Posts Tagged ‘immigration’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 30, 2025 at 12:10 am
Even natural-born American citizens—such as Kenny Laynez—now risk arrest and detention by overzealous agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On May 2, Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopped the 18-year-old landscaper and his three coworkers—one of them his mother—as they drove past luxury buildings to a job in Palm Beach County.
They—with the exception of Laynez’ mother—were arrested and taken to the Riviera Beach facility.
After almost four hours, a female officer asked him to unlock his cellphone, saying that she needed to see if he had filmed videos of the arrest.
Which, in fact, he had.
Laynez refused to open it—and she threatened to press charges if he didn’t.
But then a supervisor appeared and said that Laynez wasn’t supposed to be in that room because he is a U.S. citizen.
After Laynez was released six hours later, he still had the video on his cellphone. He shared this—to back up his account—with the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Laynez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get the incident over with. He entered a pretrial diversion program on June 4. The state will drop the charges July 30 if he completes the program by then.
His coworkers—as illegal aliens—were transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami. They are free on bail but fear arrest if they appear in court.
* * * * *
There’s a reason for such cruelty—the same one that existed for Jews in Nazi Germany before World War II.
Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler didn’t initially decide to exterminate the Jews—in Germany or throughout the rest of Europe. He simply wanted to evict them from Germany. And he employed a wide range of methods to convince them to leave.
Adolf Hitler
The infamous Nuremberg Laws, for example, stripped Jews of German citizenship, forbade marriage between Jews and non-Jews, and barred them from such professions as the judiciary, teaching, law, medicine, acting, music and journalism.
Jewish shops were picketed by members of Hitler’s menacing Stormtroopers, often holding signs that read: “DON’T BUY FROM JEWS.”
Between 1933, when the Nazi regime came to power, and the start of World War II in 1939. approximately 282,000 Jews emigrated from Germany. Those who couldn’t—or wouldn’t—leave faced increasing brutalities and deprivations—ultimately culminating in the Holocaust.
Like Adolf Hitler, President Donald Trump is sending a message to Hispanics—both illegal aliens and legal citizens: “Get out! There is no place for you in the sort of America I am creating.”
And many are no doubt leaving before they can be abused and arrested.
Another similarity between the Hitler and Trump regimes: Both are marked by their attempts to maintain secrecy over their secret police operations.
Donald Trump
For example: On December 7, 1941, Hitler issued the “Nacht und Nebel” (“Night and Fog”) decree. It allowed German authorities to abduct individuals in occupied territories who were accused of “endangering German security.”
Thus, they effectively vanished without a trace.
The same motive lies behind the mania of ICE officers to confiscate cellphones and erase any footage taken of the tactics they use in making arrests.
Their agents are almost universally masked, heavily-armed, wearing military-style clothing, and descend on their unarmed targets in overwhelming numbers.
If their targets hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody.
The 1991 police beating of motorist Rodney King and the 2020 police murder of George Floyd aroused national fury and led to widespread rioting. Thus, ICE seeks to hide its often brutal, even unlawful tactics from public scrutiny.
ICE officers
Eight years ago, Trump invoked an obscure authority, Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to “suspend the entry” of nationals of multiple Muslim-majority nations. Two versions of the ban were initially struck down in court, but the Supreme Court upheld a third version.
This stayed in effect until President Joseph Biden terminated it in 2021.
Upon taking office again on January 20, Trump reinstated his Court-authorized travel ban, targeting 19 countries and potentially blocking more than 125,000 people each year from entering the United States—either temporarily or permanently.
Tellingly, those are countries whose populations are Islamic, African, Hispanic or Asian—not white, English-speaking ones:
- Afghanistan
- Burma
- Chad
- Republic of the Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Libya
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Yemen
- Burundi
- Cuba
- Laos
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
Additionally, Trump has fired more than 50 immigration judges—from senior leaders to new appointees.
Republicans officially claim immigrants are welcome “if they come in legally.” But in reality they seek to expel illegal immigrants and block those who wish to enter legally.
Demographers estimate that around 2045, white people will become a minority in the United States. This is being driven by two factors: a declining white population and increasing minority populations.
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, many of Trump’s supporters held up signs or wore T-shirts reading: ‘MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN.”
That, ultimately, is the goal that Trump is now vigorously pursuing.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 29, 2025 at 12:42 am
On July 2, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
The Trump administration claims this is a crackdown on “the worst of the worst.” But according to the ACLU lawsuit the majority of those “stopped and arrested in the raids have not been targeted in any meaningful sense of the word at all, except on the basis of their skin color and occupation.
“Those who have borne the brunt of Defendants’ heavy-handed pattern of unlawful conduct include day laborers, car wash workers, farm workers, street vendors, service workers, caregivers and others who form the lifeblood of communities across Southern California.
“Over a thousand residents in [Los Angeles] have already been impacted, including a shocking (though hardly surprising) number of U.S. citizens and individuals lawfully present in the country.”
On May 2, Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopped 18-year-old landscaper Kenny Laynez and three coworkers—one of them his mother—as they drove past luxury buildings to a job in Palm Beach County.
An officer rolled down a tinted window and signaled to his mother—who was driving—to pull over. The officer asked where they were headed. Laynez said they were going to work and the officer took his mother’s license and the truck’s registration and insurance.
The officer returned and said his mother’s license was suspended.
The officer asked if they were “illegal.”
Laynez said they were not, although two of his co-workers—Esdras and Marroquin—were, and asked what that had to do with the license.
A van pulled up and more armed agents swarmed the truck. A female officer approached his window and ordered them in Spanish to shut off their phones.
Instead, Laynez—assuming that something ominous was going to happen—started recording with his phone:
OFFICER (in Spanish): Who in here is illegal? Whoever takes longer to answer will get more charges and spend more time in jail.
One of the co-workers—Esdras—raised his hand.
A male officer ordered them to open the door.
LAYNEZ: Wait, hold up. You don’t have the right to do that.
OFFICER (laughing): I don’t have a right?
He reached inside the car and opened the door. An agent grabbed Esdras by the hair and placed his neck in the crook of his arm.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
Another agent pulled Marroquin out by the leg and tightened his hands around his neck.
Laynez stepped out of the car, but an officer who had ordered him to get on the ground pushed him from behind, twisted his arms and forced him to kneel on the pavement.
Esdras stood rigidly as three officers tried to force him to the ground. They told him in English to lie down, while Laynez urged him in Spanish not to resist.
An officer pulled out a yellow Taser and fired twice into Esdras’ stomach, slamming him to the pavement.
An agent forced Laynez to lie on the pavement. An officer later ordered Laynez to stand up
LAYNEZ: I am not going to get up because you are going to do to me whatever you were doing to Esdras. That is not how you arrest people.
OFFICER: Be quiet.
LAYNEZ: I’ve got the right to talk. I was born and raised here.
OFFICER: You have no rights here. You are a “Migo,” brother.
An officer said that Laynez’s coworker was resisting arrest, so he should be charged: “He was being a dick right now. That is why we tased.”
The agents confirmed Laynez’s mother had legal status and issued her a ticket for driving with a suspended license. Before leaving, an officer held her driver’s license to her face and tore it in half.
Although the officers were shown a picture of Laynez’ Social Security card, they arrested him.
He was taken to the Riviera Beach facility. About four hours later, he was taken to another room. A female officer asked for his birthdate three times, although he had written it down to another officer. Then she produced a ziplocked bag with his phone, wallet and headphones.
She asked him to unlock it, adding that she needed to see if he had filmed videos of the arrest.
Laynez refused to open it and set it down on the table. The officer said they would wait until he opened it, and threatened to press charges if he didn’t unlock his phone.
But then a supervisor appeared and said that Laynez wasn’t supposed to be in that room because he is a U.S. citizen. The supervisor took Laynez’s fingerprints and said it was only to leave a record that he had been in the facility.
Then he told Laynez he must sign some paperwork and appear in court.
The arrest report stated that Laynez was being charged with nonviolent police obstruction. But the police report doesn’t mention that Laynez resisted.
Laynez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get the incident over with. He entered a pretrial diversion program on June 4. The state will drop the charges on July 30 if he completes the program by then.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 28, 2025 at 12:17 am
On July 2, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
“Since early June, this District [Los Angeles] has been under siege.
“Masked federal agents, sometimes dressed in military-style clothing, have conducted indiscriminate immigration operations, flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners, and other places, setting up checkpoints, and entering businesses, interrogating residents as they are working, looking for work, or otherwise trying to go about their daily lives, and taking people away.
“The raids in this District follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from.
“If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody. In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind.
“If agents make an arrest, contrary to federal law, they do not make any determination of whether a person poses a risk of flight before a warrant can be obtained. Also contrary to federal law, the agents do not identify themselves or explain why the individual is being arrested.
“Further, apparently to accommodate the sharp rise in arrests, the government has resorted to keeping individuals at what is supposed to be a short term processing center and ICE basement holding area in downtown Los Angeles, known as “B-18,” often for days.
“In these dungeon-like facilities, conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional. The government has also unlawfully deprived those arrested of access to counsel. Under such conditions, some of those arrested are pressured into accepting voluntary departure.”
Contrast this behavior with the way Mafia “Boss of all Bosses” John Gotti was arrested on December 11, 1990, when FBI agents and NYPD detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan.
They had arrest warrants for Gotti, boss of the Gambino Mafia Family, and his two lieutenants: Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, his underboss, or second-in-command, and Frankie Locascio, his Consigliere, or adviser.
Moreover, there was no mistaking that these were legitimate law enforcement agents: They wore jackets emblazoned with “FBI” or “NYPD,” showed their credentials, and didn’t hide their faces behind masks.
John Gotti
And when the three Mafiosi were taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, in Manhattan, New York City, they were allowed to call their attorneys.
Every nation has the right to control its borders and decide who has the right to enter—and under what conditions. But nations that pride themselves on adhering to the law should be held accountable with their law enforcement agencies flagrantly and routinely violate it.
On July 11, Thomas Homan, the designated “Border Czar” for Donald Trump’s second presidency, said during an interview on Fox News: “People need to understand ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them.
“They just need the totality of the circumstances. They just got through our observation, you know, get articulable facts based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.”
Thomas Homan
This contradicted a statement made in court that week by Thomas Giles, the assistant director of ICE, that the standard for making arrests “is we need to determine probable cause and determine alienage.”
“And there you have it,” wrote Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who on June 12 was roughed up by security forces while trying to ask Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem questions at a press event.
“Under the Trump Administration, ICE and Border Patrol are being empowered to stop and question you based solely on how you look. No probable cause. No real reason. Just your ‘physical appearance.’ That’s not justice—it’s profiling.”
Even natural-born American citizens—such as Kenny Laynez—now risk arrest and detention by overzealous ICE agents.
According to the lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the reason for this is: “The government is aware that its actions are unconstitutional and contrary to officers’ training, but deliberately persists because this system allows it to coerce removals, avoid public accountability, and ultimately—given the limited bed space at longer-term detention facilities in the area—keep arrest numbers high.
“Federal immigration enforcement is constrained by law. But since the federal government began its mass immigration enforcement operations in [Los Angeles] on June 6, 2025, all of these legal requirements have given way to one overriding consideration: numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality.
”In late May, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security imposed a quota of 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day—with ‘consequences for not hitting arrest targets.’ In order to reach this target, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller directed high-level officials to change their approach to stops and arrests in the field.
“Agents and officers, according to him, should no longer conduct targeted operations based on investigations. Instead, they should ‘just go out there and arrest [unauthorized noncitizens] by rounding up people in public spaces like ‘Home Depot’ and ‘7-Eleven’ convenience stores.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on July 18, 2025 at 12:45 am
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.
“Ultimately, the responsibility for the rise of Hitler lies with the German people, who 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….
“If he answered their suppressed desires, it was not because he shared them, but because he could make use of them. He despised the German people, for they were merely the instruments of his will.”
On November 5, 2024 77 million ignorant, hate-filled, Right-wing Americans re-elected Donald Trump–––a man reflecting their own Fascistic hate and ignorance—to the Presidency.
Yet Americans had fewer excuses for turning to a Fascistic style of government than the Germans did.
Adolf Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party in 1919—the year after World War 1 ended.
Adolf Hitler
In 1923, he staged a coup attempt in Bavaria—which was quickly suppressed by police. He was arrested and sentenced to less than a year in prison.
Hitler then decided that he could not win power through violence. He must win it through election—or appointment.
When the 1929 Depression struck Germany, the fortunes of Hitler’s Nazi party rose as the life savings of ordinary Germans fell. Bloody street clashes erupted between Hitler’s Nazi Stormtroopers and German Communist Party members.
Germans desperately looked for a leader—a Fuhrer—who could somehow deliver them from the threat of financial ruin and Communist takeover.
In early 1933, members of his own cabinet persuaded aging German president, Paul von Hindenburg, that only Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor could do this.
Paul von Hindenburg
Hindenburg considered Hitler a dangerous radical. But he let himself be convinced that he could “box in” and control Hitler by putting him in the Cabinet.
So, on January 30, 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor (the equivalent of Attorney General) of Germany.
On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg died. Hitler immediately assumed the titles—and duties—of the offices of Chancellor and President. His rise to total power was complete.
It had taken him 14 years to do so.
On November 15, 2022, Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President in 2024.
Among his crimes as President (2017 – 2021) he had:
- Used his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
- Praised brutal Communist dictators Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
- Fired FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Attacked Federal judges whose rulings displeased him.
- Openly lusted for his daughter, Ivanka.
- Attacked America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
- Shut down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his useless “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were forced to work without pay for 35 days.
- Allowed the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, killing 400,000 Americans by the time he left office.
- Attacked medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
- Repeatedly lied—while still in office and afterward—that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him by massive voter fraud.
- Illegally tried to pressure state legislatures and governors to stop the certification of the vote that had made Joe Biden the President-elect.
- Incited his followers on January 6, 2021, to attack the Capitol Building where Senators and Representatives were counting the Electoral Votes won by himself and Joe Biden. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.
.jpg/220px-Donald_Trump_August_19,_2015_(cropped).jpg)
Donald Trump
These outrages were fully known to—and supported by—his legions of fanatical followers. But they were outweighed by two issues: Immigration and inflation.
In short: “Get rid of the spics!” and “Give us cheaper eggs!”
Repeatedly, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that Trump’s return to the Presidency would result in a Fascistic dictatorship:
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly [Trump’s former chief of staff] would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions….
“He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
Reputable media warned that he intended to turn the FBI into his private Gestapo and use the Justice Department to attack his political rivals.
But Americans didn’t care.
Instead, 77,303,573 Fascistic voters chose to overturn the democratic traditions that had guided American life since 1788, when the United States Constitution was ratified.
Appeals to their hatred, racism, misogyny and greed proved far more seductive.
All of this should be remembered the next time an American blames Germans for their embrace of Adolf Hitler.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on December 4, 2024 at 12:11 am
During the 2024 Presidential election, the two most important issues—for voters—were immigration and inflation.
In short: “Get rid of the spics!” and “Give us cheaper eggs!”
Repeatedly, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that Donald Trump’s return to the Presidency would result in a Fascistic dictatorship:
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly [Trump’s former chief of staff] would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions….
“He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
Reputable media warned that he intended to turn the FBI into his private Gestapo and use the Justice Department to attack his political rivals.
Kamala Harris
But Americans didn’t care.
Instead, 76.9 million voters chose to overturn the democratic traditions that had guided American life since 1788, when the United States Constitution was ratified.
Appeals to their hatred, racism and greed proved far more seductive.
Throughout Trump’s Presidency—2017 to 2021—those who opposed his agenda took solace in a series of expected saviors.
- On May 9, 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for daring to investigate his proven ties to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein then appointed Robert Meuller as special counsel to investigate that firing—and Trump’s ties to Russia.
Mueller had a sterling reputation for integrity as a former prosecutor and FBI director. But he allowed himself to be intimidated by the Presidential aura—and refused to directly interview Trump.
His subsequent official report contained no impeachment-worthy evidence.
- On July 25, 2019, Trump threatened to withhold almost $400 million in promised military aid for Ukraine—which faced increasing aggression from Russia—unless its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, did him “a favor”: Investigate 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had had business dealings in Ukraine.
The reason for such an investigation: To find embarrassing “dirt” on Biden. Unless Zelensky found this, the promised aid would be withheld.
The House of Representatives tried Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The evidence against him was overwhelming—including a transcript of the extortionate phone call.
Donald Trump
But the Republican Senate refused to convict.
Had this happened, Trump would have been legally barred from running again for President.
- On January 6, 2021, Trump incited a violent attack on the United States Capitol to stop the counting of Electoral College votes—which would prove that he had lost the 2020 Presidential election to former Vice President Joseph Biden.
As a result, five people died and 174 police officers were injured. The Capitol Building—the symbol of American democracy—suffered about $2.7 billion in damages.
Evidence of Trump’s guilt was overwhelming—including video of his incitement.
But, once again, the Republican-dominated Senate refused to convict.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
Tyler Merbler from USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Trump’s opponents had placed their hopes in Special Counsel Robert Mueller and (twice) the United States Congress to address the brazen criminality of Donald Trump.
The results: Anger and disappointment.
Yet one last hope remained:
That the 2024 Presidential election would send Joseph Biden, and then, after he dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris—to the White House.
Harris waged what was widely descripted as “a campaign of joy,” promising to be “the President of all Americans,” including those who voted against her. Repeatedly, she warned that, if re-elected, Trump would pursue a vengeance-fueled agenda against anyone who had dared cross him.
Trump ran a campaign based on hatred—of Hispanics, of liberals, of those who had served in his administration and now disowned him. During his single debate with Harris, he falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were “eating the dogs….they’re eating the cats” of local citizens.
On one occasion, he appeared to emulate performing a ‘sex act’ on a microphone stand during a rally after experiencing technical difficulties.
Most ominously, credible news reports circulated that, if Trump were re-elected, he would implement a radical, Right-wing plan—Project 2025—to completely reshape the federal government.
At its heart: The mass firings of politically neutral civil service officials and their replacement with thousands of political hacks.
This would arm Republicans with the power to establish an absolute dictatorship under the next Republican president.
Yet, in the end, none of this mattered.
His supporters included:
- Hispanics: 54%—despite being repeatedly vilified by Trump and slated for mass deportation;
- White women: 52%—despite his destroying abortion rights and being convicted for raping columnist E. Jean Carroll;
- Blacks: 21%—giving Harris fewer votes than they gave Biden in 2020.
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to dictatorial power through backroom intrigues and appointment as Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg.
On November 5, 2024, Trump rose to dictatorial power when Americans voted to ignore his past crimes and the ones he boasted he intended to commit.
John Adams predicted this long ago: “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on December 3, 2024 at 12:13 am
On April 27, 2020, Joe Scarborough offered an important insight about why most Americans ignored President Donald Trump’s crimes and outrages for so long:
“Back in January Joe Biden wrote an Op-Ed that the President was not prepared for this coming pandemic, and things were going to get worse. And he said ‘Let your doctors talk. Let your scientists talk. Follow their lead.’
“…And it’s been one scam idea after another, that people then promoted on other networks, scam doctors promoting these scam solutions, claiming that everybody who had taken this malaria drug had been cured in certain hospitals. This is just the sort of thing that catches up to Donald Trump.
“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.
“But all of these lies, all of these [COVID-19] scams that he’s been pushing…have been revealed as lies—not by the people on cable news, but by their doctors. By nurses they know. If you’ve got a doctor who’s been treating your family for 20-25 years, you’re going to believe that person more than a scam artist that’s pushing propaganda for Donald Trump on talk radio.“
On August 23, 2018, Trump, appearing on “Fox and Friends,” said: “I tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
Donald Trump
Thus, he appealed to the greed and fear of his voting base—and no doubt hoped to reach beyond it: “Keep me in power or you’ll all suffer for it.”
Then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders 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.”
Many Congressional Republicans echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
For eight years, Nazi Germany underwent such an epoch. Germans called it “The Happy Time.”
It began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor—and lasted until June 22, 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
Germans knew about the Nazis’ cruelty to the Jews, the conquests of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, the mass arrests and concentration camps.
They didn’t care.
Frenzied Germans greet Adolf Hitler
The Gestapo didn’t have to watch everyone: German “patriots” gladly reported their fellow citizens—especially Jews—to the secret police.
As far as everyday Germans were concerned:
- The streets were clean and peaceful.
- Employment was high.
- The trouble-making unions were gone.
- Germany was once again “taking its rightful place” among ruling nations, after its catastrophic defeat in World War 1.
The height of “The Happy Time” came in June, 1940. In just six weeks, the Wehrmacht accomplished what the German army hadn’t in four years during World War 1: The total defeat of its longtime enemy, France.
Suddenly, French clothes, perfumes, delicacies, paintings and other “fortunes of war” came pouring into the Fatherland.
Most Germans believed der Krieg—“the war”—was over, and only good times lay ahead.
Then, on June 22, 1941, three million Wehrmacht soldiers slashed their way into the Soviet Union. The Third Reich was now locked in a death-struggle with a nation even more powerful than itself.
German soldiers in the Soviet Union
And then, on December 11, 1941—four days after Germany’s ally, Japan, attacked Pearl Harbor—Hitler declared war on the United States.
“The Happy Time” for Germans was over. Only prolonged disaster lay ahead.
Donald Trump has spent his life appealing to the greed or fear of those around him. For example:
- Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi personally solicited a political contribution from Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.
- After Bondi dropped the Trump University case against Trump, he wrote her a $25,000 check for her re-election campaign.
- According to an April 14, 2019 story by ABC News, a nationwide review uncovered at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
- In nine cases, attackers hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting victims.
- In 10 more cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others.
- And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
But starting in January, 2020, Trump faced an enemy—to his re-election—that he couldn’t bribe or intimidate.
The deadly COVID-19 virus didn’t accept bribe-monies or grovel before a raging tyrant. As a result, 400,000 Americans died by the time Trump left office.
The Germans made a devil’s-bargain with Adolf Hitler—and paid dearly for it.
Millions of greedy Americans made a similar bargain with Donald Trump—and paid almost as dearly.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on August 15, 2024 at 12:19 am
Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have 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.”
- Repeatedly “hinting” that he wants to be “President-for-Life.”
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—for unanimously agreeing that Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden—and threatening to withhold military aid if Zelensky refused.
- Inciting a deadly riot against Congress where Senators and Representatives were meeting to count the Electoral College votes won by himself and Joe Biden in 2020. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it continues to do so throughout his 2024 campaign.
But now, in 2024, Trump seems unable to come to grips with Vice President Kamala Harris. He still yearns to run against President Joe Biden—whose unexpected exit on July 21 caught him totally by surprise.
So he attacks her race, her intelligence, her crowd size, her integrity (“Crooked Kamala”)—the last despite her having been a prosecutor and his being a convicted felon.
Fellow Republicans—such as commentator Bill Kristol and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—keep pressing him to focus on policy, not character assassination.
Former U.N. Ambassador and defeated GOP primary rival Nikki Haley said on Fox News: “Quit whining about her. We knew it was going to be her….Republicans need to be fighting for suburban women, for college-educated, for independents, for moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats.”
But Trump, seeing his polls dwarfed by those of Harris, sticks to what he knows best: Lies and smears.
They don’t seem to be working as well for him as they did in 2016.
Republicans may soon face the following dilemma:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by supporting Trump? Or:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by deserting him?
This is how Republicans define morality today.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BEATRICE STRAIGHT, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CORRUPTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, FACEBOOK, FAYE DUNAWAY, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN POLICY, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, GUNS, HEALTH CARE, HUNTER BIDEN, immigration, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, JOSEPH BIDEN, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NETWORK (MOVIE), NEWSWEEK, NPR, PADDY CHAYEFSKY, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER FINCH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT DUVALL, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SIDNEY LUMET, 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 YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, WILLIAM HOLDEN
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2020 at 12:44 am
Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have 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.”
- Repeatedly “hinting” that he wants to be “President-for-Life.”
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—for unanimously agreeing that Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden—and threatening to withhold military aid if Zelensky refused.
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
They have silently watched—or given their enthusiastic support—as he has attacked one cherished American institution after another:
- A free press
- An incorruptible Justice Department
- An independent judiciary.
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it has continued to do so throughout his more than three-year Presidency.
But on September 22, 2019, Fox News declared: “Many voters are frustrated with how the federal government is working and a growing number are nervous about the economy….
“Fifty-one percent say the economy is in only fair or poor shape.
“[Trump’s] job ratings on every other issue tested are underwater: national security (45 approve-48 disapprove), immigration (42-54), international trade (38-53), foreign policy (36-54), guns (35-56), health care (34-56) and Afghanistan (31-49).
“Currently, 45 percent approve of the overall job the president’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
“About two-thirds (64 percent) think many people — if not nearly all people — in government are corrupt, and almost half (46 percent) say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous ones.”
This was before the Coronavirus pandemic hit the United States—and the Trump administration’s inept mishandling of it. While Trump insists that everything is under control, there aren’t enough testing kits for the ever-growing number of victims. More importantly, there is no vaccine for the virus.
Republicans may soon be forced to face the following dilemma:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by supporting Trump? Or:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by deserting him?
This is how Republicans define morality today.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BEATRICE STRAIGHT, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CORRUPTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, FACEBOOK, FAYE DUNAWAY, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN POLICY, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, GUNS, HEALTH CARE, HUNTER BIDEN, immigration, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, JOSEPH BIDEN, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NETWORK (MOVIE), NEWSWEEK, NPR, PADDY CHAYEFSKY, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER FINCH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT DUVALL, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SIDNEY LUMET, 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 YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, WILLIAM HOLDEN
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 23, 2019 at 12:04 am
Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have 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.”
- Repeatedly “hinting” that he wants to be “President-for-Life.”
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—for unanimously agreeing that Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden—and threatening to withhold military aid if Zelensky refused.
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
They have silently watched—or given their enthusiastic support—as he has attacked one cherished American institution after another:
- A free press
- An incorruptible Justice Department
- An independent judiciary.
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it has continued to do so throughout his almost three-year Presidency.
But on September 21, its website reported the following:
“Fifty-nine percent of voters are extremely interested in the 2020 presidential election. That’s a number typically only seen right before an election.
“In addition, more Democrats (65 percent) than Republicans (60 percent) are extremely interested in the election and more Democrats (69 percent) than Republicans (63 percent) are extremely motivated about voting in 2020. That helps Democratic candidates top President Donald Trump in potential head-to-head matchups.”
And in a September 22 story, Fox News declared: “Many voters are frustrated with how the federal government is working and a growing number are nervous about the economy….
“Fifty-one percent say the economy is in only fair or poor shape.
“His job ratings on every other issue tested are underwater: national security (45 approve-48 disapprove), immigration (42-54), international trade (38-53), foreign policy (36-54), guns (35-56), health care (34-56), and Afghanistan (31-49).
“Currently, 45 percent approve of the overall job the president’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
“About two-thirds (64 percent) think many people — if not nearly all people — in government are corrupt, and almost half (46 percent) say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous ones.”
Republicans may soon be forced to face the following dilemma:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by supporting Trump? Or:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by deserting him?
This is how Republicans define morality today.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 7, 2019 at 12:07 am
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was an Italian Renaissance historian, diplomat and writer. Two of his books continue to profoundly influence modern politics: The Prince and The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.
The Prince has often been damned as a dictator’s guide on how to gain and hold power. But The Discourses outlines how citizens in a republic can maintain their liberty.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In Chapter 26 of The Discourses, he advises:
I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy—but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you.
If Trump has read Machiavelli, he’s utterly forgotten the Florentine statesman’s advice. Or he decided long ago that it simply didn’t apply to him.
Consider his treatment of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, in advance of his scheduled June 3 visit to the United Kingdom.
Interviewed by London’s The Sun newspaper on May 31, Trump said it would be his great honor to once again meet with 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II. Then the conversation turned to Markle—and Trump’s uncanny ability to inflame rather than nurture relations between longtime allies.
Markle, an American citizen born in Los Angeles in 1981, had accused Trump of being “divisive” and “misogynistic” during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Meghan Markle
Northern Ireland Office [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
The Sun reporter told Trump that Markle, 37, was on maternity leave with her three-week-old son, Archie. As a result, she would not join other members of the royal family in meeting with the President.
“Are you sorry not to see her? Because she wasn’t so nice about you during the campaign. I don’t know if you saw that,” the Sun reporter added.
Trump: “I didn’t know that, no. I didn’t know that. No, I hope she’s OK. I did not know that, no.”
Reporter: “She said she’d move to Canada if you got elected. It turned out she moved to Britain.”
Trump: “A lot of people moving here, so what can I say? No, I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
Donald Trump
The remark predictably triggered a torrent of outrage among Britons. So, equally predictably, on June 1 the President’s “Official Trump War Room” Twitter account went into denial.
“Fake News CNN is at it again, falsely claiming President Trump called Meghan Markle ‘nasty,’” the account tweeted. Accompanying the tweet was a 44-second audio clip of Trump’s interview with The Sun. “Here is what he actually said. Listen for yourself!”
The only problem with the clip: It completely validated reports that Trump had used the word “nasty.”
Having insulted the Duchess of Sussex before leaving for Great Britain, Trump decided to launch another missile-insult while he was still in flight.
On June 1, The (London) Observer had published an opinion column by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The headline: “It’s Un-British to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Donald Trump.”
And Khan hadn’t spared any reasons for his verdict:
“Praising the ‘very fine people on both sides’ when torch-wielding white supremacists and antisemites marched through the streets clashing with anti-racist campaigners. Threatening to veto a ban on the use of rape as a weapon of war.
“Setting an immigration policy that forcefully separates young children from their parents at the border. The deliberate use of xenophobia, racism and “otherness” as an electoral tactic. Introducing a travel ban to a number of predominately Muslim countries. Lying deliberately and repeatedly to the public.
“No, these are not the actions of European dictators of the 1930s and 40s. Nor the military juntas of the 1970s and 80s. I’m not talking about Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un. These are the actions of the leader of our closest ally, the president of the United States of America….
“History teaches us of the danger of being afraid to speak truth to power and the risk of failing to defend our values from the rise of the far right. At this challenging time in global politics, it’s more important than ever that we remember that lesson.”
As Air Force One was on its final approach to Britain, Trump, like a petulant child, tweeted back.
“@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me….
“….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!”
Khan’s spokesman said “childish insults” should be “beneath the president of the United States.”
But they aren’t. They’re simply the stock-in-trade of a childish dictator.
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THE CRUELTY IS THE MESSAGE: PART THREE (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 30, 2025 at 12:10 amEven natural-born American citizens—such as Kenny Laynez—now risk arrest and detention by overzealous agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On May 2, Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopped the 18-year-old landscaper and his three coworkers—one of them his mother—as they drove past luxury buildings to a job in Palm Beach County.
They—with the exception of Laynez’ mother—were arrested and taken to the Riviera Beach facility.
After almost four hours, a female officer asked him to unlock his cellphone, saying that she needed to see if he had filmed videos of the arrest.
Which, in fact, he had.
Laynez refused to open it—and she threatened to press charges if he didn’t.
But then a supervisor appeared and said that Laynez wasn’t supposed to be in that room because he is a U.S. citizen.
After Laynez was released six hours later, he still had the video on his cellphone. He shared this—to back up his account—with the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Laynez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get the incident over with. He entered a pretrial diversion program on June 4. The state will drop the charges July 30 if he completes the program by then.
His coworkers—as illegal aliens—were transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami. They are free on bail but fear arrest if they appear in court.
* * * * *
There’s a reason for such cruelty—the same one that existed for Jews in Nazi Germany before World War II.
Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler didn’t initially decide to exterminate the Jews—in Germany or throughout the rest of Europe. He simply wanted to evict them from Germany. And he employed a wide range of methods to convince them to leave.
Adolf Hitler
The infamous Nuremberg Laws, for example, stripped Jews of German citizenship, forbade marriage between Jews and non-Jews, and barred them from such professions as the judiciary, teaching, law, medicine, acting, music and journalism.
Jewish shops were picketed by members of Hitler’s menacing Stormtroopers, often holding signs that read: “DON’T BUY FROM JEWS.”
Between 1933, when the Nazi regime came to power, and the start of World War II in 1939. approximately 282,000 Jews emigrated from Germany. Those who couldn’t—or wouldn’t—leave faced increasing brutalities and deprivations—ultimately culminating in the Holocaust.
Like Adolf Hitler, President Donald Trump is sending a message to Hispanics—both illegal aliens and legal citizens: “Get out! There is no place for you in the sort of America I am creating.”
And many are no doubt leaving before they can be abused and arrested.
Another similarity between the Hitler and Trump regimes: Both are marked by their attempts to maintain secrecy over their secret police operations.
Donald Trump
For example: On December 7, 1941, Hitler issued the “Nacht und Nebel” (“Night and Fog”) decree. It allowed German authorities to abduct individuals in occupied territories who were accused of “endangering German security.”
Thus, they effectively vanished without a trace.
The same motive lies behind the mania of ICE officers to confiscate cellphones and erase any footage taken of the tactics they use in making arrests.
Their agents are almost universally masked, heavily-armed, wearing military-style clothing, and descend on their unarmed targets in overwhelming numbers.
If their targets hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody.
The 1991 police beating of motorist Rodney King and the 2020 police murder of George Floyd aroused national fury and led to widespread rioting. Thus, ICE seeks to hide its often brutal, even unlawful tactics from public scrutiny.
ICE officers
Eight years ago, Trump invoked an obscure authority, Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to “suspend the entry” of nationals of multiple Muslim-majority nations. Two versions of the ban were initially struck down in court, but the Supreme Court upheld a third version.
This stayed in effect until President Joseph Biden terminated it in 2021.
Upon taking office again on January 20, Trump reinstated his Court-authorized travel ban, targeting 19 countries and potentially blocking more than 125,000 people each year from entering the United States—either temporarily or permanently.
Tellingly, those are countries whose populations are Islamic, African, Hispanic or Asian—not white, English-speaking ones:
Additionally, Trump has fired more than 50 immigration judges—from senior leaders to new appointees.
Republicans officially claim immigrants are welcome “if they come in legally.” But in reality they seek to expel illegal immigrants and block those who wish to enter legally.
Demographers estimate that around 2045, white people will become a minority in the United States. This is being driven by two factors: a declining white population and increasing minority populations.
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, many of Trump’s supporters held up signs or wore T-shirts reading: ‘MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN.”
That, ultimately, is the goal that Trump is now vigorously pursuing.
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