By Geoff Page
As I thought about the Presidential election result this week, one thought dominated over everything. For the first time in my 73 years, I am ashamed to call myself an American.
I’m not naïve, I am familiar with the dark side of America’s history. We have a lot in our past to be ashamed of. Our founding on slavery and slaughter of the indigenous people was the start. As if that were not shame enough, that the effects of both still linger hundreds of years later is equally as shameful.
Racism, religious zealotry, misogyny, we have it all. Meddling in foreign governments, meddling that consisted of assassinations and wars.
But even with all of that, I always felt that what this country has accomplished was a counterweight to the shameful. I came of age in the 1960s that began with huddling under a puny elementary school desk for protection against an atomic bomb.
I lived in Arlington , Virginia, across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. We lived about five miles from downtown D.C. Everyone knew that D.C. was a likely target in the event of a nuclear war.
I was in the 7th grade when John Kennedy was killed.
I was in high school in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. I saw the devastation the riots left behind in D.C. Blocks of burned out and boarded up buildings that were once stores. Burned out hulks of cars.
Two short months later, Bobby Kennedy was killed. It began to feel like the world was falling apart, and it was. Bobby Kennedy was as much as a sure thing as can be said about any election. But, by the time the Democratic Conventions was held in August 1968, Hubert Humphrey was the last man standing to face a candidate with a much different agenda for the country, Dick Nixon.
Historians agree that Humphrey’s refusal to take a position on Viet Nam, that differed from the Johnson administration’s, cost him the election and sent this country into a long dark tunnel. Nixon won on a pledge to end the war. By the end of his first term, the war was not over and 20,000 more Americans were dead.
Now, it appears that Harris made the same mistake and refused to criticize the Biden administration, telling everyone she would not change a thing. She lost and we are heading down another very long, very dark tunnel.
Nixon’s election to his second term was my first time voting for President. I was 21 living in Michigan. The state had recently lowered the voting age to 18. I had a job as a resident assistant in a large dormitory where I supervised a floor of 55 young men aged 18 and 19. They all voted for Nixon because he said he needed a second term to complete the work of ending the Viet Nam war.
I tried in vain to make them understand the mistake they were making. They were rewarding a man who had pledged to end the war four years earlier and had not done so. They were rewarding a man who had deliberately dragged out the war reduction effort so that it was incomplete by the time of Nixon’s second election. Nixon said he needed to be re-elected to finish the job and they bought it.
After Nixon’s December 1972 bombing blitz of North Vietnam all those young guys were walking around moaning and regretting that they had voted for Nixon. The draft was still in effect and they were all worried because they helped re-elect a war criminal. They had voted only in their own self-interest.
Nixon resigned, a shameful historic first, followed by a shameful end to a shameful war in 1975. By this time, I had reached the ripe old age of 24. People my age had seen a lot in those few years.
Then, Gerry Ford followed by Jimmy Carter, both of whom were seen as decent men. That was too much for the dark forces that exist in this country who gave us Reagan. Those years laid the foundation for the world we see today controlled by a few people with more money than anyone should have. The word “oligarchy” is heard quite commonly now. The Reagan years were a disaster for this country.
Then, we got Bush junior, a man with the IQ of a turnip who managed to get this country into two completely unnecessary wars costing thousands of lives. He was elected in two contested and highly controversial elections.
Bush. Jr.’s re-election was the first crack in my world view that, despite the shameful things this country has done, the fault lay at the top with flawed, dishonest leaders, not with people in general. I had believed that Americans were basically decent, honest people. That view crashed against reality. I just could not fathom how any thinking caring person would vote for Bush again after that first term.
Trump’s first election was depressing to be sure, but understandable for several reasons. The Democrats put up the wrong opponent, Clinton was no match for the personality of Trump because she had no personality. In 2016, most people knew little more about Trump than what they saw on his TV show.
Trump was entertaining, lied freely — people just wanted to believe him so they voted for him. Pathetic, yes, but not as shameful as the following four years.
But, this election… My ability to drum up a justifiable explanation has failed me completely this time.
We tossed him out in 2020, that was encouraging. Despite being out of office, we have seen as much of him as we did when he was in office. The public has had eight years of Trump now. We all know far more about him than in 2016, none of it good. And he still won.
It appears to me that people voted with their wallets because of inflation. That means that the majority of voters in this country voted selfishly like those young men who voted for Nixon. It appears those voters did not care if they were voting for the devil himself as long as he took care of inflation as he promised, not knowing a president has no control over inflation.
It seems that the decent, caring people in this country are now a minority. That is shameful.
And, finally, those of you who voted for this odious individual, and all the odium that will pour into our lives, will one day seriously regret what you have done. I’ve lived long enough to see this happen. The sad part is all the damage that people like this do before they crash and burn, that lasts for decades.
But, I don’t care if Trump’s supporters ever do experience regret, nothing will make up for my profound disappointment in my country after this. I’m ashamed to be an American.
I’m sure many have felt the same way when a Democrat candidate was elected as president.
But the bottom line is the US political system is resilient. And most importantly, the sun will come up tomorrow, right on time.
Ah, but the big difference is that none of those Democratic candidates who were elected promised to bury the Constitution and be a dictator on day 1. Again, there’s this false equivalency.
70 y/o veteran . Ashamed to watch us torn apart. People should be in streets and boycott companies that throw in.
I pray I live to see these traitors in prison. And their families who are benefiting. I sure trumps kids plan to take billions made selling out country and move to middle east
Name a Democratic President with a character as despicable as Trump’s. Carter? Clinton, aside from his personal errors? Obama? It’s impossible.
I completely agree with you. There has never been a president that’s just evil.
I agree! I am also ashamed to be an American and I wish I could get out of this country!
as a canadian who lives a quite life on canada smallest province i feel thjs pain of most good americans the whole republican party has lost their way helping trump turn america the great nation into a dictatorship banana republic
Sadly, you are mistaken that we are resilient enough to bounce back after damages from Trump and his buddies. And I do not believe that any Republican was ashamed of America after a Democratic President. America has always had problems but this is the ugliest period of our history and at age 77, for the first time in my life I am totally ashamed of the USA’s government. There is no excuse for this. I find your attitude to be what is half the problem.
Altho I’ve been reading, I haven’t been posting the past couple of months b/c I think I don’t have enough of a muzzle right now to implement decorum, and not veer into screed. But this essay is an excellent reflection of the political decades that we 73-yr old liberals have lived thru. The only thing I could add to it is what its been like, as a woman in science, also trying to break thru impenetrable glass ceilings along the way. That would be an addendum indeed. Thanks, Geoff, for an excellent piece. We must resist, insist, and persist. Seems its all we’ve got. :-)
Yes, you are correct, retired. Although I used the word misogyny, it was not really enough. I think the treatment of women in this country, from its founding to now, is our third great shame I should have highlighted. Thanks for speaking up.
Hey, KS aka retired, have you had a chance to check out my book, The May 1970 Rebellion? It’s available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an ebook and POD. Give me an email when ya have a chance.
Be grateful that you were old enough, had more brains than a turnip and were able to witness and learn from the mistakes and chaos that prevailed back then. I’ve read that Trump has not changed the U.S.; he has revealed it. The Trump supporters are less educated than the typical Democratic voter in 2024, live in rural areas, of lower income, affiliate with Evangelical Christian churches, are conservative white-Black-Latino men. They couldn’t relate to a highly educated woman of color. Trump’s rants: smart-ass leftists in NYC, Boston, Chicago, SFO hating him made him sound like a ‘bro. The Atlantic magazine had a good story in 2019 about undocumented immigrants working on the Mississippi chicken farms for $12.50/hr. When they get deported, what will prices be on chicken? Just wait and see. Guess who will get blamed? I attended fleet week yesterday. Not only did I have to show my ID to go on the active duty Navy ship, I was asked where I was born. First time in my life.
Addendum to my comment: I have nothing against conservative white-Black-Latino men, I don’t mind that they reside in rural areas, earn less than me, and attend Evangelical Christian churches. Just don’t blame President Biden for what happens in the next few years. The majority of American voters in 2024 either never experienced the 1960’s and 1970’s in the USA or if they had, they never really grasped the seriousness of the assassinations of Kennedy and King, the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements, Johnson’s campaign lie about being a dove, Westmoreland’s lie about the Vietnam War, Kent State. Fast forward to 2024: the good ‘ole rural boys don’t worry about Fracking. Global Warming. NATO. Ukraine. They wanted cheaper gas and chicken and tough immigration laws.
They fell for promises made by a man convicted of 34 felonies! A man charged with sexual assault on multiple women–an adulterer. A US president who had not fixed anything while in office and in fact, made things worse during Covid. The message is clear: Americans are suckers for a reality star con artist. Trump is a social media influencer. People want entertainment more than a serious “I prosecuted more transnational criminals” leader.
Be glad that you lived through the tumultuous ’60s and ’70s and learned at a young age to smell a rat.
Trudy G- Yeah, wish we could put Trump on Squid Games…. /s
Although I I agree that many of Trump’s voters “live in rural areas, of lower income, affiliate with Evangelical Christian churches, are conservative white-Black-Latino men,” those people would not be enough. They were joined by a whole lot of high income, educated people, which is what amazes me. We really can’t blame this one solely on the ignorant population.
It was the outpouring of love and support from men I would classify as blue-collar, who, I think, had rarely or ever voted. The 2024 election result is a conundrum. Not long ago social scientists could peg people’s behavior by income, education, sex, age, etc. That’s how all marketing campaigns are determined. It’s how media companies buy time & space for ads. Republicans were the rich boys and Democrats were the working stiffs. The drivers of the pickup trucks with Trump flags look blue collar to me, yet, they love billionaire Trump. In contrast, I did see an older white man wearing a MAGA hat and his bone thin wife had a rhinestone TRUMP pin on her shirt, she was holding a big Louis Vuitton purse and the diamond on her left hand could pay the mayor’s pension (just saying). If DEMS could create a marketing piece like a movie poster to attract people, what would it need to portray?
Sure we can, Geoff! Absolutely!
Just because one is ‘highly educated’ with a higher income does not mean that they are not ignorant to a fault. That highly educated concept is definitely suspect because it really isn’t inclusive to having knowledge of anything but maybe in a specific discipline…a black Trump-supporting brain surgeon comes to mind, ya know?
As my extremely bright youngest stepdaughter said back in the late 1990s when I gave her books to read (her and I were the book readers of the family) while she was in high school, she would start to read them and then tell me that if she answered the tests with what they said, she’d be penalized and fail. She had never had anything but A grades… I read a couple of her Mt. Shasta high school textbooks, both a Civics one and one on US history, that year (11th grade I think it was) just to see what she was talking about. Took me less that a week, and they were just horrible. Radically incomplete or deliberately inaccurate to a fault. I was shocked how bad they were.
I had given her different books to fill in the huge gaps, Loewen’s ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me; Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong’ and historian Zinn’s ‘People’s History of the US’ comes to mind…but she was the intellectual one of the three stepkids, straight A+ student, and we used to sit up late at night talking about all sorts of subjects because she had a curiosity about learning. And she understood what they were saying but couldn’t apply any of it!! Ended up with all sorts of scholarships to college, and had the same grades to her BS. Then she was literally jumped over a MS straight into a PhD program at UC Davis where she graduated with honors as a Veterinary Surgeon.
But she didn’t know much of anything else because broad-based knowledge was not really taught. She had NO IDEA what the Bill of Rights said or meant as a high school graduate, not a freaking clue because I asked. And this was from a supposedly one of those highly-rated ‘Magnet School?’ I remember them having a big banner stretched over the top of the school entrance…and that was over 30 years ago now!!
I’m sure it is even worse by the replies from snowboarding and Kenpo Karate students over the last couple of decades. It’s not that they are stupid (most of them at least) but they just have no experience with critical or out-of-the-box thinking, and very little opportunity to question what they are being taught in under-funded rather authoritarian form of school systems they are attending in this deeply red GOP-run county.
The dismal US education system is so far behind in comparison to European ones that it is just pitiful. And that is deliberate I think. Carlin said it years ago; corporate owners don’t want intelligent workers, just compliant ones.
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This poem was published today, and it sort of reminds me of Ernie’s:
Welcome to Trump’s Version of Hell
Welcome to Trump’s version of hell, Where freedom fades and the darkness swells.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/welcome-to-trumps-version-of-hell
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sealintheSelkirks
Education is not necessarily the specific information that you know off the top of your head but the ability to ask intelligent questions and then to research the answers for yourself, including the ability to discriminate between conspiracy and reality. So your argument about your stepdaughter’s education wasn’t at all convincing to me, and in fact sounded pretty ignorant. Any given individual can’t know everything, but education gives them the understanding that the amount of information out there is staggering so that you can’t assume that you know enough on any given subject to make a reasonable conclusion unless you do your research. It has been my experience that the difference between the educated and uneducated is that the uneducated are much more sure of their convictions than educated people because they just don’t understand issues beyond face value, they don’t understand the complexity of politics, they don’t understand the complexity of science. They dismiss what they don’t understand and they dismiss people that they don’t understand. Educated people, even if they didn’t know all the answers to begin with gather as much information as they can, fit all the pieces into an interconnected complex framework of understanding and then draw appropriate conclusions. Education is more about learning how to think than knowing random tidbits of knowledge in any given area.
Well, MLC, I’m guessing you had problems with discerning the difference between actually having a solid basis of known facts already in your brain (basic education) in order to be able to build up to being able to ask pertinent questions related to the subject being discussed that a critical thinking education would have helped formulate.
When you ‘teach to the test’ as is quite common in this country, or the school textbooks being used are published in huge lots and they are heavily slanted towards the requirements of the largest markets no matter how ignorant, regressive, and just plain incorrect they are (like Texas), textbooks full of egregious mistakes end up in the hands of kids that KNOW the damn things are giving out incorrect information.
But unfortunately those same kids often have ignorant teachers. Or ones that never thought out of a box.
For example my stepdaughter’s ‘Civics’ teacher who had a ‘teaching’ degree from a small ‘Christian College’ in Redding who had NO IDEA as to how much of the Constitution was taken directly from the Iroquois Confederacy, and attributed it all to the Bible! King James version of course…which she thought the founding fathers George Washington and Jefferson were fully in agreement with. I had a conversation with her at an open house meeting exactly one time, and realized that she was completely incompetent. It was…disheartening to say the least.
Another of this teacher’s students, my daughter’s classmate, was also a student of mine and he kept arguing with her and was sent to the principle’s office over and over for ‘causing trouble’ and having his parents called in for ‘talks’ even though all he did was bring in EVIDENCE to back up the points he was making (this was the late 90s, before cell phones or google).
What was he told by the principle? Don’t make waves, you must listen to the teacher, etc etc all symptoms of a top-down education structure that teaches to the lowest denominator.
Luckily his parents were intelligent and disagreed. So he kept up his…education of her the rest of the year to the delight of the rest of the class. That young man eventually graduated from Chico State as a History Major…and I’m sure that clown of a teacher kept teaching her nonsense to another few generations of Mt. Shasta kids trying to make them as dumb as she was.
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As for my ‘argument’ about my stepdaughter’s education not being ‘convincing enough’ for you, and your deciding to label me as “sounding pretty ignorant,” the story wasn’t meant to ‘convince’ anybody of anything. It was just a personal experience having raised three step-kids. That part obviously went right over your head so, in my opinion, that made you sound a bit ignorant along with your little lesson in educated vs uneducated and how they see and interact with the world.
But of course ‘your experience’ that uneducated people are much more sure of their convictions…There is a reason Trump ‘loves’ the under-educated so I’m guessing you might already have an opinion on that?
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So MLC, how’s your US history holding up? I’m curious about your reactions to the ongoing Fascist coup of the educated billionaires backing the rapist felon frat boy Trump whose Wharton School of Business professor called him the “stupidest student he ever taught.”
And the lack of historical reference that most of the officials of this regime he’s put in power are exhibiting is rather upsetting, yes? Any thoughts you’d care to enlighten us with on this subject?
As the title of this thread says, ‘I’m Ashamed to be an American’ and it gets worse daily for those that have critical thinking skills I’m afraid. Fascism is ugly in all its facets…
By chance have you read the latest Hartmann article I just posted on the Rag’s ‘I Think Things Are Going to Be Bad’ thread?
sealintheSelkirks
The elephant in the room is never talked about. Even as a white person I will get in trouble saying this. But here goes- There are many millions of stupid and unethical white people in this country. Way more than there used to be. Hey, here in Texas we have the highest concentration of stupid white people of any place on Earth. My race is the problem. But , I’m not supposed to say that , right ?
You are correct. I too am white. Will the shame we bring on ourselves ever end?
I feel compelled to comment for the first time on this website. After 53 years I switched my party designation because of local politics. The local politicians aren’t listening and responding to legitimate concerns raised by people and organized groups. I have the impression that most of them have decided they know what’s best for us and are doing what they can to minimize influence from community groups (e.g., the “gutting” of planning groups).
As I reflect on the devastating outcome of the national election I’m wondering if the feeling of not being listened to is a shared national one and perhaps impacted the election. I recognize that for many voters their basis was financial, even though their perception may not be based on facts. My granddaughter tells the story of a friend’s friend who stated “My choice is morals or paying my car payment. I chose my car payment.” What a sad commentary, especially if this is the prevailing sentiment!
Locally, my desire is that our politicians and bureaucrats begin to really “listen” and “respond”. How do we make that happen? How do we break through the “denial”? How do we foster a situation where we’re working together to solve problems?
My thanks to the OB Rag for informative, well-researched articles and providing a forum for community discussion.
Welcome Cindy and thank you very much for the heartfelt words.
Perhaps this will be a good thing for the Democrat party in the long run, to stay a little more grounded and in touch with the needs of those living paycheck to paycheck, and give that as much outward attention as they give the culture/moral crusade.
Trump and gang used their own platform against them.
You nailed it with this quote, ““My choice is morals or paying my car payment. I chose my car payment.” That is exactly what everyone who voted for him did, they chose their own selfish desires over morals. That is, indeed, a very sad commentary. They have learned from Trump.
And what’s worse, they did it for nothing. If someone had trouble paying the car payment under Biden, they’re totally SOL under Drumpf.
As Oscar Wilde said in a similar context, “One can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. They have made private terms with the enemy, and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. They must also be extraordinarily stupid.”
You cannot beat Oscar Wilde.
The only problem with that kind of thinking, car payment vs ethics, is that Trump has none, zero, and has never given a crap about people like her/us. And honestly, she won’t be able to pay that car payment with what he’s going to do to the economy anyway. Bet she won’t like that. TOO LATE! He added $9 trillion to the national debt in his first term. I think it will be worse this time.
People don’t understand the factual numbers and stats because the propaganda spewed out just buried the real numbers on how much the economy and inflation improved under Biden after Trump. Besides, that knowledge never made it into the MAGA echo chamber anyway.
And the wealthy owners of the MSM are absolutely to blame! They buried those statistics in favor of Trump’s screeching because TV gets better ratings with Trump. It is absolutely astounding to me to realize just how dumbed down this country has gotten in my 70 years here.
Trump team has not signed the required-by-Congress transition documents, and Tulsi Gabbard just said they don’t want to because they don’t want Biden screwing things up about the secret stuff they are going to pull. WTF? And she was a Democrat once? I never thought so. My old partner DP on Windward Side always distrusted her. He was correct.
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Below is Thom Hartmann asking intelligent questions about the election and talks with this person over how many millions of votes were purged by 100,000 GOP ‘poll watchers’ throwing out ballots because they weren’t an ‘exact’ signature match, how many voters were forced out of voting by bomb threats repeatedly sent on Nov5 in predominantly Dem districts in Georgia and other swing states? Add in instances like the five hour lines at that Philadelphia university that were reported because there weren’t enough machines etc etc and it adds up to a Harris win I think.
Like what the SCOTUS did in 2000, and what Trump whined about for the last 4 years that didn’t happen to him, it is starting to seem like this election really was stolen. 2000 definitely was by the GOP.
Why the Democratic Party MUST Demand a Recount w/ Dean Obeidallah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqfEmXjNPnw
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Donald lost by 7 mil in 2020.
Harris lost by 3 mil in 2024; every swing state went red. Fracking, groceries, abortion, undocumented illegals.
Donald won with 50.7% of the vote, not even 51 – and hardly a mandate, although he and his shrills will claim one.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that there are millions of votes yet to be counted in California and hundreds of thousands in New York, New Jersey, and Washington. If Trump does win the Popular Vote , it will likely be by a smaller number than Al Gore won by. They are saying that Trump won by registered voters who sat out this election. Hardly a landslide or a mandate.
Anyone who sat out this election was a coward. This was perhaps one of THE most important elections in recent history. I hope that every person who sat out experiences complete hell in the next four years. I mean that.
Biden still has enough weeks left. He can and should take action to prevent America from becoming a dictatorship. The Supreme Court has given him unchecked power. If he doesn’t use that power quickly, he will forever be branded as a Caspar Milquetoast. President Truman had also been considered ineffectual, especially when compared to his predecessor FDR. But when faced with the huge, life altering decision to end WWII, it was Truman’s decision to drop those two atomic bombs.
Unfortunately Geoff, the rest of us are also going to experience everything you wish on those that stayed home, and it’s likely to be more than 4 years.
What’s worse is that the non-rich MAGATS are going to continue to slide down the economic ladder because Trump and his minions are going to pull it right out from under them because they truly are disposable to their class and always have been. And who will they continue to blame for that?
Anybody think ‘manufacturing jobs’ are suddenly coming back to boost wages for that underclass? Anybody think the expulsion of all the people who plant/grow/pick, along with slaughtering and packaging, the food found in stores is going to magically hand better wages and working conditions at the expense of the wealthy ever-increasing profits to the only ones left to do the work? Ain’t gonna see no frat boy wielding a saw on a kill line 8 hours a day, or a sorority debutante sorting through apples on a conveyor belt hour after hour.
Anybody think that underclass is ever going to figure out who the enemy really is anytime soon? Eventually maybe, but when they do they will, of course, suddenly become targets of the wealthy also. That’s a historical pattern, too. Germany’s brownshirts were killed off when their usefulness ended.
Many no, no, and no replies I’m guessing. Maybe it is time to invest heavily in private prison stocks and guns maybe? What’s that old saying? If you can’t beat them, join them? I’m sorry to say there will be a LOT of of that happening in the near future as it is a common trait of dictatorships… Snitches get used up too but they don’t know that, either.
sealintheSelkirks
No argument there for me, seal. And, who is the most heavily invested in AI? The same people who backed trump. The goal is to reduce or even eliminate labor costs so anyone who thought he and his ilk are here to save their jobs were completely duped. Completely.
The media is speaking about election denialism but the irony is on them. Most are in denial such as I hear “what do the Democrats need to learn?” The denialism is that they are not seriously considering that there may not be another election, hence not the need to learn from how to do things the “low” way.
Yes Ray, that is what they are doing. Human psychology tends to show that people have a lot in common with ostriches when in danger. Then the tiger eats them…
From a woman that lived in a brutal Fascist Police State:
‘Hold the line’: Nobel laureate says Americans should learn from the
Philippines’ experience 8 1/2 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSTBoPloqI
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REGRET: Trump Voters HIT with BRUTAL Reality | The Dark Truth
Mary Trump Media, 14 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytJZN0M97CA
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Bernie Sanders STUNS With Brilliant Party Truth Bomb On Live TV
Note: just the first 45 seconds! He tells the truth (thought still defending Biden), and this is why the wealthy neoliberal DEM or GOP were never going to let him face Trump, or Biden or Harris in a Primary for that matter. Just like the crap the DNC/Hillary pulled in 2016 Primary while th DNC actually PROMOTED Trump as the GOP candidate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlf8KQVfp-I
Thanks you freaking neoliberal wealthy DNC suckers. YOU did this because I think Bernie could have won in 2016.
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I keep hearing about ‘a mandate’ and ‘overwhelmingly chose’ and all the rest of the bloviating word usage that always surrounds Trump, the guy with a whole (now) BELOW 50% of the vote…which just isn’t anywhere close to a freaking ‘landslide’ as far as I can tell.
This is f&*ked up.
sealintheSelkirks
For those who missed it:
Jon Stewart Urges Dems to Fight Like Republicans and Exploit Loopholes | The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNcmo-K5Xsg
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sealintheSelkirks
Money? Greed? Ignorance? Bottom line: this country is filled with racist misogynists who were not going to vote for a minority woman!
The hate and ignorance spewed every time trump opens his mouth is embarrassing. Pity people with kids that voted for this trash because this is what you stand for. Sickening!
Today should be a national day of mourning, as the next 4 years will reveal.
So sorry it coincided with MLK day of giving.
I just had a call from an old student of mine down in Cali that flipped on his TV this morning. He asked why the flags weren’t still at half mast over Pres. Carter’s death? Told him that Trump didn’t want that photo op to be visible.
Also told me that the everyone had their hands over their hearts for the national anthem excepting trump who was saluting! And why was he doing that because I had told him about his daddy buying doctors to say he had bone spurs to keep him out of the draft for Viet Nam. Then he mentions Melanja and some ugly hat that nearly hid her face completely that she wore during the Anthem and wondered if that was normal. I didn’t know. Do women continue wearing hats during it? He couldn’t handle any more of Trump’s lies and turned it off after less than 10 minutes. Good for him!
So I sent him this link to see the disconnect in mental reasoning with Trump voters:
‘Catastrophic’ cuts could hit Trump’s base
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68iPQvDERuk
Without blue state taxes flowing to their KY schools as these school employees say, they aren’t going to have public schools in Appalachia. Federal dollars from the Dept. of Ed is the ONLY way they can fund them. But they really believe that Trump won’t cut their funding because they voted for him??? When the reality hits them of what they’ve done, will their heads explode?
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Not that my old student needed to hear more of this mental disconnect because he drives a bus in a small NorCal city and nearly every co-worker is a Trump voter, and he said they’ve been giddy about how ‘America’ is going to be so great again immediately after Trump takes office.
Mind-boggling that 70 million people think this way, isn’t it?
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And yes David Topham, today is a day of mourning for everyone but the wealthy. The billionaires are celebrating the return of the Gilded Age…
sealintheSelkirks
Continue to be ashamed of Trump’s Gestapo America. Two just graduate high school teenage girls on a tour of the world before they go to university:
Trump Admin Deports German Tourists For Not Booking A Hotel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZj267LfmA
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How is this normal behavior unless you want to make everyone hate you?
sealintheSelkirks
A comment from a Daily Kos thread:
Trump’s statement after arresting Wisconsin judge:
“I expect the legal profession to understand that the nation is not here for them but they are here for the nation….
from now on, I shall intervene in these cases and remove from office those judges who evidently do not understand the demand of the hour”.
I lied. That was Hitler in 1942. But the fact that you didn’t know that is pretty damning.
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I’ve been watching Police State Fascism get worse since I was a kid going to anti-war protests with my stepmom in the mid-60s… We now have our own Gestapo and a ‘president’ with nearly unlimited power, and even Senators are admitting they are scared to death:
‘We are all afraid’: Murkowski says fear of retaliation from Trump administration is ‘real’
The senator said this week that she has been “just trying to listen as carefully as I can to what is happening.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/17/lisa-murkowski-trump-retaliation-00295852
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And remember; it was the local cops that put people in the boxcars to the German camps. Think it ‘Can’t Happen Here?’
The Tools of Repression
The sweeping conspiracy and terrorism indictment of Stop Cop City activists reveals the new playbook for state suppression of protest. But we can still win.
https://inquest.org/the-tools-of-repression/
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sealintheSelkirks
I’m a Vietnam veteran and 70 yrs old…I’m utterly disgusted by the Orange Turd occupying the WH. We have a country where half the population are complete MORONS. The damage this cult leader is doing to our country is despicable and I fear it’s only going to get worse.
I’m all for deporting illegal criminals, but not wholesale deportations of hard working immigrants. If the Trump Turd was in front of me I’d spit in his face and tell him to go F himself.
12 minutes of what-ifs I think:
James Carville: A Genuine Uprising Is Coming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmx5iYyG0_8
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sealintheSelkirks
Well , we knew that it was going to be BAD. It’s actually worse than I thought that it would be. So far, anyways. Although I have to be optimistic long term , the damage done will not be repaired in my lifetime.
Shocking Study Proves Trump’s Biggest Supporters Are Psychopaths
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7tpCMIJ-48
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This woman asks many very pertinent questions, and nothing really about ‘helping’ the poor. That’s what “GET RID OF” actually means:
Donald Trump Reveals Plans for Homeless After Federalizing DC and Deploying National Guard!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtN480g0PE
Anybody want to guess when homeless people will just be dumped in a bulldozed pit and forgotten?
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Dem politicians need to COMPLETELY break with the corporate Dem leaders. As this discussion says, fight fire with fire, gerrymander and re-district new seats in blue states and cities. Become the most anti-corporate and anti-corruption party ever.
Re-brand what the public thinks the ‘conservative’ party is actually doing. Blame this f&&ks for what they are really doing.
Trump SHOCK Firing Instantly BACKFIRES As THIS Goes Public!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJCAFnRB6xM
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sealintheSelkirks
A Message To Troops In DC From Other Service Members And Veterans
By Empire Files.
August 19, 2025
Resist!
Available as downloadable leaflet for outreach to soldiers.
https://popularresistance.org/a-message-to-troops-in-dc-from-other-service-members-and-veterans/
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Anyone watches Republicans, and the corporate-owned Democrats, and who were PAYING ATTENTION, could see this coming in 1980. Or the 1970s. Or the 1960s for that matter…
sealintheSelkirks
It was pretty depressing to see how many of of you fake ‘hippies’ punted on everything you claim to stand for and voted for Trump this go around. There is no way you can say you care about protecting the environment, promoting peace, and having healthy international relations if you voted for that hateful piece of junk. Yep, you ‘voted with your wallets’ alright. Ironic, considering the economy has taken a huge dive since Trump’s been elected.
Stephen — unclear who you’re referring to in “you fake ‘hippies’ — certainly not the other commenters — but the “you” in that reference — is it to our readers? our community? just hippies in general? those progressives who voted for trump (don’t know any)? or are just assuming that many former or “fake” hippies voted for him?
I don’t know a single person, not one, zero, whom I would consider an ‘old fashioned 1960s/early 70s style ‘hippie’ who voted for the Fascist. And I still know a few, all older than me, from my days working in the NorCal concert scene in the late 90s to mid-2000s. REAL hippies, communal Hog Farm people and those that are still living whom are connected to them. Many have died off in the last 20 years, people I worked with at the Hog Farm Pic-Nic and other concerts on other venues.
They kept the values and philosophy all these years. Against all odds of living in an extremely Capitalist Oligarchy operated for profit by the owners of corporations, fossil fuel, and war industries. So the “you fake hippies’ is a pretty large spread that should have been MUCH more specific and precise about whom you are talking about.
As for ‘voting for wallets,’ anybody thinking DJT was a competent money-manager/businessman, even the so-called ‘hippies’ had the ability to read and remember his scorecard on business collapses! Trump steaks, outright fraudulent businesses like Trump University etc. And all those business bankruptcies!! I mean, how does one bankrupt a damned casino??? The MAFIA proved to be smarter than Trump given the evidence of his dismal record of failure!!!
Even the MAGA didn’t vote for their wallets, dude! Look at all the farmers in the upper Midwest screaming for help from their ballot choice who is bankrupting their farms with his tariffs and farmworker deportations and enormous losses of foreign sales and cancelled contracts!
Look at all the Red State MAGA citizens that are flat LOSING their Medicaid health care and food stamps from DJT’s Bogus Barfworthy Bill. Whose children are not going to have schools as the Sec. of Education Billionaire Wrestling Hag cuts their school budgets to zero leaving it to destitute former slave states to fund their own damn schools.
Hey, here’s a thought. Maybe all those ten year olds without schoolwork can take the place of those missing farmworkers? Sunrise to sunset labor is just what them weak little white children need to give them some backbone!
I heard from my younger brother who still donating time at the Hog Farm concert scene that Wavy Gravy just had another b-day! That hippy just turned 89 years old and is STILL living and breathing what he preached, from Woodstock to the founding of SEVA. And he still puts on his clown costume now and then, and continues to put up the good fight for things that matter to him. The ultimate hippy!
So Stephen, just who are you complaining about on the RAG? Though I agree that we have horrible choices for electing leaders and have at least since Reagan destroyed the office (Nixon helped before him of course!), choice often devolves to who will be less damaging to society as a whole in our elections. There are a few voices writing on these comment pages that I assume, judging by content, that voted for the Orange Menace. But ‘hippies?’ I would hope you are completely wrong!
sealintheSelkirks
I agree with you 100%.God bless you