Monthly Archives: October 2018

Federal Politics, Local Politics, State Politics

Mr. Trump Is A Street Player

Most of the time when the word “player” is mentioned, in my humble opinion, most white people will envision a black person whether they envision a man or a woman.  I accept that as life because that is the way that the preponderance of white people have been taught to think.  But, hello white people, players come in all colors!  And, hello again, those who might be naive white people, Mr. Trump is just as much a street player as any person no matter what color they might be!  Mr. Trump is a player among players!  He can outwit and intimidate the best of the best when it comes to players. Why?  Because he is the most powerful man in the world.  He knows this and so do all of the street players out there!  Most street players might not have a formal education but they are not stupid; and, they are not crazy!

Players, especially brothers and sisters – Black folks for those who are unfamiliar with the term, might not like it that Mr. Trump is the top (kingpin) player but they know that he is and they accept that.  Most street people and all thugs know and accept reality even if they don’t like it.  And they know and accept that Mr. Trump is the man.  Mr. Trump knows this too and it is not something that is new to him.  In and with his street-wise bravado, he continues to manipulate American people of all colors as he works his way towards 2020 and making the American peoples’ America Trump’s America!  Players know how to play and manipulate people.  And if there is not someone there who, no matter their color, is experienced in how street people and players play and are dedicated and determined to help Americans to understand this game and what is happening to them, then America is destined to lose.

Whether or not the Republican-led congress realizes what Mr. Trump is doing and is choosing to ignore it for the purpose of party and/or personal gain remains to be determined.  Either way, the fact of the matter is that America is in deep trouble and it is up to us, the American voters, to steer her clear of certain destruction!  Mr. Trump is white but his life experiences make him just as much from “off the corner” as any brother from the ghetto or any poor white person from a really rough neighborhood who has had to fight to survive in life!  Believe me, those white people know who Mr. Trump really is; despite his upper crust title as President of the United States of America.  They know that he doesn’t have the best interest of America in mind and therefore does not deserve to be there but they have to give him some love for, being one of them, having made it there.  He played the game to the max!

Mr. Trump is on top of his hustle and I can understand that.  Even I can understand his attempt to convince all Americans (in street language) not to “hate the player” but to “hate the game.”  But what I am finding it hard to understand is that when Mr. Trump blatantly lies to the American people – like when just before the 2018 midterm elections he talks about enacting a 10% tax cut for middleclass Americans (which no one in congress knows anything about) and how Republicans will strongly support assuring that insurance companies are held to the Obamacare standards that require all insurance companies to provide affordable insurance to all Americans including those with preexisting conditions, why the news media continues to repeatedly broadcast his lies!  They must be aware that the majority of the people who hear these lies do not realize that they are lies and that those same people will never hear Mr. Trump admit that they are lies nor will they hear him retract those statements!

Mr. Trump is completely and mercilessly playing this worm-like Republican-led congress and he knows that it will not hold him to account for what he is doing.  And Republican senators like Senators Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake need to stop pretending outrage at the things that Mr. Trump is doing and, like the rest of the Republicans in congress, just go along with whatever Mr. Trump decides to do.  In particular, retiring senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake need to spare us all of the drama and just retire with at least some degree of dignity.  I am extremely tired of seeing pictures of Senator Jeff Flakes’ “sad face” as he talks about the unseemly things that Mr. Trump is doing and how he should not be doing these things and explains to the American people about how he neither believes Dr. Christine Blasey Ford nor Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh with respect to their testimonies before the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee.  Enough already!

I continue to hope that those whom we have elected to represent us and to lead and protect America will come to their senses and do the jobs that they were elected to do.  I continue to hope that they will stop trying to impede democracy, via voter suppression or any other means, by bending it to favor a certain party or group of people.  As we approach the 2018 midterm elections, I want to continue to emphasize that we as American voters must continue to do our part to hold our elected officials accountable.  We must use the threat of how we will vote to chastise them and mentally bludgeon them into doing the right thing.  So whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line

Federal Politics, Local Politics, State Politics

Lamentations: American Politics Gone Awry

All of my adult life I have closely followed politics.  And I have always been a Democrat.  I have also always known that politicians on both sides of the aisle would oftentimes spin and stretch the truth to the maximum point possible without, in their opinion, crossing the boundary and entering the territory of a lie.  And if that did not work in helping them to achieve their goal, far too many times, they would actually resort to lying.  Even though I always knew this, I found it relatively easy to have a certain amount of respect for them.

I held this respect because of a deep seated patriotic love for America indwelled in me and the overpowering feeling that all politicians harbored this same feeling; but they were doing something about it.  They became elected officials so that they could actually serve our country.  For that reason, I held a certain degree of approbation for them and respected them even more.  I thought that no matter how much Democrats and Republicans fought about the issues and the path forward that America should take that they had a pre-established line in the sand drawn which they would never cross for personal gain, Party or anything else.  I especially held the Oval Office and its occupant in high esteem and I believed that these politicians did too.  Enter the era of Mr. Donald John Trump.

The election of Mr. Trump ripped away my rose colored glasses and all of the perceptions that I had of the honor, dedication and desire to serve their country and a cause bigger than themselves that I had of these politicians and revealed the soft and repulsive underbelly of the corruption, selfishness, personal ambition and greed that exists there.  All of the honorableness and pomp and circumstance seem somehow all feigned by these so called representatives of the American people.  I could not help but to, after all of this time, feel extremely naive.  That is not to say that my opinion of politicians post-Trump should be applied to all politicians, but with what is happening in congress now, given the complete abdication of their checks-and-balances responsibilities and the rubberstamping of everything – even those things that are wrong – that Mr. Trump does, that opinion definitely applies to far too many of them.

Mr. Trump has brought our country and the Oval Office down to the lowest level – one must hope and pray that it can go no lower, possible.  He has brought high level Russian officials and photographers into this office while at the same time banning the American press and photographers and he has allowed crowds of people to surround the Oval Office desk and listen while one of his devoted followers made a long and rambling speech that included profanity.  He has literally stood beside Russian President Vladimir Putin, supported him and disparaged American intelligence agencies as the world watched, he has regularly trashed our allies and supported strongmen and despots around the world, and he seems to be content in heading an administration that is plagued with endless scandals.

The same Republicans who ranted and raved about avoiding an increase in the deficit at all costs now remain silent as the deficit has soared under the watch of Mr. Trump and the current Republican-led congress.  They passed a tax cut that they said would help middle income and lower income Americans.  But instead, it put millions of dollars into the pockets of corporations and the top 1% of Americans and left middle income and lower income Americans with the crumbs off the table.  To make matters worse, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now says that the deficit is ‘not a Republican problem’.  He says that the problem is the entitlement programs and so he has called for a reduction in the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs to address America’s deficit problem.

Ever since Mr. Trump was elected he has relentlessly worked to divide Americans and pit them against one another.  He seems to be completely focused on his own best interest first and then, maybe – as long as it does not negatively impact his own interest, on the interests of America and the American people.  He wants to “Make America Great Again”!  He wants it to be ‘Trump’s America’!  And although voter suppression is rampant and voters around the country are being disenfranchised at a phenomenal pace he doesn’t seem to care.  To be succinct about Mr. Trump’s feelings about this situation I will paraphrase his response to a question that Leslie Stahl asked him.  When she asked him about how he felt about having mimicked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the victim who accused then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her, Mr. Trump said, “it doesn’t matter, we won.”  His apparent thoughts about the above mentioned voter suppression and disenfranchisements?  To paraphrase him, “it doesn’t matter, we need to win.”

The sad part right now is that Mr. Trump is winning.  He is winning at pitting us against one another and blinding far too many of us through our anger and rage into accepting change in America that defies everything that Americans have stood for from our very beginning and still stand for now.  Change that makes America look more like the countries of those strongmen and despots that he seems to hold in such high esteem.  He is winning at making America ‘Trump’s America’!

The results of the November 2018 elections will tell all Americans how the majority – depending on the success of voter suppression, perhaps not the unadulterated majority – of Americans feel and which path forward they want America to take.  Our democracy is being threatened from inside and outside of America.  As an American, the right to vote is a critical and intricate element in the foundation that supports our democracy.  Let’s not just stand by and watch these attacks happen.  Instead, let’s do everything that we can legally and without violence to assure that they will fail!

We can do this through our vote.  Because we know and we know that they know that our vote is our power, that is even more reason why we must fight through all attempts at voter suppression and disenfranchisement! That is why we must not allow Mr. Trump, the Republican-led congress or anyone or anything else to frustrate us to the point where we just give up and don’t vote!  Let’s be sure to keep our eyes on the prize, focus on our power, show up at the polls in November and vote.  Your vote counts!  So whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line

Federal Politics, State Politics

Mr. Trump And The Republican Congress Cause A Time To Fear

All Americans are likely aware that there are three branches of government.  Those branches are the executive branch (where Republican Mr. Trump and his minions reside), the legislative branch (where invertebrate Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and his fellow invertebrate Republican – AKA Trump minions –  House members reside), and the Judicial branch (where the Supreme Court Justices and one Supreme Court Judge reside).  All Americans also are likely aware that the executive branch and legislative branches of government are political branches of government.  They may also be aware that it has long been questionable as to whether or not the judicial branch of government is also political and that pundits on each side have been able to reasonably argue their opinion.

Well, now that a new Supreme Court Judge has been seated, it is obvious that the Supreme Court is not an independent and unbiased body that is focused on the interpretation of the unadulterated definition of the law but that it is just as political as the executive and legislative branches are.  These are frightening times for all Americans as they well should be.  But rather than these times being times when we should become frustrated and overwhelmed and throw up our hands and give up, they are times when all Americans who value our democracy must determine that we will fight until our very last breath to preserve it!  With the things that are swirling around us right now – people being mistreated and killed in places around the world while the United States remains silent and in some cases, at the very least, is even tacitly complicit in these atrocities – this does not even seem or feel like America!  There are valid reasons to be fearful!  But there is not a single reason to give up and surrender to those who only believe in the rule of law when it is convenient for them to do so!

I am completely flabbergasted that those whom we have chosen to represent us and to protect us have sold their souls to Mr. Trump and become his personal minions.  They have convinced themselves that the end justifies the means and that if they can reach those ends then the cost does not matter and that they must achieve their goals at all costs.  They have become completely blinded to who we are as Americans and what we stand for!  It is understandable that Democrats and Republicans can and will fight with one another because each side has different values and ideas about how America should move forward!  But both sides should have principles and stand on the foundation of what America is all about.  Neither side should be willing to sell our country out by discounting and/or completely disregarding the dedicated and hardworking people in our intelligence agencies who risk their lives every day 365 days a year by siding with the leaders of countries run by despots and strongmen!  What has happened to us?!  What has happened to our politicians?!

All Americans should step back, take a deep breath and look at what is happening to our country.  Look at how our politicians are conducting themselves!  Personally, I don’t know if we need to replace all of them but I do know that we need to do something.  The things that those whom we have elected to represent, protect and lead us are doing now are not things that are meant to make us a better people as Americans or to make this country a more perfect union.  Instead, they are things that will help those politicians on the way to reach their personal goals and to line their pockets.  It has long been said that all politicians will lie.  But now we have come to the point where they have completely lost their way!  Nothing seems to matter except personal gain and supporting their political party!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is harping about how the Democrats, of which I am one, are advocating ‘mob rule’.  He is talking about how crowds of ‘left wing’ Democrats have come to Washington and are harassing congressmen and their families in restaurants when they go out to have dinner and in other public places.  He has expounded on how they have, using mob tactics, tried to shout down senators from the senate gallery as senators have tried to conduct the American people’s business and said that only the Democrats want and condone this kind of thing.  Therefore, he is strongly warning the American people that this is why they should not turn over power to ‘the Democrats’ when they vote in November this year.  Evidently, he has completely (conveniently) forgotten how Tea Party protesters (Republicans) conducted themselves during their protests.  All of this is, of course, total nonsense and motivated by party politics.

As American voters, we absolutely have to do something to bring those whom we have elected to represent us and to do what is in the best interest of our country back to their senses.  It appears that far too many of them have gone completely crazy.  They have lost their ability to think straight.  American voters must correct this and we must do it immediately.  The most effective way that we can do this is through our vote.  So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line

Federal Politics

Republican Party Claim To Rule Of Law Title Has Been Abdicated

The claim by the Republican party to be the party of ‘the rule of law’ was officially abdicated at about 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on October 6, 2018 when Republicans, via a virtual party line vote – Joe Manchin who is a Democrat in name only (DINO) voted with them – confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to become a Supreme Court Justice judge.  Judge Kavanaugh was confirmed despite the credible charge of attempted rape that was levied against him by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, by way of support of a so called FBI investigation into that charge which was initiated by and controlled by the Republican Party.

During that investigation, which was supposed to last not more than a week but was closed in about three days, someone in the Republican Party – either the White House or the senate – handcuffed the FBI by limiting it to the number of witnesses it could interview and who those witnesses could be. Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh were not among those who could be interviewed.   Not only was who actually handcuffed the FBI kept secret but once the investigation was complete, its contents were not made available to the public and could only be viewed by senators.  And those senators were restricted from talking to the public about what they had read in the documents provided to them by way of the investigation.

The Republicans then used what they said was ‘the fact’ that the seventh (this investigation) investigation of Judge Kavanaugh still did not reveal any more derogatory information about him than had been revealed in the prior six to clear his name in order to confirm him to become a Supreme Court judge.  In particular, prior to telling America whether or not she would vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh (anyone with the slightest inkling of political savvy already knew that she would vote ‘yes’), senator Susan Collins of Maine went on a rambling 45 minute speech about how great and independent Judge Kavanaugh had been all of his life and is now.  Rather than him being extremely conservative and possibly having even the slightest hint of being a political operative, during her speech she transformed him into the person that she wanted him to be in order for her to get to her vote of ‘yes’ to confirm him, which she wanted desperately to reach.

Senator Collins is not stupid and I do not think that she is naive.  She knew exactly what she was doing when she gave her rambling 45 minute speech.  She desperately wanted to be a team player and to please Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in this situation and the fact that she obviously really likes Judge Kavanaugh made it easier for her to get to her ‘yes’ vote.  Unfortunately, she will likely ultimately find out that Senator Mitch McConnell will treat her like a woman first and then like a team player.  The title ‘man’ for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will always hold priority over the title ‘woman’ when it comes to ‘man’ team player and ‘woman’ team player in the senate.  What Majority Leader McConnell wanted most in this instance was a win…and he got it and more with the help of Senator Collins.  She betrayed victims of sexual assault and perhaps all women for what she hoped would be 12 pieces of silver.  Only time will reveal whether she will receive her 12 pieces of silver or struggle to look at herself in the mirror.  Senate Majority Leader McConnell has proven to be a shrewd political operative and, as such, he will do (and did) whatever it takes to secure a win.

I mentioned in a previous article about how brave and determined to do the right thing that Senator Jeff Flake was.  I also mentioned in that article that although what he did was likely but a brief moment of bravery, it was worth noting and that he should be given credit for it.  That notwithstanding, I do not see how things could have changed so much in his mind with the sham of an FBI investigation that took place that he could with good conscience vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh knowing what he knows and witnessing the way that Judge Kavanaugh conducted himself during his testimony to the senate.

It appears that in the end, Senator Flake chose personal ambition and party over what was the right thing to do.  I choose to believe that Senator Flake’s decision to call for an FBI investigation prior to confirming Judge Kavanaugh was sincere and not a ploy to provide cover for his party.  Only he, and any others that he might have collaborated with if it was a ploy, knows the true answer to this question.  Either way, he – like Senator Collins, will ultimately have to face the person in the mirror.

I cannot end this article without addressing Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.  I did not say Democratic senator Joe Manchin because Senator Manchin, in this case and many others, is a DINO.  He acts like a Republican, talks like a Republican, and obviously votes like a Republican.  It appears that he simply appropriated the title, Democrat, because it is in his best interest.  Some refer to him as a moderate Democrat and others refer to him as a conservative Democrat.  Whichever he is, he has voted with Mr. Donald Trump most of the time (up to 71%).  In the Brett Kavanaugh situation, when Democrats needed him most, he voted with Republicans to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.

Democrats do not need a senator who is a Democrat in name only.  If in crucial situations that person is going to vote like a Republican – if it is not strongly supported by facts that assure that it is the right thing to do, they might as well be a Republican.  I would hope that the DNC would not waste its money by supporting Senator Manchin.  Even if they choose to, I will not donate any of my hard earned money to support him and I believe that there are a lot of other Democrats, men and women, who feel the same way that I do.

Do not be dismayed Democrats and all of those who know that what occurred today, October 6, 2018, was totally partisan, all about power, and the wrong thing to do.  Keep fighting and be sure to show up at the polls and vote in November.  And always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line