Category: Political Parties

12 Things That Make Me Smile

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12 Things That Make Me Smile

12 Things That Make Me Smile

By D. S. Mitchell

Welcome to Calamity News and Politics. Calamity is currently based in Southern Oregon, in beautiful Grants Pass.  CNP attempts to present relevant and engaging political commentary, opinion, argument, speculation, and prediction regarding the political news in the United States. CNP also comments on health, wellness, fitness, silliness, games, and just about anything that tickles our panties. Once a month, or so, I do a post entitled “Things That Make Me Smile.” The number of items that make me smile usually change with each individual post.  No reason, just because I can, I guess.

So, take your mind off of politics and policies, including your grandmother losing her Medicaid, you losing your SNAP benefits, the Russian attack on NATO ally, Poland, the total and complete destruction of Gaza by Israel. the attacks by Israel on our ally, Qatar, and try if possible, to focus on the good things in your life.

Today I’m going to keep it short, here are 12 Things That Make Me Smile, how about you?

1.) Being on time.

2.) Daddy’s old work bench.

3.) Blackened hot dogs. Yum, yum.

4.) Talking to my plants.

5.) Living in a vacation town, during the off season.

6.) Slow dancing with him.

7.)  Pizza with a crispy paper thin crust.

8.) Wild strawberries peeking up in the flowerbeds.

9.) Fish On!

10.) Following estate sale signs.

11.) Putting pennies in a jar and watching them grow into dollars.

12.) Watching couples walk hand in hand.

The corruption and scandal in the Trump Administration is going to be around for a longer time than I would ever want, so think of your own 12 things that make you smile, because its gonna be a rough next three years plus years.

Call your congress person, write letters to the editor commenting on Trump policies, start a blog or a podcast, and hit the streets and protest. The next big rally is supposed to be on October 18, 2025. Watch for more information. Come out and protest, ‘No Kings,’ and let’s give our Dictator in Waiting, 10 million middle fingers. Join the New Resistance.

**If anyone is curious the picture accompanying this post is not me, but rather a lovely AI rendering of an imaginary woman.

Politics, A Dirty Affair

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Politics, a Dirty Affair

Politics, a Dirty Affair

D. S. Mitchell

The Bloggisphere

Writing for Calamity News and Politics gives me a platform to discuss headline events and political policy. It also provides me a place to vent,  fume, and stomp my feet. If somebody doesn’t like the drum I’m beating, they are fully able, and encouraged to move on; to a site that better satisfies their social view of the world.

My Son

“Don’t get so wound up, it’s just politics”, my son recently told me.  Well, whether I’m saying it to my son, or to a potential reader, or to a neighbor, that is the wrong attitude. In the end, politics is policy, and policy effects everything in our lives. The schools, the hospitals, the parks, the highways, the airports, the waterways, international trade, health care, military defense and social justice.  Nearly every part of our daily life is effected in someway by the policies that our elected officials enact in Washington, D.C., or our state capitols. Got it?

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Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

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Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Editor: Well, if we wanted chaos, stupidity, and cruelty we’ve got it, in spades. All those folks who didn’t get enough of Trump the first time around and couldn’t wait to get his sick, narcissistic ass back in the White House are paying the price now, right along with the rest of us. And the folks who didn’t vote because they were taking some effin’ high road, shame on you. In a democracy there isn’t a lot to do, other than look at candidates and choose those candidates whose philosophy and policies come closest to match your individual hopes and desires; and that magic happens at the ballot box.   Cate and I agree about a lot of things and her thoughts on Joe Biden coincide with mine.  No one is perfect, but some are a lot more perfect than others; and yes I am comparing Joe Biden at his worst to Donald Trump at his best.  DSM

 

By Cate Rees-Hessel and D.S. Mitchell

  1. Joe Biden is a man of integrity, whose life long career of public service is still in effect – he’s still an advocate for the American people, despite dealing with cancer. Donald Trump has never advocated for anyone but himself.
  2. President Biden is a dedicated husband and father, not a cheating adulterer that once claimed he’d like to date his own daughter.
  3. Joe had, despite COVID-19 chauffeured the economy, to a place that perhaps still needed a bit of tweeking but was showing tremendous growth and high employment.  There were no insane, unnecessary, ill-advised tariffs that are in fact a direct tax on the American consumer.
  4. Joe Biden nor any other Democrat would never have even suggested such devastation, trauma, and cruelty as Trump’s Big Bad Bill. That bill is going to deliver big cuts to the social safety net, add trillions to the deficit and just incidentally give the richest 1% a huge tax cut.
  5. Joe capped insulin at $35 monthly, a real blessing for seniors; which Trump is talking about rescinding Joe’s policy so Donald can “help” the drug companies.
  6. Joe supported health insurance for all, while Trump policies are cutting Obama Care, Medicaid and Medicare. A healthy populace is a good thing for a country, and pays back in so many unimagined ways.
  7. Joe gave us a beautiful, progressive black woman of dignity and intelligence as our VP; Trump’s VP pick spends time courting White Supremacists & Neo-Nazi’s in Germany and other European capitals.
  8. Joe and the Democrats gave this country its first significant infrastructure bill in 70 years. Fixing roads, and bridges, bringing Wi-Wi to rural America while Trump tries to claw back promised federal money for many promised projects and offering nothing more than putrid pork in return.
  9. Joe Biden and his team gave us all time low unemployment, while Donnie Doodle’s employment reports are so bad he has to fire the civil servant giving the information; because of course like everything else he doesn’t like, “it’s a hoax or fake news.”
  10. Joe Biden was the savvy and supportive VP to our first black President, Barack Obama – they worked together beautifully. Donald Trump on the other hand is trying to intimidate and fight with duly elected black mayors and governors across the country. Racism is alive and well under Daddy Don.
  11. Joe gave us a classy First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden – not Donald’s immigrant wife with questionable legal status and a staple in her navel and a naked centerfold archived somewhere.
  12. Joe Biden treasures the privacy of the American people while Donnie Felon thought having Elon Musk chainsaw through the government was a good idea. What is the plan for all that information? Whatever it is, Joe Biden would never have been part of it.
  13. Joe Biden doesn’t intentionally go looking for a fight, while Trump is fighting with someone all the time. Sometimes just because he’s an ass and stupid as a trout and other times because he needs some nonsense vibrating the airways so he can hide, distract and deceive.
  14. Joe Biden used his time to get work done, not ride around in a golf cart demanding we change the  Gulf of Mexico, to the “Gulf of America,” “annex Canada as our 51st state,” or demand the “takeover of Greenland.”
  15. Joe Biden was not touring the world on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane or visiting Epstein Island. However, Donald Trump was flying around acting the big shot with old buddy  Jeff, but now he ‘barely knew him.’
  16. President Biden was an attorney who has a head for public administration and business, not a seven-time bankrupt reality show idiot who threatened his former school with big lawsuits if his grades were ever released.
  17. Joe Biden is a Democrat. Trump is head of some coalition faction that used to  proclaim to be Republicans but are now full MAGA and are likely to fall apart as a movement when Trump’s leaves center stage.
  18. Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed by Joe Biden, Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh
  19. Joe Biden is pro-labor, he was the first president to ever stand on a picket line, while Trump surrounds himself with extremist minority political fringe advocates and greedy 2 percenters running the country.
  20.  With Joe and Jill Biden, class and dignity returned to the White House – for a brief four year period, we had a break from the insanity of “The Donald” and his thug routine.
  21. Joe Biden followed the law when it came to immigrants and immigration. With Trump we now have the world’s best financed national police force (who wear masks, no name badges, and snatch people off the streets) arresting cooks, seamstresses and gardeners. The outlaws and criminals that Trump promised to arrest and deport have vanished right along with his promises of lower food prices.
  22. Joe Biden believes in science and he believes in funding research, Donald Trump hates science and wants us to be as dumb as an illiterate peasant in Medieval England.
  23. No one ever accused Joe of using the office of the presidency to fill his bank account, but that’s what we have going on now more than during Trump’s first term. Emoluments? Who cares about a word that most people have never heard of.
  24. Joe Biden would never have rolled out a red carpet welcome for War Criminal, Vlad Putin, but Trump did. Since when do we celebrate killers? Now, I guess.

Instead of changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for purely racist reasons, wanting to change names of sports teams back to racist ones, wasting money on a military parade for his birthday, or wanting to be a king, President Biden was concerned with healthcare, infrastructure, and real world problems. Joe always had America’s best interest at heart, always thinking about the little guy in our society, a true patriot that took care of actual issues that we as Americans face. God bless President Joe Biden for his service.

What We Could Have Had

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We Could Have Had The Bright, Beautiful Black Lady

Kamala Harris, fulfillment of the American dream. Vote Blue 2024 Biden/Harris

What We Could Have Had

We Could Have Had The Bright, Beautiful Black Lady

 

By Cate Rees-Hessel

 

Regrets?

I wonder if anyone that voted for “The Donald” is finally tired of the insanity and has regrets. I recall years ago the Dream Date game – you could get a handsome male or the dud; we sure got The dud. A popular game show allows contestants the opportunity to choose curtains number one, two, or three but beware, a booby prize is behind one of those curtains. We got zonked big time, but unlike that game of chance, the deal those who voted for the orange monster was a deal made with the Devil.

We Had Our Chance

We had the golden opportunity to elect the most accomplished, the most beautiful,  the most gracious, and the most compassionate, and highly intelligent attorney-prosecutor to ever seek the presidency, but those who are ruled by racism and sexism chose the weak wizard behind the ugly curtain. Now we’ve been zonked and I don’t know if I can last another 1270 days. Below are some prevailing truths because we regretfully did not elect the smart, beautiful Black lady to run our nation:

  1. When the tariffs prevent you from getting what you need or want, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  2. When I.C.E. takes your loved ones away, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  3. When you can’t afford groceries, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  4. When your wife, sister, or daughter can’t get medical care, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  5. When none of us have health care, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  6. When the Social Security money we all worked for goes to pay Elon Musk’s debts, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  7. When the war in the Ukraine rages on with no hope in sight, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  8. When we are at war with Iran, including the likely terrorist attacks here, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  9. When children have empty plates to fund a want-to-be dictator’s military birthday parade, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  10. Even though he and “The Donald” have parted ways, the unfettered power given to Elon Musk has already strongly contributed to running our nation into the ground and his new political party as dangerous as he is, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  11. When eggs remain at five dollars a carton, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  12. Biden capped inulin at $35.00; Trump dropped the cap so insulin is now unaffordable for seniors, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  13. When school lunches are cancelled and children go hungry, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  14. When shootings continue to rise, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  15. When Medicaid and Medicare are no more, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  16. When veterans benefits are no more, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  17. When the National Guard is sent into a peaceful protest, remember January 6th; and that we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  18. When the Gulf of Mexico is referred to as the Gulf of America, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  19. When only billionaires get tax breaks, remember, we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady…
  20. When you wake up drenched in sweat from a nightmare because you voted for Trump, remember…we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady. We could have had Kamala Harris.

Deranged and Demented

Shame on the racist sexists who voted a mentally deranged narcissist with dementia back into the Oval Office, along with his slimy new sidekick JD Vance; instead we could have had the bright, beautiful Black lady, as our President. Kamala Harris and the delightful, down-to-earth schoolteacher/coach/governor Tim Walz at her side. This was a pair that I proudly voted for.

A Long Wait

I have been waiting for our first female President since Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, and Hilary Clinton. Richard Nixon predicted in 1970 that within the next 50 years we would certainly elect a woman president. Well, according to Nixon we are past the time to elect a woman president of the United States.

Thank You, Joe

Thank you, President Joe Biden for helping us smash the glass ceiling; making Kamala Harris the first woman Vice President of the United States. Please join me in wearing something pearl white in the honor of the early suffragettes who demanded the right of women to vote, and our recent presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The Low Road

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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.

 

Most Dangerous Group in Human History

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OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

By Karen Tate

Not Since Eisenhower Has There Been an Ethical Republican President

I’ve often written in my published books and essays that knowledge is power.  Of course, I didn’t know that growing up in the South where our public school books barely scratched the surface on the evils of the Civil War, patriarchy, sexism, racism, or social justice.  Neither were we encouraged to be good citizens with a firm handle on civics and how the government worked.  Men and religious institutions were in charge and vital subjects like sex, power, religion and money were not talked about.  Taking a back seat and having babies was a woman’s role in life.  I had to move to California to begin to get an education and discover how stunted so many of our educations actually are depending on where we grow up and what our socio-economic  background might be.  Then I had to care enough to educate myself and leave my racist culture behind and become a feminist, or I think the more accurate word today is a womanist.

I’m reminded of all that in these last few years as I rub shoulders with those who would rather not know anything, critically think or choose instead to be apolitical and take a back seat and let someone else do their thinking for them.  I have to remember we don’t know what we don’t know.  Had I not left the South I doubt I’d ever have discovered the eminent scholar Noam Chomsky nor would I have taken the rare opportunity to interview him on my podcast.  I wouldn’t have known he considered the Republican Party the most dangerous organization in human history and though he was primarily talking about climate change at the time, he also said, “Has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth?” And he had not yet experienced Donald Trump’s presidency, nor was Project 2025 fully fleshed out as we understand it today.

I believe Prof. Chomsky assessed the GOP as he does for more than their position on climate change by reminding readers we have not had a lawful and ethical Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Knowledge is power and it’s important to be armed with truthful information.  How many of us don’t know or were never taught the following facts about past Republican presidents and their administrations?   As my historical account below will attest, Republican Presidents have been guilty of war crimes, election interference, committing treason, sometimes  by conspiring with foreign governments, and much more, to acquire or hold power  for decades since Eisenhower.  Yes, there have been Republican traitors in the White House before Donald Trump even if you didn’t learn about it in school, discover it buried in the news or followed the headlines.

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OPINION: Little Pink Houses

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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?

 

Street View, NO Kings Protest

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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.

 

Trump Puts Kibosh to Needed Projects

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Trump Puts Kibosh to Needed Projects  

Trump Puts Kibosh to Needed Projects   

Editor: James Carville, Democratic strategist, claims “all politics are local.” Grants Pass, Oregon has a population of approximately 36,456 people. Many are retired living on fixed incomes. Well, I live in Grants Pass, Oregon and here’s what’s happening here, in deep red MAGA country.

 

By D.S. Mitchell

Chainsaw Politics

Elon Musk’s chainsaw approach to government has squashed 100’s of needed projects across the country. The DOGE search for fraud and abuse must have gotten misdirected, because there is nothing phony or fraudulent about the need for a new water sanitation plant in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Gut Punch

To put it in perspective; Grants Pass has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in over 100 years. Southern Oregon is as Red as it gets. Yet, the Orange One has just given the people of Grants Pass,  his most vocal supporters,  a punch to the gut.  The loss of this funding along with the funding loss for a significant project in neighboring Jackson county has slammed these two local communities. The two defunded projects would have brought over $85,000,000 to the area.

Old Stuff, Getting Older

The City of Grants Pass, Oregon has been using water from the Rogue River since 1888. In 1931 the city purchased the water system with its water treatment plant from Grants Pass Water, Light, and Power Co. Over the years,  as the city’s population has grown many upgrades had to be made, starting in the 1950’s all the way through the 1980’s.

Biden Said, “It’s a Go” 

After all these years of periodic updates the current plant has been determined to be earthquake and flood vulnerable and plans for a new relocated plant have been the works for the last 20 years. It’s not just the plant’s dangerous location but the plant is cobbled together with parts from various decades and has become increasingly hard to maintain. With a projected cost of $127,000,000 to replace the precarious and fragile water sanitation system the city went looking for financial help in the amount of $50 million dollars from the federal government. The Biden administration, in the summer of 2023, promised a $50,000,000 FEMA Grant to rebuild the system at a new site. Yippee-Ki-Yay.
Thumbs Down
Hold on. There’s no more Yippee-Ki-Yay. The Bloated One had been in office less than a 100 days when his administration announced that they were canceling the already promised funds. From the sound of things, it sounds like we’ll have to wait for a Democrat to get elected president before such a frivolous project will be funded.
Flood the Streets
Don’t sit on the side lines. Join the New Resistance. Protest and keep protesting. Turn out; flood the streets; let them know we won’t stand for cuts to vital services. There are more of us than them. Grants Pass, like many communities around the good ol USA is finding out that military parades for a wanna be dictator and tax cuts for the oligarchs is more important than funding real projects that help real people.

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

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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.

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