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Donald Trump

The Bullet Stops Here

I believe we have a winner.

The award for the most misguided person in the United States has to go to Micheal D. Cohen, Donald Trump’s attorney and scheissmeister, who is quoted as saying that he would take a bullet for the president.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would certainly take a bullet for anyone in my immediate family or a close friend, but I most certainly would not take anything for a person, much less a president, who denigrates, insults and forsakes me as a human being.

Misplaced loyalty is a failure of character. Cleaning up other people’s infidelities, financial irregularities and lapses of judgement that a child could explain as wrong is no way to make a living. It’s no wonder that the president and those who know him are more worried about what the FBI will find out by sifting through Cohen’s records than they are about Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election. What Trump has done domestically is far more noxious and damaging to his presidency.

But just when this story should be blooming in springtime glory, the Democrats stepped into some scheiss of their own by filing a lawsuit alleging criminal activity against it by the Russians, the Trump campaign, and Wikileaks. Further, the DNC filed the suit without letting important people like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi know they were doing this. Honestly, it makes the party look like a bunch of crybabies. Let Mueller do his job, keep the pressure on Cohen and focus on the ill effects of the president’s policies on the economy, the environment, families, and the safety of their children.

Is that too much to ask? Or do the Democrats simply need to create fissures and schisms to feel alive?

The Republicans are already running the fall campaign by warning their donors and voters that if the Democrats win either or both legislative houses in November, then they will open impeachment proceedings as soon as their members are sworn in. Why give this issue back to the GOP? It’s not like they have a stellar record to run on. The tax cuts are exciting no one except the companies that are using their windfall to buy up stock, and the rise in gas prices will soon negate most of the money that the middle and working classes are finding in their checks. Healthcare also seems to be a real worry to many middle-class families because premiums and drug prices are rising at the same time that coverage and deductibles are making it difficult to get adequate care.

With all the other distractions in Washington, running a campaign on middle-class concerns would be a fun idea, yes? Perhaps the DNC could be persuaded to fund such a campaign for the fall instead of playing the president’s game and making everything a matter of resentment and blame.

Instead of taking a bullet, why don’t we bite the bullet and do what’s right for the American people who deserve better than what they’re presently getting from their representatives? I’d sacrifice a lot for that.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Second Time As Farce

Can someone please tell me what’s the plan for this country? Yes, I understand that giving it over to corporate interests by cutting taxes, repealing legislation that keeps the air and water clean, and allowing certain industries to both police and investigate themselves, is just what Republicans do when they gain power, but where are we going? Is this it?

These thoughts came to me after last week’s big-time fail by Republicans when they tried to muster a two-thirds majority for a balanced budget amendment. Not that this would have gone anywhere because there aren’t 67 votes in the Senate to send such an amendment to the states, but it seems as though the GOP has given up on getting anything useful done.

And now that Paul Ryan has decided not to run for reelection, the truth about Republican governance has been exposed for the lie that it’s always been. I’m tired of hearing that politicians want to spend more time with his family. The time to do that is when children are young and impressionable, not when they’re older and don’t want to listen anyway. I’m not just pointing this out because Ryan’s a Republican. Anybody who says they want to spend more time with their family after being away from them for ten years is simply ignorant of the effect their behavior has had on the children. You can never get that time back.

Politically, though, this is significant. It’s quite clear that the GOP sees the writing on the wall and it’s in bright Day-Glo colors: You are going to lose many seats, and perhaps even your majority, so if you want to live under Democratic rule, then run again. Otherwise, move on. It also shows that many Republicans believe that the president is doing severe damage to the party and that the investigations into his and is associates’ behavior will uncover real crimes with real potential punishments.

We’ve been here before in previous administrations. Sex scandals. Investigations. Ethically questionable behavior. An executive seething with resentment and frustration over the press and day-to-day workings of the government. Money. Everywhere there is money. Follow the money. And Mission Accomplished? Really?

Bombing Syria will change the news for a day or so, but eventually, we’ll go back to the domestic issues, and that’s where we need some forward-looking and thinking leadership. We need a plan, not just empty slogans. We need a direction.

I’m just a bit skeptical about where that’s all going to come from.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Strangers In Your Midst and the Fools Who Fear Them

An interesting year, no? The calendar has created a confluence of Passover, Easter and April Fool’s Day, which pretty much covers everyone who lives…everywhere. Which is humbling because this weekend should remind us that we are only as big and smart and compassionate and humane as the weakest among us. The ones with the smallest voices, the vulnerable, the unloved. And that’s why the words of the Seder concerning the stranger are incredibly prescient.

In short, they say, “You shall not oppress a stranger since you yourselves know the feeling of the stranger, for you were also strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Pretty straightforward, I think. Treat all the people living in your land with respect, acceptance, and love. The liturgy is full of these sentiments. And then some. But of course, we live in a land that has developed complicated feelings about the strangers who live here. We fear them and blame them for ills that are not supported by objective data. And then there’s the president, who seems to contradict himself over who should be able to stay in this country, and who gets himself in hot water over his language.

The real problem, though, is that people who call themselves religious, and a great number of those who don’t, not only support the restrictionist policies of the president, they do so in direct violation of the religious values they so proudly promote. This creates a climate of fear that is dividing the country and is leading the government to sue states and cities that say they will harbor immigrants, both documented and undocumented, rather than submit to policies that break up families and sow fears in largely immigrant communities.

And adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census will only make things worse. If the purpose of the census is to get an accurate count of who lives in this country, then why ask a question that will lead to a dramatic undercount of the population? After all, it’s crystal clear that the reason behind the question is not benign. What the president ultimately wants is to prove his contention that he lost the popular vote count in 2016 because illegal immigrants rushed to the polls and voted against him. Secondarily, he wants to know who is a citizen so his administration can harass, deport and threaten both immigrants and the states in which they reside, most of which voted against him.

Talk about oppression. And fear.

We do need sensible immigration reform, but that does not include a wall or mass deportations or disruptions in the lives of people who have lived here productively. It does include compassion and respect, which seem to be in short supply these days in Washington.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Wasn’t Trump Supposed to be Good at Something?

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump reacts during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

I would think that the president might be more inclined to support some gun control measures, seeing as how he loves to shoot himself in the foot.

How does President Trump think that firing Andrew McCabe or Rod Rosenstein or James Comey or Rex Tillerson is going to make anybody forget the main issues in a White House saga starring incompetence, venality and revenge (a great name for a law firm, no?)? I understand the president’s fascination with the media and keeping his name at the top of the websites, but doesn’t he understand that he would be there anyway simply because of his position?

For all of the talk about his being a master media manipulator and a genius at getting people to talk about him, Trump is a terrible public relations guy. He wants to remake the country in his image, but he has no plan and constantly gets in his own way. He also says mean things, attacks the very institutions that can get him the programs and policies he wants, and seems to lack even the basic knowledge of trade or business that was supposed to be his strength.

And what of his signature accomplishment? Conor Lamb’s election was extraordinary not just because he won in a Trump-dominated district, but despite the fact that almost every worker in that district received a tax cut and should have been thankful to the president and his party. That, more than any other reason says to me that the Republicans are in deep trouble come the fall. The old argument was that the president was a savvy businessman who would bring some fiscal sense to the country and reorder the government so it responded when it was needed, but otherwise stayed out of the way. We now know that this argument is showing some serious cracks and the new tariffs could end up costing Americans more money and some jobs in the name of economic nationalism.

President Trump would do himself, and the country, a favor by simply ignoring Robert Mueller’s investigation and Stormy Daniels and just getting on with the business of governing. True, it wouldn’t make those problems go away, but to gloat that you’ve fired an FBI employee so close to retirement because he’s tied to James Comey is simply terrible, terrible policy. And trying to silence a woman the president said he never slept with is just plain silly. If she’s lying, let her and expose her. What complicates this is the $130,000 payment to buy her silence. And the $20 million threat if she breaks the agreement.

That’s terrible public relations, business practice and support of American values. What else has the president got?

Not much.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Donald Trump Voted Worst President in 73 Years

Donald Trump, with help from Russia, became the 45th president of the United States over a year ago, but the American people have spoken. When it comes to the question of who is the worst the worst president since World War II, Americans overwhelmingly voted Trump as the worst!

According to a new Quinnipiac University survey, 41 percent of Americans say Trump is the worst president since the end of World War II.

“In 73 years, 13 men have governed from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and none of them have done so with less admiration from the American people,” notes Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll.

By contrast, President Barack Obama nearly earned the title as the best president since World War II, with 24 percent. That was just behind Ronald Reagan who topped the poll at 28 percent. Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton took the third and fourth spots, respectively.

Just 7 percent of Americans think Trump qualifies as the best president.

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Top Political Scientists Voted Trump the Worst President in America’s History

Nearly 200 of America’s top political scientists have voted Donald Trump the worst president in US history, Yahoo News reports

According to the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey, Mr Trump ranks even lower than disgraced President Richard Nixon – even among conservatives. Abraham Lincoln, unsurprisingly, takes the top prize. Mr Nixon sits at 33.

The study, conducted every four years, surveys social science researchers from the American Political Science Association’s section on presidents and executive politics. It asks the experts to rank each president’s greatness on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being great, 50 being average, and 0 being a total failure.

Mr Trump averaged a score of 12.34, bumping James Buchanan – the president who saw the US descend into the Civil War – out of the bottom spot. The result comes just months after Trump finished his first year in office as the most unpopular president in modern history.

Mr Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, jumped 10 places since the survey was last conducted in 2014, to spot number eight. George W Bush also climbs in the rankings, making it five places up to number 30.

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NRA? Forever. NEA? Not Ever

West Virginia Teachers are on strike.

Students are being shot in schools.

The Secretary of Education self-assesses herself a B+ or A- on her first year of work.

Boston University is the latest college to forgive students who are disciplined if they walk out of school on March 14 to demonstrate for school safety.

The president and the NRA want teachers to carry a gun in school.

This is the state of education today.

In a way, this doesn’t surprise me. After all, I lived through 8 years of Chris Christie and the Know-Nothings bashing teachers, ridiculing our concerns and generally creating a toxic environment for all public workers. Now that we’re living with the greatest worst president in the history of our country, it would make sense that we have the best anti-education leaders in our history making decisions that make little common sense and absolutely no education sense.

West Virginia is just another example of anti-union states paying teachers so little that they have to get second jobs just to maintain a middle class existence. This is what happens when ideologues take away the power of workers to bargain collectively or to have a say in their work environments. It speaks volumes that teachers believe they have to strike because it goes against everything that effective educators believe, which is that we need to be in the classroom educating children. To decide that you have to be out of the classroom with a picket sign is a sign that the state government has gone too far.

And it could, and likely will, get worse. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could severely cripple unions that represent public workers. The Janus case  would allow people to opt out of, or not join, a union, and thus not pay a dime, but would require the union to still bargain on behalf of that employee. This would place an undue financial burden on unions, but the real effect, and what the right wing has wanted for decades, is the end of public worker unions. The right believes that management is always right and that they should make all decisions regarding financial and employment matters.

Which then brings us to the Secretary of Education. Her self-assessment is the reason why educators don’t allow or encourage…self-assessment when it comes to grades. I have no doubt that Secretary DeVos believes she’s doing a fabulous job when in fact she is not. She wants to have all education decisions revert to the states, but that will only bring us back to the wildly different standards and achievement levels that led us to A Nation at Risk. Allowing 50 different sets of education standards is a terrible idea because it does not guarantee every child a quality education.

And a quality education seems to have missed those politicians, from public and private schools, who recommend arming teachers and vilify students as actors who are in thrall to Democrats when the GOP is in thrall to the NRA. The president, in fact, has adopted all of the NRA talking points, but none of the National Education Association. Need I say more?

It’s clear that proponents of arming teachers have not really thought through the ramifications of such a move. How would the guns be stored? What about liability? What happens if a gun goers off accidentally or doesn’t go of at all? What if a students gets possession of a teacher’s gun? What kind of environment are you creating when guns saturate schools?

But all of those questions pale in the presence of the fact that public money, and lots of it, would be going to something that has nothing to do with education. If there’s money available for weapons training, why not use it for curriculum, professional development, or paying teachers a livable wage so they don’t have to go to their second job after school?

There is no way that students can adequately learn in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, but that’s exactly what would happen if we introduce more guns into schools. Armed security guards? That would be fine, but not teachers. That would lead to tragedy.

This administration has shown that American cultural norms are subject to the whims of lobbyists, piles of cash and fealty to the president. The result will not help children, education or the nation.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Bigger Deficit Is Intellectual

Donald Trump might be the first president to step on his own tax cuts. With February 15 in sight, and most companies ready to use the new tax tables for that payday, the resident philanderer, sexual braggart, pussy-grabber-in-chief has decided that the #MeToo movement might be getting too close to the Oval Office for his comfort. Not only will this dilute the message that many Republicans want to send, that the president is finding his footing and is acting–here we go–presidential, but it will remind many voters that although they will be getting a bump in their pay, there is a steep price to pay for the pizzas they’ll be able to pay for.

And don’t think for a minute that the president is actually worried about Rob Porter or Roy Moore or Al Franken or Bill O’Reilly. He’s worried about the one and only person who matters to him in all matters–himself. He knows that the Stormy Daniels affair was real, and so does his wife. He knows that he was speaking a truth to Billy Bush when he was talking about what rich Neanderthals can do to women when they want to assert their power. He knows that allegations about other members of his staff reflect poorly on him, so naturally he decides that rather than lead the country through this important societal upheaval, his best shot at saving himself is to belittle the women who are leading it and making credible, provable accusations.

Plus, the president’s newfound respect for due process is about as sincere and his handshake with Hillary Clinton during the debates. He’s not trying to right a wrong here. He’s trying to dismiss the issue because ultimately it leads to his front door. Due process meant nothing when he was painting NFL players as un-American or in crafting legislation that would allow Dreamers to stay in this country, or in judging the Central Park Five as guilty despite the fact that they were, in fact, completely innocent.

Don’t the victims deserve due process too?

I guess that when you’re on the other side of due process, like, say, when you’re being investigated by someone who actually knows what the phrase means and how to apply it, or you’ve been accused by dozens of women of committing sexual crimes against them, then I can imagine it would be uncomfortable to know that you could actually be held liable, lose your job or go to jail because of your actions.

As for those tax cuts, Democrats have to be careful because in the short term they will be a real boon to many wage earners who might decide that they can tolerate the president’s behavior if it means an extra $100 per month. Yes, the stock market has gyrated wildly, but the key is real wages and jobs.  Inflation is about to erode much of the wage gains that many Americans are counting on, and a good part of those wage gains will be in the form of bonuses. Trade wars will make goods that much more expensive. And our foreign policy is a mess. These are winnable issues for November. The president’s outbursts are but extra sauce.

Remember, and I mean always remember, that more people voted for Hillary Clinton’s vision of America’s future than Donald Trump’s. “The country” does not support his policies and “the American people” did not speak in favor of his agenda in 2016.

The president has said some terrible things about minorities. He’s forgetting that he is one himself.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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“A City Upon A Hill?” Not With Trump Leading the Way – Video

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump step off Air Force One after arriving at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport for a visit to Sheffer Corporation to promote his tax policy, Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump participates in a tour of Sheffer Corporation to promote his tax policy, Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tax policy during a visit to Sheffer Corporation, Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

If you’re anything like me, you try your best to avoid the ignorance coming out of the White House. But that is easier said than done, for on a daily, no hourly basis, Donald Trump and his Republicans are shoving the ignorance down our throat. It is their way of maintaining control of the government, for if the electorate is ignorant, then it is easily led… like sheep to the slaughter!

But his people love the ignorance! They foolishly dismiss Trump’s lies as truths, and they happily swallow his bucket of filth, content with the ongoing diminution of their sensibility. Trump takes no responsibility for anything he says or does, and everything is now dismissed as a “joke.” That is how Trump’s spokesperson, Sarah Huckabee Saunders characterized Trump’s use of the word Treason when he described Democrats who refused to applaud the dear leader in his State of the Union Address. 

“It was obviously a joke,” Trump’s spokesperson said.

So if Trump was joking when he said Democrats committed treason and they do not love America because they refused to clap during his speech, why did the Trump reelection campaign create an ad based on Trump’s characterization of Democrats? How is this funny? How is it a “joke?”

Thanks to Donald Trump, this country is becoming morally bankrupt. We are now at a point where the President of the United States uses the word “treason” to refer to other elected members of government, and his lunacy is brushed off as a “joke.”

Will we ever get back to being a “city upon a hill,” having “the eyes of all people are upon us?” If Donald Trump and the Republicans have anything to do with it, my sad answer is, no.

From the brainchild of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

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Dick Durbin – We Must Hold Trump Accountable If He “Violated The Law”

In a Sunday interview on CNN, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin told Jake Tapper that “no one, including the president, is above the law.” Durbin then warned that Trump will be “held accountable” if  it is proven that the violated the law.

 “Well, I don’t want to predict that. I think that’s too hypothetical. We understand what the constitution says. We must do, and that is hold everyone in the United States, including the president of the United States accountable if they have violated the law. No one including the president is above the law.”

For his part, Donald Trump and his Republican party are doing all they can to interfere with Robert Mueller’s investigation into his campaign’s illegal dealings with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. As improbable as it sounds, the so-called President of the United States is now blaming the FBI in his ongoing attempt to cast doubt on Mueller and the outcome of Mueller’s investigation. And the entire Republican party is going along with this.

I give Durbin credit though. Although Democrats are currently in the minority and limited by what they can do even if it is proven that Trump broke the law, Durbin and other Democrats are talking the talk. The stark reality is however, that Republicans are in power with no checks and balances, and they are too afraid of Trump and his Twitter handle. Until Republicans decide to uphold the laws and more importantly, the constitution, Democrats are left with no alternative but to talk.

It’s no longer country first, it’s protect Trump first for these Republicans

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Constituents Laughed at Republican’s Defense of Donald Trump – Video

Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, pauses during a Bloomberg Politics interview in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Monday. Feb. 1, 2016. Ernst, one of the most popular politicians in the state of Iowa, says she can't vouch for Republican presidential front runner Donald Trumps conservative credentials.

In her first 2018 “Coffee with Joni” meeting with constituents in Iowa, Junior Republican Senator, Joni Ernst, was asked about Donald Trump’s “supremacy talk” and its effect on the rest of the world. The question came after Trump called Haiti and African countries, “shithole countries,” and stated that he would prefer immigrants from “Norway.”

One Constituent asked Ernst about, “the damage that Trump is doing to our neighbors around the world with his white supremacy talk.” Ernst disagreed, saying that Trump “is standing up for a lot of the countries.”

“Can you name a few” the constituent asked.

“Norway.” Ernst replied.

You can’t make this stuff up

Video

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Civil Rights Icon to Boycott Trump’s State of the Union Address

He has stood for what’s right his entire life. So naturally, Rep. John Lewis of Georgia will stand again later this month to boycott Donald Trump and his blatantly racist views when the Republican president delivers his State of The Union Address.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Friday that he’ll skip President Trump‘s State of the Union address later this month over the the president’s Thursday comments on “shithole countries,” referring to Haiti, El Salvador and several nations in Africa.

“At this junction, I do not plan to attend the State of the Union,” the longtime Georgia congressman told MSNBC’s Katy Tur.

Lewis, a civil rights icon who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said he could not bear to be in the same room as Trump after the remarks  the president made in a private meeting with lawmakers on a potential immigration deal.

“I cannot in all good conscience be in a room with what he has said about so many Americans. I just cannot do it. I wouldn’t be honest with myself,” Lewis said.

Democrats should follow Lewis’ lead.

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