John Graham / Life on the Edge & Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman / Reader Supported News – 2017-07-27 21:41:32
http://www.johngraham.org/blog/trumps-unhinged-speech-to-scouts
August 9: A Day of Resistance Against Donald Trump
Reader Supported News
To prevent nuclear war, ecological collapse, economic ruin and the Jim Crow destruction of our democracy, August 9 has been designated for demonstrations to demand Trump’s resignation.
The Flagship Rally will be held at the world famous CHAIN REACTION sculpture in Santa Monica, California, at 7 pm PST.
Demonstrators are encouraged to wear orange jump suits and t-shirts, and yellow wigs or hats, in solemn evocation of the likely upcoming indictments of Trump and his mafia family, Russian and otherwise. Group photos with “RESIGN” signs are also encouraged. Please notify us through freepress.org and solartopia.org about upcoming events.
Trump’s Unhinged Speech to Scouts
John Graham / Life on the Edge
(July 27, 2017) — As an Eagle Scout and lifetime supporter of Scouting, I’m appalled by the unhinged speech Donald Trump gave to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia on July 24.
Scout jamborees often invite distinguished citizens to speak and the best of them deliver stirring calls for Scouts to live out the personal and civic values of their organization, calls laced with enough inspiring personal stories to keep the boys looking up in rapt attention.
Trump started well enough, with standard testimonials to hard work and American values. Then, after saying he was not there to give a “political” speech, he did exactly that. But it wasn’t just a “political” speech — it was one of Trump’s aggrieved, narcissistic, fact-challenged rants, the kind he gives to rallies of his rabid base, replete with the usual Trumpian jabs at opponents, old and new, and at the “fake media.”
Never mind that many of Trump’s references made little sense to an audience of boys of an age that is focused more on sports, girls, and Snapchat. Trump showed he didn’t care. This speech was all about him, not about Scouting and not about any of them. He was there because the most powerful man in the world needed the adulation of 14-year boys.
What bothered me most was what he dumped on those Scouts. He gave 40,000 boys an appalling model of leadership: Look, kids, an unhinged, amoral blowhard like me can become the most powerful man in the free world.
Myself, I can still recite the Scout Code 65 years after I learned it. It helped shape my life. A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Trump’s life overturns every single one of these values in pursuit of his pinched view of a good life as destroying opponents and piling up money.
I’m remembering how many of us, including conscientious Republicans, cringed when Trump used his speech in front of the CIA’s sacred wall of fallen heroes to defend his false estimate of the crowd size at his inauguration. There, the listeners were adults, able to see what he was doing and reject its shallowness.
But young impressionable boys with little experience of the world? What message did those 40,000 boys bring home from that talk? Were they taken in by the blatant self-absorption of the man, a trait that dominates his personality, corrupts his thoughts and overwhelms whatever moral sense he may possess? What effect will showman Trump’s distorted view of the world have on them?
The only value Trump found worth mentioning was “loyalty” and only then in complaining about how little of it he was receiving from some of his minions. Will those boys now believe that loyalty to The Leader outweighs conscience? Trump told them loyalty was the most important thing in life, never mind that Nuremburg established forever that conscience must come first.
The Boy Scouts organization is getting considerable negative blowback for inviting Trump to speak. Good. They should’ve known he would go off the rails, as he so often has. It was inappropriate and unwise to give him those boys as an audience.
What every citizen should see coming is the continuing danger of this man in the White House. Put aside for the moment Trump’s political stances on national issues like immigration and healthcare. Forget his demonstrated failures as a leader, manager and “deal-maker.” Just focus on the man himself and on how he acts and speaks. It’s gotten way past strange. There’s only one word for his performance in West Virginia and that is “demented.”
Surely even Trump’s acolytes in Congress must know now in their heart of hearts that the man is dangerously unfit for the most powerful office in the world. What will it take for Republicans to realize that the country under Trump is not just mismanaged — it’s unsafe?
We do not need more incidents like the speech to the Boy Scouts to know that a deeply disturbed man holds the White House. Republicans in Congress must stop the dangerous game they’re playing — hoping Trump doesn’t blow up the world while they advance their agenda behind the uproars he creates.
Let your Representative and Senators know what you think. Directions for doing that are here
Orange Is the New Orange:
Why Trump Must Resign by Nagasaki/Nixon Day
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman / Reader Supported News
(July 27, 2017) — Angst, fear, and loathing are the overwhelming emotions six months into the disastrous Trump presidency. Just exactly who or what do we have at the helm of the United States Ship of State, and the little red button that could end life as we know it?
The planet and its leaders are watching in horror as the ship appears to be capsizing. Trump and his fools enrich themselves, all the while gleefully decimating domestic social programs, dooming the environment, and destroying our nation’s relationships around the world.
Simply put, what we have is an international criminal hell-bent on continuing his crime spree within and without his corrupt administration. Making the world safe for oligarchy.
Casinos, Luxury Hotels: Money Laundering
Let’s see, casinos, pricey real estate, the Russian mob, the US mafia . . . hmmm. One plus one plus one equals money laundering.
The notorious meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and assorted Russian operatives spawned new allegations and suspicions that the Trump family colluded with Russian intelligence to try to gain electoral victory over Hillary Clinton. The details remain murky but the truth is likely more diabolical.
Not that Clinton wasn’t busy demonizing the Russians and using the Clinton Foundation for political payoffs.
The meetings with Putin’s comrades and Trump’s entourage may indicate the president may merely be a bagman and money washer for the Russian mafia.
This perception is magnified by Trump’s unprecedented refusal to release his tax forms, which may indicate his net worth to be largely in rubles.
Trump has a long history of involvement with the Russian government. Trump’s first visit to Russia was in 1987 at Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubin’s invitation.
Craig Unger’s New Republic article, “Trump’s Russian Laundromat,” essentially argues that Trump’s money laundering for Russian mobsters is what propelled his worldwide real estate empire.
Trump’s closely held private real estate holdings, according to Unger, provide the perfect resources for illegal money laundering. Unger cites “a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia.” He points out, “Over the past three decades at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of the Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money.”
Business Insider noted that US attorney general Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice recently settled a major money-laundering case involving a real estate company owned by the son of powerful Russian government official Pyotr Katsyz, former vice governor of the Moscow region.
Katsyz’s son Dennis owns the real estate company Prebezon, which was accused of laundering millions of dollars through New York City real estate when the case was “unexpectedly settled two days before going to trial in May,” according to Business Insider.
The attorney representing the Katsyz family was none other than Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Donald Trump Jr. on June 9, 2016, to allegedly disclose damaging information concerning Hillary Clinton.
She was described as a “Russian government attorney” in Trump Junior’s emails. Democratic House Judiciary Committee members sent a letter to Sessions inquiring about Veselnitskaya’s involvement in the settlement.
Also in attendance on June 9 was Renat Akhmetshin, described by CNN as “a US citizen lobbyist promoting Russian interests and a former Soviet military officer,” and Aras Agalarov, owner of the Crocus Group, a Moscow-based property company.
The mystery man, or the 8th person who emerged at Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russians, turned out to be Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, a Crocus Group vice president accused of laundering more than $1.4 billion into the US from Eastern Europe. Kaveladze allegedly used 2,000 shell companies to launder money into the US
Essentially, Trump Jr.’s meeting was a perfect Russian triumvirate representing an alleged money launderer, the Russian military, and a pro-Putin oligarch.
If Trump is to be impeached and his clumsy cover-up of Russian ties revealed, it will be because the laundered money was easy to follow from the election tampering to Putin meddling.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
