NOT LIKE US

The growing intolerance of minorities and, in particular the LBGTQ community which challenges tradition, is rampant in T****’s MAGA America. It should not be necessary to point out that the totalitarian governments of the 20th century jailed and killed freethinkers, outliers or simply “the other.”

But it’s a cliché that seems to need repeating, since contemporary autocrats follow the same path, and as with the right-wing MAGA’s in this country, many of them, like Adolf Hitler, included the targeting of LGBTQ people.

In the T**** era this has already begun. Hatred and rejection of LBGTQ Americans, along with the bigoted dogma that goes with it, is an important part of the MAGA’s autocratic agenda. Its purpose is no less than to take away the rights of people whose life imperatives and choices they don’t like. 

Indeed, dictatorial power rejects humanity and compassion as it contrives to subject the population to it’s hateful will. Under an autocrat’s tyrannical hand those of good faith have few options in defense of the targeted, the marginalized and the oppressed. 

But they must be defended. The conscience of humanity demands nothing less. People of goodwill must respond to that imperative. Our fellow citizens, our fellow human beings depend on it. On us. 

Silence works in the oppressor’s favor. There is really only one strategy, one way to oppose this evil and to do what must be done because it is right. In the courts, on the streets, on the ballot and with one voice, there is only one path forward.

  RESIST

RACE IN AMERICA AND DONALD T****

No-one can rationally suggest or pretend that racism in America is a thing of the past. In truth, it is deeply ingrained in our nation’s history and culture; it has become part of who we are. There are racists and bigots in America and probably always will be. But it goes deeper than that. 

Systemic racism exists when policies, practices, and institutions create or maintain racial inequality. It is seen in disparities across key areas of society like education, housing, employment, healthcare, and criminal justice. The overt prejudice of bigots is not a factor in this equation

For example: Black Americans are more likely to attend underfunded schools due to a history of redlining, housing discrimination and school funding based on property taxes. They’re more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, and convicted than white Americans (Blacks constitute about 13% of the U.S. population but make up roughly 37% of incarcerated adults). Studies show that Blacks, who are overrepresented among the least wealthy in America, have less access to affordable healthcare, have higher maternal mortality rates and shorter lifespans. In employment, Blacks are still often the “last hired and first fired,” and résumés get fewer callbacks when the names sound like the applicants are African American. Blacks are sparsely represented in the elite ranks of business and government. 

These patterns aren’t explained by individual racist choices. They reflect structures that disadvantage some while privileging others. Bottom line: Systemic racism isn’t about intent, it’s about outcomes. And when inequality is predictable by race, it is because of an ingrained system that has been part of the nation’s history and culture since its inception. 

But yes, there are racists and bigots in America, millions of them to be sure. There is one school of thought which suggests that this is part of human nature; history can attest to that. But there is another school which suggests that race hatred defies humanity and defiles civilization. History can attest to that, too. 

In America the struggle to subsume racism and affirm humanity is etched in ethos and bathed in blood, and there has always been a deep sense of  wrongness about race hatred. This even in the Old South, where slavery was referred to as “our peculiar institution.” They knew it was wrong. 

  Since Abraham Lincoln, only Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson were openly avowed racists and white supremacists. Most other presidents, even those with racist personal beliefs or policies at least gave public statements supporting the idea of racial harmony or equality, even if their actions did not always align with those statements.

Yet, unlike most of these, Donald T**** does not even give lip service to the idea of promoting equality of opportunity in America. His obsession with the term “DEI”” and his efforts to wipe away all traces of “woke” programs designed to promote DEI objectives are concrete proof of this. The same goes for his attempts to re-write American history. References to subjects like slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, voting rights, Black achievements and contributions to American life and culture have by his order disappeared from official government websites and museums. 

At T****’s command, at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis books about the experiences and contributions of Blacks to the war effort during World War II, specifically including the Tuskegee Airmen, the public roles of African-American women, Travon Martin and the broader issues of racial profiling, and the history of feminism in America were all culled form that university’s library. Apparently, those who will be charged with defending our nation are not worthy of learning it’s true history.

The truth is that our nation’s MAGA-in-Chief, Donald T****, is a racist with a long history of bigotry and prejudice. 

In the 1970’s, allegations that he and his father refused to rent apartments to Black tenants led to a federal lawsuit. In 1989 Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers accused of rape. They were innocent. When announcing his first presidential run in 2016, he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

During that first term T**** called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and he imposed travel bans on several majority-Muslim countries. He told four U.S. congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “crime-infested countries from which they came,” even though all are U.S. citizens. And after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where a counter-protester was killed, he alleged that they were “very fine people.”

Donald T**** and the MAGA/Conservative bigots who now control our country’s government draw a direct correlation between race (ie: being Black) and competency. They use the phrase “DEI hire” as a dog whistle to people of their own kind. The racist nod here is that there is no résumé a Black person could present that would qualify them for high-level corporate or government appointments. 

The understood and unspoken implication among Conservatives ranging from the MAGA’s to the ultra-Right Christian Nationalists and white supremacists is that the country should be run by white people. These are T****’s people; he curries their favor, they support him. He is one of them. 

I am not. My people are not. Most Americans are not. We are right; they are wrong. It’s as simple as that. The fact that the American government is being led by an unabashed and unashamed bigot and racist is patently offensive to people of good conscience. And so it should be.

The question of slavery in this country was settled on the battlefield over a century and a half ago. Jim Crow was abolished and voting rights affirmed in our lifetime. History shows that our nation has won this battle against bigotry and racism before. And we can win it again. 

There is a way to do this. There is a way for people of good faith and conscience to remove the stain of this horrid little man our land, a way to take back what is ours: our country. With our votes we can remove all of his cult-following MAGA lemmings everywhere from office. And our hearts and minds can we resolve to defy Donald T****, everywhere, all the time. We can resolve to take the One Path Forward. 

                                                         RESISTANCE 

TRUMP AS ANTI-SEMITE

On May 22, Donald T*** posted the image on the left on his Truth Social website along with its prophetic although rhetorical caption. On his right, in the lighted window, watching with approval, is the alt-right mascot, Pepe the Frog. That’s a blow-up of him in the right-hand photo.

Pepe’s appearance is no accident. The picture is a shout-out to ultra-Conservative Christian Evangelicals and Nationalists as well as White supremacists and far-Right neo-Nazis, all groups who support T**** and with whom T**** curries favor.  

In truth, Donald has an extensive history of amplifying white supremacist figures and symbolism as well as anti-semitism. According to his first wife, T**** kept a book of Adolph Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet by his bed. He called Jew-hating protesters in Charlottesville “good people.” He has dined at his Florida estate with a Holocaust denier and his New Jersey golf club hosted a Nazi sympathizer.

HIs Republican Party has nominated anti-semites for elected offices, including “Black Nazi” Mark Robinson of North Carolina. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson has a history of using antisemitic tropes. JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Elon Musk have all offered support to a far Right German political party. A former right-wing podcaster now heads the Office of Special Counsel.

This does fly in the face of his outsized support for Israel, but that is not entirely inexplicable. As leaders of Western Democracies who lust for autocratic power, T**** and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are kindred spirits. And the states opposed to Israel are Islamic, and T****’s distain for Moslems is duly noted. 

He once claimed that if he lost in 2024 it would be because Jews who do not support him are “disloyal.” During the campus uprisings over Gaza, he charged that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer used to be Jewish but isn’t any more because of Schumer’s support for a 2-state solution in Palestine. “Wer ein Jude ist, bestimme ich!” ** exclaims Donald T**** (“I decide who is a Jew.”).

Yet in the past, T**** has called himself best friend American Jews have ever had, which he would not need to profess if it were indeed true. (To quote Shakespeare, he “protests too much, methinks.” *) 

In fact, he has gone overboard attempting to curry favor with American Jewry and it is obvious that Trump intentionally surrounds himself with prominent Jews. Not counting his daughter and son-in-law, these include the likes of Stephen  Miller, Barry Cohen, Steven Mnuchin, Jason Greenblatt and EPA chief Lee Zeldin to name but a few.

And this as he claims to support Jewish students he says, with little evidence, are oppressed by waves of anti-Semitic hatred on American college campuses. Clearly, T**** would attest that “some of my best friends are Jews.” And we know what that means. 

This, then, is the true Donald T****: anti-Semitic to the core. He will deny this of course. But since T**** is a compulsive and pathological liar, you cannot believe a word he says.

Besides, talk is cheap and actions can be duplicitous. As Maya Angelou has counseled, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” To which I would add, watch that they don’t overplay their hand. 

#1PathForward

thebernhardperspective.com

*Hamlet, Act III, Scene II.

**Karl Leuger, Mayor of Vienna during Hitler’s formative years.

6/26

ZOHRAN MAMDAN

Donald T*** and his MAGA’s are going apoplectic over the fact that a Democratic Socialist has been chosen to run for mayor in New York. Of course, any mention of the word “socialism” will do this, as they automatically connect it to communism, and they pound away at it because, as we all know, communism is bad. Of course, these idiots have no idea what they’re talking about. There is nothing new about Democratic socialism, and it seems to work pretty well in much of Europe. Consider: 

Democratic socialism is a political and economic philosophy that advocates for a democratically elected government alongside social ownership or control of the major means of production and distribution. It advocates for universal services like healthcare and education, robust welfare programs, workers’ rights, and economic policies that reduce inequality while maintaining individual rights. It supports capitalism but rejects the idea that the bulk of a nation’s wealth flows upwards while the workers who produce that wealth struggle to maintain a comfortable place in society. 

Democratic socialism specifically rejects centralized, autocratic rule and promotes change through democratic processes and active citizen participation. Myself, I don’t see anything horrible or objectionable in any of that; I am a Democratic socialist. 

However, given the public face and espoused policies of Donald T****, his MAGA’s, his Ultra-Right Conservatives, Christian Nationalist and white supremacist supporters, I suspect that the things they cannot accept nor tolerate about Zohran Mamdani have less to do with his politics, of which they are fundamentally ignorant, than the fact that he is a Moslem, and he’s not white. 

m 

AMERICAN GULAG 

 Somewhere inside Camp Lemonnier, an American military base in the East African nation of Djibouti, eight immigrant men, all convicted of serious crimes in the United States, are housed in a converted shipping container under the guard of officers from the Homeland Security Department. 

In this action, the White House is making a bold claim. The premise is that handing immigrants a one-page document, possibly even in language they don’t read, is sufficient to deport them after 24 hours to a dangerous country to which they have no previous connection.

In May, the Trump administration had planned to send the men to a prison the war-torn country of South Sudan. The move was part of T****’s plan for mass deportations. These men come from countries around the world, only one is from South Sudan. Then an order from a federal judge put a temporary hold on the operation.

On June 23, the Supreme Court ruled that T**** could, at least temporarily, continue deporting people to countries other than their own and could do so without redress from the courts. These men are still destined for South Sudan, 

So what’s the deal? T**** is, in fact, beginning to create an American gulag. He is already sending men who have not been convicted of anything to a prison camp in El Salvador. South Sudan is apparently next. And there are undoubtedly other countries on other continents whose strongmen dictators will be happy accept similar corrupt arrangements.

The entire concept is illustrative of the depths of depraved indifference to the rule of law and regards for humanity that exemplify the essence of Donald L. T****. 

As part of his plan for creating this gulag, T**** is doing it with the least sympathetic of people, noncitizens who may or may not have been convicted of crimes. This is a test of how much cruel, deplorable treatment of human beings and erosion of due process American voters will stomach.

We must loudly and forcefully and continually demonstrate to him that we will stomach none of it. The imperatives of humanity, let alone The 8th Amendment, make it clear that in America, “cruel and unusual punishment [shall not] be inflicted.” Farming his victims out to agents overseas who will do this for him is a travesty of justice and a perversion of that imperative, of that edict. 

But, then, Donald Trump is a perverse man.

#1PathForward

thebernhardperspective.com 

  REQIUM 

RIP Nevaeh Crain, an 18-year old, pregnant Texas women who, crying in pain, too weak to walk, blood staining down her thighs. feverish and vomiting, had gone to two different ER’s within 12 hours seeking emergency medical assistance. 

Both times she was returned home, each time worse than before, even after having been tested positive for sepsis. In fact, Nevaeh was suffering a miscarriage. 

In each case, doctors were afraid because of Texas’ severe anti-abortion law which said that doctors couldn’t do anything to remove her viable fetus unless the patient’s was at risk. Violating he law could result in penalties ranging from massive fines to losing their medical license to time in prison. 

In both cases, the doctors deferred on the side of their own safety and self-interest. By the time Ms. Crain  got to the third ER it was too late. Diagnosed with “fetal demise,” her condition worsened and she died. 

In my never-to-be-humble opinion, the both the Texas State Legislature which passed the law and Texas Governor Abbott who signed it killed this young woman as surely as if they had plunged in a knife. With blood on their hands, they will never be held accountable for the death of Nevaeh Crain.  

The moral to this story: In Texas,

6/22

A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING

In his West Point commencement address on May 24, Donald T**** displayed the depths of his ignorance about the country he’s attempting to govern when he claimed that the voters gave him a “great mandate” that “gives us the right to do what we want to do.”

Not having any real knowledge of our country’s history or understanding how elections work, and being the compulsive, pathological liar he is, Donald is wrong on both counts.

First of all, he did not win any great mandate. In 1984 Ronald Reagan won 59% to 41%. FDR won over 60% in 1936. Those were great mandates. In 2024, T**** won by a scant 49.9% to 48.4%. Winning less than half the votes cast, he won by a hair. That’s no great mandate, it’s a squeaker.

Furthermore, with fully one third of all eligible voters sitting it out, T****’s share of the popular vote amounted to a mere 31.6% of the entire electorate. That is roughly the size of his MAGA base. That’s all the voter support he got. The rest of the voters either voted for Harris or ignored both of them.

Second of all, no president, no matter how large a margin of victory, gets to do whatever he wants. FDR had his National Recover Act (NRA) and his Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) ruled unconstitutional. His court packing plan was rejected by Congress. Richard Nixon resigned his office rather than face expulsion when his criminal activity resulted in impeachment.

Whether Donald T**** likes it or not, there are constraints and limitations on executive power in this country. Called Checks and Balances, they are enshrined in the Constitution. T**** is learning this truth the hard way as virtually all other presidents have before him.

Now of course, Donald would have known all this and not embarrassed himself at West Point if he ever learned basic civics in high school, which he obviously didn’t, or read the Constitution, which he clearly hasn’t.

But then, it’s doubtful he would understand any of it even if he had.

6/18 

Note: With the violence in the Middle East continuing unabated, and our feckless  “peace president” talking tough, these thoughts come to mind.

T****’s  GENERALS

Donald T**** has alleged more than once that he wishes he had generals like Hitler’s generals. I sincerely doubt that he understands the concept of irony, let alone how it applies here., 

History records that after the initial success of the Blitzkrieg, Germany’s generals lost every essential battle of WW II, starting with the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of Britain. Their armies were kicked off the African continent and surrendered in Italy. Their vaunted Atlantic Wall was breached in less than 24 hours and their invasion of Russia was a catastrophic failure. Eventually, the Allies crushed the Wehrmacht on both fronts.

And the Irony? Above all else Donald denigrates losers. And the truth is that Hitler’s generals lost their War. 

Also, the primary attribute Donald demands from his subordinates is loyalty, and he apparently believes that Hitler’s generals were loyal to him. But the truth is that his highest ranking officers held him in low regard and were involved in no less than five assassination attempts against him. In fact, a pair of his field marshals were aware of two of these attempts, yet neither of them thought to report it to their Führer. 

I suspect that what T**** really admires has to do with style rather than substance. Shallow and superficial in all things, he is most likely impressed with the Nazi general’s stiff, sharp uniforms and the way they are portrayed in movies with their disciplined, military correctness. He admires the way they are always snapping their heels together and delivering stiff-armed “Hiel Hitler” salutes all the time. Nothing impresses an autocratic more than servile obsequiousness.

But the truth is not in the movies or perceptions but in history, which is where the fate of the Führer and his generals is sealed. So when to comes to Donald T*** and his desire for generals like Hitler’s, I am mindful of the old adage, 

“Be careful what you wish for. You just may get it.”

NO KINGS

Now that it’s all over, here are my thoughts about the “No Kings” demonstrations: 

We are the people of the Unite States of America. We are a people of principle and honor. We honor our communities and stand by our allies. We defend against aggression and dictators. We uphold and defend our Constitution. We care for veterans, and children, and seniors. We support a healthy national and international economy, community and environment. We believe it is our duty and privilege to feed the hungry, heal the sick and comfort the needy. We are the world leader entrusted to uphold the stability of the rule of law.

We are the people of the Unite States of America. The honor, dignity and integrity of our country are not for sale. Our Government is Of The People, By the People and For the People. 

That is not the creed of Tyrants. In their reality, you are meant to feel powerless. That is what a strongman wants: make you feel as if nothing can stop his taking over of your country. This is Donald T****’s strategy,  it is what he is counting on.

  Our country and our way of life hang in precarious balance. 

Our democratic institutions rely on the compliance of its citizens and leaders with and within the law. They are not capable of dealing with the existential threat of tyrannical defiance. 

Our Founding Fathers presumed and relied on the intentions of good and honorable men to hold the reigns of power and authority. But Donald T**** is neither a good nor honorable man.

The 1st Amendment guarantees our right to free speech and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That is the purpose of “No Kings.” It is for us to exercise those rights, to fill the streets across the country and make our petitions with loud, strong language. It is not necessary to be nice; Donald T**** not a nice man.

Our one, our strongest weapon in defense of our country, our liberty and our freedom is ourselves, our voices and our righteous anger. T**** wants us to feel powerless to stop him. 

He must see that we are not. 

We must forcefully demonstrate that ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, that he does not make laws for us nor is he above them. And if he endeavors to become so, we can and will bring him down.

And we have the way to do that. We have the way to fight against his lust for power. We have our voices. We have the ballot box. We have the One Path Forward.

 RESIST  

DEFLECTING THE BLAME

This is how Elon Musk, President T****’s malicious little toady, defended his wholesale firing of government employees. He alibied the past century’s greatest mass murderers, claiming “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” 

Musk, of course, was lying. The fact is that these atrocities were by and large overseen and carried out by their nation’s militaries, not government employees and functionaries.

Still, Elon justified the firing of over a hundred thousand American public sector employees by falsely asserting it is their predecessors who, in other countries, actively engaged in history’s dirtiest work.

The tyrants who conceived and orchestrated their historic crimes against humanity are held guiltless in the eyes of the world’s richest man. Musk’s lying, convoluted logic in this manner and for this purpose is sick, twisted and depraved. 

And so is he. Elon Musk may be obscenely wealth, but he is also a lying idiot and drug-taking jerk. 

So I say, goodby, Elon. Good riddance to bad rubbish. And don’t let the screen door slam on your way out.