Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Empathy where none was given

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SSo I’ve tuned into FOX today and saw how incredulous they were that not everyone showed empathy to Trump.

Let’s be clear. I hope Trump recovers from this horrible virus. Still, this is a man who has spent his entire life mocking people and showing a lack of empathy for anyone or anything that does not benefit him, including the 200,000 Americans who have lost their lives to COVID. Now FOX and others on the right want everyone to forget all of that and light a candle for him.

HMMM? The fortunate thing is that many of us on this side of the aisle are willing to wish him well, even knowing that he will return to being the morally bankrupt human he has always been when he recovers.

Those on the right should remember that it can be logically argued that empathy is not deserved for those who make the conscious decision to ignore the wrongdoings committed against segments of society and who look to mock the suffering of others for their gain. They do not deserve the sympathy, time, or resources of those they have committed wrongdoings against when they are inevitably impacted by the same wrongs they chose to ignore.

Fortunately for them, though they will often find that those who have been wronged often have the biggest of hearts and are willing to forgive; they put aside their differences and rush to help those who have turned a blind eye to their suffering.

Unfortunately, we also often find that when those who have been rescued feel safe again, they revert to the character that defines their flawed nature and once again mock and remain silent in the face of the injustices perpetrated on the very people who rescued them.

As Mr. Spock would say, it is not logical, but it is often true.

It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another.

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On September 19, 1796, in his Farewell Address George Washington warned America on the rise of a Donald Trump and today’s Republican party.

The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. – George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

There is no doubt that today we as a country are senselessly divided. Sadly, much of this division is not based on any ideology by the people on what is best for the people, but rather on the fear of the unknown, an irrational fear that leads to isolation. This, in turn, leads to a lack of understanding about our differences, which leads to the continuous growth of the prejudices we all have within us. Prejudices are only stripped away as we begin to understand those who differ from us.

The Donald Trumps of the world prey on these prejudices to advance their wealth and power. Thriving on chaos and division, which they create, they speak non-truths and keep the people divided against each other rather than uniting for their betterment. Their power is rooted in our fear of each other. It is to their advantage for us to hate each other, lose our compassion for each other, and build walls separating us. This strategy allows them to take advantage of us all. As Suzy Kassem wrote

When two brothers are busy fighting, an evil man can easily attack and rob their poor mother.

This has allowed them to divide America based on political parties, and as Washington warned, this is disastrous.  The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

As Americans, they have led us down a path where we are more concerned with ensuring our “team” wins rather than educating ourselves on the issues and how they will impact us. We have blind allegiance to those in power if they have a {R} or a {D} after their name. We have ceded the very government we so proudly hold dear to a few hundred individuals who profit on our ignorance. Our desire to have our “team” win means the powerful do not even need to hide their deception; they do it right in front of us. Our minds have become blind to their lies, deceit, and corruption. The more the masses allow their minds to be blinded, the easier it is to manipulate them. They simply follow their “team,” nodding in agreement with whatever decisions it makes. This thinking removes any sense of accountability from those in power. Albert Einstein once commented.

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

For any democracy to effectively govern for the good of the citizens, it represents those citizens must be informed about issues that can improve their lives. In many countries, the will of the people has been sapped by the government. In Donald Trump’s America, a segment of society has made the conscious decision to surrender their will to a small percentage of the rich and powerful depending on what letter they have behind their name.

For our democracy to survive, we cannot allow our government to be dependent on political ignorance, and blind allegiance as it will surely be the downfall of the great experiment America was born of – a government of the people, by the people, for the people. If we continue along the path we are on now, we will become a country whose citizens:

Turns a blind eye to social injustice,

Condones immoral behavior from their leaders

Believes anything that those in power tell them rather than educating themselves.

Allows their government to be run by and to the benefit of the wealthy few.

Once we have allowed this, we need not worry about our enemies because, in time, we will destroy ourselves from with-in

It is only in the thinking of a free and educated country that we will inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, and avoid the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. An encroachment that tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create a despotism, 

Donald Trump’s lust for power, greed, and corruption is an intrinsic characteristic of human behavior, and while most of us make a conscious decision not to embrace these traits, Trump has shown himself not to be one of them. As a nation, we must not be blinded to this and consider he is above reproach simply because of the {R} after his name. We must strive as Americans to rise above the evil that seeks to divide us. We must stand together and keep moving forward as a society. We must marginalize those who refuse to embrace the diversity that made us great in the first place. It is only through one unifying voice that we will be able to change the despair of today into the promise of tomorrow. It is our moral responsibility to foster an atmosphere that strengthens the capacity of society at large. To point out corruption where it exists and build transparent and accountable systems of governance to ensure that the vulnerable are not taken advantage of. For a society that boasts of being so enlightened, this should be an easy task, but alas, it is not. Sadly, a segment among us are caught up in their prejudices easily manipulated to embrace as their leaders anyone who enables their innate distrust and, in many cases, hatred of anyone who doesn’t look or think like them. To believe that only the Donald Trumps of the world can protect them.

But of course, Trump promotes this narrative only to increase his power and wealth and promote his hate agenda. He does this through lies, corruption, and without any concern for Americans.

He tries to silence those of us who would rise to question him by questioning our patriotism, but we must not allow his noise to cower us into silence. We must remain vigilant and continue to point out his hypocrisy, hatred, and corruption at every turn. If we do not, we are doomed as a society. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said:

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.

Some of us are Republicans, some Democrats, and some independents, some people of color, some not. Some heterosexual, some homosexual, some bisexual. Some Christian, some Muslim, some Jewish, some atheists but in the end, we are all American, we are all humans, and we will never move forward as a nation until we come to understand that.

THIS IS THE MAN…WHO IS THE FACE OF RACISM IN AMERICA TODAY

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“I don’t know much about the NBA protest. I know their ratings have been very bad because I think a lot of people are a little tired of the NBA, frankly. But I don’t know too much about the protest, but I know their ratings have been very bad, and that’s unfortunate. They have become like a political organization, and that’s not a good thing. That’s not a good thing for sports or the country,”

These are the words of America’s so-called President Donald Trump, words that should come as no surprise to anyone at this point. 

This is a man who has never shown even the slightest bit of empathy.

This is a man who has shown no desire to address or denounce the indiscriminate killing of people of color by law enforcement and armed vigilantes. 

With a wink and a nod, this is a man who has implicitly given his approval to racism. 

This is a man who has never had to sit down with Donald Jr. and tell him if he is comforted by police outside his own home because they think he matches the general description of someone, don’t breath, don’t blink, don’t do anything because they might mistake your actions for drawing a weapon and fire 41 rounds at you, killing you. 

Amadou Diallo

This is a man who has never had to sit down with Eric and tell him to be careful while jogging because it’s possible men with guns may pull up next to you in a pickup truck and ask you to stop because they don’t believe you belong in their neighborhood. If you don’t, they may proceed to shoot and kill you.

Ahmed Arbery

This is a man who has never had to sit down with Ivanka and tell her that if the police break down the door to your home without cause and unannounced, don’t make any sudden moves because while they have no reason to be in your home if you or Jared move to protect yourselves they may proceed to fire more than 20 rounds at you and Jarrad killing you and then file an incident report that states you had no injuries and that no forced entry occurred.

Breonna Taylor

This is a man who never had to sit down with Barron and tell him that even though he is only 14 years old, if he sees a police officer immediately drop to the ground and lay flat because that officer who has previously been deemed an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty, may decide that any movement you make is threatening and before you can blink shoots and kill you.

Tamir Rice

This is a man who has never had to worry about his children being rounded up and being falsely accused of a crime because of the color of their skin, questioned for hours without representation, falsely convicted and imprisoned despite no DNA and all the evidence pointing to their innocence and some rich white guy looking to make a name for himself taking out a full-page ad in a major newspaper calling for the death penalty in their case.

Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam – formerly known as the Central Park Five now known as the Exonerated Five

This is a man who doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to understand the systematic racism that people of color endure every day in this country. 

This is the man who is the face of racism in America today.

This man has made a political career on the slogan Make America Great Again, which is nothing more than code for Make America White Again.

An Interview with Trump – July 3, 1801

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July 3, 1801, an Interview with Donald Trump

Reporter: Good Afternoon, Donald glad you could sit down with us today on the eve of this country’s 50th anniversary

Trump: I’m sure you, are after all, with all the fake news your tanking in circulation paper puts out, an interview with Donald Trump should be a giant boost for you and a breath of fresh air for your readers.

Reporter: Uh, ok. So you’re planning on giving a big speech tomorrow; what do you say to your critics who argue that the day shouldn’t be about you but the country and that you are the right person to give a speech considering you didn’t fight in the Revolutionary War because of if I’m reading this right bone spurs. This even though before you were diagnosed, the Army had physically examined you and found you in perfect health.

Trump: Well, I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels. I can’t recall the doctor’s name despite having the world’s best memory, but the letter was strong.

Reporter: How would you compare that to say war hero General Nathanael Green who served with Washington in the north and later assumed control of the Southern Army but who as a Quaker was renounced by his church and family for joining the war effort and had little to go back to after the war only to die a few years after the war ended in 1786.

Trump: Well, he’s looked at with such regard because his family and church renounced him. If your own family and church renounce you, you’re kind of a loser, wouldn’t you say. I like winners! That’s all I do win.

Reporter: Ok, moving on. You have been very outspoken about immigration; you believe that we should allow only the exceptional. Many people have questioned just what you mean by exceptional. None other than President Washington said, “I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

Trump: Look first, George Washington approved the Jay Treaty, attempting to normalize the still-volatile relations with Great Britain. It gave the British favored-nation trade status. Favored over France! You know many people may not know this, but France fought with us in the Revolutionary war. But here was George giving in to the British; it was a very bad deal. It was damn near treason. There are other things, but suffice to say I was never a fan of George Washington, and I never will be.”

Reporter: You do realize that the Jay Treaty was a significant success for early American diplomacy

Trump: Major success? That’s fake news. I could have achieved the things that the Jay Treaty is said to have achieved through tariffs.

Reporter: All right, let’s just move on. So you just mentioned fake news, and you have called the press the biggest enemy of the people. How does that mesh with the thoughts of our founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, who said, “Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Trump: Look, Jefferson may be President now but let’s be clear he’s not the brightest bulb in the pack and a little more than naïve. For example, he was a farmer and was so obsessed with new crops, soil conditions, garden designs, and scientific agricultural techniques. That he neglected to cash in on his primary cash crop, tobacco, keeping its price low, and as a result, he was rarely profitable; he was always living beyond his means. Now part of the beauty of me is that I am wealthy.

Reporter: I don’t see how that answers the question, but Ok. Let’s talk about another issue you brought up, tariffs. It is well established that our Founding Fathers wanted free trade with the world, and it was The King of England who differed favoring high tariffs and that we should restrict or forbid the colonies from trading with rival nations. Benjamin Franklin called for Britain to “allow us a free commerce with all the rest of the world.” Thomas Jefferson called on the British imperial government not “to exclude us from going to other markets.”

Trump: Again, with the fake news. The founders wanted America’s role to be as a dominant producer. When a country is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good and easy to win. For example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country, and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!

Reporter: You’re right that the Founders encouraged manufacturing. But they did so by simultaneously supporting government subsidies for new American manufacturers and advocating free trade agreements, like the Model Treaty adopted by Congress in 1776 that sought to establish bilateral free trade.

Trump: No disrespect to you, but I think I’m pretty smart, a lot smarter than you, so you should let me be the one to talk about trade.

Reporter: Well, on that note, we’re out of time (cough); thanks for the time.

Trump: Did you just cough? You just can’t; you just can’t cough. If you’re going to cough, please leave the room.

A Bad Beat for Trump

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A Bad Beat is a poker term for a hand in which a player with a solid hand loses to an opponent who is statistically unlikely to win but hits a lucky card (or two) and unexpectedly takes the pot. The losing player is then said to have suffered a “bad beat.” In looking at the 2016 Presidential election, some may say Hilary Clinton suffered a bad beat. But the reality is the bad beat went to Donald Trump.
Trump, who I firmly believed right up to Election Day expected to lose, had mapped out with others (Roger Ailes?) how to turn this presidential run into post-election BIG MONEY. But then the unthinkable happened he won. All the big money dreams derailed, but worst now, there would be a massive spotlight on everything crooked he was involved in. From the moment he watched as FOX NEWS, what other channel do you think he was watching, declared him the winner he went defensive. Lying and doing one over the top thing after another to distract America as he tried to cover up his actions in an attempt to stay one step ahead of what he knew was coming for him, the truth and likely jail time for him, his friends, and his family.
His Shaggy defense of saying it wasn’t you have kept his base at bay, but his lies, deceit, and attempts at cover-ups haven’t protected many of his friends who, Rodger Stone aside, faced with prison turned on him. It has slowly begun to drive people who initially were in his corner, mostly for their good, away. More and more isolated, his act gets crazier and crazier and more dangerous for the United States.
Hopefully, we are coming to a conclusion in which Trump, however it may happen, resigns or is impeached from a position of power he was never qualified to hold and probably really never really wanted. After all, with Trump-like, everything else was just supposed to be about the money. A bad beat indeed for Donald.

More Fighter Jets?

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Donald Trump is canceling his Ill-advised military parade tweeted the following.
The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I canceled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!
Really?
More fighter jets???
What a child he is!!
How about funding the homeless vet population. Which went up for the first time in 7 years?
Whose responsibility is that, Donald?
NFL players take a knee to protest social injustice, and Trump calls it unpatriotic and disrespectful to the country’s vets. He does this for political reasons ignoring or not caring about the real reason for the protest while at the same time pretending to care about our country’s veterans. But you can’t hide your true feelings as your actions betray you. We’ve all seen the horrible statements he has made regarding John McCain’s POW stint and his disrespect to Gold Star families.
Veterans are living on the streets, and he wants more fighter jets. Not really for matters of national security, mind you but more so to feed his oversized ego. Who’s the unpatriotic one? Who’s genuinely disrespectful to veterans.
DISGRACEFUL!

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Changing the narrative yet again

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The narrative has been lost. It was never about the flag or patriotism. It was about social injustice and police brutality. But the fact is that the topic makes people uncomfortable, and no one likes to be uncomfortable; they rather close their eyes or change the narrative than confront the ugly truth and look for ways to improve it. But since our current President has decided to change the narrative, because social injustice is an issue he appears to be squarely on the wrong side of the debate on, and make this about patriotism, I thought I remind him of the words of James Baldwin. If he can somehow grasp the meaning of Baldwin’s words, then maybe he will understand what it means to be a patriot.

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You do not get to

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It’s clear you live in a bubble when you look at an athlete, especially one of color, kneeling for the national anthem, and you see a protest against the flag. Because it’s evident to anyone who has a sense of history that it’s not a protest against the flag; it’s a protest against the way the country the flag represents treats people of color, and if you believe that people of color are treated with the same set of rules as white people you refuse to acknowledge the reality of this country’s history.
You do not get to invoke the bravery of this country’s service people when you found a way to avoid service when you were called to “represent the flag.”
You do not get to invoke respect for our service people when you decide that service people willing to serve this country who are transgender are not worthy of wearing the uniform simply because they are transgender.
You do not get to forget the service people of this country who fought for freedom under this flag in a world war who, upon their return home, were told to get to the back of the train so white German POW could ride in the front. I’m sure those heroic service people of color still respected the flag they fought for but questioned the country’s motives that the flag represented.
You do not get to call out anyone, regardless of their current income, who are willing to stand up against abuse they, people of their family, or people of their community have been subject to when you can not truly understand their feelings on the subject because you nor anyone in your family have ever been or never will be subject to the same type of treatment.
You do not get to hide behind your Twitter denials, your claims that fake news is looking to destroy you when It has become apparent who you are and who you are speaking to when you speak with such passion about this topic, especially when looked at in contrast to your muted tone when talking about the white supremacist who marched through Charlottesville chanting racist slogans and carrying tiki torches in an attempt to mimic iconic images of fear from years past. It is clear you are not speaking of just athletes but rather you saying to your base, look at these self-important niggers how dare they. You are with me, right. Remember when we used just to put them in their place and not have to deal with this? I do, and yes, like you, I long for those days, Days when America was great.
Fortunately, you do not get to stain our country forever. You have faked your way to the top. You have awakened the dwindling number of Americans who still think as you do. But you also continue to unite the majority of us who reject the past sins of this country. You continue to show the world that despite America’s temporary lapse in judgment, which gave you your platform, you currently have the majority of us reject your beliefs. Your time is short; you are not a king, you are not a dictator, you will soon be a footnote in our history, a cautionary tale for our future.
We shall overcome

Why do they continue to support him

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If you want to understand what Trump and his rich cronies are really about. It’s their bank accounts, by the way.

If you want to understand how they can get so many people to vote against their economic well being just remember a quote from former President Lyndon Johnson

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.

Trump has tapped into that feeling among whites who feel this country is their country and it’s being taken away from them. Do not be mistaken that Trump’s rise came after eight years in which a man of color sat in the Oval Office.

Even yesterday, when he briefly ceded to public pressure and called out the Neo-Nazis and KKK, what got lost in the mix was his statement that he was seriously considering pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found in contempt of court late July for continuing racial profiling practices. It was his wink wink to his base that he still has their back. Come on; you knew what Make America Great Again really meant, didn’t you.

As the Denver Post reported to many Trump supporters who look around at their communities and see poverty, addiction, and lack of economic opportunity, the claims about affirmative action and the smorgasbord of government benefits are supposedly available only to minorities are enormously compelling…. What’s holding you back is those people and the special favors they get.

So no matter what he says or does, if it’s in their best interest or not, the harden Trump supporter will always have his back because they believe he has theirs in the battle to keep this country away from those who they believe are not their equal or who even belong here in the first place and that my friends is what has this great melting pot of a country on the verge of boiling over.