What is WRONG with you? Shut up. @realDonaldTrump
— Maritxu (@dislexicon) January 3, 2017
@realDonaldTrump Your own previous tweets inadvertently echoed N. Korea's stated policies. Maybe don't do arms control via twitter? pic.twitter.com/rUPkFETvdq
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump you have mere days until you're sworn in as President. Do you really want to avoid it so badly that you'll kill us all now?
— Alex Zalben (@azalben) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump pew pew pew!!! Blow the world up until America is great again! Love this guy.
— mikepencehere (@mikepencehere) January 3, 2017
@realDonaldTrump You're just like him. pic.twitter.com/BwrubjUo7p
— The Socialist Party (@OfficialSPGB) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump Delete your account. Also. Don't destroy the planet you %$#@ing Clownstick.
— HarleyPeyton (@HarleyPeyton) January 2, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump This twitter diplomacy is real classy, you orange moron.
— Ben Berkon (@BenBerkon) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump PLEASE STOP TWEETING YOU TERRIFYING ****
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) January 2, 2017
@realDonaldTrump I'm more scared of you with nuclear weapons
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 2, 2017
I am going to fix North Korea good just by Tweeting. What could wrong.
— Donald Trump (@TheBestPrezEver) January 3, 2017
"The more I listen to Donald Trump, the more appalled I am. Not as a Democrat, but as a human being. He's a genuinely nasty man."
There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.
Otto von Bismarck
RELAX - ENJOY THE INAUGURATION
Hey Town Crier,
Your predictable nonsense says a lot about who you are.
Relax, indeed. With a bunch of veritable nazis taking over the government, my family will be doing anything but watching the Coronation of this disgusting lunatic.
Have fun watching your Social Security and Medicare being ripped apart. Hope you enjoy breathing filthy air and drinking polluted water. Enjoy while you can because this maniacal creep has also got the nuclear codes and has already ****** off the loonies like himself holding codes of their own....
You should be ashamed and afraid. What's wrong with you?
KING: We’re not opposing Donald Trump with the unified fierceness he deserves
Donald Trump is scheduled to become our next President in less than three weeks.
A man who some believe to be a pretty terrible human being is scheduled to become our next President in less than three weeks. I won't make yet another rundown of all of the awful things he has said and done. I've done that a dozen times. Pretty much every reputable news outlet in the country has covered Trump's lies, deceit, failed commitments, his unethical business dealings, and his personal admissions on mistreating and sexually assaulting women.
We knew he was a bad man before he was elected. Since he's been elected, his character continues to fail us as a nation. He continues to pour profuse praise on Vladimir Putin. He repeatedly tweets vindictive messages to his "enemies" like he is some villain in a Marvel movie. In ways that we've never seen before from an elected President, he attacks individual journalists, union leaders, actors, comedy shows and Broadway musicals. He openly takes credit for business deals and jobs won that he had little to do with. He recklessly rambles on about nuclear weapons and arms races like it's all a big game. It isn't.
This is all very real. In less than three weeks, this man will pivot from being the President-elect to the President of the United States. He will occupy the Oval Office. He will have the nuclear codes. The FBI, the CIA, and all of our military might will be at his command. With Steve Bannon, who some consider the most offensive, sexist, bigoted, ill-tempered hot heads in the country by Trump's side, as his chief strategist, we are about to enter into a dangerous and troubling new era of American history.
I believe you feel it coming. I believe you see it coming.
The only way what's about to happen is anything other than a complete and total disaster is if Donald Trump's very nature shape shifts into something altogether different. His core values, his essence, the very fabric of his humanity would have to morph and transform in a miraculous manner for us to avoid anything other than calamity.
If he operates the government like he operates his marriages and relationships with women, we are in trouble.
If he operates the government like he operated Trump University, which just settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with its students for overpromising and under-delivering, we are in trouble.
Yet, as I look out over the country, our visible, tangible opposition to Donald Trump simply does not have the unified fierceness he deserves.
Trump will tweet major policy announcements after taking office
Maybe we are exhausted or overwhelmed or so bewildered that we don't quite know what to do? That's a luxury we cannot afford.
Maybe we are waiting for the Democratic Party to rise up and oppose him for us? That simply isn't going to happen. The Democratic Party is in shambles. Bill and Hillary Clinton are not going to be opposition leaders. As she takes long walks in the forest and as Bill calls Donald to wish him well, I think we've seen clues of what they will be in a Trump administration. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine has all but faded into the abyss. Will Barack and Michelle Obama, who opposed Trump so masterfully during the final weeks of the election, and seemed to be speaking from the heart while doing so, break tradition and vocally oppose his presidency? Or will they operate like most other former first families and simply give Trump the space to be himself?
President Obama voiced opposition to Donald Trump in the weeks before the election.
Whatever the case, if what we see right now is a sign of the opposition we will be offering to Donald Trump, it's not enough. We must wake out of our Trump-induced stupor and fill the streets not by the dozens, or hundreds, but by the thousands and millions. If we honestly oppose this man like we say we do on Twitter, we must do more than tweet about him. He's about to do much more than tweet. He is about to sign executive orders and back legislation which will be far more problematic than his social media shenanigans. And if all we have are retweets and Facebook likes, we will lose in spectacular fashion.
South Korea should be our role model. For months on end, in fierce opposition to corruption with their President, millions of people filled the streets in protest. At first, what it would accomplish was not clear, but the people knew that corruption necessitates opposition. As the opposition grew and grew and grew, it gripped the nation and eventually broke the back of the administration, causing the ouster of their President.
Shawn King - the rantings of a maniac - please tell me you don't live in Melrose - otherwise, we should all fear for our lives! Someone like you will impact more than President-Elect Trump!
To the scary local worried about "civility", this from the world-renowned MIT scholar:
"We now face are the most severe that have ever arisen in human history. They are literal threats to survival: nuclear war, environmental catastrophe. These are very urgent concerns," Chomsky said. "They cannot be delayed. They became more urgent on November 8th, for the reasons you know and that I mentioned. They have to be faced directly, and soon, if the human experiment is not to prove to be a disastrous failure."
But of course, the local right-winger will denounce and attempt (ineffectively) to trivialize/marginalize scholars, statesmen, journalists, anyone whose views are antithetical to their own. This is also a Rob D tactic. Small petty minds, right in synch with the non-thinking, anti-intellectual administration, local and national, both jeopardizing the future and well-being of the citizens.
The Fall of America. Rome Fell. Ancient civilizations fell. Corruption, greed, and hatred destroyed them. We are witnesses and accomplices to the fall of a promising democracy. We did it to ourselves, with plenty of help from the corrupt pols on both sides of the aisle, and citizens like this "civility" person in all his/her staggering ignorance.
We survived Reagan (barely). We survived GWB (also barely). We might survive this ape with a toupee, but only if we all rise up against this monster.
We are on the verge of the most uncaring and incompetent administration in the nation's history.
While the right was yammering about emails, colossal wrongdoing has been and is underway that will make all pale by comparison. The scale of corruption and malfeasance already in evidence is truly unprecedented:
A top adviser to President-elect Donald J Trump has just been charged by a grand jury with 30 counts of ethics violations and official misconduct while in office.
Republican South Carolina State rep. Jim Merrill, who was considered to have an expanded role in the Donald J. Trump administration and was a critical political ally to Trump, is now facing significant jail time.
The indictment documents accuse Merrill, former House majority leader, of engaging in a pattern of wrong-doing going as far back as 2002 and to as recently as just a few months ago. Specifically, the violations include two counts of misconduct in office and 28 counts for violating the state's Ethics, Government Accountability and Campaign Reform Act of 1991 that was adopted following the FBI's Statehouse sting known as Operation Lost Trust.
Probably why they're trying to kill ethics oversight committee.
and then this:
President-elect Donald Trump rang in the new year together with Joseph "Joey No Socks" Cinque — a convicted felon with ties to notorious Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, a recently released video has revealed.
Cinque can be seen in a video obtained by the Palm Beach Daily News, cheering loudly as a tuxedo-clad Trump runs through a number of campaign promises before the hundreds of guests attending the New Year's Eve bash the President-elect threw at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday.
"The taxes are coming down, regulations are coming off, we're going to get rid of Obamacare," Trump can be heard saying as an exuberant Cinque stands next to him, pumping his fists into the air.
Cinque's Sunday appearance with Trump might raise some eyebrows.
Beyond a 1989 felony conviction for possessing nearly $100,000 worth of stolen artwork, Cinque "used to be friends with John Gotti," according to a New York Magazine profile from 1995.
Cinque was also "shot three times and left for dead" in a 1980 incident that authorities described as "a hit," according to the profile.
Further, Saturday's Mar-a-Lago party was far from the first time Cinque cheered on Trump.
An Associated Press report from this spring showed that the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, a company owned and operated by Cinque, has awarded more than a dozen of Trump's golf courses, hotels, casinos and private clubs with so-called "Star Diamond" awards "of true excellence in hospitality."
The same report also found that about half of the roughly 30 people listed as "trustees" to the company are Trump friends or business associates.
Trump, meanwhile, was listed on the company's website as its "ambassador extraordinaire," and he even appeared in a 2009 tribute video to Cinque in which he said, "There's nobody like him. He's a special guy."
But when asked by reporters about Cinque in May, Trump denied knowing anything about him or his criminal past.
"If a guy's going to give you an award, you take it," the President-elect said at the time. "You don't tend to look up his whole life story."
The Trump transition team did not immediately return a request for comment on how the President-elect knows Cinque or why they appeared together Saturday.
“We will build a wall, you know that. We will build a wall,” the President-elect told the raucous crowd.
CONTRIBUTOR
Impeaching Trump
The process begins now.
01/01/2017 09:25 pm ET | Updated 22 hours ago
89k
Robert Kuttner Co-founder and co-editor, ‘The American Prospect’
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Donald Trump is wildly unfit to be president, and he will demonstrate that in ways that break the law and violate the Constitution. Since the election, there have been three wishful efforts to keep Trump from the presidency: a recount doomed by a lack of evidence; a futile campaign to flip Trump electors; and an even more improbable drive to get the Supreme Court to annul the 2016 election.
These moves, indicative of magical thinking, make Trump’s opposition look a lot weaker than it is―at a time when the stakes for the Republic could not be higher. There will also be marches and demonstrations, but they will also look weak unless they have a strategic focus.
There is only one constitutional way to remove a president, and that is via impeachment.
What’s needed is a citizens’ impeachment inquiry, to begin on Trump’s first day in office.
The inquiry should keep a running dossier, and forward updates at least weekly to the House Judiciary Committee. There will be no lack of evidence.
The materials should be made public via a website. The inquiry should be conducted by a distinguished panel whose high-mindedness and credentials are, well, unimpeachable.
There needs to be a parallel public campaign, pressing for an official investigation. For those appalled by Trump, who wonder where to focus their efforts, here is something concrete―and more realistic than it may seem.
Trump has already committed grave misdeeds of the kind that the Constitutional founders described as high crimes and misdemeanors. With his commingling of his official duties and his personal enrichment, Trump will be in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which unambiguously prohibits any person holding public office from profiting from gifts or financial benefits from “any king, prince or Foreign state.”
Trump, who has entangled his business interests with his political connections at home and abroad, has already declared his contempt for these Constitutional protections. He declared, “The law is totally on my side, meaning the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” Oh, yes he can, and this president will.
In his dalliance with Vladimir Putin, Trump’s actions are skirting treason. John Shattuck, former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and former Washington legal director of the ACLU has pointed to the constitutional definition of treason: a crime committed by a person “owing allegiance to the United States who... adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.” By undermining further investigation or sanctions against the Russian manipulation of the 2016 election, Trump as president would be giving aid and comfort to Russian interference with American democracy.
There will be a lot more once Trump takes office. Trump will make grievous mistakes. If we are lucky, they will be political and policy mistakes, not the sort of nuclear miscalculation that leaves the planet a cinder. If the blunders and assaults against the Constitution are serious enough, even Republicans in the House, which needs to originate an impeachment inquiry, will begin having second thoughts.
For instance, Trump will very likely use agencies of government to punish political enemies. The Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon explicitly cited Nixon’s political misuse of the CIA, the FBI and the IRS.
It’s worth recalling the Nixon chronology. In two years, the idea of impeaching Nixon went from loony-left fantasy, to mainstream, to inevitable.
On May 9, 1972—before the Watergate break-in―my former boss, Congressman William Fitts Ryan of Manhattan, submitted the first resolution to impeach Nixon, H.Res. 975, mainly for the illegal bombing of Cambodia, other war crimes, and spying against American citizens.
The break-in occurred in June 1972. Woodward and Bernstein got busy that summer and fall. The Senate Watergate Committee did not start hearings until May 1973, and the official House impeachment inquiry only began in May 1974. It took time for evidence, public pressure, and political courage to build. Nixon finally resigned in August 1974, more than two years after the break-in.
In October 1973, when removing Nixon from office still seemed a fantasy, the ACLU’s Chuck Morgan published a book-length bill of particulars urging Nixon’s impeachment. It bore a remarkable resemblance to the eventual Articles of Impeachment nearly a year later.
Nixon was a vile president with a creepy personality, but he was also a student of history and a serious person. In the end, even Nixon acceded to court orders to turn over evidence.
Trump is far more of a menace than Nixon. Trump will commit impeachable offenses. There is no way to contain him other than removing him from office, before the damage to our democracy is irrevocable. The process of building the impeachment case needs to begin now.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School.
Nice copy and paste job you freakin moonbat:
http://thenet24h.com/1328744/donald-trumps-russia-dilemma.html
Go take a walk outside and breath some fresh air. I am SOOOOO glad that the Clinton Crime family has been stopped!
GO TRUMP!