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Tag Archives: Mr. Trump

RESPECT

18 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 34 Comments

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Aretha Franklin, baracksdubs, Mr. Trump, President Barack Obama, RESPECT, YouTube

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In a week where Mr. Trump set new lows in making it clear how little respect he has for ANYONE except for himself, including stating that Aretha Franklin “…worked for me on numerous occasions.” I thought you all could use something that will hopefully make you smile. President Obama only wants one thing from Mr. Trump in this new mashup of Aretha Franklin’s classic song, Respect. The creators behind the YouTube channel baracksdubs said today the parody is “a statement, in solidarity with women, minorities, and everyone under attack in the Trump era.” One creator added, “I never would have expected to release this dub, which I started on months ago, under these circumstances, but I hope you and everyone who loves the Queen of Soul enjoys this video. We love you back, Aretha.”

And here’s the original by the ONE, the ONLY, Queen of Soul.

Mr. Trump vs. the First Amendment

12 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 37 Comments

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Mr. Trump, The First Amendment

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I apologize. This is going to be ANOTHER rant. As many of you probably already know, Mr. Trump issued an ill-informed threat this morning against NBC News. It seems his feelings were hurt over a story which reported that he had pushed his senior aides back in July to dramatically increase our nuclear arsenal. Supposedly it was this request which prompted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call him a “moron” after the meeting. Despite NBC verifying three White House officials as anonymously confirming this, Mr. Trump predictably screamed “Fake News!” But then he took his tantrum one step further, tweeting:

With all the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

When asked about his tweet later in the day while reporters were covering his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he seemed to back down a little. Responding to the question of if he favored limits on what the media should be allowed to say he said, “No. The press should speak more honestly.” But in a complete turnaround, earlier this evening he sent out yet another tweet concerning the issue.

Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to the public!

Ben_Sasse_Official_photo

Fellow Republican, Senator Ben Sasse had the decency to issue this statement:

Mr. President: Words spoken by the President of the United States matter.

Are you tonight recanting the oath you took on January 20th to preserve, protect, and defend the First Amendment?

This is a good question. You see, while it’s tempting to brush his rhetoric off as more empty, deranged bluster designed to set his supporters hearts a-flutter, it’s possible this could become a real issue. Legal experts call his threats empty, pointing out that the F.C.C. doesn’t grant licenses to networks, and they also cite a historical precedent. In 1973, allies of President Nixon attempted to revoke individual licenses of television stations owned by the Washington Post Co. during their investigation into the Watergate scandal. Although a businessman who was a Nixon supporter filed papers that challenged the Washington Post’s ownership of the stations, and the Justice Department also filed antitrust charges against ABC, NBC, and CBS, ultimately they were unsuccessful. So, we have nothing to worry about, right? Well, according to a New York Times interview with Tom Wheeler, who was Chairman of the F.C.C. under President Obama, Mr. Trump’s seemingly idle threats could actually be a message to Trump supporters that he needs them to take up his cause. Mr. Wheeler states:

This sounds to me like another dog whistle for folks to file against the license renewals. Clearly it would be a bridge too far for the Trump F.C.C. to move on their own initiative. But if some conservative groups were to take this as their marching orders, it would be an interesting situation to see what the Trump F.C.C. did.

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Whether his words are meaningless or not, Mr. Trump’s continued attacks against free speech, as in the case of the NFL protests and freedom of the press are chilling, and must not be allowed to stand unchallenged. Republicans consistently and vigorously defend the Constitution when it comes to the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, even as we face more and more mass shootings. Are there any others besides Senator Sasse, willing to publicly denounce the President and defend the First Amendment as passionately? I don’t know about you, but I’m not holding my breath.

tenor

Hiding Behind Patriotism

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 41 Comments

Tags

Mr. Trump, Politics, United States

24-nfl-protests-patriots.w710.h473

Members of the New England Patriots kneel during the national anthem Sunday. Photo: Billie Weiss/Getty Images

Well, once again the covfefe has hit the fan, courtesy of Mr. Trump, our fearless leader. All of you have seen and heard by now his staunch defense of the national anthem and his urging of sports team owners to fire any player who takes a knee while the anthem is playing. But here’s the thing. Have you all noticed a pattern emerging in Mr. Trump’s more outrageous and divisive words and actions? Every single time he creates a controversy there are other things going on. If he’s a master of anything, it’s manipulation and misdirection. So, whatever could he trying to deflect attention from this time?

Wizard-of-Oz

1. The imminent demise of the Republicans’ second attempt, since Mr. Trump took office, to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump has been cajoling and threatening Congress to give him any kind of legislation to sign, no matter how many millions of people lose their insurance, yet once again it looks like this will be an epic fail. (Fingers crossed)

2. The the war of words between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. His unhinged insults and cavalier threats to annihilate another country which has over 25 million people, plays well with his base, but not the majority of Americans. 

3. The candidate he’s supporting, Luther Strange, in Alabama’s Senate primary is poised to lose tomorrow which will be quite the embarrassment to Mr. Trump.

4. There’s been a lot of new revelations in the past week regarding the Russia investigation, including the fact that Russian operatives used ads (at last count 3,000) on Facebook to exploit the racial divisions in the U.S. There’s also been new allegations against Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager. 

5. Remember Mr. Trump railing about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers for government business? Well, yesterday Politico reported that there’s now a bipartisan congressional investigation into Jared Kushner’s occasional use of a private email account to conduct government business. And it seems like he’s not the only one. Senior aides such as Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, Ivanka Trump, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon have all used personal devices and email accounts for official business. 

6. Mr. Trump’s travel ban 2.0 was rolled out Sunday with surprisingly little fanfare. With this new version entry into the country by foreign nationals from Chad, Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea and Somalia, will for the most part be suspended. Iraqi nationals are to undergo intensive screening. This will take effect October 18.

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I have a short wishlist of things I’d love to see Mr. Trump doing instead of cynically using patriotism to attack sports players 1st amendment rights and further dividing the country. I know this is futile, but I can dream.

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1. Stop insulting the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un and engaging in what amounts to a childish schoolyard taunting match. It’s not only embarrassing, it’s bringing us to the brink of war. Let the diplomats who know what they’re doing, try to find some sort of compromise.

2. Instead of remaining on your determined path to annihilate President Obama’s legacy, learn from this latest healthcare debacle. Echo Senator John McCain’s call for bipartisan teamwork to fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that aren’t working.

3. Stop denying that there was Russian interference in our election. At this point, you’re just embarrassing yourself. There is no “deep state” conspiracy to overturn the legitimacy of your presidency. Let Robert Mueller and the Senate committees who are investigating do their job instead of attacking them and crying “fake news!” all the time. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

4. Puerto Rico needs you. After being devastated by Hurricane Maria, our fellow Americans need to know they’re not being forgotten. With 16 dead so far, no electricity, running water, fuel, or cell phone service, they are in dire straits, yet until singer Marc Anthony called you out on Twitter today, you’ve remained silent about their suffering. Right now you need to be “Comforter-in-Chief” and that includes not sending out tweets like today, finally acknowledging the work that needs to be done, while at the same time bringing up Puerto Rico’s debt to “Wall Street and the banks”. 

5. Stop using divisive rhetoric with racist undertones to tear apart our country just so you can rally your base which is filled with white supremacists. And, when you do make comments like you did this weekend and after Charlottesville, stop denying that these involve race. You’re fooling no one. Not even your supporters.

6. No more cries of “fake news” every time there’s a report that you don’t like. Yes, the media needs to be held accountable for truthfulness, but to accuse them of things like not showing your crowd sizes is ridiculous. Your continual heated attacks on them are also dangerous. It was bad enough when MSNBC’s Katy Tur, a well respected journalist had to be escorted from one of your campaign rallies last summer when the crowd of your supporters turned on her after you pointed her out, and called her a liar and a third rate reporter. Your attacks on journalists have only gotten worse and I am truly afraid that one of your less mentally stable supporters is going take things too far someday as a result of your words.

beauty-and-the-beast-belle-reprise

I have quite a few other wishes as well, including one involving time travel, but it’s getting late and I’m giving myself a headache. So I’m going to end this post by again sharing what sends me to my Happy Place.

tenor

C’mon! It just never gets old, does it?!

Mr. Trump Watches the Eclipse

22 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 46 Comments

Tags

Eclipse 2017, How NOT To Watch An Eclipse, Humor, Mr. Trump

Donald Trump

Astronomers, doctors, and journalists: Don’t look at the sun during an eclipse without protective glasses!

US-SOLAR-ECLIPSE-TRUMP

Mr. Trump: Fake news from the fake media and China, who’s behind the hoax of so-called climate change! There are many sides, many sides, to watching an eclipse and I know the right ones because I examined the facts unlike you people!

US-SOLAR-ECLIPSE-TRUMP

The sad thing is, is that this may be the only predictable thing Mr. Trump has done during his presidency.

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On the plus side, if he goes blind, maybe he’ll stop tweeting!

ac_trump_twitterattack_giff

At the very least, it might just be safer for us all to let him go back to playing with big trucks!

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Mr. Trump Pulls Out Of the Paris Climate Accords

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 55 Comments

Tags

Mr. Trump, Paris Climate Agreement, President Obama

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To no one’s great surprise, Mr. Trump just officially pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Rather than rage about what another moronic decision this is, made by our Dictator-In-Chief, I’d like to share part of the statement that President Obama released minutes after Mr. Truman’s announcement.

The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up  and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.

The Tweet Heard ‘Round The World! ~ #covfefe

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by By Hook Or By Book: Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff in Uncategorized

≈ 52 Comments

Tags

#covfefe, Mr. Trump

At 12:06 a.m today, while plotting his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords and when his minions were in bed, Mr. Trump, once again, almost blew up the internet.

trump-covfefe-tweet

Wait. What?

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Um, okay. Let’s turn to Merriam Webster.

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Wakes up. Checks Twitter. Uh…Regrets checking Twitter. Goes back to bed.

Drat. Well, The Urban Dictionary must have a definition right?

Screenshot_(175)

Well, you can’t say I didn’t try. Here’s a few more fun memes about our brand new word “Covfefe”. What on earth would we do without Mr. Trump?

37

President Trump Hosts Turkey's President Erdogan At The White House

211

DBIa5D5U0AAe_TdKaleigh Kirby

DBIcFhuV0AEqYhoDiane N. Sevenay

DBI2XuuVYAE3nDOLisa Marino

NOW can we do this?

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