Raser's Edge: Say hello to the Evangelicans

As everyone knows by now, the magazine Christianity Today said Trump should be thrown out of office since he does not exactly fit the description of a person of high moral, ethical and religious standards. It has also become apparent that a large number of evangelicals have joined the president in slamming Christianity Today and have pledged their loyalty to their new "chosen one," (you know, the one prominent evangelicals and politicians have declared "ordained by God") and adoration of Trump has taken precedence over what used to be considered Christian doctrine and beliefs. I am therefore suggesting a new label for the phony Christians devoted to Trump: Evangelicans. This more accurately denotes them as devoted to political ideologies than religious ones. I understand that the Evangelicans have already begun wishing each other "Merry Trumpmas."

Raser's Edge: I usually never use internet letter slang but... I am LOL

IL Trumpo has made the American Presidency the laughing stock of Europe. He spent his NATO reality show performance essentially saying if the allies did not do want he wanted in their NATO spending and commitments, he would punish them with trade sanctions. And then when it became clear they were laughing at him behind his flabby back, he got into a hissy fit snit and ran home where he is facing impeachment for being a lying, conniving, incompetent president. What is really cute is that he is being impeached for inviting a foreign power to meddle in our elections when he meddles in the policies of foreign allies' governments (oh, not only allies but China) by telling them what they must do or he--you know, the "chosen one"--will punish them. LOL! Really, really LOL!

Trump says the dumbest things: Cutting through the wall

When it was reported that smugglers were cutting through his wall with a battery powered saw available in hardware stores he said:  “We have a very powerful wall…but no matter how powerful you can cut through anything.  In all fairness, you know cutting is one thing, but it is easily fixed.  One of the reasons we did it the way we did it…it’s very easily fixed…we put the chunk back in.  But we have a very powerful wall.  But you can cut through any wall.”

Raser’s Edge:  The hating game

Donald Trump tweeted: “Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals.”

The Supreme Court is now considering whether Donald Trump can rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy allowing children of illegal immigrants who were brought here when very young to remain.  Aside from the inherent cruelty of Trump’s move, it is entirely in keeping in his methods for manipulating and deluding his base supporters.

What the American people should realize is that Trump is using the same technique Hitler and Mussolini used to rise to and maintain power in the 1920s—the vilification of specific groups of people.  The principle is easily understood.  You brand a group or groups of people as undesirable, repulsive and, above all, as a threat to you and your way of life.  You stir up hatred and fear, and your masses blindly cheer you on.

Trump has used it since the day he announced his presidential run.  Remember, Mexicans are sending “rapists,” “gang members,” “murderers” and “very tough, hardened criminals.”  Muslims want to kill you.  Immigrants and people on welfare are taking all your hard-earned money.  Be scared all you good, loyal, upstanding, patriotic Americans.

Of the 700,000 or so DACA recipients no doubt some of them might be a bit undesirable but that would also apply to some people attending Trump rallies.  The vast majority of DACA recipients have been vetted, work, go to college, pay taxes and behave just like average Americans.

But they have now been targeted in Trump’s Nazi/Fascist style use of hatred and denigration of a group of people to manipulate and control his enabling, gullible, emotional base.  It is exactly the same thing Hitler and Mussolini did to obtain power a century ago.  The Trumpists cry the Democrats want to establish socialism in America.  That will never happen. The real threat is the new Trumpist Republican party’s slide into Fascism.

Raser’s Edge:  My legal opinion

Admittedly, I am not a lawyer.  However, I did play one on stage as the assistant prosecutor in the courtroom drama Inherit the Wind.  So I believe I am just as qualified as anyone else to render my opinion on the interminable cable news discussions regarding Trump’s impeachment.

The case has been exhaustively discussed in public, so much so that any kind of official proceedings are completely superfluous and unnecessary. Everybody has already established their arguments.

Trump has emphatically made his case:  “It’s a hoax, a witch hunt, I did nothing wrong, no collusion, no quid pro quo, the fake news press is out to get me, the Democrats are traitors, you never had it so good.”  The Congressional Republicans are squirming to be as indecisively deceive as they can be without offending Trump who scares them to death.  “Well, maybe it wasn’t such a good thing he said on the phone call, but it really is not an impeachable offence, he really did not mean quid pro quo, he was just misinterpreted…”  Then some of his biggest sycophants, Rudolph Giuliani and Steven Mnuchin, go out in public and say, “Yeah, he did the quid pro quo but so what we do stuff like that all the time. No big deal.”

Then the Congressional Democrats say: “We are just doing what is right for the American public, carrying out our constitutional duty to attack, disparage and discredit an obnoxious Republican sleaze ball president.  That’s what the American people want and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”

The point is, everyone in America who is actually wasting time following this thing has already arrived at a conclusion.  If you think Trump is the most despicable person to ever hold the office of president, you have already decided he should be impeached, removed from office and burned at the stake.  If you think he was appointed by God, the greatest president in the history of America and a stable genius, you have already decided all Congressional democrats should be charged with treason and burned at the stake.

So, in conclusion, my considered legal opinion is:  Everybody in America has already decided whether Trump is a saint or a schmuck, so why waste time with impeachment proceedings?  Since the Senators will not impeach Trump anyway, maybe they should direct their attention to the hundreds of bills passed by the house that McConnell refuses to bring to a vote and really get on with what the American public believes their elected officials were sent to Washington to do.  

Join me in protesting! Protect Florida’s borders!

Donald Trump just announced he is changing his official residence from New York to Florida. We must stop this. I urge you to contact our two Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and demand that they take immediate action to protect Florida’s borders. Even though they are soppy Republican Trump enablers tell them they could demonstrate they really put Florida first by keeping out undesirable residents like Trump. As an indication of Trump’s undesirability, New York Governor Andrew Como said when hearing Trump was leaving his state, “good riddance.

Raser’s Edge: Back in the 1950s, Art Linkletter did a very popular sketch called “Kids say the Darndest Things.” I am now launching a political observation called, “Trump says the Dumbest Things.” This is the first one:

Trump says the dumbest things: Here is what Trump said about justifying his pulling out of Syria and abandoning America’s Kurdish allies: “And as somebody wrote in a very, very powerful article today, they didn’t help us in the Second World War. They didn’t help us with Normandy, as an example.” One, that “somebody” was not identified, and two, there is no logical connection as to why Kurds not helping us in WW2 on the Normandy invasion has anything to do with us abandoning them now. Please note: We have over 50,000 troops stationed in Japan. We have about 35,000 of our American troops stationed in Germany. So, Mr. Trump, how did the Japanese and Germans help us with Normandy?

Raser’s Edge: Cancer and Climate Change


Let’s say you walked into your doctor’s office to get the results of your PET scan and he said, “All the scientific evidence from the test indicates you have cancer.  We suggest we immediately begin an aggressive treatment of intensive chemotherapy and daily radiation treatments.”


What’s the alternative you might ask?  “Well, we can do nothing and we’ll take another scan in three months to see if anything changes.”  Of course you would say, let’s begin treatment now!   I know, because that’s exactly what happened to me seven years ago.
  

When something is not really up close and personal you tend to blow it off.  Because the vast number of Americans do not experience the direct effects of climate change in their daily lives they do not perceive any threat.   Yes we all see the hysterical hurricane tv news reports and frightening footage of flooding.  I live in Florida and just evacuated for hurricane Dorian.  It was a dud.  So you think, oh well, hurricanes have hit Florida for centuries and we survive.


Then the news cycle moves on, Trump and the Republicans tell you climate change is a “hoax,” the vast number of scientific data is wrong and by eliminating pollutions regulations and developing clean energy you are destroying jobs and the economy.   Of course, Trump (and me for that matter) will not be around when the climate change hits the fan.  So if you are told you have cancer, would you begin treatment now, or take another test later on to see if you do really have the cancer problem?


Today thousands of young people are demonstrating throughout the world for something to be done about climate change NOW.  Why?  Because they are smart enough to know they and their children will be around when climate change will have had a serious enough effect to threaten their lives.  And waiting to see what happens is not a good idea.


Hopefully, in this case, the little children shall lead us.

Raser’s Edge:  The great undecider!


Do you remember the lyrics of that song: “First you say you do, and then you don’t.  Then you say you will, and then you won’t?”  That could be Donald Trump’s theme song.


The latest, of course, was his trip to Denmark which was scheduled and abruptly cancelled because he wanted to buy Greenland and was told it wasn’t for sale.  The Danes thought it was some kind of joke and when Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen told him it was not for sale he got into a hissy fit, stamped his feet and cancelled the trip.  She was “nasty,” Trump whined.  How dare a woman be nasty to him! 


After the El Paso and Dayton mass killings Trump declared he was in favor of more thorough background checks.  But after the NRA gave him his orders, he backed off that too.


You may recall he was going to slap more tariffs on China, but when someone pointed out to him that the tariffs would increase the price of a lot of Chinese goods that people buy for Christmas he delayed those.   We’re still not sure if he understands that China does not pay the tariffs, the importer does and usually passes them on to the consumer. 
  

You may also recall when Iran shot down an American drone, Trump was going to launch a military action.  Then, he claims, someone told him at the last minute 150 civilians could be killed, so the great passionate humanitarian called off the attack.


These episodes will be brushed off by his loyal worshippers (as a side note, did you hear him declare himself as the “chosen one” to deal with China?) but his behavior is not being brushed off by the rest of the world.  Regardless of how much he brags about it, Trump is not causing the world to respect America more.   The leaders of our allies simply have better manners and understand concepts like diplomacy and decorum.   Like many Americans they are just tolerating him, hoping he will be gone next year and American will really become great again.

Raser’s Edge:  When is enough, enough?

On August 1, I posted a declaration by the top clergymen at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in which they stated, “We must boldly stand witness against the bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us, especially when it comes from the highest offices of this nation.”

Two days later a white nationalist entered a Wal-Mart in El Paso killed 22 people and wounded 26.

The Washington clergymen clearly stated that the president of the United States is hurling “bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia” at Americans.  Patrick Crusius,  the El Paso shooter, reinforced this impression by echoing Donald Trump In his hate filled “manifesto.”

The Washington clergymen asked in their essay:  “After two years of President Trump’s words and actions, when will Americans have enough?”  I am asking the same thing. I am also asking, when are Trump sycophants  going to realize and admit that he is poisoning America with his hate filled rhetoric.

If I post an item critical of Trump, the Trumpists respond with vehement attacks against me and passionate support for him.  When I posted the clergymen’s’ comments on Trump, not one of them reacted.  Not one. The sound of silence.  You can decide whether it is hypocrisy or psychological denial, or just cowardice to stand up to a despot.

Hopefully by November 2020 Americans will show that they have had enough and vote the worst president in American history out of office.

https://cathedral.org/have-we-no-decency-a-response-to-president-trump.html

Raser’s Edge:  What’s the problem?

Imposing background checks for purchasing a gun should be a piece if cake.  The mechanisms for doing them has been in place for decades.  In 1985 the Boy Scouts of America required background checks for all adult leaders.  It was nationwide, not by state.

About the same time the Civil Air Patrol—the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary— applied the background check rule to adults who were in squadrons with cadets.  I was in one of those squadrons so I know first hand how it worked.  I had to fill out a form with name, address, date and place of birth, social security number AND I had to go to the local police station and be fingerprinted.  All that was submitted to the FBI.

I would assume that over the last 34 years the FBI’s checking capability has become exceedingly more efficient.  It would not be that difficult to require a similar procedure for purchasing guns.  I’m sure there are electronic ways of collecting fingerprints at the gun store counter.
 
So what’s the problem?  Trump is always bragging about how much power he has.  He has essentially been governing by executive order.  So, if he is really serious about requiring background checks for gun purchases, couldn’t he just issue another executive order?  But, just like Moscow Mitch and the other spineless Republicans in congress, he probably won’t have the guts to cross the NRA.

Raser’s Edge: Observation Deck—Put your money where your values are

On Sunday, May 19, America’s richest Afro-American, Robert E. Smith gave the commencement address at Morehouse College and announced that he would pay off all the 2019 graduates’ college debt.  The estimated cost to Smith would be about $40 million.

On Wednesday, May 15, it was announced that Robert Mnuchen, the father of Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchen, purchased at auction a Jeff Koons 3-foot tall sculpture of a stainless steel rabbit for $91 million.   It was then revealed that Robert Mnuchen, who is an art dealer, purchased the sculpture for Steve Cohen, a hedge fund billionaire.

Both Robert E. Smith and Steve Cohen certainly benefited from Trump’s generous tax cut gift to the very wealthy. However…  Smith will spend about $40 million to help college students start their adult life in the world without debt.  Cohen spent $91 million to buy a metal rabbit.  Draw your own conclusions.

Raser’s Edge:  Trumpadoodle Dandies!

A couple years ago, during the Trump presidential campaign, I coined the term “Trumpadoodle” to define Trump supporters who believed, without question, anything and everything he said.  I was specifically referring to those grinning, Midwestern white people at his rallies who would scream “lock her up” and “build that wall” on cue. You know, the “base” that foisted upon us a totally unqualified and inept President. But then I extended it to all Trump supporters when I realized people I had previously considered reasonable and intelligent had suddenly been transformed into blithering Trump sycophants.

As a reaction, one of my right wing Facebook friends went absolutely ballistic over the term, ranting how dare I call Trump supporters such a thing?  So, being a nice guy, I stopped using it.  Since then, he and his right winger-dinger pals have consistently referred to me as a “libtard,” “libturd,” “Demorat,” “D-rat,” and other less than complimentary epithets like “such an ass”.  So I am reviving my term “Trumpadoodle.” Actually, compared to the sometimes vulgar terms he and his right winger pals have dumped on me, I consider “Trumpadoodles” a rather cute, funny and benign way of referring to Trump’s not very intellectual supporters.

You might think there is some connection with Yankee Doodle, a song which most Americans think is patriotic.  For those of you with an intellectual bent (not Trumpadoodles, of course) you might be interested in something about that song.  Google it and you will find this fact.  The word “doodle” may be derived from the Low German “dodel” which meant “fool” or “simpleton.”  So, it may have an appropriate application when applied to Trump supporters.

I predict my Trumpadoodle friends will react by saying I am spreading “hatred.”  Their definition of hatred is when it is directed at Trump.  Mia colpa.  I do express hatred towards Trump whom I consider a despicable human being and an incompetent president.  However, I do not “hate” anybody, much less my fellow Americans.  I would just like to point out, that these Trumpadoodle friends crank out dozens of hate memes each week vilifying Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans, welfare recipients and Democrats.  

Full disclosure and honesty:  Last minute!  Just before posting this I thought I would do a google check.  And much to my chagrin, I learned I was not alone in coining this phrase.  I found this in an online dictionary: Trumpadoodle  Someone whom blindly follows Donald Trump, often with inappropriate enthusiasm.  Oh well, I still think it is a nice, fuzzy way to refer to Trump sycophants.