Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is a Psychopath

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is the Douglas Neidermeyer of the United States Senate.

For readers who remember the classic John Landis 1978 movie Animal House, Douglas Neidermeyer was a snobby military psychopathic college ROTC commander who tormented one of the Delta House Members, trying to shoot him with live bullets at a homecoming parade at the end of the movie. The movie's epilogue says that the character was killed by his own troops in Vietnam.

That is Tom Cotton.

Please see the video clip below to understand the comparison.

He makes Martha McSally seem like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski.

He makes Kyrsten Sinema seem like Elizabeth Warren.

Today, the former Army Captain (with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq) and Harvard Graduate penned a guest op-ed in the New York Times titled "Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops."

It does not get any better from there.

The Senator had made similar calls for the themes expressed in his opinion piece on Twitter on Monday, June 1, 2020.

After taking away the perfunctory obligatory remarks that citizens have a right to protest and George Floyd's death is a tragedy, the rest of the article is something out of Dr. Strangelove (a famed Stanley Kubrick Movie starring Peter Sellers in three roles and Slim Pickens falling to his death riding down to Earth on a nuclear warhead. Readers can see the clip of that below as well.)

In his editorial, Mr. Cotton engaged in typical fringe right-wing attacks on the left and media.

He:

Falsely accused Bill DeBlasio, the New York Mayor of standing by while the city was getting pillaged. He later wrote that other politicians that did not forcibly act against the rioters were "delusional" because they "refuse to do what’s necessary to uphold the rule of law."

Blamed the elites (translation: he is talking about the literate us) of enabling and encouraging the looters.

Said all the looters and rioters are "nihilists" from Antifa (some are White Supremacists as well.)

Claimed that the only thing that will restore order to our streets is an "overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers."

Called on the President to employ the Insurrection Act of 1807. He cited historical examples from the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and '60s to justify his argument.

Accused politicians of "wring (ing) their hands while the country burns."

In his Monday tweet comments, the Arkansas Senator wrote:

"And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry — whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters,"

Before Donald Trump had Bill Barr clear the peaceful protestors away so he could have his photo op at St. Johns Church holding an upside-down Bible, he endorsed Mr. Cotton's views.

Unfortunately for the world, Donald Trump has listened to Mr. Cotton and his allies on many occasions to the detriment of this nation.

Tom Cotton was one of the leading voices against the Iran Nuclear Deal.

How has pulling out of that deal worked out for the United States and the rest of the world?

While Tom Cotton is right to condemn the criminals who have taken advantage of the situation and used the protestors to commit robberies, arson, and murder, his bombastic words have created a situation where an unhinged President of the United States feels he has a license to turn the American Military on the protestors and not worry about telling the difference between the peaceful majority from the nefarious and vile few.

Other former and current members of Defense leadership do not share Cotton's psychopathic world view.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, commenting in a piece by Jeff Goldberg of the Atlantic, chastised the reckless response of Donald Trump, stating:

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

Current Defense Secretary Mike Esper, after enabling Mr. Trump on Monday, apparently faced such a backlash from the top brass at the Pentagon, that he came forward this morning and told reporters at a press briefing:

"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."

Most readers and the current occupant of the White House would do well to heed the views of the current and former Secretaries of Defense rather than the ravings of a psychopathic firebrand who, if this was not reality, would be considered a fringe joke.

This is another reason for voters to turn out and vote in November to defeat Donald Trump, elect a Democratic Senate, and reelect a Democratic House.




Check out the Biden Ad "Build the Future"

The Biden Campaign has released its latest ad called "Build the Future."

It is a collection of excerpts of some of the notable quotes from the 2020 Presumptive Democratic Nominee's address in Philadelphia on June 2, 2020, where he denounced the divisiveness and fringe acts of Donald Trump and described how he would conduct himself as President and bring people together to build a better tomorrow.

The video has the Democratic Nominee narrating along with varying background images of protests by the White House, the former Vice President speaking, pictures of national monuments, images of Donald Trump, racist mobs with torches, and a smiling and optimistic Biden (unlike Trump) interacting with the people.

"The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that brings us together."

"I look at the Presidency as a very big job....And I won't (get it right every time) either. But I promise you this. I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain...I promise you this job is not about me. It's about you. It's about us. To build a better future. That's what America does. We build the future....This is the United States of America. There's never been anything we've been unable to do when we set our mind to do it and we've done it together."

The ad very powerfully offers voters the contrast between the optimistic forward inclusive Biden and the pessimistic backward divisive Trump.



A link to the video is below.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Sounding like past Democratic Presidents, Joe Biden shows the People why he should be the 46th

Speaking to the American People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this morning (June 2, 2020,) former Vice President Joe Biden, saying words that reminded students of Modern United States History of the legacies of past Democratic Presidential Administrations from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama, called for Americans to unite against the forces of racism, hate, and division and work with him to rebuild America and leave it better than when they found it.

While the address repeated many themes the Presumptive 2020 Democratic Nominee has said in the last several weeks when expressing sorrow for the tragic murder of George Floyd, commenting on the failed leadership of Donald Trump to defend Democracy at home and meet the challenges of the Coronavirus and racial divisions, and proposing several legislative measures to reform law enforcement and rebuild the middle class, Mr. Biden, perhaps for the first time in this campaign, laid out in a coherent narrative the reasons why the people should turn out and vote for him this November.

Towards the end of his speech, Mr. Biden spoke about the continuing historical battle for the "American Ideal" between the light that fights for inclusiveness and progress and the dark that allows hatred and division to fester. He pledged he would, unlike Mr. Trump, be a positive agent for moving the country forward and would work for the people and not his own self-interests. He promised he would endeavor to bring people together and heal old wounds of injustice, not prey on prejudices to cling to power like Mr. Trump. He called on Americans to channel their pain and anguish to put divisions aside and rebuild a better America together.

Mr. Biden's words below best illustrate why voters should support him this November.

“The President of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem. This President today is part of the problem and accelerates it. When he tweeted the words 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' they weren’t the words of a President. They were the words of a racist Miami police chief in the 1960s. When he tweeted that the protestors would be greeted with the most vicious dogs when people would have been really hurt, they weren’t the words of a President. They were the kind of words Bull Connor would have used unleashing his dogs on innocent women and children…"

"I wish I can say hate began with Donald Trump and it will end with him but it didn’t and it won’t. American History isn’t a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending. The battle for the soul of this nation has been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years. A tug of war between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart. The honest truth is that both elements are part of the American character…."

"At our best, the American ideal wins out but it’s never a rout, it’s always a fight and the battle is never fully won. We can’t ignore the truth that we are at our best we open our hearts rather than clinching our fist. Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield driven by old resentments and fresh fears. He thinks division helps him. His narcissism has become more important than the nation's well being that he leads."

"I ask every American to look at where we are now and think anew; is this who we are; is this who we want to be; is this what we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren: fear, anger, fingerpointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness….do we want to be the America we know we can be, an America we know in our hearts we could be and should be."

“I won’t get it (the Presidency) right every day but I promise you this, I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I’ll seek to heal the racial wrongs that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain. I’ll do my job and I’ll take responsibility. I won’t blame others. I’ll never forget that this job isn’t about me. It’s about you. It’s about us. I will work not only to rebuild the nation but to make it better than it was. …"

"We need to do our duty and part of that is remembering who we should be. We should be the America of FDR and Eisenhower; of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King; of... Neil Armstrong…we should be an America that cherishes each other…you know we are a nation in pain but we must not let our pain destroy us. We’re a nation enraged but we can not let our rage consume us; We’re a nation that is exhausted but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us"

"We always try….I truly believe in my heart of hearts we can overcome. We stand together as one America, we'll rise stronger than before….This is the United States of America. There has never been anything we've never been unable to do when we set our minds to it when we've done it together."

Mr. Biden's words are a call to action for the American People to unite behind his positive vision of the American Ideal and reject the false and dark worldview of Donald Trump.

It is a summons for the people to band together and build on the American Dream and make the country better off than when they found it.

It is an optimistic forward vision of what America is and what it can be that has been expressed by all Democratic and even Republican Presidents since  Franklin Roosevelt except for Donald Trump.

It is a hopeful inspiration that people can rally around and cheer for.




Monday, June 1, 2020

The Mad King just Tear Gassed Innocent Protestors so he could have a Photo Op at a Church

This afternoon, Donald Trump, the aspiring American Duce, made a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden, threatening to invoke a 210-year-old law to turn the military loose on the American People, if State Governors did not fully activate their national guard units to stop protests that have proceeded every day since the tragic death of Georg Floyd on May 25, 2020.
This occurred after an earlier phone conversation with the Nation’s Governors where the Mad King railed against their efforts to stop the protestors.
After making his Rose Garden statement, the President, perhaps actually remembering what his idols Douglas MacArthur and George Patton (Eisenhower was there too,) did to Bonus Army protestors (they were called communists and anarchists too like today’s protestors) marching on Depression Era Washington for their pay in 1932 (please see video below,) ordered his forces to tear gas and shoot rubber bullets at innocent protestors so they would leave the area by St. John’s Episcopal Church so he could walk there with his all-white team and have a photo op, holding up a Bible to appeal to his fringe white evangelical base.
Watching CNN, Jeffrey Tobin, the networks legal analyst, said the President can not order federal troops to mass against Americans in the 50 states unless the state governors ask him too.
Governors J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and New York’s Andrew Cuomo have appeared on the Erin Burnett CNN show this hour, condemning the Presidents actions on innocent Americans, confirmed his unhinged behavior in the earlier phone call with the other Governors, and said they will not be asking him to send federal troops to their states.
All Americans should worry about the events that have taken place on the afternoon of June 1, 2020.
An American President ordered his military/police forces to tear gas innocent people so he could hold up a Bible at a Church with his all-white political team.
If Mike Pence and the rest of the Administration do not see fit to invoke the 25th Amendment for Mr. Trump’s clear unfitness to lead the country, then the voters need to turn out on November 3, 2020, and end the Mad Kings Reign of Division and Gross Incompetence.
Voters can not stand by and let it fully happen here.
Herbert Hoover, the President of the United States who turned MacArthur loose on the Bonus Army in 1932, was condemned for his actions and lost reelection to Franklin Delano Roosevelt that year. Roosevelt who criticized Hoover for not meeting the Bonus Marchers, reportedly said: “Well, this will elect me.”
People should hope and pray that history repeats itself again in 2020.

In their new ad, The Lincoln Project calls the Confederate Flag “The Flag of Treason”

In their latest powerful ad titled “The Flag of Treason,”  the Lincoln Project condemns those people, including the many who are Trump supporters, who continue to glorify the Confederate Flag.
Please watch the whole video on the link below.
The ad immediately recounts that the Southern political and military leaders like Robert E. Lee knew what the flag symbolized “treason and the death of the United States.”
The narrator then describes those soldiers and public leaders “with honor” that surrendered at the end of the Civil War that “cast aside” that Confederate Flag.
The narration then asks why does that “flag keep showing up today at events supporting Donald Trump and why does he call the folks that carry it very fine people.”
The ad then shows clips of Mr. Trump’s comments following the events in Charlottesville with the narrator then asking “what does it say that they’re all in for Trump?”
The ad finishes with the narrator declaring:
“What does it say that he won’t condemn the flag of hate and division and losers? It says this is a Time for Choosing  AMERICA or Trump.”
It is good timing that this ad has been released after protestors marching against racial injustice towards African Americans like George Floyd have attacked, and in some cases, removed Confederate and other racists symbols across the nation.
With a President (who was endorsed by the KKK in 2016)  that has glorified Confederate military figures like General Lee, commented that statutes of Confederate figures being removed were “sad” and “the history and culture is being ripped apart,” accused his predecessor of not being an American citizen, and has a decades-long trail of racially incendiary remarks, the choice for Americans who want a bright and better future for themselves and their children is very clear.
Pick America.
Shun the Flag of Treason and those like Donald Trump who embrace it. 

While Trump hides in the White House Bunker, Joe Biden meets the People

Joe Biden knows how to be President.
If the reactions from both the former Vice President and the current occupant of the White House during this Coronavirus do not convince voters, then surely the differing reactions both men have exhibited in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests should be telling.
Joe Biden gave a national address to console the Floyd Family and the nation.
Where is Donald Trump?
Joe Biden listened and talked to George Floyds brother in a 15-minute condolence call.
Donald Trump talked to the brother in a two-minute quickie where Mr. Floyd did not get a chance to say much.
Joe Biden held an empathetic and productive meeting looking for solutions to today’s ills facing the nation’s cities with some of the country’s mayors (including those from Atlanta and Chicago.) Please see the video below.
In a phone call today with Governors, Trump berated them, calling them weak and enablers, demanding they “arrest and try more” people.
With protestors on the street, Joe Biden has ventured out to talk to some of them and attend Church sessions.
Donald Trump and his people said he is “considering” listening group sessions (maybe they need to tell him in advance they appreciate him) and is hiding in the White House bunker.
Joe Biden said in a Facebook Post:
“We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.”
“The only way to bear this pain is to turn all that anguish to purpose. And as President, I will help lead this conversation — and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night’s protests in Wilmington.”
Donald Trump tweeted (now hidden)  last week:
“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Do the American People really have to think about which Presidential Candidate to vote for on November 3, 2020?
There should be no doubt who the real man is.

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