December 16, 2017: Trump Nominees to Federal Courts Found Wanting

 

12/16/17: Trump has now nominated four candidates for positions on the federal bench who end up being rated “unqualified” by the American Bar Association. How about Brett Talley for a seat on a district court? Why not! 

Talley just happens to believe the first version of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s  was a fine civic organization.

Make America Great Again?

 

Did you know two of Trump’s nominees deemed “unqualified” were rated so by unanimous vote? Since the American Bar Association started issuing ratings in 1989 only two other nominees have ever been unanimously rated “unqualified.” 

Matthew S. Petersen, another Trump nominee, rated “qualified,” had his name withdrawn after a disastrous appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his hearing he pretty much failed to answer any of the questions put to him by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. 

All Petersen really seemed to understand was that if confirmed for a judgeship he’d get to bang a gavel.

January 4, 2018: President Trump Can't Find the Voter Fraud, and Doesn't Like the Right to Protest Much, Either

 

1/4/18: The president decides he can’t let an entire day go by without undercutting fundamental democratic institutions. So, he does what he does best. He studies policy. 

Of course, he doesn’t. 

 

Standing up by kneeling down? 

Did you know his Commission on Voter Fraud just disbanded? “Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud,” Trump tweet-moans. “They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.” (For the biggest case of voter fraud in recent memory, see: 12/4/18.) 

You may not remember, but last summer a “handful” of states, a mere 44, refused to provide all the information Trump and his enablers demanded...also the District of Columbia. Alabama did comply with the administration order which makes it even more depressing for the president to realize accused child molester Roy Moore still couldn’t get elected. 

Kansas also complied. Kansas is the state where the head of the Commission on Voter Fraud, Kris Kobach, got his start cleaning up all the rampant fraud in elections. He worked like a right-wing beaver, Kobach did. He scrubbed and he scrubbed, and managed to secure nine whole convictions for voter fraud, over the course of multiple elections, in a state with a population of 1.8 million.

 

* 

TRUMP TWEETS ONCE, then mulls his course. What to do next with his valuable time? He decides to flog a favorite target: Minorities. No, I mean, “kneeling NFL players.” They just happen to be almost all African American. 

In any case, he tweets again, this time providing a link to the picture below, from last September. His tweet reads, “So beautiful.... Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel!” 

 

Let this blogger interject. Much respect to all who have fallen in the fight for freedom and to their loved ones who pay an almost unbearable price. 

As a patriotic American, who enlisted in the Marines in 1968, I can see why players protest. If I were to kneel during the National Anthem, would I be disrespecting the flag, or would I be standing up by kneeling down? I’m a huge fan of the right to protest and the First Amendment. You know who I think really, really disrespected our flag. I think it was Don Jr. and Jared when they met with Russians in hopes of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. (See: 1/3/18.) 

 

As for minority players kneeling, Mr. Trump, perhaps they’re protesting this kind of symbolism and support for your positions, and your disinclination to condemn such individuals: 

 

Or it might be they’re protesting this kind of police abuse (and no, not all police are abusive):

 

Walter Scott, unarmed and fleeing, is shot in the back.

 

Again, all sympathy to that soldier’s poor wife (pictured above) and to the child who will never know its father. 

That doesn’t mean Walter Scott’s family doesn’t also have a grave to visit and to weep over too.

 

* 

THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR decides to open almost all U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling. This plan, carefully crafted by Secretary Ryan Zinke, is a work of genius. (See: 1/9/18.) 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Lawyers for the president go to court to try to halt publication of the new book, Fire and Fury. (See: 1/3/18.) 

Because that’s what we do in Trumpistan. 

We ban books.

June 12, 2020: Boogaloo Bois and Fort Bragg

 

6/12/20: With the nation convulsed by protests, the U.S. military expressed willingness to consider the renaming of ten bases. Those bases are named for heroes of the Confederacy. For example: Fort Bragg in North Carolina, named for the totally inept General Braxton Bragg, who lost almost every battle in which he participated.

Respect our military? Confederates tried to kill our military.

 

_____________________ 

The “Boogaloo bois” doctrine holds that freedom-loving white Americans must foment civil war.

_____________________

  

You also have Fort Hood in Texas, named after John Bell Hood, who gave up a leg in the fight to defend slavery. 

And Fort Gordon, named for Gen. John Brown Gordon, one of Robert E. Lee’s most capable lieutenants. After the war he was rumored to be Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan. 

Naturally, Trump reacted angrily. In an appeal to the racist portion of his base – whatever fraction you think that might be – he tweeted, “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!” 

This would make sense if Bragg, Hood, and Gordon hadn’t been actively involved in trying to kill and maim members of “our Military.” 

(In Louisiana, some wit started a petition, suggesting one of the bases in question be named after Britney Spears, “the TRUE hero of the South.” At last count 14,000 people had signed.)

 

More than a few Trump fans are having trouble dealing with the fact that Robert E. Lee had to surrender at Appomattox, signaling the death knell of slavery. Mercedes Schlapp, a senior Trump campaign adviser, recently boosted a tweet that “lauded a man in Texas in a viral video as he yelled a racial slur and wielded a chainsaw to chase away anti-racism demonstrators.” 

When Politico reached out, she retweeted a version of the video, but with the n-word muted. 

Then she realized she still looked like a racist. She deleted both tweets and apologized, one would assume, for being a knucklehead. 

As Politico noted, other GOP leaders in Texas were under fire. One county chair posted a Martin Luther King Jr. quote, next to a banana. Another commented on a third’s post, “pandemic isn’t working. Start the racial wars.”

 

* 

AS A LIBERAL in good standing, I don’t have much trouble deciding in most cases what is right, and what is not. Kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, till he was dead. 

Not. 

Ambushing two California sheriff’s deputies, killing one, and seriously wounding another? 

Not. 

Blue lives do matter. 

Ironically, while the president has been trading insults with Seattle’s mayor, and railing about Antifa, that ambush was carried out by an Air Force veteran, and a white man, Steven Carrillo. Carrillo subscribes to the “Boogaloo bois” doctrine, which holds that freedom-loving white Americans must foment civil war. You start first by taking out civil authorities. Then you launch a race war. Carrillo was armed with – of course – an AR-15, the preferred weapon of mass murderers and nutjobs across America. He is a suspect in an attack in Oakland, California, during a Black Lives Matter protest, that left one federal protective services agent dead, another wounded. 

Other Boogaloo enthusiasts have been arrested in Ohio, Texas, and Colorado, after posting plans on social media to assassinate government agents and/or blow up members of current crowds of protesters.

Trump and Pence: Bogus Respect for the Flag

As of yesterday, we know Vice President Mike Pence will never, ever stand for any anti-American crap.

Not from African-American football players, at least.

Nobody is going to disrespect our nation, our soldiers, our National Anthem and our glorious flag. Not while Mike Pence and Donald J. Trump are on guard.

Okay. True. Candidate Trump did say war hero John McCain was no war hero. That would be disrespecting soldiers for sure. 

Okay, true again.

He did attack a Gold Star mother during the campaign. That’s disrespecting her sacrifice, her son’s, the nation for which he fought and died, and finally the flag that covered his coffin when his body returned home. 

In other words, the hypocrisy of Trump and Pence in this matter should be clear. 

If you missed the story this weekend here are the key parameters. VP Pence flew back from Las Vegas, after comforting survivors of a bloody massacre, to put in his appearance at an Indianapolis Colts football game. This flight came at taxpayer expense; but who’s counting tax dollars right now! (Not former cabinet member Tom Price!) A spokesperson for Pence later explained this trip was definitely not a political stunt. First, the VP’s office posted a picture of the VP decked out in blue and white Colts gear. Second, they admitted lamely that very picture of that very same VP was taken in 2014, when he was not yet, technically, the VP. Third, they claimed Pence was in attendance only to honor Peyton Manning, longtime Indianapolis Colts star. The Hall of Fame quarterback’s statue was being unveiled before the game.

We know Trump and Co. have been having problems with statues for weeks. 

For now, let’s focus on Sunday. As kickoff approached there was Pence (but wearing a suit coat and dress shirt), standing erect, hand over heart, lovely wife by his side, also hand over heart, as the first strains of the National Anthem sounded before the game. Imagine, then, the VP’s “surprise” when two dozen players from the visiting San Francisco 49ers took a knee. (San Francisco players have been protesting at every game for weeks. So any surprise had to be feigned)

Well, that was that, as far as the shocked VP and the equally shocked Mrs. VP were concerned. Hardly had the final notes of the Anthem reverberated before they had bolted from their seats.

This protest angered the President and the VP  (and the VP's wife.)

Almost as soon as their feet touched the parking lot pavement outside, the Vice President was ready to tweet. “I left today’s Colts game,” he tappity-tap-tapped, “because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.” Then he and his wife hopped on Air Force Two and flew back to Los Angeles to enjoy the remains of the day.

That’s right. Mr. and Mrs. Pence they turned right around—protest of the protest complete—and headed for California. Estimated cost to taxpayers for their little Sunday jaunt: $242,500.

You could buy a lot of nice flags for that.

If you stopped to think about it—something President Trump clearly never does—you had to wonder what the furor was about. Flags are always symbols and flags mean different things to different people at different times. When I was a boy, for example, growing up in Northern Ohio back in 1961, I developed an abiding interest in the American Civil War. For some reason, I identified with Robert E. Lee and his brave troops who fought long odds for four bloody years.

At a museum in Gettysburg that summer, I used some of my allowance to purchase a replica of a Rebel soldier’s kepi hat. A small Rebel flag was glued incongruously, flat, to the top. I admit I wore that hat in many a faux battle fought in months to come in orchards and woods behind our home.

You can argue, rightly, I think, that not everyone who displays a Rebel flag is a racist at heart. But we should remember that increasingly, in the 1950s and 60s, it became a totem for bigots of every stripe. When the struggle for civil rights began to heat up half a dozen former Confederate states added it to the design of their state flags. Most have given the symbol up in recent years, several with reluctance. Alabama dropped it—you could say—but clearly kept it in spirit.

Alabama state flag c. 1967, top.
Current state flag, bottom.

Mississippi kept it for sure.

You might wonder, then, why some symbolic gestures involving flags bother Trump and Pence while others do not. In fact, you might argue that there is no greater sign of disrespect to the “Stars and Stripes,” to the soldiers who died carrying our flag and the nation for which it stands, than to fly or display the “Southern Cross,” as the banner is often called. Few enemies in history have killed more U.S. soldiers that General Robert E. Lee and his men, carrying that symbol high at his command.

Make America Great Again? Bring back slavery, maybe?

You can forget any nuances and throw decent respect for differing opinions aside when it comes to President Trump. He and his willing tool, VP Pence, understand their base far, far too well. That base is almost entirely white. And some portion, however large or small and rabid as it might be, still wishes when it comes to the American Civil War that Lee and the South had won.

Dylan Roof proudly displayed this symbol before murdering nine black parishioners at at Charleston, S.C. church.

Who loves this flag? The people at Breitbart News. As in, Steve Bannon,
key White House adviser, till recently, of President Trump.

Who else? Oh, these guys for sure. But their protests in Charlottesville in August didn't bother President Trump because they had a permit.

In fact, if you really care about people disrespecting our soldiers and flag,
maybe you want to consider who we fought during World War II.

A Trump campaign rally (above). Okay, that's a joke.

Exercising freedom of speech, the right to protest, and the right to be a bigoted dick.
Where was Pence when we really needed him to show he was pissed?

If you're going to fly back and forth across the country to protest, maybe this African-American police officer should be in your thoughts.
And it might be nice to remember that every American, even a neo-Nazi, has a right to protest.

African-Americans fought under our flag in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.
They were denied equal rights when they came home--after fighting under our flag.
Symbols mean different things to different people at different times.

Corey Stewart, now preparing a Republican run for the U. S. Senate in Virginia.
He cites Trump as his role model, of course.
"The era of the kinder, gentler Republican is over," he says.

This Sunday stunt by the VP, with support from our Divider-in-Chief had nothing to do in the end with respect for our nation, our song or our flag. Instead, picking a fight with mostly African-American athletes in the NFL, and to a lesser extent in the NBA, was a battle—like Gettysburg or Antietam—the President thought he could win.

The VP’s costly trip to Indianapolis was a sleazy stunt cooked up to put political points on a warped scoreboard, at taxpayer expense.

Nazis and Babies and Charlottesville Protesters: A Quiz for Donald Trump

Today, we offer up a hypothetical test for President Donald J. Trump, theoretically Leader of the Free World. 

In the wake of the terrible tragedy in Charlottesville this past weekend, you have to doubt he could pass it.  

Below we present several pictures. Do you really think Mr. Trump could identify the bad guys? 

Clearly, we would need to start with an easy one: 

Question 1: This person (above) is _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

C. Clearly a baby

Question 2: These people are _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

(Hint #1: Don’t let the dark, Arab-like or Mexican-like skin tones throw you off, Mr President. Keep your focus.)

(Hint #2: The man in the photo was recently murdered in Kansas by an enraged white man who thought he was from the Middle East and shouted at him to go back to his own country, where he belonged.)

Question 3: This person is _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

C. Not really a person

D. One of the 3,000,000 imaginary voters you said cast imaginary ballots for Hillary Clinton, necessitating you organize a commission to hunt them all down.

Question 4: These people are _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

(Look closely at the flags, Donald. Do you see stars and stripes? How about that symbol at the center? That is your clue!!!!)

Question 5: This person is _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

C. Voted against the Senate healthcare plan because he wants us all to die slow, painful deaths, preferably from herpes.

Question 6: This person is _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

(Her name is Heather Heyer. Her friend described what she and Heather were doing in Charlottesville: “We were just marching around, spreading the love—and then the accident happened. In a split second, you see a car, and you see bodies flying.”)

Question 7: These people are _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

C. Boy scouts cheering your recent speech at the Scout Jamboree

Question 8: These people are _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

C. Big fans of Robert E. Lee and not at all inclined to racism or bigotry or running people down with cars.

Question 9: This is a _____.

A. Member of the alt-left

B. Puppy

Question 10: This is a _____.

A. Muslim American woman—and therefore must be a terrorist who hopes to kill us all

B. Muslim American woman, with all the same rights as the rest of us, and it is highly unlikely she will wallop you over the head with a lighted Tiki torch or punch you in the face if you happen to be black

The picture above and the one below go together.

Question 11: Pick the good protester/s in the pictures above. 

The first picture shows two Freedom Riders, including John Lewis, left, who have just been beaten up by segregationists in 1961. The man at the right is picking out pieces of a shattered tooth after being hit with a lead pipe. 

The second picture is a Klansman making it clear what he thinks of African Americans exercising the right to vote. Which protester/s is/are worse:

A. The men in picture #1

B. The man with the noose in #2

Question 12: This person is _____.

A. Bad

B. Good

(For the love of god, sir, don’t blow this one. That shock of hair. That famous moustache. Even you can’t miss this one!!!!)

Correct answers:

1 C; 2 B; 3 C; 4 A; 5 B; 6 B; 7 A; 8 A; 9 B; 10 B; 11 B; 12 A.

For most Americans we might expect a score of 11 or more correct. For President Trump, we will settle for a score of three or more.

(Sure: you should get more right, simply by guessing; but this is President Trump we are talking about.)