JANUARY 29, 2019

NEWS AND VIEWS

DESTROYING EVIDENCE IS A CRIME, I’M SURE. IS KNOWINGLY EMPLOYING ILLEGAL ALIENS? OF COURSE. I SUPPOSE HE THINKS DOING THIS MAKES HIM SAFE BECAUSE HE HAS KEPT NO RECORDS WORKER BY WORKER, BUT I’LL BET THERE IS A RECORD OF THE LABOR COSTS FOR THE GOLF COURSE OF SOME SORT. BESIDES, SOMEHOW THE OH NO WA PO FOUND OUT. OVER A DOZEN OF THE FIRED EMPLOYEES HAVE COME FORWARD TO TESTIFY ABOUT IT, SO THAT WILL CERTAINLY BE EVIDENCE. I HOPE TO SEE MORE ABOUT THIS SOON. WHAT ABOUT HIS OTHER PROPERTIES, I WONDER? COULD HE HAVE FIRED THEM ALSO? ANOTHER POSSIBILITY IS THAT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE AT THAT SITE COULD HAVE MADE A THREAT TO TELL INFORMATION ABOUT HIM. BUT WHY FIRE THEM ALL? A POORLY KEPT SECRET?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/26/politics/trump-golf-course-undocumented-workers-government-shutdown/index.html
Washington Post: Trump golf course fires undocumented employees during shutdown
By Sophie Tatum
Updated 6:56 PM ET, Sat January 26, 2019

Washington (CNN)Approximately a dozen undocumented employees at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, were fired last week, as lawmakers -- including President Donald Trump -- were in the middle of a partial government shutdown over funding for a border wall, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The Post spoke to the workers and their attorney who said the abrupt firing took place on January 18, despite some of the individuals having worked as staff at the club for several years.

Last year, The New York Times reported that his private club in New Jersey had employed people who managers allegedly knew were in the country illegally.

The two women who spoke to The Times last year said that supervisors at the club took active measures to help them avoid detection and hold on to their jobs, but the paper said there was no evidence that Trump or Trump Organization executives knew of their immigration status.

The Post reported that at Trump National Golf Club, the company told the workers that they found their immigration documents were fake during an audit.

CNN has reached out to the Trump Organization and the White House for comment.

Eric Trump, the President's son and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said in an emailed statement to The Post: "We are making a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment. Where identified, any individual will be terminated immediately."

According to The Post, Eric Trump added that it is one of the reasons "my father is fighting so hard for immigration reform. The system is broken."

Gabriel Sedano, a former maintenance worker who had worked at the club since 2005, was fired and spoke to The Post.

"I told them they needed to consider us. I had worked almost 15 years for them in this club, and I'd given the best of myself to this job," Sedano said, according to the paper. "I'd never done anything wrong, only work and work."

CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.


SEE THIS MADDOW VIDEO ON THE SUBJECT OF THE FIRINGS:
Undocumented Trump employees abruptly fired amid wall hype: WaPo
David Fahrenthold, reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting on undocumented workers at a Trump golf course who were suddenly fired as Donald Trump escalated his border wall rhetoric, despite working for years with forged documents.
Jan. 29, 2019



THESE ANTI-WAR DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN PORTRAYED IN SEVERAL OTHER ARTICLES AS BEING IN FAVOR OF MADURO’S SOCIALIST STANCE, RATHER THAN AGAINST AN AMERICAN MILITARY REGIME CHANGE EFFORT. EITHER POSITION COULD BE CRITICIZED, BUT THE REPUBLICANS ARE ALWAYS READY TO INTERVENE IN ANOTHER’S NATION IN THIS WAY. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT PUTIN DID TO US LAST ELECTION IS ONE OF FORCE RATHER THAN SUBTERFUGE. TRUMP IS TALKING ABOUT SENDING IN TROOPS.

https://www.newsweek.com/anti-war-democrats-speak-out-venezuela-1305834
ANTI-WAR DEMOCRATS SPEAK OUT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP'S ACTIONS ON VENEZUELA
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 1/25/19 AT 3:26 PM

At least three Democratic representatives known for their vocal anti-war positions have spoken out against President Donald Trump's intervention in Venezuela's political crisis.

As Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro entered his second term earlier this month, the country became increasingly destabilized by protests against what has been widely seen as government mishandling of economic woes that have led to historic hyperinflation, lack of essential goods and a mass exodus of refugees from the socialist country.

On Wednesday, opposition leader and National Assembly President Juan Guaidó declared himself president, a move recognized by the Trump administration, which then cut ties with Maduro and called for him to step down.

Critics have likened Trump's decision to a coup attempt, as well as the latest episode in an extensive history of U.S. intervention in the region. On Twitter, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota argued Friday that Trump's move was illegal, likely rooted in a desire to access Venezuela's oil reserves, and irresponsible given the government shutdown. That impasse, the longest in U.S. history, arose from a standoff over the president's $5.7 billion border wall proposal.

“We cannot hand pick leaders for other countries on behalf of multinational corporate interests. The legislature cannot seize power from the President, and Venezuela's Supreme Court has declared their actions unconstitutional," Omar tweeted. She also shared a Democracy Now article in which former U.N. independent expert Alfred-Maurice de Zayas argued that Trump's move was illegal.

"We can’t afford to get involved in costly interventions abroad when tens of millions struggle to access housing, healthcare, and clean water right here at home. U.S. meddling abroad always ends badly for us, and the people we claim to be 'liberating,'" she added. "If we really want to support the Venezuelan people, we can lift the economic sanctions that are inflicting suffering on innocent families, making it harder for them to access food and medicines, and deepening the economic crisis. We should support dialogue, not a coup!"

GettyImages-1092286678
Senator Bernie Sanders speaks as, from left, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Senator Cory Booker, Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Joe Neguse and Representative Ro Khanna listen during a news conference on January 10. Khanna, Omar and Sanders have warned against any regime change attempts by the U.S. in Venezuela.
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

Omar became the first Somali-American, and one of the first two Muslims, voted into Congress in November when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives. She was born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, and her family fled civil war and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before resettling in the United States. Since taking office earlier this month, she has been a vocal opponent of U.S. intervention abroad, including its support for Saudi Arabia's war against the Zaidi Shiite rebels known as Ansar Allah, or Houthis, in Yemen.

Now she has taken on U.S. involvement in the Western Hemisphere. The Trump administration has discussed the prospect of regime change in Venezuela, a move that would follow decades of U.S. efforts to defeat socialist movements in Latin America through coups and support for right-wing forces.

As the international community reacted to the crisis on Thursday, Omar tweeted: "A US backed coup in Venezuela is not a solution to the dire issues they face. Trump's efforts to install a far right opposition will only incite violence and further destabilize the region. We must support Mexico, Uruguay & the Vatican's efforts to facilitate a peaceful dialogue."

Omar's statement followed that by another vocal critic of U.S. support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. California Representative Ro Khanna also condemned plans to oust Maduro, whose economic policies he criticized. Khanna said in a statement, "The United States should not anoint the leader of the opposition in Venezuela during an internal, divided conflict."

"There is no doubt the Maduro’s economic policies have been terrible, and he has engaged in financial mismanagement and also political authoritarianism. But crippling sanctions and threats of military action are making life worse for ordinary Venezuelans, and the U.S. stands alone in its decision to impose economic sanctions against the Venezuelan government," Khanna said.

"We should work to support the efforts of Uruguay, Mexico and the Holy See for a negotiated settlement and end the sanctions that are making the hyperinflation worse. I plan to circulate a letter to my colleagues in the Trump Administration urging them to immediately change course in its policy toward Venezuela," he added.

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Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii listens to testimony from Thae Yong Ho, former chief of mission at the North Korean embassy in the United Kingdom, during a House foreign affairs committee hearing on November 1, 2017. Anti-war politicians like Gabbard have supported President Donald Trump's efforts to limit U.S. intervention abroad but have condemned his attempts to expand it.
DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

At least one presidential hopeful has also weighed in against Trump. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has been outspoken in her criticism of U.S. adventurism across the globe, especially in Syria, where she traveled to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017. Washington and its allies have accused the Syrian leader of war crimes, including the use of internationally banned chemical weapons against civilians and the U.S. sponsored insurgents attempting to overthrow him following a 2011 rebel and jihadi uprising against his rule.

Gabbard, Khanna and Omar have tacitly backed Trump's decision to pull troops out of Syria, whose government considers the U.S. military presence illegal. They have also supported Trump's calls for a diplomatic solution with North Korea as the U.S. conducted an unprecedented peace process with the nuclear-armed state. But Gabbard pointed out what she felt to be hypocrisy in the administration's approach to Venezuela.

"In the morning, Trump promises Kim of North Korea, 'We won't wage regime-change war against you.' In the evening, Kim watches Trump carrying out regime-change in Venezuela. Kim looks at our actions, not empty promises," Gabbard tweeted. "The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don't want other countries to choose our leaders—so we have to stop trying to choose theirs."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, argued that Maduro's government "has been waging a violent crackdown on Venezuelan civil society, violated the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly and was re-elected last year in an election that many observers said was fraudulent."

He also noted that "the economy is a disaster" and said the U.S. "should support the rule of law, fair elections and self-determination for the Venezuelan people" as well as "condemn the use of violence against unarmed protesters and the suppression of dissent."

Still, he maintained that the U.S. "must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups—as we have in Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic." He added, "The United States has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries; we must not go down that road again."

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Venezuela's National Assembly head Juan Guaidó, left, and President Nicolás Maduro. On January 23, Guaidó declared himself the country's "acting president" on the anniversary of a 1958 uprising that overthrew a military dictatorship.
YURI CORTEZ/FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Fellow democratic socialists Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, also one of the first two Muslims voted into Congress in November, and New York Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have not yet publicly commented on the issue. But the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), of which they were both members, did comment in a lengthy, deeply critical statement.

RELATED STORIES
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"We call upon the US government to immediately cease and desist all attempts to intervene in the internal politics of Venezuela and break with its shameful legacy of imperial control in the region," the organization wrote. "Further, we call upon DSA chapters and DSA-supported political representatives to mobilize in this particularly critical moment around a campaign of solidarity with the Venezuelan people, aimed specifically at reversing the US government’s disastrous and counterproductive sanctions against Venezuela."

Many Republicans have voiced support for Trump's actions on Venezuela, while Democratic reactions have widely ranged from mixed to muted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted Thursday that "America stands by the people of #Venezuela as they rise up against authoritarian rule and demand respect for human rights and democracy."

The Venezuela crisis has also polarized the international community, with U.S. allies like Canada and the U.K., along with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru, recognizing Guaidó. Meanwhile, longtime critics of Washington's foreign policy, such as Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua as well as China, Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkey, have come out in support of Maduro.


THIS REPORT, COMING FROM SEVERAL SOURCES, IS MORE DISTURBING THAN JUST ANY OLD ADDITIONAL LIE WOULD BE. SEE THE CNN AND THEN THE HUFFINGTON POST REPORTS BELOW. IS TRUMP UNABLE TO KEEP STRAIGHT WHAT HAS HAPPENED? OR IS THIS JUST HIS SALES SPIEL ON BORDER ISSUES? REMEMBER, IT IS THE CONSERVATIVE WHITE CITIZENS WHOM HE WISHES TO SELL TO, WHICH MEANS THAT HE NEEDS TO BE EMOTIONAL MUCH MORE THAN FACTUAL OR RATIONAL. I DO HOPE SOME REAL INFORMATION WILL COME OUT TO CONFIRM OR DISCOUNT THE STORY. HOWEVER, RACHEL MADDOW HAS ANOTHER POSSIBLE SOURCE FOR THE STORY. SEE HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE BELOW AFTER THIS ONE.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/us/human-trafficking-fact-check/index.html
Experts: Trump's tape-bound women trafficking claim is misleading
CNN Digital Expansion 2016
Polo Sandoval
By Sarah Jorgensen and Polo Sandoval, CNN
Updated 10:59 AM ET, Mon January 28, 2019

VIDEO -- Examining Trump's claims of human trafficking at border 03:18

(CNN) In Friday's Rose Garden comments temporarily ending the shutdown, President Trump repeated an anecdote that has become a common refrain in his arguments for the building of his border wall.

"Women are tied up," Trump said. "They're bound. Duct tape put around their faces, around their mouths. In many cases they can't even breathe."

But Sandra -- a victim of human trafficking whom CNN is identifying only by her first name for her safety -- said that this was far from her experience after being lured across the Rio Grande with promises of a better life. Sandra said she was unaware that she would be exploited by a sex-trafficking operation in the US.

"I don't know where he is getting his information," Sandra told CNN. "As a victim who was brought into the US, I was not bound or gagged with tape."

Three legal experts who regularly work with human trafficking victims in the United States interviewed by CNN all agree with Sandra's assertion that Trump's vivid descriptions of women being bound with duct tape and smuggled across the border are not reflective of the vast majority of human trafficking cases in the US.

"I have worked on human trafficking on multiple continents in multiple countries for more than two decades, and in all the work that I've done with trafficking victims, I have met one who was actually kidnapped and thrown into a car," Martina Vandenberg of Washington D.C.'s Human Trafficking Legal Center said. "It is much easier to coerce people through threats to their families. It is much easier to convince someone that they are heading towards a better life."

The White House did not respond to repeated requests from CNN for an explanation of the President's comments. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment.

Approximately two-thirds of trafficking victims in the United States are US citizens, according to Vandenberg. Of the smaller percentage of victims that are foreign-born, most legaly come into the US on various visas, unaware of the forced labor or sex that awaits them at the hands of traffickers.

Evangeline Chan of the New York-based nonprofit Safe Horizon, which helps victims of many kinds of abuse, including human trafficking, told CNN that many victims are lured into the country with false promises of a better life. Chan gave the example of a person applying for a job in the US through a recruiting agency and then entering legally with a temporary work visa to fill the job.

"So they come in legally. They come in through legal ports of entry. But once they're here they realize that the employment that's offered and the conditions that they're working is very different than what was promised them," Chan said. "But then at that point, they have been threatened with real force. They have been beaten, they have been threatened with deportation, their families may have been threatened with harm, and then they're forced to stay in that situation and they don't have means to escape."

Sandra echoed that experience, saying that the threats to her family were keeping her under the control of her pimp.

"They don't tie our hands or cover our mouths," she said. "They bring us over with threats of violence against our families. That's the reality."

In a database of 1,435 human trafficking indictments since 2009 maintained by the Human Trafficking Legal Center, Vandenberg said she found only 26 instances of kidnapping and only one mention of a victim being bound with duct tape. That case's victim was a US citizen.

"To see what the trends are in human trafficking, the trends that aren't sort of discernable when you are working on individual cases but can really only be seen from a 50,000-foot level, when you are looking at all of the aggregated data," Vandenberg said. "And you know, one case mentioning duct tape, the way Donald Trump talks about this, it makes it sound like this is common practice, that every single case has this particular fact scenario, and he's just making this up out of whole cloth."

The experts all cautioned that the President's rhetoric about human trafficking could obscure the horrific reality that most trafficking victims experience. According to Lori Cohen, of Sanctuary for Families' antitrafficking initiative, the US citizens who face trafficking include young adults emerging from the foster care system, LGBT youth who have been kicked out of their homes and adults involved in prostitution.

"I don't know where the President's information is coming from," Cohen said. "I don't believe it's coming from law enforcement. It's certainly not coming from victims, and it's not coming from the dozens of service providers who I've spoken with across the country. None of us have seen anything that looks like what the President has described."

The experts all emphasized that while the President's grim scenario was not impossible, it was highly uncommon.

"The threatened use of harm and the threatened harm to family and friends is far greater than physically restraining a person and dragging them here," Safe Horizon's Chan said. "It's very rarely seen that that's how it's done, at least in my experience."

Sandra, who is a client of Sanctuary for Families, said that the President would get a better perspective on human trafficking by speaking to people like herself.

"I don't think believe the President has ever sat down with a human trafficking victim to familiarize himself with their experience," she said. "But I don't think he'll ever do that, because the reality does not fit his fictional narrative."

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Evangeline Chan's last name.


TRUMP HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY TELLING A BIZARRE STORY, AS THOUGH HE IS OBSESSED WITH IT. IT’S TIME FOR A DECISION TO BE MADE, I THINK. HE MAY BECOME MORE DANGEROUS NOW. ACCORDING TO HUFFPO, HE HAS TOLD THIS STORY 22 TIMES IN TEN DAYS. I DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY GOT SUCH A PRECISE NUMBER, BUT IF HE TOLD IT TO REPORTERS, THEY WOULD KEEP A RECORD OF IT, I THINK. I NOTICE THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS. I JUST GOOGLED SICARIO, AND THE WORD MEANS “HITMAN,” SO IT’S PRETTY BAD, PROBABLY. IT IS A FOUR STAR FILM FROM 2015. IF YOU’RE FEELING BRAVE ENOUGH TO WATCH IT, GO TO: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3397884/. PERSONALLY, I'M NOT.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rachel-maddow-suggests-trump-may-have-seen-taped-trafficked-women-on-sicario_us_5c4fdb9ae4b0d9f9be687570
01/29/2019 04:34 am ET
Rachel Maddow: Trump May Have Cooked Up ‘Taped Women’ From ‘Sicario’
“in any normal administration it would be insane to suggest” this, she concedes.
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By Mary Papenfuss

President Donald Trump has been obsessively repeating a horror tale of trafficked women in cars at the southern border, their mouths taped shut, so they “can’t even breathe.” The problem is that trafficked women and border officials apparently have no idea what he’s talking about. Now Rachel Maddow, along with some media outlets, believe it could be possible that Trump witnessed it with his very own eyes — on the violent movie “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.”

The film shows such a scene at the Mexican border, eerily similar to what Trump has described. There is also a scene of Muslim prayer rugs in the southern desert, which has also popped up in a Trump tweet. He has talked about the smugglers’ amazing cars, just like in the movie.

All are “plot points in the same movie — which is fiction,” Maddow emphasized Monday.

“Now in any normal administration it would be insane to suggest ... even joke about the president of the United States seeing stuff in a movie ... and maybe thinking it was real — or at least real enough to justify an actual military deployment of thousands of active duty U.S. troops to the border,” she said.

On Saturday Vox reported that an email was sent out by a Customs and Border Protection official following the president’s claims, asking agents to immediately forward “any information” about taped women. The agency has yet to comment on Trump’s stories which he repeated 22 times in 10 days.

The Washington Post reached out to border personnel, women who had once been trafficked and immigration organizations, and were unable to find a single example of what the president was talking about.

Trump’s movie-watching habits could be pertinent when the House Armed Services Committee convenes a hearing Tuesday about the border and why exactly troops were deployed.

Check out Maddow in the video above, then see if the clips below ring any bells.

Embedded video

ALT- Immigration 🛂 “immi”
@ALT_uscis
Replying to @ALT_uscis
And 25 minutes into the movie, we are at taped women in the back of a van.
The president gets his immigration crisis information from on-demand.

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ALT- Immigration 🛂 “immi”
@ALT_uscis
Replying to @ALT_uscis
And 90 minutes into the movie. The duct tape over their faces shows up. I am convinced this movie was trump’s border crisis research

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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Border rancher: “We’ve found prayer rugs out here. It’s unreal.” Washington Examiner People coming across the Southern Border from many countries, some of which would be a big surprise.

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ALT- Immigration 🛂 “immi”
@ALT_uscis
Replying to @ALT_uscis
This is the scene

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Mary Papenfuss
Trends Reporter, HuffPost



WOMEN TIED UP WITH TAPE AMAZING CARS PRAYER RUGS AT THE BORDER AND THE DEPLOYMENT OF ARMY TO THE MEXICAN BORDER ARE TAKEOUTS FROM A MOVIE WHICH WERE USED TO JUSTIFY TRUMP’S DECLARING A BORDER “EMERGENCY.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-aim-for-insights-on-national-security-in-new-hearings-1433534019809
Democrats aim for insights on national security in new hearings
Rachel Maddow runs through some of the many open questions about the Donald Trump administration and national security, from Trump's cinematic justifications for a border crisis to assessments of worldwide threats.
Jan. 28, 2019



SPECIAL COUNSEL TRANSPARENCY ACT

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/these-senators-of-both-parties-have-a-plan-to-ensure-that-robert-muellers-report-becomes-public/
These senators — of both parties — have a plan to ensure that Robert Mueller’s report becomes public
written by Alex Henderson January 28, 2019

With Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation possibly coming into the home stretch, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has announced a bipartisan bill he says would guarantee that any special counsel report becomes available to both Congress and the American public.

The Special Counsel Transparency Act of 2019 was introduced by Blumenthal and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee) along with other Committee members. The idea behind the bill, clearly, is making certain that Congress and the American public find out exactly what is in a special counsel’s final report—for example, the one that Mueller will be issuing at some point.

On Facebook, Blumenthal announced, “The Special Counsel Transparency Act is about a simple, bipartisan principle: the public’s right to know. Senator Chuck Grassley and I are leading legislation to guarantee every Special Counsel completes a report with findings and evidence—and directly discloses it to Congress and the American people.”

Blumenthal added, “Transparency matters. Our bipartisan bill would require a report whenever a special counsel finishes an investigation, is fired or resigns, assuring that the results cannot be sealed or selectively censored.”

In an official U.S. Senate press release, Grassley asserted that during the recent Senate confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr, he was “encouraged” to hear Barr “place a high priority on transparency” when asked about Mueller’s probe. But Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire has gone on the record as saying that she will not vote for Barr’s confirmation because she is still “concerned with Mr. Barr’s very broad view of executive authority, especially given that we are still in the middle of the Mueller investigation.”

On Facebook, Blumenthal also posted, “A special counsel is appointed only in rare, serious circumstances involving grave violations of public trust. In those cases, the public has a right to the facts. Our bipartisan bill makes it the default that the American public have access to the full story.”


THIS IS NOT A NEW ARTICLE, BUT STILL SO APPLICABLE. TRUMP VERY LIKELY IS TO A GREAT DEGREE INARTICULATE, BUT THE THINGS HE COMES UP WITH ARE REALLY OFFENSIVE. WHAT KIND OF COUNTRIES ARE THEY AGAIN?? NEXT TIME IT’S TIME TO VOTE, FOLKS, REMEMBER THIS.

https://www.alternet.org/2018/04/watch-charles-blow-explain-why-trumps-breeding-tweet-so-dangerous-minorities/
Watch Charles Blow Explain Why Trump’s ‘Breeding’ Tweet Is So Dangerous for Minorities
written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story
April 19, 2018

The president knew exactly what he was doing.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow was invited onto CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday morning to address a Wednesday tweet from Donald Trump about undocumented immigrants that included the curious phrase “breeding concept,” that has resulted in accusations of over presidential racism.

[THE QUOTE:
Sitting down with CNN host Chris Cuomo, Blow was asked about Trump’s tweet that read: “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!”]

“Words matter and once again, President Trump is under fire for a tweet on immigration in so-called sanctuary cities,” host Cuomo began. “Now, the facts of this: there’s a lot of exaggeration, however the phrase, ‘breeding concept’, has some outraged. Did the president cross a line? What’s the simple answer?”

“Breed is a concept you normally apply to animals and some plants and breeding is the reproduction of those animals and plants so what his intent is, who can ever know” Blow began. “The effect is it’s dehumanizing of people, the otherizing of people and the animalizing of people and once you take a human being and reduce the humanity in that person where your fellow citizens no longer see that person as fully human, it opens the gate for you to do all manner of things to those people.”

“That is a very historical concept, that’s an ancient concept,” Blow continued. “We’ve seen that in recent history where during the crack epidemic, for instance, we had this crack science that labeled some people who were users and some people who were sellers as super predators. It dehumanized then to the point where you were allowed to then promote draconian policies because all of a sudden they weren’t human like you and I.”

“Once you define somebody as less than, then there’s an expectation they’ll be treated as less than,” host Cuomo agreed.

“Not than less than human, less than another in importance in society. Fully less than human and that’s a real thing,” Blow added. “Maybe if it was someone else, you might be able to make an argument but not with this particular person. This president has a history of problematic racial language and actions and therefore, you don’t really give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Asked if Trump’s racist dog-whistle “was serving a purpose,” now that Trump is losing the backing go GOP lawmakers,” Blow said it odd in its timing. [sic]

“Particularly for somebody that already has a re-election committee. A lot of things play into it, his problem around race plays in to it and his legal problems play in to it,” Blow explained.

Watch the video below via CNN:
[GO TO WEBSITE.]

BREEDINGCALIFORNIACHARLES BLOWDONALD TRUMPIMMIGRATION


TRUMP’S PLAYMATES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3B-tw2sB0
#newsnight
Donald Trump's business links to the mob - BBC Newsnight
BBC Newsnight
Published on Mar 4, 2016

Donald Trump now looks like the front-runner to be the Republican candidate for the US presidency. One of his big appeals is his business success - and his claim that his wealth means he can't be bought and sold. But there's evidence which not only casts doubt on Trump's wealth claims - but also reveals his history of business relationships with figures connected to organised crime. John Sweeney reports.

Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.


MOORE SAYS IN THIS EXCELLENT INTERVIEW VIDEO, “DEMOCRACY HAS NO SELF-CORRECTING MECHANISM.” PEOPLE WHO WANT GOOD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT FOR THEM, HOPEFULLY WITH LAW BUT PROBABLY NOT COMPLETELY. AM I BEING HOSTILE? NO. I’M BEING REALISTIC, AND GENUINELY PATRIOTIC. ANOTHER QUOTATION: “BE YE AS WISE AS SERPENTS AND AS GENTLE AS DOVES.” WAS JESUS FOMENTING A REVOLUTION? YES, BUT ONE FOR GOOD OVER EVIL. WHY DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT EVIL SO ACTIVELY? BECAUSE GOOD HAS TO BE CULTIVATED AND EVIL GROWS NATURALLY. MIGHT IS [TO BE CONSIDERED] RIGHT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-A76FtooqQ
Michael Moore: Are We Going to Be Like the “Good Germans” Who Let Hitler Rise to Power?
DEMOCRACY NOW!
Published on Sep 21, 2018

https://democracynow.org - In his new documentary “Fahrenheit 11/9,” filmmaker Michael Moore interviews the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, Ben Ferencz, who describes President Trump’s policy of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border and the large-scale detention of immigrant children as a “crime against humanity.” Moore also looks at the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany and compares it to the rise of Trump in the United States.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org

Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: https://democracynow.org/donate
Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow


MOORE FROM MICHAEL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRRxG4L4upA
Michael Moore on Trump, Brexit and his new film


STAREDOWN ON THE MALL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZMzhnprCO8

NATIVE AMERICANS SPEAK THEIR PIECE BEAUTIFULLY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mH0r79D6g


IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO STONEHENGE, IF YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS, WATCH THIS ESPECIALLY GOOD TIME TEAM SHOW ON STONEHENGE. EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT IT, WATCH IT ANYWAY, BECAUSE THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARE AS BUSY AS BEAVERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD, AND THEY HAVE MADE NEW DISCOVERIES. BON APETITE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2GVfGUk48I
Time Team Special 36 (2009) - The Secrets of Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire)