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KelleyKramer
KelleyKramer's Journal
KelleyKramer's Journal
June 24, 2018
The US president tears children from parents, and in Europe his imitators dehumanise migrants. We know where such hatred leads
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/22/trump-world-1930s-children-parents-europe-migrants?CMP=share_btn_fb
You’ll remember Godwin’s law, which holds that the longer an online debate goes on, the likelier it is that someone will mention Hitler or the Nazis. It was an amusing observation and one that served a useful purpose, guarding against hyperbole and fatuous comparison. Except last August, as the American far right staged a torchlight parade in Charlottesville, Mike Godwin suspended his own law. “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis,” he tweeted. “Again and again. I’m with you.”
Despite that dispensation, I’ve tended to abide by my own version of Godwin’s law. I try to avoid Nazi comparisons, chiefly because they’re almost always wrong and because, far from dramatising whatever horror is under way, they usually serve to minimise the one that killed millions in the 1940s. And yet, there’s a cost to such self-restraint. Because if the Nazi era is placed off limits, seen as so far outside the realm of regular human experience that it might as well have happened on a distant planet – Planet Auschwitz – then we risk failure to learn its lessons. That would be to squander the essential benefit offered by study of the Third Reich: an early warning system. So yes, when Donald Trump ordered US government agents on the southern border to separate migrant children from their parents, to tear screaming toddlers from their fathers and even to pull a baby from its mother’s breast, he was not re-enacting the Holocaust. He was not ordering the eradication of an entire people or sending millions to their deaths. But there were echoes. And we must hear them.
-snip-
But the echoes don’t end there. The wire cages. The guards telling weeping children they are forbidden from hugging each other. And then this chilling detail, reported by Texas Monthly. It turns out that US border guards don’t always tell parents they’re taking their children away. “Instead, the officers say, ‘I’m going to take your child to get bathed.’ The child goes off, and in a half-hour, 20 minutes, the parent inquires, ‘Where is my five-year-old?’ ‘Where’s my seven-year-old?’ ‘This is a long bath.’ And [the officer says], ‘You won’t be seeing your child again.’” It’s not the same as telling Jews about to die they are merely taking a shower, but in the use of deception the echo is loud.
And if the mechanics of this operation strike a familiar note, so too does the rhetoric and propaganda deployed by those behind it and defending it. You don’t have to go to back to 1930s Germany to know that the first step towards catastrophe is the dehumanisation of a reviled group. It happened that way in Rwanda and the Balkans in the 1990s, and it’s happening in today’s United States. “These aren’t people, these are animals,” the US president said last month. They want “to pour into and infest our country”, he tweeted this week. “Infest” is a word reserved for rats and insects. This is the language of those seeking to choke off human sympathy, by suggesting those suffering are not even human.
Much more on the link
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/22/trump-world-1930s-children-parents-europe-migrants?CMP=share_btn_fb
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The Guardian - Inspired by Trump, the world could be heading back to the 1930s
Inspired by Trump, the world could be heading back to the 1930sThe US president tears children from parents, and in Europe his imitators dehumanise migrants. We know where such hatred leads
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/22/trump-world-1930s-children-parents-europe-migrants?CMP=share_btn_fb
You’ll remember Godwin’s law, which holds that the longer an online debate goes on, the likelier it is that someone will mention Hitler or the Nazis. It was an amusing observation and one that served a useful purpose, guarding against hyperbole and fatuous comparison. Except last August, as the American far right staged a torchlight parade in Charlottesville, Mike Godwin suspended his own law. “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis,” he tweeted. “Again and again. I’m with you.”
Despite that dispensation, I’ve tended to abide by my own version of Godwin’s law. I try to avoid Nazi comparisons, chiefly because they’re almost always wrong and because, far from dramatising whatever horror is under way, they usually serve to minimise the one that killed millions in the 1940s. And yet, there’s a cost to such self-restraint. Because if the Nazi era is placed off limits, seen as so far outside the realm of regular human experience that it might as well have happened on a distant planet – Planet Auschwitz – then we risk failure to learn its lessons. That would be to squander the essential benefit offered by study of the Third Reich: an early warning system. So yes, when Donald Trump ordered US government agents on the southern border to separate migrant children from their parents, to tear screaming toddlers from their fathers and even to pull a baby from its mother’s breast, he was not re-enacting the Holocaust. He was not ordering the eradication of an entire people or sending millions to their deaths. But there were echoes. And we must hear them.
-snip-
But the echoes don’t end there. The wire cages. The guards telling weeping children they are forbidden from hugging each other. And then this chilling detail, reported by Texas Monthly. It turns out that US border guards don’t always tell parents they’re taking their children away. “Instead, the officers say, ‘I’m going to take your child to get bathed.’ The child goes off, and in a half-hour, 20 minutes, the parent inquires, ‘Where is my five-year-old?’ ‘Where’s my seven-year-old?’ ‘This is a long bath.’ And [the officer says], ‘You won’t be seeing your child again.’” It’s not the same as telling Jews about to die they are merely taking a shower, but in the use of deception the echo is loud.
And if the mechanics of this operation strike a familiar note, so too does the rhetoric and propaganda deployed by those behind it and defending it. You don’t have to go to back to 1930s Germany to know that the first step towards catastrophe is the dehumanisation of a reviled group. It happened that way in Rwanda and the Balkans in the 1990s, and it’s happening in today’s United States. “These aren’t people, these are animals,” the US president said last month. They want “to pour into and infest our country”, he tweeted this week. “Infest” is a word reserved for rats and insects. This is the language of those seeking to choke off human sympathy, by suggesting those suffering are not even human.
Much more on the link
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/22/trump-world-1930s-children-parents-europe-migrants?CMP=share_btn_fb
.
June 24, 2018
These Nazis need to be publicly shamed at every turn ...........
Alumni from Kirstjen Nielsen's Tampa high school condemn her in open letter to school's headmaster
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-tampa/alumni-from-kirstjen-nielsen-s-tampa-high-school-condemn-her-in-open-letter-to-school-s-headmaster
TAMPA, Fla. — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is facing backlash from her Tampa high school after she went before a national audience defending the Trump administration's highly scrutinized immigration policy. On Tuesday, a group of alumni from Berkeley Preparatory School drafted a petition opposing her and calling for the school to condemn her actions.
"Secretary Nielsen, Class of ’90, does not reflect the core values that were taught at our independent high school, especially the value ingrained in most graduates’ heads: Make a positive difference, and use your privilege for good," the group of alumni wrote in a press release.
This comes just a day after Nielsen declined to apologize for the administration’s family separation practices. "We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do," Nielsen said on Monday. "Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards."
-snip-
In a letter to Berkeley Preparatory School Headmaster Joseph Seivold, the group asked:
"Today, we respectfully request that you condemn the policies causing the separation of children from their families at the US-Mexico border, implemented and enforced by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen — known to us as Kirstjen Nielsen, Class of 1990."
More on the link
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-tampa/alumni-from-kirstjen-nielsen-s-tampa-high-school-condemn-her-in-open-letter-to-school-s-headmaster
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Alumni from Kirstjen Nielsen's Tampa high school condemn her in open letter to school's headmaster
These Nazis need to be publicly shamed at every turn ...........
Alumni from Kirstjen Nielsen's Tampa high school condemn her in open letter to school's headmaster
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-tampa/alumni-from-kirstjen-nielsen-s-tampa-high-school-condemn-her-in-open-letter-to-school-s-headmaster
TAMPA, Fla. — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is facing backlash from her Tampa high school after she went before a national audience defending the Trump administration's highly scrutinized immigration policy. On Tuesday, a group of alumni from Berkeley Preparatory School drafted a petition opposing her and calling for the school to condemn her actions.
"Secretary Nielsen, Class of ’90, does not reflect the core values that were taught at our independent high school, especially the value ingrained in most graduates’ heads: Make a positive difference, and use your privilege for good," the group of alumni wrote in a press release.
This comes just a day after Nielsen declined to apologize for the administration’s family separation practices. "We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do," Nielsen said on Monday. "Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards."
-snip-
In a letter to Berkeley Preparatory School Headmaster Joseph Seivold, the group asked:
"Today, we respectfully request that you condemn the policies causing the separation of children from their families at the US-Mexico border, implemented and enforced by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen — known to us as Kirstjen Nielsen, Class of 1990."
More on the link
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-tampa/alumni-from-kirstjen-nielsen-s-tampa-high-school-condemn-her-in-open-letter-to-school-s-headmaster
.
June 23, 2018
ICE Spokesman Resigns, Saying He Could No Longer Spread Falsehoods for Trump Administration
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/california-ice-spokesman-resigns.html
?quality=90&auto=webp
A spokesman for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned, saying that he could no longer “bear the burden” of spreading falsehoods on behalf of the Trump administration. The spokesman, James Schwab, who had worked for the agency’s San Francisco Division, told news outlets Monday that his decision was prompted by false statements made by the agency on Feb. 27 and repeated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week.
The statements criticized the mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, for her decision last month to warn city residents that a raid by federal immigration agents targeting roughly 1,000 people was imminent. The agency’s deputy director, Thomas D. Homan, said that Ms. Schaaf’s warning had helped “864 criminal aliens and public safety threats” to evade capture in the raid.
Mr. Sessions, in a visit to California last week, condemned Ms. Schaaf, a Democrat, and echoed the agency, asserting that her actions had allowed hundreds to escape. Mr. Schwab said in interviews, first with The San Francisco Chronicle and then with CNN, that he had been frustrated by the remarks, and had quit “because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts.”
“I asked them to change the information,” he told The Chronicle, referring to the 864 people to whom the statement alluded. “I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit.”
More on the link
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/california-ice-spokesman-resigns.html
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ICE Spokesman Resigns, Saying He Could No Longer Spread Lies for Trump Administration
ICE Spokesman Resigns, Saying He Could No Longer Spread Falsehoods for Trump Administration
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/california-ice-spokesman-resigns.html
?quality=90&auto=webp
A spokesman for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned, saying that he could no longer “bear the burden” of spreading falsehoods on behalf of the Trump administration. The spokesman, James Schwab, who had worked for the agency’s San Francisco Division, told news outlets Monday that his decision was prompted by false statements made by the agency on Feb. 27 and repeated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week.
The statements criticized the mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, for her decision last month to warn city residents that a raid by federal immigration agents targeting roughly 1,000 people was imminent. The agency’s deputy director, Thomas D. Homan, said that Ms. Schaaf’s warning had helped “864 criminal aliens and public safety threats” to evade capture in the raid.
Mr. Sessions, in a visit to California last week, condemned Ms. Schaaf, a Democrat, and echoed the agency, asserting that her actions had allowed hundreds to escape. Mr. Schwab said in interviews, first with The San Francisco Chronicle and then with CNN, that he had been frustrated by the remarks, and had quit “because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts.”
“I asked them to change the information,” he told The Chronicle, referring to the 864 people to whom the statement alluded. “I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit.”
More on the link
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/california-ice-spokesman-resigns.html
.
June 22, 2018
IMHO Sinclair buying up all our local tv stations is a serious threat to our democracy. Here is their latest 'must run' abomination ...............
Sinclair forces news stations to air segment blaming media for overreacting about child separation
Sinclair's newest "must-run" segment is all passive voice and full of lies about Trump's abusive immigration policy.
https://thinkprogress.org/sinclair-must-run-child-separation-2748522511ef/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b2c85ea3ed3f000070b7f97&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
?w=1280&ssl=1
President Donald Trump’s ever-shifting explanations regarding his choice to forcibly remove migrant children from their parents as part of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy have left his media allies scrambling to keep up in recent weeks. But the newest must-run segment by right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group — the country’s largest owner of local television stations — may preview the administration’s final-draft spin plan.
The president “correctly decided to step in” Wednesday “to stop the separation of children from their families at the border,” former Trump staffer turned Sinclair propagandist Boris Epshteyn says in the segment.
“President Trump [made the decision] to enforce a ‘zero tolerance’ policy and prosecute all adults illegally crossing our borders,” Epshteyn says. “Many members of the media and opponents of the president have seized on this issue to make it seem as if those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters. Let’s be honest: While some of the concern is real, a lot of it is politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media.”
Sinclair-owned stations are required to run Epshteyn’s segments. The company currently controls local media in four out of every 10 U.S. homes, and could soon reach seven in 10 if Trump’s FCC approves its purchase of the Tribune Company’s television holdings. That means Epshteyn’s blatant reconfiguring of very recent history will be forced down the brainstems of roughly the same share of the country as still approves of Trump’s job performance in tracking polls.
More, including video of the segment, at the link-
https://thinkprogress.org/sinclair-must-run-child-separation-2748522511ef/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b2c85ea3ed3f000070b7f97&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
.
Sinclair forces news stations to air segment blaming media for overreacting about child separation
IMHO Sinclair buying up all our local tv stations is a serious threat to our democracy. Here is their latest 'must run' abomination ...............
Sinclair forces news stations to air segment blaming media for overreacting about child separation
Sinclair's newest "must-run" segment is all passive voice and full of lies about Trump's abusive immigration policy.
https://thinkprogress.org/sinclair-must-run-child-separation-2748522511ef/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b2c85ea3ed3f000070b7f97&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
?w=1280&ssl=1
President Donald Trump’s ever-shifting explanations regarding his choice to forcibly remove migrant children from their parents as part of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy have left his media allies scrambling to keep up in recent weeks. But the newest must-run segment by right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group — the country’s largest owner of local television stations — may preview the administration’s final-draft spin plan.
The president “correctly decided to step in” Wednesday “to stop the separation of children from their families at the border,” former Trump staffer turned Sinclair propagandist Boris Epshteyn says in the segment.
“President Trump [made the decision] to enforce a ‘zero tolerance’ policy and prosecute all adults illegally crossing our borders,” Epshteyn says. “Many members of the media and opponents of the president have seized on this issue to make it seem as if those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters. Let’s be honest: While some of the concern is real, a lot of it is politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media.”
Sinclair-owned stations are required to run Epshteyn’s segments. The company currently controls local media in four out of every 10 U.S. homes, and could soon reach seven in 10 if Trump’s FCC approves its purchase of the Tribune Company’s television holdings. That means Epshteyn’s blatant reconfiguring of very recent history will be forced down the brainstems of roughly the same share of the country as still approves of Trump’s job performance in tracking polls.
More, including video of the segment, at the link-
https://thinkprogress.org/sinclair-must-run-child-separation-2748522511ef/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b2c85ea3ed3f000070b7f97&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
.
June 13, 2018
Democrats just flipped the 43rd seat red to blue since Trump took office
This is a district Trump won in a 17 point blowout
We just turned it Blue
This is great news but we need to keep the pressure up. We need to keep the momentum going and get out the vote in November!
Democrats Flip Another Wisconsin Seat, Making 43 Since Trump Inauguration
The victory follows other surprise wins by the party in conservative districts in the state this year.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-flip-another-wisconsin-seat-making-43-since-trump-inauguration
Wisconsin Democrats may have put fear into the heart of Republican Gov. Scott Walker again.
On Tuesday, they flipped another legislative seat in a traditionally conservative district, marking the 43rd seat to shift from Republican to Democratic control since President Trump’s inauguration.
In Wisconsin’s 1st Senate District, Democrat Caleb Frostman defeated GOP State Rep. Andre Jacque. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Frostman led 51-49, a total of almost 1,000 votes. Republican Frank Lasee previously held the seat but was appointed to Walker’s administration last December. This district, including Door and Calumet, voted for Trump by 17 points and for Mitt Romney in 2012 by almost 5 points.
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June 6, 2018
New Mexico's Deb Haaland likely to be first Native American congresswoman
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/new-mexico-primary-deb-haaland-michelle-lujan-grisham/index.html?sr=twCNNp060618new-mexico-primary-deb-haaland-michelle-lujan-grisham0116AMStory&CNNPolitics=Tw
Deb Haaland has won the primary for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, CNN projects, putting her on track to become the first Native American woman in Congress.
The former Democratic state party leader, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, is seeking to replace Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is leaving her post representing the solidly Democratic district to run for governor. Haaland outlasted a strong field that included former US Attorney Damon Martinez and Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an activist and former law professor.
"Tonight, New Mexico made history," Haaland said in a speech Tuesday, calling hers a "victory for working people, a victory for women and a victory for everyone who has been sidelined by the billionaire class."
She included a message for the White House -
"Donald Trump and the billionaire class," she said, "should consider this victory a warning shot: the blue wave is coming."
There are 23 tribes in New Mexico, according to the state's Indian Affairs Department, and Native Americans make up a little more than 10% of the total population.
Haaland will face Republican Janice Arnold-Jones in November.
.
New Mexico's Deb Haaland likely to be first Native American congresswoman
New Mexico's Deb Haaland likely to be first Native American congresswoman
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/new-mexico-primary-deb-haaland-michelle-lujan-grisham/index.html?sr=twCNNp060618new-mexico-primary-deb-haaland-michelle-lujan-grisham0116AMStory&CNNPolitics=Tw
Deb Haaland has won the primary for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, CNN projects, putting her on track to become the first Native American woman in Congress.
The former Democratic state party leader, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, is seeking to replace Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is leaving her post representing the solidly Democratic district to run for governor. Haaland outlasted a strong field that included former US Attorney Damon Martinez and Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an activist and former law professor.
"Tonight, New Mexico made history," Haaland said in a speech Tuesday, calling hers a "victory for working people, a victory for women and a victory for everyone who has been sidelined by the billionaire class."
She included a message for the White House -
"Donald Trump and the billionaire class," she said, "should consider this victory a warning shot: the blue wave is coming."
There are 23 tribes in New Mexico, according to the state's Indian Affairs Department, and Native Americans make up a little more than 10% of the total population.
Haaland will face Republican Janice Arnold-Jones in November.
.
June 6, 2018
Iowa Democrats just demolished the past turnout record for a primary! Great sign for November
Iowa Democrats just demolished the past turnout record for a primary. Incredibly good signs for their prospects in November
WHAT HAPPENED TONIGHT IN IOWA’S DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
https://iowastartingline.com/2018/06/05/what-happened-tonight-in-iowas-democratic-primary/
Iowa held its primaries today and the results in several key races have big implications for the state and national political environment in 2018 and beyond. Here’s Starting Line’s summary of what happened for all you national political watchers.
Democrats Smash Turnout Records
By far the best news of the night for Democrats was the record turnout in many places around the state. Just over 100,000 voted in the 2016 Democratic primary. Only 72,388 showed up in 2014. Neither of those years had statewide contested primaries with big spending. 2006 was the last time that happened, and just under 150,000 came out then.
With a little over 90% of precincts reporting, Democrats already have a turnout of 175,000 in today’s primary. They will almost certainly surpass the turnout for the 2016 Iowa Caucus as well. That is, quite frankly, incredible.
Abby Finkenauer Poised To Be Youngest Woman Elected To Congress
Get ready to hear a lot about Iowa’s 1st Congressional District race. The general election matchup between Democrat Abby Finkenauer, who easily won a four-way primary tonight, and Republican incumbent Rod Blum will be at the top of the national target list. Blum has often been named the most vulnerable incumbent, and he didn’t help himself by angrily walking out of a TV interview last year.
What makes the race more noteworthy is that Finkenauer, 28, would be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress if she wins. She’s centered her campaign message around a working families message, highlighting her own blue-collar upbringing in Dubuque. Finkenauer has already served two terms in the Iowa House.
More on the link
https://iowastartingline.com/2018/06/05/what-happened-tonight-in-iowas-democratic-primary/
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June 6, 2018
The judge involved in the Brock Turner case — who sparked outrage after six-month sentence for sexual assault — was just voted out of office, SF Chronicle reports.
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1004225035652026368
Persky is the first California judge to be recalled in 86 years, after a two-year #RecallPersky campaign to get him out of office.
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1004228844151242752
.
Judge in Brock Turner case, who sparked outrage after 6 mo. sentence for sex assault, just voted out
The judge involved in the Brock Turner case — who sparked outrage after six-month sentence for sexual assault — was just voted out of office, SF Chronicle reports.
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1004225035652026368
Persky is the first California judge to be recalled in 86 years, after a two-year #RecallPersky campaign to get him out of office.
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1004228844151242752
.
June 6, 2018
Trump hasn’t visited troops in war zones once in his 500 days in office
If Trump truly wanted to support the troops, he might consider visiting them at least once.
https://shareblue.com/trump-troops-war-zones-500-days/
Trump reached his 500th day in office Monday. And that also marked 500 days of snubbing U.S. troops in war zones, whom he has never visited.
Trump has overseen an increase in troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria from 18,000 in December 2016 to 26,0000 in December 2017. After that, his Defense Department stopped reporting troop levels in those countries.
Paul Eaton, retired Army major general and senior adviser to VoteVets, slammed Trump in a statement to Shareblue Media. “Getting a president to visit troops, in a war zone, is a huge logistical and security challenge, but it is worth it because of what it means to the men and women who are serving,” Eaton said. “I never much agreed with George W. Bush’s policies, but when he went to Iraq and served chow to the troops, for Thanksgiving, it meant a lot to them.” Eaton added, “It’s also good for a president to get away from meeting brass in comfortable environs, and seeing conditions in which the men and women under his command are serving.”
Trump’s neglect of service members is also a departure from President Barack Obama. Less than three months into his presidency, Obama visited troops in Iraq. And he made surprise visits to troops in Afghanistan twice in 2010. Altogether, Obama visited the two war zones five times during his time in office.
Yet even after consistent and vocal criticism from veterans, Trump continues to hide from the men and women he sends into harm’s way. Despite this, draft-dodger Trump, who has consistently disrespected the military, has demanded a military parade in his honor.
.
Trump hasn't visited troops in war zones once in his 500 days in office
Trump hasn’t visited troops in war zones once in his 500 days in office
If Trump truly wanted to support the troops, he might consider visiting them at least once.
https://shareblue.com/trump-troops-war-zones-500-days/
Trump reached his 500th day in office Monday. And that also marked 500 days of snubbing U.S. troops in war zones, whom he has never visited.
Trump has overseen an increase in troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria from 18,000 in December 2016 to 26,0000 in December 2017. After that, his Defense Department stopped reporting troop levels in those countries.
Paul Eaton, retired Army major general and senior adviser to VoteVets, slammed Trump in a statement to Shareblue Media. “Getting a president to visit troops, in a war zone, is a huge logistical and security challenge, but it is worth it because of what it means to the men and women who are serving,” Eaton said. “I never much agreed with George W. Bush’s policies, but when he went to Iraq and served chow to the troops, for Thanksgiving, it meant a lot to them.” Eaton added, “It’s also good for a president to get away from meeting brass in comfortable environs, and seeing conditions in which the men and women under his command are serving.”
Trump’s neglect of service members is also a departure from President Barack Obama. Less than three months into his presidency, Obama visited troops in Iraq. And he made surprise visits to troops in Afghanistan twice in 2010. Altogether, Obama visited the two war zones five times during his time in office.
Yet even after consistent and vocal criticism from veterans, Trump continues to hide from the men and women he sends into harm’s way. Despite this, draft-dodger Trump, who has consistently disrespected the military, has demanded a military parade in his honor.
.
June 4, 2018
For Marco Rubio to sell out the students of his state to possibly die in gun violence, Rubio's price is just over one buck a head ................
This is the cap @davidhogg111 will graduate from high school in today — the $1.05 price tag represents the amount the NRA has spent to support Marco Rubio’s campaigns, divided by every student in the state of Florida.
https://twitter.com/WashNews/status/1003337706200592385
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This is the cap David Hogg will graduate high school in ...
For Marco Rubio to sell out the students of his state to possibly die in gun violence, Rubio's price is just over one buck a head ................
This is the cap @davidhogg111 will graduate from high school in today — the $1.05 price tag represents the amount the NRA has spent to support Marco Rubio’s campaigns, divided by every student in the state of Florida.
https://twitter.com/WashNews/status/1003337706200592385
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