Tag: Donald J. Trump

I’m A Liberal–And Here Is Why

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I’m A Liberal, And Here Is Why

D. S. Mitchell

The resurrection of the GOP attack on Health Care, Trump’s UN speech, and a nasty Twitter exchange with a rabid Trump supporter, or maybe, a Russian troll, has caused me to sit down and pout for a few minutes, kick my feet and wonder if the fight is worth it.  I, like many of you, get so tired.  Some days it seems like Trump, in 10 short months is on the precipice of destroying the backbone of this country, our laws and our media. In the midst of my pout, I remember what President John F. Kennedy said about his core values and I perked up and finished calling my list of potentially five persuadable Republican Senators; in an effort to stop the GOP effort to repeal the ACA. 

The JFK quote has been seen a million times, but it is worth another view.  If you are a liberal and are taking a breath, forget it. The GOP and all their ‘effing money are out to screw us all. So get up, dust yourself off, drag the sign out of the basement, and hit the streets. Or, the phone. You can have a big impact if you make those Senate office phones ring.

So, my sweet liberal friends, gather courage from the words of one of our greatest presidents, “If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reaction, someone who cares about the welfare of the people–their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties–someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what it means to be a ‘liberal’ then I’m proud to say, I’m a liberal.”

Keep up the fight, the road will be hard and the results slow in coming, but a determined heart will protect health care and the social contract our government has with its citizens.

Join the Resistance

Dar

More Trump Than I Ever Wanted

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More Trump Than I Ever Wanted

D. S. Mitchell

Donald Trump is taking up a lot of print pages in the United States and around the world. His behavior is so extreme and so dangerous that I find it necessary to report daily on his outrageous language and behavior.  Trump’s ongoing offensive actions force me to respond with outrage and disgust.  I am daily amazed at the depths this man will sink to.

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog with a left leaning agenda. CP attempts to present relevant, topical and engaging coverage of the U.S. political scene. I admit I feel as if we are writing about President Trump multiple times a week.  For a small blog that is a lot of attention directed at one target. However, I like many other reporters are feeling they must stay on this rogue president like flies on cow shit.

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80 Reasons To Smile

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80 Reasons To Smile

D. S. Mitchell

The last two days have been full of drama and emotion. Jared Kushner is on Capitol Hill and talking to members and staffers from the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, behind closed doors. @POTUS spent 35 minutes last night giving a rambling disgusting speech to 40,000 boy scouts at their annual Jamboree. New Tweets from the president attacking Sessions hit the internet today, which brought significant push back from the conservative branch of the Republican party, including Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart News. The Senate is voting to bring TrumpCare out of committee today and I worry for the possible 30 million people that will lose health care.

I am jumping up and down and I am about to self-combust. But, I know that will not help. I know I need to keep up my efforts to derail TrumpCare. I have made twelve calls to Senators this morning asking a certain few Republican Senators to resist the White House and do what is best for the American people.

Calamity Politics is a political blog with a progressive leaning agenda. Calamity Politics intends to present relevant and engaging political conversation on a daily basis. Usually once a week I try to find something to smile about and share those thoughts with my readers.
As agitated as I am, I thought the best thing for my attitude and my blood pressure was to think of a substantially large number of reasons to smile. So, here are 80 Reasons to Smile, even on a day as disturbing day as today.

1.) Being part of a team 2.) Sunrises 3.) Sunsets 4.) Watching the turntable as an old vinyl plays 5.) Dimples 6.) Warm Apple Fritters 7.) Night games 8.) A checklist 9.) Arched doorways 10.) Search lights 11.) A day at the museum 12.) Finding a 4 leaf clover 13.) A loft for the little ones 14.) Antique claw foot tubs 15.) Sprinklers 16.) Popping bubble wrap 17.) Seeing a dream come true 18.) Baked potato “loaded” 19.) A “free month” of anything 20.) The sweetness of fresh corn on the cob 21.) Flipping pancakes 22.) Paper Airplanes 23.) Tic Tac Toe games 24.) Nervous energy 25.) Homemade onion rings the size of bracelets 26.) Cutting my own bangs 27.) Old perfume bottles 28.) Last nights spaghetti reheated 29.) Shari Lewis’ Lambchop 30.) Old things re-used and re-purposed 31.) Mozart 32.) Holding hands 33.) Salt water aquariums 34.) The caverns and mesas of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico 35.) A reading corner 36.) A secret admirer 37.) A talking parakeet 38.) Lingering over coffee with the Crossword Puzzle 39.) Persistence 40.) Celery filled with crunchy peanut butter 41.) Knowing you are appreciated 42.) Yes or No answers 43.) Floor to ceiling views 44.) Marinas and harbors 45.) Beachcombing 46.) Honeysuckle 47.) Ancient ruins 48.) History 49.) Jazz 50.) A window box garden 51.) Barge homes 52.) Potluck with family and friends 53.) A winning basket scored at the buzzer 54.) A weekly play break 55.) Sunday afternoon poker 56.) A lake cabin 57.) Black licorice 58.) Cobbled streets and tiled roofs 59.) Cast iron skillets 60.) Six layer cakes 61.) Magnolia trees 62.) The buddy system 63.) Old dolls and Teddies 64.) Caramel apples 65.) The Fusion of Tex-Mex 66.)Bead board ceilings 67.) Watching my grand daughter play hop scotch 68.) Loving what you do 69.) Koala bears 70.) Corner cabinets 71.) Elvis music 72.) The ability to change 73.) Tongue twisters 74.) Garden benches 75.) Losing weight 76.) Molasses cookies 77.) Nasturtiums 78.) Afternoon Croquet at the beach house 79.) Clean countertops 80.) Essential oils

Well by the time I got to the number eighty John McCain strode in to the Senate chamber, and cast a deciding vote to bring the Repeal the ACA bill out of committee. Some Republican Senator that I didn’t recognize came on Hardball and said he thought Kushner had been “open and straight forward and appeared to answer all questions thoroughly and honestly.”

I’m not in the mood to add a couple more reasons to smile, cuz I’m really angry and I think I need to take the dog for a walk.

Join the Resistance

Darlene

Trump Threatens Country’s Top Lawmen

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Trump Threatens Country’s Top Lawmen

D. S. Mitchell

The New York Times evening edition for 7/19/2017 bi-lined by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haherman published an angry, rambling, nonsensical interview with President Donald Trump.  The President does not seem to fully understand how serious the investigation in to the Russian activity during the 2016 election had become.

Trump told the interviewers that he would never have hired Sessions for the job of Attorney General if he had known that Sessions would recuse himself from the Russian investigation. Ignoring the fact that Sessions had a perceived conflict of interest and as such, was basically forced by law and tradition to recuse himself.

Sessions was deeply involved in the Trump campaign.  How could he not recuse himself when there was such obvious conflict of interest?  The rule of law?  Does the president even understand the role of his  appointees? Does he understand that these people are supposed to be working for the people of the United States, not Donald Trump personally.

I’m beginning to wonder if Trump has any concept of the law, or the restraint that the law imposes on government officials, not just disregard the law, but even understand it’s basic constraints.

The Russia inquiry has in Trump’s words,” cast a dark cloud” over his floundering administration, calling Session’s recusal “very unfair to the president”.  Oddly, Trump speaking of the Presidency in the third person.  “The president” feels it was Sessions decision to recuse himself that led directly to the appointment of a special counsel, “that never should have happened.”

Wow.

From then on the President sent volley after volley aimed at the top law enforcement officials in the country.  First it was his own chosen Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, then he attacked the Deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein.  Trump wasn’t finished however.  In a wandering interview he took potshots at the acting FBI Director, Andrew McCabe and then before moving on to other topics, Trump slammed Robert Mueller and warned that he would be stopped in his tracks if Trump felt the investigation was moving away from anything that wasn’t directly Russian related, telling the Times reporters there “was a red line.”

Apparently he blamed Rod Rosenstein for appointing Mueller as special counsel, furthermore he seemed to blame Rosenstein for recommending the dismissal of then FBI Director, James Comey, although Trump has  previously said the recommendation from Rosenstein was unimportant because he had already decided to fire Comey because of the ongoing Russian investigation.  And, in fact told then Russian Ambassabor Kisylak in an unprecedented Oval Office meeting , that he thought that firing Comey would shut down the investigation, or at least reduce the heat.

That is why, Mr. President they are looking at you for obstruction of justice.   Mr. President, we have audio and video of this stuff.  We can fact check you.  Jesus, man, not everyone is so in love with your ass that we ignore what you say.

I seriously wonder if this president has any memory of what he said 30 minutes ago.  The most recent press blurb indicated you have been documented making 836 separate public lies and misleading statements just since taking office.

On the subject of Comey, the President extended his complaints, insisting that Comey had perjured himself during the congressional hearings, stating again, “I never asked him for a loyalty oath.” Furthermore, Trump further claims he never asked Comey to end the investigation into former NSA, General Michael Flynn.

He further bullied the now private citizen, Comey, indicating he felt Comey had attempted to leverage FBI information detrimental to the President to hold on to his job.

Trump said that Comey had taken him aside and described a secret dossier containing multiple salacious allegations against the president, including sexual escapades in Moscow.  Trump called the dossier a bunch of “junk–a phony deal.”

Trump continued, stating he believes that Comey told him about the negative information and his intention, according to Trump, was to hold it over his head. Previously Comey has stated he told Trump of the dossier’s existence to warn him of the potential fall out if the information was published.

Reporters summarized Trump’s attack against Mueller  for, “running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia.”

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Charitable Giving Stays ‘In House’ With Trump Family

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Charitable Giving Trump Style

D. S. Mitchell

About Calamity News

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog published on the North Oregon coast.  Calamity News and Politics aims to present engaging political commentary and analysis, where we, in our own sarcastic and cynical  manner put a spotlight on interesting and topical news issues.  Since January 20th, 2017, Calamity Politics has focused its energies on keeping the media spotlight on the calamitous and outrageous scandals centering around the Trump Administration. The Trump family is a scandal factory.

Trump News

The headline news, and the back pages too, of  yesterday’s papers were full of juicy stories.  I know… I complain about it a lot. Too many absolutely incredible salacious stories for me to keep up with. Nobody can write fast enough. I keep struggling on, however. Trump’s Twitter Turds. Mar-a-lago advertisements on the White House website. Melania Trump advertising her jewelry on Pinterest.  Speaking of Melania; a whole crop of nude photos from the 1990’s have surfaced. Kellyanne Conway is hawking Ivanka Trump’s apparel in front of the Presidential Seal. It keeps me slack-jawed.

Arm Waving Outrage

Never in my lifetime could I have imagined such outrage. If you aren’t mad, I mean screaming, arm waving, foot stomping mad, you are not paying attention. Listen, ladies and gentlemen the ongoing scandals, brewing up from the sewer of corruption known as the Trump Administration, is beyond comparison. I am not even talking about the possible conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

The Eric Trump Foundation

The above three paragraphs were just me on a rant. Pardon me. The subject of today’s story is the manipulation and clear corruption of The Eric Trump Foundation by Donald Trump Sr. According to a Forbes story, in 2007 Eric Trump established the Eric Trump Foundation. The stated goal was to raise money for St. Jude’s Research Hospital. St. Jude’s is a hospital that specializes in cancer treatment of children. At that time, Eric chose several of his friends to sit on the board.

Initial Event

According to the promotional for the first event, The Eric Trump Foundation claimed costs would be minimal. Eric stated he could use the Trump National Golf Course, in Westchester County, New York for “free’. At the time Eric said, “We get to use our assets (the golf course) 100% free of charge.”

St. Jude’s Hospital

Information provided by several outlets including NBC, MSNBC, Forbes, and the Washington Post, show that Eric Trump delivered $11,000,000 between 2007 and 2015 to the St. Jude’s Research Hospital.  Sources further show that in addition to the $11 million Eric helped raise an extra $5,000,000 for St. Jude’s “through events hosted by other groups”.

Trump Sr Gets Involved

According to Eric Trump Foundation IRS filings the overhead cost of the golf course charity event was around $50,000, and although not “free” as claimed, certainly within reason for such an event. After 2010 apparently, Donald J. Trump, Sr caused expenses to more than double. A former employee, Ian Gillule, stated that Donald Sr. went on a terror when he learned that The Eric Trump Foundation wasn’t being “billed” for the club use. When the old guy flipped out according to Gillule he insisted that “EVERYONE” gets billed. From that point on, costs ballooned. In 2011 the costs were up to $142,000.  By 2015, the costs for the invitational golf event exceeded $322,000.

Excessive Fees

Forbes reported the increased costs for the tournaments coincided with two events. The first being Donald Trump, Sr deciding to “bill” the charity event.  Second, changes to The Eric Trump Foundation Board of Directors. Reports claim The Eric Trump Foundation began using its charitable status to “funnel” donations that donors believed were going to St. Jude’s Research Hospital, instead to The Trump Organization. This was done by charging excessive fees to use Trump properties during fundraisers, and then “re-donating” other funds to charities “friendly” to Trump interests.

Paying Daddy

Numerous news sources report The Eric Trump Foundation paid $1.2 million dollars to the Trump Organization between 2007 and 2015 despite Eric Trump’s claims they had “free” use of the links and buildings for the St. Jude’s event.  Based on filings from The Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it becomes clear that the course was not free.

Watchdogs

Charity watchdogs told Forbes Magazine “the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament”. Dan Alexander writing for Forbes reported that they had uncovered that the Donald J. Trump Foundation, “apparently used Eric’s charity to funnel $100,000 into generating revenue for The Donald J. Trump Foundation.

Investigations

New York state is investigating The Donald J. Trump Foundation for its not so charitable activities. The president’s foundation had come under earlier scrutiny for “self dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake” rather than those of charity. Alexander wrote,”All of this seems to defy federal tax rules and state laws that ban self-dealing and misleading donors.  The Eric Trump Foundation suspended operations in December of 2016, after his father won the presidential election. Currently, Eric and Don Jr. are running the Trump Organization. That fact alone, raises larger questions about Trump family dynamics and whether Eric and Don Jr. are handling the Trump Org independent of their father

Hallucinating Mind

I think we all know there is no separation between the president and the affairs of the Trump Organization. The veil is obviously fake. It is clear old man remains involved in Trump Organization. Such activities should disqualify Trump from holding any public office, much less the presidency. Trump has not set up a blind trust by any stretch of the imagination. The Forbes story summation, “Altruism as a business development strategy isn’t necessarily illegal.  But, a situation in which outside donor money is redeployed away from the core mission in ways that seems to ultimately benefit the family that pays the majority of the Board is–at best–an appearance problem”.

Keeping It In House

Think about it. Just another example of the Trump family keeping the money ‘in house’. Remember, you can’t just sit around. These are challenging times. The president is head of a crime family. He must be replaced. Support the Resistance. Make a phone call, write a letter to the local newspaper, write a letter to your Senator, your representative. If you want to become more involved start a blog, march in a protest, run for office. Pick one small task each day, and do it.  It is the totality of action that moves mountains and societies.  Taking a phrase and reusing it in a whole new way, ‘just do it”.

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In My Opinion, Trump Is Delusional

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OPINION:

Trump Is Delusional

D. S. Mitchell

Twitter Turds

After two days of watching Trump Turds fly this way and that from his personal Twitter account, I believe that someone; his physician, a family member, the Senate Majority leader, SOMEBODY needs to step in and get this man a psychiatric evaluation. His deteriorating mental condition has been obvious since the inauguration. Trump’s behavior over the past 130 plus days reveals a man who is in uncertain control of his mental faculties.

Delusion And Reality Separated

Most professionals agree that Donald Trump suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The chaos and confusion of the move to Washington. The incredible responsibility of the Office.  His separation from the familiar. His isolation and incredible unpopularity are challenging Trump’s tenuous grasp on reality. I believe he is telling us through his aberrant behavior that he is losing contact with reality. It seems to have become more and more difficult for him, to separate delusion from reality.

The Last 48 Hours

The Trump craziness has been on full display for the world to see for the last 48 hours. His behavior is becoming increasingly dangerous, in my opinion. This is an appeal for someone in power to investigate the president’s capacity to head our government.  We have entered unexplored territory with this president. I know I have heard that phrase before, but I’m taking it very seriously. Our existence as a country could be in the hands of a madman and it is imperative that men of stature and patriotism intervene, while they are still able.

Appreciate You

Calamity Politics is a progressive blog that comments, analyzes and offers opinions on the headline news of the day. Feel free to comment on what you read on this site. I appreciate your comments. I do ask that you keep your comments decent and printable. If you curse and act like a fool I will not print your opinion. Otherwise, I will be happy to present your dissenting opinion.

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Sad And Stupid

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Sad And Stupid

D. S. Mitchell

Really Stupid

On Tuesday, comedienne Kathy Griffin posted a video of herself holding up a catsup covered fake head. The fake head represented Donald J. Trump, president of the United States. Why Ms Griffin thought that such a stunt would be funny is beyond me, but, she did. Satisfied with her work, she sent the video  out to the world. An angry Trump world slapped back. The slap back included job loss. She was fired from her regular New Year’s Eve gig with Anderson Cooper. There may have been some other show cancellations that I didn’t hear about.

Don’t Worry Kathy

My first reaction was to tell Kathy not to worry. I think she will be fine, these things blow over. For God sakes, Melania Trump is laying naked with other women in photo layouts spread all over the internet. Donald is on tape saying he grabs women by their pussy. Jared Kushner is meeting with Russian bankers and Russian government officials secretly. Steve Bannon wants to de-construct the government. And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Kathy’s severed head stunt was ugly, dumb, stupid, and inappropriate. However, I believe Kathy, who apparently is socially clueless, is still entitled to her right of free speech. And, I would like to remind everyone that Kathy Griffin apologized. Which she should have done.

Keep Showing It

Keep in mind, Trump glorifies in his refusal to apologize, and his followers don’t apologize. Does that mean Kathy is being held to a different or unrealistic standard? I don’t know. I’m just talking, like a lot of us do. Quite honestly, I think it is amazing to watch the GOP scream about the horrible picture of Kathy Griffin holding Trump’s severed head, while choosing to show it repeatedly in a quickly assembled campaign ad directed against Democrat Jon Osloff. Osloff is in a tight special election race against Republican Karen Handel for Georgia’s vacant sixth district seat.

Tea Party Comedienne

Donald Trump is a bully who NEVER apologizes and thinks its ok to insult people, whole countries, and religions. So, why is it such a big deal to make fun of this bathtub bully? It doesn’t seem much different from what I saw after President Obama won election in 2008. Those Tea Party crazies had their freedom of speech. I thought their antics were horrendous and appalling, but I heard no apologies. Those rude, loud and offensive folks paraded all over the country with effigies of President Obama. I remember vividly seeing folks walking around with effigies of President Obama that had a lynch man’s rope wrapped around Mr. Obama’s neck. There were pictures on the internet showing President Obama hanging by his neck from a rope and being lighted on fire by some ‘comedienne’.

Recent History

The lynching of a black man in America is a very recent part of our history, and those Tea Party protest scenes, to me, were absolutely appalling. It would have been less offensive if they had held up a fake severed head of Barack Obama. The reference to lynching of a black man in America is about as ugly as it gets. So, what am I saying? I don’t know, exactly. Maybe that the Tea Party activities numbed my senses. Why should the sight Donald Trump’s severed head be any worse than the image of a lynched Barack Obama?

My Mission

My mission is to connect with the angry and the outraged liberals of our country who are fucking sick of the Republicans and their war on every vulnerable element of our society.

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Trump Derangement Syndrome

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Trump Derangement Syndrome

D. S. Mitchell

The first place I ever saw the term ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ was in a December 2016 LA Times Op Ed, written by Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com. Justin Raimondo, a Republican, is a self described “conservative-paleo-libertarian” whatever that is supposed to mean. Wikipedia calls it a philosophy that is “in opposition to social progressivism”. I give you this little tidbit to allow you to appropriately weigh his comments.

In his Op Ed, Raimondo states the Trump Derangement Syndrome disorder developes in stages. I will briefly outline those stages of development as Raimondo describes them:

In the early stages of his described ‘disease,’ the victims “lose all sense of proportion.” In Trump’s case, “every tweet arouses a firestorm” of reaction.

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50 Trump Adjectives

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50 Trump Adjectives

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is happy to announce that I, Editor-in-Chief, the only Editor-in-Fact, am going to devote the entire first political blog post of the day to a really nasty game.

The ‘game’ will not distract from my usual in-depth political coverage; that will come later. LOL. My regular readers know that the ‘in-depth’ description is probably a bit misleading.

I’m decently polite and tend to shyness. Rarely do I attack. But today, as I was driving back home from the Acupuncturist this morning, I started thinking about Donald J.Trump, 45th President of the United States, con-man, self-promoter and started tossing adjectives around in my head as I made the drive from Cannon Beach to Surf Pines.

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Trump’s Narcissistic Personality Traits

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Narcissistic Personality Disorder

D. S. Mitchell

Another Sunday

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve planted several trays of spring flowers, and the yard at Calamity Politics is much brighter, and much more inviting.  If you are a new visitor to Calamity Politics, we are a progressive political blog that hopefully offers relevant news and engaging political chatter.  In addition to the chatter, I try to offer intelligent analysis and commentary on the news of the day.  Hopefully, readers will find the articles topical and informative.

26,000 Mental Health Professionals

Twenty-six thousand (26,000) psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers recently signed a petition stating that Donald Trump has a “dangerous mental illness, and is not fit to lead the United States.” Dr. John Gartner, formerly of  Johns Hopkins University, now in private practice, stated that he felt he “had an ethical responsibility to warn the public of Donald Trump’s mental illness.”

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