Friday, December 21, 2018

The Last Two Adults in the White House are Resigning


Chief of Staff John Kelly announced his resignation earlier this month. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced his resignation yesterday. With their departure, the last adults standing between our corrupt malignant narcissist demagogue ‘President’ and our Nation and Planet will be gone. At least Mattis left a blistering resignation letter. Hopefully he and Kelly will soon start publicly calling for their unfit to serve mental and emotional cripple boss’ removal from office. Soon Trump will only be surrounded by sycophants who will not speak truth to this lunatic.

All of this, in the face of a report on the massive and ongoing efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 Presidential Election and since.


“Russia’s disinformation campaign during and after the 2016 presidential election touched nearly every top social media platform as it sought to sway U.S. voters, according to a pair of reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee that offer the most detailed look yet at the Kremlin's interference effort.


The reports, commissioned by Senate Intelligence leaders, shed light on the breadth of the Russian strategy, which included posting content on not only Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but also Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr and Pinterest. The findings corroborate the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Russia carried out a long-term, comprehensive effort to sow political divisions in the U.S., including over racial issues — but in some ways find it was even more sweeping than Mueller has portrayed it.

Russian influence operations extended well beyond the presidential race and into the 2018 election cycle, the researchers found, with Kremlin-linked trolls consistently pushing narratives supportive of President Donald Trump and critical of impeachment talk. And as the major tech companies moved to curb the spread of online disinformation after 2016, the trolls evolved their strategies and shifted their resources to other platforms…

‘The goals of active measures are to undermine citizens’ trust in government, exploit societal fractures, create distrust in the information environment, blur the lines between reality and fiction, undermine trust among communities, and erode confidence in the democratic process,’ according to one of the reports by the research firm New Knowledge. ‘This campaign pursued all of those objectives with skill and precision. The IRA exploited divisions in our society using vulnerabilities in our information ecosystem.’ …”


The question now is how long will it take for Republicans in the House and Senate to realize that they must regain their senses, join Democrats and remove Trump from office in disgrace? Whenever they finally do, it may be too late to save the opportunistic and morally bankrupt Republican Party, which has enabled this lunatic, but at least they can redeem their souls.


“WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Saturday that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, would step down by the end of the year, the latest move in a long-planned staff shake-up as the president heads into the 2020 campaign facing growing peril from the special counsel and newly empowered Democrats.

The departure of Mr. Kelly, who had been brought in last year to impose order on the West Wing but found managing Mr. Trump an impossible task, had been rumored for months, and Mr. Trump announced it to reporters before departing for the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. He said a replacement would be named in the next day or two…”


“Washington (CNN) Shaken, disappointed, saddened and scared -- those were just some of the reactions in a bipartisan outpouring of shock and concern as lawmakers reacted Thursday to the news that Defense Secretary James Mattis had resigned over President Donald Trump's policy decisions.

‘Just read Gen. Mattis resignation letter,’ Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted. ‘It makes it abundantly clear that we are headed towards a series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances & empower our adversaries.’

‘This chaos, Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich said on Twitter, "both foreign and domestic, is putting America in danger and must stop immediately’ " …


Thursday, November 29, 2018

As Noose Tightens, Trump is Becoming Even More Unhinged

In a midterms Blue Wave, Democrats picked up 40 seats and a majority in the House of Representatives, flipped 7 Governor seats and a number of Statehouses, and limited Senate gains to two seats in an election that heavily favored Republicans in the Senate. Mueller’s investigation is closing in on Trump. A Democratic House, beginning in January 2019, will exercise its Constitutional responsibility to hold Trump and his Administration accountable. Our corrupt, morally bankrupt, lawless, malignant narcissist demagogue ‘President’ for the first time faces another co-equal branch of the Federal Government, in addition to the Judiciary, that isn’t in bed with him and covering his ass.

As the noose tightens, Trump is lashing out: at Federal Judges, the Fourth Estate, the Mueller investigation, and Democrats. His support is eroding as a persistent majority who oppose him is joined by others tired of the constant chaos and drama of this mental and emotional cripple.

The only issue now is whether this wounded lunatic can cling to power for another two years, to face final rejection and humiliation at the hands of the voters in November 2020.


“President Donald Trump defended his decision to retweet a meme this week depicting his political opponents behind bars — including his sitting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — signaling more storm clouds for the embattled No. 2 at the Justice Department after what appeared to be a brief reprieve from Trump’s attacks.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump was asked about the photoshopped image, which depicted targets of Trump attacks like former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, Huma Abedin and James Comey overlaid with the text ‘Now that Russian collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?’ Tucked just above Obama's head in the photo is Rosenstein's, smaller than almost all the other individuals in the image…”


“President Donald Trump is sending an unmistakable and daringly public message to his jailed ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, that his defiance of special counsel Robert Mueller could eventually see him walk free from jail.

And Trump's move -- delivered in an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday -- is more than just an effort to show mercy to a former associate. It is the latest sign of an increasingly aggressive effort to define the end game of the investigation with what looks more and more like an effort to use his presidential power to protect himself.
Trump's latest maneuvering came amid indications that Mueller's team, after a hiatus in midterm election season, is accelerating toward a pivotal moment in an investigation that has cast a cloud over Trump's presidency…”


“Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Russia.

Cohen reached the plea deal with Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Cohen pleaded guilty to a single count of lying to Congress about a Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan…”

Attacks on the Truth


Trump continues to create an alternate reality, based on outright lies, attacking anyone or institution that poses a threat or challenge to his illegitimate reign.





The Trump Cult


Sensing the end is near, Trump's core lunatic 10-15% of Americans Trump Cult base, like their delusional 'Leader', is becoming more irreconcilable.


The Bottom Line


One way or another—removal from office in disgrace by the House and Senate or via Article 25, Section 4 of the Constitution, mortality and/or fate, military coup, or defeat at the hands of the voters in 2020—this unprecedented lunatic demagogue’s reign will end. When it does, the issue of the malignant cancer on the body politic his irreconcilable, authoritarian, willfully ignorant Trump Cult represents will remain. If they rise up in insurrection, we will annihilate them in a Civil War do-over and end this once and for all. But an alternative that should be seriously considered, to end this permanent divided and ungovernable Nation impasse, is to schedule a national plebiscite to allow the minority Trump supporters to move to, and all others to move from, the reddest States over a six-month period and then vote by two-thirds majority to voluntarily secede from the United States.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The Voters have spoken. The Midterm Elections as of November 12, 2018


My early take on the results…

The midterms were the beginning of the end of this unfortunate reactionary episode in America’s history. With Democrats assuming control of the House of Representatives in January 2019, Trump will face a co-equal branch of government with the power and will to challenge his corrupt reign. He will become even more erratic, unstable, threatening, and dangerous in the face of this new reality.

The First Two Days


My First Post Midterms Comments (Nov 7) – https://youtu.be/tMU93XncMkw

WARNING: Contains language many 6-year-old children use, but ‘offensive’ to some...

My Post Midterms Day Two Comments (Nov 8) https://youtu.be/9sKeU7md0E8

Trump’s delusional and threatening comments after the election speak for themselves. 64 truly remarkable lines from Donald Trump's otherworldly post-election news conference

 “(CNN) On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump took a victory lap via an almost-90-minute news conference that came fewer than 24 hours after his party lost control of the House but strengthened its Senate majority.

Trump seemed entirely unconcerned with his party's loss of one of the chambers of Congress -- instead he focused on reading out the names of Republican House members who refused to embrace him (and lost) and sparring with reporters…”

Contrast Trump’s performance with Nancy Pelosi’s post-election Press conference. Nancy Pelosi vows"bipartisanship and common ground" after Democrats take the House 

“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, hours after Democrats recaptured the House in the midterm elections Tuesday night. Pelosi discussed the gains in the House and in Democratic governorships, and called the day after the election was ‘great day for America’ and a chance to ‘restore the health of our democracy.’ She pledged to find ‘bipartisanship’ and ‘common ground where we can.’ …”

A Week After the Election


Close races demonstrate how tenuous and fragile our election process is. A number of races are still too close to call.

Democrats flipped a number of Governor seats, now trailing 23 – 25 with two races undecided. They flipped over 300 State House seats, retaking control of several chambers.


Democrats retook the House of Representatives, 227 – 198, with 13 races undecided. Already the most pickups since the midterm election in 1974, after Nixon resigned in disgrace. Democrats are leading and likely to win another eight House seats.


Republicans held onto the Senate, 51 – 46, with three races undecided.


‘Massive Voter Fraud’


Trump, our delusional malignant narcissist demagogue ‘President’, and his propagandists are already talking about ‘massive voter fraud’ with no evidence, in races Republicans have already lost or are likely to lose. When they lose, even after gerrymandering Congressional districts for over a decade and massive voter suppression efforts in Republican controlled States, they still cannot accept defeat at the hands of We the People, the electorate.


The Bottom Line


Trump lost the popular vote by an almost 2.9 million vote plurality in November 2016. His insistence on continuing to feed his lunatic Trump Cult base—less than half of his minority 40% support among Americans—has helped him cling to power, keeping Republicans in Congress in check. But his support among all Americans has eroded since his electoral college ‘election’, as evidenced by the nation-wide election results last Tuesday.

Like everything else, Trump made the Midterm elections all about him. It was a gamble that paid off in the Senate, where an already Republican favorable map this election cycle almost guaranteed Republicans would retain their majority. By holding the Senate, possibly even picking up a seat or two, he has likely ensured his survival in office until the 2020 election, barring some unimaginably outrageous act that drives his approval rating below 30 percent, still not an impossibility for this mental and emotional cripple.

The lunatic actually believes his rebuke by the Nation on Tuesday increases his re-election chances in 2020. I think not, but this entire unfortunate fiasco could still end up being a good thing for America in the long run. See my The End of the So-Called Era of Trump: An American Renaissance, updated November 10, 2018)




Friday, November 2, 2018

Trump’s Desperate Scorched Earth Gambit to Cling to Power

Recent Days


Recent days have revealed Trump’s cynical strategy to cling to power until 2021. While dividing America to the brink of a second Civil War, with only 40% approval and feeding and stoking his 10 to 15% of Americans Trump Cult minority core base, Trump has kept his Republican majority in Congress at bay. They dare not challenge his outrages, fearing primary challenges from Trump True Believers. With few exceptions, only Republicans who are not seeking re-election in the midterms next Tuesday will speak truth to this dangerous and corrupt malignant narcissist demagogue.

In the face of three recent Trump-supporter and Trump hate-speech inspired terrorist acts of violence, he blames the news media and refuses to acknowledge his central role and culpability for the divisiveness, hate, and violence. In the final days of the run-up to the midterms, Trump decries an ‘invasion’ by ‘thousands’ of Central Americans seeking legal asylum and tweets the most patently racist fear-mongering anti-immigrant video in recent history to his 55 million “followers”. He sends 5,000 military troops to our southern border and threatens to send another 10,000 troops, to stop a ‘wave’ of at most hundreds of immigrants that will not reach our border for over a month, if ever. Trump even proposes to alter birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, with an executive order.



Trump, in racially divisive ad, blames Democrats for undocumented immigrant convicted of kill­ing police


Last month, Trump and his morally bankrupt Republican majority Senate rammed through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh—a partisan Right-Wing ideologue who never saw a presidential power he didn’t love—and put him on the Supreme Court.






What America Stands For


With a lunatic demagogue assaulting our sacred values and institutions, it’s a good time to remember what our Nation was at its birth.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson changed “Life, Liberty, and Property” to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. What a difference that has made throughout our history as a Nation, especially for the 90% Have Nots majority of Americans in general and renters like me in particular. The phrase comes from the Enlightenment. It did not mean the materialistic pursuit of things, conspicuous consumption, consumerism, selfishness, or hedonism. It meant the pursuit of a meaningful and purposeful good life. For a Nation founded by the rich and powerful few, for the benefit of the many, in opposition to a despotic King, it was a stunning and unprecedented guiding principle.


With the Constitution, the Founders—over two-hundred and forty years ago—knew they were writ­ing a living document they optimistically assumed would be read and amended by enlightened and honorable men, for as long as the Republic endured. At the time, women couldn't vote, most African Americans were slaves, Senators were appointed by State governments, and property owners and the Rich ruled and dominated public life. Our Founders optimistically assumed that enlightened and honorable men would serve as elected representative of The People, serving in good faith to preserve the Union, protect the Common Good, and continue to secure the bless­ings of liberty for all Americans.

In 1790, the first year the Census was conducted, the US population was close to four million. Almost all of the 3,172,000 Whites were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), former British citizens. Almost all of the 757,208 Blacks were slaves. A bloody Civil War ended slavery. Large numbers of Irish, Italians, and Germans, including all four of my grandparents, immigrated to America in the 1800s and early 1900s and mostly settled in urban ethnic enclaves in the North \East and Midwest. At the same time, large numbers of Asians immigrated to America, settling in California and the West. With lower birthrates and the significant immigration of non-WASPs, by the early 1900s WASPs were no longer a majority of Americans. They embraced the same Irish, Italian, and German immigrants they despised, demonized, and exploited as their lessors as “Caucasians” for Census purposes, honorary “Whites”, to mask the loss of their majority status. Now, WASPs and the people they convinced were also White face the reality that they, in aggregate, will become a minority sometime in the 2040s, Trump’s racist attempts to prevent this demographic inevitability notwithstanding.

The diverse, inclusive, and welcoming Nation we became over the intervening centuries could not have been imagined by our Founders. But they would recognize that we became the Nation they made possible. A Civil War was waged to end slavery. Women and African Americans became full citizens; their rights guaranteed by the same Constitution that once excluded them. In recent decades, Hispanics, like all immigrants before them, have flocked to America, taken the lowest rung jobs, followed the rules, and worked their way into the American mainstream. Their children and grandchildren will become the plurality that displaces non-Hispanic Whites and makes Whites a minority for the first time in America.

The Founders could not have anticipated: (1) the current poisonous political environment; (2) a lunatic demagogue 'President' exploiting the fear, hate, and willful ignorance of a significant minority of Americans; or (3) a morally bankrupt Republican Party majority Congress providing no check or balance on that demagogue's power.

What's Going On?


Trump has been unprecedented and outrageous since he declared his candidacy. After almost two years in office, any fantasies that he would ‘pivot’ and become presidential in any sense of the word once in office are now untenable. Mental health professionals have repeatedly publicly warned that far from getting better, as a malignant narcissist, he would become more unstable, irrational, and erratic under the strain of office. As the midterms loom and loss of his Republican majority in the House is all but certain, Trump’s final desperate strategy becomes clear.

The Mueller Investigation will conclude and inevitably become public soon thereafter. With the loss of his Republican majority apologists and protectors in the House of Representatives in the midterms, at best Trump will face real oversight and endless hearings into his and his administration's wrong doing. At worst, he will face impeachment hearings and the ratification of Articles of Impeachment.

The only way Trump can cling to power until 2021, and keep the self-delusion that his fluke electoral college ‘election’ in 2016 can be repeated in 2020, is if: (1) a 5 – 4 Supreme Court backs him up as he opposes Congressional attempts to force the release of his tax returns and other damaging documents, and interrogate members of his administration under oath; and (2) a  Republican Senate refuses to confirm his impeachment in the House of Representatives.

President Obama tried to explain to this mental and emotional cripple, before Trump took office, that a president has no power or moral authority except that derived from the consent of the governed. Trump’s 2.9 million vote plurality defeat to Hillary Clinton denied him any mandate to govern. His inauguration address made clear that he had no intention of governing with the consent of the majority. His actions since have only made more obvious that the only thing Trump values is winning and power. He sees no legitimate interest or need except his own interests and needs.

Only We the People Can Stop this Demagogue


Trump will cling to power, by whatever means and at any cost to the Nation, as long as he can. There is no bottom to the madness and chaos he will bring, no outrage beyond his imagination, no standard of conduct or moral code he will not deliberately violate. A presumed anthropo­morphic patriarchal God did not bring Trump to power and will not deliver us from this dema­gogue’s reign. Only We the People can begin the end of this insanity by voting his Republican enablers out of office on November 6. 






Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Now Pipe Bombs Sent to Those Who Dare to Oppose Trump


It only took seven years and seven months for Trump’s demagoguery: (1) starting with championing the Birther Movement in March 2011; (2) continuing during his campaign for President announced in June 2015—demonizing Mexican immigrants and later every conceivable target, from ‘elites’, ‘bureaucrats’, Democrats, the Fourth Estate (‘Fake News’, ‘Enemy of the People’), people of color, and ‘the Other’, and (3) since taking office in January 2017 and especially now as the 2018 midterms are upon us, for Trump’s escalating hate speech to bear fruit. The list now includes anyone or institution that poses a threat to his illegitimate authoritarian rule: including the majority Trump Resistance; members of his own administration, the Justice Department, FBI, and Mueller investigation; the Intelligence Community; Democrats in Congress; and peaceful mass protests against his administration—a ‘violent hateful mob’ in his delusional mind. Not to mention the fictitious 'massive voter fraud' that denied him a plurality of the popular vote in 2016 and will surely be blamed if Republicans lose the House in the midterm elections.

Thankfully, the lunatic Trump supporter Right-Wing terrorist bomber has been caught. Who is Cesar Sayoc? What we know about the suspected mail bomber arrested in Florida.

As I and many others, including hundreds of mental health professionals and prominent Republicans not enthralled with this mental and emotional cripple continue to point out, Trump is a corrupt malignant narcissist demagogue, emboldened by an irreconcilable lunatic Trump Cult minority core base of perhaps 10 to 15% of Americans. Trump, his administration, and the morally bankrupt Republican Party in Congress that enables him are a clear and present danger to our Republic, our American values and norms of decency, and the people of the World.

Like Hitler, who could have been stopped by the people of Germany before he consolidated this power and eliminated all opposition, We the People have one chance, in the midterm election on November 6, to stop this demagogue and end this madness. If we don’t, God help us all. Unfortunately, as his White Evangelical ‘Christian’ supporters clearly demonstrate, there is no God, except maybe the fictions ‘White Jesus’ they worship.

This reactionary digression in our march toward a diverse, inclusive, more just and equitable Nation, no longer dominated by Filthy Rich White Men and steeped in racism and Patriarchal sexism—led by a corrupt malignant narcissist demagogue—is a matter of public record. Now this delusional mental and emotional cripple even has the audacity to publicly denounce the very violence he has precipitated.  

Now Pipe Bombs, by me – https://youtu.be/r2Xk4kO-quM

Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories

“During Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008, throughout his presidency, and afterwards, a number of conspiracy theories falsely asserted Obama was ineligible to be President of the United States because he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States as required by Article Two of the U.S. Constitution…

In March 2011, during an interview on Good Morning America, Donald Trump said he was seriously considering running for president, that he was a ‘little’ skeptical of Obama's citizenship, and that someone who shares this view should not be so quickly dismissed as an ‘idiot’ (as Trump considers the term ‘birther’ to be ‘derogatory’). Trump added, ‘Growing up no one knew him’, a claim ranked Pants-on-Fire by Politifact. Later, Trump appeared on The View repeating several times that ‘I want him [Obama] to show his birth certificate.’ He speculated that ‘there [was] something on that birth certificate that [Obama] doesn't like’, a comment which host Whoopi Goldberg described as ‘the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages.’ On the March 30, 2011, edition of CNN Newsroom, anchor Suzanne Malveaux commented on Trump's statements, pointing out that she had made a documentary for which she had gone to Hawaii and spoken with people who knew Obama as a child. In an NBC TV interview broadcast on April 7, 2011, Trump said he would not let go of the issue, because he was not satisfied that Obama had proved his citizenship. After Trump began making his views public, he was contacted by Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, who was reportedly on the phone with Trump every day for a week, providing Trump with a ‘birther primer’, answers to questions, and advice. After Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, Trump said ‘I am really honored and I am really proud, that I was able to do something that nobody else could do.’ …” [Numerous reference footnotes in the original removed for clarity.]

NAACP SEES CONTINUED RISE IN HATE CRIMES, LEGACY OF TRUMP’S RACISM – https://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-sees-continued-rise-hate-crimes-legacy-trumps-racism/

Do Trump Tweets Spur Hate Crimes? Study makes strong case that president’s Twitter activity encourages anti-Muslim crimes – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-trump-tweets-spur-hate-crimes1/  

‘Making America Hate Again’ – The Correlation Between Trump’s Anti-Muslim Tweets And Hate Crimes – https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/making-america-hate-again-the-correlation-between-trumps-anti-muslim  

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and CNN Offices Are Sent Pipe Bombs – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/nyregion/clinton-obama-explosive-device.html  


'Act of terror': Bombs sent to CNN, Clintons, Obamas, Holder – https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/politics/bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-chappaqua/index.html




Saturday, October 6, 2018

Time to 'Man Up' or Fold

How We Got Here


Liberals like me—a trained Social Psychologist,  President Obama—the whitest and safest black man in America and a very smart and accomplished guy, and Hillary Clinton—a woman too smart and arrogant for her own good, have repeatedly underestimated the power of hate, fear, and willful ignorance for a significant minority of the electorate. A fat, lazy, ignorant, angry disaffected and racist minority made Trump’s electoral college ‘win’ possible. Donald Trump defeated a flawed, arrogant, out of touch Democrat who, like Michael Dukakis versus George H. Bush (1988), and John Kerry and Al Gore versus George “W” Bush (2000 and 2004) before her, assumed the American people would make a rational, informed choice for President in 2016.

We can still stop this madness, but not with intellectual or moral arguments, 21-point platforms, reaching out to idiots, moving to ‘the Center’, playing it safe or being civil. This is a War Republicans have been fighting and winning for decades. We have been bringing intellect, knowledge, and moral appeals to a knife fight with evil, well-funded, morally bankrupt monsters who see power and winning as the only thing that matters, effectively appealing to the basest aspects of human nature.

Trump is a corrupt malignant narcissist and demagogue. His presidency is unprecedented. He represents a threat to our Nation that cannot be overestimated. He is not a stable genius. He is not a populist. He is not a White Savior who can Make America White Again. He is not a successful businessman or self-made man. Trump is a fraud, a con artist, a mental and emotional cripple.


Trump has unmasked the face of the Filthy Rich and Corporate America—concerned only with satisfying their rapacious greed and gaining and keeping political power at any and all costs. They have: (1) created a fake Culture War with values they personally mock, to appeal to White Evangelical ‘Christians’; (2) used hate and fear to demonize “the other” to appeal to bigots; (3) destroyed labor unions that defend workers; and (4) deliberately created a ‘winner take all’ economy to increase the insecurity of low-education working people—the very people they have exploited for profits and their gain. They have demonized programs for the common good like the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare as socialism, and demonized out groups, faceless ‘elites’ and bureaucrats to focus appropriate rage away from themselves. Trump has revealed the moral bankruptcy of the Filthy Rich and Corporate America. As a demagogue, he has effectively exploited and continues to exploit his hateful, fearful, and willfully ignorant authoritarian core minority base.

While the Democratic National Committee and Democratic operatives were obsessed with winning presidential elections and keeping abortion legal, for decades, the Republicans have been executing a deliberate plan: systematically buying Governor seats and State Houses on the cheap, creating gerrymandered districts so even as they lose the popular vote in a State, they win most of the seats in the House of Representatives and State House majorities.

The culmination of all of this is Donald Trump, a dangerous mental and emotional cripple, in the White House, and a majority in Congress to enact a Republican Tax Reform fraud in 2017, passed with no Democratic support, and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, with just one Democratic vote.

How Do We Fix This?


I used the term man up deliberately in the title for the benefit of women. We are way past political correctness or doctrinaire feminism. We are in a war for the very survival of an America that was, until the ‘election’ of this reactionary demagogue, well on its way to an inclusive, diverse, more just and equitable America, no longer dominated by the Filthy Rich, Corporations and White Men. To deal with this clear and present danger, we will have to abandon the luxury of dissension and infighting. We are no longer men or women, White or People of Color, White Collar professional or Blue-Collar worker, Hillary or Bernie supporter, or political socialists, liberals, progressives, moderates, or centrists. We are Democrats. Not the weak, fragmented, easily distracted, quarrelsome  Present-Day Democrats. We must become New Warrior Democrats; unified freedom fighters in The Resistance to defeat the darkness, madness, and evil that has arisen.

So, what do we do? We need to convince Democrats and Independents who occasionally vote—when it’s a Presidential election and they “like” and/or have an ethnic affinity for the Democrat, or to support some specific issue, or if it is convenient or they don’t forget—that their lives and the future of the Republic depends on them registering and voting. In every election, at every level of government—Federal, State, and Local—starting with the midterms. We need to convince so-called Independent and Disaffected Voters that the popular sentiment that both parties are the same is wrong. There are profound differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Republicans are the lackeys of the Filthy Rich and Corporations. They are the Party of: exploiting hate, fear, and willful ignorance; wealth and income inequity; Drill Baby Drill; Climate Change and other Science denial; angry White Men; racism, xenophobia and homophobia; selective ‘Christianity’ and religious intolerance; Country Clubs, gated communities, private schools, White Male Privilege and exclusion; and government for the privileged few. Only the Democratic Party supports diversity, inclusion, progressive taxation, secular humanism and religious tolerance, science, reason, public education, and government for the many and the common good.

If we cannot convince poor people, working people, people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Hispanics, Students, immigrant citizens and second and third generation hyphenated Americans, Independents and Disaffected Voters to register and vote for Democrats like, forgive the expression, Republicans do for their Party, we deserve to fail to regain power, and the America we cherish deserves to die.

I believe the stakes are this high. Hitler could have been stopped if the German people had woken up and realized the threat he posed, instead of dismissing him and his Brown Shirts minority. The breach Trump has exploited and inflamed may already be so great that only a second Civil War or the voluntary secession of the reddest States can close it. But Trump and his Republican enablers must be stopped now. How and when we deal with his irreconcilable Trump Cult lunatic minority core base—the malignant cancer on the body politic he has brought into the light—can be addressed after Trump is dealt with. A Democratic majority in the Congress should act to reestablish the Rule of Law and remove Trump from office in disgrace for his many high crimes and misdemeanors in 2019. Failing that, we must neutralize him and his administration until the 2020 presidential election when We the People can reject and defeat him through the ballot box.




Friday, September 21, 2018

Kavanaugh Fiasco Inspired Anti-Patriarchy and Rich White Male Privilege Discussion

I've opposed patriarchy since I was a child, seeing how it trapped my patriarchal father and housewife mother in rigid and untenable roles. With a misogynistic lunatic demagogue in the Oval Office, it's time to take Patriarchy down. But make no mistake, this will be a war against powerful interests and men who benefit from the status quo.

Trump actually avoided attacking Bret Kavanaugh's accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, for a few days. But he inevitably returned to form, displaying his malignant narcissist pussy grabbing ignorance concerning women and sexual assault. See Trump: If Kavanaugh's alleged attack 'as bad as' Ford claims, charges would have been filed.

It's been a while since I've posted a rant on YouTube, so here are the latest:

Kavanaugh Inspired Anti-Patriarchy and Rich White Male Privilege Rant, Part 1

Kavanaugh Inspired Anti-Patriarchy and Rich White Male Privilege Rant, Part 2

The War on Patriarchy [Excepts from #TimesUp? Maybe]


Patriarchy has been dominant for at least ten millennia, all recorded history. For most of that time, women and a few men have waged a Cold War against it, in their personal lives and homes, and less often in the public space. Beginning in the 1900s, the Suffrage Movement took it on directly in Europe and America.  On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Four decades later, the Women’s Movement in the 1960s established more rights, including the right to an abortion. That’s were things have stood for another five decades. Rich—and even not so Rich—White Male Privilege has persisted.

The ‘election’ of Donald Trump, a reactionary misogynistic lunatic demagogue, in November 2016 by an archaic Electoral College—while he lost the popular vote by a 2.9 million vote plurality to Hillary Clinton—was a clear threat to women. The day after his inauguration, over a hundred thousand women and their men allies took to the streets in Washington DC, joined by millions of women across the nation and around the world, launching The Trump Resistance. 

Many men were emboldened by Trump’s unlikely and unanticipated election, but women had finally had enough. Within months, women starting coming forward with accusations of sexual abuse, bringing down powerful men in all walks of life. The #MeToo movement took off. Of course, a Right-Wing backlash was soon launched.

Soon after the early successes of the #MeToo movement, a second movement began. It naively assumed that women simply coming forward against their sexual oppressors would end patriarchy. The Right immediately recognized the threat of this movement.[1] So, now the millennia long gender Cold War has become a Hot War.



[1] #MeToo and Time's Up Founders Explain the Difference Between the 2 Movements — And How They're Alike – http://time.com/5189945/whats-the-difference-between-the-metoo-and-times-up-movements/. Steve Bannon says 'Time's Up' is 'the single most powerful potential political movement in the world' – https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-steve-bannon-times-up-is-most-powerful-political-movement-2018-9.

Make no mistake, my dear sisters. Patriarchy and Rich White Male Privilege are about naked power. People who have power do not give it up voluntarily. Powerful interests will fight to defend the status quo, especially this fundamental aspect of it for millennia.

This will be a War. A real war. There will be casualties. There will be massive collateral damage. People will die. Women will take most of the risks, and experience most of the consequences. It is sad, unfortunate and unfair. But social revolutions are rarely bloodless. And this one will be far from bloodless. Many men, not just the powerful ones, will defend patriarchy almost to the death. They will certainly be willing to suppress, demonize, demagogue, and kill to defend their privilege. Sell-out women will join them, seeing sexism as something they have and can gain from, if they support it and powerful men. Just like Uncle Toms who see racism as something they have and can gain from, if they support it, Trump, and his morally bankrupt Republican Party.

This War will not be brief. We will not win this war with anonymous accusations. We will not win this war by ‘understanding’ the people who support patriarchy, or reasoning or compromising with them. We cannot win this war with emotional or moral appeals or by being nice...

I published this article on LinkedIn on September 20. Read the entire article by clicking the link in the Section heading above.

Why Women Are So Problematic: A Memoir and Irreverent Whimsical Polemic


My book will be published by Black Lacquer Press later this year. It's a patriarchy deconstructing and demolishing Trojan Horse, written by a very spiritual but irreligious Secular Humanist, making the case that the Man – Woman problem has obvious origins and can be resolved if men accept that women are problematic because they are so different from us and we need them more than they need us. I also try to convince women that they still need us, at all, and should help us and give us a little more time to “get it”.

The book, started in August 2002 and 'almost finished' in 2006 and 2011, languished for years. Unfortunate life events interfered. But Trump's unlikely and unexpected 'election' and the Marches in Washington,DC and nation-wide the day after his inauguration by enraged women and many allied men inspired me to finish and publish the damn thing.



Thursday, September 6, 2018

Forty-four Years After Richard Nixon Resigned in Disgrace


One national newspaper backed two young Metro Desk reporters following a police report of a strange break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972.  Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein eventually uncovered a covert Plumbers operation run out of the White House and other abuses of power and a massive cover-up that became the Watergate Scandal. A bi-partisan Senate Select Committee investigated the Nixon Administration’s abuses and Watergate cover-up that led to Articles of Impeachment in the House and resulted in the resignation of a dangerous President on August 9, 1974 to avoid certain removal from office in disgrace.

Now, forty-four years after Richard Nixon resigned, that same great national newspaper, joined by the mainstream news media and the now famous authors and commentators, Woodward and Bernstein, are confronting a much more dangerous lunatic demagogue ‘President’, Donald Trump. Once again, a morally bankrupt Republican Party is supporting a lawless corrupt imperious Republican President, supported by a minority base of willfully ignorant True Believers. Once again, a Special Prosecutor and bi-partisan Senate Committee are methodically gathering the proof of impeachable offenses.

This time the President is not just a slightly paranoid and ethically challenged individual, but a profoundly mentally ill Malignant Narcissist. Thousands of mental health professionals have publicly warned since he announced his candidacy that Trump is dangerous and unfit to serve, and will become more unstable and delusional as the walls close in. Exactly what we are seeing. This corrupt mental and emotional cripple will do anything to cling to power, held in check, not by this own Republican Party in Congress, but dedicated patriots in his administration and the Civil Service in The Trump Resistance.

With the evidence provided by Trump’s own words and deeds, the Mueller and Senate investigations, the disclosures of patriots inside of the Administration, the Fourth Estate and patriots like Woodward and Bernstein, We the People will begin the end of this madness in the Midterms this November, followed by Trump’s removal from office in disgrace in 2019.



Friday, August 31, 2018

The Already Minority Republican Party’s Shrinking Numbers

The modern Republican Party—for decades a diverse, rational, pro-business / low taxes / economic growth / capitalism and anti-communist loyal opposition minority party—has in recent decades, starting with Reagan in the 1980s, become the Party of (mostly older male) Whites, the Filthy Rich, Corporate America, White Evangelical ‘Christians’ and other Culture warriors, and disaffected working-class people duped into voting against their economic self-interest. Under Trump, Republicans have become not just the lackeys of the Filthy Rich and Corporate America, but also the Party of racist and xenophobic fearful, hateful, willfully ignorant and easily exploited low-education “Middle America” rural voters, but also the Alt-Right, Religious Right and Far Right. It is now the opportunist and morally bankrupt Party that refuses to stand up to Trump, a misogynistic treasonous lunatic demagogue, even as he attacks vital American institutions—like our Intelligence Community and FBI, the Free Press, and anyone or anything that stands in his way, NATO and our decades-long Western allies. A mental and emotional cripple who displays outrageous behavior that violates all standards of presidential behavior or even human decency and sucks up to despots like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Putin, leader of Russia, a dangerous adversary.

Trump envies despots and has a toddler’s fascination with authoritarian “strong men” and the military. He is a reckless emotional and mental cripple incapable of leading our Nation. He continues to divide America, feeding his lunatic minority Trump Cult base, in a desperate attempt to cling to power.

The good news is, Trump’s racist Make America Great [White] Again efforts notwithstanding, the future is already here. The demographics of Republicans in general, and Trump in particular, are well established. And their support comes from declining segments of America...

See the entire document: The Already Minority Republican Party’s Shrinking Numbers

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Trump’s House of Cards Begins to Crumble

Trump believes his own delusions of grandeur. In response to the felony convictions of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and plea deal of former “fixer” lawyer Michael Cohen, this profoundly mentally ill, corrupt, treasonous, and illegitimate lunatic demagogue once again confirms his authoritarianism and demonstrates his delusion that he is above the law. We the People begin the end of this madness in the fast approaching midterms this November.

Trump's Own Tweets and Public Statements Betray Him


Trump says longstanding legal practice of flipping 'almost ought to be illegal' – https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/politics/trump-flipping-outlawed/index.html

“(CNN) President Donald Trump continued working to fortify himself against accusations of legal misdeeds on Thursday, defending himself on Twitter in the dark morning hours and telling an interviewer he'd done nothing wrong.

But as the swirl of legal questions continues to mount, neither the President nor his aides have been able to quell the fallout.

Trump's latest attempt came in a friendly taped interview with Fox News, which was conducted on Wednesday but aired a day later. Trump sought to put distance between himself and his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who admitted to campaign finance crimes in federal court on Tuesday and implicated the President by saying he'd directed the action.

And he sharply decried those who testify against former confidants to ease legal troubles, bemoaning the longstanding practice.

‘It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,’ Trump said in the interview, adding he's witnessed similar scenarios over his decades in public life. ‘I know all about flipping, 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go.’

Suspects cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for a reduced sentence is a central feature of the criminal justice system, but Trump has long valued loyalty over legal precedent or practice.”


In Trump’s alternate reality, the villain in Watergate was not President Richard Nixon and his Administration, but Howard Dean, the “rat” who brought the house of cards down.

Trump: Impeach me and the market crashes – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45285585


“As far as Wall Street is concerned, it makes no difference whether a jury found Trump’s former campaign chair guilty of eight federal crimes or that Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer pleaded guilty to eight counts himself.

Trump’s policies have been a boon to them — from the GOP tax cuts passed last year that slashed corporate rates, to the administration’s successful rollback of pieces of Dodd-Frank. Now they see a possibility for even more tax cuts. (Trump’s trade tactics have made investors nervous, but by and large, Wall Street has thus far shrugged them off.)…

The dynamic answers a question that dogs Trump critics: Why won’t Republicans turn on him? Big investors are key constituents and donors in Republican politics — and they’re happy. Donors have showered millions of dollars on Republicans as a thank you, including billionaire energy mogul Charles Koch, who cut House Speaker Paul Ryan a $500,000 check days after the House tax cuts bill passed.”

South Africa rejects Donald Trump's tweet on farmer killings – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45282088

Not just content with dividing America to the brink of a second Civil War, in a hopeless attempt to cling to power, this racist lunatic now wants to start a race war in South Africa with his White Nationalist delusions and false claims.

Recent Polling Data Shows His Hold on Power is Tenuous Beyond His Lunatic Base


CNN's new poll has very little good news for Donald Trump on Russia – https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-poll/index.html

Beyond Republicans—especially his lunatic Trump Cult core base—Trump’s repeated attacks on the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” are falling on deaf ears.

“(CNN) The BIG headline out of CNN's new national poll probing how Americans feel about President Donald Trump, special counsel Robert Mueller and the ongoing Russia investigation is that a large majority want Mueller to wrap things up before this November's midterm elections.

Make no mistake: It is a big deal that two-thirds of the country -- including majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats -- all hope that the special counsel probe is over before November 6. And despite the fact that each of those groups almost certainly has their own reasons for wanting the probe to end, you can be sure Trump and his allies will seize on the 66% of Americans who say they want the investigation into Russian interference to end before the election as proof positive that public opinion has turned against Mueller and toward the President.

And that is where they would be making a major mistake. Because if you look at any question in the CNN poll -- other than the one about when people want the probe to end -- and you see piece after piece of evidence that Trump is losing the public relations war on Russia.

Consider:

  • 55% disapprove of how Trump is handling the "investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election." Just 34% approve.
  • 47% approve of how Mueller is handling the probe as opposed to 39% who disapprove, an improvement from the 41% approve/29% disapprove in CNN's last poll in June.
  • Almost six in 10 think Russia's attempted interference in the 2016 campaign is a "serious matter that should be fully investigated."
  • 56% think Trump has attempted to interfere in the investigation.
  • Almost 80% of Democrats say that the investigation into Russian interference will be either extremely or very important to their votes for Congress this fall…
  • Just more than one in three (37%) of respondents say Trump's public statements about the Russia probe have been completely or mostly true. By contrast, 56% believe what Trump has said about the investigation is either mostly or completely false.


The most recent Fox News Poll has more detailed bad news. It isn’t just Democrats who have soured to Donald Trump, support the Mueller investigation, or think it will prove wrongdoing. 

Trump Job Approval:


Mueller Investigation Approval:


Likely the Mueller Investigation will find Trump involved in criminal/impeachable offense:

Trump: He Cray Cray

Trump and his sycophants, enablers, defenders, apologists, and propagandists like to say he’s a “counter puncher”. But over eighteen months in office confirm that he is not: he is an unfit mental and emotional cripple who lashes out at anyone or anything that challenges his mental illness fueled self-delusional alternate reality. Mental health professionals have warned this from the start and continue to do so.

Shrinks Battle Over Diagnosing Donald Trump: Chaos in the White House fuels discord amongst the experts – https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainstorm/201701/shrinks-battle-over-diagnosing-donald-trump

From shortly after Trump assumed office… Malignant Narcissist, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, too soon to say, not right to say.

“In the several days since psychologist John Gartner posted a petition on Facebook declaring that Donald Trump must be removed from office because he has ‘a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States,’ more than 18,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals have signed their agreement.

Although the petition has no legal power and it may be the beneficiary of timing more than tactics… it has made public what many have been saying privately for some time. And by doing so, it is exposing a large and growing rift within the mental health community.

In contention are three significant and intertwined issues. Can Donald Trump or any public figure be deemed to have mental illness, even based on specific, well-publicized criteria reflecting observable behavior? Is it ethical or appropriate for mental health professionals to venture into public acts of diagnosis? Is psychology a suitable instrument for addressing issues of governance?

Gartner, a psychologist in private practice in Baltimore and New York, author of a psychobiography of Bill Clinton, and a former instructor in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, contends that Trump “manifestly” meets the DSM-published criteria for at least three personality disorders: narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder. They are a “toxic brew” that in his view not only make Trump “dangerous” but add up to “malignant narcissism,” not a diagnosis formalized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual but a label coined by the German-born psychologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm…”

The President Is Mentally Unwell — and Everyone Around Him Knows It – http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/trump-is-mentally-unwell-and-everyone-around-him-knows-it.html

After a year in office, any wishful hopes of a presidential “pivot” or Trump even reigning in the crazy have been dashed.

“Until recently, the debate over our president’s mental health has focused on questions of psychological pathology: Do Donald Trump’s flamboyant narcissism, hedonism, and self-delusions add up to a malignant personality — or a malignant personality disorder?

Scores of psychiatric professionals say the latter. Some of their peers — and a large number of laymen — have insisted that the matter can only be settled by a psychiatrist who has personally, privately evaluated the president. That argument has always struck me as nuts...

… whether we choose to label any given psychological profile a “disorder” is always, on some level, a value judgement about what it means to function healthily in our society. If an inability to concentrate on tests can qualify one for psychological dysfunction, then it’s hard to see why Trump’s manifest incapacity to subordinate his hunger for affirmation and attention to basic social norms would not. If a middle-school boy displayed Donald Trump’s level of impulse control in the classroom, there is little question that he would be considered psychologically unhealthy.”

The Bottom Line

Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by a 2.9 million vote plurality in November 2016. A persistent majority continues to oppose him, eighteen months into his administration. Outside of this Republican True Believer/Trump Uber Alles/Trump Cult base, majorities of Americans are not buying any of the propaganda put forth by this lunatic demagogue and his Republican enablers and apologist.

We the People will begin the end of this madness in a Blue Wave in the midterms this November. Led by women, not just Democratic and Independent, but also suburban Republican women, minorities, Hispanics, and college educated men, Trump's angry White non-college educated men and the Filthy, Quite, and Just Rich top 10% Haves coalition, will not protect Trump from the rest of us, including many who were duped into voting for him in 2016.