Tag Archive: Donald Trump

Democrats go on offense at CNN “Climate Crisis” town hall

Earth on fire

CNN aired a seven-hour marathon town hall on the “Climate Crisis” yesterday evening. The event featured the top 10 presidential candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, chosen using the Democratic Party’s criteria for its presidential debates.

The first CNN host of the evening, Wolf Blitzer, mentioned Hurricane Dorian in the first sixty seconds of the town hall, and he and the subsequent hosts returned to current reports about the hurricane during the program. Most questions came from the audience, both those in the room and others via satellite from various locations. Many of the questioners were environmental activists, students, or academics, and most such questions were very specific and pointed.

Here are some of the highlights of what each candidate, in order of appearance, had to say:

When it comes to gaffes, Donald Trump lowers the bar to the ground

Cartoon of Donald Trump clashing with Megyn Kelly at August 2015 debate

Republicans, as expected, are attacking the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Given that Joe Biden has been the Democratic front-runner essentially since the day he announced his candidacy, and indeed, beats Donald Trump in head-to-head match-up polls, Biden naturally is a target for many of these Republican assaults. The current line of GOP attack against Biden is that he makes “gaffes,” i.e. honest statements that politicians don’t always make, or misstatements using a wrong word, phrase or information. However, there are two big problems with this Republican attack on Biden: first, Biden has had the reputation of making gaffes for many years, and to a lot of voters, it adds to his likeability and authenticity. Second, and even more problematic for Republicans, Donald Trump has so lowered the bar with his own horrible history of misstatements, shocking statements, and outright lies, that he has negated any “gaffe” issue for Biden.

Responding to right wing talking points on guns

Right wing New York Post now calls for Assault Weapons Ban

In the wake of last weekend’s back-to-back deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, the arguments are flying from pro-gun right wingers who don’t want to take any action to reduce gun violence, and many Democrats (joined by others) who say that America needs common-sense gun laws. The right wing talking points have been around for years, and typically emanate from the top, meaning the National Rifle Association (NRA), which is now reduced to a pro-terrorist gun manufacturers’ trade group, as well as Republican Party professional phrase makers. So now, let’s go through some of these Republican pro-gun violence talking points, and come up with good, short responses to them. In some cases, responses have been given in recent days, and are cited here:

Watch what Trump and the Republicans do, not just what they say

Everyone is in a tizzy this week because Donald Trump wrote racist tweets. The story is all over every type of media, from TV news to Twitter to Facebook to news media websites, and more. However, this has to be one of the biggest non-news events of the year. Trump already has a well-known history of public racism dating back at least to the 1970s with housing discrimination, continuing through the 1980s and beyond with the Central Park Five case, and which was on full display in Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech, where he came out of the gate attacking immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

If you’re still wondering why Trump deliberately creates distractions with shiny objects regarding immigration and race, here are a few things that Trump has been distracting us from while the whole country obsesses over his racist tweets:

Ivanka Trump ridiculed in devastating Twitter meme

Satirical image of Ivanka Trump and Vladimir Putin

Donald Trump went to the G20 international economic forum in Osaka, Japan last week, and took his daughter Ivanka along. The result was an absolute train wreck, wherein Ivanka repeatedly embarrassed herself and the United States of America, by photobombing and intruding into numerous meetings, conversations and photo ops. One especially cringeworthy moment was caught on video, as Ivanka tried to interrupt a serious conversation between leaders of France, Canada, England and the International Monetary Fund, and their reactions were priceless. Here’s the video, which was posted by the French government:

However, out of this Ivanka train wreck came one of the funniest and most devastating internet memes to come along in quite some time. Check out #unwantedIvanka hasthtag on Twitter and elsewhere, and you’ll see Ivanka Trump, like Woody Allen‘s movie character Zelig, inserting herself into all kinds of famous historical scenes. A sampling of some of the best #unwantedIvanka photo creations on Twitter can be found after the jump:

What’s in a Republican’s email inbox?

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, current enemy in Republican email inboxes

If you have a friend or family member of the opposite political party who is politically active, and you trust each other, here’s a fun experiment you can do: ask to take a look at their email inbox. You might be amazed at what you see.

Democrats

Chances are, the Democratic person in your duo has emails on the following subjects:

–Fighting climate change

–Fighting animal extinction

–Reducing gun violence

Donald Trump‘s latest outrage, including the latest rape allegations against him

–Avoiding war with Iran or other countries

–Fair taxation, or, more specifically, raising taxes on the rich

–The latest lies of Kellyanne Conway

–The appalling conditions of immigrant kids locked in cages under Donald Trump’s family separation policy

–Extending voting rights and civil rights

–Protecting our election system against foreign interference

–Protecting the Affordable Care Act and its pre-existing conditions coverage against attacks by the Trump administration and Republican governors

–Calls for Donald Trump’s impeachment

The 2020 elections will be a war over inclusivity

Protest against Trump administration family separation policy

Sometimes, the difference between Democrats and Republicans can be distilled to one word. Right now, that word in “inclusivity.” Donald Trump set the tone for this war over inclusivity when he announced his candidacy for president four years ago. In that hate-filled announcement speech, Trump attacked immigrants who come to the U.S. across the Mexican border, saying, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Since then, Trump instituted an anti-Muslim ban on foreign nationals entering the United States; instituted the inhumane family separation policy; hyped up false fears about a migrant “caravan” before the 2018 midterm elections; and even continues to try to build a Medieval-style wall on our southern border. This past Monday, Trump threatened to deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants beginning as soon as next week.

Donald Trump just called for his own impeachment

Sign at Trump Impeachment March, July 2017

This past Wednesday, Donald Trump gave a televised interview to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, in which Trump stated that he would once again consider accepting foreign assistance, for example, from Russia or China, to help get re-elected in 2020. This would be yet another impeachable offense to go along with all the impeachable offenses that Trump has already committed.

Likewise, when asked by Stephanopoulos why Donald Trump, Jr. did not inform the FBI when he was approached in June 2016 by an associate who offered what he claimed was damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government, but instead eagerly said, “I love it” and even met in the Trump Tower with Jared Kushner (Trump, Sr.’s son in law) and a lawyer from Russia on the subject, Trump. Sr. had this to say:

Trump: Let’s put yourself in a position, you’re a Congressman, and somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent.’ You call the FBI? I don’t think ….

Stephanopoulos: If it’s coming from Russia you do.

Lady Liberty vs. Donald Trump

Statue of Liberty

A visit to the Statue of Liberty followed by the nearby Ellis Island nowadays is very striking. It’s clear that, since Emma Lazarus wrote her poem “The New Colossus” in 1883 to help raise funds for construction of the Statue’s pedestal, and especially after Lazarus’ poem was affixed to the pedestal in 1903, Lady Liberty has stood as a welcoming beacon to immigrants, for many of whom the Statue was their first glimpse of America. Here are the lines of “The New Colossus”:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Beto O’Rourke does it differently

Beto O’Rourke on the campaign trail in Iowa

Since approximately 23 candidates are competing for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, each candidate must try to stand out from the pack. In that respect, former Texas Congressman Robert “Beto” O’Rourke is making a name for himself by doing things differently. First, O’Rourke rolled out his campaign on a local level, with a flurry of town hall appearances in places like Pacific Junction and Davenport, Iowa, rather than making a national splash with televised rallies in big cities and associated online fundraising.

Only lately, O’Rourke has made the shift to more national appearances, including a CNN town hall and an appearance on ABC‘s The View.” As O’Rourke stated on “The View” regarding his local campaigning thus far,

I learned so much by being with them, by listening to them, by incorporating their stories into how I’m campaigning. So, with months to go before the first caucus or the first primary, listening to people, showing up everywhere. With 20 candidates, these elections might be decided in these various states by a thousand, a hundred, a dozen votes, so every single one of these conversations counts. I’m going to continue to show up everywhere to ensure that we have them.