Make America Great Again?

I suppose you could say that if you were a woman, LGBTQ, POC, an immigrant, a Muslim or atheist, America wasn't already great.


We were founded on slave labor and genocide. Blacks were 3/5 of a man, and the natives were subhumans we could rape and steal from. We replaced slavery with incarceration. Our nation originally only let white property owning males to vote.


When was it great, Dan? I'd like to hear you tell us libtards when America was great. Also, I'd like to hear you tell us what other nation is great, since we apparently aren't.


It's a new America, alright. Alt-Left and Alt-Right combined to give us a new kind of nation. One that doesn't protect Human Rights for all, which was the original and singular purpose for our government to our Founding Fathers (and Mothers). One that has press for profit, medicine for profit, and government to protect Corporate Privilege.


On what planet is Trump just another Republican? Is he even a Republican? The last time I felt this bad about our nation was when Reagan was elected. I didn't get a lot of traction with my vision then, but fundamentally I've been proven right (it's not about being right, but for everyone to see). Reagan's intent was to destroy the middle class, to create an oligarchy. I said that no one would get a raise for thirty years and damn me I was right. Still, Reagan saw the need for sensible firearm regulation, he raised taxes when his ideology failed, treated immigrants as human beings, etc. GHWBush, GWBush, McCain, and Romney after him were solidly Republican but they knew where the levers were, and they all in their own way respected our Democracy. I could complain and moan and disagree, but they kept the nation going. Trump is something other than this, and I am livid at those on the Left and the Right who made him happen.

Did Trump win? He got fewer votes. Russians have tampered with state elections, and the patterns in all swing states that polled for Clinton are remarkably similar, showing a pattern that needs investigation. Alt-Left Dems didn't vote in '10 and '14, resulting in Gerrymandered districts in states that have a majority of registered Democrats going GOP year after year. When Dems didn't vote we lost control of Congress and the Voting Rights Act was gutted; each of the states that flipped from Obama to Trump was one where VRA protections were lost and voter suppression was strong (unnecessary Voter ID, thousands fewer polling places, etc.).

I thought Sec. Clinton would win. But BernieOrBust and JillNotHill was taking its toll. Much of the left was believing that there was an email scandal (there was not), that she was corrupt, a criminal, sick, etc., that she was simply a weak candidate (she wasn't, she was the most qualified ever and got more votes than any of her opponents, as well as more than any other presidential candidate but one), that the DNC stole it from Bernie (come on kids, Sen. Sanders told you clearly that that wasn't the case and that you needed to unequivocally support Sec. Clinton and vote for her). A few principled Republicans crossed to vote for Sec. Clinton, but far more Dems, mostly women...crossed over to vote Trump.

No, nobody's rioting, nobody's destroying. I admit there were a few tears, a few of mine early Wednesday when I realized that we had eaten our own. There are legitimate demonstrations, protected by our First Amendment, and I assume there will be more, and bigger ones down the road.

The attitude by the majority of Trumps support is this: I'm a white straight Christian male, and I've been left behind. How do I explain how childish this is? number one, they or their parents voted Reagan and they are SHOCKED  that they have less than their parents did? That was the plan, Dan. These guys have it better than 99% of people in the world and haven't traveled out of their red county to find this out. They have it better than the women around them, Stockholm Syndrome sufferers thinking that they won't suffer like other women will if they vote against women's interest. They argue that blacks, Latinos, religious minorities, etc. all have the same opportunity but I'm here to tell you as a privileged white male THEY DO NOT. None of us white males know what it's like to be scrutinized and followed in every single store we walk into, or to know that we have to be twice as good as the men in our office just to earn 65 cents on the dollar. The average Trump supporter is woefully self-unaware and willfully ignorant.

To root against President Elect Trump's success is to root against America's success. This thought sobers me a little. We're all part of Rick's little band on The Walking Dead staring down Negan's bat. We know our world has taken a dark turn, that America will never be the same, and that individual survival is the best we can hope for. In the one in a hundred chance he actually wrangles success from his failure-checkered past and turns a profit for working people, I will join every American in thanking him.

Trump promises to have a special session January 21, the day after his inauguration, to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. 21 Million Americans will have no health care, tens of thousands will die during 2017 simply because of that act. The trade war he will start with China will cause trillions of dollars in debt and an economic depression. The wall he wants to build will cost trillions in lost revenues, with or without Mexico paying for it (of course they won't). Deporting millions of Americans, many of whom grew up from babyhood and no no other country, many of whom served in our Armed Forces, will cost a trillion dollars. All the while, he will give massive tax cuts for the wealthy and his plan is to make people who work pay more to make up the difference.

Still believe Trump will Make America Great Again?

This is easy.

This is easy.

• In two years, elect a Democratic House and Senate, 36 Democratic Governors, 36 Democratic State Houses. In four years elect a Democratic president. 
• Rejoin the Paris accords after Miami and Venice wash away. 
• Renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal after they build a few bombs. 
• Bring back to life the tens of thousands who will die because we repealed PPACA. 
• Bring back our warships from the China coast. 
• Spend billions tearing down the KXL pipeline. 
• Give Dreamers a path to citizenship, at least if they weren't killed in the Mexican Drug Cartel War. 
• Release the three million incarcerated for smoking a joint after executive action ended medical and recreational marijuana. 
• Release the 50,000,000 women and 50,000,000 doctors jailed for having or performing an abortion. 
• Reinstate Dodd-Frank and Glass Steagall after the Bank of Trump defaults on all loans and takes your house, your car, and your savings. 
• Release ten million Muslims from their Mosque-turned-interment camp. 
• Put a statue up for Sec. Clinton in D.C. after they Jailed and Killed the Bitch. 

This is what non-voters, "Bernie would have won," JillNotHill etc. voted for.


Need I go on?





In other words, America is finished. Stick a fork in us.

Instead of Bashing a DEM Candidate, Show Facts about Trump

If Trump is such a success, why does everything he touches fail?

TRUMP AIRLINES - In October 1988, Donald Trump threw his wallet into the airline business by purchasing Eastern Air Shuttle, a service that for 27 years had run hourly flights between Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. For roughly $365 million, Trump got a fleet of 17 Boeing 727s, landing facilities in each of the three cities and the right to paint his name on an airplane. But his gamble was a bust. A lack of increased interest from customers combined with high pre–Gulf War fuel prices meant the shuttle never turned a profit. The high debt forced Trump to default on his loans, and ownership of the company was turned over to creditors. The Trump Shuttle ceased to exist in 1992.

TRUMP CASINOS - Donald Trump's gambles don't always go as planned. Especially when that gamble is gambling itself. In February 2009, Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the third time in a row — an extremely rare feat in American business. The casino company, founded in the 1980s, runs the Taj Mahal, the Trump Plaza and the Trump Marina. Trump defended himself by distancing himself from the company, though he owned 28% of its stock. "Other than the fact that it has my name on it — which I'm not thrilled about — I have nothing to do with the company," he said. He resigned from Trump Entertainment soon after that third filing, but in August of that year he, and an affiliate of Beal Bank Nevada, agreed to buy the company for $100 million.

TRUMP MARRIAGES - Donald Trump's life in the bedroom has been messy at best. The real estate magnate married his first wife, Ivana, in 1977, but things got rocky after Trump's affair with actress Marla Maples surfaced in New York City tabloids. "You bitch, leave my husband alone!" Ivana told Maples on a ski trip in Aspen, Colo. Ivana's warning fell on deaf ears, and in 1992, Trump left her with a reported $25 million settlement and married his mistress one year later. His marriage to Maples was even shorter-lived, and the couple divorced in 1999. These days, Trump is married to Slovenian supermodel Melania Knauss.

TRUMP MORTGAGE - In April 2006, Trump announced that, after years in the real estate business, he was launching a mortgage company. He held a glitzy press conference at which his son Donald Jr. predicted that Trump Mortgage would soon be the nation's No. 1 home-loan lender. Trump told CNBC, "Who knows more about financing than me?" Apparently, plenty. Within a year and a half, Trump Mortgage had closed shop. The would-be lending powerhouse was done in by timing (the housing market cratered in 2007) and ironically enough, given Trump's Apprentice TV show, poor hiring. The executive Trump selected to run his loan company, E.J. Ridings, claimed to have been a top executive at a prestigious investment bank. In reality, Ridings' highest role on Wall Street was as a registered broker, a position he held for a mere six days.

TRUMP UNIVERSITY - They hoped to get rich off real estate, so they enrolled in Donald Trump’s University to learn the tricks of the trade, some of them maxing out their credit cards to pay tens of thousands of dollars for insider knowledge they believed could make them wealthy.

Do you remember Trump University? Probably not — founded in 2005, it didn’t really catch on. And one big reason it didn’t catch on is because it was a total scam, say former students in complaints that were filed to the Federal Trade Commission and were unearthed by a Freedom of Information Act recently requested by Gizmodo.

“I want my $35,000+ back. All I got was books that I could have gotten from the library that could guide me better then Trump’s class did." Another grievance describes a strategy reminiscent of Scientology. After paying $1,495 for a three-day seminar, which provided information freely available on Zillow, “attendees were told that unless they purchased additional products (software; individual coaching) they would not succeed,” the complaint states.

In 2013, the New York Attorney General’s office filed a $40 million lawsuit against the former reality star and current Republican presidential candidate for failing to impart the promised real estate education on 5,000 students and subjecting prospective students to high-pressure sales tactics. In April 2015, a judge ruled that Trump was indeed personally responsible and that the matter would go to trial. A class-action suit against Trump related to Trump University is also pending.

TRUMP VODKA - Trump vodka was introduced in 2006 to much fanfare. At the time, Trump predicted the T&T (Trump and Tonic) would become the most requested drink in America. On Larry King Live, he said he got into the vodka business to outdo his friends at Grey Goose. Ten years later, Grey Goose is still on top shelves throughout the country. As for Trump vodka? Yeah, we'd never heard of it either. The New York City blog Gothamist reported the vodka stopped production "because the company failed to meet the threshold requirements." In 2011, Trump's company filed an injunction to prevent an ISRAELI company from selling Trump vodka without his consent or authorization. Meaning the Donald stopped the only people in world who wanted to drink his vodka from doing so.

CHINA CONNECTION - "The problem with our country is we don't manufacture anything anymore," Donald Trump told Fox News recently. "The stuff that's been sent over from China," he complained, "falls apart after a year and a half. It's crap." That very same Donald Trump has his own line of clothing, and it's made in ... China. (OK, OK — not all of it. Salon, which reported this intriguing, head-scratching fact, notes that some of his apparel is from MEXICO and Bangladesh.)

BANKRUPTCIES - Donald Trump brags about how well his businesses have fared. Yet, no major U.S. company has filed for Chapter 11 more than Trump's casino empire in the last 30 years[*].

In 1990, the banking institutions that backed his real estate investments had to bail him out with a $65 million "rescue package" that contained new loans and credit. But it wasn't enough, and in 1991 the famous developer was nearly $4 billion in debt and his famous Taj Mahal casino had to file bankruptcy, [with another bankruptcy for Trump Castle Associates being filed in 1992*]. Trump's economic troubles continued through the '90s, while he was personally leveraged to nearly $1 billion. In 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts also filed for bankruptcy. In 2009, the same company (by then renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.) filed for bankruptcy again.

http://content.time.com/…/completel…/0,29569,2068227,00.html

http://time.com/…/40106…/trump-university-scam-donald-trump/

http://money.cnn.com/…/c…/donald-trump-bankruptcy/index.html

It kind of all starts in Public Schools

"Why do I have to learn Algebra?!" And you have people like Michelle Rhee convincing us to destroy our schools.

"Why do I have to practice the clarinet?!" And you have people like Weeknd and Bieber at the top of the charts.

"Why do I have to go to PE?!" And you have people calling our first lady Moochelle as she tries to get us to eat a vegetable.

It kind of all starts in Public Schools. Don't let billionaires convince you that privatization, for profit charters, and vouchers are good.

Who will be our Walter Cronkite?

When I was a kid, I grew up with the Vietnam War on the news, TV, Radio and newspapers. It was real life horror, and soon millions were in the streets protesting against this war.

I'm starting to feel the same way with the incessant daily gun massacres.

As the war in Vietnam ground to a stalemate, CBS reporter Walter Cronkite, trusted by America in ways we couldn't believe today, made a statement:

Mr. CRONKITE: (Reading) Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout but neither did we.
Then, with as much restraint as I could, I turned to our own leaders whose idea of negotiation seemed frozen in memories of General McArthur's encounter with the Japanese aboard the Battleship Missouri.
We've been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders...
(Soundbite of TV program, "CBS Evening News")
(Reading) Both in Vietnam and Washington to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. For it seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.
To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.
But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.

Our civil war about firearms is not in a stalemate, it's getting worse daily, and we're losing tens of thousand a year to it. The vast majority of us do not want to live our lives terrorized by the thought that the person next to us, whether in schools, theaters, parks, churches, military bases, hair salons, offices, supermarkets, malls, factories, trains...is armed and ready to do us harm.

Contact your elected officials today. Your city council, Mayor, state legislative representatives, Governor, Senators, Congressional Representatives and President. Let them know that We the People are under Siege, and that they need to do something.

Every firearm owner needs a license, with certified training and testing, renewed regularly. Those with a history of violence, violent felonies, and mental illness related to violence will be denied. Liability insurance for each owner, multiplied by the number of weapons.

Every firearm needs a title and ID, so we can trace every firearm and bullet.

Limit the sale of military-style weapons to the military and law enforcement. Limit the amount of ammo to what is necessary for training and self-defense.

It's not too soon to talk - it's far far too late.

National Firearm Regulation: Owning a Gun Comes With Great Responsibility

National Firearm Regulation:

• Background Check - Felonies, Violent behavior related to mental health
• Training - Safety and usage
• Testing
• Insurance - A Single-Payer indemnity pool
• Weapon and Ammunition ID - track every gun and bullet
• License
• Assault Weapons - No sales other than to military and law enforcement
• Ammunition: limit sales to a quantity sufficient for practice and personal defense

This service, since there is a firearm for every man, woman, and child in the U.S., would be paid from our Federal Taxes; administered by State agencies. Database would be secure but immediately accessible by law enforcement, courts with a warrant, etc. License would not be used for Voter ID, employment eligibility, credit worthiness, or in any discriminatory way.

We need to get our elected officials and legislators to help! We're under siege.

This Life is a Riot

I lived through race riots in my home town of Michigan City, IN in the '60s. Brutal police actions led to unrest, which was fanned into flames by outside agitators, and the National Guard had to come in to cool things off for a few days.

I lived through race riots in my adopted city of Boston in the '70s. White people rioted, burned and looted so their schools wouldn't be integrated. It took the better part of a year for this to cool down and for the buses to roll as directed.

I lived through race riots here in Los Angeles in the '90s. Brutal police actions and a complicit judicial system led to almost immediate action, almost as if rioting, looting, and burning were planned.

None of this was warranted or necessary.

Race is almost impossible to talk about here in the U.S. We have such an awful history - genocide on native peoples, wholesale enslavement of people imported to work for the wealthy, Jim Crow laws making sure that a century later these people still didn't have the opportunity many of us had and took for granted. It seems like half of America wants to take us back to the status quo of 1950 or 1850, and we are a brutish and un-exceptional nation because of this.

Young people are very much less likely to care about anyone's race, but it's the old and wealthy that have the power and systematically deny Freedom and opportunity to those without wealth and power - non-whites, immigrants, those not of your religion, different sexual and gender orientation...

Even the brutality of the police - along with horrible Stand-Your-Ground murders, our obsession with firearms and our generation-long war on drugs which is becoming simply a pipeline from school to for-profit prisons - is just a symptom. Our economic divisions and imposition of belief over Human Rights is fundamentally the cause.

It would be naive to believe we can get either side to change overnight. Working to get rid of systematic policies like Stop and Frisk and Stand Your Ground would be a start. Ensuring free and appropriate public education and health care for all would be a great step. We can only do this if we choose, little by little, to put aside differences and embrace what Unites us.