Trump is a Chump

from the editorial desk of Ribbie’s weblog

He’s a chump who seems to have no feeling for people who are struggling – ask the people of Puerto Rico, and the dreamers in limbo, and he has utter contempt for immigrants, refugees, journalists, traditional allies of the U.S., and anyone who opposes him including key Republicans like John McCain.  He is not the President of the United States, but rather a cult-like leader of a small group of xenophobes, white nationalists, billionaires, and undereducated right wing zealots who are vulnerable to propaganda.  Many of the 60 or so million who “voted” for him, did so more out of a hatred for Hillary Clinton, a hatred built on the lies of the right wing media (Fox, the Jim Jones conspiracy nut, and Brietbart) with tons of help from the mainstream media who gave Trump a platform early on and here I’m thinking the MSNBC Morning Joe program.  We now know that he got considerable help from his friends in Russia who used Facebook to sow seeds of dissent among Americans who we can now say definitely were duped, had, played.  Jim Comey, former FBI head also played a key role, perhaps unwittingly, in securing Trump’s “victory”. And even with all the help from the outside, from Wikileaks, the Russian back channels, Republican voter suppression tactics and the like, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. The thing is, Trump has no mandate.  He barely won the electoral college and lost the popular vote.  He is supposed to be the president of all of the people and so far he has been the president of a small base of people who have extreme views that are undemocratic and based on unfounded, ginned-up fears and real hatred.

Trump is a Chump because he and his “expert” advisors – like Steven Miller who is anti-immigrant and a known race baiter and was the key architect of the Muslim travel ban, are now targeting the most vulnerable people on earth, desperate women and children escaping the dangers of their home countries.  They come as refugees, seeking asylum and they are now either being turned away at the border as never before, or they are crossing and being detained and separated – 2,342 kids so far have been separated from their parents and are being housed in what can only be described as cells and cages and sleeping with mylar blankets.  This policy is inhumane and unacceptable and has never been the policy of previous administrations.  Trump is doing this and then gaslighting the public by saying he isn’t doing this, that the Democrats have done this, that they refused to negotiate, that he had no choice but to enforce the law, that only Congress can fix, when this is patently untrue. He is lying to you and to me everyday, by the New York Times count, as many as 6 lies a day.  Once we accept a lie as truth, we are done for as a nation.

Trump is a chump because he has manufactured this border crisis to have a bargaining chip to get ungodly amounts of money for a ridiculous, unnecessary Trump wall.  It’s part of his branding fantasy. He wants you to think, look at all these people coming, see, we need a wall.  Wrong.  This strategy was ill-conceived, morally reprehensible and destined to fail.  If anything, people who once feared immigrants are seeing the images of desperate refugees at the border and the deplorable Trump policy of family separation and having a change of heart.  These are the people Trump wants you to believe are rapists, criminals, and gang members.  This is the flood of humanity that Trump claims that these countries are sending us – “their not sending their best”. They are not sending anyone – these refugees are in fact escaping violence and life-threatening poverty.  These are the very people America should help.  And lest you think immigrants (legal and “illegal”) are prone to committing crime once in the U.S., think again.  Statistics show that immigrants are significantly less likely to be incarcerated as a percentage than people born in the U.S.  And they are not taking jobs away from Americans – in fact, employers are desperate for workers in some sectors such as the hospitality and agriculture industries.  Rather than keep them out, we should be letting them in with open arms.  That’s who were are as people.  We have empathy for the plight of other people, and always have.  We are not a narcissistic psychopathic nation.  We are not a nation all about me, me, me, or the Trump brand.  We are a nation of immigrants and Trump is a chump.

 

Review of Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/269359.Deep_Blues