DeSantis, the Force-Feeder

For months, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who still hasn’t declared his presidential candidacy for 2024, appeared to be the new Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). While DDT went down in the polls, DeSantis rose amidst his outrageous stunts. Hubris may have attacked him.

A week ago, DeSantis trailed 39 percent to 47 percent for DDT in a survey of GOP or GOP-leaning independent registered voters, down from his 45 percent to 41 percent lead six weeks earlier. Polls including former VP Mike Pence, not yet declared, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley dropped DeSantis another seven percent to 32 percent. A Monmouth poll is even worse for DeSantis who has only 27 percent compared to DDT’s 27 percent. Last December, DeSantis led DDT, 39 percent to 26 percent.

DeSantis’ policies are also unpopular: more respondents opposed rather than favored seven out of his eight signature policies from 36 percent support for requiring review of public school books down to 21 percent for “granting political appointees the power to fire tenured faculty members at public colleges and universities at any time and for any reason”). Only 30 percent believe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “territorial dispute,” and only 32 percent think “the conflict is none of America’s business.” Other “favorability” for DeSantis’ policies:

• 35 percent: banning majors or minors in critical race theory and gender studies in public education.
• 34 percent: banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
• 32 percent: Banning public higher education from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• 22 percent: concealed firearm carry without license or safety training.

The backlash to DeSantis’ comment about “territory dispute” in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and polls may have led to his revaluating his strategy and messaging. Part of his problem comes from DDT’s typical vicious attacks against him, including his position to reduce Social Security and Medicare. During an interview with Piers Morgan, DeSantis flipflopped on his support of Russia, calling its president Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” who “should be held to account.”

In a Daily Beast op-ed, conservative columnist Matt Lewis reported how DeSantis will have trouble when he leaves the bubble of his own state where he uses the governor’s mansion as “a form of protectionism” while keeping critics at arm’s length. Lewis thinks DeSantis doesn’t have the killer instinct to vanquish DDT:

“You don’t slay dragons with logic. You need guts, heart, and a razor-sharp sword (or, in this case, tongue).”

DDT has lambasted DeSantis’ Florida being among the worst states for education, crime, and health. Fact checking shows that DDT is wrong, but MAGA folk never worry about facts. DDT’s approach appears to be paying off.

Well known for his “don’t say gay” policy for youth in schools, DeSantis wants to expand the law through high school, blocking any reference about LGBTQ+ people up through the age of 18. His most recent ban, however, has created even more publicity. A Tallahassee charter school principal was fired after parents complained about a photo of Michelangelo’s statue of David was shown to sixth-grade students as part of mandated curriculum about Renaissance art. They claimed the sculpture is “pornographic.” The Tallahassee Classical School states it is committed to “training the minds and improving the hearts of young people through a content-rich classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue.”

Another part of sex education targeted in Florida’s schools is blocking references to menstrual cycles before sixth grade. The legislator who proposed the bill said that children could not have conversations in school before sixth grade although girls sometime typically begin menstruating between the ages of 10 and 15, sometimes earlier. Over half of Florida’s high school seniors have had sexual intercourse, and half of those who are sexually active didn’t use condoms during their most recent sexual encounters. The state promotes only abstinence education.  

The white students who DeSantis wants to protect have become a minority in his state. Sixty-three percent of Florida’s students are minorities.

Columnist Michael Cohen describes the state of the place DeSantis calls “the citadel of freedom”:

“The reality is a policy agenda defined largely by pettiness, cruelty and a disturbing disregard for basic democratic norms. If states are the so-called laboratory of American democracy, then Florida is the meth lab of American democracy.”

Following are bills or laws passed by the party of small government to take freedom from Floridians:

Require all bloggers who write about elected state officials to report who is paying them and register with the state. (Backlash caused DeSantis to say he didn’t support the bill.)

Reverse gun safety laws passed after the school shootings, dropping the minimum age to buy rifles and other long guns back to 18 and allow permitless-carry. The only gun-free zone in Florida is where legislators work.

Force public employers to prioritize work experience over higher education when hiring—except for legislators.

Block drag shows because it “sexualizes” children.

Limit lawsuits unless parents want to sue school districts and workers for violating DeSantis’ Stop WOKE Act and ease up ways to sue the press for defamation. The bill specifically says that publications can’t use truth as a defense in anti-LGBTQ+ statements by citing the person’s “constitutionally protected religious expression or beliefs” or “a plaintiff’s scientific beliefs.”

Override local government environmental regulations to protect springs, rivers, aquifers, and wetlands such as limits on size of ships and number of passengers arriving daily in the Keys.

Guarantee only a conservative education in public schools and higher education. The conservative group Florida Citizens Alliance argued that the state reject 28 of 36 textbooks reviewed by its volunteers because of too many references to slavery in a fifth-grade book and too much “negative” perspectives of Native American treatment in an eighth-grade book.  

Make Florida dumb by eliminating race from education. Only Western civilization can be taught, erasing cultures from most continents.

Allow state courts to take trans minors from parents inside or outside the state if the child receives or is “at risk” of receiving gender-affirming healthcare.

Repeal in-state tuition for Dreamers.

Decertify the Democratic party because it endorsed slavery before the Civil War before the two major parties flipped positions.

Block all government investment decisions based on “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) standards.

Conceal all DeSantis’ travel records as he heads into a presidential campaign.

Individuals and groups are fighting back against DeSantis’ draconian laws.

Grace Linn, 100, went before the Martin School District, to fight the removal of 80 books from the schools and talked about how her husband died in World War II when he was 26 in the fight for the U.S. to protect freedom, including that to read. Fear of knowledge is the reason books are banned or burned, she said. The photograph shows her quilt of covers for books that the district has been trying to ban. The freedom to read, Linn said, is an essential right and duty of our democracy, “even though it is continually under attack.” Ironically, Jodi Picault’s The Storyteller was one of the books with Jewish themes removed from the district. With no sex, the novel is set during the Holocaust. One parent, the head of the Moms for Liberty, was responsibility for all the removals.

Member organizations of the Florida NAACPNAACP passed a travel advisory against visiting or moving to Florida. The proposal now goes to the national NAACP board.  

 

One of DeSantis actions was to take over Walt Disney’s taxing district and assign his political minions to control it. The company plans to host an annual major conference for the next two years promoting LGBTQ+ rights with executives and professionals from the world’s largest companies in attendance. The Out & Equal Workplace summit, which is expected to draw over 5,000 attendees and is sponsored by companies like Apple, Walmart, and Amazon, markets itself as “​​the preferred place to network and share strategies that create inclusive workplaces.” 

The anti-woke campaign may be failing. A poll from early March shows that 56 percent of people consider the term positive, meaning “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” Over one-third of Republicans agree. Majorities of voters also oppose legislative punishment of companies supporting abortion rights and other progressive issues. The GOP calls for “parents’ rights,” but they want rights for only those parents who agree with them. The percentage of evangelicals has also shrunk from 23 percent in 2006 to a little over 13 percent now.

If DeSantis becomes U.S. president, everyone in the nation will be subjected to his dictatorship, eradicating anything that he or other conservatives don’t like and calling it freedom. In his 20s, after DeSantis groomed his students during a year of being a teacher, he became a JAG lawyer and went to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he advocated force-feeding prisoners who had gone on a hunger strike to opposed horrific conditions. Force-feeding has been determined a form of torture. In his memoir, Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo, Mansoor Adayfi, imprisoned at GitMo for 14 years, describes the force-feeding process and DeSantis watching and smiling. DeSantis advocated imprisonment outside the legal system where few detainees were charged and most were released.

DeSantis is still “force-feeding” Florida, and he wants to do it to the U.S.

Tucker Carlson in 2024?

In order to be a valid Trumpy presidential candidates if the real thing doesn’t run in 2024, both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have to produce results in their official capacity—a dangerous risk. Fox network’s Tucker Carlson has no other responsibility than to spew hatred, a skill he has been honing for five years on the show with his name. His rants, escalating to keep his top rating after Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) produces less shocking news since his move to Mar-a-Lago, puts him into the lead to Ground Zero Hell for the U.S.

Some samples:

Vaccinations:  Although Fox network mandates either COVID vaccinations or weekly tests for all employees, Carlson repeatedly damns vaccines with “innocent” questions, comparing mandates to medical experiments undertaken by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. He also hosts disinformation spreaders. He compares mandatory vaccinations to “Jim Crow” racial segregation laws and refuses to talk about the Fox vaccination policy.

Last spring, Carlson called mask-wearing as “repulsive—don’t do it around other people.” He said children wearing masks outdoors, as CDC recommended during the worst of the pandemic, a form of child abuse. “Call the police immediately. Contact child protective services,” Carlson ordered. He claimed that only “zealots and neurotics” or those who have to wear masks—like those wearing Kim Il-sung pins in Pyongyang.

Russia: Republicans continually call Democrats “communists,” but Carlson supports Communist Russia in its possible takeover of Ukraine, saying Russian president Vladimir Putin “just wants to keep his western borders secure.” Russia crossed Ukraine’s borders to invade and seize Ukrainian territory, but Carlson calls people who disagree with him about Russia a “moron,” neocon buffoon,” and “ignorant.” Like Russia and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Carlson opposes Ukraine joining NATO. 

Putin has already taken over Crimea; now he wants Eastern Ukraine to continue moving west in his imperialist goals.  Calling Ukraine “irrelevant” to the U.S., Carlson follows the white supremacist love for Russia. His viewers are calling lawmakers to demand that President Joe Biden support Russia in its “reasonable” takeover of Ukraine. Some in Russian media publicly question whether Carlson took “advanced training courses at the Russian Foreign Ministry.”

January 6 Insurrection: Carlson frequently hosted an Oath Keeper facing sedition conspiracy charges and describes him as a “disabled veteran.” Known as “Commander Tom,” the man was stationed outside the Capitol, ready to distribute weapons to other Oath Keepers and plotted getaway plans to Virginia for more weapons. Carlson also defended violent insurrectionists because they called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office asking for the return of items they had left behind. He falsely called Democrats the violent ones, not the right-wingers who stayed “peaceful” despite their violent attacks and made Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) grovel and apologize for calling the events on January 6 terrorism.

Critical Race Theory: Carlson made up his own definition of CRT, that it is teaching white children to be shamed, but said he’d “never figured out what critical race theory is”—even “after a year of talking about it.”

Kyle Rittenhouse: Fox and Carlson deny any direct payment to Kyle Rittenhouse to make a documentary about his exoneration for stalking and killing two men and wounding another, but the network and its show host seem to be behind the teenager’s expensive legal defense that exonerated him. Carlson had over 5 million watchers for his interview with Rittenhouse. At 18, Rittenhouse has been lionized by the far right, including Carlson, because he killed people with an illegally-obtained AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that he took across state lines when he was too young to own a gun.  

Personal Attacks: Carlson’s wanted to strip GOP strategist Frank Luntz of any role in the party “because his views don’t align with average Republican voters.” Luntz had developed effective talking points for Republicans, beginning with Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” to make Republicans the effective lying machine they are.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is the focus of Carson’s hostility toward LGBTQ people. In a 12-minute rant against the gay father of two adopted babies, Carlson repeated his hatred for Buttigieg by calling him an unqualified “kid” who “breastfeeds.” The “kid” is a Harvard grad and Rhodes scholar who served in the Navy for eight years, including as a lieutenant in a counterterrorism unit and was twice elected the mayor of South Bend (IN). The multi-millionaire Carlson ridiculed Buttigieg’s goal to support “the safety of our children and our families” and complained about potholes in South Bend streets.

Carlson worked so hard to destroy Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, that he spent hours on-air smearing him, especially after a possibly mythical discovery of Hunter’s laptop computer abandoned in a New York repair shop. No one ever saw the contents, but Carlson talked about the salacious contents with no evidence. Evidence proves that Carlson used an earlier friendship with Hunter to get his son into Georgetown, Hunter’s alma mater. The son Buckley graduated in 2019, and Carlson never commented on his closeness with Hunter during his rants against him.

Carlson is eclectic in his attacks:

• He warned people not to go to Baltimore, “one of the worst places in the western hemisphere…, a bit of Haiti in the mid-Atlantic.”
• After Meghan Markle and Prince Harry criticized Joe Rogan for his COVID misinformation on Spotify, Tucker called them “that annoying fake duchess from LA and her brain-dead husband”—“grifters.”
• The U.S. will lose to the “masculine” military of China, according to Carlson, because Biden wants the U.S. military to “become more feminine” with pregnant troops and female four-star general. (Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who lost both her legs in combat, fired back at Carlson for that one.) 
• Tucker agreed with Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-GA) that most lawmakers “sound like losers” and “not qualified to be there.” (He gave Greene’s campaign $250 in a raffle for a $10,000 Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle.)
• Even the lowly M&Ms are not beyond Carlson’s notice. He said the rotund figures are “deeply unappealing” and no longer “sexy” because they now wear sneakers. Especially the green one!
• And then there’s Tucker Carlson’s worship of the Hungarian authoritarianism. But that’s a story for another day.

Carlson’s followers, like all Fox afficiandos, suffer from ignorance about the news either through falsehoods or omissions. In an interview with CNN anchor Jim Costa, Gretchen Carlson (no relation to Tucker) talking about Fox hosts spreading disinformation and lies, for example, January 6 when Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham frantically texted DDT’s chief of staff to get DDT to stop the violence. In between their texting, they defended the Capitol insurrectionists while they were on air. Gretchen Carlson commented that some Fox employees think she still works there although she quit in 2016 when she sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment and received a settlement. Fox never covered these stories.  

Support for Russia against Ukraine is becoming a DDT litmus test like the claim that Joe Biden isn’t the legitimately elected president, yet some of Carlson’s more rational supporters are drifting away because of his rabid positions. For example, many GOP legislators are upset with him because of his support for Russia against the U.S., leaving him with only a few such as Hawley and a few GOP representatives who share his opinions. 

Carlson may acquire DDT’s base, but paid Fox contributors are jumping the network ship. Last fall, conservative writers Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg departed after Carlson glorified the “patriots” who threatened the lives of congressional members on January 6 in his three-part revisionist series on January 6, “Patriot Purge.” Hayes protested Carlson’s propaganda presentation of prosecuting insurrectionists as a “domestic war on terror” against the right. The tipping point for Hayes came when a man at a pro-DDT rally asked, “When do we get to use the guns?”

Chris Wallace, top anchor at Fox for nearly two decades, and Bret Baier, Fox’s chief political correspondent, complained about Carlson to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news Jay Wallace. Wallace has left Fox since then. 

HuffPost senior reporter Christopher Mathias stated “Patriot Purge” is “the most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda Carlson has ever produced.” Politifact’s article about the series gives an idea of what the United States will be like if the far-right takes control of the nation. Michael Jenson, senior researcher at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, said:

“It is political propaganda that is meant to rally a support base that has shown a willingness to mobilize on the basis of disinformation and lies. That’s how we got Jan. 6 in the first place.”

Goldberg said he left Fox because he could no longer “be complicit in so many lies.” With Hayes, he wrote, “The voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible.” Goldberg continued:

“I know that a huge share of the people you saw on TV praising Trump were being dishonest. I don’t merely suspect it, I know it, because they would say one thing to my face or in my presence and another thing when the cameras and microphones were flipped on.”

Acosta called Carlson along with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Madison Cawthorn (R-SC) the American Taliban for the use of intimidation and violence to get what they want.

Hate pays: Carlson was #1 in number of views for cable news programs on January 27. And Carlson is better at hate than DDT. Much better.

DeSantis for President?

Since November 2020, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has been operating a two-pronged attack—overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate presidency and run an underground campaign to be elected in 2024. Thus far, the first one has failed, and his leadership in the lies and violence is daily becoming exposed. A poll has revealed that his chances in 2024 may be diminishing. Although almost as many Republicans support him as several months ago, the percentage of those who support him for a presidential candidate has dropped by over 20 percent. Watching a failing DDT, competition is growing. Not one, of course, would ever say they will run against DDT, but three of them are working overtime to out-Trump DDT.

For months, Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has been the pack leader. Of Republicans, 69 percent said DDT should run again for president, but without him, 30 percent support DeSantis. The governor’s most popular DDT position features COVID—at least DDT’s position before he realized that Republicans were dying off at a far more rapid rate than Democrats because, thanks to DDT’s anti-vax attitude until recently, 56 percent of Republicans aren’t vaccinated as of a month ago, compared to 92 percent of Democrats. 

DeSantis’ promotion of COVID in his state, including banning mask mandates and touting monoclonal antibody treatments instead of vaccinations, mades Florida below only six other states in the number of COVID infections per capita. Almost 65,000 Floridians have died of COVID, and over 25 percent of the population has contracted the coronavirus. And those figures come after officials tweaked numbers of infections and deaths to make them appear more favorable to DeSantis. Currently, he is fighting the federal government for removing his preferential Regeneron treatment, a huge moneymaker for his biggest donor. This monoclonal treatment doesn’t affect the new Omicron variant, causing almost 100 percent of COVID cases in England, but DeSantis wants taxpayers to pay $1 billion for the treatments instead of $10 million for vaccinations which are more effective.

One mystery about DeSantis is where he was for a couple of weeks at the end of December in the midst of shattering new records of infections with 1000-percent spike in cases. He said he was caring for his wife, recently diagnosed with cancer, but at his speech after reemerging, he had difficulty breathing, sweat profusely, looked wobbly, and struggled to read his notes in a wavery voice. (Video here.)  Fatigue? Brain fog? Who knows.  

DeSantis is so negligent about COVID that he changed the expiration date on one million COVID rapid tests from last summer to this coming March. He had stockpiled the tests and claimed people shouldn’t bother getting tested and handpicked his new surgeon general, who has yet to be confirmed, to be anti-vaccination and anti-testing. Some facts about Joseph Ladapo, who has yet to be confirmed for the position after over four months:

• Helped lead the state movement to ban mask mandates at schools and private businesses.
• Refuses to say whether COVID vaccinations are beneficial, but writing that the vaccine risks may outweigh the benefits. Unvaccinated people have 68 percent times the risk of dying from COVID than fully vaccinated people.
• Would not say whether he regretted not wearing a mask in the presence of state Sen. Tina Polsky, diagnosed with cancer, during a confirmation interview.
• Declined to answer questions about putting Orange County’s top public health official, Dr. Raul Pino, on leave for criticizing over half the department’s 568 employees who aren’t vaccinated. 
• Participated with a group of doctors supporting unproven COVID therapies as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. One of his colleagues in the group claims having sex with demons during dreams causes endometriosis.
• Opposes mass COVID testing so that people can “be living.” He made this announcement from a podium with the sign, “Early Treatment Saves Lives.”
• Makes $437,000 a year for his job and for teaching at the University of Florida thanks to the Board of Trustees chair and millionaire developer, a big donor to DeSantis campaigns. Of that sum, taxpayers pay $250,000.
• Lied when he said he treated COVID patients at UCLA.

DeSantis doesn’t keep to COVID in demonstrating his DDT-style incompetence, divisiveness, authoritarianism, and morally degenerative behavior.  

Freedom of speech: He tried to block university students and professors who objected voting rights. 

Protesting: His “anti-riot” legislation outlawed two or more people standing together in protest but exonerates anyone driving “into protesters who are blocking a road.” https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/defining-deviancy-down-politics-edition   

Private business rights: His law, blocked in the courts, prohibited social media platforms “banning political candidates or ‘journalistic enterprises’ from their services”—directly applying to DDT.

Voter suppression: Like governors in 18 other states, DeSantis signed voter oppression laws which block some use of ballot drop boxes, give partisan poll watchers new powers, and create difficulty in vote-by-mail. The justification is three voter-fraud incidents by DDT’s supporters in the past two years.  

Election fraud: He plans to create an “Office of Election Crimes and Security,” DeSantis ignored the real election fraud electing three Republicans. Dark money in a mysterious PAC elected three “ghost” candidates in three-way races to draw votes from Democratic incumbents in tight re-election races. One of them, bribed with $44,000 by a former GOP lawmaker, had the same name as the Democrat who lost by 32 votes. That “ghost” was fined and censured, but DeSantis said nothing, perhaps because the same donor for the ghosts gave DeSantis hundreds of thousands of dollars. DeSantis did reward the donor, a utility company, by permitting them the use of dirty fuel sources and a $1.5 billion rate increase for Floridians. The $6 million budget and 52 investigators would be bigger than most of the state’s police departments—but won’t be investigating Republicans.

Personal Guard: DeSantis also wants $3.5 million to reestablish a World War II-era civilian military force disbanded in 1947 that only he controls—not the Pentagon, that is “not encumbered by the federal government.”

Campaign fraud: The Florida media reported that he uses the government-owned plane for “campaign-style events,” and a government watchdog group thinks he is “blurring the lines.” The plane cost $15 million to purchase and over $3 million a year to operate.

DeSantis now has a “reactionary and authoritarian” proposal called the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act. It bans schools and employers from making students and employees feel any “discomfort” because “of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.” Like similar laws in other states, its purpose is to make white supremacists feel comfortable about their privilege by eliminating Black history. The South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial about the bill:

“It perpetuates two persistent great lies: That racism did not have a major influence on American history and that it is not an issue now. That is the current dogma of DeSantis’s Republican Party in its determination to retain the allegiance of white voters who are terrified of losing social and political dominance to changing demographics. Demonization of critical race theory, by making it into a boogeyman, is one front in the Republican culture wars. DeSantis would make Floridians ignorant of the most troublesome aspects of our past, present and future.”

As the editorial board wrote, DeSantis “knows critical race theory isn’t being taught in the schools,” but is lying about the issue anyway. The editorial said DeSantis’ bill was the worst one since Tennessee outlawed the teaching of evolution 96 years ago. The result of that one was called “the monkey trial.” DeSantis’ bill allows parents and employees to sue and act as vigilantes, as they can regarding abortion in Texas.

DeSantis himself has a racist history. About gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, a Black man, DeSantis said he would “monkey this up” in Florida and referred to Puerto Rican Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected to Congress, as “whatever she is.” He appeared with Milo Yiannopoulos and Steve Bannon at a Muslim-bashing event and moderated a Facebook page for racist memes, for example accusing Michele Obama of being a man. He endorsed Sebastian Gorka who has ties to a Hungarian far-right group collaborating with Nazis. Among DeSantis’ anti-immigrant positions is increasing punishments for undocumented migrants after one mentally-ill immigrant accidentally killed someone. One of his major campaign ads for governor was teaching his toddler son about “building the wall” although Florida has no land border with any other country. DeSantis’ wife, Casey, appeared at an event with a Barack Obama “birther” with ties to the anti-Muslim extremist who also ran the racist Facebook group that DeSantis moderated.

For over a month, DDT has focused on attacking DeSantis, first calling him “gutless” for not admitting he’s had a COVID booster shot and then saying he is an ingrate with a “dull personality” with no charisma and no chance of winning in 2024 without his help. As time goes on, he may have to diversify his insulting. Door Two and Three? Perhaps Virginia’s new governor Glenn Youngkin and Fox’s Tucker Carlson. More about them later.

Biden: The Nation Deserves Better

Two more white men—one young, one old—joined the tribe of Democratic presidential candidates this week to make the total 20 for 2020. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), an anti-Nancy Pelosi candidate like his colleague Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), came into the wannabes just before former VP Joe Biden, involved in politics for almost 50 years, declared that he is the one to unify a divided nation.

Of the pack, Biden is the closest to being a Republican, not only because he “likes” them—even helping on get elected last fall—but also because of his GOP positions. Three weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Biden got $200,000 for a speech in Michigan given in the name of GOP House candidate Fred Upton and called him “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.” The vulnerable GOP candidate won. In the 115^th Congress, Upton’s votes matched the positions of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) 94.7 percent of the time. This year, Upton opposed net neutrality and supported the U.S. involvement with Saudi Arabia in the Yemen War.

Biden’s first planned fundraiser is with David Cohen, executive VP and main lobbyist for Comcast, who opposes net neutrality and broadband privacy protections. According to Biden, some of his major donors are “major Republican folks.”

In his love for Republicans, Biden called VP Mike Pence a “decent guy.” Criticized about his praise for the man who wants to take rights away from LGBTQ people, Biden did agree that “there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.” Yet Biden ignored Pence’s opposition to women’s rights and work to make the United States a Christian theocracy.  Cynthia Nixon wrote:

“The fact that Pence does vile, hateful things while well-coiffed and calm doesn’t make him decent; it makes him insidious and dangerous. Respecting each other’s rights and humanity is what makes us civilized — not keeping a civil tone while doing the opposite.

“It’s easy to say nice things about Pence when you’re not personally threatened by his agenda. If Biden were being directly attacked in the same way that our community is, I think he would see Pence from a very different vantage point.

“When politicians of a certain age reminisce about the “civility” that used to define Washington, it’s telling that the old guard conveniently forgets that this decorum has never been extended to all.”

During Biden’s two terms as vice-president, he benefited from GOP decorum as President Obama was given racist disrespect, going so far as incessantly refuting his citizenship. Minorities and women still suffer from Biden’s decision to be collegial with his GOP colleagues and Clarence Thomas in the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Thomas while attacking witness Anita Hill. Thanks to Biden, then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thomas kept his dignity and achieved the prize while Anita Hill’s humanity was stripped and no other women were allowed to testify about Thomas’ sexual misconduct. Biden’s determination to silence women and avoid the truth has saddled the nation with one of the worst Supreme Court justices for decades until Biden’s GOP friends confirmed two DDT appointees.

Considering a run for president, Biden said a few months ago about the Thomas hearings, “I wish I could have done something.” He could have; he just didn’t. A few weeks ago, Biden called Anita Hill to express “his regret for what she endured.” Not really an apology and certainly not contrition for his part in the fiasco. Biden promoted Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall, one of the finest justices in modern history, and Thomas is still sitting on the court driving human rights into the ground after 30 years while building up his personal fortune and helping his wife in her far-right activism.

Biden consistently voted against women’s reproductive rights from his anti-abortion vote with Republicans in 1981 to banning federal funding for international nonprofit groups providing abortion counseling or referrals in 2005. He cited his Catholicism as a reason in his vote for Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-PA) 2003 abortion ban with no exception for the woman’s health.

Another Biden “woman problem” is the controversy about his uninvited touching and kissing women. Seven women have spoken out against him. The defense of just being a nice man trying to comfort women doesn’t work for those who feel that his behavior intrudes on their personal space. [Right: Biden on the 2012 campaign trail in Seaman, Ohio – AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster] People who claim that women should be strong enough to object fail to understand that Biden wields power over female politicians and other women afraid of losing their positions. When several women finally complained, Biden said that he understood his behavior might have made some women uncomfortable. Yet he proved that he doesn’t “get it” after joking about touching people during a speech. After the speech, he claimed that he had never been “disrespectful intentionally” to people and also said:

“I’m not sorry for any of my intentions. I’m not sorry for anything I have ever done.”

Biden’s harsh anti-drug legislation in the 1980s was followed by “tough-on-crime” criminal justice policies. The result was mass incarceration focused on blacks. His staffers stated that made flimsy excuses for weekly hearings about drugs and crime combined with ensuring police at every public meeting.  He did apologize for his legislation but never took leadership in overturning racist crime laws during the eight years when he was vice-president. Biden also apologized for his support the poorly named “Defense of Marriage Act” in 1996 after LGBTQ people had lost their rights for 16 years.

In 1986, Biden voted in favor of the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986, which the NRA has called “the law that saved gun rights.” Creating a legacy for the gun rights movement, the law overturned six Supreme Court rulings and other regulations by permitting dealers to sell rifles, shotguns, and ammunition through the mail and limited inspections of firearms dealers who were then allowed to sell weapons at gun shows.

Biden put young people in deeper debt by blocking student debt forgiveness. In 1978, he wrote a bill to keep students from seeking bankruptcy protections for a specific time after graduation although it would affect fewer than one percent of educational loans. Throughout time, he kept making the law more onerous, adding vocational schools to higher education and then lengthening the time for no bankruptcies. Despite a recommendation in 1997 from the National Bankruptcy and Review Commission that student loans be treated like all other private consumer debt, Biden stayed on the side of the loan industry to limit bankruptcy. In 2001, Biden pushed legislation stripping bankruptcy protections from all student loans including those from private industry, and George W. Bush’s Congress got the bill through in 2005.

To defend his punitive legislation, Biden called borrowers irresponsible or criminal, much like Ronald Reagan’s accusation of “welfare queens.” Biden voted against protecting mothers who failed to receive child support or alimony, voted against setting a limit of 30 percent on loan interest, and voted against special protections for bankruptcy among former military, victims of identity theft, and those with unmanageable medical debt. Elizabeth Warren’s book, The Two-Income Trap, criticizes Biden’s role in stripping out consumer protections for families and single mothers.

Delaware, Biden’s home state, is comparable to the Cayman Islands in providing tax havens for Fortune 500 companies, and one of its sheltered corporations, lending firm MBNA, was Biden’s top donor from 1989 to 2010. In 1996, Biden made a tidy profit by selling his home to MBNA executive John Cochran and continued to pride himself on his “business-friendly” legislative and deregulatory efforts during the decade. Biden’s relationship with MBNA made money for his son Hunter, who kept getting paid as a “consultant” while Biden supported legislation that benefited the credit card despite opposition by consumer groups. Biden likes the wealthy. Last year, he said, “I don’t think five hundred billionaires are the reason we’re in trouble.” He has no solutions for income inequality.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 that led to the 2008 recession, and Biden was part of the crew that gave this law to Wall Street. Through the overturn of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall legislation separating investment banking from commercial banking, institutions could legally gamble with people’s money. By late 2016 Biden admitted it was the “worst vote” he had cast, but again failed to address the consequences during his time as vice-president.

Another Biden “success” was the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. As chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, his hearings were sham—experts opposing the invasion were shut up while all the war hawks took the spotlight. In summer 2002, Biden declared that the U.S. was going to war and then sold the invasion to colleagues and the public. Biden’s support for Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister exacerbated the disaster of the invasion. During his time in power, $500 billion disappeared from the government, the country’s security forces deteriorated, and ISIS developed greater power.

As a senator from Delaware, Biden led the fight in the 1970s against integrating schools through “busing” by playing down racism and demanding a limited government role in integration. He said about slavery:

“I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”

Siding with conservatives on the issue, Biden received praise, such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) welcoming him “to the ranks of the enlightened.” Biden called the integration plans “just quota systems.” Biden refuses to be interviewed about the issue, but his spokesman said that Biden still thinks he was right. Sen. Edward Brooke (R-MA), the chamber’s only black, called one of Biden’s amendments “the greatest symbolic defeat for civil rights since 1964.” Later, Biden extolled the virtues for and common cause with his friend Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-) in his 2003 eulogy for the virulent racist.

After considering a run for president at least six times beginning in 1980, this campaign makes Biden’s third presidential candidacy. In 1988, Biden, then 45 years old, dropped out after a plagiarism controversy. Twenty years later, his departure came after winning only one percent in the Iowa caucuses—fifth place. If elected in 2020, Biden would be 78 years old on his inauguration day. That eliminates a second term unless voters want an 86-year-old president.

Biden is part of the past: presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was five years old when Biden first ran for president. His announcement, a video, mentioned nothing about today’s problems such as jobs, health care, or education. His opening shows only a campaign against DDT without any goals that elected Democrats in 2018.

“I’ve got the most progressive record of anyone running,” Biden said in March. Young people, women, and minorities—all important Democratic constituencies—might differ with his statement. Democrats deserve a candidate who will do more than run against DDT. Unity is one thing; sellout is entirely different.

‘Thank You, Hillary Clinton’

 

What Hillary Clinton did wrong. That’s been the pervasive issue coming from all directions since the November election. Politicians and media, both conservative and liberal, have consistently battered her for the past 50 days since she won the popular vote in the nation by almost three million votes.  Never mind that she faced fake news, constant lies, Russian interference, gerrymandering, voter oppression, threats to progressive voters, sexism, anti-Clinton sentiment, and a few other problems.

It’s long past time to honor this woman who has given much to the country that takes great pleasure in vilifying her. Fortunately, John Pavlovitz, a pastor in Raleigh (NC), has done this, and journalist/blogger/columnist Leslie Salzillo wrote a piece about his letter of thanks to Clinton. Some of my readers may remember Pavlovitz’s commentary about the current president-elect called “How the Trump Stole America.”

Thanks to both Ms. Salzillo and Mr. Pavlovitz for the following:

North Carolina Christian Pastor Writes Piercing Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

John Pavlovitz is a unique veteran pastor in Raleigh, North Carolina who has been very vocal about the 2016 election, the misogyny of men like the president-elect, and more recently his admiration for Hillary Clinton. In his most recent open letter to Clinton, he starts off giving thanks to her for the work she’s done for the past five decades, what she accomplished this year, her “dignity in the face of undignified behavior,” her seriousness at the prospect of leading our country, and her campaign of diversity, equality and shared strength — which she ran with grace and continuously reminded us of America’s greatness. He adds Hillary did everything she was supposed to do — everything she was asked:

“You were prepared and balanced and cool under pressure.

You knew what you were talking about at every turn.

You saw the big picture, and you knew the countless small details that your opponent could never be bothered with.

You endured a relentless flood of misinformation by continually, plainly speaking your truth.

You had your character assassinated over and over—and in response you simply showed that character.

You shouldered the kind of expectations that no man aspiring to the position has ever had to contend with.

You had to be both strong and sensitive, tough and warm, fierce and likable—and you were.

You never talked in nonsensical sound bites, never ranted like a lunatic at your detractors, never viciously attacked citizens on social media—and you never stooped to the inhumanity of your opponent.”

Giving more accolades, Pavlovitz continues:

“Despite the unprecedented viciousness hurled at you, you never responded in kind; you just kept on being decent, intelligent, thoughtful—Presidential. You alone had the experience and the temperament and the maturity to do the job of leading this country. That should have been enough. I’m sorry that it wasn’t.”

Pavlovitz then states some apologies to Clinton saying he’s sorry that his 7-year old daughter won’t get to see the first woman President sworn in and instead his daughter will have to see a man who has complete contempt in shaping her future. Pavlovitz is sorry his 11-year old son will be reminded every day that “you can treat women with total disregard, that you can be a vile, filthy bully—and be well rewarded for it.”

The pastor apologizes to Hillary that more people didn’t recognize her diversity, strength and how her faith has always been the real, quiet, constant bedrock of who she is — and not a “one-time, cheap, campaign parlor trick designed to appear religious to the easily fooled.” And Pavlovitz is sorry that so many people chose to endure a “terrifying circus” instead of Hillary’s steadiness. Most of all, the pastor says he’s sorry Hillary will not be his President, because like himself, he believes Hillary cares for the full breadth of American diversity and he would have been proud to have been led by her.

Pavlovitz writes about how Hillary Clinton has served this country her entire life, and he knows she’ll continue to do the daily, difficult, unglamorous work of real leadership; “the kind that your opponent will never understand” or be interested in doing behind the scenes, “away from the spotlight; not fishing for compliments or pleading for adulation or begging to noticed.”

“I know you’re a warrior and that you’re going to be fine, but I also know that you’re human and that this year must have taken a greater toll on you than anyone. I hope you realize that it wasn’t in vain; that you really have won (and not just the popular vote).”

He says Hillary Clinton won because she reminded us that our diversity is our greatest asset and through equality we really are stronger together. Hillary’s won because she “didn’t need to manufacture fear to draw people” to her, and she “didn’t have to create a villain out of someone’s religion or skin color or native language or sexual orientation.” She’s the winner because the nearly 66 million Americans voted for her “now have a vision and a reason to fight on, and we will.” Pavlovitz says, “We will be the strong, steady resistance to the bigots and the bullies.” He writes that most of all, Hillary won because she did what good people always do regardless of the cost or the pushback or the reception, she went high — where the real victory is.

In his conclusion, John Pavlovitz tells Hillary:

“So for all that you gave and suffered and endured,

for how you taught and cared and labored,

for the way you inspired and challenged and led,

for being the very best of this country and for this country—

Thank you, Hillary.

John Pavlovitz”

Pavlovitz did not mention Hillary’s opponent during his entire piece. Although social and traditional media is still consumed and obsessed with stories about the president-elect (guilty), how refreshing to read a piece that doesn’t include that person’s name and instead includes more about the good in this country and those work to make it better — and here’s to the men and women of faith who speak out for that good.

[Pavlovitz begins his letter: “I hope this finds you well. I’ve been meaning to write you for a while. I was thinking of you again today and I guess I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you.”

He wrote:

“I’m sorry that this country will be far less diverse, less civil, less open, and less compassionate than it would have been with you guiding it.

“I’m sorry that enough people chose his sideshow over your steadiness, and that we now all have to endure the terrifying circus.

“Most of all I’m sorry that you will not be my President, because like me I believe that you care for the full breadth of America’s diversity, not just the smallest sliver of it—and I would have been proud to have been led by you.”

Thank you, Hillary Clinton]

FBI Needs to Investigate Trump

The supposedly wealthy, jobs guy, Donald Trump, has been found to violate his employees’ federal labor rights by illegally refusing to bargain with his 500+ workers at the Last Vegas Trump International Hotel, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The board has ordered Trump to post notices in the hotel to admit the violation as well as immediately bargain a contract with them. He has actually broken the law while he incites his crowds regarding calls to jail Hillary Clinton—when she hasn’t violated any laws.

Yet the media continues to concentrate on the non-story of Clinton’s email, although Fox network’s  Bret Baier found himself having to make a correction on his “reporting.” After he falsely reported that investigators had determined Clinton’s private email server was hacked “by five foreign intelligence agencies,” leading to an indictment after the election, Baier admitted that “there is no evidence” for his statements. That didn’t stop Trump from constantly repeating these lies on the campaign trail.

No one has any evidence that Clinton’s emails were in any way illegal, but Clinton-hating—white, male, and conservative—FBI agents are rigging the election by spreading false information. The agents leaked so much information to the Trump campaign that the feckless FBI director, James Comey felt compelled to release information a week ago about searching for emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer—emails that were neither sent by nor sent to Clinton.

Two days before Comey sent a damning letter to members of the Congress about the emails, Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani bragged about knowing a “big surprise” and then crowed about his knowledge of a revolution inside the FBI that he had learned from active agents. Yesterday, Giuliani said that he knew about the release of information before knowledge because public; today he backed down and denied that FBI agents told him about reviewing newly discovered emails before Comey made the information public. Reps. Elijah Cummings (MD-D) and John Conyers, Jr. (MI-D), the ranking members of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, have called on the Inspector General of the Justice Department to investigate “the source of multiple unauthorized—and often inaccurate—leaks from within the FBI to benefit the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”

Giuliani is heavily linked to the FBI’s New York City office with his law firm’s ongoing business, concerning 13,000 agents, and the Trump campaign has an open pipeline with the New York City FBI bureau. FBI agents leaking information break their oaths of office, and intentionally interfering with elections violate the federal Hatch Act. Their actions are bringing up memories of Edgar J. Hoover, the first FBI director, who kept extensive files on thousands of people and blackmailed to get his way.

Trump’s super-PAC “Make America Number 1,” financed by Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, also paid Giuliani hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past year. Trump’s campaign leader Kellyanne Conway headed up the super-PAC and was replaced by David Bossie, head of Citizens United before he was put on Trump’s campaign. Breitbart owners, Robert and Rebehak Mercer, moved former head Steve Bannon to Trump’s campaign. leading part of the super-PAC. In addition, the Mercers funds the Bannon-led non-profit Government Accountability Institute and the video producer “Glittering Steel, a front for Bannon. GAI’s president, Peter Schweizer, wrote the smear-filled book, Clinton Cash, that FBI agents used for documentation in its Clinton investigation. Even Schweizer, the author, admits that he has no proof for many of his claims. “Follow the money” shows that the Mercers control both Trump and many FBI agents, using their billions to control the upcoming presidential election.

Their opposition to Clinton is keeping FBI agents mum about an investigation into Trump’s connection on a private server with the largest private commercial bank in Russia. Computer scientists have been following this secretive connection since last July, but the connection disappeared hours after the New York Times asked Alpha Bank about the communication. Within four days, the Trump Organization used a new host name for communication to the same private server. Although scientists were not able to obtain emails, they noted that the conversations paralleled political occurrences in the U.S., with peaks during the two conventions.

In the lengthy Newsweek cover story, Kurt Eichenwald trailed Trump’s destruction of business documents and emails over the past four decades during lawsuits. For example, investors lost a fortune in 2011 when Trump claimed that he had no liability insurance for a failed project in Florida only to have a lawyer reveal two years later that he had a $5 million policy. This is just one of thousands of times when Trump cheated people through his destruction of records. He also destroyed documents when he was the person suing, for example a suit against Cordish Cos., regarding two Native American casinos in 2000.

How crazy is this election getting? In 2000, Ralph Nadar said he preferred George W. Bush to Al Gore. The past 16 years shows where that preference led the nation. Now Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, supports Donald Trump—who thinks that climate change is a hoax from China—to Hillary Clinton. Greens are also defending Stein for her investments in palm oil plantations, the biggest cause of deforestation in the world.

On the other hand, major conservative pundits have wholeheartedly rejected Trump. Charles Krauthammer writes: “[As] final evidence of how bad are our choices in 2016, Trump’s liabilities, especially on foreign policy, outweigh hers.” He continues to discuss the dangers of Russia, China, and Iran seeing a Trump presidency as a way  “to achieve regional dominance and diminish, if not expel, American influence.”

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson: “Most options are better than Clinton. But not all. And not this. The GOP has largely accommodated itself to a candidate with no respect for, or knowledge of, the constitutional order… Those who are complicit have adopted a particularly dangerous form of power-loving hypocrisy. It is almost beyond belief that Americans should bless and normalize Trump’s appeal. Normalize vindictiveness and prejudice. Normalize conspiracy theories and the abandonment of reason. Normalize every shouted epithet, every cruel ethnic and religious stereotype, every act of bullying in the cause of American ‘greatness.’”

David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush, voted for Hillary Clinton and explained:

“To vote for Trump as a protest against Clinton’s faults would be like amputating a leg because of a sliver in the toe; cutting one’s throat to lower one’s blood pressure.”

Peggy Noonan defined the GOP problem in her column for the Wall Street Journal: “The split in the party happened in the past 15 years. When you give a party two unwon wars, one a true foreign-policy catastrophe, and a great recession, it will begin to break because its members lose confidence in its leaders. When the top of the party believes in things that the bottom of the party doesn’t want (on immigration, entitlements and trade), things will break further. The bottom will begin to feel the top no longer cares about it. That will end their loyalty. Mr. Trump’s Republican foes are wrong in thinking his followers are just sticking with the party. They’re not, they’ve broken from the party.” Yet Republicans think that re-electing a GOP president and Congress will save them.

Trump hates “illegal aliens,” but it’s highly possible that his wife is one. He denied that Melania Trump came to the U.S. on a tourist visa but then worked as a professional model. Documentation has appeared that he lied about Melania Trump’s illegal status. Yet Trump supporters love their candidate in spite—or because—of his lying and illegal activities while they find Clinton, the most truthful of all this year’s candidates—to be “untrustworthy.”

Trump Supporters Love Him for His Dishonesty

Donald Trump’s tax returns have been a recurring discussion for almost a year, but the conversation hit a new high after last week’s debate. After Hillary Clinton brought up her opponent’s refusal to disclose his tax returns, he made the flippant statement, “That makes me smart.” The Washington Post reporter attending the debate heard the comment, “That’s offensive. I pay taxes.”

Even more outrage was expressed after it was learned that Trump may avoid paying taxes for almost two decades on earnings of $50 million a year because he declared a loss of almost $1 billion on his 1995 income tax returns. No one admits to providing the New York Times with this information, but no denials of accuracy have been issued by Trump and his associates at that time although Trump said that this information was “illegally obtained.”

Surrogates have praise Trump for not paying any federal income taxes. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called him a genius for this avoidance although Giuliani has said some other very odd things. The mayor of New York at the time of the 9/11 attacks said that terrorists had not attacked the United States until Barack Obama became president. Giuliani also slammed Hillary Clinton for her husband’s affairs and then covered for his own and those of Trump by saying “everyone does it.” How can a genius lose almost $1 billion in such a short time?

New Jersey Chris Christie described the release of Trump’s tax return as “actually a very, very good story” for the Trump campaign. In an on-going lawsuit about the political closure of the George Washington Bridge, both prosecutors and lawyers for the defendants claim that Christie approved the action during the closure, and a defendant has sworn under oath that Christie was told at the time that the bridge was ordered closed.

Republicans have long described people who don’t pay taxes as parasites and worse. For example, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) described people who didn’t pay taxes as “takers” as compared to the “makers,” and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney talked about the “47 percent.” Trump is a member of Ryan’s “takers.”

A far more serious problem than Trump not paying taxes, however, is the revelation of Trump as a failure as a businessman during the booming economy of the 1990s through mismanaging three Atlantic City casinos, investing in an airline company, and purchasing Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. He’s running on his boast that he’s brilliant in business and creating jobs and then declares a loss of $916 million—about $1.5 billion in today’s dollars. Either the jobs that Trump claims to have created disappeared, or he refused to pay the people he hired.

In his declared loss of $916 million,Trump also destroyed investors when share holders lost almost the entire value as shares dropped from $35.50 to 17 cents. The only winner was Trump, who could use “net operating losses” to cancel out any taxable income for the next 18 years. With a good—and expensive—lawyer, Trump can also stiff everyone he owes by declaring bankruptcy and “reorganizing” his debts. Trump bought buildings and businesses with borrowed money and then deducted interest paid on the debt and took depreciation deductions while his real estate appreciated in value. He’s right that the system is rigged, and it’s rigged in his favor.

The question swirling the internet is how Trump managed to lose $916 million in 1995, a year when the average loss among millionaires was $614,000. One theory is that he didn’t lose the money. John Hempton, an Australian hedge fund manager and former expert on tax avoidance for the Australian Treasury, theorized that Trump “parked” the debt from his bankruptcies in a dummy party offshore where it was neither collected nor officially forgiven. No one has denied this theory either.

There’s support for Hempton’s theory in how little Trump actually lost in the early 1990s. An analysis of financial reports from Trump’s businesses shows far less than the $916 million that he supposedly lost. Trump lost about $13 million from THCR (Trump Hotels, Casinos, Resorts) in a few years. He also sold the Plaza Hotel to Saudi and Asian investors for $325 after buying it for $400 million, but he may not have had any loss in the sale. The purchasers assumed $440 million in debt in addition to the purchase price, making Trump’s total closer to $765 million. In addition, banks wrote down Trump’s loan in order to make sure the sale went through. All this for a hotel that Trump never owned because he put no money down on it. The loans against the Plaza paid for Eastern Air Lines Shuttle and the construction of the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.

Another fact detracting from the people’s belief in Trump’s business acumen is that he lost $800 million last year, reducing his assets to $3.7 billion. To all of us, that sounds like a lot of money, but he lost almost 20 percent of all his assets in one year. People who admire him should consider what would happen to their own lives if they lost 20 percent of their own assets in one year.

People who want Trump’s business model for the United States don’t understand that his system doesn’t work for a country that borrows money from other countries. The end result could be that all those other countries will then own the U.S.

“We are going to protect our steel industries.” That’s what Trump told an audience today, but he bought steel and aluminum in two of his three construction projects from China during the past four years. At other times, he skipped the steel and bought less-expensive concrete from companies linked to the Luchese and Genovese crime families. These projects were not for public companies so his decision was made to line the pockets of himself and his family. Buying from China is nothing new for Trump: that’s where all the suits and ties for Trump’s Signature line are made. He also lied about not being able to buy this clothing in the U.S.

Trump also faces grim problems regarding the Trump Foundation. It was bad enough when facts emerged that he was using the charitable group, with donations totally for other people, as a personal slush fund to bail him out of lawsuits and purchase personal items. Surrogates had no defense for Trump’s actions because they immediately pivoted to talking about the Clinton Foundation—that has no illegal issues—when asked about the Trump’s foundation.

The most recent concern is that the foundation never got New York registration and annual auditing to allow it to operate as a large (over $25,000 a year) foundation. The Trump Foundation took in at least $1.67 million through his website. Trump has been told to stop soliciting donations for the Trump Foundation.

In another illegal action, a Trump-controlled company secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during a time of strict U.S. trade bans. The $68,000 spent in 1998 was prohibited without U.S. approval although the company, with Trump’s knowledge, funneled the money through a U.S. consulting firm that tried to make the expenses legal by linking it after the fact to charity. Just after this foray into Cuba, Trump told Cuban-Americans that he promised to maintain the embargo and never spend any money in Cuba while Fidel Castro.

Every time Trump opens his mouth, he says something offensive. Today the man who dodged the draft with a possible temporary bone spur charged that soldiers who suffer from PTSD aren’t “strong” and “can’t handle it.” This harsh rhetoric from Trump pairs with his statement that prisoners of war aren’t heroes because, as he put it, “I like people who weren’t captured.” He’s also bragged that attending an expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

A letter defending Trump published in a large Oregon newspaper today presented these claims of superiority over Clinton as facts: he’s created multiple companies and hired tens of thousands of workers; he supports the military; and he’s fact-checked when Clinton isn’t. One word about the letter, in Trump’s terminology:  WRONG.

People who write letters should research their subject matter. In the area of business, the author avoids all the facts about Trump’s fraud, bankruptcy for personal benefit, support for overseas companies by buying from them, theft from his own charity, financial destruction of people who invest in his companies, and lies about his success. Trump has shown no support for the military by denigrating members of the military and refusing to give them donations that he pretended to solicit for people in the armed services. In the matter of fact-checking, the letter’s author skips over all the fact-checking of Clinton that has shown her to be the most truthful candidate in the last decade.

This article covers many of Trump’s scandals, but his supporters will never read it.They  live in a bubble that allows them to justify all his illegal actions and maintain their fantasy image of a strong man who will protect his followers. They’re wrong, but they can’t face the truth.

Who Are the Trump Supporters?

People follow Trump because they admire him—“say it like it is,” avoid “political correctness,” make money by cheating and call is capitalism, and make up their own rules. There are some specific characteristics of Trump supporters (TS) based on his values and approaches:

A desire to be ruled, not governed: The top predictor of being a TS is a belief in authoritarianism. TS are inclined to believe in obedience; they want strong leaders and respond aggressively to outsiders because they feel threatened. Trump’s promises to close mosques, ban Muslims, build a wall, and the generality of “make American great again” rises above constitutional rights or capitalism. The model for Trump is Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia.

Lack of class (as in quality): TS appreciate that Trump ridicules a disabled person, calls POWs losers, denigrates women because he doesn’t find them physically attractive, makes inappropriate sexual comments about his daughter, blasts a Gold Star family, etc.

Willingness to cheat and lie to people: Trump deflates his numbers to get low taxes, incessantly tells falsehoods, defrauds his employees, rips off people for his own benefit, etc. He fits the description of a pathological liar as words automatically pour out of his mouth that contradict what he’s said earlier or just “misrepresents” reality.

Racist beliefs: Trump embraces the alt-right movement, led the birther movement, belittles minorities by accusing them of being criminals and rapists, demands that judges in his thousands of lawsuits be white, fires minorities because of their skin color, etc.

Misogynist way of life: Trump’s attacks on Megyn Kelly brought his sexist attitude to the forefront of media, and he continues to incessantly insult women. In debates he brags about the size of his genitalia and claims that female opponents are too ugly to be president. Approached about his abusive statements about women, he doubles down on the outrageous comments by blaming the women for his beliefs. An acquaintance from Trump’s days in a military academy said that they learned about women from Playboy magazine and that Trump never got over this sexism.

Deficiency in religious/spiritual ethics: Trump grew up with the gospel of prosperity and has continued this conviction throughout his life. (See “Willingness to cheat and lie to people.”)

No credence in the U.S. Constitution: Republicans have rabidly sworn for the past almost eight years that President Obama doesn’t obey the constitution, yet GOP members ignore Trump’s plans to break the First Amendment by curbing free speech while forcing one religion on the nation’s entire population. He also wants to remove due process from anyone who annoys him—which covers a large number of people—and remove birthright citizenship, both enshrined in the constitution.

Rejection of hard work: For the most recent presidential debate, Hillary Clinton studied the issues, prepared specifics, and practiced for her encounter with Trump. People, including Trump, made fun of her because she worked hard to be ready for a difficult job—that of the President of the United States. Trump came in with no preparation, almost unable to stand for 90 minutes, but was praised for his energy and excitement. No information, just rude interrupting and repetitive generalities.

A reason for Trump to not prepare might be that he suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect, an overweening confidence in his ignorant sense of superiority. With this effect, incompetents fail to recognize their own incompetence. Because they don’t understand that they are not good at something, they fail to see their personal flaws and don’t bother to work on self-improvement. The more incompetent they are, the greater their confidence.

For example, Trump is supremely confident that the solution for defeating ISIS is to steal oil from Middle Eastern countries, both a militarily impractical solution and a violation of international law. Not understanding cyber warfare, he makes a reference to “400-pound” hackers sitting on their beds. Trump thinks he can create stability in Asia by getting China to invade North Korea although both countries have nuclear weapons and China is a sponsor of North Korea. The man with no experience in politics or public policy accuses the former secretary of state as lacking “basic ability” compared to him.

People question why Clinton is only a few points ahead of Trump despite her superiority in knowledge and ability. The GOP, who now has no idea what to do with the monster they created, led its constituency into a state of racial resentment and bigotry in order to move the country’s assets to the wealthy. This audience is ripe for Trump support after watching the bullying star of a “reality” TV show for fourteen years and another year of almost all the media—not just the Fox network—promote him in a competition for ratings. At the same time, the media, both cable and mainstream, has spent 30 years constantly accusing Clinton of being “untruthful” and “untrustworthy.” Finally facing veracity, the media is helpless to change the situation that they created.

Think of “an egomaniac who ‘only loved himself’ — a narcissist with a taste for self-dramatization…”  A man with “bottomless mendacity” who magnifies himself with “a slick propaganda machine”—a “big mouth” who rose to power, embraced by millions for his “doctrine of hatred.” A man who promises to lead the country “’to a new era of national greatness,’ though he was typically vague about his actual plans.” A man whose “ascension was aided and abetted by the naïveté of domestic adversaries who failed to appreciate his ruthlessness and tenacity” and those who found him an “evening entertainment.” Conservatives believed that they could “fence” him in.

These quotes are from a book review by Michiko Kakutani about Volker Ullrich’s new biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939. The parallels between Donald Trump and the man who almost ruled the world are frightening.  

Hitler, who played on the people’s bitterness and resentments, was described as “so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognize the difference between lies and truth.” Editors of one edition of “Mein Kampf” described it as a “swamp of lies, distortions, innuendoes, half-truths and real facts.” Aaron Blake writes about “Trump’s tendency to make up facts, spew utter distortions and rely on innuendo.” Hitler claimed to be the visionary leader who could restore law and order just as Trump does, perhaps getting his lines from reading Hitler’s speeches. Hitler gained power from the uncompromising government dysfunction by giving his supporters the belief that they needed “a man of iron” to shake up the country. That’s what TS think that Trump will bring them.

The country has survived presidents who were hot-headed (Lyndon Johnson), dishonest (Richard Nixon), unprepared (Ronald Reagan), and overwhelmed (George W. Bush). But the U.S. has not faced a fascist who appeals to anti-immigrant sentiment, creates anger with the political and economic establishment which includes an attack on NAFTA, and expresses extreme intolerance toward non-Christian people. That’s what Patrick Buchanan did in the 1992 campaign when conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that this mix of “nativism, authoritarianism, ethnic and class resentment” follows the classic mold of fascism.

Throughout history, fascism has started with lack of economic opportunity giving the wealthy almost the entire pie. As promoters of two political sides separate into their corners, the center vacuum leaves a space. The “center” fills with people who maintain superiority to everyone except the “right kind of people”—in the U.S., that means people born here who manage to have large salaries. The “superior” people dehumanize everyone else by calling them animals, thugs, and terrorists. If indiscriminate murderers are white, they are “mentally damaged.” All others are sub-humans.

A large middle class during the 1950s, more educated and financially well-off, disappeared when stagnating incomes throughout GOP leadership decreased advantages of savings, education, and healthcare. “Trickle-down economics” and deregulating Wall Street moved more wealth to the top. The two Bill Clinton terms during the 1990s started a reversal, but the appointment of George W. Bush to the presidency created a hit to the economy from lower taxes, trillions of dollars in war expenditures, and the severe recession from deregulation of borrowing.

People who support Trump come up with many excuses for casting their votes for Trump, but they could not support him if they didn’t believe that he is right in all his lying, fraudulent, racist, sexist, authoritarian, anti-constitution, nativist, incompetent, ill-prepared approaches toward ruling.

Trump Loses with Blacks, Women

Donald Trump’s appearance at a black church in Flint (MI) yesterday drew a great deal of attention—but what’s new about that! The series of events:

• After Trump gave Flint’s mayor Karen Weaver only one day notice that he planned to tour the closed water treatment plant because of the lead, she said it was not a good time because the city was still trying to deal with the problems. She was also out of town trying to get help from Congress after the total disaster that Michigan’s businessman turned governor had caused.
• Trump went anyway, giving his usual “Hillary hate” trash talk in a black church.
• The pastor of the church, Rev. Faith Green-Timmons, gently stopped him by saying, “Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done for Flint, not to give a political speech,”
• Trump said, “Oh, oh, OK, OK, OK. That’s good. Then I’m going to go back onto Flint, OK.” The pastor also stopped the heckling from his audience who were bringing up specific examples of Trump’s racial discrimination in housing and employment. Green-Timmons said that Trump “is a guest in my church and you will respect him.”

A video shows Green-Timmons’ graciousness and Trump’s obsequiousness. Yet Trump lied about the event on Fox and Friends this morning, describing Timmons as being a “nervous mess” and the audience as shouting “Let him speak, let him speak.” He also claimed that Timmons had planned to ambush him.

Yesterday the Senate voted 94-3 to end debate on a bill that includes $220 million in emergency assistance for communities such as Flint as well as $4.9 billion over five years to repair systems related to drinking water. They also voted 85-12 to waive a budget rule complicating the Flint funding that would take money from the Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

The problem now is the House. It has been suggested that Trump would better spend his time by calling his “friend” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to ask for this bill to be passed in that chamber. At this time, the House waterways bill doesn’t have Flint funding.

Former Michigan epidemiologist Corinne Miller has pled guilty to not reporting to the public dozens of Legionnaires’ disease at the same time that Flint changed its water source, also the cause of the high lead content in the drinking water. The water may have caused at least 91 Legionnaires’ cases, including 12 deaths. The plea deal of no contest on Wednesday to a misdemeanor of willful neglect of duty led to dismissal of felony misconduct and conspiracy charges. Eight people have been charged in the water crisis.

The day before his appearance in Flint, Trump opened up another can of worms showing his sexism. With the help of his daughter Ivanka, the GOP presidential candidate tried to woo women voters with vague promises of “maternity leave” and funding for child care. After people recovered that surprise that a Republican would endorse this action, they learned that his suggestions are not as generous as he promised. His programs favor the rich and target “well-off white women,” according to journalist Joan Walsh.

Trump introduced his program by saying in a high-pitched tone that his daughter told him, “Daddy, Daddy, we have to do this.” Ivanka Trump is under the impression that child care is a brand new idea in the United States, indicating that she hasn’t done her homework. Universal child care existed in the nation from 1943 to 1946 but disappeared until Congress passed a bill in 1971 that GOP President Richard Nixon vetoed.

A 1990 law to help subsidize child care failed during the early 21^st century when GOP George W. Bush reduced its funding. Even if Republicans are willing to support child care—unlikely because they think that this increases the “nanny state”—they are always unwilling to pay for it. Parental leave has also been an issue for over two decades—always quashed by the GOP.

In Trump’s plan, “maternity leave”(not parental leave) is only for six weeks, only for women, and only through already cash-strapped unemployment insurance, thereby helping women only in the states where legislatures opt in and providing much less than most women’s salaries. Trump’s plan also requires women to quit their jobs for the “maternity leave” because of unemployment insurance guidelines.

Although Trump uses the term “tax credit” when discussing his policy, the policy on his website indicates that it is a “tax deduction,” a far different proposal. Credit means that people will get the full amount back. Salaries of the working poor are so low that they don’t itemize deductions, leaving them with nothing whereas the wealthy can deduct expensive nannies and private day-care facilities and get 15 to 30 percent return. Trump’s plan would also give stay-at-home mothers credits even if they didn’t need child care to have jobs.

An irony of Trump’s speech is that his business provides neither maternity nor child care. Although Trump and his daughter claimed that he did provide the latter, it was only for wealthy Trump hotel guests. The claim that Hillary Clinton has never had either a “maternity leave” or child care policy and “never will” is also a lie. The only maternity leave provided for Trump employees is the federally-mandated 12-week unpaid leave. Yesterday in a discussion on public radio, Trump’s economic advisor Steven Moore stated that people shouldn’t have children if they can’t afford them.

In the past, Trump has found pregnant women and mothers of newborns “an inconvenience” and more. He said that pregnancy is “an inconvenience for business” because employers get only 84% of their working moms’ brains, according to Trump. He added that women “should” feel like they will be replaced if they do not return to work quickly even if they will not necessarily be replaced. Trump also called an attorney “disgusting” when she needed a break from a deposition to pump breast milk and that working women are bad for marriages. Confronted by Trump’s statements about women in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Ivanka Trump complained about “a lot of negativity in these questions” and cut the interview short.

In contrast to Trump’s proposals, Clinton’s plan provides a paid 12-week “family leave” for fathers and family members caring for a sick relative. The costs would be covered by higher taxes on the wealthy—such as Donald Trump and his family members. Other Clinton suggestions include a wide variety of child-care and preschool programs with costs capped for the middle class at ten percent of their salaries.

No plan can be carried out without congressional legislation. Yet Trump’s plan is regressive and sexist, perhaps because his look on life is regressive and sexist. This is his perspective on men rearing their children:

“I won’t do anything to take care of [my children]. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”

The term “maternity leave” not only goes beyond outmoded language, but also its limits to females hold back women, lowering their wages and reducing their hiring. These policies also discriminate against men in gay couples, other men who want to take an active part in rearing newborns, and adoptive individuals and couples.

Basically, Trump is losing white college-educated women who have voted Republican, and he wants them back.

Even with the undesirability of Trump’s plan, Republicans are criticizing Trump’s plan as “an enormous new entitlement that will blow the debt,” as conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote. He further complained about “the government stepping in and telling private industry what to do.”

Be careful of all those headlines and lead paragraphs that Trump has finally admitted that Barack Obama was born in the United States. He still refuses to say those words although his campaign leaders and surrogates are swearing that this is what he believes. Asked if his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is right when she says he has reversed his almost decade-long position that the president was born outside the U.S., Trump said, “It’s okay. She’s allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs. I want to focus on other things.” Before that, Trump had said, “I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet.”

Trump still hasn’t said that he believes President Obama meets the constitutional requirements to hold the office where he has been for almost two terms. I’m still waiting for Trump to answer the question.

[Update: Trump finally actually said the words! Late yesterday, he said, “President Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.” Trump is still falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton started the birther rumor that he pushed for the past eight years.]

Media Paints False Picture of Clinton

Hillary Clinton has been the subject of a huge right-wing conspiracy for a quarter century, but it’s her fault. That’s the conclusion of the conservative Washington Post. It’s all because she is secretive, and WaPo claims it started with Clinton’s failed Arkansas real estate investment. Aides blamed President Bill Clinton’s refusal to be transparent about Whitewater on Hillary. Then came a series of other “gates” as the GOP tried to destroy both Hillary and Bill Clinton. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent in the Clinton conspiracy/scandal theories.

Over 40 anti-Hillary books are available just on amazon.com, including three of the top ten best sellers on the NYT hardcover nonfiction list. Passionate opposition to Clinton finds ulterior motives in every Clinton action. No one has any facts to hate her, but hate her many people do. They just have that “feeling” that she’s untrustworthy.

The myth of Clinton’s low likability ratings comes from both sides of the media that constantly ask why she is not likability. Her favorable rating is actually 41 percent—not as good as President Obama’s current 52 percent but far better than Trump’s 34 percent, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) 33 percent, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) 16 percent, and the GOP’s overall 34 percent. Yet no asks about the lack of GOP leaders’ favorability.

The media is so anti-Clinton that it refuses to point out that she had a 69-percent favorability when she left her job as Secretary of State, making her the most popular in this position, and topped Gallup’s list of America’s “Most Admired Woman” for the last 14 years in a row and 20 times total. As Sady Doyle pointed out at Quartz, women who “lean in” are described as “aggressive,” “pushy,” and “bitchy.” Women aren’t supposed to ask for promotions. People associate positive leadership attributes with male characteristics and punish women who aim for a male-dominated position—because it makes them unlikable, a characteristic important for women but not men.

Associated Press, long considered conservative, went so far over the edge in partisanship that even other journalists howled in anger. The press agency released a story claiming that “half of the people Hillary Clinton met with as Secretary of State were Clinton Foundation donors.” It covered only 154 meetings in two years amidst thousands of Clinton meetings, however, and skipped every meeting with a “government official.” The meetings also resulted in no problematic favors. Most of the stories about the Clinton Foundation eliminate the fact that the Clinton Foundation helps provide medication for more than half of all adults and 75 percent of children impacted by HIV/AIDS worldwide. Yet the GOP is using the AP article as an excuse to investigate Clinton.

Extensive investigations found no proof that there was anything criminal in her emails, Benghazi, and the Clinton Foundation—the only foci of incessant lambasting. Media concentrating on the foundation have produced lists of people who both donated to the foundation and were able to see Clinton but no favors that were given any of these people.

RNC chair Reince Priebus asserts that he “knows” that Clinton gave away international secrets in her emails, and people believe him despite his total lack of any proof after multiple investigations. The only reason that the FBI claimed Clinton’s server was “probably” hacked is that servers are usually hacked—a situation occurring with many government servers including the one at the State Department.

The media and GOP treat Clinton in a very special way, for example demanding emails only from her and no one else. Dana Perino, who ranted about Hillary Clinton’s emails, was White House press secretary defending over five million lost emails from the George W.Bush administration in 2007 during a time of multiple scandals include deliberately compromised classified information.

One huge disappointment for Republicans is the FBI release of the interview notes with Clinton about her emails. The report showed that she didn’t delete emails, she didn’t tell her staff to delete emails, and she trusted her legal team to do what the FBI wanted–in short, she told the truth about the emails. It’s unlikely, however, that the media will report this information without twisting it into something negative about Clinton.

Although non-profit organizations are not required to release donors, the Clinton Foundation started making this information public eight years ago when Hillary Clinton ran for president the first time. The George W. Bush Foundation raised $361.8 million between 2010 and 2013  but has no disclosure for donors. The foundation for George H.W. Bush makes less money but still doesn’t release its donors. It was also taking in money during H.W. Bush’s administration, and W. Bush’s foundation was operating while brother Jeb was running for president.

If Republicans were able to find anything wrong with what Clinton had done, they wouldn’t come up with manufactured falsehoods about Clinton’s health or her supposed involvement in the 1993 tragic death of a close friend, Vincent Foster. Each time that one conspiracy fails, the GOP creates another one.

The GOP history of scandal—Nixon’s Watergate, Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandal, hostile Senate hearings of Supreme Court nominees Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas, etc.—led to more and more resentment from the right, that continued to rapidly move farther right. Then Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) forced out House Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX) on ethics charges in 1990. The House sank deeper into the morass of corruption as Dennis Hastert, now revealed as a serial child abuser, became Speaker in 1999 because of Rep. Robert L. Livingston’s (R-LA) extramarital affairs following the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

A conservative organization founded in 1994, Judicial Watch, is one of the most dogged groups to smear the Clintons. Now it has company from Julian Assange at WikiLeaks who is determined to destroy Clinton. Started as a way to make politics more transparent, Assange is using information from Russian hackers to influence the U.S. election as well as endangering people’s lives through providing health and sexual orientation information.

In trying to destroy Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump calls her “crooked Hillary” and “the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.” He projects his own corrupt nature onto her but fails to produce any proof of wrong-doing on Clinton’s part. Yet the repetition of these phrases cements them into the susceptible brains of those who desperately want to believe anything negative about Clinton. She also gets blamed for her husband’s actions.

The conspiracy theories were exacerbated by the GOP’s inability to take down President Bill Clinton; the pressure increased after he won a second term and accelerated when Hillary Clinton went into politics herself. When the Clintons accused right-wing organizations of spreading unverified stories that eventually turned up on the mainstream media, conservatives called them paranoid. In a backlash to the conspiracy theory, David Brock started Media Matters in 2004. Although conservatives had far more resources, other media such as Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo were started. And now WaPo agrees that there has been a long-term record of conspiracies against the Clintons.

Imagine a media world that ignores all these conspiracy theories in the same way that the mainstream media skips over the lawsuits against Trump for rape, corruption, racism, etc. Imagine, too, if the media published positive information about Clinton’s accomplishments during the past half century. While the media glows about Trump’s wonderful children—who were reared by their mothers and nannies—it ignores Hillary Clinton’s success as a mother and daughter. While tearing Clinton down, the media rarely points out that she tells the truth almost all the time while Trump lies almost all the time.

More special treatment for Clinton: Trump gets millions of dollars for speaking, but people complain only about Hillary Clinton’s speeches although she donates most of the money to others. Corporations and wealthy people give billions of dollars to politicians to buy their positions, but people complain about the Clinton Foundation that doesn’t financially benefit Hillary Clinton. The NRA buys legislators to prevent universal background checks despite overwhelming support for this program by gun owners and others, but only Hillary Clinton is described as corrupt despite no evidence of inappropriate favors. Trump has financial interests throughout the world and refuses to provide an information about them while he plans to continue these if he’s elected, but Hillary Clinton must divest herself from the Clinton Foundation. Trump refuses to release his tax returns while Hillary has published three decades of personal tax returns and made those for the Clinton Foundation public, but people maintain that Clinton is hiding something.

Trump convinced the GOP to remove any sanctions against Russia for taking Crimea as a favor to his Russian friends. Yet people claim that Trump is honest, and Clinton is cheating. There’s something wrong with this picture that the media paints.