The Killing of America: trump

 On November 7, 2016, I wrote a blog post for the case against trump. It has been amazingly accurate that the case has held and has gotten worse. I am deeply saddened and disgusted with deep anxiety at the dangerous, deterioration, and destruction of America - The killing of America: trump. The America that our soldiers fought and died for is itself dying due to the destructive nature of trump and his cult of followers. I won't put all republicans into this category because not all republicans are followers of trump and his evil administration. However, if you are a follower of trump then you are a follower of his wickedness, his corruption, his immorality, his lack of values, his hatred, his racism, his bigotry, his sexism, and walk in the same path as the devil himself including the wickedness of mike pence. trump and pence are antichrists, devils that walk the Earth to scorch America. A vote for trump and any republican that aligns with trump is a vote for the devil's destructive persona that will continue to lead to the killing of America. If you voted for trump and this egregious subsequent administration in 2016, fine, I forgive you. But after 4 years and the horrific display of holistic gross incompetence on all matters presented before him and his administration including senators and representatives, a vote for him again shows your hatred toward the human race not only in America but all over this world. Of course, after claiming COVID-19 as a hoax that led to 200,000 American deaths and beyond is unfortunately just the tip of the incompetence iceberg in this administration. He now says that if he loses the election he will not leave power and that there will not be a peaceful transition that the constitution calls for. He will likely be nominating a justice that will remove women's rights and make women once again subservient to men. If you have never watched or read the Handmaid's Tale, do so, it will give you a glimpse of America under trump, pence, and this horrific Republican party that supports them. If you wonder why trump's and pence's names are not capitalized here, it is because they do not deserve any respect. What is truly sad to me is to see and experience the hypocrisy of Christians, the very people who are supposed to love everyone, help the poor, have morality, values, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. With 82% of Christians voting for trump/pence, the hypocrisy is as evident as ever proving that they are not aligned with the teachings of Jesus but aligned with Satan embodied in trump. I am now scared of Christians through their display of ignorance and blind acceptance of the worst in the world. I am not perfect. I am a sinner and I will answer to God and Jesus for my sins but I will never associate myself with the devil as embodied by trump. It may be the most egregious sin there is at this moment in time. trump even said that he could walk down 5th avenue, kill someone, and his followers wouldn't condemn him and still support him. It has truly been proven over 200,000 times now and his followers are more engaged with him than ever. I am an independent. I have voted for both republicans and democrats in the past. I find nothing black and white, but everything gray. However, after this debacle of this administration and the horrid following of this person, I will never, ever vote Republican again. The Republican party has shown its true colors or I should say, true color, white. Not in my entire 60 years have I felt so saddened, angry, disgusted, and downright depressed by what is going on in this country. The younger generations need to get out and continue to peacefully protest, vote, demand change, demand empathetic compassion for all humans, help those who fall, and change this country and the world for the better before it dies an ugly and painful death. They have the most to lose or gain and it is up to them. Every country needs to look at their leadership and remove the cancers that are deteriorating their inner fabric of being. Cancers spread easily without the proper diagnosis and treatment and kill the living being. It turns good cells into bad cells. It pervades the body until it is weakened beyond recognition. The earlier it is caught, the better chance there is that it can be eradicated. donald trump is human cancer and the only way to save America is by eradication - voting out trump/pence and all of his aligned, loyal hitler-like dictators who want the power to control and eventually destroy America as we have known it and impose their own righteous sadistic unconstitutional laws on its people. Don't let the devil, the antichrists, win. It is upon us to strike down this evil or America will remain in a fiery hell for another four years and likely beyond!

One week In....Ugliness of trump

...and all trump has done is sign executive orders. Does that sound authoritarian? Does it sound like a dictator? We, America, are on the verge of a major catastrophe. Mikael Gorbachev, in a Time opinion article, has even said that the world is preparing for war. trump (notice I will not capitalize his name or call him president for lack of respect) is escalating this threat of war every step of the way. He has now puts Americans at risk for torture by saying we should be torturing more, fighting fire with fire.  How would we condemn a country torturing our soldiers and civilians if our policy of torture is in in line with terrorists? He has also put Americans at risk for his rhetoric America first, making America and its civilians one of the most hated countries in the world. I am all for looking after our own and making our people a priority but his rhetoric is threatening to the rest of the world and to our very own safety.  We live in a global economy and a global society.  America first should be seen as leadership not in the context of screwing over and fighting the rest of the world as a bully. America now has no leadership.  It has a populist president and administration who the majority of Americans do not respect nor voted for. A new song, America the Ugly, should now be written just seven days into this narcissistic, collusive, lying (alternative facts), bullying administration.  Even some Republican lawmakers are aghast and more need to be. paul ryan, his lemming, is no better. I thought I had some respect for him at one point but that has all diminished.  I have no respect for trump followers. If you voted for trump, that is one thing and given the choice, OK I can see why you might have. If you are a blind follower (and I mean that in the Jim Jones sense of the word) then you need to wake up and open your eyes.  I was blind but now I see, I was lost but now I am found. It is now time to open your eyes and be found. God created a beautiful planet and humans have continued to destroy it, even with the the efforts of those that fight against it. Now trump wants to continue destruction by the severe limitations placed on the EPA, the ignorance of facts by 97% of scientists related to climate change, pipeline executive orders and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. I frankly think God needs to intervene just as he did in the bible as this man, trump, the devil walks among us. The fight needs to continue against this administration. As much as people believe I am not a Christian, I am.  I am an independent voter because I believe policy that affects Christian values and beliefs are held on both sides. However, it is evident by the lack of values, lack of human decency, bullying, hatred, racism, bigotry, sexism of this president and administration and the support by his followers that I will never vote republican again. It is unbelievable to me that we voted all of these values in over a private email server. It is not that I am a huge Hillary supporter but her values, ethics (even in question), and human decency is so far beyond trump's and even many of those in his administration (think bannon) that they are not even in the same universe. People keep saying "get over it" and let's unite but when a president divides the country so badly, even in his inauguration address and continues to do it day in and day out, with each word and with each tweet, this is NOT something to "get over", it is something to stand up against. So, one week in and he has proven his ugliness as a person and even uglier as a president. 

The Mess That Is: trump

Ben White of CNBC and Politico wrote an article that hits home with the mess that is trump.  America voted wrongly, first by even having this guy win the GOP primary and worse by way of the Electoral College (not popular vote by over 2 million votes) making him president.

he (not capitalized on purpose) sends up smoke screen tweets to get people to not focus on real issues, like his business dealings around the world. he will get special treatment from governments related to permits, discounts, favors to further his businesses around the world, likely become richer not caring about any American (not just white Americans) but not caring about anyone but his narcissistic self. How do people not see this?  How do other republicans not see this? How does the American people not see this?  Are we really that dumb of a country or are we just apathetic to caring for this country? I would argue that trump supporters care nothing about this country nor the people who inhabit it.  If they did they would have never voted for trump at any point in this election cycle.

he is a LOSER! Being a billionaire doesn't make him a winner, it just makes him rich while belittling and stepping on the poor and middle class. He will continue to do the same throughout his short tenure as president.  We all know he is going to f*ck up and be impeached by the sane republicans who despise him along with democrats who loathe him. If I was a senator or house representative, I would keep my distance from him, let him run his existence into the ground and start anew.

How does one, even during transition, turn away security briefings particularly in the light of heightened terrorism and domestic security challenges, like the one at Ohio State? There needs to be a million person march on Washington during the inauguration, no, lets make that 2 million to show the number of popular votes he lost by and the LOSER he is.  The people are NOT with you trump. They voted against you and you said it yourself, the Electoral College is a sham. If the Electoral College is to do the job intended for the Electoral College, as checks and balances, if the people go haywire and vote for a lunatic, which they have, then maybe the faithless electors will stand up and overturn the election. With trump, they certainly have a case to do so.

If the transition is a mess the administration is going to be in complete shambles, beyond a mess and the people who will pay are the American people.  What a shame! The mess that is: trump!

Incompetence At The Helm

The headlines continue to roll in of incompetence and the governing inconsistencies of trump will continue for the next 4 years, MAYBE!  Lets see what we have been missing and what the trump supporters have been ignoring.

"President-elect Donald Trump’s decision last week to nominate Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire and conservative activist, as his education secretary has caused great consternation in parts of the education world — those parts that are deeply concerned about the future of public education."

The “King of Bankruptcy” is likely going to become the United States secretary of Commerce. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, a businessman who made his money and got the nickname buying up fledgling companies in distressed industries such as steel, coal, and textiles.

"Another superrich, conservative businessman will likely join the Commerce team as deputy Commerce secretary: Todd Ricketts, son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and Cubs co-owner. "

"Donald Trump's disavowal this past week of white supremacists who have cheered his election as president hasn't quieted concerns about the movement's impact on his White House or whether more acts of hate will be carried out in his name.

Members of the self-declared "alt-right" have exulted over the Nov. 8 results with public cries of "Hail Trump!" and reprises of the Nazi salute. The Ku Klux Klan plans to mark Trump's victory with a parade next month in North Carolina. Civil rights advocates have recoiled, citing an uptick in harassment and incidents of hate crimes affecting blacks, Jews, Muslims, Latinos, gays, lesbians and other minority groups since the vote."

"Trump falsely claims 'millions of people who voted illegally' cost him popular vote."  trump, even with winning, opens up the door to suggesting millions voted illegally. I hope they all voted AGAINST him and this election can be overturned!

Other disastrous cabinet picks include Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser; Jeff Sessions, Attorney general (maybe one of the worst), Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA director, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for ambassador to the UN. Basically, it comes down to being up trump's ass until the brown turns your head into a chocolate lollipop. Some of these folks were even against trump at one point but since nobody wants to be bullied by him and don't want to stand for their own principles (Nikki Haley), they conceded for their chance to be part of a disastrous trump administration, political suicide for them.

Trump has already gone back on many of his campaign promises because those promises were just a show to him, a reality show that had no substance, just a "tell them what they want to hear" monologue (because there was no dialogue) of a narcissistic, billionaire who is not for all Americans but for a select few white rich nationalists, white supremacy being the cornerstone of his campaign.

And how about raising taxes on the middle class and poor? Here ya go trump supporters!

"President-elect Donald Trump's proposals would modestly cut income taxes for most middle-class Americans. But for nearly 8 million families -- including a majority of single-parent households -- the opposite would occur: They'd pay more.

Most married couples with three or more children would also pay higher taxes, an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found. And while middle-class families as a whole would receive tax cuts of about 2 percent, they'd be dwarfed by the windfalls averaging 13.5 percent for America's richest 1 percent."

And how about climate change? 

"Trump still thinks climate change is "a bunch of bunk" http://huff.to/2g7D69Q "

Of course, i could go on and on but a new day will bring more tales of the absurd, more defensive tweets about how he won the popular vote, more disastrous cabinet picks, more billionaires (so we drain the swamp of politicians and fill the swamp with billionaires who not only know nothing of politics and diplomacy and statesmanship, but cares little or nothing about the poor Americans (i.e. the 99%) they asupposedly serve. Sad!

The Media: Biased Against Trump? Not!

Some people say that the media was openly biased against trump.  The opposite is actually true. trump is stupidly, smart and as a reality "star" and celebrity, he knows that any press is good press and that bad press is sometimes the best press. All of us, media and voters alike, took the bait. Everything that trump did and said, which was mostly negative, turned into a headline, a discussion, a debate, an outrage. People would tune into the news outlets or social media just to see what stupid thing he said or did today and since he did or said something stupid everyday, he was getting all the attention. The news media was biased toward him, not against him.  I will even take responsibility for giving him all of my attention  and most democrats should as well.  Just look at our Facebook posts or tweets and one of my blog posts, they were always focused on the negatives of trump (just what trump supporters loved), not what Hillary could do for the country. Those who did not vote for trump never made the case FOR Hillary, they were always making the case AGAINST trump while trump supporters were doing both, making the case FOR trump and AGAINST Hillary. I listened to CNN everyday driving to an from work.  Their conversations, until the very end, were mostly about the wacky stuff that trump said or did. They were not making any of it up because there was always a video or audio or tweets of him doing it, hence, the stupidly smart approach of trump. It got CNN talking about it but when they did, they always had a balanced panel - trump supporters and Hillary supporters - to discuss it. Chris Cuomo of CNN moderated these panels of biased supporters quite well always calling to task their views or support when required. The other thing I noticed was that Kellyanne Conway (whom I despise) and some of the surrogates like Rudy Giuliani were also on news media outlets much more than Hillary's people, of course, to manage whatever stupid thing trump said or did. Of course, there were other biased agencies; FOX News has always been a conservative's haven for republicans, more biased than any of the large news outlets.  And, how about Breitbart News?  Who, you say? Well now you know in an unfortunate way that Breitbart is one of the largest media outlets in the country, home of the European populist movement and now the American alt-right movement, where America's new chief strategist Steve Bannon serves as executive chairman, a white nationalists news source and one condoned by the KKK and American Nazi's. If that isn't biased toward trump, I don't know what is.  I'm an NBC news guy and they do seem to lean blue. Chuck Todd, of Meet the Press, is one of my favorite political analysts.

trump makes his own headlines, the news media doesn't make them up, at least the large, main news outlets. They don't make things up in a biased way. The reporting appears biased because trump does and says such stupid things, the outlets can't help but to report it and talk about it.  There are so many headlines each day that show the narcissism, ugliness, cowardly, stupid words and acts of this man or his surrogates  that I can't keep up with them all. Sometimes it is even the lack of words that baffle me, like not having a strong denouncing of the spike in hate crimes in America due to his ugly rhetoric during the election or not denouncing the recent "Hail Trump" video by the Alt-right national policy institute leader Richard Spencer.

The media was not biased against trump. It gave all its attention to trump as did we and this is where it got us.

The Following

After this ugly election cycle, I have vowed to follow politics more closely through the people in politics, the people who analyze politics, the organizations and structure of political systems, decisions from U.S. and state capitols all in relation to the human condition, human decency, human interaction, and making the country (and hopefully world) a better place to live.

As much as I will strive to be bipartisan, likely, I will be highly critical of trump purely for what he stands for and for what his cabinet is shaping up to be.  To me, at the moment, he will be known as trump and referred to in this blog as trump.  I will not give him the respect of the title of President. I will not capitalize his name and make it a marquee name like his many properties and businesses until earns that respect, which likely will never happen from what I have seen from day one.

I'm a non-affiliated voter although after this election, I will likely vote more blue than red due to what red supporters stood for behind trump. I will share my opinion, however critical, for both the red and blue.  When either stand for a united america (neither do right now) and do something right, even if it is trump, I will recognize that as well.

Frankly, I just need an outlet because my thoughts are consumed on every run by what has happened politically over the last year and most recently by this debacle of an election.  I don't want my thoughts consumed by it so I need an outlet.  This is it, good or bad.

My next post will be one that I posted two weeks before the election.  It was, and really still is, my case against trump. I do think I understand more, though, why people voted for him and it will be on me to dig deeper, understand more, and keep the pressure on this administration.

Why Lunacy Fringe 1600? It is because it is where lunacy will live for the next 4 years; 1600 is the address.

Blind Leading the Blind: The Case Against trump

It has been a long time since I have been on a run and didn’t think about this election. Frankly, I don’t think I have ever been engaged this much in an election.  It’s not because that it is so exciting, it is because of what is at stake for America.  America is at a crossroads and one of the roads leads us down a dangerous path.  Like a runner on the trails, be smart about the trails you take and to where the path leads. You also cannot run these treacherous trails blindly.  Generally, this blog is about running but my two monikers are Runners Thoughts and In The Moment Running. My Runners Thoughts are not always about running so going forward I will share the thoughts I have while running whether they are running related or not.

Before I get into the topic of the election, I should provide a little information about me. I am registered as an unaffiliated voter, 56-year-old white male, Christian, and college-educated with a graduate degree in computer science so I am highly analytical. I live in Durham, NC. Being registered non-affiliated or independent, normally I would look at candidates for all offices with more objectivity because I don’t believe every issue is black and white, left or right. Normally, I might vote republican for one office, democrat for another.  I would say I am more of a moderate on issues seeing both right wing conservatives and left wing liberals dangerous to our society. In this election, I will NOT vote for Trump and will not support anyone who has endorsed or supports him nor will I respect anyone who does. I respect their right to have their own opinions (although Trump wouldn’t respect those that do if they differ from his) and respect that our free republic allows us to openly discuss our opinions and vote for who we want. This is the case against Trump put into the perspective of our own lives. In essence, are we OK with what he represents? I would argue that we are not but many of Americans are not putting it into perspective.

Here are the questions I would like everyone to answer and then note how Trump responded either on documented video or audio:

1)      If my child, brother, sister was physically or mentally challenged, would I allow another adult to make fun of them in gesture and spoken words?  Would this be OK with me? Are there any circumstances where this would be OK? Trump demonstrates this is OK.

2)      If my child was bullied in school, made fun of for the way they looked, the way they talked, or the way they ate, etc. Would you let this pass and laugh with the bully? Would this be OK with you? Trump shows that bullying is OK.

3)      As a veteran or the family of a veteran where your serviceman comes back from deployment with PTSD, seeing and experiencing some of the most horrible visions of war. Would you consider him/her weak, that he/she cannot take it? Trump says yes, they are weak people.

4)      If your serviceman was tortured, endured and persevered after being captured by the enemy, would you consider him/her a hero? Trump would not, he only likes those who aren’t captured.

5)      If your serviceman was killed in action, no matter what your ethnicity or religious believes, a person who fought for the freedom of this country, would you like people to make fun of you? Trump did this.

6)      If your daughter goes on a date and the boy/man looks at her and says, “eh, do you know what you look like? you’re not my first choice.” Would that be OK with you? If the boy/man grabs her, hugs and kisses her without permission, would this be OK for your daughter to be treated like that? It is OK for Trump. Then, if it is the boy’s word against your daughter’s word, who do you go with? Trump says the women are all liars and he can do all he wants with them!

7)      If someone says, “look at MY African American” over there. Considering slave ownership, would this be an OK phrase by anyone, let alone a presidential candidate? Trump said it. If your daughter or son or grandchild marries an African-American, would this be OK to say to them? It appears Trump’s OK saying it to them.

8)      Are all Mexicans rapists and drug dealers? Trump thinks so.

9)      Would you like to live in Russia under Putin and communist rule? Trump thinks Putin’s leadership is stronger than our leadership and likes the way he rules his country.

10)  Do you enjoy violence, hatred, and degrading people? Trump says he loves physical and verbal fights and he has proven he degrades people. He has incited violence against a competing candidate. One of his supporters brought a Hillary doll to a rally with a noose around its neck. Another NC republican, supporting Trump says she should have a bullseye on her picture on the Rifleman magazine.

11)  Do you believe that if your sports team doesn’t win, or you don’t win the lottery, or you don’t win playing a simple game of cards that they are rigged? Anytime you don’t win, it is rigged?  That is Trump, if he is not winning it is rigged, if he is winning, then it is legitimate. Conversely, he thinks accusations against Bill Clinton are all true, yet none against him are. If the election is rigged as Trump says it is, why vote then? Stay home on election day. Of course, he said to vote on November 28^th.

12)  Would you love your email or your internet browsing history hacked by the Russians? Trump advocates for Russia to be hacking our email.

13)  Would you like to see a nuclear war, a bomb that falls onto your family, or worse, near enough your family where they suffer from radiation poisoning for years? Trump wants to escalate nuclear war and on the word of the President, nukes must be fired within 4 minutes. Do you want Trump to be 4 minutes away from annihilation of our country or another?

14)   Do you love to be insulted for anything and everything? Is bullying OK with you? Here are the 282 people, things, places Trump has insulted during his campaign.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html?_r=0  He has NO policies; he ONLY has insults. He will insult you, your family, your beliefs at the drop of a hat, even before it hits the floor.

15)  Do you hold Christian beliefs? Look back through this list, do one of these insults fall in line with your Christian beliefs? I doubt it, so why would any Christian vote for Donald Trump? It is hypocritical at best and dangerous at worst. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for the devil, saying that the devil is who you support, not a loving Jesus or all people, not a loving Jesus who helps the poor, not a loving Jesus who forgives sins. I am sure if you were to ask Trump if he is a sinner, the answer would be “no” which all Christians know that we are all sinners. He is the antichrist rising.

16)  Do you remember any of Trump’s policies or the phrase “grab ‘em by the pussy’?  I am sure it is the pussy comment that you remember because he has not spoken about policy except through rhetoric. He knows nothing about policy and his surrogates little more.

17)  Why does Putin want Trump to win? It is because Putin knows that Trump is a dumb-ass and knows nothing about running a country, that he would do stupid things which would give Putin and other countries the opportunity to seize on America, that the people he surrounds himself with also cannot govern and are extremist to divide America as opposed to unite America. We have all heard united we stand, divided we fall. With Trump it is divided we fall!

18)  Do you consider yourself racist, a bigot, sexist, one that promotes violence and hatred and thinks America is a horrible place? If so, you identify with Trump. Look in the mirror and say, I am a racist, bullying bigot and despise everyone but myself until it is convenient in my own interest to like someone else.

19)  Do you think a rich billionaire with a silver spoon in his mouth cares anything about you, knows yours struggles, and seriously wants to help you and your family? Trump is about Trump and only about Trump and this election is about his ego and narcissism. He cares nothing about you or this country, only about Trump.  Do you know his kid has an entire floor to himself at Trump Tower? Can he possibly understand a child living on the street, homeless?

20)  Do you think Trump is not a politician? You are voting for him because he is anti-establishment? Trump is the worst kind of establishment and the worst kind of politician. He believes that his entitled ways of life allows him to do anything he wants because he is famous and rich. He said it on the audio, that he can grab ‘em by the pussy, kiss them whenever he wants, have them whenever he wants. He said he can walk down 5^th Ave and shoot someone and his followers wouldn’t care. Would you care? Do you care?

I could go on and on because there is so much fire under the feet of this devil who will lead us into hell. I am up at 3:30 AM finishing this because of the disgust I feel for this person and the need to just get it out. But my real fear is the support he has that shows the true ugliness of America. True colors come out in intense times and win or lose, we have seen the true colors of America and they “ain’t” pretty.

He really (in his reality show self) is a deplorable person (won’t even call him a man) without a care for humanity and decency of any kind. If elected, it will be the worst thing for America in my lifetime and will show the ugliness of our country. He is blind to what a decent human being is, knows nothing of the issues of America, has no policy statements of substance, and will turn on you (individually or the American people) instantly when it benefits him. He is leading the blind, the people who can’t see through all of this, who defend his ways and actions with their own rhetoric and lies. He is by far and away the worst candidate ever for the presidency but scarier than that is that he has nearly half of voting Americans following him.

Also, note that this is not a pro-Hilary post. Although I voted for her (as well as every democrat on the ticket since I lost all respect for republicans supporting Trump) she is not without her issues and baggage. However, her issues and baggage are not in the same universe as Trump’s.  And frankly, I am sick of hearing about emails because that is all the fight against her has been about. Hell, our government and businesses get hacked on a regular basis. Edward Snowden gave all our secrets to the Russians anyway. Do you really think classified emails are truly secret? Yes, it is sad that these two candidates are what we have as viable Presidents of this GREAT country but truly I tell you, there is only one of these two that has the temperament, decency, humanity, knowledge, leadership, empathy, sincerity to be President and in NO WAY is it Trump!! I'm with Her!