TO A FRIEND WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A TRUMP SUPPORTER

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

TO A FRIEND WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A TRUMP SUPPORTER

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I recently met a guy online by the name of Howard, and we rapidly became friends. I won’t give his last name as I’d planned because we had also planned to write this piece together, but it turned out that, that wasn’t meant to be. 

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Howard and I are both widowers and we both loved and currently miss our late wives desperately, so it wasn’t a bit unusual that we immediately connected. I liked this guy upon first contact, and with the pain of our mutual loss in common, when we first spoke over the phone I felt like I was talking to a fellow traveler and someone I had known for years. 

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It turned out that we were also both passionate in our political views as well - I, a passionate progressive, and he’s just as passionate in his support of Donald Trump. Once we recognized our unusual situation, we decided to not only try to navigate it, but to try to turn it to our advantage by using our unique connection to get a better understanding of what motivates the political opposition. We recognized that we had an excellent opportunity to address the differences in our political philosophies without having to deal with the attendant hostility. We even spoke of collaborating on this article together, so I sent him these first three paragraphs in an attempt to try set the tone. 

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But it turned out that, that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. When I asked Howard to explain to me why he supported Donald Trump, he asked me to give him a couple of days to think about it, but he never got back with me with a response. So I decided to turn it around and I started writing him about some of the many things I found wrong with Trump, and asked him how he could possibly ignore them. I also sent him the video below, and evidence of alleged Trump and Russian collusion reported by a Trump administration whistleblower: 

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TRUMP LIED AND AMERICANS DIED https://twitter.com/i/status/1303834571176378376 

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FURTHER EVIDENCE OF TRUMP-RUSSIAN COLLUSION

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On 9/11/20 the Washington Post reported that “Last week, the director of national intelligence, Trump loyalist John Ratcliffe, told Congress that he would suspend in-person briefings on foreign election interference. This week, Brian Murphy, who until recently was a senior intelligence official at DHS, came forward with a whistleblower’s complaint alleging that senior department officials told him to falsify intelligence to play down Russian attacks and play up the purported threat from China and Iran. Murphy quotes acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf telling him that those instructions came straight from the White House.” 

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In response, Howard posted the following: 

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“To all my friends here, I sit in a brown recliner and have my computer on my lap. It is quiet and I marvel at the sense of community I feel here. The sense of quiet confidence with a driving goal. To reelect the President. It is lovely. I have not belonged like this in a while.”

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That told me two things – first, that Howard couldn’t tell me why he supported Trump, and second, that he had decided to ignore Trump's flaws - even his possible treason. 

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Prior to getting to know Howard I would have simply written someone like him off as just an ignorant fascist. But now I’m left with a dilemma – I know that’s not the case. I wish it were, because then I would have been able to simply dismiss him and move on. But now I can’t dismiss him – at least, not without knowing that I was being remiss. Because I know for a fact that Howard is not the least bit ignorant, and I’m confident that he’s not a bigoted fascist. So how then do I explain his seeming blind loyalty to Donald Trump?

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People like Howard, who are ordinarily intelligent and insightful people, yet, for some reason have a visceral attachment to a self-serving, bigoted, and corrupt politician like Donald Trump can’t simply be ignored, because they represent an insidious element within our body politic, and also a serious threat to our democracy. It’s not the people themselves that’s the problem, but the conditions that continue to create such people that represent a threat to our way of life. So to simply ignore what I’ve found to be the case here without examination would not only be reckless, but dangerously remiss, because it would be like ignoring a cancer that's quietly eating away at our society. 

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I’ve come to the conclusion that while many of the people who support Trump are indeed simply bigots, there are many, like Howard, who may not be consciously racist at all, but they’ve simply become accustomed to the relative comfort of a racist America. In the past, as they struggled through their lives they had the comfort of knowing that regardless to how challenging life became, they would always be protected from being at the bottom of the barrel. But that’s no longer the case. Now that they’ve seen a Black man become one of our most honored Presidents, a Black woman running for Vice President, and hordes of non-White individuals moving to the very top of our society, they feel both insecure, and under an intense threat for their own survival. 

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And I can understand how they feel. It was one thing to see a young Black man like myself coming up back in the day, because I wasn't a threat, but it's completely another to see brilliant young, highly educated Black people like my grandkids coming up, because they are indeed more than capable of leaving many White folks behind. They have the confidence, education, and creativity to do it. Because they realize what we call "soul" is nothing less than creative brilliance straining to be unleashed, and it can be applied to much more than just music.

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That’s why “Make America Great Again” is such a popular slogan - because it recalls a time when America was great for White people and they were relatively secure. But the fact is, America has never been great in the sense that it’s been propagandized, and highly educated young Black people clearly recognize that fact, so now the chickens are coming home to roost. 

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As I pointed out in a previous article, during the "Manifest Destiney" era (when Europeans came here and claimed that "God wants us to have this land"), and after being welcomed here by the Native Americans, they responded by presenting hosts with disease-infected blankets, and then brought in their army to eradicate them. So while we condemn the Nazis for killing 6 million Jews, American settlers killed as many as 10 generations of Native Americans in order to rob them of their land – and Trump is still robbing them of their natural resources as we speak. 

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MAKE AMERICA GREAT
AGAIN

In addition, they moved on to either kill or make the lives of millions of African slaves miserable. Then after slavery, there was the Jim Crow era in which millions of African-Americans were discriminated against, brutalized, and in many cases murdered. And during that same time, the nation was also involved in WWII where Japanese-American citizens had their property seized and entire families were placed in concentration camps. In addition, the United States dropped not one, but TWO atomic bombs on the innocent men, women and children of Japan - and since they were noncombatants, that made it THE MOST horrendous act of terrorism in ALL of human history. 

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But even then, “America the Beautiful” still wasn’t done - it went on to kill 3.1 million Vietnamese (2 million of which were innocent civilian men, women, and children), and then they did the very same thing to the people of Iraq (they were more compassionate with Iraqis, however - they only killed a million of them), and for no reason whatsoever, other than they didn’t like the cut of their jib. 

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So American history is the most blatant lie ever told in the history of mankind. In America's short 244-years of existence America has undoubtedly been THE most brutally evil nation in human history. While some enlightened Americans - both Christian and non-Christian - are still willing to fight for what America COULD be, the Trumplodytes are waging Holy Hell against even that - and ironically, the so-called “Evangelical Christians” are screaming the loudest, which speaks volumes about who they really are. 

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This is why Howard can’t tell me what he likes about Trump. While he craves the security that our brutal past provided White people, on a subconscious level he recognizes the price that was paid for White security in terms of injustice and immorality. That makes it impossible for Howard to explain what he likes about Trump without also embracing the truth about our past and what Trump actually represents, and right-wing Christians have the exact same problem. So instead of clearly stating what they really like about Trump, MAGA fans embrace their ambiguous slogan, “Make America Great Again”. That allows them to embrace White supremacy with a wink, but without actually having to claim it as their philosophy. But that’s exactly what America has always been, a hell-hole of White supremacy since its very inception.
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But what Howard and his cohorts don't understand is, they're being bamboozled. As Trump's recklessly self-centered response to the Coronavirus clearly demonstrates, Trump and the GOP don't care any more about poor White folks than they do Blacks. Trump sees the poor, unwashed White masses as merely useful idiots to be used in his pursuit of self-aggrandizement, bigotry, and greed, and his all-inclusive bigotry also frowns upon poor White people of their motley breed.

So there you have it, Howard. Tell me where I’m wrong.

FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE SAYS TRUMP 

DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE,

HE ONLY CARES ABOUT BEING RE-ELECTED

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

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Cheney Certainly Didn't 'Dither' During Vietnam - He Hauled Ass

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Cheney Certainly Didn't 'Dither' During Vietnam - He Hauled Ass

Where is Dick Cheney's shame? And where is the shame of the people who are supposed to be covering him?

Dick Cheney is walking around demanding that we place our troops in harm's way like a veteran who begged for combat, then won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. The way he's strutting around, lecturing America and saber-rattling for war, one would never know that when the nation called for him to serve, he ran like a weasel on high potency steroids to avoid military service - and the mainstream media is just as gutless for not pointing that out.

What's passing for the press in this country has proven without a doubt, that they've literally degenerated into a group of glorified ambulance chasers. They've been staked out under Tiger woods' toilet seat for the last week trying to get an exclusive on Tiger's sex life.  At the same time, they're completely ignoring the most pertinent news in the nation - a draft dodger and former CEO of a major military/industrial corporation pressuring the president to rush our troops into harm's way.

Why isn't the media holding Dick Cheney accountable for his deplorable hypocrisy? Why aren't they holding Cheney accountable for anything? I can think of several questions that the media should demand that Cheney answer every time he sticks his head out of his undisclosed rat hole.

What were the "other priorities" that he claimed was more important than America when he sought, and received, five (5) deferments from battle when it was his turn to fight? What hardships were those deferments based on? Were they more important than the hardships in the lives of men who responded to the nation's call, then fought and died? Who approved Cheney's deferments, and were they valid?

Was it just a coincident that his daughter and fellow chicken hawk, Liz Cheney, was born virtually nine months to the day after the selective service declared that married men would be called for duty, but married men with children would remain deferred? The rules of deferment was changed on Oct. 26, 1965. Liz was born on July 28, 1966 - nine months and two days later. Cheney got his final deferment Jan. 26, 1966 - because his wife was pregnant. Now there's some sexual prowess worth looking into.

In addition, considering the nation's sacrifice in both lives and treasure, isn't it worth investigating who was involved and what was discussed in Cheney's "secret meeting" prior to the Bush administration taking us to war in Iraq? Who decided to award no-bid contracts before going into Iraq? And who decided what corporations would receive no-bid contracts, and what criteria was that decision based upon? And here's a question that just begs to be asked - didn't they consider it a conflict of interest that Halliburton, the corporation that Vice President headed before entering office, was awarded the largest no-bid contract in Iraq?

The mainstream media also seemed to have been out to lunch regarding the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Isn't that treason? So why was it handled so casually by the press? Revealing the identity of a CIA agent is the very height of treasonous irresponsibility for any citizen, and the fact that it could be done by the Vice President of the United States is simply unfathomable. When that incident took place it should have alerted every citizen of this country that instability reined in the Bush administration and virtually anything was possible - oh, but sounding that alarm is the job of a responsible and diligent fourth estate is it?

We have a very serious problem in this country when citizens have to depend on late-night comedians to put the shenanigans of our government into perspective. Renowned newsman Edward R. Murrow once said that "A citizenry of sheep begets a government of wolves." I wonder what he'd say about a press filled with ostriches with their head in the sand?

Murrow would immediately recognize that even the most informed citizen relies on the press to sound the alarm when government goes astray. The founding fathers depended on that as an important element of keeping America free. That's exactly why the freedom of the press was incorporated into the nation's founding documents. But what passes for the press today has gotten so caught up in the economics, egocentrism, and self-service of our political environment, that they've become next to useless on the issues that really count. They seem to be afraid of angering a demagogue by asking him the most fundamental, and obvious questions.

Even though our troops were dying under the nation's mandate to capture the people responsible for 9/11, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) alleges that the Bush administration purposely allowed Osama Bin Laden to get away so they'd have an excuse to invade Iraq. The congressman said: "That was done by the previous administration intentionally, letting Bin Laden get away. They knew that if they captured Al Qaeda, there would be no justification for an invasion of Iraq." He went on to say, "There's no question that the leader of the military operations of the U.S. called back our military - called them back from going after the head of al Qaeda."

So why isn't all hell breaking loose in the press? Why isn't that all we can hear about on every channel, and the headline of every newspaper? In other words, why isn't it being given the Michael Jackson treatment? Instead, all we can hear on every channel is how many women tiger Woods is allegedly sleeping with, and whether his wife went after him with a putter or a nine iron.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm just as nosey as anyone else about whether or not a billionaire who's the most recognized sports figure in the world can get a girlfriend. But I prefer my national news not being preempted by such frivolity. I can wait to get that information on the Wendy Williams Show (How you doooin', girl?) - and I'm virtually certain that most Americans agree. Well . . . maybe not, but that's grist for another mill.

Edward R. Murrow brought an end to the grip that Sen. Joe McCarthy's hypocrisy had on the nation with just one commentary, and one commentary by Walter Cronkite essentially spelled the beginning of the end of the Vietnam conflict. These journalists provided a valuable service to the American people. But the electronic commentators now on the air are so self-aggrandizing and prop-laden that they lack the dignity and clot necessary to get the attention of the American people - and the few true journalists who are left, are treated like field hands. 

While CNN does make an effort to maintain some semblance of journalistic standards as far as they go, they are just as guilty as the rest of the networks of failing to pursue issues of vital importance to the nation. And I wouldn't even mention Fox in a news context, since they're clearly nothing more than a public relations firm for the Republican Party, but they're significant because their appeal to the very worst within us is what's responsible for dragging down the journalistic standards of the electronic news media as a whole.

A perfect example of that can be seen in the programing of MSNBC. The network has great talent on their staff, but they've lost credibility by allowing themselves to be reduced to spitball fights with Fox in order to gain ratings.

Take Keith Olbermann, for example. He's a great talent, but his talent doesn't come close to matching the size of his ego. When I watch Olbermann I get the feeling that the news is secondary to showing how witty he can be. On the surface Keith's antics may seem harmless enough, until one tries to imagine either Murrow or Cronkite throwing copy at an imaginary window, or quoting people in the news in cartoon-like voices. It's only then that one begins to recognize how far downhill we've come.

Okay, maybe it's just fun and games, but when you play games with serious issues like a politician blatantly lying to the American people about healthcare, or the meaning of torture, or about a competing network purposely misleading the American people, you leave the impression that the offense can't be all that serious, otherwise, you wouldn't be joking about it. So they contribute to the perception that lying and corruption is nothing to become alarmed about - it's just the way the game is played.

So in that regard, their behavior is just as irresponsible and damaging to our society as Fox News.


Eric L. Wattree

wattree.blogspot.com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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America: Are We Really that Exceptional?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE America: Are We Really that Exceptional? Well, there's that arrogant, xenophobic, and divisive phrase again - "American Exceptionalism." President Obama is being roundly criticized by many conservatives for refusing to go around the world promoting the conservative vision of American superiority. Their shortsighted idea of effective American diplomacy is for the President of the United States to trot around the globe telling the people of the world that we're better than they are. Liz Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president, has been all over the media complaining that "We've now seen several different occasions where he's [Obama] been on international trips where he's not willing to say, flat out, 'I believe in American exceptionalism.'" I expect such nonsense from GOP demagogues - they consider the Republican rank and file stupid, so they say whatever comes to mind to appeal to their unthinking emotions. But now I find that thoughtful conservatives have bought into this ridiculous concept, and frankly, I find it not only shocking, but frightening, how easily the minds of highly intelligent people can be manipulated through their emotions. It goes a long way towards explaining how millions of God-fearing German people could just stand in silence while Hitler carried out the holocaust. Ari Noonan stated the following in his article, The President's Difficult Relationship with His People at Home: "Consider that President Obama, the most powerful multiculturalist in the history of the world, truly believes that the United States did not have a manifest destiny, that we are no better, no worse, the utter equal, of Bulgaria, Cuba, Hungary, Venezuela, Belgium — pick any land on the globe." I couldn't believe that I was reading anyone in the 21st Century actually glorifying the manifest destiny. I thought the doctrine of Manifest Destiny was discredited in the 19th Century. If it is indeed possible for us to still have people among us who actually believe that it was God's will for Europeans to come to America and slaughter an entire civilization of people because he wanted the Europeans to have the land, then the horrors of the holocaust is far from behind us, and another one is just waiting in the wings for the next demagogue. While I love this country, I love it in spite of its shortcomings. I love it because of its potential - because of the vision of its founding fathers, and the documents that they left behind outlining the American ideal. But I am under no illusions. America has never lived up to those ideals, and I have a fundamental problem with anyone who says it has. The doctrine of Manifest Destiny is, in fact, the most profound argument against American exceptionalism. What took place as a direct result of that doctrine clearly documents that America has been any and everything but exceptional. The only way that one can believe in American exceptionalism is to view the missteps of every other country in the world through a magnifying glass, while turning a blind eye to all the atrocities against humanity that the United States has committed. The fact is, America has committed more atrocities against mankind in its short 233 year history, than it took many other countries millennia to accomplish. For example, while we demonize Nazi Germany for the extermination of 6 million Jews, we have very little to say about the 8 million Native Americans that the United States exterminated just to establish the nation. The fact is, the Nazis' could have taken a lesson from the United States, because there is still a thriving Jewish culture left, while the Native Americans have been all but wiped out as a people. Then there's the issue of slavery. American slavery was one the most brutal atrocities of one culture against another in the entire history of mankind. The effects of slavery are still being felt by the families of its victims close to 150 years after it came to an end. Then there was the Jim Crow environment that took place once slavery ended. Even in my lifetime, I remember standing up in school reciting the Pledge of Allegiance - 'One nation under God with Liberty and JUSTICE for all' - even as children younger than myself were being blown up in church, and people in the South were bringing picnic baskets to watch Black men being tortured and lynched in the town square after church. Then there was the humiliation of Black war heroes. The Tuskegee Airman were among the most effective fighter pilots during WWII. They never lost one bomber that they were charged with escorting across enemy lines. At first the White Bomber crews refused to fly with them, but by the end of the war, those same White crews said that they didn't want anyone else to escort them to their targets - they wanted to make sure they got home safely. But after the war, as these Black heroes traveled by train through the South, they were forced to give up their seats to Nazi Prisoners of war. Then there's the issue of terrorism. While we maintain that terrorism is when a malevolent group kills innocent noncombatants for political purposes, we turn a blind eye to the fact that we dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on the innocent men, women, and children of Japan. We try to justify it by saying that it saved thousands of American lives. The only problem with that argument is that it suggests that terrorism is justified under certain conditions. Then when we consider the millions of people that we killed, mutilated, and displaced in Vietnam, then during "Shock and Awe" (translated: terrorism), when we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq for no other reason than monetary gain and a photo op, by our own definition, we're the most prolific terrorist state in the history of mankind. The only difference between the United States terror under George W. Bush and Al Qaeda terrorist is that we have a more efficient delivery system. We've made Hitler look like a wannabe. The only difference between Hitler and what the United States has done over the years is that the people Hitler killed were White, so it was considered more horrendous. So tell me about American exceptionalism, but pay no attention to my gritting teeth, because by telling me that America is exceptional, you're also telling me that the annihilation of Native Americans, the brutal enslavement of African Americans, the killing of Black children in church, the lynching of Black citizens, the humiliation of Black American war heroes, the incineration of Japanese men, women, and children, and the slaughter of millions in Vietnam and Iraq should all be fluffed off as simply, growing pains. Yes, America is exceptional all right - it's been exceptionally brutal in its hypocrisy throughout its short 233 year history. But, believe it or not, I still love this nation. My eyes still grow moist when I hear the Marine Corps hymn. But I certainly don't love what it's been - I love it for what it's striving to become. For that reason, I've dedicated my life to fighting the Cheneys of this world, who yearn for, and even cherish, the illustrious brutality of our past. Eric L. Wattree wattree.blogspot.com Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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