I cannot let last week pass without noting how the Trump administration has become the most dangerous and incompetent administration in the history of America. It is shocking that it reacted in the manner that it did after what happened. Yes, shocking.
The news of last week mainly seemed to focus on whether he called African countries, Haiti and another one or two a sh*t hole, or as it seems some suggest a sh*t house, as if that is different. It’s not the swearing that is so awful; it’s the man’s attitude toward other people. How come Africa is on the sh*t list? Have we forgotten in our early days we had no problem bringing in people from that continent? Doing so made many very wealthy but not those who were brought here.
At one time I’m sure in America it was said that the Irish, Italian, German, Jewish, Baltic, Eastern Europeans, and Asian people came from those types of places. Of course, those who stated that share the same mentality exhibited by President Trump wondering why these countries are sending, as a young Jewish woman appropriately named Lazarus wrote late in the 19th century, their: “tired, . . . poor, . . . huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of [their] teeming shore.”
Lazarus was a poet who worked among these immigrants and saw their plight. She innately grasped the meaning of the nation. Unlike Trump with his attempts to keep people out she wrote that America urged the ancient lands to: “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.” And as history has shown it is the best thing America has done to “lift my lamp beside the golden door!” and welcome these illiterate people unable to survive in their homelands due to poverty and oppression. And don’t thing for one minute that some of these people were not perceived as threats to our country. There were Russian, German and Italian anarchists who came here using our freedoms to try to undermine our government. Even so, in those days, we did not let fear rule us. We knew for everyone of the anarchist bent there were thousands others not so inclined.
If the nativists from the American Party in the 1840s, also known as the Know Nothings, to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, to the Tea Party Evangelicals Trump supporters of the present time had their way I certainly would not be alive nor would many of you who read this. How is it then that having been afforded the opportunity to be here you want to deprive others equally worthy, or as some would say equally unworthy, to come and add to what it is to be an American. It is much too late to define the term American as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant for many others have bled and died for this country for them not to be considered equal Americans.
Then as you must expect with this president there were reports last week of him having entered into non disclosure agreements with two women he had affairs with while his wife, the now first lady, was pregnant or shortly after she gave birth. That is of course nothing that is surprising considering his sordid history and foul mouth. So nothing much was made of it.
His supporters still clinging to the belief he is worthy to hold the office of the president of the United States . His one major act in the first year of the presidency was to provide a huge tax cut to the rich, to corporations, and a tiny one to others while causing a deficit according to the most recent estimates of two trillion dollars. Ask yourself, would you recommend him to a child as a role model?
But neither of those events are the one I speak about when talking of the gross incompetence and dangerousness of the Administration. (Continued tomorrow.)
I love you, Matt, but you’re out of your mind on this one. Trump has outperformed Obama by every possible metric. Our government is corrupt as hell. We could not keep going as we have – where there is a system of gov’t for the ruling class and then a pit for the rest of us. Loved your coverage of Bulger and I’m sure you’re a talented attorney, but you’ve been a Boston leftist for too long. I, too, was a progressive liberal, but the lies got to be too much for common sense to survive under that label.
Kristi:
Thanks but I must say I don’t have a leftist bone in my body. Have you seen how our standing in the world has plummeted? Have you seen the increase in uninsured? Weren’t you ever proud the the USA stood for freedom throughout the world.
You do know the Trump tax bill pushes the majority of the people down while giving great wealth to the rulers. You do understand Trump’s didain for us common folk. You going to his first anniversary party? Tickets only a hundred grand each.Save me a seat.
Truth be told the average folk are being played by the rich rulers. They demanded the tax bill after giving huge amounts to the GOP. (Dems also have to please big money types.) They got their money back in spades.
Step back and ask yourself do you want clean air, clean water, a better environment, national parks that are accessible, safe cars, better education, a slow down in global warming, a society of caring about less fortunate people. That’s what I want and never thought it made me a leftist. Trump doesn’t care about any of that but is working against those goals.
Thanks for writing. Don’t abandon your roots.
And I have some bad news for a lot of the blue-collar, living-hand-to-mouth, good people of this country that voted for Trump; You might be conservative but you ain’t republicans. You might think you are but you are not. Your job was to cast your vote for Trump and that is all that is wanted from you. The republican party, especially Trump and his ever changing council, do not like you one bit. They wouldn’t hang with you if you put a gun barrel in their mouths. They molded a campaign to impress you and get your vote. That worked and now it is sayonara. See you in four years.
Honest:
Couldn’t agree more that is why the GOP is so against education.
As Matt often reminds us we all gather here
because we are all walking each other home.
We are only as high as the people we hang
out with. They can ony take us to where
their consciousness is.
So to the extent we can remain open
everyone is our teacher.
Trump is a great teacher.
He knows exactly where we keep
our private stash of issues we need to
work on in our great journey of becoming
and being.
ugh ugh….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dIZLaDgE0V4
Emma Lazarus’s immigration policy worked in the 19th Century when we need “wretched refuse” from “shithole countries” like China and Ireland to build the railroads, homestead the West and work in the mills and factories. There was no AFDC, Food Stamps, EBT cards, Medicaid or SSI for alcoholics or mentally ill, so they cost little unless they worked. It’s not racist to want smart immigration -immigrants who bring something to the table rather than become a burden. “Chain immigration ” originally required an immigrant’s sponsor to guarantee the immigrant would not become a public charge. Terrorists were not a problem except for the odd Fenian or anarchist and the latter were deported, if caught. Trump is a crude pig and I would not be interested in spending time in his company. Obama is a pleasant, witty guy and I’d love to play a game of golf with him. Why do people think that somehow makes Obama’s immigration policy better?
Sorry. Obama gets most of the credit for the economy. After all, only months ago, Trump was claiming the economic figures were phony. Why should anyone start believing him now? Even now, a year into Trump, Americans give Obama the credit for a strong economy by a margin of 49 percent to 40 percent, according to a recent poll.
Face it. We got eight years of solid economic recovery and growth, thanks to Obama’s hard work and skillful stewardship.
On the other hand, one year of clown college at the White House has produced chaos, confusion, a 36 percent staff turnover, hundreds of cheeseburger wrappers and a sky-high cable TV bill. I’m also afraid that dropping $138,000 in hush money on a porn star named Stormy Daniels doesn’t exactly make the president a role model for our children. (Spending more time on the golf course than you do with your own son doesn’t help, either)
By the way, did somebody say Hillary gave us “Libya” without even mentioning Bush’s little invasion of Iraq? Oh well. Libya, by the way, wasn’t a war. (However, Republicans should feel free to scream”Benghazi” over and over again if that makes them feel better.)
It’s also pretty clear that your boy Trump is a racist. Why else would he be dying to get immigrants from Norway, even though these people are bound to be advocates of universal health care and just about every other liberal cause you can imagine?
Now, I don’t think like Trump, but if I were to think like the president, I’d have to be wondering why we could get eight years of effective and dignified leadership from a black man and — so far — nothing but slobbering failure from his white male successor. But I prefer to see Trump as a loser in his own right. I don’t believe race has anything do that with it, and that Trump would be the same train wreck if he was black, Hispanic , Asian or Martian.
Afterthought: Even as we battle it out over Trump, I hope John Connolly realizes that he’s not a forgotten man, and that we’re still pulling for him to get out of prison pronto.
DanC, it’s tough for John not to feel like a forgotten man with nothing going
his way. He does know that a lot of people are pulling and praying for him.
Believe me there isn’t a day that goes by that people and John are trying to
get to somebody for solid help . There are things going on still in n the Florida
courts one coming up tomorrow lets hope it leads to something. I believe what John needs is a Judge with guts or somebody as powerful as one would demand a certain type of investigation?? If anybody knows a highly
recognized reporter that would sit down with John and just listen to him they
would be amazed what he has to say. However that is hard to do with the Florida rules in regards to John. But it can be done. Matt sorry to get of the
subject
Prison rules
No problem. It is important to keep pushing the issue of this great injustice.
Your article is nonsense. It reads like a losers lament.Sen. Graham four years ago said we couldn’t take in all the people coming over the Southern border. He said they were coming from hell holes. Those countries were hell holes. Essentially the same comment Trump made. But those with Trump Derangement Syndrome can’t see straight and feign offense at whatever he says. Hillary said she supported open borders. Most Americans don’t. Open borders is a bad idea. A skilled based immigration policy is preferable to the present chaotic system. We’ve taken in tens of millions of immigrants recently. How many more should we take? Do we need more Tsarnaevs, Saipovs, Bam Texieras and Tashfeen Maliks? 2. We didn’t bring the Africans to this continent. 90% of those taken to America were brought by the English in the 18th century. before we were a nation. We, the Americans, ended slavery and liberated the Africans. FDR and the Democrats enslaved millions of Eastern Europeans after WW2. Reagan and the Republicans liberated them. 3. What troubles the anti Trump types is that the economy is growing, the market is up 40% helping a hundred million Americans, real estate values are rising, ISIS is defeated, jobs created, Black unemployment is at historic lows, and Trump is hitting a home run. By any objective measure Happy days are here again
Don’t you understand the arguments you make were the same made against others 100 years ago.
The ideological basis of the Republic is not a saccharin snippet from a poem donated to an auction. It is to be found in the Constitution and the laws enacted to flesh it out. At no time has the goal been to become a garbage dump for the planet. The Immigration lottery is daft. Every immigrant should be admitted on the principle that a positive answer should be given to the question: Ask not what America can do for you, ask what you can do for America.
As for Trump being vulgar, it is no big deal. I am old enough to remember Truman. His “endearing” salty language outstripped Trump’s but the fawning press and LOYAL opposition were too discrete and loving of the nation to try to demagogue the point.
But, today, a Senator like Durbin, with partisan malice in his heart and with the full knowledge that his action will damage the United States, can, without shame, rush to a podium to spew forth hatred of a man who had the audacity to win an election against his political sweetheart. Kindly take note that Durbin’s revelation is disputed and may well be fabricated. He has a record that does not preclude the latter.
“There were reports last week of him having entered into non disclosure agreements…” Salacious gossip. Probably false. Guttersniping. Shame. Arguendo, what of it? How does it compare to Wilson’s contracting syphilis while in office, JFK’s coercing a 19 year old girl into performing fellatio on a pal in the White House swimming pool or FDR’s coercing young sailors into performing homosexual acts as part of a sting in Newport while he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy? The word “most” does not apply to Trump in such prurient matters.
Clinton, she who decorated the White House Christmas tree with anatomically correct figurines for the edification of children, financed a scurrilous dossier accusing Trump perverted acts in a Moscow hotel. Think it through and Trump can be seen bluestocking compared to Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy or Hillary and the verbal equivalent of Truman.
As for competence. Wilson gave America WWI; Roosevelt, WWII; Truman, Korea; Kennedy, Vietnam: and Hillary, Libya. Trump is giving the nation prosperity.
Trump was elected President in November, 2016. Get over it.
Tadzio. Just compare Trump to Trump. F**k all those other maroons. Who cares about them? Just use HIM as an example. Wilson? Don’t even start with him. How about Jackson? Its the past. Concentrate on now.
Know why I put up with all that crap he does? Because he is human. I said I wouldn’t judge him till his first State Of The Union speech. But you know what? I think it might be better to wait until his term is over. Ya see folks, love the bastid or hate him, he’s the Prez. I think he is an idiot and I haven’t liked him one tiny bit for thirty years, but he might just do something good while serving his four years. I don’t know why people defend him. There is no need to. You said it.
“Trump was elected President in November, 2016. Get over it.”
Love him for the enemies he has made.