Category Archives: The United States

DACA: from the beginning…

31 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in DACA, Immigration, Racism, The United States

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President Obama Meets Beneficiaries Of The Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals Policy

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 04: U.S. President Barack Obama meets with a group of ‘DREAMers’ who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in the Oval Office of the White House February 4, 2015 in Washington, DC. ‘DREAMers’ are children who were brought into the U.S. illegally and were then granted temporary relief under Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The above photograph features DREAMers or beneficiaries of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/04/politics/daca-dreamers-immigration-program/index.html

President Trump plans to deport immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a policy of the Obama administration  adopted in June 2012 and rescinded by the Trump administration in September 2017 (See Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Wikipedia.) DACA beneficiaries received a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and were eligible for a work permit.

DACA is rooted in the DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act#2017

“The bill was first introduced in the Senate on August 1, 2001, S. 1291 by United States Senators Dick Durbin (D– Illinois) and Orrin Hatch (R– Utah), and has since been reintroduced several times (see Legislative history) but has failed to pass.” (See DREAM Act, Wikipedia.)

Lafayette and Washington at Valley Forge
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1
Dred Scott. Oil on canvas by Louis Schultze, 1888. Acc. # 1897.9.1. Missouri Historical Society Museum Collections. Photograph by David Schultz, 1999. NS 23864. Photograph and scan (c) 1999-2006, Missouri Historical Society.

John Ward Dunsmore‘s depiction of Lafayette (right) and Washington at Valley Forge, a battle fought in 1777-1778 (Wikipedia)
George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1797 (Wikipedia)
Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1798 (Wikipedia)
Dred Scott  (Photo credit: PBS)
Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette by Joseph-Désiré Court, 1791 (Wikipedia)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

If one reads the Declaration of Independence, quoted above, without taking its historical context into consideration, one cannot reconcile the phrase “all men are created equal,” with enslavement. Matters are all the more puzzling since, as Minister to France (1784 -1789), Thomas Jefferson helped the Marquis de Lafayette draft the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), a monument to social justice drawing from the American Declaration of Independence. La Fayette had fought in the American Revolutionary War. Could it be that the Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, were hypocrites? I have pondered this question and it would be my opinion that, in their eyes, black slaves were not fully developed men. The Founding Fathers: George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison wished to create a union of white men. George Washington, the 1st President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, was a Mason and a slave owner, but did he know that blacks were human beings to the same extent as whites?

Thomas Jefferson is unlikely ever to have whipped his slaves, but I doubt that his attitude towards the blacks was substantially different from the view expressed, a century later, by Confederate General-in-Chief, Robert E. Lee’s (19 January 1807 – 12 October 1870)

“most noted comment, quoted by most Lee’s biographers, occurred in a [sic] 1856 letter to his wife, describing slavery as an evil institution, but one that had more adverse effects on whites than blacks. However, he viewed slavery as a “painful discipline” which elevated blacks from barbarism to civilization while introducing them to Christianity. He felt that the institution would come to an end in God’s good time, but that might not be soon.” (See Robert E. Lee, Wikipedia.)

The White Man’s Burden

In the White Man’s Burden, a poem published as the 19th century drew to an end, in 1899), Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) expressed views that portrayed the inhabitants of colonies as “primitive:”

“The implication, of course, was that the Empire existed not for the benefit — economic or strategic or otherwise — of Britain, itself, but in order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could, with British guidance, eventually become civilized (and Christianized).” (See The White Man’s Burden, Wikipedia.)

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The British John Bull and the American Uncle Sam bear The White Man’s Burden (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling), taking the coloured peoples of the world to civilisation. (Victor Gillam, Judge magazine, 1 April 1899) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rudyard Kipling is the author of the Jungle Book (1894) and the Just-so stories (1902), classics of children’s literature. As for Lafayette, although he was an abolitionist and a Mason, he fought in the American Revolutionary War and probably realized that George Washington and other Founding Fathers of the United States could not be brought to view their black slaves as altogether human or “men,” but that they were good human beings.  The United States Declaration of Independence was worded in the language of John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) and also reflected Freemasonry. Equality would be the subject matter of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778)  Discourse on Inequality (1754) and a main theme in Rousseau’s Social Contract (1762). These documents are “cornerstones in modern political and social thought.”

 

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John Locke by Godfrey Kneller, 1697 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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J.-J. Rousseau by  Maurice Quentin de La Tour, 1753 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798

  • Three Acts
  • Dred Scott

The case of Dred Scott is most revealing. In 1857, Dred Scott, a slave taken to free states by his owners, sued for his freedom and lost. Dred Scott vs Sandford  60 U.S  393 is considered one of the worst mistakes of the Supreme Court of the United States. Its decision was made shortly before the American Civil War (1861-1865) and it proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War.” (See Dred Scott vs Sandford 60 U.S.393.)

African-Americans had been taken to the Americas forcibly, yet they were not recognized as citizens of the United States until the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, three years after the South surrendered to the Union. As for American Indians, they were not  citizens until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

“This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were free white persons of good character. It thus excluded American Indians, indentured servants, slaves, free blacks and later Asians although free blacks were allowed citizenship at the state level in certain states.” (See Naturalization Act of 1790, Wikipedia.)

John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts

The Naturalization Act of 1798, is one of four acts, the Alien and Sedition Acts, signed into law by John Adams, the 2nd American President of the United States and its 1st Vice President. The four laws under John Adam’s Alien and Sedition Acts are the following:

(See Alien and Sedition Acts, Wikipedia)

The Naturalization Act of 1798 was repealed by Thomas Jefferson and replaced by the Naturalization Law of 1802, which reduced the residence requirement of immigrants from 14 years to 5 years, as it had been under the terms of the Naturalization Act of 1795.  However, the Alien Enemies Act, was used after Pearl Harbor was attacked, on 7 December 1941. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 would allow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt “to imprison Japanese, German, and Italian aliens during World War II.” Canadians followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt and also interned Japanese Canadians. (See Internment of Japanese Canadians.) The Alien Enemies Act was also used by President Harry S. Truman “to continue to imprison, then deport, aliens of the formerly hostile nations.” It has been revised but remains in effect. The Alien Friends’ Act and the Sedition Act went into dormancy. A modified Alien Enemy Act is still in force.

“The Sedition Act resulted in the prosecution and conviction of many Jeffersonian newspaper owners who disagreed with the government.” (See Alien and Sedition Acts, Wikipedia.)

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 6 May 1882 is particularly sad, and the United States was not the only country in which the Chinese were viewed as a peril, the Yellow Peril. It was the first American federal law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers. Chinese had first emigrated to the United States during the California gold rush (1848-1855). Later, in the 1860s, they were employed to build the First Transcontinental Railroad from Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean. The Burlingame Treaty, signed in Washington (1868) and ratified in Beijing (1868), granted the Chinese equality with Americans. Yet, on 24 October 1871, 500 rioters entered Los Angeles’ Chinatown “to attack, rob and murder Chinese residents of the city.” Rioters “tortured and then hanged” 17 to 20 Chinese. The Massacre was “racially motivated,” and “it took place on Calle de los Negros (Street of the Negros), also referred to as ‘Nigger Alley.’ “It was the largest mass lynching in American history.” (See Chinese Massacre of 1871, Wikipedia.)

 

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The Yellow Terror in all His Glory (1899) is a rebellious Qing Dynasty Chinese man, armed to the teeth, who stands astride a fallen white woman representing Western European colonialism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau, the author of the Essai sur l’inégalité des races (The Essay on the Inequality of  Human Races, c. 1848), feared the Yellow Peril above all. As we have seen, he developed the theory of the Aryan master race, but he was not an anti-Semite.

Darwinism

As biology, botany, ethnology, and related disciplines developed, the matter of racial superiority or inferiority among races started to lose its grip. The findings of English naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) were a revolution. According to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, two years after the Dred Scott vs Sandford, humans had evolved “through a process of natural selection.” (See Charles Darwin, Wikipedia.) Darwin’s views were controversial. Wasn’t man created by God? There is such a thing as Scientific Racism (see Wikipedia), but Darwin was not a racist.

Lafayette and Washington

Gilbert Motier de Lafayette was a very good friend of George Washington. He named one his sons after the 1st President of the United States. (See Georges Washington de La Fayette, Wikipedia.) Georges Washington de La Fayette, Lafayette’s son went to the United States during the French Revolution. He studied at Harvard and lived at the home of George Washington, and Americans did all they could to save the life of the Lafayette’s during the French Revolution. As for Thomas Jefferson, during his stay in France, just prior to the French Revolution, he was a distinguished guest at Lafayette’s home. Lafayette was an abolitionist and a Mason. He was a member of la Société des amis des Noirs  (The Society of Friends of the Blacks). In a letter to George Washington, written in 1783, “he urged the emancipation of slaves and their establishment as tenant farmers.” (See Gilbert Motier de Lafayette, Wikipedia.) He bought land in the French colony of Cayenne to “experiment.” However, there was little he could to do to change the embedded mindset of his American friends. Slavery had long been looked upon as morally acceptable, the slaves were blacks, an inferior race, and one did not have to pay slaves.

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Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette by Joseph-Désiré Court, 1791 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

By rescinding DACA, President Trump would show that he has little respect for immigrants, especially, but not necessarily, coloured immigrants. DACA beneficiaries arrived in the United States as minors and, at times, alone. The only home they know is the United States. If President Trump deports immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors, and, at times, unaccompanied, America will not be “great again;” it will be cruel and it will be walking back to an age when immigration to the United States was restricted to “free white persons of good character.” Immigration to the United States is currently taking a turn for the worse. DACA beneficiaries featured in the photograph inserted at the top of this post are dark-skinned.

I prefer to think that ethnicity is not a factor in the Trump administration’s decision to deport DACA beneficiaries. But what about immigrants from the Near to Middle East. They may have pale skin, but ethnicity might deprive them of a home.

In a letter to his wife Adrienne, Lafayette wrote:

“The welfare of America is bound closely to the welfare of all humanity. She [America] is to become the honored and safe asylum of liberty! Adieu! Darkness does not suffer me to continue longer. But if my fingers were to follow my heart, I should need no daylight to tell you how I suffer far away from you, and how I love you.” (See Adrienne de La Fayette, Wikipedia.)

When Lafayette was in United States, it was a country in the making, a project. And it is still a project. It took a long time to accept African-Americans as citizens of America. As for DACA, Mr Trump might change his mind and not deport them. President Trump wants to reverse every decision made by the Obama administration. The Affordable Care Act is his main target.

In all likelihood the Founding Fathers believed that “all men were created equal,” but they lived in an age when humans looked upon the blacks and American Indians as inferior to white men. Matters have changed. The United States is now or should be “the honored and safe asylum of liberty!”

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Sources and Resources

Love to everyone ♥

800px-Official_Presidential_portrait_of_John_Adams_(by_John_Trumbull,_circa_1792)

John Adams by John Trumbull, 1793 (Wikipedia)

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30 October 2017
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America

06 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by in Climate Change, Islam, Refugees, The United States

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US Flag and Fireworks (Google images)

I missed July 4th, Independence Day for the citizens of the United States, but wish to send special greetings to my neighbours.  I spent several holidays at my grandfather’s house in Massachusetts. I grew to love his home and his land. The year is young, so greetings to everyone.

Life has not been easy for many of you since Mr Trump was elected to the presidency of the United States. You have had to rely on courts to block some Executive Orders. These are your courts and they represent you, your vision, your values. Many Americans would keep law-abiding “dreamers,” rather than deport them.

https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/02/15/dreamer-doctors-fear-deportation-under-trump-migrant-crackdown

The children of undocumented immigrants may be safe. Their parents, however, are being returned to an uncertain future and some may be executed because they have stood against a tyrant. Iraqi Christians are being deported. Yes, there are Christians in the Middle East, but fewer and fewer. As for Muslims, the majority are good persons who deserve respect and love.

A Strange Illness

A large number of nations are home to refugees whom they may deport. Countries have a right to limit immigration. However, one should consider the plight of immigrants and refugees and that of persons who may be deported to their native land. In Sweden, upon learning that they their family would be deported, the children of Russian refugees have fallen ill. It’s a strange disease. They do not die, but enter into a state of resignation so complete that they are neither dead nor alive. They lose consciousness. Such phenomena are difficult to explain, but these children may have felt, or feel, they were, and are, not worthy of living.

In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children have fallen unconscious after being informed that their families will be expelled from the …

Rachel Aviv

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Uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome, is said to exist only in Sweden, and only among refugees. The patients seem to have lost the will to live. “They are like Snow White,” a doctor said. “They just fall away from the world.” Photograph by Magnus Wennman for The New Yorker

Canada and “Illegal” Immigrants

Certain immigrants and asylum-seekers were not allowed to stay in the United States under former President Obama’s administration. But they were deported at a slower rate and in smaller numbers. We did not see “dreamers” cross the border and the cost of frozen limbs. No one can enter Canada illegally, but recent asylum seekers who arrived during winter months, were helped by the police and then arrested, but not in a brutal manner. Canada has to protect its citizens. It has immigration laws and it may deport would-be Canadians, rightly or wrongly.

Refugees

  • Christians
  • The Plight of Immigrants

Canada’s Armenian community sponsored at least one flight of threatened Armenians. These refugees were Christians as are Iraqis being deported from the United States. One may think the Armenians who were on that one flight to Canada were “lucky.” To a certain extent, they were. Members of Canada’s Armenian community felt relief and newly-arrived Armenians were greeted to this country. They had nevertheless lost their home and, perhaps, children and relatives. It has often been said, in France and Canada, that “nous sommes tous du pays de notre enfance.” We all belong to the country of our childhood. Immigrants lose their native land and some remember circumstances that were better in the country of their birth. History or destiny are not always kind to people. Most immigrants have to learn a new language and they may be underemployed in their new country, which may constitute a profound loss.

President Trump’s Islamophobia

In this regard, we have learned that President Trump’s Islamophobia is selective. It does not include Saudi Arabia.

https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-and-saudi-arabia-against-the-world/

He could also be that he does not realize that there may be tragic consequences to his Islamophobia. For one thing, he may be cultivating terrorism. How long will Muslim migrants accept being looked upon as would-be terrorists on the basis of their religion? Think, moreover, of the copycat phenomenon. Think also that there is a degree of diversity in the Middle East. Although most citizens are Muslims, certain minorities were not “Arabised” in the 7th century CE. Some did not convert to Islam. For instance, there are Buddhists in Saudi Arabia. (See Buddhism in Saudi Arabia, Wikipedia.) Finally, deporting people who have grown roots in a country other than their native country may lead to an illness resembling the fate of those children in Sweden who have given up: uppgivenhetssyndrom.

War and terrorism have caused a large number of innocent people to walk away from their homes in the Middle East. It’s a crisis and such crises have happened before. We have to manage them.  

The G20 Summit

Mr Trump is at the G20 Summit. It would appear he may be compromising the United States’ status as global leader. He is, at any rate, facing opposition. The climate, for instance, is a global issue and there are trading agreement, defence alliances and questions such as migration and various international accidents.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/06/g20-summit-could-mark-end-of-us-as-global-leader-but-what-is-next#img-2

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/opinions/merkel-trump-negotiating-style/index.html

Greetings to all my Americans readers.

Love to everyone ♥

 

George Gershwin‘s “Summertime”

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6 July 2017
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Otto Warmbier Dies

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Sharing, The United States

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The Weeping Angel of Amiens (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

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Otto Warmbier

The North Koreans did not free Otto Warmbier, they sent home a dying young man. Whatever brutality they inflicted caused his death. When he returned to the United States, nothing could be done for him.

Despite the irreversibility of his fate, I am very thankful to President Trump for securing Otto’s release. He ensured that a dying young man would pass away home, in the United States, and surrounded by his loved ones, his parents in particular, Fred and Cindy Warmbier. Otto’s mother said that her son’s facial expression changed during the last days of his life. He arrived in the United States looking anguished, but died looking serene, at peace.

He will also be given a proper funeral, which will help his parents, his siblings, his friends, and all of us. We were all touched and our thoughts are with his family. Otto Warmbier was the quintessential victim of man’s inhumanity to man.

I would like to offer my deepest condolences to his grieving family and I hope that an angel will be by their side for the rest of their life. They have suffered. They saw videos of their son crying when he was condemned to 15 years of hard labour and looking dejected as guards took him away to serve an unjust sentence.

I have placed above the image of the “Weeping Angel of Amiens,” once again. It is so powerful an image. The soul is immortal. So, no one could take his soul away from Otto.

May you rest in peace.

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La Cathédrale d’Amiens
« Un Bal », La Symphonie fantastique, Hector Berlioz
Charles Munch, conductor

Amiens_Cathedral,_1903

© Micheline Walker
20 June 2017
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President Trump & the Paris Agreement

03 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by in democracy, the environment, The United States

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The Paris Agreement

It may be wise not to look upon President Donald Trump’s defection from the 2015 Paris Agreement (l’Accord de Paris) as a decision dooming our ailing planet. Nor can it be seen as reflecting the will of the citizens of the United States. Climate change remains a major concern for countries around the world, the survival of planet Earth being at stake. If planet Earth dies, we all die. With respect to climate change, action cannot be delayed as we are already seconds before midnight.

Three European Nations React

A mere hour after President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Italy, Germany, and France stated jointly that the Paris Agreement could not be renegotiated. (See United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Wikipedia.)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-eu-idUSKBN18S6GN?wpisrc=nl_energy202&wpmm=1

France: a Refuge to American Scientists

Again, a mere hour after Mr Trump made his decision public, French President Emmanuel Macron offered a refuge in France to American climate scientists. Some of these scientists, and they are numerous and highly skilled, have gone to Washington and warned President Trump of the imminent danger climate change posed, but to no avail. It could well be that the President’s decision is not an American decision, but Donald Trump’s decision. Ironically, President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, opposed the President’s decision.

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/01/french-president-emmanuel-macron-offers-refuge-american-climate-scientists/

http://www.businessinsider.com/france-president-emmanuel-macron-donald-trump-paris-agreement-rebuke-2017-6
(apologies: technical difficulties)

The United States Resists

http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-paris-agreement-coalition-2017-6

But I am also reading that there is considerable resistance in the United States. After listening to former President Obama’s farewell address, I wrote that he probably felt that a democracy was its own corrective or “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” (Abraham Lincoln ‘s Gettysburg Address.)

“Thirty cities, three states, more than 80 university presidents, and more than 100 companies are part of a growing group intending to uphold the Paris Agreement, the climate-change accord that President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the US would be exiting.”

The group is being organized by billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg.

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Michael Bloomberg, the UN special envoy for cities and climate change, at the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City on December 1. Reuters

Conclusion

After Mr Trump’s visit to Europe, Chancellor Merkel‘s political rivals agreed with her that Europe would have to look after itself. However, it turns out that Mr Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement has unleashed widespread disappointment, in the United States in particular, but also everywhere.

Mr Trump may be a dangerous man, but he is predictable. He announced that he would not allow Muslims to enter the United States and is now planning another travel ban, but Americans will find a way to defeat it. Three men were stabbed and two died protecting Muslim women on a train in Portland, Oregon. The United States has long been a refuge to the oppressed. President Trump’s Islamophobia has not affected all the citizens of the United States. Besides, it is selective. He travelled to Saudi Arabia and signed an arms deal.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/us/portland-train-stabbing/

President Trump is also trying to take away from Americans what protection they enjoyed under the Affordable Act Care. Law-abiding American citizens pay their taxes and are therefore entitled to the security citizens of other and poorer countries enjoy.

The next link takes the reader to comments by Sir Richard Branson who may be saying that, in a democracy, if a people is threatened, it will rush to its own rescue.

http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-donald-trump-president-2016-11
(apologies: technical difficulties)

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Love to everyone ♥

“For the Beauty of the Earth,” Thomas Newman
Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) choir

U.S. President Trump departs after announcing decision to withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement in the White House Rose Garden in Washington

© Micheline Walker
3 June 2017
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Mike Pence: ‘Buckle Up’ For Trump’s First 100 Days

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in The United States

≈ Comments Off on Mike Pence: ‘Buckle Up’ For Trump’s First 100 Days

I thought I should share this with you.

PA Pundits - International

lucas_fred-200x200By Fred Lucas ~

Vice President-elect Mike Pence asserted Tuesday night that the Trump administration will have an aggressive first 100 days in office that includes rebuilding the military, repealing Obamacare, and naming a justice to the Supreme Court.

The Indiana governor and former U.S. House member said he has visited Capitol Hill about the agenda and issued a warning to GOP lawmakers.

“I told my former colleagues to buckle up, vacation is over,” Pence said to laughter from the audience.

“I told my former colleagues to buckle up, vacation is over,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former Indiana congressman, said at a Heritage Foundation event Tuesday. (Photo: Max Becherer/Polaris/Newscom)“I told my former colleagues to buckle up, vacation is over,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former Indiana congressman, said at a Heritage Foundation event Tuesday. (Photo: Max Becherer/Polaris/Newscom)

Pence spoke Tuesday night at The Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club Meeting, held at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in front of about 700 people in the large ballroom. His speech came just 44 days before Donald Trump is…

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Borowitz: Wait Until Inauguration

06 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by in The United States

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FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump shake hands following their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. As president-elect, Trump is calling for unity in words that draw attention precisely because they sound so unlike Trump, the candidate. But many question whether it is possible to reverse the campaign’s damage to political discourse and its ripples out to the way Americans speak to and about each other. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

FILE – In this Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump shake hands following their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. As president-elect, Trump is calling for unity in words that draw attention precisely because they sound so unlike Trump, the candidate. But many question whether it is possible to reverse the campaign’s damage to political discourse and its ripples out to the way Americans speak to and about each other. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

I am finishing a slightly longer post, on Molière, but glanced at the New Yorker which contained a short article written by journalist Andy Borowitz who publishes humorous material.

Borowitz on Trump, the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/obama-politely-asks-trump-to-wait-until-inauguration-before-destroying-world

Obama Politely Asks Trump to Wait Until Inauguration Before Destroying World

A few weeks ago, the unthinkable was electing Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and US President Donald Trump will join forces to fight Daesh (ISIL).

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In the words of an academic…

On 26 November, I read an alarming article published in a Sherbrooke, Quebec’s local newspaper. Its author is University of Sherbrooke Applied Political Science Professor Emeritus Gilles Vandal. According to Professor Vandal, in the 1980s, Mr Trump studied Adolf Hitler‘s Mein Kampf (My Struggle). He then hired Roy Cohn as his lawyer who taught him how to cheat the system, how to destroy evidence to avoid lawsuits, to refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing and not to hesitate to lie, if necessary.

… dans les années 1980, Donald Trump trouvait son inspiration dans Mein Kampf et les discours de Hitler d’avant 1939. De plus, il a été à l’école de Roy Cohn, le principal adjoint de Joe McCarthy. Trump s’est adjoint Cohn comme principal avocat. Ce dernier lui a enseigné comme tricher avec le système, comment détruire des preuves pour éviter de se faire poursuivre, l’importance en toute chose de refuser de reconnaître ses torts et de ne pas hésiter à mentir si c’était nécessaire.
Gilles Vandal, « L’Univers raciste de Trump », La Tribune, le 26 novembre 2016, p. 17.

We are returning to Molière.

Love to everyone. ♥
Don McLean sings American Pie

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6 December 2016
(Updated 6 December 2016)
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The USA: the Best and the Worst

26 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by in Election 2016, The United States

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President-elect Donald J. Trump

The Best and the Worst

My grandfather was an American citizen. We often drove down to Massachusetts to visit with him and his wife. We loved our visits.

There were many conversations. My father told me several times that, as a country, the United States was the best and the worst.

Well, Americans had the best president, whom they nearly crucified, and now they may well have the worst president, who may crucify Americans.

Mr Trump is embroiled in some 75 lawsuits which means that he may not be able to do much for Americans after his inauguration. He was threatening to sue the eleven women who told he had assaulted them. It is at that point that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey reopened the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails, which is how Mr Trump was absolved.

We no longer heard that President-elect Donald Trump had assaulted at least eleven women: amnesia!

Mr Trump has since threatened to sue Mr Comey, but I doubt that it had anything to do with Mrs Clinton’s emails. He threatens everyone with a lawsuit. In fact, Mr Trump had also planned to sue Hillary Clinton. He changed his mind, but may change it again.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/donald-trump-and-the-lawsuit-presidency.html

Lawsuits: 3,500

According to USA Today, during the last 30 years Mr Trump was involved in 3,500 lawsuits. It is difficult to understand how and why he was elected to the presidency of the United States. He’ll be picking fights.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/01/donald-trump-lawsuits-legal-battles/84995854/

President Obama

President Obama will be missed. His competence, engaging personality, impeccable manners earned him the admiration and respect of the world. There were very few issues Barack Obama could not handle. The citizens of other countries felt safe and Americans were in good hands. He is attempting to ensure a safe transition.

Fidel Castro is Dead

How will the new tenant perform? Whom will he sue? Fidel Castro is dead. He made himself, metaphorically speaking, an absolute monarch and, reportedly, jailed and perhaps executed many Cubans. Yet he was a hero to other Cubans. At any rate, the time has come for the embargo to be lifted, but President-elect Donald J. Trump builds walls, not bridges.

A tragedy has befallen the United States and the world.

I have not written for a few days. Life took over…

Love to everyone ♥

barack-obama3

President Obama

Nat King Cole sings “Unforgettable”

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© Micheline Walker
26 November 2016
(Revised 7 December 2016)
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Glenn Beck on the USA

10 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in The United States

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Glenn Beck: we don’t listen

I believe this is informative. To listen to Glenn Beck, one has to scroll down a little, but one gets there.

Beware, he may already have changed his mind. Afterthought.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glenn-beck-we-dont-listen_us_5822bf78e4b0d9ce6fbfedb8

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© Micheline Walker
10 November 2016
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Donald Trump: 370 Economists

10 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in Election, The United States

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Mrs Clinton will not forget, at least not easily, but she was very composed while delivering her concession speech. No one expected Mr Trump to be elected to the presidency.

The Letter from 370 Economists

Many of us did our best to prevent a Trump victory, but democracy is flawed. It allows everyone to vote, including those who are incapable of making an informed decision. They are easily led by slogans. Democracy also allows anyone to run for office and, in the United States, the educated, including Nobel Prize winners, are mere ‘academics.’ With Donald Trump at the wheel, an economic collapse can be expected, which is frightening. One listens.

A group of 370 economists, including eight Nobel laureates in economics, have signed a letter warning against the election of Republican nominee Donald Trump, calling him a “dangerous, destructive choice” for the country.
Nick Timiraos, the Wall Street Journal, Nov. 1, 2016

No one listened. Mr Trump is a liar, a racist, a bigot, a bully, a misogynist, and a possible rapist. He is incapable of self-control, profoundly disturbed by Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but he has been voted into the office of President of the United States, despite serious warnings on the part of 370 economists who called him a “dangerous, destructive choice.” A know-it-all America dismissed warnings from the ablest and wisest. Mr Trump did not seek the presidency so he could serve his country. No, not even remotely. He sought the presidency to feed his ego, to serve himself.

bn-qo372_trumpe_m_20161101111503-1Donald Trump campaigns in Warren, Mich., on Monday. Adviser Peter Navarro reacted to the letter Tuesday, saying in part, “You shouldn’t believe economists or Nobel Prize winners on trade.” PHOTO: JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

What Happened?

How this happened is somewhat difficult to explain. It could be an example of the American psyche. (See Glenn Beck, below.)

However, the following is a possible scenario. When FBI Director James Comey reopened the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails, he placed her under a cloud of suspicion. Her emails had been investigated, but once wasn’t enough, he reopened the investigation knowing he would find no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Mrs Clinton. Investigating again was a witch hunt and I believe it jeopardized Mrs Clinton’s bid for the presidency of the United States.

The timing points to a set up, un coup monté. However, the ‘bad guy’ was Mr Trump, a sexual predator who was threatening to sue the women who confirmed that they had been assaulted by him. The ‘bad guy’ was not Mrs Clinton who used the wrong server, whatever that is, to send emails. She was cleared for the second time on Sunday 6 November, which was much too late for her to recover. Therefore, on Tuesday 8 November 2016, Americans, who customarily suspect the establishment, shot themselves in the foot and transformed the election into a small, but perhaps not so small, coup d’état.

My question remains. Who put FBI Director James Comey up to this dastardly deed? The United States remains a house divided against itself. The Civil War is not over.

The Greater America

In fact, where is that greater America? I remember years of relative prosperity. For instance, when the interstate was built, President Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s initiative, Americans who could afford a car moved to a bungalow in suburbia. Many of these bungalows were cantilevered. There was a rumpus room, a recreation room, under the bedrooms. That is where couch potatoes slouched watching television. Cars could also take them to drive-in movie theatres where they slouched. In fact, food could be brought to a car and a large percentage of the slouching population got fatter. Smaller potatoes grew into larger potatoes as cars polluted the air. Was this a greater America? It would not be possible for 370 economists, a large number, to instill doubt into the mind of couch potatoes. Couch potatoes vegetate.

Glenn Beck: we don’t listen

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glenn-beck-we-dont-listen_us_5822bf78e4b0d9ce6fbfedb8

 —ooo—

About two weeks ago, Mr Trump stated that he was then quite certain President Obama was born in the United States, but that he had yet to be persuaded that President Obama was a Christian, not with a name like Barack Hussein Obama. This is an obsession, une idée fixe.

Hillary Clinton greeted supporters after delivering her concession speech on Wednesday in Manhattan. “This is painful, and it will be for a long time,” Mrs. Clinton said. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Conclusion

What next? If 370 economists called Mr Trump a “dangerous, destructive choice,” I have reason to fear. It’s a tragedy.

Canada and the United States are neighbours. We share the Great Lakes and many of us also share ancestry. At any rate, we welcomed draft dodgers and will welcome Americans who may think moving to Canada is an option. But how does one escape Donald Trump?

This, I believe, was my last post on the American presidency.

Love to everyone ♥

Nat King Cole sings “The Falling Leaves”

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© Micheline Walker
9 November 2016 (11/9)
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November 8, 2016: the USA Votes

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Election, The United States

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Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia on Sunday. The F.B.I. informed Congress on Sunday that it has not changed its conclusions about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. (The New York Times)

“WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told Congress on Sunday that he had seen no evidence in a recently discovered trove of emails to change his conclusion that Hillary Clinton should face no charges over her handling of classified information.” (The New York Times)

What is particularly shocking in this story is not only the timing of Mr Comey’s decision to re-open the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails, but the fact that Mr Comey knew that re-opening the investigation would not show criminal wrongdoing on the part of Mrs Clinton, but would give Mr Trump an advantage.

It was obstructionism, i.e. putting obstacles in the way of a nominee, and it was political. Mr Comey gave Mr Trump an advantage. Mr Comey all but removed Mrs Clinton’s bid to the presidency of the United States by suggesting partisanship.

It is for the American electorate to choose the President of the United States, not the FBI. By announcing it was re-opening its investigation regarding emails sent from her personal computer, the FBI put Mrs Clinton under a cloud of suspicion. She is a strong woman, but the stress the announcement generated was harmful.

Colin Powell

  • Donald Trump is a “national disgrace,”
  • Donald Trump is an “international pariah,”
  • Mrs Clinton is an “experienced” politician.

Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is not an admirer of Mrs Clinton, has stated that he would vote for her because she is an experienced politician. He has called Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and “international pariah.” If Donald Trump is a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah,” voting for him makes no sense. One may as well jump off a plane without a parachute.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/leaked-colin-powell-emails-lambaste-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-1473862328

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-u

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/politics/colin-powell-dcleaks/

colin-powell

Colin Powell, NYT

I share Mr Powell’s view. Mrs Clinton is a veteran politician and a former Secretary of State. She is “by leaps and bounds” the more qualified nominee. As for Donald Trump, evidence points to his suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. If Mr Trump believes he can be President of the United States without being elected, he is indeed a very sick man. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is relatively easy to detect. Narcissists care for one person only, their person.

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Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Colin Powell‘s attitude reminds me of Pascal’s Wager. Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and a very devout man. His best-known work is entitled Les Pensées, Thoughts, which includes Pascal’s wager.

As a mathematician, Blaise Pascal, in collaboration with Pierre de Fermat, developed the probability theory, or le calcul des probabilités, which has to do with calculating the odds. In the case of Pascal’s Wager, le pari fatal, the discussion is about the existence of God. Pascal states that if one does not believe in God and does not live a virtuous life, one may spend an eternity in hell. Not believing in God could therefore lead to “infinite losses.” On the other hand, one who chooses to believe in God and lives a virtuous life may suffer limited or “finite losses,” i.e the virtuous have to make certain sacrifices. Consequently, Blaise Pascal proposes that the rational choice is to wager that God exists, as one may avoid “infinite losses.” (See Pascal’s Wager, Wikipedia)

In other words, by electing Donald Trump, one has everything to lose. Not so if Mrs Clinton is elected. One may not be an “admirer” of Mrs Clinton—as noted Colin Powell isn’t, but he will vote for her because she knows what she is doing. She is competent. The security of the United States and the world is very much at stake in this election because one nominee is unfit to perform the role he is seeking. If Americans elect Mr Trump, they will empower a Narcissistic ignoramus. Voting for Donald Trump doesn’t even begin to make sense.

Platform & Programme

I have written several times that Donald Trump has failed to present a coherent platform or program. He doesn’t, except for despicable goals.

Normally, I avoid redundancy, but I am quoting New Yorker journalist  for the second time. Mr Gopnik writes that:

His [Mr Trump’s] platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.

By NOVEMBER 3, 2016
The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-trump-is-different-and-must-be-repelled

Endorsements

  • Economists foresee a disaster and oppose Donald Trump. (The Wall Street Journal)

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/11/01/prominent-economists-including-eight-nobel-laureates-do-not-vote-for-donald-trump/

  • The Atlantic endorses Mrs Clinton, or disendorses Mr Trump.
  • Mr Trump has been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.

PRESS ON “The Editorialists Have Spoken… ” TO READ THE ARTICLE

The United States is a Democracy

Americans live in a democracy and cannot allow anyone to take over the presidency, without being elected to the position. Such a person would be a dictator, as was Adolf Hitler.

He would, in other words, exercise absolute power over the American people, depriving them of what has made America great: the freedom to choose their leaders and to live a private life.

Who would have thought, a year ago, that Donald Trump would be the Republicans’ nominee for the presidency of the United States? Americans have been taken by surprise. Could this be an American Brexit?

Conclusion

I’m with Colin Powell. If I were an American citizen, which I am not, I would vote for Hillary Clinton because she is the competent candidate, not Donald Trump.

Remember that Donald Trump

  • wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans from entering the United States;
  • that he will not allow Muslims into the United States;
  • this is how he will deal with the Migrant Crisis brought about by Isis and Autocratic regimes;
  • that he is a racist, endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan;
  • that he does not like women, he’s a misogynist, has assaulted women and may have raped a 13-year old;
  • that he will abolish Obamacare: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act;
  • that there is little doubt that he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder;
  • and that he does not care for the people of the United States.

The only person Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump.

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Love to everyone. ♥

John Philip Sousa
Semper Fidelis – “The President’s Own” US Marine Band

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Independence Day by Andrew Wyeth

© Micheline Walker
7 November 2016
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