Tag Archives: Nikki Haley

Point of View Columns

Impeachment Week in America – Again

February 9, 2021

27,097,885-465,083 (number of confirmed COVID-19 cases – the number of dead Americans at the beginning of the day)

The second impeachment trial of 45 began today. The first day is when the House impeachment managers and the attorneys for 45 making their initial presentations. The House managers’ presentation was professional and excellent. It was not intended to try to change the minds of Republicans who have taken a blood oath to worship at the altar of 45, till death do they part.

Team 45’s presentation immediately cleared up the question of how was it possible that in their initial brief they misspelled “United States” (seriously?). To call the two attorneys incompetent would be a compliment. They were so bad that it is reported that 45 was screaming at the television as the lawyerly version of Laurel and Hardy stumbled and bumbled and rambled and brayed until they totally exhausted all possibility of facts or competence.

Luckily for 45 the threat of his vengeance has intimidated virtually all fifty of the Republican men and women in the Senate that it is likely that no more than a few of them will dare to find out if the emperor really has no clothes and that his bark is far worse than his bite. But they just won’t take that chance.

Tomorrow the trial begins in earnest. And while the outcome may not be in question it is still important that the crimes of 45 are put on the record for all time. The notion that this impeachment trial postpones reconciliation and healing is a naked and mythical right wing lie. The right wing of the right wing is only interested in supremacy – not healing – and we can be sure that even during this trial and in all the days afterwards the Republican-led legislatures in over thirty states are in the process of advocating further voter suppression measures so that white minority rule in America can become a reality.

Right out of the pages of the playbook of apartheid-era South Africa.

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave indeed.

February 10, 2021

27,193,586-468,217 (number of confirmed COVID-19 cases – the number of dead Americans at the beginning of the day)

Even though 45 is in a time out in his Mar a Lago playpen, he is still a continuing part of the national story. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, he is the first president to be impeached twice – and within one year. The blood runs cold at the thought that of what havoc he could have visited upon this planet if he was re-elected. After all, look at all the havoc and turmoil that he has left in his wake like a giant leaking oil tanker.

Meanwhile, the House impeachment managers were surgically magnificent in laying out the case against 45. Not surprisingly, his own words were used to nail his impeachment coffin shut. The man just can never shut up and so there were videotapes and audio tapes galore where he convicted himself with his own loose lips.

Not satisfied with just skewering 45, the impeachment managers barbequed him to well done by provided multiple videos of the actual insurrection attack on the Capitol. Even a month removed, the heat and fury and pure savagery of the 45-inspired mob was a sight to behold and fearsome even in retrospect.

There can simply be no doubt that Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer, caught on video running like Olympic springers, believed that their lives were literally in danger. The insurrection mobsters spoke on video about putting a bullet into Nancy Pelosi’s head. And these mobsters actually brought a gallows – complete with a homemade noose (who actually knows how to make a noose in the 20th century anyway?) – as they shouted “Hang Mike Pence”. There is no doubt that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters would have been torn to pieces.

Clearly the members of the House and Senate barely escaped with their lives. And yet, the Republican bootlickers will still vote to exonerate 45. They are more afraid of the Wrath of 45 than the cloak of shame that they will have to wear all of their lives and in history.

And proving that when the going gets bizarre, the bizarre turn pro (with apologies to Hunter Thompson), QAnon sites are announcing that March 4th is the new date when 45 will return to Washington, DC to take control of the government. All true believers are being told to be ready for yet another Storm.

And we should believe that they believe.

February 11, 2021

27,288,100-471,764 (number of confirmed COVID-19 cases – the number of dead Americans at the beginning of the day)

As the impeachment trial of 45 continues, it is important to remember that Americans are dying every day even as this orchestrated debacle of a spectacle continues. The Biden-Harris administration has brought a belief in science, a belief in transparency and a belief in honesty to the pandemic battle. This is such a difference from the administration of 45 that we have to believe that these changes alone give all of us a better chance to come out of this alive even though there is so much human wreckage across the land.

The House impeachment managers continue to be excellent. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett has been especially impressive. A former prosecutor from the Bronx, she was relentless and artfully articulate in presenting the facts, all the facts and nothing but the facts. And though she could take no joy in hammering more nails into the impeachment coffin of 45, she completed her task with the professionalism that the moment demanded.

In the various commentaries across the air waves three items stood out:

  1. There is serious talk about a true schism in the Republican party. It seems that hundreds/thousands of pre-45 Republicans are discussing the idea of establishing a third party – a Conservative party – to counter the 45 pandemic that has afflicted so much of the traditional Republican party. It will be interesting to see if these “original” Republicans have the staying power to actually pull this off – there is no doubt that they could raise the money.
  2. One of the more interesting aspects of the 45-inspired insurrection were the real time quotes from people who were in the middle of the melee. They were there. One Black Capitol Hill police officer said that he could not recall being called “nigger” so many times in the course of just one day. That tells us a lot about the DNA of the 45 mobsters. It is important to remember that these mobsters were about as patriotic and the Ku Klux Klan or Jefferson Davis or 45.
  3. One commentator quoted Voltaire as saying that once you can get the people to believe absurdity, they can be persuaded to commit atrocities. Words to remember during these times of turmoil.

February 12, 2021

27,507,111-477,239 (number of confirmed COVID-19 cases – the number of dead Americans at the beginning of the day)

It would be a real insult to the memory of comedy teams like Laurel and Hardy, Amos and Andy and the Smothers Brothers to call the 45’s defense team a comedy team. The word “pathetic” comes to mind, however.

What is clear is lawyers Bruce Castor and David Schoen are the best that 45 could get. And while the prestige of representing a former President of the United States would be a great way to attract new clients, the stink and the stench of being in the proximity of 45 is not a great way to retain existing clients much less attract new ones. And so, the Castor-Schoen Show will be on daytime cable news for most of this day.

Although they have been allotted 16 hours, 8 today and 8 tomorrow, the Lawyers Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight have stated that they only need 3 hours today and none tomorrow. And that may be the best way to minimize further embarrassment and professional shame.

And the reality is that since the Republicans have already shed even a pretense of being willing to withhold judgement until all arguments have been presented, all that Castor and Schoen can do is lose votes for acquittal. The Republicans in the Senate are so afraid of the Wrath of 45 that it appears that no more than 6 out of 50 will vote to convict.

Meanwhile Nikki Haley – former governor of South Carolina and former appointee of 45 to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations – seems to have “discovered” that 45 is not good for the country and that “it was wrong to follow him”. One has to wonder at what moment did this revelation occur?

Because just three weeks ago Ambassador Haley was railing against the impeachment of 45, stating that Congress should “leave him alone”. But now, the presumed 2024 presidential candidate must sense that 45’s blood is in the water.

Opportunism is part of the training program for any political candidate. But since Nikki Haley has seen and hear and worked for 45 over the past five years, one has to wonder at what point did she finally, finally, decide that “it was wrong to follow him”. Nikki Haley should start getting prepared for that question within minutes of her announcing her presidential candidacy.

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Point of View Columns

A New Year like No Other

As 2017 lurches to an unseemly close, tradition dictates both a ritual retrospective as well as some vision of what the New Year might be. The only problem with this tradition is that 2017 may be seen as one of the worst non-war/non-depression years in American history and there is no way to put lipstick on that particular pig. Nevertheless, 2018 comes to us as a blank slate for the moment, despite our well-founded fears and trepidation.

Twelve months ago we knew that Donald Trump was going to be the 45th President of the United States. The fact was sinking in that Hillary Clinton could run a campaign that was so bad that she could actually lose to an admitted sexual predator who also doubled as a gilt-edge scam artist and who was an uncloseted misogynist and racist to boot. And twelve months ago we knew that the New Year was going to be bad because, despite his virtually infinite number of faults, Donald Trump was known to actually keep his promises on occasion.

It was clear that Trump’s dystopian vision of Making America Great again, in large part meant making America safe and comfortable for white Americans who had not been feeling safe and comfortable. And so, we saw a presidential cabinet that looked like the result of a White Billionaire Employment Program, with Betsy DeVos, Elaine Chao and Ben Carson thrown into the mix to add some faux diversity. And by taking even the briefest look at his appointees, it was also clear that Donald Tinyhands intended to do his level best to dismantle the legacy of the Obama Administration, not realizing that while programs can be dismantled and executive orders can be rescinded, the historical legacy of Barack Obama will always be out of the reach of his tiny hands.

And so, we have seen a year where the White House seems like some kind of Gilbert and Sullivanesque farce, with Donald Trump pretending to be a president who abhors information, intelligence or the truth while the president’s team seems to have arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a motorcade of clown cars. We have seen what can happen when ignorance and malevolence are combined and the results have ranged from the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Environmental Accords, to reigniting the ongoing conflagration in the Middle East to engaging in puerile spitball fights with the unbalanced leader of North Korea (who just so happens to have nuclear weapons) to eviscerating virtually every protection for consumers of financial services and the air we breathe and the water we drink.

Last week, virtually every nation on Earth, save nine, voted to condemn the Trump decision to announce that the American embassy would be moving to Jerusalem. The response of the Trump administration was to “take names”, an epic statement for the history books uttered by Ambassador Nikki Haley, a Trump appointee who is so far out of her league that she would need a ladder to get to the minor leagues of global diplomacy.

Last year at this time we wondered how bad the Trump presidency could be, and that was before Trump fired the FBI Director thereby letting the whole world know that there was something in the Trumpworld – Russia relationship that had to be wrong. And, of course, this was before Donald Trump appointed some Goodfella wannabe named Scaramucci to slither across the White House stage for a few moments of vulgar vainglory.

Last year at this time we faced the unknown and feared it. This year, at this time, we know how bad Trump really is, and we even have a pretty good idea of how bad 2018 can be with Donald Trump still pretending to be the President of Twitter, living in a fantasy world that terrorizes most Americans and most of the world.

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. In this case, the silver lining around the Cloud That Is Trump is that there are limits to the damage that his infantile behavior can inflict. The silver lining is that good people of good will have begun to find their voice and their strength, like a race of sleeping giants that is finally awakening. The silver lining is that we are all better than Donald J. Trump, and that we have always have been better than him and will always be better than him. The silver lining is that people of decency and good will who are guided by the angels of their better nature will prevail and that the legacy of Donald Tinyhands, as horrific as it seems today, will one day soon be a forgotten figment of the national imagination.

Happy New Year!

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Point of View Columns

No Tennis Balls – But You Can Bring Your Gun – The 2016 Republican National Committee Convention in Real Time

July 18, 2016 – 6:00 a.m. – EST
As the July sun begins to sear the Northeast once more, the RNC Convention is about to begin in Cleveland. The outcome is already known, we will soon witness the improbable coronation of Donald J. Trump as the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, also known as the Teapublican Party in some circles.

The Republican Party has not always been this way. After all this is the same party that nominated Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan as president. One might not embrace all aspects of the legacy of these men – but one can say that all of these men became president in a context that made sense and fit the concept of what a president should be.

When he announced his campaign for president in June of 2015, many people saw this as another self-promotion ploy by the orange-haired egotist, right up there with his “Apprentice” television show, his factually doomed “birther” campaign against President Obama and his fraudulent scam known as Trump University. Even to this day, there are Trump insiders who claim that Trump’s goal was only to make a good showing so that he could burnish his pseudo fame and glory before he moved on to make some more money somewhere else.

But something happened along the way. Trump gave a voice to the disaffected poorly educated, economically devastated and truly angry white men in this country. With that base he was able to devastate a truly unimpressive array of primary opponents – remember Bobby Jindal?, Chris Christie?, Scott Walker?, Carly Fiorina?

No matter how vile or profane or preposterous or insulting or outrageous or fact-free his pronouncements, Trump was able to steam roll presumptive favorites like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and all of a sudden he was in mano a mano battles with Ted Cruz and John Kasich. It was hardly a fair fight.

Since Trump amassed enough primary votes to claim the presidential nomination, the Republican hierarchy has searched for some way to “Stop Trump”, and they simply could not. And now the RNC is about to reap the harvest of hate which grew out of the seeds of hate that have been sown by the mindless and race-based opposition to the presidency of Barack Obama. The RNC blew the dog-whistle loud and long enough. And now the hate dogs have come running to Cleveland.

Donald Trump has brought steaming, stinking, heaping truckloads of misogyny, racism, nastiness and just plain bad taste to the national political discourse. He has turned the presidential campaign into some kind of MMA steel cage match. And now he is king of the steel cage and, by the way, in a few days he will be the Republican presidential nominee.

There is a certain apocalyptic aroma to this convention. The recent killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philandro Castile in St. Paul by police guns were all too familiar sad scenarios in modern America. And then five police officers were murdered in Dallas and all of the people in this country were looking into the abyss that hate and injustice and unrequited wrongs can create.

But as the funerals of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile and the five Dallas police officers were beginning 84 men, women and children were murdered in Nice in yet another insane terrorist attack. And as the body count grew in France a coup began in Turkey and over 200 people were killed. And as the bodies were counted in Ankara and Istanbul three police officers were assassinated in Baton Rouge. No one wants to imagine what could be next.

The apocalyptic aroma is unmistakable and we have Donald Trump to thank for adding to the stench.

There is a schedule of speakers for the Monday convention agenda, including the Mayor of Hate, Rudy Giuliani and Melania Trump, the implausible Bride of Trump along with other Trump children. The reason for Giuliani on the agenda is that it is necessary to keep the volume up on the dog whistle message that has been the thinly disguised theme of the Trump campaign. Mrs. Trump and four of the five Trump children will be there, presumably to prove to the world that Donald Trump might be a human being.

July 18, 2016 – 7:52 PM EST – you can’t make this stuff up!
Before the convention begins the appearance of the Trump/Pence ticket on “Sixty Minutes” makes it clear that Mike Pence is not even the caboose on the Trump Train. Trump also makes an interesting distinction – Mike Pence voted for the Iraq War in 2013 which he forgives as a mistake. When pressed, Trump says that Hillary Clinton is not entitled to make a mistake.

And, as the convention begins, it is interesting to note that the two living Republican ex-presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, are not in attendance. Also missing are Mitt Romney, John McCain (the most recent Republican candidates for president), former candidates Marco Rubio and John Kasich and Sarah Palin who is known as never having met a microphone or camera that she didn’t love.

These are facts from the convention that are presented without elaboration (well, not much)
• Before the convention begins the Iowa and Colorado delegations walk out – presumably expressing some protest regarding the candidacy of Donald Trump.
• The angriest recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance ever kicks off the convention.
• A blind, crippled girl is brought out to sing the National Anthem. The irony of Donald Trump having publicly mocked differently abled individuals is conveniently forgotten.
• News commentators are speculating on how Melania Trump will be able to “humanize” Donald Trump. Although it is useful to point out that historians confirm that Attila the Hun was a loving husband and a caring father.
• A “Duck Dynasty” star is kicking off the convention. This can get more bizarre as the evening goes on………….you will remember that the “Duck Dynasty” cast is proud to be “rednecks” and the “N” word is just a part of every day speech……………….time to buckle the seatbelts.
• Two-time failed presidential candidate and former Texas governor Rick Perry appears, still rocking the glasses that were meant to portray faux intelligence….working about the same now as then.
• And now the mother of a Benghazi victim……nothing like turning the death of an American into a political football……continuing the “Hate Hillary” monologue….truth and facts be damned.
• Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke claimed the role of the black attack dog, savaging Black Lives Matter and President Obama in a blistering speech. Presumably Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Zip Coon and Herman Cain were not available.
• Senator Tom Cotton, who led an unconstitutional effort that resulted in an unconstitutional letter from 47 senators to the Ayatollah of Iran lectured as to how Donald Trump would be better.
• In an unexpected moment, N.J. Governor Chris Christie, while discussing how he was overlooked as the Trump vice presidential nominee reminded the nation that he chaired the Trump Transition Committee thereby giving America one more reason to vote against Donald Trump.
• Rudy Giuliani, America’s Mayor of Hate, was put on the list of speakers, presumably to make sure that Donald Trump’s dog whistle kept blowing loud and clear…..and that he did. Indeed it was amazing to see his uninterrupted primal scream last for five whole minutes.
• After being borne onstage on the clouds of his own ego, anti-immigrant Donald Trump introduces his immigrant wife who proceeds to exceed all expectations by not lapsing into Slovenian in the middle of her speech. She does make the slightest error by shamelessly quoting Michelle Obama (she of the hated Obamas) on several occasions. The Trump camp tells us not to believe our lying ears – there was no plagiarism.

July 19, 2016 – 4:05 P.M. EST – Just can’t take it anymore…
• As we prepare for the second night of the Republican Conventionalooza, Melania Trump doesn’t have to worry about her nocturnal plagiarizing from the night before. It turns out that the convention program states that she received a degree from the University of Slovenia. Only one problem – she didn’t.
• The list of prominent Republicans not attending is growing faster than Pinocchio’s nose – Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, George Will, Nikki Haley………….and the list goes on.
• Meanwhile, Don King was disinvited as a convention speaker, although he was previously invited by Donald Trump. Presumably the RNC was queasy over having a speaker who had gone to prison for stomping a man to death. Don King has promptly announced at a press conference that RNC Chair Rance Priebus doesn’t like black people.
• …..and this is only Day 2.

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Take Down the Damn Flag

In the aftermath of the Charleston Massacre Governor Nikki Haley has proposed that the Confederate flag will no longer fly over the State House. The governors of Mississippi, Virginia and Tennessee are proposing similar measures and too many Republicans and Democrats are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for this amazing “progress”.

But the question stands, why has it taken so long for political leadership of this country to understand how deeply and tragically offensive the Confederate flag is for black Americans and for all people of good will? And there is also this question – why is any American comfortable flying or wearing the Confederate flag? After all, we see very few Germans wearing swastika bikinis and baseball caps and we see absolutely no Russians parading through Moscow with hammer and sickle banners.

All this talk about “heritage” and honoring sainted and valorous Southern “heroes” must be seen within the context of real and undisputed history. First and foremost, we should be clear that the driving force of the Confederate States of America was the preservation and continuation of white supremacy and slavery – that is, the sale, ownership and uncontrolled and unlimited physical abuse and degradation of black American men, women and children.

This really is not a subject of debate. Here are the words of Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the CSA speaking about the CSA:

“Its foundations are laid; its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

This is the “heritage” that the Confederate flag. This is the “noble cause” that the so-called sainted and valorous Southern “heroes” fought and died for. Even a cursory overview of warfare would reveal that there will always be instances of bravery and heroism, no matter how evil and odious the cause. There can be no doubt that there were noble and brave Nazi soldiers during World War II, but Germans honor the war dead in a somber fashion and not in the raucous, outrageous and tone deaf fashion in which the Confederacy is celebrated in this country.

It is simply a damn shame that nine more black people had to die at the hands of yet another white racist before some people finally realized that the Confederate flag is not simply inappropriate, it is obscene. Flying and wearing the stars and bars insults the memory of every black person who suffered through slavery and every black person who has been oppressed and terrorized and killed with that same damned flag flying.

Look at the photographs of the spit-stained white mobs howling and protesting the integration of a high school in Little Rock, or the University of Mississippi or the University of Alabama and you will see the Confederate flag. Look in the archives and you will see the Confederate flag flying at Ku Klux Klan rallies and at the hundreds of lynching parties that always ended with black bodies hanging from trees like the strange fruit about which Billie Holiday wrote and sung.

There is nothing noble about the Confederacy. There is nothing honorable about the cause for which the Confederate soldiers fought and died. They fought a traitorous and treasonous war in order to perpetuate white supremacy and the enslavement of black Americans. There should be no flags flying, there should be no monuments, there should be no streets and universities and boulevards named after the leaders of this hideous cause.

Germans do not fly the swastika over government buildings. Germans do not name their streets and universities after Nazi leaders like Hitler and Goering and Himmler. Why should Americans countenance flying the Confederate flag or any other honoring or commemoration of the so-called heroes of the so-called noble and treasonous cause?

Take Down the Damn Flag.

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