On November 8, 2016,
the networks called the Election for Donald Trump. Is Trump the winner? Technically.
For Now. Here are a multitude of reasons
we must not let Trump become president. We must continue to hope and fight for the
election of Hillary Clinton.
Hillary won the so-called "popular vote."
1. When all the
votes are counted, Hillary Clinton will have more than 2.7
million more votes than Trump. If we go by will of the people, Hillary
Clinton is clearly the choice of the people.
Recounts could yet show that Hillary got
the most electoral votes too.
2. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, accounting
for 46 electoral votes, were won by very slim margins (0.3, 0.7, and 1.2
respectively). A switch of about 70,000 votes could have changed the results. These
are states that are almost always won by the Democratic presidential candidate.
Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, asked for a recount in the above three states. (I think she should add North Carolina
and Florida.) The recounts either weren't done or were not done properly. Hand recounts wee needed, not machine recounts.
It would have been unseemly for Hillary to ask for the
recount—it would make her seem like a sore loser—but now that Stein has
requested it, Hillary is joining in.
We needed recounts because the election results are very suspicious.
3. Every time a “mathematical
error” is discovered, it is always in favor of the Republican candidate. 4. Additionally, the machines are often not properly calibrated. As we saw in 2000, the malfunctioning
machines, which result in inaccurate vote counts, are always in the Democratic
areas of a state.
5. The vote counts don’t
match up with the polls. There was a “red shift” in almost every state. This
refers to the fact that Trump got more votes than the polls predicted. Is it
likely that every poll was wrong—even though they used different methodologies
and different models of the electorate--and all the errors were in Trumps
favor?
6. The exit polls appear to have been wrong also, and again, in Trump’s favor. Exit polling is the
most accurate polling there is. Yet they appear to have been wrong in state
after state.
Voter suppression
was rampant
7. Voter suppression cost Hillary a lot of votes because voter suppression is skewed towards population groups
that tend to vote Democratic.
Russia interfered
with the election to help Trump win.
8. We know the Russians hacked some data bases of registered
voters. Were there other cases where hacking occurred? Could Democratic voters
have been removed from the list of registered voters? 9. Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin showed that Trump was
grateful for the help.
10. The Russians
hacked the DNC emails. The release
of these private emails caused disunity in the Democratic Party. 11. The Russians hacked the emails of
John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign chair. Although
there was nothing very scandalous in those emails, the WikiLeaks daily
publication of them gave the impression of wrong-doing.
Russia is also behind many of the 12. fake news sites on social media. It used to be called disinformation. Outrageous lies were told about Hillary on websites made to look like legimate news sites. Some of them come from Russia, but many are done in the USA also.
The FBI interfered
with the election.
13.
James Comey, Director of the FBI, improperly gave his opinion after concluding that
the findings of the investigation did not warrant the recommendation of an
indictment. (“Not even close,” he said.) Comey, a Republican decided that he couldn’t indict her, so he decided to smear her. 14. Comey again violated FBI norms when
ten days before the election, he let it be known that “new” emails had been
found. A week later, he reported
that the emails were duplicates. But by then, the damage to Clinton’s campaign had
been done.
The news media was
guilty of malpractice.
15. The main stream media—print and TV—were more
interested in money than in reporting. 16. Trump was
entertaining and got high ratings, so he got lots of free air time. 17. Hillary talked about policies—borrring—so
she was ignored.
18. Scandals are
entertaining, so Hillary got lots of negative coverage. 19. The scandals were manufactured, but if Hillary tried to point
this out, she was accused of being defensive.
20. Hillary was
criticized for being “secretive” when she went a few months without hold a
press conference. Trump went 6 months without a single press conference, and it
was never mentioned.
21. The only time
Trump got negative coverage was when the “Access Hollywood” tape came out. The
media loved the sex scandal. This didn’t necessarily hurt Trump—his target
audience of yahoos liked him all the more for it.
Hillary
couldn’t catch a break from the media. 22. No matter how many times she apologized
for using the private server, something her predecessors had done, they kept
asking her about it. 23. Even when Hillary
had pneumonia, but bravely went to the 9-11 memorial event anyway, she wasn’t
called a hero for pushing through—instead, more complaints about secrecy. Yet,
if she had told them she had pneumonia she would have been berated for having a
“martyr complex.”
Hillary is far superior to Trump when it comes to character.
24 Hillary more
than proved that she had the character to be president when she suffered all of
these “slings and arrows” with a brave smile and without complaint. 25. Trump, on the other hand, would go
ballistic and start a twitter war with anyone who criticized him. 26. Even now, as president-elect, he is still lashing out via twitter.
Is Trump a 27. Racist,
28. Misogynist, 29. Islamophobic, 30. Nativist, 31. Anti-Semite or is it all an
act? Does it matter? He is surrounding himself with people of this ilk.
And let's not forget 32. Con-man. About a week after the election Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle a law suit brought by people who he defrauded with his phony "Trump University." 33. Also the hundreds of small bussiness he bilked by refusing to pay what he owed them, knowing they could not afford lawyers to sue him. 34. And his six bankruptcies which bilked the banks and investors while he walked away with millions. 35. Add to this The Trump Foundation, a supposed charity which was used mainly to benefit Trump personally and Trump business interests.
Trump is also a 36. narcissist, 37. a bald-faced liar and, quite possibly, 38 a sociopath. 39. He holds grudges and 40.seeks revenge at all costs. 41. He lacks the dignity we should all exspect from a president. 42. Can you even imagine this man, who is totally lacking in compassion, giving a speech like the ones Obama gave when he was called upon after a tragedy to be Consoler-in-Chief.
Trump is demonstrating very poor judgement in his official acts so far.
One of his first appointments—43. Steve Bannon—who will be his chief strategist, a position with equal prominence to chief of staff. Bannon is the erstwhile editor of Brietbart News, the alt-right (code for white-supremacist, aka Nazi) internet media organization. Based on the kind of things he publishes, Bannon is all of the above
The rest of
Trump’s early picks are no better. He is leaving no rock unturned. 44. Jeff Sessions, who was once denied
confirmation by a Republican senate for a judge ship will be Attorney General. 45. Betsy DeVos, a donor, will be head of Department of Education,
despite having absolutely no experience in the field of education aside from
her advocacy for school vouchers and her hatred of public schools. (Vouchers are a Republican ply to destroy
public education.) 46. Nikki Haley will be
the U.N. Representative, despite having no experience whatsoever in
international affairs. 47. Rex Tillerson is Trump's pick for Secretary of State. He is the CEO of ExxonMobil has no experience in government or diplomacy. Worse yet he is way too chummy with Russia. and 48. Mike
Flynn has been tapped for National Security Adviser, a former general
who is a very militant anti-Islamist, and is currently considered “nuts" and obsessed with conspiracy theories. 49. Ben Carson for HUD??? After Carson declared himself unqualified to run a federal agency??? Did Trump want a black person in his cabinet and Carson was the only one he knew?
By the way, the choice of Mike Flynn for national security
advisor is especially concerning since it appears Trump will heavily rely on
him—50. Trump has so far declined to
sit in on most the intelligence briefings offered to all president-elects. I
guess 51. he thinks he knows more
than the CIA or maybe 52. he is just
lazy.
I was hoping, now that he was president elect, he would surround
himself with the best and the brightest. Instead, 53. almost every one of his cabinet and staff picks are abysmal. 54. With picks like these I have to ask: Is Trump deliberately trying to destroy the United States of America?
Trump has 'normalized" hate.
55. During the campaign, Trump riled up hatred at his rallies.
Now that Trump is president-elect, haters feel emboldened. 56. Hate-related incidences have drastically
increased since the election. (See the Southern Poverty Law Center Report)
Trump has
conflicts of interest “big league.”
57. Trump has said he can run his business and run
the country at the same time if he chooses to. And he chooses to. He has 500
companies (more or less) in about 25 different countries (more or less). It's being called kleptocracy.
His business interests are already colliding with his
official acts. 58. Foreign
dignitaries and others who wish to curry favor with Trump are booking rooms at
Trump hotels. 59. Trump listed his business interests, and even his wife’s QVC jewelry line, on an official .gov website. 60.Foreign leaders are expediting his
projects in their countries. (Argentina
for one.) In the same phone call, Trump discussed official business and
personal business.
Let’s not forget his business interest that conflict with
the U.S. Government. 61. Trump is
suing the U.S. government to reduce his taxes on his new Trump hotel in
Washington D.C. How is that going to work?
During the campaign, Trump said, he did not care about his
business anymore. He would let his children run it as a blind trust. 62. Of course,
if your children run it, it is not a blind trust. Also it is not blind, if you
know what is in the trust.
63. But he has
gone back on even that. His children and his son-in-law are sitting in on
meetings and phone calls Trump is taking with foreign leaders. None of them has
a security clearance, or even an official appointment (forbidden by
anti-nepotism laws.)
64. Trump has
refused to release his tax returns. We
don’t know what foreign banks may hold his loans. The banks are often state
owned. Will these countries get favored treatment?
65. Trump may
force a constitutional
crisis. A president may not benefit financially from his office –the Constitution
forbids it; it also lists bribery as an impeachable act.
I wonder, will Trump be impeached during his first month in
office? Or will he resign? It is the House of Representatives that must
initiate impeachment, and I doubt that the Republicans will do it—as long as
they are getting what they want from Trump. 66. Another conflict of interest—A president should act in the best
interests of the country and not be forced to mollify Congress to avoid
impeachment for his criminal acts. .
Trump will not be able to keep his promises he made during his campaign.
67. There will be a lot of
very angry people in this country once the figure out they have been suckered. 68. There will be no wall. 69. Coal jobs will not come back. 70. The tax cuts will go to very rich, not the average citizen.
If Trump becomes
president, I fear for the country and the world.
Here are some of the good things we lose: 71. Social Security. 72. Medicare. 73. Universal healthcare. 74. Civil rights. 75: Religious freedom (if you are not Christian). 76. The prospect of an increased minimum wage. 77. Reproductive rights for women. 78. Free college education.79. Reduction of interest payments on college loans. 80. Prison reform.
81. Immigration reform. 82. Protection of voting rights. 83. Campaign finance reform. 84. Corporations and the very rich paying their fair share of taxes. 85. Consumer protection regulations. 86. The advancement of clean energy.
Here are some of the bad things we will get. 87.
Economic mismanagement causing the Second Great Depression (Remember how close
we came with George W. Bush.) 88.The disruption of foreign trade. 89..Climate change accelerated. 90. Pipelines polluting our drinking water. 91. Deregulations leading to more pollution of our air. 92. A reactionary Supreme Court. 93.Torture reinstated. 94. More terrorist acts in the U.S..95. The expansion of ISIS. 96. The collapse of nato. 97. More wars. 98. Maybe even nuclear war.
Trump doesn't even want to be president.
99. The First Family will probably not live in the White House. Millenia has already said she and her son will continue to live in Trump Tower in NY. (By the way, protecting Trump Tower is costing the NY taxpayers $1 million a day and hurting the businesses in the area.)
100. Trump just wanted to win. He has no actual specific plans for the country. ("Make America Great Again" is a slogan, not a plan.) 101. I hear he wants to continue doing rallies. He needs the adoring crowds. It was, and is, all about his ego.
My dystopian fears have overwhelmed me.
P..S. Bill Maher is on hiatus, so no jokes in this piece..
P. J. O'Rouke, the author of How the Hell Did This Happen?, is a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, and he is pretty funny himself. The book won't be out until March 2017 (but you can pre-order it). I'm hoping he didn't write the ending yet because I am hoping for a surprise ending.
--Catherine Giordano
Addendum: If you want to fight against the yahoos in America? Please join this facebook group: Blue America Fights Back
I keep adding to the list. Use the comments to add any that I have so far missed.
Plus here are more items to add to the list of good things lost: 102. Strong labor unions 103. Paid family and medical leave 104: Overtime pay 105. Diplomatic recognition of Cuba and the end of a stupid embargo that accomplished nothing for the U.S. (unless Cuba agrees to build a Trump Hotel) 106. A reduction in spending on useless stuff that the military doesn't need and doesn't even want.
And here is other things we could really do without: 107: Foreign policy blunders: On December 2, 2016 Trump evidently changed America's foreign policy while still president- elect during telephone conversations with the presidents of Taiwan, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Was Trump signalling new policy or did he just not know any better? Either way, there are major international implications upsetting years of diplomacy. 108. Dialing for Dollars Diplomacy. Maybe Trump disrupted long-standing and delicately balanced interrelation diplomacy for personal profit--he wants to get his hotels built in those countries. 109. Paying ransom for jobs. Pence spent $7 million dollars of Indiana taxpayer money to save 800 jobs at Carrier (while Carrier sends another 1000 to Mexico) and Trump boasts how he kept jobs in America. Now every company in America knows they can get a windfall of government money by threatening to send jobs overseas. 110: Stocking the swamp: Trump is picking billionaires, millionaires, Goldman-Sachs bankers, and lobbyists to top posts. 111. Putting Rick Perry in charge of the Department of Energy--this dolt with times to Big Energy replaces a nuclear physicist. 112. The humiliation of Mitt Romney. Trump toyed with him by pretending to conisder him for Secretary of State. 113. Trump has abandoned the principle of "We only have one president at a time." He is interfering in foriegn rlations. Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel began dealing directly with Prsident -elect Trump in December, 2016. 114. Unpredictability. As David Axelrod said on a recent Real Time with Bill Maher, "Trump changes his mind from the beginning to the end of a sentence." 115: Tweeting--stupid, angry, boastful, lying tweets
You might also like to read some of my other essays about the election.
Brace for Impact
The Orange Hitler
Donald Trump is Putin's Puppet
Donald Trump is Whiny Little Bitch
Michael Moore's Five Point Plan
The Revenge of the Yahoos
I also strongly recommend that you read "Autocracy Rules for Survival," an article in the New York Times Book Review by Masha Gessen. She writes: "This [conciliatory] talk [from Hillary, Obama, and others] assumes that Trump is prepared to find common ground with his many opponents, respect the institutions of government, and repudiate almost everything he has stood for during the campaign. In short, it is treating him as a “normal” politician. There has until now been little evidence that he can be one."
