Charlottesville Virginia

The AntiSemitism Of Donald Trump Stated Loud And Clear!

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AntiSemitism has sadly been part of American history, and we have had Presidents whose attitudes towards the Jewish people have been questioned.

Many question Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reaction to growing evidence of the Holocaust during World War II.

Harry Truman’s reaction toward Jews and Israel only developed due to his long friendship with Eddie Jacobson, and yet he could not visit Truman at his home in Independence, Missouri, due to the antiSemitism of Truman’s wife, First Lady Bess Truman.

Richard Nixon, while assisting Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, expressed antiSemitic slurs on the Watergate Tapes.

Many Jews have questioned Jimmy Carter’s criticism of Israel, and accused him of being an antiSemite.

George H. W. Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker uttered criticism of Israel and of Jewish influence.

Many Jews have always believed that Barack Obama was unfavorable toward Israel’s government under Benjamin Netanyahu.

But none of these Presidents, not even Nixon, match the antiSemitism of Donald Trump, which many thought was well hidden, but now has come out full blown, beginning with his statement in 2017 that the Neo Nazis and white supremacists at Charlottesville, Virginia had some “good people” on their side.

Now, in an open interview, he is critical of Jews who have the gall to vote for Democrats and are not in lock step on Israel’s government policies, and condemned in foul language former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for congratulating Joe Biden on his election victory in 2020!

And yet, there are Orthodox Jews and a percentage of extremely wealthy Jews who continue to support Donald Trump, even to the extent of continuing to back the Fascism of Trump displayed on January 6, 2021, and to promote the “Big Lie”, that Trump won the Presidential Election of 2020! They are blind to the evil that Donald Trump represents, and are a danger to the concept that Jews believe in social justice and compassion for those less fortunate!

Those Jews who continue to support Donald Trump even now should be roundly condemned and ostracized, and only are accelerating antiSemitism nationwide and worldwide!

White Supremacy March In Philadelphia On July 4: Alarming And A Warning!

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In the midst of the celebrations of Independence Day Number 245 since 1776, Philadelphia, the city where the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787, witnessed a White Supremacy-White Nationalist March of a few hundred young white men.

This reminded us of the tragedy of the Charlottesville, Virginia march of young white supremacists in the summer of 2017, where a woman was killed, that was praised by President Donald Trump as having “good people on both sides”!

This Philadelphia march is alarming and a warning of the possibility of race war this summer and into the future, and the fear exists that Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” could incite civil war in the near future, particularly with the false claim by QAnon conspiracy theorists that Donald Trump will be reinstalled in the Presidency on Friday, August 13!

Extreme Threat Growing To Biden And Harris And Civil Order From Right Wing Trumpists Who Deny Election Results!

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With the Electoral College having met in the 50 states and Washington DC on Monday, the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is done, but even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and some other Republicans on Capitol Hill are coming around to acceptance that Joe Biden will be taking the oath of office on January 20, 2021, there is growing concern of an extreme threat to both Biden and Harris and to maintaining of civil order.

Right wing Trumpists present a growing threat to the nation, as there are those who have threatened to call for a coup, a declaration of martial law, suspension of the Constitution, and denial of the Bill of Rights as part of a plan to keep Donald Trump in office indefinitely as a tinhorn dictator, similar to Juan Peron of Argentina or Benito Mussolini of Fascist Italy.

The “Proud Boys” are a terrorist group supportive of and endorsed by Trump, and white supremacists, as those at Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, are a serious threat in Washington DC now, and on Inauguration Day and after!

If Donald Trump continues to deny reality and incites rebellion, he needs to be arrested and charged immediately upon leaving office, and tough measures against “secessionists” and “traitors” and “seditionists” need to be implemented!

We are not going to allow lawlessness and violence to be perpetrated by Donald Trump or any of his minions, who have no respect for the rule of law and the Constitution and Bill of Rights!

Memo To American Jews Who Support Trump: You Are Overlooking History And Are Being Delusional!

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This author and blogger is proud of his Jewish heritage, and pleased that two out of three American Jews support the Democratic Party, which historically, since Franklin D. Roosevelt, stands for the basic values that all decent American Jews believe in: Tolerance, open mindedness, compassion, empathy, decency, social justice!

That does not mean that there have never been Republicans historically who one could find appealing, and even, at times, vote for and support.

But for any American Jew to support Donald Trump, who is a clear cut Fascist with strong tendencies toward Adolf Hitler, not just Benito Mussolini, is shocking beyond belief!

If one voted for Donald Trump as an “outsider” amid thoughts that a businessman with no government experience was worthy of being given a shot at leadership, and had unexplained hatred toward Hillary Clinton in 2016 to motivate you, that is one thing.

But after four years of Donald Trump, not as an outsider, but as the 45th President, and having witnessed what he has wrought, it is beyond understanding why any American Jew would vote for Trump again!

Some would say, oh the economy was going great under Trump, when the economy was already going great under Barack Obama, who took us from the Great Recession to the greatest economic recovery that we have seen in American history, including even Franklin D. Roosevelt before World War II came along!

All that Trump did is continue an economic recovery already in effect for a number of years. And that economic recovery was very uneven, with his push for a massive tax cut for the top one to two percent, which added to the national debt, and now threatens Social Security and Medicare! And 40 percent of the nation cannot afford an emergency $400 expense!

Some would say, oh Trump has done so much for Israel, in moving ahead to recognize Jerusalem as their capital; accept Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria; and promote diplomatic and other ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Israel and Bahrain, which only deepen the conflict over the future of Israel and the Palestinians. Realize that the leaders of those Arab nations are autocrats, corrupt to the core, and have no ethical basis at all toward their own population.

Any intelligent American Jew KNOWS that this is just a ploy for Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off accountability for his corruption, which has led to trial in Israel. It is also simply a way to manipulate that portion of American Jewry that Trump counts upon to help him win reelection, who think that whatever the Israeli government wants, should be supported by the United States.

But this ignores the fact that Barack Obama gave more aid and defense support to Israel through his promotion of the IRON DOME missile system, despite Netanyahu’s hostile attitude toward him, and his collaborating with Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Speaker of the House John Boehner against Obama!

But Donald Trump meanwhile consorts with antisemites and white supremacists, as at Charlottesville in 2017, but also other actions and utterances that incite violence against anyone who disagrees with his destruction of the US Constitution and rule of law! And remember that Richard Spencer, David Duke, and other extremist right wing antisemites love Donald Trump!

Donald Trump is a racist big time, if anyone looks at his history. He promoted racial discrimination in his Queens New York properties, and is infamous for his constant attack on “the Central Park Five”, five young minority men, accused of rape and assault, who he campaigned against, and has refused to admit he was wrong and apologize, when they were shown to be innocent and released after many years.

Donald Trump is a nativist, who has no issue with caging children at the border, a reminder of the early concentration camps which imprisoned Jews and other people, before the extermination concept was formulated in Nazi Germany!

He promotes anti immigrant hysteria, even though his mother was an immigrant, and two of his three wives were immigrants. And despite his close association with Muslim authoritarians, such as Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, he promotes Islamophobia, showing what a total demagogue and hypocrite he is, and his constant attacks on the few Muslim members of Congress!

Donald Trump is also a misogynist, who has abused dozens of women personally, and associates with others who have done the same, and has the gall to brag about it, but also has refused to provide evidence when charges are brought against him. He makes Bill Clinton look like a “choir boy” by comparison!

Donald Trump promotes hatred in his rallies, making people laugh as he ridicules opponents and makes fun of journalists who have been wounded by rubber bullets or tear gas, as he believes all media and all political opponents should be in prison! No other President has ever conducted himself in such a despicable manner! He is still pursuing his goal of putting Hillary Clinton, the Obamas, and Joe Biden in prison, all signs of an authoritarian demagogue!

Donald Trump rejects science, and is responsible for the mass loss of life in the COVID 19 Pandemic, and encourages his followers NOT to wear masks or practice social distancing, including at his rallies. At the same time, he thinks of his followers as “disgusting”, and calls veterans who have died in wars “suckers” and “losers”!

One might say that Donald Trump has a Jewish son in law, Jared Kushner; a Jewish Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin; and a key Jewish adviser, Stephen Miller; along with others who work for him who are Jewish. But these Jews represent an extremely privileged class, who put their basic Jewish values aside for the gaining of power and obscene wealth!

Donald Trump has lied more than 20,000 times in office, and has had, by far, the most corrupt administration and number of corrupt appointees ever seen in any Presidency, so how can any respectable American Jew support this?

If Donald Trump is reelected, he will become ever more a threat to the basic Jewish values that matter, and any American Jew who contributes to that horror, will go down in history, condemned for their inaction when they could have taken steps to end the nightmare of an American version of Benito Mussolini at the least, and god forbid, Adolf Hitler at the most!

Fascism Is On The Horizon If Donald Trump Is Reelected: Warning Of Author Sinclair Lewis In His Work “It Can’t Happen Here” In 1935

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In 1935, Novelist Sinclair Lewis wrote a prophetic novel, “It Can’t Happen Here”, stating that what was happening in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini and Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, could happen in the United States. Lewis wrote that it would be “clothed in a flag and carrying a Bible!”

This was way before the horrors of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reached their peaks over the next decade, but already enough evidence of the dangers of the manipulation of minds with emotional rhetoric dividing groups in a society, based upon race, ethnicity, religion, and national origins.

Lewis was warning about the potential dangers represented by Huey Long of Louisiana, who was assassinated months later in 1935, with the story of his assassination covered in my book “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield Publishers 2015, Paperback Edition 2017).

It could also be applied later, in the 1950s, to Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin; to third party Presidential candidate George Wallace of Alabama in 1968; and to President Donald Trump.

Only Trump, with his Fascist appeal, backed up by military, police and evangelical support, and rallies to appeal to those who are racist oriented, and also nativists, white supremacists at Charlottesville, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and misogynistic, is a clear and present danger, as he is the President of the United States.

He has stoked Fascist appeals as a manipulative method for the past five years since he announced his candidacy in 2015, and has set out to destroy all traditions and norms!

A lot of intelligent people, including those I know or knew, and also a lot of not so bright people who have emotional attachment to Donald Trump, since they are ignorant and share his horrific beliefs, have rallied around him.

And yet, many conservatives and Republicans who really care about our Constitution and rule of law, and the perpetuation of our democracy, are alarmed by Trump’s constant attack on “Fake Media”.

Trump calls everyone and everything which opposes his authoritarian bent as unAmerican. He waves the American flag as if he owns patriotism, when it is his critics who are truly patriotic, and care about human rights and freedom.

Donald Trump incites in a crazy manner on Twitter daily, and in the midst of the greatest crises since the Great Depression and World War II, he ignores and refuses to take responsibility for the Second Great Depression and the CoronaVirus Pandemic!

He stokes bloodshed and violence in attacking those who are promoting the need for racial healing, and encourages right wing hoodlums in the streets of Portland, Seattle, Kenosha and elsewhere,

This presents the danger of greater violence in the two months left to the Presidential Election of 2020, and the interim to the next inauguration, and his stated refusal to accept defeat if the election goes against him, an absolutely terrifying scenario!

It would seem that his opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, face constant threats of assassination, and this author of a book on assassinations is truly alarmed that someone who is a Trumpite will attempt to do that!

If Trump is reelected, this nation will be threatened in its basic values in a way never having come to power with Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, or George Wallace, despite these earlier threats in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1960s. It will be an authoritarian dictatorship without any control, a nightmare that will mirror the horrors of Fascist Italy and even Nazi Germany!

As Sinclair Lewis wrote in “It Can’t Happen Here”, it actually “Can Happen Here”!

The Conservative Political Action Conference: The Cult Of Personality Supporting Donald Trump Without Question Or Qualms

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The Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend was a telling example of where conservatism has gone—to a cult of personality supporting Donald Trump without question or qualms.

It is very clear that intelligent conservatives, many who write commentary, and those conservatives, many who worked for Ronald Reagan, the Bushes, and for GOP nominees Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, are horrified by the utterances, actions, and personality of Donald Trump.

But the “mob” of ignorant “groupies” who worship Donald Trump are clearly mean spirited, and as racist, nativist, misogynist, and white supremacist as their leader, and their and his behavior at the CPAC conference was shocking, terrifying, and disgraceful.

Trump put on a show of more than two hours, ranting and raving like a maniac, in his longest speech in office. He hugged the American flag twice in a lunatic manner, and attacked every imaginable critic and “enemy”, and cheers were heard for his continued attacks on John McCain months after his passing, totally reprehensible. And through it all, there were cheers from people who sound like the next generation of Nazis and Fascists.

One would think this was a rally of Nazis at Nuremberg, and was similar to the rally at Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to violence and the murder of one young woman, an event in which Donald Trump claimed that “both sides” had good people at that rally.

There were no good people at CPAC, none, and it is a sign of how Donald Trump has promoted hatred, fear, violence, and is intent on destroying everything good and decent ever promoted into law by responsible Republicans, as well as Democrats.

The threat of Donald Trump to American democracy is real, and the movement to take action against the 45th President is in full gear, with the hope that future damage can be prevented, but we are at a turning point that is crucial for the future of the American republic and for democracy.

White Nationalism The True Terrorism Threat In America, And Encouraged By Donald Trump’s Rhetoric

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White Nationalism is a far greater threat in America than Muslim terrorism, or undocumented immigrant crime.

The mass murders that have occurred in recent years are most of the time done by white supremacists.

And the problem is that Donald Trump’s racist and nativist rhetoric incites a lot of these people, as at Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, but also the motivation for many other incidents of gun violence.

No one is saying that Muslims or undocumented immigrants from Latin America are totally innocent of any violence, but the numbers of native born Americans who see religion and race as motivations for violence is much higher by comparison.

But if one listens to Donald Trump, one would think only undocumented immigrants or Muslims are responsible for the high level of gun violence, as when such a situation arises, the President always draw attention to it, while ignoring the numerous cases where white supremacists are engaged in the violence.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam Must Resign, And Gives America An African American Successor, Justin Fairfax

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Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has been exposed as having participated in the posting of a photogragh in his medical school yearbook in 1984, in which he is posing with another student, one wearing black face, and the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe and mask, leading to demands for his resignation.

This whole situation is sad, as Northam was elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia in November 2017, after serving as Lieutenant Governor, being in the state legislature, having had a medical career, and given eight years to the Army Medical Corp.

Northam was seen as a moderate left Governor, and seemed to be a decent man who would serve the one term allowed Virginia Governors, with no ability to be reelected, due to constitutional bars for a second consecutive term.

But the situation requires immediate resignation, as Northam has lost the confidence of the Virginia voters, and cannot use the excuse of “a youthful indiscretion”, since he was 25 years old at the time of the yearbook photo in 1984.

Certainly, Northam has worked to promote racial reconciliation after the despicable Charlottesville riot in 2017, while he was running for the Governorship, and himself, attended a desegregated high school where the majority of students were African Americans.

No one is saying he is an open racist now, and yet we have an open racist in President Donald Trump, who said both sides in Charlottesville contained decent people, an outrage in trying to call Ku Klux Klan white supremacists as having equality with those protesting racial inequities.

Truthfully, while Ralph Northam needs to resign, Donald Trump, for his long and consistent racism, nativism, misogyny, and praise of white supremacists should also resign, but we cannot be that lucky, unfortunately.

When Republicans are accused of inappropriate behavior, they always manage to move past it and stay in office, while Democrats are always in a position to be forced out, as with Al Franken on the accusations, never fully investigated, of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct with women.

The only good result of Northam’s eventual resignation is that Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, an African American, who graduated Duke University and Columbia University Law School, and is seen as the future of the Democratic Party, as he will turn age 40 on February 17, would succeed Northam as Governor. He would be the second African American governor of the state, after Douglas Wilder, and the fourth African American governor in modern times.

He worked in several Democratic Presidential campaigns, and was a “body man” for Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards in the Presidential campaign of 2004. He also worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a law clerk for a federal judge, and also as a prosecutor.

While Virginia only allows one term for Governor, a succession by Fairfax would not eliminate the possibility of an elected term in 2021, so Fairfax could be Governor of Virginia for nearly seven years. That would make him an historic figure, and give him the opportunity to become a national fiture, and potentially a future Democratic contender for the Presidency in 2024 or 2028.

Only one former Governor, Mills Godwin, was able to serve two nonconsecutive terms as Governor of Virginia, as a Democrat from 1966-1970 and as a Republican from 1974-1978.

Iowa Congressman Steve King Just The Tip Of The Iceberg, As Donald Trump Is The More Significant White Supremacist And White Nationalist

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The decision of the House Republican leadership, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to condemn Iowa Congressman Steve King and strip him of his committee assignments, is a lame and belated acceptance of the Republican Party of how racist and nativist King has been for years, with the GOP tolerating him and his promotion of white supremacy and white nationalism.

He is not the only Republican who has shown evidence of racism and nativism, and many Republicans are now worried about the long range future of the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, and H W Bush.

The party has catered to white supremacists and white nationalists for years, taking over that role from the old former Southern segregationists who, thankfully, abandoned the Democratic Party after the passage of the Civil Rights Act under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

There should be no place for such racism and nativism in any establishment political party in America, but Donald Trump paid homage to them after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, when he said both sides in the conflict had good people, which was a sign he was allied with David Duke, Richard Spencer, and the right wing radio talk show hosts that spew such hatred regularly.

Until and when the Republicans in Congress in the House of Representatives and Senate repudiate the ultimate racist, nativist, hate monger, and misogynist—DONALD TRUMP—which they refused to do to this moment, then the action taken against Steve King is pure hypocrisy, to save their own rear ends.

The Republican Party is dead in the water as a future force until they return to the progressive trends of Lincoln and TR, the true paragons of virtue in their party history.

Trump’s Constant Attacks On Journalism Will Lead Some Crazy Trump Supporter To Perpetrate A Crime Against A Journalist!

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The Founding Fathers understood the role of Journalism.

Abraham Lincoln understood the role of Journalism.

The same situation existed for Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and every other President before and since FDR, until now we have a President, Donald Trump, who wishes to curb the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.

No President, and no public figure likes when he or she is criticized, attacked, exposed, for one’s shortcomings, and sometimes illegal acts.

But the right of the people to know the facts, the truth, and be aware of investigations of their public officials, is sacrosanct.

In a totalitarian dictatorship, the first thing that disappears is freedom of the press, and in many such nations historically, journalists become victims of crooked and corrupt leaders.

By Donald Trump attacking journalists as “bad” people, as un-American, as people who are lacking in patriotism, he is endangering all journalists and bloggers, as there are unstable people in society that hang on every word of a demagogue, such as Trump, and are ready to “mete out justice” against such “criminals”, meaning stalking and harming them, with the purpose of murdering them as their mission to help their “devoted” leader.

If any journalist in the Trump Administration time period is harmed, Donald Trump is responsible for it by his inciting of whackos who believe he is God’s gift to America, and he should be held accountable, as an accessory to the crime if such evil event occurs.

Let us hope and pray that we survive the Trump Era without more loss of life as at Charlottesville, Virginia!