Meme about Trump

 I did not write this. This is a meme. I copied it

Someone else's response to a post, too accurate and well written not to share

Ladies and gentlemen,

The dismantling of the United States Government is happening right before our eyes.  It cannot be denied. The current president has appointed virtually every director to oversee departments for which they have clearly demonstrated an aggression towards.  The healthcare plans for millions are soon to evaporate just so millionaires and corporations can get more tax breaks.

The EPA, Energy, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice and State Departments - ALL of these departments are currently headed by people who have stated a willingness to either destroy the department, or severely disable its ability to function as designed.  This is the goal of the Trump Administration - to destroy government as we know it - including those programs for which millions of people have come to depend upon.

Additionally, this President refuses to release his tax returns which speaks volumes. Who is he indebted to, and why?  What concessions will he make to those debt holders as President of the United States in exchange for leniency, or complete absolution of his debts?

He will disparage virtually any person on the earth who disagrees with him, to include world leaders EXCEPT Vladimir Putin. In fact, this president has praised Putin many times over - a man who has had people killed to further his stranglehold on Russian power.

Further, this president has leveled serious charges about many issues - illegal wire tapping, voter fraud, Muslim crime, and much more - without providing a scintilla of evidence to prove his claims.

This president has surrounded himself with known white supremacists and nationalists - people whose worldview excludes virtually anyone who isn't white.  These people, with offices adjacent to the Oval Office are shaping government policy at present.  He regularly watches rightwing news reports then tweets about those reports as if they are fact, when all evidence proves otherwise.

This president's representatives have zero problem going on television to spew the latest propaganda, "alternative facts," and outright lies, to deflect their culpability, and that of this administration, in wrongdoing on a scale for which will likely be mind-blowing if ever we, as a country, are afforded the whole truth.

Throughout all this, the Republican Party has remained virtually silent, going about their day intent upon ignoring the voice and will of the majority as they work in concert to assist in the destruction of 70+ years of progressive change.

The Party of family values, "Freedom," and the Constitution - the Party who claims the United States military veteran is as revered as the god they claim to serve, shows us all on a daily basis this is all hyperbole.  For the facts truly show, this Republican Party is hell-bent on hurting the average American much more than they are concerned with doing anything which would make their lives easier to live.  Their followers claim the Democratic Party is "just as bad," and yet, I cannot remember a time in my lifetime where millions worried as much about their futures under any Democratic president, as they do today, in 2017. The Democrats have their problems, but they hardly compare to what we have under Republican rule.

It's a false equivalency to claim that Hillary Clinton would have us in a similar situation. The facts do not bear this out.  While Hillary may have her own problems with many trusting her, legitimately or not, she hardly compares to the freewheeling, dangerous, and dictatorial Narcissist-in-Chief currently dismantling the country - a man who tweets inflammatory things on a daily basis as a means to distract the public from the real stories he is involved in.

Donald J. Trump does not serve every American.  In fact, he serves few.  He is an oligarch whose mission is to further enrich himself, and those like him.  He has not given a day in his life in the complete service of others but has only dedicated his life to growing his vast empire through screwing over contractors, vendors, and workers who have contributed to his success.  The records clearly show this.  In fact, the federal government, in the 1970s, filed suit against Trump for discriminations in rental practices, for he would not rent apartments to black people.  He is a criminal who recently paid $25 million dollars to settle his Trump University fraud case - these things without a conviction of wrongdoing, as any average citizen would most surely have received for doing the same.

He has mocked handicapped people and disparaged prisoners of war. He claims to stand for all women, even though he has been caught on audio admitting to assaulting unsuspecting women by grabbing their genitalia.  He has bragged about trying to have sex with other women while he was married. He has verbally and publicly attacked virtually every woman who has claimed assault against him.  I could go on and on.

Folks, I truly believe we, as a country, are at a crossroads.  Good, decent, honest and intelligent people can either fall victim to the bullying tactics of the Trump followers, and fall in line behind them, or we can question every damn thing this president, and his administration does where our freedoms, rights, and Constitutional protections are being trampled upon and obliterated.

It is past time to RISE UP, SPEAK OUT and FIGHT - for our country, for our rights, for our children and grandchildren, AND our planet!  For if we allow the Alt-Right, and those who are blinded to the evil clutches of authoritarianism and white supremacy to reign supreme upon this land, it will likely be centuries until we can recover, if ever.

The Republican Party and Donald J. Trump have clearly demonstrated their affinity for helping the rich continue to grow their wealth, at the expense of the rest of us, and the planet in which we live.  Today, more than ever, we need to send a loud and sustained message to these people that WE are the true power in this country and we will not let them destroy it any longer.

Please join me.  Do not normalize this man, nor his administration. NOTHING currently occurring in government is normal.  Question everything.  Fight back.  #Resist.

SHARE at will, everywhere and anywhere.

Trump breaking promises

As you know, if you have been reading this blog, I am not a Trump supporter.

However, there were some things that he said that I liked.  I liked that he sounded less hawkish than Hillary.  He didn't want us to be the international police. He wanted to be friends with Russia.

Hillary sounded more like business as usual.

On the international front, business as usual hasn't been very good, please see my former blog at Iran Bitter Harvest

I even had a more tolerant view of Russia than most Americans and liked his stance on being friends with Russia, please see my former blog at Russia v Ukraine a dissenting view

Hillary's hawkishness was one thing that I really didn't like about her. I often found myself arguing with my fellow Hillary supporters, who felt that Trump's mercurial temperament made him more likely to get us involved in a war than Hillary, who seemed relatively calmer.  I said that Trump had repeatedly criticized our war efforts.  It seemed very unlikely to me that he would be more likely to get us involved in a war than Hillary.

Then I see this budget.  He's increasing military spending.  That's so disappointing from someone who was anti-war and who was supposedly a business man who was going to help us get into a fiscally sounder position.

Of course, also, he said that he was for clean air and water, but then he's slashing the EPA.  He seems to have a vendetta against the EPA -- and the FDA -- seemingly unaware of how these two agencies protect all of us from being poisoned.  That's very disappointing as well. 

He's just sounding more and more like a traditional Republican, which is not, I don't think, what people voted for when they voted for him.

Republicans defunding federal public education programs -- meme

I did not write this.  This is a meme.  I am cutting and pasting from social media

And so it begins: the attempt to dismantle the public education system in the USA. Please read this! And, if you are a friend of mine in this forum who utilizes private education and you don't understand why strong funding and federal protections need to be in place to ensure equal access for all children in a public system, please pm me, and we can talk! We kind of figured out that separate isn't equal. And federal protections for students have been created BECAUSE they were needed.

House Bill 610 makes some large changes. Inform yourselves!

This bill will effectively start the school voucher system to be used by children ages 5-17, and starts the defunding process of public schools.

In addition the bill will eliminate the Elementary and Education Act of 1965, which is the nation's educational law and provides equal opportunity in education.

ESSA is a big comprehensive program that covers programs for struggling learners, AP classes, ESL classes, classes for minorities such as Native Americans, Rural Education, Education for the Homeless, School Safety (Gun-Free schools), Monitoring and Compliance and Federal Accountability Programs.

The Bill also abolishes the Nutritional Act of 2012 (No Hungry Kids Act) which provides nutritional standards in school breakfast and lunch.

The bill has no wording whatsoever protecting students with disabilities, no mention of IDEA (theFederal special education law) and FAPE (a guarantee of a FREE and APPROPRIATE education for special children).
Some things ESSA does for Children with Disabilities
-Ensures access to the general education curriculum.
-Ensures access to accommodations on assessments.
-Ensures concepts of Universal Design for Learning
-Includes provisions that require local education agencies to provide evidence-based interventions in schools with consistently underperforming subgroups.
-Requires states in Title I plans to address how they will improve conditions for learning including reducing incidents of bullying and harassment in schools, overuse of discipline practices and reduce the use of aversive behavioral interventions (such as restraints and seclusion).

Please call your representative and ask him/her to vote NO on House Bill 610 (HR 610) introduced by three Republican reps.

PLEASE copy and paste, don't just share. That limits it to friends we have in common. Thank you.

some political links

Links about Trump & Russia

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/9/1618540/-Was-Donald-Trump-bailed-out-of-bankruptcy-by-Russia-crime-bosses

https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a

https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146

Can't read last one without subscription


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Links about the interpretation of Christianity and the religious right

.@joshgroban pic.twitter.com/EpMnmOu0XQ

— Skysong263 ♜ ☄ (@skysong263) February 16, 2017

.@joshgroban pic.twitter.com/cCttUSsybU

— Skysong263 ♜ ☄ (@skysong263) February 13, 2017

 http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/02/09/conservative-christian-nationalismhas-scary-kinship-white-supremacy

https://kimberlystover.com/2017/02/15/if-being-a-christian-means-xyz-then-i-am-not-a-christian/

The Media and Trump

Please do not mistake me for a Trump supporter.  I am not.  I am very concerned with his business not being in blind trust and why Russia intervened on his behalf in the election.  I am horrified at the suggestions that the EPA and FDA might be completely eliminated -- as these are necessary for our lives and health.  I am very concerned that Republicans are going to use this administration as an excuse to cut Medicare and Social Security, when Trump clearly stated from the outset that he wouldn't touch those things. I am very concerned about his attitude toward the free press.

On the other hand, his statements that the press is "lying" are, I believe, being misinterpreted by the liberal press.  It's not that they have individual facts wrong.  Nor, I think, was his word "tone" quite correct.  It is that the media distorts the big picture.

The news media is a business that sells negative drama.  Positive, normal, boring things don't get reported.  What gets reported is sensationalism.  This is distorting.  It does not give a complete picture of what is going on.

Moreover, it does not give a broad scope of even what might be sensationalist.  Only a few stories ever rise to national attention.  It's like triage in an emergency room.  News gets screened for how much it will grab our attention.  We hear that.  The rest ends up on the cutting room floor.  You really have to do a lot of research to try to get the big picture.

I see the news media as being a bit like a horror movie.  You go there to get scared. The movie theater encourages you to eat mountains of popcorn, slathered in butter substitute, to deal with your fear -- so you can also get fat.  The news is like that.  You watch it and you get scared -- and you probably eat in front of the TV and get fat.

I do find the characterization of yesterday's speech as being a "rant" as misleading.  He seemed calm and coherent to me.  I do agree with him that his supporters will watch that speech and not find that it was a rant.  They're going to believe him that his administration is a well-oiled machine.

He's very slick and convincing.

I don't know if his administration is a well oiled machine yet. I doubt it.

I still fear that he is a corrupt, totalitarian, foreign agent.

But the media is distorting that press conference for sure.  What that press conference was was a slick piece of propaganda which in fact made Trump look smart and the press look like a crowd of annoying insects.

This is also what Kellyanne means when she says listen to his heart and not his words.  He's not a lawyer.  He's not an academic.  There are always going to be things that he says that can be picked apart.

But his followers are also not academics or lawyers.  They are, by and large, less educated, less intellectual, and lower income.  They are going to listen to tone.  They are not going to pick apart facts.  They are going to find the press harping on minor factual errors annoying.

I want to resist Trump.  I want him out as soon as possible. I feel he is hugely dangerous for this country.

However, he has a point about the press, and he does know what he's doing in terms of PR.

If we want to defeat him, we have to be less stupid about it.  We can't engage in petty insults and name calling.  That's weak.  We can't do sensationalist distortion of rumors.  That's not going to work.

We have to keep our attention on real issues: corruption, ties to Russia, totalitarian tendencies.  We can't look like a bunch of annoying insects attacking a person who knows how to present himself on camera.  He is, after all, a professional performer and comedian.  He knows how to get ratings.

I don't know if he's a successful businessman.  His finances are not transparent.  We hear stories of huge debts, bankruptcies, unpaid contractors, defrauded customers.  Personally, I doubt his claim that he's been successful as a businessman.  The fact that his name and face are used to promote hotels does not mean that he is a successful businessman.

However, as a performer and as a propagandist, he's hugely successful.  That's where he excels -- and we have to be smarter at responding to that.

Story of S______ list of variable names

I was at one time a computer programmer.  In computer programming, we had variables, and usually a program started with a declaration of the variables, or comments explaining them. I had this idea that it would be fun to write a book that was like a compute program in this way, where the characters and places all had variable names.

In fact, in other fiction books, the character and place names are really variables as well, since they're just fictional names that represent the character.  However, in this book, the variable names were more explicitly such.  I have a list of the variable names, or abbreviations, as I called them near the start of the book, after the forward.

Someone brought to my attention that if you're reading this book in e-book format, it's hard to refer back to the list of abbreviations; so I thought maybe it would be helpful to just put the list of abbreviations in a blog here, to make it easier to refer to when you're reading the book

S. F-R, Jr. — the male lead

W. F-R — wife of the male lead

W. F-R, Jr. — daughter of W. & S.

WS1 — first son of W. & S.

WS2  — second son of W. & S.

S* — deceased mother of the male lead

S. F-R — deceased father of the male lead

A. M. — the female lead

A* — husband of the female lead

A3 — first son of A. & A*

A4 — second son of A. & A*

CityOne — where S. lives

StateOne — as state distant from CityOne

Rivertown — where A. lives, lesser suburb

MountainOne — where S. has a vacation homes

ShoreOne — where S. had another vacation home

Mountain Twenty-five — where A. has a vacation home, a much lesser resort area

J. — a 'friend' of S.

WarmIsland — location of the estate of S.'s stepfather

SuburbOne — where W.'s parents live

V. — a friend of A.

AirportSix — a small airport near CityOne

A. D. — one of S's former girlfriends

C. J. — another of S's former girlfriends

Ms. F. — an attorney

CountySeat — a small city near Rivertown

BigPharamceutical — C. J.'s employer

anti-trump Limericks

I didn't write these, but I'm copying them with permission of the author, John Major

Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan's both craven and weak,
as he kisses Don's ass cheek by cheek.
The head of the House
has the spine of a mouse;
when he speaks it is more like a squeak.


Mike Flynn

Good riddance to slimeball Mike Flynn,
whose own falsehoods have just done him in.
This egregious baboon
is gone none too soon,
one more turd in the Trump garbage bin.


#45

Our president, Donald Smallhands,
takes unconstitutional stands,
and backed by the mob
thinks a citizen's job
is to do as His Smallness commands.

Like his hands, his mind is quite small,
and he can't keep his eye on the ball;
though Wharton's his boast,
his brain cells are toast
and he seems to know nothing at all.

Kellyanne

That bad piece of work Kellyanne
has The Dump in the palm of her hand.
What so e're he might say
she explains it away,
and keeps lying as fast as she can.

I wish I could figure out how to fix the background color for text that's copied from somewhere else