The Invisible Wall

Recently Trump claimed to have begun building his big beautiful wall and even had a plaque dedicating this section to himself as the first section of his border wall.

Now, as a point of fact, this section of the wall was built in place of an older barrier that was dilapidated and in need of replacement and was ordered to be rebuilt by then President Obama, who also authorized the funds.

This is not a new wall.

This was not his victory.

Since we cannot trust what Trump says, let’s look at what he’s actually done.

Trump has taken money from the military budget, against the objections of the Pentagon, and is trying to repurpose those funds to build the border wall. My mother taught me that when you take something that doesn’t belong to you, without being asked, It’s called “stealing.” It also makes you wonder how much of the new and highly expanded military budget, money the Pentagon didn’t even ask for, might also be “taken” to build his wall in the future.  I thought the whole big idea of building the wall was that Mexico was going to pay for it. That’s where he got his big applause. Apparently, that line was just a ruse. We are going to pay for this wall, and we aren’t going to have a say about it.

I guess we’ll just send Mexico an invoice or something.

Without a doubt, the Trump administration cannot be trusted.

Trump has put up some pretty impressive invisible barriers, though, while at the same time built a big beautiful door to which he invites conflicts on the world stage, including the possibility of wars on various fronts.

He has reduced funding to the United Nations, tried to leverage our allies, you know the ones we worked with to keep fascism from taking over the free world for 70 years or so, into contributing more toward the UN based on his vast and highly unsuccessful Real Estate experience. The United Nations is what you would call an invisible barrier, stopping would-be dictators and fascists from invading and taking over other nations. Russia, obviously, isn’t a member.

Trump also withdrew the US from the Human Rights Council, an organization that America used to pride themselves as being a part of to make the world a better place to live. This actually paved the way for America to befriend dictators and despots who live outside the law.

Which brings us to the fact that Trump has insulted and infuriated our allies, while at the same time tried to build relationships with the world’s most notorious dictators.

Talk about a destabilizing influence.

Another invisible wall Trump has recently torn down is his threat to withdraw Hundreds of Millions of dollars of aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, with the expressed purpose of trying to get them to stop the asylum caravans coming to our southern border.

Trump, if there was a fire in your kitchen, would you turn up the heat to the stove? Grab a can of gasoline, perhaps?

People are fleeing these countries because of poverty and crime. Taking money away from these governments will NOT make this problem go away–it will make it WORSE!

What we should be doing is giving more money or support to these countries. If we could help train their police departments and help them reduce crime, while also increasing investment in these countries to fight poverty and promote a happy and thriving middle class, then fewer citizens of these countries will want to walk for months to get here. Let’s face it, walking for thousands of miles is not anyone’s Plan A–it’s a last-ditch effort to stay alive.

The money we send to these countries is an invisible wall, keeping other nations out of our back yard. Right now, without our support, these countries are open for business to any other country that wishes to help support them in their effort to create a better economy.

Now that this invisible wall is collapsing, we are going to have Chinese and Russian influences and whoever else wants to encroach upon our sovereignty at our southern border, and our former allies are going to watch from the sidelines because you told them our “Patriotism” was all we needed and they could just go jump off a bridge.

Nice Trump. What are you going to do for an encore, play the fiddle as our nation burns to the ground?

AS you can see, international relations, or a lack thereof, form an invisible barrier to threats from foreign nations. We had some pretty good ones, but Trump doesn’t like those. He likes the ones he can touch and put his name on. The problem is, those kinds of walls don’t work like you think they will. Just ask Rome, China, or Germany, and all the other countries that tried to build physical barriers to keep threats out. Invisible barriers work better than physical ones. They also make more friends, and that’s one thing we could sure use more of these days.

 

How far will Trump’s insanity go towards changing our political ideology

Trump has influenced our current political landscape in so many ways its hard to keep track. Americans don’t seem to care if he knows what he’s talking about, or if he just makes things up in order to get his agenda across. There are websites dedicated to counting his many lies, The Washington Post has listed over 3000 of them, CNN too, as well as the Washington Post, NY Times and many, many more. Evangelicals,  like Rev Jerry Falwell Jr , Franklin Graham, and  others, who often used to keep politicians in line with theology on things like divorce, infidelity and honesty are now just fine with anything Trump wants to do that they don’t even whisper foul when he commits an act against the ten commandments, let alone morality in general.

But the reason many Americans can so easily overlook Trump’s many lies and indiscretions is simple: he’s only human (Republicans are allowed that, Democrats are vilified for it) and he’s not lying as much as he’s telling people what they already believe, so to them, he’s the only one telling the truth.

We have become a nation that no longer looks to the news for truthful information. We are now a society that looks to the news to tell us what we already believe. And the politicians know this, so they are free to lie to us all they want as long as they tell us what we already think the truth is, not matter how far from the truth that idea is.

So what is the next logical step? Americans hopping on the Trump bandwagon and boldly espousing hateful, prejudicial, un-American views.

Current Georgia Congressman hopeful Brian Kemp has just released the video below showing him holding a gun and espousing his Trumpian values completely unafraid of any counter reaction this may bring, just like his idol, Donald Trump.

And its only going to get worse. How much more is this going to spread before we stand up and say we’ve had enough?

First Indian-American Congresswoman responds to citizenship question

A congresswoman responds to questions about her citizenship.  If Presidents have to deal with this, even Congressmen have to answer this type of questioning.

Compare Presidential Candidates on Immigration

Presidential Candidates on immigration

Trumpery is a 15th century word that means what you think

How could anyone in the 15th century know that Trumpery was going to be a thing in the 21st century?

 

Definition of TRUMPERY (Merriam Webster)

noun trum·pery \ˈtrəm-p(ə-)rē\

trumpery
1
    a  :  worthless nonsense
    b  :  trivial or useless articles :  junk <a wagon loaded with household trumpery — Washington Irving>
2
archaic  :  tawdry finery

The oxford dictionary defines it as:

“Practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth.”

If used as an adjective to describe something, Oxford Dictionaries show:

 Showy but worthless and Delusive or shallow:

 

Other synonyms for Trumpery from Merriam Webster include:

Balderdash, baloney, blarney, blah (also blah blah), claptrap, crapola, folly, foolishness, hogwash, hooey, humbuggery, poppycock, rubbish, senselessness, silliness, stupidity, nonsense.

It’s profoundly ironic that a man named Donald Trump comes to us on the wings of public grandstanding with little substance to back up his words. “Trust Me,” or “Ill be the best you ever seen,” are the epitome of Donald Trump’s platform, and those words pretty much sum up classic Trumpery.

It’s almost like his hollow showmanship and the link to his name were planned.

So, who in the 15th century could have predicted Donald Trump’s rise in popularity under these very prescient ideas?

Well, Michelle De Nostradamus, for one.

nostradamus

“The high and tall, come into Milan, The Abbot of Foix with thofe of Saint Maure, Shall make the trumpery being cloathed like rogues.”

and

“No, I’ll not chalk my face or smear myself with phosphorus to amuse such trumpery.”

 

So, the next time Donald Trump opens his mouth, we can all celebrate his Trumpery, but we won’t be able to claim the word as our own. Apparently, it’s been done before, and has been for hundreds of years.

Zuckerberg vs Trump

UnknownDonald Trump wants to deport all undocumented immigrants in the US. He’s said it many times. That seems to be his platform. He says Mexicans love him because he employs so many.

Mark Zuckerberg employs a lot of immigrants, not necessarily Mexicans, specifically, but immigrants just the same. Mark wants to help immigrants get access to legal status so they can continue to contribute to society.

One Billionaire wants to help immigrants, the other wants to vilify them.

Mark was recently quoted in Inc magazine as saying, “[D]eporting 11.5 million people would cost U.S. taxpayers $400 to $600 billion dollars, and would take at least 20 years to complete. Even worse, this mass deportation would reduce our GDP by $1.7 trillion–over 5 percent. Many industries would be hit hard, others–like agriculture, construction and hospitality–would be devastated.”

These numbers would suggest that Donald Trump doesn’t particularly care about our economy. Either that, or he really hasn’t studied the problem at all, and like all good reality TV personalities, he’s just running  for the fame and publicity.

Mark Zuckerberg is younger, wealthier and obviously smarter. Too bad he’s not running for President.

Walker trying to out-Trump Trump!

Wisconsin Governor and GOP Presidential nominee hopeful Scott Walker has raised the bar for outrageous border statements, set only days earlier, by Donald Trump. We, of course are talking about building a wall on our border, but this time, not just a 1,954 mile border with Mexico, but a wall over twice that long with our northern neighbors Canada.

 Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press” Walker said some people in New Hampshire have asked the campaign about the topic.

“They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at.” Walker said.

So, the party who would balance our budget would also like to spend over a Trillion dollars on building a Border fence on both our northern and southern borders.

I guess with this latest salvo in the bidding wars for the GOP nomination, the next person has to up the ante with building a wall on our eastern and western coasts, creating a National Castle, if you will.

Anyone want to live here then?

 

 

GOP tries to blame Obama on immigration reform

The Republicans, who have refused to put the latest immigration bill up for a vote, are using their old, tried and true tactic of blaming Obama for the lack of immigration reform movement. Are you tired of this argument too?

GOP needs a dictionary

Ever get tired of hearing anything you want to do to help those less fortunate is a form of socialism? Let’s take a look at what the dictionary says about

 socialism:

1- any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2- a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.

So let’s be clear. If we are to be judged by how well we treat our fellow man, using the “socialism” card as a means to keep the government out of such endeavors is really just a cheap shot.

Should we start calling the GOP Fascists?

fascism:

1: often capitalized :  a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2:  a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control <early instances of army fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge>
So, as the Republicans want to control female reproductive rights and limit resources to gays, take away money from the aging and the poor and limit who can vote by enacting rigorous voting qualifications that leave out many of the poor, I would say that they are much closer to that definition than their opponents are to socialism.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/thats-not-what-socialism-means

Rep. Luis Gutierrez- the Children’s Champion

Thank God for Senators like Luis Gutierrez.

Not many people have come to champion the needs of children, as they do not vote, so the political capital one would spend on such an endeavor could be seen to weaken their standing among peers. But that matters not for people like Rep. Gutierrez. He came to the Senate with love in his heart and a gleam in his eye that says, “I will stand for those who cannot defend themselves, and anyone who picks on children, especially an hour before going on recess when no defense could even be fielded, is a coward.”

The Republican base has spoken on how it intends to deal with DREAMers, the children caught between their illegal status and their desire to do the right thing; they choose to vilify them.

This is like calling a rape victim the criminal, or a robbery victim an outlaw. These things do not make sense to a logical person, but hate, the real kind of hate, the kind that knows not how to discriminate between right and wrong because of a preconceived  idea of what type of person is allowed to be right or wrong, this kind of hate has no logic and therefore cannot be reasoned with.

So it should go without saying this type of hater needs to be removed from places of influence.

When the Catholic priests began getting complaints that certain ministers were using their position of influence to victimize children, at first the church pretended not to hear the call, after all, children cannot be reliable witnesses and can therefore be ignored. It was only years later, when the few victims turned into seas of angry young men and women who had been victimized, not just by the priests, but by the church itself for turning a blind eye on their plight, they could not avoid responding in the way they should have so many years before.

This is the way it is today, as millions of children are being victimized by the society that should be looking out for them, protecting them, and giving them every opportunity to make their circumstances right. This, unfortunately, is not happening, and we continue to elect those who will demonize the children who where brought here in their youth, and many, who know only this country. The responsibility for the victimization can now only fall onto us, the American voter, for we are not only keeping those high priests of our legal system in power, but actually electing even more of them.

So when we hear from heros like Rep. Gutierrez, we need to stand up and say, “we are with you.” and heed his call, back up his position and give him the political capitol it takes to protect those child victims. Without men like Gutierrez,  I fear for all children the of the world.