Saturday, February 4, 2017

SAVE OUR SHIP! – An Urgent Appeal to Select Members of Congress

This is a draft of the letter I intend to send to those Republican members of Congress still able 
to think and act in the best interests of this great nation. 

My goal—and yours, I fervently hope—is to rid our government of the pretender president, Donald Trump, and staunch, as quickly as possible, the hemorrhaging of this great nation's lifesblood: our uniquely-American values—generosity, optimism, vision, creativity, brotherhood ...and just simple decency—for which so many of our country-men and -women have fought 
and died.

Feel free to copy/paste any or all of this content. Maybe you prefer to pull a few quotes and build your own case around them. It's all good. All I ask is that, if you use something, please share the link to this page with as many of your like-minded friends and family members, through as many media, as you can. 

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Dear SENATORS: John McCain (AZ), Rand Paul (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Susan Collins (ME), Ben Sasse (NE), Jeff Flake (AZ)

Dear REPRESENTATIVES: Charlie Dent (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Speaker Paul Ryan (WI), Justin Amash (MI), Barbara Comstock (VA)
(These are some of the Congresspeople The Hill, The Washington Post and other media have identified as willing to confront Trump on at least some issues. You may know of other Republicans—perhaps those representing your state—you'd like to implore to reason.)

W ith the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent rush to consolidate power,  
a great tragedy is playing out on our national political stage. And you are in a unique position to thwart it.

I’m accused by friends who support Trump of simply poor sportsmanship—sour grapes, they say—for not just shutting up and taking it as they claim they had to do when Barack Obama was elected.

But this man is different. He has proven amply, through his well-documented comments and actions, that he is a bigot, a misogynist, a pathological liar and a boor. More importantly, he shows, every day, that he lacks the qualifications, knowledge, temperament and judgement to even approximate fulfilling the duties of the most powerful office in the world.

           He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, 
           and promises to govern the same way.

Even his one and only claim to competence, his success as a businessman, is a sham, given the roil of bankruptcies, lawsuits and, ultimately, cheated customers, suppliers and investors he leaves in his wake. He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, and promises to govern the same way—a distraction, to say the least, from the awesome responsibilities of this office.

Perhaps most perilous for the country, this brash pretender clearly shows every single clinical marker of a serious mental condition (narcissistic personality disorder). This utterly self-centered, thin-skinned, impulsive, aggressively insecure, delusional profile is typical of some of the most destructive despots in human history—men who throw not just their rivals, but their own countries and their own people under the bus to feed their insatiable need for attention.

Though elected with a significant minority of the popular vote, Trump already, in just the first few weeks of his presidency, has undermined most of my beloved homeland’s hard-won national values—qualities I’ve cherished and served to defend—like generosity, a just and prudent welcome to immigrants, celebrating diversity at home, an indomitable optimism, a can-do spirit of cooperation, a quiet strength, and a skillful exertion of our example and leadership around the world.

             trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from 
             Lady Liberty's head and stepped on it.

Trump’s insensitive, knee-jerk insults to other countries—including cherished allies—are already undermining our diplomatic and trade relationships with those nations, and threatening the delicate balance of world peace. And his avowed admiration for several of the world’s other despots—including Russia’s own narcissist, Vladimir Putin—sends a truly frightening signal of the president’s intentions.

We used to be a country roundly admired around the world—the much-coveted ideal of democracy. While this reputation has seen its share of tarnish in recent decades, Trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from Lady Liberty’s head and stepped on it. Apparently he favors a mantel of fear and hatred of our nation over one of respect.

Trump and his brazenly-stacked, titans-of-industry cabinet seem determined to simply turn off every moderating constraint on their greed. It is a corporate power play unique in American history. And Trump himself refuses either to divest of his personal business interests or to release his complete tax returns and prove his intention to put this country’s interests ahead of his own and those of his cronies.

           This will require the very best of you.

If not the most frightening implication of Trump’s incompetence, certainly the saddest for me is this: I pray that my grandchildren will not grow up wanting to emulate anything about this man.


Senator/Representative_________, you are in a unique position to literally save our great nation from a despot, one who, in stunning similarity to North Korean boy-dictator Kim Jong-un, has the emotional maturity of a five-year-old.

By continuing to call him out for his lies and excesses, by making the case for impeachment to any fellow Republicans still willing to face reality, by building a coalition of conscience, by communicating your concerns to your constituents and the American people, perhaps you can help turn the tide.

This will require the very best of you—your conviction, your eloquence, your courage, perhaps every dime of your political capital, and, most certainly, your heart and soul.

Please do not let this very small man go one step further in dragging this great nation down to his size!

Sincerely,

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

CAN YOU FEAR ME NOW? – How trump Has Betrayed His Anti-Insider-Elites Pledge

Earth to trump supporters:

At the heart of donald trump’s unlikely electoral victory was his pledge to rid Washington of corruption, cronyism and insider dealing. And you bought it.

Now, before the glow of victory’s even faded, he’s already broken—no, annihilated—that promise. Intentionally, blatantly, shamelessly—right in front of your perhaps well-intentioned, but short-sighted, eyes.

        Are these the real-deal, straight-shooting, friend-of-
        the-working-class outsiders you pictured when you 
        heard trump's pledge?

Don’t buy it? You tell me. Are these the real-deal, straight-shooting, friend-of-the-working-class outsiders you pictured when you heard trump’s pledge? (List thanks to Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, in a Jan. 10, 2017 article in the Huffington Post):

    •    MIKE PENCE, Vice President – has strong ties to Koch Industries and raked in eye-popping sums from the finance sector, construction industry, pharmaceutical industry and chemical industry

    •    REX TILLERSON, Secretary of State – spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil, which is not just among the world’s largest oil companies, but the corporation most responsible for spreading climate denial and intimidating climate activists

PHOTO: Wall Street Journal

    •    STEVEN MNUCHIN, Treasury Secretary – longtime Goldman Sachs executive who, through a hedge fund, took over the failed IndyMac, turned it into One West and went on a foreclosure rampage, engaging in robosigning and other abuses such that one judge found the bank to have engaged in practices that were “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive”

    •    GEN. JAMES MATTIS, Secretary of Defense – has spun through the revolving door, leaving the military to serve on the board of General Dynamics, a multinational military contractor, and the scandal-ridden Theranos, a start-up company which misled investors and consumers about its blood-testing technology

    •    JEFF SESSIONS, Attorney General – has a racist record that disqualified him from a federal judgeship three decades ago, and a record of gentle treatment of the finance, tobacco and other industries

    •    BETSY DEVOS, Education Secretary – a billionaire scion whose husband is heir to the Amway fortune, who is a purveyor of extremist education privatization proposals, and who has herself invested in for-profit education companies

    •    ELAINE CHAO, Secretary of Transportation – served on the board of directors of Wells Fargo during the cross-selling scandal, as well as a half dozen other corporate boards

    •    GARY COHN, Director, National Economic Council – Led Goldman Sachs as it profited off the housing market collapse in part by misleading its own clients

       These folks are not your equals. They are not your 
       boss's equals, not your boss's boss's equals, not..well, 
       you get the idea.

PHOTO: Denver Post
    •    SCOTT PRUITT, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – believes that climate science is “far from settled,” has repeatedly sued the agency he will be tasked with leading, and as Oklahoma attorney general sent letters to federal agencies that were literally drafted by Devon Energy, one of the state’s largest oil and gas corporations

    •    STEVE BANNON, Special Adviser to the President – once ran and may maintain undisclosed business or other ties with Breitbart.com, a far-right, racist website, and is a former Goldman Sachs executive

    •    LINDA MCMAHON, Administrator, Small Business Administration – as World Wrestling Entertainment CEO helped ensure the wrestling industry remained largely unregulated, putting the health and safety of wrestlers at risk

    •    ANDY PUZDER, Secretary of Labor – the long-time mogul in charge of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains, companies known for being anti-worker and anti-union, and who opposed many or all of the most important recent, pro-worker initiatives of the Obama Labor Department, including a rule to ensure that workers are properly compensated for overtime

               He has financial holdings that give him a direct 
               stake in many of the matters about which he will 
               be advising the president.


    •    WILBUR ROSS, Secretary of Commerce – a billionaire whose firm has profited from buying distressed firms and cutting workers’ benefits

    •    CARL ICAHN, Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Affairs – the emblematic corporate raider epitomizes predatory corporate capitalism, with financial holdings that give him a direct stake in many of the matters about which he will be advising the president

So there you have it. By the most conservative of the media’s estimates (Bloomberg), these “independent,” “non-elite” “friends-of-the-working-class” have a net worth of over $6 billion. And every single one of them now has a role in government that, by all appearances, could benefit them at the expense you and your family.

These folks are not your equals. They are not your boss’s equals, not your boss’s boss’s equals, not…well, you get the idea. Do you think they give a good God-damn about your working-class concerns?

If you believe that, I’ve got a chunk of land in a another swamp you might be interested in.