Former President Barack Obama Shows Leadership

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

"...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love..."

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

With three simple tweets, former President Barack Obama gave Americans across the spectrum, and people around the world, what they longed for in the face of the Charlottesville tragedy: wisdom, sanity, compassion, leadership.

It's been distressing to watch how the current administration has laid siege to everything that the best of America stands for and all the progress made by Barack and Michelle Obama and Obama's administration. When this couple were in the White House it was a place of knowledge, experience, respect, dignity, wisdom, inclusion, joy, exuberance, celebration of life and of people from every walk of life.

The shock of the election result wore off quickly, leaving grief, outrage and determination to preserve values without which no society can exist for long without imploding. The resistance, from Democratic politicians, citizens, academia and the liberal media, has been valiant and successful. But the constant deluge of scandals, back-biting, lies—scum of the earth stuff—has been exhausting to witness. It's hard to resist the idea that social progress in the US is being swamped and that everything the Obamas worked towards, every battle fought and won over the years for Civil Rights, equality and justice has been lost.

But the truth is that in the battle between Good and evil, so well illustrated by Charlottesville, and Donald Trump equating white supremacists and Nazi supporters to counter-protesters, Good has triumphed as Republicans, Democrats and world leaders condemned the president's support of what has been recognized as evil for a long time now.  Nobody but Mr. Trump believes these people have a place at the table. Nobody but Mike Pence has stood with Trump.

Good can seem fragile in this battle, when overshadowed by monstrous forces, but in truth it has roots sinking deep into the human psyche, into societies. And that gives it, ultimately, much greater power.

America's social progress hasn't ever been a smooth journey. But it's been a real one with real successes. They, and the achievements of Barack Obama and his administration have been assailed, but not dismantled in a way that can't be fixed, even though the government is entirely GOP-controlled. Republicans are at war with each other and their constituents, and the 2018 mid-terms loom. The Trump administration has bully power but nothing else and it is disintegrating at the speed of light, as is the president, by all accounts. Out of control, still obsessed with his campaign, he's been firing people at random when they get more attention than him or displease him, creating such havoc that nobody wants to work for him.

Now he's fired Steve Bannon, who has gone back to Breitbart News, thrilled at the prospect of war with the administration. Or so he says, as reported by The New York Post.  

The president's support base is reportedly shrinking, but former president Barack Obama's tweets about Charlottesville broke the record for the most Twitter likes. That's a pretty direct poll. And he's not getting any press coverage these days. There's power in the man, the kind that lasts because it has love and integrity as a foundation; it's the kind that rewards and builds.

In this existential battle in America—one that all of us can relate to in some way or another in our lives—Good has trodden and is still treading a steady path towards victory. It will come and then we'll see that social progress is not destructible by evil. 

Trump Throws His Weight Behind White Supremacists & Nazi Supporters

On Tuesday the world watched in sheer abhorrence as the US president, speaking at length for himself and without a teleprompter, unequivocally laid equal blame on the protests against racism and bigotry—which he called the alt-left—and the KKK, white supremacists and Nazi supporters gathered in Charlottesville.  

In the largest gathering in decades, and as if the Civil Rights Era had never happened, white supremacists descended at night on the University town of Charlottesville, Virginia with burning torches, confederate flags, nazi symbols and rifles, chanting "You will not replace us / Jews will not replace us". They surrounded a small group of non-violent counter protestors gathered at the statue of Thomas Jefferson.  Shock and horror rippled throughout the country and beyond its borders.

“I cannot believe in my heart what I am witnessing today in America. I wanted to think not only as an elected official, but as a human being that we had made more progress. It troubles me a great deal.” Rep. John Lewis.

But not, apparently, in the White House, which was mute. The next day, white supremacists, itching for a fight, attacked those protesting against them in ugly violence which culminated in a Nazi supporter gunning his car into a peaceful gathering of protestors, injuring 19 and killing Heather Heyer, a courageous young woman who had dedicated her life to fighting bigotry and hate.

Donald Trump, the man who can't control his Twitter compulsion, waited until late in the day to even comment. His repugnant refusal to name and shame the KKK, Nazi supporters and white supremacists drew immediate bi-partisan fire, Democrats not afraid to directly criticize the president. Some Republicans joined them.   

The next day, in a strangely surreal mini-speech, Trump, newly coiffed and made up, did as he had obviously been told to. He read clumsily from a teleprompter words that had been patently written by somebody else. Words that he was very uncomfortable with. Anybody who was fooled hasn't been paying attention for a very long time. Those of us who have, weren't surprised when he broke out and said what he really wanted to say on Tuesday at a "press conference" that was mean to be about infrastructure.

It didn't take Trump long to dump the script and lash out at length at the counter protesters, calling them the alt-left, blaming them for their violence and for attacking the white supremacists and fascists, giving them an unequivocal boost.

General Kelly stood behind Trump, severely troubled. Did he really think he could control this terrible excuse for a man? Kudos to him for being bothered, but he should have been severely horrified long ago, enough to refuse the job and publicly condemn Trump and his administration.

Other Republicans also reacted immediately, except for Mike Pence of course, who praised Trump for meaning what he says and saying what he means. Hard to understand the logic of that, given his teleprompted little speech the previous day. There is only one way for Republicans to illustrate that they have any integrity at all. Unequivocally condemn Trump, get rid of him, and clean out his administration. Any Republican who doesn't do that? Their words of protest now are meaningless.

America has a white supremacist supporter, a bigot, a serial sexual abuser, a snake oil salesman, a liar, a cheat and a very stupid man with severe personality disorders for a president, and too many Republicans have been fine with it. They may criticize him but they don't care enough to protect their country from him. And that's the truth.

Fortunately, the majority of America do care. Even Trump's base is dwindling. Ultimately all he'll be left with will be the KKK, neo-nazis and white supremacists. The toxic dregs of American society.

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Democrats care a great deal. They have lashed out at Trump in no uncertain terms. Stalwart of integrity, Civil Rights pioneer and icon Congressman John Lewis, who has courageously and unerringly devoted his life to defending Civil Rights and said in January that he didn't consider Trump to be a legitimate president, spoke out at a town hall meeting in East Point Georgia.

"It troubles me a great deal… Speak up, speak out, get in the way, get in trouble - good trouble and necessary trouble. We have to tell our people to get out and participate in the democratic process."

And while all of this is going on, the Russia investigation is ramping up. To date, analysts have had little faith in the likelihood of impeachment, which would need a Republican Congress to act. Recently, as Trump has gotten more and more out of control, more Republicans are either speaking out clearly against him, or drifting away. Suddenly, impeachment is starting to look like a real option, because if the GOP lets Trump stay he'll take them all down with him.

It's been obvious from the start but they haven't wanted to face it. It's becoming harder and harder to ignore. America will be rid of this scourge. The world will breathe a sigh of relief. Until he goes, a Washington Post editorial says it all. The nation can only weep.

That car in Charlottesville did not kill or wound just the 20 bodies it struck. It damaged the nation. Mr. Trump not only failed to help the country heal; he made the wound wider and deeper.

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."-Wiesel

— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 15, 2017

Fifty Years After the Civil Rights Era, Evil Prevails Again

Civil rights demonstrator attacked by a police dog on May 3, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama

Stephanie McCurry, Professor of History at Columbia University, taught History of the Slave South on Coursera a few years ago. In her conclusion she said: 

"The Confederate States of America was transformed by war, and the Confederate political project was undone … when the 4 million African Americans born enslaved in the United States seized the opening history offered.

When they rose on the plantations. When they grabbed up their children and poured into Union lines. When they insisted that the Union reformulate policy to account for their historic mission of emancipation. When men, women, and children alike, risked all to turn the war in the right direction. When they made slaveholders ask for the first time, what do the slaves want? …

And given the pro slavery, white supremacist and anti democratic aspirations of that nation, there was a certain justice, I think, in that."   

A certain justice, but not enough to exorcise the racism ingrained in so many that less than 50 years after the Civil Rights era, white supremacists are on the ascendancy again and the alt-right has dictated the next American president, who is now choosing racists, bigots and warmongers for his crew. Salon.com has an excellent piece on Senator Sessions, Trump's choice for AG. And as Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) said of him:

"If you have nostalgia for the days when blacks kept quiet, gays were in the closet, immigrants were invisible and women stayed in the kitchen, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is your man. No Senator has fought harder against the hopes and aspirations of Latinos, immigrants, and people of color than Sen. Sessions... He ran for the Senate because he was deemed by the Senate Judiciary Committee as too racist to serve as a federal judge. He is the kind of person who will set back law enforcement, civil rights, the courts, and increase America’s mass incarceration industry and erase 50 years of progress."

Divisions in American society run terribly deep, and hard as people have tried to believe that America, with all its diversity is at heart homogeneous in spirit, it's wishful thinking, and usually on the part of liberals.

Abusers, in politics and even in relationships, get away with a lot as their generous-spirited victims give them chance after chance after chance, desperately holding onto the belief that everybody is intrinsically good if you just give them understanding. Finally there comes a point when the victims face reality. Understanding sometimes does nothing more than enable more abuse.

And so abusive spouses face divorce, abusive friends find themselves friendless, revolutions get rid of dictators. But still, even as history teaches us at a personal and societal level that early warning signals, if ignored, always lead to dangerous eruptions, liberals try to make peace with bigots and racists in the name of democracy and inclusiveness. But liberalism is intrinsically about ensuring that everybody has equal rights. When those who oppose that idea act out their beliefs and in doing so strip others of their rights, they give up some of their own. Basic human rights come with moral accountability. 

It's how society operates and stays moderately functional. So when millions of people vote in a deeply racist demagogue who has whipped up hatred and fomented intolerance until manifestations of it start returning America to pre-Civil Rights days, the last thing liberals need is to try and make peace with those voters.

The alt-right rationale is that their anger has its roots in being excluded. Have they been excluded? No they haven't. They got a superlative president who, more than any Republican president before him, truly believed in his heart of hearts that his presidential responsibility was to everybody, not just those who voted for him. But he wasn't white and those conservatives voted in a GOP Congress who made it impossible for the president to help them in the way that he wanted to.

So no, I don't buy the idea that middle America has been excluded. Middle America has excluded itself. If you want to be part of the human race dialogue and you want to benefit from others' desire for equality, you have to want it yourself and fight against that which thwarts it, not vote it into office.

When good people do nothing, evil prevails. Trying to make friends with supporters of Donald Trump is the equivalent of doing nothing. And we need to face it; evil is prevailing right now. It's not something that might happen next month or next week. It's happening now. And anybody who does anything other than help to strengthen Democrats in this time of crisis is adding to the problem.

Could Trump Really Ever Be President?

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Democrats keep saying that Trump can't win the general election. I hope he won’t but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk.

In fact I think I think that this terrible man with zero self control who despises the poor, tramples over anybody in his path, misrepresents his wealth, trashes women, quotes Mussolini, does not denounce the KKK, stirs paranoia, racism and hatred, embraces conspiracy theories, lies pathologically and has positive support from one foreign leader—Vladimir Putin—actually has quite a good chance of being America’s Next President.

I wonder what Hitler looked like to the masses when he was on the rise and before he gained absolute power. Possibly not that dissimilar to Trump at the moment.

Apart from giving racists and bigots permission to voice their hatred he gave ordinary people permission to voice their frustration and they’re the ones he cleverly manipulated and who ended up handing him his power on a plate. But how many of them would have supported him if they had known the trajectory he was on? Probably not so many. The signs were there but they didn’t want to look. And they were carried on the wave of his peculiar kind of personal power. Look how that ended, for Jews, for the world. And, let's not forget, for Germany.

Trump is telling his supporters to raise their right hand in salute to him. He has a vitriolic hatred for poor people, is a pathological liar and a misogynist, encourages racism and bigotry, whips up anger, promotes violence, calls for curtailing freedom of the press, permits and even encourages the beating up of protesters, is running on an anti-Muslim platform if you can call what he's doing a platform. Now he's anti-Islam. It’s beyond believable.

No, beyond believable is that he had brought a bunch of his Trump Wine and Trump Water and Trump Steaks to one of his rallies. He made a big deal about the steaks. But Trump Steaks doesn’t exist as a business anymore and those steaks were from Bush Brothers’ Provision Company. Oh the irony.

How can a single thinking adult in the world support him? I decided to write to all the delegates who have endorsed him so far and beg them to see the reality and think long and hard about what they’re doing. Wiki has a page on Trump's delegates.

I started with Jeff Sessions, US Senator from Alabama. From his photo on Wiki he looks like a sensible guy. Then I read a little.

Ah. On February 28 this year he endorsed Trump. On March 3 Trump picked him as chairman of his National Security Advisory Committee.

And not such a sensible guy after all. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was born in Selma in 1946. He doesn’t appear to have been much moved by Civil Rights activities. He referred to the NAACP and the ACLU as communist-inspired and un-American because “they forced civil rights down the throats of people”. He also called African-American Assistant US Attorney Thomas Figures “boy” and said “be careful what you say to white folks.”

He said once that he thought the Klan was okay until he found out they smoked pot. He was joking of course. The Klan is something to joke about?

He was a big Bush legislation supporter, including for the 2001 and 2003 tax cut packages. He’s against same-sex marriage and opposed the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act. He also voted against adding violent acts based on sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate-crimes law. 

He’s anti-immigration reform. And he voted for expanded construction of a Southern border fence. Of course he did.  

I guess I won’t be writing to Jeff Sessions. Not much point. Moving along, the next guy on Wiki’s alphabetical list was former US Senator Scott Brown. 

He looks like a nice guy too. I looked him up on Google images. Oh. Very nice guy. Once a model, he posed nude for a centerfold. Not surprising, given that body. His story is pretty moving, though. He had a difficult childhood. His parents divorced when he was a year old and his mother lived on welfare, then he was abused by his stepfathers and a camp counselor who threatened to kill him if he told anybody. He got into politics and not everything he did was bad. A moderate Republican, he was the first GOP Senator to support a federal ban on assault weapons after Sandy Hook..

I could write to him, I thought. I looked for more about him and found an article on abcnews.go.com.

He said “I know all of the candidates and I respect the hell out of each and every one of them” and that he endorses Trump because “I know he’ll surround himself with people who want to do it for the flag. But, no disrespect to any of the other candidates because I truly love them. Chris and Marco? I love them like brothers from another mother.”

Cross Scott Brown off the list. Two down and four hundred odd to go… Maybe it was a bad idea. But I tell you what’s a good idea, and that is to read Trump: An American Presidency by seasoned journalist Steve Majerus-Collins.

“A fictional oral history of the administration of President Donald Trump. The book examines what might really happen if Trump were to come out on top in November. Would he build his wall? Defeat ISIS? Make America great again or destroy it? It's a quick read but one that offers some perspective on a candidate like none before.”

The introduction is amusing and I thought great, I’m in for a riotous read. I was. But it was one of those books where your blood runs cold while you’re laughing because the picture the author paints should just be absolutely fantastical but it isn’t; it’s absolutely and horribly possible.

This gem of a book is only 99c. Buy it because you're worth it! Trump: An American Presidency. I hope not. For the sake of America. For the sake of the world.