Category: Black and Brown Issues

The Low Road

  By , , , , , , ,

The Low Road

The Low Road

Editor: A poem for our time. ‘The Low Road’ by Marge Piercy illustrates the necessity for each individual to take a stand against injustice. This post was suggested by Karen Tate, author and podcaster. Get inspired, we need all the soldiers in this war that we can recruit. Remember the June 17, 2025 rally and come out and give the Trump administration the big middle finger to their dangerous and undemocratic policies.

‘The Low Road’

by Marge Piercy

What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can’t stop them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.

But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.

Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again and they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.

 

OPINION: Little Pink Houses

  By , , , , , , ,

OPINION: Little Pink Houses

 

OPINION: Little Pink Houses

Editor: Millions of people attended No King protests nationwide, and some experts believe that it may have been the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Reports indicate that more than 5 million people attended the anti-Trump demonstrations in 2100 towns and cities nationwide.

By John Curran

In our little Mayberry sort of town we have protests too-against this idiot and all his corruption. And an outsider might be surprised because Josephine County, Oregon as well as adjacent counties in this part of the state are, and have been been for years very strongly Republican. The majority vote in the 2024 presidential election was a Trump landslide. At the time of the actual election and preceding it, you would see a lot of pro-Trump signs and endorsements in all its various, and at least here, peaceful forms. The killings ain’t got here, yet. But it is getting a little more tense.

We had our fourth major protest on Saturday; the day when the nation as a whole was saying,  Everywhere is protest. Everywhere is outrage. Everywhere the same desire, get the cancer out before it just destroys everything. And of course, easier said than done.

By legal, institutional means, the political system has been manipulated to enable this huge dysfunction to have achieved the position where it can begin to consume the host and that’s pretty galling if ya ask me. The fact that this monster has been created from within; is us, or at least a good portion of us, the worst of us, sickens me. The resulting power mad soulless Babylon becomes unsustainable for the majority where the ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality just leaves the sick, the disabled, and the less than perfect to die. And with that, it’s obvious they don’t care.

So, ok, and with that, our little town on Saturday June 14th, 2025, had its fourth big protest. What was so cool was that it was bigger, louder, and even more jubilant than ever; like minded people coming together, working for a common cause. A friendly smile, a big hug, we are all getting to know each other just a little bit through these protests. In a way, these protests are more like mass unstructured community outings, mostly people of like feelings, but also, just anybody who knows how to act somewhat normal is welcome. So far so good.

And of course it wouldn’t be a proper protest without a few anti-protesters, to keep it interesting. Before a few was all it had been but this time, it was more like Custer’s last stand with Custer telling the dozen or so assembled, “Get out there boys. Damn they’re back again talking all that stuff about rights, and No Kings and all the while criticizing our fearless and duly elected leader. So get your big trucks and your big boots and let’s make some noise.”

“But sir ….theys so few of us it seems, and theys so many of them.”

And damned if he didn’t hear that and think an actual thought….”Yeah, right, I hadn’t thought of that.”

Despite being outnumbered a few of them actually began walking amongst the crowd, but most were content to just drive by in their pickup trucks and blow black smoke and yell, “Fuck you” a lot. The ones walking through the crowd had put themselves out there,  however,  they mostly walked around smirking and saying cruel and demeaning things to people in wheelchairs, slow elderly people with their walkers, or just anybody, who wanted to question their motives. Motherfucker.

But they don’t really deserve any credit for mingling with the crowd. They weren’t really brave as they wanted us to think; ’cause they could pretty well figure that, even though greatly outnumbered they were not gonna be actually threatened or hurt in any way. They would have to be the ones to start it, cause that’s not who we are. Neither are we poor and pathetic, we’re more like powerful now, and getting more powerful everyday. Do you have to wonder why?

 

Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth

  By , , , , ,

Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth

Editor: Also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is the commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, TX, learned that they were free.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but it only applied to people in Confederate states, not those enslaved in Union-held territories (they were not freed until the proclamation of the 13th Amendment). In Texas, a Confederate state where there was little Union Army presence, slavery continued years after the Emancipation Proclamation — and even after the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 —most enslaved people in Texas were not aware of the news. Finally, in June of 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and a contingent of Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas to tell the enslaved peoples that the Civil War had ended and that they were now free. Something worth celebrating, I’d say.

Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth

By Cate Rees-Hessel

Thanks to President Joe Biden, Juneteenth is now a national holiday, as it long should have been. Here are some meaningful ways to celebrate this historic holiday with loved ones:

  1. Wear a Juneteenth T-shirt – my husband and I each have one (mine is pink).
  2. Teach a child about actual Black history.
  3. Teach a child about Abraham Lincoln, a president who was not afraid to end slavery, even if it caused the Civil War.
  4. Attend a Juneteenth event – towns all over the country are celebrating.
  5. Make a donation to the Obama Foundation – obama.org or the NAACP – www.naacp.org.
  6. Make a donation to the United Negro College Fund – after all, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” uncf.org
  7. Watch “The Color Purple” or “Roots”.
  8. Read “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf”
  9. Watch “A Raisin in the Sun”.
  10. Check out the Juneteenth book displays at your local library.
  11. Look for Juneteenth museum displays.
  12. Have a soul food picnic.
  13. Read about the Obamas, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ family.
  14. Research Hakeem Jeffries.
  15. Research Cory Booker.
  16. Post about Junteenth on social media.
  17. Read about the slaves that positively affected the life of Dolley Madison.
  18. Wish people a blessed and happy Juneteenth.
  19. Do something for holiday fun: water park, bike ride, enjoy summer on this new holiday.
  20. Resist racism by protesting against Trump – help save our democracy.
  21. Read about apartheid and Nelson Mandela.
  22. Many Black males are targeted for crimes they do not commit – tell a Black man you love and believe in him.
  23. Support Black owned businesses ( add a few)
  24. Watch Black television shows, listen to Black radio: letsstaytogethertalkshow.com, www.soarradio.com, and visit Black social media: www.facebook.com/theofficialplussizepower/.
  25. Pray for President Biden’s health, and thank him for making this holiday possible.

Street View, NO Kings Protest

  By , , , , , , , ,

Street View, NO Kings Protest

Street View, NO Kings Protest

By David L. Shadrick

Darlene, John, Vajra, and I arrived at the NO Kings protest at 9:55 for the 10 o’clock start. There was already a huge crowd of loud and noisy citizens. John was pushing my wheelchair, while Darlene, Vajra, and I, carried our signs, musical instruments and water.

The Josephine County Courthouse, just happens to be directly across 6th Street from the Republican Party headquarters. During the three previous protests, the Trumpers could only marshal 3 or 4 pro Trumpers to yell insults in our direction. Today, however, the Trump supporters, numbered as many as a dozen, carrying American flags and Trump Won Signs.

There wasn’t an inch of sidewalk space to be had on either side of the street due to NO Kings protesters crowding even the area in front of the Republican Headquarters. As we thought through  our options Darlene noticed a shady spot with an unoccupied bench a block down 6th Street on the Republican side of the street, not exactly in the middle of the action but the location made us a visible commodity, quite visible in fact.

I grabbed my trusty 8647 sign, my goat horn, and then rolled out onto the sidewalk where my sign could be easily seen by the slow moving and horn honking traffic. I could hear John and Vajra drumming while  Darlene rang her cow bell. We were basically a block down the street from the biggest part of the crowd when a dour looking Trumper made his way through the densest part of the crowd, heading in my direction. When he got close he said with a sneer, “Your sign is disgusting.”

I replied, “What’s disgusting are cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Veteran’s benefits.”

After several minutes of harassing a disabled veteran  in a wheelchair he bent down close to my face and repeated, “your sign is still disgusting,” before retreating south toward the Wunder Bar.

The next Trumpers came in a gang of three, walking through the same crowd of protesters, without saying a word, making a bee line straight for me, apparently my 8647 sign really ticked them off. The first man, suggested quite irritably, that I “should go back to (my) pathetic life.” Before I could answer, I was interrupted by the second Trumper in the group, who was seemingly a decent person. He asked me why I was protesting and I told him that the cuts to all the safety net programs were going to force me to sleep in the street or on his couch. “Ok, well, I can understand that might be a problem,” he said, before he walked on. The third person in the group was a nicely dressed woman who suggested she liked “ice in (her) soda,” to Darlene who was waving a sign that said, “I.C.E. is best C-R-U-S-H-E-D.  After their interaction with us, the three simply got in a car and drove away.

While I was eagerly blowing my goat horn, another Trumper ran up in front of me and whipped out a megaphone from behind his back, and began chanting, “GO TRUMP, GO TRUMP, GO TRUMP” to which I yelled, “and you go with him.” From behind me I heard a chorus of voices, led by Darlene, chanting, “8647, 8647, 8647.” The volume of the chant grew and the increasing furor sent the megaphone master retreating back to the safety of the six remaining Trumpers securing the Republican headquarters.

An old white guy, in a battered pickup slowed down to yell “fuck you,” as he passed.

“Is that the only word you know?” I demanded at the top of my lungs.

He again repeated the “fuck you” insult.

And I repeated, “is that the only word you know?”

The third time he said, “fuck you,” I again repeated my question, “is that the only word you know?”

The frustrated old fart, gunned his truck engine, and headed down the street, after tossing, “asshole,” in my direction; at last proving, even Trumpers know more than two words.

Another Trump friendly driver, waved his two middle fingers in my direction before causing his rig to belch a huge cloud of black diesel smoke, leading protestors close by to cough, sputter, and spit. I ignored him.

The middle finger salutes, the cursing, the belching trucks, the negativity, the insults, all came from the MAGA crowd. Not one person on the No Kings protestors side was rude or insulting to anyone, certainly not to the first wheelchair bound person they could find.

 

Illegal

  By , , , , , ,

Illegal

Illegal

 

By John Curran

Well, it looked like my chimp Charley was leading the charge, as he’d just slipped his leash and was racing on ahead toward where all the people were already gathering on the Courthouse lawn. It was the Protest, and me and my people were following up behind, me pushing Dave in his wheelchair and Darlene and Vajra carrying the signs and cowbells.

I was trying to keep an eye on Charley, my chimp. He’s a pretty good chimp, but he’s a chimp, in a world of humans. But like I said, he’s a cool chimp. I see him over there. He’s gone right over to that shady patch of lawn where two weeks before me ‘n some other fellas had had a drum circle going. That had been at Protest 2. We were now at Protest 3, and it must be said that at Protest 2 we had sat right there where Charley was now and we banged on our bongos and everything had been fine.

Charley hadn’t been at Protest 2, we’d left him at the ranch, he’d thought he was in love with the neighbor chimp. Now he knew better but that’s another story. Now he was here with us and amazingly enough having gone on ahead with my bongo and his bag full of ping pong balls and was now sitting in the very spot where we’d sat for our bongo party.

And then I saw it all. Charley hadn’t been there ten seconds when up walks this uniformed big white dude acting like Security, saying no one was allowed there buddy, you gotta go in front of the wall like everybody else was suddenly being told they had to do. Well, Charley wasn’t having it and went into full on bad chimp mode. He’s a pretty good actor Charley is and when he puts on this one I gotta say, he’s pretty damn convincing. Anyway you shoulda seen that Security guy step back one time and back his big butt slowly, away from Charley. If he’d had a gun he probably woulda’ drawn it.

Anyway, he hooks up with some other ‘Security’ guys down at the far end ‘n they all come up in a bunch but by that time Charley’s gone right up the nearest tree and he’s throwing ping pong balls down on these guys. I decide at this point I better step in here and declare myself. Well, they told me I could probably be charged. I said, “yeah, I know,” that much I know. They were really kinda’ alright though, we all had a laugh, and Charley came down and acted like he was sorry. Very convincing too, was Charley.

And later, nine days exactly, it was reported in our local newspaper that what the ‘Security’ had been doing telling people (and chimps) that they couldn’t sit on the Courthouse grass had been illegal. I showed it to Charley and he just laughed; as if he had known it all along. Pretty convincing ‘n, I ain’t lying, maybe sometimes even a little scary, in that way. I mean, what is really going on, Charley?

 

QUOTES ON COURAGE

  By , , ,

Quotes On Courage

QUOTES ON COURAGE

D. S. Mitchell

Research

As part of my job as Editor in Chief at Calamity Politics is that I get to do research. Research can be lots of fun. This week, I decided to look up quotes on courage. I believe that we are going to need strength and courage to see this political battle to it’s satisfactory progressive conclusion. The Trump machine can’t run without the power of the people. He’s losing his most basic supporters; my God, even Musk called him out.

What People Have Said About Courage:

People say some pretty inspiring things.  Here’s a brief collection of some pretty smart comments by some pretty smart people on the subject of gallantry and valor.

1.) “Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary,”  Gerard Way

2.)Courage leads starward, fear toward death,” Seneca

3.)“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,” Winston Churchill

4.)“Courage conquers all things,”  Ovid

5.) “The strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is courage,“ Michel De Montaigne

6.) “Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion,”  President Calvin Coolidge

7.) “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage,” Anais Nin

I’m inspired. How about you? If you are even a little inspired, do something to fight this administration. Be brave. Be courageous. Write a letter, make a phone call, march in the upcoming anti-Trump “NO KINGS protest. Don’t be a bystander.

Join the New Resistance

More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

  By , , , , , , , ,

More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

Trump is a destroyer not a builder

More of Trump’s Atrocities, Part 3

By Cate Rees-Hessel

 

More and more, day by day, “The Donald” is trying to destroy our nation with his selfish, chaotic  and self-serving behavior. Below are more of his narcissistic actions:

  1. Attacking SNAP, nutrition assistance needed by many families to put food on the table. He will single handedly cause a hunger crisis in America. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  2. Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices on food and many other items, cost of living increases are hurting middle class Americans, and destroying those in lower income brackets. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  3. Attacking Medicaid for those unable to afford health insurance. Necessary health care for millions, including preventive care, is under attack and potentially on the chopping block. This action can result in deaths for many people in our nation. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  4. He already reversed the $35.00 insulin cap for seniors – diabetics rely on this medication to stay alive and healthy. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  5. He has insulted the new Pope Leo XVI, as he also insulted our dearly departed Pope Francis, two Godly men of peace and inclusion. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  6. Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires that need to pay their fair share are completely unfair and unjustified. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  7. He pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, calling their daughter at Sam’s Club to announce his gesture. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  8. Trump “worked” at a McDonald’s during his campaign and is a Big Mac-aholic but can’t even spell the word hamburger. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  9. The orange imbecile thinks windmills cause cancer. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  10. Trump wants to spend an estimated $95 million on a dictator style military parade to celebrate and commemorate his birthday when the average American can barely afford to buy necessities. This money could save Medicare and SNAP benefits for those in need. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  11. Trump’s attack on Social Security. Seniors and disabled individuals rely on SS. I must point out Social Security is our money, not the governments. We earned it and paid into the system for our retirement. We must resist and impeach Trump…
  12. I will let Trump’s horrific 2025 Memorial Day “X” message speak volumes for itself here – this comes from the devil that called out military suckers and losers. The only monsters are Trump and his cronies. Ending his rant with God bless America is disgusting and blasphemous.

“OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN-ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND. WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL, BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN and HAPPY AGAIN  MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA”

We must resist and impeach Trump…

Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

  By , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

 

By T.K. McNeil 

I ended Part 2 of Trump Racism Is Bad For America worried that immigrants were being transferred from the United States to foreign prisons without due process. I worried aloud about death squads, concentration camps, and gas ovens. Trump racism is obvious for anyone with eyes, ears, or an X account. We are rocked out of our beds daily by angry and racially inflammatory 2 a.m. Tweets. Trump uses a practiced, coded language of dog whistles and red meat taunts that he pitches regularly to his MAGA hatted support base. The intent, an obviously planned effort to keep them frothing at the mouth, agitated, and ready for action.

Protests and resistance.  I can hear the audible gasps and protests. I say, better to think it a possibility than to refuse to face the possibility. Trump’s racism has already led to the separation of children from their parents at the Mexican border. He is now sending immigrants to foreign prisons without due process. He has stated flatly soldiers will have his permission to shoot asylum seekers that might potentially hurl rocks at the soldiers. I’m just going to let that percolate amidst your neuron receptors for a couple of minutes.

History must be studied.  There is this tendency to fall in love with the past and wish for life as it once was. For those of you who are not old enough to have reached that stage of your life let me assure you, beware, nostalgia is a load of crap. If in 40 years time there are Americans wishing for the good old days when Donald Trump was in power, let me warn you, you are in a world of trouble. Chances are, there will no longer be a United States if people are longing for a president who resembles Fat Bastard more than he does the leader of the free world.

The emergence of Barack Obama:  When Barack Obama came into office there was a hope from many sides, particularly moderates that there would finally be that emergence of a color blind America. Unfortunately there was an angry element of the population that was not ready or willing to accept such an outrage. My God in Heaven, there is a black family living in the ‘nation’s house.’ “We” must “do something.” A backlash of white vs all those “uppity” POC quickly coalesced on the alt-right. It quickly became their central purpose to undermine and dismember a hoped for mending of our national division.

Dehumanizing the target is goal one. “Birtherism” bubbled up through the conspiracy theorists. The theory postulated that 50 or so years ago, an all-knowing “group” of Democrats probably funded by George Soros met to bestow false citizenship on a mixed race kid in Kenya who would eventually be smuggled into Hawaii and who would go on to become president of the United States.  Such crazy over the top nonsense was fully embraced and pushed with ceaseless passion for more than 8 years by Donald J. Trump. The endless campaign driven by Trump and other alt-righters had the desired results of casting doubt on President Obama’s legitimacy to rule the country. Effectively undermining our first black president was accomplished. Sadly, a repeated lie often becomes a malignancy on the perceived character of the target.

Other factors.  Despite the constant attack from the right Barack Obama left office as one of the most popular presidents in American history. A fact that enrages Donald Trump. The fact that the first black man elected president of the United States was to be followed in succession by the most openly racist president in American history is sad and deeply troubling.

Plenty of blame.  The 2016 election became a disaster of Godzilla proportions. It would have taken a series of monumental political catastrophes to elect Trump. Unfortunately for the United States that’s exactly what happened. Russian interference, Wikileaks email drops, walking pneumonia, Weiner porn texts, a rogue FBI Director, the first woman candidate of a major American political party, a reality TV has-been all converged together to make the 2016 campaign and election results both  extraordinary and  unprecedented.

Political infighting.  In the final analysis, I blame the Democrats for Trump’s two election victories. The DNC decided to rig their primary process long before the Russians or Comey got involved. The party bypassed a forward thinking man like Bernie Sanders who connected with the future voters of America for a political wife, turned candidate who the GOP had convinced half the country she was the devil incarnate. Bill and Hillary called in a lot of IOU’s to make this outrage happen. HRC was a flawed candidate from the start. As a result of the DNC betrayal, we as a nation have been burdened with Agent Orange and his team of rich and corrupt bullies. The 2016 election of Trump led to a rapidly accelerating  radicalization of American politics. Trump’s 2024 win was in many ways a repeat of the DNC betrayal of the primary process. This time, the anointing of Kamala Harris, by Joe Biden. This kind of crap needs to stop. Let the process run its course. Maybe he or she will lose, but at least that person was the choice of the majority of Democrats.

Moving where? Today, May of 2025, we are moving backwards at a neck breaking speed; on more levels than there is room to cover in this space. In 2016, Trump was on a steroid driven attack on the legacy of his predecessor. I see this as vindictive but also as racially motivated. As Trump has gone to great lengths to undo the forward progressive thinking of the Obama administration what has been the positive result?  In all areas of policy from abortion, to gay rights, to environmental protections, to civil rights protections are being rolled back. Do you think the LGBTQ community embraces Trump? Women? Minorities? The poor? The sick? The Non-Evangelicals? I don’t think I need to give the answer, because it is an obvious and resounding, no.

Lots of show and theatrical ballyhoo. Despite what he wants us to believe, Donald Trump connects with about 35% of our populace. Yet, because of many voters disillusioned by the rhetoric and high prices decided to stay home and not participate in 2024. And because enough Americans had been convinced the caravans of immigrants would soon overwhelm our southern border Trump won again. And because we were not careful, we are once again suffering under his rule. Using the power of the Executive Order Trump is with each day sweeping away protections for more and more citizens, while attempting to erase DEI and other beneficial programs.

Executive Orders. Trump & choir are ramping up the rhetoric to eliminate the 14th Amendment. He claims he can Executive Order it right out of existence. The question then becomes, if the Supreme Court supports his power to eliminate amendments does that mean he can begin writing new constitutional amendments? Sounds crazy but that’s how dictatorships are born. It’s time to wake up America you are watching the actions of a classic racist demagogue.

Continue reading

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

  By , , , , , , , , , , ,

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

 

By T.K. McNeil

Trump Racism is Bad for America. I ended Part I of Trump Racism Is Bad For America by wondering aloud if we were about to return to the dark days of death squads, concentration camps, and gas ovens. Trump racism is obvious for anyone with eyes, ears, or an X account. We are rocked out of our beds daily by angry and racially inflammatory 2 a.m. Tweets. Trump uses a practiced, coded language of dog whistles and red meat taunts that he pitches regularity to his MAGA hatted support base. The intent, an obviously planned effort to keep them agitated and ready for action. If nothing else, Trump’s base seems willfully ignorant and obsessed by fear. If Trump senses any ebbing in support he orders an extra rally, or maybe two; re-news attacks on the press; berates everyone from Rachel Maddow to Zelinskyy; but most notably, he intensifies attacks against immigrants, NFL players, entertainers like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, threatening “major investigations.” That’s how Trump works.

Trump racism dressed as law and order. Have people forgotten Trump opened his 2016 campaign with an unprecedented tirade against Mexican “criminal, drug mules and rapists?” Trump has revived nativist themes that have not been heard aloud since George H.W. Bush. In 1988 HW supporters used the image of a black killer/rapist Willie Horton to effectively sabotage his opponent Michael Dukakis. Until now, that ad campaign was considered a true low point in political racist tactics.

Jump to today. In a similar tact Trump is replacing the face of black man Willie Horton with the brown face of an illegal immigrant, and convicted cop killer, Luis Bracamontes. Hammering the anti-immigrant theme Trump claims that Democrats will open the country to criminals. Trump’s vitriol is toxic, but Trump is convinced that it was just such rhetoric that secured him the presidency the first time. Instinctively, he keeps pushing the limits of what passes for barely acceptable political discourse toward an ever-darkening place.

More evidence of Trump racism keeps emerging.  Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney for over a decade and a convict for three years, opens up about Trump racism. On Friday 11-2-2018 Vanity Fair published a damning portrait of the president. According to Cohen, Trump made frequent racist comments, most particularly against blacks. Cohen claimed that Trump frequently used the N word and other demeaning statements made about black people, their intellect, their abilities, their communities and even their countries. Cohen confirmed to Vanity Fair writer Emily Jane Fox that language reported by Omarosa Manigault Newman in her book, “Unhinged An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House” was typically Trump. So, Trump doesn’t limit his hate; he hates everybody that isn’t orange.

Keeping the fire hot.  Trump has never stopped his campaigning. He has never become president of all the people. He is president of a core base and his goal is to keep them frightened and angry. He wants them fired up ready to attack whenever and wherever he points his accusatory finger. Trump racism is emerging more clearly as time progresses. Trump’s inflammatory language, reckless “otherism” and dehumanizing xenophobic attacks are clearly designed to divide the country.

Fear and Loathing is part of the performance.  It’s no surprise that we as a country have a scrubbed and shiny public face and a secret horrific Dorian Grey face.  That hidden-self, locked in the basement of our national identity is trying to come out of its imprisonment. All the while Trump, our Mad Hatter conductor, has had us on a head spinning ride of public debauchery, corruption and criminality. Trump careens from truth to delusion, to conspiracy theory, and back to racism all in blink of an eye.

Social Fears Are At The Root Of Trump’s Methodology.  That said, we all know that there is a portion of the American psyche that hates and fears immigration, that hates and fears the blacks, that hates and fears Jews, that hates and fears POC, that hates and fears the changing demographics of America, that hates and fears tomorrow, that hates and fears the unknown. Those societal fears are what Trump racism feeds on.

The foes of inclusiveness. The ability to whip the mentally susceptible and the White Supremacist extremist fringe into a frenzy of violence is easy to imagine. The increased racial and ethnic violence will become a growing problem as he continues to demonize the “others” in our society. This man has the biggest bully pulpit in the country and he is using it to inflame the worst elements of our society. He is using his position to promote fear and racial tensions as he divides the country with his Trump racist white supremacist agenda.

Continue reading

Part 1-Trump Racism is Bad for America

  By , , , , ,

Part 1-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 1- Trump Racism Is Bad For America

Editor: This article is an updated version of a much longer 2018 article. Despite valiant efforts by our society to end bigotry and injustice nothing changes when it comes to hate. 

By Trevor K. McNeil

A dark history: After the end of the Civil War a period of Reconstruction was begun in the south. Resistance to the northern oversight quickly formed. Southern activists formed paramilitary groups of White supremacists to thwart forced Reconstruction. Military groups lynched blacks and burned their homes. Disenfranchising and terrorizing the black population was the central goal of the white supremacy groups of the period. Of those 19th century hate groups the Ku Klux Klan was the most infamous. After the cementing of Jim Crow laws the original Klan disbanded, their goals achieved.

A rebirth:  New leaders revived the Klan in the 20th century for a new cause. The revival was  a defensive reaction to the massive wave of immigrants arriving in America. The “new” Klan refused to limit its hate. The new version of the Ku Klux Klan expanded their targeted hate campaign beyond the Blacks to include immigrants, most particularly the Jews, the Mexicans, the Catholics, the Asians, the Irish, and the Poles. In effect, anyone not white and native-born.

Tell tale surge:  There has been a palpable uptick in terms of hate groups since the ascension of Trump and Trump-racism. The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claim to be the fastest growing hate group in America, proclaiming their membership numbers have gone up by thousands since Trump was re-elected, particularly in predominantly African-American cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore. Quite simply Trump racism is setting the tone. The re-election of Donald Trump has emboldened hate groups in the United States.

Change is in the air:  Attitudes are changing and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. In August 2018 there was a White Power group rally in the small rural Pennsylvania town of Ulysses. The town was proudly awash with Nazi flags and swastikas one year after Charlottesville, Va where a group of “very fine” white supremacists rallied, terrorized the town and left one counter-protester dead.

Trump racism shows itself: Trump racism is right there in his rhetoric. His near constant use of “they” and “them” is classic moral dissociation. He might as well say, “us” and “them”.  Is Trump a member of the KKK, or the Nazi’s? Not demonstrably. Evidence indicates Trump Sr, had ties to the KKK.  Although there is not direct evidence of such an affiliation for Donald Trump it doesn’t mean it is not true. David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan fully embraces Trump and Trump does not criticize the Grand Wizard, because they are all “fine people.”

Racism isn’t such a new thing: There have been many openly racist politicians in American history, at least 10 of them became American presidents. Slowly over the past 60 years public pressure has mounted against hate speech and racial inequality. The N-word was, due to social  pressure, going the way of other extinct epitaphs, effectively banned from civil discourse. Until Trump came into office, we as a nation discouraged openly expressed hatred and bigotry. In fact, we wrote laws to punish people for hate crimes.

Times change: No longer would Presidents like William Henry Harrison publicly relive their ‘Indian Wars” exploits of murder and atrocity committed against the continent’s Indigenous Peoples. The display of overt hatred based on ethnic targeting was coming to an end in America…………. Or, was it?

Increased episodes of violence: There are some similarities between the racist ideas of Trump and a particular German Chancellor whom I will leave unnamed so as not to confirm Godwin’s Law. One of the most striking similarities to me at least has been the conduct of Trump’s supporters.  I’m thinking most particularly of the Proud Boys. In the lead up to the 2016 election Canadian white supremacist Gavin McInnis and his followers seemed to be instigating violence at rallies across the United States. Watching the Proud Boys I could not help but draw similarities between them and the goon tactics of Hitler’s Storm Detachment, better known as the “Brown Shirts”, prior to the 1933 election in Germany. Whenever a president encourages violence the most likely result, is violence.

Media savvy:  As noted by some, Trump is also very similar to a different World War II dictator. Mussolini used “Make Italy Great Again” as a major catchphrase. He was a former journalist. Mussolini, like TV-savvy Trump, knew how to manipulate the news cycle in his favor. While Trump revs up his crowds with screams of “Fake News” Mussolini’s preferred the more traditional guns to the head method of control.

Facism (Fascismo in Italian): Mussolini is the guy that coined the term Fascism to describe his political world view. The main difference noted between Trump and Il Duce is that for the Italian strongman the “state” was all, it was everything. For Trump his only belief seems to be that he should be in total control of everything, which is a lot scarier.

Where are we headed?: Mussolini was shot and killed by partisans as he attempted to escape Italy for Switzerland, just 2 days before Hitler killed himself in Berlin. I’m not suggesting Trump will commit suicide, or be shot, but Trump’s racism frightens many historians. Less than 100 years ago a drug crazed demagogue set the world on an irreversible path to world war. Race fueled hatred stoked by Hitler led to death squads, concentration camps and gas ovens where 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated. Take notes people. History really does have lessons. We only need to pay attention to them.

Part 2- Trump Racism is Bad For America-by Trevor K. McNeil @www.calamitypolitics.com

WATCH FOR IT!