Remember, folks! So long as “we the People” who did not vote for this religious white nationalist Trump administration remain strong and attentive and politically/legally active, the political travesty occurring to our democratic way of life does not have to taint our nation’s future. We can use this political travesty of 2017-2020 to have the honest dialogue that was not made the last eight years, and put into action the changes toward real unity of citizenship that was the “hope” we aspired to. For the next four years, though – while we work to achieve this – we must accept that we now live officially in the Divided States of America – the Ununited States of America!
See it for yourself happening now. Donald John Trump, candidate for President of the United States in this 2016 national election lost the November 8th General Election by over 2.86 million more votes for Hillary Clinton, and by 73.6 million votes of majority “no” to his bid for presidency over the 62.9 million votes of “yes”. If the #ElectoralCollege fails to reject Donald J Trump – who is clearly unfit for the presidency and has clearly shown he has no intention of honorably serving in the interests of the People – as President-elect of the United States and, instead, choose some other Republican candidate in his place who will fulfill this constitutional duty faithfully, they’ll be joining a very long list of people who didn’t do their jobs these past eight years. And this list starts with the Republican Party and Reince Priebus. They will prove themselves to be nothing more than a rubber stamp organization for the Republican-Democrat political parties in general and, in this election, an extension of the effort to ensure a return of a clearly demonstrated white dominance to the governance of this nation after eight obstructionist years of attempting to ensure the failure of the first black Presidency of the United States. Do we really have to put racism and misogyny above the more important duty of governing the country? Let’s watch and find out, shall we? #election2016
Watch Live: Electors Cast Their Ballots In Electoral College Vote
http://time.com/4606624/watch-live-electoral-college-vote/
Electors across the country are casting ballots today, on Monday Dec 19th, for President and Vice-President of the United States. The outcome of this election will determine who is President-elect in 2016 for the 2017-2020 Presidential term.
Welp, the Electoral College electors have decided to be a rubber-stamp confirmation party for the Republican party who did not win the majority votes of the citizens of the United States. Even after all that #NeverTrump-ism from so many in the Republican party. Getting the national government’s top positions all white again, all Christian again, and all white nationalist again has been the sole true goal of the Republican party for this last eight years, so they have now confirmed as of December 19th with the election of Trump against the clearly voted will of the citizens of the United States. #Resist! It’s only 4 years, then we can get back to building a world of freedom for all our children. We will not let racism and fear, xenophobia and hate, misogyny and narcissism define this country that we live in and have a citizen’s voice in. #TruthandReconciliation for the United States of America! There is no reason for U.S. citizens to “unite” behind a religious white nationalist #TrumpAdministration. All four years we must #Resist with a determined patriotic smile, actively defend our Constitution, and protect our democratic way-of-life! That Trump guy is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020! It is time for the U.S. to return to the Direct Vote, and #NationalPopularVote is the way to achieve this, folks.
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And so begins the rise of the religious white nationalist movement that features Trump as their leader to political dominance in the United States of America. It is a very sad day for American democracy. The merger of the fundamentalist Christian-Right and white nationalist Alt-Right together, both “historical revisionist” political movements, under the banner of the Republican Party has now been fully achieved in our United States, after having formed decades earlier (in 1945 for politically “radicalized” Christian Fundamentalists, and in 1968 for “state’s rights”-demanding White Nationalists) as opposition movements to constitutional civil rights advances within the “land of the free and home of the brave.”
I am reminded of the previous time in history when white supremacists had their (seventy year) hold on the American government, which ultimately led to the 1860’s Civil War. May the religious white nationalist reign of today be less than the four years given them (against the majority will of the People) by technicality of the present electoral system. And, as a reminder of our nation’s stand for liberty, let us for the next four years sing only the rarely heard and mostly unknown fifth stanza of this nation’s national anthem, this verse and this verse only from now on:
“When our land is illumined with Liberty’s smile,
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained who our birthright have gained,*
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.”
– fifth stanza that was added to the Star Spangled Banner by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in indignation over the start of the American Civil War, and that was sung during this period by the Northern Unionists fighting for abolition and against Southern secession.
*-the new citizens by the freeing of chattel slaves
Donald Trump Completes Final Lap, Electoral College, to White House
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/us/politics/electoral-college-vote.html
The Electoral College has affirmed Donald J. Trump as the nation’s 45th president, pushing him past the 270-vote threshold for election, with scant evidence of the anti-Trump revolt among electors that some of his critics had hoped would occur.
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The United States is now under siege from within by the ascension of the Christian-Right, Alt-Right, and Economic elite merged into one party candidacy that now has control of the Executive Branch of the United States! #Resist! It’s only 4 years, then we can get back to building a world of freedom for all our children. We will not let racism and fear, xenophobia and hate, misogyny and narcissism define this country that we live in and have a citizen’s voice in. #TruthandReconciliation for the United States of America!
Sadly and very unfortunately, the United States of America is now officially under political distress! And it is the duty of the U.S. citizens to now be carefully on-guard and politically attentive – to #Resist all four years with a determined patriotic smile, actively defending our Constitution, and protecting our democratic way-of-life! Trump and his business family, the religious fundamentalist right, and the white nationalists can do no damage to our democracy, if we the People actively prevent his disruption of the progress that’s been made toward a more socially just and moral society the last eight years. In fact, we can use his presence to have the social awakening that needs to happen within American white society, thus encouraging the changes that could not yet be made and ensuring a brighter and better future for the future children of the United States.
On December 19th, 2016, the Electoral College voted Donald J Trump as President-elect for the next U.S. Presidency term. Let’s take a moment to really see what just happened: The Electoral College voted a candidate clearly unfit for the role of President, against the clearly established voted will of the People of the United States. By doing so, they voted for the #TrumpAdministration, which means: They voted Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil into the Executive Branch, they voted Ken Ham Creationism pseudoscience and Christian fundamentalist Dominion Theory believers into the Executive Branch, they voted the White Nationalist Alt-right movement and Generals who specialize in regime-change wars into the Executive Branch, and they voted to allow Donald J Trump to use the Office of the President to enrich his name and his internationally-connected businesses at the expense of the security and sovereignty of the United States of America.
Good job rubber-stamp organization for the Republican-Democrat political oligarchy of this country – you have failed your constitutionally enshrined duty to our democratic Republic! #ElectoralCollege, that #Trump guy is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020, and we will not unite behind his presidential administration. To do so, is to be complicit in and supportive of religious fundamentalist white nationalist governance of our nation. #Resist, majority citizens of the United States that did not vote for him! It’s the 21st Century, and it is time for the United States to embrace #RestorativeJustice and #TruthandReconciliation. Because, white America, #NativeLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter and #LatinoLivesMatter and #MuslimLivesMatter – and it’s not true that #alllivesmatter until white society of America shares it’s #WhitePrivilege with the rest of America. We are now once again in clear and no uncertain terms officially the racist, misogynist-supporting, homophobic, and xenophobic Ununited States of America – #DividedNotUnitedWeStand!
When over 73.6 million U.S. voters deliberately refused Trump’s presidency by voting against him (and only 62.9 million voted for him), when over 2.86 million more U.S. citizens voted for Hillary Clinton as President and the majority of voting citizens rejected a Trump presidency – yes, the citizens of America have lost hope and are understandably unwilling to come to terms with what happened in this #election2016 and there is no rational reason to “unite” under a religious white nationalist #Trump presidency. The #ElectoralCollege failed to reject Donald J Trump as President-elect and, instead, choose some other Republican candidate in his place and, very sadly for the United States of America, they have joined a very long list of people who didn’t do their jobs these past eight years. And this list starts with the Republican Party and Reince Priebus, the political party that has made a household name out of “government by obstruction” over the last eight years for unspoken racist reasons. Do we really have to put racism and misogyny above the more important duty of governing the country? We are better than this as a diverse nation of people, and we know this! It is time for the U.S. to return to the Direct Vote and, citizens of the United States, the #NationalPopularVote is the way to achieve this.
In the meantime, we must be vigilant as citizens of this nation and do not hesitate to take action in our legislative halls and in our courts to protect our pluralistic democracy from the predatory economics, religious fundamentalism, white nationalist ideology, and military-political imperialistic opportunism of the Trump-Pence-Bannon-Flynn campaign to “Make America” … uh, “self-profiting,” uh, “under Christian dominion,” uh, “separately and noticeably white,” uh, “a hater of those not American” – oh, yeah, that’s right – “Great Again!”
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“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” – anonymous U.S. Army soldier
“To be offended is to take the first step in being a totalitarian megalomaniac. Acting on that offense with state force is the epitome of intolerance and tyranny.
To be offended by what someone else says is your own choice, as you don’t have to care about what other people think, and nothing has happened to you. Information merely passed from their mind to yours.
To state that you are offended means that you wish the person hadn’t said it and won’t say anything similar again. In other words, you actually want to stop certain information from being communicated.
You must believe that you have some sort of right to dictate not only what people can and can’t communicate, but what they can and can’t think.” – Matt Agorist, veteran USMC
PA Man Arrested and Jailed for Flying a Flag Upside Down Gets $55,000
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/arrested-upside-down-flag/
Blair County, PA – A man from central Pennsylvania was kidnapped by police and deprived of his rights for doing nothing more than hanging an American flag upside down on his own property (with AIM painted on it). Joshua Brubaker has since settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city for more than $55,000.
Luckily for Brubaker, a judge would later dismiss all the charges against him. The township has since advised its police to stop enforcing the state’s tyrannical and 1st Amendment-violating flag desecration laws.
What Did This Marine Do After Driving Past An Upside Down American Flag?
http://www.headlinepolitics.com/marine-driving-past-upside-american-flag/
Elias Marzeleno, a Marine reservist, told KSAZ-TV that “it was plain disrespect that someone would raise our own nation’s flag upside down.”
The franchise owner, who served in the Marines himself, said the upside down flag was little more than an honest mistake, and he won’t be disciplining anybody over the incident. He also thought the reservist who cut the flag down over-reacted. What do you make of the whole ordeal? Did the Marine reservist overreact, or did the franchise owner not react enough?
#TakeAKnee over the rise of religious fundamentalism, corporatocracy, and white nationalism in our national government – this democratic nation is under distress! #TakeAKnee for #TruthandReconciliation and #RestorativeJustice in the United States of America, it is way over due! #BlackLivesMatter #NativeLivesMatter #LatinoLivesMatter #NoDAPL #LGBTQ #Equality #EverydaySexism #EmpoweringWomen
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This “Two Americas of 2016” map set really shows just how much the Electoral College system disenfranchises the majority of U.S. citizen voters. So long as it exists, elections will never be fair and representative of the People. With President Barack Hussein Obama, an African-American, as the only candidate in U.S. history to receive the most Direct Votes for President, Hillary Rodham Clinton, a European Woman, in 2016 received the second largest number of citizen’s votes. But, she did not win. Why? (The answer follows below the two maps.) Now, as to that Trump guy and his sidekick Pence, he came in 46th. Just pitiful! No amount of revisionist history will change these self-evident historical facts.
#election2016 #Trump is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020! #ElectoralCollege
“Trump’s America
Geographically, Donald J. Trump won most of the land area of the United States. A country consisting of areas he won retains more than 80 percent of the nation’s counties.
While Trump country is vast, its edges have been eroded by coastal Democrats, and it is riddled with large inland lakes of Clinton voters who were generally concentrated in dense urban areas.”
“Clinton’s America
Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won the cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, but Mr. Trump won many of the suburbs, isolating the cities in a sea of Republican voters.
Mrs. Clinton’s island nation has large atolls and small island chains with liberal cores, like college towns, Native American reservations and areas with black and Hispanic majorities. While the land area is small, the residents here voted for Mrs. Clinton in large enough numbers to make her the winner of the overall popular vote.”
“Land Area
Clinton’s America, 15%, 530,000 square miles
Trump’s America, 85%, 3,000,000 square miles
Population
Clinton’s America, 54%, 174 million
Trump’s America, 46%, 148 million”
Now, to put this into perspective:
Popular Vote on Nov 8th
For Clinton, 65.8 million citizens voted for her
For Trump, 62.9 million citizens voted for him
Electoral College Vote on Dec 19th
For Clinton, 227 electors voted for her
For Trump, 304 electors voted for him
What is obviously wrong with this picture?! In deciding who is going to be the President of the United States of America, the Electoral College with great disparity gives unfair voting advantage to the white population of the United States of America and, due to geographics, collectively disenfranchises citizens who are not white Americans. Statistics do not lie, folks! And Americans have a legitimate reason to be angry and unwilling to “unite” behind a religious white nationalist administered Trump presidency. Hillary Clinton never had a chance of winning this presidential election, and the Evangelical Christian and White Nationalist advisers to the Trump campaign very well knew this. They’ve been working this voting base for eight years, in preparation to push their emotional buttons.
The Two Americas of 2016
For many Americans, it feels as if the 2016 election split the country in two.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/16/us/politics/the-two-americas-of-2016.html
To visualize this, we took the election results and created two new imaginary nations by slicing the country along the sharp divide between Republican and Democratic Americas.
8 Comments
Joseph T Farkasdi · December 19, 2016 at 4:59 pm
On Nov 8, 2016, 73.6 million U.S. voters said that Trump guy is #NotMyPresident, and only 62.9 million said otherwise. There is no reason for U.S. citizens to “unite” behind a religious white nationalist #TrumpAdministration. All four years we must #Resist with a determined patriotic smile, actively defend our Constitution, and protect our democratic way-of-life! That Trump guy is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020! It is time for the U.S. to return to the Direct Vote, and #NationalPopularVote is the way to achieve this, folks. #election2016 #electoralcollege
National Popular Vote –
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Explanation It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes (CA, DC, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA). It will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more electoral votes. Most recently, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 40–16 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 28–18 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 57–4 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 37–21 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House. It has passed one house in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes (AR, AZ, CO, CT, DE, ME, MI, NC, NM, NV, OK, OR). Status in Each State
Joseph T Farkasdi · December 21, 2016 at 2:14 am
What Democrats And Republicans Don’t Understand Yet
What Democrats and Republicans don’t understand yet is that both have lost in this #election2016. And I’ll explain why. Hopefully the elated #Trump voting folks will read long enough to find out why they are now in no better position than the presently lamenting #HillaryClinton followers, seeing how I will be speaking to the Democrats first.
Though Democrats don’t understand this yet, Hillary Clinton never actually had a chance to win this election, even though she came 71,185 votes short of President Barack Hussein Obama’s historic record of 65,915,795 votes in 2012. She could have gotten 3 million more votes than President Obama, and still she would have lost this presidential election bid. The reason is plainly obvious. She got the votes, easily, but the majority of her voters all live in cities and little pockets within a wider geographic base of states (you know, the places were most people live). But, it is in these other places that the Electoral College favors, at the disenfranchisement of city votes, that Trump’s evangelical and alt-right supporters made their mark. They sure did get the vote out and, regardless what else she “could have done,” she didn’t even have a chance. So, Democrats, stop lamenting and start preparing to guard our constitutional-based democratic way of life from the Trumpism onslaught, testing and looking for weaknesses, that is already taking place. He doesn’t change, and we all know this already. This now brings me to all those that voted for that Trump guy and, by default, for his sidekicks, Pence, Bannon, Mnuchin, and Flynn.
Though Republicans don’t understand this yet, all who voted for Trump, I’m sorry that you’re going to learn this the hard way soon but – you’ve been lied to by a profession salesman. As he is already clearly demonstrating with his slowly developing proposed Administration, he has not one intention of keeping any of his populist promises to you – his supporters. He’s keeping secrets, especially about his finances, and it is very likely we will be learning soon in the next few years just how many foreign governments have a pinch on him in his international business commitments. As well, he has no real intention of keeping his promises to the working-middle class, but you don’t quite realize this just yet. That is, not unless it is very selective his choice of who to benefit and, that in the process, his giving help is meant to directly financially benefit his family business. Don’t be fooled by his reality tv show style dog and pony shows that he’s putting on just for you (well, for him really, he has all the characteristics of a narcissist – the “tweets” of outright lies and misdirection are for you). Actually look closely at what he’s doing, and see for yourself whether he is actually keeping his promises (Carrier is just the first “hint, hint”). For four years is about to go by, and I don’t want you to be wondering why the jobs haven’t yet come to your hurting towns. As well, you don’t really think he’s going to “drain the swamp” in Washington, do you? Being that he is one of the guppies always competing with the biggest fish of that swamp on the lobbying side? If you’re saying “yes,” then I feel truly sorry for you.
The reality that we are facing as a nation at the moment is that neither political party is worth being kept in power as is. Neither the Democrat nor the Republican party, as a collective whole, truly has the backs of the everyday United States citizen. And introducing a third party won’t fix this, until we address the present problems systemic in the first two. Eight years of obstinate Republican obstructionism and Democratic unwillingness to engage into the fight “for the people” is only symptomatic of the political problems we are facing as a nation! We should all know this by now, but smart, witty, and hopeful words by politicians and their word-spinning pundits so do confuse and distract us from the obvious, now don’t they? The reality is this: only actions show proof of intent, and all the words are simply smoke and, sometimes, even manure. You can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons, but in the end if what you’ve done is right by others – have your actions not indeed spoken for you? The point I’m trying to make is this, what makes America worth anything as a nation in this human-made global social world is the daily actions of “we the People.” The politicians cannot bring positive and good change to our lives, only we as caring and understanding citizens working together in our communities and in our states can bring a better way of life to ourselves, our children’s future, and to our nation.
When we come together at the grassroots community level and insist upon our elected leadership to respond to our needs and demands as citizens – when the price for them for choosing to play partisan politics instead of listening and advocating for our needs is assured removal from the positions that have made them “important” – then and only then will we begin to bring the elite back down to earthly responsibilities and build back up our once powerful and influential middle class. The salvation will not come from the top down, but from the bottom up, or it will not come at all. It’s time for us to grow up as a nation and realize this. The American dream is not dead, only impoverished and presently out of reach for all but the select fortunate few. This can be rectified, if “we the People” – the citizens of the United States – come together as a unified nation-people, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, in all our socially diverse ethnic and economic varieties. We the People need to come together and resolve to help lift our nation out of racism and division, out of poverty and ill health – disregarding our political differences at the representative level. True populism is democratic socialism, folks! It’s about “we the People” – not whose party is right and whose is wrong and how different we view ourselves to be. In truth, regardless the differences, the experience of suffering is always the same. It’s our choice, whether we like suffering or not.
Joseph T Farkasdi · December 21, 2016 at 2:54 am
“In its contemporary understanding, however, populism is most often associated with an authoritarian form of politics. Populist politics, following this definition, revolves around a charismatic leader who appeals to and claims to embody the will of the people in order to consolidate his own power. In this personalized form of politics, political parties lose their importance, and elections serve to confirm the leader’s authority rather than to reflect the different allegiances of the people.” — Sound familiar? America, get ready to brace yourselves!
Populism
https://www.britannica.com/topic/populism
Populism, political program or movement that champions the common person, usually by favourable contrast with an elite. Populism usually combines elements of the left and the right, opposing large business and financial interests but also frequently being hostile to established socialist and labour parties.
The term populism can designate either democratic or authoritarian movements. Populism is typically critical of political representation and anything that mediates the relation between the people and their leader or government. In its most democratic form, populism seeks to defend the interest and maximize the power of ordinary citizens, through reform rather than revolution.
#Populist #Populism #Trump
Joseph T Farkasdi · December 23, 2016 at 8:36 pm
No amount of Trump pundit’s attempts to spin this failed U.S. election as a win for the Trump guy by the votes of the People will change the simple facts that the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens rejected that Trump guy as the one to vote for as President. 73.6 million U.S. citizens said “no” to Trump, and 65.8 million U.S. citizens said “yes” to Hillary Clinton for President. Only 62.9 million made the foolish choice of voting for Trump and his Pence, Bannon, Mnuchin, and Flynn sidekicks.
The overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens rejected Trump, but the partisan Electoral College rubber-stamped him for President anyhow, and with great indifference, against the majority voted will of the U.S. citizens. Whether that Trump guy likes this or not, there is no reason for U.S. citizens to now unite and rally around the religious white nationalist banker and generals -ladened #TrumpAdministration. He is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020! Time to render the #ElectoralCollege an obsolete relic of the historical past.
Amazing how an electoral system designed to favor slave states, by removing the impact of decision from the Direct Vote (Popular Vote), and is now being used to favor white voters in select states over the majority votes of the entire populace, has now elected a white racist, misogynist, xenophobe as the President – again, against the clearly established voted will of the U.S. citizens. Just the historical self-evident facts of things.
Joseph T Farkasdi · January 1, 2017 at 1:12 am
“Researchers say nearly half of all current jobs in the USA will be automated by 2033.” All these people who voted #Trump, believing that he will bring the jobs back … a simple prediction of what’s coming: “Boy, are they going to be angry!” #NotOurPresident – not in 2017, 2018, 2019, nor 2020! Patriots, #Resist.
This is what I’ve been pointing out in my posts, folks. All those empty political promises made of jobs that are not coming back. Rather, more will be going! Why is it so difficult for people to see this?
We can’t stop the globalization that is occurring. We can’t stop technological progress and economic interdependence on technology. But, we can change the social dynamics to bring back the Middle Class in the United States of America. It’s starts with free College education, new industries involving more small businesses, having corporates pay their fair share of taxes to support paying a livable minimum wage to all Americans, and universal healthcare for every citizen. Real populism efforts and legislation!
Welcome to 2017! The rise of the robots?
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38317786
If you think you’ve read these predictions before you’re right.
Experts have been talking about the fourth, (or fifth) industrial revolution, the third wave of globalisation and their disruptive technology for several years now.
What is different is the political context. There’s a new question.
What will this new economic jolt mean, coming hard on the heels of the revolt of the Rust Belt, the bellow of the left behinds?
You might have noticed that 2016 was quite a year, here, and in the States. All the signs are it will continue in 2017 in Europe with elections in Germany, France, the Netherlands and probably Italy. Many see it as nothing less than a rising up of the dispossessed.
If there are coherent themes, some of them are about nationalism and identity. But so are economic dislocation and a growing sense of inequality.
One respected economist argues this will get a lot worse.
#RustBelt #election2016 #Robots #AutomatedCustomerServices #populism #middleclass #democraticsocialism
Joseph T Farkasdi · January 4, 2017 at 8:21 pm
Oh, yeah! It’s on! Patriots, download the guide and #Resist! That Trump guy is #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020! As patriots, we “the People” of the United States have no reason to “unite” behind a con man only interested in enriching himself and his proposed Evangelical-Alt-Right #TrumpAdministration – the United States is better than this!
INDIVISIBLE
A practical guide For resisting the Trump agenda
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen.
Joseph T Farkasdi · January 6, 2017 at 12:48 am
This is a very important and thoughtful article, and I encourage you to read it.
“Two fundamental facts: for most people, instincts outperform reason, and social allegiance trumps truth. If we are to make America kind again, we have to base our strategies on the uncomfortable truth that progressive ideals cannot vanquish human nature. Instead we must co-opt human nature… The human-nature problem is this: if you differentiate by politically correct (PC) labels and humiliate people in the process, you invite hostility toward the out-group. And that brings us to the most dangerous fact of all: when it comes to treatment of an out-group, there are no rules… So, what can humanists, progressives, and other compassionate people do? Like the civil rights marchers (of the 1950s and ’60s), we must rise up to meet tribal fear, hostility, and hate with determined, courageous, humanistic love.”
““For most of human history, the main threat has been from other human beings,” political scientist John Hibbing explains, “and so we worry about the tribe over the hill or in-group violators.” The stronger those atavistic feelings are, the more a person tends towards conservatism.”
Make America Kind Again
https://thehumanist.com/magazine/january-february-2017/features/make-america-kind
Of course, I’m no political pundit. But in trying to make sense of an event in which nearly 62 million Americans voted for a crude, narcissistic swindler with fascistic pretensions, I do have one advantage that you may not: I live in Nebraska, where in Grant County Trump took 93 percent of the votes (a figure topped by only two small counties in Texas.) I’ve also had the opportunity recently to speak to a distinguished political scientist and have some recommendations to offer.
For starters, if you want to understand what happened on November 8, you have to put aside the Nazi-saluting, gun-toting brawler at the Trump rally—not because he’s unreal or irrelevant, but because he’s atypical. There aren’t 62 million of him—not yet, anyway. Instead, you have to contemplate Karen.
Let’s achieve #TruthandReconciliation in the United States! The sooner we end #tribalism in America, the sooner it really will be that #AllLivesMatter in the United States of America. In the time of the #Trump reaction, we can really flourish and make more progress – we can “co-opt human nature” – by showing that there really are no “out-groups” in this nation and in this world of human diversity. #Humanism #AHA
Joseph T Farkasdi · January 10, 2017 at 7:10 pm
“Russian intelligence monitored Donald Trump engaging in “perverted sexual acts” during his stay in a luxury Moscow hotel, according to an unconfirmed report about compromising material on the President-elect.”
America looks like a joke at this point. How easily manipulated almost half of the populace is by the Christian-Right and Alt-Right and Russian government. And how easily manipulated near all of the public is by partisan politics and affiliation. The United States is facing a serious wake up call. Will we be a democratic republic in four years? Or, will we be a weird combination of something else? Welcome to 2017 in the Un’united States of America. #election2016 #Trump #NotOurPresident – not in 2016, and not in 2017-2020!
Donald Trump engaged in ‘perverted sexual acts’ monitored by Russia intelligence, report says
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/russia-compromising-information-trump-report-article-1.2943045
A document published in full by BuzzFeed News on Tuesday said that during a 2013 trip to the Russian capital, Trump made Russian prostitutes defile a bed where President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama had stayed on a previous occasion.
The accusations are unconfirmed, though Trump did travel to Russia in 2013 when he hosted the Miss Universe pageant there. The Obamas traveled to Moscow in July 2009.
Another allegation says that Trump had participated in sex parties in St. Petersburg, but that witnesses were “bribed or coerced to disappear.”
The 35-page report, which said that the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in central Moscow was bugged by the FSB intelligence agency, also includes other accusations that Trump was coordinating with Russia.
It says that Russian officials, with the approval of President Vladimir Putin, have been “cultivating” Trump for five years, and that he received intelligence information on political opponents from them.
Whether true or not, this is a pattern, and this is effing embarrassing!
Lawmakers broach possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-russia-campaign-coordination-233439
Members of Congress made clear Tuesday they’re increasingly willing to broach a taboo topic: possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Their emboldened approach comes amid a bombshell CNN report that intelligence officials last week presented Trump with alleged claims by Russian operatives that they have compromising information on the president-elect. According to CNN, Trump was also presented with allegations there was an “exchange of information” during the campaign between his surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.
It’s a subject lawmakers have largely avoided discussing since the presidential election, even as anti-Trump advocacy groups have sounded alarm bells about the president-elect.
But that changed Tuesday, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia’s meddling in November’s election.