Resist!

Mood.

A post shared by Jen Hatmaker (@jenhatmaker) on May 6, 2017 at 10:28am PDT

Keeping score with Trump

Manafort (Resigned)
Crowley (Bows out)
Puzder (Bows out)
Flynn (Resigned)
Sessions (Recused)
Bannon (Demoted)
Nunes (Recused)

I’m thinking Flynn will end up in prison. Sessions will resign. Nunes will go down in flames at his next election. I’m not sure about Manafort.

So Pat Robertson was wrong about Trumpcare

Pat Robertson was so sure, like god herself gave him the inside scoop. Mark my words. It will pass…

Nope! Nope! Nope! via Right Wing Watch.

Eeny meeny miny moe

I’m having trouble keeping track of Trump’s misdeeds, mistakes and gaffs today.

• Did we really threaten a preemptive strike on North Korea?
  
• Did Rex Tillerson really traveling on official business without the press?
  
• Was Rex Tillerson really to fatigued to meet with South Korean officials?
  
• Did Trump really ignore Merkel’s request for a handshake?
  
• Are we really cutting Meals on Wheels because its the compassionate thing to do?Did Trump really joke about wiretaps with Merkel?
  
• Did Trump really fire Preet Bharara because he was investigating Tom Price for insider trading?
  
• Did we really bomb a fucking mosque full of innocent people?
  
• Did Trump really tell a German reporter she was a nice friendly reporter?
  
• Did Trump really fuck over his voters with his budget? (Yes. Yes he did.)
  
• Did DeVos really kill a rule protecting students from high fees? 

There is more, but I’m tired and it’s late.

The Trumpblican Bible

Saw this on Reddit va Drellkethat tonight. It’s perfect.

Yes, Ralph Shortey is a hypocrite

I’ve been hit up with a few emails recently because of the arrest of Oklahoma state senator Ralph Shortey (R). People want to know why I had not added him to the list of Christian hypocrites. My answer is simple. I’m busy. I can fix that now though.

Ralph Shortey was arrested for allegedly having sex with an underage male prostitute. I think that qualifies as statutory rape in most states, perhaps not in Oklahoma. I should look that up… age of consent in Oklahoma is 16, unless money is offered in exchange for sexual contact. Check! Shortey makes the law, is it too much to ask that he knows the law too?

Shortly was charged with engaging in child prostitution, a felony. In response, the Republican-dominated State Senate sanctioned Shortey… they canceled his reserved parking space among other penalties.

Shortey allegedly used social media to set up his evening. Given the evidence and his use of the alias Jamie Tilley, I think the police would be looking for more victims.

I already know too much about this hypocrite.

• He studied but did not graduate from the unaccredited Heartland Baptist Bible College, an IFB institution. 
  
• He one proposed a wtf bill that outlawed the use of aborted fetuses in food, apparently because of something he read on the internet. 
  
• He supports the war on drugs, but was allegedly smoking weed during his illicit romp with a teenager.
  
• He was active for 17 years in the YMCA’s Youth and Government organization… where he would have had ample access to teens.
  
• He voted in favor of an anti-transgender bathroom bill. 
• He acts like a fundie… I’d love to know what church he attends. I bet they are proud. 
• He was Trump’s Campaign Chair in Oklahoma. Why? Who would hire this guy to do anything?

What amazes me the most of cases like this is how big of a fuckup these people are. We have an adult who did not graduate from an unaccredited bible college and whose work experience appears to have been a production assistant, before being elected as a state senator. Is he or best and brightest? Why would anyone vote for this fraud in the first place?

The band Soviet Soviet deported

Thanks Trump… We deported the Italian band Soviet Soviet after denying then entry to the U.S. and jailing them overnight. Apparently, the band members were questioned for hours over the possibility that they might be paid for performing at a promotional concert. What the hell is going on?

The band, which is based in the city of Pesaro, landed in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon. It was traveling under ESTA (also known as the Visa Waiver Program), which allows citizens of nearly 40 countries to travel to the United States without having to obtain a visa. Source:Anastasia Tsioulcas

They sure sound dangerous to me…

The real cost of Trump’s immigration policy

Antidoping will not able to perform at Skanking Reggae Festival March 11 at The Shrine Expo Hall due to difficulties in renewing their visas. Damit Trump. What do have against a Mexican Ska? These guys are hot.

I’ve still got Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and The Slacker though…

I certainly meant no disrespect

Kellyanne Conway said, “I certainly meant no disrespect.” All she did was kneel on a Whitehouse couch. I think we can let this pass.

Kellyanne kneeling on a couch fits this administration. It defines this Administration. And… it means nothing. I was once criticized for speaking too loud in a Church. I was told that it was God’s house and that I should show respect. Actually, it was just used as a means to put me in my place. I hated it then and I hate this now. Give it a rest people.

It’s sometimes best to wait

When the story of Customs and Border Protection agents first broke, I was horrified. My initial thoughts were that this was somehow linked to Trumps plan to Make America Great again by scaring the crap out of everyone. But I waited… the story was missing an explanation. It was too easy to love.

And… the CBP did have a reason for its actions and the reason seems reasonable.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) later confirmed the details of the incident. In a statement to VICE News, a spokesperson for the agency said the agents were present because Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) had asked for help locating an individual “ordered removed by an immigration judge.” Source: Vice News

“Show me your papers” is not something Americans like to hear. I can understand the hysteria surrounding the airlines story, but I can’t understand the story about immigration officials questioning Muhammad Ali Jr., when he reentering the US after a trip abroad. I can’t understand ICE pulling Sara Beltran Hernandez, an undocumented El Salvadoran with a brain tumor, out of a hospital in Texas. The news is full of stories that upset me these days, but few upset me more then a bully USA picking on people, citizens or not.

Clinton in 2020? Please no.

I once read a book about Hillary Clinton’s run against Barack Obama in 2008 that forever changed by opinion of Democrats and the Clintons. I can’t remember the book now (It may have been more than one), but I can remember the theme. She was disconnected from reality and used whatever means she had at her disposal to push her what she thought was her advantage. She also underestimated her opponent. When the 2016 elections started to take shape, I knew she was in trouble. She had no answer for Bernie Sanders and failed to see the appeal of his position. She also pressed her advantage in a way that undermined her integrity. Of course, like may other people, I figured she could not lose to Donald Trump. I still can’t wrap my mind around Trump’s victory. With all the distractions since his election, we’ve lost focus on how he got there.

There is talk of a Clinton run in 2020. Please no. She cannot win. Whatever is running through her mind, whatever reasoning is pushing her in this direction, we need to tell her no. She can’t win because she is still disconnected from reality. Until we find somebody who understands how Trump won, and I mean actually understands how he won and not just intellectual weak excuses for Clinton’s loss, whoever runs in 2020 is doomed.

We need a leader and a Democratic Party that is up to the task.

you look at what's happening last night in Sweden

President Trump… It’s harder to say that with each passing day. Yesterday, he held a campaign rally for the 2020 election even though most of us think he won’t make it another six months. He said a lot of weird things, but this stood out as just nuts, given he is the leader of the free world.

…you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden… Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. - Source: The Independent.

Nothing happened last night in Sweden. Nothing, he made it up. He may have thought something happened because of a non-news segment he say on Fox News. That is a scary thought. He saw it on the “News” so he repeated it as fact. We are so screwed.

Small hands and even smaller crowds

Kellyanne Conway used the term "Alternative Facts" to explain the lies Sean Spicer told during Trumps first official press conference. To quote one of Spicer's lies, "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration -- period -- both in person and around the globe."

As a patriotic American, I was insulted by Spicer and his lies. I saw with my own eyes the small crowds on the parade route and during the inauguration. I remember thinking, why are the crowds so small? I was looking for a reason other than the obvious, but then it became plain that people did not show up. I want truth. We want truth.

Lying about the little things is a bad sign. It points towards dishonesty in all communication. Lying about verifiable facts is an insane act when what Trump seeks is legitimacy. Lies discredit everything. How is this good strategy?

Kellyanne Conway furthered the damage while appearing on Meet the Press. She repositioned lying as an honorable act. Spicer was fighting the media's alleged biased reporting with alternative facts. Any reasonable person knows alternative facts in this context means falsehoods.

"Don't be so overly dramatic about tit Chuck. You'er saying it's a falsehood. .. Our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that."

Trump and his minions are dishonest. His first press conference fixated on trivial issues and spread deliberate falsehoods. The size of the crowd is unimportant and not an urgent issue. Crowd size does not need correction. Crowd size does not need a press conference nor does it mention in Trump’s speech to the CIA.

"I get up this morning, I turn on one of the networks, and they show an empty field. I'm like, wait a minute. I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people. They showed a field where practically no one was standing there and said ‘Donald Trump did not draw...'... Honestly it looked like a million and a half people. Whatever it was it was. It went all the way back to the Washington Monument." He added even 250,000 people would be “not bad ... but it’s a lie”.

I fear for our democracy. I fear for our country.

Flag burning question

If burning a flag in protest should result in loss of citizenship or a year in prison as President-elect Trump suggest, what about businesses that use a flag to proclaim national patriotism for commercial gain?

A photo posted by @mojoey on Nov 29, 2016 at 8:07pm PST

10 minutes of Trump-inspired hate

Musings of a former white nationalist

I find myself reading a lot more since the election. An article by R. Derek Black in the New York Times Sunday Review caught my attention. Why I left White Nationalism is interesting, but jarring at the same time, this paragraph captures my unease with President-elect Trump. I am not the target of this hate, but almost everyone I love is.

Trump has put forward would endanger me, and I once enthusiastically advocated for most of what he says. No proposal to put more cops in black neighborhoods to stop and frisk residents would cause me to be harassed. A ban on Muslim immigration doesn’t implicate all people who look like me in terrorism. Overturning Roe v. Wade will not force me to make a dangerous choice about my health, nor will a man who personifies sexual assault without penalty make me any less safe. When the most powerful demographic in the United States came together to assert that making America great again meant asserting their supremacy, they were asserting my supremacy.
- via mobile.nytimes.com

On another note, I think one way to protest Trump is to pay for a subscription to the New York Times.

Trump’s reaction to Fidel Castro’s death

Fidel Castro has died. As a nation we look to our political leaders for appropriate words of condolence and we get this…

Fidel Castro is dead!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016

“Fidel Castro is Dead!” - I don’t think a celebratory tweet is a fitting response from our nation or from President-elect Donald Trump. It oozes immaturity and simply panders to his base. His actual statement continues the theme.

President Obama on the other hand…

At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him…

- via whitehouse.gov

Can Trump go from Twitter screeds to diplomacy? I don’t think so.

I’m starting to figure Trump out

In order to get elected, Trump would…

1. Meet with any and alloddball groups, like anti-vaxxers.
   
2. Tell them what they want to hear.
   
3. Keep repeating the message.
   
4. Renege or alter promise after elected.
   

He promised anti-vaxxers hope…

Now that Trump won, we can all feel safe in sharing that Mr. Trump met with autism advocates in August. He gave us 45 minutes and was extremely educated on our issues. Mark stated 'You can't make America great with all these sick children and more coming'. Trump shook his head and agreed. He heard my son's vaccine injury story. Andy told him about Thompson and gave him Vaxxed. Dr Gary ended the meeting by saying 'Donald, you are the only one who can fix this'. He said 'I will'. We left hopeful. Lots of work left to do
- via Slate Magazine

How long till he takes it away?

More of this please

Andrew Barkett, the first-ever Chief Technology Officer of the Republican party, made his intentions clear with regard to “alt-right”, white supremacists, white nationalists and the whole nutball racist fringe.

These are racist, intolerant ideologies. They go against the spirit and interests of the United States of America. These beliefs have no place in the party of Lincoln. I denounce Stephen K. Bannon, who as editor of Breitbart.com provided a safe space for these racist and intolerant points of view.
- via Extra Newsfeed

More of this please, less of Trump’s milquetoast that.

Know I know where my stepmom gets her crazy

Part of dealing with Trump followers is dealing with the noise of fake news. My stepmother is a typical case. She reads endless clickbait stories, all with inflammatory headlines and tenuous links to facts. I have spent hours pointing out that the news was fake, that the sites were setup to take advantage of people like her, and that they were feeding her racial and political fears. She always had another site, another story, another reason to jump on the Alt-Right racist bandwagon, this despite having a bi-racial grandchild living with her.

“CAN’T TRUST OBAMA,” he writes as the headline, then pauses. His audience hates Obama and loves President-elect Donald Trump, and he wants to capture that disgust and cast it as a drama between good and evil. He resumes typing: “Look At Sick Thing He Just Did To STAB Trump In The Back… .” For the ‘ new yellow journalists,’ opportunity comes in clicks and bucks.

This is clear evidence. Two out-of-work kids turn to writing pap for middle-aged white trump supporters. Despite being confronted with the facts, my stepmom will hold to her “facts” and fight for her “beliefs.” I don’t know what to do. I think of her and others like her as the lost generation.