National News

View From Here: We Will Not Go Back

Every time Mr. Trump opens his mouth, there is a cringe at what he might say and how he might say it. The words come out and he cannot help revealing himself. “I understand things.” “I was a very good student.” His insecurity is clinically observable and well-deserved – he spends his time watching television, tweeting and signing without reading what is put in front of him. We know that this president does not take briefing books with him to study before going to bed. The New York Times reported that instead of the multiple-page single-spaced briefs that President Obama preferred, this president wants them kept to one page, preferably with images and maps. We have a president who does not read briefs or books.

And then there is his emotional instability. Senator Bernie Sanders says it straight out, “Trump is delusional and a pathological liar”. Senator Al Franken says a “few” Republicans admit Trump may have “mental health issues” and Congressman Ted Liu of California is calling for a psychiatrist to be assigned to the White House.

And now, like something out of a spy novel, we have the National Security Advisor in danger of being blackmailed by the Russians and resigns only after it becomes public. Apparently, having told Mr. Trump three weeks earlier that the person at his side is a security threat and getting no response, the intelligence community decided it was time for this information to leak to the public.

We can only wonder what they are holding back, letting it come out in the multiple congressional investigations that are being called for and that hopefully will end with an orderly impeachment. If that doesn’t happen, expect a few more shoes to drop. The good news for the Republicans, would be Trump gone and Pence in, they get to keep their agenda, but without the overt craziness.

Therefore, one thing that will not change is the full-out assault on free elections and black and brown people. The International Business Times reported that, “The House Administration Committee voted to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an agency formed specifically to ensure the integrity of elections.”  This included helping states prevent digital malfeasance against their voting machines. And then there is Vice President Mike Pence heading a commission looking for the fictitious 2-3 million illegal voters that the delusional president claims were cast in the election. Be prepared for a finding that while they couldn’t find the illegal voters, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. And here are new guidelines, that will be indistinguishable from voter suppression, to make sure they don’t vote again.

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Theophilis Eugene “Bull” Connor was the Birmingham Commissioner who ordered the attacks with fire hoses, clubs and dogs against civil rights workers in the early ‘60s.   He is long gone, but his way of thinking is alive and well with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III as U.S. Attorney General. A “throwback” as Congresswoman Maxine Waters calls him, his history includes wrongly prosecuting black activists for voter fraud and opposing the Voting Rights Act, and he is against the Justice Department getting involved in police matters. This is all seen as such good news for the Prison Industrial Complex that stocks in private prisons have risen up to and over 70%.   Investors are betting on a profitable future in the one business where slavery is allowed, prison. And therefore, they see a bright future in warehousing people, be they black, brown or Muslim. Once again, white supremacists are on the march and we must resist and insist we will not go back. That time is done.

What’s Needed: An American Spring

People are beginning to storm Republican congressional offices and town hall meetings and everywhere they can catch up with their representatives objecting mostly to repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. And as the objections and demonstrations grow in Republican districts, members of congress will begin to see their reelections in jeopardy, and committees will begin to act.

Perhaps this is what community organizer and President Barack Obama meant when he said he was optimistic about the future. Because with the information he received in his security brief, and that he was sure would be coming out, he knew there would be across-the-board organizing and that the people will rise.

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