Random Trumping [POLITICS]

        ^ Is knowing that someone is telling you truth important? Does it affect how you feel about someone if you know that they are a liar? Can you trust a liar?

        ^ Growing up my parents told me that being a liar was terrible. If you told lies no one would trust you. Telling the truth was important. Being a good person was important especially if you wanted to grow up and be President. Shows what they knew.

NOTE:  Once again, if you’re a supporter of President Trump there is no need for you to go any further. You won’t like it. Guaranteed! Just consider me as being already told off properly with as much ugliness as you could possibly imagine.

        ^ On a regular basis I check out articles and videos to stay updated on events and information. Checking out information these days is a little tricky but not as hard as some people make it out to be. At times I check out often well intentioned posts to verify their veracity. Usually I skip over the ones that are obviously false or that are posted just to inflame passions be insulting rather than encourage civil discourse. Like others I do slip up from time to time. (Most often when I do slip up it’s due to a little too much wine or beer while I’m writing. I love Jesus but I drinks a bit.) However, my intention is NOT to insult family, friends or even strangers for that matter.

        ^ An article from a news source that I don’t use other than for the entertainment value caught my eye. It just looked to be false from the headline alone. I hate it when the headline indicates something totally opposite from what is in the article. It’s aggravating but headlines are by design supposed to attention grabbing. It seemed to imply that President Trump said that wind turbines release fumes into the atmosphere. That isn’t true. At least not in the videos where I saw him make the comments about wind turbines. He said that it was the manufacturing process that was releasing fumes into the atmosphere. Now I have to add the caveat that there may be other videos where he did make the comment and was less clear about the source. I will add here that the manufacturing of any large complicated machinery does leave a carbon footprint.

        ^ His diatribes are becoming increasingly random, lacking in cohesive structure. At times what he is saying is simply gibberish. Fractured sentences. No discernable point. Just random words strung together with some kind of implied meaning or authority. He used to be a much better speaker when he was talking to a different audience.

        ^ In the video that I was watching President Trump was talking about all of the negative aspects of wind turbines. He really doesn’t like wind turbines. Trump mentioned that one of the negative aspects of wind turbines is that they lower property values by 50%. That was funny to me because I had just finished watching a video of him claiming that they lowered property values by 75%. He does this kind of stuff all the time. He just makes stuff up on the fly and if anyone has spent any time at all watching our President they simply have to know this or they have been incredibly unobservant. He has done this the majority of his adult life. It’s what he does. He is seriously good at it.

        ^ I knew a person that was a pathological liar. They lied about anything and everything. This person had a breakdown and ended up in therapy. They reached a point where there were simply too many lies to sustain and there were some serious consequences to some of the lies that they told. Serious.

        ^ No, I don’t believe that President Trump is going to have a breakdown. For one thing there haven’t been any personal consequences to his lies. Others may have been harmed but not him. On the contrary he has been rewarded. He is being enabled by all those around him, his family, his associates, his supporters. Everyone else is his enemy.

        ^ There are entire web pages dedicated and documenting the lies that he has told. He is over the 10,000 mark and climbing. A business employee from one of his hotels maintained that if a person spent an hour with Trump they would hear 10 to 15 lies. We just get to hear the ones that he tells in public. Can you even imagine the number of lies coming out of the White House on a daily basis?

        ^ I had the opportunity to study up on Donald Trump years ago when gambling interests were pushing for an expansion in Kansas. Trump was a casino operator then. He was a liar and fraud then as well. He lied to gaming commissions. He lied to banks. Now, I understand that some people may want to call what he did misrepresentations but they were lies pure and simple. He used undocumented workers then. He stiffed working people then just like he has continued to do until the present.

        ^ He was also a racist then. I want people to understand that I don’t take calling anyone a racist lightly. Anyone. I reached that conclusion based upon his actions up until then. He’s covered a whole lot of other racist ground since that time. He didn’t like black people then. He didn’t want them handling his money in casinos because he didn’t trust them. He didn’t want them renting his apartments. He didn’t like white women dating black men either. 

        ^ It’s immaterial to me if people don’t agree with this assessment. It’s like people claiming George Wallace wasn’t a racist or that David Duke isn’t one. White Supremacists/Alt Right/White Nationalists/KKK members/Confederates/Nazis etc. are drawn to and support President Trump for a reason. They recognize that he is one of them and his policies towards brown people are a reflection of that. If you support a racist and their policies you end up in their camp. Hate crimes against people of color and Jews are increasing for a reason. Racists have been emboldened by this Administration. After all President Trump sees some of them as very good people.

        ^ As I often do I have strayed from the path that I laid out in the beginning. I’ll get back to what I wanted to talk about primarily. The lies of President Trump or rather my favorites. A pathological or compulsive liar lies about anything. They lie when the truth would serve them better. They lie with no particular rhyme or reason.

        ^ In all the things that I will and have mentioned there are links available on the WWW to find them. I’m really not going to bother. I usually post the links but I have found that people don’t bother to go to them, refuse to believe them anyway for a multitude of reasons or simply excuse his actions.

        ^ So, on with my favs:

·        My all-time favorite is an interview that he did with Fox Pravda after he was elected and before he assumed office. During the interview he was asked by the host about the story that he punched his elementary music teacher and gave him a black eye. Trump said that he didn’t know where that story came from. It came from the book “Trump: the art of the deal” that he claimed he wrote.  (The story is on page 71 if you have the book.) No, he didn’t get expelled.

·        I have heard people say that Trump lies about where his father was born but that isn’t true. He lies about where his grandfather was born. In the book “Trump: the art of the deal” He said that his father’s father Fred Trump was born in Sweden. (Page 66) Nope. His grandfather father was born in Germany. He left Germany to avoid three years of compulsory military service to his country. Sound familiar? His grandfather’s name was Friedrich Trump. People will read that name and think that it means Fred Trump his father.

·        Then we have his initial claim before he had announced his running for President that he would release his income taxes. This is a really big lie that he told early on. He said that during an Irish television interview. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg-5KEt1Abg ) This was in 2014. Straight out. No qualifiers. He would release his taxes. It was a very coherent interview. He was addressing a base of supporters then. No theatrics. None of the sing song syntax. No name calling. It was a good interview. I recommend anyone to watch it before the link is pulled. It’s had less than 50,000 views. That’s kind of surprising to me at this stage of the game. Now he’s asking the court to uphold his NOT releasing his income taxes.

·        That Mexico would pay for the wall on our border. This is just a lie of epic proportions. One of his main campaign themes. Really worked the crowds up. He said that it would be easy. Monumental lie.

·        Repeal and replace “Obama Care” with something better. Never happened. I consider it a lie because he never had a better health care plan ready. It’s almost poetic that so many of his supporters were insured under the Affordable Care Act and the only thing that he along with the Republican Party have accomplished is to make it worse not better.

·        Another stand out lie occurred during the Republican primary when Trump was doing interviews. This was essentially free campaign advertising for him. Free. He played media beautifully. I was watching one interview where he was asked about something and he talked extensively about it. Then at another interview with a different network not ten minutes later he claimed to be unaware of the subject. The panel had watched the interview on the other network and were incredulous but didn’t call him out on it.

·        Self-funding. Trump claimed numerous times that he would self-fund his campaign. Never happened. Donald Trump, the avowed multi-billionaire was taking in money from outside sources from the very beginning. He did spend his own money.

·        Not golfing because he would be too busy working. This lie is just a hoot! He gave his Presidential salary and so far we have spent $180 million guarding him while he golfs not to mention the millions that have been spent at his various properties. Remember when he complained about President Obama golfing? I’ll bet that you do. Seriously now, the man is supposed to be a multi-billionaire. Should hard working Americans really be picking up the tab for him?

·        Lock her up! He announced after the campaign that this was just rhetoric. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix49LjgaTaI  ) At his rallies they still chant about locking her up. This one is really funny when you stop to consider how many of his administration have been locked up so far and that he’s been impeached.

·        The stories that he passes along about when he’s talking with someone and then the names change the next time that he tells the same story. A Trump classic.

·        I really got a kick out of the story where he claimed that grown men were crying about some great thing that he did and the video of the occasion showed that no one was crying.

·        I watched a campaign rally recently where he claimed that he had started his campaign a few months ago. He filed to run almost immediately after taking office and has been going to rallies since the beginning of his Presidency. He needs the love and admiration. It’s his fuel.

        ^ Oh really, that’s more than enough. Why is any of this important?

        ^ It’s important because his word is meaningless and the rest of the world outside of his base knows what he is. They know that he simply can’t be trusted. After bailing on our allies the Kurds and leaving their fate to the Russians and the Turkish strongman do you think any remaining ally of ours feels like they can count on us when the chips are down? Think that the President of the Ukraine doesn’t know that?

        ^ We don’t live in a vacuum. The people of the world watch him. They see his actions. They hear his words. They know his character. He was laughed at on the world stage because of the man that he is.

        ^ I think that he’s going to get elected again. I’ll get into the why of why I think that at another time.

        ^ In the meantime I believe that our nation is better than the man at the top. I believe that we can do better. Much better. I believe that knowing right from wrong and the truth are important. I believe that character is important. What a person values is important.

        ^ This is more serious than Hillary’s emails.

The earth is kinda round. Nazis are evil. [NAZIS]

        I am going to say that the earth is kinda round because it isn’t exactly round. It’s an oblate spheroid. Close enough though. Most people could accept someone saying that the earth is round rather than kinda round. There are people even today that think the earth is flat. I’m just going to leave that alone.

        Now I don’t need to provide my sources for my knowledge about the earth. It’s like the sun coming up in the east and setting in the west. It’s just the way it is. I had some education, read me some books, paid attention in class and life. It was a pretty normal public school education. Graduated from college too. Went on the GI bill. Anyway that’s why I can say that the earth is kinda round without citing my sources.

        Nazis are evil. Now, I really thought that would be just as straightforward a statement as saying the earth is round; that people couldn’t argue with. It seemed to me that my thinking that the “Nazis are evil” statement would kind of fall in the same category as the earth being round, the sun coming up in the east and setting in the west kinda thing.

        Then along came Charlottesville. Whoa buddy! Turns out I was wrong. Turns out there’s a group of folks that have a lot of “but what about this” arguments before committing to, you know, condemning Nazis as being evil. There’s an even more surprising number of people defending Nazis. Yes, Nazis are evil but they’re with them anyway. One of the many arguments being that they had filled out the proper paperwork. Thank heavens for that or things could have gotten really ugly.

        But they did get ugly. A young woman was run down and died. Killed by a Nazi. Not an alleged Nazi. Not Nazi sympathizer. A Nazi. Others were injured. Two police officers lost their lives. They aren’t getting as much air time but their loss is just as real. The young woman was with the side that didn’t have the proper paperwork done ahead of time. Nazis blame her.

        This whole “But you’re erasing our heritage” argument should have disappeared along with the racist slave-owning Confederate traitor monuments when the Nazi plowed his car into people. These Confederate “heroes” were responsible for killing soldiers of the United States of America. Traitors. If you’re struggling to remember your heritage go to your local library, not some Nazi conspiracy theory website or handout, and read some books. It isn’t like pamphlets are being distributed at Confederate monuments talking about how evil slavery was and how many union soldiers were killed by the traitor that the monument is dedicated to.

        Seriously, grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, Uncle Nazi aren’t taking their kids to see these monuments of traitors on their pedestals astride magnificent steeds so that they can explain the evils of slavery. The children of our nation are watching and listening. Why are there monuments to traitors and not to their victims? The answer should be obvious to civilized humans. The war against slavery was fought and the south immediately started segregation to keep former slaves impoverished and under the rule of white supremacists. Then came the fight for civil rights and more deaths at the hands of the KKK and their supporters.

        Now the Confederates have again climbed back out of their holes and into the light. They have joined forces with their compadres the Nazis and once again are pushing their vile agenda. This is the culture that people don’t want erased. A culture of subjugation.

        How about this? Try having a beautiful bronze statue made now of Jane Fonda with an antiaircraft gun installed next to a Lee statue on government property. Then both can be celebrated as a part of our heritage. I feel reasonably safe in making the prediction that there are enough Viet Nam veterans still around to show up in some pretty good numbers to protest that. (Picture C4 and automatic weapons.)

        There aren’t any more Union veterans around and World War II veterans are dwindling in numbers. We have to speak for them. They are the ones who fought and died fighting against the evils that were the Confederacy and the 3^rd Reich. We have to speak for all the victims of the Confederacy. Union veterans fought against slavery and for humanity. We have to speak for them. We have to speak for the veterans that fought the tyranny of Nazis.

        There’s a full frontal attempt at misdirection and deflection underway. An attempt to bury the message that Nazis’ (The Alt Right, White Nationalists, White supremacists, Confederates, sympathizers, supporters, apologists, et al.) ideology is evil. There are all sort of ridiculous arguments, memes and comparisons being circulated. The Nazi news sites are even putting out drivel that they’re the victims and that even during WW2 they weren’t the bad people they’re made out to be.

         The conspiracy websites are in full production. They have been for over a couple of decades. They have had a disastrous effect on knowledge. This alternate view of the history of the Confederacy and Nazis took hold. The original “fake” history. They have been way too successful in normalizing hate and altering the perception of reality.

        The meme of the Statue of Liberty hiding asking if it’s safe to come out is a funny meme. Because obviously there’s a direct comparison to the Statue of Liberty and taking down monuments of traitors. A Nazi supporting right-wing evangelist even posited that the hymn “Amazing Grace” could be removed. (The author of the hymn was a former slave ship captain that found redemption and renounced slavery. He referred to himself as a wretch.)

        During WW2 there were Nazi sympathizers in this country. There was a mass round up and internment in camps of Japanese Americans. Ever wonder why there wasn’t a similar round up of German Americans?

        A common argument supported by the President along with a lot of other white people is that somehow other groups are just as much to blame. The most commonly referred to are BLM and Antifa. Black Lives Matter was formed as a response to the disparities in our justice system to people of color. Antifa are anti-fascists who believe, correctly, that people need protection from Nazis. (My dad was a part of the 6^th Armored Antifa Division back in the day.) The Anarchists are often confused with Antifa but they really aren’t the same, though they do both use violence. None of these nor any other group involved has remotely the same history, agenda and ideology as Nazis/Confederates et al.

        What can be done about the current situation? A lot of us are struggling with what is the appropriate response. Again, we fought 2 wars over these issues and now our “law” allows them to march in the streets, organize and gain converts. It is frustrating to those that care. It is even more frustrating that so many millions of Americans stand up for the “rights” of Nazis and Confederates.

         There are those that say “do nothing” and it’ll go away. It seems to me that looking the other way is how we got here. (The Nazis have been back to Charlottesville already.) The threat remains with us and whether we like it or not the White Supremacists rode in on the coattails of our current administration. Those stiff armed salutes that we were seeing at rallies were in fact stiff armed salutes from the White Supremacists. They recognized a kindred spirit and came out of their lairs to promote a Nazi/Confederate agenda. This time they rode in with the Republicans. Previously in history they rode in with the Democrats.

        How exactly do we fight back? For one thing we as a nation need to understand and come to grips with how serious a threat this is to our nation and the fundamental beliefs that we’re supposed to stand for. We need to not only acknowledge the evil of racism that exists but deal with the fact that it can’t be eliminated so the struggle against it has to be ongoing and generational.

        There’s a lot of talk about “free speech” and how we have to let the hate-mongers have their say. Let me leave you with two thoughts and a question about that. 1) Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from the consequences that may follow such speech. 2) There’s a line past which free speech becomes sedition. Would we allow ISIS sympathizers to march in our streets and protect their free speech?