The Trump era has tried, and in many cases succeeded, in reversing many of the safeguards that have made America the strong, inviting country that it has always been.
Trump and his associates have attempted to take the country back to a time where business and profit where more important than the people that work every day, the people that toil endlessly to make ends meet and whose labor make the rich richer.
Old men, old white men, have, since the founding of this nation, done everything possible to keep the power and wealth among themselves. They did this at the cost of millions of human lives. It began by the irradiation of the so called red man, the native peoples that inhabited this continent for centuries before the white man came here and infected them with there disease. The diseases where not just illness, but the disease of greed, violence and need to feel superior.
These wealthy white men exploited everyone that was not like them. They used the black man to toil within the many industries of this country while keeping them out of the competition, the competition for education, exploration and innovation. The Black slaves built this country and did not reap any of the riches or rewards.
These wealthy white men used the so called yellow man, the Chinese, to build the railroads.
These wealthy white men kept women out of the development of this country.
In short, this country was developed on the backs of everyone that was not a wealthy white man. Violence was the mechanism used to drive this development and fear was the tool used to justify this violence. Fear of so-called foreigners, fear of people of color, fear of women entering the workforce.
From slavery to child labor, from only white men landowners having the right to vote, to the quashing of civil rights. The history of the United States of America is both beautiful and ugly at the same time.
From the late 1800’s to the mid 20th Century America was the engine of industry and growth. It was the fastest growing industrial nation in the world. After dropping the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States became the world’s first super power. With it’s fake moral authority it flexed its muscle around the world. Forcing other nations to embrace a moral stance that this country itself did not practise.
Everything changed in this country in the 1960’s. This era is refered to by many as the great cultural revolution. Everything changed in the United States in the 1960’s. Blacks started demanding civil rights more forcefully then ever before. Men started wearing long hair and growing beards. Woman starting burning their bras and young men began to defy the government by refusing to go to war and by burning their draft cards.
Change was in the air and the nation was heading toward a morality that would level the field for all those that were left out of the great American experiment.
Progress was being made for the human factor, and while wealth still vibrant and a goal of many, it was not as important for most as the human factor was. Blacks were now more integrated into society and as a community began developing it’s own wealth. First in Entertainment, then sports, and eventually in fashion, music and business, and Black politicians were getting elected. Years before the first black supreme court justice was appointed and things really were beginning to get better.
Women had fought for and in the 1970’s began entering the work force in numbers unheard of or even imagined ever before. Eventually women began entering the board rooms, and getting elected into political office.
After protest, police beatings and arrests, gays began flexing muscle to the point that in the 2000’s got integrated into society. No longer having to hide in the shadows. In several states, gay marriage even became legal. America was slowly beginning to live up to its credo of “All Men Are Created Equal”.
In 2009 the nations first black president was sworn in and most of the world celebrated. The election of an African American to the most powerful position in the world signaled hope for many across the globe. With the success of the first black president’s administration, it was a canel free eight years, it seemed that the nation was poised to elect it’s first female president.
But the ugly monster of misogyny, xenophobia, and racism was again awakened. Fanned by the mutterings of a wealthy white man that needed to be like the titans of industry that made this country, i.e., the Rockefeller’s, Vanderbilt’s, Carnegie’s and Morgan’s. These men at first rivals eventually joined forces to elect a president favorable to the needs of big business, namely Monopoly’s. Donald J. Trump, however, was not content on owing a president as those titans once had, his ego drove him to actually want to be the president. And he decide to run.
He began setting the stage with his racist rants manifesting itself when he went after the first black president. By insinuating that Barrack Obama’s presidency was illigitimate, that he was not actually an American, he initiated the extreme right wing and white supremacist to mobilize. This mobilization became known as the birther movement. Then at the foreign correspondent’s dinner the President got a chance to fire back at Trump by mocking this rumored bid to seek the presidency in 2012. President Obama stated “We all know about your credentials,” he quipped, bringing up Trump’s decision to fire Gary Busey in a recent episode of Celebrity Apprentice, joking: “These are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled.” Trump did not like being the butt of the joke and was seen to be fuming. To Add insult to injury, the following night which was supposed to be the show that got the Celebrity Apprentice back on top, it was pre-empted with the news that Osama Bin Ladden had been killed. Trump’s ego was crushed and his distain for Barrack Obama became more apparent. In his ego-centrical mind he thought that the killing of Osama Bin Ladden was done on that night, at that time, to take away from his show. This single incident made Trump focus on his birther movement even more and he went after Obama’s birth certificate with reckless abandon and a vengeance. Despite the facts to the contrary, Trump continued to state that Obama was not a U.S. Citizen and his presidency was illegal or illegitimate. Right wing hate groups began to take up the mantle and a whole new generation of hate and white supremacy emerged.
To ensure that he won his bid for the Presidency, he did what all powerful and wealthy white men have historically done, he cheated. We went he eliminated all of his opponents, Republican and Democratic, in the most despicable way ever seen in American politics, he was left facing his bitter rival Hillary Clinton. Trump had it in his mind that if Hillary Clinton was elected president it would amount to nothing short of another term for Barrack Obama whom he despised even more than her. To ensure that he was the victor, his machine did what ever needed to be done to guarantee it. That meant forging alliances with America’s historic nemesis, Russia. Via an intermediary known as Wikileaks, Russia began to infiltrate social media with “fake news”. Soon the tide of fake news becomes insurmountable and an entire anti Hillary Clinton movement was born.
And to the surprise and astonishment of all, on November 8, 2016 Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. Enter the era of disparity.
Trump is president now, and the facts of his corruption are being played out daily in the news. No presidential administration has ever had so many of it’s cabinet members and high ranking officials to be indicted or have so many sent to prison. And a special prosecutor was named to investigate the alleged Russian collusion. While the investigation is on going, and may continue for some time, the evidence which seems to be mounting, and in my opinion, will lead to the removal of Trump from the presidency. This removal may be by resignation or by impeachment, but I am confident that Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of these United States of America, will not complete a second term in office. Wishful thinking? We’ll see.
The day Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, he did so by defaming the Hispanic people. In his announcement speech, Trump laid the foundation for his platform on the back of immigrants. He stated that if elected president he would stop Mexicans from crossing the border. He labeled Mexicans as “murderers”, “Drug Dealers”, and “Rapist”. To Trump, and many of his followers, all Hispanics are Mexican. He, like many white Americans, did not know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens by birth and that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States or that its citizens have been American’s since 1917. Donald Trump’s, and his followers, xenophobia is deep rooted.
The first act that Trump decided to take upon becoming president was to impose a travel ban on seven Muslim countries. He, like so many whites, are unable to separate the Islamic fanatics from the true believers of Islam. Never mind that the largest terror organization to ever reside in the United States of America, the Klu Klux Klan, professes to Christian. Xenophobia, bigotry and the hatred of people that are perceived to be different be it because of skin color, sexual orientation, or language spoken is a sickness born out of insecurity. It is a sickness that gets passed down from generation to generation, a sickness that is learned not one that is innate.
I have heard white people say that America (they mean the United States) is their home and everyone else is a visitor. They go on to say that this great country is only great because of the ingenuity of the superior race, the white race. All my life, and I am 64 years old, I have listened to how great whites are and how inferior all other peoples are. I have listened to them say that Puerto Ricans and Blacks are animals, uncivilized and classless. Many think, as does Trump, even if they are not articulated, if it weren’t for the Caucasian race the Negroid and Mongolian Races would have perished long ago. To that I say BULL SHIT, pure rubbish. The white race, if we want to really analyze things, is one of, if not, the most violent and blood thirsty of all of God’s human creatures.
Think about it. The Caucasian race has gone all over the world to dominate other peoples. There is not one country on this planet where the white man has not caused death and destruction. Some may attempt to justify it using Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, you know the one that says only the strong survive. Funny, but Darwin was a scientist and many white supremacist do not belive in science, they belive in the theory of Adam and Eve. They frown on the notion of science and the possibility that science can explain the existence of Man (and woman). But let’s say that the theory of Adam and Eve is the true one, let us analyze that a little. According to this story, the first crime ever committed was the defiance of God’s law, do not eat from the tree of knowledge and wisdom. Then the first violent crime ever committed was murder. It took place when Cain killed his brother Able. So the first crimes ever committed where not committed by a Black, Brown, Red or Yellow man, it was committed by a White Woman, and the first violent act (murder) was not committed by a Black, Brown, Red or Yellow man, it was committed by a White man. So far we are on a roll.
Lets skip past all the bloody centuries of white on white murder in their quest to grow their empires, you know the whole Viking, Roman, Greek, Turkish and Ottoman expansion years. Lets fast forward to the 1400’s. You know the years were Christopher Columbus is credited for “discovering” a new world. The problem with that concept is that there were people living in this new world for thousands of years prior to Columbus. So, how can he have discovered this so-called new world? Well like the destructive forces that Cuacasion’s have proven to be, they need to eradicate the natives that live here. Then, after these natives welcome them the white man goes on a murderous campaign and to steal their land, gold and culture. The indigenous peoples that populated the so-called new world were systematically wiped out by the white mans diseases and by the white mans murder and greed.
Centuries later, after the west was won, and all of the natives were herded into reservations, the United States of America that we know today begins to get forged. Black human beings are called animals and white people accept this concept freely. They justify it by using the bible. The history of the United States is fraught with barbaric atrocities perpetrated by whites on all peoples of color. So that today many whites believe that they actually own a superior intellect. I would beg to differ, I would say that they have a more violent and destructive propensity but definitely not a superior intellect. In fact, as soon as people of color were seen as human and allowed to participate they have not only made great strides, they have in fact in many cases superseded their white counterparts.
I say all these things not to say the white man is the devil, or that all white people are evil. I mention all this to say that the field was not level. Because of violence and the use of weaponry whites were able to keep people of color out of the game, so to speak. But as soon as the door was opened and people of color were seen as human and allowed to participate great strides were made.
The United States of America is a great nation. Men like the Vanderbilt’s, Rockefeller’s, and the Morgan’s shaped this country. They invented and built the railroads, invented steel and used it to build the structures, and processed the fossil fuels used to power the nations growth. As a result of those marvels, other great men were able to build upon and move this nation forward. Men like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Those inventions have been made and used to create infrastructure. There is no way a person of color can catch up today. The offspring of those titans of industry inherited the wealth and many of them have gone on to found industries of their own. The field was not and is not level.
So, going back to my original thought, from the 1960’s until 2016 the United States of America was on a course of self correction. The right wing thinkers call it the era of political correctness. Because of their fears they had fought to abolish affirmative action, and in the late 1990’s they succeeded in watering it down until by the turn of the century affirmative action was no more. They said that it was not fair to give preference to a person simply because of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation or because of language barriers. If all things were truly equal they would actually have a point. The problem is that all things are not equal. People of color were kept out of the forging of this nation. People of color could not invent and build railroads, invent steel or use it to build structures, nor could they process fossil fuels. People of color could not even attend schools, never mind institutions of higher education. People of color had to pick cotton, pick fruits and vegetables, shine shoes or clean the homes of the white people, people that held them in such contempt. The 1960’s ushered in a new, modern thought and after much pain, suffering and struggle, people of color were granted entry into the American way of life.
For the white supremacist thinkers, threatened by the progress initiated in the 1960’s, in the Trump era xenophobia and racism again erupted. Policemen were killing young black men at alarming rates. The situation became so bleak, got so out of hand that a new movement was born and they called it “Black Lives Matter”. This new movement itself sparked fear in those with racism and hatred in their hearts. To counter this movement the xenophobes and racist began retorting “All Lives Matter”. The irony is that no one ever said that other lives did not matter. They just could not get it because it was not whites lives that were getting snuffed on a daily basis by the people that are supposed to be protecting them, the police. The point that was being made by the black lives matter movement was that, yes white lives matter, but so do the young black lives that were being taken, those lives matter.
Thankfully as a nation we survived that ugly confrontational period in our history. That is not to say that the struggle is dead, because black lives continue to matter, it just means that the situation has been quelled to a point where people can now at least begin honest dialogue about race and inequality. So Trump and the xenophobes needed to find a new outlet for their pent up rage and hatred. The focal point once again became Hispanic immigration. Trump, at el, continue to demand a wall. A wall that Trump insisted the Mexican Government would pay to build. Well, the Mexican Government in very certain terms as matter of factly stated that they will not be paying for Trumps wall. As I write this the government is about to shut down, its Christmas time and federal employees are about to be left without a Christmas. All this because Donald Trump insists on getting 5 billion dollars for his wall project and Congress refuses to fund this asinine request.
During the later part of the summer of 2018 the Trump administration found another way to justify separating Hispanic families, this time by separating the Hispanic families and putting their children in cages.
These practises caused outrage and were played out in the news media all summer long. Meanwhile on another front special investigator, Robert Mueller, was making headway in the whole Trump embroilment. In August Turmp’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleads guilty to illegal campaign contributions ‘at the direction of a candidate for federal office’. While Trump was not name directly, everyone knows it was he that Cohen was speaking about since it was Trump that was running for a “federal office” aka President. As usual Trump began his Twitter tirades and rants. To make things even more worrisome for Trump, Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of fraud. Despite Trump’s bravado stance and rambunctiousness it became obvious that the walls be caving in, no pun intended.
As the midterm elections drew closer and Trump’s momentum seemed to have been stymied because of the [Mueller] investigation, Trump did what he does best, he caused a media sensation by decrying an immigrant invasion. Trump focused on an immigrant caravan that was heading toward the Mexican, American border. While it was yet thousands of miles away Trump began fanning the flames of hatred and fear. Soon the caravan was the only thing the news media was focusing on and the immigrant “invasion” became the rallying cry for the Republicans. The nation was again polarized. On the one hand Trump supporters embraced the immigration bashing, on the other anti Trump demonstrations argued against the Caravan bashing. Then Trump announced that he was issuing an executive order and sending 2000 military personal to safeguard the border. Every single news outlet focused on the Caravan and immigration concerns as the midterm elections drew closer.
Election Day
As the election results began coming in the notion of a big blue wave was set aside. Republicans regained the senate, as was predicted, and in fact gained two additional seats. As predicted the democrats took the house. The results for many of the races did not come in as quickly and in some instances took several days. A few governorships were contested and had to be settled in court. The senate race in Texas was a nail bitter with the very real possibility of Ted Cruz losing his seat to his Democratic opponent, Congressman Beto O’Rourke. In the end, Cruz won re-election by a very slim margin.
When all the results were finally in it became apparent that a big blue wave did in fact occur. As usual Trump down played these victory’s and instead boosted how he came to the rescue of the Republican party.
The next battle Trump decided to embark on once again was the need for the funding for his wall. Trump demands 5 billion for his wall, the Democrats refuse to give in. As the deadline for the budget looms Trump states that if his wall funding is not met he will shut down the government. The clock is ticking. The Democrats remain steadfast and Trump stubbornly will not give in. It appears that many federal employees will not have a Merry Christmas because once the government shuts down there will be no money to make payroll. On television Trump tells the Democratic leadership that he would gladly claim this government shutdown because his wall is that important.
Trump Tweets that he is ordering the withdrawal of troops from Syria. In an outrage his secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, resigns. Many in Congress, on both sides of the isle, express outrage at the Presidents stubbornness. Mattis, A 40 year military man respected by most in government says that his resignation comes because of the President’s refusal to adhere to the conventional wisdom of his military and foreign defense advisors not to withdraw these troops.
The deadline comes and goes and the government shuts down. Trump is furious that he was unable to get his budget passed before the new congress which will take control of the house on January 3, 2019.
And now we wait.
As 2018 comes to a close, and Donald J. Trump has been in office for two years, his ratings are the lowest they have ever been. It finally appears that Trumps numbing spell on his base is being broken. As we approach 2019 it seems that it will in fact be a happy new year as for the first time it appears that Trump will have a very tumultuous year and his re-election no longer seems to be a shoe in. In fact, 2019 may turn out to be the year of the Trump impeachment, and no funding for his wall, the wall he swore to build during his campaign. The wall that promised Mexico would pay to build.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
