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Sights From the "Unite Against Hate" Counter Protest Against "Unite the Right" - August 12, 2018

8/13/2018

Thousands crowded into heavily guarded Lafayette Park to form the "Unite Against Hate" counter protest against the "Unite the Right" Protest. Unite the Right - an alt-right group representing the KKK, Nazis, and other White Supremacist groups had announced plans to rally in front of the White House. They anticipated 100-400 participants.

The Unite-The-Right protest ended up with fewer than 30 protesters, who left quickly when confronted with the huge counter protest and an afternoon thunderstorm.

Below are some images from the Unite Against Hate (counter protest) view.

Many counter protesters began their wait several hours before the anticipated arrival of the Unite-The -Right protest.

Very strong police protection and use of barricades to separate protesters from counter protesters

The Kremlin Annex – Smoldering Ember or Ready-Fuse?The Kremlin Annex – Smoldering Ember or Ready-Fuse?

8/11/2018

Protesters at the "Kremlin Annex" (aka The White House) - signs, entertainment, persistence

The Kremlin Annex is a nightly protest right outside the White House gates. Organized and promoted by Adam Parkhomenko, a 32-year-old former National Field Director for the Democratic National Committee. He pushed for a rally to underscore Trump’s treason after Helsinki. Trump shamed himself and all Americans by supplicating himself before Vladimir Putin. Parkhomenko encouraged outraged Americans to “greet” Trump on his return by making lots of noise. The simple goal to disrupt Trump and whoever else might be prowling around in the White House continues as the protest now is in its third week of nightly, noisy, yet peaceful protests. As with other forms of the “resistance”, it is difficult to tell if the larger goal of influencing Trump, Congress, and/or voters is achieved.

There have been many marches and protests throughout the county since January 21, 2017 (the day after Trump’s inauguration.) In DC, marches have addressed women’s issues, the assault on science, concerns of the LTGB community, gun control, healthcare, tax inequities, and….more. While the marches vary somewhat in topic, degree of organization and turn-out, they are generally single-day events, often held along with “sister” marches throughout the country and the world. The “Kremlin-Annex” occupy protests are different as they are focused entirely on Trump’s groveling before Putin.

Each night, emcee Yaddiya (aka Justin Rose) leads a free-wheeling program as protesters assemble to chant, yell, and also be entertained by local street performers and occasional well-recognized celebrities. Protesters focus on Trump’s devotion to Russia with signs proclaiming him a traitor, calls of “Trea-son; Trea-son, Trea-son”, and tee shirts with Cyrillic text.

Trump’s Plan If Democrats Don’t Take the House of Representatives

8/10/2018

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin - Helsinki July 2018

Most people cannot wrap their heads around the possibility that Trump and the Republican Party will, if able, transform this country’s democracy into another form of government. Just as most people could not fathom Trump being a Russian asset, they continue to justify his actions as idiosyncratic or personal deficiencies rather than purposeful plans. Of course, Helsinki forced some people to reconsider Trump’s assault on NATO and the European Alliance as strategic acts in Putin’s service. Still, too many people continue to frame his actions as only personal deficiencies rather acts in service of a more strategic purpose.

Many people consider Trump’s lies, accusations of “fake news,” and attacks on institutions like the FBI to be public relations ploys. According to these people, Trump merely intends to mute the criminal allegations Robert Mueller’s investigation will undoubtedly produce. But it is possible that Trump, his coterie, and the Republican Party are implementing a plan to end our democracy as we know it.

While our form of representative democracy is at one end of a continuum and authoritarianism is at the other end, there is a least one other in the middle. Delegative democracy, a transitional form, maintains all the trappings of a representative democracy except separation of powers. Government officials, including the President, may be elected, but the courts and Congress yield or delegate their power to the President. And although the President, may only serve his or her elected term, they exercise nearly complete power while in office. Some conservative scholars have already claimed the Constitution nearly envisions this form of government under the legal rubric of the “unitary executive.”

Trump Wants Russia to Interfere in Our Elections Again

8/5/2018

Anxious appearing Donald Trump; gloating appearing Vladimir Putin - Helsinki July 2018

Trump won’t confront Putin about Russia’s continuing interference in U.S. elections. Following Trump’s spineless collaboration with Putin in Helsinki, some of the Main Stream Media (MSM) reluctantly entertained the notion that Trump was either a willing or unwilling asset of the Russians. That insight lasted about two weeks. The MSM is again pretending that Trump’s failure to provide leadership in thwarting an attack on the linchpin of our democracy is related to his dubious electoral victory in 2016. According to the MSM, Trump fears admitting to Russia’s on-going attack against the U.S. electoral process because such an admission would further threaten the legitimacy of his election.

Even if we assume that Trump is not a Russian asset, there is no reason to believe that Trump is concerned about degrading the legitimacy of his election. By this time no sane person can doubt that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections. Putin’s admission that he wanted Trump to win, confirms the unanimous conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered. Trump’s 2016 election is, in fact, rendered less legitimate by continued Russian interference in 2018.

Dems-The Fight for Democracy Is On: Reject Kavanaugh

8/2/2018

Democrats need to wage a battle to reject Kavanagh for the Supreme Court. However, they make a serious mistake to turn it into a Roe v. Wade battle. Roe v. Wade denied states the right to prevent abortions, although states retain the right to regulate them. Those states that would prevent abortions, but for Roe v. Wade have already regulated access to them so that women face inexorable obstacles in obtaining them. For example, 23 states have regulations that apply to sites where abortions are performed (such as the width of corridors), unnecessary licensing requirements for providers, or restrictive proximity to hospital requirements. Some of these regulations are being litigated and may come before the Supreme Court.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade or the state regulation of abortions to make them virtually impossible to obtain is almost certain to happen. And it is unlikely that Democrats can do anything to protect women’s rights to having this procedure performed. Even if Democrats can prevent Kavanaugh from being confirmed, Trump has a list of 25 or so Supreme Court candidates, vetted by the conservative Federalist Society, who all share the same views on women’s reproductive rights. Trump will simply submit the next name on the list and we can expect the same results. As is too often true of Democrats, we had our opportunity to effectively advocate for the issue but failed to do so. This fight is not the 2018 fight. If we wanted to protect the reproductive rights of women we should have done it in 2016.

Trump’s Support May Be Eroding

7/30/2018

It has become an article of faith, either lamented or celebrated, to observe that Trump’s supporters are irreversibly bound to him. No matter what Trump does, doesn’t do, or has done, most people marvel at how loyal his voters remain. His support remains nationally at about 40 percent approval, with some ups and downs, and at about a steadfast 88 percent approval among Republicans.

For most of 18 or so months that Trump has been in office, prognosticators have found one sign or another that his supporters are finally breaking away. After Trump announced that the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville were as good as the those protesting them, some observers predicted Trump’s supporters would break away. They didn’t. When Democrats running for office in Georgia, Virginia, and Alabama showed surprising electoral strength, pundits again predicted Trump’s eroding strength. But Trump’s support bounced back. Indeed, some critics claimed Democratic voters lost heart. By the end of 2017 as the White House seemed in a state of perpetual chaos and Republican politicians announced their early retirement, onlookers once again predicted the awakening of Trump voters. But alas, his supporters did not retreat.

Some commentators are once again predicting the erosion of support for Trump following the quickening pace of a tangible investigation by Robert Mueller; the burgeoning legal fallout of Trump’s sexual escapades; the scenes as horrific as those occurring at foreign concentration camps of kids being torn from their parents; and images of a U.S. President kowtowing to a Russian President at Helsinki. Other analysts warn us that Trump supporters will not leave him. Trump lovers, like all lovers, have emotional as well as logical reasons for their devotion.

This is not the only time in history some people have marveled at the illogical persistence or stubbornness of supporters. During WWII the German population suffered severe bombing from the Allies. Yet, many Germans did not quiver nor lose morale and commitment. After the war social scientists, flabbergasted at the steadfastness of the German population, studied how the severity of bombings affected morale. They found that the impact of bombing had to be measured in terms of what psychologically affected the population rather than the physical extent of bombing. Germans’ resolve dropped when civil services (e.g., lighting, sanitation, transportation) were disrupted.

Berlin after allied bombing

If the same logic applies to Trump voters, then it is unlikely that they will reject him unless his actions disrupt their lives. And the tariff war Trump started may just be the irrational act that is needed. Farmers and blue-collar workers in the mid-West are already being hurt by the war. More of the effects of the tariffs will be felt shortly as the Europeans, Chinese, Canadians, and others retaliate against U.S. goods. U.S. consumers will pay for Trump’s tariffs and Trump support may began to erode.

Helsinki: Trump Kowtows to Putin

7/25/2018

The Main Stream Media has persisted in asking why Trump acts as a wrecking ball against the interests of the U.S. and western democracies. Many people answer this question by citing Trump’s personal characteristics and are willing to believe that he has horrific characteristics such as dementia or drug addiction. Nonetheless, few in the political world were willing to consider the possibility that Trump was either a willing or unwilling Russian agent. Trump’s behavior with the NATO members in Brussels and at the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin has definitively answered this question.

First, due entirely to his decision to hold an unnecessary summit, Trump was demeaned from the beginning. Acceding to Putin, the summit was held on Putin’s home court, Helsinki, 250 miles from Russia. In addition to that, Putin kept Trump waiting for 45 minutes to start the meeting.

Is Donald Trump a Russian Asset?

6/3/2018

Most people have wondered why Donald Trump behaves in such an unorthodox manner. He has, for example, defied the judgement of both U.S. foreign policy community and its closest allies by withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear deal. Cable television pundits pose many explanations – most of which rely on his personal dispositions rather than the external rewards or pressures he may be facing.

Some observers who favor this dispositional basis to explain and perhaps predict his future behavior have suggested that he is acting out of a sycophancy toward authoritarian leaders like Putin. Others have suggested that he is driven by a desire to denigrate Barack Obama’s accomplishments. And still others point to Trump’s lack of self-discipline and maturity as the reason for his behavior.

Mueller Can’t Carry Our Water

3/27/2018

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation is unlikely to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency. Despite the intensity of Progressive voters the Republican House and Senate votes needed to remove Trump are unlikely to be there in either 2018 or 2020.

Democrats will probably win control of the House in 2018. The Democrats need 24 seats to gain control of the House. Since the end of World War II, the President’s party has lost an average of 26 House seats in midterm elections. The lower a President’s approval rating, the more seats his party is likely to lose. Trump’s approval rating is lower than any other U.S. President since the administration of Harry Truman. Further, nearly 40 Republican House members have announced their retirement so far. Republicans thus have the highest number of open seats since 1974. And open seats tend to be more vulnerable to Democratic take over than incumbent Republican seats.

The only way to remove Trump and enablers from office is to vote them out.

The NRA Stand on Banning Assault Rifles Is Phony

2/14/2018

We post this second of two articles about guns in America on a very sad day as a young man killed students in Florida today - marking the eighth school shooting with deaths or injuries in 2018 so far. The earlier article, Gun Rights and the Progressive Movement was posted in January.

The law against machine guns is being thwarted because of easily accessible assault style rifles. Because the U.S. public was fearful of massacres enabled by machine guns, they demanded a law against them. And, in 1934, for the first time in its history, the U.S. passed anti-gun legislation, effectively outlawing machine guns. But now innovative gunsmiths have developed devices that, when coupled with assault style rifles, skirt the law against machine guns. These barely legal guns mimic the sound, feel, and deadliness of machine guns.

As sold in the U.S., assault style rifles are incapable of shooting like a machine gun. A person cannot shoot continuously by holding the trigger down. Instead, he must pull and release the trigger each shot. Hence, these guns are called semi-automatics. The rate at which they can be fired is slower than a machine gun or fully automatic gun.

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