Posts Tagged ‘BARACK OBAMA’
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, BUZZFEED, CALVIN COOLIDGE, CBS NEWS, CELINDA LAKE, CHINA, CHRIS MATTHEWS, CHVE-CHING HUANG, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS THEORY, DONALD TRUMP, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, EMPLOYERS RESPONSIBILITY ACT, EMPLOYMENT ACT OF 1946, FACEBOOK, HARDBALL, HILLARY CLINTON, JOB CREATORS, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LOS ANGELES TIMES, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK TIMES, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER CAPPELLI, POLITICO, RAW STORY, READERS DIGEST, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT REICH, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS, SLATE, SLAVERY, STEVE POIZNER, TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT OF 2017, TAX LAW CENTER AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TOMMY G. THOMPSON, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALLACE C. PETERSON, WASHINGTON POST, WHY GOOD PEOPLE CAN'T FIND JOBS
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 21, 2022 at 12:10 am
Have you noticed how every American employer has suddenly become a “job creator”?
At least, that’s the official Republican line.
But if that’s true:
- Why are so many employers not hiring at all?
- Or, if they are hiring, why aren’t they hiring American workers?
- Why are they hiring mostly part-time employees on a no-benefits basis?
- Why are so many employers shutting down American plants but starting new ones in China, Mexico or the Philippines?
A September 20, 2021 article in Recode—“Why Everybody’s Hiring But No One Is Getting hired”—explains “America’s broken hiring system.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that 6.6 million potential workers are unemployed—and a record 10.9 million jobs open.
Why?
“For some of the jobs available, people don’t have the right skills, or at least the skills employers say they’re looking for. Other jobs are undesirable — they offer bad pay or an unpredictable schedule, or just don’t feel worth it to unemployed workers, many of whom are rethinking their priorities.
“In some cases, there are a host of perfectly acceptable candidates and jobs out there, but for a multitude of reasons, they’re just not being matched.”
Throughout the United States, “help wanted” signs can be seen virtually everywhere. “But just because a bar or restaurant or gas station wants a worker doesn’t mean a worker wants to work for them. The millions of jobs available aren’t necessarily millions of jobs people want.”
And what makes these jobs undesirable?
Low pay, unpredictable schedules, no benefits, no long-term stability—as well as the employer practice of hiring one person to do the work of 10.
Yet countless employers whine to the media: “Nobody wants to work anymore.”
Countless job-seekers who do want to work are locked out of it by the computerized “résumé readers” employed by many companies. Many of the résumés submitted are automatically rejected—because they lack certain keywords that have been programmed into the software.
A classic example: Software scans for registered nurses with computer programming skills—when they just need data entry.
Finally, a lot of employers simply don’t want to hire.
An article in the March, 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest gives the lie to the excuses so many employers use for refusing to hire.
Entitled “22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job,” it lays bare many of the reasons why America needs to legally force employers to demonstrate as much responsibility for hiring as job-seekers are expected to show toward searching for work.
Among the truths it reveals:
TRUTH NO: 1: After you’re unemployed more than six months, employers consider you unemployable.
TRUTH NO. 2: It’s not what but who you know that counts.
TRUTH NO. 3: Try to avoid HR. Find someone in the company you know. If you don’t know anyone, contact the hiring manager.
TRUTH NO. 4: Cover letters are often ignored, going directly into “the round file.”
TRUTH NO. 5: Employers judge you on the basis of your email address. Avoid the type that reads: “Igetdrunkandparty.”
![350+ Devil Images [HQ] | Download Free Pictures On Unsplash](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfdBZW4AJK3RzxdzVZk5WdK0KLxF9CMmyykA&usqp=CAU)
TRUTH NO. 6: You’re not protected against age discrimination. Many employers regularly ignore the law. Are you in your 50s or 60s? Leave your year of graduation off your resume.
TRUTH NO: 7: Just because it’s illegal to discriminate against applicants who have children does not mean you’re safe. Many employers try to screen out parents—such as by checking cars for child safety seats.
TRUTH NO. 8: It’s harder to get a job if you’re fat, since fat people are usually assumed to be lazy.
TRUTH NO. 9: Make sure you give the interviewer a firm handshake. Or he might assume you’re a loser for giving him a weak one.
TRUTH NO. 10: The more you can get the interviewer to talk–especially about himself—the more likely you are to be hired. Ego-driven interviewers love hearing the sound of their own voices and will assume you’re better-qualified than someone who doesn’t want to listen to them prattle.
Millions of Americans blamed President Barack Obama for the nation’s high unemployment rate during his administration. And millions more believe that President Donald Trump created an economic miracle—despite those millions of Americans still desperately searching for work.
The brutal truth is that no President can hope to turn unemployment around until employers are forced to start living up to their responsibilities.
And those responsibilities should encompass more than simply fattening their own pocketbooks and/or egos at the expense of their fellow Americans. Such behavior used to be called treason.
Americans need to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons. It can be sold out for economic ones, too.
Trea$on
Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.
Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.
Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.
And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties—heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN CAESAR, AP, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, ASIANS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COLIN KAEPERNICK, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HUFFINGTON POST, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS, JAMES COMEY, JAMES ROBART, JEFF SESSIONS, JOHN H. "DOC" HOLLIDAY, JOHN OLIVER, JOHNNY RINGO, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, KIM JONG-UN, MEDIA MATTERS, MERYL STREEP, MIKE PENCE, MOBY DICK (BOOK), MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NBC NEWS, NEIL YOUNG, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NFL, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRISONERS-OF-WAR, RAW STORY, REINCE PRIEBUS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO FORTY-NINERS, SEAN SPICER, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAXPAYERS, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE DISABLED, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE O'REILLY FACTOR, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOMBSTONE (MOVIE), TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WOMEN, WONKETTE, WYATT EARP
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 11, 2022 at 12:10 am
During his 1992 Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” as his mantra for staying focused on the issue that recession-suffering Americans most cared about.
For Donald Trump in 2016, the issue he—and his base—held dearest could be summed up as: “It’s the Hatred, Stupid.”
As a Presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly used Twitter to attack hundreds of real and imagined enemies in politics, journalism, TV and films.
From June 15, 2015, when he launched his Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, Trump fired almost 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions that had somehow offended him.
Donald Trump
The New York Times needed two full pages of its print edition to showcase them.
Among his targets:
- Hillary Clinton
- President Barack Obama
- Actress Meryl Streep
- Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Comedian John Oliver
- News organizations
- New Jersey
- Beauty pageant contestants
Others he clearly delighted in insulting during the campaign included:
- Women
- Democrats
- Republicans
- Blacks
- Hispanics
- Asians
- Muslims
- The disabled
- Prisoners-of-war
As President, he continued to insult virtually everyone, verbally and on Twitter.
He even attacked members of his own administration. Among these:
- His press secretary, Sean Spicer, quit on July 21, 2017. The reason: He believed—correctly—hat his loyalty to Trump had become a one-way street. Trump kept him in the dark about events Spicer needed to know—such as an interview that Trump arranged with the New York Times—and which ended disastrously.
- Trump repeatedly attacked his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for not “protecting” him from agents pursuing the Russia investigation. On November 7, 2018, the day after Democrats won a majority of House seats, Trump fired Sessions.
- Trump fired FBI Director James Comey without warning on May 9, 2017. Comey had refused to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump and turn the FBI into Trump’s secret police. He had also refused to drop the Bureau’s investigation into Russia’s efforts during the 2016 election to elect Trump.
- Trump repeatedly humiliated his then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus—at one point ordering him to kill a fly that was buzzing about. On July 28, 2017, Priebus resigned.
- In October, 2016, as a Presidential candidate, Trump attacked Colin Kaepernick, then quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who had gained notoriety by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.
- On October 8, 2017, at Trump’s instigation, Vice President Mike Pence staged a walk-out during a match between the San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts.
- The Trump/Pence stunt cost taxpayers about $242,500 in air fare for Air Force Two, advance personnel and Secret Service protection.
- On March 4, 2017, in a series of unhinged tweets, Trump falsely accused former President Barack Obama of illegally tapping his Trump Tower phones during the 2016 campaign: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
As Americans have watched Trump’s behavior with morbid fascination, many of them have asked: “Why is he so consumed with hatred?”
There are two reasons to this:
First, his base is equally motivated by hatred—of the same persons and organizations Trump regularly attacks. Every attack endears him anew to these voters.
During the 2016 campaign, countless such voters told interviewers: “He says what I’ve long been thinking!”
Trump didn’t implant hatred in them—he simply gave it legitimacy. And they love him for it.
Second, the 1993 Western, Tombstone unintentionally illuminated Trump’s character while delving into that of the notorious gunman Johnny Ringo.
Tombstone recounts the legendary blood feud between the Ike Clanton outlaw gang and the Earp brothers—Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil—in the famous gold-mining town of 1881 Arizona.
Wyatt Earp has been challenged to a gunfight by quick-trigger gunman Johnny Ringo. Although he impulsively accepted the challenge, Wyatt now realizes he’s certain to be killed. Thus follows this exchange with his longtime friend, the pistol-packing dentist, John H. “Doc” Holliday:
WYATT EARP: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?
JOHN H. “DOC” HOLLIDAY: A man like Ringo….got a great empty hole right through the middle of him. He can never kill enough or steal enough….or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
EARP: What does he need?
HOLLIDAY: Revenge.
EARP: For what?
HOLLIDAY: Bein’ born.
Donald Trump was born into a world of wealth and privilege. He has claimed to be worth a billion dollars.
He has been linked to some of the most beautiful women in the world. He has literally stamped his name on hundreds of buildings. And for four years he held the Presidency of the United States, the most powerful office in the Western world.
Yet he remains filled with a poisonous hatred that encompasses almost everyone.
After taking office, he offered nothing positive in his agenda.
Instead, he focused on what rights he could take from others. At the top of his list: The Affordable Care Act, providing access to medical care for millions who previously could not obtain it.
He ended his term by staging an attempted coup to overturn his defeat in the 2020 Presidential election by Joseph R. Biden.
As first-mate Starbuck says of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick: “He is a champion of darkness.”
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GREAT BRITAIN, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HUFFINGTON POST, JAMES COMEY, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH R. MCCARPTHY, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, KIM JONG UN, KU KLUX KLAN, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF (BOOK), MIKA BREZINSKI, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NEWT GINGRICH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PENTAGON, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RODNEY KING, RUSSIA, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMR ZELENSKY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 9, 2022 at 12:12 am
In 2016, “reality show” host Donald Trump—with major assistance from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin—was elected President.
Throughout his four-year term, the Right enthusiastically supported him despite a record of unprecedented infamy—which included:
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Praising Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen.
- Using his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
- Attacking and alienating America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
- Firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
- Trying to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to smear former Vice President Joe Biden, who was likely to be his Democratic opponent in the 2020 Presidential election.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans supported Trump’s actions or refused to actively oppose them.
On April 27, 2020, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough offered an important insight about why most Americans ignored Trump’s crimes and outrages for so long:
“I’ve said from the very beginning: You can lie about independent counsels, people won’t listen. You can lie about former FBI directors—“
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: “It doesn’t impact their lives.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: “They’re still going to work, the kids are doing fine, they’ve got enough money to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage. You can even lie about the Ukraine call—they don’t really care.”
Then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders provided strong evidence for this when she bragged, on June 4, 2018:
“Since taking office, the President has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. And as we saw from Friday’s jobs report, our economy is stronger, Americans are optimistic, and business is booming.”
Donald Trump
Many Congressional Republicans echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
But COVID-19 changed all that. Suddenly, millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with their children. Many of them couldn’t go to work—because they were sick or their jobs had disappeared. Their 401Ks suddenly became worthless.
Had COVID-19 not intervened, Trump would still be President. And he wouldn’t have had to call on aid from Vladimir Putin. Millions of Right-wing, “I’ve-got-mine-so-screw-you” Americans would have happily returned him to office as “President-for-Life.”
During his 12-year reign, Adolf Hitler was the target of at least 42 overthrow plots. The most famous of these occurred on July 20, 1944.
So far as is known, Donald Trump was not the target of even one.
- No Cabinet members dared to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump for office as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
- House and Senate Republicans rubberstamped his every infamy. When he praised North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un or attacked Vietnam POW John McCain or falsely charged massive voter fraud, Republicans stayed silent or loudly parroted his lies.
- On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate—ignoring the overwhelming evidence against him—acquitted Trump on both impeachment articles: Obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
- Just hours after Trump incited the deadly January 6, 2021 coup attempt at the United States Capitol, 147 Republicans lawmakers in the House and Senate voted to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss—following months of his baseless claims that the November election had been stolen.
- At the Pentagon, American generals stood mute as Trump repeatedly abused their ability and integrity, while pursuing policies calculated to aid Russia.
- Although they regularly met with Trump, none of them plotted his removal.
- No FBI agents—steeped in Federal criminal law—built a case for Trump’s indictment and prosecution. This despite his attacking their integrity and even firing their director, James Comey, for investigating Russia’s subversion of the 2016 election.
Trump knows he cannot win office in a free election.
So notorious was the role played by Russian trolls and hackers in winning Trump the 2016 election that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was determined to prevent a repetition in 2020.
Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, revamped the department’s cybersecurity efforts and increased coordination with state and local governments.
By all accounts—except Donald Trump’s—the November 3, 2020 election was virtually free of fraud. As a result, Trump lost.
That’s why legislators in Republican-controlled states are trying to corrupt election machinery at state and local levels—to nullify the votes of millions of Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
If they can restore a lifelong criminal to absolute power in 2024, Joseph Biden will be the last democratically-elected American President.
And Donald Trump will live out his dictatorial fantasies as “President-for-Life.”
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GREAT BRITAIN, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HUFFINGTON POST, JAMES COMEY, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH R. MCCARPTHY, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, KIM JONG UN, KU KLUX KLAN, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF (BOOK), MIKA BREZINSKI, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NEWT GINGRICH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PENTAGON, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RODNEY KING, RUSSIA, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMR ZELENSKY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 8, 2022 at 12:10 am
In his January 19 press conference, President Joseph Biden said: “I actually like Mitch McConnell. We like one another.”
In reality, McConnell refused to acknowledge Biden’s legitimacy as President-elect until December 15, 2020—more than one month after Biden’s election on November 3.
Additionally, at least 147 Republicans sided with Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And even after the treasonous attempted coup of January 6, 2021, many of them still refuse to accept the legitimacy of Biden’s win.
January 6, 2021’s attempted coup
Tyler Merbler from USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Republicans have enthusiastically embraced Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him—despite overwhelming evidence that it wasn’t.
Legislators in Republican-controlled states are now working furiously to corrupt election machinery at state and local levels so they can nullify the votes of millions of Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Their ultimate goal: Restore a lifelong criminal and Russia-appeasing traitor to absolute power as “President-for-Life.”
In 1996, Newt Gingrich, then Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote a memo entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” It encouraged Republicans to attack Democrats with such words as “corrupt,” “selfish,” “destructive,” “hypocrisy,” “liberal,” “sick,” and “traitors.”
Republicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them are emotions. And Republicans have become experts at appealing to these—especially the baser ones.
For Republicans, the Big Three emotions are: Hatred, Greed and Fear.
This has enabled Republicans to repeatedly score impressive electoral victories: Out of 17 Presidential elections since the end of World War II, Republicans have won 10.
But it’s not enough to see Republicans for what they are. Americans need to be seen for what they are.
Historically, the United States has always been a highly conservative nation. Going from “conservative” to “Fascist” is a relatively easy step—as millions of Donald Trump’s supporters have proven.
Since the end of World War 11, Republicans have regularly hurled the charge of “treason” against anyone who dared to run against them for office or think other than Republican-sponsored thoughts.
Republicans had been locked out of the White House from 1933 to 1952, during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
Determined to regain the Presidency by any means, they found that attacking the integrity of their fellow Americans a highly effective tactic.
During the 1950s, Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy rode a wave of paranoia to national prominence—by attacking the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with him.
Joseph McCarthy
The fact that McCarthy never uncovered one actual case of treason was conveniently overlooked during his lifetime.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Republicans tried to paint Bill Clinton as a brainwashed “Manchurian candidate” because he had briefly visited the Soviet Union during his college years.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Republicans lost their “soft on Communism” slander-line. So they tried to persuade voters that Democrats were “soft on crime.”
When riots flared in 1992 after the acquittal of LAPD officers who had savagely beaten Rodney King, President George H.W. Bush blamed the carnage on the “Great Society” programs of the 1960s.
George H.W. Bush
After losing the White House to Clinton at the polls in 1992 and 1996, Republicans tried to oust him another way: By impeaching him over a tryst with a penis-loving intern named Monica Lewinsky.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach, but the effort was defeated in the Democratically-controlled Senate.
The 2008 election of Barack Obama pushed the Republican “treason chorus” to new heights of infamy.
Barack Obama
Almost immediately after Obama took office, he came under attack by an industry of right-wing book authors such as Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.
Consider the vocabulary Right-wingers use to describe their political adversaries:
“Liberals,” “radicals, “bankrupting,” “treason,” subversion,” “slander,” “terrorism,” “betrayal,” “catastrophe,” “shattering the American dream,” “leftists,” “Communists,” “government takeover,” “socialism,” “power grab,” “secularism,” “environmentalism.”
And while the Right lusts to constantly compare Democrats and liberals (the two aren’t always the same) to Nazis, its propaganda campaign draws heavily on Adolf Hitler’s own advice.
In Mein Kampf, the Nazi leader laid out his formula for successful propaganda: “All effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials.
“Those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotypical formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward.
“[The masses] more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”
Thus, Republicans spent the eight years of Barack Obama’s Presidency repeating the lie that he was born in Kenya—not Hawaii, as the long-form version of his birth certificate attests.
The reason: To “prove” that he was an illegitimate President, and should be removed from office.
To Republicans’ dismay, their slander campaign didn’t prevent Obama from being elected in 2008—and re-elected in 2012.
In 2016, “reality show” host Donald Trump—with major assistance from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin—was elected President. Throughout his four-year term, the Right enthusiastically supported him—despite a record of unprecedented infamy.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL AMERICA, CHIANG KAI-SHEK, CHINA, CNN, COLUMBIA, COMMUNISM, CRIMEA, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBA, CZECHOSLAVAKIA, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GUATEMALA, GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HUFFINGTON POST, HUNGARY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, LATIN AMERICA, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MAO TSE-TUNG, MEDIA MATTERS, MICK MULVANEY, MITT ROMNEY, MONROE DOCTRINE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICARAGUA, NPR, PANAMA, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCHI OLYMPICS, SOVIET UNION, SPHERES OF INFLUENCE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOM COTTON, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UPI, USA TODAY, VICTOR YANUKOVYCH, VIETNAM, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on January 24, 2022 at 12:35 am
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the American Right felt dejected.
Accusing Democrats of being “terrorist-lovers” just hasn’t been as profitable as accusing them of being “Communists.”
Then fate intervened.
The torch had barely gone out at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics when Russian President Vladimir Putin began menacing the Ukraine.
Ukraine vs. Russia
Even while the Olympics played out on television, Ukrainians had rioted in Kiev and evicted their corrupt, luxury-loving president, Victor Yanukovych.
And that didn’t sit well with his “sponsor”—Putin.
Yanukovych had rejected a pending European Union association agreement. He had chosen instead to pursue a Russian loan bailout and closer ties with Russia.
And that had sat well with Putin.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Putin had yearned for its reestablishment. He had called that breakup “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.”
Vladimir Putin
Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Russia has long resisted Ukraine’s move towards European institutions—especially NATO.
So it was almost a certainty that Putin would retaliate.
And since late February, 2014, he began moving Russian troops into Ukraine and its autonomous republic, Crimea. Russia annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimean peninsula and backed separatists who captured large swathes of eastern Ukraine.
On December 3, 2021, the Washington Post reported: “The Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive as soon as early next year involving up to 175,000 troops” against Ukraine.
And where there is activity by Russians, American Rightists are eager to turn such events to their own political advantage.
Right-wingers such as Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR): ”It is a result of a year of Joe Biden’s impotence and incompetence towards Russia in particular and in foreign policy more generally.”
Cotton had vigorously defended President Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the face of Russian aggression.
In July, 2019, Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to withhold almost $400 million in promised military aid for Ukraine.
Then, on July 25, Trump telephoned Zelensky to “request” a “favor”: Investigate presumed 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had had business dealings in Ukraine.
Clearly implied in the call: Produce “dirt” on Biden—or you won’t get the military aid.
All of which overlooks a number of brutal political truths.
First, all great powers have spheres of interest—and jealously guard them.
For the United States, it’s Latin and Central America, as established by the Monroe Doctrine.
And just what is the Monroe Doctrine?
It’s a statement made by President James Monroe in his 1823 annual message to Congress, which warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
It has no legitimacy except the willingness of the United States to use armed force to back it up. When the United States no longer has the will or resources to enforce the Doctrine, it will cease to have meaning.
For the Soviet Union, its spheres of influence include the Ukraine. Long known as “the breadbasket of Russia,” in 2011, it was the world’s third-largest grain exporter.
Russia will no more give up access to that breadbasket than the United States would part with the rich farming states of the Midwest.
Second, spheres of influence often prove disastrous to those smaller countries affected.
Throughout Latin and Central America, the United States remains highly unpopular for its brutal use of “gunboat diplomacy” during the 20th century.
Among those countries invaded or controlled by America: Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The resulting anger has led many Latin and Central Americans to support Communist Cuba, even though its political oppression and economic failure are universally apparent.
Latin and Central America
Similarly, the Soviet Union forced many nations—such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia—to submit to the will of Moscow.
The alternative? The threat of Soviet invasion—as occurred in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Third, even “great powers” are not all-powerful.
In 1949, after a long civil war, the forces of Mao Tse-tung defeated the Nationalist armies of Chiang Kai-Shek, who withdrew to Taiwan.
China had never been a territory of the United States. Nor could the United States have prevented Mao from defeating the corrupt, ineptly-led Nationalist forces.
Even so, Republican Senators and Representatives such as Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy eagerly blamed President Harry S. Truman and the Democrats for “losing China.”
The fear of being accused of “losing” another country led Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon to tragically commit the United States to “roll back” Communism in Cuba and Vietnam.
Now Republicans—who claim the United States can’t afford to provide healthcare for its poorest citizens—want to turn the national budget over to the Pentagon.
They want the United States to “intervene” in Ukraine—even though this would mean going to war with the only nuclear power capable of turning America into an atomic graveyard.
Before plunging into conflicts that don’t concern us and where there is absolutely nothing to “win,” Americans would do well to remember the above-stated lessons of history. And to learn from them.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BENJAMIN CIVILETTI, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BOB WOODWARD, BUZZFEED, CAPITOL ATTACK, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HITLER: ASCENT: 1889 – 1933 (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN EASTMAN, JOSEPH BIDEN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MIKE LEE, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITT ROMNEY, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NANCY PELOSI, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERIL (BOOK), POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT COSTA, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STAITES SENATE, UNITED STATES CAPITOL, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VOLKER ULRICH, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 11, 2022 at 12:11 am
Merrick Brian Garland has served as:
- A special assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civviletti (1979 – 1981).
- Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1997 – 2021).
- Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2013 – 2020).
Yet, as United States Attorney General, he is now presiding over the closing days of the American Republic.
On January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump incited a treasonous attack on the United States Capitol Building. There, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
Since former Vice President Joseph Biden had gotten 306 votes compared to 232 for Trump, the outcome was already known. And Trump, who had often “joked” about becoming “President-for-Life,” wanted that verdict overturned.
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest Only or shoot them.
Only one rioter was shot: Ashli Babbitt, as she climbed through a shattered window in a barricaded door
By comparison: At the battle of the Alamo, 200 Texan defenders killed 600 Mexican attackers.
Stormtrumpers attacking Capitol police
After giving his inflammatory speech, Trump returned to the White House. There he gleefully watched his handiwork on television—and refused to call off his supporters or call the National Guard.
More than three hours passed before police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
By January 5, 2022, more than 700 Stormtrumpers have been arrested and charged.
- More than 150 defendants have pleaded guilty.
- About one-tenth of these—71—have been sentenced by January 1, 2022.
- The most common charge pleaded to is illegally parading or demonstrating in the Capitol, a misdemeanor.
- Of those who have been sentenced, fewer than half have received prison time.
- The median prison sentence to date is 45 days.
- Another
Yet no major Trump supporter has been arrested, let alone indicted. Such as:
- Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who cried to the demonstrators, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
- Donald Trump, Jr., who, just hours before the Trump mob stormed Congress, threatened Republican lawmakers at a large rally outside the White House: “These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”
- Rep, Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) who incited the Trump crowd with: “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass!”
- Donald Trump. He not only incited his followers to attack the Capitol, he has spent the last six months spreading poisonous lies that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him through “massive” voter fraud. As a result, he continues to undermine the democratic process as he terrorizes the Republican party to stand behind him.
There is a historical precedent for this, and it does not bode well for our Republic.
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he wrote his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
On January 30, 1933, those intrigues made him Chancellor of Germany.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental 2016 biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
A 10- to 20-year prison sentence for Donald Trump would scuttle his chances for becoming dictator—and send a warning message to other Right-wingers.
The United States Justice Department now faces the same choice faced by the judges of the Weimar Republic: Enforce the law against a ruthless tyrant—or stand by while he mounts a comeback.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BENJAMIN CIVILETTI, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BOB WOODWARD, BUZZFEED, CAPITOL ATTACK, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HITLER: ASCENT: 1889 – 1933 (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN EASTMAN, JOSEPH BIDEN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MIKE LEE, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITT ROMNEY, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NANCY PELOSI, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERIL (BOOK), POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT COSTA, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STAITES SENATE, UNITED STATES CAPITOL, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VOLKER ULRICH, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 10, 2022 at 12:10 am
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Merrick Brian Garland served as a special assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civviletti from 1979 to 1981.
As a federal prosecutor, he played a leading role in the investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers.
He then served as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1997 – 2021) and then as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2013 – 2020).
In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated him to serve as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a hearing or vote on your nomination.
Merrick Garland
Yet, as United States Attorney General, he is now presiding over the closing days of the American Republic.
As the bestselling book, Peril, makes clear:
- There was a detailed plan by Republicans to illegally retain President Donald Trump in office.
- The votes of 81 million Americans who had voted for former Vice President Joseph Biden would have been scrapped in what was intended to be a Right-wing coup.
According to authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:
- Attorney John Eastman first proposed the plan to Vice President Mike Pence on January 4 in the Oval Office with Trump in attendance.
- The memo called for throwing out the election results in seven states under the false claim that those states had used alternate electors.
- Eastman’s memo was sent to Senator Mile Lee (R-Utah) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as one of Trump’s attorneys at the time.
- They tried to convince Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that there was rampant fraud in the 2020 election.
- Both Graham and Lee reportedly argued that the fraud claims had no merit.
On January 6, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
Since Biden had gotten 306 votes compared to 232 for Trump, the outcome was already known.
On that morning, Trump tried to convince Pence to reject the electoral votes that had been cast for Biden. This would mean flipping the results of the 2020 Presidential election to give him a win.
Pence replied that he lacked the power to overturn those results.
But as Pence went off to the Capitol Building housing the Senate and House of Representatives, Trump had one last card to play.
Mike Pence
For weeks Trump had ordered his legions of Right-wing Stormtrumpers to descend on Washington, D.C. by January 6.
On December 20, he had tweeted: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
In tweets, he promoted the rally again on December 27 and 30, and January 1.
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results.
Donald Trump addresses his Stormtrumpers
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal….
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police.
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
Among their outrages:
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents and lead pipes.
- Many of the attackers wore body armor and two-way radio headsets similar to those used by police.
- Many of the lawmakers’ offices were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
- Rioters yelled “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Hang Nancy Pelosi”
- Pipe bombs ere found at the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters offices.
- Some rioters carried Confederate flags or Nazi emblems. Others carried crosses and signs saying, “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus 2020.”
- At least 140 police officers were injured.
- More than $1 million dollars of damage was done to the Capitol building.
- Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) yelled at several fellow Republicans who were challenging President-elect Biden’s electoral votes: “This is what you’ve gotten, guys!”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BURT LANCASTER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, CONCENTRATION CAMPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DACHAU, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), JAMES COMEY, JAMES ROBART, JEWS, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, KIM JONG-UN, LYING, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KOREA, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RACISM, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, ROBERT S. MUELLER, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SPENCER TRACY, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 7, 2022 at 12:20 am
Those who have seen the classic 1960 movie, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” will remember its pivotal moment.
That’s when Burt Lancaster, as Ernst Janning, the once distinguished German judge, confesses his guilt and that of Nazi Germany in a controlled, yet emotional, outburst.
Addressing the court—presided over by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy)—Janning explains the forces that led to the triumph of evil.
“My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the concentration camps. Not aware? Where were we?
“Where were we when Hitler began shrieking his hate in the Reichstag? When our neighbors were dragged out in the middle of the night to Dachau?
“Where were we when every village in Germany has a railroad terminal where cattle cars were filled with children being carried off to their extermination? Where were we when they cried out in the night to us? Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?
“My counsel says we were not aware of the extermination of the millions. He would give you the excuse we were only aware of the extermination of the hundreds. Does that make us any the less guilty?
“Maybe we didn’t know the details, but if we didn’t know, it was because we didn’t want to know.”
It’s not hard to imagine, in the future, an equally conscience-stricken member of the Donald Trump administration, standing before the bar of justice, making a similar statement:
“My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the ICE concentration camps. Not aware? Where were we?
“Where were we when Trump began shrieking his hate across the country? When Trump called our free press ‘the enemy of the people’?
“Where were we when Trump openly praised Vladimir Putin and attacked those in the FBI, CIA and other Intelligence agencies sworn to protect us?
“Where were we when the victims of Trump’s hatred cried out in the night to us? Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?
“My counsel says we were not aware of Trump’s treasonous collusion with Vladimir Putin—and his intention to betray American freedoms in exchange for the Presidency. He would give you the excuse we were misled by the lying rhetoric coming out of the White House.
“Does that make us any the less guilty? Maybe we didn’t know the details—but if we didn’t know, it was because we didn’t want to know.”
Donald Trump
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator:
“[They] allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….[They] followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content. They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims.”
On November 8, 2016, millions of ignorant, hate-filled, Right-wing Americans catapulted Donald Trump—a man, charged conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, with an “odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity”—into the Presidency.
Whereas Barack Obama, in 2008, ran for President on the slogan, “Yes, We Can!” Trump ran on the themes of fear and vindictiveness. He threatened violence not only against Democrats but even his fellow Republicans.
Upon taking office in January, 2017, Trump began undermining one public or private institution after another.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Brutally attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Repeatedly attacking Seattle US District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first travel ban.
- Firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Intending to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2017, but talked out of it by aides fearful that it would result in his impeachment.
- Lying so often—30,573 times in four years—he’s universally distrusted, at home and abroad.
- Shutting down the Federal government on December 22, 2018—because Democrats refused to fund his useless “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Furloughing an estimated 380,000 government employees and ordering another 420,000 to work without pay. This lasted until January 25, 2019, when Trump caved to public pressure.
So why have Republicans almost unanimously stood by Trump despite the wreckage he has made of American foreign and domestic policy?
Fear that they will lose their privileged positions in Congress if they don’t.
This could happen by being voted out of Congress by:
- Trump’s fanatical base if they don’t slavishly obey him; or
- Anti-Trump voters wanting to protect the nation from a Trump dictatorship.
Future historians—if there are any—will similarly and harshly condemn those Americans who, like “good Germans,” joyfully embraced a regime dedicated to:
- Celebrating Trump’s egomania;
- Using the White House to further enrich Trump;
- Siding with Russia and North Korea against America’s oldest allies, such as those in NATO;
- Depriving America’s poor of their only source of healthcare; and
- Further enriching the ultra-wealthy.
2018 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ALFRED P. MURRAH FEDERAL BUILDING, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRIAN WILLIAMS, BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION, BUZZFEED, CAPITOL ATTACK, CBS NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COUPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORT SUMTER, FOX NEWS, GAIUS CALIGULA, GEORGE C. WALLACE, GEORGE FLOYD, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, JOSEPH BIDEN, jOSH HAWLEY, KU KLUX KLAN, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MILITIA GROUPS, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NATIONAL GUARD, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OBSTRUCTING CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RIGHT-WING TERRORISM, RONALD REAGAIN, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MASSACRE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SLAVERY, SOVIET UNION, SWAT TEAMS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, TERRORIST FINANCE TRACKING PROJECT, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TREASON, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES PARK POLICE, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA PATRIOT ACT, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 6, 2022 at 12:12 am
On January 6, 2021, thousands of Right-wing Donald Trump supporters—many of them armed—stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
After overwhelming the Capitol Police force, they damaged and occupied parts of the building for several hours. Legislators huddled fearfully while National Guard units from several states finally evicted the insurrectionists.
The Capitol attack marked the first time in American history when a defeated Presidential candidate violently sought to remain in office.
It may also mark a desperately-needed change in the priorities of American law enforcement, which has traditionally focused on Left-wingers—and especially blacks—as the country’s mortal enemies.
Option 2: The Justice Department could begin waging all-out war on Right-wing militia groups planning to unleash violence in 2024.
Numerous commentators have noted the contrast between the tepid police response to the Capitol attack by white Right-wingers and the brutal crackdown on peaceful liberal blacks protesting the murder of George Floyd in Washington D.C. on June 1, 2020.
U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops used tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, horses, shields and batons to clear protesters from Lafayette Square—so Trump could stage a photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
After 9/11, American law enforcement and Intelligence agencies initiated major reforms to focus on Islamic terrorism.
A similar reform effort, focusing on Right-wing terrorism, could include the following:
- The FBI’s designating Right-wing political and terrorist groups as the Nation’s #1 enemy.
- Reviving the FBI’s legendary COINTELPRO (“Counterintelligence Program”) that destroyed the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1960s. Among the methods that can be used:
- Turning the Bureau’s powerful arsenal—bugs, wiretaps, informants, SWAT teams—on them.
- Buying the cooperation of informants within Right-wing organizations.
- Conducting “black bag jobs” to steal membership lists of of Right-wing organizations.
- Breaking up the marriages of prominent Right-wingers by circulating rumors of their infidelity among their wives.
- Informing the employers of known Right-wing terrorists of their employees’ criminal activity, resulting in the firing of untold numbers of them.
- Contacting the news media to publicize the arrests of prominent Right-wing leaders.
- When Right-wing terrorists target Federal law enforcement agents and/or their families for harassment or worse, they can be targeted for similar intimidation or removal.
FBI SWAT member
A revised COINTELPRO could be supplemented by the following:
- Creating tip hotlines for reporting illegal Right-wing activities—and offering rewards for information that leads to arrests.
- Prosecuting militia groups for violating Federal firearms laws.
- Treating calls for the murder of members of Congress—as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has done—as felonies punishable by lengthy imprisonment.
- Prosecuting Right-wing leaders involved in the treasonous assault on the United States Capitol Building.
- Prosecuting as “accessories to treason” all those Republican members of Congress who stoked Right-wing anger by lying that the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, although every objective news source proved he had lost.
- Directing the Treasury Department’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) at fundamentalist Christian churches that finance Right-wing terrorism-–just as it halts the financing of Islamic terrorist groups by Islamic organizations.
- Using drones, planes and/or helicopters to provide security against similar Right-wing terror demonstrations—especially in Washington, D.C.
- Using the Federal Communications Commission to ban Fox News—the Nation’s #1 Right-wing propaganda network—from representing itself as a legitimate news network, and requiring that its stories carry labels warning viewers: “This is Right-wing propaganda, NOT news.”
- Encouraging victims of Right-wing hate-speech to file libel/slander lawsuits against their abusers—such as the parents of murdered children at Sandy Hook Elementary School successfully did against Alex Jones.
- Using Federal anti-terrorist laws to arrest, prosecute and imprison Right-wingers who openly carry firearms and threaten violence, even if states allow such display of firearms.
- Seizing the assets of individuals and organizations found guilty of Right-wing terrorism offenses.
Option 3: The “Caligula Solution.”
Like Donald Trump, the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula delighted in humiliating others. His fatal mistake was taunting Cassius Chaerea, a member of his own bodyguard.
On January 22 41 A.D. Chaerea and several other bodyguards hacked Caligula to death with swords before other guards could save him.
Trump has similarly behaved arrogantly toward his Secret Service guards.
- He forced them to work without pay during his 35-day government shutdown in 2018.
- He also forced them to accompany him to COVID-infected states—both during the Presidential campaign and afterward.
- Many of them have been stricken with this often lethal disease as a result.
Even as an ex-President, Trump continues to insult anyone who challenges him. This includes not only Democrats but Republicans he feels don’t pay him sufficient homage—or, worse, dare to oppose him for the party’s 2024 Presidential nomination.
At the same time, he publicly exposes himself to a potential assassin virtually every day. And the mere presence of bodyguards is no guarantee against assassination.
Presidential candidate George C. Wallace was shot and paralyzed by a gunman while mingling with supporters in a Maryland shopping center in 1972. And President Ronald Reagan was shot and almost killed in 1981 while walking to his bulletproof limousine in Washington, D.C.
Both men were under protection by the U.S. Secret Service at the time.
2018 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, ABC NEWS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ALFRED P. MURRAH FEDERAL BUILDING, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRIAN WILLIAMS, BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION, BUZZFEED, CAPITOL ATTACK, CBS NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COUPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORT SUMTER, FOX NEWS, GAIUS CALIGULA, GEORGE C. WALLACE, GEORGE FLOYD, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, JOSEPH BIDEN, jOSH HAWLEY, KU KLUX KLAN, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MILITIA GROUPS, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NATIONAL GUARD, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OBSTRUCTING CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RIGHT-WING TERRORISM, RONALD REAGAIN, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MASSACRE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SLAVERY, SOVIET UNION, SWAT TEAMS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, TERRORIST FINANCE TRACKING PROJECT, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TREASON, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES PARK POLICE, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA PATRIOT ACT, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Social commentary on January 5, 2022 at 12:16 am
Can a Republican coup—or a Republican-inspired civil war—be prevented?
In theory, yes—if the administration of President Joseph Biden is willing to use the same methods America has applied against foreign enemies.
Option 1: The Justice Department could wage all-out war on state and Federal Republican politicians plotting to subvert American democracy.
By December 14, 2021—11 months after the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol—more than 726 Stormtrumper rioters had been arrested and charged.
Yet no major Donald Trump supporter has been arrested, let alone criminally indicted.
- NOT Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who cried to the demonstrators, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
- NOT Donald Trump, Jr., who, just hours before the Trump mob stormed Congress, threatened Republican lawmakers at a large rally outside the White House: “These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”
- And, above all, NOT Donald Trump. He not only incited his followers to attack the Capitol, he has spent the last year spreading poisonous lies that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him through “massive” voter fraud. As a result, he continues to undermine the democratic process as he terrorizes the Republican party to stand behind him.
Had anyone but a President orchestrated such an attack on Congress, the Justice Department would have come down on him with a vengeance.
Obstructing Congressional or administrative proceedings is a Federal offense. According to 18 U.S.C 1505: It’s a felony, punishable by imprisonment of five to eight years if domestic or international terrorism is involved.
Before a prosecution can be initiated, three essential conditions must be met:
- There must be a proceeding pending before a department or agency of the United States.
- The defendant must know that a proceeding was occurring.
- S/he must have intentionally tried to “corruptly” influence, obstruct or impede the pending proceeding.
Every one of the men and women who stormed the Capitol Building stands guilty of violating U.S.C. 1505.
And so do those who egged them on—such as Missouri Rep. Mo Brooks and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
Still other Republican Congressional members played a coup-supporting role in trying to overturn the results of a legitimate Presidential election.
Hours after the Capitol attack, 147 Republicans who hid during the attempted coup returned to the House and Senate floors and voted just as Trump wanted them to: To overturn the election results in his favor, based on lies about widespread voter fraud.
The Justice Department could charge every one of these Congressional members as an accessory to terrorism under the USA Patriot Act for “activities that…appear to be intended…to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion [and]…occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
United States Department of Justice
Had this happened early in 2021—by March or April at the latest—this would have sent a message that even the most ardent Trump supporters would have understood.
In addition, this would have deprived Republicans of the numerical power to obstruct the legislative agenda of the Joseph Biden administration.
Those members indicted would have been forced to spend most of their time strategizing with their attorneys to stay out of prison. They would have been forced to pony up huge legal fees—which would have had to come from funds intended for re-election campaigns.
(Contrary to popular belief, indictment—or even a felony conviction—of a member of Congress does not force him to vacate his seat.)
Option 2: The Justice Department could begin waging all-out war on Right-wing militia groups planning to unleash violence in 2024.
According to American political scientist George Michael: “Right-wing terrorism and violence has a long history in America.”
The Supreme Court’s decision, in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), striking down segregated facilities, unleashed a wave of Ku Klux Klan violence against blacks, civil rights activists and Jews. Between 1956 and 1963, an estimated 130 bombings ravaged the South.
Ku Klux Klan flag
During the 1980s, more than 75 Right-wing extremists were prosecuted in the United States for acts of terrorism, carrying out six attacks.
The April 19, 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols killed 168 people. It was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States until 9/11.
By 2020, Right-wing terrorism accounted for the majority of terrorist attacks and plots in the United States. A 2017 Government Accountability Office report stated that Right-wing extremist groups were responsible for 73% of violent extremist incidents resulting in deaths since September 12, 2001.
Right-wing violence rose sharply during the Barack Obama administration and especially during the Presidency of Donald Trump. His remark after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that there were “some very fine people on both sides” convinced white supremacists that he favored their goals, if not their methods.
On January 6, 2021, thousands of Right-wing Donald Trump supporters—many of them armed—stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Their goal: To stop members of Congress from counting Electoral Votes cast in the 2020 Presidential election, from which former Vice President Joseph R. Biden was expected to emerge the winner.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, BUZZFEED, CALVIN COOLIDGE, CBS NEWS, CELINDA LAKE, CHINA, CHRIS MATTHEWS, CHVE-CHING HUANG, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS THEORY, DONALD TRUMP, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, EMPLOYERS RESPONSIBILITY ACT, EMPLOYMENT ACT OF 1946, FACEBOOK, HARDBALL, HILLARY CLINTON, JOB CREATORS, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LOS ANGELES TIMES, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK TIMES, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER CAPPELLI, POLITICO, RAW STORY, READERS DIGEST, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT REICH, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS, SLATE, SLAVERY, STEVE POIZNER, TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT OF 2017, TAX LAW CENTER AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TOMMY G. THOMPSON, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALLACE C. PETERSON, WASHINGTON POST, WHY GOOD PEOPLE CAN'T FIND JOBS
THE EMPLOYER IS THE ENEMY: PART ONE (OF SEVEN)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 21, 2022 at 12:10 amHave you noticed how every American employer has suddenly become a “job creator”?
At least, that’s the official Republican line.
But if that’s true:
A September 20, 2021 article in Recode—“Why Everybody’s Hiring But No One Is Getting hired”—explains “America’s broken hiring system.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that 6.6 million potential workers are unemployed—and a record 10.9 million jobs open.
Why?
“For some of the jobs available, people don’t have the right skills, or at least the skills employers say they’re looking for. Other jobs are undesirable — they offer bad pay or an unpredictable schedule, or just don’t feel worth it to unemployed workers, many of whom are rethinking their priorities.
“In some cases, there are a host of perfectly acceptable candidates and jobs out there, but for a multitude of reasons, they’re just not being matched.”
Throughout the United States, “help wanted” signs can be seen virtually everywhere. “But just because a bar or restaurant or gas station wants a worker doesn’t mean a worker wants to work for them. The millions of jobs available aren’t necessarily millions of jobs people want.”
And what makes these jobs undesirable?
Low pay, unpredictable schedules, no benefits, no long-term stability—as well as the employer practice of hiring one person to do the work of 10.
Yet countless employers whine to the media: “Nobody wants to work anymore.”
Countless job-seekers who do want to work are locked out of it by the computerized “résumé readers” employed by many companies. Many of the résumés submitted are automatically rejected—because they lack certain keywords that have been programmed into the software.
A classic example: Software scans for registered nurses with computer programming skills—when they just need data entry.
Finally, a lot of employers simply don’t want to hire.
An article in the March, 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest gives the lie to the excuses so many employers use for refusing to hire.
Entitled “22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job,” it lays bare many of the reasons why America needs to legally force employers to demonstrate as much responsibility for hiring as job-seekers are expected to show toward searching for work.
Among the truths it reveals:
TRUTH NO: 1: After you’re unemployed more than six months, employers consider you unemployable.
TRUTH NO. 2: It’s not what but who you know that counts.
TRUTH NO. 3: Try to avoid HR. Find someone in the company you know. If you don’t know anyone, contact the hiring manager.
TRUTH NO. 4: Cover letters are often ignored, going directly into “the round file.”
TRUTH NO. 5: Employers judge you on the basis of your email address. Avoid the type that reads: “Igetdrunkandparty.”
TRUTH NO. 6: You’re not protected against age discrimination. Many employers regularly ignore the law. Are you in your 50s or 60s? Leave your year of graduation off your resume.
TRUTH NO: 7: Just because it’s illegal to discriminate against applicants who have children does not mean you’re safe. Many employers try to screen out parents—such as by checking cars for child safety seats.
TRUTH NO. 8: It’s harder to get a job if you’re fat, since fat people are usually assumed to be lazy.
TRUTH NO. 9: Make sure you give the interviewer a firm handshake. Or he might assume you’re a loser for giving him a weak one.
TRUTH NO. 10: The more you can get the interviewer to talk–especially about himself—the more likely you are to be hired. Ego-driven interviewers love hearing the sound of their own voices and will assume you’re better-qualified than someone who doesn’t want to listen to them prattle.
Millions of Americans blamed President Barack Obama for the nation’s high unemployment rate during his administration. And millions more believe that President Donald Trump created an economic miracle—despite those millions of Americans still desperately searching for work.
The brutal truth is that no President can hope to turn unemployment around until employers are forced to start living up to their responsibilities.
And those responsibilities should encompass more than simply fattening their own pocketbooks and/or egos at the expense of their fellow Americans. Such behavior used to be called treason.
Americans need to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons. It can be sold out for economic ones, too.
Trea$on
Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.
Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.
Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.
And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties—heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.
Share this: