Friday, November 18, 2016

ADL President, Jonathan Greenblatt

From Daily Kos:

"In a stunning speech on Thursday at a first-of-its-kind summit on anti-Semitism, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, pushed back against the rising tide of hatred in this country with an extraordinary promise:

And we must stand with our fellow Americans who may be singled out for how they look, who they love, where they’re from or how they pray. And let me say this. There recently have been reports that the new Administration plans to force Muslim-Americans to register for some sort of master government list. Look, Islamic extremism is a threat to us all. But as Jews, we know what it means to be registered and tagged, held out as different from our fellow citizens. As Jews, we know the righteous and just response. All of us have heard the story of the Danish king who said if his country’s Jews had to wear a gold star … all of Denmark would too. So I pledge to you right here and now, because I care about the fight against anti-Semitism, that if one day in these United States, if one day Muslim-Americans will be forced to register their identities, then that is the day that this proud Jew will register as a Muslim.Because fighting prejudice against the marginalized is not just the fight of those minorities. It’s our fight. Just as the fight against anti-Semitism is not only the fight of us Jews. It’s everyone’s fight.

"This is how it starts..."

From the New York Times, November 17, 2016

1942 All Over Again

'This is how it starts.'

That's a hell of a bit of rhetoric, and dead on correct. It goes on. Not on my watch without a fight. Never again.

'This is how it starts. 'On Wednesday evening, Carl Higbie, a prominent surrogate of President-elect Donald Trump, appeared on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News program to defend the idea of a national registry of all Muslims — an idea Mr. Trump floated repeatedly during his campaign, along with calls for an outright ban on Muslims entering the country, which legal experts said would be clearly unconstitutional.

'To defend the registry’s legality, Mr. Higbie pointed to the imprisonment of more than 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. When Ms. Kelly expressed shock that anyone would approvingly cite one of the darkest periods in American history, Mr. Higbie backtracked. “I’m just saying there’s a precedent for it,” he said.

“I’m just saying” — that sneaky, timeworn disclaimer allowing people to say what they really believe without taking responsibility for it...' -- Michael K.

It CAN happen here, and it is happening here.

Japanese-American members of my extended family in California suffered through that shameful time in America's history. It appears that the incoming president and his administration are considering a registry for Muslims: Americans whose faith is Islam? Muslim immigrants? Muslims coming to the U.S. from hostile countries? Who knows? With our incoming proto-fascist regime, it seems anything is possible.

Do you have Muslim friends? Muslim members of your family? Be sure and remind them of the words from our national anthem "land of the free, home of the brave," then walk away shaking your head. A country of liberty and justice for ALL does not register people of certain religions. We already have a model for that.

Germany in the 1930s.

This isn't an exaggeration. I've read on many right wing blogs the hatred and fear they hold for all Muslims, referring to all Muslims as "vermin," and "enemies of state," who need to be deported and denied their birthright of citizenship in order to protect America. Now these proto-fascists will have someone at the head of their government who is sympathetic to their pant-wetting fears and willing to consider the same sort of legislation that pre-war Germany adopted.

And the Short-Fingered Vulgarian hasn't even taken the Oath of Office yet.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

About that Electoral College...

Please go to Infidel753 to read about how the Electoral College can be made more equitable (Hint: It wouldn't take a Constitutional amendment).

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wednesday is Trump Hump Day

The Goopers are demanding that the majority of Americans who did NOT vote for Trump respect the fact that Trump is now the POTUS-elect.

I hear that. And our message to the Goopers is that we will give trump exactly the same level of respect that they gave Mr. Obama. IIRC, less than three months into President Obama's administration, the TeaPublicans were screaming, "I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!"

Also, Mr. Obama won with a popular vote count higher than any other president had received since the election of President Eisenhower. A decisive win; a mandate, even. But the Goopers vowed on the night of President Obama's election to obstruct and sabotage anything the new president proposed in his new administration. And so they did.

More Americans voted for Hillary than voted for Trump. That doesn't change the fact that he won the election, but it should give the Goopers pause. Trump does not have a majority of Americans on his side; he is a minority president, whose first action as POTUS-elect was to appoint an anti-Semite and White Supremacist as his Chief Strategist.

And now we've heard that Speaker Paul Ryan is set to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, and then he's going after Social Security.

That's how this repulsive, know-nothing POTUS-elect will make America great again!

What an embarrassingly whiney little _________________ (fill in the blank).

Behold our classless P.G.-elect*:

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The failing @nytimes story is so totally wrong on transition. It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders.

7:12 AM - 16 Nov 2016

Has anyone ever heard a more juvenile reaction from a future POTUS? trump will not become "presidential" after January 20th, he'll continue to be the WATB man-child that he is.

*PG-elect = Pussy Grabber-elect.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Gwen Ifill -- September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016

This excellent woman has been taken from us:

Image result for gwen ifill

And this rancid racist and white supremacist will desecrate the People's House:

Steve Bannon To Help Trump Bring White Nationalism, Misogyny and Anti-Semitism To The White House

The odious Steve Bannon

"Be very vigilant, America!"

Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon," is an anti-Semite and White Supremacist.

Image result for Ugly steve bannon

If anyone thought we were exaggerating about proto-fascism coming to the White House, just take a look at Bannon and what he's said over the years:

What has Kristol's religion got to do with anything? Would Bannon have called someone a "renegade Catholic? A renegade Baptist? Hindu?"

More below:

Breitbart’s Greatest Hit (Pieces): Some Of The Website’s Most Disgusting Headlines

White nationalists see advocate in Steve Bannon who will hold Trump to his campaign promises

"Some responses from human beings to the despicable Steve Bannon's role in Trump's White House:

'President Obama is scheduled to speak to the nation during a news conference Monday afternoon. Ahead of his appearance, a chorus of critics took to Twitter to lament what they said was a frightening normalization of the fringe views that Mr. Bannon promoted as the chairman of Breitbart News.

The site has for years given voice to anti-Semitic, racist and white nationalist ideology.

'The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Mr. Bannon’s selection “sends the disturbing message that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House.”

'That view was echoed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. It insisted that “Trump should rescind this hire.” '“In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for ‘all Americans,’” it said. “Bannon should go.”

'Republicans who had long opposed Mr. Trump’s candidacy also took to Twitter on Sunday night and Monday morning to warn that his choice to rely on the advice of Mr. Bannon is an indication of the way that he will govern. '

“The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office,” said John Weaver, a Republican strategist who ran the presidential campaign of Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio and previously advised Senator John McCain of Arizona. “Be very vigilant, America.”' -- Michael K.

Here's what Ben Shapiro, who knows Bannon and who left Breitbart, has to say about trump's chief strategist:

What Does Bannon’s Accession Mean?

Bannon has goals. One of those goals is maximization of personal power, which is why he spent the last decade and a half glomming onto powerful right-wing personalities (Bachmann, Morris, Palin), kissing their asses, and then moving on up the chain.

With Breitbart and Trump, he picked two winners in a row – and that means he’s now at the pinnacle of American power. So, what will he do with that power? He’ll target enemies. Bannon is one of the most vicious people in politics, which is why I’ve been joking for months that should Trump win, I’d be expecting my IRS audit any moment. That wasn’t completely a joke.

He likes to destroy people.

Monday, November 14, 2016

This is the America I want to live in:

Many educators as well as other decent Americans, trying to counter the malignant hatred and threats unleashed by Trump during his campaign and encouraged by his election, have resorted to assuring all those whom Trump denigrated during his toxic campaign that they are valued and that not all Americans wish them harm:

Here are some examples, via Digby, of human decency:

Dear undocumented students, in this classroom, there are no walls.

Dear black students, in this classroom, your life matters.

Dear Mexican students, you are not rapists or drug dealers.

Dear female students, men cannot grab you.

Dear Muslim students, you are not terrorists.

And this:

If you wear a hijab, I'll sit with you on the train.

If you're trans, I'll go to the bathroom with you.

If you're a person of color, I'll stand with you if the cops stop you.

If you're a person with disabilities, I'll hand you my megaphone.

If you're an immigrant, I'll help you find resources..

If you're a survivor, I'll believe you.

If you're a refugee, I'll make sure you welcome.

If you're a veteran, I'll take up your fight.

If you're LGBTQ, I won't let anyone tell you you're broken.

If you're a woman, I'll make sure you get home ok.

If you're tired, me too.

If you need a hug, I've got an infinite supply.

If you need me, I'll be with you.

All I ask is that you be with me, too.

NOT THIS ONE: THE AMERIKKKA OF DONALD J. TRUMP:

A White Nationalist Is The New White House Chief Strategist

Steve Bannon, who stoked the flames of alt-right fury while running Breitbart News, is headed to the presidential inner circle.

FBI: Hate Crime Went Up 6.8 Percent In 2015; Anti-Muslim Incidents Surge To Second Highest Ever

America's President-elect

Welcome to Trump's Amerikkka:

Countless Acts Of Hate Have Been Carried Out Since Trump’s Win

From Jobsanger:

The bottom image is a flyer that was surreptitiously distributed on the campus of Texas State University. The threat it suggests is currently being investigated by Texas police.

Grade PointBlack UPenn freshmen added to racist social media account with ‘daily lynching’ calendar

This is what the election of Donald J. Trump has unleashed upon Amerikka. If Trump had any human decency, he would publicly denounce these Nazi thugs. It is Donald Trump whose vile and violent rallies encouraged this. It is his responsibility to stop it.

‘Get some of them to kill themselves’: Neo-Nazi site urges readers to troll liberals into suicide

"...for Andrew Anglin, publisher of the popular neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, it was an opportunity to inflict ‘‘punishment.’’

In a post on the site Wednesday titled ‘‘I’m So Scared,’’ Anglin called on readers to ‘‘troll’’ liberals and Trump opponents in hopes of driving them to suicide. The post contained a list of tweets from people who said they were frightened by the outcome of the election, along with a meme that read, ‘‘your punishment must be more severe.’’

‘‘You can troll these people and definitely get some of them to kill themselves,’’ Anglin wrote. ‘‘Just be like ‘it’s the only way you can prove to the racists that Hillary was right all along.’’’ He continued:

‘‘ ‘Mass Suicides After Trump Victory’ would be a headline the media would play up, but all it would do would demoralize the left even further.’’

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Sunday Night Music and Poetry

Mahler's adagietto from his 5th Symphony:

September 1, 1939

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright 
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can 
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. 

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism’s face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire 
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
“I will be true to the wife,
I’ll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

R.I.P. Leonard Cohen -- September 21, 1934 - November 7, 2016

Trump urged protesting and marching in the streets...

when President Obama was re-elected in 2012 by a majority of the American people and a popular vote margin larger than any other candidate since President Eisenhower. (At this moment, more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton -- 63.4 million -- to Trump's 61.2 million. More Americans wanted her not him.) Trump took to Twitter and urged people to march on Washington because he claimed the election was "a travesty."

When someone has no core values or doesn't know squat about American democracy, this is what he sounds like:

President-elect Donald Trump, who took to Twitter Thursday to blast demonstrations against his victory as “very unfair,” had a different view of post-election distress four years earlier, when he called for a march on Washington “to stop this great and disgusting injustice.”

It’s bad enough that the newly elected U.S. leader this week would take to Twitter to criticize opponents for exercising their First Amendment rights, blaming “professional protesters” incited by the media. Worse, though, is that in 2012, Trump tried to incite supporters of defeated Republican nominee Mitt Romney to take to the streets in protest of President Barack Obama’s re-election.

Friday, November 11, 2016

BREAKING NEWS...

UPDATE BELOW

Trump just announced he will not repeal Obamacare

What will his supporters think about this development? Ryan and McConnell are NOT happy.

"After meeting with President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump appears to have reversed his position on repealing Obamacare.

One of the President-elect’s biggest promises on the campaign trail was his vow to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, particularly in the wake of health insurance providers pledging to raise the price of coverage by double digits in coming years. However, it appears the outgoing president has convinced Trump to keep his signature legislation. As of this writing, Trump has only said he would amend it, and that repealing the law outright may not be his plan going forward."

UPDATE:

Trump’s Call to Ban Muslims From U.S. Quietly Scrubbed From Campaign Website After Election

Just a reminder...

Trump lost the popular vote; but when Obama beat Romney decisively in both the electoral college and popular vote, Trump called for marches on Washington, saying "this cannot stand" and "we are a deeply divided nation."

True story.

Trump should expect from the Democrats the same level of cooperation and respect he gave to President Obama.

And remember, no one in the TeaPublican Party stood up and countered Trump's birther racism or his inane claims that the 2012 election was somehow a fraudulent travesty.

It is interesting to note how many Trumpistas now demand that we liberals/Democrats obsequiesely kiss the hem of Trump's extra-large pant cuffs now that he's on his way to the presidency.

Progressive Eruptions