American carnage.

 There are some experiences and images that you never forget, no matter how hard Father Time tries to erase them from your memory.  

For me it was seeing a horrific car accident as a child, while traveling on a Jamaican highway to the airport with my parents for one of our trips to the United States. I think there were three fatalities, and I could actually see the dead bodies strewn out on the black asphalt in the hot Jamaican sun.

I was reminded of that day while watching Donald trump's performance last night in that train wreck of a debate with Joe Biden. To say he was an embarrassment is an understatement. He embarrassed his family; his party; his country; and his supporters. Well... maybe not all of his supporters, because the fact that some of them still support him tells me that they have no shame. It was sad.

I won't even try to critique it as I would a normal debate, because there was nothing normal about it. If Donald trump's strategy was to make a fool of himself by being the chaos agent last night, it worked. He was all chaos and nothing else. The irony is, of course, that if he had just acted normally and allowed Joe Biden to answer the questions without interrupting like a petulant and fractious five year old, he probably would have scored some debate points. Biden would have no doubt stumbled over some of the answers that he was supposed to give to the moderators questions. Instead, trump kept interrupting and shouting over him, and thus bailing him out from having to answer the questions posed to him by Chris Wallace.

What seemed to have come as a shock to most white folks (and of course no surprise to us black folks who know what we are dealing with trump), was trump, once again, failing to disavow white supremacists when given a chance to do so. He in fact doubled down and told his Proud Boys brown shirt style militia to stand by and wait for further instructions. It was worse than his "good people on both sides" proclamation after Charlottesville, and it has no doubt emboldened those racists who support him even more. 

But wait, as they say on the television game shows: That's not all, folks trump could not even promise to play by the election rules in November, and he once again tried to cast doubt about the American election system by declaring to a shocked nation that he will be cheated by governors and elected officials in states run by democrats.  I won't even get into his low down smear of Biden's family, and him calling out his son as a drug addict. 

The general consensus seems to be that Biden won the debate. But honestly, I watched it, and I couldn't tell you the substance of what was being said and talked about.

Jut like a horrific accident on the highway, all I could see was the carnage before me. 

*Image from Newsweek.

CAPTION TUESDAY

 

 

Give me a caption for this picture. 

Ten of the most noteworthy House Negroes in America.

 

It's about that time field hands. Time to reveal my infamous list of the ten most influential and powerful House Negroes in America.  

So without further ado, let's get to it. (Not necessarily in order of importance)

1. Clarence Thomas. (I know I said that this list is not necessarily in order of importance, but it would be harder to make a case for a more powerful House Negro than Uncle Clarence. This Negro sits on the highest court in the land, and he has been been making rulings to enact laws that would strip rights away from regular folks for years.) 

2. Daniel Cameron. (This Negro has some things in common with Uncle Clarence, which tends to shed some light on his self- hatred. Anywhoo, if you didn't catch his Me is different from them other Negroes Massa speech at the RNC, you might have seen him on stage making excuses for the state killing of a young black woman as Kentucky's state Attorney General. Mitch McConnell apparently groomed this dude to be his own personal Stephen for years to come. He is off to a  great start.)

 3. Jason Whitlock.  ( Jason is that Negro who thinks that he is smarter than the rest of us Negroes, and he believes that he can always prove it by coming up with a contrarian position on issues that effects us black folks. Particularly in the world of sports.  He is a poor journalist whose only claim to fame is being hated on by every black  athlete in America. 

4. Candace Owens. (The words race  traitor comes to mind when I think about this sister. She is an activist for Donald trump, which is like saying that she is a turkey who loves Thanksgiving. She has zero intellectual skills, and even less logical thinking abilities, and yet white folks in certain quarters love her because they can always use her as that one black person who agrees with their backwards positions on issues of race. Candace used to be on the other side of the ideological spectrum, until she decided that there were too many folks to compete with, and there was more money to be made jigging in the house..  

5. Terry Crews. (This Negro wanted us declare that black lives are not better. Duh! I swear some Negroes just don't get it.)  

6. Kanye West. ( I almost feel bad for putting this Negro on this list because of his mental health issues.  Almost. Sadly, his dangerous game of casting himself as a third party candidate for president, when he knows all that is at stake in this upcoming election, says to me that he isn't as crazy as we all think he is. He is smart enough to know just how much to jig.) 

7. Charles Barkley. (Charles confuses me. Sometimes he acts like he wants to get out of the house and get down with the rest of us in the fields, and then he says some dumb s**t like Breonna Taylor's case is different than George Floyd's case, and he doesn't want to"lump them together". What?! All that casino smoke must be finally getting to Chuck.)

8.  Stacey Dash. Stacey is another one of these white apologists who has gotten more famous for being a House Negro than for being what she is supposed to be doing in life, which is act. Ironically, her biggest role was in a movie called Clueless. Now that's fitting.   

9. Diamond & Silk. (Cooning is a lost art, but these two are here to bring it back.)

10. Herman Cain. (I know that he is no longer with us, and I hate to speak ill of the dead. But come on Herman, when you give up your life to be in the house, you deserve to be on this list.)  

 

Peacefully transferring power?

Mr. trump said the quiet part out loud yesterday, as he declared that he will not go peacefully into  the night if he loses the upcoming election. That's a scary thought, and one that most Americans could never have imagined having when they put an egomaniacal sociopath from Long Island in charge of the country. 

But here we are, and the chaos just seems to be intensifying with each passing day. I honestly think that if trump loses (and that's a big if, because as terrible as this presidency has been, there is a certain segment of the American electorate who believe that having a white nationalist in charge is still comforting) he will have his cult members take to the streets and set his lawyers loose on the judicial system to plead to all of those extreme right wing leaning Judges who owe him their appointments. America had better hope that this election will be a landslide one way or the other, because if it's close it won't be pretty. 

It's amazing, though, to see Mr. trump leading in some swing states and staying within striking distance in the national polls. Not surprisingly if you look at most of these polls you will see that Mr. trump is leading among white voters, which is not surprising to us black folks out here. We know the deal. 

Finally, speaking of black folks, I saw the following article recently and I found it interesting. Why? Because I am always trying to bring the races together. 

"George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May gave way to a long-overdue national reckoning on race. 

The protests that followed sparked change, but we still have a very long way to go — as evidenced, in part, by the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

The last several months have been particularly draining for Black folks in this country, between the racial upheaval, a pandemic that affects them disproportionately and an upcoming presidential election with so much at stake for their communities.

It’s imperative that we continue the conversation about race on both a national and personal level — even when it’s not dominating the news cycle. Those who want to be allies must keep listening, learning and taking action that supports the Black community. 

To that end, we asked Black people to reveal what they wish the white people in their lives knew and understood. Here’s what they said. 

Responses have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and length. 

1. I notice your silence about the acts of racism and other injustices in the news.

“There are a lot of issues that sometimes only affect or disproportionally affect a community. That should not be an exoneration from caring or paying attention. When you are silent, I often feel like I have no choice but to question: Where do you stand? Do you care about what’s happening?

This doesn’t mean you have to start talking politics and social justice 24/7 — I still enjoy seeing puppy pics and newborn photos on my timeline! But we can’t ignore what’s happening, and it is unacceptable to stay neutral. If days, months, years go by and you never discuss these issues or engage with anything I say in person or online, that sends a clear message. It’s difficult to believe that you care.” — Candace Howze, writer and multimedia artist 

2. And it hurts when you speak out but then suddenly go quiet on these issues, too.

“When we see your enthusiasm for justice wane after just a few weeks of another murder or police brutality against us, it’s a psychological struggle for us at times to stay positive about the friendship. Maybe you no longer know what to say or do, maybe you don’t want to keep bringing it up out of fear of making us relive painful moments. But the truth is, those thoughts are running through our minds, regardless, at some point throughout most days.

If you never bring it up again, it leaves us questioning how real we can be around you. How open, honest, and raw can we be? The silence or quieting of your voices make us turn the focus from the real issues to centering our thoughts around you and the realness of the friendship. It makes us wonder how much you understand — or want to understand — systemic racism, and if we can trust you to have our back in covert racist situations. When you go quiet, it’s painful.”  ― Michelle Saahene, co-founder of From Privilege to Progress

3. Being Black in this country can be exhausting. 

“As a Black person, I have to conform to societal standards to exist in this country. I have to create a caricature palatable enough to comfort white people in white spaces so that I’ll make it home to see my family. I can’t afford to be anything other than what society demands me to be. If I ever become a hashtag, my family will know it wasn’t because I didn’t comply.” — Brittany Neighbors

4. Don’t expect me to educate you on racism.

“As a Black man in a predominately white industry, neighborhood and social circle, I do field questions, especially over the last few months. My own self-awareness is full of blind spots, and I am not a fount of knowledge in this area — I’m a long way from it. I answer with honesty and transparency, but it is not my job to educate you. There are amazing resources out there for you to explore and start to build your own understanding and awareness.

I have seen the same at work, with a Black employee being expected to deliver on inclusion despite it not being related to her role. I am happy to have those difficult conversations, but you need to know for yourself. Then I can provide a little help in building your own house of awareness.” ― Lee Chambers, environmental psychologist and well-being consultant

5. Yes, we’re living through a difficult time, but I don’t need your pity. 

“Just because there is more hate openly directed toward BIPOC right now, please don’t feel sorry for my family or me because we are Black. I am a proud Black woman who loves everything about my race and would never trade in my Blackness for anything ‘easier.’ Save your pity for the racist, whose world is made small and toxic by their limiting beliefs.” — Laura Cathcart Robbins, writer and host of “The Only One In The Room” podcast

6. Listen when I’m talking about my struggles, instead of trying to interject with your own. 

“When we share our stories of racism, injustice and discrimination, we don’t need you to chime in about your hardships, too. They are not, and will never be, the same. If we are comfortable sharing what we experience as Black people, it is best to listen, validate the feelings and empathize.” ― LeNaya Smith Crawford, marriage and family therapist and holistic wellness expert

7. Saying I’m ‘articulate’ isn’t a compliment — it’s a microaggression. 

“I can’t tell you how many white people in my life thought they were paying me a compliment by suggesting that I ‘don’t talk like I’m Black.’ How you speak has everything to do with education, culture and the language spoken at home, and nothing to do with race. Also, if speaking properly is ‘talking white,’ how do you explain the inordinate number of inarticulate Caucasian people on reality television?” ― Cathcart Robbins

8. Your racist jokes aren’t amusing, they’re offensive. 

“Too many times, I have been in circles where racially insensitive jokes are passed around and you hear the ‘it’s not that serious’ trope. You’re right. It’s not that serious — for you, who is not Black. I want them to take the time to listen to our experiences while keeping in mind the point about [Black people] not all being the same. I want them to inform themselves as to why these jokes are not appropriate.” ― Jan-Kristòf Louis-Mansano, school counselor .... [See the other 8 here]

In these turbulent and uncertain times, aren't you glad that you have your friendly neighborhood Field Negro to help us to understand each other?   

It's on!

The next few months in American politics will be turbulent and tempestuous to say the least. And rival political camps are now bracing for an all out war. 

The stakes have been raised even higher because of the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Otherwise lovingly referred to as the Notorious RBG. All those woke left wing liberals and blackademics (I see you Eddie Glaude) who though that it was cool to have a purity test for democratic presidential candidates, and who looked past Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Jill Stein, will now see that elections have consequences. Republicans will now seize this moment, and they will stack the court with another young conservative giving them a three justice advantage in shaping American law for years to come.

For those of you who don't understand power in America, it's all about the Supreme Court. Those nine people, with their lifetime appointments, are the most powerful people in America. Presidents can't serve more than eight years (although trump is trying to change that), and politicians in Washington have to come running back to you for your votes every two and six years respectively. The Supremes stay on  until they die, or until they decide to retire. Sadly, for RBG, it was the former of the two. 

The poor woman's body was not even cold before Mitch McConnell, the second sleaziest man in America, decided that it was time to declare that he was giving whoever trump nominates to replace her a vote in the Senate. This just days before a presidential election. Remember Merrick Garland? 

Democrats can save all their hand-wringing and whining, this is how politics work in America. They chose to be the nice guys with their feckless and incompetent leader, Chuck Schumer, who has now declared that nothing is off the table. News flash: Other than four republican senators flipping and saying that they won't vote to nominate whoever the orange one selects, everything IS off the table. There is nothing he or anyone of those do- nothing democrats can do. 

The republican party represents all those white people in America who see their country changing,  and are terrified of what is to come. They see the writing on the demographic wall, and they know that if there were to be free and fair elections they would lose all of their power. Stacking the courts to ensure voter suppression, gerrymandering, and immigration restrictions is the only way that they will maintain power and the status quo. They can also count on a lazy and disengaged electorate, too busy watching Dancing With The Stars and trying to keep up with the Kardashians and Cardi B's WAP to care. 

You will now hear from the chattering class about what hypocrites the folks in the GOP are, how history will judge them poorly, and blah blah blah. The GOP doesn't care, because for now, they have the power, and that's all that matters. This is why they put up with trump and all the baggage that he brings, for moments like this. They can count on him to stack the court, and they can now control and put their judicial influence on the law for generations to come. 

A woman's right to do what she wants with her body? Gone. Voting rights protections for all Americans? Gone. Accessible and affordable healthcare? Gone. Protections from environmental hazards? Gone. Proper checks on gun regulations and safety? Gone. Protections for immigrants? Gone. 

Let the games begin. 

When owning the "libtards" is more important than everything else.

 

I don't want a caption for this picture, but I want to write a few words about what it represents.

The picture itself might seem a little over the top, but what it says about your typical trump voter is not: They are cult-like with their devotion to trump and nothing else. Not their country. Not their families. And certainly not their own health. 

How else do you explain them packing into tight spaces without a mask while a pandemic rages across the land? All of this while their dear leader social distances from the rest of them, and has multiple tests for the COVID-19 virus every week. How else do you explain them believing the lies that he tells them even when they hear him on tape in his own voice telling them something totally different? How else do you explain them believing him when he says that he has a plan to replace Obamacare when clearly he does not? He has been lying to us about that so called plan of his for the past three years now. He said he would have it in two weeks over two months ago. He lied about his plan to replace Obamacare like he did Mexico paying for his stupid border wall, and the COVID-19 virus going away before Memorial Day.

The bottom line is that Mr. trump lies a lot. And he keeps getting away with his lies it because he is the leader of a cult, not a political party, and cult members don't believe in critical thinking or straying from the  groupthink. 

Sadly, the American press is afraid to call him out on his lies, or even call them lies, so he gets away with it by hiding behind the respect that people have for the office he holds. trump knows that, and as a result he keeps pushing the envelope and daring the democrats and the rest of us who are not in his cult to do something about it. 

Voting him out of office would be one way to put a stop to him, but it's looking more and more that even if he loses in November he won't be going anywhere come January. 

He has already fired up his base, and they are ready to go to war if they feel that their leader was cheated.   

They are ready to own the libtards.  All trump has to do now is say the word. 

Allies.

 

Today I am writing about allies. Having friends in the fight for  justice and for a better country is important, because without them we will all sink together. 

It's no longer important enough to just say to yourself: I am not a racist. You have to call out racism at every turn and actively fight against it. One scholar recently wrote about being an "anti-racist", which is what we expect all of our allies to be at this point.   

I tweeted an analogy earlier, and it goes like this. If you plant some poison ivy and water it every day, you are responsible for whatever it brings. If you just walk by the poison ivy and don't kill it, then when I have an itch I will blame you for my discomfort just as much as I blame the person who planted it. 

Think of racism as America's poison ivy, and think of the 35% of the people in this country who are now openly embracing a racist president -and his open call for a race war and division- as the people who planted it, and are now helping it to grow. 

Fortunately, some of our allies in the struggle realize what is happening, and one of them , Andrea Portes, took the time to pen an oped in USA Today about it. 

"President Donald Trump is betting that you will be more scared of Black people than you will be of dying of Covid-19, losing your job or your children's schools not reopening.

If you're a mom or a caregiver, you already know that the amount of thankless, unsung work we did was barely manageable before the pandemic. But now, thanks in part to Trump's failure to listen to the scientists and to actually deal with the reality of the Covid virus, so many of our children are not back to school, as they are in Europe. So now, we have an extra job that is more maddening, more stressful than anything we had before -- educating our children remotely.

Now our children's futures depend on how well we do as teaching assistants, which, in my case, is not very well. The other day, while doing a mindfulness assignment, I yelled at my son, "Take ten deep breaths or else!" I guarantee that was not the intention of this exercise. 

Now we are fighting with our kids, pleading with our kids, bargaining with our kids -- while they are whining, crying and wondering, as my son did, "Mommy, why are you being so mean?"

So why am I addressing this to just White women when women of color are also struggling with these same dire circumstances? In fact, aren't Black Americans, including Black women, disproportionately at risk of dying of Covid (as are Native American and Latinos) and at greater risk of experiencing economic hardship from the pandemic? Sadly, yes to all of this.

But Black women are not who Trump is trying to reach—and he does not want to discuss the disastrous pandemic with anyone.

He would like to discuss something different...and just with suburban White women, who he is not-so-subtly courting and desperate to capture, since these voters have the power to swing the election.

Of course, many, many White women—suburban and otherwise—did not vote for Trump last time and have no intention of doing so in 2020.

But many did. Polling shows White women favored Trump in 2016, but that enough of them turned out to help Democrats win the House two years later. Quite simply, Trump, trailing among all women in the polls for the moment, cannot win a second time without them.

I'm a White woman, and the truth is I'm moderate—a Democrat, but fairly moderate. I understand that it can seem like much of the Democratic left is overly concerned with who is the most politically correct. I'm annoyed by elements of cancel culture, too. And I'm probably not that woke. At least, not woke enough for some.

But I refuse to be goaded or manipulated by racist fear tactics.

I was horrified by what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and now, Jacob Blake. I detest racism and police brutality; it has no place in this country. And when Black people (and their White allies) rise up to protest against this, their legitimate grievance should not be twisted into a wedge issue by any leader.

At the same time, some of the images of looters --in LA, Kenosha and elsewhere--taking advantage of this moment of racial reckoning rub me the wrong way, too. 

But all this yelling at each other from the political extremes is pointless. My best friend has opposite political views from mine. And, in true, politically disengaged, Gen X fashion, I don't care.

What I do care about is right-wing extremists or self-appointed militias -- or extremists on the left, for that matter -- getting so emboldened that they will shoot people in our city streets.

But let's be clear: While we can all have political disagreements, we must be firm in rejecting Trump's, or any politician's, attempt to use racist campaign tactics, like referring to protesters—the vast majority of whom are peaceful-- as "anarchists" or downplaying Blake's shooting—seven times in the back-- during a police stop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to divide White suburban voters from Black urban voters, as though we are not ALL Americans.

By employing the image of the sinister Black bogeyman looting American cities, Trump is reaching for an offensive strategy that has been used for years in American politics. In the decades following Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War, White men desperately concocted this image to subjugate newly freed Black men.

And this trend continued well into the 20th century. Just watch D.W. Griffith's 1915 film "Birth of a Nation," which casts the Ku Klux Klan in a heroic light. Or, better yet, Victor Fleming's 1939 film "Gone with the Wind." Even the listless Ashley Wilkes joined a vigilante mob, a precursor of the Klan, to raid an encampment of freed slaves they feared threatened the honor of a White woman, Scarlett O'Hara.

This same malevolent, well-honed, racist trope has been used countless times since to win elections. Look up "Richard Nixon southern strategy," which played on White fears to win the presidency in 1968. Better yet, Google "Willie Horton," whose ubiquitous image as a scary Black criminal helped elect President George H.W. Bush 20 years later.

Don't fall for it.

Trump wants to divide us by exploiting what he hopes are our subconscious fears, by making it look like Democrats are going to allow "danger" into your quiet suburbs. This couldn't be further from the truth. It's not reality.

This is reality: The fear any Black mother has every time her son walks out the door. The fear that—among other things-- he's more likely than a White person to be stopped while driving; more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than his White contemporaries -- and, as tragic deaths like those of Ahmaud Arbery have shown, especially vulnerable to alleged hate crimes.

And let's look at the other relevant reality: More than 180,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 -- and modeling suggests that number could more than double by January.

Now that is something to be scared of.

An economy that has contracted at record levels -- and unemployment at rates not seen since the Great Depression.

That is something to be scared of.

It is my heartfelt belief that Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be able to steer us out of this pandemic, simply by relying on science when they make policy decisions. Look no further than Biden's simple insistence that Americans wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus. Or Harris's call for leaders to act on the recommendations of public-health experts. When you vote, I ask you to weigh the unfounded fear you are being encouraged to feel --based on a racist trope-- against the very real threat of losing your life, your job or your house amid the pandemic.

 Let's just face this uncomfortable fact -- more White women voted for Trump in 2016 than they did for Hillary Clinton.

And I get it. Some of us (not me!) thought he could do the job. But, nearly four years later, it's clear he is in way over his head.

He has no idea what he's doing.

So please, I'm begging you, my fellow pragmatic White women: together, this November, let's not fall for Trump's bet that we are more racist than we are smart." [Source] 

I see you, Ally. 

*Image from The Nation.

A clear and present danger.

 At this point I have given up trying to warn the American people about the dangers of Donald trump and his presidency. 

Now that we have trump backed right-wing militia men beating dissenters in the streets, and Mr. trump openly declaring his racism and telling his supporters to cheat in order for him to win the election, I hope that those of you with an iota of intelligence will realize just how much of a clear and present danger this guy is. 

Today portions of the Bob Woodward book was leaked, and in it he wrote that Mr. trump was aware of the dangers of the coronavirus to the American people and his intentional intent to play it down. The result of his malevolent and dishonest deeds is that more Americans died. Of course Americans dying to Mr. trump doesn't matter as long as he can get reelected. We are seeing that now, and, more importantly, we are hearing it as well. We are hearing it because Woodward actually has trump on tape. I can't wait to see how his minions and sycophants spin their way out of this one. 

Oh, and by the way, Bob Woodward is no hero in this story. If he really had all of this information and knew that Mr. trump's actions were dangerous to the American people and did not reveal it, and if he did choose profit over the lives and well being of the American people, shame on him.

But back to my original point about the dangers of Donald trump, and the rise of fascism in America.

Here are excerpts from an article by Dean Obeidallah writing for The Daily Beast:

"Many people have used the word “fascist” to describe Donald Trump over the past few years. I was not one of them—until Monday night, when Trump openly defended and endorsed violence by his supporters.

First, Trump shockingly defended his 17-year-old supporter Kyle Rittenhouse, who drove across state lines into Wisconsin where he illegally carried a weapon in the streets of Kenosha and then shot and killed two people. (Criminal charges filed against Rittenhouse include first-degree intentional homicide and illegal possession of a deadly weapon.)

Then Trump backed his supporters who on Saturday descended in a caravan of cars on Portland, Oregon, where they were seen shooting projectiles such as paintballs and pepper spray at people in the street. Trump defended this criminal conduct as a “peaceful protest,” arguing that “paint is not bullets.” In reality, shooting people with paintballs is a crime—we all know that. It could blind a person or worse. Yet Trump defends it because the people engaged in this violence were on Team Trump.

We have now entered a new reality in America where Trump, like fascists before, is embracing violence to remain in power. Let’s be clear about what fascism is. As Madeleine Albright explained while discussing her 2018 book, Fascism: A Warning, “Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.” She added that “what differentiates fascism from other ideological movements is the use of violence and anger to achieve political ends.” Hammering that point home, Albright back in early 2019 used a line that sums up Trump today: “Fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”

While Trump has embraced other methods used by fascists before—such as pitting Americans against one another to incite anger—that has been utilized by other modern politicians without veering into fascism. What changed this for me was Trump’s embrace of violence to help him remain in power, This is fascism. Period.

 Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the new book Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, painted a dark picture for me of Trump’s playbook. “His goal between now and November is to make the U.S. erupt into true chaos so he and William Barr can justify the authoritarian crackdown they dream of,” she said.

To this end, Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said point-blank Thursday on Fox News that violence helps Trump. While discussing the protests in Kenosha from the night before, Conway uttered the jaw-dropping line, “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.”

Jared Kushner offered a similar message to Politico, noting that the violence the country saw following the killing of George Floyd could “tip” Minnesota voters toward Trump.

If you love Trump and are looking for a way to help, Team Trump is giving you this simple message: Commit more acts of violence. Thus, it comes as no surprise that two days after Conway’s words on Fox News, Trump supporters sprang into action, heading to Portland where they engaged in acts of violence by shooting people with projectiles. Today it was paintballs. Tomorrow, will it be bullets?

Conway’s words were so jarring and bluntly un-American that Joe Biden slammed them in his powerful and pointed speech Monday. First, he declared, “One of his [Trump’s] closest political advisers in the White House doesn’t even bother to speak in code, just comes out and she says it. The more chaos, violence, the better it is for Trump’s re-election.” Biden then added, “Just think about that. This is a sitting president of the United States of America. He’s supposed to be protecting this country, but instead he’s rooting for chaos and violence.”

Biden is clearly stunned, as anyone who values our democratic republic should be. I understand Biden may be hesitant to use the word fascist to describe Trump because it could be dismissed as the mirror of Trump’s baseless claim that Biden is a socialist. But it is absolutely necessary to alert Americans who may not be paying attention to the threat Trump poses—and coming from Biden, who is more reserved in his choice of words, using the words fascist could be persuasive. At the very least, it could serve as a warning that could save lives given Trump’s record of inciting violence in the past.

We all remember during the 2016 campaign when Trump explicitly encouraged violence at his rallies with lines like, "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell… I promise you I will pay for the legal fees.”

And since Trump took the White House, others have committed violence in his name, such as Cesar Sayoc, known as the MAGA bomber. All told, ABC News reported in May that it found over 40 cases in court pleadings since 2017 in which Trump was cited as a factor that inspired the crime, from terroristic threats against Rep. Maxine Waters to threats to kill leaders of an Arab-American organization. ABC did not find any cases that cited President Obama or George W. Bush as the reason for their attack.

Joe Biden tells us that this election is for the “soul of the nation.” It’s actually bigger than that. If Trump wins there are no limits to what he will do—especially if he can pack the Supreme Court with even more like-minded justices. This election, our democracy, our civil liberties and even our freedom is on the ballot. Those are the real stakes."[Story]

I need a drink.

 

Caption Monday.

 

I need a caption for this picture.

"Suckers and losers"? I don't think so.

 

Mr. trump, the man pictured with this post was not a loser. He loved his country and his family, and he served to protect the freedoms that we enjoy. He was a part of my family, and we miss him very much.  

If there is anyone reading this who doesn't believe that Mr. trump did in fact say all the nasty and disparaging things about the men and women who serve this country, I have a nice antique bell here in Philadelphia with a slight crack on the side to sell you. 

Of course he said it. And we know he said these things because he said them publicly about John McCain. Can you imagine a man who is afraid of peaceful protesters outside of the White House calling men and women who put their lives on the line for this country, "losers and suckers"? We can add liar as well as coward to describe him because he had the audacity to say that he didn't call John McCain a loser. 

Below is an excerpt from the Jeffrey Goldberg story.

"When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed......There was no precedent in American politics for the expression of this sort of contempt, but the performatively patriotic Trump did no damage to his candidacy by attacking McCain in this manner. Nor did he set his campaign back by attacking the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. (These sources, and others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not return earlier calls for comment, but Alyssa Farah, a White House spokesperson, emailed me this statement shortly after this story was posted: “This report is false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard."

Sure he does. 

Now, even Fox News is backing up Goldberg's story. 

The suckers aren't our brave men and women who put their lives on the line for our country, the suckers are the folks who line up behind this con man. 

Hey, I will even throw in a cheese steak with that antique bell for you.

Transition to chaos.

 Donald trump constantly jokes (or not) about being El Presidente for life, or at least for a lot longer than the two terms that the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution allows. 

His followers would certainly like that, because it would mean that their cultish devotion to "Dear Leader" would continue for a very long time. The rest of us would either be taking up arms, or heading North (or South) in droves. Of course it wouldn't matter to the trump people, they would have the country all to themselves. They would be free to marry family members at will, and build as many gold statues as they want in praise of Mr. trump.     

The following are excerpts from an article in The Atlantic: 

"It's a nightmare scenario of course, but given where we find ourselves in this country it is one that could certainly take place. 

A brazen refusal by the president to leave office is surely a nightmare scenario. But even if President Donald Trump were to lose and accept the results on November 3 or soon thereafter, he could nevertheless wreak significant damage during the period between the election and the inauguration of Joe Biden—endangering the incoming administration, at best, and actively sabotaging it, at worst.

Presidential transitions are perilous even in normal times. With each inauguration of a new president every four to eight years, the executive branch undergoes a massive overhaul; more than 4,000 new political appointees flood into federal departments and agencies, including 1,200 senior officials who require Senate confirmation. The minute a new president is sworn in, his administration assumes responsibility for everything from nuclear launch codes to pandemic response, economic policy, and counterterrorism—at the very moment when the government’s capacity is most diminished. At the Defense Department alone, the nation’s largest employer and perhaps the world’s most complex organization, the top 59 senior civilian leaders, from the secretary of defense on down, are political appointees requiring Senate confirmation. A private-sector company would be crazy to emulate this approach, yet the security, the health, and the prosperity of Americans depend on its success.

Facilitating the smoothest possible transition—if one should happen in January 2021—is of paramount national importance, particularly at a time of ongoing upheaval at home and abroad. If elected, Joe Biden would face the extraordinary challenge of seizing the reins of government amid the triple crises of a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and a national reckoning over racial justice, and his effectiveness in managing these would redound to the entire nation’s benefit. Yet there is ample reason to worry that the outgoing Trump administration will disregard the laws and the norms that are supposed to govern the transition period. Without question, a stolen election or a refusal to accept electoral results is the nightmare scenario. But well short of a constitutional crisis, the Trump administration can nevertheless hobble the incoming Biden team and endanger the nation with a scuttled transition process.

Presidential transitions are both remarkable and risky. Unlike nations with parliamentary systems and wholly professionalized bureaucracies, the U.S. federal government undergoes extensive turnover whenever a new president comes into office with thousands of political appointees in tow. This turnover is important, as it injects fresh blood and ideas into a too-often-sclerotic system and ensures that the daily work of the executive branch aligns with the president’s—and, by extension, the electorate’s—will. That the U.S. has experienced 44 peaceful transitions of power, even as the anti-majoritarian Electoral College has overridden the popular vote in two elections so far this century, is a testament to the strength of the American political system and norms that date back to George Washington." {More}

That was then, this is now. This is not your father's America. These Americans are now afraid of losing their America, so the old rules of civility no longer apply. Mr. trump represents their last hope of holding on to that power that they have become so used to. His behavior, no matter how outrageous, will not be enough to convince them to embrace the America that they once knew, and that they held out to the world as the greatest experiment in democracy known to mankind. 

For them, it was never about equality. It was always about being in control and allowing the pretense of democracy to keep everyone happy. The black lives matter movement, to them, is a bridge too far, and the very thought of it both infuriates and terrifies them at the same time. (See Mike Pence struggling to say that black lives also matter.)

Yesterday the president defended a man that has been accused of murdering two of our fellow citizens. He did it while telling Americans that their are people in "dark shadows" controlling his opponent, and he lied about hearing about a plane full of "thugs"dressed in black and ready to do damage. 

I know that it all sounds insane, and in normal times we would be marching around the White House and demanding that this lunatic leaves before he does more damage, or that the 25th Amendment be invoked. 

Sadly, though,  these are not normal times. There are people in America who believe in this man. And there are just enough of them to create some serious issues come November.