International Women's Day and Trump

Happy International Women's Day, ladies!
I thought a fun way to celebrate would be to list just a few of Trump's chauvinistic, insulting and disparaging comments he has made about women through the many years of his unsavory public life.
Lest we forget who we are dealing with here....

1. In a May 1991 Esquire magazine profile, Trump said this in lieu of his recent bad press: "You know, it really doesn’t matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass. But she’s got to be young and beautiful."

2. "You’re disgusting." Trump hurled at the woman lawyer who asked to take a break during a deposition, to pump breast milk for her 3-month-old daughter.

3. He insulted New York Times columnist Gail Collins. Trump sent her a copy of one of her columns, in which she called him a "financially embattled thousandaire," he circled her columnist picture and added a note saying, "The Face of a Dog."

4. He has insulted Arianna Huffington on several occasions, "Arianna Huffington is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her husband left her for a man- he made a good decision."

5. He felt it necessary to tweet that Bette Midler is an extremely unattractive woman.

6. He has called Rosie O'Donnell, among other things, crude, rude obnoxious and dumb. “Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she's a slob. How does she even get on television? If I were running The View, I'd fire Rosie. I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired.'

7. Trump has been quoted as saying that women who seek abortions should receive "some form of punishment" if abortions become banned. He has since renigged on this, but hey, he put it out there, this he can't deny.

8. Trump has attacked Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren repeatedly calling her "goofy," (goofy, really??) "a fraud," and, like Clinton, someone who is "playing the woman’s card."

9. He obviously had a weird problem with the fact that Miss Universe Alicia Machado had put on weight. During the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton called out Trump for his history of chauvinistic comments. In particular, she called attention to Trump body-shaming Machado, whom he has called "Miss Piggy," "Miss Housekeeping," and an "eating machine."

10. Megyn Kelly has often been a target of his inappropriate comments...
After the first debate Trump called her a “bimbo”in one of his inimitable tweets.
He later implied her tough line of questioning was because she was menstruating.
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,” he said.
He has also called Ms. Kelly “really weird, “crazy,” “the most overrated anchor,” “very bad at math,” “dopey,” “so average in every way”“Never worth watching”“sick”“the most overrated person on TV,” “Highly overrated” and a “lightweight.”

11. This is what he had to say about former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina....
 “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?
“Can you imagine that, the face of our next next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

12.He has insulted the German ice skating champion Katarina Witt..."Wonderful looking while on the ice but up close and personal, she could only be described as attractive if you like a woman with a bad complexion who is built like a linebacker".

13. He, of course hit Hillary hard during the campaign, implying that if she couldn't satisfy her husband, how could she satisfy the USA? At a rally, he also called her an enabler to Bill Clinton's affairs “Bill Clinton was the worst in history and I have to listen to her talking about it?" he said in Eugene, Oregon. “Just remember this: She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler.

14. In an interview with New York Magazine in 1992 , Trump uttered this charming phrase about women: 'You have to treat 'em like s----'.


 15. And of course the all time low..
the  emergence of a video in which he discusses "grabbing (women) by the p****" and states that “when you’re a star, they let you do it”. Wonder what they let you do when you are president?
President Trump, before he was of course our elected commander in chief, is seen using lewd and sexually aggressive language to brag about groping and trying to have sex with women, including someone who was married, in footage obtained by the Washington Post.
In the video, Trump was recorded talking about a woman, who, thankfully for her sake remains unnamed, to Billy Bush, who was then a host for TV entertainment show Access Hollywood.
“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump says. “I did try and f--- her. She was married.
“And I moved on her very heavily... I moved on her like a b----, but I couldn’t get there."

So these are just a few of the President's comments over the years. Do we really have to ask if an International Women's Day is still relevant? What does this say about our society and what women have achieved when a man like Trump is sitting in the oval office? Pretty sad.

Russians....Republicans......who can help us?

Okay Sessions meets with the same top rated Russian spy as Flynn, but he just side steps the grim reaper he recuses himself from investigating himself and Flynn which of course make sense, but shouldn't he fall on his sword like Flynn did ,where is the honor in recusing himself when Flynn had to resign for doing the same thing except he misled the VP. How can these people not accept responsibility for all their wrong doing, even Trump is pissed because Sessions recused himself because it makes him look bad, don't dare make the boss look stupid it really hurts his massive ego, so the blame game begins and the spin starts to spin and out of the blue it is Obama's fault. Why would the president authorize wire taps on Trump, he has no secrets that he hasn't tweeted, so let throw a smoke bomb to get people off the Russian investigation. Can his political base even grasp what kind of nonsense this amounts to, crazy if his fervent fan base can believe anything he says, especially a 6:30 AM tweet, that he saw on right wing new services, my God, Melania keep that guy busy at least until he has had time to have breakfast and can actually think and put together some thoughts and remember that he is the President of the USA, normal citizens cannot believe this made up shit anymore.
   Now the Senate has called for investigation, but to what it seems that an investigation is called for at the drop of a hat, first the Russian crisis and now the Obama crisis, how about the crisis that is the Trump twins receiving Secret Service protection, I thought they were big game hunters, they can't protect themselves, the tax payer is responsible for the White House, Trump Tower, Mar a Lago, KellyAne Conway, Trump twins travel we are going to go broke just covering all these people from the boogie man, it needs to stop or no money for the wall.
   Let's not forget ISIS they are still inhabiting the earth and unless the Generals have a secret plan, Trump still has not moved on them and apparently he has out sourced this task to Putin, but for what price I ask, is he going to take credit for Putin's handy work, let's finish this work and rid the world of   the beheaders of American citizens, they have lived way too long and have not faced the wrath of the American military might. Fulfill your campaign promises and eliminate these radical Islamist terrorists, then you can build your wall to protect the Americans from leaving the country for Canada and Mexico. Make America the melting pot it always was and always will be, we don't need to stop the goal of all incoming dreamers we need to support them and make our country great again.
  What are the plans for coal and steel we need to lay this out so your political base can continue to support you, be honest to they people and give them a plan, they deserve it and it seems that no one will stand for them even though they stood for you. How..when...what time frame, these are American workers and former immigrants that deserve you to resolve their future.
   Rant over...South Jersey out.

War Propaganda?

Here is a link, to what is in my opinion, a really intelligent article by Glenn Greenwald for "The Intercept" on Trump's use of a grieving woman, (standing next to Ivanka Trump, really?) during his speech before Congress. This woman's husband was killed in a commando raid in Jemen that Trump ordered. It was obviously intended to be a powerful moment during the televised speech where Trump is seen as showing great empathy for this poor young widow. Sustained applause. Some media commentators gushed about Trump's true presidential moment. Now, Trump isn't the first to use to this tactic of using suffering soldiers and their families, it seems to be quite popular among Presidents, Obama and George W. Bush also seemed to find it effective. Many civilians were also killed in this raid, including nine children, but the of course are not mentioned. This is also key to an effective form of war propaganda, politicians and media commentators fixate on the number of Americans being killed but the innocents (collateral damage?) remain for the most part nameless and faceless. How else can a war on terror  turn into a never ending war? (And who is fighting this war? The financially and socially disadvantaged, not the offspring of the elite and financially powerful.) Americans must continue to regard themselves as victims and not as perpetrators, the enemy has to be dehumanized, we cannot be privy to families of the fallen civilians grieving for their loved and lost.
But here is the real key to Trump's performance and c'mon, I am not saying he isn't sympathetic but the time and place to showing his sympathy is, as always, used to his advantage, and here I quote......
"The ritualistic tribute to dead or wounded U.S. soldiers has other purposes as well: It attempts — not using rational formulas but rather emotional impulses — to transfer the nobility of the slain soldier onto the war itself; after all, how unjust could a war be when such brave and admirable American soldiers are fighting in it?
And it is also intended that the soldier’s nobility will be transferred to his commander in chief who is so solemnly honoring him. As demonstrated by the skyrocketing post-9/11 approval ratings for George Bush and the endless political usage Obama obtained for killing Osama bin Laden, nothing makes us rally around a president like uplifting war sentiment."
Glenn Greenwald "The Intercept" 
Read the article and keep in mind that this how many Europeans see our war effort.

Bernie Sanders' Response To Trump's Speech To Congress

Make Empathy Great Again

via awelltraveledwoman

Fascism........wait...what....

Fascism- extreme right-wing authorities, or intolerant views or practice.
   Is Steve Bannon trying to turn into Joseph Goebbels and unify the American people against the free press of the United States by constantly referring to them as the real true enemy of the Republican Party ? Is his political base so ignorant that they would believe that you could possibly forge a right wing alliance that would discredit all media as lying fake news creators and make the American people only believe what our President says. Trump stated that the news about General Flynn had nine quoted sources and implied that the article was not true because the sources were unnamed, but the article was true and Flynn was asked to resign, did his political base agree with the decision probably not and probably thought that the story was fake news. Why has the media been such a slave to his clown act, do they really have to wait with baited breath for Trump to insult them, he has even gone so far as to omit the NY Times and CNN from little Spicer get togethers which I'm sure was nothing about nothing. Does the media even have an obligation to cover his fake news and then be slammed by all his brown shirts, is there nothing to report on other than what he cleverly makes up as news. I think CNN should not devote 24/7 to his agenda especially since most of his political base thinks it is fake news anyway, have their ratings gone down while Fox has gone up, please I hope not, as Fox and its little media stars appear to fawn over his every word. Does the world have a thought vacuum that they only see and hear what this administration is spewing while not even taking the time to think about what they are saying and making up their own intelligent minds about what is really happening in the USA. We are dulling up our thoughts we are no longer the razor sharp self thinkers that made this country bright and alive with technology, arts, innovation and hard work, can we please think for ourselves again, formulate ideas that can help us all work together to solve our own unique problems while not forgetting that we have opened our gates to all men and women for over three hundred years and become the greatest country to exist.
   When the Trump political, base appears on news media they are always the same, unemployed, about to be down sized, no jobs no future men, forty to sixty years old who voted for Trump because he promise to put them back to work or protect them from the hoards of invaders that are going to seize their jobs, instead Trump is going to deport all illegal workers so that you can all leave the diner and go pick vegetables and work at Burger King, and he will be the most despised president ever, but no you each believe that he is going to save the coal industry and the steel industry, it unfortunately is not going to happen and your only hope is to try and learn a new technology to keep up with the American economy. Push yourself away from the counter and demand not an imaginary job but a training program that will qualify you to renter the workforce and to be a success, do it now and maybe Trump will free up some of your tax dollars to really reemploy the middle class.
   I mean goddamn read a book, go to a museum, learn something new and do it because you can and because you want to explore and learn. Visit a National Park and see what incredible wonders exist in the USA, don't let a politician tell you what is what find out for yourselves.
Rant over.
South Jersey out.

Transgender Student Rights

 Below is the definition of bullying found on the stopbullying.gov, the government website on stopping bullying in schools.  

 "Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior (among school aged children) that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose."

What kind of example is the government setting for our children? Where do they think bullying comes from if not from imitation. There should be a new government website created which gives citizens pointers on how to recognize and stop bullying on a governmental level. Here is what they suggest adults do to stop bullying in schools:

"Stop Bullying on the Spot

When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time. There are simple steps adults can take to stop bullying on the spot and keep kids safe."

So what we can do with the bullying behavior seen on a daily basis coming out of the Oval Office, the Senate and Congress? Sending out the message that it is not acceptable. Hereby sending said message out. Is this really what will make America great again? Targeting the memebers of a society who are most easily targeted? This is what Trump had to say about bullying in 2016:

"The billionaire CEO sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, which aired on the cable network Tuesday night. During the exchange, Kelly asked Trump if he was ever bullied as a child. He responded that he had not been, but bullying isn’t solely a youth phenomenon. “People are bullied when they’re 55,” Trump said. Kelly, sensing the irony of the moment, replied with a coy smile: “Can happen when you’re 45.”
“You know, it happens, right?” Trump continued. “But you gotta get over it. Fight back, do whatever you have to do.” Okay. Whatever we have to do.

Statistics from STOMP Out Bullying show that 9 out of 10 LGBT-identified students are bullied in school. 9 out of 10? In this day and age? Statistics also show that  LGBT youth are also four times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to attempt suicide.
On Febrary 22nd, the Trump administration revoked Obama-era guidance laid out in 2016’s so-called Dear Colleague letter that sought to protect transgender students under Title IX, undoing what trans and civil rights advocates have termed a victory on a major cultural and political battleground.
Donald Trump promised to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in his prime-time convention speech, and he said he was heartened to hear that the crowd supported him in that fight. So what, was he not telling the truth? Or was it fake news?