current-events

The Party of Treason

/ KMac / Leave a comment

Have you ever heard the philosophy that states “if someone tells you, and shows you who they are, believe them”? Trump has been telling us, yelling to us, and showing us that he’s a wannabe dictator who will use racism, hatred and fear mongering rhetoric and tactics to achieve power. He has expressed open admiration for other despots around the world.

(Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

There was never a good excuse for supporting Trump as a political leader, he proved himself right out of the gate to be the antithesis of true American values. The first red flag indicating he’s a dictatorial leader was when he disparaged an entire race of people by stating falsely that Mexicans coming over the border are rapists, drug dealers and murderers. He further implied that Mexico as a country was purposely sending “their worst” people to the U.S. The implication of course is that very few if any Mexican immigrants are good people. 

Same goes for Islam, he spent much of his Twitter time and public appearances spreading false information about Muslims, that thousands of them were cheering and celibrating 9/11, he pushed for a travel ban to and from Muslim countries, suggested we shut down the nations mosques or at least spy on them. 

He encouraged violence and intimidation against dissenters and the reporters. 

These are all things a dictator does without even mentioning the vulgar personality traits that would usually sink a candidate. But as Trump himself observed about his bizarre followers, he wouldn’t lose a single one even if he shot a person on 5th Avenue. He knows what kind of base is supporting him. 

He has since proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only would he lie, cheat and steal to get power, but he would also engage in a coup d’etat to keep it. Add traitor to the list of Trump’s undesirable traits. 

He spent the months leading up to the election grooming his willing base for a possible violent overthrow of the U.S. government by reinforcing certain key falsehoods. He demonized the press as a conspirator working with the Democrats, he has attacked the integrity of the election system by stating hundreds of times that it’s rigged against him. 

He thought he could rig the system himself by installing rabid loyalists, or at least people he thought were blindly loyal, in key positions to “legally” overturn any result that didn’t reelect him. 

He thought his appointees on the Supreme Court would overturn any undesired election results. He was wrong. 

He thought U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr would conjure up some fabricated evidence that would overturn the election. Wrong. 

When all else fails, lead an insurrection. 

What any would-be dictator needs to successfully overthrow their government is large grassroots support from the population, support from loyalists in key government segments, and support from the military. He has the support of some 75 million Americans as evident by the election results. He has the support of nearly all the Republicans in congress. 

He doesn’t have the courts, and he couldn’t get the military. Thank God. Because that’s how close we came to living in an Orwellian nightmare with Trump as president for life. 

In November 2020, after the election Trump took the highly unusual step of firing three high ranking Pentagon officials and replacing them with Trump loyalists. Apparently he thought that would give him the military. He was wrong.  

A rally was being organized for Jan 6, the day congress would officially confirm the electoral results making Joe Biden the next President of the United States. Trump promoted the rally, dubbed StopTheSteal, in public and on Twitter stating “massive amounts” of evidence will be presented to prove the election was stolen. In true dictatorial fashion however, no evidence was then, or ever been presented. 

On January 6, 2021 Trump addressed a crowd that he had been priming for months to believe the election was stolen. Like a mob boss, he encouraged them to march on the capitol and fight, carefully crafting his words to be sure he himself would never be implicated in what was likely to be treason. But everyone in the crowd, and indeed the watching world knew what he meant. 

Trump insinuated that he would march with them, an act a true revolutionary would have done but instead, being a coward he went back to the safety of the White House to watch the scene unfold on FoxNews. Insulated from prosecution while his foolish supporters get hunted down and arrested by the FBI. 

While the Capitol was under attack Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were communicating from a bunker with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan begging for the deployment of his troops that he said was ready, willing and able to go with one exception; they needed permission from the Pentagon. The Pentagon was being held back by the White House. For nearly two hours Trump sat on the Maryland National Guard, presumably waiting to see if his mob could occupy the Capitol, presumably not concerned that Pelosi and Pence could end up swinging from a rope. 

And now, 6 months later the North Carolina Republican Party convention allowed Trump to give a speech where he continued his dangerous false narrative that he’s the rightful president, and Republicans in congress are blocking an investigation into the attack on the Capitol. 

Donald J. Trump is a traitor to the United States and frankly so is anyone who still supports him, after all this everyone should know better. Yet he currently has the support of the GOP. 


The Republican Party is now the Party of treason.

We’re There For The Oil, Folks

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trump

President Donald Trump. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

In the latest reality TV episode of Trump Goes to Washington the President made a curious admission. On more than one occasion in the last few days President Trump has repeated in one context or another, “we’re there for the oil” when asked about troops in Syria.  At a press conference with Turkish president Erdoğan Trump declared “We’re keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only for the oil.”

The big irony of this president is that he tends to tell the truth rarely but when he does, he wasn’t supposed to. The fact that the U.S. is in the Middle East and Africa solely for the natural resources is the worst kept secret in Washington. Of course they keep up the facade that our troops are there to for a number of honorable reasons, for this they maintain a grab bag of deceptive go-to talking points. The first one is the term “national interests”, which is of course a euphemism for financial interests. Other misleading items in the bag include national security, American freedom, the Constitution, democracy (home or abroad), human rights, and fighting terrorism among others.

The Pentagon is doing it’s duty by pushing back on the presidents blunder by going out of it’s way to clarify the U.S. position that we’re actually there to fight ISIS. That’s only a partial truth. They want us to believe the fight against ISIS is a stand alone issue because…we just don’t like terrorism. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We fight terrorism in the region because they tend to disrupt our extraction of resources. We’re there for the oil, folks.

Even far right talking head and Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham tried to rein in the president during an exchange on The Ingraham Angle, she sounded more like she was coaching him.

“Not taking the oil, they’re not taking the oil,” Ingraham said.

“Well, maybe we will. Maybe we won’t,” Trump said.

“They’re protecting the facility,” Ingraham said.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should take it, but we have the oil. Right now, the United States has the oil. So they say he left troops in Syria. No. I got rid of all of them other than we’re protecting the oil. We have the oil,” Trump said.

This president can’t take a hint. Much like targeting and destroying cultural sites, another thing Trump threatens to do, outwardly plundering resources with the military is a war crime. Trump doesn’t know enough about foreign policy or international law to even be involved; after three years as POTUS he’s still grossly unqualified to be president.

Bottom line, Trump mistakenly let the cat out of the bag. Our freedom and the integrity of the U.S. Constitution in no way hinges on our presence in the Middle East or Africa. We aren’t there for human rights, or to encourage democracy. Quite the opposite. It’s far more common for the U.S. to prop up and coddle dictators who will in exchange allow our oil companies carte blanche within the borders of their country.

“We’re keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only for the oil.” — A rare truth escapes the lips of President Trump.

Cons Really Reaching on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Bronx Roots

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Congresswoman of New York’s 14th congressional district  

Conservatives are getting sensitive lately. They take issue with bad language, they’re disturbed by all the bullying and mocking, and they’re incensed by all the lying in politics.  Specifically concerning lies told by the newly sworn-in Democrat from New York’s 14th congressional district Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who as some of you may know left a lasting impression on incumbent Congressman Joe Crowley by losing a shoe in his arse on his way out the door.

cortez's shoes

 One of these shoes is now part of an exhibition at the Cornell Costume Collection titled “Women Empowered: Fashions from the Frontline.” The other is forever lost in Joe Crowley’s ass.

The lie conservatives are so worried about concern claims on the Congresswoman’s website and other social media of her ties to the Bronx. The problem: It’s not a lie. Not even close. The Daily Mail brought up residency and the district where she went to school and conservative America Talks Live host John Cardillo zero’d in on her in an attempt to discredit her Bronx girl image. In doing so Cardillo crafts his attack in a way that leads one to believe Cortez has no ties to the Bronx other than being born there and that she is really a privileged, spoiled rich girl who has fabricated the story of her roots to better, yet fraudulently connect with constituents in the 14th district which includes the Bronx and Queens.  His attacks on Twitter include using a pic of her childhood home.

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Aside from being wrong about the college, (she attended Boston University) he’s purposely misleading people about her own representation of her upbringing.  She never said she lived in the Bronx or went to school there; she never denied living in Yorktown. Her narrative is that her parents decided when she was 5 years old that she would be better off in school district other than the Bronx. They moved from the Bronx to a middle class home in Yorktown Heights where she went to school, then BU. None of this is a secret. It doesn’t take much looking to see that Cardillo’s insinuation that Cortez is lying about her ties to the Bronx is false.  She says on her campaign website that she went to public school in Yorktown and she split time between that life and her extended family who lived in the Bronx.

But conservatives pointed out that the website changed the wording of that narrative after she was called out by them in order to cover up the truth. Again that is a lie. They did indeed change the wording however they didn’t change in any way the meaning or point of the narrative, see for yourself.  Official website

The original statement said, “She ended up attending public school 40 minutes north in Yorktown, and much of her life was defined by the 40-minute commute between school and her family in the Bronx.”

The statement now reads, “She ended up attending public school in Yorktown, 40 minutes north of her birthplace, as a result, much of her early life was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in the Bronx & her daily student life.”

That’s a cover up? My question to conservatives: is that all you got? This and mocking her for dancing in college is the best you can do?  I think you’re in trouble.

 

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George Zimmerman will go to prison. Gun violence will go on.

/ KMac / 2 Comments

I was listening to a local radio show the other morning where one of the topics in their news segment was Zimmerman/Martin. Drew & Mike were pondering why this case was a polarizing political topic. Thoughout the segment their inbox got bombarded by local listeners who made it clear that many people here in the WRIF demographic in Detroit think that Zimmerman was well within his rights to everything he did that night and furthermore, Martin somehow got what he had coming.

Drew and Mike, not exactly champions of liberal thinking, were baffled.

It is polarized though, because it is true that a great many people in the U.S. believe that Zimmerman had the right somehow to follow someone in public, and while armed, create for himself a situation where he felt entitled to shoot another person. How does this work?

The simple fact at the end of the day is that all evidence according to any living people point to the fact that if Zimmerman had never shown up that night Martin would have walked home from the store with some candy and been with his parents watching a ball game. Zimmerman didn’t stop a crime in progress, didn’t stop a crime before it happened, he only stopped some kid from walking home. Thats it.  Yet here we are with an incredible wave of support from the right for George Zimmerman, frankly because he’s the one with the gun.

Nevermind that the Stand Your Ground law doesn’t apply in this case according to the prime sponsor of the legislation Dennis Baxley and the Governor who signed it into law, Jeb Bush. When asked by Neal Conan of NPR  Interview why the law does not apply here Baxley said this, “Well, simply because if you carefully read the statute, which most of the critics have not, and read the legislative analysis, there’s nothing in this statute that authorizes you to pursue or confront other people.”  Furthermore Baxley also said,  “The Senate sponsor, Senator Peaden, former senator,  he said it doesn’t apply. From my review, I certainly – it certainly wasn’t the intent of any of us to protect anyone who was pursuing and confronting other people.”

Ask yourself this, if the person walking home in the dark had been the one with the gun and had a licence to carry it, and George had been the one shot dead would the conservative right be on Martins side?  You bet. All Martin would have to say would be something like “he came up on me in the dark and I was scared. I was standing my ground.”   Every pro-gun, pro-carry supporter in the nation would be sending money to the Travon Martin defence fund.

We have a gun violence problem in America, and its not just criminals who are guilty of propelling the problem.  The problem owned jointly by anyone who thinks they have the right to shoot another person, an attitude that in itself is rather unique in our society.  Look at any other country in our category and what do you see?  Even criminals by and large refuse to use a firearm in the commission of a crime. It’s beneath people to shoot each other in those countries.

Pro-gun supporters are correct that it’s not the gun that kills it’s the person using it. So stocking up the entire country with guns shouldn’t make gun violence rise at all with that logic.  And that’s what we’ve done, according to the Graduate Institute of International Studies the U.S. citizens own 270 million of the worlds 875 small arms. Thats 90 guns for every 100 people in the U.S.  Another piece of conservative logic is that more guns equates to less crime. That one is dead wrong. If that were the case the U.S. would have no crime to speak of would it?   We’re the most heavily armed country in the world bar none.   Gun violence doesn’t come from crime, it comes from the belief that we have the right to shoot people if one can only justify it.  That is what the folks on the right are constantly trying to prove.  That’s why George Zimmerman has become the latest hero on the right, the poster boy for justifiable homicide.   George Zimmerman was the one with the gun.  He has to be made to look like the victim here or it won’t work.  But that’s impossible isn’t it? Martin was doing nothing wrong.  But even innocent bystanders cut down by a stray are considered collateral damage by the right, the price we have to pay in order not just to keep and bear arms, but to use them on each other on a regular and steady basis.

George Zimmerman will go to jail and he should.  But I can’t help but think that maybe on some level, buried deep within his lack of common sense and mixed up with the belief that he has the right and authority to shoot his fellow citizens, he is a victim. He’s a victim of conservative thinking.  And so is Travon Martin.