#It cares about making it seem like communist countries are committing such abuses to give it pretext to meddle and commit acts of terrorism

[bring-it-all-down]

I am begging people to familiarize themselves with US efforts to overthrow the Cuban government in order to reinstate private corporations. 

Prior to the 1959 revolution, American businesses owned the vast majority of the country’s sugar production as well as roughly 70% of the country’s land. This land was organized into a plantation system consisting of latifundia––large privately-owned pieces of land worked by slaves. This ownership was aided by America’s support (and installation) of the brutal dictator, Fulgencio Batista, who received monetary and military support in violently silencing the poor Cubans who opposed his suspension of civil liberties, including the right to strike. During the Cuban revolution, many of these landowners and business owners escaped to America rather than cooperating with the revolution and allowing their property to be nationally controlled. JFK in 1963 admitted that Batista’s regime was the fault of the US.

After the nationalization of Cuba’s industries, like sugar plantations, oil refineries, and banks, the U.S. authorized the CIA to begin attempts to overthrow the government and re-establish American private corporations on the island.

The first such attempt was the Bay of Pigs invasion in April of 1961. The invasion was carried out by a combination of CIA-funded Cuban exiles (named the Democratic Revolutionary Front) and members of the US military. The 1,400 invaders where defeated after only three days, however, after Castro took over leadership of the Cuban troops.

Following this embarrassment, JFK announced a full trade embargo on Cuba, beginning in February 1962. This trade embargo is still in place and has denied Cuba roughly $130 billion over the past 6 decades, according to both Cuban and United Nations estimates.

In November of 1961, the US government created another project to overthrow the Cuban government, titled Operation Mongoose. This project was more secretive and sinister than the Bay of Pigs invasion, involving political, psychological, military, intelligence, and assassination components meant to destabilize the entire Castro regime and bring the island back under American control. This operation distributed anti-Castro propaganda in Cuba, the US, and worldwide; funded militias in Cuba; established guerilla bases throughout the country; carried out attacks on power plants, oil refineries, sugar mills, and other manufacturing sites; and attempted multiple times to assassinate Castro and other Communist Party members (the CIA planned at least 500 assassination attempts against Castro in his lifetime). The Operation was scaled back in late 1962 due to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In conjunction with Operation Mongoose, the US considered implementing Operation Bounty––distributing leaflets around Cuba offering significant monetary rewards for the murder of Castro and a handful of other party members––and Operation Northwoods––committing acts of terrorism against US military and civilians in the US and Cuba and blaming them on Cuba. These projects were both allegedly ultimately rejected.

From 1960 to 1962, the US facilitated Operation Peter Pan, in which Catholic “charities” and the US government sent 14,000 unaccompanied children (mainly of upperclass families) to the US so they wouldn’t be enrolled in the government’s literacy campaign. While many children were eventually reunited with their families, others were placed in foster families as far away as Illinois and New York. They were all made to learn English and speak only in English in the orphanages in which they all lived for at least 6 months. The result was an alienation from their Cuban culture and an indoctrination into US propaganda.

On October 6, 1976, CIA-assisted Cuban exiles planted bombs on Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, departing from Barbados and heading toward Jamaica. The bombs detonated, exploding the plane and killing all 73 passengers, including the entire Cuban Olympic fencing team. Two of the terrorists, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles eventually moved to the US, and Bosch was pardoned by George H.W. Bush in 1990.

In 2010, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) created ZunZuneo, named “Cuban Twitter.” This social media platform, designed to undermine the communist Cuban government, spammed its users with propaganda and collected private data to assist them in fomenting a revolution among Cuban youths.  

These are just the very basics of the US’s efforts to overthrow the Castro government and reinstitute Cuba as a resource for American capitalism and imperialism. If you want to talk about whatever protests may or may not be happening in Cuba right now, you cannot do so outside of this context. You cannot talk about the poverty of Cuba without placing the blame on American embargoes.

If you want to discuss America’s understanding of Cuban humanitarian need, you cannot do so without reckoning with America’s use of Guantanamo Bay on the same island which we are supposed to believe they want to liberate.

Just last week, the President submitted a budget to Congress, asking for $20,000,000 to fund support for private businesses in Cuba and $13,000,000 to find Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which transmits American propaganda in Spanish to Cuba. This office was created in the 1980s for the explicit purpose of undermining communism in Cuba.

This is not to say that every single Cuban is happy with the Cuban government at all times, but rather that the US has a vested interest in overthrowing the government and establishing a capitalist, US-friendly one in its place. Any international protest crowd that is full of American flags should be a GIANT tip-off that the CIA/US government might just be involved! Just imagine what the CIA is hiding when all of the information comes from declassified files!!!!!

[brandossss]

( tommy martinez , 24 , cismale ) i  just  bumped  into  brando  esparza  the  other  day  while  walking  down  east  kingsboro , where  he  lives . i  hear  they  can  be  brave  and  impatient , but  when  i  think  of  them  i  immediately  think  of  ( venezuelan  pride , curly  hair , going  to  the  gym  literally  everyday ) 

tw : communism , corruption , poverty , violence , death  ( suicide )

full  name : brando  nicolas  estefano  esparza

nicknames : just  brando , if  he  really  fucks  with  you  you  can  get  away  with  teasingly  calling  him  brandy , but  not  even  lolol

gender : cismale

height :  6 ′ 2

age : 24

birthday : august  4 , 1996

zodiac : leo  ( aries  moon , capricorn  ascendant )

right  handed  or  left  handed : ambidextrous , but  basically  right  handed 

eye  color : light  brown

hair  color : dark  brown

piercings  &  tattoos : no  piercings , this  tattoo  of  venezuela  right  here , but  on  his  left  wrist 

languages  spoken : spanish ( native  tongue ) and  english

sexuality : pansexual / panromantic

place  of  birth : maracay , venezuela

last  3  songs  listened  to : llueve  sobre  la  ciudad  by  los  bunkers , yo  te  esperare  by  cali  y  el  dandee , soñe  ( unplugged )  by  zoé

so  brando  was  born  to  yessenia  olivares  and  bruno  esparza  in  maracay , venezuela . originally , he  wasn’t  supposed  to  be  named  brando . a  fun  fact  &  random  little  headcanon  is  that  his  mother  &  father  had  the  full  intention  of  naming  him  brandon , after  his  grandfather  ( or  father’s  father ) , who  passed  a  week  before  he  was  born . being  both  parents’  first  born , his  father  got  super  nervous  during  his  mother’s  labor  &  basically ? got  really  wasted  because  he  was  practically  crapping  his  pants  about  his  son  being  born . when  he  went  to  sign  his  birth  certificate , he  was  so  drunk , he  literally  forgot  to  write  the  ‘ n ’  in  brandon . once  they  realized  the  mistake  his  father  had  made , they  didn’t  want  to  go  through  the  annoyance  of  changing  his  name , so , they  went  with  brando , and  surprisingly ? it  really  stuck  &  everyone  loved  it  more  than  brandon  kdjvcndfkcmn

he  was  an  average  kid  tbh . his  family  was  middle  class  &  even  though  his  country  had  been  struggling  ( for  the  lack  of  a  better  word )  for  years  now , he  didn’t  fully  feel  the  economic  fall  at  first , of  course . now  fast  forward  a  few  years  &  shit  is  changing  right  before  his  eyes , and  he’s  really ? just  a  kid

pretty  much  communism  coming  to  it’s  finest  point  tbh . all  these  restaurants , stores , businesses , all  these  places  brando  used  to  go  to  when  he  was  younger ? done  with , or  just  government  owned  &  a  blink  away  from  breaking  completely . it’s  actually  really  sad  because  he’s  literally  watching  it  all  happen , watching  his  country  go  down  the  drain  &  there’s  really  nothing  he  can  do  to  stop  it

his  father  becomes  an  active  protester , along  with  many  other  angry  venezuelans , but  this  does  more  bad  than  good . eventually  his  father  gets  arrested  at  a  protest  when  brando  is  11  years  old . that  was  over  a  decade  ago  &  up  to  this  very  day , present  time , brando  has  no  idea  where  his  father  is , if  he’s  well , or  if  he’s  even  alive  tbh  ( talk  about  trauma ? ) . it’s  like  one  day  he’s  coming  home , giving  his  only  son  a  hug , &  the  next  day , he  completely  vanished  from  planet  earth , as  if  he’s  some  high  profile  serial  killer  when  really , he  was  just  protesting  the  shit  communist  government  they’re  living  in 

it’s  just  brando  &  his  mom  from  that  point  on . of  course , things  just  get  worse  with  time . i’m  not  gonna  get  into  details  but  basic  poverty  &  communism  tbh . they’re  hungry , they’re  broke , the  country  is  just  getting  worse  &  worse  with  each  passing  moment  ( hyper  inflation , food  scarcity , severe  corruption , government  abuse , do  i  even  need  to  go  on ? ) . all  these  things  anger  brando  to  no  extent  &  he  finds  himself  releasing  his  anger  with  his  fists . it’s  getting  into  random  fights  for  no  reason  &  screaming  at  anyone  who  even  looks  at  him  weirdly , pretty  much  becoming  an  angry  ass  kid 

TW : SUICIDE , READ  WITH  CAUTION !! things  are  bad  but  they  really  hit  rock  bottom  when  his  mother , surprisingly , commits  suicide . brando  finds  her  foaming  at  the  mouth , a  clear  overdose , but  by  the  time  they  make  it  to  the  hospital , she’s  pronounced  dead . literally  a  15  year  old  boy , alone , in  venezuela .... honestly  terrifying . brando  literally  doesn’t   know  where  to  go ? on  top  of  the  trauma  he’s  holding  he’s  worried  about  his  living  arrangements  as  well . luckily , a  friend  of  his  allows  him  to  stay  at  his  house  a  few  nights  but  this  is  just  temporary

he  just  really  wants  to  leave  his  country  but  he  feels  completely  stuck . he’s  depressed  &  angry  as  fuck  but  he’s  determined  to  get  out  somehow . brando  eventually  contacts  a  family  friend  on  facebook  ( aka  claudia’s  mom ? ) &  tells  them  his  situation . it  seems  to  touch  this  woman’s  heart  so  much , she , wait  for  it , brings  him  over  to  the  states . he  spends  his  16th  birthday  in  america , with  claudia  &  her  family . the  year  is  2012 

very  slowly , but  things  begin  getting  better  for  him . he’s  enrolled  into  school  &  pretty  much  gets  guided  through  everything  thanks  to  claudia . they  are  not  blood  related , but  their  families  were  so  close  at  one  point  that  they’re  pretty  much ? cousins  tbh ! literally  not  blood  related  but  still  family

with  his  dedication  &  ambition  he  pretty  much  catches  on  completely  in  less  than  3  years  ( learning  english  of  course ) , he  loses  his  accent  completely  after  4 . he  goes  through  a  whole  adoption  thing  with  claudia’s  family  until  he  thankfully  gains  american  residency  thanks  to  them , which  of  course , eventually  leads  him  to  citizenship . instead  of  picking  fights  with  people  for  no  reason , brando  takes  out  his  anger  with  physical  activity , becoming  very  much  involved  in  going  to  the  gym , or  even  just  exercising  by  himself . whether  it’s  leg  day , boxing , whatever  it  is , he  loves  any  type  of  physical  work , since  it  keeps  his  mind  distracted 

this  has  pretty  much  lead  him  to  have  quite  a  #body  tbh . like .... it’s  hella  obvious  he  works  out  kdndjndjvnfd

he  also  developed  a  hobby  for  piano , after  taking  piano  classes  in  high  school , beginning  of  freshman  year . he’s  been  playing  since  he  was  16 , eventually  buying  a  crap  keyboard  when  he  was  17 . he  does  piano  covers  on  youtube , but  again , this  is  really  just  a  hobby  of  his 

DEATH  TW !! after  the  passing  of  claudia’s  parents , her  &  brando  move  to  kingsboro  when  they’re  both  19 ! they  share  an  apartment  with  lemon

on  top  of  that , he’s  a  bartender  @  blue ! he’s  also  a  personal  trainer . literally  lifting  24/7  for  him .... bless

he  enjoys  drinking  on  weekends  &  letting  loose  every  once  in  a  while  but  i  don’t  think  he’s  crazy  about  weed  tbh . he  thinks  the  feeling  is  nice , but  he  hates  how  it  makes  you  hungry . would  never  go  out  of  his  way  to  buy  weed  &  basically  only  smokes  it  if  he’s  offered , preferring  alcohol , but  again , he  mostly  just  exercises  &  eats  right , not  really  having  any  addictions  of  any  kind , just  little  hobbies  every  one  in  a  while

brando  honestly ? considers  himself  lucky , despite  all  the  terrible  things  he’s  been  through . he  feels  lucky  that  he  left  before  things  got  really , really bad , even  though  they  were  already  pretty  awful  tbh . anyone  who  hears  his  story  would  think  he’s  anything  but  fortunate  but  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  he’s  one  of  the  lucky  ones . not  every  venezuelan  has  had  the  opportunity  to  leave  &  he  just  feels  very  fortunate  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  that  did 

he’s  not  the  type  to  take  anything  for  granted  tbh , very  much  the  type  of  person  who  appreciates  everything  he  has , no  matter  how  small . you  could  literally  get  him  a  present  from  the  dollar  store  for  christmas  &  he  would  still  be  super  happy  about  it . for  him , it’s  the  thought  &  time  put  into  something  that  counts , not  the  price , or  the  brand 

he  very  much  struggled  with  his  sexuality  for  years . not  because  he  was  in  denial  or  ashamed  or  anything , but  for  the  longest  time , he  kind  of  just  didn’t  know  what  he  was ? sometimes  he  thought  he  was  straight  but  undergoing  a  phase , other  times  he  wondered  if  he  was  gay , then  he  considered  himself  bi  for  a  really  long  time . the  truth  is  that  he  didn’t  fully  understand  his  sexuality  up  until  not  too  long  ago , when  he  began  hanging  with  an  lgbtq+  crowd . eventually , he  realizes  society  basically  labels  him  as  ‘ pansexual ’ , but  he  doesn’t  even  really  like  to  label  himself ? brando  just  falls  in  love  with  the  person , with  their  soul , &  he  doesn’t  care  what  they  have  underneath  tbh 

i  haven’t  fully  figured  him  out  yet  because  he’s  a  new  character  but  i  picture  he  can  be  such  a  stereotypical  leo  sometimes , but , his  whole  #capricorn  ascendant  really  does  take  place  for  him , in  the  sense  that  he  can  be  a  very  difficult  person  to  read  sometimes . like  is  he  happy ? is  he  upset ? is  that  just  his  face ? is  he  planning  something ? you  will  rarely  ever  know  tbh 

he’s  a  very  humble  person , probably  because  of  his  childhood . he  hates  show  offs  tbh , or  very  rich  people  with  no  consideration  for  anyone . literally .... miss  him  with  that  bullshit  lmfao . he  finds  the  entire  snobby  or  ‘ i’m  better  than  you ’ attitudes  to  be  so  unattractive  tbh ? you  could  be  the  hottest  person  on  the  planet  but  if  he  hates  your  attitude  you  really  just  don’t  matter  to  him  lolol

over  all  he’s  a  lot  calmer  than  he  was  before  tbh . he  still  has  his  moments  but  he’s  a  pretty  stable  guy  in  the  sense  that  he  no  longer  wants  to  beat  up  everything  or  anyone  he  see’s . he  still  has  a  ton  of  issues  to  work  on  but  basically  just  doesn’t  wanna  go  to  therapy  &  doesn’t  really  talk  about  his  past  at  all , preferring  to  ‘ live  in  the  present ’  even  though  talking  about  his  issues  &  sharing  his  pretty  shitty  story  would  definitely  help  him  clear  out  his  head  but  🥴 it  honestly  probably  won’t  happen  &  he’ll  probs  just  keep  burying  shit  LMFAOOOO

very  very  hard  working  guy , ambition  like  crazy , always  gives  his  all  in  anything  he  feels  strongly  about , he’s  very  good  at  persuading  people  tbh , usually  gets  told  he’d  make  a  ‘ great  lawyer ’  because  he  just  has  this  way  of  convincing  you  like ? he  would  never  become  a  lawyer  but  the  truth  is  that  he  would  make  a  great  one , persuasion  skills  like  a  MF 

this  is  all  i  can  think  of  now  but  i  did  his  birth  chart  ting  🖤 

[kaseylgifford]

Thoughts on Goddamn Voltron

1. The treatment of Shiro and Adam as a couple was the stupidest shot at “representation” i think I’ve ever seen and it honestly made me angry. We don’t know anything about Adam. We don’t know anything about him but his name and that he possibly has some sort of relationship with Shiro. We are never even allowed to see them physically touch (because this would be gross I suppose) and when Adam is killed off immediately in the initial invasion there is no emotion to it other than he was someone we were supposed to care about because Shiro cared about him. Or ...so its suggested. Not only is Shiro denied any sort of emotional catharsis after being forced to be stoic and endure unimaginable amounts of physical and mental trauma there is no one waiting for him to come home. They are killed for absolutely no reason aside from creating some bizarre boyfriend in the refrigerator for a character who certain has enough anger at the Galran empire that he doesn’t need anymore. If Adam was introduced to show Shiro was gay then that failed. If Adam was introduced to heighten the stakes that failed too. Adam was created to die for no damn reason and unless he somehow appears in season 8 this kind of shit queer-baiting is un-acceptable...hell even IF he comes back who cares? we aren’t even given the chance to know him as a person so whats to come back? Sidenote: Don’t make Shiro sick with some terrible wasting disease and then NEVER mention it again. What the SHIT. 2. The treatment of Lance is unimaginably cruel and I don’t understand it. In season three Lance proves himself to be a mature member of the team and not only does he help Allura who took his lion he becomes Keith’s right hand after a rocky start. He has shown multiple times that he is vulnerable, once to Keith’s face, and yet his leader and his team constantly question his choices and insult him. It went beyond ribbing this season. It felt like everytime there was a chance for the writers to do it they stuck in a Lance barb. I kept expecting a breakdown a moment where he finally defended himself, walked away or told them that he was tired of it. But that moment never happened. Instead the strong right hand of voltron just takes it and continues to do his job. No matter how many great shots or encouraging comments he makes he never gets fucking complimented. Also the writers seemed more determined then ever to give him absolutely no arc or focus. Which leads me too- 3. Why the hell did Hunk have Lance’s story arc. Theres this thing in writing called “setup and payoff” Its a super simple concept that all writers,especially in film and television, know how to use. You set up a concept early and later on it pays off with an emotional revelation or a character change. In seasons one two and three...even four? Lance was the only one on the crew besides Pidge who talked about his family. We saw them in his memories. he had a scene with Coran where he talked about missing earth. He talked about his mom and so on. That was his starting point and when he gets back to earth it should have been his family in the camps, his speech about being angry about coming back to a peaceful earth and a closed end to his talk with Keith about being a leader and how he respects him as one back in season 3. Having Keith compliment his bravery would cement him as his right hand the person hes SUPPOSED to be closest to on the team. Hunk had no set up for this. He never mentions his family or how much he misses them. He talks about food but for some reason he was given the ending arc that Lance EARNED but wasn’t given. In fact it feels like it was even written for Lance but was changed because they goddamn hate him and decided he doesn’t get an arc fuck you. 4. Hey. Hey Voltron. Its called fucking character development.  If you wanted to make Allura and Lance have a relationship you can’t make them blush in ONE EPISODE and call it development. Why don’t you cut down on the 90 fucking minutes of brain melting action sequences and put in some more character development. You can’t just dedicate the first half of your season to some goofy (lance abusing) comedy then spend the last half in one constant exhausting battle and expect us to give a shit about the cadets or anyone you introduce on earth. To me the stand out episode this season was the one where everyone is floating in space. They had to...INTERACT with each other but even this episode felt empty because Keith was the only one allowed to act out...AGAIN. Where was Lances righteous anger? Or even Allura’s? Why is Hunk stepping into this role as mediator all the sudden? What even lead to that? Was he literally just written into the Lance roles? If you wanted to tear the group down to have them be built back up then you have to do so on equal footing and it felt....tame. Like you didn’t want the kids to worry too much. Stress makes people act in cruel ways sometimes and overcoming it is a part of good character development. Instead it was just some lame foreshadowing about the deux ex machina that was lion summoning. It had so much potential-SO MUCH.

5. Not everybody has to end up in a fucking relationship. Axca? Seriously? Man are you gonna crank out some romance bullshit in season 8 aren’t you voltron? Is that what your gonna do? Make sure everyone gets a set of corresponding genitalia to wrap everything up in a nice straight bow? I’m sure you’ll give Shiro some kind of significant other right? Or maybe just have him smile at a dude ala live action Beauty and the Beast because that's what representation looks like in 2018. 6. Coran not getting to build the spiritual successor of his grandfathers work is kinda bullshit.

He spent literally every season waxing lyrical about how great his pop pop was and how much he wanted to be the one to build something like he did and then the castle is destroyed and I’m like oh man so cool Coran is gonna get his wish.Thats so emotionally rewarding that after all the hero-worship Hes gonna have the opportunity to build a new castle even better than the one his grand-oh -no...ok Sam did it. Yeah ok.

7.YOU CAN’T SPEND ONE EPISODE ON EARTH BEING DESTROYED AND SHOW MAYBE THREE PEOPLE AND EXPECT ANYTHING TO HAVE EMOTIONAL WEIGHT. Hey, remember the movie Independence day? Not a great movie but it actually felt like the world was being invaded. It felt like peoples lives were being interrupted on a large scale and it accomplished this by showing the invasion from multiple pov’s worldwide. Would that have been so hard? Maybe show a little girl at school seeing a Galra ship. A man in Africa? A mother in Russia? Just quick shots. Thats all you need. A few establishing shots to show that people are experiencing something foreign and terrifying. I know its a kids show and you gotta what...keep it Y-7 but the Galra literally killed thousands and thousands of people-possibly millions you can’t just gloss over that. STAKES CAUSE TENSION. WITHOUT STAKES OR JUSTIFICATION A BATTLE IS EMPTY AND POINTLESS.OH ON THAT NOTE. 7. THE BATTLES IN THE LAST EPISODES BECOME RIDICULOUSLY BORING AND REPETITIVE. You can tell what the writers wanted to write. They wanted to write whole scenes where people star trek groaned in chairs and shouted about how much time they had.Because of the season lack of setup or stakes buildup in the previous episodes theres no tension whatsoever. Do I care about the people of earth? No I haven’t even seen them. I care about Shiro and the mains ...not even the cadets. I haven’t seen them interact enough with each other to even establish their personalities. So if the whole earth fries eh...I care more if Shiro is ok because i’ve gotten to know him over time. If the entire battle was to save Shiro from a falling ship (HOW THE FUCK DID HE SURVIVE THAT BTW I GUESS BEING A CLONE MADE HIM IMMORTAL) It would have more weight to it than the entire Hour long clusterfuck that was the battle for Hunk’s Parents, literally the only humans we care about. 8. WORLDBUILDING? HOW ABOUT FUCK YOU. Wow...so WW3 huh. That sounds interesting Voltron you wanna...no? Alright so...Russia is still a country this far in the future? Is China still communist or? Hey...why is this lady the queen of the Garrison? Why is her position so important? Who funds the Garrison? Is it the United States? The UN? Is it an international organization? Who pays the bills? The funding must come from some government who would be curious why you asked for millions of dollars towards all these bizarre supplies that could be used to build the biggest ship ever made.Why is Admiral Sanda god? She keeps threatening to go over their heads in the chain of command but that means that SHE has to report to someone? WHo?? THE PRESIDENT? SOME KIND OF WORLD LEADERSHIP COUNCIL? I know this shit is hard but come ON. Earth is NOT like these alien planets Voltron has been on that have a centralized monarchy or singular race with one central government. If Sanda is worried about causing wars and global panic thats fine but shes the one commiting treason by not reporting to her own superiors and letting the leaders of the free world make decisions on behalf of their own people. One person can’t make all the decisions we call that LAAAAAAAAZZZZYYYYYY. Oh and about Admiral Sanda? 9. Admiral Sanda is the worst villian Voltron ever faced Why did you try and give her a redemption arc? Every decision she made was stupid every choice was just...so dumb. She betrayed everyone and her level of power kept making me go...why...is she the queen of earth? When she died I was like good. What a dumbass. Don’t try and redeem someone who did nothing good in the first place especially if you never established enough world building to show she might have been correct. We can’t just trust TELL you have to SHOW us. 10. If you think the racism against immigrants is bad now I can’t even imagine the civil wars when actual aliens just invite themselves over. 11. Thanks for fucking up our tide systems by parking a fucking Balmera directly in our atmosphere assholes. In conclusion:THANKS I HATE IT.

[lord-wellesbrook-ix]

The Problem with Modern Politics by Me, an unqualified, out of touch late millennial/early gen Z Brit.

Advance warning this is gonna be a long post, essay is below the break for those who care to read.

Ok, good, welcome! So yes, time for some personal details, because apparently such things are crucially important now to what one has to say. I’m 19, I’m white~jewish (ethnically, not religiously. And I list both because the distinction is...spurious at best imo), with some limited asian heritage (grandfather is Burmese, you’d not know it to look at me though). I’m bisexual, with a loving trans boyfriend, tragically kept away from me by that most perfidious of enemies, the atlantic ocean. I used to think I was trans, and started hrt, before deciding against it. I don’t know what my gender identity really is at this point, but I use he/him, and was assigned male at birth. Oh and despite my immediate family having some significant prestige (my dad is a VERY specialised doctor, only 8 people in the country can do what he does), because Britain and NHS, I’m also poor enough that I qualify for financial assistance through uni, and all that other fun stuff, so assign me whatever class you want, but I’ve never really had access to money or the like. All of these factors will undoubtedly somehow colour what my thoughts are.

So! Let’s tackle this on two fronts - My beef with the modern left, my beef with the modern right, and my beef with all the current “alternatives”. The Left   Why do you make me hate you so?  I want to be able to side with you. Economically, we’re almost perfectly aligned. Fuck big corporations, they abuse their workers, and are broadly detrimental to societal progress by merit of the power they wield. The state should use the money of the wealthiest, to help uplift the poorest, bringing everyone as close to a comfortable range of wealth and living standards as is feasible. Wealth taxes I’m against, if only because I look at things like FIRE with some measure of hope, because I find it infeasible that I’ll be able to work a “proper job” my entire life, and equally infeasible that the state will support me before I’m in my 70s. Unsurprisingly I’m all for trans and lgbt rights, and their advancement is imperative. Likewise racial and ethnic discrimination needs to be combatted (though I have a caveat insofar as how), and linguistic minority rights are ESPECIALLY important (not to out myself as Welsh...). Minimum wages, yes, and higher! Benefits should be more generous and more accessible! All of this! And yet. And, yet. I can never stand with any significant left wing party. Because of how they behave on other fronts. The general solution to racial discrimination seems to be mandates, and quotas, which are just...not a great idea? Because they’ll only work insofar as they are maintained, and at that point you’re not solving it, you’re just leaning on people to make it LOOK like the problem is solved. Instead perhaps, a better system would be something akin to a more continental system. Pictures are banned on CVs, as are any obvious racial or sex or gender markers. Further anonymising most processes, to further make any people making significant choices unable to determine race, sex or gender of the people they’re choosing about, allows for a truly blind process. The same, incidentally, should apply to class distinctions (personal story there to follow, because there class mandates have stabbed me personally).

Moreover, however, both left and right these days seems to be based on these vicious and disgusting ideas of guilt and hatred, only changing who receives them. The modern left want me to hate myself, and hate my country. My skin means that I am somehow inherently advantaged, and thereby everything bad that happens to me is fine, my country has committed sins long before anyone alive today was born, and thereby any bad thing that befalls it is right and good. I am guilty of the crime of...being born a certain way, in a certain place, to certain people, and because of that, because of my privilege, I must apparently have the road of life made that much harder to walk for me. I must be told throughout education that this country is evil, that “Britain” and the “British” are evil, with no consideration for the fact that, well, that’s me. Telling someone that they’re evil as they’re growing up is uhhhh, not exactly a good thing. I believe in this nation that reared me. Moreover I believe in its values, I believe in Britain, and I believe every person should have the right to believe in their country. People as a whole aren’t fundamentally evil. And whilst yes every country has sins, great or small, and Britain’s past leans closer to great, that doesn’t give people the right to try and engender a sort of national self-loathing in the population for it. I won’t venture into America (because America breaks my whole everyone should be proud of their country thing, because a lot of areas should frankly be made independent from the US). And as a part of my...I don’t want to use the terms patriotism or nationalism because both have been massively tainted by groups trying to claim them for years now, but as a part of these beliefs, I stand with the British monarchy. Hell, I actually argue they should be allowed slightly greater freedoms. That they should be allowed to speak out when they are slandered (naming no self-entitled actresses), and equally, that they should be allowed to have some limited vocalisation of other political opinions. We let celebrities do it today, and they influence elections far more than the crown could ever hope to. And let’s look at things that Chucky boy, our next king unless they do something VERY silly and skip him, has gotten into trouble for speaking about: Not wanting brutalist modern architecture, which has actually been proven to make for housing that doesn’t last as long, and negatively impacts mental health. And Being an environmentalist.

And

Wanting this country to treat the mentally ill better. Ah...such controversial, evil points, made by a despotic tyrant princ-oh wait no they’re just valid things. I don’t want them to be given the power to ENFORCE their ideas, that way lies absolutism, which runs against the ideas of a constitutional monarchy. But let them speak, there are people who speak freely with greater sway and influence than they could ever have, and far less accountability. 

The Right

Oh boy, oh boy. Economically villainous. I despise nearly every economic ideal they stand for. They hurt the poor to help the rich, and just like the left, screw those in the middle. All I can credit them for on that front is that they don’t have as much of a tendency to support ugly, cheap mass housing, but only because they instead support no housing. 

Socially...ugh. I look at the modern right as a two headed beast there. There are those like those on the left, who hate Britain, but instead of just hating us and wanting some vague utopia, they hate us and want us to become a corporate hellhole like america, which is arguably worse. 

Then there’s the others. Those who take my ideals and corrupt them. Racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, rinse and repeat, and yes I know this is the hazard inherent in enjoying tradition and one’s nation anywhere, but can those traditions not be adapted? Anglicanism is already christianity minus any spine or sense of self, let it allow gays and trans people and all of that. Also uh yeah, don’t be racist. I don’t really know how to phrase that in any other way because...it’s not hard. Just don’t be racist. Treat people as people, not as their race. Do not treat me any different for being a jew, or having an asian grandfather, do not treat someone differently for being a person of colour, do not treat someone different for the circumstances of their birth, quite simply put.  Alternatives

So, the non mainstream (LIBLABCON) parties? Let’s see.... UKIP/Reform - Ah racism, fuck off. Plaid - Ah, vote to...leave the country I love? And to be run from Cardiff by people like Drakeford, or Woods, or really any of the major players in modern welsh politics? No.  Any flavour of communist - Last I checked they all want me to hate myself, so nah. Greens - Cool. You still want me to hate myself, and have really dumb economic ideas, but you’re a one issue party and I support that issue, so tentatively the lesser of all the evils.  Idk why I had this rant, I am just very upset. There is no voice for people like me, and it seems there never will be. And I’m nowhere near rich enough to start a party to become that voice. 

[giancarlonicoli]

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/june-4-tiananmen-square-massacre-five-truths-still-arent-widely-known

Via The Epoch Times,

Following the sudden death of a beloved political reformer, Hu Yaobang, 200,000 students gathered at Tiananmen Square on April 22, 1989, to await the hearse carrying Hu’s body - but it never arrived. The mass of students were angered, and their burning desire for freedom could be contained no more.

For the next few weeks, Tiananmen Square was occupied by these student protesters, who aimed at making reality their dream of ridding the country of communist tyranny and bringing democratic reform to China. Their non-violent demonstration perhaps brought a glimmer of hope … until the army moved in. Although martial law was declared on May 20 that year, what caused the army to suddenly go on a killing rampage on June 4?

L: Thousands of Chinese gather on June 2, 1989, in Tiananmen Square around “The Goodness of Democracy,” demanding democracy despite martial law in Beijing. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP via Getty Images). R: “The Goddess of Democracy,” a 10-meter replica of the Statue of Liberty created by students from an art institute to promote the pro-democracy protest against the Chinese government. (TOSHIO SAKAI/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Mass-Murdered by the Chinese Regime

At least 10,454 people were mass-murdered by the Chinese communist regime on Tiananmen Square, according to an unnamed source from the Chinese State Council. The figure is far greater than the “official” fatality count of 200.

On June 4, 1989, students were gunned down in droves and “mown down” by tanks. “APCs (Armored personnel carriers) then ran over bodies time and time again to make ‘pie’ and remains collected by bulldozer. Remains incinerated and then hosed down drains,” reads part of a declassified statement, which was obtained by Alan Donald, Britain’s ambassador to China in 1989.

It’s still unconfirmed how many more were massacred during and after the students’ unarmed protest.

Waving banners, high school students march in Beijing streets near Tiananmen Square on May 25, 1989, during a rally to support the pro-democracy protest against the Chinese regime. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP via Getty Images)

2. The Ringleader Is Still Alive

In addition to rolling over the students with tanks, the army fired high-explosive shells that expand on impact, also known as dum-dum bullets, (forbidden by the Geneva Convention) to kill the students in the most harm-inflicting way possible.

The question remains—what kind of a human being would order such a brutal mass murder of freedom-seeking civilians?

Former leader of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin (Feng Li/Getty Images)

Former paramount leader of the party Deng Xiaoping was impressed with Jiang Zemin’s iron-fisted proposition to use the army to crack down on the students, and promoted him from Party Chief of Shanghai to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party days before the massacre, giving him free rein to do as he liked.

Jiang Zemin, the mastermind behind the massacre, ordered the army to carry out his bloody strategy on June 4. The “gate of heavenly peace” was suddenly turned into hell on Earth.

Taken care of by others, an unidentified foreign journalist (2nd-R) is carried out from the clash site between the army and students on June 4, 1989, near Tiananmen Square. (TOMMY CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)

3. Ruthless Abuse of Power

The Tiananmen Square Massacre was just the start of Jiang’s ruthless abuse of power. He went on to commit the most heinous crimes that couldn’t bear the light of day. In the bloody wake of the massacre, Jiang became Deng’s ideal heir for the next Party Chief, a position Jiang secured in 1993.

Jiang, a Marxist hardliner and ex-senior spy for the KGB’s Far-East Bureau, had only begun to show his true colors with how he dealt with the protesting students and went on to orchestrate even bloodier campaigns. In 1999, Jiang sought to “eradicate” Falun Gong—a popular spiritual practice—after the number of people practicing it rose some 100 million, outnumbering the then 70 million Party members, according to state-run reports at the time.

Falun Gong practitioners doing the group exercise in Guangzhou, China, in 1998. (Minghui)

Under Jiang’s rule, an adroit misinformation campaign inundated China, turning public opinion against Falun Gong by subjecting the spiritual practice to extreme vilification—including the infamous Tiananmen Square “self-immolation” hoax, which successfully deceived the nation—paving the way for Jiang’s next phase: to forcibly “transform” or “eliminate” the meditators who refused to give up the practice.

In response to Jiang’s genocidal policy, believed to have caused a widespread yet unascertainable amount of state-approved killings, including forced organ harvesting, over 209,000 lawsuits have since been filed against Jiang, making him the most sued dictator in history.

Falun Gong practitioners at a rally in front of the Chinese embassy in New York City on July 3, 2015, to support the global effort to sue Jiang Zemin. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

4. Horrifying Accounts Kept Secret

A Blacklock’s Reporter obtained secret telex messages concerning horrifying accounts of what really happened on Tiananmen Square that day via access-to-information laws.

“An old woman knelt in front of soldiers pleading for students; soldiers killed her,” the Canadian embassy in Beijing reported at the time.

Blacklock’s writes: “A boy was seen trying to escape holding a woman with a 2-year old child in a stroller, and was run over by a tank”; “The tank turned around and mashed them up”; “Soldiers fired machine guns until the ammo ran out.”

An unbelievable amount of bullets were fired on civilians at Tiananmen that “they ricocheted inside nearby houses, killing many residents.”

“The embassy described the killings as ‘savage,’” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“They are now entering a period of vicious repression during which denunciations and fear of persecution will terrorize the population,” reads another cable obtained.

Chinese onlookers run away as a soldier threatens them with a gun on June 5, 1989, as tanks took position at Beijing’s key intersections next to the diplomatic compound. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP via Getty Images)

Diplomats added that some 1,000 executions took place following the massacre, but an exact figure is unconfirmed. “It was probably thought that the massacre of a few hundreds or thousands would convince the population not to pursue their protests. It seems to be working,” reads a statement by the diplomats.

The secret British cable, obtained by news website HK01, reveals more detail about the crimes of the 27 Army of Shanxi Province on the day.

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“27 Army ordered to spare no one and shot wounded SMR soldiers. Four wounded girl students begged for their lives but were bayoneted. A 3-year-old girl was injured but her mother was shot as she went to her aid as were six others who tried.”

“A thousand survivors were told they could escape via Zhengyi Lu but were then mown down by specially prepared M/G (machine gun) positions.”

Ailing student hunger strikers from Beijing University receive first aid treatment under a makeshift tent set up on May 17, 1989, at Tiananmen Square as students enter the 5th day of a marathon hunger strike as part of a mass pro-democracy protest against the Chinese government. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP via Getty Images)

5. “June 4”: A Highly Taboo Subject in China Today

Despite Hong Kong lighting up every evening on June 4 in an annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the victims of the massacre, Chinese mainlanders across the border are without such freedom of speech. Talking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or even mentioning “June 4,” or “6.4,” could have one disappear.

In 2007, Zhang Zhongshun, a lecturer from Yantai University, showed his class a video of the massacre he obtained from an overseas website. He was subsequently jailed for three years by Laishan City Court on Feb. 28, 2008.

Tens of thousands of people hold candles during a vigil in Hong Kong on June 4, 2018, to mark the 29th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

“I imagined that the worst case would just be that the university president would criticize me in front of my colleagues in a meeting. I would not have thought that the communist regime would imprison me,” Zhang told The Epoch Times in an interview after his release from the detention.

“Is it illegal even if I include a historical event into my lecture?” he asked.

A student displays a banner with one of the slogans chanted by the crowd of some 200,000 pouring into Tiananmen Square on April 22, 1989, in Beijing in an attempt to participate in the funeral ceremony of former Chinese Communist Party leader and liberal reformer Hu Yaobang. His death in April triggered an unprecedented wave of pro-democracy demonstrations. The April-June 1989 movement was crushed by Chinese troops in June when army tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square June 4, 1989. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP via Getty Images)

Who’d dare raise this for discussion in China knowing the consequences? This year marks the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Will the current Chinese leaders redress the issue and bring Jiang Zemin to justice for his litany of crimes? Only time will tell.

[quantum-displacement]

Trumps Cabinet

Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson (Oil Tycoon)

He broke the law by illegally doing deals with State Sponsors of Terrorism.

He broke the law by illegally doing $50 million dollars worth of deals with Iran and selling their military "chemicals" while they were under sanctions.

He bragged about being a personal friend of Putin and estimates put that he has spent more time with Putin then any other American citizen.

He lied under oath to Congress when asked about him lobbying against Russian Sanctions.

He was sued for anti-gay discrimination.

He was Director of a Russian Oil Firm in the Bahamas that helped companies use offshore tax haven loopholes to avoid paying taxes.

When the threat of rising sea levels due to climate change were brought up his response was, "We'll adapt to that."

He is being sued for ignoring environmental regulations.

He was fined after he ignored safety regulations and that resulted in 2 people being killed and another 13 injured.

He refused to agree that Saudi Arabia violates human rights or Putin has committed war crimes.

He has been investigated for fraud.

He was personally mentioned in court documents where at least 14 different witnesses have testified private military security forces employed by Exxon Mobil working in Indonesia had engaged in serious human rights abuses, including murder, torture, sexual violence, kidnapping, battery, assault, rape, arbitrary arrest, detention and false imprisonment. Instead of denying these things occurred his lawyers have argued he shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of employees even though he directly was involved in the management.

Secretary of the Treasury:

Steven Mnuchin (Worked for Goldman Sachs)

He has been accused of racism by enacting company policies to refuse to give loans to minorities and giving Latinos higher mortgage rates than whites.

If you were a Latino who didn't pay your morgue to Steven Mnuchin's bank you are 20% more likely to be foreclosed on than if you are white and in the same situation.

The bank he headed broke the law numerous times with unethical and illegal foreclosure practices. Such as trying to evict an elderly couple who had already paid them $525,000 in mortgages for a house that was only worth $200,000.

He has been sued dozens of times and settled or was found guilty in multi-million dollar lawsuits on several separate occasions.

He has been forced to testify and received subpoenas from the Department of Housing and Urban Development multiple times during government investigations against him.

He tried to take a 90 year old woman's house because a clerical error made it seem like her payment was 27 cents short.

Secretary of Defense:

James Mattis (Former General)

He says it's fun to shoot people.

He's been implicated in committing war crimes.

After his own soldiers were hit by friendly fire he refused to send rescue and left them to die.

He is on the board of executives of a medical company currently going through bankruptcy after they committed fraud and misrepresented their products.

Attorney General:

Jeff Sessions (Alabama Senator)

He said he supported The K.K.K until he learned they smoked pot.

He admitting to making racist jokes during the investigation of two Klansman whom had kidnapped, beaten, tortured, slit the throat and murdered a young black man in 1981 before hanging his body in a tree at a local park in Mobile, Alabama.

He called an attorney a "race traitor" for defending a black client in a voting rights case.

He was considered by the Reagan administration to racist to be a Judge 30 years ago.

He called the ACLU and the NAACP "un-american" and "communist" for forcing civil rights down Americas throat.

He used racial slurs to address black co-workers. And told one Black Attorney, "You best be careful how you talk to white folks, boy."

He referred to the only black commissioner in Mobile Alabama as "the n*gger"

Dozens of former co-workers allege he is a racist and when asked about racist comments he has refused to give a straight answer.

Q: "Did you refer to him as the N-Word? Yes or no?"

A: "I am not the Jeff Sessions my detractors have tried to create."

He tried to fight against the passage of the violence against women act and fought against laws to make spousal rape a crime.

He said if a person is gay it should automatically disqualify them from getting a job as a judge.

He attempted to pass laws that would defund any school that allowed gay student groups or clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliances. "An organization that professes to be comprised of homosexuals and/or lesbians must not receive state funding or use state-supported facilities to foster or promote those illegal, and sexually deviate activities that break the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws."

He voted in favor of laws that would make it legal for the U.S military to perform torture.

He supports seizing peoples homes without due process.

He has received a 0% rating from The Human Rights Campaign.

Secretary of Interior

Ryan Zinke (Former Congressman)

When he was in the military he was caught in a pattern of fraud.

He used techniques thought up by Stephen Colbert as a joke as part of a campaign money scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

He repeatedly voted in support of logging, drilling, and mining on federally protected land.

He tried to make it legal for hunters to be able to hunt endangered species.

He fought to give federal park land to a coal company who donated $160,000 to his campaign.

Secretary of Agriculture

Sonny Perdue (Former Georgia Governor)

His solution to a drought was to organize a group to go outside the capital building and pray for rain.

He cheated on his property taxes by avoiding to include any mention of his vacation homes to the IRS.

He appointed people to government position in exchange for them selling him land for a cheaper price on at least two separate occasions.

He snuck a bizarre measure into a state law bill about State Safety Regulations that said people don't have to pay property taxes if they buy properties in other states. This saved him $100,000 in property taxes.

He moved all of his money to Florida so he wouldn't have to pay state taxes in Georgia.

He diverted $4.3 million dollars that was supposed to go into building a reservoir into buying massive amounts of land for himself.

Even far right websites managed to create a 22 incident long, 3 year timeline just of scandals involving Perdue either unethically buying or stealing land. Or Perdue trying to use his political power to find bizarre ways to not pay taxes.

Secretary of Commerce

Wilbur Ross (Billionaire coal mine owner, his nickname is "the king of bankruptcy")

He was fined $2.3 million dollars by the SEC for swindling over 10 million in unnecessary fees out of investors.

He killed a dozen miners by knowing violating safety regulations that he was warned would lead to deaths.

He once bailed Trump out of bankruptcy.

Secretary of Labor:

Andrew Puzder (CEO of Carl’s Jr)

He had been accused of beating his wife, medical records prove it was long term and the police were called on atleast two separate occasions.

When asked about the domestic violence charges in court while his wife was trying to get a restraining order he gave bizarrely worded excuses.

Instead of saying:

"Yes I shoved her to the ground so she couldn't call 911."

He said:

"I didn't shove her, I grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back I don't know if her foot caught or what happened.”

A year before this incident when he was in court again and asked to describe what happen when he was driving drunk, crashed his car and then punched his wife.

Instead of saying:

"I don't remember what happen that night, I did have a minor accident but it wasn't because of my wife it was because I was driving drunk."

He said:

"I recall no such incident. I do recall going up on a curb but it had nothing to do with my reaction to Lisa. I think it had to do with the liquid refreshment we had with our dinner more than anything else."

At the time of these Domestic Violence allegations he was chair of an anti-abortion task force created by the Governor of Missouri.

When asked if he would resign he said:

"This is a personal matter and has nothing to do with issues I'm speaking out on. The fact that I was appointed to the task force, I don't think is relevant to these issues. This is what normally happens in a divorce case. You're blowing it way out of proportion."

He later was forced to resign from the state run Anti-Abortion task force...

Neighbors called the police on another occasion when he started breaking furniture and plates.

The U.S. Department of Labor found that more than half of his restaurants were committing wage violations.

He was sued and found guilty for discriminating against the physically disabled.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to pay employees overtime.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to pay employees overtime again. This time he was forced to pay $9 million dollar.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to follow safety regulations.

He was sued and found guilty in a class action lawsuit for refusing to compensate employees for work expenses.

He was sued and found guilty for allowing sexual harassment to continue.

He has been accused of racial discrimination.

His company is one of the highest ranked in the country in terms of employees reporting gender discrimination or harassment.

He hired Illegal Immigrants and paid them below minimum wage.

He is against there being a minimum wage.

He argues overtime pay shouldn't exist.

He blames poor people for being in poverty while he earns more money every day than employees at his fast food restaurant earn in an entire year.

He wants to replace employees with machines.

Secretary of Homeland Security:

John F. Kelly (Former General)

He doesn't believe women should be allowed be in the military.

He argues Guantanamo Bay, "Isn't as bad as it seems."

He supports Trump building a wall because Terrorists might sneak in through the Mexican boarder, aided by illegal immigrants.

He lied and said Narcoterrorism have killed 500,000 Americans since 9/11.

Secretary of Energy:

Rick Perry (Former Texas Governor)

He was indicted on Felony Abuse of Power charges.

He promised to abolish the Department of Energy before being picked to lead it.

He allowed the execution of a man later proven to be innocent and stalled the investigation to clear the mans name until after he was executed. Then fired all the people who warned him the man was innocent from the start.

He carries a semi-automatic handgun while jogging, “because he is afraid of snakes.” and for the past several years has bragged during interviews he used it to kill a coyote with a single shot. Though everytime he retold the story there were more inconsistencies.

He has told blacks that racism doesn't exist anymore while at the same time having owned for 33 years a hunting camp named simply, N*ggerhead.

He made sexist comments against the former Governor and then argued against a woman who said she was insulted by them by arguing she wasn't really offended.

He said income inequality isn't a problem because there are poor people in the bible.

He proposed a plan to lower taxes on the rich and raise taxes on the poor to compensate, when a New York Time reporter brought up how this would create massive levels of income inequality his response was, "I don’t care about that."

He gave a lengthy speech about how Atheists deserve hell and will go there when they die, and how they have to much power in society.

A whistle blower discovered that state juvenile detention facilities had employed sex offenders and had been covering up complaints of abuse in what may of been the largest child sex abuse ring in U.S history, the whistle blower contacted Governor Perry and spoke to him numerous times but Perry refused to do anything about it. Three years later in 2007 the FBI determined that at least 750 girls age 10-17 had been sexually abused by guards and several high ranking administrators who either covered up the abuse or participated in it were arrested. Many of these administrators were personally appointed by Perry himself.

He said the BP Oil spill had nothing to do with poor safety regulations and was actually caused by god.

In college he got a D in a class titled, "Meats."

He vetoed a bill saying the state can't execute the mentally ill.

He has threatened that Texas can secede from the United States more than once.

He said drugs were the cause of the Charleston Church shooting not racism.

He compares being gay to alcoholism.

He suggested Immigrants trying to cross the boarder should be drone striked to keep them from getting in.

He signed an executive order making it so all girls over the age of 12 had to receive a vaccination against sexually transmitted diseases. Then it was revealed his chief of staff was an executive for the company that made the vaccine.

He threatened the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and accused him of treason.

Secretary of Education:

Betsy DeVos (Billionaire private education advocate )

She wants creationism taught in public schools.

Her family made their fortune through a literal pyramid scheme.

She wants to get rid of Child Labor Laws.

She owes millions of dollars in government fines for election fraud.

She lied during Senate Hearings.

She illegally omitted anti-union donations on disclosure forum.

She wants to use American Schools to "Build Gods Kingdom."

She hired a Felon to run her school lobbying group.

She thinks schools should be armed in order to protect themselves against bears.

White House chief strategist:

Steve Bannon (CEO of Breitbart News)

He was arrested for three counts of domestic violence in the 90s.

The charges were dropped after him and his attorney threatened his ex-wife into fleeing the state.

He choked his ex-wife and smashed her phone so she couldn't call 911.

He was accused of sexual harassment by female co-workers. “Saftey Regulations? I’m going to ram those Safety Regulations down her fucking throat,”

“There are some unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement, the women that should lead this country would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England.” ― Bannon during interview when asked about women in government

He was outraged when he found out that Jews were allowed at his daughters school and complained to them over it.

He helped promote the white supremacist novel The Camp of the Saints which depicts non-white immigrants as barbaric invaders whoes goals for moving to Europe and America is to bring forth the downfall of civilization.

He was a member of a Facebook group that produced racist rants and death threats against President Obama.

He complained about there being to many Asian CEOs.

National Security Adviser:

Michael Flynn (Disgraced former General)

He says Islam is Cancer and it's irrational for people not to be afraid of Muslims.

He ordered female Defense Intelligence Agency employees to "dress sexy" and wear short skirts and makeup.

He was fired from the Military for trying to demand too much power and authority. Though he says the reason was, "political correctness."

Leaked Bush Administration emails show he show he had extreme anger issues, refused to follow orders, went against policy and became, "physcially abusive with staff."

He wants to bring back torture.

He retweeted anti-semetic Tweets.

He is a Board Member for what The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the largest Anti-Muslim Hate Group in America.

His son and top adviser is famous for posting online Conspiracy Theories and racist memes.

Leaked 2010 memo reveals he shared Top Secret Information without permission.

He facilitated the murder of civilians in Afghanistan.

Domestic Policy Adviser

Ken Blackwell (Former Ohio Secretary of State)

He says, "Gays can be reformed, just like arsonists."

He works for an anti-gay hate group who wants gays deported.

He advised Trump to change the laws so youth Homeless shelters could legally refuse to help gay and transgender youth.

He believes mass shooting are caused by America's lack of morality which stems from the country allowing gays to exist.

He wrote an article saying Mosques don't have a right to exist in New York City.

He was accused of rigging the 2004 election in Ohio for George Bush. After he was called to testify in legal hearings by Congress he just refused to show up.

During his term he had 18 major lawsuits.

He accidentally published a list of 1.2 million Social Security numbers of Ohio citizens.

He fought tooth and nail to move too electronic touch screen voting machines instead of paper ballots, after it was discovered the machines had a backdoor software "glitch" it was revealed that Blackwell owned the company that made the voting machines.

A group of 31 pastors contacted the IRS alleging that a number of Churches in the state had been secretly funding Blackwell which violates laws prohibiting charity groups involvement in political campaigns

Blackwell sent an email claiming he had never heard of any of the churches that he was accused of getting illegal donations from. But after media outlets traced the I.P address of the email it was revealed he sent the email inside of the church that he was claiming he had never heard of in the email he was sending from their building...

Click here to vote who you think is the worst pick.

[phgq]

Reds raise 'red-tagging, 'state terrorism' cards when beaten

#PHnews: Reds raise 'red-tagging, 'state terrorism' cards when beaten

MANILA -- Why do allies and supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) always play up the "red-tagging and state terrorism" cards every time the government gains a significant victory against the terror organization?

This was the reaction of Major General Antonio Parlade, Jr., of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) in reaction to a recent statement of CPP founding chairperson Jose Maria "Joma" Sison claiming that “under the tyrannical rule of Duterte, state terrorism is running high with red-tagging, abductions, arrests with planted firearms and murders of social activists, critics, and political opponents.”

Sison made the comment after military and police operations in Bacolod City that resulted in the arrest of at least 60 suspected militants, including 15 minors.

Same tune

"I heard this familiar statement yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon during the Defense Committee hearing in Congress. It is almost what Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list and Rep. France De Castro of ACT PL were saying about their perceived 'state sponsored crackdown on critics of the government'. It was the same line (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) Renato Reyes, (Bayan Muna Party-list) Teddy Casiño, (Kabataan Party-list) Rep. Sara Elago, and (Bayan Muna Party-list) Rep. Carlos Zarate said of the series of successful arrests the government, through the NTF ELCAC, has done in a week," Parlade said in a statement to the Philippine News Agency Wednesday.

The most disconcerting thing, he said, is that the party-list representatives aired all their gripes during the hearing of the Defense and Security Committee to determine what legislative agenda they may have to adapt or prioritize to enhance the protection of the people and the state.

"Instead, the Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc members present took turns questioning (Department of National Defense) Secretary (Delfin) Lorenzana if the DND's modernization plan was to enable it 'to kill more people' or to use its funds to harass, red-tag, and arrest more activists," said Parlade, who is also Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Civil-Military Operations.

While readily dismissing such baseless and groundless allegations, he he role of the DND and the AFP is to protect all Filipino citizens in times of conflicts or calamities. 

"Of course not. It is to perform our constitutional mandate to protect its citizens, in times of war or calamities, like the procurement of more helicopters which you see are now being used in the rescue operations in Makilala, North Cotabato. Don't these "critics" of government see how delicate these air evacuations are like this one perching dangerously in a slope to save people?" he added.

He said while the DND and AFP has surveillance capabilities, these are being used against terrorist groups especially those known to exploit vulnerable minors and put into harm's way

Parlade added that only in self-defense or when their own lives are endangered will government troops use force to neutralize these terrorists.

"We will kill these terrorists if necessary or if they fight back. But some remain alive for not resisting a lawful arrest. This was the case with the series of successful raids in Bacolod City, Escalante, Manila, and Quezon City. Apparently, these Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc members are not happy that nobody from their members fought back. It could have been perfect cases of EJK (extra-judicial killing), most fitting for their narrative," he added.

He said the "motherly-looking" Gabriela or "teacher-actor" members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) is only a facade willingly to gain them sympathy from the public.

Howl like wolves

"But the communist terrorists in them are actually wolves, as they hide as members of the underground MAKIBAKA (Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan) for Gabriela and KAGUMA (Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan) for ACT," he added.

The leanings of these individuals or groups, he said, are quickly exposed whenever Sison decides to attack the government whenever the latter gets the upperhand on the campaign against local communist insurgency.

"Look how they talk in unison with Joma Sison, and this is exactly what we said last week. They all walk like a wolf, howl like a wolf, so they must all be wolves. They have been red-tagged by 'Joma' again, after the latter came to their rescue. Yet they continue to deny they are Joma's stooges in the communist party. They continue to belie reports that those arrested are terrorists," Parlade said.

He said he can’t help but wonder why Brosas did not protest the many minors arrested in the last week's operations in Bacolod City.

This is a bit disconcerting as Gabriela party-list, which Brosas is representing, is supposed to advocate rights and issue affecting all women in the country.

"As representative of many mothers, have we ever heard Rep. Brosas complain why there were even kids in the group? Six of them were aged 12-14 and five were aged 15. Many by the way did not give their true names because they were given aliases. What for? So, tell me Rep. Brosas? As a mother, why did not you raise this alarming issue about CPP-NPA's child exploitation?, he said.

The arrest of these CPP NPA personalities with 15 children, he said, were consistent with the Senate inquiry findings that many children could still be missing after being recruited by the CPP-NPA.

“It is consistent with the files of CPP's Vic Ladlad, which said that they have recruited 8,635 children, aged 13-17, up to September 2015 alone," he said.

Parlade scored Gabriela for doing nothing to rescue these minors and yet have the time to protest of being "red-tagged" despite evidence.

"Instead of rescuing these children from their CPP-NPA handlers, you complain of Gabriela being 'red-tagged', even as your group consistently appear in recovered documents and computer files of captured CPP-NPA top personalities. By the way, the houses raided will not pass as an office because the government only knew about them as underground (UG) houses, until you claimed them to be a Gabriela or Bayan Muna office," Parlade said.

He also finds it ironic that these party-list representatives, while having time to complain of the killings of their members by alleged government troops, seem to be indifferent to atrocities committed by the communist rebels.

"Rep. Castro for her part, complained of the killing of many of their members? Would she care to hear the video interview and testimony of surrendered Special Partisan Unit (SPARU hitman) James Durimon alias 'Juros'? He was 14 when recruited by NPAs in Negros and confessed to the killing of many farmers and activists in Panay, on orders of Charity Amacan, Secretary of 'Komiteng Rehiyon' (KR)-Cebu Bohol Negros Siquijor (CBNS) CPP-NPA. Listen to alias 'Juros' and ask Secretary Lorenzana again who is killing your own people so that you can blame the AFP and PNP. Why don't you listen to the tape interview of NPA rebel priest Conrado Balweg who admitted to attacking civilians, while clad in constabulary uniform, in order to create more hatred against the government," he added.

In rebels’ company

Parlade also scored Castro, who is a teacher herself, for not asking why these minors are not in schools and in the company of NPA rebels, when arrested.

"And at age 12-14 (years old) what are they doing in Bacolod, when they are from La Carlota City? Is it not trafficking of minors? Are they not recruits for your 'Teatro Obrero'? Yes, theater so what's wrong with that? Well, take a look at these pictures of the kids under arms. Better yet, why attend the Defense Committee hearing when you can instead follow up on the case of an NPA-failed attack on teacher Zhydee Cabanelez and husband Ramil of Valencia, Bukidnon, the former of whom you insist to claim as ACT member when she is not?" he added.

Members of militant groups claims of being attacked by government security forces are in sync and very much calibrated with Sison's earlier statements, he added.

"Maybe you are all too naive to claim that Jose Maria Sison, your idol who personally tagged Gabriela and ACT as the CPP's progressive allies, is just another political activist and critic of government policies. But how do you explain his order to the NPA to attack all government security forces in light of these arrests? A social or political activist, progressive or regressive moron, does not do that. The CPP-NPA was declared a terrorist organization by US, UK (United Kingdom), Australia, NZ (New Zealand) and the EU (European Union) for nothing," he said.

No sense

He added that he sees no sense in the continued harassment claims of these militant groups except to get more foreign funding for their "fake human rights advocacies".

"How do we make sense of all these allegation of a tyrant government and its propensity to abuse its power? The explanation could be as simple as this: the CPP and the Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc merely want to sustain that narrative of a 'consistent pattern of gross, flagrant, or mass violation of human rights', by projecting a fascist and anti-people PRRD government," he said.

Parlade said such narrative is needed to ensure that Sison can invoke the so-called "non-refoulement clause" and allow him to stay in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

"This is in order for Jose Ma Sison to continue to invoke 'non-refoulement' (Article 8, Section 2, UN Gen Assembly Resolution 47/133). That affords him to stay in Utrecht, and escape state persecution as the EU court ruled. This propaganda of a tyrant state is now more significant for him, especially that a Philippine court had issued a warrant for his arrest due to his crime of genocide," he said. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Reds raise 'red-tagging, 'state terrorism' cards when beaten." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1085260 (accessed November 07, 2019 at 01:46AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Reds raise 'red-tagging, 'state terrorism' cards when beaten." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1085260 (archived).

[bountyofbeads]

One day, the Trump superpower of his shameless self-regard may fail him

By Megan McArdle | Published October 04, 2019 5:40 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 7, 2019 10:25 AM ET

Take a break for just a moment. Step back from the dizzying rotation of the impeachment-grade news cycle and the frantic hurly-burly of partisan disputation. Enjoy a deep cleansing breath, and cast yourself back to a more innocent time, like the spring of 2015. Then just sit with it for a moment, pondering how absolutely astonishing our current predicament really is.

President Trump is on the fast track to impeachment — all right, yes, it’s not really all that surprising. But when you think back over the past four years, don’t you feel your breath catching in your throat, your eyes widening, your mouth falling ajar as you contemplate the amazing fact that Donald Trump ever became president of the United States, and thus, liable to impeachment?

I’ve literally lost count of all the moments at which I thought well, he’s done it now, no campaign could possibly survive that unforced error. Starting in July 2015, when he said of John McCain, “He’s not a war hero … I like people who weren’t captured.” This from a man who’s certainly no war hero, in part because a friendly podiatrist secured him a draft deferment for (apparently evanescent) bone spurs.

Americans don’t like anyone who impugns the honor of the nation’s warriors, especially not anyone who avoided service and is insulting a warrior who spent more than five years being tortured by the enemy in a notorious communist prison camp. Obviously, the Trump campaign was over … er, I meant to say, just begun.

There was still plenty of time for Trump to attack the parents of a dead soldier, to claim that judges of Mexican ancestry shouldn’t be allowed to oversee the trial involving a class-action lawsuit over his now-defunct Trump University and, in a hot-mic recording, to be revealed bragging about groping women. There was still time for reports about Trump routinely stiffing small vendors, for the clip of him discussing his own daughter in a salacious radio interview. And, gosh, that’s only the very craziest, most indisputably unacceptable stuff that happened before commander bone spurs became commander in chief.

How could any candidate have survived just one of these thermonuclear scandals, much less all of them? Trump must have had some previously undetected superpower — and in reality, he does, a quite obvious one: a perfect lack of concern about anyone except himself.

A normal person, possessed of a modicum of empathy and a healthy capacity for shame, wouldn’t have done such things. But if a normal politician had somehow done them, and gotten caught, he likely would have slunk away, withdrawing partly to avoid further public shaming but also to shield innocent bystanders — his family, his party — who would otherwise suffer for his sins. Not Trump, who seems largely indifferent to any suffering except his own and entirely immune to remorse, or its wistful cousin, regret.

Which is why his supporters like him. They were tired of having concerns about immigration dismissed as racist, beyond the pale — and they tired, too, of having their opinions about crime, terrorism or trade met with the same unanswerable accusation. Trump ignored the whole pious apparatus of unspoken rules that axiomatically excluded their arguments from the public square. The fact that he was shameless, brazen and unconcerned by procedural nicety, in his campaign and in his presidency, was one of his main attractions.

These traits have delivered enough victories — the 2016 election, the confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court — that his supporters are loath to question them now. Possibly his supporters are right; maybe Trump’s devil-may-care indifference is pure genius and will bring still more victories for those who followed him down the road less traveled.

Yet it seems at least worth asking why so few politicians chart the course of nakedly shameless self-regard. Was Trump simply the first explorer daring enough to discover a novel route to power? Or is this an extremely risky passage, safe to travel only under unusual circumstances, and otherwise a dead end?

I’d argue the latter, though of course I — effete #NeverTrumper — can be expected to say nothing else. But even his most ardent supporters ought to recognize that superpowers can make one a villain as often as a hero, and that this particular superpower is at the very least risky for them.

Because if the waters turn stormy and the public rebels — if polls suggest we’re looking at a Democratic president and a filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate — then the day will come when even many of Trump’s supporters want him to stage a strategic withdrawal. And on that day, they’ll discover that he pays exactly as little heed to his followers as he does to anyone else who is not named “Trump.”

It’s not news that Trump is corrupt. What’s new is how he is succeeding in corrupting our government.

By Fred Hiatt | Published October 06, 2019 5:44 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 7, 2019 10:25 AM ET |

It is no longer surprising to see President Trump wielding the government as an instrument purely for his personal benefit or vengeance.

What is both alarming and new is how government, increasingly, is giving way and giving in.

Three years into Trump’s term, we are witnessing the accelerating erosion of a bedrock American principle: that the awesome power of government will be wielded fairly, based on facts and evidence, and without regard to political fear or favor.

A normal government that cared about corruption in Ukraine, as officials in this administration sometimes pretend they do, would seek improvements in its judicial system. But Trump has no such concern, as you can tell from his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president. He never mentions corruption, but presses only for two specific investigations he hopes will benefit his domestic political fortunes.

A government committed to rescuing Americans from unfair detention abroad — as Trump likes to boast he is — would be committed to rescuing all Americans from unfair detention abroad.

But this administration picks and chooses, based on Trump’s whims and grudges. For a Christian cleric held in Turkey, Trump goes all out. For a New York Times reporter endangered in Egypt, the administration does not bestir itself, as Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger recently recounted.

Some officials have indulged these impulses almost from the start. That Times reporter barely escaped arrest two years ago. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s dishonest maneuverings to get a question about citizenship added to the 2020 Census took place in the spring of 2017. Last year, officials devised their policy to separate children from parents at the border, and then repeatedly lied about it.

But as time goes on, the government more and more is endorsing and amplifying policies that serve Trump’s political interest. Just recently:

●As soon as Trump decided to make political hay out of California’s homeless population, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler accused the (Democratic) state of allowing human feces to pollute its waterways and demanded action. Around the country, 3,508 community water systems are out of compliance with standards; only California attracted the EPA’s attention.

●When the House Ways and Means Committee requested Trump’s tax returns, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig flatly refused — though the law says the returns “shall” be turned over if requested.

●When another House committee wanted former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to testify about Trump’s efforts to fire special investigator Robert S. Mueller III, White House counsel Pat Cipollone — who is supposed to represent the law, not the president’s personal well-being — happily asserted executive privilege on behalf of this tale of obstruction, though Lewandowski never actually worked in the White House.

●Indulging another Trump obsession, the State Department has intensified an investigation of Obama-era officials who sent emails to Hillary Clinton — including by retroactively classifying some of their messages, as The Post reported a few days ago.

●When the intelligence community’s inspector general ruled that the whistleblower complaint about Trump and Ukraine should be sent to Congress, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel conveniently offered a contrary opinion. No, the OLC said, “the appropriate action is to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.”

●Which was doubly convenient, in fact, because Justice, with great efficiency, determined that — although soliciting assistance from a foreign power on behalf of a political campaign is against the law — Trump had nothing to worry about, on the pretext that prosecutors were unable to assign a dollar value to the help he had solicited. Case closed. Case never even opened, in fact.

What’s going on? Senior officials who had the fortitude to defend the rule of law have gradually been replaced by those who put ambition over principle. A few who still try to do the right thing are kept in vulnerable “acting” positions and hemmed in by toadies and hacks in subordinate positions.

Meanwhile, honest civil servants leave or become demoralized. They watch first-class research agencies be deliberately disrupted and degraded. They see Trump firing (Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch) and threatening (the still anonymous whistleblower) honest professionals. Resistance to abuse of power naturally dwindles.

Yes, take this as a warning of what a second term would mean. Norms get eroded, a nonpartisan bureaucracy can be corrupted.

But remember also that the whistleblower and intelligence inspector general refused to bend. Thousands of public servants like them are continuing to fulfill their missions as best they can. We need to keep faith with them as they work, often under pressures we can’t imagine, to keep government fair and honest.

The new GOP strategy: Don’t believe the president

By James Downie | Published October 06, 2019 7:00 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 7, 2019 10:25 AM ET

You knew there was never going to be just one whistleblower. A president who stands on the White House lawn and asks foreign countries to investigate his political opponents was never going to otherwise keep such schemes to a small circle of loyalists. And so it has come to pass. ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos revealed Sunday morning, “ABC News has learned that the legal team representing the first whistleblower is now representing a second whistleblower. Attorney Mark Zaid told me that this second whistleblower is a member of the intelligence community with firsthand information on some of the allegations at issue.”

Confronted with that new information on the various Sunday morning talk shows, Republican congressmen and senators largely opted for the same mix of misinformation and non-answers that they’ve been stuck with even as poll after poll shows support for an impeachment inquiry rising. In one area, though, a new talking point has emerged: Don’t believe the president.

This goes back to the president’s appearance on the South Lawn on Oct. 3, when Trump asked China to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. There’s no way to defend a president publicly asking a geopolitical rival to investigate domestic political rivals, so Republicans have decided to pretend he didn’t do that. The first up was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “I don’t think it’s a real request,” he told reporters Friday morning, “I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it.” Republicans on the Sunday shows followed suit. “I doubt if the China comment was serious, to tell you the truth,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on CBS’s “Face the Nation." On ABC, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) feigned incredulity: “George, you really think he was serious about thinking that China’s going to investigate the Biden family?”

It isn’t the first time that Republicans, confronted with a controversial Trump quote, have said the president wasn’t being serious. Trump even told special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that his infamous request to Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails was a joke. That Capitol Hill Republicans would go back to this well is no surprise; it’s an easy dodge when, according to The Post’s Robert Costa and Philip Rucker, GOP lawmakers and aides say privately that their “collective strategy is simply to survive and not make any sudden moves.”

The difference this time is that the president himself isn’t claiming that he was joking, not in any of his numerous Twitter missives since that South Lawn appearance. Instead, he laid into criticism from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) about his request to China. And Sunday afternoon he said on Twitter that he would “would LOVE running" against Biden.

Not only wasn’t Trump joking about asking China to investigate Biden, he isn’t pretending that he was. In other words, Republican politicians don’t want you to believe the president.

One reason Trump fit in so well with the GOP and especially its Fox News propaganda arm is that he and those around him have made livings telling people not to believe their own eyes. Years of “Trump’s a brilliant businessman, not a bumbling heir with multiple bankruptcies” easily transitioned to “Mexico will pay for the wall, not taxpayers.” But the narrative of “right good, left bad” was always bigger than one person, even one as influential as the president. Now, that narrative demands a new reality: “Don’t believe Trump even when he’s telling you to believe him.” The myth has swallowed Trump himself.

Watch: ON WEBSITE

[politicalfilth-blog]

An Honest Conversation with Pro Trump and Anti-Trump Supporters on Impeachment Day

We Are Change

Luke reports live from outside of the Trump Tower on the “day of impeachment”..

Luke:  “There was a lot of comments online about how this was going to be a crazy day with Antifa taking over the streets. Here on the ground it’s quite the contrary, so far we only have a few Trump supporters and around forty anti-Trump activists. So it will be interesting to open up a discourse with these different individuals. I’m going to question both sides logic and discuss their mutual hypocrisy. I want to see if they want to impeach Trump for the right reasons or for the reasons that the media manipulated them.”

On the anti-Trump side Luke saw a lot of people with signs saying things like “Abuse of Power”, some people chanting, “Hey Hey Ho Ho, Donald Trump Has Got to Go”, some pink hats, a make America literate again poster and a guy with Trump puppet coming out of his pants.

Vladimir Putin was also apparently in attendance with the anti-Trump activists , or at least his masked look-alike.

Luke decides to start interviewing on the Trump supporter side, he speaks with a man who identifies himself as Red Pill Ken from Twitter. Luke asks him “Why are you out here supporting Trump?”

Ken responds, “Because an attack on Trump is an attack on Americana, it’s all about red, white and blue regardless of what background your from, if your from Americana, there is nothing wrong with being American first, the other side lost this debate in November when we elected Donald Trump, they seem to be on a pattern of trying to disrupt this man who we put in office and I am out here to give Mr. Trump my support. Also to let people know that most mainstream media is fake, it’s like CNN that’s why I have this t-shirt here, you know what Kathy Gifford did they are fake news, you have to go to different websites like Infowars, Drudge Report and Breitbart to get your news on an alternative point of view.”

Luke, “Are there any policies of Mr. Trump that you are disappointed in?”

Ken, “I’m disappointed that he has not repealed the ‘unaffordable care act’ and also upset about the strike on Syria that wasn’t Mr. Assad’s fault. I wasn’t in support of that at all.”

Luke, “What do you think of Trump aligning himself with the Kurdish rebels near Syria?”

Ken, “This is a mistake that Mr. Trump makes, he likes to give people the responsibility to take over their jobs. McMaster has a different viewpoint than Trump, the president has to get rid of McMaster because he is a globalist that wants to put boots on the ground, that is his mindset. It’s these people that are responsible, although it’s Trump who will be responsible in the tail end. I am asking him to get rid of McMaster. I will be the first one to call our president out when I think he’s crossed the line.”

Luke heads back to the anti-Trump side for an alternative perspective, he speaks with a gentleman who is wearing a black cape, Jesse Jackson for President pin, and a red eye mask.

Luke asks him why he is at the protest, the masked man responds by saying “There are 193 countries on the planet and this is the worst one.”

Luke “Why is it the worst one?”

Masked Man, “Which country causes the most destruction to the planet and to America, than the United States of America?” Luke comments, “Well if you looks at pollution it is the U.S. the military does produce a lot of pollution.”

Masked Man, “What about the metal monster cars.”

Luke, “What would you say is your biggest problem with Donald Trump, if there was one issue that was important enough.”

Masked Man, “Actually it’s not really against, its sort of sympathetic, the man has an extreme medical problem, every indication is that he’s addicted to cocaine and it’s making him wild and mad and he’s not responsible. Aside from the meat and the alcohol, that he’s a cocaine addict, it’s an excellent excuse for him to get off, what else explains his behavior.”

Luke comments afterwards, “That may not have been the fairest guy to interview. I want to talk to more people to try an get a coherent answer as to why they want to impeach Trump.“

He then interviews another person in a pink hat, who says “I am out here because Donald Trump is a threat to this country and the world.”

Luke, “What do you think the biggest issue you have with Donald Trump, that you think he should be impeached for?”

Pink Hat, “He colluded with Vladimir Putin to become president and he is an unstable narcissist who is incompetent and has no qualifications to be president and I do not believe he won the election fairly.”

Luke, “When you look at Trumps foreign policy, he looks very aggressive towards Russia especially in Syria. Does it worry you that the moves he is making with Saudi Arabia and Israel against Syria and Russia.”

Pink Hat, “Well, it would take awhile for me to explain, but yes I am very unnerved about what he is doing in foreign policy. Not just Russia but also he has been selling us out to China he has been selling us out to the Saudis, he is conducting foreign policy for hire. His son-in-law’s company was basically selling Visa’s to rich Chinese people at the same time that he is deporting working undocumented people, he is selling immigration access to the rich.”

Luke says, “He has also been colluding with Saudi Arabia having donated 100 million dollars to his daughter after a major weapons deal, do you believe the Russian collusion with Putin is really a legitimate reason to impeach him though?”

Pink Hat, “I think that after Robert Mueller releases his report with all of the evidence it will be enough to initiate something.”

Luke returns to the Trump side of the protests, “Let’s see if they are going to stand behind him no matter what, or call him out for some of the mistakes he has made as President.”

Luke spots, a man carrying a Polish flag and introduces himself, Luke asks “Why did you come out here to support Donald Trump?”

Polish Flag Man, “I voted for him obviously, but today there were reports that there would be riots, that there would be a group of Antifa who are basically the communists kids trying to destroy everything, so when I heard they could riot and cause damage to the cities across the country, I’m not having that. Even though I disagree with the anti-Trump people, I disagree with Antifa a hell of a lot more… They don’t want to listen to anybody, even if you mildly disagree with them.”

Luke, “Are there any policies of Trumps that you feel disappointed in?”

Polish Flag Man, “At the moment not really, I was really hoping they would take care of health care though, that has been a severe problem for this country and you see the effects of it on a lot of people. The conservatives have had eight years to come up with a solution and now they are in conflict and can’t come up with something, you guys had all this time…”

Luke, “Are you concerned about him aligning with a group of anarchist and communists, the Kurds inside of Syria in order to fight the Syrian government?

Polish Flag Man, “That was an action of his that I did not really agree with, to attack Assad, especially over that chemical attack, there is conflict about what happened. I wasn’t in support of that, we see the pattern in taking down countries like these and taking down their leaders and the substitution for that will become ISIS. He understands why Putin is aligning with Assad to keep the greater evil out…. I was hoping we could focus on ourselves and fix stuff within.”

Luke, “I know a lot of people like to shift the blame on to McMaster but Trump is the one that appointed him. McMaster is hungry for war with Russia, while Flynn wasn’t, he was kicked out. I think unfairly on some levels and now he has a very pro war guy. They released a memo a couple of days ago saying they will strike Syria again if they use chemical weapons.”

Polish Flag Man, “I completely disagree with that policy, God I hope Trump doesn’t do something stupid… like that.”

Luke speaks with another young man named Tommy, Tommy says “He is just here to protect America, and to protect freedom of speech. These people want to completely change it into some sort of hybrid between communism and fascism. We weren’t expecting a riot this is just a way to protect against the potential of a riot.”

A man sporting an Uncle Sam style costume pulls out a large poster of ‘Michael Moore as Uncle Sam’ that says “I Want You For the Army of Comedy”.

He then he says “We need to control ourselves, because we can not win against ignorance. Let’s dress up, let’s make a mockery of this mockery, this is what we need to do guys. The question is not the answer ever.” to which a anti-trump activist asks “Your with Vladimir Putin right?” to which the man replies, “Pointing at Trump tower, he is with Vladimir Putin, I am very much not with Vladimir Putin.

Luke asks, “Do you think the Russian ties are the main reason for impeachment?”

Army of Comedy man, “I think the Russian ties have got to make us think about impeachment but we also need to think about that, we have eliminated freedom of the press by selectively lying about truths. We are discrediting people by race and religion, the last time that happened was under Adolph Hitler. Everything is a false truth to discredit people that say the truth.”

Luke asks a woman, “What is the most impeachable offense that Trump has committed?”

She says, “The most recent one is his tirades against Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, he has been stalking them, threatened them, harassed them and tried to extort them by threatening them with publishing bad news on them in the National Inquirer. If you or I did that we would be locked up for stalking.”

Luke “Do you think the tweets are the most important aspect of having him impeached?”

She says, “I would say there is a lot of evidence of his crimes in his tweets, the tweeting itself is not a crime, but there is your evidence, right there.”

Luke “A lot of people on the right make the argument that the media has been attacking him unfairly in some instances, whether appropriate or inappropriate what do you make of that argument?”

She replies “I never like to bring up Obama, but the truth is no president has ever been more harassed by media in general than Barrack Obama. How did he take it, like a man, this guy (Trump) takes it like a 12 year old boy that needs to wear diapers. He’s sick….”

Luke “What do you think of Trump’s foreign policies?”

She replies, “What foreign policy, to collude with our enemies, and disrespect our allies, that foreign policy?”

Luke discusses how Trump appears to be making foreign policy moves against Syria and Russia.

She responds, “I feel like that is just a distraction, he is looking to start a war, he is a psycho with the nuclear codes in his pocket and it’s very very dangerous.”

Luke, “who do you think the war would be between.”

She responds, “Probably North Korea…. I don’t know what news your listening to but I listen to the mainstream news. MSNBC and CNN”

Luke, “Do you think they are honest?”

She replies, “Yes I do actually, and him calling them fake news is a complete lie.”

Luke, “By the way, this is the same mainstream media that told us there was weapons of destruction in Iraq.”

She replies, “Well they were fed that information from the Bush Administration and Hillary Clinton believed it to. They often repeat the news as it’s fed, they didn’t lie, when you repeat something that’s given to you as truth from a reliable source such as United States Intel, it’s the U.S. Intel that’s the lie.”

Luke wraps up the video by commenting:

Not too much logic there, I can’t believe people still believe the mainstream media or the Russian collusion delusion, these things will only lead to more war and more Balkanization. These things are a big distraction put on my the mainstream media and that’s coming from a fair perspective because I think there are legitimate reasons to criticize Donald Trump. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. We keep seeing the continuation of the foreign policy that was done by Bush and Obama now with Trump. Sadly most of the anti-Trump activists do not seem to be aware of this, many of the Trump supporters however are. They are also hopeful and optimistic about Trump’s policies which can be a fault when you give someone the full benefit of the doubt. These conversations need to happen more often so we can understand each others sides.

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The post An Honest Conversation with Pro Trump and Anti-Trump Supporters on Impeachment Day appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/honest-conversation-pro-trump-anti-trump-supporters-impeachment-day/