Fascist US President Donald Trump normalizes racism, violence, and injustice!

“Donald Trump has been an open racist for much of his adult life. He defended white supremacists after Charlottesville, told congresswomen of color to "go back where they came from," filled his administration with bigots and inspired white nationalist terrorists.” - Heidi Hess, Co-Director, CREDO Action from Working Assets, September 2, 2019.
-

-

-

-
NEWS ARTICLE:

"A Field Guide To Identifying A White Nationalist"
“It becomes one of those ‘if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck’ kind of things.”
By Dana Liebelson, Staff Reporter, The Huffington Post, and Matt Ferner, National Reporter, The Huffington Post, November 18, 2016

WASHINGTON ― White nationalists tried repeatedly throughout the presidential campaign to sanitize their language to appeal to mainstream voters as they threw their efforts behind electing Donald Trump.

White nationalists who tried to play down their white nationalism won a victory this week as the president-elect not only chose Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as his chief strategist ― a man who heads a website that regularly airs white nationalist viewpoints ― but many news outlets also are reluctant to use the specific label “white nationalist,” instead calling Bannon a “flame-throwing outsider” and a “nationalist media mogul.”

Of course, calling a person a “white nationalist” who hasn’t self-identified as one is somewhat fraught. In Bannon’s case, the website he runs peddles racist and misogynist conspiracy theories and is a go-to resource for white nationalists, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. Whether or not Bannon personally holds white nationalist views, it’s indisputable that his website has perpetuated them.

As David Pilgrim, founder and curator of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michigan, said, it’s useful to look at an individual’s statements, associations and sentiments. “It becomes one of those ‘if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck’ kind of things,” he said.

The Trump campaign denies allegations that Bannon is a white nationalist or a part of the so-called alt-right, the movement’s latest preferred moniker. “Nothing could be further from the truth, and it’s irresponsible for anyone to even make such a baseless accusation,” said Jason Miller, communications director for Trump’s transition team, in a statement provided to The Huffington Post.

Bannon in July told Mother Jones: “We’re the platform for the alt-right” and that the site espoused a “nationalist” philosophy but argued that its attraction for racists was incidental.

It’s helpful first to parse the various terms that have been thrown around. “White supremacy” refers to a “full-fledged ideology” that asserts whites should have dominance over people of other races, according to the Anti-Defamation League. “White separatists” promote physical separation of races. A “white nationalist” emphasizes that countries or regions should be defined by a white racial identity. Other ideologies under the nationalist umbrella ― Neo-Nazi groups, for example ― openly praise Adolf Hitler. The founder of Aryan Nations, Richard Butler, wanted an all-white homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

But delving into the specifics of each of these subgroups can sometimes miss the point. “Very often it’s useful to call people what they are: racists or white supremacists,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Complicating these distinctions even further, white nationalist groups often use euphemisms to make their ideas appear less repugnant. Jared Taylor, publisher of American Renaissance, a website that regularly features racist screeds, says that he is not a white supremacist, a Nazi or a racist. “A ‘racist’... is always considered to be a moral inferior,” he wrote in an email. “I totally reject that view.”

Terms that Taylor and others who hold similar views prefer: “race realist” or “white advocate.” They may also refer to themselves as advocating for “Western civilization” or “European heritage,” or say they are merely combating white “dispossession” or the “administrative removal of Americans of European extraction.”

They also love the term “alt-right,” which SPLC defines as “a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals” who believe white identity is under attack. The term is merely “a relabeling of white nationalism for the digital age,” said Potok. “It’s a little more pitched to young people,” he said. (Millennials may be well aware that being seen as a racist is a bad thing, even if they embrace racist viewpoints.)

Breitbart has published a glowing guide to the alt-right, suggesting its members are different from “old-school racist skinheads” because they are “a much smarter group.” In a post earlier this year, a headline described political analyst Bill Kristol as a “renegade Jew.” Another article published last year, weeks after the mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina, celebrated the Confederate flag, a symbol embraced by racists.

“I am very frustrated by the normalization of these ideas and the notion that they are finding acceptability in mainstream discourse,” said Ted Shaw, a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill. He noted that it should be “terrifying” that the alt-right has found legitimacy in Bannon’s appointment to serve in the White House.

Taylor strongly denies that Bannon is a white nationalist. But many self-identified individual white nationalists told The Huffington Post that they are excited that he was picked to serve on Trump’s team.

The Trump campaign has sought to distance Bannon from the website’s posts that traffic in white nationalism. “Here’s what folks need to know about Steve Bannon: He’s worked with people of all backgrounds and has embraced diversity throughout his career,” Miller said Thursday.

In response to a HuffPost inquiry, the Trump transition team also referred to a statement from Republican Jewish Coalition board member Bernie Marcus, who defended Bannon’s appointment and said the charges against him are false.

Earlier this week, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the “Today” show that Bannon is “not as scary” as he has been portrayed and that the “charges are very unfair.”

But anti-extremist groups, such as the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League, disagree with the Trump camp’s characterization of Bannon. “[He] was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,” SPLC said on Twitter this week. Breitbart News is “the premier website of the alt-right, a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists,” said ADL.

After Bannon’s appointment, progressive commentators criticized some news organizations for using euphemisms to describe him. They argued that not explicitly referring to him as a “white nationalist” ignored or downplayed Bannon’s role in promoting extremist rhetoric.

Conservative media organizations also defended Bannon, calling him a “brilliant strategist” and “a patriot.” They said the allegations that he promotes white nationalism are “smears” and “slander,” and claimed Breitbart’s publications should not be linked to Bannon because that content is merely “designed to attract audiences.”

But Cheryl Harris, a UCLA law professor who focuses on civil rights and race, said, “These debates obfuscate the issue with respect to Bannon, which is whether Bannon self-consciously and explicitly created a platform for white nationalism to flourish, and it seems that he did, proudly and by his own admission.

“There is also a great danger of normalization as Trump takes state power. Many will be reluctant to call out the president for racism, either in his tactics or his policy.”

Jim Crow Museum founder Pilgrim said he has “no doubt” that as time goes on, alt-right adherents will be seen as promoting white nationalism, even if they’re not dressed up like neo-Nazis or wearing Klan hoods. “We’ve allowed someone, and I’m not sure whom,” to restrict the use of the term “white supremacist” “to only the guy in the racist uniform.”

----------

Demonstrators marched to the site of the annual “Become Who We Are” conference, a key gathering of the so-called alt-right, in Washington, on Saturday. Al Drago/The New York Times.

NEWS ARTICLE:

"White nationalists converge on capital to celebrate ‘an awakening’"
By Alan Rappeport and Noah Weiland, New York Times, November 20, 2016

WASHINGTON — For years, they have lurked in the web’s dark corners, masking themselves with cartoon images and writing screeds about the demise of white culture under ominous pseudonyms. But on Saturday, in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprising election victory, hundreds of his extremist supporters converged on the capital to herald a moment of political ascendance that many had thought to be far away.

In the bowels of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, three blocks from the White House, members of the alt-right movement gathered for what they had supposed would be an autopsy to plot their grim future under a Clinton administration. Instead, they celebrated the unexpected march of their white nationalist ideas toward the mainstream, portraying Trump’s win as validation that the tide had turned in their fight to preserve white culture.

“It’s been an awakening,” Richard B. Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right, said at the gathering Saturday. “This is what a successful movement looks like.”

The movement has been critical of politicians of all stripes for promoting diversity, immigration and perceived political correctness. Its critics call it a rebranded version of the Ku Klux Klan, promoting anti-Semitism, violence and suppression of minorities.

Intellectual leaders of the movement argue that they are merely trying to realize their desire for a white “ethno-state” where they can be left alone. Trump, with his divisive language about immigrants and Muslims, has given them hope that these dreams can come true.

“I never thought we would get to this point, any point close to mainstream acceptance or political influence,” said Matt Forney, 28, of Chicago. “The culture is moving more in my direction.”

Emboldened by Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, Forney said he expected people openly associated with the white nationalist movement to run as candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. The rise of populism and the decline of political correctness, he said, presented a rare opportunity.

Robert Taylor, 29, described the conference as a “victory party.” Taylor was a committed libertarian, he said, working for Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns and even moving to New Hampshire for a project organized by the like-minded. If Hillary Clinton had won the election, he said, he would have advocated secession.

“I thought I had all the right answers and had read all the right books,” he said. “I heard about the alt-right movement, and it just lit a fire in me.”

Taylor said that with Trump, “we have breathing room; we have a little time.”

Trump has shrugged off any suggestions that he has connections to the alt-right. But his hard-line views on immigration and his “America First” foreign policy have captivated members of the movement. His appointment as chief strategist of Stephen K. Bannon, who has called Breitbart News, the website he long ran, a platform for the alt-right, has reinforced the notion that the incoming president is on their side.

The white nationalist embrace of Trump was on display Saturday at the gathering, which was the annual conference of a group called the National Policy Institute. Guests nibbled on chicken piccata while discussing ways to reorient America’s demographics. Many of the attendees, who were mostly white men, wore red “Make America Great Again” hats. T-shirts emblazoned with Trump’s face sold quickly.

While the enthusiasm inside the conference was evident, the resistance to the alt-right remains powerful. A recent surge in hate crimes and reports of verbal and physical assaults on minorities are putting new pressure on groups that promote racism.

Many sites will not host their events, and some of their members have had their social media accounts suspended in response to vicious trolling of Jewish journalists and critics of Trump. A large group of protesters marched around the Ronald Reagan Building, which, as a federal property, could not decline to host the conference.

“These people have their right to freedom of speech, but the values they represent don’t represent America,” said Jon Pattee, 48, of Mount Rainier, Maryland. “I characterize them as the shirt-and-tie arm of the white supremacist-nationalist movement.”

Republicans who are more mainstream are also unlikely to accept the movement’s more provocative ideas.

“They have to grow up and start shedding some of their more controversial elements,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative blogger and commentator who has been critical of Trump. “I don’t think they will ever be accepted wholeheartedly in the Republican Party.”

Nonetheless, alt-right leaders said they planned to use their newfound influence to pressure Trump to take more “heretical” policy positions, such as a moratorium on net immigration for the next 50 years.

“In the long run, people like Bannon and Trump will be open to the clarity of our ideas,” said Jared Taylor, the founder of the white nationalist publication American Renaissance.

Like Trump, Spencer, the alt-right leader, derided NATO as “clumsy and ineffective.” He called for friendlier relations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and for the deportation of undocumented immigrants, drawing chants of “build that wall.”

“I think moving forward the alt-right as an intellectual vanguard can complete Trump,” Spencer said. “We can be the ones who are out front, who are thinking about things that he hasn’t grasped yet.”

Although alt-right leaders say they want to become more politically active, it remains unclear how they will react to being more closely aligned to the establishment or what they will do if Trump starts to moderate his views. His outreach to African-Americans during the final months of the campaign angered some of his white nationalist followers, raising concerns among them that Trump might not be so different after all.

“It’s a fleeting moment of optimism,” said Al Stankard, 29, of Baltimore, who goes by the pseudonym Haarlen Venison online and was handing out his novel, “Death to the World.”

Stankard said he thought it was unlikely Trump would be able to do things like end affirmative action, even though he believes that the president-elect sympathizes with the plight of “white racists.” He predicted that Trump might disappoint white nationalists in the same way that President Barack Obama disappointed some of his supporters by failing to bring postracial unity to the nation.

“These are semi-delusional fantasies,” Stankard said.

----------

NEWS ARTICLE:

“Amal Clooney Says Trump’s Ideas ‘Are Violations of International Human Rights Law’”
The human rights lawyer recently spoke at a women’s conference in Texas.
By Cavan Sieczkowski, Deputy Director, News & Analytics, The Huffington Post, November 18, 2016

Amal Clooney did not mince words when taking on President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals at a recent women’s conference.

The international human rights lawyer spoke at the Texas Conference for Women in Austin Tuesday in front of a crowd of 7,000, and spoke out against Trump’s plans for the Muslim community.

“[Trump’s comments] that there should be a religious test imposed on entering the U.S. or the fact that there should be state-sponsored torture or that families of suspected terrorists should all be killed — all of those things are violations of international human rights law and the values that underlie that,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Clooney ― who was a Hillary Clinton supporter and challenged Trump’s rhetoric for months before the election ― did, however, praise his plans for combating ISIS.

“We have to hope for the best,” she said. “The president-elect has said that fighting ISIS is actually a priority … so it may be that there can be progress, and obviously everyone has to respect the outcome of the democratic process here, and we have to hope for the best.”

Clooney has been fighting against ISIS on behalf of the terror group’s Yazidi victims for the crimes of genocide, human trafficking and sex abuse.

----------

Email:

From: Michael Brune, Sierra Club

To: Jonathan A. Melle

Re: Take action: Stop hate in the White House

Date: November 20, 2016

Dear Jonathan,

President-elect Trump is naming some truly terrifying people to advise him and fill his cabinet. Their extreme positions and climate denial are dangerous not just to the environment but to our country in general and millions of Americans.

We must speak out immediately. If President-elect Trump wants to uphold his word to bring the country together and be a president for all Americans, then he should publicly rebuke these advisers and declare that he will not listen to anyone that propagates hate or science-denial. Anything less is unacceptable.

Here are just a few:

Stephen Bannon, CEO of the extreme right-wing conservative outlet Breitbart News, is known for his record of sickening and dangerous attacks against women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Jews, and Muslims -- in addition to fueling climate denialism. President-elect Donald Trump's reckless decision to appoint him as his Chief Strategist in the White House is a threat to the safety and prosperity of all Americans.

President-elect Trump has also named noted climate denier and fossil fuel hack Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute as the head of his EPA transition team. That means Ebell, who has called climate change "nothing to worry about" and has ZERO scientific training will be in charge of choosing the head of the EPA and local EPA regional offices. Ebell actually wrote an article in Forbes called, "Love Global Warming," where he said warmer temperatures would make colder regions more inhabitable. And for the rest? "...the higher temperatures are killing people who are likely to die soon anyway."

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was rejected by a Republican Senate in 1986 for a federal judgeship because of allegations he had used racial slurs, called civil rights groups like the NAACP "un-American," and stated on the record that as of the 1980s "the fundamental legal barriers to minorities had been knocked down, and that in many areas blacks dominate the political area, and that when the civil rights organizations or the ACLU participate in asking for things beyond what they are justified in asking, they do more harm than good."

He would be in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Section, allowing him to defang the agency to allow for more local voter suppression. He has voted and spoken out against immigration, equal pay, and confirmation of numerous nominees who he claims have "the ACLU gene." He would also be given the power to investigate, arrest, and harass members of Black Lives Matter, protesters against pipelines like DAPL and KXL, and other environmental groups.

Sessions' environmental voting record also shows he cannot be trusted to stand up for laws that protect clean air, water, communities, public health, or the climate.

Hate group leader Frank Gaffney is a noted Islamophobe, unrepentant bigot, and conspiracy theorist who has reportedly been advising the Trump administration's transition team. Gaffney is the head of the Center for Security Policy, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. With news that the Trump team may already be planning to create a "Muslim registry" of Americans, the prospect of someone like Gaffney in a position of influence is an urgent threat to our democracy and basic human decency.

Send your representatives in Congress a message now: there's absolutely no place for hate and dangerous science denial in our government.

Thank you for speaking out against hate,

Michael Brune
Executive Director, Sierra Club

----------

Richard B. Spencer, a leader of the alt-right movement, spoke at a conference in Washington on Saturday. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times

“Alt-Right Exults in Donald Trump’s Election With a Salute: ‘Heil Victory’”
By Joseph Goldstein, The New York Times, November 20, 2016

WASHINGTON — By the time Richard B. Spencer, the leading ideologue of the alt-right movement and the final speaker of the night, rose to address a gathering of his followers on Saturday, the crowd was restless.

In 11 hours of speeches and panel discussions in a federal building named after Ronald Reagan a few blocks from the White House, a succession of speakers had laid out a harsh vision for the future, but had denounced violence and said that Hispanic citizens and black Americans had nothing to fear. Earlier in the day, Mr. Spencer himself had urged the group to start acting less like an underground organization and more like the establishment.

But now his tone changed as he began to tell the audience of more than 200 people, mostly young men, what they had been waiting to hear. He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”

As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, “Heil the people! Heil victory,” the room shouted it back.

These are exultant times for the alt-right movement, which was little known until this year, when it embraced Mr. Trump’s campaign and he appeared to embrace it back. He chose as his campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon, the media executive who ran the alt-right’s most prominent platform, Breitbart News, and then named him as a senior adviser and chief strategist.

Now the movement’s leaders hope to have, if not a seat at the table, at least the ear of the Trump White House.

While many of its racist views are well known — that President Obama is, or may as well be, of foreign birth; that the Black Lives Matter movement is another name for black race rioters; that even the American-born children of undocumented Hispanic immigrants should be deported — the alt-right has been difficult to define. Is it a name for right-wing political provocateurs in the internet era? Or is it a political movement defined by xenophobia and a dislike for political correctness?

At the conference on Saturday, Mr. Spencer, who said he had coined the term, defined the alt-right as a movement with white identity as its core idea.

“We’ve crossed the Rubicon in terms of recognition,” Mr. Spencer said at the conference, which was sponsored by his organization, the National Policy Institute.

And while much of the discourse at the conference was overtly racist and demeaning toward minorities, for much of the day the sentiments were expressed in ways that seemed intended to not sound too menacing. The focus was on how whites were marginalized and beleaguered.

One speaker, Peter Brimelow, the founder of Vdare.com, an anti-immigration website, asked why, if Hispanics had the National Council of La Raza and Jews had the Anti-Defamation League, whites were reluctant to organize for their rights. Some speakers made an effort to distance themselves from more notorious white power organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.

But as the night wore on and most reporters had gone home, the language changed.

Mr. Spencer’s after-dinner speech began with a polemic against the “mainstream media,” before he briefly paused. “Perhaps we should refer to them in the original German?” he said.

The audience immediately screamed back, “Lügenpresse,” reviving a Nazi-era word that means “lying press.”

Mr. Spencer suggested that the news media had been critical of Mr. Trump throughout the campaign in order to protect Jewish interests. He mused about the political commentators who gave Mr. Trump little chance of winning.

“One wonders if these people are people at all, or instead soulless golem,” he said, referring to a Jewish fable about the golem, a clay giant that a rabbi brings to life to protect the Jews.

Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Spencer said, was “the victory of will,” a phrase that echoed the title of the most famous Nazi-era propaganda film. But Mr. Spencer then mentioned, with a smile, Theodor Herzl, the Zionist leader who advocated a Jewish homeland in Israel, quoting his famous pronouncement, “If we will it, it is no dream.”

The United States today, Mr. Spencer said, had been turned into “a sick, corrupted society.” But it was not supposed to be that way.

“America was, until this last generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity,” Mr. Spencer thundered. “It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.”

But the white race, he added, is “a race that travels forever on an upward path.”

“To be white is to be a creator, an explorer, a conqueror,” he said.

More members of the audience were on their feet as Mr. Spencer described the choice facing white people as to “conquer or die.”

Of other races, Mr. Spencer said: “We don’t exploit other groups, we don’t gain anything from their presence. They need us, and not the other way around.”

The ties between the alt-right movement and the Trump team are difficult to define, even by members of the alt-right.

Mr. Bannon was the chief executive of Breitbart, an online news organization that has fed the lie that Mr. Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim. As recently as last year, Breitbart published an op-ed article urging that “every tree, every rooftop, every picket fence, every telegraph pole in the South should be festooned with the Confederate battle flag.”

Mr. Bannon told Mother Jones this year that Breitbart was now “the platform for the alt-right.”

But in an interview last week with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bannon said that the alt-right was only “a tiny part” of the viewpoint represented on Breitbart.

“Our definition of the alt-right is younger people who are anti-globalists, very nationalist, terribly anti-establishment,” he told The Journal, adding that the alt-right had “some racial and anti-Semitic overtones.”

When asked about Mr. Bannon, the conference’s speakers said that they might have shaken his hand on occasion, but that they did not know him well.

Mr. Brimelow said that he had met “Mr. Bannon once, earlier this summer, before he ascended to Olympus.” He said he had told Mr. Bannon that he was doing great work at Breitbart. “He agreed,” Mr. Brimelow recalled to the audience.

As for Mr. Trump, Mr. Brimelow said he had met him about 30 years ago at a “conservative affinity meeting” in Manhattan. But that was it.

“Trump and Steve Bannon are not alt-right people,” Mr. Brimelow said, adding that they had opportunistically seized on two issues that the alt-right cares most about — stopping immigration and fighting political correctness — and used them to mobilize white voters.

Mr. Spencer said that while he did not think the president-elect should be considered alt-right, “I do think we have a psychic connection, or you can say a deeper connection, with Donald Trump in a way that we simply do not have with most Republicans.”

White identity, he said, is at the core of both the alt-right movement and the Trump movement, even if most voters for Mr. Trump “aren’t willing to articulate it as such.”

At various points, he and other speakers outlined where they differed from Mr. Trump. They see him as too beholden to Israel. They do not see any reason to start a trade war with China, and they are not necessarily opposed to the Iran nuclear deal.

For them, immigration is the most potent mobilizing issue, less for economic reasons than because of the prospect that white Americans will someday represent less than half of the population of the country.

For the alt-right, the most exciting thing about Mr. Trump was that he built a campaign around the issues that mattered most to them, and that white people had voted for him in numbers that left the political establishments of both parties stunned. Now, Mr. Spencer said, it is up to the alt-right to formulate the ideas and policies to guide the new administration.

“I think we can be the ones out in front, thinking about those things he hasn’t quite grasped yet, who are putting forward policies,” Mr. Spencer said, that “have a realistic chance of being implemented.”

----------

~In Part~

“‘White Nationalism,’ Explained”
The Interpreter
By Amanda Taub, The New York Times, November 21, 2016

White nationalism, he (Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck University in London) said, is the belief that national identity should be built around white ethnicity, and that white people should therefore maintain both a demographic majority and dominance of the nation’s culture and public life.

White nationalism places the interests of white people over those of other racial groups. White supremacists and white nationalists both believe that racial discrimination should be incorporated into law and policy.

White supremacy is based on a racist belief that white people are innately superior to people of other races; white nationalism is about maintaining political and economic dominance, not just a numerical majority or cultural hegemony.

The white nationalist movement argues that the United States should protect its white majority by sharply limiting immigration, and perhaps even by compelling nonwhite citizens to leave.

Although the alt-right (see Stephen K. Bannon) is ideologically broader than white nationalism — it also includes neoreactionaries, monarchists, and meme-loving internet trolls — white nationalism makes up a significant part of its appeal.


Bannon

In a 2015 radio interview that was resurfaced this week by The Washington Post, Mr. Bannon opposed even highly skilled immigration, implying he believed it was a threat to American culture. “When two-thirds or three-quarters of the C.E.O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think...” he said, trailing off midsentence before continuing a moment later, “a country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.”

Richard Spencer, who runs the website AlternativeRight.com, is also the director of the National Policy Institute, an organization that says it is devoted to protecting the “heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”

Mr. Spencer argues that immigration and multiculturalism are threats to America’s white population, and has said his ideal is a white “ethno-state.” He has avoided discussing the details of how this might be achieved, saying it is still just a “dream,” but has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” to remove nonwhite people from American soil.

----------

Email:

From: George Takei

To: Jonathan Melle

Re: Japanese internment

Date: November 21, 2016

Jonathan --

Just a few weeks after my fifth birthday, in the spring of 1942, my parents got my younger brother, my baby sister, and me up very early, hurriedly dressed us, and quickly started to pack.

When my brother and I looked out the window of our living room, we saw two soldiers marching up the driveway, bayonets fixed to their rifles. They banged on our front door and ordered us out of the house. We could take only what we could carry with us.

We were loaded on to train cars with other Japanese-American families, with guards stationed at both ends of each car as though we were criminals, and sent two-thirds of the way across the country to an internment camp in the swamps of Arkansas.

For nearly three years, barbed wire, sentry towers, and armed guards marked home. Mass showers, lousy meals in crowded mess halls, and a searchlight following me as I ran from our barracks to the latrine in the middle of the night -- in case I was trying to escape -- became normal.

So when I hear Donald Trump's transition advisors talk about building a registry of Muslims and his surrogates using the internment of Japanese-Americans as their model, I am outraged -- because I remember the tears streaming down my mother's face as we were torn away from our home. And I am resolved to raise my voice and say, loudly and clearly, that this is not who we are.

My mother was born in Sacramento, my father grew up in San Francisco, and my siblings and I were born in Los Angeles. We were American citizens, as proud of our country as we were of our Japanese heritage. But in the fear and mass hysteria of wartime, none of that mattered. When our government allowed hatred and racism to overtake our values, nothing else mattered.

We cannot allow our country to be led down that dark path ever again.

Jonathan, I am committed to fighting for our values, our democracy, and the moral character of our nation. And I am committed to standing with the Democratic Party against bigotry and oppression for the next four years and beyond, no matter what form it takes. I hope you will do the same.

Thank you,

George Takei

----------

“Trump: I don't want to 'energize' alt-right movement”
By Lisa Hagen – The Hill – 11/22/2016

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he did not want to “energize” the alt-right movement and denounced the conference held over the weekend where white nationalists cheered his election and used Nazi-era terms and salutes.

“I disavow and condemn them,” Trump said at an on-the-record session with New York Times reporters and columnists when asked directly about the meeting.

He also said he didn’t believe that he had energized such groups.
“It's not a group I want to energize,” Trump said. “And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why.”

White supremacist and Nazi groups have latched on to Trump’s campaign and victory, arguing at times that it represents a victory for their own cause.

At its annual conference in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, National Policy Institute leader Richard Spencer addressed the crowd with “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!,” according to The Atlantic.

Spencer, according to a separate report in the Times, suggested at the conference that the news media had been critical of Trump to protect Jewish interests.

“One wonders if these people are people at all, or instead soulless golem,” he said, according to the Times.

The Trump team at times has sought to distance itself from such groups. Eric Trump at one point said former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke should get “a bullet.”

But the remarks to the Times represent the first time that Trump has outright condemned last week’s event, news of which has circulated heavily on social media in recent days.

In a Monday night statement, a spokesman for Trump’s transition team said that Trump continues to denounce all racism, but didn’t directly acknowledge the conference.

“President-elect Trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he elected because he will be a leader for every American,” spokesman Bryan Lanza said in the Monday statement.

Trump’s decision to appoint Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as his White House strategist has also been condemned by Democrats who say Breitbart is an alt-right news site that includes news articles meant to incite white nationalists.

Bannon and Trump’s transition team have pushed back at that narrative, and Trump defended his former campaign chairman to the Times.

Trump dismissed any notion that Bannon is a racist or is associated with the “alt-right” movement.

“If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn't even think about hiring him,” Trump reportedly said.

----------

“Trump disavowal of white supremacists doesn't quiet concerns”
Associated Press, November 26, 2016

ATLANTA — Donald Trump's disavowal this week of white supremacists who have cheered his election as president hasn't quieted concerns about the movement's impact on his White House or whether more acts of hate will be carried out in his name.

Members of the self-declared "alt-right" have exulted over the Nov. 8 results with public cries of "Hail Trump!" and reprises of the Nazi salute. The Ku Klux Klan plans to mark Trump's victory with a parade next month in North Carolina. Civil rights advocates have recoiled, citing an uptick in harassment and incidents of hate crimes affecting African-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Muslims, Latinos, gays, lesbians and other minority groups since the vote.

The president-elect has drawn repeated criticism for being slow to offer his condemnation of white supremacists. His strongest denunciation of the movement has not come voluntarily, only when asked, and he occasionally trafficked in retweets of racist social media posts during his campaign.

Further, Trump has named Stephen Bannon, the conservative media provocateur who shaped the final months of Trump's campaign, as a White House chief strategist who will work steps from the Oval Office. Bannon's appointment has become as a flashpoint for both sides.

Trump's detractors and his "alt-right" supporters broadly agree on one thing: It may not even matter what Trump himself believes, or how he defines his own ideology, because his campaign rhetoric has emboldened the white identity politics that will help define his administration.

"Those groups clearly see something and hear something that causes them to believe he is one who sympathizes with their voice and their view. ... Donald Trump has to take responsibility for that," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a black Democrat. He was among 169 members of Congress who signed a letter opposing Bannon's White House appointment.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer said he believes Trump, Bannon and the "alt-right" are "all riding in the same lane." Spencer explained that neither Trump nor Bannon is a movement "identitarian," Spencer's preferred term for his racially driven politics. But Spencer said Trump's election validates Spencer's view that America must reject multiculturalism and "political correctness" in favor of its white, Christian European heritage.

Spencer's group, the National Policy Institute, drew headlines for their recent gathering where some attendees mimicked the Nazi salute as they feted Trump. Spencer told The Associated Press the salutes were "ironic exuberance" that "the mainstream media doesn't get."

But at the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks incidents of anti-Semitism, Oren Segal said it is part of a disturbing postelection atmosphere tied to Trump's 17-month campaign.

Before, Segal said, it wasn't "surprising" for the ADL to get calls about a swastika, the Nazi insignia, defacing public or private property. "What's surprising now," he said, "are the references to the campaign" in the incidences. "'Make American White Again' ... 'Go Trump' with the swastika," he said. "That is unique."

Trump was asked about the rash of incidents during a postelection interview on CBS' "60 Minutes." Trump said he was "saddened," and he looked into the camera and said, "Stop it." But Trump has steadfastly defended his hiring of Bannon, who previously led Breitbart News and in July described it as a "platform for the alt-right" — just a month before he took the job running the Republican nominee's campaign.

Jared Taylor, editor of the white supremacist magazine "American Renaissance," said Trump bears some responsibility for his pitched rhetoric, which included describing Mexican immigrants as "rapists" at the outset of his campaign and proposing a ban on all Muslim immigrants. But Taylor said Trump is still unfairly maligned as a white supremacist and racist because he "cares about Americans already here."

But white supremacist imagery was a common sight at Trump rallies. Pepe the frog, a cartoon character appropriated by the white supremacist movement on social media, appeared on dozens of T-shirts and signs. The "Make America Great Again" motto was seen by some as a call back to the nation's simpler, whiter, past. While the businessman's campaign never actively courted votes from the movement, it did recognize the long-term fears that some whites feel about immigration.

Taylor insisted, "There's nothing Ku Klux Klan about any of this."

But, in fact, Trump drew Klan backing.

As part of his prolific Twitter use, he has retweeted white nationalist accounts and a famous quote of Benito Mussolini, the 20th century fascist leader of Italy, saying "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." In February, Trump declined to repudiate former Klan leader David Duke during a CNN interview. Afterward, Trump blamed the move on a faulty earpiece, only to come back days later and offer an explicit condemnation.

He has several times fallen back on the excuse of merely retweeting when asked about his controversial social media behavior. In February, he retweeted a message from the account of a neo-Nazi, which came shortly after he retweeted false crime statistics that dramatically overstated the number of whites killed by blacks.

"Bill, am I gonna check every statistic?" he asked Fox News host Bill O'Reilly at the time. "All it was is a retweet. It wasn't from me."

While Trump is quick to blast his foes on Twitter — in recent days that includes The New York Times and the cast of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" — he has yet to proactively condemn racist acts his win has inspired. His eldest son, Don Jr., has used Twitter to liken Syrian refugees to a poisoned bowl of Skittles candy, and he has posted images of Pepe. And Trump's rise to political celebrity came as he peddled the falsehood that the nation's first black president, Barack Obama, was born in Africa, not in the United States.

In an interview Tuesday with The New York Times, Trump did denounce the white supremacist movement when asked, saying "I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn." But he has yet to convene the traditional news conference held by a president-elect in the days after winning where he could potentially face more pointed questions about it.

The ADL's Segal called Trump's answers when questioned an important step to "allay any illusions" white supremacists have about their place in a Trump administration.

But Ben Jealous, a former national president of the NAACP, went a step further, saying Trump should "pull a George Wallace." The segregationist Alabama governor ran for president on white identity politics but years later publicly apologized for his views.

Trump "shouldn't just disavow the worst behavior of others," Jealous said, "but take accountability for the worst behavior he's engaged in him himself."
___

Lemire reported from New York.

Reach Barrow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP and Lemire and http://twitter.com/JonLemire

----------

"Councilors must step forward in condemning hate, racism"
The Berkshire Eagle, Letter to the Editor, November 28, 2016

To the editor:

My statement to the North Adams City Council on Nov. 22:

I stood before this City Council in 2003 to ask the Council to stand with other communities to pass a resolution requesting the federal government to revise the hastily written and adopted Patriot Act, an act that eroded many of our civil liberties and paved the way for further erosion of them. The good members of that Council sat by and did nothing.

I stood before this City Council in 2006 to ask the Council to impeach Bush and Cheney for acts of treason, for purposefully and willfully lying to the American people to take us into an illegal and ongoing failed war of aggression, a war that continues to kill untold thousands, foment terrorism and is bankrupting our country. The good members of that Council sat by and did nothing.

Our country has elected a dangerously incompetent demagogue as our as next President. I stand before you today as an American and I salute you: Sieg Heil! And, I ask you how did that make you feel? That is the hateful salute of a growing neo-Nazi movement within our country, as unleashed by Trump.

If that salute offended you, then you, as a Council must condemn the appointment of Steven Bannon, an avowed white supremacist neo-Nazi, as Trump's chief strategic adviser. There is no place for neo-Nazis in our government, period.

This condemnation must happen at every level of government, in every house of worship and in every community. Failure to condemn this appointment, normalizes it and allows the evil reach of the neo-Nazis to expand.

As civic leaders, you act as a moral compass for our community and our children. If we tacitly accept racism, bigotry, anti-anti-Semitism, misogyny, and Islamaphobia in the White House, we are teaching them to our children.

To say that it is not within your purview as city councilors to condemn a presidential appointment is cowardly. It is every citizen's responsibility to condemn racism, bigotry and hate. It has been said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke.

Today, on the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy, I quote: "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." As in no other time in my lifetime has our country needed us more.

Dr. Peter D. May,
North Adams

----------

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, arriving for a pre-trial hearing at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., in January. Credit Ted Richardson/Associated Press.

SundayReview | EDITORIAL

“The Soldier Donald Trump Called a Traitor”
By The New York Times Editorial Board, November 27, 2016

The case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who, after leaving his post, was held hostage by the Taliban for five years, became a recurring theme of Donald Trump’s unruly campaign speeches.

In August 2015, Mr. Trump fired up a New Hampshire crowd by calling Sergeant Bergdahl “a dirty rotten traitor.” He proceeded to falsely claim that “six young beautiful people were killed trying to find him.” Then he dismissed arguments that the former hostage’s “psychological problems” may have led him to walk off a base in Afghanistan in 2009. “In the old days,” Mr. Trump said, pantomiming an execution by pretending to fire a rifle twice. “Bing bong.”

Those remarks are certain to loom large over Sergeant Bergdahl’s court-martial, which is scheduled to start in April. Sergeant Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior in front of the enemy; a guilty verdict could result in a sentence anywhere from no jail time to life. But how can he get a fair trial in the military justice system when the next commander in chief has proclaimed his guilt and accused him of treason?

The short answer is he can’t. Eugene Fidell, Mr. Bergdahl’s lawyer, says he intends to submit a motion the day Mr. Trump takes office, cataloging the roughly 40 times Mr. Trump made disparaging remarks about his client, and seeking to have the case dismissed.

“There is no precedent for a candidate running for high office to go after a single individual like this,” Mr. Fidell said in an interview. “Because he is at the pinnacle of the chain of command, what he says not only has direct and indirect legal consequences but symbolic potency.”

Mr. Trump recognized early on that the Bergdahl case had become a flash point for many voters who had contempt for the Obama administration. In one of the most thorny national security decisions of his administration, President Obama released five Afghan detainees held at Guantánamo Bay in exchange for Sergeant Bergdahl. The negotiations and the swap stunned members of Congress, who are required by law to be notified before any detainee is released from Guantánamo.

While Sergeant Bergdahl initially came home to a hero’s welcome, the terms and secrecy of the exchange, which angered Republicans and some members of the military, soon turned the soldier into a political pawn.

There is an alternative to a potentially drawn out legal fight over Mr. Trump’s incendiary remarks in the Bergdahl case. Mr. Obama could issue a pardon before he leaves office. That would put to rest a prosecution that was questionable from the outset because Sergeant Bergdahl had pre-existing mental health problems when the Army granted him a waiver to enlist. He emerged from captivity deeply traumatized after five years of being subjected to physical and psychological torture. It is time to let him rebuild his life.

-----

"Bowe Bergdahl Asks Obama For Pardon Before Trump Takes Office"
Trump has been very critical of Bergdahl, whose desertion court-martial is approaching
The Huffington Post, (Reporting by Doina Chiacu [Reuters]; Editing by Alistair Bell [Reuters]), 12/3/2016

WASHINGTON - U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is charged with desertion for walking away from his combat post in Afghanistan in 2009, has asked President Barack Obama for a pardon, the White House said on Saturday.

Obama will relinquish office on Jan. 20 to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who made caustic comments about the sergeant during the presidential campaign that drew complaints from Bergdahl’s defense team.

Trump savaged Bergdahl as “a no-good traitor who should have been executed” and criticized the prisoner swap in 2014 that won his release.

Bergdahl, 30, is facing a court-martial with a potential life sentence on charges of desertion and endangerment of U.S. troops after he walked away from his post in Afghanistan. He was captured by the Taliban and became a prisoner for five years.

The White House has received Bergdahl’s pardon application, but could not comment on pending cases per standard practice, an official said on Saturday on condition of anonymity.

U.S. military prosecutors have said the 45-day search for Bergdahl after he left his post put soldiers’ lives at risk and diverted attention from the fight against the Taliban.

Bergdahl was freed in a prisoner swap involving the release of five Taliban leaders held by the United States. The deal drew heavy criticism from Republicans.

In January, Bergdahl lawyer Eugene Fidell said Trump had made “appalling” comments about the sergeant and might be called as a witness in the court-martial.

In August, defense lawyers asked to have the charges against the former prisoner of war dismissed, arguing comments made by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain violated his due process rights. The filing quoted McCain as saying the committee would hold a hearing if Bergdahl received no punishment and that U.S. soldiers’ lives were put in danger by having to look for him.

Now that Trump is president-elect, a fair military trial will be impossible, Fidell told The New York Times.

“I have grave concerns as to whether Sergeant Bergdahl can receive a fair trial given the beating he has taken over many months from Mr. Trump, who will be commander in chief, as well as Senator McCain’s call for a hearing in case Sergeant Bergdahl is not punished,” Fidell said. “It is really most unfair.”

----------

"25th Amendment Could Declare Trump Mentally Unfit"
By Tim Marcin, IBTimes, November 28, 2016

Amid widespread protests and worrying signs of dysfunction in the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, millions across the United States are likely wondering how, or if, it's possible to oust the billionaire from the White House before the 2020 presidential election. While there have long been talks of impeachment hearings, a favorite theory this week for removing Trump from power involves the 25th amendment to the Constitution.

The amendment was approved in 1967, pushed into existence in the wake of the stunning 1963 death of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas. The Constitution had never officially laid out a succession plan that detailed how, exactly, a vice-president should take power should a president no longer be able to carry out his or her duties. Up until the amendment, vice presidents effectively took over because of a precedent set by Vice President John Tyler in 1841, according to the National Constitution Center. The 25th amendment clearly spelled out that a vice president took over if a president died, resigned or, importantly, was removed from office.

The amendment opened the door for removal if a president was deemed to be unfit for office, different from an impeachment hearing that typically centers around investigating if a president acted illegally while in office.

There are two options to remove a mentally unfit president, which were helpfully laid out step-by-step by Fusion. The first option requires a majority of the president's cabinet — positions such as secretary of state and secretary of defense — joining together with the vice president to declare the president is unfit. The second option requires the vice president to convince a majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate to decide the president is unfit. Both chambers of Congress then submit a letter stating such, which removes the president from power.

In both cases, the president can then submit a letter claiming he is fit for office, which then mandates a special session to vote on the issue. Once that special session is called, those trying to oust the president, in this case Trump, would have 21 days to convince a two-thirds majority of both Congressional chambers to vote to keep Trump out of the Oval Office.

While this might seem like a long shot, many are navigating toward it. Liberal "GQ" correspondent Keith Olbermann called it an instant impeachment, a sort-of "crazy-man clause." "For my money, he's nuts — couldn't pass a sanity test, open book," Olbermann said. "But of course, Section Four of the 25th Amendment here does not say 'nuts' — or impaired, or erratic or unbalanced or unhealthy or bipolar or narcissist or sociopath or psychopath. It only says 'that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'"

----------

"Trump mulls loss of citizenship, jail for flag burning"
The Hill, November 29, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed harsh punishments for flag burning, mentioning loss of citizenship or a year in jail.

“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

----------

“Trump's war on media should worry all Americans”
The Berkshire Eagle, Letter to the Editor, November 30, 2016

To the editor:

A free press has always been a great tool for the American people to hold public officials accountable. Watchdog journalism has provided us with numerous stories that shed light on the various types of corruption and scandals. If anything good came out of Watergate it was that the American public knew that they could trust the press to hold even the highest public officials accountable.

With the election of President-elect Donald Trump, the reliability of the media has come under constant scrutiny. Never before has a major presidential candidate, let alone a president-elect, questioned the legitimacy of the free press. He has called for strengthening libel laws, routinely banned certain reporters on the campaign trail, and his surrogates even suggested that he not hold press conferences while in office. This crusade against the media has caused distrust for actual fact-based news and an affinity for fake news over social media.

Mr. Trump's war on the media is dangerous for all Americans, whether you voted for him or not. Mr. Trump, like all presidents before him, needs to be held accountable by a free press, and to do that we must demand that he accept the media as a check against unilateral power and corruption.

Jacob "Coby" Tarjick,
Cheshire

----------

"Donald Trump Will Be President In Just Over A Month And The Constitution Is Already Under Attack"
It doesn’t take long.
By Sam Levine, Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post, 12/3/2016

With a little over a month until Donald Trump takes office, the president-elect and his allies have already begun to attack the guarantees of the First Amendment, signaling how imperiled the fundamental freedoms of the Constitution could be under a Trump presidency.

Trump has long shown contempt for the media and, as he prepares to take power, he and his allies haven’t held back.

On Thursday, Corey Lewandowski, who is Trump’s former campaign manager and expected to have a role in a Trump White House, said that New York Times editor Dean Baquet should be in jail because the paper published parts of Trump’s tax return during the campaign.

“We had one of the top people at The New York Times come to Harvard University and say, ‘I’m willing to go to jail to get a copy of Donald Trump’s taxes so I can publish them,’” Lewandowski said, according to Politico. “Dean Baquet came here and offered to go to jail — you’re telling me, he’s willing to commit a felony on a private citizen to post his taxes, and there isn’t enough scrutiny on the Trump campaign and his business dealings and his taxes?”

“It’s egregious,” Lewandowski added. “He should be in jail.”

Even after winning the presidency, Trump has had an almost myopic focus on the Times, criticizing the paper’s coverage of him. He has pledged to sue the newspaper, though, when he met with its staff, he called it “a great, great American jewel. A world jewel.”

But Trump has undermined the press by limiting its access to him, while surrogates have made the absurd claim that facts simply don’t exist anymore. The incoming commander in chief has also suggested that Americans who burn flags should lose their citizenship and do jail time. That would be a clear violation of the constitution, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning was constitutionally protected speech.

The New York Observer, which is owned by Trump’s son in law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, also published an op-ed this week calling on the FBI to investigate nationwide protests ― a form of constitutionally protected free speech ― following Trump’s victory.

Trump’s statement that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States is also an attack on the First Amendment, along with several other constitutional protections.

But perhaps more disturbingly, there’s been logic emerging from the Trump team that anything Trump does is protected by the office of the presidency.

When he explained the potential conflict of interest with his business, for example, Trump said “the law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”

Kellyanne Conway, another of Trump’s campaign managers, said that his spreading misinformation on Twitter constituted presidential behavior simply because he specifically engaged in it.

“He’s the president-elect, so that’s presidential behavior,” she said.

----------

To: jonathan_a_melle@yahoo.com
From: Alex Hart, PFAW alerts@pfaw.org
Reply to: pfaw@pfaw.org
Re: Reject Trump’s cabinet of hate & Wall Street greed
Date: December 7, 2016

*

Petition to members of the U.S. Senate:

Donald Trump’s first appointments to cabinet-level roles in his administration are horrifying. Trump’s nominees and rumored picks have promoted white nationalism, attacked climate science, and used their power as Wall Street insiders and corporate lobbyists to fleece working families.

As representatives of all Americans, you must stand up against hatred and greed. Fight to block and resist every Trump nominee who embraces racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, climate denial, and Wall Street greed.

*

Trump rose to power with a divisive campaign that showed he was willing to embrace every bigoted ideology from xenophobia to sexism to flat-out racism in order to gain power. Some of the people he's begun to name as cabinet picks embody these ideologies -- and that is unacceptable.

Trump’s Broken Promises

Trump promised on election night to be “a president for all Americans.” But the parade of horribles that Trump has nominated to his administration show he is welcoming hate right into the White House.

And his pledge during the campaign to “drain the swamp” and make Washington work for ordinary Americans instead of powerful elites? Forget about it. Trump’s cabinet is so pro-corporate it’s called “an investment banker’s dream.”

Who the Trump Cabinet Really Works For

Wall Street bankers and Trump’s corporate cronies are cheering the Trump agenda. It’s a corporate wish list that would eliminate protections for working people and our environment, and eviscerate strong rules reining in Wall Street.

The Trump administration is shaping up to benefit Donald Trump and his family’s business empire in a big way, with massive conflicts of interest posed by Trump’s continued stake in the Trump Organization.

The Senate Must Block and Resist Trump’s Cabinet

The U.S. Senate has confirmation power over most of Trump's cabinet. Senators must use this power to block and resist Trump’s cabinet of hate and greed. Here are just some of the examples of who we’re talking about:

* Enemy of civil rights and women's rights Jeff Sessions (Attorney General)
* Foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin (Treasury Secretary)
* Wall Street billionaire Wilbur Ross (Secretary of Commerce)
* Climate science denier Myron Ebell (EPA Administrator)

Thanks for all you do!

-- Alex Hart, Online Team

----------

“Donald Trump’s Proposed Cabinet Is Very White, And Very Male”
Trump has chosen just three people so far who are not white men.
By Amanda Terkel, Senior Political Reporter, The Huffington Post, 12/14/2016

Donald Trump’s Cabinet is shaping up to be the least diverse in recent history, with just three people so far who are not white men.

Of the 13 people Trump has nominated for Cabinet positions, only Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), Elaine Chao (Transportation) and Betsy DeVos (Education) are not both white and male.

There are still two Cabinet positions, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, for which Trump has not nominated anyone. For Agriculture, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) has been mentioned as a front-runner.

As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has noted, the line of succession to the presidency ― which includes the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore ― is shaping up to consist of 12 white men unless Trump picks Heitkamp, or another woman or person of color, for agriculture secretary.

Trump’s proposed Cabinet would be far less diverse than those of the past three presidents when they first took office. Bill Clinton had eight people in his initial Cabinet who were not white men, George W. Bush had seven and Barack Obama had nine.

Twitter post: Chris Donovan @chrisdonovan
If Trump's picks confirmed, 1st time in 24 yrs no woman/minority serving at least 1 of “Big 4” cabinet posts(State,Defense,Treasury,Justice)
1:30 PM - 13 Dec[ember] 2016


Administration:
Donald Trump, U.S. President-elect
Mike Pence, U.S. Vice President-elect
Cabinet appointments:
Rex Tillerson: Secretary of State-nominee
Steve Mnuchin: Secretary of Treasury-nominee
James Mattis: Secretary of Defense-nominee
Jeff Sessions: Secretary of Justice-nominee
Ryan Zinke: Secretary of Interior-nominee
Unknown: Secretary of Agriculture-nominee
Wilbur Ross: Secretary of Commerce-nominee
Andrew Puzder: Secretary of Labor-nominee
Tom Price: Secretary of Health & Human Services-nominee
Ben Carson: Secretary of Housing-nominee
Elaine Chao: Secretary of Transportation-nominee
Rick Perry: Secretary of Energy-nominee
Betsy DeVos: Secretary of Education-nominee
David Shulkin: Secretary of Veterans Affairs-nominee
John Kelly: Secretary of Homeland Security-nominee

----------

Breaking News: For his envoy to Israel, Donald Trump has chosen a supporter of West Bank settlements who has insulted left-leaning American Jews"
The New York Times, December 15, 2016

*

"Trump chooses hard-liner as Ambassador to Israel"
By Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times, December 15, 2016

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer aligned with the Israeli far right, as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, elevating a campaign adviser who has questioned the need for a two-state solution and has likened left-leaning Jews in America to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Mr. Friedman, whose outspoken views stand in stark contrast to decades of American policy toward Israel, did not wait long on Thursday to signal his intention to upend the American approach. In a statement from the Trump transition team announcing his nomination, he said he looked forward to doing the job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

Through decades of Republican and Democratic administrations, the embassy has been in Tel Aviv, as the State Department insists that the status of Jerusalem — which both Israel and the Palestinians see as their rightful capital — can be determined only through negotiations as part of an overall peace deal.

Mr. Friedman, who has no diplomatic experience, has said that he does not believe it would be illegal for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank and he supports building new settlements there, which Washington has long condemned as illegitimate and an obstacle to peace.

The Trump transition team’s statement focused on Mr. Friedman’s long history with Israel, portraying him as a friendly supporter of the country whose views were in line with the United States’ position toward it.

“The two nations have enjoyed a special relationship based on mutual respect and a dedication to freedom and democracy,” it said. “With Mr. Friedman’s nomination, President-elect Trump expressed his commitment to further enhancing the U.S.-Israel relationship and ensuring there will be extraordinary strategic, technological, military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.” The statement said that Mr. Friedman was a fluent speaker of Hebrew and “a lifelong student of Israel’s history.”

Mr. Friedman’s appointment was quickly praised by the Republican Jewish Coalition, whose executive director, Matt Brooks, called it “a powerful signal to the Jewish community.”

But beyond Republicans, there were deep concerns over the choice of Mr. Friedman. J Street, a dovish lobbying organization that has been critical of some Israeli policies, said in a statement that it was “vehemently opposed to the nomination.”

“As someone who has been a leading American friend of the settlement movement, who lacks any diplomatic or policy credentials,” it said, “Friedman should be beyond the pale.”

Mr. Friedman has made clear his disdain for those American Jews — especially those connected to J Street — who support a two-state solution for the Israelis and the Palestinians. Writing in June on the website of Arutz Sheva, an Israeli media organization, Mr. Friedman compared J Street supporters to “kapos,” the Jews who cooperated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

“The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty,” he wrote. “But J Street? They are just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas — it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.”

At a private session this month at the Saban Forum, an annual gathering of Israeli and American foreign policy figures, Mr. Friedman declined to disavow the comments and even intensified the sentiment.

Questioned by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Mr. Friedman was asked if he would meet with various groups, including J Street. Mr. Friedman said he would probably meet with individuals but not with the group, according to several people who attended.

Mr. Goldberg then raised the kapos comparison and asked if he stood by it. Mr. Friedman did not back away. “They’re not Jewish, and they’re not pro-Israel,” he said, according to the people in the room.

Daniel Levy, a left-leaning former Israeli peace negotiator, said that in naming an ambassador with the hard-line views of Mr. Friedman, Mr. Trump could end up undercutting the security of Israel and the United States and condemn “the Palestinians to further disenfranchisement and dispossession.”

“If an American ambassador stakes out positions that further embolden an already triumphalist settler elite, then that is likely to cause headaches for American national security interests across the region and even for Israel’s own security establishment,” Mr. Levy said. “Especially an ambassador committed to the ill-advised relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.”

In its statement, the Trump team noted that Mr. Friedman had held his bar mitzvah 45 years ago in Jerusalem at the Western Wall. The wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, is a remnant of the retaining wall that surrounded the ancient Temple Mount, the most sacred site in Judaism.

The site today houses the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. Control over the site has been a persistent source of friction between Israel and the Palestinians, and has sparked violence between the two sides.

More recently, the Western Wall itself has been a source of tension and clashes between the Orthodox authorities who control the site and more liberal Jews, many of whom are from North America and oppose the restrictions there on prayer by women.

Follow Matthew Rosenberg on Twitter @AllMattNYT.

Peter Baker and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

----------

Jewish American political thinker Hannah Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933, saw the problem as “not what our enemies did, but what our friends did.” New York Times Co. via Getty Images.

“What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump”
While it’s important to watch the president-elect closely, we also must be mindful of our own response to him.
By Shawn Hamilton, Freelance Writer, The Huffington Post, December 19, 2016

On election night, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had a revelation. Matthews, with a pained expression, began to piece together the basis for Hillary Clinton’s pending defeat. She had failed to communicate a tough position on illegal immigration. She had supported bad trade deals. She had not renounced all of the “stupid wars.”

Her presidential rival, Donald Trump, on the other hand, had waged what Matthews called a “legitimate” campaign on these issues, a claim that seemed to stretch the bounds of legitimacy, but Matthews was not alone. In the following days and weeks, others would make similar claims implying a victory that, weeks before, had been impossible was actually inevitable ― and liberalism was largely to blame.

People magazine put Trump on its cover in November, a month after one of its journalists, Natasha Stoynoff, accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2005. The magazine’s editor-in-chief reassured readers that they stood by their journalist and her allegations, but Trump had “made history” and thus earned the cover.

In a New York Times op-ed, “The End of Identity Liberalism,” Mark Lilla argued that “moral panic about racial, gender and sexual identity” had “distorted liberalism’s message and prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing.” Trump’s popularity, Lilla argued, was not a consequence of a white backlash (whitelash) but rather a reaction to “the omnipresent rhetoric of identity or ‘political correctness.’”

Michael Lerner, in another New York Times op-ed, “Stop Shaming Trump Voters,” argued that “the pain and rage of the Trump voter is legitimate” after decades of this constituency being ignored or attacked by the left for cultural and religious reasons. He added that “we need to reach out to Trump voters in a spirit of empathy and contrition” and reassured us that “the racism, sexism and xenophobia used by Mr. Trump to advance his candidacy does not reveal an inherent malice in the majority of Americans.”

These reactions to Trump and his supporters have a way of separating ideas that usually move in tandem. Facts and truth are suddenly unrelated. Power no longer implies responsibility. Legitimacy and decency are now somehow passengers on separate ships. In this dynamic, People magazine can champion both the perpetrator and the victim and see no contradiction or betrayal. Lilla can use the victory of a campaign steeped in identity politics to highlight the ineffectiveness of identity politics. And Lerner can argue that a campaign “advanced” by sexism, racism and xenophobia can tell us much about the targets of that bigotry, i.e. that they need to behave differently, but little about the supporters of that campaign.

So, why the rush to defend Trump’s supporters? Why the self-recriminations? Why the willingness to stretch the bounds of legitimacy to accommodate Trump’s antics? Much has been written about Trump’s demagoguery and its similarity to totalitarian leaders of the past, but what about Trump’s opponents? Are many of us borrowing a page from totalitarianism without realizing it? Are we empowering him? Are we coordinating?

The word Gleichshaltung is often translated from the German as “coordination” and refers to the process of ― politically speaking ― getting in line. It often appears in books about the Nazi era. German Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer and German journalist Joachim Fest wrote about the personal cost of coordinating in their respective memoirs. German author Sebastian Haffner and Americans including journalist William Shirer wrote about the propaganda and politics of coordination.

German-born Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt, in one of her last interviews, explains it best.

“The problem, the personal problem, was not what our enemies did, but what our friends did. Friends ‘coordinated’ or got in line.” And this coordination was not necessarily due to the “pressure of terror,” said Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933. Intellectuals were particularly vulnerable to this wave of coordination. “The essence of being an intellectual is that one fabricates ideas about everything,” and many intellectuals of her time were “trapped by their own ideas.”

People rejected the uglier aspects of Nazism but gave ground in ways that ultimately made it successful. They conceded premises to faulty arguments. They rejected the “facts” of propaganda, but not the impressions of it. The new paradigm of authoritarianism was so disorienting that they simply could not see it for what it was, let alone confront it.

The faulty premise that empowered Hitler and helped place him in the German mainstream was called the Dolchstoss or the legend of the “stab in the back.” It argued that, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Germany was winning World War I only to have politicians surrender prematurely.

Hitler, as a political figure, was the embodiment of this hack theory. While many rejected Hitler’s anti-Semitism and bellicosity, his deep sense of having been wronged by Germany’s surrender in World War I ― a war in which he fought ― gave him authenticity. It also created a hole in the German Republic’s legitimacy that he and his followers barreled through.

Before there were the camps and murders ― and the euphemisms to hide all of the camps and all of the murders ― there was this feel-good lie that should have been dismissed ― along with the people telling it, from the beginning.

In today’s United States, the suggestion that illegal immigration is the cause of the economic struggles of working-class whites is an American Dolchstoss. Mechanization, globalization and the decline of unions have affected working-class whites to a far greater extent than illegal immigration ― or immigration of any kind. And this is not an obscure fact or liberal talking point. Yet many who supposedly reject Trump’s scapegoating of illegal immigrants seem willing to concede it.

The debates about how or what, if anything, workers can do to combat this reality are endless, but the claim that immigrants are to blame is the talking point of the demagogue, not a reflection of economic reality.

When the decline of working-class jobs was perceived as a problem for African-Americans primarily, the neoliberal and conservative positions were much less sympathetic. According to William Julius Wilson’s 1996 book, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, “Between 1967 and 1987 Philadelphia lost 64% of its manufacturing jobs; Chicago lost 60%; Detroit 51%.” This meant hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, disproportionately affecting African-Americans. The solution from conservatives? “Migrate” was black conservative Shelby Steele’s prescription. “Get new skills,” said others. And even more popular was “behave more like Asians.” Yet whites need an entirely new mythology, even if that mythology hurts prospects. According to a recent Politico article by Dana Goldstein, “America: This Is Your Future,” “Rust Belt cities that are attracting immigrants are in better shape than those, like Dayton, Ohio, with fewer foreign-born residents.” Yet, “the people who are upset about immigration live in areas where immigration has had very little impact. A lot of the upset is symbolic.” The symbolism and the propaganda form a kind of feedback loop, each reinforcing the other, regardless of the underlying truths ― or lack thereof.

In his 1940 book, Germany: Jekyll and Hyde, Haffner explains this relationship between impression and propaganda, even for those opposed to the Reich. He writes, “Outside of Germany people often wonder at the palpable fraudulence of Nazi propaganda, the stupid incredible exaggerations, the ludicrous reticences concerning what is generally known. Who can be convinced by it? They ask. The answer is that it is not meant to convince but to impress. It addresses emotion and fantasy. Nazi propaganda seeks to create in our minds tenacious ideas and fantasies.”

In Haffner’s time, the tenacious ideas and fantasies were the subhuman images of the Reich’s enemies. Many Germans rejected the “facts” of this propaganda: that Czechoslovakia or Poland posed existential threats to Germany and the German people, but the impression of the propaganda remained. “The image,” Haffner wrote, “of the Czechs and Poles as a snub-nosed, unpleasant, dwarfish half-ape brandishing a revolver, whip or rubber truncheon at a number of barely clad women, children, and blond men bound to posts.” Who could trust such a person? Why risk it?

Trump’s propaganda about Mexican rapists and Muslim terrorists operates in a similar way. The informed listener knows that most rapes are committed by perpetrators that are known to the victim. They know that most terrorist attacks in the United States are committed by non-Muslims, but the impression that those groups are not to be trusted ― that to trust them is taking an unnecessary risk ― remains.

The impressions born of the propaganda give birth to discussions that worsen the problem. Commentator Van Jones, for example, debated CNN panelists recently about discrimination against Muslims. To support his argument that Muslims are not the enemy, he cataloged many of the positive attributes of the Muslim community as if Americans that are hostile to Muslims are acting in good faith based on bad information rather than cherry-picking incidents to support their underlying prejudices. Jones reminded viewers and other panelists that Muslims have low crime rates, high educational achievement and high rates of entrepreneurship. The fact that it needs to be said demonstrates the relative power of the people asking the questions to those who must answer. It morphs questions about Muslims into a kind of Muslim Question that exists not to seek answers but to emphasize the otherness of the Muslim community and to limit its rights.

While on the campaign trail in February, Trump urged followers to “knock the hell” out of protesters, promising to pay their legal bills if they were arrested and charged. That same February in Fort Worth, he promised a crowd that he would “open up our libel laws” so that news outlets can be sued for writing “false” or “purposely negative” articles. In July, he urged Russia to interfere in the election on his behalf, later saying he was joking. In September, he urged still other supporters to “monitor” polling stations. In October, he promised when victorious to throw his rival, Hillary Clinton, in jail. And just recently he advocated revoking the citizenship of Americans who burn flags.

So, in the last year, Trump has flirted with or, maybe more his style, groped and pawed at totalitarianism, yet the advice from many is to “give him a chance” ― or to coordinate.

In 1949, Harvard psychologists James Bruner and Leo Postman performed a study that helps explain the contradiction. Bruner and Postman recruited two dozen college students to participate in a study of perception and expectations. The experiment involved playing cards. Participants were shown a series of cards. Most of them were standard playing cards, but included in the series were several trick card: a black four of hearts, a red six of spades, a red six of clubs, to name a few. Each card was presented, and the participant was instructed to identify it correctly.

There were four possible reactions to the trick cards. The first was “recognition,” or describing the trick card accurately. The second was “disruption,” or being confused by the card and as a result be unable to describe it. The third option was “compromise,” which mixes the incongruities in the cards: the black four of hearts is reported as “grayish”; the red six of spades is reported as “purple.”

The fourth and most common reaction by far was “dominance.” The participants expected to view a normal series of cards, so when faced with a trick card their minds approximated, and the trick card became the most similar normal card: a red spade was identified as a red heart or diamond; a black heart was identified as a spade.

The report of the study, “On the Perception of Incongruity: A Paradigm,” said, “Our major conclusion is that perceptual organization is powerfully determined by expectations built upon past commerce with the environment. When such expectations are violated by the environment, the perceiver’s behavior can be described as resistance to the unexpected or incongruous.”

The participants could only see what they expected to see. Their minds coordinated. For many Americans, the expectations of the game are divided government, stability and continuity regardless of what the candidate promises. However, if the new regime has embraced authoritarianism, then there will be trick cards in the deck that have to be identified correctly and challenged.

“Patriotism” became a trick card in Klemperer’s memoir and study of Nazi language, The Language of the Third Reich. Klemperer wrote of a Jewish neighbor, Frau K, who continued to speak with pride about Germany and the “Fuhrer,” despite having been deemed subhuman by the regime. Patriotism and deference to leadership ― respect for the office of the president, as we call it ― might have elevated Frau K in the old paradigm, but in the new one it worsened her condition.

“Divided government” became a trick card in Shirer’s 1960 history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, when Hitler pushed through the Enabling Act and, “In five brief paragraphs,” took the power to legislate, approve treaties, and initiate constitutional amendments away from Parliament. A divided government essentially “committed suicide,” according to Shirer, and bequeathed its power to a dictator.

There were many others, but “dominance” made them difficult to recognize. Joachim Fest writes in his memoir Not I, “At first, the countless violations of the law by our new rulers still caused a degree of disquiet. But among the incomprehensible features of those months, my father later recalled, was the fact that soon life went on as if such state crimes were the most natural thing in the world.” Those months would turn to years. Not the thousand years that Hitler had predicted, but enough to cause millions of deaths.

We should not waste our time or imaginations trying to reconfigure Trumpism to explain why all of the “good people” supported him. It is more important to see it for what it is and resist. Hopefully, they will join us. If not, it will not be necessary to call them names, they will have named themselves.

----------

New York City – “Muslims targeted”
The Week, Volume 16 Issue 801, December 16, 2016, News Page 7

Three Muslim women – one of them an off-duty NYPD officer – were attacked in alleged hate crimes in New York City this week. In one incident, a transit worker wearing a Muslim head covering was allegedly pushed down the stairs at Grand Central Terminal by a man who called her a “terrorist.” In another, three intoxicated white men reportedly tried to rip the hijab off a young woman riding the subway as they shouted “Donald Trump!” and “Get the hell out of the country!” Yasmin Seweid, 18, who was born in Brooklyn, said she got off the train crying and shaken. “I’m an American, you know?” she said. Days later, an off-duty Muslim cop who was born and raised in New York City was allegedly abused by a man on the street who said to her, “ISIS [expletive], I will cut your throat.” The Southern Poverty Law Center says there has been a surge in hate crimes since Trump’s election.

----------

“'Alt-right' groups will 'revolt' if Trump shuns white supremacy, leaders say”
Prominent members of the American far right predict that waning influence on the president-elect could trigger discord and vengeance within the movement
By Rory Carroll in Los Angeles @rorycarroll72 – The Guardian – December 27, 2016

Donald Trump will disappoint and disillusion his far-right supporters by eschewing white supremacy, according to some of the movement’s own intellectual leaders.

Activists who recently gave Nazi salutes and shouted “hail Trump” at a gathering in Washington will revolt if the new US president fails to meet their expectations, the leaders told the Guardian.

The prospect of such disillusion and internecine squabbling may console liberals who fear a White House tinged with racism and quasi-fascism. The analysis is all the more reassuring because it comes from far-right influencers and analysts, not wishful progressives.

Instead of enjoying proximity to power, according to this analysis, vocal parts of the loose coalition known as the “alt-right” could remain on the political fringe, wondering what happened to their triumph.

“Their hearts are bigger than their brains,” said Mark Weber, who runs the Institute for Historical Review, an organisation dedicated to exposing “Jewish-Zionist” power. “Saying they want to be the intellectual head of the Trump presidency is delusional.”

Jared Taylor, a white supremacist who runs the self-termed “race-realist” magazine American Renaissance, said the president-elect had already backpedalled on several pledges that had fired up the far-right. “At first he promised to send back every illegal immigrant. Now he is waffling on that.”

David Cole, a self-proclaimed Holocaust revisionist and Taki magazine columnist, envisaged the movement sliding into bickering and in-fighting, stuck in “rabbit warrens” of online trolling rather than policy shaping.

“In January Trump will start governing and will have to make compromises. Even small ones will trigger squabbles between the ‘alt-right’. ‘Trump betrayed us.’ ‘No, you’re betraying us for saying Trump betrayed us.’ And so on. The alt-right’s appearance of influence will diminish more and more as they start to fight amongst themselves.”

In an email interview Peter Brimelow, founder of the webzine Vdare.com, which alleges Mexican plots to remake the US, said Trump’s failure to deliver “important bones” could trigger a backlash. “I think the right of the right is absolutely prepared to revolt. It’s what they do.”

There is, however, a catch: Weber, Taylor and Brimelow – all classified as “extremists” by the Southern Poverty Law Center – said Trump’s victory energised the far-right and that the movement can grow with or without White House help.

The young crowd that roared “Hail Trump” at last month’s gathering in Washington will fight for its beliefs no matter what, Brimelow said. “None of them were looking for jobs in the Trump administration. These are not party loyalists. They know they’re entirely outside the establishment consensus. And they’re used to guerrilla warfare.”

Trump’s relationship with the far-right – an unruly grouping which includes opponents to illegal immigration, free trade, police reform, political correctness, miscegenation and mainstream Holocaust scholarship – will partly define his administration.

The casino mogul turned Republican insurgent electrified this group during the election by calling undocumented Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. He vowed to deport 11 million undocumented people, ban Muslims from entering the US and build a wall on the southern border. He was slow to disavow an endorsement from David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader.

He put Steve Bannon, who turned Breitbart News into a platform for the far right, in charge of his campaign and rewarded him with a senior White House post.

A few weeks after Trump’s victory the innocuously named National Policy Institute, which espouses an “ethno-state” for Americans of European descent, held its annual conference in the Ronald Reagan Building a few blocks from the White House.

Its leader, Richard Spencer, concluded the event by shouting “Hail Trump! Hail our people!” and “Hail victory!”, an English translation of the Nazi exhortation “Sieg heil”. Some audience members gave the Nazi salute.

Some observers saw their worst fears realised: unbound, exuberant fascism.

But some of the far-right’s intellectuals saw something else: self-sabotage and delusion.

It was an “idiot conclusion” to a conference packed with other speeches and panel discussions, said Brimelow, who addressed the gathering.

Taylor, another speaker, agreed. “It was going very well until (then). Richard Spencer has said that the way he closed the talk was meant as pure irony, and I hope that’s the case, that it was all ironic and over-exuberance. I don’t think that anything that has any whiff of Nazism is a particularly effective way to bring Americans or even Europeans to an effective understanding of race.”

Cole said Spencer, a rising star of the far-right movement, overreached. “He blew a lot of goodwill ... and became an embarrassment to some of his own people.”

Spencer and his supporters will pay for hubris, Cole predicted. “They’ll burn out. After Trump’s victory they had a belief they were behind it, or had a lot of clout. All they can hope for is to get something on the immigration reform/restrictions. Otherwise they’re enjoying the bragging rights, saying they won it, even though they didn’t.”

Asked about that weekend and his impact on the white supremacist movement, Trump told the New York Times: “I don’t want to energize the group, and I disavow the group ... But it’s not a group I want to energize, and if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why.”

Spencer, unabashed, has continued touring university campuses and is considering a congressional run in Montana, where he lives. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If the critiques are correct he and his supporters will, to co-opt a favoured “alt-right” term, have a rude awakening. “In the eagerness for hope many have latched on to Trump. They’re trying to get a step on the escalator. I’m convinced they’ll be disappointed,” said Weber. Far-right youths are “on fire” but Trump, he said, will not be able to turn the clock back to the 1950s, a perceived golden age for white America.

Taylor said some on the far-right fell, as did liberals, for what he termed media distortions. “Donald Trump was never a racial dissident of the sort that I am. He was never one of us. He’s an American nationalist. The left was wrong to think that he was dancing to the tune of people like myself.”

Taylor said the far right would need patience. “Racial nationalism has not triumphed in America. It will some day. But to think it has done so (already) is delusive.”

This story has been corrected to reflect that Richard Spencer is not a native of Montana.

----------

Letter: "Trump may be Twain's wrong kind of statesman"
The Berkshire Eagle, December 24, 2016

To the editor:

On Thursday, Vladimir Putin gave a speech and said "We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces."

Shortly thereafter on the same day, Donald Trump tweeted "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

Then, on Friday, Trump said: "Let it be an arms race," and "We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all."

More than 100 years ago, Mark Twain derisively said this game of one-upmanship is what is called statesmanship. "By and by, when each nation has 20,000 battleships and 5,000,000 soldiers, we shall all be safe and the wisdom of statesmanship will stand confirmed," and "This singular game, which is so costly and so ruinous and so silly, is called statesmanship - which is different from assmanship on account of the spelling. Anybody but a statesman could invent some way to reduce these vast armaments to rational and sensible and safe police proportions "

According to the Arms Control Association, we have 7,100 nuclear warheads and Russia has 7,300, which together make up about 90 percent of all nuclear weapons in the world. Our stockpile has been reduced from about 30,000 in the middle 1960s to its current level, of which 1,367 are actually deployed and can be used at the flip of a switch. Russia has about 1,800 similarly positioned.

It seems to me there are enough nuclear weapons already existing to destroy the world more than once, so why would we need more? Have we learned nothing in the past century? I am concerned our 45th president will be suckerpunched by Putin, and then will react as he always does when his pride is wounded, by covering up with some sort or bravado and rash, vindictive response.

We have to give Mr. Trump a chance to lead, but so far he has shown mostly a propensity for reaction, as demonstrated above. We need a statesman at the helm, but not the kind to which Mark Twain referred.

Charles I. Francis,
Becket

*

Letter: “Keep Trump's finger off nuclear button”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 6, 2017

To the editor:

Many of us are extremely nervous about the potential actions of our new president-to-be. With respect to climate change, affordable health care, high- quality public education, economic disparity and many other issues, we are waiting with great anxiety to see what will happen.

Another issue for grim reflection has to do with our next president's thoughts about nuclear weapons.

While I applaud President Obama's efforts to reduce the nuclear stockpiles that imperil life on our planet, I fail to understand why his administration not long ago approved spending roughly a trillion more dollars over the next 30 years on further development of ever more sophisticated nuclear weapons and delivery systems. This makes no sense at all.

Now we have a president-elect who during the pre-election debates seemed to think that if we have nuclear weapons we should be able to use them. He seemed also to be unaware of our nuclear triad. i.e. our ability to deliver nuclear weapons on targets using planes, submarines and ground-launched missiles. He further has speculated that other countries such as Japan and South Korea should also acquire such weapons.

The accidents and close calls from suspected attacks between us and the old Soviet Union suggest that simply having these horrendous weapons in abundance around the planet is not a sane response to fear between nations.

According to my American Heritage dictionary, one of the legal definitions of insanity is: "... a degree of mental malfunctioning sufficient to prevent the accused from knowing right from wrong in the act he is charged with or to render him unaware of the nature of the act when committing it." I therefore conclude that one who would launch potentially civilization-destroying weapons against an another nation fully ready to retaliate, is performing an act of insanity.

Readers who share this concern may wish to click on the following website, where a petition highly relevant to this concern is available: www.ploughshares.org/keep-donald-trumps-finger-off-nuclear-button

Donald Lathrop,
Canaan, N.Y.

----------

Letter: “Give NRA due credit for Trump's election”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 2, 2017

To the editor:

There has been a continuous barrage of head wind coming from the Clinton and the Democratic Party as to who was responsible for Hillary's defeat. Fingers have been pointed out FBI Director Comey, WikiLeaks, Fox News, the Russians, and the list goes on. It seems like everybody is responsible except the candidate herself. At best, a mediocre candidate with a poor campaign strategy.

Early in her campaign, Clinton stated that she was going to take on the gun lobby. The attack backfired. The National Rifle Association (NRA) was glad to oblige her and is more than happy to take a big piece of the credit in contributing to her defeat. Early on, the NRA endorsed Donald Trump and went to work on an unprecedented campaign to defeat Clinton. It energized its 5 million members as well as the other 80 million-plus legal gun owners in the U.S. According to the NRA's official publication, the American Rifleman, it sent out 38 million mailings, made 15 phone calls, knocked on tens of thousands of doors, and ran millions of television and digital ads across the country. The impact of these efforts had to be tremendous.

The anti-Second Amendment and pro-gun control crowded that supported Clinton took it on the chin. There you have it.

Dennis L. Lattizzori,
Pittsfield

*

Letter: “Clinton lost because she was poor candidate”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 16, 2017

To the editor:

Since Nov. 8, Democrats have blamed the loss on just about everything except where the blame actually belongs, Hillary Clinton herself.

How could she lose? The media was in her corner, the Hollywood elite backed her, minorities were for her, she was endorsed by all but two major newspapers and she outspent her opponent 2 to 1.

Back in 1996, New York Times columnist William Safire diagnosed her real problem. He called her a "congenital liar," which she has definitely lived up to. CBS showed film clips of her and Chelsea greeting officials on the tarmac in Bosnia while she had claimed the landing had been made under sniper fire and they were told to run for their cars. On Benghazi, she told the families of the deceased that it was the fault of an anti-Muslim video, while emailing her daughter the same day that it was terrorism. She claimed that 90 percent of her emails were on the State Department server while the inspector general stated it was 2 percent.

She and the Democratic National Committee claim that the election was lost because of fake news, the Russians, James Comey, angry white men, voter suppression, and the Electoral College. The reason she lost is that she had no message with any substance. In the last month, her main message over and over again that Trump was not qualified.

The popular vote total is meaningless, with California giving her the roughly 3 million votes she needed to win the popular vote. If that was the criteria for picking a president, it would guarantee a Democratic win in all past elections other than Reagan's two wins. Without California, Trump would have won the popular vote by 1.4 million.

Armand "Pic" Delisle,
Hinsdale

*

Letter: “Successful rebellion against arrogant elites”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 22, 2017

To the editor:

On Nov. 8, we experienced a rebellion by the American working class against the liberal/progressive elites who have for many years exercised way too much control over our citizens and our country. These liberal elites believe the average American isn't smart enough to know what's in his or her best interest and therefore must be guided. Elites feel they must have sufficient control of our government to insure we do not make the wrong decisions about how to live our lives.

Through their activist activities, the media, which are overwhelming liberal, and universities, most of which are controlled by liberals, and with the help of liberal judges, have been able to force their views on the rest of us. Liberal judges believe that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are "living documents" that they can change as they see fit. The liberal elites' control over us culminated with the election of Barack Obama. These arrogant elites jammed their views down the throats of citizens once too often and now we have rebelled against them.

Through this election, the working class has given the Republican Party the tools necessary to bring our wonderful country back to the traditional values on which it was founded. This rebellion took place for all of our citizens regardless of race, religion, gender or national origin. We are all Americans. Continued success, President Donald J. Trump. "Make America great again."

Thomas Gilardi,
Pittsfield

*

Letter: “Trump, GOP majority have created Utopia”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 18, 2017

To the editor:

As a conservative Republican, I can finally say I have found Utopia. The second greatest president since President Ronald Reagan in my lifetime is President Donald Trump.

I have the majority in the House of Representative, I have majority in the Senate (with a few exceptions), I am proud of all of them.

I have stopped watching CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and NBC News, occasionally watching FOX News. I now know which news papers to avoid and those columnist not to read.

I see the liberals scrambling and sulking, and blaming everyone and everything for their defeat. The worst president in my lifetime is history; Barack Obama.

If you don't believe me, please try to avoid the above fake news media for one month. Happiness and peace will fill your hearts and for the long term, at least four more years, and probably six years you will find your utopia.

There is a God in heaven and he has made my life complete!

Thomas D. Gilardi,
Pittsfield

----------

"House Republicans voted to gut the congressional ethics office, set up after corruption scandals. The move was made without notice."
The New York Times, January 2, 2017

House Republicans, defying their top leaders, voted Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.

The move to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics was not public until late Monday. The full House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the rules, which would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.

*

"Donald Trump rebuked House Republicans, saying there were more important things to do than “weakening" the independent ethics office"
The New York Times, January 3, 2017

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday criticized House Republicans for their surprise move to gut an independent congressional ethics office on the eve of a new legislative session, saying they should focus instead on domestic policy priorities such as health care and a tax overhaul.

In a pair of postings on Twitter, Mr. Trump called the Office of Congressional Ethics “unfair,” but said focusing on it now was a case of misplaced priorities. He appended the hashtag “DTS,” an apparent allusion to his promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

*

“House Republicans reversed course and withdrew a plan to gut an ethics office, after intense criticism from Donald Trump and others”
The New York Times, January 3, 2017

The reversal came less than 24 hours after House Republicans, meeting in a secret session, voted to eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics, created in 2009 in the aftermath of a series of scandals involving House lawmakers.

----------

115TH CONGRESS [Republican Party's] AGENDA:

* Repeal/Replace ACA aka Obamacare
* Cut Medicaid (more than 1 in 5 Americans rely on Medicaid for healthcare insurance)
* Kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
* Repeal Dodd-Frank
* Privatize Veteran's care (the VA)
* Tax cuts

Source: The Rachel Maddow Show on January 2, 2017.

----------

“House GOP passes rules aimed at preventing lawmaker protests”
The Hill, January 3, 2017

House Republicans adopted new rules on Tuesday to slap hefty fines on lawmakers who take photos or video on the floor, a move meant to deter Democrats from staging another sit-in similar to last year’s gun violence protest.

The new rules enforce a previously existing prohibition on taking pictures or video on the House floor. Lawmakers of both parties routinely ignored the rules over the years and snapped photos at big events such as the State of the Union and addresses from foreign leaders.

----------

"GOP aims to rein in liberal cities"
The Hill, January 5, 2017

After consolidating power in Washington, D.C. and state capitals under President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans are moving to prevent large cities dominated by Democrats from enacting sweeping liberal agendas.

Republican state legislatures are planning so-called preemption laws, which prevent cities and counties from passing new measures governing everything from taxes to environmental regulations and social issues.

----------


January 6, 2017

Elizabeth Warren announced this morning that she is running for reelection in 2018, seeking a second term as US Senator from Massachusetts.

“The people of Massachusetts didn’t send me to Washington to roll over and play dead while Donald Trump and his team of billionaires, bigots, and Wall Street bankers crush the working people of our Commonwealth and this country,” she wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “This is no time to quit.”

Source: The Boston Globe




----------

"Trump calls for investigation into intel leaks to NBC"
The Hill, January 6, 2017

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday called for lawmakers to investigate U.S. intelligence leaks to NBC about information on Russian interference in the election.

“I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it,” Trump tweeted Friday.

----------

“Spicer: Media doesn’t treat Trump with respect, cheers on Democrats”
The Hill, January 8, 2017

The media doesn’t treat President-elect Donald Trump with the proper respect, the man set to be the next White House spokesman says in an interview with The Hill.

Sean Spicer, the longtime GOP operative and strategist for the Republican National Committee, criticized a media landscape that he said mocked Trump even as it cheers on Democrats.

----------

“Senate readies for blizzard of confirmation battles”
The Hill, January 8, 2017

The Senate will begin a blizzard of confirmation hearings Tuesday [January 10, 2017] for Donald Trump’s prospective Cabinet, as Republicans race to get members of the president-elect’s team in place on day one of his administration.

But the fast-tracking of nominees is frustrating Democrats, who hope to use the hearings to press Trump’s team on a host of issues.

----------

“Law enforcement officials see Sessions as 'police-first' attorney general pick”
The Hill, January 9, 2017

Police and law enforcement officials are backing Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Justice.

Law enforcement groups view Sessions as someone who will bring a "police-first" mentality to Justice that they say was absent during President Obama's eight years in office.

----------

“Government ethics chief blasts Trump business plan”
The Hill, January 11, 2017

The head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Wednesday slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to separate himself from his business interests, calling it “wholly inadequate” in resolving potential conflicts of interest.

“The plan the president-elect has announced doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the last four decades have met,” OGE Director Walter Shaub said during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"Stepping back from running his business is meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective," he said.

*

"Donald Trump will turn over business operations to a trust run by his sons and an associate, but won’t divest himself of his empire"
The New York Times, January 11, 2017

He will donate to the United States government all profits from foreign government payments to his hotels, top officials with his company said Wednesday, describing the arrangements as voluntary measures taken to answer concerns about potential conflicts of interest that would allow Mr. Trump to focus on running the country.

The Trump Organization will also refrain from entering into any new deals with foreign partners, his legal advisers said, backing off from an earlier claim by Mr. Trump that his company would have “no new deals” of any kind during his presidency. Instead, the Trump enterprise will have to clear any new transactions with an ethics adviser to be chosen by the president-elect in coming days.

----------

"CNN in Trump’s crosshairs"
The Hill, January 14, 2017

CNN has become public enemy number one for Donald Trump and the latest media outlet to become entangled in a high-stakes stand-off with the president-elect.

Trump has long been critical of CNN, claiming it is biased against him and labeling it the “Clinton News Network.” During the presidential campaign Trump ripped the network as “dishonest as hell” and “disgusting.”

That feud escalated this week with CNN’s decision to run a controversial report highlighting Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, which provoked an explosive public exchange between Trump and CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

----------

POLITICS
“Anti-Immigrant French Candidate Marine Le Pen Visits Trump Tower”
A spokesman for Trump said Le Pen would not be meeting with the president-elect.
By Christina Wilkie, White House reporter, The Huffington Post, January 12, 2017

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and some of her campaign staff were spotted Thursday morning at Trump Tower, prompting speculation that the leader of the hard-line conservative National Front party would be meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

A Trump spokesman denied that Le Pen would meet with the president-elect or anyone from the transition team, telling reporters that “Trump Tower is open to the public.”

An aide to Le Pen said a meeting with Trump “is not on her public agenda,” but added, “We don’t communicate about private visits.”

Le Pen is a deeply polarizing figure in France, where she is frequently accused of racism and xenophobia for her nationalist, anti-immigrant policy positions. The daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, she regularly claims to be “fighting the Islamisation of French society.” In a 2010 speech, she likened the presence of Muslims in France to the Nazi occupation.

Le Pen was accompanied to Trump Tower by her partner, George “Guido” Lombardi, a longtime friend of Trump’s who lives in the building and was active in the “Citizens for Trump” campaign this fall. Lombardi is also the leader of a group called the North Atlantic League, which espouses anti-Islamic views, and warns that “Judeo-Christian civilization” is under attack from Islam, the media and a “cultural assault.”

Like Trump, Le Pen’s presidential campaign is built on a populist, nationalist ideal that promises a return to bygone days. Both she and Trump supported Britain’s vote to exit the European Union last year, and both are champions of strict border controls to prevent the arrival of undocumented immigrants.

Le Pen has repeatedly said she admires Trump, calling his victory in November “a sign of hope” for hard-line conservative European politicians.

Trump has met several times with another populist European politician, Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party.

It was unclear late Thursday morning whether Le Pen would ride the elevator to Trump’s offices, or just sit downstairs and drink coffee.

----------

Marine Le Pen, Leader of French party Front National (FN) speaks during a conference of European right-wing party ENF, Europe Nations and Freedom, in Koblenz, Germany, 21 January 2017. Several European leaders of national right-wing parties will deliver speeches at the conference organized by the AFD. EPA/Sascha Ditscher.

“Le Pen predicts year of ‘awakening’ at European nationalists’ meeting”
By Geir Moulson, Associated Press, January 21, 2017

KOBLENZ, Germany — French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen declared Saturday that 2017 will be the ‘‘year of the awakening of the people of continental Europe’’ as she joined fellow nationalist leaders in Germany at the beginning of a year of high-stakes national elections.

The mood was celebratory a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president, following a campaign buoyed by anti-establishment and protectionist themes.

‘‘Yesterday, a new America. Today, hello Koblenz, a new Europe!’’ Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders said as he opened his speech at a congress center on the banks of the Rhine river, under heavy security.

‘‘The people of the west are awakening. They are throwing off the yoke of political correctness,’’ he said. ‘‘This year will be the year of the people ... the year of liberation, the year of the patriotic spring.’’

Wilders’ anti-Islam Party of Freedom could win the largest percentage of votes in the March 15 Dutch parliamentary election, though it is shunned by rivals and highly unlikely to be able to form a coalition. Le Pen is among top contenders in France’s April-May presidential vote. In September, Frauke Petry’s four-year-old Alternative for Germany party hopes to enter the German parliament.

The meeting of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament also featured Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League and Harald Vilimsky, the general secretary of Austria’s Freedom Party, which last year narrowly failed to win the country’s presidency.

‘‘We are experiencing the end of one world and the birth of another,’’ Le Pen said. ‘‘We are experiencing the return of nation-states.’’

The first ‘‘real blow to the old order’’ was last June’s British vote to leave the European Union, she said — followed closely by Trump’s election. The new U.S. president, she said, ‘‘will not support a system of oppression’’ in Europe.

Last year saw the awakening of Anglo-Saxon countries, she said, and ‘‘2017, I am sure, will be the year of the awakening of the people of continental Europe.’’

She denounced the EU as ‘‘a force of sterilization,’’ and assailed German Chancellor Angela Merkel — whose name was booed loudly — for allowing in large numbers of migrants.

‘‘Everyone sees that this migration policy is a daily disaster,’’ Le Pen said.

Left-wing protesters staged a sit-in outside the hall shouting slogans like ‘‘no border, no nation, stop deportation.’’

Not far away, demonstrators from the global AVAAZ activist group placed statues of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Josef Stalin, among others, in front of a landmark statue of German Kaiser Wilhelm.

AVAAZ organizer Pascal Vollenweider said the statues of the dictators were meant to send a ‘‘strong message’’ to the nationalist politicians meeting that ‘‘global citizens are rejecting their old dangerous ideas.’’

‘‘They are not fascists in jackboots, it’s a different type of fascism, of course, but if you look at the ideas ... it’s very dangerous, and we have to face it: these guys are carrying old, dangerous fascist ideas,’’ he said.

Marcus Pretzell, Alternative for Germany’s European lawmaker and Petry’s husband, denied accreditation to German public broadcasters and several other German outlets. Public broadcaster ARD has said it was refused access for ‘‘not meeting journalistic standards in its past reporting on the party,’’ a claim it has rejected.

Pretzell opened the congress lamenting the current state of the EU, its passport-free travel zone and the euro. He praised Trump’s opposition to trade agreements such as a planned EU-U.S. trade deal, and said that ‘‘we have a problem with political Islam.’’

‘‘Who would still want to become a member of the European Union of their own free will?’’ he asked.

‘‘We have to turn back some steps that have gone too far,’’ he said. ‘‘The solution is sitting in this room.’’

----------


Donald Trump tweeted that Congressman John Lewis was an inactive congressman whose district was “crime infested” and “falling apart.”

Many people, including Democrats, Republicans and residents in his district, immediately came to Lewis’ defense on social media and noted that Trump’s argument couldn’t be further from the truth.

That Trump attacked a civil rights icon, who marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, on Martin Luther King Day weekend is, unfortunately, not a surprise. The support pouring in for Lewis, however, is inspiring and on par with the respect he deserves.

Source: News Article – “John Lewis’ Book Sales Skyrocket After Trump’s Appalling Tweet”, By Taryn Finley, Black Voices Associate Editor, The Huffington Post, January 16, 2017

List of Lewis’ books:

* March, his graphic novel trilogy set

* Walking the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement

* Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change (2012)

----------

The hotel’s decision to ban media from property owned by the federal government and from a hotel controlled by the president-elect comes amid a broader debate over media access to the incoming administration. | Getty

"Trump's D.C. hotel bans press during inauguration week"
By Daniel Lippman, POLITICO, 1/18/2017

The Trump International Hotel in Washington is banning the media from its premises during inauguration week.

“Media is not allowed in this week in respect of the privacy of our guests,” Patricia Tang, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing wrote in an email.

President-elect Donald Trump and his three adult children own the project after winning a 2012 bid to redevelop D.C.’s Old Post Office. They have a 60-year lease with the federal General Services Administration, which owns the property. The lease that the GSA signed with Trump says (on page 30) that the public is allowed to access historic sections of the building "subject to such reasonable rules and time restrictions as Tenant may formulate from time to time and as approved in writing by Landlord" unless there is a "risk to public safety."

The hotel’s decision to ban media from property owned by the federal government and from a hotel controlled by the president-elect comes amid a broader debate over media access to the incoming administration. Trump has resisted forming a protective pool around him, instead opting for a “semi-protective pool” that afford the media less access than previous presidents allowed.

Further, D.C. legal code prohibits public places like hotels from denying “the full and equal enjoyment” of its facilities to people based on “source of income,” among other reasons, calling it an “unlawful discriminatory practice.” “Source of income” could reasonably include one’s occupation as a journalist.

Tang did not immediately reply to an email asking whether the hotel was in violation of this part of the lease by barring media. The GSA did not immediately reply for a request for comment.

On Wednesday morning, the hotel was encircled by metal barricades while police officers stood nearby and a firetruck and ambulance lingered outside on Pennsylvania Avenue. An official-looking black car with red and blue lights was also seen entering the hotel driveway followed by a black SUV with flashing red lights.

A POLITICO reporter attempted to enter the hotel Wednesday [1/18/2017] morning for a previously scheduled breakfast meeting but was stopped at the door. He then identified himself as a journalist and was told “media” was not allowed.

----------

January 20, 2017

NEVER! I come from the Human Rights school of politics. My place in politics is to be a voice for the voiceless! Those without rights or power, they all have rights or power under my leadership. I represent the most disadvantaged people in our society! I am for the homeless, the underclass, the bullied, the friendless, and the good that exists in everyone's heart. I despise anyone who believes they are superior to "other" people because of their class and status. I will never be a top-down, corrupt, insider big government or big business bureaucrat. I would never be a lobbyist for K Street's corporate elite. I need to sleep at night. I will always speak my good conscience as long as I live. I want the powerful to legally and legitimately fear people like me who stand for Human Rights for ALL people and peoples. I hope that my character and leadership will stand in sharp contrast to the fascist 45th U.S. President Donald Trump!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

POLITICS
“In His Inaugural Address, Donald Trump Embraced Anti-Semites’ Slogan”
The Anti-Defamation League asked him to stop using it. He didn’t care.
By Nick Baumann, Senior Enterprise Editor, The Huffington Post, January 20, 2017

During Donald Trump’s campaign for president, the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, asked him to stop using the phrase “America First” to describe his foreign policy views. As the ADL explained, the slogan was used by people who warned, ahead of World War II, that Jewish Americans were pushing the U.S. to enter the war because they put their own interests ahead of the country’s.

But Trump never stopped using the slogan. And on Friday, he made it a key part of his inaugural address. “From this day forward,” he proclaimed, “A new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.”

The crowd went wild.

People who aren’t Jewish or familiar with the history may not realize this, but “America First” makes many people deeply uncomfortable. In 1941, as members of the America First movement campaigned against U.S. involvement in World War II and expressed sympathy for the Nazis, plenty of people already knew that Jews were being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany. Even Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator who led the America First movement, knew it.

“It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany,” Lindbergh said in Des Moines, Iowa, in September 1941. “The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.”

But Lindbergh blamed Jewish Americans for pushing the country towards war, and warned that tolerance of Jews in America could not “survive” war with Germany. The greatest danger to the U.S., he argued, came not from the Axis powers but in what he saw as Jewish “ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”

This is dark stuff ― so dark it’s even inspired literature. Philip Roth, perhaps the most famous Jewish American writer, published The Plot Against America in 2004. The novel imagines an alternate U.S. history in which America First’s Lindbergh won the presidential election in 1940, defeating Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Things don’t go too well for the Jews after that.

“How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination,” Roth’s father says in the book.

In real life, Lindbergh ― a celebrity who was at least as famous as Trump at a time when public anti-Semitism was far more acceptable than it is today ― actually faced some backlash for his speech, as The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas noted in July:

Anti-Semitism was prevalent in Lindberg’s time; his attitudes were not fringe. He had not made a secret of his interest in eugenics, nor his racial attitudes, which today seem reprehensible. But with that 1941 speech he seemed to cross a line. He was strongly and swiftly condemned for his anti-Semitic and divisive words—not only by interventionists who were opposed to America First but by those who had lionized him. The Des Moines Register called his speech “so intemperate, so unfair, so dangerous in its implications that it cannot but turn many spadefuls in the digging of the grave of his influence in this country.” The Hearst papers, which were generally sympathetic to the non-interventionists—and open about their hatred of Franklin Roosevelt—condemned Lindbergh, calling his speech “un-American.” His home town took his name off its water tower.

Trump has received some similar criticism: “For many Americans, the term ‘America First’ will always be associated with and tainted by this history,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt warned last April. “In a political season that already has prompted a national conversation about civility and tolerance, choosing a call to action historically associated with incivility and intolerance seems ill-advised.”

The new president doesn’t seem chastened.

“To me, America First is a brand-new modern term,” he told The New York Times’ David Sanger in July. “I never related it to the past.”

But the past has a way of catching up to you. David Duke, the Holocaust denier and former KKK leader who endorsed Trump and celebrated his ascension to power, has long been happy with the slogan (he used it in his campaign for U.S. Senate), and can hear the dog whistle loud and clear.

David Duke @DrDavidDuke
Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn't have said it better!
11:46 PM - 21 Jul 2016 - http://davidduke.com/

After Trump’s speech on Friday [1/20/2017], Duke tweeted:

David Duke @DrDavidDuke
"Trump Inauguration Speech Declares War on the Neocons & Promotes Our Slogan "America First!"
4:06 PM - 20 Jan 2017 - http://davidduke.com/

----------

Letter: “Learn from history, and remain vigilant”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 20, 2017

To the editor:

An unprecedented election? Perhaps here, but a glance back to European history tells us otherwise.

I have recently begun reading Volker Ullrich's "Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939" (Knopf, 9/16). In his introduction, the author explains his intention to explore several issues.

Per Ullrich: "The artistry with which Hitler was able to conceal his real intentions from both friends and foes was [a] main key to his success as a politician. Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, in his memoirs the former Finance Minister Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk identified `bottomless mendacity' as Hitler's primary personal characteristic. `He wasn't even honest towards his most intimate confidants,' Krosigk recalled. `In my opinion, he was so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognise the difference between lies and truth.'"

Additionally, according to Ullrich, the German chancellor deliberately sowed uncertainty and discord within his government, stating that "Hitler's unusually improvisational and personal style of leadership, which created constant responsibility conflicts and an anarchic tangle of offices and portfolios, was anything but an expression of political incompetence. On the contrary, it served to make Hitler's own supremacy essentially unassailable."

To me, these assessments strike uncomfortably all too close to home. As President Obama cautioned us in his closing address just this past week, we must all be vigilant.

Iris Bass,
Lee

----------

“President Trump has proposed a 20 percent tax on all Mexican imports to pay for the border wall, his spokesman said”
The New York Times, January 26, 2017

President Trump plans to make Mexico pay for his border wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on all imports into the United States from Mexico, raising billions of dollars that would cover the cost of the new barrier.

----------

“President Trump's strategist Stephen Bannon attacked the media as the "opposition" and said it should "keep its mouth shut"”
The New York Times, January 26, 2017

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s chief White House strategist, laced into the American press during an interview on Wednesday evening, arguing that news organizations had been “humiliated” by an election outcome few anticipated, and repeatedly describing the media as “the opposition party” of the current administration.

----------

President Donald Trump halts immigration from 7 countries:

Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

Source: The Rachel Maddow Show on "The Refugee Ban", January 27, 2017.

*

“President Trump's temporary ban on refugees establishes a religious test: Christians from Muslim nations will be given priority”
The New York Times, January 27, 2017

President Trump on Friday closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States, and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

Declaring the measure part of an extreme vetting plan to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists,” Mr. Trump also established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations: He ordered that Christians and others from minority religions be granted priority over Muslims.

*

“Dems eye legislation to overturn Trump's immigration ban”
The Hill, January 29, 2017

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said Democrats are considering legislation to overturn President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions on immigration.

“If we get a few more Republicans, I think we might be able to pass legislation to overturn it,” Schumer said at a press conference in New York. “It will be up to getting more Republicans.”

*

“A federal judge stayed part of President Trump's immigration order, barring refugees stopped at U.S. airports from being sent back”
The New York Times, January 28, 2017

A federal judge blocked part of President Trump’s executive order on immigration on Saturday evening, ordering that refugees and others trapped at airports across the United States should not be sent back to their home countries. But the judge stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.

Lawyers who sued the government to block the White House order said the decision, which came after an emergency hearing in a New York City courtroom, could affect an estimated 100 to 200 people who were detained upon arrival at American airports in the wake of the order that Mr. Trump signed on Friday afternoon, a week into his presidency.

*

“Airlines were allowing formerly barred passengers to fly after a federal judge blocked President Trump's immigration order nationwide”
The New York Times, February 3, 2017

A federal judge in Seattle on Friday temporarily blocked President Trump’s week-old immigration order from being enforced nationwide, potentially reopening the country’s door to visa holders from seven predominantly Muslim countries and dealing the administration a humbling defeat.

The White House vowed late Friday to fight what it called an “outrageous” ruling, saying it would seek an emergency halt to the judge’s order as soon as possible and restore the president’s “lawful and appropriate order.”

*

“Justice Dept. appeals federal judge's ruling halting immigration order”
The Hill, February 4, 2017

The Justice Department on Saturday evening filed a notice that it will formally appeal a federal judge's ruling halting President Trump's immigration order.

The notice was filed in response to a temporary nationwide restraining order issued Friday that halted Trump's executive order banning citizens of seven countries from entering the United States.

----------


“Trump: Torture 'works'”
By Jordan Fabian – The Hill – 1/25/2017

President Trump said Wednesday [January 25, 2017] he believes that torture “works” and would consider reinstating banned interrogation methods depending on the advice of members of his national security team.

In an interview with ABC News, Trump indicated he wants to resume the use of torture in order to fight back against groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that have committed atrocities against U.S. citizens.

“We have to fight fire with fire,” he said.

Trump would spark a major legal and political battle if he decides to resume the use of torture.

The comments came as a draft memo leaked to the Associated Press shows the Trump administration is seeking to review interrogation techniques and the use of CIA “black site” prisons overseas.

*

“Trump’s pick for CIA No. 2 prompts fears”
The Hill, February 4, 2017

Senate Democrats and human rights activists are rallying against Donald Trump’s selection of an officer linked to the CIA’s controversial enhanced interrogation program to take the number-two seat at the agency.

As a clandestine officer, Gina Haspel oversaw the brutal interrogation of two terrorism suspects at a black site in Thailand — and then later played a role in the destruction of video tapes documenting the harsh treatment of the detainees, according to multiple reports.

In 2013, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) reportedly blocked her promotion to head the agency’s clandestine service over her role in the program.

----------

In an interview with ABC News anchor David Muir on January 25, 2017, President Donald Trump repeated his position that the United States “should have taken the oil” from Iraq during the occupation of the country following the 2003 US-led invasion. Trump has sought to justify this position as victor’s justice and as a move that might have stopped the rise of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). When Muir pressed him about critics who say doing this would have violated international law, Trump dismissed them as “fools.” Trump’s position on taking Iraq’s oil amounts to “pillage,” a serious violation of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war.

Source: “Trump, Iraqi Oil and International Law”, By Sarah Saadoun, Researcher, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, January 27, 2017.

----------

Letter: “Trump represents the dawn of fascism in US”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 3, 2017

To the editor:

I am second generation American. My grandparents emigrated to escape violent anti-Semite pogroms. Now I watch fascism evolve due to an incompetent demagogue`s personal agenda. Heil King Trump!

He demoralizes women, fires staff for disagreeing with him; promotes nepotism in the White House (now a kingdom?) and surrounds himself with the likes of Steve Bannon, a known anti-Semite and KKK apologist. He has implemented unprecedented gag orders and disputes climate change because it is not favorable to big oil. He is reckless and rash, as proved by his recent Muslim ban, attack on Mexicans, other immigrants and refugees and his continued unrealistic quest to build a wall along the Mexico/U.S. border.

His refusal to make his tax filings public, to divest himself of his business holdings and his Trump University scam only prove what a shyster he is. If you exercise your First Amendment right he says you should be stripped of your citizenship and put in prison. As his egomania grows, will he target those of us who protest and speak out against him and strip us of our citizenship and put us in prison?

His attempts to manipulate and silence the free press and replace their reporting with "alternate facts" is horrifying. He tweets like an insolent eighth grader, and bullies and attacks anyone who disagrees with him. He is impulsive and dangerous.

This is the dawn of fascism in America. Richard Rorty accurately termed it "politically acceptable sadism." No wonder Melania's platform is anti-bullying!

Candace Docimo Mahony,
Lee

----------

“Trump administration withdraws protections for transgender students”
The Hill, February 22, 2017

The Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era regulation extending certain protections to transgender students.

*

“The Trump administration has rescinded protections for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms of their choice”
The New York Times, February 22, 2017

The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded federal rules that allowed transgender students to use the bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.

The new policy overruled the advice of President Trump’s education secretary and placed his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind.

*

“Trump officially bans transgender people from military”
The Hill, August 25, 2017

President Trump signed a presidential memo Friday instructing the Defense Department to stop accepting transgender people who want to enroll in the military.

The memo details Trump's previous Twitter announcement that he would reimplement a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, and officially requests the Pentagon begin to implement the ban.

----------

“White House hand-picks select media for briefing”
The Hill, February 24, 2017

The White House blocked a number of news outlets from covering spokesman Sean Spicer’s question-and-answer session on Friday afternoon.

Spicer decided to hold an off-camera “gaggle” with reporters inside his West Wing office instead of the traditional on-camera briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

Among the outlets not permitted to cover the gaggle were news organizations that President Trump has singled out for criticism, including CNN.

The New York Times, The Hill, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, BBC, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News were among the other news organizations not permitted to attend.

*

“Journalists from several organizations, including The Times, were kept from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary”
The New York Times, February 24, 2017

Reporters from CNN, Politico and The New York Times were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for a scheduled briefing.

The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, issued a quick rebuke of the White House’s actions.

*

“At CPAC, Trump lashes out at media”
The Hill, February 24, 2017

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — President Trump lashed out at the press from the beginning of his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), saying his administration was in a fight against “fake news.”

“I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s phony, fake,” Trump said before a crowd that appeared to love the media hits.

“I called the fake news the enemy of the people. They are the enemy of the people, because they have no sources. They just make them up when there are none.”

----------

“Bannon needles media at CPAC”
The Hill, February 23, 2017

NATIONAL HARBOR, M.D.-- White House chief strategist Steve Bannon chided the media throughout his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday, tagging reporters with his favorite nickname: the opposition party.

Speaking alongside White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the controversial former head of Breitbart News framed the media as part of a global war against the president’s agenda.

"The corporatist globalist media is adamantly opposed to economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has," Bannon said.

*

“Conservatives at CPAC grapple with the rise of the alt-right”
The Hill, February 24, 2017

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — White nationalist Richard Spencer arrived at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, appearing to be a sign of the “alt-right” movement’s attempts to fit in with conservatives.

And then he got kicked out.

Spencer’s abrupt exit was just one way conservatives tried to grapple with the rise of the alt-right movement at CPAC, offering differing interpretations about who falls into that category and even what the term means.

----------

“State legislators take steps to criminalize protests”
By Reid Wilson, The Hill, February 24, 2017

Republican state legislators across the country are advancing bills that would criminalize or penalize some public protests just a month after millions of Americans took to the streets in opposition to President Trump.

In North Dakota, where protesters occupied land around an unfinished section of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, Gov. Doug Burgum (R) on Thursday signed four laws that would stiffen penalties against protests. The measures increase sanctions for offenses related to riots and broaden the definition of trespassing, allowing law enforcement officers to issue citations and fines.

The new laws, passed under emergency provisions that allow them to take effect immediately, came just hours after a protest camp near the pipeline was evacuated.

Senators in neighboring South Dakota on Thursday passed a bill that would allow the governor to create a "safety zone" in emergency situations. Anyone who entered the zone would be fined.

Legislators who backed the measure specifically cited the Dakota Access project and possible protests against the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which will run through South Dakota. Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R), who sponsored the legislation, said it was needed to deter “professional agitators.”

“Certainly, the Keystone XL pipeline would be a likely prompt to these types of demonstrations,” Daugaard told reporters at a press conference last week.

Native American tribes objected to the legislation, which they say improperly targets them.

Minnesota lawmakers say cracking down on protesters who block access to highways is among their top priorities this legislative session. On Wednesday, two legislative committees voted to increase penalties for protests that block access and to make protesters liable for costs incurred by police responding to their demonstrations.

The Minnesota legislation follows protests against the shooting deaths of several black men by police. Those protests blocked roads leading to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Legislators in Indiana and Iowa have also considered bills to criminalize blocking streets during protests.

Arizona Republicans have introduced a measure to expand racketeering laws, which target organized crime groups, to include rioting. The bill would allow police officers to arrest and then seize the assets of those who organize protest events.

Civil libertarians say the measures are unconstitutional overreactions to a historic era of protests.

“Robust protest activity is a sign of the health of our republic. Our democracy is literally designed for citizens to get out in the streets and make their voices heard to their legislators,” said Lee Rowland, a senior attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

“To see legislators in these states make it a priority not to listen to the voices of their constituents, but to silence them, is deeply troubling and fundamentally un-American.”

One measure in Tennessee goes so far as to give civil immunity to a driver who hits a protester blocking traffic.

The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Matthew Hill (R), comes after a car hit volunteers helping protesters cross a street in Nashville as they demonstrated against the Trump administration’s orders blocking immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Hill’s measure passed its first test in a state Senate committee earlier his month. Hill did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

A similar bill failed in the North Dakota legislature earlier this month.

Republican-led legislatures in Michigan and Virginia have already rejected their own measures increasing penalties on protests.

Rowland, who has been following state legislatures for about a dozen years, said the measures represent a “fairly unprecedented level” of action against protestors. The wave of bills come after high-profile protests including the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter, and the Women's March on Washington, which took place the day after Trump’s inauguration.

The women’s march drew more than 3 million participants in cities across the nation. It attracted more people to Washington’s subway system than Trump’s inauguration, the city's transit authority reported.

----------

The cover of this English translation of The Camp of the Saints calls it “a chilling novel about the end of the white world.”

Revelation 20:9

“And they went up on the breadth of the Earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Source: King James Bible version.


On his Breitbart News radio show, Stephen Bannon repeatedly used The Camp of the Saints as a metaphor for migrants and refugees.

“This Stunningly Racist French Novel Is How Steve Bannon Explains The World” – “The Camp of the Saints” tells a grotesque tale about a migrant invasion to destroy Western civilization.”
By Paul Blumenthal, Money in Politics Reporter, JM Rieger, Producer, The Huffington Post, March 4, 2017

Stephen Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist and the driving force behind the administration’s controversial ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, has a favorite metaphor he uses to describe the largest refugee crisis in human history.

“It’s been almost a Camp of the Saints-type invasion into Central and then Western and Northern Europe,” he said in October 2015.

“The whole thing in Europe is all about immigration,” he said in January 2016. “It’s a global issue today — this kind of global Camp of the Saints.”

“It’s not a migration,” he said later that January. “It’s really an invasion. I call it the Camp of the Saints.”

“When we first started talking about this a year ago,” he said in April 2016, “we called it the Camp of the Saints. ... I mean, this is Camp of the Saints, isn’t it?”

Bannon has agitated for a host of anti-immigrant measures. In his previous role as executive chairman of the right-wing news site Breitbart — which he called a “platform for the alt-right,” the online movement of white nationalists — he made anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim news a focus.

But the top Trump aide’s repeated references to The Camp of the Saints, an obscure 1973 novel by French author Jean Raspail, reveal even more about how he understands the world. The book is a cult favorite on the far right, yet it’s never found a wider audience. There’s a good reason for that: It’s breathtakingly racist.

“[This book is] racist in the literal sense of the term. It uses race as the main characterization of characters,” said Cécile Alduy, professor of French at Stanford University and an expert on the contemporary French far right. “It describes the takeover of Europe by waves of immigrants that wash ashore like the plague.”

The book, she said, “reframes everything as the fight to death between races.”

Upon the novel’s release in the United States in 1975, the influential book review magazine Kirkus Reviews pulled no punches: “The publishers are presenting The Camp of the Saints as a major event, and it probably is, in much the same sense that Mein Kampf was a major event.”

Linda Chavez, a Republican commentator who has worked for GOP presidents from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush but opposed Trump’s election, also reviewed the book back then. Forty years later, she hasn’t forgotten it.

“It is really shockingly racist,” Chavez told The Huffington Post, “and to have the counselor to the president see this as one of his touchstones, I think, says volumes about his attitude.”

The plot of The Camp of the Saints follows a poor Indian demagogue, named “the turd-eater” because he literally eats shit, and the deformed, apparently psychic child who sits on his shoulders. Together, they lead an “armada” of 800,000 impoverished Indians sailing to France. Dithering European politicians, bureaucrats and religious leaders, including a liberal pope from Latin America, debate whether to let the ships land and accept the Indians or to do the right thing — in the book’s vision — by recognizing the threat the migrants pose and killing them all.

The non-white people of Earth, meanwhile, wait silently for the Indians to reach shore. The landing will be the signal for them to rise up everywhere and overthrow white Western society.

The French government eventually gives the order to repel the armada by force, but by then the military has lost the will to fight. Troops battle among themselves as the Indians stream on shore, trampling to death the left-wing radicals who came to welcome them. Poor black and brown people literally overrun Western civilization. Chinese people pour into Russia; the queen of England is forced to marry her son to a Pakistani woman; the mayor of New York must house an African-American family at Gracie Mansion. Raspail’s rogue heroes, the defenders of white Christian supremacy, attempt to defend their civilization with guns blazing but are killed in the process.

Calgues, the obvious Raspail stand-in, is one of those taking up arms against the migrants and their culturally “cuckolded” white supporters. Just before killing a radical hippie, Calgues compares his own actions to past heroic, sometimes mythical defenses of European Christendom. He harkens back to famous battles that fit the clash-of-civilizations narrative — the defense of Rhodes against the Ottoman Empire, the fall of Constantinople to the same — and glorifies colonial wars of conquest and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan.

Only white Europeans like Calgues are portrayed as truly human in The Camp of the Saints. The Indian armada brings “thousands of wretched creatures” whose very bodies arouse disgust: “Scraggy branches, brown and black … All bare, those fleshless Gandhi-arms.” Poor brown children are spoiled fruit “starting to rot, all wormy inside, or turned so you can’t see the mold.”

The ship’s inhabitants are also sexual deviants who turn the voyage into a grotesque orgy. “Everywhere, rivers of sperm,” Raspail writes. “Streaming over bodies, oozing between breasts, and buttocks, and thighs, and lips, and fingers.”

The white Christian world is on the brink of destruction, the novel suggests, because these black and brown people are more fertile and more numerous, while the West has lost that necessary belief in its own cultural and racial superiority. As he talks to the hippie he will soon kill, Calgues explains how the youth went so wrong: “That scorn of a people for other races, the knowledge that one’s own is best, the triumphant joy at feeling oneself to be part of humanity’s finest — none of that had ever filled these youngsters’ addled brains.”

The Camp of the Saints — which draws its title from Revelation 20:9 — is nothing less than a call to arms for the white Christian West, to revive the spirit of the Crusades and steel itself for bloody conflict against the poor black and brown world without and the traitors within. The novel’s last line links past humiliations tightly to its own grim parable about modern migration. “The Fall of Constantinople,” Raspail’s unnamed narrator says, “is a personal misfortune that happened to all of us only last week.”

Raspail wrote The Camp of the Saints in 1972 and 1973, after a stay at his aunt’s house near Cannes on the southern coast of France. Looking out across the Mediterranean, he had an epiphany: “And what if they came?” he thought to himself. “This ‘they’ was not clearly defined at first,” he told the conservative publication Le Point in 2015. “Then I imagined that the Third World would rush into this blessed country that is France.”

Raspail’s novel has been published in the U.S. several times, each time with the backing of the anti-immigration movement.

The U.S. publishing house Scribner was the first to translate the book into English in 1975, but it failed to reach a wide audience amid withering reviews by critics. A rare favorable take appeared in National Review. “Raspail brings his reader to the surprising conclusion that killing a million or so starving refugees from India would be a supreme act of individual sanity and cultural health,” then-Dartmouth professor Jeffrey Hart wrote in 1975. “Raspail is to genocide what [D.H. Lawrence] was to sex.” Hart added that “a great fuss” was being made over “Raspail’s supposed racism,” but that the “liberal rote anathema on ‘racism’ is in effect a poisonous assault upon Western self-preference.”

The book received a second life in 1983 when Cordelia Scaife May, heiress to the Mellon fortune and sister to right-wing benefactor Richard Mellon Scaife, funded its republication and distribution. This time it gained a cult following among immigration opponents.

May’s money has also been instrumental in funding the efforts of John Tanton, the godfather of the anti-immigration movement in the U.S. Tanton, who began as an environmentalist and population control proponent, founded a host of groups focused on restricting immigration, including the Federation of American Immigration Reform, the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA and U.S. English. May’s fortune has fueled these groups with tens of millions of dollars in contributions over the years.

Linda Chavez was recruited in 1987 to head U.S. English, which advocates for English to be designated the country’s official language. But then a series of disturbing stories painted Tanton’s motives in a racial light. Among other issues, Chavez said she learned that his funding came from the pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund and from May, who Chavez knew had helped publish The Camp of the Saints. Chavez recalled seeing Tanton’s staffers carrying the book around their offices. She quit the group.

Tanton, who insists his opposition to immigration is not connected to race at all, told The Washington Post in 2006 that his mind “became focused” on the issue after reading The Camp of the Saints. In 1995, his small publishing house, Social Contract Press, brought the book back into print for a third time in the U.S., again with funding from May. Historians Paul Kennedy and Matt Connelly tied the book to then-current concerns about global demographic trends in a cover story for The Atlantic.

“Over the years the American public has absorbed a great number of books, articles, poems and films which exalt the immigrant experience,” Tanton wrote in 1994. “It is easy for the feelings evoked by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty to obscure the fact that we are currently receiving too many immigrants (and receiving them too fast) for the health of our environment and of our common culture. Raspail evokes different feelings and that may help to pave the way for policy changes.”

In 2001, the book was republished one more time, again by Tanton, and again gained a cult following among opponents of immigration like the border-patrolling Minutemen and eventually the online “alt-right.”

Bannon’s alt-right-loving Breitbart has run multiple articles over the past three years referencing the novel. When Pope Francis told a joint session of Congress that the U.S. should open its arms to refugees in September 2015, Breitbart’s Julia Hahn, now an aide to Bannon in the White House, compared his admonition to Raspail’s liberal Latin American pontiff. And the novel’s thesis that migration is invasion in disguise is often reflected in Bannon’s public comments.

The refugee crisis “didn’t just happen by happenstance,” Bannon said in an April 2016 radio interview with Sebastian Gorka, who now works for the National Security Council. “These are not war refugees. It’s something much more insidious going on.”

Bannon has also echoed the novel’s theory that secular liberals who favor immigration and diversity weaken the West.

“Do you believe the elites in this country have the backbone, have the belief in the underlying principles of the Judeo-Christian West to actually win this war?” he asked Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), now the attorney general, in June 2016.

“I’m worried about that. … They’re eroding, regularly it seems to me, classical American values that are so critical to our success,” Sessions replied.

Like Raspail, Bannon has reveled in the past victories of Christendom over Islamic forces.

“If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept their stance, and I think they did the right thing,” he said in a 2014 speech broadcast to a conference at the Vatican. “I think they kept it out of the world, whether it was at Vienna [the Battle of Vienna in 1683], or Tours [the Battle of Tours in 732], or other places. … They were able to stave this off, and they were able to defeat it, and they were able to bequeath to us a church and a civilization that really is the flower of mankind.”

Now Bannon sits at the right hand of the U.S. president, working to beat back what Bannon calls “this Muslim invasion.” And Trump is all in on the project. During the campaign, he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the country. His Jan. 28 executive order, since blocked in the courts, turned this campaign idea into executive policy.

Trump has continued to defend the executive order as a life-or-death national security issue. “We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America,” he said in his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Five days earlier, Trump had called his immigration enforcement efforts a “military operation.”

Although Department of Homeland Security officials walked back that statement, the president’s conflation of immigration with warfare did not go unnoticed.

“They see this as a war,” Chavez said.

Chavez, who supports some of Trump’s economic policy proposals, called the direction the White House is taking on immigration and race “extremely dangerous.” She said Trump’s immigration moves are “a kind of purging of America of anything but our Northern European roots.” Bannon, she added, “wants to make America white again.”

----------

May 23, 2017

Re: Trump targets social programs

In the mid-1990’s, then President Bill Clinton made big cuts to welfare assistance programs by incentivizing work and transferring millions of people into disability programs. Over the past two decades, millions of jobs have been lost to automation and globalization, while millions of people have been added to the disability rolls. It has been a perfect storm of the poor getting to choose between a low-income job and/or disability benefits.

Meanwhile, the rich got richer! Business executives, politicians and their corrupt lobbyists have been doing better than ever financially. The federal government even bailed out Wall Street with trillions of taxpayer dollars after the financial meltdown in 2008.

Even billionaire Donald Trump declared business bankruptcies four times over to protect his personal wealth! Today [5/23/2017], President Donald Trump issued his first federal budget proposal that makes historic cuts to medicaid, food stamps, disability payments, and other social programs.

The defense budget would be the big winner this year, while Wall Street benefited after it collapsed in 2008, and big oil benefited after we invaded Iraq in 2003. But, when do the poor, working class, and disabled, get a financial break in this inequitable economy?

- Jonathan Melle

----------

NEWS ARTICLE:

“The ‘March Against Sharia’ Protests Are Really Marches Against Muslims”
And they’re attracting neo-Nazis, white supremacists and armed anti-government groups.
By Christopher Mathias, The Huffington Post, June 10, 2017

An unholy alliance of Islamophobic hate group members, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and armed anti-government militia members will rally against the nonexistent threat of sharia, or Islamic, law in the U.S this weekend.

The “March Against Sharia” rallies are set to place on Saturday in 29 cities across 21 states, and are being organized by Act for America, the nation’s largest anti-Muslim hate group. Act for America has billed this weekend’s events as some kind of noble stand against “atrocities” it attributes ― wrongly ― to sharia.

But a quick look at the group’s origins and its members’ statements reveal that pretext to be a ruse. Saturday’s marches are against Muslims and Islam itself, and they’re attracting some of the most dangerous elements of the far right.

“They are calling them ‘Anti-Sharia’ rallies, but let us call them what they are: ‘Anti-Muslim’ protests,” Muslim activist and Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour wrote on Facebook. “If your definition of Sharia was defined by an anti-Muslim bigot, you might want to rethink it and ask a Muslim who actually follows the religion of Islam.”

What You Need To Know About Act for America

Act for America is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. It was founded by Brigitte Gabriel, a Christian immigrant from Lebanon. She has said that “every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim” and that Muslims are a “natural threat to civilized people of the world, particularly Western society.”

Although the “March Against Sharia” event page claims Act for America believes in religious freedom, Gabriel has also said that a “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Quran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”

Gabriel and Act for America have worked for years not only to spread fear of Muslims, but to strip Muslims of rights afforded to the followers of other faiths.

Act for America has also long pushed the conspiracy theory that sharia law ― the deeply misunderstood legal or philosophical code of Islam, interpreted differently by Muslims across the world ― poses a threat to the U.S. Constitution. (It does not.)

Still, Act for America has successfully lobbied state legislatures across the country to introduce, and often pass, bills banning sharia law in state courts. The “true aim” of these bills, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in 2011, is to “denigrate an entire faith system.”

Years ago, it was easier to brush off Gabriel as a fringe, far-right leader of a hate group. But that was before Donald Trump was president.

In recent months, Gabriel has bragged about having a “direct line” to the president, has been photographed having a meeting in the White House, and claims to have been dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago when Trump decided to bomb Syria in April.

Act for America has also long pushed the conspiracy theory that sharia law ― the deeply misunderstood legal or philosophical code of Islam, interpreted differently by Muslims across the world ― poses a threat to the U.S. Constitution. (It does not.)

Still, Act for America has successfully lobbied state legislatures across the country to introduce, and often pass, bills banning sharia law in state courts. The “true aim” of these bills, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in 2011, is to “denigrate an entire faith system.”

Years ago, it was easier to brush off Gabriel as a fringe, far-right leader of a hate group. But that was before Donald Trump was president.

In recent months, Gabriel has bragged about having a “direct line” to the president, has been photographed having a meeting in the White House, and claims to have been dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago when Trump decided to bomb Syria in April.

Yet Act for America’s veneer of legitimacy hasn’t prevented its members from blatant displays of bigotry. In February, member Robert Goodwill was recorded talking to a man who argued that all American Muslims should be killed.

“We’re not there yet,” Goodwill told the man.

The official Act for America “March Against Sharia” Facebook page is also rife with vile memes and comments denigrating Muslims.

‘March Against Sharia’ Rallies Draw Diverse Hate And Extremist Groups

The convergence of anti-Muslim groups and other fringe organizations is a growing phenomenon, the Southern Poverty Law Center noted.

SPLC trawled through all the local “March Against Sharia” Facebook groups and compiled an extensive list of extremist groups and white supremacists who said they will be showing up at the marches on Saturday.

They found a slew of armed anti-government militia groups, some with histories of threatening government officials. The groups claim they’ll be providing “security” at the rallies, which means they’ll likely show up with guns. Often called “Patriot” groups, they include the Oathkeepers, the III Percenters and American Civil Defense.

The SPLC also found avowed neo-Nazis and white supremacists eager to take part in the rallies across the country.

In Texas, members of the group Sons of Odin will be attending the Houston event. (Sons of Odin describes its beliefs as “closely aligned” with those of the Soldiers of Odin ― a white supremacist, anti-refugee vigilante organization.) And the neo-Nazi group White Lives Matter is set to attend the rally in Austin.

In Batesville, Arkansas, prominent neo-Nazi Billy Roper announced that he was organizing a “March Against Sharia” rally there. Earlier this week, when SPLC wrote a report about Roper’s involvement, Act for America was quick to distance itself from him and withdrew its affiliation with the Arkansas protest.

In a statement to HuffPost, Act for America organizer Scott Presler said “hateful individuals sometimes latch onto others in a parasitic way in order to elevate themselves, or a completely unrelated cause.”

Presler added that Act for America’s alleged diversity shields it from being grouped with white supremacists, noting that Gabriel is an Arab-American and that the head organizer of the marches is gay.

Still, that doesn’t preclude the group from rabid Islamophobia, as Gabriel’s statements in the video below make clear[.]

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, says anti-Muslim hate is a great unifier among far-right groups, and especially militia groups, however disparate or seemingly opposed their beliefs may be.

“Alliances have been building for some time between anti-government and anti-Muslim groups, and Saturday’s events are another concrete example of this disturbing trend,” Beirich said.

The Backlash

Interfaith protesters across the country are planning counter-demonstrations at the “March Against Sharia” events.

On Friday, 129 organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, Amnesty International and the Center for New Community, sent a letter to mayors in the 29 cities where the marches are scheduled, calling on them to “reject” Act for America’s “bigotry,” and to “issue an official statement to reiterate to the people of your city that every person is welcome.”

March organizers canceled one rally in Portland, Oregon and relocated it to Seattle in response to pressure from Portland’s mayor, who worried about the rally’s effect on a city already reeling from two recent hate-fueled killings.

Late last month, a white supremacist aboard a MAX train in Portland screamed anti-Muslim threats at two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. He then stabbed three men who stepped up to defend the girls, killing two of them.

One of the biggest rallies is happening in New York, but Rosemary Boeglin, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, told HuffPost that the event doesn’t represent New York City.

“To host an event, particularly during Islam’s highest holy month, with the explicit intention of reducing an entire community to inaccurate and hateful stereotypes is not what we stand for in New York City,” Boeglin said.

America does not do a good job of tracking incidents of hate and bias. We need your help to create a database of such incidents across the country, so we all know what’s going on. Tell us your story.

Related Coverage:

Stop Pretending The ‘Anti-Sharia’ Movement Has Anything To Do With Empowering Women

5 Things The Anti-Sharia Movement Gets Dangerously Wrong

----------

“The White House condemned “white supremacists” for the violence in Virginia after President Trump blamed "many sides" on Saturday”
The New York Times, Sunday, August 13, 2017

The White House, under siege over President Trump’s equivocal response to this weekend’s bloody white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., on Sunday condemned “white supremacists” for inciting the violence that led to one death.

The statement — issued more than 36 hours after the protests began — came in an email sent to reporters in the president’s traveling press pool, and was attributed to an unnamed spokesperson. It was not attributed directly to Mr. Trump, who often uses Twitter to communicate directly on controversial topics.

*

“Trump tries to quiet race storm”
The Hill, August 14, 2017

President Trump sought to quell the storm over his reaction to violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Monday but even some Republicans believe the damage has already been done.

“This should never have been a White House story,” said one House GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly. “They should have condemned it like everyone else and moved on.”

Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said, “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

*

Letter: “Deplorables on display”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 14, 2017

To the editor:

Many people resented Hillary Clinton's use of the word "deplorable" (in reference to Trump supporters) because they felt it cast too wide a net. In Charlottesville, Va. we can see who she was referring to: white nationalists, Klansmen, alt-right anti-Semites and their ilk. We really have some bad people on the loose in this country — just as bad as Islamic terrorists. Driving cars into crowds of people.

The real question is, why now? These people were not tolerated before. One can only conclude that Trumpism has released these people's anger on the rest of us.

Deplorables!

Benjamin Glick,
Williamstown

----------

“After Trump’s Remarks, White Nationalists Say He’s Telling Truth About Charlottesville”; But Republican lawmakers urged condemnation of white supremacy.
By Dana Liebelson, The Huffington Post, August 15, 2017

WASHINGTON ― Republicans, Democrats and business leaders have called President Donald Trump’s response to last weekend’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, inadequate. But white nationalists involved in the rally have sung a different tune, praising the president for what they see as his truth telling about the incident.

Trump “sees the truth is the way I see it,” said Eli Mosley, a 25-year-old who advocates for “white rights” and helped organize the “Unite the Right” rally. “He’s seen through this ridiculous narrative that we went there to fight.”

Trump on Tuesday condemned “neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” but also suggested that anti-Nazi counter-protesters ― who the president termed the “alt-left” ― instigated the weekend’s violence.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right,” Trump said at Trump Tower in New York. “You had, you had a group on one side that was bad. And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now,” Trump added.

There were “very fine people on both sides,” Trump said.

“It sounds to me like [Trump] is being an objective observer,” said Christopher Cantwell, a white nationalist from New Hampshire who attended Saturday’s rally. “Somebody who is not like a communist piece of filth would look at what happened there and say the leftists were the initiators of the force.”

The chaos at Saturday’s rally made it hard to tell who was responsible for every act of violence. But a few facts are clear: At least 35 people were injured — and one was killed. (Two more people, both state troopers working the rally, were also killed when their helicopter crashed.) James Alex Fields, the man who allegedly drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing the one and injuring 19 more, was reportedly fascinated with Nazis and stood with Vanguard America, a white supremacist group. (The group disavowed any connection with Fields.)

Even before Tuesday, Democrats and some Republicans had criticized Trump’s first response to the weekend’s events for blaming “many sides” for the violence. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) tweeted: “Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

The president followed up on Monday with a second, more comprehensive public denunciation of “the KKK, Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

But on Tuesday afternoon, in a heated back and forth with reporters, Trump shifted his tone yet again, returning to the “both sides” rhetoric of his initial statement.

“White supremacy, bigotry & racism have absolutely no place in our society & no one - especially POTUS - should ever tolerate it,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) tweeted after the remarks.

“We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity,” tweeted House Speaker Paul Ryan.

In addition to negative reactions from lawmakers, several members of the White House manufacturing council also resigned in protest this week.

But prominent members of the so-called “alt-right,” a rebranding of white nationalism, jumped to Trump’s defense. Tim Gionet, who calls himself “Baked Alaska,” and attended the rally, thanked Trump in one tweet, adding: “President Trump is right!”

Richard Spencer, a prominent white nationalist leader, said he didn’t take Trump’s more guarded statement condemning hate groups seriously. It’s more “Kumbaya nonsense,” he told reporters on Monday, adding that it sounded “hollow and vapid.” After Trump’s latest remarks on Tuesday, however, Spencer tweeted, “I’m proud of [Trump] for speaking the truth.”

White nationalists that spoke to HuffPost don’t claim that Trump supports their views.

When asked about the president’s denunciation of white supremacist groups, Cantwell said he found it sincere, and also said the media is trying to conflate the views of the president and white nationalists.

“I know exactly what you’re trying to do, is tying Donald Trump to me, which is why you’re a piece of garbage, right, because you know it’s not accurate, he went out of his way to denounce all these different groups or whatever,” Cantwell said.

But “we have overlap, right, we want to save our nation,” Cantwell added, calling it a “poor strategic decision on his [Trump’s] part to denounce white supremacists. I don’t think there’s any benefit to it because obviously all the propagandists on the television are saying that he didn’t do it fast enough.”

But critics of Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, and his statement on Tuesday, were appalled.

“If the situation weren’t so serious, we could overlook his act, his ducking and weaving, his petulant behavior,” Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement Tuesday. “But at this point, it’s simply bizarre and disheartening.”

“We can’t accept excuses for white supremacy & acts of domestic terrorism. We must condemn. Period,” tweeted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

----------

August 16, 2017

Re: Down with Trump!

U.S. President Donald Trump should be immediately impeached for defending the indefensible!

Dear Mr. Trump,

The Neo-Nazi's, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, alt-right, and the like are immoral. They are totally evil people.

You, Donald Trump, are WRONG!

- Jonathan Melle

Donald Trump = Adolf Hitler!

“We (Donald Trump and the alt-right) have overlap, right, we want to save our nation,” stated Christopher Cantwell, who is a white nationalist from New Hampshire.

----------

Re: Anti-Hate Congressional resolution

Yesterday [8/15/2017], Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter co-introduced a resolution, together with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and 30 other members of Congress, urging President Trump to strongly condemn white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other hate groups, and to remove individuals who have supported white nationalists, including Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Sebastian Gorka, from the White House.

The resolution:

Condemns the role of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, KKK and other hate groups in the “Unite the Right” rally and domestic terror attack in Charlottesville [Virginia];

Denounces the increase in organizing, fear-mongering, racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry and violence perpetrated by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups;

Offers condolences and sympathies to the families of Heather Heyer, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, and urges a quick recovery to those injured;

Strongly urges the president to:

Fire individuals in the White House and Trump administration who have supported or encouraged support for white nationalists;

Quickly and publicly repudiate and denounce white supremacist, neo-Nazi, KKK and other hate groups;

Use all available resources of the Office of the President and the Cabinet to address the growing prevalence of such hate groups domestically; and
Use his office to unite all Americans against hate.

In addition to Shea-Porter and Jayapal, the resolution is co-sponsored by 30 members of Congress: Reps. Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Alcee Hastings (FL-20), Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Nydia Velazquez (NY-07), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Adam Smith (WA-09), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Grace Napolitano (CA-32), Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Andre Carson (IN-07), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Judy Chu (CA-27), Bill Foster (IL-11), Donald Payne Jr. (NJ-10), John Delaney (MD-06), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Juan Vargas (CA-51), Don Beyer (VA-08), Brendan Boyle (PA-13), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Dwight Evans (PA-02), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08) and Al Lawson (FL-05).

----------

"Trump fires chief strategist Bannon"

Bannon was instrumental in the ban on people from Muslim-majority countries, abandoning the Paris climate accord, tearing up international trade agreements and cracking down on illegal immigration.

Source: NH Union Leader, August 18, 2017

----------

“Gorka resigns from White House post”
The Hill, August 25, 2017

Sebastian Gorka, special assistant to President Trump, has offered his letter of resignation to the president, according to multiple reports late Friday.

“[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote in a letter first reported by The Federalist.

----------

“Donald Trump isn’t just a champion of white supremacists. He’s their leader”
By Renée Graham, Boston Globe Columnist, Op-Ed, August 17, 2017

I was wrong.

In a column about President Trump’s flaccid initial response to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, I wrote: “They marched with Confederate flags and swastikas, guns slung from their shoulders and strapped to their waists, believing their champion occupies this nation’s highest office.”

I should not have called the 45th President of the United States a “champion” of white supremacists. Trump is their undisputed leader.

Indeed, Trump was a racist long before he had a base to mollify, branded Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” and tried to ban Muslims from entering this country. In 1989, he bought newspaper ads calling for reinstatement of the death penalty after five black and Latino teens were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park. All served prison time before their sentences were vacated based on DNA evidence and a detailed confession from a serial rapist. Trump has never apologized. There was that “birther” rubbish he flung at President Obama in an attempt to delegitimize a presidency that his own will never surpass. Now he won’t stop tweeting about the “foolish” removal of “our beautiful statues and monuments” — you know, the ones for seditious men who fought and lost a treasonous war to keep black people in chains.

Trump is not racially insensitive. He is not taken out of context. He is not an old man whose ideas are trapped in the past. White supremacists love him because bigots always embrace one of their own. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Trump wouldn’t have gotten to the White House without them and racists wouldn’t feel protected and understood without their personal president.

His supporters may believe I’m attacking their wonderful president with unfounded accusations, yet Trump’s own words always indict him. Who could have fathomed an American president defending neo-Nazis and white supremacists? Condemning such groups is the easiest thing a president can do. Yet Trump has failed miserably.

For those still in doubt, here’s a few signs your president is a racist:

■ He calls people who chanted, “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, “Very fine people.”

■ He makes an initial statement condemning hatred, but denounces violence “on many sides.” He ad-libbed that last bit, and repeated it twice just in case anyone couldn’t hear the dog whistle.

■ It takes two more days to cajole him into condemning by name neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK. When pushed to say something appropriate, he does so with all the sincerity of a four-year-old coerced into saying “thank you” for an ugly sweater.

■ Former KKK grand wizard and forever racist David Duke praises his “honesty & courage to tell the truth about Charlottesville” and “leftist terrorists.”

■ He has a massive crush on President Andrew Jackson, with his portrait prominently displayed in the Oval Office. It’s a statement piece about his admiration for a man best remembered for the “Trail of Tears,” which led to the deaths of thousands of Native Americans.

■ He employs Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, called “the platform for the alt-right.”

■ His tweets and comments are littered with white nationalist talking points.

■ He is silent about hate crimes against Muslims, yet giddily — and repeatedly — spreads a myth about US soldiers killing Muslims with bullets dipped in pig blood.

Like the unmasked men and women who marched for hate in Charlottesville, Trump has never concealed who he is. His combativeness is not a lack of discipline. It is a character trait on bold display.

As Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”

Renée Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham

----------

“Trump poised for a September fight over border wall”
The Hill, August 21, 2017

Funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall is poised to be a central issue in this fall’s showdown over government funding.

Unless Congress approves a new funding bill, the government will shut down on October 1, 2017.

Trump is demanding funds for the wall that was the centerpiece of his successful presidential campaign, but Democrats have warned they will vote en masse against any legislation that includes money for the wall.

----------

Re: Open letter to Rinaldo Del Gallo, III

August 21, 2017

Dear Rinaldo,

I agree with your view that freedom of speech must be protected and exercised by all of our fellow American citizens. I read several news articles about your experience in Boston this past Saturday, August 19th, 2017. There was a small group of people with a permit who spoke at a “free speech” event. There were over 500 police officers. There were over 40,000 protestors. You tried to attend the event as a “Bernie Sanders progressive”, but the police denied you entrance, and you are threatening to sue them. The protestors called you derisive terms, including “white trash”, and you asked for and received police protection. You called some of the protestors who you felt threatened by the term, “Antifa”.

Until I read the news articles that featured you in Boston on Saturday, I did not realize what the “Antifa” is and how long it existed. I copied a British news article, below. The long-standing “Antifa” movement is rising in standing with the general public since the election of U.S. President of Donald Trump and the “alt-right” movement he supports, which is linked with neo-nazi’s, the KKK, white supremacists, white nationalists, and the like.

What did you expect would happen, Rinaldo? We have a fascist and racist billionaire as our U.S. President who openly disrespects Human Rights! Race, violence, and conflictual politics are now dividing our nation. We are fighting each other instead of working together. To illustrate, the U.S. Congress and President Trump have only signed a few bills into law since January 20th, 2017. Moreover, the U.S. government may shut down on October 1, 2017, if they fail to raise the debt limit. We are in a period of ineffectual leadership and dysfunction!

Some political observers say this is all a diversion! The right-wing is reviving “hate” to distract us from their real agenda. The Republican Party wants to reform so-called “entitlements”, which means they want to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which are on the path to financial insolvency in the decades to come. They want to end “Obamacare”, too, which is also financially unsustainable. They want to cut federal taxes for the top 10% of income earners. They want to cut the corporate tax rate, too. They want to grow the military industrial complex by hundreds of billions of dollars per year. They want to defund Planned Parenthood, end limited abortion rights for women, and allow “religious” entities to invoke their “conscience” to limit insurance funding for birth control prescription medicine. They want to gut the EPA and give polluting businesses more discretion to poison our air, water, and land. They want to defund public education, and gut grant and loan funding for teenagers to afford college. They support harsh drug laws, private prisons, and a tough criminal justice system that many say targets the poor and minorities.

The question I have for you, Rinaldo, who takes the time to blog, write letters to the editor and political columns, proposes citizen initiatives, and runs for political office, is: “Why do so many people only protest instead of participate in the political process like you do?”

I am impressed with you, Rinaldo, because you take the time to participate in politics and government. You stand up for people, your community, and political causes. You fight the good fights, while so many people sit on the sidelines.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

-

“Antifa: Left-wing militants on the rise”
By Brenna Cammeron, BBC News, August 14, 2017

The violence and murder of a protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend has been attributed to far-right elements that descended on the city to demonstrate against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate war hero Robert E Lee.

President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism on Saturday when he said that there was violence on "many sides" in Charlottesville and initially neglected to explicitly censure the white supremacists who organised the rally.

On Monday, he bowed to pressure to castigate the KKK, white supremacists and neo-nazis.

But many conservatives say blame should be shared by Antifa, a loosely affiliated group of far-left protesters.

Critics argue the media tends to excuse violence by Antifa militants just because they are fighting white supremacists and their odious ideology.

What exactly is Antifa?

The social causes of Antifa (short for anti-fascist or Anti-Fascist action) are easily identifiable as left-leaning.

Most members oppose all forms of racism and sexism, and strongly oppose what they see as the nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim policies that Mr Trump has enacted.

However, as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy.

Unlike the mainstream left, they do not seek to gain power through traditional channels - winning elections and passing bills into law.

Antifa is anti-government and anti-capitalist, and their methodologies are often perceived as more closely aligned with anarchists than the mainstream left.

Antifa does not shy away from militant protest methods, including the destruction of property and sometimes physical violence.

They were present at the 2017 Berkeley protests of far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos and at violent protests against Donald Trump's inauguration; they were also present at Charlottesville.

Antifa's roots go back almost as far as Nazis

Much like the far-right, Antifa members around the world comprise a patchwork of groups, though the most active appear to be based in the US, the UK (under the name Anti-Fascist Action) and Germany (Antifaschistische Aktion).

The German movement was founded in 1932 to provide a militant far-left group to counter the fast-rising Nazi party.

They were disbanded in 1933 after Hitler took control of parliament and resurrected in the 1980s as a response to neo-Nazism after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

President Trump's election seems to have been something of a touchstone for the Antifa movement, which has links with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and various anarchist groups.

According to James Anderson, one of a group of people who run the popular anti-fascist and anarchist news site, It's Going Down, interest has spiked since Mr Trump's election.

The It's Going Down website, which received around 300 hits daily in 2015, now garners between 10-20,000 hits a day.

Since the events in Charlottesville on Saturday, the It's Going Down Twitter handle has gained 2,000 new followers.

While interest may have spiked since Mr Trump's election, it is all but impossible to quantify how many people are active members of Antifa.

Much like the far-right, chapters of Antifa are loosely connected and highly secretive, and organise mostly on message boards such as Reddit and over social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Calls to label Antifa a terror organisation

Antifa has become a popular topic for right-leaning websites and among conservative pundits.

Fox News commentator and conservative speaker Erick Erickson says in The Resurgent, a conservative blog, that "Antifa and the white supremacists are two sides of a common coin. The people dead in Charlottesville died because of one neo-Nazi, but there were dozen [sic] of people left bleeding in the streets because of Antifa".

Meanwhile, a change.org petition lobbying Mr Trump to declare Antifa a domestic terror organisation has garnered nearly 100,000 supporters.

While Antifa has gained relatively little attention in the mainstream media, that may soon change.

According to Mr Anderson, the events in Charlottesville over the weekend represent a "sea change" in how Antifa is perceived.

"This is a huge turning point and vindication for our movement," he said.

"We are working with Black Lives Matter, local clergy, this is not a movement that wants to be a lone group of militants," he said.

"This is about popular power. Sometimes that looks controversial - but this is a broad movement, and we are looking to engage a wide variety of people."

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40930831

----------

“Berkshire slander suit seeks $50 million from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh”
By Bob Dunn, bdunn@berkshireeagle.com – The Berkshire Eagle, October 24, 2017

PITTSFIELD — A former North Adams man is suing Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for $50 million, claiming he falsely associated him with hate groups during last August's Boston Free Speech Rally.

Brandon Navom, who now lives in Lowell, said the mayor's comments cost him his job and opened him up to threats after falsely claiming associations with white supremacists and other hate groups.

"My reputation has been ruined and I will suffer emotional and economic loss the rest of my life because of Mayor Marty Walsh's high profile defamatory comments," the suit reads.

A request for comment from Walsh's office was not returned by press time Tuesday.

The suit was filed Monday in Berkshire Superior Court by Pittsfield attorney Rinaldo Del Gallo, who also was a scheduled speaker at the Boston Free Speech Rally.

Del Gallo said he was invited by another rally organizer to speak as a "progressive."

Navom said he was one of the organizers of the Aug. 19 rally, but ultimately chose not to participate in it, according to the suit. The rally drew a few dozen participants to Boston Common — and tens of thousands of protesters.

It was held a week after a rally in Charlottesville, Va., which was attended by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, ended in violence and the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Navom appeared on an event flyer and on a television newscast, which identified him as an organizer who was scheduled to speak.

According to the suit, Walsh characterized the speakers as "white supremacists," "hate group members," and "neo-Nazis," despite none of them being affiliated with those groups.

"The Mayor's statements were either knowing lies or reckless false statements," the suit reads.

The suit alleges Walsh's comments were made with malice and showed a "reckless disregard for the truth," and served his own political purposes, according to the suit. A simple Google search would have alerted the mayor that none of the speakers were affiliated with hate groups, the suit alleges.

"There is no doubt that Mayor Marty Walsh was aware of such information but made his defamatory statements nonetheless with malice and for political gain," the suit claims.

It cites an Aug. 14 entry on the Anti-Defamation League's website, which noted significant differences between the Charlottesville rally and what was expected in Boston a week later.

"Unlike Charlottesville, the Boston event, as currently planned, is not a white supremacist gathering," according to the league's website.

The league went on to describe the Boston rally as having been organized "under the auspices of the alt lite, which embraces civic nationalism, rather than the alt right, which advocates white nationalism."

"But while the alt right and alt lite are theoretically distinct, there is crossover between them. There are a number of people and groups who walk the line between alt right and alt lite, to the extent that it's not always easy, or even possible, to tell which side they're on," according to the group.

The group did acknowledge that one of the scheduled Boston speakers, Augustus Invictus — born Austin Mitchell Gillespie of Orlando, Fla. — was involved in the planning of the Charlottesville rally and has ties to the alt-right political movement, but it also noted he had been "uninvited" to the event and would not be attending.

The group's website included biographies of the scheduled speakers, including Navom.

In its biography, the group described Navom as a software engineer who ran for Lowell City Council in 2013 and identifies as a Libertarian who attended the party's national convention as a delegate in 2016.

Navom also was a delegate for then-candidate Ron Paul in 2012 and "propagates the conspiracy theory that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered for political reasons," the biography states.

In Facebook posts leading up to the rally, the organizers of Boston Free Speech distanced themselves from the organizers of the Charlottesville rally.

"We will not be offering our platform to racism or bigotry. We denounce the politics of supremacy and violence," the statement reads. "We believe that the way to defeat and disarm toxic ideas and ideologies is through dialogue and reason."

The suit alleges Walsh was aware of all of this when he made his statements.

In the time before and after the rally, Walsh allegedly referred to rally organizers as white supremacists, hate groups and neo-Nazis, characterized rally participants as "spewing hate," and made references to the state and city "rejecting hate."

"Mayor Marty Walsh's libelous statements were large and substantial statements mischaracterizing the organizers, speakers and invited attendees as white supremacists, haters or members of hate groups; these were not `minor inaccuracies," according to the suit.

The suit alleges Walsh made the comments to score political points and to portray himself as a "social justice knight," attacking anti-Semitism, white supremacy and racism.

Navom claimed Walsh's statements led to a loss of his software consulting job, and led to him being subjected to an "internet hate mob," which tracked him down and harassed his former employer until he was fired.

"They let me go simply because my name was on the list of speakers," according to Navom, who said the same mob exposed his personal information, including his home address, and threatened to send people after him.

His attorney, Rinaldo Del Gallo, of Pittsfield, said the suit was filed in Berkshire County rather than Suffolk County due to concerns about getting a fair trial in the Boston area.

Reach staff writer Bob Dunn at 413-496-6249 or @BobDunn413 on Twitter.

----------

October 25, 2017

Dear Rinaldo,

I see you are the Attorney representing a man who wanted to speak as a Libertarian at Boston's Free Speech event this past summer, which was one week after the White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Your client was terminated from his job due to his association with the aforementioned event in Boston that Mayor Marty Walsh spoke out against.

Please share your thoughts about President Donald Trump and his staff who are associated with the alt-right movement that has taken hold in both Europe and the United States of America. What are your beliefs on Neo-Nazis, White Supremacy, White Nationalism, and the alt-right movement?

As your friend, I wish to explain my views on the alt-right movement. I condemn it! I believe in Human Rights for All Peoples and people. I believe that the alt-right movement is totally immoral. It stands for everything this country stands against. We fought Hitler in WW2 and his violent, hateful ideology should have died with him in the Spring of 1945.

As for your lawsuit against the Mayor of Boston, I believe there is a relation or correlation between the Charlottesville, Virginia event one week prior to the Boston Free Speech event this past summer. To say there was no relation or correlation is wrong! The alt-right is both overt and COVERT! I disagree with you about Marty Walsh's stand on the event he spoke out against. I believe Marty Walsh did the right thing! He spoke his beliefs and showed himself to be a man of conscience who represents all of Boston's diverse residents.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Melle

----------

“Lawyer sues Boston officials for 1st Amendment violations”
By Bob McGovern, Dan Atkinson, The Boston Herald, November 15, 2017

A self-styled Bernie Sanders progressive has hit city officials with a lawsuit for what he called “extreme violations” of the First Amendment at this summer’s Free Speech Rally — and he wants local authorities barred from repeating those alleged actions this weekend at another Boston Common event.

“I have never seen such extreme violations of the First Amendment, and I don’t think there has been anything like it in decades,” said Rinaldo Del Gallo, the attorney and former state Senate candidate from Pittsfield who brought the suit. “If municipalities are allowed to act like this, you can kiss the First Amendment goodbye.”

He argues in the federal civil suit that Boston officials prevented him from speaking at the Aug. 19 Free Speech Rally, that people weren’t allowed near the Parkman Bandstand to hear the speakers, and that event organizers weren’t allowed to use “sufficient amplification” to have their voices heard.

He added that the media was improperly barred from the bandstand.

Del Gallo filed the suit against Mayor Martin J. Walsh, police Commissioner William B. Evans, Parks and Recreation Department Commissioner Christopher Cook and several unnamed police officers last week.

He is asking for $500 million for what he called “unprecedented” free-speech violations.

“We just want it to be known that the damages here were serious,” he said. “These were ridiculous measures to squash free speech, and we don’t want the city to do this again. This can’t be a slap on the wrist.”

He is also asking that a federal judge block authorities from interfering with the “Rally for the Republic” — an event run by the Resist Marxism group, which is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common.

The city and police declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

At a press conference yesterday at City Hall, organizers of the rally said they will also file suit against the city if officials attempt to shut down the gathering, which was not granted a permit.

“If a patriotic group such as ours continues to be discriminated against by the city, we are prepared to take legal action,” said John Medlar, an organizer of the Resist Marxism rally. “The mayor can explain to his constituents why taxpayer money is being used to pay for lawsuits.”

Boston police spokesman Lt. Det. Michael McCarthy said local authorities have been in communication with “all parties who are planning events this weekend.”

“We will have adequate resources in place to ensure the safety of all those attending the events,” he said, in an email. “We do not anticipate any issues with crowd size or planned events happening this weekend.”

Del Gallo is separately representing Brandon Navom, a Free Speech Rally organizer, in a civil defamation suit against Walsh.

The state lawsuit accuses the mayor of lying for characterizing the event organizers as “white supremacists.”

----------

Rinaldo Del Gallo

“Pittsfield attorney's federal suit: First Amendment rights violated at 'Boston Free Speech' rally”
By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz, The Berkshire Eagle, November 16, 2017

SPRINGFIELD — A Pittsfield attorney and former state senate candidate has a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Boston and several Boston officials, including Mayor Martin Walsh, alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated at the "Boston Free Speech" rally in August.

A motion for a preliminary injunction in the case will be heard Friday in Springfield.

Rinaldo Del Gallo, a self-described progressive, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Springfield on Nov. 11, claiming that Walsh, Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, Parks and Recreation Department Commissioner Christopher Cook and more than 300 police officers infringed on his constitutional rights at the August rally by not allowing him to enter the Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Common to speak, not allowing sufficient amplification for the speakers and preventing members of the press from being close enough to the speakers to sufficiently cover the event.

Del Gallo is seeking $250 million in actual damages from each defendant and $250 million in punitive damages, as well as the preliminary injunction allowing Resist Marxism to hold its upcoming scheduled "Rally for the Republic" gathering in the Boston Common on Saturday, during which he'll be allowed to speak.

A preliminary injunction is a court order filed before a final determination of the merits of a legal case.

"I've literally never heard of it happening," Del Gallo said Wednesday about the alleged limitations put on speakers and the media at the public rally in August. "It was kind of shocking."

On Aug. 19, the Boston Free Speech Coalition held the "Free Speech Rally" on the Boston Common. The event took place one week after a woman was killed and scores were injured at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., when a car plowed into counter-protesters.

The organizers of the Boston event had planned their rally before the attack in Charlottesville and had adamantly tried to distance themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who incited the violence in Virginia.

Still, the Boston rally drew more than 40,000 counter-protesters who chanted anti-Nazi slogans and overpowered the small group of Free Speech rally attendees.

It also drew a massive police presence and policies that Del Gallo alleges were "repressive."

"The Boston Free Speech Rally of August 19, 2017, ironically became one of the greatest specimens of the repression of free speech by a municipality," Del Gallo wrote in the complaint.

Del Gallo was invited to speak at the event by one of the organizers, John Medlar, to add a progressive voice to the rally.

While Del Gallo said he doesn't agree with the "alternative right," he is an advocate for free speech and attended the rally in support of the cause.

When he arrived at the bandstand in August, police security kept ushering him from gate to gate, and eventually that police presence, as well as restrictions, prevented him from speaking, he said.

"I knew that the people there were not going to be white supremacists," Del Gallo said. "I figured it out, but he (Walsh) didn't."

When contacted by The Eagle, Medlar declined to comment on Del Gallo's lawsuit and referred questions about Saturday's rally to the Resist Marxism website.

Those who attended the August rally, including members of the media, couldn't hear those who had the opportunity to speak because they were not allowed to use amplification other than bullhorns, Del Gallo said.

The media were kept outside a "buffer zone" and were unable to hear the speakers, he added.

Del Gallo is not the only person who took issue with media access to the August event.

In October, the New England First Amendment Coalition, the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Massachusetts sent the city a joint letter in response to the August rally. In it, they requested a meeting to discuss how the city can provide security while also protecting First Amendment rights and demanding increased press access to public demonstrations on the Boston Common.

On Thursday, the groups filed an amicus brief in Del Gallo's case, not taking the side of either party, but rather requesting that the judge order that media be allowed close-up access to public areas where speakers assemble Saturday and ensure that no member of the press is given less access than any member of the public.

John Ward, a spokesman for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said Wednesday that the organization is sending "legal observers" to Saturday's event to make sure press access isn't limited.

"Nobody from the Boston Free Speech Rally appointed the Boston Police to be gatekeepers — nonetheless they repeatedly refused my demands to be allowed to go to the Parkman Bandstand," Del Gallo said about the August rally.

In a response to the motion for a preliminary injunction that was filed Wednesday, an attorney for the city and named defendants called Del Gallo's claims about the August rally "factually inaccurate."

Del Gallo was permitted to enter the "cordoned off" area near the bandstand and was granted access by a police officer, but by the time he arrived to speak, at about 12:30 p.m., the program had concluded and officers were "extricating rally participants to a safe location," wrote attorney Eugene L. O'Flaherty, who represents the city of Boston.

In the motion for a preliminary injunction, Del Gallo requests access to speak and access for the media to Saturday's Rally for the Republic event, where speakers will not be separated from "non-protesting audience members."

He also wants a federal court judge to order the city to allow a "quality sound system" to be used and for the city to provide several dates for similar rallies in the spring, summer and next fall.

On Sept. 18, Mark Sahady, a representative of the Resist Marxism group, applied for a permit for the Parkman Bandstand with the Boston Department of Parks and Recreation for Saturday's "patriotic themed" rally.

On Oct. 26, the agency denied the group's permit because Saturday morning was booked by another organization for a 5-kilometer footrace, but it offered a permit for Sunday, which the group didn't accept.

Resist Marxism said in a statement that it intends on holding the event at noon Saturday, without a permit, because it finds the reasoning behind the denial "insufficient" and it took too long for the city to respond to the application.

"Their actions give the appearance that there are other reasons for the permit denial rather than just bureaucratic inefficiency," the statement read.

O'Flaherty said in opposition to the motion that because Del Gallo wasn't the person to file a request for permits in either rally, he does not have the right to seek relief on behalf of the organizers.

The city already has told organizers that, despite their lack of a permit, it will not interfere with the right of any individual, including Del Gallo, to speak on the Boston Common on Saturday, and so therefore Del Gallo also can't show a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction, which is a requirement for the pre-emptive judicial intervention, O'Flaherty wrote.

"Therefore, there is no actual claim which justifies the Court's intervention," he said. "Moreover, it is important to note that while a special event permit from the (Boston Parks and Recreation Department) is required to reserve a particular location within Boston's Parks for exclusive access or to arrange a larger-scale event that includes staging or sound amplification, an individual is in no way restricted from exercising his (or) her right to speak in a traditional public forum such as the Boston Common."

The city defended its denial of the permit for Saturday, referencing the more than 40,000 counter-protesters, confiscation of dangerous weapons, assaults on officers and members of the public and dozens of arrests made at the August rally.

Del Gallo called the city's response to his motion "poppycock," and that anyone whose constitutional rights were encroached on could have filed suit, regardless of whether their name was on the application for a permit.

Del Gallo also said he is "shocked" that the city would say he was allowed access when he recorded a video that shows otherwise.

"If they have no intention of interfering with the media this time, then they should have no problem with the (court) order," Del Gallo said.

Mayor Walsh's office declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.

In regard to the high dollar amounts sought in the suit, Del Gallo said he doesn't realistically expect to be awarded millions of dollars in damages, but he claimed the damages in an effort to not set an upper limit to what he could be granted.

The monetary damages of First Amendment violations are immeasurable, Del Gallo said.

"I don't really expect to walk away with almost half a billion dollars," he said. "It's just a pleading technique."

If the judge doesn't intervene before Saturday, Del Gallo expects that counter-protesters might try to block access to the bandstand or try to drown out the Resist Marxism speakers.

"There's a likelihood of havoc if there's no judge order" before Saturday, Del Gallo said.

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz can be reached at horecchio@berkshireeagle.com, at @HavenEagle on Twitter and 413-770-6977.

----------

"My big question for you, Mr. Del Gallo, is who are you and what are we here for?" Judge Michael A. Ponsor

“No injunction for Boston rally; federal judge denies request by Pittsfield's Rinaldo Del Gallo for action against the city”
By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz, The Berkshire Eagle, November 17, 2017

SPRINGFIELD— Despite a Pittsfield attorney's lengthy argument on Friday, a federal court judge didn't order the City of Boston to issue a permit for Saturday's planned Resist Marxism: Rally for the Republic.

The City of Boston had already said it would not interfere with the rally.

Rinaldo Del Gallo, a scheduled speaker for Saturday's rally, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Springfield on Nov. 11 alleging that Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, Parks and Recreation Department Commissioner Christopher Cook and more than 300 police officers infringed on his constitutional rights at the August "Free Speech Rally" in Boston by not allowing him to enter the Parkman Bandstand to speak, not allowing sufficient amplification for the speakers and preventing members of the press from being close enough to the speakers to sufficiently cover the event.

In a motion for a preliminary injunction, which was heard Friday, Del Gallo requested a preemptive judicial order that the city change its policies at Saturday's free speech rally, but Judge Michael A. Ponsor denied the motion after expressing confusion why Del Gallo, who is not an organizer of the event, brought the suit in his own name.

"My big question for you, Mr. Del Gallo, is who are you and what are we here for?" Ponsor said at the hearing in Federal Court on Friday. The rally "is being initiated by someone who isn't in the courtroom and isn't being represented and that's a problem that we're going to have to wrestle with."

Del Gallo said he filed the motion to ensure that if the city did not stand by its word that it wouldn't interfere with the rally, that city officials could face "criminal" repercussions.

On Aug. 19, the Boston Free Speech Coalition held the "Free Speech Rally" on the Boston Common. The event took place one week after a woman was killed and scores were injured at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., when a car plowed into counter-protesters.

The organizers of the Boston event had planned their rally before the attack in Charlottesville and had adamantly tried to distance themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who incited the violence in Virginia.

Still, the Boston rally drew more than 40,000 counter-protesters who chanted anti-Nazi slogans and overpowered the small group of Free Speech rally attendees. Boston police officers spent the day securing the area that surrounded the bandstand, where assaults broke out and weapons and tactical gear were confiscated. Dozens of arrests were made.

Del Gallo said that police violated his free speech that day by not letting him get to the bandstand where he was scheduled to speak, but Nicole Taub, a senior attorney for the Boston Police Department said in court that officers weren't preventing him from speaking, but by the time he arrived the city had already started evacuating the event organizers from the area in a police van due to violence that broke out. Del Gallo was also evacuated from the area.

"It was for that reason that Mr. Del Gallo was not prevented from speaking, but (rather) prevented from entering the area where there was public discord," Taub said.

Del Gallo rejected the city's explanation and said he had a cellphone video that shows police officers denying him access to the area. In the video, which he played prior to the hearing and posted on his Facebook page, Del Gallo can be heard shouting threats that he would sue officers for not let him move to the bandstand.

On September 18, Mark Sahady, an organizer from the free speech activist group, Resist Marxism, filed a permit for a subsequent free speech rally to be held Saturday.

On Oct. 26, however, the city's department of Parks and Recreation denied the permit because of an already scheduled charity 5K roadrace in the area, but offered the group the permit for the next day.

Resist Marxism declined to accept the permit for the next day and said they would continue to hold the event as they had planned to on the 18th and the city had said it would not interfere with it, would allow them amplification and not restrict the media from covering it.

Del Gallo called the permit denial "viewpoint discrimination" and argued that the city took too long to respond to Sahady's application to intentionally "throw a wrench" in their plans. Speakers had already bought plane tickets and booked hotels in Boston, he argued.

Del Gallo said that without a permit, many speakers declined to attend because they were concerned of a standoff with police. Del Gallo identified Gavin McInnes, a founder of the far-right men's organization "Proud Boys," as one of the speakers who said he wouldn't come without a permit. Taub said that the permit was rejected for the requested date because of the already permitted race, paired with concerns of public safety and logistical issues.

Ponsor questioned why, if the city was engaging in viewpoint discrimination, it would offer the group a permit for the following day. He also told Del Gallo that he didn't have standing to argue irreparable harm on behalf of those attendees who are not a party in the suit and that he didn't show how he will suffer if the injunction is not ordered.

Ruth Bourquin, a senior attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, spoke briefly at the hearing.

While the ACLU made it clear it was not taking a side in DeGallo's case, Bourquin argued on behalf of members of the press who claim they were kept in an area where they were unable to hear or interview speakers at the August event.

She spoke in support of Del Gallo's injunction, only where it requested media access be unrestricted.

"I think it's uncontested that the media were subjected to very severe restrictions," she said. "As the city has said they have indicated that they do not intend to impose those restrictions again they have been very careful not to say they will not impose" the restrictions.

Ponsor denied the motion, calling Del Gallo's arguments "quite weak," but said there was a possibility his mind could be changed as the case progressed towards a trial. He said he is "not convinced" that moving the event one day would have caused significant harm to Del Gallo or the organizers of the event because they had three weeks' notice and could have rescheduled.

"I've had weddings that have done that. These things happen," Ponsor said. "I do not see significant harm to the plaintiff."

Ponsor also said he believes the city's stance that there are significant logistical and public safety concerns related to the rally. "We know what happened in Charlottesville. We know what happened in August," Ponsor said. "We are all aware of how easily these events can get out of control."

"We're willing to risk our lives for the First Amendment," Del Gallo said. "I'm in fear for my life but I'm going to show up and exercise my First Amendment."

Bourquin will also attend the rally as a "legal observer" taking note of any restrictions imposed on members of the press.

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz can be reached at horecchio@berkshireeagle.com, at @HavenEagle on Twitter and 413-770-6977.

----------

“President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, an ex-sheriff accused of profiling Latinos, after saying he was ‘convicted for doing his job’”
The New York Times, August 25, 2017

President Trump on Friday pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff whose aggressive efforts to hunt down and detain undocumented immigrants made him a national symbol of the divisive politics of immigration and earned him a criminal contempt conviction.

Mr. Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a signature campaign issue and had pressed for local officials to do more to assist federal authorities in rounding up undocumented people, had been openly flirting with the idea of pardoning Mr. Arpaio.

*

President Trump has granted a pardon to Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., his press secretary said in a statement Friday night.

Arpaio, 85, was found guilty of criminal contempt last month for his defiance of a judge’s order against prolonging traffic patrols targeting immigrants.

credit: Boston Globe.

*

“Concentration Camps Expert Says Trump Just Endorsed The Idea Of Them In U.S.”
“Historically, when this kind of thing has happened, it’s encouraged other people to take up the same tactics.”
By Sam Levine, Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post, August 26, 2017

President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio amounts to an endorsement of the idea of concentration camps, says a journalist who has reported on the global history of the deadly facilities.

Arpaio referred to his own county jail as a ”concentration camp.” For over two decades, he operated “Tent City,” where detainees were kept in brutal conditions, including temperatures soaring well above 100 degrees Farenheit. They were also forced to work on chain gangs and to wear pink undergarments as a form of humiliation. Arpaio was convicted in July of criminal contempt for ignoring a court order prohibiting the detention of people based on mere suspicions about their legal status.

In an email to HuffPost Saturday, Andrea Pitzer, the author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, defined a concentration camp as a “mass civilian detention outside the standard legal process, usually on the basis of race, ethnicity, or political activity.” While Pitzer said Tent City was a prison technically constructed to hold those convicted by law, it bore familiar elements to a concentration camp, including “brutal dehuminization.”

“Once Arpaio began neighborhood sweeps and traffic stops deliberately targeting Latinos, and then detaining them without charges, his whole enterprise tilted further toward being a concentration camp for that set of detainees,” she wrote. “And even for those who had been convicted of crimes, it was a harrowing, often deadly experience.”

Pitzer said Trump pardoning Arpaio legitimized the 85-year-old former sheriff’s operation.

“When it was just Arpaio and his deputies doing it, it was a freelance, loose-cannon operation. What happened yesterday is that the President of the United States put his position behind it and used executive power to bless these tactics,” she wrote. “Historically, when this kind of thing has happened, it’s encouraged other people to take up the same tactics. I think we need to hear from the Department of Justice whether official guidance is forthcoming about the use of these strategies by law enforcement.”

The White House said Friday Arpaio deserved a pardon because of his history in law enforcement. Trump has faced widespread criticism for his decision to pardon Arpaio, including from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

----------


Jack Rosenthal survived the Holocaust, only to see neo-Nazi sentiments now rising in his adopted country.

“This Holocaust Survivor Noticed A Detail In Charlottesville You Might Have Missed”
“You see something like this, you know, it brings back memories and I’m concerned about what could happen in this country.”
By Alessandra Freitas, The Huffington Post, August 25, 2017

Shock and anger were common feelings for most Americans who followed the recent tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

To Jack Rosenthal, the hate-filled imagery was something he never thought he’d see again, at least not in the United States.

Rosenthal is one of 10,000 Romanian refugees who came to America after World War II. At 88 years old, he still mourns the loss of seven family members who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was the only one to survive.

He was born and raised in a farming village in northern Romania. “Altogether in my village, there were 26 Jewish families,” Rosenthal told HuffPost. Most of them didn’t survive either.

He was 16 when he was taken to the German Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Later, he was transferred to Buchenwald, another camp near Weimar, Germany, where he was forced to work for the Nazis ― the only reason he was kept alive until U.S. military forces began to evacuate the camp’s 28,000 prisoners in 1945. He came to the U.S. hoping to find a new beginning.

“After I was liberated, I thought to myself the world has learned what terrible traces hate can bring to humanity,” he said. “And now this gives me a depressing feeling because it’s happening again, and it’s happening now.”

The successful real estate agent watched the protests from his home in Roslyn, New York, where he lives during the warmer months of the year. In the winter, Rosenthal flies to Florida.

Decades later, he remembers how hard it was to get settled in the U.S. while dealing with the trauma from the war. “When I came here, I used to get really bad nightmares and I would get up in middle of the night not being able to go back to sleep,” he said.

Those days of lingering fear and uncertainty felt much closer after watching neo-Nazis rage during the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, he said. But after all the anti-Semitic speeches and the deadly car attack, it was one particular detail that caught Rosenthal’s attention.

He noticed it while reading about a Aug. 14 court hearing for James Alex Fields Jr., the man accused of plowing his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the white nationalist rally, leaving a 32-year-old woman dead and injuring at least 19 other people. The article included a photo of Matthew Heimbach, who had helped promote the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, voicing his displeasure outside the courtroom after a judge denied bail for Fields.

The white supremacist’s T-shirt was the first thing Jack saw. On the shirt was a picture of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, a pre-WWII leader of the Romanian fascist Legion of Saint Michael the Archangel and the Iron Guard political party, which were both linked to the Nazi party.


White nationalist leader Matthew Heimbach yells at the media outside the Charlottesville General Courthouse on Aug. 14, 2017. credit: Justin Ide, Reuters.

Codreanu was the face behind pogroms in Romania. The large-scale violent riots killed tens of thousands of Romanian Jews during the 1930s leading up to the Holocaust.

“I recognized the name right away,” Rosenthal said. “You see something like this, you know, it brings back memories and I’m concerned about what could happen in this country,” he said.

The groups behind the Unite the Right rally are not the only ones of their kind. According to a February report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least 917 hate groups exist throughout the country.

Many Americans were concerned when President Donald Trump failed to immediately condemn white supremacy in responding to the Charlottesville violence. Instead, Trump blamed both sides of the protests ― a point he repeated on Tuesday.

“You cannot compare fascism and Nazis to the other people protesting. Maybe there are people on both sides who are misguided, but there is simply no comparison,” Rosenthal said.

And he reminded us that the consequences of going through horrific violence never really end. “It’s 70 years after the war and it still has a tremendous impact on me,” he said. “It’s something I’ll never forget and that’ll always be with me as long as I live.”

----------

"On the Agenda in Washington"
MSNBC cable television, September 4, 2017

#1 - Hurricane Harvey relief funding
#2 - Pass a budget, Raise the debt ceiling; Keep the government open
#3 - Reform tax-code and health care insurance
#4 - Russia probes

----------

“Dreamers face long odds with GOP Congress”
The Hill, September 5, 2017

President Trump is calling for congressional action on immigration reform, but early indications suggest his Republican allies, particularly in the Senate, have little inclination to take up the thorny issue.

“Congress, get ready to do your job – DACA!” the president tweeted Tuesday, hours before Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally announced the decision to roll back a key Obama-era immigration program over the next six months.

The president notably did not mention the other issues facing Congress this month, including hard deadlines to fund the government and raise the federal borrowing limit.

*

“TRUMP TO END DACA”, September 5, 2017, via Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the New York Times: “President Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to the Obama-era executive action that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling the program an ‘amnesty-first approach’ and urging Congress to replace it with legislation before it begins phasing out on March 5, 2018. ... As late as one hour before the decision was to be announced, administration officials privately expressed concern that Mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take, and when he discovered their full impact, would change his mind, according to a person familiar with their thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity without authorization to comment on it.”

----------

“Jeff Sessions Once Said Restrictions on Jewish and Italian Immigration Were ‘Good for America’”
By Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate.com – September 5, 2017

Jeff Sessions' history of involvement with the white nationalist/supremacist alt-right movement is illustrated by his remarks he made in 2015 during a radio interview with Steve Bannon.

“In seven years we'll have the highest percentage of Americans, non-native born, since the founding of the Republic. Some people think we've always had these numbers, and it's not so, it's very unusual, it's a radical change. When the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and Congress changed the policy, and it slowed down immigration significantly, we then assimilated through the 1965 [Immigration Act] and created really the solid middle class of America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America. We passed a law that went far beyond what anybody realized in 1965, and we're on a path to surge far past what the situation was in 1924.”

The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 is one of the most infamously racist laws in American history, having been passed by advocates of Nazi-style eugenics in order to cut down on the number of Jews, Italians, and other allegedly inferior groups who were allowed into the United States. The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, was designed consciously to halt the immigration of supposedly "dysgenic" Italians and eastern European Jews.

----------

“Senate approves resolution condemning white supremacist groups”
The Hill, September 11, 2017

The Senate easily passed a resolution on Monday condemning white supremacist organizations and urging President Trump to speak out against hate groups.

The Senate measure formally condemns "the violence and domestic terrorist attack" that occurred last month around a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

In addition to urging Trump and the administration to publicly push back against hate groups, the resolution urges Trump and his Cabinet to "address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the United States."

----------

9/21/2017

25 million people live in North Korea! If we annihilate North Korea with U.S. nuclear weapons, Donald Trump will kill twice the number of people compared to Hitler's Holocaust.

We killed over one million Vietnamese people in the year of 1968 alone. During the U.S. conflict in Vietnam, we killed over 5 million Vietnamese people. That is one million people less than how many Jewish people were exterminated in Hitler's Holocaust.

During the Iraq Wars that the two Bushes ordered, we killed well over one million people in the Middle East.

Let us add up the number of people we have killed in Vietnam, Iraq, and Trump's threat to annihilate North Korea. That number comes in at well over 31 million people killed!

How are we any better than Hitler? The U.S. War Machine kills people! Let us not forget that when Trump threatens to annihilate North Korea, that we will kill over 25 million people!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“The White House announced a new travel ban targeting 7 countries, including Iran and North Korea. This ban is considered indefinite.”
The New York Times, September 24, 2017

President Trump on Sunday issued a new order banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the nations covered by his original travel ban, citing threats to national security posed by letting their citizens into the country.

Starting next month, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be indefinitely banned from entering the United States, Mr. Trump said in a proclamation released Sunday night. Citizens of Iraq and some groups of people in Venezuela who seek to visit the United States will face restrictions or heightened scrutiny.

----------

Letter: “Ignore Trump, back constitutional rights”
The Berkshire Eagle, September 29, 2017

To the editor:

I suppose that President Trump's lack of historical perspective includes this: in Hitler's Germany the Nazis severely punished Jehovah's Witnesses for refusing to raise their hands in the mandatory Hitler salute. Nevertheless, Mr. Trump calls professional athletes who refuse to stand for our flag "sons of bitches" and demands that the team owners fire them for this modest and peaceful exercise of their constitutional rights under the First Amendment.

This issue was definitively resolved by the Supreme Court 70 years ago in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). In rejecting the practice of enforced American flag salutes, Justice Robert Jackson, writing for the Court, said that "we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds." When Trump demands that professional teams fire any athlete who declines to salute the flag, he is promoting management conduct that would be patently unconstitutional.

Trump's unsolicited and patently erroneous legal advice to professional team owners is deeply distressing. Perhaps even worse is his attempt to persuade the public to punish the players and the owners for conduct that is protected by our Constitution. Because I love this country, our flag and the Constitution, I support the kneeling players and respect and thank the team owners. I ask that all Americans join me in this regard.

Donald S. Coburn, Monterey

----------

“Trump ramps up the culture war”
The Hill, October 15, 2017

President Trump is expanding the culture wars, launching new attacks against institutions that he views as liberal, elitist or both.

With his agenda stalled in Congress and his poll numbers sagging, Trump has kept his base engaged and the left inflamed by escalating feuds with key figures in sports, entertainment, tech and media, effectively dragging politics into every corner of public life.

Trump’s aim is straightforward: To convince voters that there is a privileged class that scoffs at their patriotism and cares more about political correctness and diversity than ordinary Americans, their traditions and their economic plight.

----------

Letter: “Trump rewards the haters”
The Berkshire Eagle, October 29, 2017

To the editor:

A recent letter writer argued that claiming that all of those who voted for Donald Trump were racist is counterproductive to real discourse. I agree. So, not all who voted for Donald Trump are bigoted, racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic white supremacists. However, let's be clear: It is also true that all the bigoted, racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic white supremacists voted for him and he has rewarded them with his validation.

Leon Serra, Pittsfield

----------

Letter: “Speak out against Trump-era fascism”
The Berkshire Eagle, November 6, 2017

To the editor:

Anxiety by patriotic Republican Senators Corker, Flake and McCain, as well as President Bush about President Trump and the direction the GOP is taking, are being ignored by Republicans in Congress. Despite private concerns, Republicans politicians have about Trump, they avoid public criticism and embrace his thinly veiled racism, protectionism, attempts to crush a free press ("fake news") or other opposing views. They ignore his embracing alternate reality and blatant lying, and his criticisms of longstanding allies from democratic countries while admiring American enemies with totalitarian regimes.

Presumably, elected Republicans assume that they must follow Trump to win elections. Such expediency sounds eerily familiar and troubling to someone like me who was born in Germany during the rise of fascism. Both the German public and opposing politicians assumed that Hitler was a crackpot who would soon disappear, until it was too late.

When Trump was criticized on NBC, his response was to threaten cancelling their license, a classical fascist tactic. It is not too late now to sound the alarm and oppose Trump's radical neo-fascist views. Crushing defeats for Trump and his supporters in future elections are needed to show that his message of "from the needy to the greedy" and his neo-fascist views are unacceptable in this democratic, diverse, generous and wonderful country.

The survival of our democracy demands that we invest time and resources to assure GOP defeats in upcoming elections. Failure to do so imperils the survival of our democracy. Pastor Martin Niem ller, the German theologian and Lutheran pastor, sounded this immortal warning about the failure of Germans to oppose Hitler's rise to power:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."

Let us heed Pastor Niem ller's warning in the age of Trump, before it is too late.

Sigmund Tobias, Pittsfield

----------

“The Trump administration is ending a program that allowed some 59,000 Haitians to live legally in the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake”
The New York Times, November 20, 2017

The Trump administration is ending a humanitarian program that has allowed Haitians to live and work in the United States since an earthquake ravaged their country in 2010, officials said.

Haitians with what is known as temporary protected status will be expected to leave the United States by July 2019 or face deportation.

----------

“The British prime minister’s office said President Trump was “wrong” to share anti-Muslim videos by U.K. nationalists, a rare rebuke by an ally”
The New York Times, November 29, 2017

Mr. Trump retweeted the video posts from an ultranationalist British party leader, Jayda Fransen.

“It is wrong for the president to have done this,” the office of Theresa May, the British prime minister, said in a statement.

----------

"Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans allowed to live in the United States of America temporarily after two earthquakes in 2001 must leave, the Trump administration said"
The New York Times, January 8, 2018

Nearly 200,000 from El Salvador who have been allowed to live in the United States of America for more than a decade must leave the country, two government officials familiar with the decision said on Monday. It is the Trump administration's latest reversal of immigration policies and one of the most consequential to date.

*

Letter: "El Salvador policy may end a dream"
The Berkshire Eagle, January 11, 2018

To the editor:

On Monday, Feb. 28, 2000, early in the morning, I left my house in San Vicente, El Salvador and said goodbye to my four kids who stayed behind with my aunt. Leaving my family was the hardest day of my life but as a single parent, I knew I needed to find something better for my family.

Coming to the United States, a country that is totally different than my country, was not easy for me. I was in California for two years, living with my sister and her family. Working two jobs in order to send money back to El Salvador for my kids, and having no car nor my own place to live was very difficult. Working and working was all I did to be able to support my kids. I missed them so much, but I had no choice.

In July 5, 2002, I moved to Massachusetts with my cousins and started to work again. I met very nice people and worked two jobs again to continue supporting my kids.

In 2005, my daughter Tatiana came and that changed my life a little bit and in 2006, the rest of my kids came to the U.S. We were moving from place to place as my family was growing. I didn't care because I had all the ones I loved the most.

In 2009, I was able to get a mortgage and buy a house where we were able to move in. I kept working and working and in 2016, I was able to get approved for my second mortgage and bought my second house for our growing family.

In 2017, I made the decision of finally doing something for me. I started going to the Pittsfield Adult Learning Center and am trying to earn a GED. I would love to go to college and pursue a business management degree or maybe even become a teacher but my dream may be squashed if I am forced to return to El Salvador.

As I await my fate, I rely on the faith that I have in God.

Isabel Orellana, Pittsfield, Massachusetts

----------

Steve Bannon, once President Trump’s chief adviser, has stepped down from his role as executive chairman at Breitbart News, the conservative website that has been called the “platform for the alt-right,” Breitbart announced Tuesday.

The move comes amid pressure from Rebekah Mercer, a major conservative donor, according to the New York Times.

Bannon was recently quoted in a new book by Michael Wolff as calling Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower “treasonous.”

Source: The Boston Globe, January 9, 2018.

----------

"Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff and immigration hard-liner who was pardoned by President Trump, is running for Senate"
The New York Times, January 9, 2018

The move by Mr. Arpaio, who just six months ago faced the prospect of a jail sentence for criminal contempt, upends the race to replace Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican who abandoned his 2018 re-election campaign after coming under criticism from Mr. Trump.

“Being a U.S. senator is a little different than being the sheriff, because you can do a lot of things in the U.S. Senate, and I have many plans, believe me,” Mr. Arpaio told the Washington Examiner in announcing his bid. “I have a lot to offer. I’m a big supporter of President Trump.”

----------

"Using vulgar language, President Trump said the U.S. should welcome immigrants from Norway, not places like Haiti or Africa"
The New York Times, January 11, 2018

President Trump on Wednesday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and African countries, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from “shithole countries” rather than people from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation.

----------

"Justice Department to appeal court's DACA ruling"
The Hill, January 16, 2018

The Department of Justice is appealing a federal district court judge’s decision to block the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The DOJ said it filed a notice of its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court’s decision and intends later this week to ask the Supreme Court to rule on the merits of the case so the issue can be resolved quickly and fairly for all the parties involved."

----------

"The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Trump’s travel ban, which imposes limits on nations said to threaten national security"
The New York Times, January 19, 2018

The case concerns Mr. Trump’s third and most considered bid to make good on a campaign promise to secure the nation’s borders. But challengers to the latest ban, issued as a presidential proclamation in September, said it was tainted by religious animus and not adequately justified by national security concerns.

----------

Re: Open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump

Dear Mr. President Donald Trump,

I watched CBS world news with my senior citizen parents earlier this evening, Wednesday, February 28, 2018. I was saddened and emotionally pained to see the tragic images of babies, toddlers, children, and people severely injured and dead in Syria by their evil dictator’s civil war. I told my parents that I wasn’t affected by the news since we watched CBS’ “60 Minutes” segment on the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting over 5 years ago. My mother told me to write to you and tell you how I feel. I request that you stop the evil dictator’s Syrian regime from killing and injuring babies, toddlers, children and civilian people. I request that you bring this evil dictator to justice. If I were in your shoes as U.S. President, I would immediately tell the international community to stop the Syrian Civil War by bringing the Syrian dictator and his military to justice. I will explain the sadness and emotional pain I felt to my new VA psychologist next week from what I saw on the news tonight when I watched on television the tragic images of injured and dead young children and people in Syria’s Civil War. In closing, I cannot believe that there are still crimes against humanity in our day and age. We are not powerless to stop evil dictators’ respective war crimes anymore!

Sincerely,
Jonathan A. Melle

----------

Donald Trump recently nominated Gina Haspel as the first woman to head the CIA. She tortured people for the CIA!

“Ms. Haspel’s background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement Tuesday, March 13, 2018.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also expressed skepticism about Haspel, given her background. “Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process,” he said.

Her promotion reflects President Trump’s sympathetic approach to torture. Trump has said he wants to bring back waterboarding.

Source: By Willa Frej, The Huffington Post, March 13, 2018

----------

“Stormy Daniels Faces $20 Million in Damages in Trump Lawsuit”
By Edvard Pettersson, Bloomberg Politics. March 16, 2018

Stormy Daniels may face more than $20 million in damages for violating a "hush agreement" that requires her to remain silent about an affair she alleges she had with President Donald Trump in 2006 and 2007.

The potential damages against Daniels, an actress in adult films whose real name is Stephanie Cliffords, were disclosed Friday in a filing in federal court in Los Angeles by Essential Consultants LLC, an entity that was set up by Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in 2016 to pay her $130,000 in exchange for her silence.

The company moved the lawsuit, filed by Daniels last week in California state court against Trump, to federal court, saying that neither Daniels, Trump nor the LLC are California residents and the amount of damages exceeds the $75,000 limit for a case to proceed in state court. Trump supports the transfer of the case between courts, according to Essential Consultants’ filing.

“It could be a strategic move to intimidate them,” said Joseph Rothberg, a lawyer with Brutzkus Gubner Rozansky Seror Weber LLP in Woodland Hills, California. “They may be saying, ‘We’re not going to make it easy for you.”’

Federal judges, who are appointed by the president, are perceived as somewhat more conservative than California state court judges, who are elected, according to Rothberg, who isn’t involved in the case. On top of that, the anti-Trump sentiment in California may have played a role in the decision, Rothberg said.

Daniels faces $1 million in damages for each violation of the agreement, according to Friday’s filing. Essential Consultants said it will file a request at the earliest opportunity to force Daniels to arbitrate the case privately rather than to litigate it in open court.

She sued on March 6 to nullify the confidentiality agreement she says she struck with Cohen in October 2016, before the presidential election, to keep quiet about the alleged affair. She argues the document is invalid because Trump didn’t sign it, even though she took the $130,000 offered in exchange for her silence. Cohen has said he paid it himself, through a company he set up.

“The fact that a sitting president is pursuing over $20 million in bogus ‘damages’ against a private citizen, who is only trying to tell the public what really happened, is truly remarkable,” Michael Avenatti, Daniels’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “We are not going away and we will not be intimidated by these threats.”

----------

“A former Playboy model, another woman who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump, is suing to be freed from a 2016 deal to remain silent”
The New York Times, March 20, 2018

The model, Karen McDougal, is suing the company that owns The National Enquirer, American Media Inc., which paid her $150,000 and whose chief executive is a friend of Mr. Trump’s.

----------

“Sessions fires McCabe from FBI”
The Hill, March 16, 2018

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday fired Andrew McCabe, the number-two official at the FBI and a longtime target of President Trump.

His ouster comes just days before he was scheduled to retire on Sunday, after more than 20 years at the bureau. McCabe had already stepped down under pressure in January and has been on a leave of absence since.

"Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately," Sessions said in a statement Friday night.

----------

March 29, 2018

Do you agree with a president who cheats on his 3rd wife, who just gave birth to her baby, with a porn star and a playboy bunny, but he won't own up to it?

Do you agree with a president who won't release his tax returns? What is he hiding?

Do you agree with a president who is under investigation for his campaign ties with Russia?

Do you agree with a president who declared business bankruptcy 4 times?

Do you agree with a president who hired white nationalists like Steve Bannon and the like?

Do you agree with a president who says he likes to grab women by their [meow]?

Do you agree with a president who discriminates against Muslims, Mexicans, Women, and other minority groups?

Do you agree with a president who has many women accusing him of sexual harassment, assault, and other kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior?

Do you agree with a president who treats authoritarian leaders like Putin with respect?

Do you agree with a president who taunts North Korea with nuclear annihilation, which would kill over 25 million human beings?

Do you agree with a president who uses tariffs and treaties to stunt the flow of free trade and markets?

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“The F.B.I. raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer, seizing records on many topics, including payments to Stormy Daniels”
The New York Times, April 9, 2018

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

----------

"The F.B.I. sought records on the “Access Hollywood” tape in its raid and any evidence that President Trump’s lawyer suppressed damaging reports"
The New York Times, April 11, 2018

The F.B.I. agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump’s lawyer on Monday were seeking all records related to the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Mr. Trump was heard making vulgar comments about women, according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant.

The search warrant also sought evidence of whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, tried to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

----------

“In a blow to President Trump, a judge rejected a request by him and his lawyer to review files seized in F.B.I. raids before prosecutors do”
The New York Times, April 16, 2018

A federal judge on Monday rejected an attempt by President Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to block prosecutors in Manhattan from reviewing a trove of materials seized in F.B.I. raids last week on Mr. Cohen’s office, home, hotel room and safe deposit box.

----------

“Trump calls Kim Jong Un 'very honorable'”
The Hill, April 24, 2018

President Trump on Tuesday called North Korea's leader a "very honorable" person and expressed hope their meeting will occur "as soon as possible."

“He really has been very open and, I think, very honorable from everything we're seeing," Trump said of Kim Jong Un during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House.

----------

“The DACA program, which protects young immigrants, must resume and accept new applicants, a judge ruled in a major setback for President Trump”
The New York Times, April 24, 2018

Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia said that the government’s decision to end the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was predicated on the “virtually unexplained” grounds that the program is “unlawful.”

The judge stayed his decision for 90 days, giving the Department of Homeland Security the opportunity to better explain its reasoning for canceling the program.

----------

“Nationalists gain upper hand in Trump’s White House”
The Hill, April 25, 2018

The America Firsters are on the rise.

That’s the lesson some people in President Trump’s world are drawing from recent personnel moves.

In this telling, the populists and nationalists who powered Trump’s election are regaining a foothold as more establishment-friendly figures are marginalized.

But even as those developments please some of Trump’s most enthusiastic backers, they unnerve critics who fear what the president might do in the absence of more measured advice.

----------

April 28, 2018

Re: Trump = Hate

Donald Trump should receive the Hate Prize!

* White nationalism
* Neo-Nazi Staff members such as Stephen Bannon
* Religious tests for Muslim immigrants
* Endorsed the use of torture
* Hawkish foreign policies
* Mocks the disabled
* Disparaged Mexicans and wants to build a border wall
* Moral hypocrite who cheated on all of his 3 respective wives
* Failed to condemn Neo-Nazi hate march in Charlottesville, Virgina
* Inequitable tax cuts that will see trillion dollar budget deficits
* In legal trouble with the Mueller “Russian collusion” investigation and the Stormy Daniels legal case
* Large numbers of staff turnover in his administration
* Will not release his federal tax returns; what is he hiding?
* Declared business bankruptcy 4 times over
* Disparages the news media every chance he gets
* DACA or “dreamers” program in limbo
* May 12th Iran nuclear deal deadline unresolved
* Wants a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census
* A.G. Jeff Sessions’ controversial and racist views on immigration policy
* Taunted the nuclear annihilation of tens of millions of people who live in North Korea
* Immature name-calling of political opponents

I am not alone in my criticisms of Donald Trump! He is a hateful politician! He is an embarrassment to our country and the World. He is a fascist who uses white nationalism to hurt Mexicans, Muslims, and Women. As for the economy, the stock market is volatile and the federal budget will have record deficits of over one trillion dollars! Many Republican Congressmen are retiring this year of 2018. House Speaker Paul Ryan knows the U.S. House of Representatives is going to flip to the Democrats with the midterm elections this year of 2018. The Republican Party is going to spend billions of dollars to try to hold onto power. I predict Trump will be a one-term prez if he isn’t impeached prior to 2020. I looked up “Moral Hypocrisy” in the Encyclopedia and I saw a picture of an orange pretzel that weighed close to 300-pounds!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Impeachment looms large in White House midterm plans”
The Hill, April 30, 2018

President Trump wants to step up efforts to protect Republican control of the House in hopes of avoiding an impeachment debate and congressional investigations if Democrats seize the chamber, according to GOP sources.

“It is super important to the White House and really the whole White House is very focused on it,” said a source familiar with strategy talks about protecting the House majority.

----------

“Our president is a bigot”
By Michael A. Cohen, op-ed, The Boston Globe, May 18, 2018

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said the following: “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — we’re stopping a lot of them. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals.”

Trump’s comments came during a White House meeting about sanctuary city laws, and since then there have been several days of controversy as to whether Trump was referring to all immigrants or speaking specifically about the MS-13 gang, which has become a regular punching bag of the president. To be sure, calling any group of people “animals,” even criminals and gang members, is dehumanizing and gross and worthy of condemnation.

But the president’s supporters — as well as Trump himself, on social media — have criticized journalists for not providing the proper context for Trump’s statements and for daring to suggest that he was calling all immigrants “animals.”

Here’s some context on the president’s words.

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, he called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.

He complained that a judge hearing a case related to Trump University was of Mexican heritage and thus could not be expected to treat him fairly.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump regularly highlighted crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to make the case for restrictive immigration laws, mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and building a wall along the country’s southern border.

After a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., by a husband and wife who had pledged fealty to ISIS, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” — not just ones that had been accused of or suspected of having ties to terrorist organizations. Since then Trump regularly highlights incidents of terrorism committed by Muslims on Twitter while often ignoring violent acts by non-Muslims.

As president, Trump tried to enact a ban on Muslims entering the country from a host of predominately Muslim countries and has drastically reduced the number of Syrian refugees entering the country. In both cases, Trump’s justification was the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Trump used crude words to describe sub-Saharan African and Caribbean nations and said that he’d prefer higher rates of immigration from countries like Norway.

He said that immigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS” and that those from Nigeria should “go back to their huts.”

The president’s chief of staff was recently quoted as saying that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are “not people that would easily assimilate into the United States.” He said they are “overwhelmingly rural,” have poor education, don’t speak English, don’t have useful skills and “don’t integrate well.”

The Trump administration has taken away temporary protection status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Haiti.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, boasted of a policy – strongly pushed for by President Trump – that would forcibly separate parents from their children if they try to enter the country illegally.

In addition to all this, Trump has referred to white supremacists as “very fine people.” He’s questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. He pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been held in criminal contempt by a federal court for unlawfully targeting and racially profiling Hispanics.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The context for Trump’s comments is actually quite clear: The president is a vile bigot. He regularly demonizes and scapegoats immigrants and persons of color. He uses isolated examples of crime committed by immigrants and Muslims to justify racist policies that seek to limit nonwhite Americans from entering the country – and deport those who are already here. He’s done this repeatedly since he announced his candidacy for president, in June 2015.

His most adamant supporters will complain that the president, who struggles to speak in complete and coherent sentences and regularly uses out-of-context statements from his rivals to demonize and attack them, is being unfairly criticized for his “animals” comment. But these supporters are enablers and sycophants, who put tribal loyalty and partisanship ahead of truth and should not be taken seriously.

We know exactly who this president is and what he believes. Let’s not waste any more time trying to parse his words or give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s a racist. Period.

Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.

----------

----------

“President Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users who criticize him violates the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled”
The New York Times, Wednesday, May 23, 2018 2:39 PM EST

President Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users who are critical of him from seeing his posts on the social media platform violates the First Amendment, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling came in a case brought by seven Twitter users who had been blocked by the @realDonaldTrump account after they criticized the president.

----------

“New Fed data paint a vivid picture of two Americas”
By Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, Opinion contributor, The Hill, May 26, 2018

May 26, 2018

We often look to sociologists, politicians or pundits to tell us where we stand as a nation. Yet, far more incisive is the Federal Reserve’s “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017” published this week.

Data are powerful storytellers. The data tell a story of two Americas barely cohabiting within the same borders. One America is comprised of the people who are benefiting from a growing U.S. gross domestic product and having the lowest unemployment rate in 14 years.

This survey, now in its fifth year, had some uplifting information: 74 percent of adults responded that they were "ok financially" and living comfortably. This is 10 percentage points higher than five years ago.

The majority of survey respondents stated that they are "satisfied with the wages and benefits from their current job and are optimistic about their future job opportunities." Additionally, 95 percent of Americans have a bank account and hence are in a position to try to obtain credit if they needed it.

Yet, the data also tell a worrisome story about a vast swath of Americans being left behind in this country’s second-largest economic expansion in its history. These Americans’ plight should worry not only those affected, but also all of us as a nation whether we are legislators, central bankers, regulators or an ordinary resident.

Their plight, especially if it worsens, will have an effect on what legislative actions and policies will be needed to improve the living standards for everyone in this nation. Even setting moral considerations aside, leaving these people behind will impact our competitiveness in decades to come.

The job landscape has changed dramatically in the last five years, as evidenced by the fact that 30 percent of American adults are now in the gig economy. This may seem great in terms of allowing Americans more control of their leisure time.

The reality is that most people in the gig economy have to work much harder to have enough money to live, and they have to be able to cope with the risk and emotional strain of not having a stable, earnings stream.

Forty percent of adult Americans, or 100 million people, cannot cobble together $400 in cash for a medical emergency without selling a possession or going into debt. While the figure may appear better than five years ago, when it was 50 percent, the U.S. population has also grown since 2013.

Worse yet, 20 percent of adults cannot pay all of their current month’s bills in full, which means that they also get hit with penalty fees and risk being cut off from any credit. Sadly, 25 percent of American adults skipped necessary medical care because they couldn't afford it.

When you break out African- and Hispanic-American responses, only 66 percent state that they were doing "ok financially" as opposed to 75 percent for respondents as a whole. In all other categories, Hispanic- and African-Americans on average continue to have more hardships than Caucasians.

Most unfortunately, those 40 percent of Americans who are struggling are about to face even more hardships this year and in the foreseeable future since we are in a rising-interest-rate environment. Any variable-rate loan or credit card debt that they have already, or will take on, will be more expensive.

Late payments on credit cards in the U.S. have already been been rising, and as interest rates rise, those late payments are more likely to turn into defaults. Defaults lead to poor credit scores for those borrowers, which then shut them out of much of mainstream banking and often lead people to pay-day lenders who are barely regulated and where rates are bordering on usury.

Additionally, recent court and legal decisions are likely to make life worse for these already vulnerable groups. A recent court decision, Epic Systems Corporation vs. Lewis, compels workers into arbitration rather than allowing them to go to court when they are underpaid or discriminated.

Also troublesome are legislative changes and regulatory actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that make it easier to discriminate against auto loan minority borrowers and to hurt student loan holders.

The Trump administration came into power on a populist campaign that stated he wanted to take care of the working class. He even made it a point to say that he loved the "poorly educated."

Unfortunately, similar to what happens in developing nations where populists reign, eventually the people will start to ask what has happened to the promises. Presently, the Federal Reserve data show that the Trump administration is not delivering to the very people whom he promised to help.

Mayra Rodríguez Valladares is managing principal of MRV Associates, which provides financial consulting, research and training on financial regulation issues. She has 25 years of financial regulatory experience from her time at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JP Morgan and BT Alex. Brown. You can follow her on Twitter: @MRVAssoc.

The views expressed by opinion contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill.

----------

Analysis: “President Trump’s unconfirmed “Spygate” claim shows how he uses conspiracy theories to erode the public’s trust in institutions”
The New York Times, May 28, 2018

Last week, Mr. Trump promoted new, unconfirmed accusations to suit his political narrative: that a “criminal deep state” element within President Barack Obama’s government planted a spy deep inside his presidential campaign to help his rival, Hillary Clinton, win — a scheme he branded “Spygate.”

It was the latest indication that a president who has for decades trafficked in conspiracy theories has brought them from the fringes of public discourse to the Oval Office.

----------

Letter: “Genocidal presidents were worse than Trump”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 1, 2018

To the editor:

Some critics of the current president accuse him of being the worst ever. Unfortunately, this is not true.

In "Melville" by Laurie Roberton-Lorant, we are reminded that there were many venal men without the empathy common to decent people who have occupied the White House. She writes, "Under the [Andrew] Jackson administration's "pacification" policy the Florida Seminole had been nearly exterminated...In 1838, under Martin Van Buren, the Cherokee Nation was removed from its tribal home and forced along the 'Trail of Tears' to Oklahoma."

Jim Norchi, Pittsfield

----------

“In a confidential memo to the special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers made broad claims of executive power in a bid to avoid a subpoena”
The New York Times, June 2, 2018

A 20-page letter from President Trump’s lawyers to the special counsel, obtained by The New York Times, argues that the president could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.

----------

June 3, 2018

We have a fascist / neo-nazi U.S. President named Donald Trump who uses racism and hate speech to tear people down and build himself up. I would hate to think that Trump could be justified or rationalized because of Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights. In fact, Trump and his white nationalist brand of politics represents everything our nation stands against! We must resist Trump and stand up to his fascism, neo-nazi beliefs, and hate speech. That is what our country is about: Liberty and Justice for ALL!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

ABC News The Note: “Trump's stunning claims of executive power”
June 4, 2018

The take with Rick Klein

"At any time and for any reason." That's the standard asserted by President Donald Trump's attorney regarding his power to terminate a Justice Department or FBI investigation, according to the letter sent to Robert Mueller that was revealed over the weekend. That is a stunning claim of executive power, coming from a president who is acting more emboldened – think pardon powers and tariff impositions – in exerting his powers virtually by the week.

Trump and his team are working both publicly and privately to delegitimize the Mueller probe.

"He's not, but he probably does." —Rudy Giuliani to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," when asked whether President Trump has the power to pardon himself. "He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn't say he can't," Giuliani added.

----------

June 6, 2018

Re: I am proud to speak out against Trump!

I speak out against Donald Trump because he uses hate speech against people and minority groups of people to tear people down to build himself up. Does this M.O. sound familiar? Indeed, Donald Trump = Adolf Hitler! Donald Trump has targeted Mexicans (multi-billion dollar border wall) and other immigrants, Muslims, Women, and other peoples and groups with his hate speech. Donald Trump represents the racist views of White Nationalism in the White House. He wants to take our country back to the racist era of the 1920's when hate groups and racist ideology was its highest level of the 20th Century. Even Hitler admired our country's hate and racism during the 1920s! Trump wants a racist 2020 U.S. Census citizen question that will skew the count of people who he is forcing into the shadows. Trump wants a racist religious test for Muslim immigrants. Donald Trump even had alt-right bigots work in his campaign and administration, including neo-nazi Steve Bannon. Trump even failed to condemn the hate and neo-nazi groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. Worse of all, Donald Trump has endorsed the use of torture that was used during the Bush/Cheney years! Trump even mocked the disabled! Trump is a moral hypocrite who cheated on all 3 of his wives. Trump won't release his federal tax returns because he is hiding his shady business dealings. Trump declared business bankruptcy 4 times over. Trump's tax cut bill will increase the national debt by trillions of additional dollars. Trump opted out of the Paris climate agreement, he rescinded the Iran Nuclear Treaty, and he imposed tariffs on our economic allies. Trump admires authoritarian dictators in Russia and China. So yes, I am proud to speak out against the fascist U.S. President named Donald Trump!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

June 7, 2018

Re: Open letter to GMHeller

I have spoken out against politicians who are Republican and Democrat! Please read the following letter I received from NH U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

- Jonathan Melle

-----

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you for contacting my office about the impeachment of the President. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you know, the Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove a President who has committed treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Impeachment proceedings begin in the House of Representatives, of which I am not a member. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind should the House approve articles of impeachment and advance the measure to the Senate.

Thank you for your letter and I encourage you to continue to engage your local, state and federal officials on issues that are important to you – your efforts and advocacy are the only way we as Granite Staters and as Americans continue to move forward. Please don’t hesitate to contact my office with any future concerns.

Sincerely,

Jeanne Shaheen
United States Senator

----------


“Down on the border, a new trail of tears: The Trump administration’s policy of splitting up families is creating a population of dislocated and frightened children”
The Boston Globe, June 10, 2018

Every night before bed, Wil, who is 6 years old, says his prayers and then kisses two printed-out photos of his mom and dad that are taped on the wall by his bed goodnight.

His foster parents, Coryn and Silas, try their best to comfort him. You’re safe now, they tell him. But Wil’s anxiety remains.

“You can’t take away that they miss their family,” Silas said. “They miss their parents.”

US Border Patrol agents separated Wil from his father six months ago, after the pair made the long journey from violence-torn Honduras to the US border in Arizona, attempting to claim asylum there.

In the intentionally brutal logic of President Trump’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the US border, Wil is actually among the lucky kids.

-----

"Shaheen Helps Introduce Legislation to Halt Separation of Immigrant Families"
by NH Labor News, 6/10/2018

(Washington, DC)— Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and a group of 30 Senators to introduce legislation to keep immigrant families together by preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from separating children from their parents at the border.

The Keep Families Together Act was developed in consultation with child welfare experts to ensure the federal government is acting in the best interest of children. The bill is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Children’s Law Center and the Young Center for Immigrant Rights.

“This policy is a living nightmare for these parents and their children, reflects horribly on our nation and should be ceased immediately,” said Shaheen. “It also does nothing to enhance our border or national security, nor does it solve problems plaguing our immigration system. This policy is needless and further traumatizes immigrants, who often times come to the United States seeking refuge after fleeing violence or unsafe living conditions. I’m glad to help introduce this bill and will keep fighting to end this heinous policy.”

On May 7, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that all adults who arrive at the border would be prosecuted for illegal entry, even if they attempt to seek asylum. This policy, which has never before been pursued, has resulted in parents being separated from their children.

Prosecuting individuals who are seeking asylum may also violate the United States’ obligations under international law, including the U.N. convention on refugees and its Protocol.

The Keeping Families Together Act simply prohibits U.S. Customs and Border Patrol from separating children from their parents – it does not prevent DHS from enforcing the law and continuing to prosecute individuals for violating immigration laws. To ensure the bill protects the welfare of children, it allows children to be separated from their parents only in the event they are being trafficked or abused by their parents. To provide an additional layer of protection, the bill provides for an immediate review by a superior upon the recommendation to separate, and only after consultation with a child welfare expert.

Senator Shaheen previously questioned DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about this policy during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this year. And at a May 24, 2018, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Customs and Border Protection informed the committee that 658 children were taken from 638 parents during a 14-day period in May, an average of 47 children being taken from their parents each day.

The bill is cosponsored by 31 senators including Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tom Carper (D-DL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-NJ), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bob Casey (D-PA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mark Udall (D-NM) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

----------

DHS: Nearly 2000 Children Separated From Adults At Border In 6 Weeks
The Department of Homeland Security says 1,995 minors were separated from their "alleged adult guardians" at the southern border in just over a monthlong ...
Source: NPR, June 16, 2018

DHS: 2,000 children separated from parents at border
The US government has separated at least 2000 children from parents at the border since implementing a policy that results in such family separations, the ...
Source: CNN, June 16, 2018

U.S. government says nearly 2,000 child separations at Mexico border in under two months
The government said on Friday that 1995 children were separated from 1940 adults at the U.S.-Mexico border between April 19 and May 31, as the Trump ...
Source: Reuters, June 16, 2018

DHS: Nearly 2,000 Children Taken Under Trump’s New Border Policy
Nearly 2,000 children were taken from their parents at the U.S. border with Mexico in the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland ...
Source: New York Magazine, June 16, 2018

1,995 children separated from families at border under 'zero tolerance' policy
The Trump administration separated 1,995 children from 1,940 adults from April 19 to May 31, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said ...
Source: NBCNews.com, June 16, 2018

----------

June 16, 2018

Prez Trump may withdraw our nation from the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, June 18th, 2018. The global community is moving towards Human Rights, while the U.S.A. may be in retreat. Trump's decision will have big consequences on geopolitical politics. Israel is accused of Human Rights violations by the UN Human Rights Council, but there is no peace treaty between Israel and Palestine. Israel has been in a state of military conflict since the nation-state was established 70 years ago in 1948. I wish Israel was more receptive to peace and they would sign a peace treaty with Palestine establishing a two state political solution. I also hope Israel would stop building walls and would have equitable economic prosperity for all who live in the region. I support Israel and I believe the Jewish state has an absolute right to exist where it does. I also strongly believe in Human Rights and peace. While Trump believes in Israel, I don't believe he is for Human Rights and peace. If I were in Trump's shoes, I would stay in the UN Human Rights Council and work for peace and a fair treaty that benefits both Israel and Palestine.

- Jonathan Melle

-----


Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, speaking to the General Assembly last week in New York. Credit Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“Trump Administration Withdraws U.S. From U.N. Human Rights Council”
By Gardiner Harris, New York Times, June 19, 2018

WASHINGTON — The United States withdrew on Tuesday from the world’s most important human rights body in protest of its frequent criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It was the latest effort by the Trump administration to pull away from international organizations and agreements that it finds objectionable.

It was the first time a member has voluntarily left the United Nations Human Rights Council. The United States now joins Iran, North Korea and Eritrea as the only countries that refuse to participate in the council’s meetings and deliberations.

“Earlier this year, as it has in previous years, the Human Rights Council passed five resolutions against Israel — more than the number passed against North Korea, Iran and Syria combined,” Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said in a speech on Tuesday. “This disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel is clear proof that the council is motivated by political bias, not by human rights.”

“If the Human Rights Council is going to attack countries that uphold human rights and shield countries that abuse human rights, then America should not provide it with any credibility,” Ms. Haley said.

Human rights advocates denounced the decision.

“All this administration seems to care about when it comes to the council is defending Israel,” said John Sifton, an advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization. “If the Trump administration’s complaint is that the council is biased and flawed, they’ve just made it more so.”

In a series of posts on Twitter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel welcomed the decision. “The U.S. decision to leave this prejudiced body is an unequivocal statement that enough is enough,” he wrote on Tuesday.

But Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said through a spokeswoman that he would have preferred that the United States remained in the council. He noted that the United Nations’ human rights “architecture” plays an important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.

Conservatives have been complaining about the council since its inception in 2006, and the administration of President George W. Bush refused to join the body, citing concerns of bias. Ms. Haley has been a fierce critic of the council since joining the Trump administration and is known to have pushed for a withdrawal.

Elliott Abrams, a former Republican diplomat and now a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the Human Rights Council’s bias against Israel was too much to ignore.

“There is always an argument for staying, which is that the United States will be in a better position to help defend Israel,” Mr. Abrams said. “But this council is hopelessly compromised, so leaving is the right choice.”

The withdrawal comes as the Trump administration faces condemnation by rights groups and governments worldwide for its decision to separate children from their families at the border. On Monday, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights, called for an immediate end to the practice, describing such a tactic as inflicting “abuse on children” and “unconscionable.”

Mr. Trump has turned decades of American foreign policy on its head by attacking or undermining much of the rules-based order that the United States established after World War II. Previous administrations viewed the interlocking network of alliances, trade rules and international organizations as beneficial to the United States.

But Mr. Trump has ripped up the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal — both of which were negotiated under the strong influence of world powers. He has also imposed tariffs on the United States’ closest allies and left the Group of 7 summit meeting this month in chaos and recriminations after he denounced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada as “very dishonest & weak.”

The Trump administration has made clear that it will not countenance the level of criticism and what it describes as slanted resolutions by the Human Rights Council that have historically been directed at the United States and Israel. On her first day as ambassador, Ms. Haley warned that “for those who don’t have our back, we’re taking names.”

Rob Berschinski, a senior vice president at Human Rights First, another nonprofit organization, conceded that no one believed the human rights council was perfect. But, he said, leaving it is a mistake.

“Countries like China, Russia and Venezuela will applaud this decision because we are freely giving up leverage over them that we previously had,” Mr. Berschinski said.

Ms. Haley has castigated the 47-member Human Rights Council, calling it a haven for hypocrisy and an outlet for isolating Israel, the United States’ main ally in the Middle East.

A year ago, she addressed the council at its opening session in Geneva with a sharply critical speech, questioning whether it “even supports human rights or is merely a showcase for dictatorships that use their membership to whitewash their brutality.”

At the time, Ms. Haley asserted that the United States did not seek to leave the council but wanted to “re-establish the council’s legitimacy.”

Among her demands was to change the way seats are won on the council so that countries with histories of rights abuses cannot occupy them. But she said on Tuesday that Russia, China, Cuba and Egypt resisted those overhaul efforts, and others were unwilling to challenge the status quo.

In his own brief remarks on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Human Rights Council an obstacle to the progress of human rights and a threat to the United States.

“When organizations undermine our national interests and our allies, we will not be complicit,” he said. “When they seek to infringe on our national sovereignty, we will not be silent.”

Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.

-----

6/21/2018

I believe that the USA and Israel both strongly stand for Human Rights! I disagree that the USA had to pull out of the UN Human Rights Council to defend Israel's record on the subject of Human Rights. I am heartbroken!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Trump signs executive order to keep undocumented families together”
The Hill, June 20, 2018

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order intended to end family separations at the U.S. southern border, a partial reversal of his hardline stance on illegal immigration.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office before signing the document that his “zero-tolerance” policy against illegal border crossing will remain in place, but the order will allow children and their parents to remain together while in custody.

----------

6/22/2018

Donald Trump - The List:
* He believes he is above the law and that he can pardon himself and others associated with him, which would be "obstruction of justice"
* He is committing "crimes against humanity" by separating children from their immigrant parents
* He pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council on June 19th, 2018
* He targeted Mexicans with hate-speech and a multi-billion dollar border wall
* He targeted Muslims with an unconstitutional travel ban, a religious test, and hate speech
* He used sexist language against women, including saying he likes to "grab women by their [meow]"
* He represents the racist views of "white nationalism", and he had alt-right or neo-nazi's like Stephen Bannon work for his campaign and administration
* He wants a racist 2020 U.S. Census question that will force people further into the shadows
* He failed to condemn the hate and neo-nazi groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia
* He endorsed the use of torture that was used during the Bush/Cheney years
* He mocked the disabled
* He is a moral hypocrite who openly cheated on all 3 of his wives
* He won't release his federal tax returns because he is hiding his shady business dealings
* He declared business bankruptcy 4 times over
* His tax cut/scam bill will increase the national debt by trillions of additional dollars
* He opted out of the Paris climate agreement, he rescinded the Iran Nuclear Treaty, and he imposed tariffs on our economic allies
* He admires authoritarian dictators in Russia and China
* He uses immature name-calling of political opponents, and he tears people down to build himself up
* He disparages the news media every chance he gets
* He has left DACA or “dreamers” program in limbo
* He has large numbers of staff turnover in his administration
* He is in legal trouble with the Mueller “Russian collusion” investigation and the Stormy Daniels legal case
* He taunted the nuclear annihilation of tens of millions of people who live in North Korea

- Jonathan Melle

----------

6/22/2018

I should not hate, but I am human and hate is part of our human nature. Rather than hate, I choose to stand up to people, especially politicians, who hurt people through mean-spirited methods and hate policies.

Per Pittsfield politics, I cannot believe what I lived through since I was 20 years old during the Spring of 1996! To read about it, please view my blog page:
http://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html

Per my experience living in the Pittsfield area, I had to deal with the sad part of life including being jobless and working low-income jobs with no benefits. I felt doomed to a life of poverty in Pittsfield! To read about it, please view my blog page:
http://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/11/pittsfields-revitalization-via-perverse.html

Pittsfield has experienced post-industrial economic losses! Thousands of people have had to move out of Pittsfield due to the many hundreds of lost jobs over the past 4 decades. The result is that Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and nation because there are no living wage jobs for the average worker in Pittsfield.

I was one of those people who could not make it in Pittsfield. When I went to the unemployment office on North Street or interviewed for a job in Pittsfield, I felt I was being laughed at because no one would hire me. Moreover, I felt I was blacklisted by the Nuciforo network and the Good Old Boys who demanded absolute loyalty to their cause of running Pittsfield's economy into the proverbial ditch.

Per Donald Trump, he is a hate-filled president! He uses hate-speech and racism to build himself up, thereby tearing people down like a mean-spirited bully. I feel that I am the opposite of Trump's M.O. I want to be a voice for the voiceless in our top-down system of inequity and injustice. To me, those without rights or power, they all have rights and power with me. Instead of separating children from their immigrant parents, and putting people in cages and tent cities, I would show compassion to the powerless and assimilate families into our country where everyone has rights and liberties to live a happy and prosperous life.

- Jonathan Melle

P.S. I will always speak my good conscience as long as I live. Human Rights for Everyone!

----------

“I feel like I’m going to die. I feel powerless.” Many migrant mothers separated from their children have no idea how to get them back.
New York Times, June 22, 2018

Despite President Trump’s executive order ending his administration’s practice of separating immigrant parents and children at the border, there has been no relief for many families.

Parents said they still did not know how to track down their children, and struggled to find out any information through a 1-800 hotline set up by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

----------

“Trump tweet may doom House GOP effort on immigration”
The Hill, June 22, 2018

President Trump on Friday may have doomed the chances for a House GOP immigration bill after urging Republican lawmakers to abandon the compromise effort they have been working on for weeks.

The legislation was already on life support, with party leaders deciding on Thursday to postpone a vote the following day as they struggled to garner enough support for the measure.

But Trump likely put the nail in the coffin, telling Republicans they should “stop wasting their time” on the divisive issue.

----------


Dated: 6/22/2018

----------

It's now clear that thousands of innocent children, including crying little babies, have been stolen from their parents and essentially scattered to the wind by the bottomless evil of Donald Trump. And nobody can tell us how MOST of them will EVER be reunited.

It is now clear that, whether by heartless plan or by callous negligence, Trump's monstrous intent was to permanently tear up these families to punish them for the "crime" of seeking asylum from the United States of America, the now FORMER world symbol of justice and liberty.

Yesterday at a immigration hearing it was argued that it was not relevant where a mother's child might be. The Republican judge was so angered by the heartless disdain of the government attorney he literally slammed his fist on the bench, sending a pen flying.

It is now clear that absolutely no provision was made when their these desperately sobbing children were seized to make a record that would even theoretically allow them to be associated with and returned to their real mother and fathers. So when they tell us that it's no problem, that they know how to do this, they are . . .

What's the word for what they are doing here? Did you ever struggle to find the perfect word to characterize or describe something?

Right, here it is . . . they are LYING.

Lying, lying, lying, lying and more LYING.

They won't let the media in to see what is actually going on. They won't even let mayors of their own cities or governors of their own states have access.

And there is no end in sight of the still to escalate family wrecking on this child snatching railroad.

Today Trump confirmed our reading that, executive order or no executive order, with or without a pretentious prop signature to wave in front of TV cameras, "ultimately" even more children will be ripped from their mothers arms. Just as we predicted, in just 20 days, if the judge in the Flores case won't reauthorize appalling inhumanity, and they won't, Trump resumes grabbing breast feeding infants from their mothers arms again.

How many more? Yesterday, Trump ordered the Department of Defense to provide space for 20,000 orphans, TWENTY THOUSAND more, on military bases where nobody else will be able to get in, literal black op sites for babies.

Trump has got to be stopped. YOU'VE got to stop him. By speaking out about the most disgraceful and despicable depravity since the first time America set up its own concentrations camps.

If you will ever speak out to demonstrate against anything, demonstrate about this. DEMAND that everything else grind to a halt until these children are located. Whether it takes a massive DNA testing program or whatever. Whatever it takes to try to wash away this shameless national stain.

This is no longer about who Donald Trump is. For a long time that has been abundantly clear for those with ears to hear and eyes to see.

This is now about who WE are. And this is NOT who we are.

Except for those who remain silent now. That is who THEY are.

And please forward this message to everyone else you know on your own email lists.

Source: The Pen (The People's Email Network) June 23, 2018.

----------

“Reject the Trump Party”
The NH Union Leader, Letter to the Editor, June 22, 2018

To the Editor:

The word pusillanimous is defined as “lacking courage or resolution, cowardly, faint-hearted, timid, proceeding from or indicating a cowardly spirit.” It’s usage peaked around 1800, but suddenly seems to have a very modern application. Pusillanimous combined with venal (“overly motivated by money”) perfectly describes the Republicans currently in Congress.

Republicans appear to be afraid to stand up for fundamental American values, norms and institutions and use their constitutional power to restrain the man who would be king. For the sake of their beloved tax cut for the wealthy, assault weapons in our schools, and denying women’s right to make personal decisions about their health, they are unwilling to stand to Trump as he raises the national debt, undermines our judicial system, strips away our environmental and consumer protections, denies millions access to affordable health care, implements a cruel and inhumane immigration policy, risks a trade war, insults our allies, and breaks up the Western alliances which have promoted democracy and kept us safe since WWII.

These are not the kind of Republicans my parents supported. Perhaps they should be called “Trumpists” not “Republicans.” As John Boehner has said, “There is no Republican party. There’s a Trump party.”

November is the opportunity for responsible citizens to find their voice and say no to the Trump Party.

Cynthia Muse
Rye, NH

----------

“Change of direction”
The NH Union Leader, Letter to the Editor, June 22, 2018

To the Editor:

As a proud Vietnam vet, I am becoming increasingly saddened about the direction of our country.

We have trashed our allies at the G-7, separated and confined immigrant children, and praised a ruthless dictator. We could also mention the ill-advised tariffs which will harm American workers.

To make matters worse, President Trump routinely lies about all these things and the gutless Republicans back him up. I hope we are better than this, but evidence is scant. Maybe election day will change things.

Paul Nickerson
Hudson, NH

----------

“Trump seeks to ease gun exports”
The Boston Globe, June 24, 2018

Washington, D.C. — President Trump greenlighted the sale of 1,600 semiautomatic Sig Sauer pistols to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail in May of last year, giving the thuggish dictator access to some of the best guns money can buy.

The very next day, some of the bodyguards helped beat up several American citizens peacefully protesting outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Northwest Washington. Nobody was arrested, but there was a meaningful consequence: Congress halted the arms deal.

Congress can be a wet blanket when it comes to overseas arms sales, asking pesky questions and putting up roadblocks. Lawmakers are required to be consulted before exporting large shipments of US-made assault weapons like the AR-15 and other semiautomatic rifles that are frequently used in mass shootings here.

But now Trump wants to take Congress out of the equation.

----------

“In Syria, Trump travel ban case is being watched closely”
The Hill, June 24, 2018

Amman — The Trump administration’s travel ban and cuts to foreign aid are being keenly felt in Jordan by Syrian refugees, many of whom have been in limbo for years as they’ve sought to resettle in the United States.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision on President Trump’s travel ban this week as it completes its term. The case brought by the state of Hawaii questions whether the ban was based in part on an anti-Muslim prejudice.

The decision will be closely watched not only in Washington but around the world — including in Amman, where the president of a group working with Syrian refugees describes today’s climate as a “perilous time.”

----------

June 25, 2018

Thank you, Donald Trump, for keeping our country safe from immigrant women and children!

Thank you, DT, for increasing our national debt by trillions of dollars with your tax scam!

Thank you, DT, for praising dictators, while slapping tariffs on our allies!

Thank you, DT, for dividing our nation with your hate-speech and white nationalism propaganda!

Thank you, DT, for not releasing your federal tax returns and declaring business bankruptcy 4 times!

Thank you, DT, for being investigated by Mueller's Russian Collusion case, and for being sued by Stormy Daniels.

Thank you, DT, for your unconstitutional Muslim Travel Ban, and for your proposed religious test for immigrants.

Thank you, DT, for pulling our nation out of the UN Human Rights Council last week!

Thank you, DT, for not denouncing the neo-nazi march last summer in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Thank you, DT, for disparaging women, and for saying you like to grab women by their [meow].

- Jonathan Melle

----------

We knew at first glance that Trump's executive order signing PR stunt was nothing but a head fake, and we told you so the same day.

In the meantime, instead of backing off the mass incarcerations of asylum seekers, Trump has now already ordered the Department of Defense to build huge "austere" concentration camps for as many as 120,000 people, including 20,000 children.

And if that's not a serious shock, how about this? At least one will be just a couple miles from an actual place where there was a concentration camp for Japanese American citizens during WWII.

Time is of the essence. Every day, every hour that goes by, diminishes the chance of EVER reuniting these children with the mothers and fathers they were torn from, as they are scattered around the country.

Trump's got a lot of damn nerve accusing parents traveling with their children of being "smugglers." Because federal agents are even now actually smuggling these same children to whisk them off to distant states, LYING to the airlines about who they are to get the carriers to let them on the planes. Seriously, where did all these jet setting youth soccer teams suddenly come from?

You've probably heard that on the way to, and on the way back from, her putative compassion visit to a border detention facility Melania Trump wore a jacket that said on the back, "I Don't Really Care, Do U?" Embarrassing enough. But we weren't going to make a political point about it until Trump himself tweeted and insisted that there WAS a political point behind it.

The first lady's own spokesperson said there was no message intended by the jacket text. But according to Trump, the message of the first lady was that all the news coverage on this was fake, and that she REALLY didn't care. Hey, Donald, thanks for clearing that up.

Even as terminally heartless creeps like Ann Coulter rant that all the sobbing children are just actors reading scripts fed them by liberals, coached she says. The infants too, reading scripts? That would be a new one, even on Hollywood.

But we all know the dreadful grief being visited on these families is all too real. What kind of insufferable womp womp would call any of this fake, including the raw emotion of the few mothers have gotten their children back?

And it makes you wonder, what about all the other things that Trump relentlessly calls fake? Doesn't that strongly support the conclusion that everything else he has called fake is also absolutely real?

The news coverage on every outlet BUT the Fox Propaganda channel? The accusations of collusion with Russia and obstructions of justice?

They're all real. They're all true. That's why Trump is so desperate to try to discredit them too.

It's not just Melania wearing an unfortunate jacket. Trump himself truly doesn't care, about anybody else but himself, not even his foolishly slavish hardcore supporters. Haven't they noticed by now how often he capriciously throws the people closest to him under the nearest bus?

Do U care?

If you do, demonstrate it now. While we still have the right to demonstrate at all.

Source: The Pen: The People's Email Network, June 25, 2018.

----------

Letter: “Trump comparison to mass murderer apt”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 25, 2018

To the editor:

I do not know that I can accept Leonard Quart's admonition in the June 22 Eagle that "it's absurd to compare a corrupt, narcissistic bloviator to a mass murderer." Of course the bloviator's despicable actions are yet to rise to the horrors of the Holocaust's mastermind, but comparisons are apt. Most significantly the attempt to dehumanize those who disagree follows the mass murderer's path. Putting people outside the human race makes them not worthy of treatment as humans — even if they are babes in arms, treated as pawns to prevent their loving parent(s) from drifting north and "corrupting" the home of the free and land of the brave — built by earlier immigrant waves.

I believe the president when he says he loves children — certainly he loves his children. The Seventh Amendment enjoins the government from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. What is crueler than separating families or more unusual than committing innocent children to live in wire cages? Have we learned nothing from the internment of innocent Japanese American citizens in the 1940s? What separates his children from the innocent children condemned to detention camps whether with or without their parent? Can it be his children are human — entitled to the milk of human kindness — while those at the border are less human, deserving inhumane treatment? To be human must we look like him (white), sound like him (speak English) and of course give him the respect that he knows he richly deserves? Those who disagree with him can be insulted at will; football players (mostly dark skinned) are not entitled to the protection of the First Amendment, etc.

Dehumanization was the first step in the path of Europe's mass murder of Jews in the 1940s as well as postwar ethnic cleansing campaigns, and was the basis of American slavery and segregation. Jews were not entitled to the basic human right to life — hence mass murder. Mothers who seek to flee oppression, rape and murder of themselves and their children are not humans. They are rapists, murderers — something other than human. It is early in the game but the seed of victimization because of outcast status is being fostered by the "corrupt, narcissistic bloviator" Quart describes. It is not too early to recognize the signs and speak up in opposition.

Carl F. Goodman, Becket, Massachusetts

----------

We are nearly close to the half-year mark of 2018, and today [6/28/2018] marks the 154th mass shooting of 2018 in our country. That means we are headed for over 300 mass shootings this year of 2018. We need to change our gun laws! We need to hold our elected officials accountable on this important issue of gun control. Bump stocks are still legal. Background checks are still not mandatory for all gun sales.

Source: 6/28/2018 email from Gabby Giffords (PAC).

----------

Letter: “Trump's strategy: Mock and hate 'the other'”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 29, 2018

To the editor:

"The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another, so you can run them all." — Trevor Noah, "Born a Crime."

For example, Mexican and Central American immigrants are rapists and murderers who are vermin bent on infesting our country. They threaten your jobs, your safety and your future. Mock them, hate them, restrict them from entering, and harshly punish those who do by taking their children from them. Muslims are terrorists and are going to impose their religious laws on the rest of us. Fear them and ban them.

Unpatriotic black SOB's protest their condition by taking a knee during the national anthem. Take their jobs away, or better yet run them out of the country. Media journalists promulgate "fake" news. Mock them incessantly, demonize them and restrict their access to news sources. The intelligence community is falsely investigating the president. It's a witch-hunt. Stop it now. Obstructionist Democrats favor crime and open borders. Mock them, fear them and don't vote for them.

Only believe me. Only trust me. "Only I can fix this." — Donald Trump.

"Apartheid was perfect racism." — Trevor Noah.

Leon Serra, Pittsfield

----------

“Abolishing ICE becomes Dem litmus test”
The Hill, June 30, 2018

Abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is fast becoming a litmus test for Democrats after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s shock victory in a Democratic primary.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Thursday became the first senator to call for the scrapping of ICE, arguing that it has become “a deportation force.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) followed suit on Friday, saying, “We should abolish ICE.”

And on Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for "replacing ICE" while tearing into the administration's "ugly" immigration practices.

----------

“Satellite images raise alarms about North Korean nukes”
The Hill, June 30, 2018

Satellite images showing North Korea making substantial improvements to one of its nuclear research facilities are raising alarms that the regime has little interest in actually giving up its nuclear arsenal.

Just two weeks after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a deal committing the U.S. to security guarantees in exchange for North Korea denuclearizing, satellite images show the country making “rapid” improvements to its Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, according to 38 North, which monitors the country.

----------

“Trump era ramps up tech worker revolt”
The Hill, June 30, 2018

Technology companies are facing a new crisis as their employees press executives to rethink their work with the Trump administration and, in many cases, drop lucrative federal contracts.

The controversy comes amid heated national debates on immigration, law enforcement and surveillance — issues on which Silicon Valley's workforce wants the industry to take a stand.

----------

“House Republicans are coming for your 401(k)”
By Paul Bland, op-ed, The Hill, June 30, 2018

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton recently acknowledged that the agency may soon take away hardworking Americans’ right to defend our retirement savings against corporate criminals in court. Now, another front seems to have opened in this war on investor protections — one that could leave anyone with an IRA or 401(k) at the mercy of corporations that would lie to or deceive people about their stocks.

Corporate America is working overtime to ensure investors harmed by financial fraud cannot hold them accountable. Industry lobbyists are pushing the SEC to block investors from joining together as a group to recover the losses from widespread violations of securities laws. Such a move would bar cheated investors from enforcing their own rights in lawsuits that have recovered billions and serve as a crucial deterrent to the kinds of devastating fraud that precipitated the financial crisis.

Last week, the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment doubled down on this destruction by going after state protections against the kind of widespread fraud that could crush many Americans’ plans for retirement. The subcommittee considered H.R. 5037, which would block private enforcement of state protections against securities fraud and even restrict a state’s ability to defend its own citizens in enforcement actions.

The bill’s broad language is designed to preempt any state law that even tangentially touches on securities fraud. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the oldest international organization devoted to investor protection, calls H.R. 5037 an “attempt to tie the hands of the regulators who are the ‘cops on the beat’ and the closest to Main Street investors in favor of large companies engaged in or suspected of securities fraud.” NASAA’s opposition letter goes on to decry these policies as “overwhelmingly against the interests of all law-abiding market participants” – impassioned emphasis theirs.

H.R. 5037 is plainly a “get out of jail free” card for white-collar criminals — who so rarely see the inside of a jail cell as it is. For more than a century, states have been free to regulate securities that have real and sometimes devastating impacts on their residents. Clayton himself remarked in a recent speech, “state … regulators play a critical role in protecting Main Street investors.”

Because the SEC has limited resources, state law enforcement officials work to ensure their residents recover retirement savings stolen from them in fraudulent schemes and scams. Indeed, there has been a 33 percent decline in federal securities enforcement and a more than 80 percent drop in SEC settlements since 2016 — making state action more necessary than ever.

But H.R. 5037 would take away states’ ability to protect their constituents from financial ruin at the hands of corporate fraudsters and Ponzi schemers. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood warns H.R. 5037 would “likely cause a dramatic increase in securities fraud, creating more victims and jeopardizing Americans’ retirement savings.”

Even if they are not residents of the state bringing an action, American investors benefit significantly from the crucial role state regulators play in deterring financial fraud and protecting the integrity of U.S. capital markets. State-level enforcement is often the only way the worst of the worst corporate criminals are held accountable for fraud that weakens our entire financial system.

Passing H.R. 5037 would also sharply conflict with President Trump’s promises to strengthen U.S. business against our competitors. Foreign investors hold more than $6.2 trillion in stocks in U.S. corporations precisely because American markets are particularly well policed compared to those in many other countries, thanks in part to our federalist system.

The security of our retirement savings already faces unprecedented danger. Clayton broke with every last one of his predecessors at the SEC — Republican and Democrat — when he failed to stand for investors’ right to join together against fraud. It is unclear what may happen next.

H.R. 5037 would further encourage corporations and Wall Street firms to rip off investors. If combined with a policy reversal at the SEC, the bill would leave almost every American saving for retirement with no hope of recovering stolen money. Congress must pass legislation to protect investors from life-altering fraud, not serve as its active accomplice.

Paul Bland is executive director at Public Justice, a national public interest law firm that works to protect environmental sustainability efforts and challenge predatory corporate conduct and government abuses.

thehill.com/opinion/finance/394803-house-republicans-are-coming-for-your-401k

----------

“The Trump administration will urge schools and colleges to ignore race in admissions, reversing an Obama-era guideline meant to bolster diversity”
The New York Times, July 3, 2018

The Supreme Court has steadily narrowed the ways that schools can consider race when trying to diversify their student bodies. But it has not banned the practice.

----------

“Only thing un-American is to compare prez to Nazi”
By Rich Lowry, via The Boston Herald, July 2, 2018

The Nazi analogy has long been recognized as the crudest and dumbest form of argument, but it is enjoying a renaissance.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden notoriously tweeted a photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a response to family separations at the border. Upon a report that parents at the border were being told that their children were being taken to get bathed and disappearing, Chris Hayes of MSNBC tweeted, “What does this remind you of?” Soledad O’Brien chimed in, “Welp, I guess we’ve put to rest the question: ‘Nazi Germany: Could it happen here in America?’ ”

I have a relaxed attitude toward harsh political rhetoric, but Nazi analogies are over the line. You don’t deal with Nazis or tolerate Nazis. You do to Nazis what happens to them in the gruesome Quentin Tarantino film “Inglourious Basterds.”

Progressives imagine that they are protecting our system when making these and related charges, but they are really losing faith in it themselves and undermining its legitimacy.

A trope is to loosely associate something President Trump has said with Adolf Hitler or some other dictator. Kumail Nanjiani, a comedian with more than 2 million Twitter followers, objected to Trump’s contention that illegal immigration brings criminals into the United States. He said Hitler “focused on crimes by Jews,” and this is what brought on Nazi Germany over time.

Actually, Hitler was named chancellor in January 1933 and immediately acted to curtail individual rights and repress Jews. He gained full dictatorial powers via the Enabling Act in March 1933.

By comparison, Trump in his first year and a half in office has tweeted, called the press names and, yes, highlighted crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Unpresidential? Yes. Disturbing? At times. Fascist? No.

In “How Democracies Die,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write, “Like Alberto Fujimori, Hugo Chavez and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, America’s new president began his tenure by launching blistering rhetorical attacks on his opponents.”

Well, yeah, and these comparisons would be apt if Trump went on to purge and jail his opponents.

Levitsky and Ziblatt believe the best scenario for democracy is that Trump loses. A darker future is that “a pro-Trump GOP would retain the presidency, both houses of Congress and the vast majority of statehouses.” To do this, Republicans would have to ... win elections, which is an odd thing for an anti-democratic party to do.

The worries about Trump as fascist dovetail with critiques of our system itself as undemocratic. These will become more prominent as Trump moves to nominate his second Supreme Court justice.

For progressives, this is another sign of “minority rule.” But Republicans get to nominate and confirm Supreme Court justices because they won the presidency and retained control of the Senate in a hard-fought national election.

It is true that Trump won despite losing the popular vote, but the Electoral College is nothing new or untoward. Our system will presumably look much better to progressives if Democrats go out and win some elections. You know, like the alleged fascists do.

Rich Lowry is editor of National Review. Talk back at lettersto editor@bostonherald.com.

----------

7/9/2018

(Sarcasm)

I am so grateful for Donald Trump protecting our country from 3 year old immigrant children he takes away from mommy and puts them in cages that you wouldn’t put your family dog in!

Thank you, Donald Trump, for protecting our country from 3 year old children! You, Mr. President, are so brave!

- Jonathan Melle

(Not Sarcasm)

I believe there is neo-nazi influences in the Trump campaign and administration! Trump throwing brown colored babies, toddlers and children into cages will go down as infamy in American history!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Trump blasts media amid chants of 'CNN sucks'”
The Hill, August 2, 2018

After a day of tension between the White House and CNN, the crowd at President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Thursday night broke out into chants of “CNN sucks” when the president blasted "fake news."

Trump at the rally in Wilkes-Barre cited multiple examples of what he called "fake news," including saying the “fake news refused to call” Pennsylvania for him during the 2016 presidential election.

----------

Donald Trump Jr. compares Democratic platform to 1930-era Nazis — by Stephanie Murray of Politico on August 3, 2018: “President Donald Trump’s oldest son made the comments at an event for conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza’s new film: “Death of a Nation: Plantation Politics and the Making of the Democratic Party.” “You see the Nazi platform in the early 1930s and what was actually put out there, and you look at it compared to, like, the DNC platform of today, and you’re saying, ‘Man, those things are awfully similar,’ to the point where it’s actually scary, and to me that was one of the most striking things I took from the movie because it’s the exact opposite that you’ve been told,” Donald Trump Jr. said during an interview with One America News Network.”

“The president’s son did not address the members of the so-called alt-right who self-identify as Nazis and white supremacists.”

----------

“Standing up, speaking out”
The Boston Herald, Letter to the Editor, August 12, 2018

Now more than ever, we need leaders unafraid to speak truth to power.

This administration is doing things so cruel it would be immoral to let them become normalized. When our government abducts children, permanently tearing apart families, we can’t act like it’s business as usual.

I got into politics because my son, who has autism, wasn’t getting the health care or education he needed. I wanted to fight for kids like him. That’s been the heart of my mission in office: speaking up for vulnerable children who aren’t being heard.

It’s a duty I take seriously. Unlike my opponents, I’ve done the hard work of legislating, putting in years to craft good policy and earn support from my colleagues to turn it into law. I’ve taken my experiences caring for my son and my mother as she lived with Alzheimer’s, and built systems to help families get what they need to live the lives they deserve. I’ve helped more people access affordable health care and improved our public schools.

I’ve also always been willing to stand up for what’s right, no matter what people said about me. I took a leadership role to defend marriage equality even as they threatened my family and I was pushed out of my Catholic church. I co-sponsored single-payer health care years before anyone thought it was smart politics. I stood with home­owners and family farmers in this region when the Kinder Morgan pipeline threatened their health, safety and home values.

When I crashed Fox News, I knew I’d be criticized. I knew it would cost me votes. I decided it was the right thing to do.

Fox isn’t a real news organization, and they don’t deserve to be treated as one. They’re a megaphone for partisan propaganda that lies whenever lying serves their agenda. They are, however, a direct line of communication to Donald Trump, one of the few available to us with a president who won’t hear opposing views. I have constituents living in fear, and I had the chance to amplify their voices to the person who needs to hear them most. I had a responsibility to take it.

Children are living in cages, not sure they’ll ever see their parents again. Children sent here for a better, safer life are being forced to defend themselves in court. Children in our own communities are scared they’ll come home to find the adults who take care of them have disappeared.

I’ve always done everything in my power to fight for children, and I always will.

— Sen. Barbara L’Italien, Andover

----------

“Trump revokes security clearance for ex-CIA director Brennan”
The Boston Globe, August 15, 2018

President Trump is revoking the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, who served in the Obama administration.

Brennan has been deeply critical of Trump’s conduct, calling his performance at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland ‘‘nothing short of treasonous.’’

----------

Letter: “A Top 10 list of Trump's domestic, foreign disasters”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 19, 2018

To the editor:

Last year, I suggested that then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should teach President Trump (hereafter DJT) the Boy Scout Oath so that DJT might improve his performance twelve-fold. Alas, Secretary Tillerson was fired, and DJT has gone from bad to worse as president.

As our country approaches the midterm elections in early November, I have been asked by friends in the Berkshires what I think are the worst aspects of the DJT presidency. After careful thought, I would like to submit the following Top Ten list divided equally between domestic and international disasters:

Domestic Disasters:

— DJT's bragging about his abusing women and his denigrating the intelligence of many African-Americans;

— DJT's lying about his firing of FBI Director James Comey. It was "that Russia thing;"

— DJT's speaking kindly of the violent, racist white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. a year ago;

— DJT's "tax cut" (i.e. a gift to the most wealthy) last December which has already disappeared for millions of working people due to the higher prices for almost everything these past eight months;

— DJT's thoughtless and hurtful tariffs which are devastating Midwest farmers and workers nationwide.

International Disasters:

— DJT's walking away from NAFTA, TPT, the Paris Climate Accords, and the Iran Nuclear Treaty;

— DJT's creating a "Nothing Summit" with the brutal dictator of North Korea. "Art of the Deal," indeed;

— DJT's appalling performance at the G-7 Summit in Canada where he trashed many of our long-term allies and suggested that Putin's Russia be re-admitted. This was followed by DJT's debacle at the NATO summit in Brussels with his total lack of understanding of European security issues since the end of World War II;

— DJT's scary summit in Helsinki where he took President Putin's side against American intelligence findings regarding Russia's tampering with the 2016 elections in the United States — as well as in many other countries;

— DJT's year-long, secret policy to have ICE separate adult asylum seekers from their children at our southern borders. As of this writing, hundreds of families have yet to be reunited despite a federal court order for DJT's government to get this done.

That is my Top Ten list. I invite other Eagle readers to submit their own lists.

Peter V. Buttenheim, Williamstown

----------

September 4, 2018

Re: Brett Kavanaugh's legal documents on torture should be exposed!

Is it true that Brett Kavanaugh authored thousands of legal documents in the Bush 2/Cheney administration that are not being released to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court? Is it also true that Brett Kavanaugh committed perjury in his prior testimony to the same committee when he was nominated to the appellate court?

I remember some of the U.S. government torture methods that included, but not limited to, dogs nearly biting men’s testicles, men put in humiliating homosexual positions, men with black hoods placed over their heads while water boarded in CIA “black sites”, men sleep deprived for days on end, among other “enhanced interrogation” methods.

If Brett Kavanaugh is a legal proponent of U.S. government backed torture, then it should be exposed during his hearing!

I believe the U.S. Congress should condemn torture, and the U.S. Senate should block the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh!

- Jonathan Melle

Donald Trump is EVIL! Trump = Hitler! Trump had neo-nazi's, alt right, white supremacists, and white nationalists work for his campaign and administration. Trump endorses the use of torture! He nominates people, Brett Kavanaugh and Gina Haspel , who are legal proponents of torturing people! Trump rips brown immigrant babies from their mothers' arms and puts them in cages! IMPEACH PRESIDENT TRUMP NOW!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Grand Old Party?”
The Boston Herald, Letter to the Editor, October 11, 2018

Let’s take a look at what the GOP has traditionally stood for and where they are now. They have always touted themselves as the party of “family values” and the “moral majority” — now they are protectors and promoters of credibly accused sexual assaulters. (Trump, Moore, Kavanaugh, etc.)

The GOP were always the party of “fiscal resposibility” — yet they gave away, in a reverse Robin Hood — 1.5 trillion dollars to the “donor class” and called it “tax reform.” The GOP always liked to wrap themselves in the flag and exclaim their super-patriotism. Now their standard-bearer is a man who not only never served, but has attacked and denigrated POWs, the military, gold star families, our generals and even wounded veterans, not to mention standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a murderous dictator who coordinated and directed an attack on the very foundation of our democracy (our free and fair elections system), and sided with this thug against all of our intelligence agencies (the men and women who really protect our country) on the national stage.

The GOP has declared war against women, the poor, the middle class, the LGBQT community and all persons of color. They are and have been putting party over country. And what could be more American than trying to destroy all labor unions and denying citizens the right to vote? What a disgrace. Personally, I would like to see the GOP fade away from the national stage and never be relevant again — then our country could have a chance to remain great.

— Dana Vicalvi, Hampden

----------

Letter: “Trump 14th Amendment repeal gambit an attempt at dictatorship”
The Berkshire Eagle, November 4, 2018

To the editor:

I note with outrage that President Trump is proposing to rescind, by executive order, the right of anyone born in the United States or its territories to U.S. citizenship.

This right is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. An amendment to the Constitution may be repealed only by another amendment (as happened, for example, with Prohibition). Such an amendment must be passed by both houses of Congress and then ratified by three-quarters of the states.

If President Trump succeeds in his plan, the Constitution is null and void, and he has the powers of a dictator. Is this the country in which you want to live?

Ellen Beebe, Williamstown

----------

Letter: “The evil is here: Fight it on Election Day”
The Berkshire Eagle, November 4, 2018

To the editor:

As a nearly 90-year-old U.S. citizen who came to this country 70 years ago to find a land free of the religious intolerance I faced in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, I am writing in horror at not only what an evil man did with a gun to Jewish worshipers in Pittsburgh, but also at what evil men are doing with the powers of government to my country.

Born in France where, as a Huguenot Protestant, I faced daily discrimination, I grew up during Nazi occupation when anti-Semitic rhetoric was everywhere and Nazis routinely murdered French Jewish men, women, and children. My father-in-law, a Protestant minister, risked his life and his family's lives by saving hundreds of French Jews, as described so well by Williamstown author Tela Zasloff and as recognized by the U.S., German, French, and Israeli governments. He was one of too few Christians who resisted this evil and so escaped shame.

When my late husband, Marc Toureille, and I immigrated here after the war, it was to a nation that had liberated us from the Nazis and where a French-donated statue stood in America's largest harbor, proclaiming that this nation was itself a harbor to the world's wretched and refused. Never did we dream that this country would someday fall victim to the same evil that had possessed Europe and that, here, anti-Semitism would run rampant, bigots would kill worshipers of all creeds and races, and a president — successor to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Obama — would say that there were good people on the neo-Nazi side, demonize refugees and steal their children to gain power, and try to deny the constitutional right of citizenship to children born here to immigrant parents, children like mine, born here before my husband and I became naturalized citizens. Perhaps this president should return that statue to France, since it, as an immigrant, no longer seems welcome here.

My American friends watch the news and say "I've never seen anything like this before." I tell them that I have seen "this" before — in the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, where "good" people sold out their neighbors, immigrants, and their morals in the name of getting better jobs. When I was a child, the Nazis were in Europe. Now, my grandson tells me, the Nazis are here.

If you don't vote to resist this evil here, shame on you.

Micheline Toureille, Williamstown

Tela Zasloff's book on the letter writer's father-in-law is titled "A Rescuer's Story: Pastor Pierre-Charles Toureille in Vichy France (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003). See Ms. Zasloff's Nov. 1 letter to the editor, "Nov. 6 plays role in fight against hatred."

----------

“Supreme Court's chief justice rebukes Trump”
The Boston Globe, November 21, 2018

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Trump after the president called a judge who ruled against his migrant asylum policy an ‘‘Obama judge.’’

It’s the first time the Republican-appointed leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him.

-----

“Trump hits back at Chief Justice Roberts”
The Hill, November 21, 2018

President Trump fired back at Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday after the Supreme Court justice issued a rare rebuke of the president over his criticism of "Obama judges."

"Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have 'Obama judges,' and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country," the president tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

"It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” Trump added.

----------

On Sunday, November 25th, 2018, I viewed online images and read news stories of U.S. Border Agents use of tear gas to envelop brown colored immigrant women and children, who were screaming and coughing in pain.

Over the past year, I heard of stories of young immigrant children being taken out of their mother’s arms and put in cages you wouldn’t put your family dog in.

Our country is committing Crimes Against Humanity under the direction of U.S. President Donald Trump! Please stop Trump from harming immigrant families!

- Jonathan Melle

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinion/letters/2018/12/02/crimes-against-humanity/

----------

“He’s made millions housing detained migrant children: Meet the founder of a nonprofit empire indispensable to the Trump immigration policy.”
The New York Times, December 2, 2018

Juan Sanchez has built an empire on the back of a crisis. But his organization, Southwest Key Programs, has left a record of sloppy management and possible financial improprieties, according to dozens of interviews and an examination of documents.

----------

1/6/2019

Donald Trump is the BULLY! Trump rips babies, toddlers, children from their parents' respective arms and puts innocent youth into cages you wouldn't put your family dog in.
Trump refused to condemn neo-nazi's and the like hate groups after the Charlottesville, Virgina tragedy that took the life of a good woman protestor.
Trump had neo-nazi's and the like haters work for his campaign and administration.
Trump = Hitler!
Trump = Hate!
Impeach and convict Trump in 2019!
Down with Trump!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Annihilation at the border”
By Claudia M. Gold and Ed Tronick, The Berkshire Eagle, January 26, 2019

Great Barrington — With new reports of thousands more children separated from their parents nearly a year before the official "zero tolerance" policy, it behooves all of us to look this issue directly in the face; to know not just in our minds, but in our hearts and in our guts what this experience means for young children. A classic experiment termed the "Still-Face paradigm" offers us just such a look.

A baby and her mother face each other, engaging in joyful communication. "We are having a great time together!" Then inexplicably her mother's face becomes still. At first the infant protests. She screeches. "What are you doing?" She points. She makes every effort to get her mother back. But within less than 60 seconds she begins to lose control of herself. One gets the impression that the interaction with her mother was holding her together; that in its absence she falls apart. When the mother returns to typical interaction with an expressive face and voice, the baby hesitates briefly. But the pair quickly return to playful exchange. With the mother present to scaffold her experience, she is once again made whole. "I am OK."

This simple experiment captured on a YouTube video and viewed over 6 million times, while originally designed to test the hypothesis that infants are active participants in communication with their caregivers, should be mandatory viewing for any person or organization who has power to address the separation of young children and their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

While many excellent documents demonstrate scientific evidence of damage to the developing brain and body inflicted by separation, the Still-Face video takes us inside the child's emotional experience. For if the baby begins to disintegrate after less than a minute, what happens to a young child when this incomprehensible loss spans days, weeks, or months? Better than the word "trauma" which suggested a one-time event, the experience is captured by a term originally used by child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein- "annihilation."

THE NOTION THAT 'I AM'

A young child's understanding of his existence — the very notion that "I am" — emerges out of the natural moment-to-moment interaction with his primary caregivers. Parents "leave" their children all the time. In fact, a child's sense of himself and the world around him develops out of these natural comings and goings. "Mama where are you? There you are."

But a period of separation beyond the child's ability to manage precipitates an unbearable anxiety. Having no way to make meaning of his mother's absence, it is as if she no longer exists. And if she no longer exists, the child's sense of his own existence falters. An experience that goes beyond terror, sadness, or rage, it produces a feeling that "there is no me."

We heard reports of children rejecting their devastated parents. This should not surprise us. What parent has not returned from a day at work or a weekend away to an angry and withdrawn child? With time, and repeated opportunity for typical moment-to-moment interactions like those that built a foundational sense of trust, the temporary disruption heals. But for the young children separated from their parents at the border, that trust is shattered.

The almost instantaneous recovery of the baby in the original Still-Face experiment reflects a history of repeated experiences of her mother leaving and returning. In her attempts to engage her mother during the Still-Face episode, the baby demonstrates a confidence that "I can act on my world to make it better." Her mother's quick reconnection validates her hopefulness.

With a depth of despair inflicted in a period of time beyond the child's capacity to manage, hopelessness sets in. As efforts are made to reunite children and their parents under court ordered deadlines, time is of the essence. But we need to also keep in mind our responsibility to hold both parents and children through the difficult period of healing that follows.

As parents take the countless steps necessary to rebuild their child's shattered sense of self and trust in the world around them, hope lies in protecting time for the painstaking process of repair. Without it, most of these children will not be OK. They will be forever harmed.

Claudia M. Gold, M.D. is a pediatrician in Great Barrington and an infant-parent mental high specialist. Ed Tronick, PhD, is a developmental psychologist in Boston. Their book "Out of Step" will be published by Little, Brown Spark in Spring 2020

----------

Letter: “Money for war, rich, but not for the poor”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 8, 2019

To the editor:

Although America is the world's largest economy, its outstanding national debt reached $21 trillion in March 2018. Its annual interest on debt is now $371 billion, which will double to $702 billion in 2023. America collects only 23 percent tax revenues as a percentage of its national income, which is lower than the world's 35 other industrial nations. Three Republican presidents — Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump — gave huge cuts to the rich, adding to the national debt and worsening the existing inequality of income situation.

America's defense budget is inching closer to $1 trillion, which is greater than China, India, Russia, France, Japan and the U.K. combined. Now that America is out of the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) with Russia, it is likely that the defense budget will increase. While the defense budget is fattening, infrastructure — such as roads, highways, bridges, seaports, and airports — are starving and crumbling for lack of necessary funds to repair and fix them.

America alone spends $809 billion on public education, which is larger than Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, the U.K., South Korea, Russia and Japan combined, and yet in international math and science tests American kids consistently score lower than any of these countries. America is the richest, and most unequal, country in the world. It remains in the top spot with 47 percent of the global wealth. The U.S. poverty rate has averaged around 27 percent of the population with an income less than 50 percent of the country's median income. America's annual health care spending is over $3.4 trillion, the highest in the world but not everyone has equal access to the health care.

This president often publicly attacks his intelligence chiefs and asked them to go back to school, unlike any other president before him. America's president insults its long-term allies while admiring its foes like Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-Un unlike other U.S. president before him. This president hates to read anything, including his intelligence reports prepared for him by his intelligence chiefs so he is able to make informed decisions. He would rather rely on and trust "Fox & Friends."

Since the Kennedy administration, no other president has appointed his daughter and son-in-law to cabinet positions as his senior personal advisers. Not since Nixon have so many presidential assistants such as Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos been indicted on charges of lying to the Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Abu Selimuddin, Pittsfield

----------

February 11, 2019

Re: Donald Trump is an immoral politician

How could anyone defend Donald Trump? He had neo-nazi's and other hate groups work for his campaign and administration! He failed to denounce the neo-nazi hate march in Charlottesville, Virginia. He separated immigrant children from their parents and put them in cages you would not put your family dog in. He pulled our country out of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council. He stated he likes to grab women by their vaginas. He cheated on all three of his wives. He paid off a porn star and playboy bunny to be silent about his love affairs. He is a moral hypocrite who wants to strip women of the reproductive rights. He called African-majority countries "Shithole countries". He targeted Mexicans with hate speech and wants to build a racist border wall. He targeted Muslims with an unconstitutional travel ban, a religious test, and hate speech. He supports the use of torture. He mocked the disabled. He won't release his federal tax returns because he is hiding his shady business dealings, and he declared business bankruptcy 4 times over. He admires authoritarian dictators in Russia and China. He is in legal trouble with the Mueller “Russian collusion” investigation. He disparaged the news media with hostility. He shutdown the government for a historic 35 days, thereby stiffing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Supreme Court Will Hear Case Challenging Citizenship Question In 2020 Census”
A federal judge in New York blocked the Trump administration from adding the question earlier this year.
By Sam Levine, The Huffington Post, Politics, February 15, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would hear an expedited appeal in a case seeking to block the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The justices’ decision to take up the case of Department of Commerce v. New York was largely expected and marks the latest step in a closely watched legal battle over next year’s census. Critics contend that adding the citizenship question would discourage people, particularly people of color, from responding to the survey. An inaccurate census would have drastic consequences, they warn, because its results are used to allocate congressional seats and hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds.

In January, a federal judge in Manhattan blocked the Trump administration from adding the question. Normally, the case would then go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit before heading to the Supreme Court. But with the Census Bureau facing a fast-approaching June deadline for finalizing census questions, the high court has agreed to hear argument in the appeal in late April.

Both the plaintiffs in the suit ― 18 states, the District of Columbia, several cities and a handful of immigrant rights groups ― and the Trump administration argued in court filings that if the justices were going to take the case, they should do so quickly and bypass the 2nd Circuit.

In a 277-page opinion last month, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman held that the way the Trump administration added the question ran afoul of a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. He found that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, had ignored analyses from experts on how damaging the question would be and cherry-picked evidence to support his desire to add the question.

Ross publicly claimed that he began considering the question only after the Justice Department requested it and that the Justice Department wanted the question in order to obtain better data to enforce the Voting Rights Act. But Furman, who was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Barack Obama, said the voting rights rationale was “pretextual,” a “sham justification” concealing the true reason for Ross’ decision. The decennial census ― which goes out to every American household ― hasn’t asked about citizenship since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. And a top Justice Department official was unable to explain in a sworn deposition how adding the citizenship question would get the department better citizenship data than it already had available.

In total, seven different lawsuits have been filed challenging the addition of the citizenship question.

This story has been updated to note that the Supreme Court will hear argument in the case in late April.

----------

Letter: "'Emergency' declaration from wanna-be dictator"
The Berkshire Eagle, February 16, 2019

To the editor:

The president said in so many words that he didn't have to declare an emergency, but he did it because it was "faster." He himself stated in those words that his action is one of expediency, not emergency.

This is the action of a man who simply will use any means to get what he wants, now. Like some child. This is the action of a man who would like to be a dictator, and must be stopped.

Jan Kuniholm, Cheshire

----------

Letter: “Emergency declaration sows more discord”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 18, 2019

To the editor:

Listening to Trump's speech Friday about his unprecedented decision to declare a state of emergency sickened me for a several reasons.

He, admittedly "didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster." His disdain for the Constitution, separation of powers, and precedent were alarming. But also, during his speech he made a statement relative to angel mothers, that those whose children have been killed by illegal immigrants: "the real country" "they love you." The concept that anyone would not have sympathy for a parent who has lost a child is inconceivable. However, one wonders if these "real Americans" grieve for the parents of the students of Parkland High School, Las Vegas, or Pulse nightclub, none of which were perpetrated by illegal immigrants? It would seem that "the real country" only grieves when crime is committed by illegal immigrants, which is statistically rare.

The wall is a capricious and divisive notion that is utterly unnecessary. Illegal border crossings are at a 45-year low, and most illegal immigrants enter the country legally (the vast majority by air), and overstay their visas. A wall does nothing to address this issue. If one were truly serious about cracking down on illegal immigration, they would go after those who employ illegal immigrants, like the president does at his own properties.

More shocking was the president's reference of those "real Americans." That stuck in my mind, and it brought to the fore something much more sinister. I was reminded of the words of Hermann Goering, a high-ranking Nazi, that "people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

I am disturbed by the othering of America. The concept of "real Americans," and other Americans is troubling. We are all Americans, and once we believed that regardless of citizenship that "all people" deserved equal protection under the law. Abraham Lincoln said "A house divided against itself cannot stand." We need unity, as a nation. That doesn't mean that we need to agree upon everything, but we must strive for the greater good, which is policy that will benefit the most people.

This "emergency" is unprecedented, it is unconscionable, it is unnecessary, and it is imagined. The president said as much himself. "I didn't need to do this."

Brian W. Barnett, Glendale

----------

“A group of 16 states led by California and New York filed a lawsuit to stop President Trump from using emergency powers to fund a border wall.”
The New York Times, February 18, 2019

The lawsuit is part of a constitutional confrontation that Mr. Trump set off on Friday when he declared that he would spend billions of dollars more on border barriers than Congress had granted him. The clash raises questions over congressional control of spending, the scope of emergency powers granted to the president, and how far the courts are willing to go to settle such a dispute.

----------

February 22, 2019

Donald Trump was disappointed with Bob Kraft's arrest, yet Trump has his own legal situations with Stormy Daniels and a Playboy bunny. Since Trump and Kraft allegedly paid for sex, then maybe they should support legalizing and regulating prostitution. Moreover, Trump wants to take away federal funds for Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services to low-income women, yet Trump allegedly cheated on all three of his wives. It is all "moral hypocrisy"! And, don't get me started on the Catholic Church's sexual abuse cases. It is more "moral hypocrisy", but instead of government, politics and business, the sins are in a religion that is supposed to serve God. In closing, all of these men who sexually exploit women and/or children are moral hypocrites!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Democrats playing tricks to win next election”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 25, 2019

To the editor:

In 2016, the Democrats lost a presidential election they believed they were destined to win, and now they want to make sure that never ever happens again. And to make sure those pesky deplorables never get a chance to elect a president, here are just a few of the things assorted leading Democrats have been proposing recently:

— Abolishing the Electoral College.

— Lowering the voting age to 16.

— Allowing illegal immigrants to vote.

— Getting rid of the Senate filibuster.

— Splitting up some larger, blue states to give Democrats a permanent majority in the Senate, plus giving statehood to the District of Columbia, producing two more Democratic senators.

— Trying to keep the GOP incumbent off the ballot next year by requiring that all candidates release their tax returns.

— Nationalizing some of the nation's largest industries, including energy (the Green New Deal), health care (Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris among others) and breaking up the entire tech sector (Elizabeth Warren).

The late John Dingell last year suggested the total abolition of the Senate. Sen. Cory Booker suggested term limits for the Supreme Court. They're into "ranked voting" and "harvesting ballots" — by which Democrats win seats after being outvoted on Election Day.

The Founding Fathers didn't believe in "pure" democracy. Their fear was governmental overreach. Thus, they designed a system based on separation of powers. The Founding Fathers were about protecting people from people.

As long as Democrats win, the system works. Remember how Hillary was concerned that Trump wouldn't accept his inevitable defeat in 2016? More than two years later, the Democrats are still trying to overturn their electoral loss. This is how they think now. When they lose, their first thought is to get rid of whatever cost them the election. Now, they're talking about packing the Supreme Court — expanding the number of justices up to 15, maybe. In other words, the Bill of Rights is back on the table. It's pretty scary when you think about what the Democrats want to do to America.

William Barkin, Williamstown

----------

March 27, 2019

Please oppose Trump’s budget proposals to cut heating assistance, Special Olympics, Obamacare, and the big 3: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Democrats stand up for the rule of law”
The Berkshire Eagle, April 6, 2019

To the editor:

At long last Democrats are playing offense on Capitol Hill, and they, including our own congressman, Richie Neal, deserve a big "thank you" from us.

For more than two years Trump has operated outside the boundaries of normal presidential behavior, norms that have more than 200 years of U.S. presidential history behind them. We all know what his record is: potential collusion with Russia, the enemy of democracies everywhere, to win the 2016 election; potential conflicts with the emoluments clause of the Constitution, i.e., using his position to further enrich himself; overruling government security experts to grant high security clearance to people, including Jared and Ivanka, who have demonstrated security risks, etc. And this doesn't even include the 9,014 lies that have emanated from his mouth, according to The Washington Post, and we're not even talking about "oranges" here.

As Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff famously noted a week ago, "... it all strikes me as immoral, unethical, corrupt — even if it isn't part of a criminal conspiracy." And still, Republicans in Congress are OK with the evidence of Trump's treachery.

So, yeah, let's give Richie, Adam, Elijah Cummings and all the other Democratic chairs a big "thank you," and let's hope they are successful in getting Trump's taxes and the Mueller report. It's the only way the rule of law will survive in the world's oldest constitutional republic.

Lee Harrison, Williamstown

----------

Letter: “US blames victims in countries it broke”
The Berkshire Eagle, April 8, 2019

To the editor:

Just so I understand fully: We foment and encourage revolution in Nicaragua [Iran-Contra], overthrow and control the government in Guatemala [overthrow in 1954 of the Guzman Athens government in favor of United Fruit ... sorry, in favor of the reliable Somoza] and in favor of civil war [supporting the Somocistas] and allow the growth of the MS13 gang in LA and then transfer it back to El Salvador. We then ignore the Pottery Barn rule: If you broke it, you bought it and now compound this error by cutting funds that might make things better in Central America and stem the tide of their "Great Migration" and all we do is blame the emigrants and label them the criminals.

So, we broke a few countries and now we blame their people who are fleeing corruption and danger and poverty and will not help them to stay at home?

Just so I understand, because I was more than a bit confused!

Leonard H. Sigal, Stockbridge

----------

May 8, 2019

Re: Trump can't burn China on trade

I thought the Republican Party was the party of free trade? I find it ironic that Russia is Trump's friend, while China is Trump's trade adversary!

What is the long-term plan with China? They are the biggest foreign owners of our huge national debt! Republican tax cuts and 21st Century wars were all paid for with China's credit. Will Trump default on our nation's trillion dollars of debts to the Chinese central bank, but try to keep the tax cuts? It won't work! Trump is leading us into a future economic crisis with China. The Republican Party can't scam China forever to pay for the tax cuts and wars! Something has to give.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

May 8, 2019

Re: Republicans 4 tax cuts deal with China

China is the world's 2nd largest economy. China is building a financial system that in the future will rival Wall Street. The only two countries who oppose China's financial or investment banking system are Japan and the United States. That is because Wall Street would have to compete with China's financial system, and it would cut into our nation's GDP.

The Bush II administration cut taxes 3 times from 2001 - 2009. The Trump administration cut taxes 1 time so far. In the past +18-years, Republicans have cut taxes 4 times. The national debt skyrocketed to over $22-trillion. The U.S. government borrowed over $1 trillion dollars from China, which means that China and other foreign countries paid for our country's 4 tax cuts.

Now, Trump is putting tariffs on China in the name of fair trade. The Republicans know that part of their deal with China was to allow them to have huge trade surpluses with the U.S.A. if China would lend them over a trillion dollars in funds to pay for their 4 tax cuts over the past 18 years.

Bush II and Trump administrations made their tax cut and borrowing deals with China, and now Trump is changing the terms of the deal. But, it won't work because we need China's credit and trade for our country's economic growth.

China's version of "Wall Street" or its financial/banking system will force our country to adapt to the new global economy. Trump's protectionism won't stop China from building their financial system, but it will hurt our country's economy.

What I would suggest? As is it all about China's new financial system more than trade, I would develop a way for Wall Street to find new ways to invest in the global economy. If our country can't compete with China's financial system in the future, we will not grow our country's economy. Protectionism and tariffs never worked, and they won't work with China now!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Trump administration rule rolls back protections for transgender people”
The Boston Globe, May 24, 2019

A new Trump administration rule would roll back sex discrimination protection for transgender people in health services.

In the proposed rule issued Friday, the Health and Human Services Department says laws banning sex discrimination in health care don’t apply to people’s ‘‘gender identity.’’ LGBT groups have long warned such a move could lead to denial of needed medical care.

That rule reverses the policy of the Obama administration, which had found that sex discrimination laws do protect transgender people.

----------

Keegan Hankes, a researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the number of hate groups is growing across the U.S., driven in part by a toxic political culture. The human rights group counted 784 active hate groups in the U.S. in 2014 and 1,020 in 2018.

“… the extremist "identitarian" movement, which espouses a white nationalist ideology and has swept over Europe amid an influx of migrants and refugees.”

Source: “Hate makes a comeback in the Pacific Northwest”, By Nicholas k. Geranios, Associated Press, May 26, 2019

----------

May 28, 2019

The United States' #1 non-farm export is military weapons and related technologies. The U.S.A. has the largest market share of selling weapons to the World than any other country. Trump doesn't want China to cut into our nation's market share of selling weapons/technology. Also, China is building a global financial center that will someday rival Wall Street. The only 2 countries that don't support China's investment banking system are the United States and Japan. Like weapons sales, China's investment banking system would cut into our nation's financial market share. Trump is bailing out our nation's farmers with billions of dollars due to their losses from his tariffs. But our farmers are an afterthought next to our market share of weapon sales and financial business.

Trump wants to bankroll the global economy so foreign countries will buy our military weapons and related technologies. That is why Trump is using tariffs against China. Free and fair trade would benefit America's consumers, but Trump's tariffs are about Wall Street and the military industrial complex that runs our nation's economy.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “US risks adding to its heritage of guilt”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 24, 2019

To the editor:

I was 5 years old when I witnessed the German invasion of my country. A few days later, Nazi flags were flying all over the city. It only took one year until Nazi soldiers, with the help of local police, would come with their trucks, knock on doors and at nightfall send away families in their entirety, young and old included, all because they were wearing a yellow star. It was terrifying even if you knew you were not and would not be targeted.

After the war, as a teenager, I saw the shame and guilt that the adult population of my compatriots carries to this day in muffled tones and disguised reminiscences. I never thought such a thing would ever happen in America where as a legal immigrant I was adopted by a country which I also adopted.

The fault is not with the immigrant families but with a Congress that for decades has postponed dealing with immigration woes. So do we want to let this happen here and have people arrested for the only reason they have brown skins, are fleeing here for safety and survival? Do we want to carry this guilt too on top of the guilt of slavery and the destruction of Native Americans? Do we want to leave this heritage of guilt to our children and grandchildren when they read about these raids in their history books?

Surely there are enough men of goodwill in this country to rise, protest and stop such horrific actions.

Isabelle Kaplan, Pittsfield

----------

Letter: “Suffer the little children, thanks to Trump”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 24, 2019

To the editor:

OK, Trump lovers, according to news reports, your hero is leaving little children at our southern border with no blankets or soap. Mothers are wiping feces and vomit off little children with there own clothes.

These horrible, unspeakable conditions are the direct result of Trump and his idiotic loyalists. We all need to get these people out of power and stop this inhuman behavior.

Vic Ostellino, Pittsfield

----------

Letter: “Let's hear from Neal on concentration camps”
The Berkshire Eagle, July 2, 2019

To the editor:

I am writing to express my deep concern that our Congressman, Richard Neal, has taken no steps to close the filthy, abusive, racist concentration camps incarcerating immigrant children at the southern border of the United States.

I have called Rep. Neal's Washington office repeatedly and am told it takes a few weeks to receive a written response from the congressman, that he thinks the concentration camps are bad, that he voted to provide more money on top of the $775 per immigrant per day currently paid by taxpayers to private companies running the concentration camps. That sun of $775 per person per day is more than it costs to stay in Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., where guests receive toothpaste, water, and soap and have access to toilets and to their medications, in contrast to the conditions in our concentration camps.

I tell Congressman Neal's staff that this is a health and a human rights emergency. They say they agree, but I cannot get an answer to my question, which is: what is the Congressman doing about this emergency? Other than giving Donald Trump and his concentration camp profiteers yet more taxpayer money, I conclude that there is nothing that the congressman is doing to free from imprisonment, in life-threatening conditions, immigrants legally requesting asylum.

The Geneva Conventions, agreed upon following World War II In response to the lethal incarceration of Jews, Roma gypsies, homosexuals, and political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, permit the seeking of asylum and outlaw the abridgment of human rights. The Geneva Conventions arose out of lessons learned when the camps were opened up by the liberating allies.

My relatives were incarcerated in concentration camps in Poland and Germany, and all but two died there. One of the two who survived nearly succumbed to typhus, a disease rampant in filthy, squalid Nazi concentration camps and likely to surface in the concentration camps at our southern border. He was a pulmonologist (a lung doctor) who managed to get to then-Palestine after recovering from typhus. The other survivor was incarcerated at age 12 after seeing his parents and sister taken away to death camps; he was liberated at 18 and made a good life after migration to the U.S. Both suffered lifelong nightmares and grief.

Is Congressman Neal willing to let this happen to immigrants at our border? Is he comfortable with a few more weeks of starvation, filth, disease, and death in our concentration camps? I'd like to hear from him.

Roberta Russell, Lenox

----------

July 29, 2019

Indeed, Donald Trump is a RACIST!

It is true: Trump = Hitler!

Impeach Trump! Down with Trump! Vote out Trump in 2020!

Also, there are more white people who live their distressed and financially constrained lives in poverty than minorities.

There are no groups of people who are more violent than other groups of people.

Racism is STUPID! Violence is WRONG! Trump is dividing people by race for his political gain. Stop being manipulated by evil!!!!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

August 5, 2019

The rise in hate and gun violence is Donald Trump's fault! Donald Trump uses racist and sexist language that makes extremists act out their neo-nazi and white nationalist fantasies!

Trump = Hitler

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Eleanor Roosevelt's refugee solution”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 10, 2019

To the editor:

In 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt was anxious to do something about the flood of World War II refugees. Some were still wearing the striped uniforms from concentration camps. The American immigration process was too slow and limited to resolve the immediate problem. Congress was afraid that the refugees would take away jobs from returning soldiers and they might become a financial burden to the country.

Mrs. Roosevelt came up with a plan. If every free country took in 1,000 refugees for the duration of the war, thousands would be saved. Every refugee was required to sign a document stating that they would return to their country of origin after the war and therefore would not be taking away jobs from Americans. The refugees were not promised citizenship, but they were given a "lifeboat" until their future could be arranged.

The plan was a good one, but unfortunately, we were the only country that took in refugees. There is a museum in Oswego, N.Y., where the refugees were housed — Fort Ontario, which was vacated by the U.S. army. It's become the "Safe Haven Museum." Check it out on the internet. It is a very interesting place to visit.

The U.S. is now in a similar situation. We are being swarmed with desperate refugees who want to live in peace and safety. They will do anything to get their children educated and have a future. Should we send them back to the countries where they live in fear?

Why not do what Mrs. Roosevelt suggested, only do it within our borders? If each state took 1,000 refugees and set up housing and a support system, we could save 50,000 people.

Many of the children carry notes with names and addresses of family or friends in the U.S. I suggest that we get volunteers from surrounding churches and temples to contact the people and offer the refugees temporary visas to live with their contacts. The children could be allowed to go to school even while they are in custody. Learning English is the road to a future in America.

When I drive over the Triborough Bridge connecting Queens and the Bronx to Manhattan, I pass empty, renovated, air-conditioned buildings which were the Manhattan Psychiatric Hospitals. Two of the three buildings stand empty. My husband did his basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey. It is no longer in use. There are facilities in every state that are usable and empty.

You ask where will we get the money to staff and support these facilities? Not from President Trump. We are a country that believes in helping others. Every day, I read about a celebrity sponsoring a cause. Churches with Spanish-speaking congregations should be asked to help the emergency processing of the refugees. A 501(c)(3) should be created and public service ads placed on TV and radio stations asking for donations.

Mrs. Roosevelt had a great idea. Let's learn from the past and run with it. Remember, we were all refugees once.

Judith Weber, Williamstown

Judith Weber is a writer of children's books. Her most recent book, "Seeking Safety," is an historical novel about a mother and daughter were saved from war by being picked to go to America by Ruth Gruber, an American journalist, government official and humanitarian. They traveled to Oswego, N.Y., and stayed in Fort Ontario for the duration of the war.

https://www.safehavenmuseum.com/

----------

Letter: “It used to be”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 12, 2019

To the editor:

It used to be that the Democratic Party strongly opposed illegal immigration. Now the Democratic Party supports illegals flooding our country.

It used to be that the Democratic Party believed in a strong educational system. Now the Democratic party supports a system of indoctrination instead of education.

It used to be that the Democratic Party strongly opposed Antisemitism. Now the Democratic Party refuses to censor their own politicians who are openly anti-Semitic.

It used to be that the Democratic Party supported our Constitution. Now the Democratic Party is openly working to destroy it.

It used to be that the Democratic Party politicians went to Washington, D.C., to work on behalf of the working men and women in our country. Now, the Democrats go to D.C. to control them on behalf of a far-left agenda.

But, the really corrupt practice of the Democratic Party is revealed in their outright hypocrisy as to intolerance. While professing to oppose it, they openly support Iran and other extremist Islamic countries who execute people for being anything but "straight," and following their ideology.

And, now you know the truth, as to why I didn't leave the Democratic Party. It left me.

Jim Balfanz, Stockbridge

----------

August 16, 2019

Re: Open letter to Donald Trump about mental health and gun violence

Dear U.S. President Donald Trump,

There is NO correlation and/or causation between people with mental illness and violence, including gun violence. If there is a link, then please publish the report(s)! Most people with mental illness are not violent. Moreover, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than the general population. I listened to part of your speech on CSPAN-TV in Manchester, NH at SNHU Arena last night, August 15, 2019. I totally disagree with your statement that people with mental illness should be put into facilities like they were in the 1950’s. I believe your statement was discriminatory and violates the legal rights of people with disabilities, specifically people with mental illness. If a mental health patient is homicidal and/or suicidal and/or wants to destroy property and/or is in serious legal trouble, there are already legal and healthcare measures in place to commit him or her to jail and/or a psychiatric hospital. The key to mental healthcare is the evidenced-based recovery model with a comprehensive community support system in place for the mental health patient. Putting people with mental illness into facilities to isolate them is the opposite of the recovery model! Lastly, Veterans, like myself, come home from military duty with mental health issues. Putting Veterans into facilities would stand against everything our great country should stand for!

Sincerely,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

Letter: “Trump is following the Nazi playbook”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 23, 2019

To the editor:

As a young lawyer of 26 with the Kennedy Justice Department in 1964, I successfully defended the Office of Alien Property in what I was told was the last big World War II Trading With the Enemy Act trial. The case involved importation into the United States of diamonds from occupied Belgium in violation of American laws and confiscation of Jewish property in Germany after Kristallnacht in November 1938.

I needed to learn about WWII and its background. I read portions of the Nuremberg trials and parts of Count Ciano's (Mussolini's son-in-law) diary. I interviewed and took testimony from witnesses in Germany, including the German military officer heading the "Diamond Control" in occupied Antwerp. I heard stories from Jews who escaped and gained asylum and citizenship in the United States and elsewhere.

With that in mind, I cannot remember a sadder week for American democracy than this past week. The president, to stoke his reelection bid, seeks to make Jews — "disloyal" Jews — responsible if he loses in 2020 and fires up his base to blame Jews for his potential loss.

History is repeating itself. The Nazis held Jews as disloyal and thus not really German as a first step on the road to the Holocaust.

In addition, he wants to amend the Constitution by executive order to deny citizenship based on birth in the U.S. — the 14th Amendment be damned. Where have we seen citizenship denied to people with roots in the country they were born in? Germany in the 20th century. Jews born in Germany to German parents were no longer citizens. But this is America in the 21st century, not Germany and in the 20th. (Where is Jared? Does he not see the threat to his children? I understand the president doesn't see it, but all that narcissist can see is himself as demonstrated by his hissy fit when Denmark said Greenland is not for sale.)

Sad to say my wife and I are making sure our passports are up to date. Are friends I made when I was at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa in the 1960s still alive?

How can this be happening in my country? Where will it end? How will it end? Will Mitch McConnell and his sheep let this happen? History will hold them accountable. Get ready to Seig Heil.

Carl F. Goodman, Becket

----------


Ms. Bueso with her mother, Karla Bueso, at their home in Concord, Calif. Her doctor, lawyer and mother described the order to leave the country as tantamount to a “death sentence.” credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

“Sick Migrants Undergoing Lifesaving Care Can Now Be Deported”
By Miriam Jordan and Caitlin Dickerson, The New York Times, August 29, 2019

LOS ANGELES — Maria Isabel Bueso was 7 years old when she came to the United States from Guatemala at the invitation of doctors who were conducting a clinical trial for the treatment of her rare, disfiguring genetic disease. The trial was short on participants, and thanks to her enrollment, it eventually led the Food and Drug Administration to approve a medication for the condition that has increased survival by more than a decade.

Now 24, Ms. Bueso, who had been told she likely would not live past adolescence, has participated in several medical studies. She has won awards for her advocacy on behalf of people with rare diseases, appearing before lawmakers in Washington and in Sacramento. Over the years, her parents have paid for the treatment that keeps her alive with private medical insurance.

But last week, Ms. Bueso received a letter from the United States government that told her she would face deportation if she did not leave the country within 33 days, an order described by her doctor, lawyer and mother as tantamount to a “death sentence.”

Without any public announcement, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services eliminated a “deferred action” program this month that had allowed immigrants like Ms. Bueso to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment. The agency said that it received 1,000 deferred-action applications related to medical issues each year.

The policy change is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to revoke or modify procedures that have allowed certain immigrants to remain in the United States on humanitarian grounds. In addition to those with serious medical conditions, they included crime victims who have helped law enforcement with investigations and caretakers of sick children or relatives.

“I have been feeling super scared and overwhelmed,” said Ms. Bueso, whose lower body is paralyzed from the disease, an enzyme disorder that inhibits cells from processing sugars. “The treatment that I receive keeps me alive.”

Over the last two years, major changes to immigration policy have been made with little notification given to the federal workers charged with carrying them out, beginning with a travel ban imposed by President Trump in his first weeks in office, and the “zero tolerance” approach that led to family separations last summer.

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services said requests for deferred action must now be made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for removing people from the country.

But an ICE official said that the department had not been notified in advance about the change and questioned the agency’s ability to assume that role.

Bryan Cox, a spokesman for ICE, said in a statement this week that the agency “reviews each case on its own merits and exercises appropriate discretion after reviewing all the facts involved,” as it does for all requests for deferred action.

In letters reviewed by The New York Times, Ms. Bueso, her family and other deferred action applicants were told that requests would be considered only from people who are in the military, and that the authorities would “commence removal proceedings” against those who did not leave the country.

Martin Lawler, Ms. Bueso’s lawyer in San Francisco, said he had been told “there is no appeal, and nobody has told us how to proceed.”

Among others who could be forced to leave the country are children being treated for sickle-cell anemia, cancer and other illnesses.

Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said Wednesday that she planned to call for a congressional oversight hearing on the matter after learning about 20 patients who had received denial letters for renewals.

“What’s so troubling about this, beyond the cruelty of it, is the lack of transparency around the process,” she said. “There was no public comment period, not even a public announcement of this, and so I’m working with my colleagues to get answers and to urge this administration to change course.”

Every week for several years, Ms. Bueso has received intravenous infusions of the replacement enzyme that treats her disease, Mucopolysaccharidosis VI, or MPS-6, which causes dwarfism, clouded vision and spinal cord compression, among other abnormalities.

“Stopping this therapy will dramatically shorten her life span,” said Paul Harmatz, the pediatric gastroenterologist who was involved in the original trial and has been treating Ms. Bueso since 2003 at the U.C.S.F. Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Calif.

The clinical trial had struggled to find patients, and without Ms. Bueso’s participation, Dr. Harmatz said, it would not have taken place. The breakthrough that came from the trial has helped people with the disease live longer than 30 years, he said. Before the drug, they rarely survived past 20.

Across the country, doctors and immigration lawyers scrambled to understand the new policy and its consequences. In Miami, it meant possibly keeping an 8-year-old girl with nerve cancer from participating in an experimental treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Her father, who is in the country illegally, is the only parent available who can travel with her, said Tammy Fox-Isicoff, a Miami immigration lawyer who is representing the family.

Without deferred action, the man cannot legally drive or board an airplane from Miami to New York, where the girl must go each month for the treatment.

In a statement, Boston Medical Center, a research hospital in a city that is a hub for clinical trials and innovative treatments, said it was “deeply concerned” about the new policy and how it would affect its patients who are receiving treatment for “extremely serious medical conditions.”

“We oppose any actions that could prevent people from accessing the health care they need,” the hospital said.

Brent Renison, a lawyer who is representing an Indian woman who could be affected, said deferred action was “meant to allow for some discretion, to recognize cracks in the law that people fall into, and alleviate humanitarian situations and needless suffering.”

It has been 16 years since Ms. Bueso began receiving weekly infusions of the approved drug, Naglazyme. She has built a productive life despite the crippling disease. Last year, she graduated summa cum laude from California State University, East Bay, where she worked with the school to start a scholarship for students with rare diseases.

Her family lives in a middle-class neighborhood in Concord, Calif., in a house her parents bought and renovated to accommodate their daughter’s wheelchair. They did not expect to leave the country, having won permission to stay every time they applied for an extension.

When Mr. Lawler, the family’s lawyer, told them about the government’s decision last week, Ms. Bueso began to shake uncontrollably.

“We were crying with the nurses, doctors, everyone,” her mother, Karla Bueso, said. “Without her treatment, it’s like a death sentence. It has been hard to process.”

Neither the drug nor the medical care that she requires is available in Guatemala. Without the drug, her health is expected to quickly deteriorate. Her breathing could become belabored; she could suffer cardiac arrest and become susceptible to infections.

“We have watched her grow up and mature, and become a responsible young adult, a leader advocating nationally,” Dr. Harmatz said. “If you take it away, it will be a rapid return to her previous state. Death would be the outcome.”

nytimes.com/2019/08/29/us/immigrant-medical-treatment-deferred-action.html

https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/7phvdc

----------

“Faced With Criticism, Trump Administration Reverses Abrupt End to Humanitarian Relief”
By Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, September 2, 2019

LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would reconsider its decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move last month that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment.

On Aug. 7, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, without public notice, eliminated a “deferred action” program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment.

The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, had sent letters informing those who had asked for a renewal, which the immigrants must make every two years, that it was no longer entertaining such requests. The letters said that the immigrants must leave the country within 33 days, or face deportation.

On Monday, the agency said in a statement that while limiting the program was “appropriate,” officials would “complete the caseload that was pending on August 7.”

The statement said that deportation proceedings had not been initiated against anyone who had received the letter. However, it did not say whether it would continue to grant immigrants extensions to stay in the country or whether the program would be continued after current applications are processed.

When asked for clarification, an agency official said the agency “is taking immediate corrective action to reopen previously pending cases for consideration.”

“Whether a very limited version of deferred action will continue forward at U.S.C.I.S. is still under review. More information will be forthcoming,” said the official, who only agreed to speak on background.

Among those who had been impacted by the administration’s decision to end the program was Maria Isabel Bueso, 24, who has participated in several medical studies, including a drug trial that resulted in a treatment for her rare disease, which causes dwarfism and other physical deformities.

Without the drug, Ms. Bueso and others with the genetic disorder were unlikely to live to adulthood. Her doctor, Paul Harmatz, had said that leaving the United States would lead her to quickly fall ill and die.

On hearing that she had a chance to stay in California, rather than return to Guatemala, where the drug is not available and she cannot receive the required medical care, Ms. Bueso said, “This is amazing. This is great news to wake up to.”

After The Times featured Ms. Bueso in an article last week, she was invited to testify before Congress in the coming days. Indignation at the policy spread on social media, and several Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, called on the Trump administration to reverse the decision.

Ms. Bueso’s lawyer, Martin Lawler, said, “It’s unclear whether people will be granted appropriate extensions or whether people like Isabel will always be living on the knife’s edge, worried that the next extension will not be granted when they are in the middle of receiving medical treatment for their serious diseases.”

A longtime advocate for people with rare diseases, Ms. Bueso said that she planned to lobby Congress to find long-term relief for patients. “We have to find a permanent solution so that families like mine don’t have to go through this again,” she said.

----------

Re: U.S. Senate should pass gun safety legislation!

I received a letter from “Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund” in the U.S. Mail today, September 4, 2019. It says: “U.S. Senators: We Demand Action Now”. It says that it is past time for the U.S. Senate to take action to end gun violence. It says that the U.S. Senate has had over 200 days to pass common-sense gun safety legislation, but the U.S. Senate has failed to do so. It says that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate should pass life-saving gun violence prevention bills. It says that the U.S. Senate should pass background checks on all gun sales, and a strong Red Flag law that will prevent gun violence tragedies. It says that we must stop people who are motivated by hate and/or (domestic) terrorism to get a gun.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

9/27/2019

Re: Impeach Trump!

I think Donald Trump should release his federal tax returns! And, why did he declare business bankruptcy 4 times?

I think Donald Trump should explain his NDA's with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy bunny Karen McDougal.

I think Donald Trump should explain why members of his campaign staff and administration staff were prosecuted and incarcerated.

I think Donald Trump should explain why he had neo-nazi's work for his campaign and administration. Stephen Bannon. Sebastian Gorka. He even failed to condemn the hate and neo-nazi groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia

I think Donald Trump should explain why he ripped immigrant infants from their mother's arms and put them in cages you would not put your family dog in. Some compare the detention centers to concentration camps!

I think Donald Trump should explain his hostility towards the 4th Estate: The Press/News Media.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Bye-bye, President Trump”
By Joan Vennochi, The Boston Globe, September 28, 2019

As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said to President Trump: “Bye-bye.”

This is not about a president lying about having sex with an intern. As a just-released summary of the conversation between the two presidents makes clear, the impeachment inquiry launched this week is about a president blatantly pressing the leader of a foreign country to do him “a favor.” Trump first asks Zelensky to look into “the server,” an apparent reference to the 2016 presidential campaign e-mail hacks. He then repeatedly asks him to look into corruption allegations concerning former vice president and presidential contender Joe Biden.

During their July 25 telephone call, Trump directly asks Zelensky to talk to Attorney General William P. Barr and Trump’s private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, about a potential investigation into Biden for allegedly stopping a corruption investigation in order to protect his son. That specific theory floated by Trump has been debunked, but Trump still said, “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son . . . Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it . . . It sounds horrible to me.”

What’s horrible is Trump’s ask. It came after Zelensky said his country was “almost ready” to buy more military equipment from the United States. And after Trump had already held up $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.

What’s left to investigate? The memo released by the White House isn’t even a verbatim transcript of Trump’s entire conversation with Zelensky. If what’s already documented in the memo isn’t “a smoking gun” — as Senator Elizabeth Warren, also a presidential candidate, called it — what is?

Trump’s transgression is pretty simple to understand. It doesn’t cross any personal privacy line that might give rise to squeamishness, like former president Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. It strictly concerns Trump’s conduct in an official capacity as president of the United States. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday, Trump’s conduct demonstrates “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”

But given the loyalty of Trump’s base and acolytes in Congress and his own ability to gin up the fog machine, nothing is ever that simple. The Trump defense is that there’s no explicit quid pro quo evident in the phone call.

Reacting to the Ukraine phone call transcript, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said, “The Ukrainian president did not feel threatened. He felt fine with what happened.”

Yet, in his conversation with Zelensky, Trump also said, “The United States has been very, very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good, but the United States has been very, very, very good to Ukraine.” If you were Zelensky, couldn’t you interpret that as a threat?

You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. You can strip back the curtain, and show Trump in all his inglorious corruption. But you can’t make Republicans like Graham admit that Trump is corrupt. Not yet. Although there are signs that some Republicans have had enough. The Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to tell the White House to turn over the complaint from the whistle-blower who first called out the president for inappropriate conduct during the Zelensky telephone conversation.

So far, polls show that impeachment is unpopular. But that could change. If it doesn’t, you have to wonder what would it take to unite the American public in outrage over this president. If the crudeness of Trump leveraging the power of the country he was elected to serve for his personal, political benefit doesn’t outrage Americans, nothing will.

So far, Trump has managed to divide and conquer, by pitting people against each other on the basis of race, gender, and ethnicity. But polls shouldn’t stop House Democrats from doing what they believe is right.
The votes yet to be taken will be recorded in history forever.
As the full meaning of Trump’s conduct sinks in, who else besides Fox News host Sean Hannity will really want to vouch for him? Many in the party hijacked by Trump would probably love to echo Zelensky and say, “Bye-bye.”

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.

----------

October 13, 2019

The proverbial system is evil and unjust among all cultures and nations in our World's history! There are always "the others" who are exploited, abused, and persecuted. I believe the Native American cultures and nations had a lot of good qualities and they were not all "savages".

I support Columbus Day because it honors a man who brought European culture to the Americas. It is unfair to blame Christopher Columbus for every horrible thing that happened since his arrival to the Americas.

There is a GENOCIDE and war crimes going on right now in Syria. I feel sad for the persecuted Kurdish People. Trump's foreign policy debacle will go down in history!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Make Columbus Day inclusive to all”
The Berkshire Eagle, October 20, 2019

To the editor:

The recognition of having Columbus Day celebrated as a federal holiday, as instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, was something that Italian-American parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and members of The Sons of Italy in America and Knights of Columbus worked so hard to achieve. It was a way of combating the prejudice Italians faced in this country, and a way to honor hard-working, patriotic Italian-Americans. And so for decades Italian-Americans celebrated Columbus Day with dinners, festivals, parades and other events. These memories have been with members of Italian-American communities for several generations.

School children should be taught that Christopher Columbus was a great Renaissance explorer, intelligent enough to calculate that the world was round, and persistent and brave enough to navigate an unknown and dangerous ocean. They should learn that he unknowingly found a new hemisphere, and that by charting maps and routes he traveled, Columbus brought these lands to Europe's attention more than any other explorer before him, thus opening the door to European art, music, science, medicine, philosophy, inventions and religious principles and democratic contributions to our society.

Students should also be aware that Columbus was a ruthless ruler over the indigenous people and that retribution should be given to them.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Massachusetts acknowledges and defines Columbus Day as a holiday and states that it should be celebrated as an important event in national and world history. It also recognizes the need to honor and celebrate indigenous and all peoples' history, tradition and culture.

When the Pittsfield School Committee was making its decision to change the holiday's name I encouraged it to keep Columbus Day as it was and develop an age appropriate curriculum on Columbus and indigenous peoples. The UN had already designated August 9 as Indigenous Peoples' Day, and in the United States, President George W. Bush declared November as National American Indian Heritage Month.

The teaching moment for students would have been an implementation of a fair and balanced curriculum in an age appropriate manner, discussing the attributes and failings of Columbus as well as the contributions of the indigenous peoples and hardships they have endured at the hands of explorers and others. Perhaps in the end, the most peaceful solution would be to celebrate Columbus Day in America as Heritage Day to make this day inclusive to all.

Maryann Sherman, Pittsfield

----------

October 18, 2019

Hillary Clinton attacked Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is polling at 1% in the Democrat primary contest, conspiratorially alleging Tulsi Gabbard is really a Russian agent who wants Russia's puppet, Donald Trump, to win a second term in the Oval Office in 2020. There is evidence that Russian media and trolls are backing Tulsi Gabbard's bid. But, Tulsi Gabbard is a Major in the U.S. Army and she is the only candidate who understands the role of the U.S. Armed Services in foreign policy. Tulsi Gabbard reacted to Hillary Clinton's attack by saying Hillary is part of the rot in the Democratic Party.

I don't understand why Hillary Clinton would even bother to disparage Tulsi Gabbard! She, Tulsi, doesn't have a chance of getting the nomination. It is a done deal that Joe Biden will be nominated to challenge Donald Trump. I wish the Democrats would unite behind Joe Biden in 2020, and stop their stupid attacks against each other!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

October 20, 2019

Re: Trump = Hitler

I will explain why I believe Donald Trump is similar to Adolph Hitler.

#1 - Donald Trump had neo-nazi's work for his campaign and administration. Stephen Bannon. Sebastian Gorka. He even failed to condemn the hate and neo-nazi groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. Donald Trump represents the racist views of White Nationalism in the White House.

#2 - Donald Trump ripped immigrant infants and children from their mother's arms and put them in cages you would not put your family dog in. Some compare the detention centers to concentration camps!

#3 - Donald Trump is hostile towards the 4th Estate: The Press/News Media.

#4 – Donald Trump wants to amend the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by executive order to deny citizenship based on birth in the U.S. This is similar to what Hitler did to deny citizenship to Jewish people born in Germany.

#5 – Donald Trump pulled our country out of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.

#6 – Donald Trump called African-majority countries "Shithole countries". He targeted Mexicans with hate speech and wants to build a racist border wall. He targeted Muslims with an unconstitutional travel ban, a religious test, and hate speech. He supports the use of torture. He mocked the disabled.

#7 – Donald Trump admires authoritarian dictators in Russia, North Korea, and China.

#8 – Donald Trump wanted a racist 2020 U.S. Census citizen question. He wants to take our country back to the racist era of the 1920's when hate groups and racist ideology was its highest level of the 20th Century. Even Hitler admired our country's hate and racism during the 1920s!

#9 – Donald Trump has made broad claims of executive power that places him above the rule of law because he believes he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations and therefore he could not possibly have committed obstruction of justice.

#10 – A large rise in violent white nationalist domestic terrorism since Donald Trump took office after mid-January of 2017.

I am proud to speak out against the fascist U.S. President named Donald Trump!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Stephen Miller has to go”
By Raul A. Reyes, op-ed, CNN, November 18, 2019

(CNN) – Last week the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report that lays bare senior White House advisor Stephen Miller's support for white nationalism.

Drawing upon more than 900 emails that Miller sent to the website Breitbart News when he was an aide to Senator Jeff Sessions, the report exposes Miller's naked extremism.

In the emails, Miller promotes a notoriously racist French novel that paints a dystopian picture of immigrants as subhuman hordes. He encourages a Breitbart reporter to emphasize stories about crime by immigrants and non-whites. He expresses dismay that Amazon had stopped selling Confederate flags after the 2015 Charleston church shooting.

The SPLC says it could not find one email in which Miller wrote sympathetically or even neutrally about any person who was non-white or foreign born.

Such extreme views would ordinarily disqualify anyone from public service. But Miller is no ordinary public servant. He is President Donald Trump's most influential advisor on immigration, responsible for policies that have harmed legal and undocumented immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees.

With the released emails showing that, as many have suspected, he harbors an affinity for white nationalist and fringe media organizations, Miller must resign.

There is no understating Miller's influence on immigration policy. He was the driving force behind the first "Muslim Ban," which upended lives and created chaos and confusion at airports nationwide. He encouraged President Trump to end DACA, throwing the futures of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers into question. He played a crucial role in the Family Separations policy, which wreaked horror on children and resulted in an international backlash. He has moved to make the asylum process more stringent, and to lower the number of refugees the US accepts.

Miller is unique because, as officials have come and gone through the revolving door of the Trump administration, he has remained. That must end, now that we know the motivation behind his heartless and often ineffective policies. Consider that the emails analyzed by the SPLC were not from long ago; they were sent between 2015 and 2016. Nor has Miller denied their authenticity.

The Trump administration response to the SPLC report has been telling. One White House official told an Axios reporter that "This is clearly a form of anti-Semitism to levy these attacks against a Jewish staffer."

Under this flawed line of defense, any criticism of a Jewish public figure would be off limits.

Not only is this illogical, it is insulting to the genuine victims of anti-Semitism. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the Washington Post via email that she had not seen the report, but called the SPLC "an utterly-discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization." What's notable is that no one has denied that Miller is a racist, or suggested that his views had evolved over the last several years.

Since the SPLC report was released, there have been growing calls for Miller to step down. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has called for his resignation, as have members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. In fact, in the wake of the revelations about Miller's affinity for white nationalism, more than 80 members of Congress want him to resign right now.

These calls are a welcome start, yet it is time to hear from GOP lawmakers. Every Republican member of Congress should be asked on the record whether they believe Miller should stay or go.

Congressional Republicans have precedent for dealing with such indefensible comments. In January, House Republicans finally punished Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for his remarks on white nationalism. He was removed from his committee assignments and the House voted to condemn his racist statements. He was denounced by GOP leaders, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who suggested King find "another line of work," and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who said he should quit. So where do McConnell and Romney stand on Stephen Miller's future in the Trump administration?

True, the President can choose whomever he likes to work in his White House, and Trump himself has a history of bigoted remarks. That doesn't make Miller's white nationalism acceptable. Those who favor conservative immigration policies ought to realize that Miller is likely to become an increasing liability and distraction for the administration.

It's not only Democrats who find his views offensive, either. BuzzFeed News reports that unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice called Miller's emails "sickening" and "proof" that immigration policy is being driven by racism.

Miller's continued presence in the White House is an insult to our fundamental values of decency, especially at a time when the US is holding a record number (more than 69,000) of migrant children in custody.

Hate is not partisan. Hate is not political. Hate is hate -- and does not belong in the White House. Stephen Miller must step down.

Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and a member of the USA Today board of contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. View more opinions on CNN.

----------

December 1, 2019

An authoritarian/fascist U.S. President named Donald Trump broke many federal laws, including extorting a foreign government named Ukraine with the American peoples' tax dollars for dirt on a political opponent named Joe Biden, calling on Russia to investigate Hillary Clinton's missing emails while Putin ordered the meddling of the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor, hiding his tax returns from the American people because he received his business financing from Russian-backed Oligarchs, and the President did not pay his federal taxes, using his lawyers to do his dirty work in his public (obstructing justice: White House staff illegally saying to Congress that they have executive privilege and absolute immunity) and private dealings (porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal's NDA's that were illegal violations of campaign finance laws), human rights violations with his inhumane immigration policies, and his White Nationalist White House Staff that included Stephen Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller. I believe Trump is similar to Hitler. I hope Trump is both impeached and convicted, thereby removed from office. I believe Trump is a danger to both our country and our democratic system of government. If Trump is not removed from office in 2020, the U.S. Constitution is just another piece of paper and the rule of law is a lie.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Anti-Semitism order poses real dangers”
The Berkshire Eagle, December 19, 2019

To the editor:

While there is much to admire in Rabbi David Weiner's commentary on the complexity of American Jewish identity ("On the nuanced identity of Jewishness," oped, Dec. 16) I don't think it helps us understand why some Jewish organizations oppose President Trump's executive order combating anti-Semitism. I urge readers to access the order at www.whitehouse.gov.

As the order notes, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." The executive order extends the Title VI prohibition against discrimination to any "member of a group that shares common religious practices."

While fighting religious discrimination is surely a worthwhile goal, the executive order may open the door to serious unintended consequences. The order's definition of anti-Semitism is vague, simply "a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews," including "rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism." Those who believe in the First Amendment principle of free speech fear that a university might lose its federal funding for hosting a debate over whether Israel should receive military aid while humanitarian aid is withheld from starving persons in Venezuela. Does the order mean that no student group or faculty member can question the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank without endangering the school's federal aid? While hate speech is to be condemned, we have to wonder which public officials will be empowered to identify it.

My father was born in Ukraine. Like the rabbi's Lituanian and Hungarian relatives, my father and his family were not considered Ukrainians, but Jews. My nation of origin is the United States. I am an American, and a Jewish one at that. The idea that Jews are a racial or ethnic group distinct from the majority of our neighbors is the very canard that brought Hitler to power in Germany, and still fuels hatred and violence against Jews.

The idea that Jews are different from the rest of humanity is belied by the fact that anyone can become a Jew by choice. Ivanka Trump didn't change her race or nationality when she converted to Judaism.

Genetic and cultural categories have been the source of great mischief in our society. I regret that President Trump's executive order does little to alter the grounds on which anti-Semitism has thrived for decades.

Michael Feldberg, Pittsfield

Michael Feldberg, PhD, is the executive director of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom and former executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society.

----------

Letter: “Protest cruel cuts to SNAP benefits”
The Berkshire Eagle, December 21, 2019

To the editor:

SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, is the nation's first line of defense against hunger and malnutrition. This federal program provides a voucher to purchase food for low income citizens so that they will not have to choose between putting food on their tables or spending their limited funds on housing, health care, transportation, or child care. Children of families receiving SNAP are automatically eligible for free school meals. Hungry adults cannot work or parent well. Hungry children cannot learn well.

SNAP is under attack from the Trump administration. Multiple regulatory changes proposed by the administration would reduce the number of people eligible for SNAP and reduce the amount of money for food that SNAP recipients would receive. One such regulatory change would eliminate 3.1 million people from food assistance and jeopardize free school meals for nearly 1 million children. For further details, please visit the websites of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts (foodbankwma.org) and the Food Research & Action Center (frac.org). These changes would significantly impact Berkshire County. According to "Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap 2019," the food insecurity rate in Berkshire County is 9.7 percent of the total population and 13.2 percent for children.

The Trump administration passed a tax law change that benefited mainly the rich and corporations. Instead of "paying for itself" as promised, the tax law change has pushed the annual deficit to $1 trillion. Now, the Trump administration is promulgating regulatory changes to reduce funding of SNAP, a key program that reduces hunger, malnutrition, and poverty and improves family security and child and adult health. We cannot abide with policies that give to the rich and take from the less fortunate. Please raise your voice in protest. Contact your federal legislators and the USDA (the federal agency that administers SNAP) now.

Rabbi Liz Hirsch, Pittsfield

The letter is signed by the members of the Temple Anshe Amunim Social Action Committee. Along with Rabbi Hirsch they are Rachel Alemany, Bob Bogomolny, Joel Colker, Sue Colker, Laura Feakes, Fred Fagelman, Nancy Fagelman, Cookie Lamet, Janie Pellish, Larry Pellish, Phyllis Sandrew, Stuart Sandrew, Nan Sisselman, Judy Stolzberg, Barbara Viniar, Charles Wohl, and Lanny Zuckerman.

----------

“Hanukkah attack highlights disturbing rise of anti-Semitic violence”
The Hill, December 30, 2019

The shocking attack on a Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah in suburban New York on Saturday, [December 28th, 2019], brings to a close a deadly year for Jews in the U.S.

Anti-Semitic attacks that have become more frequent, sinister and deadly are showing no signs of abating as the year closes.

The perpetrators of these violent acts, from murder to intimidation, span the spectrum of anti-Semitism and fail to fall into a predictable pattern of perpetrators. Some are motivated by white nationalism, while others have been aggrieved black separatists, radicalized Islamists and conspiracy theorists.

----------

December 30, 2019

Donald Trump's 2020 campaign strategy is to get uneducated rural white nationalist (so-called) religious bigots to vote for him, and also have his billionaire friends put big dollars into his coffers so he can give them more federal tax breaks while we will continue to have years of trillion dollar federal budget deficits.

The Democrat's 2020 campaign strategy is to denounce Trump's alt-right racism, and increase federal taxes on the rich to pay for "Medicare for All", as well as fund other social programs that the Republicans want to cut if Trump is re-elected.

I hope the Democrat's message will win out because Trump is a demagogue similar to Hitler, but not as overt. Also, I believe we should have universal and affordable healthcare insurance for all American citizens because it is a human right. I am voting for Elizabeth Warren on February 11th, 2020!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

January 1, 2020

Donald Trump keeps his federal tax returns secret because he doesn't pay federal taxes! Donald Trump's business finances are funded by Russian Oligarchs who are closely connected to Putin. Donald Trump is running trillion dollar annual budget deficits to benefit his billionaire friends. The economy is on a sugar high that will eventually crash into a great recession. The billionaires will profit, while the have-nots will lose their life and retirement savings in the 2020's. Our country is headed for a future bankruptcy, a huge national debt, high inflation, and a record-setting underclass. Our only chance to stop the predictable future crisis is to oust Trump in 2020.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Will vote for Weld”
The NH Union Leader, Letter to the Editor, January 18, 2020

To the Editor: As a registered independent in New Hampshire, I intend to pick up a Republican primary ballot and vote for Bill Weld for President. I encourage all independents and Republicans to do the same.

I don’t agree with many of his policy positions but he is at least intelligent, moderate, experienced and most important, a potential real disrupter of the “Trumplican” party that has abandoned all pretense of governing in any meaningful way.

Trump, Soviet style, demanded that he be the only candidate on Republican primary ballots across the country and the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld that decision.

A major vote for, or even outright victory for Weld could become a cascading catalyst for the remaining genuine Republicans to abandon the party of Trump en masse and restore some semblance of sanity to the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

Charter Weeks, Barrington, NH

----------

January 19, 2020

Re: Trump & U.S. Congress must denounce neo-nazi march in Richmond, Virginia on Monday, January 20, 2020!

Dear U.S. President Donald Trump, Congresswoman Annie Kuster, & U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan,

Monday, January 20, 2020, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which celebrates Human Rights and Civil Rights. BUT, on Monday, January 20, 2020, there will be a neo-nazi march in Richmond, Virginia in the names of gun rights. I request that President Trump and the entire U.S. Congress please denounce the neo-nazi march in Richmond, Virginia on Monday, January 20, 2020.

Nazis are evil! They perpetrated the Holocaust, which persecuted and killed over 6 million Jewish People during World War II. I believe this is a moment to stand up for the values and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and stand against the horror and evil of Adolf Hitler. Our country was founded on Human Rights, which is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Please stand up for Human Rights, and please stand up against Hate!

Thank you,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

January 20, 2020

Re: Ultra right wing gun rights rally supported by Trump and neo nazis!

On Dan Valenti’s awesome blog today (January 20, 2020), “Nugget Leader” wrote in response to my post the following: “Gun rights, something the Jews in Germany could have used back in the 1930’s and 40’s. Gun rights are closer to civil rights than anything you pretend to care about.”

I believe that is a terrible statement to say the Jews in Nazi Germany could have used “gun rights” to fight off Hitler’s evil government’s military persecutors and mass murderers. In fact, armed Jews in occupied Nazi Germany may have made matters even worse, as Hitler’s evil government had bigger and more lethal weaponry, such as tanks, planes, and bombs!

I am disappointed in U.S. President Donald Trump for not condemning hate and violence in the ultra right wing so-called guns right rally in Richmond, Virginia today, Monday, January 20, 2020. Below my name are some facts about the hate march that caused the Commonwealth of Virginia to declare a state of emergency.

- Jonathan Melle

Facts:

Monday’s [January 20, 2020] rally in Richmond, Virginia is called by “the Virginia Citizens Defense League”, a gun-rights organization that is well to the right of the National Rifle Association. The NRA has declined to join the planned demonstration, urging its supporters to take part in a separate effort to lobby the state legislature against prospective gun regulations that have passed the Virginia state Senate and are now before the General Assembly.

Hundreds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists wrote on social media that they are traveling to the Richmond, Virginia “guns right rally”. The Commonwealth of Virginia has declared a state of emergency that doesn’t end until Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 17:00 or 5 p.m. The Virginia State Capitol was turned into a security fortress. Firearms, torches, bats, laser pointers and scissors are banned from the capitol grounds. The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed temporary flight restrictions for Richmond’s airspace, making it illegal to fly drones or small planes anywhere near the state capitol.

The actual gun regulations being enacted by the Virginia state legislature are quite modest. There are several separate bills limiting handgun purchases to one per month, banning military-style weapons and silencers, allowing local governments to ban guns in certain public spaces, and expanding background checks. Virginia Governor Northam, a Democrat, has said he will sign the gun restrictions into law. None of the measures violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence supports the gun restrictions.

Note: I used Patrick Martin’s January 20, 2020 news article “As neo-Nazis head to Richmond, Trump boosts gun-rights rally” from “the World Socialist Web Site”.

----------

January 26, 2020

Trump is running one trillion dollar and growing huge yearly budget deficits because of his large tax cuts for billionaires. The "have nots" get a few more "crumbs" in the short-term.

Centuries ago, Napoleon ran the printing press, while Trump is now borrowing trillions of dollars! I wonder how it all will work out 10 years from now when our fiat money economy produces hyperinflation because of trillions of dollars of toxic, unpayable, and worthless debts!

We the People are nothing more than an insurance policy to be cashed in by billionaires when the economy eventually tanks and the 99% "have not" population gets even poorer than today's large and growing underclass. The billionaires will live on the Moon, Mars, and/or in space stations by then, so they won't have to deal with all of the hungry and homeless people demanding social justice in big business and big government.

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

- Jonathan Melle

----------

January 31, 2020

Re: The U.S. Senate is a nightmarish bureaucracy

The American President should have a new title: "The Imperial U.S. President of the Universe second only to God". The Imperial President Donald Trump can do whatever he wants without any consequences. We are no longer a nation of laws, but rather, we are an imperial nation of one all-powerful U.S. President named Donald Trump. The U.S. Constitution is now just another piece of paper. The Iron Rule of Oligarchy theory is now a sad reality. The word of the people in power is the law instead of the law being the word of the people. The U.S. Senate by a 51 - 49 vote disallowed witnesses and evidence in a sham impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. After the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy, the U.S. Senate voted against gun reform. Then, the U.S. Senate blocked President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, the U.S. Senate voted for a cover up to protect Trump from facing a real impeachment trial with witnesses and evidence. Mitch McConnell is an example of nightmarish bureaucracy. Trump/McConnell are running huge one trillion dollar plus yearly budget deficits, cut corporate taxes to benefit the wealthy, and are planning on cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits that will hurt the welfare of the poor and disabled. The new social safety net will be in personal bankruptcy laws and caseloads.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

February 1, 2020

Re: What if it was me who was Prez?

What if it was me who was Prez? What if I had neo Nazis work for my presidential campaign and administration? What if I called all of the hate groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia “very fine people”? What if I disparaged women, Mexicans, the disabled, African countries, American cities like Baltimore and states like New Hampshire, Muslim immigrants, and “the others”? What if I ran trillion dollar federal budget deficits with huge tax cuts for wealthy corporations? What if I wouldn’t release my federal tax returns because I received my business financing from Russian Oligarchs connected to Putin through German banks? What if it was me who declared business bankruptcies multiple times over the years? What if I worked against international efforts to fight global warming? Would you vote for me despite my name not being Donald Trump?

- Jonathan Melle

----------

February 6, 2020

The nightmare is happening in the United States of America! Trump wants to issue an Executive Order to end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Trump is similar to Hitler! We must speak out to protect the human and civil rights of all United States citizens. First they come after immigrants, then they will come after you, and by then, it will be to late for you. Remember, Donald Trump had neo-Nazis work for his presidential campaign and administration. As a disabled Veteran, I am worried I may be among those who will lose my legal rights under the EVIL Trump administration!

- Jonathan Melle

Donald Trump wants to amend the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by executive order to deny citizenship based on birth in the U.S. This is similar to what Hitler did to deny citizenship to Jewish people born in Germany.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Progressive Review
To: "jonathan_a_melle@yahoo.com"
Sent: Thursday, February 6, 2020, 08:22:00 AM EST
Subject: LATEST: Trump Wants to Use Executive Order to End Birthright Citizenship

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, President Trump again threatened to end what he called the "ridiculous" policy of birthright citizenship, which awards citizenship automatically to those born in the United States.

"We're looking at that very seriously," Trump told reporters.

"Birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land - you walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations, the baby's now a U.S. citizen. We're looking at it very, very seriously ...It's, frankly, ridiculous."

During his campaign and again recently, Trump suggested he might use an executive order to end birthright citizenship, saying it encourages illegal immigration and "anchor babies."

Democrats, who command an overwhelming share of the immigrant vote, immediately called the idea unconstitutional.

This poll is being sent to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

Results will be shared with all 535 members of Congress in 4 days at poll conclusion.

We want to know where you stand on this issue.

Should the U.S. end birthright citizenship?

Immediate results can be viewed by submitting your vote.

Don't let this email pass without having your opinion count.

Regards,

David Lehmann - Gopher Polling Institute

----------

February 6, 2020

Re: Donald Trump is a racist fascist demagogue who is similar to Adolf Hitler

The impeachment "trial" was a farce, and everyone knows it, especially the Republican Party! Even Republican U.S. Senator Mitt Romney said it was not a fair trial because there was no new witnesses and no evidence for the "impartial" jurors to use as a trier of fact. What kind of "trial" doesn't have new witnesses and evidence? What has the U.S.A. become when "the rule of law" has been made into a mockery of justice?

Donald Trump is a racist fascist demagogue who is similar to Adolf Hitler. He had neo-Nazis work in his presidential campaign and administration. He called the hate marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia very fine people. His racist immigration policy and brutal detention centers where babies were separated from their parents' respective arms have been compared to Nazi Germany's concentration camps. He has disparaged women, the disabled, Mexicans, immigrants, African countries, Muslim immigrants, American cities like Baltimore, and American states like New Hampshire, among "others".

Donald Trump is an abomination. He is EVIL! I hope he is voted out of the Oval Office in early-November of 2020!!!!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Neo-Nazi Group Membership May Not Get You Booted from Military, Officials Say”
By Richard Sisk, Military.com - 12 Feb 2020

Membership in a white supremacist or neo-Nazi group won't necessarily get a U.S. service member tossed out of the military, defense officials told a House subcommittee Tuesday.

The officials, including representatives of Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, appeared to make a distinction between membership in an extremist organization and "active participation" in deciding on recruitment and retention.

The officials also told a hearing of the House Armed Services subcommittee on personnel that they had no reliable data on how many service members had been administratively discharged for espousing white supremacist ideology or how many potential recruits had been barred from enlisting.

The testimony appeared to stun several members of the committee.

"I am flummoxed by what I've heard today," Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, chair of the Subcommittee, said after questioning Robert Grabosky, deputy director of Law Enforcement at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Grabosky said that membership in a white nationalist group "is not prohibited," but "active participation" in the group could lead to an administrative discharge, at a commander's discretion.

"I find that astonishing," Speier said. "If you're a member, that's an activity. I think we need to take a look at that."

Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Mississippi, an Iraq veteran, brigadier general in the Army National Guard and ranking member of the subcommittee, said the bottom line for white nationalists in the military was, "what can we do better to keep 'em out and what can we do to get 'em out?"

In his opening statement, Kelly said "we don't have a lot of reliable data" on the spread of extremist ideology in the military.

"The definitive data we do have comes from the Department of Defense, where there have been 21 criminal cases involving white supremacy over the last five years" in the service branches, Kelly said.

Several of the subcommittee members pointed to the case of Air Force Master Sgt. Cory Reeves, allegedly a leader in the Colorado branch of the supremacist group Identity Evropa, who posted racist memes and spread far-right propaganda.

In November 2019, the Air Force demoted Reeves to technical sergeant, but he was initially allowed to remain in the service. In December, the Air Force announced that proceedings had begun to dismiss him from the service.

In a separate panel at the hearing, advocacy groups warned of the spread of white supremacist and hate group ideology in the military.

"I want to start by saying that, right now, the white supremacist movement in the United States is surging and presents a distinct and present danger to this country and its institutions, including the U.S. Armed Forces," said Lecia Brooks of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"Recent investigations have revealed dozens of veterans and active-duty servicemembers who are affiliated with white supremacist activity," Brooks said.

Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

----------

February 13, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

History is full of contradictions. The Founding Fathers fought for classical Liberty, but most of them also owned Slaves. Karl Marx wrote about Communism, but he never lived in a Communist country. Ayn Rand wrote about Social Darwinism or "Swim or Sink", but when she was a Senior Citizen, she collected both Social Security and Medicare benefits. President Donald Trump is adored by the evangelical Christians, but he was married three times and openly cheated on all of his wives, including with a porn star and a Playboy model. Governor Bill Weld prosecuted people for marijuana violations, but now he is invested in Massachusetts marijuana industry. BUT, I guess we should pick on poor mothers in Berkshire County for receiving free diapers for their infants. That will help solve all of history's contradictions.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Democrats fear rule of law crumbling under Trump”
The Hill, February 16, 2020

Democrats are issuing dire warnings that the rule of law is under attack by President Trump after the Department of Justice (DOJ) overruled career prosecutors to seek a lighter sentence for longtime Trump aide Roger Stone.

The move incensed Democratic lawmakers and raised new questions about potential White House interference at the agency.

----------

Letter: “Lack of integrity, not leadership, at fault”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 16, 2020

To the editor:

The response by the head of the police union to the announcement that numerous state troopers would be fired and possibly lose their pensions because of the overtime scandal was classic.

He stated that the problem was actually "a failure of leadership." In other words, it was all the boss' fault.

Let me see if I've got this straight: State troopers can't be expected to act with honesty and integrity unless their commanders specifically tell them to.

"OK, boys, just a reminder to you all that you're not allowed to lie, cheat and steal money from the taxpayers. I know it's a lot to ask, but that's our official policy. Any questions? I don't see any hands raised, so let's all be safe out there."

Does the stance of that union boss remind you of anyone? It should, because it's pure Trump: never, ever take responsibility for anything. (Unless, of course, it's something positive. In that case, even if you had nothing to do with it, brag and take all the credit.)

Always make excuses and blame everyone else for every problem (Obama, Hillary, CNN, Pelosi, etc.). And, of course, always lie and cheat if you think you can get away with it. Actually, that last one needs to be revised, since it's no longer necessary for Trump to conceal his dishonesty now that he has a corrupt Senate and Justice Department in place. Retaliatory firings related to whistleblowers is illegal under federal law but, hey, who's going to prosecute him? A groveling toady like William Barr?

It took Trump a couple of years, but he finally got rid of anyone with any courage and integrity and has now surrounded himself with spineless, boot-licking yes-men. Any organization that operates on the basis of fear, which is Trump's specialty, is inherently corrupt to its core.

To be honest, I just never thought it would happen to the presidency of the United States. I highly recommend "Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump" by sports writer Rick Reilly. Trump's unabashed dishonesty is truly astounding, and, in a sick kind of way, quite entertaining. Reilly is very funny, which helps ease the pain somewhat.

Arne Waldstein, Housatonic [Mass.]

----------

Jeff Kassel: “What happened to our Republican Party?”
By Jeff Kassel, op-ed, The NH Union Leader, February 16, 2020

I met Bill Weld this winter at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester. He sat down at my table while I was eating breakfast and said, “You look like the kind of guy that likes to hike in the mountains of New Hampshire, as I do.”

I gave him my best smile and said, “Governor Weld, I don’t climb mountains.... I’m 73 years old... I like to watch TV.” We exchanged business cards and I told him to have his people contact my people. Reporters were there and they laughed.

We just had an election in my state and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand what it meant. Donald Trump represents a celebration of ignorance, bombast, sociopathy, vanity, dishonesty, egomania, narcissism and criminality... and he’s openly corrupted the Department of Justice, Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, which is now run by a coal lobbyist.

Bill Weld, on the other hand, is a respectful, kind, intelligent, thoughtful Harvard and Oxford graduate, who was a popular governor of Massachusettes and a U.S. Attorney from the same state. President Reagan appointed Bill Weld to head up the criminal division of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.

Governor Weld campaigned for eight months in New Hampshire and held numerous town halls and political events all over the state with his message of decency, intelligence and the rule of law. He wryly complained that Republicans in the House and Senate suffered from a Trumpian brand of Stockholm syndrome as they rubber-stamped Trump’s outrageous, vindictive, and increasingly lawless, vulgar behavior.

This past Tuesday we had the Republican primary and Donald Trump won an overwhelming victory, with Bill Weld receiving just under 10% of the vote. Donald Trump barely campaigned in the state but was a national figure who every single day sought to be the lead story in the news media he claims is fake and dishonest.

This disturbing and horrifying result means the Republican Party in New Hampshire prefers an obnoxious, lying, despicable, vindictive loudmouth to an ex-governor from a neighboring state who comported himself with dignity, kindness and thoughtfulness.

I attended the Weld reception that evening and after a few hours watched the election results on a large TV at the front of the room. I know Bill Weld and his wife, but I was so shocked by what my fellow Republicans from New Hampshire had just done, I left the event quietly without saying anything to either one of them. Even now, two days later, it’s still sinking in and I’m unable to explain what has happened to America and the Republican Party. We have an obvious sociopath and cheat in the White House and millions of Americans cheer him on, attend his rallies, wear his idiotic MAGA hats and can’t wait to vote for him again in the general election.

In 2016, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said it much better than I ever could. He called Trump a jackass and race-baiting, xenophobic bigot who was a danger to the country.

While Sen. Graham is now singing another song, in this digital age we have a record of what he really thinks of Trump, who has become the Svengali of the American Republican Party, mesmerizing the masses and overflow crowds at his rallies as he practices his political vandalism. I saw them lining up 24 hours in advance to make sure they got a good seat and it was 25 degrees outside the arena the night before Trump flew in and spoke.

Even more terrifying than Trump himself, are his Trumpanistas, his political cult, who worship this embarrassing, frightening political spectacle...and these misguided rubes honestly believe that Trump is making America great again.

What is even more astonishing is there are tens of millions of them. They are impressed by a vulgarian who puts on a political burlesque show and they cheer him on as he turns America into a depressing international joke.

Jeff Kassel lives in Manchester [NH].

----------

Letter: “Fascism has come to United States”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 22, 2020

To the editor:

In 2016 Donald Trump was only a candidate; heavy-handed and rude, using strength of personality to bully competitors into silence. It reminded me of the film, "The Gangs of New York." Politics was a "winner-take-all" business and the poor were never winners. I sensed 19th century attributes in this new Republican addition. He was off the cuff. Flippant. Abusive.

He painted with the worst of our fears. "Others"b— immigrants, Muslims, war heroes — made America's downfall. He beat opponents one-by-one, mostly with insults, winning the nomination and the backing of the party.

The new rallies had pomp, color and applause, but also unfounded accusations, half truths, chants of "Lock her up!" and attacking the media. Lastly, he called out Americans who voiced opposition inside the rally. These he gave to the crowd. "I'll pay your legal fees!" he said.

Donald Trump: this real estate mogul and TV celeb, was no Republican. Neither was he a Democrat. No, my friend, Donald Trump is an old world, 20th century style Fascist.

As I watched this bombast rant, he pulled on the same passions from the 1930s. I remained silent. Writing to the editor sounded alarming. Besides, who would vote for him?

2018: Dems win the House. New leadership. New justices, too. Sen. Mitch McConnell tables 400 bills from the House; green energy, minimum wage, infrastructure, election security, cyber defense things like that.

If you're under 35, you may not have people who remember a world of fascist passions. "Us first, all others out,"."The press is the enemy," "Obey the party line."

You don't remember stories of the Italian "black shirts." You haven't heard from those whose hearts pounded, hearing the glass shatter on "Kristallnacht." Book burnings, midnight arrests. You don't know what it's like when the leader is the state.

We are now seeing that mentality which fermented in the 1930s. Donald Trump has finally paid someone enough to declare absolution in the well of the U.S. Senate and now has the blessing of that body:

"If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected... in the public interest then that cannot be the kind of `quid pro quo' that results in impeachment.." Alan Dershowitz.

I don't know about you, and I'm no constitutional scholar, but I'm certain that our Founders had something else in mind.

Welcome to the New Monarchy.

Jeffrey Brace, Pittsfield [Mass.]

----------

Februray 28, 2020

How can anyone other than a fascist or Hitler himself defend Donald Trump? He had neo-Nazis and other haters work for his presidential campaign and administration. He makes broad claims of executive power. He called neo-Nazis and other hater at the Charlottesville, Virginia hate march "very fine people". He wants to amend the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by executive order to deny citizenship based on birth in the U.S. This is similar to what Hitler did to deny citizenship to Jewish people born in Germany. He used to have a book of Hitler's speeches on his bed stand. He calls the press or news media “fake news”, which was a tactic used by Adolf Hitler. He is against left-leaning Jewish people’s viewpoint on Israel. There have been rising incidences of white nationalist domestic terrorism against the Jewish people and Muslim people since Trump assumed the U.S. Presidency in 2017. He withdrew our nation from the UN Human Rights Council on June 19th, 2018. He admires authoritarian dictators in Russia and China, among other regimes.

He wanted a racist citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census. He implemented racist immigration policies that saw babies taken from their mothers' respective arms and put in cages, which critics compared to concentration camps. He banned travel from 7 Muslim countries. He that there should be “a religious test” imposed on entering the U.S. He said that there should be “state-sponsored torture” or that ”families of suspected terrorists should all be killed”.

He told congresswomen of color to "go back where they came from". He called African nations: “Shithole countries”. He targeted Mexicans with hate-speech and a multi-billion dollar border wall.

The Trump administration urged schools and colleges to ignore race in admissions, reversing an Obama-era guideline meant to bolster diversity. The Trump administration rescinded protections for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms of their choice. He banned transgender people from military. He allows American Soldiers with neo-Nazi group membership serve in the military, officials testified before U.S. Congress on 12-February-2020.

He wants to cut social services and social insurance programs that help poor people, especially minorities. He mocked the disabled.

In closing, Donald Trump is a racist fascist demagogue who is similar to Adolf Hitler!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“A federal appeals court blocked President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, a central pillar of the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.”
The New York Times, February 28, 2020

A federal court on Friday ruled that asylum seekers must be allowed into the United States while their often lengthy cases meander through American immigration courts.

----------

“Trump escalates fight against press with libel lawsuits”
The Hill, March 8, 2020

The Trump campaign’s libel lawsuits against The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN mark a dramatic escalation in the president's long fight with the media.

Legal experts have said the suits are dead on arrival, failing to meet the high bar to prove defamation of a public figure, but fear an environment in which powerful elected officials like Trump try to use the courts to intimidate the press.

----------

March 18, 2020

I read that our federal government’s budget deficit will exceed $2 trillion dollars at the end of this fiscal year on September 30, 2020. Over $1 trillion of the deficit will be due to emergency spending due to COVID-19. I believe it is time to raise taxes on the wealthy to lower our nation’s multi-trillion dollar unsustainable budget deficits.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “Senior citizens don't matter to Trump”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 25, 2020

To the editor:

According to the New York Times of March 20 ("Chilling plans— who gets care — rationing proposals, ) "Age and underlying conditions determine that this person, although having a chance of survival with an ventilator does not get one — there will be teams that will make a determination who is most likely to survive and you provide care for them — those that have less good chance, but still a chance, you do not provide care and thus guarantee their death".

They are talking about you, your mother or father, your grandmother, or a child. Is this acceptable ?

This is happening today, here in the United States of America, in the state of Washington, while Trump and the Republicans do not believe it is the function of the government to make some industries retool and begin making respirators. In case of war, as in WWII, industry instantly started making needed materials, like tanks, cannons, motor vehicles, etc. Why is this not as essential ? To make what is needed to help the survival of citizens, no matter their age? This is a war, a war against an invisible enemy. We need a president that takes his office seriously and can handle crisis situations as well as making the health and well-being of the citizens his first priority. Not his golf game or how his hair looks, or the color of his makeup.

The Defense Protection Act gives presidents extraordinary powers to have industry make supplies. But Mr. Trump and some of his advisors are adhering to longstanding conservative opposition to big government. They are resisting calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of Governors to use this law to mobilize industry to provide badly needed resources to help halt the spread of the Coronavirus.

I wonder how "resistant" to big government they would be if it was their parent in need of a ventilator and was denied care ?

If you happen to be a senior citizen, this should make you sit up and take notice. Trump and his "advisors" are not interested in your survival, so they should not be given your vote should you do so.

November and Election Day will be here soon, I will not forget, will you ?

Edith Mingalone, Pittsfield

----------

March 27, 2020

Why don't you Nazi loving Trump supporters PLEASE STOP your propaganda and racist and fascist views against basic Human Rights? TRUMP = HITLER!!!!

I have a blog page explaining how EVIL Donald Trump really is. I will never support Trump! My politics is defending those who have no rights. If I were a U.S. President, I would tell the World from the past, present, and the future, that those who have no rights have rights under my leadership. I would defend the weakest and most disadvantaged people and bestow on them all the basic Human Rights granted to them by the Nation-State and World. Like Anne Frank, I believe people are good in their hearts. Persecuted people like Anne Frank have a warm and special place in my heart. Donald Trump does not!

- Jonathan Melle

ADD #1:

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I respect your rights, including your right to support Donald Trump. Please agree to disagree with me.

On Israel, I believe Israel has a right to exist and prosper. I, like you, support the Nation-State of Israel. What I do not support is extremism from any side, including Israeli political extremists. Over the years, I have talked with people who live in Israel and visited our country. Many Jewish citizens of Israel do not support extremism in Israel. Rather, Jewish people told me that they want to co-exist with everyone who lives in their society. I understand that our country gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel, and that Israel buys our military weapons and related technologies for their military. Israel is a democracy and Israel stands for Human Rights. I admire Israel for their diverse government and society. If you are correct that Trump has helped Israel, then I praise Trump's foreign policies towards Israel. I understand that U.S. Democrats are frustrated with AIPAC and President Netanyahu for their right leaning politics. I do not know too much about all of it.

As for minorities, I totally disagree with your statement that Trump helped them. In fact, Trump disparaged many minority groups with racist language, along with sexist language against women, over the years.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

April 1, 2020

Re: Open letter to Chuck Garivaltis

What is your alternative? Millions of workers have lost their jobs and income. $1,200 will get the average worker through one to two weeks. Most of the freebies ($500 billion) go to bailouts for Corporate America. Unlike Germany one hundred years ago, most countries today are all deep in debts. In the 1920's, Hitler openly admired our country: U.S.A. - because we had racist laws, including racist eugenics laws, racist immigration laws that targeted or openly discriminated against Jewish and Italian people in particular, and racist Jim Crow laws against black or African-American people. WW2 began in 1939, but the U.S.A. did not enter WW2 until after Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, or more than 2 years later. Since WW2, our country's war machine has fought wars without end or victory. The U.S. military killed over 5 million Vietnamese people in the Vietnam Conflict. Our country's #1 non-farm export is selling military weapons and related technologies to foreign governments. Western democracies, Russia, and China all arm the World with military weapons. We have cut federal taxes many times over while funding the military industrial complex. It is called "Guns & Butter". In closing, I believe if we want to stop 1930's-style fascism, we should stop cutting federal taxes for Corporate America, stop excessively funding the military industrial complex, limit our country's war machine that has killed millions of foreign people since WW2, and rebuild our country's middle class with living wage jobs for average American workers.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“President tightens grip on federal watchdogs”
The Hill, April 7, 2020

President Trump is tightening his grip on federal watchdogs, even as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has gone on the offensive over the past few days, suddenly removing or publicly berating three inspectors general. Trump’s actions and words have led to criticism from Democrats and others that he is purging officials whose chief responsibility is to protect the integrity of government institutions.

----------

April 8, 2020

Only 0.6% of the U.S. population has been tested for coronavirus. That means 99.4% of the U.S. population has not been tested for coronavirus. Moreover, 33% of tests for coronavirus have produced false negatives. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents will contract coronavirus, and tens of thousands of U.S. residents will die of coronavirus. Hospitals won't be able to handle the excess number of coronavirus patients. There is not enough PPE or personal protective equipment. There aren't enough ventilators and the medicine needed for patients to be on the ventilators. The federal government is adding trillions of dollars to the already huge national debt to keep the U.S. economy from collapsing. Many millions of U.S. workers have lost their jobs and health insurance. U.S. Congress is on a 3 week recess while the country is in crisis, which is a profile in misguided elitist leadership. Pittsfield (Mass.) is in the top ten in the entire World for coronavirus cases and deaths. Berkshire Medical Center is giving its staff the proverbial shaft when it comes to the Nurses not being able to get workman's compensation benefits. This is both a total mess and a horrible nightmare!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

April 9, 2020

I like it when the workers win. The Nurses are our heroes. Blogger Dan Valenti fought the good fight.

Millions of workers have lost their jobs and health insurance. I think it is time we have universal basic income and universal healthcare. I don't think it would be "Socialism" because Corporate America is receiving hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in bailouts. The Federal Reserve is even buying junk bonds to keep the U.S. economy from collapsing.

I have been reading about Gov. Baker's ban on recreational marijuana during the coronavirus outbreak. It doesn't make any sense because liquor stores and medical marijuana dispensaries are still open for business. There is a lawsuit by 5 recreational marijuana dispensaries filed against Gov. Baker.

In closing, U.S. Congress and President Trump are borrowing trillions of dollars during the COVID-19 crisis. Our country's national debt will soon reach $30 trillion. I don't think we will ever be able to pay it off. We are running the printing presses by borrowing huge amounts of money to keep our economy from collapsing. How big will the debt bubble get before popping?

- Jonathan Melle

Note: The U.S. national debt surpassed $24 trillion this week (April 9, 2020). Total U.S. debt is near $77 trillion.

Note: The U.S. national debt surpassed $25 trillion this week (May 7, 2020). Total U.S. debt is over $77 trillion.



From March 26, 2020 through May 7, 2020, the U.S. National Debt increased by $1.5 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office’s estimate for fiscal 2020 – that ends on September 30, 2020 – deficit is $3.7 trillion.

----------

“Federal officials fired by Trump face tough road in court”
The Hill, April 11, 2020

President Trump’s recent shakeup of agency watchdogs has his critics fuming, but legal experts say that federal officials fired for even apparently political reasons have little legal recourse.

Trump’s firing of intelligence community watchdog Michael Atkinson last Friday was widely seen as payback for his handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint that sparked the president's impeachment by the House.

----------

April 12, 2020

I am receiving emails explaining that U.S. Congress is not funding the U.S. Postal Service from sometime in June through September of 2020. The U.S. House of Representatives voted for the funding, but the U.S. Senate did not include the funding in the CARES Act bill. I am a 100% service connected disabled Veteran who receives my VA prescriptions in the mail, along with other VA correspondences. Please ensure the Post Office doesn’t go insolvent from sometime in June through the end of September of 2020. Thank you for your time.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“A sailor died amid hundreds of viral infections on a ship. The crisis encapsulates the hollowing out of Navy leadership under President Trump.”
The New York Times, April 13, 2020

On March 30, after four days of rebuffs from his superiors, Captain Crozier sat down to compose an email. “Sailors don’t need to die,” he wrote to 20 other people, all Navy personnel in the Pacific, asking for help. A Naval Academy graduate with nearly 30 years of military service, the captain knew the email would most likely end his career, his friends said in interviews. The military prizes its chain of command, and the appropriate course would have been for the captain to continue to push his superiors for action.
He hit “send” anyway.

----------

“Trump uses coronavirus briefing to fire back at critics”
The Hill, April 13, 2020

President Trump on Monday used the White House briefing room to lash out at critics of his response to the coronavirus outbreak, rattling off a litany of grievances about press coverage and airing a reel of cable news footage that portrayed his actions in a positive light.

The president sought to use a briefing ostensibly intended to inform the American public about the latest developments in the battle against the virus to frame his handling of the pandemic as a success. He bristled at any criticism and picking a fight with journalists in the room before experts delivered any update on the disease that has killed more than 22,000 in the U.S.

----------

“Trump sparks GOP backlash with claim of 'total' power to reopen the country”
The Hill, April 14, 2020

President Trump's claim that he has "total" authority to decide when and how to reopen parts of the country shuttered by the coronavirus is sparking congressional backlash, including from members of his own party.

Trump, speaking during a White House press briefing Monday, said he has the "authority" to force governors, who have been issuing the stay-at-home orders, to reopen schools, businesses and other institutions in their state.

But GOP lawmakers, as well as Democrats, fired back Tuesday, sending a warning shot to Trump that under the Constitution he does not have unlimited powers. They also warned against overreaching.

----------

“Trump suggests Democratic governors are staging a ‘mutiny’ as states form pacts to coordinate reopening”
The Boston Globe, April 14, 2020

Invoking the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty,” President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that governors’ objections to his claim of absolute authority over when to lift guidelines aimed at fighting the coronavirus were tantamount to insurrection.

Democratic and Republican governors sounded alarm about a federal power grab a day after Trump asserted he had the ultimate say on when and how to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines. Trump, meanwhile, said he was relishing the fight with state officials — particularly those in hard-hit states run by Democrats — who have voiced fears that Trump's ambitious timetable could lead to a resurgence of the virus.

----------

“Trump backs down after Cuomo, other governors unite on coronavirus response”
By Allan Smith, NBC News, April 14, 2020

"I'm not going to put pressure on any governor to open," the president said in an about-face from his remarks on Monday, April 14, 2020.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he's fine with governors making their own decisions about how and when to reopen their states — a quick retreat from the day before, when he insisted that such choices were up to only him because his "authority is total."

Trump's comments in the White House Rose Garden came as states across the Northeast and along the Pacific Coast launched separate regional pacts to plan for how to open up and get their economies going again, forming united political fronts should they need to challenge Trump.

The president said that the administration will provide states with guidelines in the coming days and that he plans to speak soon with all 50 governors via conference call, but he made it clear that the governors can do as they see fit.

“I will be authorizing each individual governor, of each individual state, to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state in a time and a manner as most appropriate," Trump said. "Because certain states are in much different condition and in a much different place than other states."

"The federal government will be watching them very closely and will be there to help in many different ways," he said, adding: "The governors are going to be opening up their states. They're going to declare when. They're going to know when. Some can open very, very shortly."

The authority to require businesses to close in a public health crisis is known as a "police power," and it is reserved by the Constitution to the states, not the federal government. Because the states and local officials put the shutdowns in place, they will have to be the ones to lift them.

Still, some states are more likely to follow Trump's lead, while others would be receptive to federal guidance. The president can also use the bully pulpit to push governors to reopen their states.

But he said Tuesday that he wouldn't be doing that.

"I'm not going to put pressure on any governor to open," Trump said. "I'm not going to say to Governor Cuomo, 'You have to open within seven days.'"

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump would create a "constitutional crisis" if he tried to override any of the governors.

"If he says to me, 'I declare it open,' and that is a public health risk or it's reckless with the welfare of the people of my state, I will oppose it," Cuomo said. "And then we will have a constitutional crisis like you haven't seen in decades, where states tell the federal government, 'We're not going to follow your order.' It would be terrible for this country. It would be terrible for this president.

"We don't have a king — we have a president, and that was a big decision," Cuomo added.

Trump responded on Twitter, saying Cuomo was "calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state's responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won't happen!"

On Monday, Cuomo and the governors of six other Northeastern states — Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, John Carney of Delaware and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island — announced that they will band together to, as Cuomo said, "help devise a plan to slowly reopen parts of each state." On the West Coast, Washington, Oregon and California announced a similar pact to plan for their states' reopenings.

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

----------

“Jeff Bezos Gains $24 Billion While World’s Rich Reap Bailout Rewards”
By Sophie Alexander, Tom Maloney and Tom Metcalf, Bloomberg, April 14, 2020

The world’s richest person is getting richer, even in a pandemic, and perhaps because of it.

With consumers stuck at home, they’re relying on Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc. more than ever. The retailer’s stock climbed 5.3% to a record Tuesday, lifting the founder’s net worth to $138.5 billion.

The pandemic has brought the global economy to a near standstill and pushed almost 17 million Americans onto the unemployment rolls in the span of three weeks. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. signaled Tuesday that loan losses fueled by the unprecedented job cuts -- many of them in the retail sector that Amazon so efficiently disrupted -- could rival those incurred after the 2008 financial crisis.

Yet Bezos and many of his wealthy peers in technology, private equity and elsewhere are doing just fine, helped by unprecedented stimulus efforts by governments and central bankers. While the combined net worth of the world’s 500 richest people has dropped $553 billion this year, it has surged 20% from its low on March 23, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

“The wealth gap, it’s only going to get wider with what’s going on now,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “The really wealthy people haven’t had to worry. Yes, they’re less wealthy, but you haven’t had to worry about putting food on the table or keeping a roof over your head.”

It’s not just the billionaires. Corporate insiders have been significant buyers of their companies’ shares, a show of confidence that the crisis will pass, even as the nation’s leaders debate exactly when Americans can safely return to work.

The volume of transactions in beaten-down industries, from travel to health care to gaming, suggests executives and directors are more bullish than they’ve been at most other points in the past decade, according to Sundial Capital Research.

Carnival Corp. board member Randall Weisenburger bought $10 million of stock in the beleaguered cruise-line operator last week. The shares have jumped 56% since the purchase.

Others are going further to maximize returns. UBS Group AG is seeing ultra-wealthy clients ramp up borrowing to place more wagers in what they see as a cheap market. Mortgage brokers to the rich have said more clients are seeking loans backed by real estate to help them repay other debt, invest in businesses and snap up other assets.

There have been massive losers among the moneyed set. Many in the oil and gas industry have been hammered by the collapse in crude prices. Emerging-market billionaires aren’t reaping the same rewards as those in the U.S. and there have been margin calls and forced sales.

But there also have been remarkable gains.

Leading the group is Bezos, who has added almost $24 billion to his fortune in 2020, as well as MacKenzie Bezos, who was left with a 4% stake in Amazon as part of the couple’s recent divorce settlement. Her net worth has climbed $8.2 billion to $45.3 billion, and she’s now No. 18 on the Bloomberg wealth ranking, ahead of Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person, and Mexico’s Carlos Slim.

Shares of rival retailer Walmart Inc. have also advanced, buoying the fortunes of the world’s richest family. Alice, Jim and Rob Walton now have a combined net worth of $169 billion, up almost 5% since the start of the year.

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has added $10.4 billion to his fortune this year, more than anyone except Bezos.

The fortune of Zoom Video Communications Inc. founder Eric Yuan has more than doubled to $7.4 billion, as demand for its teleconferencing service exploded in the wake of the pandemic-driven lockdown.

“The unfairness of it all is who is going to benefit from it most,” Maley said. “Money makes money.”

----------

re: my critics are mean-spirited and belie facts! - 19April2020

“the 5th Dentist” posted:

Jonathan,

It is absolutely clear to anyone who reads any of your posts that you are infatuated with and have a perverse admiration of Hitler. You compare everything to either Hitler or NAZI Germany.

It is completely irrational and insensitive to so many to compare the Nursing homes to “death Camps”
The very people you purport to represent and attempt to speak for are the very people wo are the Nurses, Aides’ Housekeepers Dietary staff and so on who are dedicated caring people who give of themselves every day to EARN a paycheck. Obviously anyone who is unable or unwanting to work would not understand or even consider the sacrifices being made by these people let alone appreciate it from a societal point of view. They are not “death camp” workers on a mission to exterminate a subsection of the population based upon an age demographic. It is clear to see your disdain for anyone or thing that is successful or helpful to a society that embraces hard work. I suggest you rethink your analogy and your position on the value of hardwork, risk and success actually means to all in the society.

And by all means I hope you have a great day

My response:

April 19, 2020

20% of coronavirus deaths are in nursing homes. Trump had neo Nazis work for his campaign and administration. Trump called neo Nazi protesters in Charlottesvile, Virginia "very fine people". Trump used to keep a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bed stand. You, "the 5th Dentist", are trying to gaslight me.

I am a 100% service connected disabled Veteran. I did work for many years of my life. I am nearly 45 years old. I am vested in the VA care system now. If I took a low wage job, against clinical advice, I would go back to being at risk of being a homeless Veteran.

Please stop picking on me over and over and over again for not working due to my disability based on a psychiatric condition. I believe my critics are being very mean-spirited!

- Jonathan Melle

-----
https://planetvalenti.com/2020/04/how-does-small-business-survive-once-this-is-all-over/
-----
----------

Open letter to Patrick Fennell

April 28, 2020

Re: The News today

Hello Pat,

U.S. Congress House of Representatives Chamber is extending its recess for a second time in April of 2020. It was 3 weeks until April 20, 2020. Then it was 5 weeks until May 4, 2020. Now, it will be beyond 5 weeks. The U.S. Senate will convene on May 4, 2020. 25 percent of coronavirus cases are in the U.S.A. Some believe President Donald Trump is unfit to deal with the public health crisis.

In less than 3 weeks, the number of U.S. COVID-19 cases doubled to over one million American people infected with coronavirus. Over 58,300 Americans have died. Despite the huge increases in coronavirus cases, protesters want the shut down to end without evidenced base scientific data.

We are in a “Great Recession” with tens of millions of American workers who have lost their jobs and health insurance. The difference between now (2020) and then (2008) is that there is a lot more public and private debt in our economic and financial system today. It will take decades for our economy to stabilize from the trauma of the debt crisis.

According to the Boston Globe, the Holyoke Soldiers Home saw almost one Veteran die per day of coronavirus. Nearly 70 Veterans have died at the long-term care facility.
Source: “Almost every day has brought a new death from coronavirus at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke; 67 have died so far”, By Hanna Krueger, Globe Staff, April 27, 2020

- Jonathan Melle

-----

Hello Pat,

I agree with your negative views on U.S. Congress. Instead of "Capitol Hill", they should call it "K Street extension". Instead of "Congressman", they should be called "PAC-Man". U.S. Congress is a country club for politicians who are multimillionaires. A successful candidate for U.S. Congress spends millions of their PAC dollars to get elected every 2 years for a salary that pays a couple hundred thousand dollars per 2 years. If your Congressman doesn't pay back the vested and special interests, he or she will not have the PAC dollars to get re-elected. Most of the Members of U.S. Congress children don't serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, especially during times of conflict. Yet, they send the poor and uneducated young adults into war.

I am very frustrated that U.S. Congress has taken the month of April of 2020 off from work. I think it is horrible that the U.S. House of Representatives is extending its 5 week long recess for a second time beyond May 4, 2020. Our country is in a public health crisis. Our economy is in a historic recession. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and health insurance. Over a million people are infected with coronavirus. Over 58,300 people have died of coronavirus. One would think that U.S. Congress would be working on legislation and funding for all of this, but, of course, they would be wrong.

Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts State Legislature are facing a lot of problems, too. Massachusetts is a national hot spot for coronavirus cases. The Holyoke Soldiers Home is a debacle on par with the "Big Dig" debacle. Massachusetts state government has a $5 billion budget shortfall. Many workers lost their jobs and health insurance, while Pittsfield State Senator Adam Hinds and Lenox State Representative Smitty Pignatelli want to raise the gas tax, along with other transportation taxes to the tune of $600 million taxpayer dollars per year. If they want more proverbial blood from the many laid off workers who otherwise spend their hard earned money on commuting to and from work, Hinds and Pignatelli should lead by example by forgoing their pay and benefits by putting their taxpayer income and benefit dollars into the state's general fund. But that will never happen because Hinds and Pignatelli are nothing more than career political hacks that serve their big wheel Democratic Party political masters in Boston.

I agree with you that we don't really know the whole story about coronavirus. I hope you are wrong that nursing homes, hospitals, and the like, are cooking their books to get more taxpayer dollars for themselves while so many people are dying. If that is the case, then we are in more trouble than we thought.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

re: my response to Patrick Fennell - 6May2020

Hello Pat,

I agree with your letter. It amazes me how the vested and special interests are still getting their cut, while tens of millions of working families are out of work and lost their health insurance. The government is supposed to serve We the People, but it really only serves the political or ruling elite and their voting block and campaign contributors. The U.S. Senate reconvened after a 5 week recess, but they are doing nothing about the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. House of Representatives are still on their +5-week recess during the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump is not allowing his scientists to testify before an absent U.S. Congress during this public health crisis. Trump wants to bankrupt the federal government's social insurance programs when people need Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid the most in U.S. History. State and local governments are going insolvent and are at risk of going bankrupt if they don't receive a federal government bailout soon. Most of the bailout money went to big business in the form of tax breaks. Only 3% of the money went to small businesses and the displaced and distressed working families of our great country. In closing, the politicians are failing us during this nightmarish time.

Best wishes,

Jonathan [Melle]

----------

May 8, 2020

Next week, the U.S. Senate will vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act. The U.S. Government will continue to be able to disregard the U.S. Constitution and spy on U.S. Citizens. How can the two laws coexist together? The U.S. Constitution protects U.S. Citizens like me from the government violating my privacy rights, while the Patriot Act allows the government to violate my privacy rights. If I took the government to the U.S. Supreme Court, I wonder how they would adjudicate my case? President Donald Trump wants to make the Patriot Act permanent, despite all of the exposed abuses since 9/11/2001. If the Patriot Act becomes permanent, will they have to change the U.S. Constitution to allow the government to violate my privacy rights? Is this a step towards authoritarianism with Trump and his hand-picked successor becoming a Dictator? I always wondered if the U.S. Constitution is the law of the land or just an old 18th Century piece of paper!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

May 10, 2020

I hope the U.S. Senate this coming week scraps the Patriot Act and upholds the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution! The two laws contradict each other! Either I have constitutional privacy protections or I do not have the right to privacy against Big Brother government. Please pick a side, 100 U.S. Senators.

- Jonathan Melle

-----

“Senate revives surveillance brawl”
The Hill, May 10, 2020

The Senate is set to revive a fight over a shadowy surveillance court, bringing to a head a months-long stalemate that resulted in the lapse of three intelligence programs.

The looming debate, which will pit some of President Trump’s biggest allies against each other, comes on the heels of growing questions about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court after the Justice Department inspector general found widespread errors as part of an interim report on warrant applications.

----------

May 12, 2020

Wednesday, May 13th, 2020, is the day when the U.S. Senate debates and votes on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. The U.S. Constitution entitles U.S. Citizens to privacy, while the Patriot Act contradicts our constitutional right to privacy. Since 9/11/2001, the Patriot Act has had many reported (and unreported) abuses. Does the federal government protect our constitutional right to privacy or do they have the right under the Patriot Act to spy on us? Do we live in a Free Country or are we under the control of "Big Brother"? This is the very definition of insanity!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

May 13, 2020

Re: The U.S. Constitution should be renamed "Big Brother"!!!!

U.S. Senate rejects plan to require a warrant for Americans’ web browsing data by one vote

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/13/senate-warrant-americans-web-browsing-data/

-----

The U.S. Constitution is just an old 18th Century piece of paper that many U.S. Senators wipe their behinds with! The Patriot Act allows the federal government to openly spy on We the People. U.S. Citizens have no privacy! Instead, we have "Big Brother" government. I wonder how soon our democracy will die and our country will turn into an authoritarian regime?

- Jonathan Melle

----------

“Senate votes to increase legal protections to targets of surveillance court”
By Jeremy Herb and David Shortell, CNN, May 13, 2020

(CNN) The Senate on Wednesday passed an amendment to provide additional legal protections to targets of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants and nearly approved new restrictions on the federal government's power to search internet history in a sign of bipartisan frustration over surveillance authorities under the FISA law.

The amendment votes occurred ahead of the Senate's expected passage Thursday of a bill to reauthorize three FISA surveillance authorities that lapsed in March.

The Senate easily approved an amendment from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont that added additional protections in the FISA court for targets of surveillance warrants, 79-11. An amendment from GOP Sen. Steve Daines of Montana and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon was defeated by the narrowest of margins, falling one vote short of the 60 needed to pass, 59-37. The senators' amendment would have restricted the searches of browser and search history under FISA's Section 215, which grants federal authorities the ability to obtain tangible things under the FISA law in national security investigations.

Of the four senators who missed that vote -- Sens. Patty Murray of Washington state, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee -- at least one would have voted in favor. Murray's spokeswoman confirmed she backed the amendment, but was flying back to Washington, DC, from Washington state.

The Senate has scheduled at least one more amendment vote on Thursday from Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, which would require a warrant for US citizens to be searched under FISA.

The amendment that was adopted from Lee and Leahy makes it easier for the FISA court to have an outside review of cases seeking warrants on US citizens.

"Insofar as we decide to have these programs, we've got to have someone accountable in them," Lee said Wednesday. "We've got to have a process by which the information brought to bear within the FISA court are accountable and reviewable by someone."

The Senate's amendment to the legislation means the House, which struck the deal to reauthorize the authorities, will need to vote on the measure again before it goes to the President's desk.

The House's bill drew objections from civil libertarians who argued the bipartisan agreement that was reached trampled over individual rights.

"Back in 2001 when Congress passed the Patriot Act, Americans were rightly concerned about the government collecting their library borrowing records without a warrant," Wyden said on the floor Wednesday. "What we're talking about here today, looking at web history browsing history, it is thousands of times more invasive of privacy."

The three surveillance authorities reauthorized by the legislation have lapsed for nearly two months after the House and Senate failed to agree on how to extend them in March while the coronavirus outbreak sent lawmakers scrambling out of Washington. The Senate's vote on Thursday would reauthorize the provisions from the USA Freedom Act, which was signed into law in 2015 to reform the 2001 Patriot Act.

The House approved the legislation in March by a broad bipartisan margin -- a rare occurrence for the current Congress. It was especially striking given the legislation deals with the court that authorized FBI surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser in 2016 in an episode that has roiled President Donald Trump, and the negotiations involved Attorney General William Barr and some of the lawmakers who have been fighting over the FBI's Russia investigation for years.

The legislation will reauthorize central elements of three expiring provisions of the surveillance law, while adding in some new privacy protections like a restriction on cell phone location data. While the three expired authorities are unrelated to the FISA court system, the bill also makes changes to the FISA court system to address findings of misconduct by the FBI over their requests to surveil Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser. The legislation includes changes to require the attorney general to sign off on FISA applications dealing with elected officials and federal candidates and allowing independent monitors to review FISA applications.

In addition, the legislation formally ends the National Security Agency's bulk phone data collection, which the NSA has already stopped using.

Meanwhile, the FBI has been carrying out a number of changes internally to their protocols regarding requests from the FISA court since the stinging findings about Page were released in a report by the Justice Department's inspector general late last year. On Wednesday, the bureau's top lawyer told the FISA court that FBI Director Christopher Wray had recently named a senior adviser to oversee the implementation of the fixes. The bureau has also produced new, more comprehensive training programs that deal with the FISA application process and study certain problematic case studies, which FBI personnel will have to complete in the coming weeks, FBI General Counsel Dana Boente wrote in the filing.

FISA opponents say the legislative reforms don't go nearly far enough, with opposition in Congress among both liberal Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans.

Paul, who's long fought his party as an advocate for civil liberties, criticized the bill and told reporters ahead of Wednesday's votes he would urge the President to veto it if it passes the Senate without the amendments, though he acknowledged the slim prospect of that.

"I'll encourage him publicly to veto it if they don't fix it. I don't have a great deal of hope that that will happen," Paul said. "I think that it's a disservice to the people who have worked so hard to support the President if we allow FISA to stand and do this to another President in the future. We'll have missed a great opportunity for fixing it."

Barr played a key role among the odd bedfellows that came together earlier this year on the compromise bill as the expiration of the authorities loomed, and his involvement is a sign that Trump is unlikely to balk when the legislation heads to his desk.

Throughout a multi-week negotiation, Barr met several times with the White House and Republican lawmakers, who had demanded more provisions to address the FBI's flawed work in the Page case. Barr had initially lobbied lawmakers for a simple extension of the expiring provisions and promised to take steps internally to address certain issues and support a broader reform effort down the line.

But when it became clear that Trump would support a more immediate reform effort, Barr worked to pass the compromise legislation, which was agreed to by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic committee chairmen Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, along with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump's GOP allies Devin Nunes of California and Jim Jordan of Ohio.

That agreement didn't lead to the bill's swift passage, however. The House left town after approving the reauthorization legislation, but Paul and Lee rejected McConnell's attempt to move it quickly in the Senate, threatening to block the measure without votes on amendments to strengthen civil liberties protections.

McConnell agreed to allow the amendment votes in the future, and the Senate passed a 75-day extension of the authorities in order to keep the expiration of the authorities brief. But the House, which has only returned to Washington for votes on emergency coronavirus relief measures and the creation of the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee, never took up the short-term extension.

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.

CNN's Manu Raju contributed to this report.

----------

“Senate votes to reauthorize intel programs with added legal protections”
The Hill, May 14, 2020

The Senate on Thursday passed legislation reauthorizing three Intelligence programs that lapsed earlier this year amid a GOP stalemate.

Senators voted 80-16 on the bill, which pairs the reauthorization of the USA Freedom provisions with some changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court.

The Senate changed the bill, which originally passed the House in March, as part of a two-day floor debate. Senators added more legal protections for some individuals targeted by the court.

----------

May 21, 2020

Re: Open letter to Patrick Fennell

Hello Pat,

The U.S. Senate, along with the U.S. House, took the entire month of April of 2020 off, and then the U.S. Senate reconvened on May 4, 2020 through May 21, 2020 – or nearly 3 weeks. After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new stimulus bill worth $3 trillion, the U.S. Senate did not pass even one piece of legislation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting on Friday, May 22, 2020, the U.S. Senate is on a new 10-day long recess until they reconvene on June 1, 2020.

That means between the months of April and May of 2020, which total 61 days, the U.S. Senate convened for 18 days. During our time of need for leadership from Capitol Hill, nothing got passed legislatively by both chambers of U.S. Congress relating to the corona-virus pandemic in April or May of 2020.

In closing, U.S. Congress is not helping “We the People” during our time of need. Instead, they are more interested on being on paid vacation and raising money for their political campaigns during this 2020 election year that will decide their fates for partisan control of the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and The White House.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

May 22, 2020

Hello Pat,

Like you, I neither believe in nor support pork barrel spending. The Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives should not have used the COVID-19 pandemic for political ends. That does not mean the Republicans in the U.S. Senate were right to neglect the COVID-19 pandemic for two whole months (April and May of 2020).

For decades, Massachusetts had a pork barrel project called Boston's "Big Dig", which has killed innocent people, leaks millions of gallons of dirty water everyday, will only last around 50 years, and then its leaky tunnels will eventually be submerged in the Atlantic Ocean. My dad, who was a Berkshire County Commissioner, spoke out about Boston's "Big Dig" pork barrel politics when Governors Bill Weld then the late Paul Cellucci hypocritically said that Berkshire County government should be abolished and taken over by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts due to inefficiencies. The price of Boston's "Big Dig" doubled during Weld's time as Governor. It had a $2 billion cost overrun during the late Cellucci's time as Governor. In the end, Berkshire County government was abolished, but Boston's "Big Dig" still stands as Exhibit A in pork barrel government spending at its worst.

2020 is an election year that will decide which political party will control the White House, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump and Biden, McConnell and Pelosi, and company, all are more interested in raising money from billionaire-funded Super PACs and K Street corporate PACs than showing any real leadership in addressing the needs of the millions of American people suffering from the impacts and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In closing, pork barrel projects and PACs come first, while the COVID-19 pandemic goes unaddressed on Capitol Hill and in the White House. What a shame!

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

May 24, 2020

I received a conservative political email this Sunday evening that said Democrats are “socialist, Jew-Hating, Do-Nothing Democrats”.

I believe it is wrong for conservatives to call Democrats “Jew-Hating” because it is demagoguery and a lie.

Nazi Germany ended in 1945. Hitler was an evil man. The Holocaust was a nightmare and one of the worst injustices in World history

The political answer to global politics is Human Rights for All Peoples of the World. Democrats and Republicans alike should advocate for Human Rights instead of accusing each other of being Hitler following Nazis from the 1930s.

I read that Stephen Bannon is back closely working with Stephen Miller on Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. The two far-right Trump supporters are going to make China into our country’s enemy like Hitler made the Jewish people Nazi Germany’s enemy.

Our country has a long history of discriminating and hating the Chinese people. Trump, Bannon, and Miller are using century old politics against the Asian race of Chinese people to win reelection in 2020.

The World has persecuted the Jewish people for thousands of years. Trump is pointing his hypocritical finger at Democrats by having his supporters call them “Jew-Hating” and “socialist”, while his plan is to have Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller be his propaganda ministers against China to win a second term in the Oval Office.

- Jonathan Melle

-----

Roseanne Barr wrote:

“It’s simple; we send the socialist, Jew-Hating, Do-Nothing Democrats in charge back home to their districts that are covered in the feces of drug addicted homeless people they care more about than hard working tax paying Americans and replace them with freedom loving patriots in Congress.”

----------

Patrick Fennell replied:

Jonathon;

In 1939 The United States turned away a ship of Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany. At the time FDR was president. During most of the war, the New York Times denied the Holocaust. The NY Times has always been a democrat voice. Oh and don't forget the same FDR put Japanese Americans in Internment camps.

Patrick Fennell

May 25, 2020

Dear Pat,

Happy Memorial Day! I appreciate our open correspondences. I agree with you that the U.S.A. was wrong to turn away a ship of Jewish people trying to escape Nazi Germany’s Holocaust during World War 2. I did not know about the New York Times being a Holocaust denier during most of World War 2. If true, they were wrong, too. FDR should not have displaced Japanese Americans. He was wrong.

FDR saved the World from Hitler, as well as Winston Churchill, and millions of other brave men and women during World War 2. I sent an email, which iBerkshires.com published – https://www.iberkshires.com/story/60095/Letter-FDR-Churchill-or-Candidate-C-.html – explaining that a man’s faults matter less that his heart. If someone says to you that he is perfect on paper, look at his or her heart first.

Since World War 2, the U.S.A. has killed millions of foreign people in military conflicts, including over 5 million Vietnamese people. In 1968, the U.S. war machine killed over one million Vietnamese people in one year alone. LBJ decided to not run for a second term, as protesters chanted, “Hey hey LBJ, how many more did you kill today?”

President George W. Bush illegally invaded Iraq, which has the World’s second largest oil reserves next to Saudi Arabia, under the false pretense (or lie) that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and planned to use them to destroy Israel. Over one million Iraqi people died during Bush II’s illegal corporate fascist war for oil.

I love my country, but sometimes I fear my government. I respect the Armed Forces, as I am a disabled Veteran, but sometimes I lament the actions of our great country’s war machine.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

“Trump's draft executive order targeting social media companies sparks battle inside the White House”
Jon Ward, Christopher Wilson and Hunter Walker, Yahoo News, May 28, 2020

Washington — The Trump White House has been embroiled in a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue an executive order aimed at punishing social media companies for perceived political bias, with opposition to the order coming from some of the most conservative parts of the administration.

White House sources tell Yahoo News that the office of Vice President Mike Pence, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow and others are making the argument that it will set a bad precedent to signal that the federal government can go after private companies and seek to penalize them for purely political reasons.

Even though the draft of the order that leaked to the public on Thursday would be limited in its impact, the signal it would send is the most significant thing, according to its opponents. The push comes as the coronavirus death toll in the United States has surpassed 100,000.

“There is pushback from a lot of people” inside the White House, an administration official told Yahoo News, saying there is “a lot of frustration” among advisers who are often some of the president’s most loyal backers.

The push for the order has come primarily from White House counsel Pat Cipollone, two White House sources said. One source said that Dan Scavino, White House director of social media, is also supportive. Cipollone and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump signed the executive order late Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office, saying, “We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers.” When asked by a reporter why he hasn’t deleted his Twitter account, Trump replied, “If you weren’t fake, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

The concern from opponents of the executive order is that Trump’s anger over being fact-checked by Twitter for the first time this week might have led him to make public statements promising retribution that are hard to walk back.

Concerns from conservatives about Trump’s threatened order have also been voiced publicly outside the White House. “The freedom of the press to do its job, the freedom of companies to make their own statements (and policies) and the freedom of Americans to speak their mind are all protected rights for everyone,” wrote Ashley Pratte, a conservative political consultant who is on the board of Republican Women for Progress. “Trump’s dangerous crusade to use the government to limit or even censor free speech should be called out for what it is: tyrannical.”

A similar executive order was shelved last summer after officials from the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission expressed concerns that it would create a government “speech police.”

The latest order would start the process of potentially removing protections that tech giants have under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says they are not liable for the content posted to their platforms. Eliminating that protection would potentially open them up to lawsuits.

There is skepticism about how effective the proposed changes would be without an act of Congress, which is unlikely to come this year as the legislative body deals with the pandemic and as Democrats control the House.

The executive order comes after Twitter added fact-check language to two of Trump’s posts earlier this week that claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud, though there is no evidence this is true.

“Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” read a message from Twitter below the tweets, linking to a fact-check page populated by links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion. In a statement, Twitter said Trump’s vote-by-mail tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

“We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted late Wednesday. “This does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth.’ Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took another stance, telling Fox News his platform has “a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this. I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.”

Last year, Facebook said it wouldn’t remove an ad from the Trump campaign that contained false information about former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine. The previous month, Zuckerberg and Trump had a surprise meeting at the White House, which the president referred to as “nice.”

Facebook announced a change in policy five days later: It would not fact-check or remove content by politicians even if the posts violated the company’s rules.

Twitter has previously flagged tweets conveying misinformation about the coronavirus, but it has never before put warnings on tweets for any other reason. As numerous officials push for increased vote-by-mail ahead of November’s election due to fears that polling places could be dangerous during the pandemic, Trump has insisted the results would be illegitimate, despite the fact that many states already use the method.

However, the company refused to remove posts in which the president suggested an investigation of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s role in the death of a young woman who died in his office in 2001. Lori Klausutis’s death was ruled an accident, and there is no evidence implicating Scarborough, who was a Florida congressman at the time.

Her husband, Timothy Klausutis, wrote to Dorsey protesting Trump’s tweets, saying the president had “perverted” the memory of his late wife for political gain. Twitter said it was “deeply sorry” but that it would not remove the posts, and it has not posted a fact check or disclaimer in reply.

The executive order is the latest targeting of Big Tech by Trump. Last year, his Justice Department opened a broad antitrust investigation into the companies and threatened to expand the investigation “to any harms caused by online platforms that partially or completely fall outside the antitrust laws.”

The initial investigation followed complaints by Trump against Dorsey that his @realDonaldTrump account had been losing Twitter followers.

In March, Politico reported that Attorney General William Barr, widely viewed as a staunch Trump loyalist, was taking personal direction of the antitrust probes of social media companies.

Alexander Nazaryan contributed reporting to this story.

----------

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

I am unable to post a reply to “Mr. Fritz” on your awesome blog. Please note my reply. Thank you.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

Mr. Fritz wrote in a reply to Jonathan Melle:

Melle,

Your support of Antifa and Elizabeth Warren is well documented on this blog. You have also misrepresented Trump’s approach to Communist China. He is not “targeting a race of people” but rather the past U.S. political practices of allowing China to monopolize certain areas of manufacturing and trade. I find your communist/socialist views highly offensive.

my response:

May 31, 2020

Hello Mr. Fritz,

My negative views against U.S. President Donald Trump are all on my blog page.

I have read many news articles and opinion pieces about Trump’s 2020 reelection strategy, and it is to blame everyone but himself for our country’s problems. Trump’s campaign will blame China for our country’s post industrial rust belt economy and COVID 19 pandemic. Trump’s campaign will point to minority immigrants for taking away white peoples’ blue collar manufacturing jobs. Trump brought back far right political operative Stephen Bannon to get his racist messages out to rust belt, Appalachia, and Bible belt white America.

As for Elizabeth Warren, I did support her for U.S. President. I believe she has lived the life of a working class family that has been screwed by the corporate and ruling elites in America. She has fought the excesses of Wall Street and the economic injustices against Main Street.

As for the ANTIFA, I do not support extremism on any side. I believe Trump is blaming the far left and ANTIFA to deflect blame against himself, his racist policies, the far right he is appealing to, systemic injustices in our legal system, and police brutality.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

Hello Pat,

I will never support Donald Trump because I believe in Human Rights, while Trump believes in White Nationalism. I believe Trump is similar to Hitler because he is basing his reelection campaign on blaming China and minority immigrants for all of America's problems. Hitler rose to power by blaming Jews and the others for all of Germany's problems.

You, Pat, made good points about how we got to our post industrial rust belt America that favors Wall Street over Main Street. In closing, (sarcasm): never stand in between a Member of U.S. Congress and a corporate K Street lobbyist.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

-----

Hello again Pat,

What about the alt right or far right hate march that took place a few years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia? Everyone except Donald Trump was outraged by the Nazi symbols and messages.

I believe everybody, and all political parties, and all politicians, should fully support Human Rights for all Peoples and people of our country and the World. Human Rights is the only answer for every religious and/or civic belief in the universal message of "The Golden Rule" and "Peace on Earth".

Hitler was wrong to blame and persecute the Jewish people. Trump should be told that his far right campaign strategy is wrong to blame and be hostile against China to win the rural white vote.

Per the politics of poverty, pay all American workers a living wage with affordable housing and health insurance. Fully fund public schools. Mandate retirement accounts for every citizen, and fully fund social insurance programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. After all of this is done, then talk to me about public housing projects and the like.

Bill Clinton's corporate and Wall Street politics supported NAFTA and the deregulation of Wall Street financial institutions. Since Clinton, the U.S. economy has had two of the worst recessions (2002 & 2008) since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The working class lost ground, while the top 1 percent gained over the past decades. The underclass is bigger than ever before, and Capitol Hill/K Street is doing nothing to help them. Trump is exploiting the rust belt, but his supply side economic policies have not changed anything for Main Street America.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

-----

Hello Dan [Valenti],

Nice to hear from you on this beautiful Sunday Spring day. I hope you are doing well during this difficult time. Patrick Fennell is a political activist who lives in Great Barrington and, like me, he writes emails and letters about politics. I enjoy reading his thoughts because he is not afraid to ruffle the feathers of the egotistical ruling elites in federal, state and local politics. We have different views, but we both appreciate reading each other's opinions.

Patrick Fennell writes about the huge economic inequality ratio in Berkshire County. He writes about Beacon Hill politicians voting to raise their own pay and benefits, while Legislators like Adam Hinds, Smitty Pignatelli, and company, want to raise the gas tax on working commuters. He writes about Congressman Richard Neal being the top Member of U.S. Congress for collecting special interest K Street PAC dollars from big businesses that have nothing to do with his Congressional District in Western Massachusetts. He writes about Joe Kennedy and Ed Markey's infighting that serves no good purpose for the people of Massachusetts. He writes about Elizabeth Warren's record of double standards with big business and big government.

In closing, I am happy that Patrick Fennell speaks out about politics. I share many of his concerns and frustrations. The government is more about raising money for themselves and their campaign coffers than helping the people they are supposed to be serving!

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

June 1, 2020

Hello Fort Cannon,

Please know that I respect your and many other opposing views on politics, but I will never respect extremism on any side. You have every right to support U.S. President Donald Trump.

In my heart, I will never support Trump. I believe he is a White Nationalist who should not be using racist and sexist language against minorities, including immigrants, and women. I did, indeed, read that Trump hired far right political operatives like neo Nazi Stephen Bannon to blame China for all of your country's problems in order for Trump to win rural America's white vote. I believe that is similar to Hitler using far right political operatives to blame the Jews for all of Germany's problems in the 1930s. Trump is persecuting a race of people, in this case the Chinese, like Hitler persecuted a race of people, who were Jewish.

I come from the school of Human Rights for all Peoples and people. My political beliefs are for supporting Human Rights over any political party or politician. In closing, I believe every citizen of our country and the World should have rights and liberties with their government and within their political nation-states.

Let Freedom Ring! God Bless America!

Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: “The real terrorist”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 4, 2020

To the editor:

Before anyone accepts and acts on the intelligence received about Antifa being a terrorist organization please consider this. The Republicans have infiltrated right-wing extremist into Antifa and on Twitter. They are then committing violent acts against the police and peaceful protesters so Antifa will be blamed.

But who is the real terrorist? Our own president or Antifa? President Trump is the one who is taking up arms against peaceful protesters. President Trump is the one who is urging the nation's governors to dominate and arrest these peaceful protesters. President Trump is the one who called the governors weak for trying to handle the protests in a peaceful manner. President Trump is the one who had peaceful, legal protesters sprayed with tear gas and shot with rubber bullets so he could stand in front a a church with a Bible.

President Trump is the one who should be labeled a terrorist.

Nancy Stuart, Lee

----------

June 9, 2020

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

I read your latest blog post tonight, and I wanted to let you know that George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin does not justify your view that the media is biased against U.S. President Donald Trump because retired black police Captain David Dorn was murdered by an ex convict. Murder is murder, whether it is at the hands of a cop or a civilian.

The media is right to denounce President Donald Trump, who used Nazi police state tactics against peaceful protesters, which was condemned by 89 retired high ranking military officials. What Trump did was illegal and unconstitutional. It violated the human, civil and constitutional rights of American citizens. It was a statement of police state power via the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against the rights of American Citizens to peacefully protest.

Per Pittsfield (Mass.), it is a very scary place in the inner city area. There are violent crimes including murders, gangs, drugs, prostitution, homeless, poverty, and many other social problems. I asked my senior citizen parents who, like me, grew up in Pittsfield about it back in their youth, and they said it wasn’t much better back in the 1960’s. I am younger than you, but I do not understand why you romanticize Pittsfield’s past all of the time. Yes indeed, things are really bad in Pittsfield now, but since when was it so great generations ago?

Pittsfield politics is a case study in municipal financial mismanagement. City Hall, no matter who runs the show, always excessively increases taxes, fees, and debts/liabilities to unsustainable levels. Pittsfield has one of the highest business municipal tax rates in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Thousands of people have relocated away from Pittsfield for decades.

In closing, Trump’s Nazi police state tactics against peaceful protestor should be universally condemned by every American citizen. If We the People allow Trump to violate our rights to peacefully protest police brutality and racial injustice, then we are enabling him to be a dictator like Hitler to end the rule of law as we know it. Also, Pittsfield always had socioeconomic problems, and the city government’s municipal finances are very troubling and excessive.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

“Trump 'will not even consider' renaming Army bases named for Confederate leaders”
The Hill, June 10, 2020

President Trump said Wednesday he will "not even consider" renaming Army bases that were named after Confederate military leaders amid reports that military leaders are open to the idea.

In a series of three tweets, Trump argued the bases have become part of U.S. history that should not be “tampered with.”

----------

“The Justice Dept. engaged in a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power” by moving to drop the Michael Flynn case, a retired judge said in a court brief.”
The New York Times, June 10, 2020

A former mafia prosecutor and retired federal judge urged a court on Wednesday to reject the Trump administration’s attempt to drop the criminal case against Mr. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser.

“The government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the president,” wrote John Gleeson, who was appointed to a special role to argue against the Justice Department’s unusual effort to drop the Flynn case. He added: “Leave of court should not be granted when the explanations the government puts forth are not credible as the real reasons for its dismissal of a criminal charge.”

----------

June 11, 2020

The Republican Party is Exhibit A in the height of hypocrisy!

After Trump was impeached by the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate did not allow any witnesses to testify against Trump. YET, now they (the Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee) voted to give Lindsey Graham broad subpoena power in an Obama-era probe.

In 2010 midterms, the Republican Party did well by complaining about the federal government's big spending and huge budget deficits. A decade later, Trump is a big spender and is adding trillions of dollars to our national debt.

When the Republicans pointed out that Obamacare bill was written by K Street pharmaceutical lobbyists and most Democrats did not even read the bill, they did the exact same thing when they voted on Trump's tax cut bill.

When Trump ran for President, he criticized Obama for his golfing outings. Now, Trump golfs all of time. Trump said Obama went on a lot of vacations with his family. Now, Trump goes on a lot of vacations that cost millions of taxpayers' dollars.

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle

-----

“GOP votes to give Graham broad subpoena power in Obama-era probe”
The Hill, June 11, 2020

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for more than 50 individuals as Republicans ramp up their investigation into the 2016 Russia probe.

In a party-line vote, Republicans on the panel gave Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) broad authority to subpoena the individuals, who include high-profile Obama administration officials, for interviews or documents tied to his investigation.

----------

12-June 2020

Hello Pat,

Trump won't release his tax returns! Donald Trump's relationship with Deutsche Bank has lasted longer than any of his marriages and is cloaked in more secrecy (Financial Times). As I understand it, Deutsche Bank in Germany received a lot of its financing from Russian billionaire Oligarchs connected to President Putin. In the 2016 election, Putin used his intelligence agency to manipulate American voters into voting for Trump via social media platforms such as Facebook. Many of Trump's associates have been convicted of having ties to Russian billionaire Oligarchs connected to President Putin. Trump through A.G. Barr is trying to get General Flynn's case dismissed to hide evidence that would come out unfavorable to Trump at trial by jury. I cannot say whether or not Speaker Nancy Pelosi and company were right to impeach Trump, but I do believe without any doubt that Trump is hiding his financial records and his business and political connections with Russia.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

Hello Pat,

The Democratic Party on Capitol Hill also makes me upset sometimes. Obama could have passed immigration reform laws from 2009 - 2010 when he had a Democratic Party majority in U.S. Congress. Now, the Dems are complaining about Trump's horrific immigration policies after doing nothing. Why didn't the Dems act on it when they had their chance?

Joe Biden is in the pocket of Wall Street and their K Street corporate lobbyists. Biden won't help the working class or underclass anymore than Trump's supply side tax cut fiscal policies failed Main Street America. Biden is 77, while Trump turns 74 this Sunday, which is Flag Day. They are both old school politicians who don't get what it is like to stay afloat financially in today's Main Street America.

On China, I read that Reagan, Bush #2, and Trump's tax cuts were all paid for by borrowing money from China and other authoritarian countries. Since Reagan's supply side economic policies during the 1980s through the present day, we have lived under a "guns and butter" economy. We spend trillions of dollars on the military industrial complex and foreign wars, while we also give Wall Street huge tax breaks, as well as the 2008 bailout both then Senator Obama and his challenger, the late Senator John McCain, voted for that President George W. Bush signed into law.

If Trump screws China, and the dominoes could fall against us with some of the other authoritarian countries we borrow trillions of dollars from, and then Republicans won't be able to continue to give us "guns and butter" anymore.

Our country's #1 non-farm export is military weapons and related technologies. Our government arms the World with weapons of war, and Wall Street makes a killing financing it all. After the Cold War ended, our country's market share for selling arms grew at a high rate for many years in a row.

In closing, we paid for decades of Republican Party tax cuts by borrowing trillions of dollars from authoritarian countries such as China. We grew our "guns and butter" policy by selling arms to the World and fighting foreign wars. Wall Street set records by financing our country's military industrial complex.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------


Nazi Hate Symbols

“Facebook Takes Down Trump Campaign Ads Featuring Nazi Iconography – The ads received more than 1 million impressions before Facebook pulled them under pressure.”
By Ryan Grenoble, National Reporter, HuffPost, June 18, 2020

Facebook has taken down nearly 100 ads that featured Nazi iconography and were published on the platform by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Wednesday.

The ads in question all prominently featured an inverted red triangle — the same triangle Nazis used to identify political prisoners in concentration camps.

Pages belonging to Donald Trump, Team Trump and Mike Pence ran a collective total 88 of the ads for between 1.3 and 1.7 million impressions before they were pulled Thursday.

Text accompanying the ads warns of “dangerous MOBS of far-left groups” and implores readers to sign a petition indicating their opposition to Antifa. Trump has repeatedly sought to tie violent acts at nationwide protests to anti-fascist groups; however, a Reuters analysis indicates that, so far, right-wing extremists have been predominantly responsible.

“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” a Facebook spokesperson told HuffPost. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”

The Trump campaign responded by portraying the symbol as both an innocent emoji and one “widely used” by Antifa. A reverse image search of the symbol, however, returns no results other than those used recently by the Trump campaign.

The anti-fascist movement more typically uses an emblem featuring two flags on top of each other, one black, one red.

Seeking to bolster its claim, the Trump campaign then pointed NBC to a website that sells custom T-shirts available with the logo. The account selling the shirts appears relatively new and claims to be located in Spain.

As if there were any doubt, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum confirmed on Twitter that the red triangle was indeed used by the Nazis to flag “political prisoners.”

The progressive watchdog group Media Matters was among the first to notice the ads on Facebook. The organization’s president, Angelo Carusone, said he welcomes Facebook’s action, but the question remains: Why did Facebook ever allow them to begin with?

“Despite violating Facebook’s terms of service, the ads were approved by Facebook in the first place,” Carusone said in a statement. “Yet again we see another example where Facebook can’t even meet the bare minimum standards they set for themselves — either because they’re incapable or because they’re in cahoots.

“Either way, the pattern is alarming.”

----------

July 10, 2020

Re: On Dan Valenti’s awesome blog

I posted the following message on Planet Valenti:

Republican politicians are moral hypocrites on birth control and abortion. Trump openly cheated on all 3 of his wives. Trump has 5 children by 3 mothers, including a daughter who was conceived out-of-wedlock. Trump paid off women to stay silent about his love affairs with them. Trump is the first U.S. President in recent history to hide his tax returns from the public. What is he hiding?
The U.S. Supreme Court is comprised of 6 Catholics and 3 Jews. The Catholic Church indoctrinates its parishioners to be pro-life and against birth control. However, most of the American people are for preventing unwanted pregnancies via affordable access to birth control.
I asked my mom about the issues of abortion and birth control. She said that if Republicans want to end Roe v. Wade policy on abortion and limit access to birth control, then they should support public policies that benefit the mother and her child. Unlike Trump and Republicans, I agree with my mom’s views on economic justice for women and children.
Like Trump, Tucker Carlson never served in the military. Trump ridiculed John McCain. Tucker Carlson ridiculed Senator Tammy Duckworth. Trump and Tucker are Sunshine Patriots who blow hot air against great Veterans who chose to enter politics.
Lastly, Pittsfield politics fiscal year 2021 municipal budget raised property taxes, fees and public debts by millions of dollars, while Matt Kerwood sits on a $10.1 million slush fund. Mayor Linda Tyer’s fiscal policy is driving fixed-income residents of Pittsfield (Mass.) to choose between food and medicine.

“Mr. Fritz” responded:

Wow Melle, talk about a hypocrite – look in the mirror!
Name a president in the last 75 years that you consider a pillar of moral purity. From JFK who used to enjoy sex romps in the White House, LBJ a known adulterer, Clinton – a known adulterer and rapist and frequent traveler on Epstein’s Lolita Express, Obama a frequent visitor to gay bars, Biden who loves sniffing women’s hair and has an affinity for young girls and is now suffering from dementia – the list goes on and on.
Fact – military service is not a requirement to be president.
You seem to think that military service gives everyone a pass on moral purity, and that their public service should not be questioned. McCain, a RINO, was a rabid globalist who participated in the coup against a sitting president. Ms. Duckworth is a rabid leftist working against her country’s way of life.
As a Marxist sympathizer and supporter of Antifa, your viewpoints are anti- American. People who support Biden, a 50 year swamp creature who has been swindling money from foreign entities and enriching his family members and now can barely string a sentence together – have questionable motives. You peace & love crap contrasts with your true political viewpoint.

My (Jonathan Melle’s) response:

We are all moral hypocrites. It is part of being a human being. We all have thoughts about sex. We all are sexual beings. I cannot understand why Republicans and moral hypocrites like Trump want to take away a woman’s right to choose whether or not to receive an abortion. I cannot understand why they want to limit a woman’s access to birth control. What about the men who have sex with women who have to make decisions about their own bodies and reproductive rights? Why are men let off the proverbial hook? Why do men like Trump want women to be moral when men like Trump have lived immoral sex lives themselves? What a double standard!

As for military service, I believe non-Veterans Trump and Tucker Carlson should not be making judgments against Veterans like John McCain and Tammy Duckworth. When I go to the VA Hospital, one of our golden rules is to never judge another Veteran’s military service. We accept each other without judgment.

I sympathize with Karl Marx because things were very different during his time. There was no middle class, public schools, welfare assistance programs, child labor rules, workplace regulations, and the like when Marx wrote in favor of Communism. The poor underclass and working class were exploited on many levels by the wealthy during the time of Marx. They had no protections. Many poor people were deformed, malnourished, illiterate, sexually exploited, and the like, during the time of Marx. Karl Marx felt that governmental and religious institutions were enforcing all of these injustices against the poor people. Karl Marx believed that if the workers owned the means of production through the protection of the state, then the poor people would be protected and would be better off in their lives. The flaw with Communism is that it has always led to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. Instead of the masses being neglected and exploited by wealthy by Capitalist states, the masses were murdered by the tens of millions by Communist states.

Capitalism doesn’t work either, but it is the only economic system that doesn’t lead to dictatorial government. Capitalism requires a social safety net for the poor. Capitalism has seen trillions of dollars in Wall Street bailouts and government aid to the wealthy. Capitalism has a huge wealth gap between the billionaires, like Trump, and the have nots that Karl Marx wrote about centuries ago.

Lastly, I wish the Antifa had defeated Hitler and his Nazi German regime so the Holocaust and the tens of millions of deaths in World War 2 never happened.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

August 14, 2020

The U.S. Senate is in recess until Sept. 8, 2020. The U.S. House is in recess until Sept. 14, 2020. Negotiations on the newest economic stimulus deal broke down on August 7, 2020.

Around 1,000 Americans die of coronavirus everyday. The U.S.A. is in its worst economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930's.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

August 25, 2020

We are in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930's, and the U.S. national debt is around $27 trillion, and tens of millions of American workers have lost their jobs and health insurance, and there are nearly 200,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths, while millions of Americans are infected with coronavirus, but the Trump campaign's says the biggest threat to America is Joe Biden's so-called "Socialist" Democratic Party.  I don't buy it at all!  Trump is a snake oil salesman.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

September 3, 2020

Carole Owens' op-ed in The Berkshire Edge explains how Trump is using similar Nazi-tactics that Hitler used in Kristallnacht, which is the night of November 9-10, 1938, was when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property.

https://theberkshireedge.com/connections-103

Donald Trump is a dangerous man and I hope he is defeated by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on November 3rd, 2020.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

"White nationalism upsurge in U.S. echoes historical pattern, say scholars"

By Katanga Johnson and Jim Urquhart, Reuters via Yahoo!, September 4, 2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first Black woman is on a major party presidential ticket, Americans of all races are showing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and at the same time white nationalists are ramping up recruiting efforts and public activism.

That nationwide backing for America's stated goal of equal rights for all has been met by a rise in hate-related activities is part of a decades-long pattern in the United States, six scholars and historians say - any expansion of civil rights for a minority group leads to a rise in intolerance.

"Each wave of civil rights progress brings us a little closer to real equity, but there will always be backlash from those who feel threatened by that progress," said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of research with the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University in Washington. People who feel vulnerable to change become "eager to recruit and radicalize support to slow things down, even if by use of violence or radicalized propaganda," she said.

After the first Black president, Barack Obama, was elected in 2008, the number of hate groups "ballooned," Miller-Idriss said, just as Ku Klux Klan activity grew again after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Ed. decision desegregating schools, and during the 1960s civil rights movement. Backlashes happened after women got the right to vote, and as LGBTQ rights expanded, too.

One of the things that makes this moment so heated is there's been a bigger embrace by politicians, businesses and white people in general supporting racial justice movements than in the past, historians and civil rights experts said.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-usa-white-analysis/white-americans-turn-out-for-floyd-protests-but-will-they-work-for-change-idUSKBN23I325]

America rests on the "great social challenge of creating a successful harmonious, multiracial democracy," said Simon Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP). The backlash against that accelerated during the Black Lives Matter protests and "is both a political one and a violent, social one," he said.

Protests against excessive use of force by police and racism swept the United States, and the world, this summer after a Black man, George Floyd, died on May 25 while a white Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer kneeled on his neck.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-usa-onemonth-timel/timeline-key-events-in-the-month-since-george-floyds-death-idUSKBN23W1NR]

The latest police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Aug. 23 has sparked more protests that have sometimes become violent.

Two white nationalist groups, who want an independent state for whites, told Reuters their numbers are also increasing, which Reuters could not independently confirm. The National Socialist Movement Corporation and the ShieldWall Network said many of the new prospects reject the Black Lives Matter protesters mainly out of fear the demonstrations will impose on their freedoms, such as the right to bear arms.

"I've got guns. I've got a lot of bullets and an armor, too. And if people come down my street looking for trouble, I am going to fight it," Burt Colucci, self-described commander of the Corporation, said a prospective recruit told him in a recent phone call.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has documented 3,566 "extremist propaganda incidents" and events in 2020, compared to 2,704 in the same period of 2019. Almost 80% of this year's cases involve white nationalist ideology, the civil rights advocacy organization found. Anti-Semitic incidents and plots and attacks of terrorism among others made up the rest, the ADL said.

[https://www.adl.org/education-and-resources/resource-knowledge-base/adl-heat-map]

See GRAPHIC: https://graphics.reuters.com/GLOBAL-RACE/EXTREMISM/gjnpwalwgpw/chart.png

MARCH IN WASHINGTON

Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, marched in Washington in February, and flyers and leaflets advertising the group have been found on college campuses from Arizona to Vermont in recent months.

[reuters.com/article/us-usa-protests/masked-white-nationalists-march-in-washington-with-police-escort-idUSKBN20301H]

White nationalist groups posted messages on Facebook this summer advocating bringing guns to Black Lives Matter protests, and staged demonstrations in Florida and Pennsylvania in July.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-facebook/facebook-takes-down-white-nationalist-and-fake-antifa-accounts-idUSKBN23A06J]

While the ethnic and racial diversity of the United States is growing, whites remain a majority, about 60% of all Americans, according to Pew Research Center analysis published a year ago.

One-third of eligible voters in the Nov. 3 elections, in which Senator Kamala Harris of Jamaican and Indian parentage is running on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's ticket, will be non-white, according to Pew, up from one-quarter in 2000.

[https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate]

Most Americans say they embrace diversity, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll last year about race, society, and their political engagement. Sixty-three percent said the statement "I prefer to live in a community with people who come from diverse cultures" reflects their point of view.

[https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/12/4809/4766/Topline%20Reuters%20Race%20Poll.pdf]

Among registered Democrats, that affirmative answer jumped to 78%, while among Republicans it dropped to 45%.

In the election campaign, Biden has accused President Donald Trump of stoking divisions. The Trump campaign has said that the president "works hard to empower all Americans."

'HEAR THE RAGE'

"I've never seen the country so divided - not only divided, but charged, on all sides," said Billy Roper of the Arkansas-based white nationalist organization, ShieldWall Network.

America has been at similar crossroads before, though, the scholars and historians interviewed by Reuters say.

The Ku Klux Klan, founded at the end of the U.S. Civil War, is the oldest and most violent of white extremist organizations, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) civil rights advocacy group. The KKK, bent on reversing the federal government’s progressive policies during the period known as Reconstruction, used violence against Black people in Southern states, particularly to deny them the newly-won right to vote.

Women's voting rights, granted in 1920, coincided with a rise of the word "bitch" in newspapers around the country, Representative Pramila Jayapal said recently on the floor of the House of Representatives because, she contends, voting "was just a little too much power for too many men across the country."

During the early years of the civil rights movement, a number of monuments honoring the war heroes of the Confederacy, the slavery-supporting states that lost the Civil War, were erected in the South, according to a SPLC report.

[https://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy#top]

At least 780 monuments remained in public places in the South and elsewhere in the United States as of February 2019, the report said, among other Confederate symbols that are deeply divisive. Of those monuments, 604 were dedicated before 1950, but 28 others were unveiled from 1950 to 1970 and 34 after 2000.

National legalization of gay marriage in 2015 contributed to a powerful resurgence in conservative politics and legal challenges to LGBTQ rights, advocates said.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-marriage-trfn/five-years-on-lgbt-couples-fear-for-future-of-gay-marriage-idUSKBN23V2NF]

Colucci says his group has seen an uptick in calls and emails after racial justice protests and growing corporate and public support for Black Lives Matter and other groups.

"Some of those e-mails, I mean, you could just hear the rage," he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Katanga Johnson in Washington and Jim Urquhart; Additional reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Heather Timmons and Grant McCool)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-nationalism-upsurge-u-echoes-190848087.html

----------

"Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight"

By Michael Scherer, The Washington Post, September 8, 2020

President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, his stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.

His 2016 focus on radical Islamist terrorism and undocumented-immigrant crime, which he credited with helping him win the Republican nomination, has been replaced by warnings of new threats as he elevates gruesome images of Black-on-White crime, street fights involving his supporters and police-misconduct unrest nationwide.

The pattern continued over the holiday weekend, when he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire. One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer.

“These are the Democrats ‘peaceful protests,’ ” Trump wrote. “Sick!” On Monday, he retweeted a prediction that political unrest “could lead to ‘rise of citizen militias around the country.’ ”

The strategy echoes the approach that fueled his climb in politics as he shocked the political world with graphic warnings about “rapists” crossing the border illegally from Mexico, welcomed the families of crime victims to speak at his events and said he favored instructing the military to target the families of Islamist extremists, a probable war crime. He also repeatedly encouraged assaults on protesters at his events.

In each case, the unprecedented focus on violence by a high-profile American politician allowed Trump to attract attention, turning his rallies into unpredictable and raucous affairs that were widely viewed. It also set the stage for Trump to establish his political persona as a strongman itching to dominate threats foreign and domestic.

Nearly four years after winning that race, Trump is making the same argument, albeit about different dangers, using the specter of violence amid Black Lives Matter protests to claim superior toughness and promising forceful resolution if given the chance.

“These people only know one thing, and that is strength,” he said Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C., of violent street protests in Oregon and Wisconsin. “That’s all they know — strength. And we have strength.”

On Monday, Trump retweeted footage of Black protesters in Pittsburgh screaming at White outdoor diners, drinking from their glasses and knocking over their dishes during a protest over the weekend.

“Disgraceful. Never seen anything like it. Thugs!” Trump wrote. “And because of weak and pathetic Democrat leadership, this thuggery is happening in other Democrat run cities and states. Must shut them down fast.”

Amid a pandemic that has killed more than 186,000 Americans, the jarring political gambit has shifted the focus of the presidential campaign, forcing Trump’s Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, to air an ad, titled “Be Not Afraid,” focused on his own opposition to the recent violence in Oregon and Wisconsin.

“The president is on offense, and that is always a good thing,” said Roger Stone, a former Trump political adviser who received a presidential commutation after seven felony convictions this summer. “The law-and-order issue really motivates the president’s base, and it also appeals to independents.”

Although Trump has received no big boosts in polling, he unapologetically promoted a video last week of his supporters attacking protesters in Portland, later arguing at the White House that their firing of paintball guns and pepper spray in city streets from the back of pickup trucks was “defensive.” On Twitter, he said the conflict was a logical response to provocation by liberals.

“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected,” Trump wrote in a tweet that included a video of the incident.

He also has returned to using his Twitter account to broadcast falsehoods that perpetuate racial conflict. For the third time this summer, on Aug. 30 he retweeted a video of a Black man brutally attacking a White person, this time with a caption falsely suggesting that the assailant in a New York subway assault in 2019 was connected to Black Lives Matter or antifa.

The posts echo a 2015 Trump retweet that showed a picture of a Black man with a gun and falsely claimed that Black people commit a majority of homicides against White people, a racist trope for which he never apologized. The White House argued this month, as Trump did in 2015, that he was not responsible for the accuracy of his retweets.

Politically motivated street fights have become more common during his presidency. Conflicts at protests have led to injuries in recent weeks in places such as Kalamazoo, Mich.; Bloomington, Ind.; and Weatherford, Tex., as protesters of police misconduct have clashed with counterprotesters who are sometimes dressed in Trump-branded apparel and claim to be helping to keep the peace. In one case, a gun-wielding Trump supporter in Kenosha, Wis., was charged with murder after allegedly killing two protesters and injuring a third. (A supporter of a far-right group was fatally shot during a counterprotest by Trump backers in Portland last month. The suspect, a backer of the far-left antifa movement, was killed by law enforcement Thursday.)

In the face of this violence, Trump has condemned the actions of left-wing rioters but declined to condemn violence by his supporters, even as he falsely claims that Biden is refusing to denounce violence on the left.

“I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point,” Trump said last year in an interview with Breitbart News when asked about fights over free speech on college campuses. “And then it would be very bad, very bad.”

From his start in politics, Trump has brushed aside the idea that he has a responsibility for any violence that results from his campaign style. When a reporter asked in 2015 whether he was concerned that his rhetoric against protesters and immigrants might lead to additional violence in American streets, he recoiled at the question.

“People are getting hurt. People are being decimated by illegal immigrants. The crime is unbelievable,” he said, an argument belied by statistics. “Now in my way, I don’t want anybody hurt. But people are being hurt. So when you ask that question, it’s very unfair.”

His answer was notable for its zero-sum view: Suffering in the country was inevitable — the question was who suffered more.

Trump’s return to focusing on violent threats and conflict follows summer months in which he appeared politically adrift as the coronavirus pandemic overtook the nation, infecting at least 6.2 million people and dampening the economy.

He initially wavered about whether to focus campaign advertising on touting his pandemic response or on attacking his opponent, before eventually launching attacks on Biden’s ties to China, his mental acuity and his policy positions. Biden’s polling advantage widened.

When nationwide protests against police misconduct led to violence this summer, Trump’s strategy shifted again. A July 9 set of talking points distributed around the White House by Stephen Miller, an adviser who wrote Trump’s 2016 nomination speech, previewed the message that Trump would settle on for the final push to the Republican National Convention.

The solution Miller described, which Trump soon incorporated into his rhetoric and advertising, was to portray Biden as a fundamental threat to public safety. “No one will be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” the document read. The Democratic nominee, Miller’s document continued, “will surrender America and its citizens to the violent left-wing mob” and “abolish the American Way of Life.”

The shift sought to rehabilitate Trump’s political message of dominance and turn the discussion away from the pandemic, which public polling showed had become a drag on the president’s support.

“You can’t really tell people that there is no covid crisis, because they are surrounded by it. The only thing you can do is make something else louder,” said Matthew Baum, a political scientist at Harvard University who studies political persuasion and misinformation. “You don’t have to persuade people. All you have to do is say: ‘Don’t look over there. Look over here.’ ”

Biden has argued that Trump is trying to distract Americans from his inability to better address the health, economic and race-relations crises facing the nation.

Trump’s message is, “ ‘The whole country is up in flames. Everything is burning. Law and order,’ ” Biden said Friday at a news conference in Wilmington, Del., “because he doesn’t want to talk about anything, anything at all, about the job he hasn’t done.”

Biden has mocked Trump’s effort to cast him as responsible for any street violence, no matter the alleged perpetrator.

“Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” Biden asked during a speech on Aug. 31 in Pittsburgh. “I want a safe America — safe from covid, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear — safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the president is focused on helping communities affected by the violence. “These riots are destroying the life’s work of Black, Hispanic and Asian business owners, and they have to stop,” he said.

Expressions advocating violence were central to Trump’s early political endeavors.

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you,” Trump said about a protester at an event in Las Vegas. When a nonviolent Black protester was beaten at a rally in Birmingham, Ala., by a White crowd, Trump responded the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”

He argued repeatedly at rallies for the extrajudicial abuse or even killing of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had left his post in Afghanistan. “Thirty years ago, he would have been shot,” Trump said. At another event, he said of Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, “They beat the crap out of him, which is fine.”

Rather than recoil, his crowds embraced the tough talk, and Trump has delivered more as president. After Greg Gianforte, then a Montana congressional candidate, physically attacked a reporter in 2017, Trump turned the incident into an applause line. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” the president said.

When Trump addressed a law enforcement group in 2017 on Long Island he urged incaution in policing.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon,” he said, “you just see them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’ ”

The new threat Trump has focused on is depicted as no less ominous than his previous targets — and it is similarly inflated with rhetoric that mixes descriptions of actual events with conspiracy theories for which he offers no evidence. In recent days, he has described “rioters, anarchists, agitators and looters” who he claimed in a Fox News interview, without evidence, have been traveling the country in commercial planes to create havoc, funded by “people you have never heard of” who operate in “dark shadows.”

He also has tried to adjust the historical record by claiming federal actions he instigated have proved that his solution of physical toughness and law enforcement domination is responsible for clearing streets of violent protesters. On a visit to Kenosha, he claimed that his push to deploy the National Guard saved the city from further rioting after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man.

“If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now,” Trump tweeted last week. Federal officials did work with local law enforcement in quelling the protests, but Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) had ordered the Guard to the city a day before Trump’s public call for their deployment.

Pollsters have noted a shift in polling around the Black Lives Matter movement, which was initially broad and bipartisan in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May. Support for the movement in Wisconsin, according to a Marquette University Law School poll, fell from 59 percent to 49 percent between June and August.

But national polls continue to show that Biden leads Trump on questions of which candidate would make the country safer. A recent national Quinnipiac University poll found that 50 percent of likely voters said Trump made them feel less safe, compared with 35 percent who said he made them feel more safe.

By contrast, 42 percent of voters said Biden would make them feel more safe as president, compared with 40 percent who said they would feel less safe.

----------

September 23, 2020

Re: US Congress will take the month of October 2020 off during the flu season and COVID-19 pandemic

If there is a time when We the People need U.S. Congress to be in session, it is next month - October of 2020 - when the flu season and COVID-19 pandemic hits us all hard on many socioeconomic levels. However, I just read a CNN news story that U.S. Congress, similar to Beacon Hill's State Legislature, has yet passed a fiscal year 2021 budget, will take the month of October 2020 off when the American People need our elected officials the most. The U.S. Senate will only return next month to confirm a yet to be named Catholic Woman nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would make 7 Catholics and 2 Jewish Supreme Court Justices. The Republican Party would have 6 conservative Supreme Court Justices, while the Democrats would have 3 in their corner. U.S. President Donald Trump said today that he will not pledge a peaceful transfer of Executive Power if Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election. Trump plans to litigate the 2020 presidential election in the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has a partisan advantage. U.S. Senate Majority Leader denied then U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court 4 years ago in 2016, but now he is moving quickly to get Trump's yet to be named nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed before the November 3rd, 2020, presidential election. In closing, I believe that our country's politicians have failed We the People!

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

September 29, 2020

Biden = 47 years as a career politician who has accomplished nothing whatsoever, and his solution is to grow the already excessively large bureaucratic federal government at the expense of the shrinking middle class in post industrial America.

Trump = Refuses to make his tax returns public, and did not denounce his horrible statement that the neo Nazi's and similar white supremacist groups were "very fine people (on both sides)" after the violent hate march in Charlottesville, Virginia that killed a young woman fighting evil for Human and Civil Rights.

Dan Valenti, I believe that neither candidate won the first 2020 presidential debate.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

September 30, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I always enjoy reading your emails and your responses to some of my emails about politics.  I believe you have a point that politicians who disclose their tax returns to the public sometimes "cook the books" by backdoor methods.  Thank you for pointing out creative accounting schemes to make politicians look honest when they are raking in the dough.  

Hunter Biden got a college student, who worked as a Hooters waitress and stripper, pregnant, and then told a Judge that he wasn't the father of her baby.  The Judge ordered Hunter Biden to take a paternity test, and it proved that Hunter Biden was the father.  Also, Hunter Biden hired Russian prostitutes who were sex trafficked.  I wonder if Hunter Biden fathered children with sex trafficked Russian prostitutes, too.  Hunter Biden made millions of dollars in Ukraine and China by using his father's, Joe Biden's, name.  Donald Trump is right to call out Joe Biden about his son Hunter Biden, especially after House Democrats voted to Impeach him over his phone call to Ukraine about Hunter Biden.

In Massachusetts Statehouse politics, it is always conspiratorial and corrupt.  Most Statehouse Legislators make a lot of money off of taxpayers, and sometimes by other means, while telling their legislative districts that local taxes have to be increased to provide diminished public services.  My dad was a local politician in Western Massachusetts once, and I saw how the public's business is done.

When you write that Trump broke no laws, my response is that only time will tell. Trump is under an ongoing decade-long IRS audit.  Trump paid off a porn star and a Playboy model to stay silent about his adulterous love affairs with them.  Trump had lawyers act on his behalf to be his legal fixer when he was in legal trouble.  Trump is a suspicious man.

Joe Biden is very friendly with Wall Street, and he has some of the same financial advisors as Bill and Hillary Clinton.  Joe Biden says he represents working class Scranton, Pennsylvania, but his fiscal policies say otherwise.  His public record does show that he voted for tax breaks for wealthy corporate interests.

Lenox State Representative Smitty Pignatelli and Pittsfield State Senator Adam Hinds both voted for their own 40 percent pay raise in early-2017.  After 3 months (and counting), Beacon Hill still has not even proposed a fiscal year 2021 state budget.  Massachusetts is facing a multi-billion dollar state budget deficit, and any cuts in the would be very late state budget would compound for public education and local government.  To illustrate, a 10% budget cut would really be a 20% cut to a public school district or municipality.  Also, I read that after 3 months, Beacon Hill has not held even one formal legislative session, while their constituents are unemployed, uninsured, and struggling to stay afloat financially during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 economic recession.

What do Smitty Pignatelli and Adam Hinds do all day?  The answer is absolutely NOTHING whatsoever!

In closing, I believe that all of us should condemn hate and racism.  I believe that all of us should denounce racists.  I believe that Trump is a poor leader for not doing so.  Our country was founded on Human Rights, but most of the Founders owned slaves.  We live in a country that should always stand for "with Liberty and Justice for All".

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

On Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 08:19:16 AM EDT, Patrick Fennell wrote: 

Jonathon;

Politicians love to show their tax returns. They are done by insiders and being career pols hide their money through backdoor methods, like speaking engagements and book deals are flat-out bribes, who wants to read anything by Liz Warren or Hillary? Politicians also have wives, sons (Hunter) that can claim large sums of money on their returns.

A few years back Rep Tierney from Salem MA got into trouble. It turned out his wife and two brothers ran an offshore gambling company. He pretended not to know about it. She was raking in big dough and most of it remained unclaimed. In the Mass State House and our members of congress get huge write-off, like travel and housing deductions. Remember Peter Larkin, was taking the per diem and never going to Boston?

Trump broke no tax laws, otherwise he would have been indicted by now, Amazon pays no taxes at all and Apple hides their money in Ireland. All legal. Biden had 47 years to make the tax codes honest, instead he helped his buddies at banks and credit card companies instead. Joe sold a house to a credit card company CEO for four times it's value. Bribe?

Politicians in both Washington and Boston have completely corrupted tax codes and continue to do so. Is Harvard really non-profit? Check out all of the donations Smitty and Adam get from local 'non-profits'. 

Patrick Fennell

----------

"G.O.P. Alarmed by Trump’s Comments on Extremist Group, Fearing a Drag on the Party"

By Alexander Burns, The New York Times, September 30, 2020

President Trump’s refusal to condemn an extremist right-wing group in his first debate with Joseph R. Biden Jr. sent a shudder through the Republican Party at a critical moment in the 2020 campaign on Wednesday, as prominent lawmakers expressed unease about Mr. Trump’s conduct amid mounting fears that it could damage the party on Election Day.

It was the second time in two weeks that a collection of party leaders broke with Mr. Trump over behavior they regarded as beyond the pale. Last week, Republicans distanced themselves from Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

This time, the subject was racist extremism and the president’s response to a demand from Mr. Biden during Tuesday night’s debate that he denounce the Proud Boys, an organization linked with white supremacy and acts of violence. Mr. Trump answered by telling the group to “stand back and stand by,” a message taken by members of the organization as a virtual endorsement.

On Wednesday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, called it “unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists,” without criticizing Mr. Trump by name, while Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the president should “make it clear Proud Boys is a racist organization antithetical to American ideals.”

The exchange on white supremacyprovided one of the most inflammatory moments of a debate that unfolded as a chaotic spectacle, as Mr. Trump hijacked the proceedings with interruptions and mockery that left elected officials, foreign observers, business leaders, rank-and-file voters, the moderator and one of the two candidates onstage agog at the unseemly antics of a sitting president. The behavior prompted the commission that oversees presidential debates to say it would make changes to the format for this year’s remaining matchups,including, potentially, the ability to shut off a candidate’s microphone.

Mr. Trump’s unruliness — which provoked Mr. Biden into calling the president a “clown” and telling him to “shut up” — threatened to tear new schisms in his political coalition and reinforce the reservations about the president’s character and leadership already held by much of the electorate.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a veteran Republican lawmaker and a Native American, said in an interview that Mr. Trump should denounce the Proud Boys and other extremist groups in clear language.

“All he has to say is, ‘There’s no place for racial intolerance in this country,’ and be very forceful about it,” Mr. Cole said.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of two Black Republicans in Congress, suggested that perhaps Mr. Trump “misspoke” and urged him to fix his error. But Mr. Scott also allowed, “If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak.”

Mr. Trump, in a brief encounter with reporters Wednesday afternoon, tried to contain the damage while stopping well short of a full reversal of his stance. Reprising a ploy familiar from past controversies, Mr. Trump insisted he did not know anything about the group, though he made no suggestion to that effect during the debate.

“I don’t know who the Proud Boys are,” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, you’ll have to give me a definition because I really don’t know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.”

Mr. Trump also claimed he had “always denounced any form” of white supremacist ideology, even though he has repeatedly resisted denouncing specific extremist figures and has regularly echoed the rhetoric of racist and far-right organizations.

The way he handled the question about the Proud Boys echoed one of his most brazen evasions over right-wing racism from the 2016 campaign: When the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke supported his candidacy, Mr. Trump at first declined to explicitly disavow the support and said he did not know who Mr. Duke was.

In addition to his comments about the Proud Boys during the debate, Mr. Trump again attacked the legitimacy of the election, floating conspiracy theories about mail-in voting and encouraging his supporters to police polling places on Election Day. There was no sign that he had been swayed by Republican criticism of his past refusals to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

Mr. Trump’s debate provocations were all the more dangerous politically because they came at a moment when he is trailing in polls of key swing states and millions of Americans are about to vote. Thirty states have either started early voting or begun sending out mail-in ballots.

Within the Republican Party, Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to give a broad and forceful denunciation of right-wing extremism and white supremacy evoked the most damaging episodes of his presidency, like his equivocal response to a 2017 violent white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va.

Still, there was no sign of a full Republican retreat from Mr. Trump, who throughout his term has been treated by most of his party as all but above reproach. Even those who dissented with Mr. Trump on Wednesday did not directly rebuke him, a longstanding approach that spares them blowback from conservative voters and the president himself.

Some officials accused the news media of clinging to an irrelevant issue.

“How many times does he have to say it if the question is, ‘Would you denounce it’ and the answer is yes?” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House minority leader. “He did that.”

But it was not only Mr. Trump’s response on the Proud Boys that had so many Republicans in a downcast mood on Wednesday.

Even Mr. Trump’s political allies acknowledged on Wednesday that he had behaved in a brutish manner during the debate, transforming his first face-off with Mr. Biden — one of his few remaining chances to change the trajectory of the race — into an orgy of mudslinging and personal vitriol against the former vice president.

A handful of Republicans, including some of the president’s most reliable supporters, expressed unease with his dismissal of Mr. Biden’s late son, Beau, and the ridicule of his surviving son, Hunter. “Beau Biden is a hero and it should be acknowledged as such,” said Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.

In a sign of just how disruptive and disrespectful Mr. Trump had been on Tuesday, the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is tasked with organizing the two remaining Trump-Biden encounters, said it would be making changes to the structure of future debates “to ensure a more orderly discussion.”

Mr. Trump’s campaign responded by accusing the commission of “moving the goal posts” to aid Mr. Biden, declaring in a statement that Mr. Trump had been “the dominant force” in the debate.

The president’s flailing onslaught amounted to an unpleasant but useful gift for Mr. Biden, who entered the debate as the clear polling leader in the presidential race and emerged not quite unscathed, but without any obvious damage to his status as the front-runner.

Mr. Biden, who was traveling through Ohio and Pennsylvania on Wednesday, mostly pivoted away from the messy forum, returning to an increasingly familiar message that cast the election as “a choice between Scranton and Park Avenue values.”

Mr. Trump himself was not displeased with his own performance, according to his advisers. On the contrary, he was elated about the debate and saw it as a successful outing for him, according to three people close to the campaign. Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers, who shy away from giving him bad news, made no attempt to disabuse the president of that assessment.

At a late-night rally on Wednesday in Duluth, Minn., Mr. Trump delivered an hourlong recap of his angry debate performance, delivering his stream-of-consciousness attacks to the cheering crowd without a moderator or a rival to get in the way.

He accused Mr. Biden of being a puppet of socialists and communists, lashed out at the news media, complained about the debate’s moderator, called on Mr. Biden to denounce the left-wing movement antifa, and again embraced unproven allegations about the former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Before the debate, advisers had tried to prepare Mr. Trump for a question about white supremacy, pointing out to him that Mr. Biden had made fighting racist violence of the kind that broke out in Charlottesville a central theme of his candidacy. Those efforts at preparation did not pay off, and some Trump advisers were privately candid that his hectoring performance recalled how he handled briefings with reporters about the coronavirus last spring, to his political detriment.

With just over a month left in the campaign, Republicans feared Mr. Trump’s conduct would inevitably make the election a referendum on him and inflict carnage on other G.O.P. candidates with voting groups already deeply distrustful of the party: women, moderates, suburban voters and people of color.

With their Senate majority hanging in the balance, and House Republicans at risk of sinking deeper into the minority, party leaders urged Mr. Trump to do more in the next debates to trumpet their accomplishments on taxes, judges and foreign policy in a way that could make the party palatable for voters in the political center.

“If the ‘suburban housewife’ he keeps talking about really is the whole deal, it’s hard to think he didn’t go backwards with her,” said former Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee.

Republicans conceded that it would not be easy to rein in Mr. Trump, whose approach to politics is largely driven by his personal instincts and grievances — and a profound aversion to criticizing anyone whom he counts among his admirers, whether that is President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the former Senate candidate Roy S. Moore of Alabama or followers of the online QAnon conspiracy theory.

Other Republicans were despairing not just for their party and its prospects in November but for the country after a debate that they felt represented a low point in American political history.

“I was embarrassed, that’s why I shut off,” said Marc Racicot, the former Montana governor and chairman of the Republican National Committee under former President George W. Bush. “I thought it was a degradation.”

Alluding to Mr. Trump’s remarks about the Proud Boys, Mr. Racicot said the president offered comfort to racists that betrayed the moral leadership responsibilities of his office.

He said he knew he could not support Mr. Trump but had recently decided to vote for Mr. Biden.

“It gnawed at my conscience,” Mr. Racicot said, adding of the president: “I’ve concluded that he’s dangerous to the existence of the republic as we know it.”

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

----------

October 2, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

On the news on TV last night (1Oct2020), they said that the U.S. airlines already received a $25 billion bailout from U.S. Congress & Trump earlier this year of 2020.  Then they said that the U.S. airlines are asking for another $25 billion bailout.  Should the U.S. taxpayers give the U.S. airlines a second bailout, or should the U.S. airlines have to learn what it is like to live as the U.S. taxpayers who don't get $25 billion bailouts from the federal government?  Remember the 2008 multi-trillion-dollar bailouts of Wall Street and the Billionaires?  The financial geniuses who destroyed our country's economy gave themselves huge bonuses with our taxpayer dollars.  Do you think we still live in a capitalist society where risk and reward are what drives our once great economy? Or, do we live in a Heads the Billionaires and Wall Street always win, and Tails the U.S. taxpayers always lose because we have to bailout the top 1 percent?  I believe we live in the latter.  If the economy does well, then we have capitalism.  But if the economy tanks, then we have reverse socialism.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 3, 2020

I cannot believe that in the 21st Century, in 2020, which is 100 years after Hitler's anti-Semitic Nazi Party took root in Germany, that Trump and 18 Republican Party Members of U.S. Congress refuse to condemn the far-right, anti-Semitic QAnon.  Many QAnon followers believe, absurdly, that prominent Democrats and other elites are harvesting abducted children’s blood in order to conduct Satanic rituals, mirroring “blood libel” conspiracies that have historically targeted Jews. QAnon believers often promote conspiracy theories about “shadowy global puppet masters” that “have been used to stir up fear and violence against Jewish people for centuries. Trump and the 18 Members of U.S. Congress refusal to denounce this far-right conspiracy movement makes Jewish Americans and other minority communities targeted by white nationalism feel less safe.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qanon-resolution-passes-17-republicans-vote-no_n_5f778d3cc5b64b480aada92f

In closing, I ask what does our country, the U.S.A., stand for when politicians won't condemn conspiratorial racism?

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

October 4, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

As always, I appreciate that you write a response to my email political letters.  I always enjoy reading your political views, despite the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle), the Berkshire Edge, and other news media blackouts of conservative letters.  I understand your view that Biden's supporters (a) want Socialism, and (b) hate Trump.  Joe Biden has the same pro-Wall Street and pro-Billionaires financial and economic advisors as Bill and Hillary Clinton.  Joe Biden is not pro-Socialism like Bernie Sanders and other far-left Democrats.  Many Americans do, indeed, hate Trump because Trump is a hater.  Some of Trump's campaign and administration staff were neo Nazi's and/or white supremacists.  Trump said that the neo Nazi's and other hate groups were "very fine people" (on both sides) of the Charlottesville, Virginia hate march.  Trump won't condemn white supremacy, and he praises the anti Semitic QAnon and other hate groups.  Trump's political speeches are full of insults towards women, minorities, immigrants, and the like.  Trump is always sending out messages of racism, sexism, hate, and violence to his voting base.  The Republican Party in U.S. Congress will not speak out against their controversial sitting U.S. President named Donald Trump.  Personally, I will never support Donald Trump in U.S. politics.

I agree with you that Joe Biden should not be running on raising taxes, and growing the already excessively large federal government.  Instead, Joe Biden should be campaigning on bring back living wage jobs to the rust belt areas of post industrial America.  If I was in Biden's shoes, I would tell voters that if the working class doesn't get ahead after 4 years of me in the Oval Office, then I would not run for a second term.  I would tell the voters that the underclass and the huge economic inequality ratio has to change in America.  I would promise Americans that every citizen would have a fair shot at living a rewarding life because I would stand for Human and Civil Rights with "Liberty and Justice for All" Americans.  I agree with you that Democrats should not be about raising taxes and growing government when the working class is falling behind.

I also agree with you about Ed "Chevy Chase (wealthy suburb), Maryland" Markey, and Richie "PAC-Man" Neal, and the do nothing political hacks on Beacon Hill.  All of the politicians get paid to do nothing but disservices to the people they supposedly serve in Massachusetts politics.  Most of these career politicians are only padding their own personal pant pockets with taxpayers' dollars, while a lot people are dying, sick, unemployed, uninsured, and struggling to stay afloat financially during the 2020 economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Richie "PAC-Man" Neal clearly represents D.C.'s K Street lobbyist industry instead of the people who live in his Western Massachusetts Congressional District.  Markey and Neal have been in political office for many decades now.

Beacon Hill has not held even one formal legislative session in over 2 months and counting.  They have yet to even propose a fiscal year 2021 state budget after over 3 months and counting.  All of their legislative business is being done in secret.  No one has any idea what is going on in the Boston Statehouse.  Smitty and Hinds and company are playing financial shell games with local government and public school districts, which will most likely face huge cuts in state funding later in the fiscal year 2021.  Smitty and Hinds are cashing in, while towns like Great Barrington will most likely have raise local/school taxes to make up the difference in cuts in state funds.

In closing, there is a very big disconnect between We the People and our do nothing career politicians.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 4, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I respect everyone's right to support and vote for Donald Trump for U.S. President.  I respect your political views, too.  I always enjoy reading your email political letters.  I believe the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) and Berkshire Edge should publish your conservative letters.  The Bible and U.S. Constitution are the least understood texts in the World.  Yet, our country, which was founded on both classical Liberty and Slavery, always uses the Bible and U.S. Constitution to justify everything under the Sun.  I have studied the Bible and the U.S. Constitution over the years, and I will be the first person to tell you that I don't understand everything in those two documents.  The old saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", applies to big religion and big government.  The one thing I do understand is that the elites - ruling, corporate, religious, and the like - either don't really represent us or don't really care about us.  Everyone is in it for themselves instead of the common good. When the U.S. economy is doing well, Wall Street and the Billionaires receive nearly all of the income, but when things tank, the Have Nots are always used as an insurance policy for the wealthy to cash in for government bailouts.  When Trump says he is pro-life on the political issue of abortion, he is being a moral hypocrite who cheated on all of his 3 wives, and he paid off a porn star and Playboy model to stay silent about it all.  Bill Clinton, who was receiving blow jobs from a then young woman in her early-20's White House Intern named Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office (Oral Orifice), he was a moral hypocrite for signing the Defense of Marriage Act into law.  It is always, "Do as I say, NOT as I do" when it comes to the elites who run the show.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 7, 2020

Re: Financial Shell Games

No one in tonight's V.P. debate talked about our nation's huge national debt! It now is over $27 trillion and counting higher.  U.S. total debt is over $82 trillion.

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

The U.S. government is borrowing huge amounts of money similar to when Napoleon ran the printing presses in France over 2 centuries ago.  We are printing a record breaking amount of money out of thin air.

We are in a new financial reality where the government can borrow and spend trillions of dollars without any economic connection to reality.

On Beacon Hill, Governor Baker and the budget chairs in the Statehouse held a virtual meeting today (7-Oct-2020) about Massachusetts state government's multi-billion dollar budget deficit. They did not give a date when they will propose a state budget that is already over 3 months late. Baker ruled out tax hikes during the 2020 economic recession and COVID-19 pandemic, while liberal state Legislators pushed for tax hikes on millionaires and closing corporate tax loopholes.  Beacon Hill has 24 days left in its temporary or interim 3 month state budget before they either pass a temporary or official state budget for fiscal year 2021.  Election day is 27 days away, which is also a factor to the yet to be proposed state budget.

In closing, I see both our country and Beacon Hill's budget problems as financial shell games that will further harm our distressed economy.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

"50 Richest Americans Have More Wealth Than Poorest 165 Million Combined: The richest got even richer this year while the poorest struggled even more."

By Mary Papenfuss, U.S. NEWS, October 10, 2020

 

The 50 richest Americans increased their net worth this year to an amount nearly equal to the combined money and assets of the poorest 165 million Americans, which is half of the U.S. population, according to new data from the first half of the year collected by the Federal Reserve.

The rich got richer this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic — while people struggling financially found themselves in even more dire straits. COVID-19, which has killed more than 210,000 Americans, has disproportionally hurt people of color, older people, women and workers in low-paying jobs.

The 50 richest people increased their wealth since the beginning of 2020 by nearly $339 billion to almost $2 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The poorest 50% of Americans — about 165 million people — hold just $2.08 trillion of net worth, or 1.9% of all household wealth, according to Federal Reserve statistics.

More broadly, the top 1% of Americans currently have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion. They hold 30.4% of all U.S. household wealth and more than half of the equity in corporations and in mutual fund shares, according to the data.

The wealthy and corporations were already sailing along thanks to a massive tax cut from the administration of President Donald Trump in 2017. As a result, the nation racked up a record deficit, which hit an all-time high of $3 trillion in the first 11 months of the current budget year.

“Combined with the disproportionate effects of COVID on communities of color, and the overwhelming burden of child care during quarantine and distance learning, which has fallen mostly on women, the pandemic is further widening divides in wealth and economic mobility,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a speech earlier this month at the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics.

It doesn’t look like fortunes for most Americans will improve soon. “A long period of unnecessarily slow progress could continue to exacerbate existing disparities in our economy,” Powell warned.

The nation has been churning toward a historic economic gap for years. The wealth gap between America’s richest and poorest families more than doubled between 1989 and 2016. 

U.S. income inequality in 2018 hit the highest level in half a century. Powell warned last year that income inequality would be one of the biggest challenges in the nation over the next decade.

Income inequality is higher in the U.S. than in any other country of the G-7 nations.

----------

October 15, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Rush has had many corporate sponsors drop him due to his right-wing fringe offensive language on the air.  I doubt that Rush would ever receive taxpayer funding.

NPR is an institution.  It would take a major restructuring of public radio for NPR to not receive taxpayer funding.

Children are starving because our inequitable economic system doesn't care about them.

I agree with you that taxpayers should not pay for "Piss Art".

Here is our country's financial/economic formula: Guns + Butter = Huge Profits for Wall Street - Huge Debts for Main Street / https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Our country's financial/economic policy: The Billionaires and top 1 percent of wealthy people always gain, while the rest of us are used as an insurance policy to bailout the wealthy when the economy tanks.

Our country's political policy: K Street lobbyists pay Members of U.S. Congress for their votes, while the people pay the bills.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 15, 2020

Choice A: A 47-year do nothing career politician who is nearly 78-years-old, & a Chameleon named Kamala who called out her running mate for his political history of racism.

Choice B: A volatile racist and sexist demagogue who practices moral hypocrisy and snake oil sales, & a religious extremist nutcase who calls his wife "Mother" and won't meet in a room alone with a professional woman.

Choice C: A litigated election that will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, while our divided nation protests an unfair presidential election.

In conclusion, We the People are going to get yet another royal screwing over, while the COVID19 pandemic and 2020 economic recession continues on without end.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

October 16, 2020

I found another news article about Trump operative Rudy Giuliani's October Surprise Hit Job on Joe Biden via Hunter Biden's alleged laptop hard drive scandal published by the tabloid newspaper The New York Post.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-laptop-new-york-post-story/

Trump is a moral hypocrite!  He slept with a porn star, and also a Playboy model, while he was married to Melania Trump.  Trump was married 3 times, and he openly cheated on all of his 3 wives.  Trump refuses to release his tax returns.  What is he hiding?  Trump declared 6 business bankruptcies.  Trump's financial management of the federal government currently has the single largest federal government budget deficit in U.S. History.  Trump didn't alert the people about the lethal COVID19 pandemic in January of 2020.  He could have saved tens of thousands of American people's lives.  Trump had neo Nazi's and other white power hate people work for his campaigns and administration.  Trump uses racist and sexist language to fan the flames of hate and division.  Last night, Trump praised QAnon, which is a deeply Anti-Semitic conspiracy group that Jewish Rights Advocates are raising alarms and awareness about in protest.  QAnon believes that Jewish People drink children's blood to worship the Devil.  QAnon believes that Jewish People are Global Puppet Masters in International Government.  WHY?  If I were in Trump's shoes, I would condemn QAnon.  We live in the 21st Century.  We have witnessed Hitler and Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.  Trump should denounce QAnon instead of offering QAnon praise for opposing pedophilia.  Trump is similar to Hitler, and I hope he is stopped very soon!

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 16, 2020

Do you think I am stupid, Patrick Fennell?

It is called "The Biden CRIME Family".  It is called "The Trump CRIME Family".  It's called "[insert name of a career politician's family/friends] CRIME Family".

The dark inbred political Prince of Pittsfield politics known as "Luciforo" is building a marijuana empire while stinking up working class Pittsfield neighborhoods with the skunk odor smell of his pot farms.  Also, "Luciforo" is a corporate Attorney for Boston's financial district that he serve so well as Chairman of the Massachusetts state Senate Finance Committee back in 2005.  "Luciforo" used his family's domination over Pittsfield politics and Beacon Hill connections to make a lot of money from both Marijuana and Boston's big banks and insurance companies.

Dan Bosley spent decades on Beacon Hill.  Now, Dan Bosley is back on Beacon Hill as a Lobbyist, along with his fellow shakedown artists Peter Larkin and Stan Rosenberg.  On Capitol Hill, many legislative bills are written by corporate K Street Lobbyists, while Members of U.S. Congress such as Richie Neal don't even bother to read the respective texts of the policy and spending bills.  There is a revolving door between Wall Street, D.C.'s K Street, and Capitol Hill.

Big Government Politicians = $hakedown Artist$

It is "the name of the game", Patrick Fennell.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 17, 2020

First, Alan Chartock's op-ed on ranked choice voting.  It favors the dominant political party in an election.  In a blue state, ranked choice voting favors the Democratic Party politician.  In a red state, ranked choice voting favors the Republican Party politician.  In short, ranked choice voting further polarizes our country's two party political system.

Second, Glenn M. Heller, Alan Chartock hasn't put Rudy Giuliani's political hit October Surprise tabloid story about Hunter Biden on the air because (a) it hasn't been vetted, (b) it favors Donald Trump, (c) Alan knows where his bread is buttered (he would lose money from his liberal donors to WAMC public radio).

Third, Patrick Fennell, I agree with your letter about Hunter Biden's scandals.  It has been in the news for a long time, but now it is being used by Trump's operatives to discredit Joe Biden. The only criticism I have with Patrick Fennell's letter to the editor is that both political parties have family and friends who profit off their parent being a career politician in big government. 

I voted for Joe Biden/Kamala Harris, but I didn't like it. I will never support Donald Trump in politics.  He had neo Nazi's and other hate operatives work for his campaigns and administration.  I come from the school of Human Rights for Everyone (past, present, and future) on Planet Earth.  That is my one belief in life.  Everyone has the same rights and liberties no matter who they are or where they come from.  Trump is hurting the one cause I believe in!  Trump is similar to Hitler on many levels.  Down with Trump!!!!

If I were a would be U.S. President, the first words I would speak are: "Those who have no rights (in the past, present, and future), you all have rights under and with me."

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

October 17, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Both sides of the partisan divide in the Swamp have family and friends who have profited off of their relative being a Member of U.S. Congress or V.P. or Prez.  Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden made tens of millions of dollars in Ukraine, Moscow (Russia), and China.  Hunter had sex with Russian prostitutes who may have been sex trafficked.  Hunter got a college student/stripper pregnant and lied to the Judge by saying it wasn't his child.  Hunter's court-ordered paternity test proved Hunter was the father of the unplanned baby.  Hunter is a cocaine addict.  Trump called Hunter a "crackhead". Trump was impeached for asking the president of Ukraine about Hunter's misdeeds.  The Democrats should ask Joe Biden why he let his son Hunter do all what he did?  Did Hunter give his politically-connected dad Joe Biden some of his loot?  Trump is using Hunter Biden's scumbag actions to hurt Joe Biden.  It is an October Surprise Trump campaign strategy to discredit the Biden "CRIME" family.  If I were in Joe Biden's shoes, I would not have run for the American presidency with a dirtbag son like Hunter Biden.  If Joe Biden wins in 17 days (on November 3rd, 2020), Hunter Biden's bad boy behavior and shakedowns will be investigated in future Congressional Committee hearings.  What was Joe Biden's influence in his son Hunter Biden's misdeeds?  If it wasn't Hunter Biden, would an average person be in prison?  If I went around having sex with prostitutes who were sex trafficked, was a cocaine addict, made tens of millions of dollars in Ukraine, Moscow (Russia), and China, gave my dad some of the millions of dollars in loot, got a college woman/stripper pregnant and lied to the Judge that I wasn't the father, then I was proved wrong by a court-ordered paternity test, and so on, would my actions get the U.S. President impeached for Trump calling the President of Ukraine about it all, and would I not be indicted and then sent away to prison?  In closing, Patrick Fennell, I think it all stinks!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 20, 2020

Trump recently had the largest federal deficit of over $3.1 trillion from October 1, 2019 - September 30, 2020.  Trump's tax cuts were written by corporate D.C. K Street lobbyists.  Most of the Republican Party Members of U.S. Congress never read the lengthy Trump tax cut bill they all voted for.  The federal government's national debt is now over $27 trillion dollars.  Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we are in the worse economic recession since the 1930's.  Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and health insurance.  Millions of Americans have been infected by coronavirus.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died of coronavirus.  Over 40 percent of coronavirus deaths happened in long-term care facilities.  Nursing homes have been bought and sold for profit for years.  Nursing homes have failed our senior citizens and Veterans, especially Holyoke's Soldier Home.  Trump could have saved tens of thousands of Americans' lives, but he lied to the American people about Covid 19 for months.  Trump could have regulated nursing homes, but he played politics instead.  Wall Street's stock prices are high, but it is only a financial shell game.  Main Street has received the brunt of our country's distressed economy.  State and local governments are facing financial insolvency, while the Republican Party leadership on Capitol Hill is focusing on putting an ultra-right-wing reactionary Catholic woman Judge named Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Supreme Court.  In closing, Trump's economy is built on a house of cards that has hurt working class America's pocketbooks, and the Republican Party leadership is playing politics instead of serving the American people during our time of need. (I know, Biden and the Democratic Party leadership in U.S. Congress is no better!)

- Jonathan Melle

----------

October 21, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Someone posted your letter to the editor about do nothing career politician Joe Biden on Dan Valenti's awesome blog today:

https://planetvalenti.com/2020/10/mainstream-media-predicts-trump-defeat-just-like-2016-indications-show-something-else/#comments

I agree with your letter about Joe Biden's 47 years in inside the D.C. Beltway politics with little to nothing to show for it.  The Democratic Party should have nominated a more honest and progressive candidate for U.S. President in 2020.  Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is garbage!  Joe Biden must have known all of the scandalous and corrupt things that have been reported about his son Hunter Biden over the years.

Politicians like Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden use their political connections to make millions of special interest dollars.  I will never support Donald Trump in politics, but I do, indeed, take Trump's side about Trump asking the President of Ukraine about the Bidens.  Any U.S. President would have done the same thing.  The Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives put on a one-sided "show trial" to impeach Trump when the Biden "crime" family should have been indicted instead.

The mainstream media is mostly liberal.  Their bread is buttered by the indoctrinated liberal college educated elites who pay their bills.  The Biden "crime" family gets a free pass to break the law, while Trump's questionable family is treated harshly by the mainstream media. 

Donald Trump has a questionable past.  He paid women, including a porn star and a Playboy model, to not speak out about his love affairs with them while he was married to his third wife, Melania Trump.  He refuses to release his tax returns, and he is under a decade-long audit with the IRS, and he has hundreds of millions of dollars in debts, and he declared business bankruptcies 6 times over.

The reason why I will never support Donald Trump in politics is because he is against Human Rights, which is the one issue I care most about in government, politics, and everywhere else.  Trump had neo Nazis and other haters work for his campaigns and administration.  He called neo Nazis and other haters "very fine people (on both sides)" after the nightmarish Charlottesville, Virginia hate march that left a young woman dead at the hands of a white supremacist.  He uses racist and sexist language in his inciting violence speeches.  He praised the deeply Anti-Semitic QAnon hate group that says that Jewish People drink children's blood to worship the Devil, and that Jewish People are Global Puppet Masters in International governmental institutions.  Trump is similar to Hitler on many levels, and I hope he is stopped very soon.

In closing, I voted for Joe Biden, but I did not like doing so.  I think Hunter Biden will bring down a would be U.S. President Joe Biden.  Our country doesn't need another Watergate, Monicagate, and Trump impeachment.  There are millions of Americans who need our federal government to pass bills that will help them recover from the 2020 economic recession caused by the COVID19 pandemic.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

October 21, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I agree with everything you wrote about the Biden Crime Family. I share your belief that we shouldn't have to give our tax dollars to liberal vested and special interests that protect the Democratic Party's scandals and corruption.  Hunter Biden will bring down his father's would be American Presidential administration.  Joe Biden should not have run and accepted the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. President because his son Hunter Biden is scandals and corrupt.  If Biden wins, he will be 78-years-old, and anybody that late in life doesn't have many days, months, or years left on Earth.  Between Biden's old age and his son Hunter Biden's scandals and corruption, it will only be a matter of time before Kamala Harris would step into the American Presidency.  Kamala Harris is a Chameleon who accused Joe Biden of being a racist earlier this year. Why did Biden pick her to be his V.P. after she called him out for his racist public record?

I believe your letter to the editor was liked by many readers.  The Democratic Party in American's southern states was the political party of the KKK prior to the Civil Rights Act in the 1960's.  The Democratic Party of the 2020's is the political party of Socialism and big government taking over our lives.  Biden is campaigning on raising taxes.  What is the point?  Our federal government is running record setting +$3.1 trillion annual budget deficits, and our national debt is over $27 trillion.  The irony of tax hikes on the upper class and corporate America is that we give it back when they ask for bailouts, which is part of the stalled stimulus bill.  To illustrate, if I had to pay higher taxes, and then ran out of money, and Capitol Hill then gave me a bailout, then what would be the point of me paying higher taxes?

I have a good heart.  And in my good heart, I will never support Trump in politics.  I believe Trump is similar to Hitler on many levels.  Trump is against Human Rights, and he refuses to condemn hate groups like QAnon, which Trump praised.  How do Jewish American Citizens feel about Trump and QAnon when QAnon says that Jewish People drink the blood of children and worship the Devil, and that Jewish People are Global Puppet Masters in international governmental institution?  We have heard these false and hateful claims before when Hitler and Nazi Germany rose to power in the 1930's.  I will stand up against any man, woman, or child who supports hate.  I will always stand for Human Rights for every person (past, present, and future) who lives on Earth.  Our country was founded on Human Rights, which is quote from the 40th U.S. President named Ronald Reagan.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

"The White Supremacist And Extremist Donors To Trump’s 2020 Campaign: His reelection campaign has not rejected or returned campaign contributions from multiple well-known far-right bigots, FEC records show."

By Christopher Mathias, Senior Reporter for HuffPost Politics, October 24, 2020

President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign has repeatedly accepted donations from well-known white supremacists, extremists and bigots, Federal Election Commission records show. 

Among the far-right figures who have given money to Trump’s reelection bid are a neo-Nazi pastor in Louisiana, a wealthy Florida businessman who called former President Barack Obama the N-word, and a neo-fascist activist recently arrested for opening fire on Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Portland, Oregon. 

The Trump campaign, which did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on this story, has been aware of at least some of the white supremacists’ donations, past media reports show. But it has declined to reject or return their money ― even though it is common practice for political campaigns to voluntarily forfeit donations from extremists. In 2015, for example, the Republican presidential campaigns of Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz returned thousands of dollars in contributions from the leader of a white supremacist group.

The extremists’ donations to Trump’s campaign can be seen in official FEC filings. The contributions were spotted and compiled into a dossier by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC that conducts opposition research to boost the campaign of Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden. HuffPost independently verified the records of the contributions.

American Bridge 21st Century found 30 extremist donors giving money directly to the Trump reelection campaign or to one of its closely affiliated political action committees, including the Trump Make America Great Again Committee and Trump Victory. Overall, the extremists’ donations added up to more than $120,000 dating back to 2015, including about $50,000 given to Trump’s 2020 bid.

News of the scope of these contributions comes less than two weeks before Election Day, and after four years of a presidency during which Trump himself has repeatedly promoted or condoned far-right extremists, while his administration has pursued horrifying white nationalist policies, like the forced separation of immigrant children from their parents. 

Just this week, yet another White House official, this time deputy communications director Julia Hahn, was exposed as having deep ties to white supremacists. 

“Any white supremacist would be proud of the way Donald Trump has run his White House and campaign,” Kyle Morse, a spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century, told HuffPost. “That’s why they are forking over cash hand over fist to reelect the most openly racist president in modern history.” 

Here are some of the more egregious examples of extremists giving money to the president’s reelection campaign. 

Morris Gulett

Gulett is a well-known neo-Nazi leader in Louisiana who was affiliated with the violent white supremacist group Aryan Nations. He practices Christian Identity — a virulently racist and anti-Semitic religion — and delivers sermons online that he ends by throwing up a Nazi salute. 

Gulett once stated that he would celebrate Black History Month “when every negro becomes just that — history.” He has donated nearly $2,000 to the Trump campaign since 2017, including nearly $700 in 2020, most recently giving money in August. 

The Forward first reported about Gulett’s contributions in 2018. The Trump campaign did not reply to the Forward’s request for comment at that time. 

This past August, when the news site Popular Information wrote about Gulett’s continued donations, the campaign also did not respond to a request for comment. 

Michael Masters

Masters used to be the leader of a Virginia chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a well-known white supremacist group. He has also written for multiple explicitly white supremacist publications, including American Renaissance, VDARE and The Social Contract. 

In an article published on American Renaissance, he wrote that immigration of non-white people into the U.S. could ultimately mean that “those whose ancestry derives from Nordic and Alpine subraces of Europe will have ceased to exist as a cohesive identity.”

As a prologue to that same article, Masters quoted a passage from the neo-fascist novel “Camp of the Saints” that expresses an even cruder version of the same racist sentiment.

“[The West] has not yet understood that whites, in a world become too small for its inhabitants, are now a minority,” the quoted passage states, “and that the proliferation of other races dooms our race, my race, irretrievably to extinction in the century to come, if we hold fast to our present moral principles.”

Masters has donated nearly $1,000 to the Trump reelection campaign since 2016, $750 of which was donated in 2020. 

James Allsup

Allsup is a white nationalist who spoke at an alt-right rally organized by fascist figurehead Richard Spencer in Washington, D.C., in June 2017 and later that summer participated in the deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

“If you really want diversity, just move to South Africa and you’ll get all the diversity that you want,” video footage shows Allsup saying at the Charlottesville rally. “You’ll also get raped and beaten and murdered with a power drill, but hey, it’s diverse!”

Allsup went on to join the white nationalist group Identity Evropa. He donated $48.33 to Trump’s campaign in 2017.

Laura Loomer

Loomer, an anti-Muslim extremist, has called Muslims “savages” and Islam a “cancer.” She cheered on the drowning deaths of Muslim refugees in the Mediterranean and said she did “not care” about the massacre of 51 Muslims last year by a white nationalist in New Zealand. 

Earlier this year, Loomer won a GOP congressional primary in Florida and was congratulated by the president. She is expected to lose in the upcoming general election. 

She donated $133.51 to Trump’s campaign this year. 

Steven Alembik

In 2018, Alembik, a Florida-based businessman and GOP activist, tweeted that former President Barack Obama was a “fucking Muslim nigger.”

That same year he called Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a “senile fool who couldn’t die fast enough” and said then-White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman was a “rat bitch.”

Alembik also gave the maximum legal contribution to Loomer’s longshot congressional campaign in Florida. 

He has donated over $5,500 to the Trump campaign since 2018, including $100 this year. 

Peter Zieve

Zieve is the president of an aerospace company called Electroimpact. As Popular Information noted, his company reached a nearly $500,000 settlement with the state of Washington in 2017 over accusations that it discriminated against minority job applicants and engaged in religious harassment.

The complaint also contains emails that Zieve allegedly sent to employees in which he offered his predominantly white staff a “procreation bonus” to have children in order to prevent the U.S. from being overrun by immigrants and refugees. 

Zieve seems to subscribe to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory — the belief that immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, spells the end of European culture and identity.

“When [our sons and daughters] choose to not repopulate and allow our wonderful country to be backfilled with rubbish from the desperate and criminal populations of the third world I find that to be disgusting and I find those persons to make these decisions to be repulsive and I don’t like them around me,” he wrote in one email. 

Zieve has contributed about $11,000 to Trump’s campaign since 2015, half of which was donated in 2019 and 2020. 

Pamela Geller

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremists, calls Geller “probably the best known — and the most unhinged — anti-Muslim ideologue in the United States.” 

Geller co-founded the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which the SPLC defines as a hate group. She once called Islam, one of the world’s largest religions, “the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth.”

She has been a propagandist for multiple bigoted conspiracy theories, including that Obama is secretly a Muslim. 

In 2011, after Norwegian white supremacist Anders Breivik killed 77 people to promote his manifesto against the “Islamization of Europe,” it was revealed that Breivik had cited Geller’s writings 12 times in that document.

Geller denied inspiring Breivik’s attack. “If anyone incited him to violence, it was Islamic supremacists,” she said. 

Geller has given over $250 to the Trump campaign this year. 

Skylor Jernigan

Jernigan is a regular attendee of far-right rallies in Portland organized by neo-fascist groups including Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. 

In August, he fired two gunshots into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters. He was arrested and charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon. 

Jernigan has threatened leftist activists in the past, stating in a January 2019 video posted to Facebook that anti-fascists would “be getting knives put into your throat. You’re going to be getting bullets put into your head if you don’t stop this shit with us.”

He gave $224 to the Trump campaign this year. 

K.C. McAlpin

McAlpin was an executive director of U.S. Inc., which operates Social Contract Press, a white nationalist publishing house so extreme that one of its books was banned by Canadian border authorities for being hate literature. He is a close associate of John Tanton, the publishing house’s founder and a eugenicist considered to be the father of the modern anti-immigration movement in America.

McAlpin once wrote that Islam is a “hostile, intolerant, and totalitarian ideology masquerading as a religion” that “needs to be quarantined in the failed states it has already infected.”

He gave more than $1,000 to the Trump campaign over the last two years. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-supremacist-donors-trump-campaign-2020_n_5f9336c7c5b6494ba13be8d8

----------

October 25, 2020

This YouTube video shows why I voted for Joe Biden for U.S. President in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk7LPpY8pXM&feature=youtu.be

Love & Vote,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

October 26, 2020

Hello Glenn M. Heller,

I watched the entire 38 minutes and 12 seconds of Rudy Giuliani's YouTube hit piece video on the Biden Crime Family, which is worth tens of millions of dollars.  Hunter Biden is a crack cocaine addict.  He made tens of millions of dollars overseas.  He spent his money on young women who were sex workers and on alcohol and drugs.  Hunter Biden is a scumbag.  His laptop hard drive only proves what we already know.  The news about Hunter Biden and the Biden Crime Family has been out there for a long time now.  Rudy Giuliani is exploiting it all as a Trump campaign operative.  Rudy Giuliani has sat on this information for a long time, and his timing is called Trump's "October Surprise".

You know full well that Trump refuses to release his tax returns to the public.  What is Trump hiding?  Why has so many of Trump's associates been indicted and jailed?  Are they all fall guys for Donald Trump?  Trump had love affairs with sex workers, too.  Trump paid a porn star and a Playboy model to stay silent about their love affairs with him while he was married to Melania.  Trump openly cheated on all three of his wives, and his daughter Tiffany Trump was conceived out of wedlock with Marla Maples.

In closing, Rudy Giuliani should give one of his advertisers cigar boxes to Bill Clinton, who put a cigar in Monica Lewinsky's vagina and then smoked his cigar while Monica Lewinsky was giving him a blow job in the Oral Orifice (Oval Office).  My final point is that most politicians are sleazy wheeler dealers who enjoy profiting off of making a career in high political office and having sex with young women who fall for their dirt-bag ways.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

October 27, 2020

Healthcare Insurance for American citizens has been a political issue since Teddy Roosevelt was U.S. President from September 14, 1901 - March 4, 1909.  For well over one Century, there are millions of American citizens who are either under-insured or uninsured.  Family after family has faced bankruptcy because they had a serious illness and were denied healthcare and/or were under-insured/uninsured, and/or had a pre-existing conditions, and/or were subject to surprise medical billing.  Some people commit suicide, some people go homeless, some people go broke and qualify for Medicaid, and so on.  Every other industrialized country offers universal healthcare insurance, but not the United States of America.  I always thought we should cut and paste Germany's universal healthcare policies.  I lived in Germany for a little over one year of my life when I was a Soldier in the U.S. Army, and when I was sick, they took good care of me when I was an inpatient at their civilian hospital.  Germany was a nice country to live in when I lived there in mid-2000 through mid-2001.  I have pre-existing healthcare conditions, as well as some members of my family.  I would be devastated if Trump's lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court abolished Obamacare, and all of the protections it provides American citizens with our healthcare insurance policies went away.  When I go to the VA Hospital and VA Community Cares referrals civilian hospitals, I feel protected by the protections I have as a Veteran under Obamacare's reforms of healthcare insurance.  In closing, without Obamacare's protections, America's healthcare insurance will go back to being made of plastic (credit cards).

- Jonathan Melle

----------

November 8, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

In response to your letter, below, I believe Donald Trump should concede to the election results. The will of the voting public has spoken in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In every election, there are always cases of voter fraud.

The Biden Crime Family also bothers me to no end. Biden spent nearly 5 decades as a career politician in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill and Obama White House. Biden and his family members are all worth tens of millions of dollars each. The math does not add up! Where did all of the Biden Crime Family's tens of millions of dollars come from? What deals were made? How will it impact our country's government and policies?

Hunter Biden is a horrible man. He is a crack cocaine addict. He spent a lot of money on drugs and sex workers over the years. He lied to a Judge about a young college woman, who worked as a stripper, who he impregnated. After a court-ordered paternity test, Hunter Biden (who is now 50-years-old) was the father of the young woman's baby. Hunter Biden made tens of millions of dollars overseas by using his father, Joe Biden's, name and political connections. Hunter Biden reportedly slept with Russian prostitutes who may have been sex trafficked. Hunter Biden's first wife wrote in her divorce papers that Hunter Biden did not leave her with sufficient funds to care for her and their 3 children because Hunter Biden was a crack cocaine addict who spent his money on drugs, sex workers, and the like. Hunter Biden has at least 5 children from at least 3 women.

Joe Biden should not be defending his last surviving son, Robert Hunter Biden. Instead, Joe Biden should explain his connections with his son's overseas business dealings and serious and problematic behavioral issues. Last night, when Joe Biden spoke to the country as President-elect, Hunter Biden was standing on stage with him. I watched Joe Biden give his son Hunter Biden a hug.

What kind of example does the Biden Crime Family set for American politics? They are worth tens of millions of dollars without any reasonable explanation for their wealth, and Hunter Biden is a total scumbag who helped enrich his father, who will soon be the 46th U.S. President.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

If Joe Biden really wants to unite the United States of America he needs to make all fifty states open and update the voting lists, make sure all ballots turned in are legal and arrest anyone who violated election laws. He can make this happen if he really wants to unify this broken country. Remember the democrats have allowed encouraged this Great Country to be divided. The DNC have encouraged looting, assaults, vandalism and censorship, (The Berkshire County MSM blocks conservative views and goes as far as banning letters and comments). Antifa and BLM are well funded and violent and allowed to destroy cities.

So Joe if you want to unify the US, start cleaning up the DNC and their terrorists friends first. Joe prove this 2020 election was 100% honest and all ballots are legitimist, and why Joe Frazier voted (He died in 2011).

So Joe if you want us to believe you and follow you lead by example, (our mansions make many of us suspicious) five decades in 'Public Service' make us wonder where your millions come from. Explain your family's millions, we all know books can be cooked and bag men and women are in play.

After fifty years of being a corrupt politician why should we believe or follow you now?

Patrick Fennell

----------

November 8, 2020

Hello Glenn M. Heller and Patrick Fennell,

I disagree with both of you.  We have to accept the results of the 2020 election that affirmed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the 46th U.S. President and V.P.  The will of the voters has spoken.

I understand that there will be recounts in a couple of states.  I also understand that Trump is filing multiple lawsuits alleging election and voting fraud.  Trump hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his lawsuits.  The problem that Trump is facing is that there is no evidence (yet) of systemic and widespread election and voting fraud.

I believe that Joe Biden and his family should explain how they became so wealthy.  How are Joe Biden and his family member worth tens of millions of dollars each?  I would like to hear a reasonable explanation.

During our family dinner earlier tonight, I told my parents that I dislike Hunter Biden, and I hope that President-elect Joe Biden will keep his only surviving son Hunter far away from the White House.  I asked my parents if they approved of Hunter Biden, and they agreed with me that Hunter Biden is no good.

Joe Biden was not a good choice by the Democrat Party.  Joe Biden brings a lot of questionable baggage to the Oval Office.  If Joe Biden is as corrupt as his critics say he is, then our country will be sold out similar to Congressman (PAC-Man) Richard Neal selling out the people of Western Massachusetts in favor of D.C.'s K Street corporate lobbyist industry.  U.S. President Joe Biden will serve Beijing, China, while Richard Neal will serve the real U.S. Capitol Hill on K Street.

Joe Biden has been a career politician for nearly 5 decades, and he has gotten nothing done in 47 years on Capitol Hill and in the Obama White House.  However, I voted for Joe Biden because Donald Trump had neo Nazis work for his presidential campaign and administration.  Trump stands for White Nationalism, which is a form of hate.  I chose love, and I will always choose love over hate.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

November 14, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Our federal tax dollars goes to a lot of businesses and non-profits that are political.  NPR is a progressive news media outlet.  The press is called "The Fourth Estate" of government because they provide the public with information about government and business.

When I disagreed with Alan Chartock, I have told him why I felt he was off base on politics or a politician, such as "Luciforo".  I never witnessed Alan Chartock spitting in anybody's face, nor have I witnessed him calling anyone a "racist" or "sexist".  I believe Alan Chartock is sincere in his progressive political beliefs.  I also understand that WAMC Public Radio out of Albany, New York is financially supported by progressive listeners. I donated my personal money to WAMC back when I lived in the beautiful Berkshires.

Donald Trump never released his federal tax returns.  Donald Trump has declared multiple business bankruptcies.  Donald Trump is said to have hundreds of millions of dollars in debts.  Donald Trump is under a one decade long audit by the IRS.  Donald Trump is not allowing anyone to review his financial records.  What is he hiding?

Donald Trump openly cheated on all three of his wives, including with a porn actress named Stormy Daniels and a Playboy model named Karen McDougal. He paid Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to not speak out about his extra-marital love affairs with him.  Donald Trump said he likes to grab women by their [meow's].

As for Joe Biden's finances, I would like to know how he and members of his family are all worth tens of millions of dollars.  I would also like to know about his relationship with his crack cocaine addict and sex workers addict son Hunter Biden.  I am sure it will all be investigated over the next 4 years by U.S. Congress.  If Joe Biden, along with Hunter Biden, are truly a crime family like his critics allege, then I believe it will lead to Joe Biden's resignation from the presidency, and then a possible prison sentence.  Only due process of law and time will tell us all what is true and what is not.

In closing, I will never support Donald Trump in politics.  He had neo Nazis and other haters work for his campaign and administration.  He called neo Nazis and other haters involved in the Charlottesville, Virginia hate march "very fine people (on both sides)".  He praised hate groups, such as the deeply anti-Semitic QAnon hate group.  Trump has stirred up hate groups in America, which is the top terrorist threat to our beloved country.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

"Trump fires top official who refuted his claims that election was rigged"

By Ellen Nakashima and Nick Miroff, The Washington Post, November 17, 2020

Christopher Krebs led successful efforts to help state and local election offices protect their systems and to rebut misinformation.

----------

November 22, 2020

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I respect your political views, including your support for U.S. President Donald Trump, and I enjoy reading your emails and letters to the editors over the years.  However, I believe Trump failed on Covid-19.  Hundreds of thousands of American citizens have died from Covid-19.  Millions of American citizens have been infected with Covid-19.  Millions of American citizens have lost their jobs and health insurance during the Covid-19 pandemic this year of 2020.  While vaccines are still in development, the Covid-19 pandemic is getting worse as we are heading into the holiday season of 2020.  I believe Trump should have done a lot more on the federal government level to protect the American people from the difficult and lethal impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fiscal year 2020, which ended on September 30, 2020, had the largest federal budget deficit at $3.1 trillion, in U.S. history.  Trump's tax cuts, along with the 2020 economic recession, hurt the U.S. economy.  States and local governments are either severely financially constrained or financially insolvent. U.S. Congress' first stimulus bill gave the majority of federal dollars to Wall Street and the corporate elites.  The American people received one $1,200 stimulus check, while lines at food banks are very long all across our beloved country.

Trump's election 2020 election lawsuits all failed so far, while there are 3 to 4 lawsuits still pending out of Trump's 22 lawsuits in total.  Trump is playing legal shell games, and he is losing so far.  Meanwhile, Trump is facing lawsuits from black legal organizations because most of his claims of voter fraud target American cities such as Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee with large black voting populations.  To be clear, Trump's lawsuits are claiming that cities with large black voting populations are committing voter fraud against him.  What if it was Hitler who claimed that cities with large Jewish populations were committing voter fraud against him?  We would all say that Hitler was being the racist that Hitler is infamously known for against the persecuted Jewish People in Nazi Germany's Holocaust.

Trump is claiming voter fraud in lawsuits around our beloved country, but Trump himself refuses to release his tax returns to the public.  I wonder who is the real fraudster here?  Trump is under a one-decade-long audit by the IRS.  Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars in personal debts.  Trump declared multiple business bankruptcies.  Trump paid off women, including porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, to not speak out about his adulterous love affairs with them.  Trump openly cheated on all 3 of his wives.  His daughter, Tiffany Trump, was conceived out-of-wedlock with Marla Maples, who was Trump's second of three wives.  Trump was heard on a hot mic that he likes to grab women by their [meow's].

In closing, I do not believe Trump has any credibility to call out multiple American cities with large black voting populations for committing voting fraud against him when Trump himself is a notorious fraudster.  But, in the end, one could say that most politicians are corrupt, including the Biden alleged Crime Family who are all worth tens of millions of dollars each without any reasonable explanation.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

December 10, 2020

Jonathon;

Keep voting democrat and you will see more corrupt pedophiles like Hunter Bidens. Under Biden's DOJ corruption will be part of normal business in Washington.

Patrick Fennell

-----

Hello Pat,

I do not understand why Joe Biden and the mainstream news media doesn't just say that Hunter Biden is bad news.  I am disappointed with Joe Biden saying he is proud of his son Hunter Biden.  I would understand if Joe Biden said that he loves his son, but that Hunter Biden has led a troubled life.  Everyone has a chance to reform and change their ways for the better, but Hunter Biden's "bad boy behavior" should not be rationalized away.

I will never support Donald Trump in politics because he had neo Nazis and other white nationalist people work for his campaign and in his presidential administration.  I went to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  Over 6 million Jewish People were murdered in Hitler's genocide, along with millions of "other" persecuted people.  The U.S. fought against the Nazis and hate in World War 2.  The U.S. has long supported our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel.  U.S. President Ronald Reagan stated that our country was founded on Human Rights.  Donald Trump is wrong to be on the side of white nationalism and hate groups.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

----------

December 10, 2020

I will never support Donald Trump in politics.  I believe that Trump = Hitler.  I believe that Trump is a Nazi.  I believe the Trump campaign and administration stood for white nationalism.  I have a blog page that sources my belief that Trump is a fascist bigot.  I believe Trump is the most dangerous U.S. President in U.S. History.

Trump did many disservices to minorities, women, and the large underclass.  Trump's tax cut exacerbated the inequitable income inequality that mostly benefited the top 1 percent.  Just because Trump had job growth numbers does not mean that the working class had access to living wage jobs.  Trump undermined Obamacare.  As I understand it, a worker is better off with affordable healthcare than higher wages because health insurance is worth more than making money.  Economic growth in America doesn't happen everywhere.  Only a few places experience economic growth, while most places do not benefit from supply-side economics.

Trump's ineffective election lawsuits and verbal attacks on inner-city America have been called racist by black legal groups, who are counter-suing Trump.  The swing states' predominately black cities that voted for Joe Biden include Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee.  It only makes sense to me that large black voting cities voted for Joe Biden because Trump makes fun of the black people and other minorities who live there.

Trump has supported Israel's causes, but he also uses the anti-Semitic word "Globalists" which has always targeted the Jewish People throughout history.  Trump had neo Nazis and other white nationalists hate people work for his campaign and in his presidential administration.  Trump called neo Nazis and like hate protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia "very fine people on both sides".

In closing, there is a huge difference between Republican Party Conservatism and Trump's alt-right hate based on greed, while denouncing everyone who speaks against this travesty that the World witnessed once before during Hitler's Nazi Germany genocidal regime.

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle

----------

Democrats have won the U.S. Senate: Jon Ossoff beat David Perdue in Georgia, assuring a Democratic majority for President-elect Biden’s agenda. - New York Times on January 6th, 2021

Now that the Democratic Party controls the White House (as of 12-noon on January 20th, 2021), the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, they will have to prove themselves as national leaders who will deliver positive outcomes for the American People.  U.S. Congress is nearly equally divided in both chambers, which means that the Democrats will have to work on bipartisan legislation and public policies.

The Biden "crime" family, who are all worth tens of millions of dollars without reasonable explanation, does not have to worry about Senate Republicans investigating them, especially the very questionable Hunter Biden, for the next two years.

The U.S. Supreme Court has a conservative majority, which will be a check on the Biden/Harris administration.

On today's alt-right (neo Nazi) protests on and in Capitol Hill, Donald Trump is to blame for his racist and violent rhetoric.  I wish Donald Trump was never a U.S. President.  He is dangerous, and after he leaves the White House, he will still be dangerous.  Down with Trump!

- Jonathan A. Melle

----------

January 6, 2020

Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden because of cities in swing states that had large numbers of black and minority voters: Atlanta Georgia, Milwaukee Wisconsin, Detroit Michigan, and Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Trump spent over 4 years of his political life insulting black and minorities, while Biden chose a black and Indian American woman named Kamala Harris as his Vice President.  What did you think was going to happen?  The black and minority voters voted against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  That is why Trump lost the 2020 presidential election!

- Jonathan A. Melle

----------

January 7, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Donald Trump is a racist and violent demagogue who is similar to Adolf Hitler.  Donald Trump's extremist armed supporters all have "cute" names, but they are all really Nazis.  Trump and his Nazi supporters openly believe that the Jewish People are global puppet masters who drink the blood from children and worship the Devil.  Open your eyes to who Donald Trump really is, Patrick Fennell!

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle

----------

January 8, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I feel no shame for voting for Joe Biden for U.S. President in 2020 because Donald Trump is a Nazi.  It is a fact that Donald Trump's two campaigns and administration had neo Nazis work for him.  It is a fact that all of the alt right political groups who support Trump and breached Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021 are really Nazis.  It is the truth.  I wish you would open your eyes to the fact that Donald Trump is similar to Adolf Hitler.

When I studied politics decades ago, I learned that there are 3 forms of conflict and violence.  The first is when someone verbally assaults and/or physically assaults another person.  The second is when someone is jobless and/or homeless.  The third one is what political extremists such as Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler used, which is called "cultural conflict and violence".  It is the most dangerous form of violence in any society dating back thousands of years.  The worst part of it is that once it is used, it never ends, but only stopped by nonviolent and peaceful movements and leaders.

As for Joe Biden, I believe his alleged crime family and middle men, will pose a real problem for him over the following up to 4 years.  Hunter Biden's personal and business history is both horrible and allegedly criminal.  I would like to know how the Biden "crime" family are all worth tens of millions of dollars each without reasonable explanation.  Did the Biden "crime" family become very wealthy by illegal and criminal means?  Will Joe Biden owe special interests and foreign countries White House favors that would hurt our great country?

I wish to thank you, Patrick Fennell, for sharing your email letters with me.  I do not believe anyone should attack you for your conservative political beliefs.  I believe you have a lot to offer to both our corrupt career politicians and little guys such as myself.  Please keep up your writings.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

It is amazing at how fast the Swamp works when they are challenged. The FACT is the that fraud, cheating, and felonies were committed on the week of November 3, 2020. More than 74 million voters feel cheated, ignored and are being PUNISHED for voting for President Trump.

For four years we have dealt with a phony Russian Collusion scam, witnessed an impeachment that was simply made up, watched as the Biden family has profitted by countries that include China, and watched the MSM and DNC defend BLM, Antifa and rioters destroy cities, tear down statues, and put minority businesses out of business. Kamal Harris and Biden's campaign staff went as far as bailing out rioters, that included rapists, yet are raising hell today.

We have been attacked for our beliefs, values and called bigots and racists in return. Our elected officials have ignored us, stepped on us, stolen our hard earned money and taken away our constitutional amendments. Facebook allows Iranian views, yet does not allow conservative views. Twitter and the MSM have withheld the Hunter Biden alleged crimes, prior to the election and yet want to impeach Trump today, why because they simply Hate him.

People are angry, including me, distrustful, And have a right to disagree with the election results. We have a right ro demonstrate, and most of all a right to be HEARD!

Should a few people stormed into the halls of congress? Yes. According to the MSM/DNC Walls are evil. We have a right to see what they are doing and who they are taking bribes from. Congress and the White can NEVER be trusted again. NEVER.

We all know House members like Richie Neal, AOC, Ed Markey and Liz Warren are Whores for Big Tech, Wall and K Street and big banks.

Shame on all Biden Voters.

Patrick Fennell

----------

NEWS ARTICLE:

"Nazis Stormed The Capitol. Why Are People Afraid To Call Them That?"

refinery29.com - By Elly Belle - January 8, 2021

Among the many different factions of white supremacist groups — from the Proud Boys to to Confederate flag-wavers to QAnon — who stormed the Capitol this week, there were also Nazis. Carrying swastika flags and wearing shirts that said things like “Camp Auschwitz STAFF, work brings freedom” and “6MWE” (which stands for “six million weren’t enough,” a reference to the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust), the Nazis made themselves right at home in the Capitol, sporting paraphernalia meant to stoke fear and send a clear message about what they represent: hate and violence.

Much of the media has failed to correctly report on what hate groups were present at the insurrection — mistakenly calling them anarchists, for example, a direct implication those present at the Capitol were connected with the anarchists present at Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. But being explicit is essential in a situation like this, and incorrectly naming or failing to name them as Nazis and fascists in the first place is dangerous, because it allows the real threat to stay hidden.

Trump supporters' sense of entitlement is rooted in hundreds of years of white supremacy and white power — stemming from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Nazi Germany, and other fascist movements that have sought to eradicate marginalized people, including Black, Jewish, disabled, and queer people. And, this isn't their first time assembling in a way that ended in violence and death.

The siege on the Capitol has been compared to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, which ended in the murder of anti-fascist activist Heather Heyer. This rally was one of the first times that Nazis and fascists were galvanized by Trump, who called the Nazis and fascists in Charlottesville “very fine people,” but it wasn't the last: During the presidential debates in 2020, Trump called for the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Subsequently, Nazis attended the Million MAGA March in November, which "was a preview of the collaboration between GOP politicians, conservative groups, and neo-Nazis" that we saw again this week, explained Sophie Ellman-Golan, progressive Jewish strategist and researcher for How to Fight Antisemitism, a project of Bend the Arc.

"To me, the thing that is noteworthy is not only that these are Nazis but that there are ties between the elected officials and members of the Republican party and these Nazis," Ellman-Golan tells Refinery29. "And so I think it’s understandable that a lot of people don’t want to call them Nazis because they don’t want to acknowledge that there are members of Congress openly colluding with Nazis, and we have to state that."  

The raiding of the Capitol also coincided with Congresswoman Mary Miller quoting Hitler in a speech this week — and praising how the Nazi leader built his political movement by indoctrinating youth. Journalist Mark Maxwell posted a video of it on Twitter and noted that Miller didn't slip up or improvise her praise of Hitler, but instead read from prepared remarks. That's a tell that this was no accident, and in fact, she wholeheartedly stands by that statement.

“It’s just interesting to see the journey of shielding Nazis during this era of fascism," Jason Rosenberg, a Jewish organizer, tells Refinery29. "We’ve seen the ‘both sides’ statement not only from Trump but a lot of his colleagues from the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting to Charlottesville to even now, when a Jew, Ivanka Trump, has a deleted tweet that calls them ‘great Patriots.’ I think even from the progressive end, which also means the Democratic party, it’s vital and imperative that we all say exactly what they are — which is Nazis.”

Rosenberg points out that the current intracommunity dialogue in the Jewish community about the presence of Nazis at the riot is some of the only conversation explicitly calling them Nazis. Some of this, he says, is fueled by Jewish institutions and Jewish institutional leaders from AJC and ADL who have been shielding the Trump administration for years. “We haven’t had our Democratic party even call them Nazis explicitly because they’re afraid to have Holocaust comparisons, because our Jewish institutions haven’t even done it. And that’s the trouble we’re facing. But leaders need to speak out. We’re seeing exactly how dangerous not doing so is right now. We don’t need this both-sidesism saying that there are Nazis on the left, too. We need someone to say explicitly that it is Nazis who stormed the Capitol,” says Rosenberg.

“The faster establishment Dems realize that no one is being hyperbolic about the Republican Party breakdown being driven by literal nazis the better. Y’all want civil discussion and they want a white ethnostate. You are absolutely not playing the same game,” tweeted Marc Dones, executive director of the National Innovation Service.

As Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize-winning author of Night said, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

link: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/01/10254568/nazi-shirts-swastika-flags-capitol-riot-trump-supporters

----------

January 9, 2021

To the Editor, News Media, the People, and Patrick Fennell:

Trump said to his Nazi followers who breached Capitol Hill and rioted inside the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate: "We love you. You are very special".

Trump is praising White Supremacist domestic terrorism!  Trump is praising Nazis!

Nazis carried swastika flags and wore shirts that said things like “Camp Auschwitz STAFF, work brings freedom” and “6MWE” (which stands for “six million weren’t enough,” a reference to the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust) inside and/or around our nation's Capitol building. Nazis protested in the Capitol, sporting paraphernalia meant to stoke fear and send a clear message about what they represent: hate and violence.

This is a nightmare.  Trump is dangerous.  I believe in free speech, but I also believe in stopping nightmarish and dangerous politicians who praise Nazis and incite hate, racism and violence.  Lastly and tragically, 5 American citizens, including one Capitol Hill Police Officer who is a Veteran, died during the January 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle

----------

January 9, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell, and everyone else,

I, Jonathan Alan Melle, do not support extremism on any side of politics.  No one is right about politics all of the time.  Instead, I believe in civility and open mindedness where everyone who is not an extremist has a voice in our government and society.

I thought it was funny that Trump's supporters attempted coup of Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021 is sarcastically called "The Beer Belly Putsch".  Trump is a big beer belly buffoon who I hope will go away and retire in sunny Florida.

I want us to be able to someday forget about Donald Trump so we may all to go back to speaking out to all of the corrupt career politicians, greedy lobbyists, and all of the disservices our disliked political insiders do against us little guys, taxpayers, and people who pay for their public salaries and public perks.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

January 10, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell, and everyone else,

How do I feel about Michelle Obama?  I think she is a great woman who cares about progressive causes.  I think she is right to speak out against Donald Trump, who I believe is a Nazi.  I identify with her struggles with her mental health.  I believe she and former President Barack Obama raised two wonderful young adult daughters.  As for your allegation that she told big tech social media outlets to ban free speech by opposing Trump's incitement of hate, racism and violence, I believe that Trump is an alleged criminal who is allegedly guilty of insurrection against the U.S. Government.  Trump received 5 deferments from being drafted into the Vietnam Conflict when he was a young man.  Trump and his father have a history of business discrimination against blacks and other minorities.  Trump praised Nazis on several occasions during his presidency.  Tomorrow (January 11th, 2021), the U.S. House of Representatives will begin the second Impeachment of Donald Trump for his role in the far right mob's breach and riot on Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021. I hope that Trump will be impeached for a second time.

Joe Biden's public record on racism in public policy is evident since the early-1970s.  The mid-1990s crime bill targeted black youth as "Super Predators", which was a coded word for calling the black youth the "N-word".  The War on Drugs targeted black youth harshly, while privileged white youth were slapped on their proverbial wrists.  The War on Drugs started after the Jim Crow laws ended.  South Africa during Apartheid mocked the U.S.A. for our "white flight" suburbs and its history of racist redlining.  Suburban upper middle class white youth of my childhood were unjustly taught that cities, where minorities live, were full of immoral residents, which meant blacks, other minorities, and homosexuals.  After Newt Gingrich led the Republicans to their majority in the U.S. House in the mid-1990s, the suburbs got even richer, while the inner cities and rural areas got the proverbial shaft.  Now, over 25 years later, the progressive Democrats such as AOC - the Squad - are fighting back for their minority constituents.  Trump and many Republicans are afraid they will become irrelevant if blacks, other minorities, inner cities, and even rural areas gain political power and get their fair share of public funds again.

Wall Street, K Street, and the corporate-friendly "Richie Neals" on Capitol Hill are all lining up to get their cut of public funds from Joe Biden's administration over the next 100 days.  They don't care how many little guys get the shaft as long as they fill their coffers with public money.  I believe it is time for all of the little guys to fight back and ensure they receive their fair share of public funds, too.  However, I believe Joe Biden and his "crime" family, who are now all worth enormous amounts of money without reasonable explanation, will enrich himself and his family and his campaign donors first.  I believe that the Biden "crime" family needs to come clean about their wealth, Hunter Biden, and the business contacts overseas and money laundering that Hunter Biden is being investigated for by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.  I believe that Joe Biden may owe White House favors to authoritarian and adversarial countries such as China.  I believe that Joe Biden may not be president for long if any or all of these allegations are true.  In fact, I am unsure if Joe Biden should even be sworn in as the 46th U.S. President.

College students and former college students all worry about their student loans. My parents even told me stories of their student loans from the 1960s.  I believe that people with student loans should have to volunteer or work in disadvantaged areas of our great country to get their student loans forgiven.  I do not believe that the federal government should forgive everyone's student loans so they can go to bars and drink and hook up, or get high and eat pizza with their friends.

My view of public policy and administration is that socioeconomic programs that invest in people and communities - without the perverse incentives I write about in my very economically unequal native hometown of Pittsfield (Mass.) - will enable all of our nation's youth to work in living wage jobs and be able to invest in their community by being homeowners with healthy families. I liken it to the classic Christmas movie "It's a Wonderful Life" where George Bailey used his building and loans business to invest in the working class instead of make himself rich like his competitor banker Henry Potter.  I understand that the Frank Capra movie showed two extremes, but big business and big government has gone to the extreme that only favors their vested - the deep state - and special interests on K Street and Wall Street.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

Jonathon;

Wall and K Street both own 100% of congress. Let's be honest if we indicted every member of congress and CEO of a bank or Fortune 400 business we would be right on 90% of the arrests. Notice how few big shots were indicted aftert the 2008 crash? The DOJ was for sale then just like it is today. Notice the FBI arrested the guy behind Pelosi's desk  right away and couldn't find Whitey Bulger for more than twenty years, and whitey lived in government rent control.

Joe Biden was one of the 1995 Crime Bill. Thank him and politicians back then for the full prisons today. Work release programs and public service would serve the public better. Bdcause of teachers's unions charter school and school choice is not allowed in poor urban neighborhoods. Odd both of these problems are democrat related. It is time for the Mass Legislature to stop funding bad schools and hold cities and town more responsible for bad education. The first step is to put more money in classrooms and stop padding administrations. For example Berkshire County should only have three school districts and put more efforts into vocational programs. 

If universities, colleges and staff members want to forgive student loans, let them and make them repay the responsible people for paying their loans in full. Until the government covers car, house and credit loans they have NO business getting involved in collage loans. As a side note most of the loan forgiveness will help wealthier families and not the poor, simply put poor families depend on scholarships and going to state colleges, very few are welcome at Yale or other Ivy League universities. Basically Liz Warren is trying to get votes, not help families with college debts. 

So Jonathon how do you feel about Michelle Obama telling Twitter? Facebook and Googel to ban people? Hitler, Stalin and Chairman Mao also banned people from speaking. Another proud moment for democrats.

Patrick Fennell

-----

Hello Patrick Fennell, and everyone else,

Did you know that the Bill of Rights (8th Amendment) entitles all incarcerated criminals to universal healthcare, but all law abiding citizens are not entitled to universal healthcare?  Did you know that it cost more taxpayer dollars to incarcerate a criminal than it does to send him or her to Harvard University?  Did you know that Wall Street profits off of the high school to prison pipeline?

Our public education, including higher education, and criminal justice system does not make any rational policy sense to me!  Why is there a bigger incentive to incarcerate young adult criminals for wealthy investors than to educate law abiding young adults?  Why are convicted felons in prison entitled to universal healthcare, but a poor part-time worker who obeys the law not entitled to universal healthcare?  Why are taxpayers paying more of their limited dollars on putting young adult criminals in prison than sending law abiding young adults to public higher education institutions?

What about the 2008 multi-trillion dollar taxpayer bailout of Wall Street and foreign banks?  I thought capitalism was an economic system of risk and reward where if you earned profits, you received financial rewards, but if you lost money, you paid your creditors and closed your firm, if necessary.  But NO!  Instead of capitalism, we let Wall Street and the billionaires keep their profits, but when the wealthy incur financial losses, the taxpayers bail them out, including bailing out foreign banks.  No matter what happens, Wall Street and the billionaires get richer, while the rest of us get poorer.  Even in the latest stimulus legislation where we little guys received a paltry $600, while U.S. Congress bailed out a few industries who incurred financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What about our career politicians and K Street lobbyists?  None of the ruling and lobbyist elites lost any money, while millions of American citizens lost everything in 2020!  Joe Biden and the corporate K Street lobbyists are going to feast on our limited public dollars over the next 100 days.  The Biden "crime" family are all worth tens of millions of dollars each without reasonable explanation because they received their loot from foreign countries who now have a financial stake in the Biden White House.  Hunter Biden is currently being investigated by the federal government for his foreign business dealings and alleged money laundering.  Should Joe Biden even be the next U.S. President given all of this?  Will Joe Biden have to resign the presidency due to Hunter Biden and his unexplained wealth, questionable business dealings with foreign governments, and the alleged money laundering?

The last thing we little guys have to worry about is young adult college dropouts and graduates hoping the federal government will forgive, in part of in whole, their student loans.  In closing, if I was a Member of U.S. Congress or U.S. Prez, I would offer to forgive their college loans if they volunteered or worked in inner-cities or rural areas for a few years to help the underclass get ahead in life.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

Re: College loans

Apparently Student Loans are a problem, poor kids with degrees in Egyptian Fecal Matter and Hairman Mao Cheerleading are having trouble paying back their loans. And of course it isn't the man/woman with a worthless degree or university are not to blame. We Are!

The democrats feel it is the taxpayers's responsiblity to pay back the loans. Meanwhile the shamelss hypocrites that rake in the money, colleges and universities have made NO effort at all ro give these uneducated nitwits with worthless degrees a break. No professor is willing to "Do it for the Kids", but make it clear the taxpayers have to pay off these loans.  George Soros says so.

President-elect is of course on board. Congress wants to forgive these upper middle class adults with degrees in Global Flatulence. It never occurs to idiots like Lying Liz Warren to go after Harvard to forgive the loans, after all she made a fortune on student loans by teaching one class for $360,000.00 a year.

The $64,000.00 question is by helping white kids with their student loans affect the  ancestors of slaves get their 400 acres and a BMW, (Inflation)?

Don't express your opinions on Twiter, Google, Facebook or Yahoo, only liberals who agree with AOC are allowed to speak. Oh how Joe Biden is working on uniting the American people. Book burning will start on January 21, 2021, The Bill Of Rights will go first.

Patrick Fennell

----------

January 11, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Your letter to Great Barrington Selectman Steve Bannon about W.E.B. DuBois being honored by local officials raises valid concerns. W.E.B. DuBois disliked both Great Barrington and the U.S.A.  He was a registered Communist who befriended murderous 20th Century Communist dictators in Russia and China who murdered more innocent people than Hitler did during the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish People and other persecuted people.  If W.E.B. DuBois was a famous white man who befriended evil Communist dictators and disliked the town who honors him and our country's Veterans fought to defend us from 20th Century fascism and communism, then it would never have happened.  Just because W.E.B. DuBois was a black man doesn't make him right.

Joe Biden needs to come clean prior to his inauguration on January 20th, 2021.  How did the Biden "crime" family become so wealthy?  Where did he and his "crime" family members get their tens of millions of dollars each from?  Why is Hunter Biden being investigated by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies for his foreign business contacts, including with Communist China, and his alleged money laundering?  Will Joe Biden own White House favors to our country's adversaries, such as Communist China?

Wall Street operatives and K Street lobbyists are lining up to shakedown the Biden administration for billions of federal taxpayer dollars.  Foreign governments are ready to make lucrative deals with the Biden administration.  The little guys are going to be shafted by Biden's big government's schemes and dealings.  The national debt will rise to record levels.  Hunter Biden is ready to make additional tens of millions of dollars from Communist China.

Finally, I received an email this evening from Act of Mass about the Massachusetts State Legislature's closed door and rushed passing of legislation that most of our lawmakers had no time to review. Moreover, many bills were left to die in committees or sent to study. The public had no opportunity to participate in Beacon Hill's proverbial secretive sausage making. This means that most Beacon Hill lawmakers did not fully understand what they were voting on, and the public had no opportunity to understand and/or participate in the legislative process of passing bills into state law.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

January 12, 2021

Dear Comrade Steve Bannon;

At the present time the United States of America is divided. The Republic is in danger. Trust in government is at an all-time low, including the Town of Great Barrington and it’s socialist policies. This is a terrible time for the Great Barrington Select-board to honor W.E.B. Du Bois. It will always be a terrible time to honor a registered communist who denounced the United States. To honor a registed communist is to denounce the United States of America and the veterans who fought for our freedom.

Cordially,

Patrick Fennell

-----

January 11, 2021

Re: America United?

Just today Joe Biden announced that Blacks, Native Americans, Asians and women, completely leaving out Whites. True RACISM.

Joe Biden has been conviently been silent on Big Tech silencing conservatives. Not mentioning how Amazon, Google, Twitter and Apple are preventing Parler from existing. True Communism.

Joe hasn't condemned PACs, Lobbyists, K and Wall Street from refusing to donate to Republicans openly, confirming that Democrats are bought and paid of Mistresses. True Democrat corruption.

So based on the above how is Joe Biden going to unite America?

How come it took democrats over six months to pass a bill giving Transsexuals from Pakistan millions of dollars and selected Americans $600.00 and within a week can impeach an outgoing president? Bad priorities and pure Hatred.

With these evil policies and censurship we can be proud of Chairman Joe Chinese Whore.

Patrick Fennell

-----

January 11, 2021

Re: Session is over. Here's what happened: [From Act on Mass]

Jonathan,

The [Massachusetts] Legislature worked well past its midnight deadline Tuesday, keeping legislators in session until after 4AM before closing the 2019-2020 legislative session. The text of the two major bills wasn’t released until well after midnight and passed quickly with little debate. This past session was 735 days long, and leaving the passing of essential bills till 4am on the last day of session prevented the public from having a say in the process - and Reps from being able to fully digest these bills before voting. 

Bills that weren’t finalized by the early morning hours have now officially died and will need to be re-filed in the new legislative session beginning today.

How did the State House do? We summarized what was passed, and what wasn’t, below:

The legislature passed a flurry of bills, several containing multiple provisions:

A climate bill requiring MA to become net zero by 2050 and other provisions to fight climate change, although crucially without a commitment to 100% renewable energy production that was left to die in committee at session end.

A transportation bond bill that promises up to $16.5 billion in investment for our 

transportation system, but gives the Governor leeway to spend less.

The measure did not include new progressive revenue measurers like the tiered corporate minimum tax rate that the House adopted. The largest corporations in this state, like Amazon, will continue to be able to hide their profits offshore and pay only $456.00 in corporate taxes each year.

This is a bond bill, giving the Governor discretion to spend up to these amounts, but not forcing him to.  Earlier this year, one Rep referred to this bill as “monopoly money” since activist pressure will still be needed to ensure the Governor spends this money.

The $16.5B is a good start, but as we covered last March, advocates believe we need to invest $50 billion over the next 20 years in order to meet the state’s needs. This bill only gets us a third of the way there.

An economic development bill that includes provisions designed to help businesses and also some slight reforms, including:

A version of a Student Loan Borrowers’ Bill of Rights which would crack down on some of the worst aspects of student loan debt, although it doesn’t include any form of loan forgiveness.

A version of Governor Baker’s “Housing Choices” bill to enable housing production and make zoning changes less difficult to make at the city and town level, although with very few tenant protections that housing justice advocates have said are crucial to avoid displacement and gentrification. Housing Justice advocates had said it would be “unconscionable” to pass this bill without also passing strong tenant protections, increasing gentrification. One exception: Tenant Right to Purchase was passed as part of the bill.

Provisions to legalize sports betting were excluded, although they appear to be a priority for Speaker Mariano.

Setting up a commission to make revisions to our racist flag and state seal. (actually changing the flag will require another bill to pass)

Setting up a commission to make suggestions in 2022 about how to protect Black mothers and reduce racial disparities in maternal health. 

Passing a bill to create new resources to prevent campus sexual assault.

A bill requiring the Department of Public Health to issue regulations about signage at Hospital emergency rooms to ensure people can find their way into the building during emergencies.

But the list of progressive priorities which died in committee or were sent to study is even longer:

Safe Communities Act: protecting immigrants in our state by preventing local police from cooperating with ICE.

Work & Family Mobility Act: following the lead of Virginia and 16 other states in granting drivers’ licenses regardless of immigration status.

Cherish Act: guaranteeing needed funding for the state public higher education system.

Healthy Youth Act: requiring sex education in MA to meet minimum requirements around teaching consent & being LGBTQ+ affirming.

Archaic Laws: to strike homophobic language, language offensive to the unhoused (referring to people as “vagrants,” “vagabonds” or “tramps”) off the books.

Wage Theft: preventing rampant wage theft to ensure workers aren’t scammed out of money they are owed by their bosses (which 70% of the legislature “co-sponsored”!)

100% Renewable Energy: The climate bill that was passed would only get MA to 100% renewable energy in the year 2090, which is far too late to truly combat climate change.

A bill to establish an independent commission to deal with allegations of sexual assault or harassment in the legislature.

Medicare for All: This is the 5th time the bill has been killed in committee with no progress on one of the most popular policies in the country.

A bill allowing public defenders to collectively bargain for better wages.

One Fair Wage: mandating the minimum wage be applied to tipped workers, who currently earn a sub-minimum wage of $5.55/hour.

Fair Scheduling: giving shift workers more rights in preventing unpredictable and unsafe shift changes.

Right to Strike: guaranteeing public sector workers, such as teachers, the right to strike.

Same Day Voter Registration: letting Massachusetts catch up to states like Maine which have allowed same day registration for decades.

Ranked Choice Voting: a bill to allow cities to opt into rank choice voting for local elections.

A bill to end mandatory minimum life sentences without parole.

A bill to prevent corporate hospitals from closing essential services like emergency rooms or delivery rooms for profit.

The Legislature’s extreme inaction for most of session, in addition to Tuesday night’s rush to pass bills the public hasn’t had a chance to read or weigh in on, is a big part of why we’re organizing around an amendment to require all bills be available to the public for at least 72 hours before voting.

And that’s just one of the transparency reforms we’re fighting for, which would have a huge impact on making sure the next session actually addresses working people’s needs.

We’ll be talking about what we’ve won so far and what you can do to help in these final weeks at our Campaign Update next Monday, January 18, at 6:30pm. Join us!

Thanks for everything you do,

Matt

Act on Mass

   

Act on Mass, Inc., 1223 Walnut St., Newton, MA 02461

----------

January 13, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell, and everyone else,

If I owned a social media website, I would not allow Nazi hate, racism and violence against the democratic U.S. Government.  If a far right person and/or group took me to court over free speech, I would respond by saying that Hitler should have been stopped in the 1920's and early-1930's before millions of innocent and persecuted people, especially the Jewish People, were killed in the Holocaust.  I would then say that Trump is very similar to Hitler, and that we all need to stop Trump in 2021 before his "Naziesque" politics cause mass casualties and many other nightmarish consequences.

For over one decade in Hitler's rise to power, many people did not take him seriously. Alan Chartock writes that Hitler was seen as a clown.  Then the nightmare took place for a little over one dozen years where Hitler's hate, racism and violence became reality.  We have that chance now with stopping Donald Trump from dominating our democratic government.

I believe in free speech, but not at any cost.  I believe when a politician speaks, we should take him (or her) seriously.  I believe that Donald Trump's rhetoric is scary.  I hope that Donald Trump will stop his dangerous actions, and/or that we will be able to stop him now before it will be too late.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

Most indicted rioters were not part of Parler, the banned social media site. However heavily used to organize the protest were Twitter, Google and Facebook. Odd no one in law enforcement or Congress seems to care about this FACT

Parler is banned, but the other major sources that helped organize the January 6, 2021 events get another 'Get Out Of Jail Free' pass. Odd how the DOUBLE STANDARDS continue. Big Tech/DNC/MSM  are all partners in crime together.

Guess bribing democrats helps.

Patrick Fennell

----------

"I Did Not Speak Out"

By Boston Herald editorial staff | Letters to the editor - January 13, 2021

First they came for the Trump supporters.

And I did not speak out.

Then they came for the conservative social media.

And I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Republicans.

And I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Evangelical Christians.

And I did not speak out.

Then they came for me.

And there was no one left to speak for me.

This poem is adapted from a poetic version of a post-war speech by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller. He had led a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler and was arrested in 1937. He was incarcerated at Sachsenhausen and Dachau Concentration Camps.

— John Meinhold, Portsmouth, N.H.

----------

January 15, 2021

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

It is a classic Catch-22 situation.  If the U.S. Senate holds a fair trial on the second impeachment of Donald Trump, then Trump will get to play the victim card once again that he has played throughout his troubled and very controversial presidency.  But, if the U.S. Senate holds a political trial, then Trump's alleged incitement of insurrection against U.S. Congress on January 6th, 2021 won't be taken seriously.

I think it is humorous that they called Trump's supporters breach of and riot in Capitol Hill "The Beer Belly Putsch", which is a sarcastic play on words referencing Hitler's November 8th -9th, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Germany.  Trump is a buffoon!

I compare the fall of Trump on November 3rd, 2020 to the rise of Hitler in the 1920s through the early-1930s.  Hitler openly incited insurrection against Germany's new democracy where Hitler said and wrote that Germany was the victim of the June 1919's Treaty of Versailles where Hitler alleged the Jews sold out Germany to the monied industrialized democracies who defeated Germany in World War I.  For over one decade in the 1920s through the early-1930s, Germany could have stopped Hitler from becoming Nazi Germany's fascist dictator, but instead of people taking Hitler's racist and violent ideology of hate seriously, some people agreed and sympathized with Hitler's criminal cause in a very politically divided Germany. We must not make the same mistake with Trump.  I hope that we will take Trump seriously in 2021 by the U.S. Senate holding a fair impeachment trial in the coming weeks ahead.

- Jonathan A. Melle

----------

January 21, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

You are right about our country being very divided into political factions.  The news media is saying that the far right Trump supporters have now turned against Trump.

The upcoming nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill will be interesting to read about and watch Congress vote on.  The Stock Market indices reached record highs yesterday (20 January, 2021), while the masses are falling behind.  We are in a K-shaped recovery/recession.  Wall Street is soaring to record high numbers, while Main Street is sinking to record low numbers.  The U.S. national debt is nearly $28 trillion and counting higher.  The federal budget deficits are at record highs, which means we will soon be hit with high inflation costs.  The American Dream for the working class is out of reach and will someday become a myth for everyone except the top 1.3 percent of the country.

Joe Biden and his alleged "crime" family are all worth tens of millions of dollars each without reasonable explanation.  Hunter Biden is being investigated by federal authorities for his foreign business dealings and money laundering schemes.  We the People have right to know about all of this.  Will the Biden White House owe special favors to adversarial Communist countries such as China?  Will Joe Biden have to resign?  Will Hunter Biden be prosecuted?

The Governor of Florida said on the news that he should not have to bailout New York State, which has recurring multibillion-dollar state budget deficits.  I wonder if Governor Andrew Cuomo is hoping for a Capitol Hill bailout for New York State government by saying that the fiscal year 2022's state budget deficit is estimated at $15 billion?

Iran wants to annihilate Israel, and Iran hates the U.S.A.  I don't understand why Biden is so willing to sign a nuclear weapons treaty with Iran when Iran is so hostile towards Israel and the U.S.A.  It has been clear for years that if Iran takes military action against Israel, then Iran will be wiped off of the map.  The Middle East is not the same as Europe or Asia when it comes to signing treaties, especially Iran.  From what I understand, the U.S.A. uses our Middle East allies to fight proxy wars against Iran, which has resulted in heartbreaking humanitarian crises and tragedies there.

The ruling elites and top 1.3% corporate elites have all done well during the current K-shaped recovery/recession.  Beacon Hill's lawmakers just received 3 legislative pay raises this month of January 2021.  PAC-Man Richie Neal always fills his campaign coffers with millions of corporate lobbyist dollars from K Street lobbyist firms year in and year out.  Joe Biden's pro Wall Street economic and financial team has the same players that Bill and Hillary Clinton had, which, in part, led to the 2008 meltdown of the financial system.

In closing, I agree with you, Patrick Fennell, that the little guys are still losing under the Biden administration and Democratic Congress in 2021.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

January 29, 2021

Someone posted the following hit piece, below my name, against Vice President Kamala Harris on Dan Valenti's awesome blog today.

All I can say about Trump the Nazi v Kamala Harris the Commie is that both politicians have scary political histories.  Trump led a White Nationalism movement where neo Nazis worked on both his campaigns and in his presidential administration.  Trump's racist and violent rhetoric led to his second impeachment and the upcoming trial in the U.S. Senate.  Innocent people were killed (one young woman in Charlottesville, Virgina, and five people - including a Police Officer) on Capitol Hill because Trump stoked the cause of Hitler's Nazi politics in the U.S.A.

Kamala Harris has Socialist views, as well as family and political associations with Communist China, which is one of our nation's major adversaries.  Hunter Biden has made tens of millions of dollars with his business dealings with China, Russia, Ukraine, and the like, by using his father, Joe Biden's, name and connections.  Hunter Biden is currently under federal law enforcement investigation for his lucrative business dealings with China, Russia, Ukraine, and the like, as well as his alleged money laundering.  There has been no clear or reasonable explanation for the Biden "crime" family's new found wealth where they are all now worth tens of millions of dollars each.

In closing, neither Trump the Nazi, nor Kamala the Commie, have legitimacy as past/present American White House leaders!

In Truth!

Jonathan Melle 

-----

Here is a timely editorial that exposes the hidden background of Kamala Harris from the Combat Veterans for Congress Political Action Committee that is posted here with permission of the author. CVFC PAC supports the election of US military combat veterans to the US Senate and House of Representatives. The editorial begins:

Kamala Harris’ father was an avowed Marxist professor in the Economics Department at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Both of Harris’ parents were active in the Berkeley based Afro- American Association; Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were the heroes of the Afro-American Association.

The group’s leader, Donald Warden (aka Khalid al-Mansour), mentored two young Afro-American Association members, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; they created the Maoist inspired Black Panther Party which gained strong support from Communist China; the Black Panther Party served as the model for creation of the Black Lives Matter Marxist organization Khalid al-Mansour subsequently went on to arrange financing and facilitated for Barack Hussein Obama to be accepted as a student to matriculate at Harvard Law School.

Following her graduation from college, Harris returned to California and subsequently became the mistress of the 60-year-old married Speaker of the California Assembly, Willie Brown, Jr. Brown’s political campaigns were supported and funded by Dr. Carlton Goodlett, the owner of The Sun Reporter and several other pro-Communist newspapers. Brown was elected as Mayor of San Francisco, and strongly endorsed Harris’ Marxist political philosophy; he guided Harris’ political rise in California politics, leading to her election as California’s Attorney General. Willie Brown, Jr. was a well-known long-time Communist sympathizer. Willie Brown, Jr. was initially elected to public office with the substantial help of the Communist Party USA. Today, Willie Brown is widely regarded as one of the Chinese Communist Party’s best friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While serving as San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris mentored a young San Francisco Radical Maoist activist, Lateefah Simon, who was a member of the STORM Revolutionary Movement; Simon currently chairs the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board. Simon has always been close friends with the founder of Black Lives Matter Marxist Domestic Terrorists, Alicia Garza, as well as STORM member and avowed Communist, Van Jones. Harris has been openly and aggressively supporting Black Lives Matter Marxists; Kamala Harris is still closely associated with Maoist Lateefah Simon and Marxist Alicia Garza.

Kamala Harris’s sister Maya Harris was a student activist at Stanford University. She was a closely associated with Steve Phillips, one of the leading Marxist-Leninists on campus and a long-time affiliate with the League of Revolutionary Struggle, a pro-Chinese Communist group. Phillips came out of the Left, and in college he studied Marx, Mao, and Lenin, and maintained close associations with fellow Communists. Phillips married into the multi billion dollar Sandler family of the Golden West Savings and Loan fortune. He funded many leftist political campaigns, and the voter registration drives in the Southern and South Western states in order to help his friend, Barack Hussein Obama, defeat Hillary Clinton. Phillips has been a major financial sponsor for Kamala Harris’s political campaigns for various California elective offices.

Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff works for the law firm DLA Piper, which “boasts nearly 30 years of experience in Communist China with over 140 lawyers dedicated to its ‘Communist China Investment Services’ branch. He was just appointed to Professor at Yale to school future lawyers in the fine points of Communism. When she was elected to the US Senate, Kamala Harris appointed a Pro-Communist Senate Chief of Staff, Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre was active with the New York-based Haiti Support Network. The organization worked closely with the pro-Communist China/Communist North Korea Workers World Party and supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the far-left Communist former president of Haiti and the radical Lavalas movement.

Fortunately for Harris, but potentially disastrous for the Republic, elected office holders are not subject to the security clearance process. If the FBI did a Background Investigation on Kamala Harris, she never would have passed, because of her 40-year close ties with Marxists, Communists, Maoists, and Communist China. Harris would never have been approved for acceptance to any of the 5 Military Service Academies, been appointed to a US Government Sub-Cabinet position, or would have been approved to fill a sensitive position for a high security defense contractor. Yet, since Joe Biden was elected, Harris could be a heartbeat away from being President.

The US constitutional Republic is being threatened by the People’s Republic of Communist China (PPC) externally, and by of their very active espionage operations within the United States. The People’s Republic of Communist China (PPC), with 1.4 billion people, is governed by the 90 million member Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that has been working with Russia to destroy the US Constitutional Republic for over 70 years.

The CCP operates a massive global intelligence network through its Ministry of State Security. The CCP operates a vast intelligence network in the U.S as well. It is made up, not merely of intelligence operatives working for the Ministry of State Security, but it is also made up of a myriad of business and industry officials, Chinese scholar associations, and 370,000 Chinese students currently attending American universities. It also operates the Confucius Institute indoctrination and intelligence gathering centers in the US on 67 University campuses and in seventeen K-12 Public School Districts. The Confucius Centers are staffed by Communist Chinese intelligence operatives. Refer to this.

Kamala Harris is now involved with the Biden Family Business, and is supporting Joe Biden, who has worked closely with Communist China for 12 years. Joe’s son, Hunter Biden, is the point of contact for developing the off-shore Biden Family Businesses in Ukraine, Russia, Communist China, Iraq, Iran, etc. Hunter was provided with a $5 million non-recourse loan for the Biden Family Business to form a partnership with the PPC; that loan was subsequently forgiven by Communist China for one dollar.

Hunter Biden was given $1.5 billion for the Biden Family Business, to strategically purchase interests in companies in the US Military Industrial Complex, whose technologies would enhance and improve Communist China’s defense industry. Hunter Biden was also instructed to try to take control of US companies involved in sourcing rare earth minerals in the United States. Hunter also received $3.5 Million from the wife of the Mayor of Moscow for some carefully hidden reason.

The Peoples Republic of Communist China has a military of two million men, including the world’s largest Navy. The United States does not have enough ships and munitions to defeat China’s Navy, absent the use of nuclear weapons. There is a famous book, Unrestricted Warfare, written in 1999 by two People’s Liberation Army colonels. It argues that war between the PRC and the U.S. is inevitable, and that when it occurs China must be prepared to use whatever means are necessary to achieve victory Refer to this.

If the American voters read the background information (in Trevor Loudon’s article) on Kamala Harris, they would never support her election as Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden is suffering from the early onset of dementia and will continue to decline in cerebral awareness; he will never be able to fill out a four-year term of office. Since Biden was elected, the Socialists, Marxists, and Communist who control Kamala Harris, are planning to enact provisions of the 25th Amendment, in order to remove Joe Biden from office, so Harris can become the first Communist President of the United States.

Since Biden was elected, because Biden would not be up to it, Kamala Harris would lead the effort to appoint very dangerous anti-American Leftist, Communist, Socialists, and Marxists to fill highly sensitive positions in the Washington Deep State Bureaucracy. She would fill all appointive positions in the US Intelligence Agencies, in the Department of Homeland Security, in the Department of Defense, in The Justice Department, the Department of State, the FBI, the CIA, most cabinet positions, the National Security Council, and in the White House Staff.

American voters must be alert their fellow Americans that Kamala Harris is a very serious National Security threat to the very survival of the US Constitutional Republic; she has been a fellow traveler of Marxists, Communists, Maoists, Socialists, Progressives, and Chinese Communists for over 35 years. President Trump had much more background information on Kamala Harris than we presented here, and he was correct, when he accused Kamala Harris of being a Communist subverter.

----------

February 27, 2021

The Republican Party is getting very weird!  CPAC 2021 is worshiping Donald Trump with a golden statue and Nazi-themed stage design.  Please read the following news article:

https://first-draft.com/2021/02/27/cpac-2021-of-golden-statues-odal-runes/

Donald Trump is going to make his political comeback speech at CPAC 2021 on 3:40 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 28th, 2021.  His speech will see him standing on a Nazi-themed stage design in the shape of an odal rune, which was used by Hitler's SS elite forces.  Also, there are no Republican speakers who oppose Trump scheduled to speak at the CPAC 2021 event taking place this weekend.

Why are the CPAC 2021 Republicans worshipping Trump like he is the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler?  Why does Trump want to be worshipped like this?  I believe I am living in the Twilight Zone.  This is happening 100 years after Hitler formed the EVIL Nazi Party that resulted in the deaths of countless millions of innocent people, including the 6 million Jewish People who were murdered in the Holocaust.  WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

March 14, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Thank you for sharing your email letter to the editor with me.  The U.S.A. and China account for nearly one-half of the World's global warming emissions.  It will take more than President Joe Biden's job killing environmental policies to stop global warming emissions from causing climate change.  On the other hand, Trump's corrupt EPA was horrible and did nothing but disservices to the environment!  Trump's corrupt EPA made a mockery of protecting people from industrial chemicals and the World from U.S.A.'s number two ranking in global warming emissions.  The World is being polluted with plastic, too.

I am almost 46 years old this coming Summer of 2021, and when I was a child, there were unisex locker rooms back in the 1980s and 1990s.  We did not shower together, of course, and we had individual changing rooms.  I do not believe that males and females sharing spaces and being on sports teams is new.

As for closing public schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that faculty and staff should be vaccinated as soon as possible so that public schools may open safely.

As for women's rights, I believe everyone is going nuts about every cultural issue in the book.  The Democratic Party used women's rights, including sexual harassment, to get Bill Clinton elected back in 1992.  Oh, the irony!  Oh, the hypocrisy by Hillary "Stand by your Man" Clinton!  Every time a white man criticizes a women and/or minority on a political issue, white men are scared off by cries of racism, sexism, and sexual harassment.  I believe it has all gone way too far.  I also believe that every accuser and every accused person deserves to be heard under the law.

I agree with you that the 3rd stimulus checks should not go to convicted terrorists, murderers, rapists, and the like.  Also, I agree with you that the worst criminals in our society should not be given the right to vote.  I believe the $1,400 stimulus checks and other forms of assistance are needed because we are in a "K-shaped" economic recovery/recession.  Some people call the Covid-19 recession the "She"-cession because working women have lost a lot of ground in the workforce over the past year.

The record setting federal government budget deficits are concerning.  We live in a time of "Guns & Butter", but at the expense of our country's future generations who will mostly only inherit unsustainable government debts.  Biden is 78, so he can run up the nation's proverbial credit card without worry because he has around one decade of life left on Earth.

 

As for illegal aliens getting government benefits, it means that the rest of us are paying for foreign immigrants to live in their new country: the U.S.A.  I have a good heart, and I believe in Human Rights for All Peoples and people, but I also believe that our country's nursing home debacle, Senior Citizens choosing between food and medicine, children going to "Level 5" public schools, Veterans waiting in long lines for healthcare, and the like, should be also be addressed by our corrupt ruling elites and greedy lobbyists.

I hope the Biden administration will walk the walk after all of the Democratic Party's justifiable outrage about Trump's cruel immigration policies that I have called "Crimes against Humanity", including ICE agents ripping infants from their mothers' arms.  Trump made the point that from 2009 - 2010, the Democratic Party held majorities in both chambers on Capitol Hill with Obama in the White House, but that nothing was done on immigration.  Now, from 2021 -2022, the same thing is true with Biden in the White House.  Will Congress and Biden finally address immigration over the next nearly two years?

Joe Biden is a corporate Democrat like PAC Man Richie Neal, who fills his campaign coffers with millions of dollars from K Street's corporate lobbyist firms.  Some critics say that the real Capitol Hill and Biden White House in on K Street.  The Biden alleged crime family is closely connected to China, which has paid Hunter Biden's business around $224 billion.  Hunter Biden is being investigated by federal authorities for his foreign business dealings, especially with China, and his alleged money laundering scheme.  The Biden alleged crime family are all worth tens of millions of dollars each without reasonable explanation.  Some critics believe that the Biden administration is doing China's agenda instead of representing the American people.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

-----

To the Editor of the Berkshire Eagle;

The XL Pipeline was closed soon after President Biden took office. Since the president lied about closing the Pipeline, which is more green friendly than trucking and running oil by train gas and oil prices have skyrocketed.  Over 100,000 people no longer have good paying jobs because of it, 11,000 union jobs.

Women are now forced to compete with biological men in sports. Parents can now welcome boys in girls' rest and locker rooms. Closing public schools have also taken a toll on mothers. But the DNC is more beholden to teachers unions than parents and students. So much for women's rights.

Those $2,000.00 stimulus checks are now $1,400.00, for those lucky enough to get one. The good news is the Boston Marathon Bomber will get a check though and possible the right to vote. Bet he votes democrat. Imagine asking Americans to borrow $5,714.00 to get maybe $1,400.00. More good news illegal aliens get checks too. 

Can you imagine sending your underage child to hitchhike to say Seattle from Berkshire County without adult supervision? So why does the Biden administration allow underage children to sneak over the border and stay in cages, that Obama built? Child abuse at its best.

Joe Biden ran as a moderate, he has proved to be a lying progressive.

Patrick Fennell

----------

March 14, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Are you not the one who always points out that in June 1939 during the FDR administration, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust?

Based on the true story of a ship carrying German-Jewish refugees which was sent to Havana in 1939 by the Nazis but was denied permission to land anywhere. The ship was eventually obliged to return to Germany, where certain death awaited its passengers. This terrible outcome had been cynically anticipated by the Nazis when granting permission for the voyage in the first place.

The U.S. Government Turned Away Thousands of Jewish Refugees, Fearing That They Were Nazi Spies. In a long tradition of “persecuting the refugee,” the State Department and FDR claimed that Jewish immigrants could threaten national security.

World War II prompted the largest displacement of human beings the world has ever seen—although today's refugee crisis is starting to approach its unprecedented scale.

Please note: I used information and words from Smithsonian Magazine and related Google search to write this email letter.

When Ronald Reagan was our country's 40th U.S. President, he used to say that our nation is founded on Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution.  When Donald Trump was our country's 45th U.S. President, he did not say Reagan's lofty words.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

March 27, 2021

Hello Pat,

Joe Biden, John Forbes Kerry, and the rest of the White House climate officials are all very wealthy.  They do not care about low to mid income consumers paying higher energy costs by shutting down pipeline projects and the like.  President Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package will hurt most consumers because it will cause higher inflation over time.  The $1,400 stimulus checks will net Chinese companies tens of billions of dollars.  China is the largest foreign owner of U.S. government debt.  Some critics argue that the Bush 2 and Trump tax cuts were paid for by China's Central Bank lending the U.S. government trillions of dollars.  U.S. foreign relations with China are not going well this year of 2021.  Hunter Biden's business dealings with China netted President Biden's son's business around $224 billion.   The Biden alleged crime family are all fabulously wealthy.  They are all worth tens of millions of dollars.  Hunter Biden is being investigated by federal law enforcement authorities for his foreign business dealings with adversarial countries, including Russia and China, as well as Hunter Biden's alleged money laundering.  The new media doesn't report about the Biden alleged crime family.  If it was Donald Trump (or another top Republican) instead of Joe Biden, then the news media would be covering all of this.  It is a double standard!

I agree with you about Governor Charlie Baker and most of the career politicians in Beacon Hill's Statehouse.  The state government's climate bill is unfunded to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, will grow the already bloated Massachusetts state government bureaucracies, and sets its benchmarks to limit carbon pollutions decades into the far future when all of the political hacks will be long gone.  You are right that Beacon Hill only passes laws that benefit the career politicians and their friends, relatives, and greedy lobbyists such as Daniel Bosley, Peter Larkin and Stan Rosenberg.  The climate bill will end up adding and increasing state taxes on the already hard hit and struggling state taxpayers.

I wonder why politicians vote for huge taxpayer subsidies for energy companies that emit carbon pollution, while at the same time voting for climate bills to limit carbon pollution decades from now.  The USA is the #2 polluter of carbon emissions in the World, while China is #1.  Massachusetts state government's costly climate bill won't make any difference in stopping global warming, and Governor Charlie Baker, Beacon Hill lawmakers, and the greedy lobbyists all know it.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

April 3, 2021

Hello Mr. Fritz, Johnny99 calling Vice President Kamala Harris the C-bomb on Dan Valenti's blog was WRONG!  I am happy and relieved that it was edited off from the aforementioned blog posting.  Kamala Harris is the 1st woman to hold the V.P. position in U.S. history.  I hope she will do a great job working with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office for the sake of our country.  You are the one who needs to wake up, Mr. Fritz!  Lastly, I am proud to always say that I will NEVER support Donald Trump in politics! In Truth! Jonathan Melle

----------

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Happy Easter. Happy Passover week to our Jewish friends.

Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election because of Atlanta (Georgia), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Detroit (Michigan), and Milwaukee (Wisconsin).  Donald Trump spent 4 years disparaging minorities.  What did he expect when these 4 aforementioned minorities cities voted against him in 2020?  Big Tech may have played a biased role against Donald Trump, and the MSM hated Donald Trump, but it all came down to the aforementioned 4 cities voting out Donald Trump in 2020.

Hunter Biden's book that comes out in two days (Tuesday, April 6th, 2021) sends the wrong message to America.  Hunter Biden wrote that he used to smoke crack cocaine every 15 minutes and that he drowned himself in alcohol.  Hunter Biden has at least 5 children by at least 3 different women.  Hunter Biden, now 51 years old, lied to a Family Court Judge by saying he did not father a child with a young woman, who worked as a stripper, who was half his age.  After a court ordered paternity test, Hunter Biden was proven to be the father, which meant that he could not weasel his way out of paying financial support for the mother and their love child.  Joe Biden openly says that he is proud of his last surviving son.  I believe that Joe Biden's high praise for his troubled son Hunter Biden shows very poor leadership.

How are the Biden "crime" family all worth tens of millions of dollars each?  There has been no reasonable explanation.  A 5 decades long career "swamp" politician - Joe Biden - does not make tens of millions of dollars for himself and his family legally.  Hunter Biden is being investigated by federal law agencies for alleged money laundering from his business dealings with adversarial foreign countries such as Russia and China where his business made hundreds of billions of dollars.  Then there is Hunter Biden's laptop, which may be incriminating.  I believe that if it was someone like myself instead of Hunter Biden, I would be sitting in federal prison for decades to come.  There are two sets of rules for someone like me versus someone like Hunter Biden.

The DNC's backed federal government is borrowing trillions of dollars, but hardly any of the taxpayer dollars are going to the common people.  Where is all of the money going?  The same goes for Beacon Hill.  Where is all of the state taxpayer dollars going in Massachusetts?  Even the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation is upset with Governor Charlie Baker for not spending the billions of Biden Buck$ on state government services.

Kamala Harris is a Chameleon in politics.  She makes John Forbes Kerry's flip flopping reputation look like a footnote.  Kamala Harris took Joe Biden to task for his racist public record, but now she is his loyal Vice President.

George Floyd was a flawed man with a lengthy criminal record and history of substance abuse, but none of it gave the police an excuse or the right to illegally use deadly force against him.  Everyone looks bad right now during the Derek Chauvin trial.

I agree with you that the American consumer is paying more and more for goods and services so far in 2021.  Joe Biden's climate policies are out of touch, raising prices, and killing jobs.  Joe Biden's climate team, which includes the very wealthy John Forbes Kerry, are full of multimillionaires, while workers in the energy industry are not.  China and the USA account for nearly 50 percent of global warming pollution in the World.  The US government keeps saying they are working to fight climate change, but the truth is that we are increasing our global warming pollution each and every year.  If I lived in the rest of the World, I would be upset with China and the USA right now.

Public education is underfunded and is an unjust system of inequality throughout our country.  Politicians rarely send their children to public schools and/or the U.S. Armed Forces, but they spend a lot of taxpayer dollars on both.

The southern U.S. border with Mexico is a humanitarian crisis.  It is always getting worse as time passes by.  Like 2009 - 2010, the Democrats now have two years (2021 - 2022) to pass immigration reform with majorities in both chambers of U.S. Congress and a Democrat in the Oval Office.  If Obama and now Biden really care about immigration reform, then now is the time for the Democrats to pass laws to fix this broken immigration system!  Of course, they won't fix it.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz needs to immediately resign and deal the federal investigation against him for his alleged sex trafficking of a 17 year old girl.  If he is somehow innocent, he can run for U.S. Congress again in the future.  Again, like Hunter Biden's new book, what kind of message is Matt Gaetz sending America by staying in political office?

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

April 18, 2021

The violence culture of trash has to stop by all sides!  The police have to stop.  The suspects have to stop.  The protestors have to stop.  It all has to stop.  Violence is wrong.  Only in extreme circumstances, violence should be used as a last resort.  Our trashy culture glorifies violence, sex, money, materialism, gangsters, mobs, drugs and alcohol, war, weapons - especially guns and rifles, power, status, conflict, and the like.  Why? Because "SEX SELLS!"  Put a guy with big muscles and/or a lady in a sexy bikini in an ad and you can sell anything out there.  It is all a sick cultural fantasy that has put our cultural messaging into the proverbial toilet for the Almighty Dollar.  Just look at the 46th U.S. President's son Hunter's new book where he writes about having smoked crack cocaine every 15 minutes and drowning himself in alcohol and have a street criminal point a gun at his head.  But Joe Biden says that he is proud of his last surviving son, Hunter, instead of denouncing the message Hunter's new book is sending to America's youth.  My theory on glorifying violence is that we are all psychologically insecure, and that instead of embracing our insecurities from within, we project violence from with out.  We don't want to feel human towards ourselves and each other because then we would have to directly cope with our personal insecurities.  It is easier to bully and tear someone else down than to help ourselves and each other.  Let us go nuts about immigrants, China, the far left Marxists and right wing extremists, and all of the other wedge issues out there rather than work for the common good in our society.  When will we ever realize that we are all Human Beings living together on one Planet Earth?

- Jonathan Melle

----------

April 22, 2021

Hello Pat,

The Republican Party takes brown colored immigrant babies from their mothers' arms and puts the immigrants in cages that you wouldn't put your family dog in.  The Republican Party sends White Nationalist messages to extremist groups who hate Jews, Blacks, and immigrants.  The Republican Party cuts taxes, but excessively deficit spends to the point that the U.S. national debt is nearly $30 trillion.  The Republican Party lied about Iraq having Nuclear weapons to illegally invade Iraq in 2003 so that the U.S. government and U.S. corporations can take over the World's second largest oil fields in Iraq.  The Republican Party used torture in violation of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention Treaty, including training dogs to threaten to bite men's testicles.  The Republican Party allows people to own military style weapons, including assault rifles with clips that hold 100 bullets amidst the mass shooting epidemic.  The Republican Party unanimously opposed President Joe Biden's stimulus bill that provided financial relief to the masses and state and local government.  The Republican Party opposes President Joe Biden's Infrastructure bill that would create many needed living wage jobs during the K-shaped economic recovery/recession.  The Republican Party says they oppose abortion laws, but some Republican Party politicians also oppose birth control and funding social services programs for babies and children.  The Republican Party did not stand up to President Donald Trump when he used violent, racist and sexist language, and was impeached twice for abuse of his elected office.  Trump had neo Nazis work for his campaigns and administration, but the Republican Party said nothing of it.  The Republican Party is similar to PAC Man Richie Neal in that they take in millions of dollars from K Street corporate lobbyists and billionaire-funded Super PACs.

In closing, I am unhappy with both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but the Republican Party is moving backwards in time while "Rome is burning"!

In Truth!

Jonathan

----------

April 28, 2021

Pittsfield politics is about the two useless provincial Democratic Party factions snitching on each other to pick on Yuki (and the like) so that she won't be on the City Council in 2022 like outgoing City Councilors Chris Connell and Kevin Morandi.  Pittsfield politicians are acting like children in adult bodies.

The oldest trick in the book is "divide & conquer".  I studied it throughout human history.  The powerful conquerors set unknowing groups of people against each other in order to get what they want from them.  We are all so insecure and unaware that we worry about being the ones who will lose in life that we usually fall for it.  When I studied the large continent of Africa throughout history, the European Colonialists of old used "divide & conquer" against the various African tribes to exploit Africa's rich natural resources, which were and are still collectively the most valuable natural resources on Earth.  Europe made a lot of its wealth by colonializing Africa and other foreign lands.  The U.S.A. did the same in central and south America.

I have been reading about China's influence in American politics.  China has been spending billions of dollars to influence the U.S.A.'s mainstream news media and big tech that has favored the socialist-leaning Democrats, especially Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  Donald Trump and his Hitler-like nightmarish MAGA political movement is a big target of China's MSM & big tech influence.  They silenced and criticized Trump, while being soft on Joe Biden, especially his son Hunter Biden's bad boy behavior.  Some critics believe that China's big money influence is more effective than Russia's disinformation propaganda operation.  The Chinese and Russian government want to influence our politics and government to remake our country in their Socialist and Authoritarian image.

Joe Biden is going to give a national speech on Capitol Hill tonight (April 28th, 2021) to sell his tax hike proposal on the wealthy, while he continues to deficit spend trillions of dollars on programs that hardly ever helps the masses.  The Federal Reserve is printing a record setting amount of money, and along with inflation and upcoming tax hikes, there will soon be no incentive for people to work without government controls and subsidies.  To be clear, China is buying up a lot of American capital, the federal government will control and subsidize the working class, and any Republican politician who speaks out about the conspiratorial socialist and authoritarian politics will be silenced and criticized by the MSM and big tech.  We are in a conspiratorial usurpation of our politics and government by China's authoritarian and socialist agenda.  I will never support Donald Trump's White Nationalist neo Nazi nightmarish MAGA political movement, nor will I ever support China's conspiratorial political agenda via the MSM and big tech.  I believe it is a lose-lose dilemma.  I hope there will be an alternative political movement that will protect us from fascism versus socialist authoritarianism, while preserving our free market based American democracy.

In closing, our country has never been more politically divided since the Civil War.  China and Russia are using the MSM and big tech to divide us so that they can conquer us from within.  I hope that history will not repeat itself and that we won't be conspiratorially manipulated by foreign authoritarianism and socialism to be able to stop it now before it is too late and we lose our free markets based American democracy.

- Jonathan Melle

----------

Letter: "Trump, allies should be in prison for border policies"

The Berkshire Eagle, May 12, 2021

To the editor: I just saw the most heart-rending TV report of the reuniting of a family arrested and separated for the past three years.

This sort of separation is by far the most heinous, inhumane crime, authorized by the former president and his fellow corrupt henchmen. As far as I am concerned, I'd place the highest priority of punishment on such creeps as Stephen Miller, the driving force behind the crooked administration's separation policy as well as the ethically corrupt Attorney General Bill Barr, at least for starters. While I am in some sympathy with President Joe Biden's laudable policy of not looking back too much, I am increasingly concerned and troubled by the dramatic continuation of the majority of the Republicans' attempt to destroy our democracy.

It is truly amazing that a second-class entertainment figure, without much education or moral backbone, may still have the power to poison the political atmosphere, while still enriching himself. Needless to say, rather than enjoying his luxury in Florida, he and his buddies ought to be in the slammer. Of course, I know the justice system will take its time, but let's hope they will do so in a timely manner.

Leo Goldberger, Lenox

----------

May 14, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I went for a walk with my dog and my next door condo unit neighbor this Friday evening, May 14, 2021.  My next door condo unit neighbor is a Jewish woman who told me of her concerns about Israel being bombarded by missiles from the terrorist group Hamas.  I shared her concerns.  I responded to her that if Hamas was a terrorist group in or near the U.S.A. and they (Hamas) launched missile strikes at our U.S. cities such as New York City, Boston, L.A., Washington, D.C., and the like, our federal politicians would denounce Hamas as the terrorist group that they are.  President Biden and all Members of U.S. Congress would vote to destroy Hamas for their war against us.  I said to my neighbor that Israel should be no different than the U.S.A. when it comes to terrorists declaring war against us.  President Joe Biden and Members of U.S. Congress may support both Israel and Palestine, and the long sought after but elusive two state solution, but they should all be denouncing the terrorist group Hamas and their war against Israel.  President Biden and Members of U.S. Congress are failing to advocate and defend Israel right now, which is one of our top allies in the World.

I told my neighbor that I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and that I hate Nazism.  She told me that she went to the Holocaust Museums in both Washington, D.C. and Israel.  We both agreed that the Holocaust was a tragic chapter in our World's history.  I said to her that I believe in Human Rights.

Why are we still dealing with anti-Semitism in 2021?  I go to my Veterans groups at the VA Hospital prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Jewish Veterans tell me that anti-Semitism and violence against Jewish People has gone on for thousands of years.  When will it ever end?  I asked my dad what if there is no God or gods, and we are fighting each other over religious conflicts for no reason at all?  I asked my dad what if there is a God or gods, and that God or gods disapprove of humankind fighting each other over religious conflict?  My feeling is that no one out there - past, present or future - really knows about the metaphysical realm or oblivion, and that we should stop acting like one or more groups is better than the others.

When I read about religion and all of the prophets from Moses on down the line, they supposedly talked to God, had visions, and told their people about the will of God for humankind.  If someone today said they had the same metaphysical abilities as all of the prophets in religion, we would tell them they were on drugs, had schizophrenia, and/or were delusional (mental illness).  Yet, billions of people around the World believe that prophets from thousands of years ago were sane in their minds and actually had these metaphysical abilities.  What if they were on drugs, mentally ill with schizophrenia and delusions, and/or frauds who found a way to make a living by saying that they were like ancient Jedi Knights with mystical powers like Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi?

Do I miss Donald Trump in the Oval Office?  No, I do not.  Donald Trump spoke with mixed messages about anti-Semitism (along with race, gender, etc.), and he was a big moral hypocrite when it came to religion.  I agree with you that President Trump did a good job advocating for Israel, and that President Biden is not doing a good job advocating for Israel.  If I had my choice right now, I would want Trump over Biden defending Israel against the terrorist group Hamas.  We need leadership from the White House and Capitol Hill to advocate and defend Israel from terrorism and war.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

-----

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I never understood why Israel faces so much criticism over their record on Human Rights when China and many other authoritarian countries are far worse in persecuting and screwing over the people who live in their respective political borders.  President Woodrow Wilson said that the U.S. military joined the Allies in World War 1 to keep the World safe for Democracy.  Yet, over the past century, the U.S. government has allied itself with many authoritarian countries that despise democracy and systemically violate Human Rights.  Hamas is a terrorist organization, and Hamas is waging war against Israel.  Now is not the time for Democrats in U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden to criticize Israel's record on Human Rights with Palestine.  Now is the time for the U.S. government to destroy Hamas' terrorism group once and for all to advocate for and defend Israel from terrorism and war.

I agree with you, Pat, that Donald Trump did an excellent job advocating for Israel during his 4 years in the White House.  It contradicts Trump's close ties and political messaging with far white neo Nazi and other hate groups who supported and/or worked for his campaigns and presidential administration.  White nationalist and other white hate domestic terrorist groups are a big threat to our country's national security, but somehow they are growing larger than ever.  It is the year 2021, and we are still dealing with anti-Semitism and other forms of hate from 100 years ago and even deeper into the past.  Politicians are not sending clear political messages for peace, equity, human rights, and free speech.  Instead, politicians are corrupt, want decades of political power, and millions of PAC Man special interest dollars.

I hope we are not near war in the Middle East.  I hope that we will be able to resolve the military conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas soon.  What is happening in the Middle East is heartbreaking, especially in Yemen.  When military conflict happens, it is the innocent civilians - mostly the elderly and their grandchildren - who suffer and die.  The Boston Globe had an editorial about Massachusetts selling guns and rifles to the rest of the country that account for many firearm homicides throughout the U.S.A.  What about the U.S.A. selling military weapons, which is our country's number one non-farm export, to the World that are used in military conflicts and proxy wars?  Why are U.S. states and our country profiting off of selling firearms and the exporting of military weapons instead of selling positive peace in our nation and to the world?

Biden's energy policy has resulted in tens of thousands of energy workers losing their jobs, energy inflation, and gas shortages due to shutting down pipeline projects and foreign cyber hacking.  Biden's border policies are in crisis, and it is a humanitarian crisis, too.  All inflation is at a 13 year high.  Unemployment is high, but big business also needs to raise its wages for its low to moderate income earning workers.  The federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in over one decade.  There should be a federal living wage instead of a federal minimum wage.  Moreover, wages are no longer as important as other worker benefits such as healthcare insurance and the like.  Our country is decades behind all other economically developed countries in treating our working class with the dignity of a middle class lifestyle.  The vaccine passport smacks of big brother government, yet I have my large white CDC vaccination card in my wallet.  Public schools need proper air ventilation systems or they should be closed until the air circulates properly to protect the classrooms from being petri dishes for coronavirus and the like.  Government buildings are closed, but the same air filtration systems need to be in place for those buildings as with public school buildings.  Government employees always get paid for doing nothing except for kissing politicians' dirty behinds.  Our national security is at great risk with the criminal cyber hacking of government and business.  Joe Biden has proven to be inept at responding to all of these crises at home and abroad.  The jobs report was a disaster, the U.S. government fiscal year 2021 budget deficit is at a record high at little less than $2 trillion from October 1, 2020 through May 14, 2021, and the current fiscal year doesn't end until September 30, 2021.  Will the federal budget deficit reach somewhere around $4 trillion by September 30, 2021?  Donald Trump grew the U.S. national debt by $8 trillion in 4 years in the Oval Office.  Will Biden grown the U.S. national debt by double Trump's amount to $16 trillion over the next 4 years?  Do federal government budget deficits even matter anymore?  I remember in history class, Napoleon ran the printing presses in France over 2 centuries ago, and it led to hyperinflation and his downfall.  Maybe he should have borrowed the money instead of printing it like the U.S. government is doing now?

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

May 15, 2021

Hello to my pen pal Pat,

I will keep today's open email letter letter to you short and sweet.  I hate extremists on all sides.  We are all human beings with Human Rights and we must seek peace and common ground with each other instead of conflict, violence and war.  Extremism SUCKS balls!!!!

Best wishes, 

Jon

----------

May 17, 2021

Donald Trump LIED about the novel coronavirus, and journalist Bob Woodward had it on tape recordings for his book.  Why didn't Woodward immediately release his voice recordings of Donald Trump stating that novel coronavirus was deadly?  How many innocent lives would have been saved?  NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo LIED and covered up his mismanagement of the novel coronavirus, which led to tens of thousands of senior citizens dying from it.  Why didn't Cuomo's staff - similar to Bob Woodward - immediately come forward to the news media about Cuomo's LIES and coverups?  It is not just China who LIED and covered up their role in novel coronavirus.  But, all career politicians LIE to the people they supposedly represent for a living.  Politics equals propaganda to fool the people into following the career politicians government schemes that mostly screw over the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family.

On another subject, Trump's BIG LIE scheme is not only about Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, but it is also a strategy for the Republican Party to suppress votes and rile up Trump's base to vote in large numbers in the 2022 midterm elections that are predicted to see the Republican Party retake control of both chambers of U.S. Congress from Speaker Pelosi and Senate President Schumer.  The Republican leaders ousted Liz Cheney from her leadership position last week to unite Trump's base behind the BIG LIE as one of their main strategies to gain seats in U.S. Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.  Again and lastly, that is how career politicians operate: by LYING for a living!

- Jonathan Melle

----------

May 17, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Thank you for responding to my latest email letter about career politicians' lying that led to many thousands of deaths during the novel coronavirus pandemic.  I believe there was some voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, but I don't believe it was systemic and broad enough to change the will of the American voters.  I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion.

The U.S. Secretary of State was on CNN news today calling Hamas a terrorist group who is at war with Israel.  President Joe Biden should join Israel to destroy the terrorist group Hamas once and for all.  The Democrats in U.S. Congress who are critical of Israel should also condemn the terrorist group Hamas.  The war in Israel and the Gaza Strip is carrying over to a new week with no end in sight.  Many innocent people, including many women and children, are still being killed.  This is a tragedy!

I believe all law enforcement authorities need to be checked for misconduct and political meddling.  The FBI has had a dark history of both misconduct and political meddling over the years.  We put a lot of faith in law enforcement to do the right thing by society, and there are a lot of good law enforcement officers who work to protect us from crime.

I received your email about Biden's historic stimulus spending bill being welfare for the rich with all of the earmarks and bailout funds for big business.  My response to you, Pat, is that the real Capitol Hill is on K Street in the Swamp where all of the corporate lobbyists buy votes from PAC Man Richie Neal and many other corrupt Members of U.S. Congress.  The federal minimum wage, which is still at $7.25 per hour, since 2009 - for the past 12 years now - is ridiculous in the real economy, but the ruling elites would not begin to understand the plight of the working poor because they are all very well taken care of by the taxpayers and PAC Men lobbyists.

Lastly, I am still upset that during the 2008 financial crisis, both political parties bailed out Wall Street with trillions of taxpayer dollars, as well as foreign banks with hundreds of billions of dollars.  Then, the banking elites gave themselves huge bonuses after tanking our economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.  The U.S. national debt is nearly $28.3 trillion and counting higher on Monday, May 17th, 2021 at 13:40.  The economic and financial system only benefits the ruling and corporate elites, while the rest of us get the proverbial shaft.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

May 22, 2021

Hello Alan Chartock,

Re: https://theberkshireedge.com/i-publius-another-casablanca/ 

From what I understand about Donald Trump's politics after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden is that his anti-democratic actions are more about strategies for the Republican Party than establishing a fascist U.S. state.  The Republican Party sees Donald Trump's politics as a way to build upon his large base of supporters to gain majorities in U.S. Congress in the 2022 midterm elections and retake the White House in the 2024 presidential election.  When Representative Liz Cheney was ousted from her House leadership position, it was a strategy to make an example of her for opposing Trump's "Big Lie" that he won the 2020 presidential election.  When state governments passed voter suppression laws, it was a strategy to build support for Trump's Republican Party in 2022 and 2024.  When state government's passed laws to overturn abortion rights, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case to overturn Roe v. Wade, it is and will be a strategy to build support for Trump's Republican Party in 2022 and 2024.  I hope it will fail, but Trump succeeded in 2016.

Adolf Hitler wrote books nearly one hundred years ago in the 1920s where he admired the U.S.A. for our country's systemic racism, including the racist use of eugenics.  Adolf Hitler wrote that the U.S. government's racist immigration laws that target Italians and Jews from entering the U.S.A. was what he wanted to do in Germany.  Adolf Hitler modeled Nazi Germany, in part, after the U.S.A. because we defeated Germany in World War One as an industrialized, wealthy and racist country.  Let us not forget our country's real history in favor of Hollywood propaganda movies.

After World War Two, the U.S.A. entered continuous wars through our time in 2021 where the U.S. government killed millions upon millions of foreign people.  The U.S. government overturned foreign democratic governments and became allies with authoritarian states when it was in our national and economic interests.  The U.S. government built a military industrial complex where the U.S.A. is the top exporter of military weapons in the World.  After the Soviet Union collapsed in the early-1990s, the U.S. government quickly took the Russian government's market share in exporting military weapons.  The U.S. government fights in proxy wars that create humanitarian crises around the world.  My point is that even after the U.S. government defeated Adolf Hitler's Nazi German regime, the U.S.A. today would still be a model for Adolf Hitler to admire 100 years later in 2021.

Lastly, let us not forget that it was Donald Trump who confronted Joe Biden about Joe Biden's long and ugly history of racist politics over Joe Biden's nearly 5 decades as a career politician in the Swamp.  Also, Donald Trump confronted Hillary Clinton four years prior in 2016 about her history of racist politics when she was First Lady in the 1990s.  I will never support Donald Trump in politics, but let us call a spade and spade!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

May 23, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Thank you for responding to my email letter.  I always enjoy reading your thoughts on politics.  I agree with you about the Middle East and the dangerous terrorist groups there who threaten Israel, who is one of our country's top allies.  The terrorist group Hamas is NOT part of the Palestinian government.  Hamas is a violent terrorist group who launched countless missiles into Israel.  I believe that Israel, with the support of the World, should destroy Hamas and other Middle East terrorist groups once and for all.  I believe that if Hamas or similar terrorist groups launched missiles into U.S. cities, then the U.S. government would destroy them.  Joe Biden showed weak leadership against the Hamas terrorist group instead of defending Israel's national security.

On the growing inflation pandemic, I believe that Joe Biden is not helping matters by making energy more expensive by shutting down U.S. oil pipelines, while approving of Putin's oil pipeline in Russia.  The U.S. needs a comprehensive energy policy, not pipedreams of a so-called Green New Deal led by former oil and gas billionaire investor named John Forbes Kerry.  One of the major reasons why the Allies defeated Hitler's Nazi Germany military in World War 2 is that we cut off their access to oil.  Hitler had tanks and planes, but without oil to run them, Hitler had nothing, while the Allies had everything because the Allies controlled the oil.

Joe Biden wants to raise taxes on less than 1.5 percent of the U.S. population - or the very wealthy, but his tax policies would not begin to make a dent in the record U.S. budget deficit that may reach between $3 trillion to $4 trillion by September 30, 2021.  Moreover, the Democrats in U.S. Congress don't even want to pass Joe Biden's tax hike on the very top income earners.  I always ask the question, why do Democrats always want to tax the very wealthy when they - along with Republicans - in U.S. Congress always give them huge tax breaks and bailout funds?  It makes no sense to me.

Donald Trump used Hitler's playbook for years.  Donald Trump had neo Nazis work for his campaigns and administration.  Donald Trump used sexist, racist, hateful and violent language that incited far right groups into violent action.  Donald Trump's "crimes against humanity" immigration policies had no bottom or decency.  To be clear, Donald Trump was and still is the top leader of the White Nationalist political movement in the U.S.A. - which is SCARY!

I totally disagree with you, Patrick Fennell, that all of the blame and corruption fall on the Democrats as of January 21, 2021.  The Republican Party is obstructing and covering up the January 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.  The Republican Party is obstructing Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate President Chuck Schumer.  The Republican Party is using Trump's far right political playbook as a political strategy to win back control of the U.S. Congress in the midterm elections in 2022, and the White House in 2024.  Any Republican Party politician who stands up to Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is tossed to the proverbial curb.  Donald Trump has no bottom and he will win at any and all costs.  Donald Trump is a very dangerous leader of the Republican Party!

In closing, I am NOT happy with Joe Biden as our current U.S. President, but I will NEVER support Donald Trump!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

August 30, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Our country is in multiple crises.  Covid-19 infections are predicted to spike higher this fall.  Afghanistan is a tragic and nightmarish debacle.  Inflation is at its highest level in decades.  We are in an energy crisis.  The U.S. Government's federal budget deficits are in the multitrillion-dollar levels, and the U.S. national debt is close to $30 trillion.  Biden and the Democrats in the Swamp spent a whopping $6 trillion in Biden's first 100 days in the White House.  This Fall, Biden and the Democrats want to spend another $4.1 trillion.  In addition, the federal budget is in the trillions of dollars range, and next year's federal budget is predicted to top $6 trillion.  The U.S. Congress still needs to either raise or suspend the debt ceiling, or else the U.S. Government would go into credit default, which would create a second Great Depression.  Like you, I wish we had a better U.S. President right now than Joe Biden.  For the record, I will never support Donald Trump because he is a Nazi who led a racist white nationalist political movement that led to the January 6th insurrection on Capitol Hill where multiple innocent people were killed by Trump's rioting supporters that terrible day.  I understand that we disagree about Donald Trump, and I will always respect you for supporting for Donald Trump.  I always enjoy reading your political email letters, and I appreciate that you respond to my political email letters.  We are both Veterans who care about our country.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

----------

October 8, 2021

Hello Rinaldo,

You are a DISGRACE for defending neo Nazis in Boston under the pretense of "Free Speech".  That is how Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in the 1920s and early 1930s in Germany - under the pretense of "Free Speech".  I am very upset with you, Rinaldo.  I cannot believe that you choose to defend domestic terrorism in Boston.  I would not even call you a fringe politician because you are really an extremist politician and lawyer.  Donald Trump's White Nationalist political movement is Nazism, and no one in their right mind should call fascist domestic terrorism in Boston and elsewhere in the USA "Free Speech".  People have died in Charlottesville Virginia and in and around Capitol Hill due to Donald Trump's White Nationalist political movement.  Other people have suffered injuries, as well as suicides and mental illnesses.  Donald Trump is a dangerous man and politician, and "Free Speech" does not excuse his violence, racism, sexism and Nazism.

https://www.universalhub.com/2021/right-wingers-lose-another-boston-legal-battle

Jonathan A. Melle

----------

NEWS ARTICLE:

"Texas School Official Apologizes For 'Opposing' Views On Holocaust Comment"

The remarks were "in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," said the superintendent.

By Mary Papenfuss, Huffpost.com - 10/16/2021

A north Texas school superintendent has apologized for an administrator’s instruction that students be taught “opposing” views on the Holocaust.

The executive director of curriculum and instruction at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake was recorded earlier this month suggesting to a group of teachers that a new Texas law requires them to present “opposing” perspectives on events, no matter how horrifying they might be.

“Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has opposing — that has other perspectives,” instructed the official, Gina Peddy, as teachers reacted in stunned surprise

NBC News published a recording of the comments on Thursday[, October 14, 2021].

District Superintendent Lane Ledbetter issued a statement later on Thursday offering his “sincere apology,” and insisting that Peddy’s comments were “in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history.”

He added: “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides to the Holocaust.”

Peddy was reacting to the state’s hugely controversial new curriculum law, which eliminated a requirement to teach that the Ku Klux Klan is “morally wrong,” among numerous other changes.

The law is a thinly veiled attempt to overwhelm the teaching of critical race theory in schools with requiring “opposing” views.

“The idea is to whitewash American history of any legacy of racism,” state Rep. James Talarico (D) said of the law when it passed. An additional consequence of whitewashing racism appears to be soft-pedaling anti-Semitism.

The law prohibits teachers from discussing “a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” If a teacher does engage in such a discussion in the classroom, the educator is required to “explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.”

The Holocaust — namely, Nazi Germany’s murder of 6 million Jews — is not a “widely debated” or “currently controversial” issue.

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association union, told The Washington Post that Peddy’s instruction to teachers was “reprehensible.”

“We’re saddened to hear it, but we’re not terribly surprised,” said Robison. “There is enough vagueness and ambiguity in that law that some educators are overreacting to it, as we feared that they would.”

-----

NEWS ARTICLE:

"Texas School Official Suggests Teaching Both Holocaust Books And ‘Opposing’ Views: Report"

The administrator's comments came in response to a Texas law that seeks to limit how teachers discuss white supremacy and systemic racism in public schools.

By Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, HuffPost.com - 10/14/2021

A school administrator in Texas told teachers that, to comply with a new state law, if they teach a book about the Holocaust, they should also include a book that has “opposing” or “other perspectives,” reported NBC News.

In a recording of a meeting last Friday, which a Carroll Independent School District teacher provided to NBC News, Gina Peddy, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, is heard training teachers on how to comply with a new Texas law that broadly seeks to block teachers from talking about white supremacy, racism and privilege in classrooms.

“We are in the middle of a political mess,” Peddy says in the recording, later adding: “No one knows how to navigate these waters.”

“Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has opposing, that has other perspectives,” Peddy says, as shocked outbursts and murmurs are heard around the room.

“What?” one teacher says. “How do you oppose the Holocaust?” asks another.

The school district did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment — including clarification of what exactly constitutes an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust, other than Holocaust denial.

District spokesperson Karen Fitzgerald told NBC News that “Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” and that the district’s “purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed.”

“Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed,” she added.

The recent Texas law the administrator is reacting to, House Bill 3979, requires that teachers who discuss “widely debated and currently controversial issues” in the classroom explore these from “diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.”

The Holocaust — namely, Nazi Germany’s murder of 6 million Jews — is not a “widely debated” or “currently controversial” issue. The Texas law also makes no mention of which books teachers should have students read.

Texas is just one of several states — including Tennessee, Iowa, Idaho and Oklahoma — to enact laws this year seeking to limit how teachers discuss systemic racism in public schools, often under the guise of banning “critical race theory” from classrooms. Republican lawmakers are pushing similar bills in nearly two dozen states.

While the laws passed don’t all explicitly mention critical race theory — a college-level academic discipline focused on how racism is embedded in the country’s legal, political and social institutions — they are all written with similar language meant to stifle instruction about racism, privilege and white supremacy.

Texas’ law, notably, also instructs social studies teachers in public K-12 schools not to talk in class about the concepts that “an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race” or that “an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” based on their race or sex.

Teachers who spoke to HuffPost in June condemned the laws in Texas and other states as attempts to “whitewash” history that also lead to confusion about what they can and can’t teach.

-----

‘And make sure that — if you have a book on the Holocaust — that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.’

— Gina Peddy, Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas

"An ‘opposing’ view on the Holocaust? Texas school system presents new perspective on diversity of opinion."

By Jeremy Binckes, MarketWatch, October 15, 2021

A school system in Southlake, Texas, is on the defensive after a secret recording captured an administrator saying that any discussions about the Holocaust should be accompanied by one with an opposing view. It’s a question that alarmed teachers participating in the meeting, according to the audio, obtained by NBC News.

The directive was shocking to teachers, who asked, “How do you oppose the Holocaust?”

But it’s a reality of the current political environment, admitted Gina Peddy, which she referred to as a “political mess,” adding: “And so we just have to do the best that we can.”

Teachers revealed that they were terrified by the state’s recently passed House Bill 3979, legislation designed to “abolish critical race theory in Texas,” in the words of Gov. Greg Abbott, referring to a pedagogical approach typically introduced in postgraduate curricula and law schools. The Texas bill, set to take effect in December, curtails teachers’ freedom to talk about race — specifically, barring the teaching of material that could cause a student to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.”

The bill can be traced to an uproar following the 2019 release of the “1619 Project,” a New York Times publication that offered a view of how race has been intertwined in the American identity since 1619, when the first slave ships arrived in Virginia from Africa. The publication caused a groundswell of conservative opposition, which can of late be seen in the race for governor of Virginia. There, Republican Glenn Youngkin is bolstered by parents who have protested at school board meetings.

Peddy, the curriculum director for the Carroll Independent School District in the Dallas suburb, did give the teachers some support, telling them, “If you think [a] book is OK, then let’s go with it. And whatever happens, we will fight it together.”

-----

"For Holocaust Scholar, Another Confrontation With Neo-Nazi Hate"

By Elizabeth Williamson, The New York Times, November 2, 2021

WASHINGTON — Deborah E. Lipstadt, a renowned Holocaust scholar, was not in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017 when torch-bearing neo-Nazi marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us” and a young woman was killed in the violence. And yet Dr. Lipstadt is to take the stand in the continuing trial, where she will testify as a historian linking the antisemitism of the past to the politics of the present.

Dr. Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, is scheduled to appear in Charlottesville on Wednesday for the plaintiffs in Sines v. Kessler, a civil case brought against two dozen neo-Nazis and white nationalist groups who organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in the college town. The nine plaintiffs include people who were injured when James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist, drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring at least 19 others.

The Charlottesville plaintiffs are suing the white nationalist groups under Virginia laws and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which Congress passed to help protect formerly enslaved African Americans from mob violence. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the groups unlawfully conspired to deprive the plaintiffs of their rights as citizens. The groups and their lawyers say they were exercising their right to free speech, and their advance planning centered on self-defense.

The plaintiffs, who seek unspecified damages, say they want to show Americans how the chants of the marchers are connected to other forms of racism and have gained a renewed foothold in American politics. Dr. Lipstadt declined to comment for this article — attorneys for the plaintiffs barred her from interviews before her testimony — but in a 48-page report she prepared for the trial, she wrote that “this fear of active replacement by the Jew, derived directly from the historical underpinnings of antisemitism, is a central feature of contemporary antisemitism.”

“Two animuses — racism and antisemitism — come together in the concept of a ‘white genocide’ or ‘white replacement’ theory,” Dr. Lipstadt wrote in the report. “According to adherents of this theory, the Jews’ accomplices or lackeys in this effort are an array of people of color, among them Muslims and African Americans.”

Dr. Lipstadt, 74, has spent her career studying antisemitism, a 2,000 year-old prejudice “which has properly been described as the longest or oldest group-based hatred,” she wrote in her report. Her scholarship has been recognized by presidents in both parties. In July, President Biden announced he would nominate Dr. Lipstadt as a State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. She awaits confirmation by the Senate for the position, which carries the rank of ambassador.

‘The Crisis We’re Facing’

In 2017, many Americans were shocked to see hundreds of their fellow citizens marching against the removal of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, wearing and displaying Nazi symbols, waving Confederate flags and chanting slogans associated with the Third Reich. But since then, their animating ideology, great replacement theory — the false idea that religious and racial minorities are bent on eradicating white Christians or replacing them in society — has moved from the fringes to the mainstream, Dr. Lipstadt and civil rights groups say.

“This trial can play a crucial role, opening people’s eyes to the crisis we’re facing, the ways in which the ideology we’re talking about here has become so normalized,” said Amy Spitalnick, the executive director of Integrity First for America, the nonprofit group that brought the Charlottesville lawsuit. “We want to make clear that there are consequences for that.”

Replacement theory is often expressed through conspiracy theories about voting fraud, Jewish or foreign-born “globalists,” “invasions” and the electoral dominance by nonwhite immigrants, and has been espoused by Fox News commentators, Republican members of Congress and former President Donald J. Trump. In 2017, Mr. Trump drew widespread criticism when he used the phrase “very fine people on both sides,” in addressing the neo-Nazi attack on counterprotesters in Charlottesville. Perpetrators of at least three mass shootings since 2017 expressed belief in replacement theory.

In April, Fox News host Tucker Carlson espoused replacement theory on air. “The left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the third world,” Mr. Carlson said on the broadcast. “That’s what’s happening actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.”

White nationalists who organized the rally in Charlottesville praised Mr. Carlson’s comments, which were echoed by some Republicans in Congress. At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on immigration that month, Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, said that “many Americans” believed that “we’re replacing national-born American — native-born Americans to permanently transform the political landscape of this very nation.”

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, sent a news release to his constituents in April, with his quotes from an interview on Fox Business in which he said the Biden administration wanted “complete open borders, and you have to ask yourself, why? Is it really that they want to remake the demographics of America to insure that they stay in power forever?”

“There’s this kind of hate laundering that takes place, where fringe ideas move from the margins into the mainstream laundered by pundits, political candidates or even elected officials as if they are some kind of legitimate discourse,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said in an interview.

Mr. Greenblatt called for Mr. Carlson’s resignation after his remarks in April. The A.D.L. and the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Mr. Carlson when he again invoked replacement theory in September, and after he announced that he was working on a series wrongly casting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as fomented by political enemies of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Carlson’s claims in September were echoed by Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who wrote on Twitter, “@TuckerCarlson is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America. The ADL is a racist organization.”

“You can draw a straight line from Charlottesville to the Capitol to Tucker Carlson’s new propaganda piece, which perpetuates this myth that there’s some ‘cabal’ perpetrating this,” Mr. Greenblatt said. “Nativist sentiment has been an ugly aspect of American history for centuries, but what we need to acknowledge and understand today is that these myths aren’t just damaging, they are deadly.”

History’s Most Persistent Prejudice

In the paper she prepared for the trial, Dr. Lipstadt writes that neo-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville united “under a specific theme, particularly emphasized in the chant used during the Aug. 11 nighttime tiki-torch march: ‘Jews will not replace us.’”

“This fear of active replacement by the Jew, derived directly from the historical underpinnings of antisemitism, is a central feature of contemporary antisemitism.”

Understand the Charlottesville Rally Trial

What happened in Charlottesville? On Aug. 12, 2017, there was a white supremacist rally, called  “Unite the Right,” in Charlottesville, Va., in protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, The event saw participants clash with counterprotesters and culminated with the death of one woman.

Were there any criminal cases? Four white nationalists were sentenced to jail for beating a Black man. Several protesters and counterprotesters were convicted on various charges, including assault. James Fields Jr., a neo-Nazi, was sentenced to multiple life sentences in federal prison for killing Heather Heyer when he drove his car into a crowd.

What is this civil case? This trial takes aim at the organizers of the rally with plaintiffs seeking damages for the injuries they sustained. Lawyers are relying on a federal law from 1871 designed to protect the rights of free slaves against the Ku Klux Klan.

Who are the plaintiffs? The nine plaintiffs include an ordained minister, a landscaper and several students. They are seeking damages for injuries, lost income and severe emotional distress.

Who is being sued? The defendants in the Charlottesville rally civil case are drawn from a range of white nationalist or neo-Nazi organizations, and include far-right figures like Richard B. Spencer, Jason Kessler and Christopher Cantwell. They do not have a uniform defense.

Why does this case matter? The trial will revisit one of the most searing manifestations of how hatred and intolerance that festers online can spread onto the streets. The plaintiffs say they decided to act after there was no broader federal or state effort to hold the organizers accountable.

Dr. Lipstadt cites multiple examples of Unite the Right organizers extending great replacement theory to members of other races, including an online appeal by the white nationalist Richard Spencer, a defendant in the Charlottesville case, who is representing himself. “Will you let them replace you?” Mr. Spencer wrote on his online publication. “Will you just roll over and let them run roughshod over white culture and white people? Or will you join us?”

Dr. Lipstadt received her undergraduate degree from City College of New York and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Brandeis University. She has written six books on antisemitism, the Holocaust and Holocaust denial.

In 1993, Dr. Lipstadt published “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.” The English writer David Irving, who Dr. Lipstadt described in the book as the most dangerous Holocaust denier, responded by suing her and her publisher, Penguin Books, for libel in Britain, whose system differs from the American in that it reverses the burden of proof, putting the onus on Dr. Lipstadt to prove that the statements at issue were true.

In 2000, Mr. Irving lost the case, his defeat accompanied by a 349-page verdict that was a condemnation of his false beliefs and denialism writ large. The 10-week trial is documented in Dr. Lipstadt’s book “History on Trial,” which became the basis of a 2016 film, “Denial.”

But Holocaust denial and antisemitism has persisted on the political right and left, fueled and spread by the internet, often disguised as concerns about immigration or Zionism.

“When expressions of contempt for one group become normative, it is virtually inevitable that similar hatred will be directed at other groups,” Dr. Lipstadt wrote in “Antisemitism: Here and Now,” her 2019 book about the resurgence of antisemitism in different guises. “Even if anti-Semites were to confine their venom to Jews, the existence of Jew-hatred within a society is an indication that something about the entire society is amiss.”

-----

"Cheney speaks: Defending democracy matters"

The NH Union Leader, Editorial, November 17, 2021

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming spoke at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications’ First Amendment Honors program last Tuesday. Below are excerpts from her remarks.

You know, I am a conservative Republican. I disagree strongly with nearly everything President Biden has done since he has been in office. His policies are bad for this country. I believe deeply that conservative principles: limited government, low taxes, a strong national defense, the family — the family as the essential building block of our nation and our society, those are the right ideals for this country.

I love my party. I love its history. I love its principles, but I love my country more. I know this nation needs a Republican Party that is based on truth, one that puts forward our ideals and our policies based on substance. One that is willing to reject the former president’s lies. One that is willing to tell the truth: that millions of Americans have been tragically misled by former President Trump, who continues to this day to use language that he knows provoked violence on January 6th.

We need a Republican Party that is led by people who remember that the peaceful transfer of power is sacred and it undergirds the very foundations of our Republic. We need Republican leaders who remember that fidelity to the Constitution, fidelity to the rule of law, those are the most conservative of conservative principles.

In the months since January 6th, I have sometimes heard people say something like, “Well, what happened was bad, but it wasn’t that big a deal because our institutions held.”

To those people, I say, our institutions do not defend themselves. We the people defend them.

Our institutions held on January 6th because there were brave men and women, elected officials at every level of our government who did their duty, who stood up for what was right, who resisted pressure to do otherwise. And our institutions held because of the bravery of the men and women in law enforcement and in our military, our Capitol Police, some of whom are here with us today, our metropolitan police, the ATF — men and women in law enforcement who defended the most sacred space in our Republic, our Capitol building.

Our institutions held because there were 140 law enforcement officers who fought for hours and held the tunnel on the West front of the Capitol, preventing a violent mob of even more, thousands more, from entering our building. Because of those brave men and women, Congress was safe and we carried out our constitutional duty to count the electoral votes.

That is why our institutions held. Because men and women of courage and honor recognized one of the most fundamental principles in a Republic — and that is the principle that no citizen in a Republic is a bystander. No one is. Every one of us is called to defend this great experiment of government of, by and for the people.

In all the history of mankind there has never been a place like America. Our nation is far from perfect, but we know that it is our founding documents, our founding principles, the Constitution, our Bill of Rights, that provide the path forward for freedom and for justice for every one of us — and not just for us, but for all mankind.

-----

November 17, 2021

Hello Editor of the NH Union Leader,

Congresswoman Liz Cheney's words are wonderful, and it is not her fault that her father is former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was called Darth Vader for his role in the the U.S. Government's use of torture against foreign Peoples and people in Iraq and elsewhere many years ago now.  While I agree with her speech criticizing Donald Trump's violent leadership role in the January 6th, 2021 mob riot and violent insurrection on and in Capitol Hill, I must state that her father "Darth Vader" also had a public record of violent leadership.  

Jonathan A. Melle

-----

Letter: "We are still at risk of losing our democracy"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 26, 2021

To the editor: It is my impression as a naturalized citizen from Europe (where I endured Hitler’s regime as a youngster) that only quite a few U.S.-born citizens really know the history and meaning of the much celebrated Thanksgiving day.

I also doubt whether the public at large realize the magnitude of the continuing lies spawned by Donald Trump and his significant allies and their potential impact to have on our lives in the near future if things continue as dangerously as it seems right now.

The impact on our historically renowned and treasured “democracy” is obviously and seriously at stake. In my own social circle, quite an increasing number are of deeply concerned with their various fantasies of moving to other countries such as Canada, for example. While they have had it with Trump and his spineless Republican party — they seem stymied and seemingly helpless as to how to combat the Trump-“pandemic,” for which no obvious vaccine seems to be at the ready — all one can hope for from the Democratic Party is to counter all the current, vile efforts to curtail voting rights and for them to insist on a judicial crackdown on the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

How can those of us who are so aware of the potential danger just sit quietly by? It is uppermost in my mind these troubling days.

Leo Goldberger, Lenox

-----

November 29, 2021

I posted on Planet Valenti's blog:

Utopias exist with Unicorns, Pots of Gold, Santa Claus, Pigs with Wings that Fly, and the Green New Deal or possibly MAGA Trumpism….

At least I try. It is true that in the heat of the moment, I don't always succeed.  Trump is the leader of the Nazi-like MAGA White Nationalist Movement in the USA.  He has his counterparts in Europe.  The alt right is Nazism!

Jonathan Melle

-----

Letter: "Not the first time we've had to defend against those who would burn books"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 26, 2021

To the editor: I recently read Ruth Bass' Nov. 23 column concerning the dangers of book burning — a most important issue in our democracy where we value the concepts of free press and freedom of expression.

She did a masterful job. I was, however, disappointed that she did not cite, as support of her point, the brief speech which President Dwight D. Eisenhower (at that time, new to his task and relatively untested) made on the matter in remarks at the 1953 Commencement at Dartmouth College. I was at that commencement. His was not the main address, but its content has outlasted whatever else was said that day.

This was at the time of the McCarthy rants and a critical time of our republic. The most quoted part was "Don't jon the bookburners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed." This is from the same man who, as a military commander, had earlier demanded that a lot of pictures be taken of the concentration camp horrors because "someday someone will say they did not happen."

George A. Haskins, Webster, N.Y.

-----

Letter: "An urgent time for America's democracy"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 30, 2021

To the editor: This is a note of gratitude for Leo Goldberger's Nov. 26 letter “At risk of losing democracy.”

In it, he speaks of the increasing hatred for and lies about "the other" in America and the fearful impact it will have on everyone’s lives “if things continue as dangerously as it seems right now.” Mr. Goldberger’s prescient words also remind us of the clear parallels to Hitler’s time and our own troubled time. It is now — before it’s too late — our responsibility to contemplate this growing reality and to be the agents for turning things around.

And for all who are concerned about the future of our unfinished democracy in America (and everywhere), I recommend that there may be no better prompt for action than an urgent reading of the human stories in Milton Mayer’s timeless book "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45."

Samuel W. Smith, Williamstown

-----

August 8, 2022

The news article, below, is yet another example of Donald Trump acting like Adolf Hitler.  Trump's tagline "MAGA" really means "NAZI", and Donald Trump is the far right-wing leader of the racist White Nationalist movement in the U.S.A.  How can anyone with a good conscience support Donald Trump in U.S. politics?  History has proven that Nazis and Communists alike have literally both killed hundreds of millions of innocent people with their inhumane ideologies of terror and systemic violence to achieve their political ends.  Donald Trump's leadership has been one of hate and violence.  I hope that Donald Trump will be stopped.  We don't need another nightmare in human history.

Our country was founded on Human Rights by Founding Fathers who mostly owned Slaves.  U.S. President Ronald Reagan used to publicly say that our nation was founded on Human Rights.  The Bill of Rights and related U.S. Constitutional Amendments, the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the like, codified into law that the U.S.A. is a nation of laws instead of men whereby we stand for Human Rights.  Donald Trump stands against Human Rights and everything good that the U.S.A. stands for in our one world.  Down with Trump!

Jonathan Alan Melle

-----

"Trump told top aide he wanted ‘totally loyal’ generals like Hitler had"

John Bowden, Independent, August 8, 2022

Donald Trump complained to his most senior aide, then-chief of staff John Kelly, that he wanted the US’s top generals including retired military figures to show him absolute, unquestioning loyalty while specifically pointing to Nazi Germany as an example.

In a bizarre exchange described by reporters for The New Yorker and The New York Times in an upcoming book Mr Trump is said to have asked his top aide, who himself was a four-star general in charge of US Southern Command, “[W]hy can’t you be like the German generals?”

A bewildered Mr Kelly reportedly responded, “Which generals?” to which Mr Trump supposedly shot back, “The German generals in World War II.”

His chief of staff then allegedly told the president, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”

But the president in response substituted his own version of history.

“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Mr Trump reportedly insisted to his aide.

The excerpts were published on Monday in The New Yorker. The Divider: Trump in the White House, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, is due to release in September.

Mr Kelly served as chief of staff through the first half of Mr Trump’s tumultuous four years in office, joining after the exit of Reince Priebus. He imposed some order on the rowdy group of Trump loyalists in the West Wing, including clashing with Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart News chief, and eventually ousting him.

He left the office in early January 2019. Surprisingly, the remarks reported on Monday are not the first approving words the ex-president has been accused of making about Nazi Germany and its leadership in conversations with Mr Kelly in particular. He is said to have told Mr Kelly, "Well, [Adolf] Hitler did a lot of good things" during a 2018 trip to France alongside his top advisers, a statement first reported by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal for his own book about the Trump presidency. Mr Trump denied making those remarks through a spokesperson after the book’s publication.

The former president had a troubled relationship with top American military brass while in office. He at first appeared to be seeking to align his administration with the views of the US military establishment by staffing a number of top positions in his White House, including his chief of staff position, with retired generals like Mr Kelly and James Mattis.

But by the end of his presidency he had clearly fallen out of favour with those same retired brass (and they with him as well) and was re-embracing the politicians and loyalists who made up much of his inner circle. In June of 2020 he received some of his most withering criticism made by a former member of his administration when Mr Mattis responded to the use of law enforcement officers to clear peaceful protesters from a park outside of the White House so that the president could take part in a photo op.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mr Mattis wrote at the time. “Instead he tries to divide us.”

-----

Letter: "Why Republicans gaining power in Congress concerns me"

The Berkshire Eagle, January 19, 2023

To the editor: Now that Republicans have recaptured the House (aiming for the Senate and White House, to which I have long thought they believe they were always entitled), I am concerned about what I see as their objectives:

Make it harder for people to vote, especially the poor. Eliminate polling places, demand difficult to obtain IDs, eliminate mail-in and early voting, install challengers everywhere. And challenge any result not in their favor.

Assure no halt to money flowing into politics, this being one of the biggest risks to our democracy.

Cut anything helping the less-advantaged (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, child benefits, housing subsidies). Eliminating these hurts all of us, not just the less-advantaged.

Eliminate affirmative action, denying that some descendants of slaves, having been denied the vote, good education, and the ability to accumulate wealth, need help to attain the American dream.

Eliminate abortion (perhaps contraception), denying women control of their own bodies, but provide no aid or support for these women and babies.

Invalidate same-sex marriage and LGBTQIA rights Is making homosexuality illegal impossible?

Increase bail (preferably cash) and prolong incarcerations. Eliminate “luxuries” like rehabilitation and education. And give impunity, not bodycams, to the police.

No more immigration, legal or otherwise, with the apparent goal being to try and keep America white and Christian.

Eliminate gun restrictions. The 2nd Amendment was ratified in 1791, when men used single-shot muskets to hunt game and defend against “marauders,” not assault rifles to kill as many people as possible.

Investigate all Democrats for everything even theoretically (or fictionally) wrong, but forgive fellow Republicans their “sins” (Santos?)

Use the debt limit and budget as weapons against the Democrats (and all Americans).

Cut foreign aid. Allow Russia to defeat Ukraine, then the rest of the former USSR (e.g., Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic states). Our ocean borders are not guarantors of security.

Deny climate change and the role human-produced pollution plays, and interfere with plans to mitigate. Is there not the slightest chance they got this wrong? If so, they doom humanity.

Eliminate unions, thereby maximizing corporate profits and damaging the middle class, such as it is today.

Do their best to block anything substantive from passage and then blame Democrats, to fulfill Mitch McConnell’s primary objective early in President Barack Obama’s first term for the Biden administration — make him a one term president.

Leonard H. Sigal, Stockbridge

-----

"Donald Trump isn't first ex-president to face legal trouble"

By Hillel Italie - AP National Writer - April 2, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has made history so many times.

The first president without government or military experience. The first to be impeached twice. The first to aggressively challenge the certification of his successor.

Now, he adds another: Even as he hopes to return to the White House in 2025, he is the first former president to be indicted.

The latest line crossed by Trump challenges again the aura of the American presidency, nurtured in the infallibility of George Washington but made human over and over, through scandals born of greed and the abuse of power, corruption and naivete, sex and lies about sex.

Trump is hardly the first president, in or out of office, to face legal trouble.

In 1974, Richard Nixon may well have avoided criminal charges on obstruction of justice or bribery, related to the Watergate scandal, only because President Gerald Ford pardoned him just weeks after Nixon resigned the presidency. Bill Clinton's law license in his native Arkansas was suspended for five years after he reached a deal with prosecutors in 2001, at the end of his second term, over allegations that he lied under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Some historians wonder about President Warren Harding's fate had he not died in office, in 1923. Numerous officials around him would be implicated in various crimes, including Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, whose corrupt land dealings became known as the “Teapot Dome Scandal.”

“The walls were closing in on him,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said of Harding.

Trump's indictment in New York reportedly is linked to how business records were mischaracterized in connection with paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016, shortly before Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton for the presidency, to keep Daniels from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier. Trump denies having sex with her.

Trump also is being investigated for allegedly attempting to change the 2020 vote results in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and for his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attempted to stop the congressional certification of Biden as president. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the New York investigation “a witch hunt.”

While in office, Trump adopted the view of a Justice Department legal opinion that a president could not be indicted. Once a president leaves office, though, that protection falls away.

Most ex-presidents of the past half-century have led relatively uneventful public lives — creating foundations, delivering lucrative speeches, or in the case of Jimmy Carter, doing abundant charitable works. Nixon's disgrace scarred him for years, though he eventually reemerged to talk about global affairs and counsel aspiring politicians and potential presidents, including Trump.

The immediate cause of Nixon's resignation was the discovery of the “smoking gun” — Oval Office tape recordings, initiated by Nixon himself, that revealed he had ordered a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. By 1974, the scandal had expanded well beyond the initial crime. Many of Nixon's top aides had stepped down and were eventually imprisoned. Nixon himself was a possible target of the Watergate special counsel.

“There were partisans in Congress and on the special counsel’s staff who would have liked to see Nixon indicted after the resignation — or at least believed that the pardon was premature,” says John A. Farrell, author of “Richard Nixon: The Life,” a prize-winning biography published in 2017. “But the special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, had consistently chosen to deal with Nixon via the constitutional, impeachment process.”

Farrell notes that Ford's pardon happened so soon after Nixon stepped down that Jaworski's office didn't have time to fully consider charges against Nixon. Ford himself would say that an “indictment, a trial, a conviction, and anything else that transpired” would have distracted the country from more immediate problems.

“This much can be said: Nixon himself was very worried about the possibility (of prosecution), to the point of ruining his health,” Farrell said, referring to Nixon's battles with phlebitis, the inflammation of veins in the leg. “He mused aloud about how some of the great political writing in history had been crafted in jail cells. His very worried family reached out to the White House, alerting Ford’s aides of the ex-president’s deteriorating condition.”

The administrations of Nixon and Harding were among several defined by scandal, without the president being charged.

Ulysses Grant, the Union general and hero of the Civil War, was otherwise naive about those around him. Numerous members of his presidential administration were involved in financial wrongdoing, from extortion to market manipulation. Grant himself was caught for a more trivial offense. In 1872, during his first term, he was stopped twice for riding his carriage too fast.

“The second time Grant had to pay a $20 fine, but never spent a night in jail,” says historian Ron Chernow, whose Grant biography was published in 2017.

Tragedy may have spared one future president.

In the fall of 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was out of favor in the Kennedy administration and in possible legal danger because his top aide, Bobby Baker, was under investigation for financial dealings and influence peddling. Johnson, with his own history of questionable finances, was denying any close ties to a man he had once claimed to love as a son.

By the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, Life magazine was planning a investigation and congressional hearings were just getting started. But within hours, Kennedy had been assassinated, Johnson sworn in as his successor and interest in the affairs of Baker had essentially ended.

-----

May 23, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed state legislation that prohibits colleges from spending public funds on "DIE" programs.

DeSantis signs bill banning funding for diversity programs at Florida public colleges (yahoo.com)

DeSantis signs bill banning funding for diversity programs at Florida public colleges (yahoo.com)

The NAACP issued a Florida Travel Advisory to rebuke DeSantis.

Why the NAACP issued a Florida travel advisory in rebuke to DeSantis: 'This is how he looks at us' (yahoo.com)

Why the NAACP issued a Florida travel advisory in rebuke to DeSantis: 'This is how he looks at us' (yahoo.com)

We are in a political cultural war that will play out during the 2024 presidential campaigns.  The leftist agenda of "DIE" versus the rightist agenda of "a conservative transformation of the government".

I always HATED cultural wars all of my life.  I always saw cultural wars as a way to keep us divided and conquered by the elites who control us through financial, corporate and government fascism.  I see cultural wars as pointless and endless nonsense.

Jonathan A. Melle

-----

August 20, 2023

Oliver Anthony describes a working man’s struggles during the opening lyrics to “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Then, he targets charged social-political issues.

The viral song from Anthony arrived on Aug. 8, and within days, a YouTube video had millions — and then tens of millions — of views, plus streams on Spotify and other digital providers. He wrote the song himself, and it’s clearly resonating with conservative country music fans, even if the former factory worker says he sits in the center of the road politically.

The “rich men” described in the “Rich Men North of Richmond” lyrics are presumably politicians living in Washington, D.C. (100 miles north via I-95), but he’s yet to detail his songwriting process. Before the second verse, he speaks in vague terms about working hard for little pay, but then in a stunning twist, zooms in on child trafficking, welfare and obesity.

Find the full lyrics to “Rich Men of North Richmond” below.

Subscribe to Taste of Country on

Who is Oliver Anthony?

Oliver Anthony (real name: Christopher Anthony Lunsford) is from Farmville, Va. Information about his life prior to “Rich Men …” going viral comes mostly from him directly, and people who say they know him on social media.

In a video shared to his YouTube page a day before the song was released on YouTube, he describes living the life he sings about during the first verse. That helped lead to mental health issues and an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. In July 2023, he says promised God he’d get sober for help following his dreams. About 30 days later, he was trending to have the No. 1 country song in America.

Oliver Anthony, “Rich Men of Richmond” Lyrics:

I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay / So I can sit out here and waste my life away / Drag back home and drown my troubles away.

Pre-Chorus:

It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true / But it is, oh, it is.

Chorus:

Livin’ in the new world / With an old soul / These rich men north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna have total control / Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do / And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do / ‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end / ‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North Of Richmond - YouTube

-----

December 21, 2023

I wish that: BOTH the over 50-year career politician in the SWAMP and the ultimate MORAL HYPOCRITE would retire from national politics.  If the Democrats nominate Biden, then they are going back to the dreaded 1970's era of big spending and big government with high U.S. inflation and low GDP growth.  If the Republican nominate Trump, then they are going back to the dreaded 1920's era of institutional racism (that Adolf Hitler wrote favorably about in his 100-year-old Nazi books) and extreme economic inequality with growth in the nation's huge underclass and the top 1 percent of wealthy U.S. households.

Why do the Democrats want to take us back 50 years?  Why do the Republicans want to take us back 100 years?  These dates in history are ugly bygone eras that belong in the trash bin of U.S. history.  We need to live in the current realities of the 21st Century with new candidates for U.S. President who will deliver progress for all of the American People!

What is the definition of INSANITY?  The American People supporting either Joe Biden or Donald Trump for U.S. President because we would be doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Jonathan A. Melle

-----

December 21, 2023

I asked Donald Trump if he instigated the Insurrection on Capitol Hill whereby the "MAGA" mob wanted to lynch his Vice President, Mike Pence, along with the many Members of U.S. Congress who voted to certify the 2020 election.  Donald Trump said to me that Joe Biden stole the election from him, and that he will be vindicated by defeating Joe Biden in 2024.

I asked Donald Trump if "MAGA" really stands for "NAZI", and if his hate speeches really stands for Hitler's words.  Donald Trump said to me that he is a cultural conflict politician who uses demagoguery, racism and violence to stir up his base of supporters.

I asked Donald Trump if he should not have added a little less than $8 trillion to the national debt from 2017 - 2021.  Donald Trump said to me that the Swamp has been deficit spending for over 40 years now, and that Joe Biden printed more money out of thin air than any other president in U.S. history.

I asked Donald Trump about his thoughts of Moral Hypocrisy in politics.  Donald Trump said that he is the ultimate Moral Hypocrite, but that Bill Clinton is a close second.  Donald Trump added that Hillary Clinton took her computer server home with her, while he did not.  Donald Trump added that Hunter Biden had access to Joe Biden's reams of classified documents in his two Delaware homes and elsewhere.  Donald Trump pointed out that he is a victim of Moral Hypocrisy.

I asked Donald Trump why he is not being perceived as Innocent until proven Guilty in a court of law.  Donald Trump said to me that Bill Clinton is a twice Convicted Felon for Perjury and Suborning Perjury in the Paula Jones Sexual Harassment case because then Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton used the pretense of a state job interview to have his pants down with his penis pointed at Paula Jones when she entered a room in hopes that she would give him a blow job.  Bill Clinton ended up paying Paula Jones a little less than $1 million in a settlement.

I asked Donald Trump why he is friendly to authoritarian regimes.  Donald Trump said that Joe Biden fist-bumped oil rich Saudi Arabia's MBS on the world stage.  Donald Trump said that Joe Biden surpassed his administration on arms sales exports, including to authoritarian regimes.  Donald Trump said that Joe Biden criticized him in 2020 over Saudi Arabia and MBS, as well as arms sales exports to authoritarian regimes.  Donald Trump said that Joe Biden is a Moral Hypocrite.

I told Donald Trump that he is a failed leader who put his own Vice President, Mike Pence, at risk of being lynched by his "MAGA" mob, that he is a "NAZI" similar to Adolf Hitler, that his use of cultural conflict is toxic and a slippery slope towards fascism, that he was a big deficit spender, that he is nothing more than a Moral Hypocrite, that he is controversial and a suspicious person in the eyes of the law, that he favors authoritarianism in politics, and that he should retire from politics in 2023.

Jonathan A. Melle

-----

July 10, 2024

"Grab women by their genitals"; "Cheated on all 3 of your wives"; "Paid hush money to a porn star and Playboy model"; "MAGA really stands for NAZI" and "praises hate groups"; "declare multiple business bankruptcies; favor authoritarian regimes around the world"; "mocked the disabled"; "uses sexist and racist words"; "refuses to release his tax returns"; "has many legal woes"; "Is a very controversial and divisive leader"; "was once pro choice and a Democrat"; "appoints extremist Judges"; "his family doesn't want to be too close to him" (because he is toxic); "Is a Moral Hypocrite" and leads the Republican Party's legacy of Moral Hypocrisy" (Do as I say, NOT what I do); "Added a little less than $8 trillion to the U.S. national debt in 4 years"; "Blames the news media and anyone else for everything" (he never admits to his own wrongdoings); "Said he had bone spurs" (Joe Biden said he had Asthma during the Vietnam Conflict military draft); "Called Hunter Biden a crackhead, and later, a Convicted Felon" (Donald Trump is also a Convicted Felon); "Denies the evidence-based science of Global Warming due to greenhouse gas emissions"....

- Donald Trump

-----

November 11, 2024

Donald Trump: (a) is convicted of 34 felonies; (b) is a moral hypocrite who cheated on all of his 3 wives, as well as paid hush money to keep his love affairs with his mistresses secret; (c) was caught on a hot mic saying that he likes to grab women by their [genitals]; (d) was impeached, but never convicted, twice by U.S. Congress; (e) was found guilty in two civil lawsuits whereby he owes huge sums of money; (f) was investigated for allegedly illegally having in his private possession classified government documents - (Note: Hillary Clinton took her government server home, connected it to an non-secure internet, bleached her hard drive, destroyed cellphones; Joe Biden had classified government documents in his 2 Delaware homes and library); (g) refuses to release his federal tax returns allegedly because he allegedly doesn't pay - in part or in whole - federal taxes; (h) declared business bankruptcies multiple times; (i) is said to have alleged financial ties to banks in Germany that are connected to Putin's Russia; (j) appointed Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe, which led to increased medical emergencies and deaths of mothers and newborn babies - but he is supposedly pro-life?; (k) promotes political retribution and plans to persecute innocent people who are opposed to his authoritarian-style of so-called leadership; (l) plans to increase greenhouse gas emissions at home and abroad - because he is a big bag of hot air; (m) likes to use the MAGA tagline that is understood to mean Nazi, alt-right, as well as called hate groups and their protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, "fine people on both sides"; (n) employs far right political operatives in his campaign and administration(s), including Steve Bannon; (o) uses harsh language to intimidate people from dissenting against his strong-man rule; (p) plans to spend huge amounts of federal tax dollars on mass deportations (without saying where the federal dollars will come from); (q) plans to pass into federal law the single largest tax cut in U.S. history that will cause trillions of dollars in federal budget deficits over the next 4 years; (r) added and will add many trillions of dollars to the U.S.'s $36 trillion national debt; (s) pretends to be for the working-class, but that has not been a reality for common people for over 50 years now, as most of the net gain in income has gone to the super rich since the early- to mid-1970's; (t) spends most of his days watching the news on cable television, drinking Diet Cokes, and golfing instead of working, but he has never really worked an honest day in his 78-year-old life; (u) demands absolute loyalty from people, but then he throws them under the bus; (v) is a divisive politician who uses cultural conflict and violence for his own gain; (w) is a trust fund baby whose late-father was worth over $300 million in the late 1990's (not adjusted for inflation in the Autumn 2024), but then he does a photo op at the French Fry unit at McDonald's; (x) his real estate businesses have a history of alleged racist discrimination against minorities, especially black people; (y) his niece, Dr. Mary Trump, Psychologist, warns us about Donald Trump's alleged mental health disorders, and she says that her uncle is a dangerous man; (z) Donald Trump is said to admire the EVIL Adolf Hitler.

Jonathan A. Melle

-----