This is a test to see if the blog is still working

 

Raser’s Edge:  The Republicans’ Nazi Agenda

Do any of you remember that during World War 2 in Germany when the Nazis were in power they encouraged citizens to report their neighbors to the Gestapo for harboring or helping Jews?  Of course, many Germans did that because of their hatred of Jews, or they could profit from taking over a rival Jew’s business.  Now Texas has a law prohibiting abortion after six weeks and has asked any Texan citizen to report not only a woman seeking abortion but anyone, including an Uber driver taking a woman to the clinic to have one.  And if you report the person involved you can get $10,000 in a law suit.  Do you see the similarity?  Now try this.  In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared that any school board that does not comply with his decree that they cannot declare mask mandates in schools will lose funding and the school superintendents will lose their salaries.  Now, fortunately, unlike Nazi Germany, the DeSantis government cannot put you in front of a firing squad for disobeying the government’s (DeSantis’s) edict, BUT, his government can take your money away to punish you which is serious punishment in today’s society.  Think about it.

 This is a test to see if this blog still works.  If it does… I’ll be back!

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.

 Raser's Edge:  Pssst… Hey Don we already have three!

In his ongoing battle with the press in general and CNN in particular Trump recently tweeted:  “Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!”

Our embarrassing president never passes up an opportunity to show just how dumb he is. He obviously does not know the United States already has worldwide networks, three in fact: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and The Armed Forces Network.

As a public service to Trump and his minions who are probably just as dumb about this matter as he is, here is a description of the three.  (My favorite is RFE which was operating when I was a newspaper correspondent in Paris covering NATO.  We all knew it was an arm of the CIA.) 

Voice of America (VOA) is a U.S. government-funded international radio broadcast source which serves as the United States federal government's official institution for non-military, external broadcasting, the largest U.S. international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in more than 40 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its leaders.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government-funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East where it says that "the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed". RFE/RL is a 501(c)(3) corporation supervised by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an agency overseeing all U.S. federal government international broadcasting services.

During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was broadcast to Soviet satellite countries and Radio Liberty (RL) targeted the Soviet Union. RFE was founded as an anti-communist propaganda source in 1949 by the National Committee for a Free Europe. RL was founded two years later and the two organizations merged in 1976. Communist governments frequently sent agents to infiltrate RFE's headquarters, and the KGB regularly jammed its signals. RFE/RL received funds covertly from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until 1972. During RFE's earliest years of existence, the CIA and U.S. Department of State issued broad policy directives, and a system evolved where broadcast policy was determined through negotiation between them and RFE staff.

The American Forces Network (AFN) is the broadcast service operated by the United States Armed Forces' American Forces Radio and Television Service^[1] (AFRTS) for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide. The AFN worldwide radio and television broadcast network serves American service members, Department of Defense and other U.S. government civilians and their families stationed at bases overseas, as well as U.S. Navy ships at sea. AFN broadcasts popular American radio and television programs from the major U.S. networks

Raser’s Edge: Compassion anyone?

As everyone who has been awake over the last week knows, California has been hit with unbelievably devastating forest fires killing scores of people, destroying thousands of homes and tens of thousands of forest lands.

And in typical fashion, our boorish president, rather than extend sympathy and compassion to the thousands of Californians enduring this catastrophe, he tweets: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now or no more Fed payments!” In other words, because he hates California, he has to blame the state and make it a political, rather than compassionate response.
 

Now let’s pose a hypothetical situation. Let’s say I posted this: “On Wednesday, I have to go to Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville for another surgery to remove melanoma from my right lung. Just like the California wild fires, I keep getting these things and this is the third surgery to take another melanoma out of my lungs.” *

Now let’s say one of my Facebook friends (let’s call him Bozo) sent me this reply: “There is no reason for you to keep getting these recurring melanoma events. If you had had better sun exposure management in your youth instead of going to the beach every summer, and if you had not moved to Florida to retire and go to the beach where there is sun, and therefore grossly mismanaged your life, you would not have these problems. The remedy now is no more Fed payments for your Medicare.”

Hopefully, many of you will get my point. I doubt very much that my Trumpist Facebook friends will have any idea what I am talking about.

*This is actually true. I am having my third lung surgery this week.

Raser’s Edge—Observation Deck: What’s in a syndrome?

Right wingers have often diagnosed me as having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) which is defined as “a mock mental disorder coined by supporters of Donald Trump to describe his critics as irrational and unhinged.”

Actually it was originally coined referring to establishment Republicans during the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary but now Trumpists just use if for people they hate.

On the principle that one dumb syndrome deserves another, I am coining “Trump Sycophant Syndrome (TSS).  (I was going to call it “Trump Stupidity Syndrome” but I was afraid that it would offend some Trumpists so much they would hit the delete key.)

TSS is defined as “a real mental disorder that muddles people’s minds so much they believe all his lies, bombast, bragging, and narcissism and share his hatred towards minorities, immigrants and Democrats.”

TSS is not just limited to those grinning white people who go crazy at his rallies and chant hate slogans on cue.  Prominent Republican politicians have also been seriously afflicted.  One of the most serious cases is Ted Cruz.  During the nomination campaign, Trump called him “Lyin’ Ted,” insulted his wife and implied his father had something to do with Kennedy’s assassination.  It is amazing what a reelection campaign and a long nose inserted into a specific orifice will do.  Trump has returned Cruz’s love by calling him “Beautiful Ted.”

I was also going to coin the term “TBSS” which would not have required any explanation.

Raser’s Edge: Trumpists don’t like me because I am so smart

One of the things I contend with all the time from my right-wing Facebook Friends are nasty epithets and comments.  I have been called “such an ass,” “Commie bastard,” “Commie Democrat,” “phony,” “libtard,” “libturd,” “D-rat,” and a resident of the “shitpot of evil” among other things. I get comments like, “you are impossible,” “we need to block him.”  “He is too much of a daily annoyance and has a sick mind.”

There is a reason why Trumpists hold me in such contempt:  It is because I am so much smarter than they are.  I am really, really smart.  Everybody knows that.  People keep telling how smart I am all the time.  Let me tell you folks, just this morning my friend Jim, who knows a lot about smartness, called me up and told me I am probably the smartest guy in American history.

Even the President of the United States knows I am really, really smart.  You may recall he claimed that going to a great Ivy League school like he did—the University of Pennsylvania—makes him very smart.  Well, folks, I went the University of Pennsylvania too so obviously I am also super smart. 

President Trump declared he is smart because he knows “a lot of words.”  Well, let me tell you, I really, really know a lot of words.  I have a degree in journalism, worked as a professional newspaper correspondent, and a magazine editor/publisher so I bet I know even more words than Donald Trump.

Now you will also recall that Trumps said he is respected because he has a “very, very large brain.” Well, folks, you better believe it, a lot of people know that I have a very, very large brain.  Everybody says so including my doctor who has verified that my brain is very large.  He told me just the other day, “You have a larger brain than any Republican I have ever met.”