Hallway to Nowhere

Tag: Trump

  • Trump’s Religious Liberty Executive Order-A Call To Arms

    Trump’s Religious Liberty Executive Order-A Call To Arms

    If this was an actual repeal of the Johnson Amendment, I would be greatly alarmed. BUT, like many of Trump’s orders, this is sturm und drang aimed at mollifying  his more conservative Evangelical Christian followers and as usual it failed to do even the job for which it was designed. I’ve read the order and some some excellent analyses of it. In the end, it boils down to little more than Trump instructing to tell the IRS to do something it does anyway.  No religious leaders or organizations have actually been persecuted under the Johnson Amendment. It is more of a cautionary “Smokey Bear” threat looming in the horizon- and often ignored in the breech. During the recent election, especially, pastors took to the pulpits to give their opinions on both candidates and give moral guidance on politcal issues. And no IRS agents appeared at their doors.

    The order also contains some language designed to give companies that are religiously owned and operated more leeway in terms of granting their employees birth control. WHY is this  still an issue? There a work-around built into the ACA that allow the insurance company to do so, thus freeing the company itself doing so. (Don’t even get me started on Trumpcare.) But apparently this does not go far enough. I suppose religious organzations like Hobby Lobby (snort) and Little Sisters of the Poor want it taken totally off the table. I disagree that they should be allowed to do this. They are NOT in the business of healthcare and should not be allowed to dictate what healthcare their employees receive. But I digress. The language of Trump’s order about this is incredibly vague and doesn’t really say anything beyond a call to draft new rules letting businesses draft rules that would allow them to avoid giving employees contraception and that ALREADY is in place.

    So. Trump by himself cannot repeal the Johnson Amendment. THAT takes an act of Congress. He is being sued by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (GO ATHEISTS!) on behalf of secularists everywhere, since the ACLU declined to bring suit. I would like to see what would happen if more pastors, priests, preachers, imams, rabbis, Pagans of all stripes, Hindus, Sikhs, Pastafarians, Satanists, etc started taking advantage of this “religious liberty” order! Let’s hear from ALL of you, not just Trump’s far-right anti-LGBTQ xenophobic  Neo-Con Fundies! Let’s get political, people! Let’s PARTY…and I’m speaking DEMOCRAT SOCIALIST!

  • Guns For The Mentally Ill-AWESOME IDEA!

    Guns For The Mentally Ill-AWESOME IDEA!

    Among the many regulations that the Trump (#notmypresident) administration is busy rolling back is one that effectively banned persons with MAJOR MENTAL ILLNESSES from BUYING GUNS. Apparently this is thought to be a good idea by the NRA (no surprise there), the ACLU (and I am a card-carrying member), NAMI, and, of course, Republicans everywhere. I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree. First of all let me reiterate my position that I do not think that ANYONE outside of the military or perhaps some few members of the police force should have access to guns, period. But even should you disagree with with that, and most do, what reason would you give for making weapons available to people suffering from mental illnesses that make them irrational, delusional, enraged, depressed, and/or suicidal? We’re not talking about people who need a few bouts of counseling because of a bad break-up or who have a bit of grief after their favorite cat died. No, this are people who have mental illnesses that are debilitating and severe: schizophenia; bi-polar disorder; severe depression; post-traumatic stress disorder; multiple personality disorder, among others. These types of illness can cause changes in mood and can cause the sufferer to completely lose touch with the objective world. With proper medication, therapy, and support, however, they can be managed…as long as the person STAYS WITH THE PROGRAM (takes the meds, sees the therapist, does whatever he/she/whatever needs to do to maintain). That “staying with the program” is key. I’ve known some wonderful people who had major mental illnesses. A few are still my friends and doing well….because they stay with their respective programs. A few aren’t my friends anymore, either because they are dead, or because they have trashed their lives so thoroughly I wouldn’t remain in the hit-zone. Would I give these people guns? Either group? HELL NO!!! I’ve seen the demons with which they struggle, heard them talk to the voices, seen the pictures they’ve painted of the world they see. I do not want to give any of them a weapon to use. I know how hard they struggle daily just to survive. Life is dangerous enough without handing them a loaded gun.

  • Trump’s Continuing Attack On The Free Press

    Trump’s Continuing Attack On The Free Press

    Friday Trump (#notmypresident) escalated his attack on the free press to new levels. After first excoriating what he called “fake news” at CPAC and then later on Twitter, the White House then barred reporters from certain news organizations (The NYT, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, BBC, and HuffPost) from a press briefing. Conservative-leaning organizations such as  Fox News, The Washington Times, The One America News and the mainstream outlets ABC, NBC, CBS were allowed, as was that purveyor of racism, homophobia, and general bigotry, Breitbart News. The Washington Post chose not to send a reporter. I’m sure their reporter, too, would have been barred. This action contradicts what Trump’s press secretary claimed in December. Trump has said that he doesn’t mind criticism, yet this shows with glaring clarity that he cannot stand to told again and again that he and his administration are having problems. He is attempting to use the power of of the White House and the Presidency to stifle dissent: directly by shutting the press out and indirectly by making people distrust the press. He asks that we trust HIM, the prince of lies! If you’ve been fact-checking, you know that Trump cannot make a speech or indeed have a simple conversation without uttering lies. (I’m not going to make nice and use pretty language. He flat-out lies.) He makes claims such as “The administration is running like a fine-tuned machine” and “We’ve spent 6 trillion dollars in the Middle East.” Does he not know or care that not just reporters but ordinary citizens (like me) are, one, watching the chaotic mess that is his administration and, two, fact-checking what he says? Oh, wait, I forgot…this is the administration that deals in “alternative facts” with an “alt-right” chief strategist at the White House and a favored “alt-right” news outlet. This is NOT normal behavior, even for a paranoid president! Nixon didn’t do this, and he had his truly bizarre moments. Clinton didn’t do this, even during the whole Monica Lewinsky thing. But Trump is barely into his Presidency and already he has designated the press “an enemy of the people”. Not of HIM, mind you. We, the citizens of the the United States, are now supposed to be on our guard against not ISIS but the NYT, the Washington Post, Politico, and other liberal media. I don’t know about you, but my fears are directed towards the White House and its current occupants, as well as his Republican minions. To use that famous quote from The Fly, “Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.”

  • Trump’s Continuing Attack On the First Amendment

    Trump’s Continuing Attack On the First Amendment

    With his tweet stating that those burning the American flag should have their citizenship revoked and/or face a year’s imprisonment, Trump again went to war against the First Amendment. Let’s have a look at it, just in case anyone needs a reminder:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of their grievances.

    I have pondered the question of whether or not he actually knows what it says. If yes, then he is more machiavellian than I care to contemplate and is very deliberately setting about challenging it. If no, which is what I suspect, then he needs a refresher course in basic American civics. Despite what he may think, even the POTUS is not above the law. He is reportedly considering a registry for Muslims and during his campaign ran on the promise to ban all Muslims from entering the country; he has threatened repeatedly to open up libel laws, sue various news media, thrown journalists out of his rallies, ridiculed a disabled jounalist, and made insulting remarks about news media that published articles he found less than flattering. Since the election, he has held few press conferences, abandoned having a press corps, and instead communicates by tweets. He has shown his usual hostility to coverage that does not cater to his ego (CNN-how dare they report factually!) and  then went on further to show his contempt for the FA with his flag burning tweet.

    This is all part and parcel of a disturbing pattern. Trump does NOT LIKE anyone having the power to disagree with him or show him in any light that is less than wonderful. That would be fine, were he just a businessman. But he will be POTUS. He lashes out immediately via twitter to vent his ire. Will he be able to translate his consuming ego and its march upon the First Amendment into real action? Will the the press (and even perhaps blogs like this one) lose their voice to dissent? Much depends upon his Supreme Court appointee(s).  He doesn’t have the power as POTUS that he might wish; there ARE checks and balances. Yes, he does wield executive order, but that only carries for certain things. The next four years will be interesting. (I’m reminded of the Chinese curse-“may you live in intersting times!”

     

  • #TrumpIsNotMyPresident: He Might Be (Shudder) But I Will Fight Him And All He Represents!

    #TrumpIsNotMyPresident: He Might Be (Shudder) But I Will Fight Him And All He Represents!

    After a long period of mourning, I’m back to my blog. I had  gotten busy for a time with campaigning for Hillary and preparing for my move. Then the election and the move happened. After the elction, I’ve had a number of people give me advice. I had a friend who lives in India advise me to immigrate. Several friends, including my doctor, have asked me to be careful, saying that hate crimes are on the rise, and they fear my outspokenness could make me a target. I’ve thought about that and decided that I am NOT going to modify any of my behavior. That would mean that Trump and his ilk have indeed won the day, and I refuse to concede that they are what this country is all about. He and his white supremacist buddies might in the White House (eventually, part of the time, lol-not exclusive enough for him?), but I refuse to let fear of Trump and his homphobic, xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, bigoted Neo-Nazi followers change who I am, how I act, what I say, and how loudly I say it. If people like me don’t fight for people for people like me (and other minorities), who will? Trump certainly won’t. That is abundantly clear. He has YET to denounce the rise in hate crimes that has occurred since the election; his tweets are solely about himself and his grievously wounded ego. This from a man who is going to be the next POTUS. SMH. I want to devote one blog entry (at least) to my theory of what a Trump presidency will actually look like, for I’ve been contemplating this nightmarish scenario from before the election. I rather pity comedians during the next four years. Trump is so sickly, terrifyingly, and mystifyingly comical all on his own that that they will have a difficult job.

  • Which America?

    Which America?

    I’ve been thinking about the two very different views of America offered at the debate last night. Trump and Clinton paint radically different pictures of the world around us, and I believe this reflects their constituencies, as well. This is important, because the debate was not just about politics. It was about which America we are going to inhabit, that of Trump or that Clinton.

    The America of Trump is, quite frankly, a frightening place. I saw it described in an op-ed piece in the NYT as the “Republican Party’s Apocalypse Now.” Trump talks about a bankrupt America that is failing in so many ways that he can’t enumerate them, a place where gangs of criminal immigrants stalk the streets, and African Americans and Hispanics live in dire straits in our inner cities. He speaks of the need for law and order, for stop and frisk policing. Our allies are uncertain (because they don’t pay their fair share of the burden); our enemies, many, and our best hope lies in retreating behind a strong physical border and barricading ourselves from the rest of the world. We can only measure our strength by our net worth (money), and right now America’s value is at an all-time low. If you were to make a film of Trump’s America, it would have to be in black and white, with strong noir qualitites.

    Clinton’s America is not nearly so bleak. Race IS an issue-it will always be an issue, I’m afraid-but there is hope that we will be able to make progress by working together to tackle that. In response to the dire picture of the African American community painted by Trump, Clinton countered by  saying that strength of the black churches and of movements like BLM show its vitality instead.  She said that she would work to empower the middle and working class, fund clean power, and rebuild the infra-structure. She spoke to reassure our allies, who might justifiably be made nervous at the thought of an America that would cease honoring treaties and alliances on the whim of a unstable President.

    Trump, should he be elected, will not have unlimited power. He will not be a dictator, only POTUS. But he WILL get to decide quite a bit, including the nomination of one or more (probably more) U.S. Supreme Court Judges. Clinton, the same. You need to think carefully about which America you want to dwell in, and choose accordingly. For me, it comes down to choosing hope. I go with Clinton.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Hillbilly Elegy By J.D. Vance-A Review

    Hillbilly Elegy By J.D. Vance-A Review

    Back to books, after a hiatus! I think that Hillbilly Elegy has garnered the amount of attention it has by seeming to offer insight on the demographic that might elect (shudder) Trump as POTUS. I confess that I read the book with some anticipation of finding a fresh perspective on an Appalachian connection, seeing as how I’ve lived in this region for almost twenty odd (in all senses of the word) years now. I was disappointed. Vance serves up the the usual fare I’ve come to expect from Appallit-there’s drinking, drug addiction, and violence aplenty, down to the almost stereotypical gun-toting “Mamaw,” but in the end he offers no fresh perspective on the the people he writes almost cruelly about, unless it that’s there’s little hope to be found among them. I HAVE been reading Appalachian authors for awhile now, and they do tend to a grim, dark, and cheerless worldview. Hillbilly Elegy, though a memoir, certainly follows that same tradition. So, here’s my take: this is a matter of the fortuitous book: Vance published  the right book at the right time. It’s not a BAD book, but it’s certainly not a GREAT one. You want to read really GREAT Appallit, try Ron Rash.

     

  • Hillbilly Elegy By J.D. Vance-A Review

    Hillbilly Elegy By J.D. Vance-A Review

    Back to books, after a hiatus! I think that Hillbilly Elegy has garnered the amount of attention it has by seeming to offer insight on the demographic that might elect (shudder) Trump as POTUS. I confess that I read the book with some anticipation of finding a fresh perspective on an Appalachian connection, seeing as how I’ve lived in this region for almost twenty odd (in all senses of the word) years now. I was disappointed. Vance serves up the the usual fare I’ve come to expect from Appallit-there’s drinking, drug addiction, and violence aplenty, down to the almost stereotypical gun-toting “Mamaw,” but in the end he offers no fresh perspective on the the people he writes almost cruelly about, unless it that’s there’s little hope to be found among them. I HAVE been reading Appalachian authors for awhile now, and they do tend to a grim, dark, and cheerless worldview. Hillbilly Elegy, though a memoir, certainly follows that same tradition. So, here’s my take: this is a matter of the fortuitous book: Vance published  the right book at the right time. It’s not a BAD book, but it’s certainly not a GREAT one. You want to read really GREAT Appallit, try Ron Rash.

     

  • Rigged Elections?

    I want to comment about Trump’s paranoiac remark that upcoming election could very well be rigged. He is clearly setting the stage for a voter revolt, should he lose. Now, Republican talk about rigged elections is standard fare, part and parcel of Conservative lore. But this is putting the process at risk, for I do not think that Trump will do as previous candidates have done in  the past, as for example when Gore lost and his supporters booed, he calmed them as  he asked that they support his opponent as the elected President. Rather, I have heard his supports warn of  more that civil unrest, of actual uprising and violence. The U. S. could potentially face the sort of disturbance seen in Europe after an election, something we have never before seen. This, because of the clever machinations of a slick sociopathic demagogue.

    As to the actual content of his remark, yes, the election might well BE rigged! The Federal Courts are doing their best to address that, however! States which have enacted highly discriminatory voter identification laws have been having them stricken-Kansas, North Dakota, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas. These laws would have affected those voters most likely to vote AGAINST Trump-the poor, Latinos, African Americans, and other minorities-and it is precisely these voters, along with women, against whom the system has traditionally been rigged. For voters in Trump’s demographic swath not to counted is extremely improbable, despite his delusions. But, then again, Trump has never let reality get in the way of a good story.

  • Trump’s New Slogan: Make Russia Great Again!

    The FBI is investigating the hack into  the DNC which released emails to WikiLeaks from the Clinton campaign about her former rival Sanders. U.S. officials suspect that it was in fact a Russian cyber-attack. The timing and nature of this incident has the Clinton campaign saying that it was done deliberately to help Republican nominee Trump. Trump has been vociferous in his admiration of Russian leader Putin, and Putin has returned that by giving his endorsement to the controversial candidate. Given Trump’s ties to Putin, including substantial Russian monetary ones, this is hardly surprising. But Trump has channeled this politically, pushing the Republican platform to change its stance on the Ukraine and saying that he would not honor the NATO treaty to defend U.S. allies, a move which could potentially benefit Russia in its move towards hegemony in the Middle East and Europe. The question is: will Trump supporters CARE about any of this? They seem to be fueled by faith and willing to give The Donald an innumerable number of passes. Lied? No big deal. Scammed people? He’s a businessman! So maybe it’ll be “What’s a little bit of foreign intrigue/quasi-treasonous activity?”