Donald Trump set up the Afghanistan withdrawal but went to Arlington to politicize those who died there

Echo opinion letter published in The Washington Post (Democracy Dies In Darkness):

My father, Colonel Niklaus J.A. Keller, M.D., who served in the Army during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I believe that he, and other service members interred there, would be shocked seeing former president Donald Trump’s use of this space to stage a political event.

Anyone who has buried a spouse, parent, brother or sister at Arlington would be appalled, too, especially because Trump set up the end of conflict in Afghanistan. Staged political events do not belong at Arlington.

From:  Susan Keller, Naples, Florida

Even Trump should know to keep Arlington Cemetery a campaign-free zone

Donald Trump violated for political purposes the sacred ground in Arlington Section 60

“Trump visit to Arlington Cemetery sparks alleged altercation”:
Opinion letter published in The Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness)....

Dear Editor - Every Memorial Day, I make a point of visiting Arlington National Cemetery, where eight of my fellow Iraq War veteran friends rest — eight Americans who gave their lives for our country. Each of them is a hero, and one even earned the Medal of Honor, making the ultimate sacrifice to save others.

Iraq campaign medal ribbon

Service in Iraq during the Iraq War (from 19 March 2003 to 31 December 2011)

Like so many veterans from my generation, I bear the scars of service. Post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt are constant companions, but I live each day to honor the sacrifice of my friends, my heroes, whether I knew them personally or not. Section 60 is sacred to me. It is where my generation of American heroes have found an honored place of rest. I go there to pay my respects, and I am appalled that anyone could walk these grounds with any other intention.

Donald Trump recently used Section 60 and Arlington National Cemetery as a backdrop for a campaign ad. He and his staff shamelessly walked these hallowed grounds, bone spurs 🦴and all, in pursuit of something for themselves. 

Iraq campaign medal

Reports even suggest that they assaulted an employee whose job is to preserve the dignity and sanctuary of this space. I cannot stand by and watch this happen. I will oppose such disrespect with every breath I have left.

If any other figure were to commit this irreverant travesity, Trump’s actions toward the men and women who have served this country would be an automatic disqualifier from public service. 

Yet (unbelievably❗)  once again,😠 we see a man who behaves as though he is above the very norms and values that define the United States — the same values which the men and women at Arlington made the ultimate sacrifice to protect.

From Will Attig, in Arlington, Virginia, executive director of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council and served with the 1-26th Infantry of the U.S. Army.

Donald Trump spews egregious political rhetoric spreads highly virulent toxicity

Echo opinion published in CapTimes a Madison Wisconsin newspaper:  Dear Editor: I feel fortunate to have listened to at least a portion of Gen. Mark Milley's retirement speech.

To my mind, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was a true leader, a man of great integrity who always kept his oath to our Constitution. 

I am still awaiting the condemnation of Donald Trump from any Republican who might be outraged at the former president's statements that Milley should be executed.

Trump insults the military and disregards the sacrifices of the "suckers" who were captured or wounded. He has stated that he doesn't want veterans who have lost limbs at any official events because "no one wants to see that."

The degree of the politically violent rhetoric and the level of toxicity that Trump posts on social media is egregious. The very thought that Trump, who is entirely unqualified to become our commander in chief, might once again assume that role should be alarming to everyone.

From Mary Lou Reisch Madison, Wisconsin

Donald Trump denegrates Arlington National Veterans visit creates an altercation

Echo report published in New York Magazine "Intelligencer" by Nia Prater

Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to commemorate 13 American servicemembers killed in Afghanistan three years ago. But reporting soon emerged about an altercation between his campaign staff and a cemetery official over photography in a restricted section, sparking a backlash that has only grown stronger. Although Trump’s team has cited the support of the Gold Star family members accompanying him on the visit, critics allege that the Republican candidate has run afoul of federal law that forbids campaign activity at the site. Here, what we know so far.

What happened at Arlington National Cemetery?

Arlington National Cemetery 2017 L'Heureux photo

Trump was at the cemetery to take part in a ceremony honoring the 13 U.S. servicemembers who were killed in a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate during the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan. During his visit, he laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and stopped by the burial sites of several servicemembers alongside their relatives and loved ones.

But NPR reported that an altercation occurred between Trump campaign staff and an Arlington employee. It took place as members of Trump’s team attempted to take photographs and record videos in Section 60, an area of the cemetery largely reserved for members of the military who died while serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A source told NPR that a cemetery employee tried to prevent those staffers from entering that section but that they then “verbally abused and pushed the official aside.”

Arlington National Cemetery confirmed in a statement to NPR that the incident took place and that a report had been filed, indicating that the campaign’s actions might have been illegal. “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement said. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Trump’s team had been warned about not taking photographs or videos at Section 60 prior to its arrival at Arlington, citing a defense official.

An Army spokesman issued a statement on Thursday, again confirming the incident without mentioning Trump or his campaign directly. “An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the statement read. The spokesman confirmed that a report was made to the police but that the employee opted against pressing charges. The employee reportedly feared retaliation from Trump’s supporters if she pursued charges, military officials told the New York Times.

Before the cemetery visit, Trump was already under increased scrutiny for his rhetoric about the military, following recent comments in which he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a civilian honor, was better than receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. In 2020, The Atlantic published a story alleging that then-President Trump had referred to American WWI veterans buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris as “losers” and “suckers” in 2018, when explaining his reasoning for canceling a trip to the site, citing sources familiar with the conversation.

What has the Trump campaign’s response been?

Trump’s campaign immediately took a defensive posture* after the incident was reported, largely blaming the individual cemetery official. In a statement to NPR, which first broke the story, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung denied that a physical altercation occurred and said Trump’s team was prepared to release its own footage to combat the “defamatory claims.” 

(So.....where is this "footage"?.....)

*I had a wonderful 6th grade teacher when I attended Dundalk Elementary School in Baltimore County.  Mr. Vozz had a montra ...."it's tough when you've got to explain 'em".....IOW, anybody in the "explaining" side of a discussion is usually on the wrong side of the issue or....in the case of a pun or joke...you might as well just say "forget about it" ...😁)  🤷

Did Trump’s visit to Section 60 violate federal law?

Arlington National Cemetery is a frequent location for official visits by American leaders with presidents often marking Memorial Day and Veterans Day with remarks and a wreath-laying ceremony at the historic site. Generally, the cemetery allows photography by members of the public within its grounds with more specific rules for the media. But Trump’s visit might be in conflict with 32 CFR 553, a federal regulation that states, “Memorial services and ceremonies at Army National Military Cemeteries will not include partisan political activities.”

The campaign’s use of the footage taken on Monday so far appears to be political in nature. Dan Scavino Jr., a senior campaign adviser whose social-media feeds largely consist of ads and clips of campaign rallies, shared a video of Trump at the grave of one servicemember with members of their family.

Trump later shared a video on TikTok featuring footage taken from his Arlington visit, including him visiting graves located in Section 60 with Gold Star family members. The accompanying audio left no doubt that the video was intended as a political message. It featured a voice-over of Trump condemning the Biden administration for its handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal: “We didn’t lose one person in 18 months and then they took over that disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.”

Although the legal questions surrounding the incident remain open, Trump’s visit has upset at least one Gold Star family. The Times reported that relatives of Master Sergeant Andrew Marckesano have expressed concerns that Trump filmed at his grave site without permission. Marckesano’s headstone can be seen in videos of Trump laying flowers in Section 60 next to the grave of Sergeant Hoover, whose family accompanied the former president to the site.

In a statement to the Times, Marckesano’s sister, Michele, said that their family supports Hoover’s family and others in their quest for more information surrounding the Afghanistan bombing. “However, according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave,” she said.

Republican Stephanie Grisham says Vice-President Harris "has my vote" in DNC speech

Stephanie Grisham rose from being a junior press wrangler on the Trump campaign in 2016, to assuming top positions in the administration as White House press secretary and communications director, while at the same time acting as First Lady Melania Trump’s communications director and eventually chief of staff. Few members of the Trump inner circle served longer or were as close to the first family

Echo report published in the Washington Post by Amy B. Wang:

In brief remarks at the beginning of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, on Tuesday night’s programming, Grisham first laid out her Trump bona fides: She wasn’t just a supporter of the former president, she said, but “a true believer” and one of his closest advisers.

Former Trump press secretary says he mocked his supporters as ‘basement dwellers’ Stephanie Grisham was one of several Republicans to address the Democratic National Convention and urge a vote for Kamala Harris.

“The Trump family became my family. I spent Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s at Mar-a-Lago. I saw him when the cameras were off,” Grisham said.

Grisham claimed that, behind closed doors, Trump mocked his supporters as “basement dwellers” and once, on a hospital visit, he was upset that cameras were focused on intensive care unit patients rather than on him.

“He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth,” she said. “He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.’”

Grisham said her last straw was the January 6, 2021, insurrection, when a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win. The violent attack resulted in the death of five people, including a police officer and a woman shot by police. Two other officers who were on duty that day later died by suicide, and more than 100 officers were injured.

“On January 6, I asked Melania Trump if we could at least tweet that, while peaceful protest is the right of every American, there’s no place for lawlessness and violence. She replied with one word: ‘No,’” Grisham said. Behind her, an image of the alleged text conversation flashed on a screen.

Grisham said she became the first senior Trump staffer to resign that day because she “couldn’t be part of the insanity any longer.” There would be several more Trump staffers who cited the Capitol attack as reason to quit the administration.

Grisham said Tuesday she was advocating for a Democrat at the convention because she loved her country more than her party.

“Kamala Harris tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote,” Grisham said.

Her remarks received a warm reception and loud applause from the Democratic crowd — as well as a rebuke from the Trump campaign.

Trump campaign responded...

“Stephanie Grisham is a stone cold loser who clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and many other mental issues,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email, in response to her speech. “She’s a liar and a fraud, and it’s laughable she’s willing to step behind a podium at the DNC but was too scared to step behind the podium at the White House.”

The Trump family has distanced themselves from Grisham since she left the Trump administration, but especially after Grisham published a memoir in 2021 in which she called working for the former president a “classic abuse relationship.” 

At the time, a Trump spokeswoman dismissed the book as an attempt to “cash in … and sell lies about the Trump family,” while a representative for Melania Trump called Grisham “a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn’t deserve anyone’s trust.”

Grisham has been among several Republicans to agree to speak at the convention to encourage people to vote for Harris over Trump. Others have included John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., and former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.

Donald Trump has never shown respect for the military. He is unfit to serve unqualified to be commander in chief- Dump Trump!

Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle:

Trump’s dishonorable comments: 

Trump's disgraceful Medal of Honor remarks prove he's unfit to lead | Opinion:  Unless I missed it, the Houston Chronicle dedicated zero print to Donald Trump’s (booooring 🥱😧 ) hour-long press conference during which he told more than two lies per minute.

During this event, Trump said that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, because “everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

Given the staggering magnitude of his ignorance — according to his former chief of staff, Trump didn’t even understand the significance of Pearl Harbor — it’s tempting to dismiss this comment as innocuous. He was simply complimenting a Medal of Freedom recipient who, unlike the “suckers” and “losers” who defend this country, happened to be a “healthy, beautiful woman” and, of course, a billionaire donor to his campaign. But it underscores deeper, ongoing and far more consequential haracter flaws that should render him permanently unfit for any public office.

He has profoundly perverted the definition of leadership. For him, there is nothing greater than self-enrichment and self-preservation, which is why sacrifice, service, honor and humility are pointless gestures. Loyalty is something to be imposed, not inspired. 

Trump does not inspire loyalty.  Rather he demands it.  A zero sum game for Trump.

Seriously ❗ This is not just a character flaw, it’s a complete absence of character and it runs against the basic values we all teach our children.

His seemingly inconsequential ramblings are newsworthy because they reveal a myopic world view that will inform his policy decisions. This is critical information for any voter — the uninformed, misinformed and those with short memories.

From Robert Campbell, in Katy, Texas

"Don't let anyone tell you who you are....show them who you are...." Vice-President Kamala Harris in Chicago

Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe by 
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist.

Kamala Harris lives up to the hype at the DNC- the highly successful convetion in Chicago.

The Democratic presidential nominee knows exactly how to prosecute Donald Trump — with mockery and moral outrage — and is tough enough to do it.

CHICAGO- Donald Trump picked the wrong woman to call dumb.

As shown by the speech she gave to accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, Vice President Kamala Harris is smart enough to know exactly how to prosecute Trump — with mockery and moral outrage — and tough enough to do it.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she told an enraptured audience at the United Center in Chicago. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

This week at the Democratic National Convention, friends, relatives, and fellow politicians described Harris in such glowing terms that the big question was whether she could live up to the hype. The answer: Yes, she could, and yes, she did. 

In fact, in Chicago, Vice President Harris came across as strong, confident, down-to-earth, and, yes, joyful 😇 about the opportunity to run for president, which emerged unexpectedly a month ago, when President Biden dropped out as his party’s nominee.

Of course, that doesn’t mean victory in November 🤞 is guaranteed. Trump will fight back hard and do everything he can to demean and defeat his opponent. 

Harris will and should be pressed more on the issues and will have to answer for the less positive aspects of the Biden-Harris record, such as fallout from the border crisis and the (wrong-minded 😏😖) perception about a weak economy. She has only a short time to convince voters they know enough about her story, her values, and the direction in which she wants to bring the country to elect her to the presidency. But with Thursday night’s speech, Harris gave herself a fighting chance.

She told the story of being raised by a mother who came to the United States from India and taught her to “never do anything half-assed.” Her mother, who raised two daughters as a single parent in Oakland, Calif., after her divorce, also inspired Kamala Harris to pursue her dreams of a law career. That took her into politics as a district attorney, attorney general, senator, vice president, and, now, as her party’s presidential nominee.

In her acceptance speech, Harris did not address issues in great depth. She called for more affordable housing, a middle-class tax cut, policies to address climate change, and cited her commitment to reproductive rights. Concerning the contentious Israel-Hamas war, Harris said, “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself … because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7.” She also referenced the “devastating” damage and “innocent lives lost” in Gaza but did not say anything about changing current policy.

Harris said she wants to be a president “for all Americans,” no matter their party affiliation. In this election, she said, the country has “a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward.”

But even as she talked about unity, Harris was prosecuting the case against Trump in a very personal way. Trump, she said, always acts in the interests of “the only client he has ever had — himself.” Citing his affinity for dictators, she said that made him “easy to manipulate with flattery and favors.”

She blamed the country’s border problems on Trump’s successful bid to get Republican lawmakers to scuttle a bipartisan plan, saying, “I refuse to play politics with our security.” Alluding to some of the insults Trump has directed at veterans, she said, “I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice.”

She also said Trump “fanned the flames” of the mob attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which sought to overturn the 2020, presidential election. Noting that a recent Supreme Court ruling gives Trump some immunity from criminal prosecution, she noted, “Imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense power of the presidency.” Harris also said that after he “handpicked members of the Supreme Court” to strip away reproductive freedoms, now “he brags about it.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial described Harris as the least known presidential nominee in modern times. Her convention speech was the formal beginning of her introduction to many voters. By November, will they like what they have heard enough to vote for her?

Sensing opportunity, Trump has tried to define Harris before she can define herself, but his early efforts have been awkward or otherwise missed the mark. He has mused about when she “turned Black,” accused her of promoting communism, and, as previously noted, called her dumb.

If only Trump knew about another lesson that Harris said her mother taught her: “Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.”

In Chicago, she showed Trump exactly who she is. Now he has to figure out what to do about it.

Opinion about Cambodian genocide in Phnom Penh - I have been there.....published in the Boston Globe

The Khmer Rouge, genocide, and justice

Echo opinion letter published in The Boston Globe:

Stephen Kinzer asserts that the term “genocide” is often used inappropriately in situations where it does not apply. 

I have been to Phnom Penh

My visit to the Killing fields in Cambodia

Accordingly, he recommends that it be dropped from our “political vocabulary.”

For example, Kinzer states that the Cambodian-on-Cambodian carnage committed by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s should not be considered genocide because “there was no ethnic difference between killers and victims.”

True enough, considering that genocide involves an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Nevertheless, the widespread and systematic (horrendous) killings that took place in Cambodia did not go unpunished.

They resulted in the conviction of Khmer Rouge leaders for multiple crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. (But no real "Nuremburg" type of trial took place. 

In fact, the brutal leader of the genocide Pol Pot died mysteriously, probably the victim of purposeful euthanazia. Only one man was tried for the widespread "genocide".)

On the other hand, the large Vietnamese community living in Cambodia, in fact, was targeted for extermination, for which the Khmer Rouge head of state, Khieu Samphan, was tried and convicted of genocide by a United Nations-backed tribunal.

The tribunal’s Supreme Court Chamber, on which I sat, affirmed his conviction.

Whether or not genocide should be dropped from our political vocabulary, it continues to have an important place in our legal vocabulary.

From Phillip Rapoza in New Bedford, Massachusetts

The writer retired in 2015, as chief justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, after which he served as an international judge on the Supreme Court Chamber of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Kamala Harris "for the people" brings hope and joy to America's voters: A Catholic perspective

Kamala Harris is running a campaign of joy. As a Catholic woman, I’m feeling it.  (Maine Writer....."I agree!")  Echo essay published in America Magazine by Kathleen Bonnette*.

At the Democratic National Convention and throughout Kamala Harris’s campaign for president, themes of joy and hope are resonant. Doug Emhoff refers to his wife as a “joyful warrior.” 

In her speech to the convention, former First Lady Michelle Obama called attention to “the contagious power of hope, the anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day.” And in her acceptance speech for her party’s nomination, Ms. Harris promised to “be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations.”

Joy and hope have become a palpable force among Democrats—the image of Gus Walz pointing to his father, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, and exclaiming, “That’s my dad!” as tears streamed down his face captures the emotion bringing together the party as it seeks to unite the nation. While Harris’s laugh has been the subject of mockery from former President Trump and others on the right, her joyful and enthusiastic presence evokes hope. Last night, she embraced the mantle and showed that true strength comes from compassion and joy, not enmity and fear, following her own advice: “Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.”

As a Catholic woman who believes that integrity matters; that democracy is an important tool for expressing human dignity; that systems based on exploitation or exclusion are not just or sustainable; and that decency and good will are critical components of leadership, I am also feeling the joy. Ms. Harris’s vow “to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power,” and her commitment to fostering the common good—inclusive of migrants, L.G.B.T. persons, women and other marginalized communities—was a reassuring balm when these things are jeopardized. (Granted, many Catholics are disappointed by her defense of abortion rights, but I am grateful for her willingness to “trust women.”) These convictions are rooted in my Catholic faith, and it was a joy to hear a presidential nominee address them energetically and with compassion.

However, I recognize that fully 60 percent of white Catholics (50 percent overall) think otherwise, identifying with the Republican Party. Their convictions, too, grow out of their faith. As I put it in my book (R)evolutionary Hope, we often are tempted to “pick a side, and hope that ‘our side’ wins—for the good of the church.”

But justice is possible only through a transformation of consciousness that moves us to work for the common good with compassion, not with anger, fear, or the desire to dominate the “other.” Pope Francis makes this point explicitly: “no family, no group of neighbors, no ethnic group, much less a nation, has a future if the force that unites them, brings them together and resolves their differences is vengeance and hatred.… Nothing is gained this way and, in the end, everything is lost.” In other words, vengeance and grievance are nihilistic (IOW destroying our morals....) motivators—they might move us in the moment, but we need to ground ourselves in joy and gratitude if we are to promote unity and peace.

Building the world we want to see depends on our willingness to listen compassionately to others, especially those most marginalized, and to cultivate relationships and communities that lift up everyone. As former President Barack Obama put it on Tuesday night, “we need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices. And that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process.”

In an interconnected world, zero-sum paradigms do not map onto reality, and it is critical that we continuously check ourselves to ensure that what we are building is not reifying the individualistic, materialistic systems of domination that are destructive and not life-giving. 

Instead, we must find ways to build without destroying. As Ms. Harris emphasizes, “a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us” and “none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed.” There is joy to be found in embracing this interconnectedness.

In this election, as Ms. Harris put it, our nation “has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward … guided by optimism and faith.” I hope Catholics will choose to be beacons of this hope—living into the Gospel mission and bringing, as Pope Francis encourages, “the joy born of compassion, the tender love born of trust, the capacity for reconciliation that has its source in our knowledge that we have been forgiven and sent forth.” 

One way to discern whether we are aligned with the love of God 💖💢⭐is to consider whether our participation in a given movement evokes in us the Fruit of the Spirit—including joy.😀

*Kathleen Bonnette works at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.

Donald Trump classic gaslighting......tells lies on his fake "Truth - untruth- Social"

Echo opinion column by Maureen Dowd published in The New York Times:  Daffy Donald, Turning Pea Green With Envy

I have a crow in my backyard in D.C. that has been cawing for three weeks. It has been driving me crazy, so I was happy to get out of town and back on the trail.

But now comes Donald Trump, cawing and cawing, even louder than the damn crow.

If you need more evidence that Trump is flummoxed about how to counter Kamala Harris, just check out his daffy reaction to her dynamite convention.

Donald Trump should pay royalty fees to mimic Daffy Duck

So, on Friday morning after the DNC, Trump crowed on -lying- 🤥Truth (lie) Social: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”  

Fake Trumpism

Friday evening, Trump crowed, “The Republican Party is charging forward on many fronts, and I am very proud that we are a LEADER on I.V.F.”

Yeah, Trump is a leader in trying to get rid of it.

At first, I thought there must have been an Iranian hack. These posts were too ridiculous even for Trump. His modus vivendi is projection, but the posts seemed intended to back up Kamala’s line in her big speech that, when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, Trump and JD Vance are simply “out of their minds.”

Trump is usually crowing, after all, about the three conservative justices he put on the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe. If he gets back in the Oval, he’ll probably put yet another religious fanatic onto the court who will try to foist some other horrible legal restriction on the country.

And the worst part about it is that Trump is not even a true believer. He was pro-choice long before he decided to run for president as a Republican. The amoral man who was once a famously promiscuous New York playboy wrecked the Supreme Court simply because it helped him with his Christian right disciples.

Kamala ridiculed Trump in her speech, dismissing him as “an unserious man,” but the real dagger in his heart was that she trumped him in the ratings. That set off a meshuga (crazy❗)  meltdown on Truth Social, with Trump maniacally capitalizing any piffle that entered his head.

When Kamala came out onstage, looking strong and elegant in a Chloé navy pantsuit, Trump demanded: “WHERE’S HUNTER?”

Then he accused Tim Walz of résumé enhancement for his role on a high school football team. “Walz was an ASSISTANT Coach, not a COACH.” (Maine Writer....this is 💩)

Ripping defensive coordinators is not a good strategy for running up the vote in “Friday Night Lights” territory.

He followed up the posts with a scream-of-consciousness call to Fox News, filibustering Bret Baier and Martha McCallum for 10 minutes until Baier abruptly cut him off to throw to the Greg Gutfeld comedy show.

“At several points during the call, a familiar beeping sound interrupted Mr. Trump’s remarks,” wrote The Times’s Michael Grynbaum and Michael Gold. “It appeared that the former president was accidentally pressing buttons on the keypad of his phone.”

Trump conceded that the Democrats had “a nice-looking room” for their convention.

Friday was another day of lunacy, as R.F.K. Jr. — the anti-vaxxer — dropped out and endorsed Trump, who once proclaimed himself “father of the vaccine” for Covid. In Phoenix, R.F.K. Jr. gave an incoherent speech that went from contaminated food to media collusion and censorship to Democrats being the party of “big money.” (That last, even though he chose a billionaire as a running mate, got millions from a billionaire, and is endorsing a billionaire.)

Among other delusional statements, R.F.K. Jr. said he could still somehow win and end up in the White House. He said his former party “abandoned democracy” by swapping Joe Biden for Harris, even as he gave his backing to a man who tried to overthrow the democracy (January 6th insurrection) that he was running.

At an evening rally with Trump in Glendale, Ariz., Kennedy said, without irony, that Trump would protect us from totalitarianism. The fast-food champion praised Kennedy, saying he wanted to clean up the food supply.

Trump loves being embraced by a Kennedy — even an off-kilter one. But the former president’s motto is more like, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for me.”

Kennedy brought up his father and uncle during his announcement, and his other relatives must have been mortified.

R.F.K.’s cousin and J.F.K.’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, a convention speaker, commented on X: “Never been less surprised in my life. Been saying it for over a year — RFK Jr. is for sale, works for Trump. Bedfellows and loving it.”

At an event in Las Vegas on Friday, to tout his no-tax-on-tips policy, Trump continued his obsessive critique of Kamala’s performance while still mispronouncing her name, and saying that she had mentioned his name 21 times in her speech. (Trump’s name actually appeared 16 times, but everyone knows he can’t help inflating numbers.)

“She lied,” he said. “But that’s OK because a lot of people lie. They’ll do anything to get elected.”

Well, he should know.

“She’s a copycat,” he said. “She’s a flip-flopper.”

Well, he should know.

Now we begin what is going to be a very ugly slugfest between the Unserious Man and the Untested Woman.

Top Democrats warn that Trump could still be formidable if he stops unraveling.

Kamala came across as tough talking about the military and foreign policy in her speech. But there are many tests yet to come — including vicious Trump attack lines, eventually a difficult interview and next month’s debate. She has to show she has what it takes once she steps away from the teleprompter. Can she manage to get through a minimum of policy stuff with no viral blunders?

Kamala holds the hopes of a lot of people in this country who are praying that she doesn’t fall on her face in the next 72 days.

She can take heart that she’s driving Trump crazy. He is jealous of her looks, her crowd sizes, her star power and her vivacious, bodacious vibes. That’s a good start.

Donald Trump and Leon Musk are now on record for engaging in illegal union busting!

Echo opinion from the Editorial Board of the Houston Chronicle

Anti-Trump stamp

Thumbs down 👎: Democrats sure pulled a (brilliant)🌟⭐ switcheroo in the presidential race and now Donald Trump is trying to regain the offensive by attacking Kamala Harris on the economy. 

File under - "You cannot make this stuff up." 😠😧

In one press conference, Trump - the self proclaimed "billionaire"❓ 😵😑😮 discussed inflation by comparing a tiny Tic Tac container with a normal one. Another time, he stood next to a table piled with Folgers Coffee, Fruit Loops and uncooked bacon while reading from a three-ring binder: “Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly.” A little hyperbole to go with your Fruit Loops? 

Then, Trump sat for a rambling interview with a guy who actually did break the world after gaining fame and fortune trying to save it: Elon Musk*. After the Tesla pioneer and Twitter killer struggled for 40 minutes to get the livestream going with Trump, the former president praised the part-time Texas billionaire for threatening to fire workers who go on strike, after which Musk laughed and said, “Yeah.” 

So, the United Auto Workers promptly filed lawsuits against both alleging they intimidated union members. “When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. Meanwhile, we’re not sure if Sean O’Brien is regretting about now his decision to become the first Teamster president to address the Republican National Convention last month after Trump invited him but he seems to have lost his peacemaker tone, calling Trump’s comments to Musk “economic terrorism.”

*P.S. NOTE:  In response to Donald Trump's live stream on X with Elon Musk, Kamala Harris' campaign released a statement saying, "Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself -- self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a live stream in the year 2024."😂

Donald Trump carries a ton of troubles and chaos follows him like a dark shadow

Trump’s Got Troubles: His campaign is careening, his poll numbers are slipping, and, after something of a summer lull, he is due for several confrontations in court. Echo essay by Amy Davidson Sorkin in The New Yorker. 

On August 7th, as thousands of people gathered at an airfield in Michigan to see Vice-President Kamala Harris and her just-announced running mate, Governor Tim Walz, Donald Trump signed paperwork notifying the federal government that he would be suing the Department of Justice for a hundred million dollars. 

Trump wants the money because, he claims, a Federal Bureau of Investigation search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, in 2022, was “highly offensive”—and part of a malicious “political scheme” engineered by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray. The claim doesn’t make much sense. 

The F.B.I. had a warrant to look for White House documents marked as classified (and found plenty of them), and, while the resulting case has now been dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon, her reasons had to do with the appointment of the special counsel, Jack Smith, which occurred months after the search. 

It took a few days for the hundred-million-dollar filing to become known. Trump may have been too busy spreading the falsehood that a photo of Harris’s airfield rally had been faked by A.I. He didn’t believe that her crowd could possibly be so big.

Donald Trump has a weird obession with crowd size

Amid the spectacle of Trump’s careening campaign—the declaration that President Joe Biden had been removed in “a coup”; a running mate, J. D. Vance, who disparaged childless women; Trump’s complaint that a Time magazine cover illustration of Harris was unfair because it made her look like his wife, Melania—it can be hard to focus on his personal legal problems. But Trump hasn’t forgotten about them, and neither have his lawyers or the prosecutors pursuing him. After something of a summer lull, Trump is due for several confrontations in court, just in time for the last, frenetic stretch of the campaign.

As the hundred-million-dollar suit indicates, none of the four criminal prosecutions against Trump is as yet a closed book, even though one has been dismissed (Florida) and another has resulted in a conviction (New York, on thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records). A Georgia case alleging a conspiracy to steal the state’s electoral votes in 2020, has been stalled, but may see action: Mark Meadows, Trump’s co-defendant and former chief of staff, has petitioned the Supreme Court to move the case to federal court. Another prosecution brought by Smith, in Washington, D.C., also related to Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the 2020, election, has been shaken up by the radical Supreme Court ruling, in July, that former Presidents enjoy broad immunity for “official acts.”

Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a hearing for September 5th, to figure out whether any part of the indictment can survive—and thus test the limits of the Court’s decision. Smith’s office also has until next week to file a brief appealing the Cannon dismissal; that question, too, may end up before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Trump still needs to be sentenced in the New York case, and he could face up to twenty years in prison. The sentencing was delayed when Judge Juan Merchan, who presided, agreed to consider Trump’s argument that the verdict should be set aside because—again—of the immunity decision. (His lawyers say that, under it, certain evidence should never have been introduced.) Merchan is planning to rule on that motion on September 16th—six days after the first Trump-Harris debate—and then to sentence Trump on September 18th. By that point, Trump’s lawyers complained in a letter last week, which asked to push the sentencing back until after the election, early voting will have begun. Given the stakes, the level of scrutiny, the novelty of the charges, and the setbacks that the other cases have experienced in higher courts, Merchan and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan D.A., would be well advised to tread carefully. Any prison sentence would most likely be stayed pending an appeal, but it would still have an explosive effect on an already unsettling campaign.

Last week, after Merchan declined to either recuse himself or entirely lift a gag order that hampers Trump from attacking court employees and their relatives, Trump posted, “This is the real Fascist ‘stuff.’ ” He has also, in the weeks since Biden dropped out of the race, described Harris as “a Communist,” “crazy,” “fake,” “not a smart person,” and, unforgettably, as someone who only recently “happened to turn Black.” For good measure, last week, at a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, he said of Walz, “He wants tampons in boys’ bathrooms.” The reference was to a Minnesota law Walz signed that simply requires schools to make period supplies available to “menstruating students” in fourth through twelfth grade. (Trump spoke in front of a display of bacon, Honey Bunches of Oats, and other groceries, meant to evince a concern for food prices.)

Trump has said that Harris is not fit to be President because he finds her laugh strange; that, if she’s elected, the stock market will crash; and that he had a near-death experience while flying in an out-of-control helicopter with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, who once dated Harris and “told me terrible things about her.” Brown says this never happened.

It’s tempting to put all the smears in the same category: Trump, reeling, lashes out. “She was so disrespected just a few weeks ago, and now it’s, like, Kah-mala, Kah-mala,” he said at a rally last Wednesday in North Carolina. (It was one of the rare times that Trump pronounced her name correctly.) What he meant, it seems, was that he was so far ahead in the polls just a month ago, and now he’s in a battle—and behind or tied in polls in several swing states. In that fight, one role of the criminal cases is to provide him and his followers an animating sense of grievance. 

Last week, after an awkward interlude in a live-streamed conversation between Trump and Elon Musk, in which Trump wondered why people talked so much about global warming “but they never talk about nuclear warming” (this had something to do with a Third World War), Musk tried to regroup by asking about the “lawfare” waged against him. Trump replied, “It’s a terrible thing”—and was off and running, with tales of rigged trials and banana republics.

Trump’s legal battles are not just another campaign issue, though, because they are existential, not only for him but for the country and the rule of law. He is no doubt keenly aware that, if reëlected, he can get the federal cases against him dropped. The image of Harris the prosecutor taking on Trump the felon is a compelling one, but the attendant hazard is his knack for presenting himself as a martyr. In Bedminster, he said, “They tell me I should be nice? They want to put me in prison!” The White House is the nicer place. ♦

Published in the print edition of the August 26, 2024, issue, with the headline “Troubles, Troubles.”

Mother's for Liberty are misguided about banning books Governor Tim Walz says "ban hunger" instead!

Minnessota Governor Tim Walz:  "While others were banning books, we were banishing hunger!" -VP Walz #DNC2024 (I still can't believe folks don't want the children to have free lunch.)

Echo opinion letter published in the Orlando Sentinel

Right now, Florida students are learning distorted versions of African American history and civics and studying literature devoid of many of our greatest authors.

As a writer, editor and former teacher, I have made the fight against censorship a big part of my life’s work. 

Contrary to wrongminded beliefs within the (Mothers for Liberty🙅⚠️) MFL crowd, I do not advocate assigning books for classroom discussion that are sexually explicit for the sake of being so. 

Instead, my mandatory reading must be literature first, not a test case for cultural debate. Many students will tell you such specificity makes them uncomfortable. At the same time, this is why we must not ban Shakespeare, Toni Morrison and other authors whose inclusion of sexuality is a necessary part of the literary narrative.

However, all books 📕📗📙should be available to students in the school libraries where they have the freedom to read what they choose.

Until we end this assault on education, we are graduating students with honors in propaganda.

From:  June S. Neal Delray Beach
June S. Neal is the president of Read Banned Books.

Donald Trump keeps digging into political quicksand - does not get how to message about veterans or disabled

Echo opinion by Alex Green published in the Boston Globe:

Rarely a day passes without a sneering (boring😒🥱) screed from (cruel😡) Donald Trump that casts America as a land of stupid, deranged, weak, and ugly people. It’s such a tired litany that only the most absurdly vicious comments make their way into the press anymore. 

Most recently, it was his remark that the civilian Medal of Freedom was superior to the military’s Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Freedom is “much better,” Trump said last week, than the Medal of Honor, whose recipients, who stepped in front of grenades and ran into burning buildings to save other human beings, and are now, in his words, “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”

Trump’s years of comments about wounded and deceased veterans have rightly been denounced as an affront to those who served, but they are also representative of his broader and (sick❗) unrelenting hatred of disabled people, even though a doctor diagnosed him with heel spurs in 1968, which gave him a medical exemption from the Vietnam draft. 

Trump has mocked physically disabled people, lied about an influx of immigrants being escapees from “mental institutions,” and suggested that his nephew’s disabled child was an example of why disabled people “should just die.”

To some extent, the fact that Trump holds these beliefs is not unusual. He was raised in an era when disability was a source of extreme stigma and more than half a million disabled people were held against their will in institutions. The disappearance of that world began during Trump’s childhood seven decades ago, and the changes that it wrought have clearly been a lifelong source of outrage for him.

Vote Harris and Walz - Dump Trump❗

It’s easy to see that Trump’s main grievance stems from the rift that began in that era. As with most of his existence, his concerns are brutally cosmetic and his gripe seems to be that government no longer hunts down and removes the vulnerable the way it used to. In that stunted worldview, the presence of disabled people in public is an affront that he cannot abide.

The important question is why Trump has escaped any sustained blowback for the underlying belief connecting so many of his comments that garner media attention as standalone incidents.The clearest answer is that his hatred of disabled people is acceptable to the widest swath of his supporters while the least number of his opponents find it objectionable.

And Trump’s detractors seem just as prone as anyone to engage in the kind of flippant armchair diagnosis that makes this such a hostile society to disabled people. At every turn, they sought to argue, without proof, that he is mentally ill rather than simply rambling, cruel, elitist, aging, and unchecked by common decency. To make him evil, they seem to be saying, he must be disabled.

Fully one-quarter of the American public is disabled in some way, from substance abuse disorder to autism, cerebral palsy, mental illness, Down syndrome, physical injury, and more. Many of us live in poverty, face extreme adversity, and have to fight to be seen each day. Many also now represent greatness in terms that the nondisabled cannot reduce to a cute, backhanded phrase like “special needs.”

Billionaires like Alex Karp openly talk about their disabilities. Disabled veterans like Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois serve in the highest offices in the nation. Countless athletes, like Suni Lee, Serena Williams, Aly Raisman, and Naomi Osaka, have won the world’s greatest contests, inspiring generations of future athletes to lean on one another while confronting the day-to-day challenges that disabilities throw their way.

We all benefit from their greatness and the example that it sets. But in Trump’s America, they’re just another bunch of losers. 😒😠

Alex Green is a writer and disability rights activist.