The cruelty of Donald Trump and the right

The right-wing has become the party of mean-spirited, gratuitous, pointless cruelty.

The GOP and its followers seem to believe they can get ahead only by stomping on weaker people. And Donald Trump is their shameful, shameless leader.

Trump advances health protection rollback for transgender people
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Friday moved forward with a rule that rolls back health care protections for transgender people, even as the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job.

The rule from the Department of Health and Human Services was published in the Federal Register, the official record of the executive branch, with an effective date of Aug. 18.

That will set off a barrage of lawsuits from gay rights and women’s groups. It also signals to religious and social conservatives in President Donald Trump’s political base that the administration remains committed to their causes as the president pursues his reelection.

Why? No reason. Allowing transgender people to have healthcare doesn’t hurt anyone. Taking way their healthcare is just something cruel we do because we have the power to do it.

The bigger question is, “Why do the religious people on the right support this cruelty?” Is this what their religion teaches?

Trump says he’ll try again to stop DACA program
‘Enhanced papers’ will be filed after high court decision
By Michael D. Shear and Emily Cochrane The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will once again attempt to end a program designed to protect young immigrants from deportation, one day after the Supreme Court said his earlier efforts to do so were arbitrary and improper.

In September 2017, Trump moved to terminate the Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, making good on a campaign promise in which he called the program an illegal executive amnesty.

On Thursday, the high court said the administration had not followed the rules required to end the program, allowing it to remain in place for now.

In a tweet Friday morning, Trump vowed to try again.

“We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfill the Supreme Court’s ruling & request of yesterday,” Trump wrote.

Within moments, one of Trump’s top immigration officials at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that the administration is eager to terminate the protections for the young immigrants in a way that will pass muster with the court.

DACA allows about 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to live and work legally without the threat of immediate deportation.

Surveys show most Americans — including a majority of Republicans — support allowing the young immigrants, also known as Dreamers, to stay.

But the president’s hard-line advisers, including Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration agenda, have urged the president to follow through on his promise to his conservative supporters.

Why deport them? No reason. It’s just right-wing, Trumpian cruelty.

These young “Dreamers” already have been assimilated into American life. More than assimilated, they are Americans in every way except for a piece of paper. They know no other country but America.

They cause no harm; they are of great benefit to us. They will help build America’s future. They, not Trump, are the ones who will “make America great, again.”

But Trump and his “religious” followers want to deport them, not for any purpose, but simply because they can.

Cruelty is the only way Trump knows.

The psychologist in the Trump family speaks
By Michael D’Antonio, Wed June 17, 2020

Born into a fabulously wealthy family of seemingly continuous intrigues, betrayals and conflicts, Mary L. Trump did not seek the spotlight. She earned a master’s in literature at Columbia and a doctorate in psychology at Adelphi University.

These disciplines seem to have prepared her to understand and reveal deep truths in a way that would make the family’s secret-keepers freak out.

In late July Dr. Trump will publish a book, ominously titled, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

Three and a half years into the Trump era, endless words have been spent illustrating the chaotic and cruel personality that can, to cite just one example, schedule a huge ego-gratifying rally in the middle of a deadly pandemic caused by a viciously contagious virus.

Mary Trump has the goods. She’s the daughter of the President’s eldest sibling, Fred Trump Jr., who may have been the original victim of Donald Trump’s bullying.

She recounts in unsparing detail the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided (Fred Jr.) when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.

When Fred Jr. finally ceded first position among the heirs to the family business, he became an airline pilot. Donald mocked his profession. “What’s the difference between what you do,” he would ask, “and driving a bus?”

The cruelty didn’t stop with Fred Jr.’s death in 1981. Later, when Fred Trump Sr. died, heirs learned that his will distributed his estate among his children and their offspring “other than my son Fred C. Trump Jr.”

The children of Fred Jr. sued, noting that an earlier will, written prior to Fred Sr. being diagnosed with dementia, had granted them proper shares.

Soon after the suit was filed, Donald changed a health insurance policy, taking away coverage for a disabled infant born to Fred’s own son, Fred III.

It all is in keeping with a man and a party who try to take healthcare away from the poor, with their repeated efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act, while offering nothing in return.

The suit was settled and the baby was again insured, but 16 years later, when he was running for president, Donald Trump seemingly had no regrets.

For those who know the family lore, the circle is completed by a little anecdote published in Harry Hurt III’s 1993 book “Lost Tycoon.” Hurt reports overhearing Fred Trump Sr. talking about his son Donald and his wife Mary flying off together.

“I hope their plane crashes,” said Fred, adding that then “all my problems will be solved.”

The President’s sister, Maryanne Barry shared a story about when Donald was a young man and turned a game of catch with Barry’s seven year-old son into a cruel contest.

“Donald kept throwing it faster and faster, harder and harder, until I hear this crack and the ball hit David’s head. Donald had to beat the seven year-old.”

This cold-hearted nature followed him into his political career. As president, Donald Trump has treated the children of asylum-seeking immigrants with great cruelty, separating them from their parents and locking them in cages.

During our current pandemic, with over 116,000 dead in the US and more succumbing every hour, he has been so cavalier as to advocate dangerous unproven cures.

Of course, Trump’s cruelty could not manifest itself unless he had the tacit and public approval of the Republican Party and his “Base.”

They all must accept responsibility for the monster they have enabled.

Donald Trump’s passion for cruelty
October 3, 2017, Author Henry Giroux

Donald Trump seems addicted to violence. It shapes his language, politics and policies. He revels in a public discourse that threatens, humiliates and bullies.

He has used language as a weapon to humiliate women, a reporter with a disability, Pope Francis and any political opponent who criticizes him.

He has publicly humiliated members of his own cabinet and party, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a terminally ill John McCain, not to mention the insults and lies he perpetrated against former FBI Director James Comey after firing him.

Trump has humiliated world leaders with insulting and belittling language. He not only insulted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the war-like moniker “Rocket Man,” he appeared before the United Nations and blithely threatened to address the nuclear standoff with North Korea by wiping out its 25 million inhabitants.

He has attacked the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico for pleading for help in the aftermath of a hurricane that has devastated the island and left many Puerto Ricans without homes or drinking water.

He has emboldened and tacitly supported the violent actions of white supremacists, and during the presidential campaign encouraged right-wing thugs to attack dissenters — especially people of colour.

He stated that he would pay the legal costs of a supporter who attacked a black protester.

During his presidential campaign, he endorsed state torture and pandered to the spectacle of violence that his adoring crowds treated like theatre as they shouted and screamed for more.

‘Lock her up’ The endless call at his rallies to “lock her up” was more than an attack on Hillary Clinton; he endorsed the manufacture of a police state where the call to law and order become the foundation for Trump’s descent into authoritarianism.

On a policy level, he has instituted directives to remilitarize the police by providing them with all manner of Army surplus weapons — especially those local police forces dealing with issues of racism and poverty.

He actually endorsed and condoned police brutality while addressing a crowd of police officers in Long Island, New York, this summer.

He appears to relish representations of violence, suggesting on one occasion that it’s a good way to deal with the “fake news” media.

He tweeted an edited video showing him body-slamming and punching a man with the CNN logo superimposed on his head during a wrestling match.

And recently, he retweeted an edited video from an anti-Semite’s account that showed Trump driving a golf ball into the back of Hillary Clinton’s head.

Trump’s domestic policies instill fear
The violence has found its way into Trump’s domestic policies, which bear the weight of a form of domestic terrorism — policies that instill in specific populations fear through intimidation and coercion.

Trump’s call to deport 800,000 individuals brought to the United States as illegal immigrants through no intention of their own — and who know no other country than the U.S. — reflects more than a savage act of white nationalism.

There’s also Trump’s pardon of the vile Joe Arpaio, the disgraced former Arizona sheriff and notorious racist who was renowned by white supremacists and bigots for his hatred of undocumented immigrants and his abuse and mistreatment of prisoners.

This growing culture of cruelty offers support for a society of violence in the United States. Before Trump’s election, that society resided on the margins of power. Now it’s at the centre.

Trump’s disregard for human life is evident in a range of policies. They include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, slashing jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency, gutting teen pregnancy prevention programs and ending funds to fight white supremacy and other hate groups.

Budget punishes poor children
At the same time, Trump has called for a US$52 billion increase in the military budget while arguing for months in favour of doing away with Obamacare and leaving tens of millions of Americans without health coverage.

He’s added a new dimension of cruelty to the policies that affect children, especially the poor. His proposed 2018 budget features draconian cuts in programs that benefit poor children.

Trump supports cutting food stamp programs(SNAP) to the tune of US$193 billion; slashing US$610 billion over 10 years from Medicaid, which aids 37 million children; chopping US$5.8 billion from the budget of the Children’s Health Insurance Program which serves nine million kids; defunding public schools by US$9.2 billion; and eliminating a number of community-assisted programs for the poor and young people.

Unless Americans can begin to address these issues as part of a broader discourse committed to resisting the growing authoritarianism in the United States, the plague of mass violence will continue — and the once-shining promise of American democracy will become nothing more than a relic of history.

No cruelty is too dark for Trump and his acolytes, no insult too petty, no lie too outrageous.

The GOP once declared itself the party of family values. What family values does Trump represent?

And finally, this from the Baptist News:

Our national curse: the cruel convergence of Trump’s presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic,
OPINION: WENDELL GRIFFEN | APRIL 20, 2020

In a July 2018 blog post, I likened Donald Trump to King Joffrey Lannister, a villainous character from the award-winning HBO “Game of Thrones” series.

I quoted this line spoken by Tyrion Lannister regarding the king, his nephew:

“We’ve had vicious kings and we’ve had idiot kings, but I don’t know if we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot for a king.”

I declared that Donald Trump is a vicious idiot, concluding the essay with these words:

“The unpleasant truth is that Donald Trump’s presidency is both a curse on the United States and a curse from the United States on the wider world.

Thanks to the election of 2016, the security of our nation, sanity of our world, strength of U.S. armed forces and our NATO allies, stability of our economy, tranquility of our society, and health and welfare of our population are threatened by one reality: the President of the United States is a vicious idiot.

“We are cursed. Welcome to the ‘new normal.’”

So where is Trump’s “Base”? I am shocked that people,  most of whom claim to be dedicated to the teachings of Christ, could support a man so unchristian.

Cruelty to the poor. Cruelty to children. Cruelty to women. Cruelty to the sick and lame. Cruelty to the weak. Cruelty to the non-white. Cruelty to the foreign. Cruelty to everyone who doesn’t kneel before him and give him praise. Even cruelty to the departed.

Trump has no limits.

You Trump supporters: No rationale can excuse your hypocrisy. No heaven will welcome you.  No amount of praying can erase the cruel evil you enable.

You priests: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

FOR SHAME.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
2. Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics. Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10.Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY