Daffy Donald Alienates Our Friends and Embraces Our Enemies

Trump DrawngThere was Donald Duck and Daffy Duck and now we have Daffy Donald. Who would ever think a cartoon figure would be in charge of the American policy. Thanks to millions of begrudgers America has entered into the comic book era.

Daffy Donald (DD) recent budget proposed major cuts in food stamps and other programs to help the poor. He wants to cut the taxes on the rich. Meanwhile we were treated to Melania-Antoinette’s response not with the verbal “let them eat cake” but its equivalent when she took her first outing in the Sicilian sunshine in a colorful floral applique jacket by Dolce & Gabbana that sells for $51,000.

She and her husband have the attitude of Leona Helmsley:“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people do.” Is Melania-Antoinette taking over as “the queen of the mean”? Trump said about Leona, “Leona always liked having me around. . . . I was always asked to be [at her parties] and was always given a seat, usually right near her.”

Ah, yes, we’ve put a couple of beauties into the White House. They flaunt their wealth while working hard with the Republicans to take away from the poorest among us (afflicted by poverty by their state of mind). Strangely they are hugely popular among the Evangelical Christians who apparently like the old WASPs suggest that favor in God’s eyes can be judged by the amount of money a person accumulates.  The secret of the Evangelicals, and some other Christians, love for the president is not so much that they believe he lives a Christian life (even they know better). It is that he sticks his fingers in the eyes of others who they do not like. How they consider themselves Christians escapes me but I console myself thinking as G.K. Chesteron said: “the trouble with Christianity is that it has never been tried.”  

IMG_20170528_200711We’re now at the point with DD has returned to from a trip abroad where he showed his fondness for people who sucked up to him and his disdain for our long-term allies.  Why is he Daffy? During the trip he spoke these words: “We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a better future for us all.”

 Our shared interests and values with our European allies are well know but Trump was not speaking to them. He was talking to the Saudis and other Arabs in the region where Christians are routinely executed and prohibited from building churches or openly worshiping. He was in a nation that bars Christians from going into the holy parts of it. He was talking to people who demean women and treat them as lesser people.

Then he went to Europe to where the people share the values that made this country into what it is: after all the people who founded it were Europeans who came here with the ideas developed in those nations. There he lectured the people. There he scolded them over money. There, like some who write comments here, he acted as if NATO had no part in America’s defense against the Soviet Union as if had we not had bases in NATO countries the Soviets would have stayed their hands on grabbing more countries than Hungary or Czechoslovakia.

He fails to openly commit America to its obligation under NATO article 5 as every president since Truman had done. He spurns the call for backing the Paris initiative on Global Warning a subject all recent American presidents and the rest of the world have backed. He went over among the free European leaders as well as Putin would have done. It seemed he was reading from a script handed to him by Putin.

That he has alienated our good European allies is clear. Angela Merkel had announced that Europe must plan to go it alone without consideration of American desires. She said the former relationship was “over to a certain extent. This is what I have experienced in the last few days.” 

DD is giving us new allies: China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.  I suppose I shouldn’t call that daffy. There must be a worse word to explain it.

53 Comments

  1. The Irish propensity for internecine blood-letting continues. In the early 90’s I met a man who was a leader of the “Free Derry” partition of the city. At that time he had one son murdered by the IRA and another confined to Long Kesh for life as an IRA soldier. Go figure.

  2. I would rather have former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (RIP) as President than Donald Trump.

    • With Ford you had a coke snorting, booze drinking, irrational, womanizing, ignorant, out of touch, egotistical, half-wit. With Trump you get all of those things but without the coke and the booze.

      Now where is that little smiley thing so I can make sure all the creodonts on here know its a joke?

  3. Kinzer’s book is a good read. Exposes the CIA’s wrongdoing in the 50s. Kinzers comments on the media coverage of the Syrian civil war are noteworthy. A total misrepresentation of what is really happening.

  4. In Boston lore, is the story of those charitable Yankee Bostonians who sent ships laden with food to Ireland during the Famine. Some said British bureaucratic bungling caused some relief ships to halt off-shore Cork, and the food rotted. But here’s the edifying true story of the most famous ship that got through:

    http://www.history.com/news/the-warship-of-peace-that-fed-famine-stricken-ireland

    Remember the good people!

    • Robert Erskine Childers’ yacht Asgard is a more recent and famous Boston boat with an Irish connection. Childers received the yacht as a wedding present from his wife Molly’s father, Dr Hamilton Osgood, who arranged for a fine 28-ton yacht, Asgard, to be built for the couple.

      “In autumn 1903 Childers had travelled to the United States as part of a reciprocal visit between the Honourable Artillery Company of London and at the end of the official visit he elected to remain and explore New England on a hired motor cycle. One day by chance the machine broke down outside the Beacon Hill home of Dr Hamilton Osgood, a prominent physician in the city. Childers diffidently knocked to borrow a spanner and was invited in for dinner and introduced to Dr Osgood’s younger daughter, Mary Alden Osgood. The well-read Republican heiress and Childers found each other congenial company. Dr Osgood organised the rest of Childers’ stay, with much time shared with Molly, and they were married at Boston’s Trinity Church on 5 January 1904.”

      “In June 1914, The Asgard was used to smuggle a cargo of 900 Mauser Model 1871 rifles and 29,000 black powder cartridges to the Irish Volunteers movement at the fishing village of Howth, County Dublin. (The Asgard was acquired by the Irish government as a sail training vessel in 1961, stored on dry land in the yard of Kilmainham Gaol in 1979, and is now exhibited at The National Museum of Ireland.

      Childers was executed by Eamon de Valera, but that’s another story.

  5. Is it because the upper-crust WASPS of Harvard cringed at the thought that a bog-Irishman was now a member of the Harvard Corporation by virtue of his office and could tool around the “Yard” in his decked-out carriage?

    • I have heard it said that they hated Joe Kennedy because he amassed more money in several decades than they did in several generations. I’m sure there is a lot more to it than that.

    • John King McDonald

      I’m sure they preferred him tooling around the ” Yard ” at Danbury . Your offset of Yard in quotes indicates that you might agree. He stuck in their craw in a major, major way !

  6. John King McDonald

    ” There is an unlimited fardel of stories about Harvard’s collisions with Curley .”

    Above is a sentence from that Crimson article . Fardel is a word Hamlet readers recognize as describing a burden . Its common usage though defines a fardel as a bundle . An ” unlimited ” bundle of stories seems awkward and redundant . It is more likely, giving the benefit of doubt, that the more obscure ” burden ” was indicated in a clever word play illustrating just how illimitably burdensome James Michael Curley was to bear for Harvard and their ilk.

    There was mutual antagonism . There was also mutual respect . That’s the real paradox of Boston Irish and Boston Anglo-Saxon relations . It must always be kept in mind .

    • Didn’t the antagonism outweigh the respect between the WASP and the Irish?

      I lived on the estate of E.O. Baker for nine years. He was a Harvard class of 1917 guy and claimed to be about a tenth generation American. He and many of his cronies hated the Irish and never said a single positive word about any of them. Apes, the called them. Hod carrying Niggers, they all agreed. They hated Jews, Blacks, Italians and Irish and really only cared for their own.

      • John King McDonald

        When I was sixteen I remember this old South End monied WASP remarking to a friend who introduced us that it was more or less to my detriment that I was Irish . This was in 1975. So, I will not argue a good point on your part . I do note though that antagonism and respect are dualities. To approach one does not necessarily preclude the other . I can hate someone and yet still respect them ; I can respect a person and yet find elements of their personality antagonistic to my own. The Empire connection between the Irish and English pre- dates the Boston connection. It is a Family Affair .

        • “I do note though that antagonism and respect are dualities. To approach one does not necessarily preclude the other . I can hate someone and yet still respect them ; I can respect a person and yet find elements of their personality antagonistic to my own.”

          So true. In the heat of debate someone will say to me, “I respect your opinion, but I disagree with it.” No. You respect my right to have an opinion. If I disagree with something someone says I do not respect their opinion. But I certainly can respect them.

          That’s like this horrible, catch-all phrase that has infected our world; “I guess we will have to agree to disagree.” Again, no. We can drop the subject but leave the word agree out of it. Its saying, “OK. We hate each other’s guts and can’t find common ground, but lets play make-up and make it look like we agree on something.” Just end the conversation or get on with the debate.

      • Abe,

        I’d say good will predominated and triumphed, even early on. Boston College is a prime example. (see below).

        There were bigots and there was an unwelcoming No Nothing Party (1840s-1850s) during the height of the Great Famine, but many Yankees employed and assisted the Irish. We forget the good and linger on the bad apples. We look at large families crammed into slums and forget the hell holes they came from: lands beset by Famine, War, Persecution. At least they got a fair shake in America, and the opportunity to rise, and the vast majority within a generation or two did. True of all ethnic groups!

        Remember: There is good and bad in all of us and in all peoples. The ancient animosities dissipate in the weight of the overall goodness of most folks. Peace even came to Northern Ireland.

        Boston College, founded in 1863, was opposed by some No-Nothing-types who called the Jesuits’ quest for a small parcel of land in the South End, an inordinate land grab, a “colossal” grasp for power. But scores of powerful Yankees supported the Jesuits, and about 20 of the most prominent families (Peabodys, Arnolds, Lawrences as I remember the names) were pro-active in assisting BC get its start in Boston.

        The “haters” were few and far between, even back then.

        Look forward to the day when old world ethnic antagonisms and religious bigotries end. Leave then back in the Old World.

        Politics is another matter. I look back with fondness on the good old days when liberals and conservatives (Hitchens and Buckley, for example) simply disagreed. Today, it seems, the MSM and Academia inculcates “hatred” and “intolerance” for opposing views.

        Anyway, thanks to all for the good food for thought.

  7. John King McDonald

    Screw the bookmarks. Google : The Harvard History Of James Michael Curley

  8. John King McDonald

    http://www.thecrimson.com/ article/1958/11/22 the-harvard-history-of-james-m/

    And how the Empire struck back ! Harvard called him a freebooter . They hated him . He was the brilliant diamond in the center of the Crown .

  9. Curley’s guys threatened my uncle Ed when he was running for either the council or the rep. and couldn’t help Curley. “I’m in a tough fight and have no time for your campaign”. Ed won, but Curley must not have vindictive because he helped another relation to be made a fire captain, even though he was eighth on the list. (In typical Curley fashion he decided the department needed eight more Captains.)

    • John King McDonald

      The Curley Effect : The Economics Of Shaping The Electorate … Harvard historians Edward L.Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer

  10. John King McDonald

    Ordered I’D DO IT AGAIN a few hours ago off Amazon . I noted that the book has a plain sea green fabric cover. It looks as if the title is proud of the book in a thin , golden stencil. It is compelling, that sea green . It is humble, that thread of golden stencil .

    • Speaking of reading real books, I am about to settle in with ‘The Brothers,’ by Stephen Kinzer. Are you familiar with it? I’m working on a condo owned by an old Langley guy that recommended it. He hated both Dulles brothers and thought I might like discovering what spectacular monsters ruled our intelligence community in those Cold War days.

      • John King McDonald

        Speaking of real books , Abe . Try HARLOT’S GHOST by Norman Mailer . James Jesus Angleton was the model for Harlot . JJ was the OSS guy who was with the Italian Commies when they snarfed a fleeing Benito and girlfriend Clara Petacci out of a retreating troop convoy,. placed them together facing a gas station wall and shot them in the backs of their heads . To shoot them this way was considered the condign ignoble form of execution. Angleton was not revealed to have officially been there for several decades. The book has a lot of intriguing material on DCI Allen Dulles . His brother, John Foster Dulles was, of course , Eisenhower’s closest adviser .

  11. Somewhere I have an autographed copy of James Michael Curley’s book “I’d Do It Again – Autobiography of James Michael Curley,” given to me by the last of his children, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest who died in 1992.

    But as I recall, Curley wrote that book to refute much of what he thought was wrong in Dineen’s book, despite Dineen’s book being subtitled ‘An authorized biography.’

    Perhaps the final words are in a book I’ve yet to read:

    Bulger, William M. “James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences.” Commonwealth Editions 2009.

    • John King McDonald

      That’s the One . The Commonwealth edition . Knew it was out there. That has got to be fascinating reading. I will find out , perhaps , what Billy’s take is on how Curley took him . Tx !

  12. John King McDonald

    ★ William, Spelled … Dineen .. Joseph F. … Let us give Grandma her propers . She was a stickler for details like that .

  13. Curley and Trump can be compared thusly: Both were hated by the Establishment (Proper Bostonians, the Roosevelts, the Kennedy’s and Honey Fitz); both were vilified by the Press; both were supported by the hoi polloi, “the deplorables”, the salt of the earth; and both could be defiant, rascally, intemperate; and non-conventional
    Curley was Honey Fitz’s archrival (Fitz, the Kennedy’s grandfather).

    “The Kennedys and Fitzgeralds hated Curley, but secretly helped him win the mayoral race so the much coveted Congressional seat would open up. (for young JFK elected 1947). “ from the book: The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster.

    Here is an interesting brief bio of Curley written in 1959:

    http://www.americanheritage.com/content/last-bosses

    A quote from above:
    “After Curley got out of Danbury, he had complained to a Boston newspaperman named Joseph Dinneen that the press had always been unfair to him. Dinneen then offered to write Curley’s life story honestly and objectively as Curley told it to him. Curley agreed, and with his collaboration The Purple Shamrock was written. It appeared in 1949. Curley was proud of the book at the time and used to give away autographed copies to City Hall visitors.”

    Another quote from the 1959 bio:
    “Democratic House Leader John W. McCormack circulated a petition for Curley’s release signed by all the Massachusetts delegation in Washington except Senator Kennedy. Finally after five months President Truman pardoned Curley—because, the President said later, “he was innocent.”

    “He was innocent!”

    You could spend a lifetime studying the ever fascinating life and times of James Michael Curley. (1874-1958). His parents were born in Galway, Ireland, in the midst of the Irish Famine (1846-52)and came to America when she was 12 and he 14. They met in Boston. What momentous events unfurled before their and their son’s eyes!

    • John King McDonald

      Great reflections upon a Great Man , William. You fleshed out the genesis of THE PURPLE SHAMROCK ; I was unaware of the the intimate bond that Curley and Dineen shared right from the get. From my Grandmother’s warm praise of Joe Dineen I knew that she , not given to fulsome praise, sort of idolized him as a young stenographer on the Globe teletype that Dineen filed on daily from Norfolk Superior during a celebrated murder trial of two brothers . Curley and Dineen were tight with each other . You don’t write an apologia for a casual acquaintance. They were each ” Salt Of The Earth ” individuals . Talented, ambitious , tough , and with a bone handled knife in the teeth when it came to filleting the intellectual and moral complacency of the Boston WASPS .

    • What an ironic moment! Curley, who came from poverty and championed poor immigrants, is being compared to Trump, the rotund rich boy who wants to drop a hammer on immigrants. Curley must be turning over in his grave.

  14. Curtis Lemay and Trump during the missles of October. What a scenario.

    • Lemay was my father-in-laws B-29 wing commander on Saipan. Boy, do I have stories.

      Bombs away!!!!!!

  15. Best Curley quote (?) “When I die, bury my mortal remains within the political confines of Boston that I may stay active in politics.”

    • John King McDonald

      Best Curley quote (?) When he described the Anglo Saxons of Boston as ” A strange and stupid race . ”
      That’s some good stuff !

  16. Using cops for caddies. I like it.

  17. She was about to say, “…..and ice cream!” but the blade came down too soon.

    If they only knew. If only.

    Thank you Mister Larsen.

  18. Here’s a salute to all of our veterans on Memorial Day plus one!

    Also, got to say I prefer Angela Merkel to Trump’s new boy toy , King Salman.

  19. “Root, Hog, or, Die” is the title of the second chapter in JMC’s autobiography. Interesting guy, that Curley.

    • Ancient phrase.

      Gov. James Michael Curley Was the Prototype for President Trump

      http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2017/02/10/james-michael-curley-donald-trump/

    • John King McDonald

      Root, hog, or die is popular down in North Carolina also. ” Every knock a boost ! ” was another JMC favorite. Writer Jack Beatty’s THE RASCAL KING is a rightly acclaimed superb Curley bio. Senate President Bulger wrote a Curley bio entitled WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS which I have to acquire. His take on James Michael Curly is one that must be read as authored by a Boston Irish Pol who felt the jig in the floorboards through the bottom of his feet wherever he stood. He was not so much Curley reincarnated as Billy Bulger incarnate. That is their one off charm . Curley’s mom was a cleaning woman. He raised the largely Irish State House contingent of chairwomen off their knees as they polished the Dome’s marble floors . Sure, the graduation was to mops, but the action was symbolic as well as practical. The WASP/ BOSTON IRISH enmity was real. Any Irish politician of the day, especially Curley, understood that .

      Edwin O’Connor’s THE LAST HURRAH was a plagiarized version of Boston Globe reporter Joe Dineen’s THE PURPLE SHAMROCK according to my Grandmother ,who worked with Joe on the Millen brothers’ murder trial in Dedham in the 40s. I recommend it highly. I gave Counselor Finnerty a copy I happened across in the Brattle Street Bookshop in 2004. He has a very comprehensive sense of the Boston Irish and their political sons. Grandmother was perhaps a little tough on O”Connor. I believe Tom would agree that each book has its merits . THE PURPLE SHAMROCK is not perhaps as sentimental. But, I digress .

      • John King McDonald

        * Charwomen

      • John King McDonald

        ★WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS : My Life In Politics ….. This is the title of Senator Bulger’s autobiography, not WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS . I gather he talks a good deal about James Michael Curley , but it is not a Curley bio. I am not surprised that I remembered the title the way I did. I confess to feeling a great empathy for this man. He led an exemplary life. How does he go to the FBI and say ” How do I get my reputation back now ?” He is an extremely tough nut . He keeps it all together, but he suffers. I am sure of it . And he never really had it coming.

  20. Fake new!

    Marie-Antoinette probably did not say “let them eat cake”:

    https://www.britannica.com/demystified/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake

    “What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun!
    Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us.” – Ecclesisastes 1:9-10

  21. Reagan said the closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program. Long after their mission is over they strive to exist. NATO falls into this category. It’s prime mission was to keep the Soviets out of Western Europe. In 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Red army went home it’s mission was accomplished. Yet it didn’t expire. It changed it’s character from a defensive alliance to an aggressor. It was never attacked by Serbia or Libya yet it waged aggressive war against them, which is a war crime. Today it is totally passe. Three years ago Sec of Defense Bob Gates gave his last address to NATO in Brussels. He told them it was unfair for them to not pay their agreed contributions. That the American taxpayers wouldn’t put up with this arrangement for much longer. He was praised for his candor. Trump is criticized for giving the same speech. America needs NATO to the same extent they need the Bolivian army. 2. Fantastic Lies was an ESPN program about the Duke Lacrosse case. It exposed the whole case as a fabrication. It showed the media frenzy and media wilding attendant thereto.. The players were presumed guilty by every race baiter and crackpot in the land. The press promoted the false claim. It lasted over a year until the truth came out that it never happened. A totally manufactured story. It closely resembles the Russia-collusion story.

  22. Observation

    The “All 17 Intelligence Agencies Concluded That Russia Is Responsible” Myth
    JEFFREY CARR
    May 29, 2017

    The “All 17 Intelligence Agencies Concluded That Russia Is Responsible” Myth that originated with Hilary Clinton is wrong, has always been wrong, and was confirmed as wrong by former ODNI James Clapper in his May 8, 2017 testimony before the Senate Subcommittee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election [1].
    SENATOR AL FRANKEN: “The Intelligence Communities [sic] concluded, all 17 of them, that Russia interfered with the election.”
    GENERAL JAMES CLAPPER: “Senator, as I pointed out in my statement, there were only three agencies directly involved in the assessment (CIA, NSA, FBI).
    SENATOR AL FRANKEN: “But all 17 signed on.”
    GENERAL JAMES CLAPPER: “We didn’t go through the process. It was a special situation because of the time limit, and I knew who could contribute to it and it was a conscious judgment to restrict it to those three.”
    Further, all anyone would have to do is look at the list of 17 agencies [2] and then ask yourself, did the U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence Agency really have sources and methods that would provide data relevant to an investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. election?
    What about the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence which concerns itself with nuclear weapons and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – did they drop what they were doing to evaluate Crowdstrike’s report on the DNC hack? I’m guessing no.
    Or maybe the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence who has its hands full with money laundering by drug cartels and tracking terrorists through the global financial network decided to put all that on hold while they throw every available resource at determining if Guccifer 2.0 was just pretending to be Romanian but was really Russian!
    Obviously not.
    Finally, everyone on this list who has any background in working with a U.S. or foreign intelligence agency will agree with me when I say that assessments are called assessments because the facts aren’t known. When dealing with so many unknowns, there is never universal agreement among analysts at the same agency let alone different agencies.
    NOTES:
    [1] https://www.c-span.org/video/?427577-1/white-house-warned-general-flynn-compromised&live&start=8277 at the 02:18:27 mark.
    [2] https://www.dni.gov/index.php/what-we-do/members-of-the-ic

    • Ok so 3 major ones did….at a certain point it gets redundant. What is your point? 3….17….1? 1 was Trump’s argument during the campaign was all it took for him to declare HRC unfit for office. All while he was being investigated behind the scenes.

  23. Don’t examine Saudiyya through the lens of Western values. It distorts your argument. Better to leave go of all modern presupposition, and, unencumbered by the weight of Western secular philosophy, cross into the realm of the theo-centric universal, a parallel consciousness.

    • Like in Iran. Best to consider Saudi Arabia through Iranian theo-centrism.

      • Yes, like in Iran, but, Sunni, rather, than, Shia. The Shia are much more philosophical in their approach to Islam. They retained Kalam, religious argument, which is condemned as anathema by the Sunni schools of fiqh. Ibn Wahhab, founder of the predominant sect in Saudiyya, was an extreme orthopraxist iconoclast . He sought to strip away all the obscuring accretions history had added to Allah’s original message to humanity. For modern Salafists, hewing to the purified behavioral paradigm is the road to Salvation. They pattern themselves on the example of the Prophet and his Sahaba.

  24. In the early to mid 20th century there were Boston Irish politicians who prospered by exploiting a racial divide between the Yankees and the Irish. James Michael Himself was the most notable. The hatred and the justification for it was was two sided. It was hate given for hate received.

    Today, most of society has moved on. New alliances reflect new, on the ground, realities. Matt, you have not. You are mired in the hates of your grandparents. Oddly you are wedded to the daftest heirs of Puritan fanaticism – Harvard multicult fruitcakes. But the Irish produced plethora of Gypo Nolans. It kept them down for nearly a thousand years.

    Trump is on the side of your folk. Wake up.

  25. Skipped over the prose..was saddened as I thought this might have been a tribute to the great Mel Blanc whose birthday we celebrate today…have a great summer!

  26. Matt:

    1. It’s funny how the same facts are reported differently. Those suffering from TDS and the DTs (Delirium Trumpens) cast stones at Melania for “flaunting her wealth.” Others noted she dressed just like Jackie Kennedy, stylishly and modestly.

    2. But, we all remember how often the liberals criticized Jackie and the Kennedys for flaunting their wealth aboard those yachts off Hyannis Port? Or criticized John Kerry and Theresa Heinz for flaunting their wealth! Remember the hue and outcry about the Clintons, public servants, accumulating $150,000,000 in wealth? Or the Clintons and Obama receiving $400,000 speaking fees? Greedy Republicans!

    3. As far as the poor, the Democrats’ Great Welfare State entrenched poverty in America, broke up families, dramatically increased the illegitimacy rate, and fostered dependency on government.

    4. When Bill Clinton passed Welfare Reform he was condemned; “Shame” the liberals shouted.

    5.When Reagan reformed Welfare: NYT: “Reagan’s War on Poverty”, simultaneously the Heritage Foundation proclaimed: “Reagan’s Bold Welfare Initiative Offers Hope for the Poor.”

    6. When Bush cut HUD funding, the press responded: “ the White House is trying to gut federal programs for the poorest Americans to make way for tax cuts . . .through all those years the poverty rate fluctuated between about 13% (better at end of Reagan) and 15% (highest in Obama, then decreasing by the end of his Presidency.)

    7. Obama redefined the poor, expanding some Medicaid benefits to those 400% above the poverty line, essentially making some middle class persons eligible. Trump’s proposals are cutting the rate of growth in Medicaid funding.

    8. You know the study that showed 34% of Republicans give $1,000 or more to charity each year, and only 18% of Democrats do? Greedy Republicans!

    9. Neither Evangelical Christians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Congregationalist, nor any other main stream Christian denomination measures worth by wealth. Nor do WASPS. I think your referring to an archaic interpretation of Calvinism. WASP is a term referring to the top 1% of white anglo-saxon Protestants, 99% of whom share the same economic strata as most white Americans. I don’t understand your negativity toward Evangelicals and WASPS. Anglo-Saxon Protestants were the foremost ethnic-religious group in founding and building the United States, and they laid the foundation for all those disparate groups that followed to prosper.

    10. Europe once shared American Judaeo-Christian values; Some say, “No longer! Europe is wandering into a moral wasteland, rejecting Christianity.” At least Sweden has rediscovered capitalism.

    11. Trump is right: (a) NATO members must pay their fair share and (b) The US should not suffer a trade deficit with the European Union. Trump’s tweet: ““We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.”

    12. Angela Merkel correctly perceives that Europe must stand on its own two feet: “We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands — naturally in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain, as good neighbors, also with Russia and other countries.”

  27. Would you conclude that based upon what you have read to this point has President Trumps behavior both prior to election and since that time been grounds legally to be impeached as President of the United States of America?