Trump’s Russia Problem

President Trump has been touring the country holding more of his campaign-style rallies, essential fuel for his all too delicate ego. I have zero time to sit down and watch him spout half truths at the mouth, what with a full time job and a toddler to nurture. But there’s this one issue – Trump’s Russia problem – that I just can’t let him get away with lying about.

Trump keeps saying that the whole Russia issue is just more of Democrats’ attempts steal the election – another of Trump’s false narratives. Trump and his son continue to hold fast to their claim that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. only met with Putin and other agents of Russia to discuss Russian adoption.

Democrats, republicans and independents are all concerned about Russian attempts to interfere with the democratic process in the United Started and around the world. Their concern is justified. Russia does not have fair elections. Politicians, business men and others who oppose Vladimir Putin’s leadership have ended up in jail or worse. And Putin forced a change to the Russian constitution to allow himself to be re-elected again and again, ad infinitum. So no election in Russia is fair. I’d argue they have never had a fair, open election like we see in the West. And Putin is actively trying to expand his power over neighboring countries.

Concern about Russian interference in elections is a very serious issue. Because of his corrupt political dealing, Putin is the richest man in the world. He and his oligarch cronies steal money from the Russian people and launder it into Western banks to hide their corruption. That’s where Russian adoption comes in play.

Russian adoption is just a ghost term for Russian sanctions. In retaliation for the Magnitsky Act sanctions passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2012, Russia abruptly ceased all adoptions to applicants from the United States. The sanctions passed included a provision that would allow the government to freeze the assets of foreign agents suspected of serious crimes, including Putin himself. This scares Putin because he is a murderer who hides most of his money in the West. Additionally, there is now a global movement to approve the same sanction measures internationally, which would mean disaster for Putin, his wealth and his power. Putin has been raging against this reform ever since it was passed.

So collusion with Russia during the Trump election campaign is a very serious matter. A president beholden to Putin makes America weak and Putin strong. Yes, I said Putin, not Russia. If the allegations are true, Trump will have helped a dictator increase his power.

How could Putin have helped Trump get elected? (Not that he needed it.) Help Trump’s campaign by hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing damaging emails. Help the Trump campaign by paying agents to create false news of terrible acts by Hilary Clinton. There could be many other aids Putin’s network conveyed.

And in exchange for what? You know the rules of the game: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I’ll help tip the balance in your favour if you will discuss lifting the sanctions that have my assets frozen.

Erm….. Russian adoption, that is…

Donald Trump is an Old, White, Racist

I cannot stay quiet anymore.

Donald Trump can claim to the hills how he is not a racist. But I know he is. His attempts to garner favor from Black voters have not fallen on deaf ears. I have been listening, and I do not like what I am hearing.

Those are my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, mother and father he is talking about when he says Black communities are in the worst shape they’ve ever been in, “ever, ever, ever.” Just. No.

And his solution? Drum roll…………..more STOP AND FRISK!

Stop and frisk (Terry stops) in every Black community in America. Donald Trump thinks emphasizing Terry stops in the Black community will reduce violence. The same stop and frisk that, contrary to Trump’s claims on how well it worked, did not yield any attributable reduction in violent deaths in New York City. The same stop and frisk that was declared an unconstitutional, illegal infringement on the rights of the minorities targeted under the policy.

No matter! Donald trump knows better than the generals! The Donald knows better than the NYPD and the U.S. federal court of appeals and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Maybe that’ll be Trump’s next real estate investment – a for-profit prison to hold all the big, “bad dudes” he locks up thanks to stop and frisk.

Because it has become obvious Donald Trump knows better than Black people what is good for Black people – the view inside a jail cell.

Punish Women for Having an Abortion? GOP says YES!

Donald Trump has spent the better part of the last week playing mopping boy to all his gaffes. But there is one thing Donald said this week that – bob and weave as he may – he will not be able to dodge. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews this week, Donald Trump admitted he supports punishing women who have an abortion.

The Donald has spent the better part of the week trying to back away from his words. He’s claimed the interview was edited. He’s claimed he “misspoke.” And he keeps trying to offer an alternative to his genuine belief that women should be punished for seeking reproductive care by offering that the doctors who provide that care should be punished in lieu of the woman who decided to obtain it – as if we women are unthinking, naive victims of these money grubbing health care providers.

But I’m not buying it, and neither should you.

The GOP platform is clear about their stance on abortion. The GOP “support a human life amendment to the Constitution.” No matter then rest of their pretty words on the sanctity of life and supporting pregnant women, ratification of the “personhood” amendment the GOP so pointedly seeks means women will go to jail.

I am not just talking through my teeth about this. The evidence is clear. It has been demonstrated time after time that women ARE punished when abortion is made illegal. Take one look at the countries where abortion is illegal and you cannot deny the evidence. In countries where abortion is illegal, women go to jail for having abortions, women go to jail for having miscarriages, and women die due to unsafe abortion.

Even in the United States women have been prosecuted for obtaining abortion inducing drugs or miscarrying after attempting to self-abort.

So when Ted Cruz says he does not agree with Donald Trump’s position – that women be punished for abortion –  he is LYING to you. Ted Cruz supports a personhood amendment. He KNOWS that women will go to jail if a personhood amendment is passed. Ted Cruz supports punishing women. John Kasich supports punishing women. Mitch McConnell supports punishing women. The whole damn GOP supports punishing women.