The Revenge of the Yahoos

Election night 2016 was like seeing a red wave of piranhas

On Election Night I watched as the TV showed the maps of the states with the counties outlined. It was a sea of red with a few bits of blue. It looked to me like a wave of red piranhas descending upon a little blue minnow.

On the morning of the election, my friend told me not to worry—all the polls said that Clinton would win. I told her that poll results were based on population models and that this was such a crazy year that the models could be wrong.

Now the pundits are explaining the predictive failure of the polls by saying maybe certain groups refused to be polled. I’ll add to that. Maybe certain people, like me were over-polled. One night, I participated in five different polls. I wanted to be polled.

Who are the “Yahoos”? They are low-information voters who are swayed by slogans and headlines. They are also the “Deplorables”—the racists, the sexists, the xenophobes, the haters. They are also the Republicans who put party over country.

Pussy vs. Policy

The wave of red meant the yahoos were winning. It was the victory of pussy over policy. I use the word “pussy” as a stand-in for scandal. The media was primarily interested in scandal and not informing the public on the issues. Scandal is sexy—it sells newspapers and ad time, and it gets clicks.

The news media no longer feels that it should inform the public on issues. The news media is now nothing more than entertainment.

Here is a case in point. I was watching MSNBC which is considered the most liberal of the three major cable news channels. The network was a doing a live remote showing Hillary giving a speech on her economic policies. After a few minutes, the network cut-away. The anchor said, “We’ll come back if she says anything about the emails.” Then he turned to a panel of three pundits discussing the emails.

Trump coverage followed the same emphasis. Grope-gate got endless coverage. I must have seen that clip of the bus a thousand times.

No wonder people say, “They never talk about the issues.” Not that the people actually care about the issues. If they did, they could have found them on Hillary’s website. They only bring up issues as a way to defend the voting decision they made for other reasons.

Nonetheless, Trump’s positions were so simple and so visceral that he was still able to communicate his stand on the “issues.” He had a bunch of one-liners he repeated over and over. “Build the wall!” “Ban the Muslims!” “Bring back jobs!” “Defeat Isis! “Lock her up!” (The last one is not technically an issue, just an applause line.)

There was nothing behind these empty slogans; Trump never said how he would do any of these things (and he will probably never actually do any of them as president.)

The Crook vs. The Idiot

“The Crook” vs. “The Idiot” became the shorthand way of explaining the choice. Neither characterization was actually true. But who in the media had time for truth? They were too busy capturing eyeballs with entertainment.

People didn’t want a crook or an idiot. Some chose not to vote at all. And some who did vote, left the choice for president blank.

“Crooked Hillary” is a myth.

The big problem for Hillary is that if she tried to defend herself, it only made her sound guilty. Recently, I learned that if you try convince a person that a cherished belief is untrue and the more facts you present to prove that their belief is wrong, the more the person will believe that they are right. There is no way to prove your innocence. As Bill Maher joked, “How can you prove she is not a witch, if you don’t let us dunk her.”  

She couldn’t defend herself, so I will defend her here. Let’s go through the charges leveled against her one by one.

Honesty: Poltifact found Hillary to be more truthful than any of the other presidential candidates, Including Bernie Sanders. Poltifact found that Trump told nine times more lies than Hillary, yet Trump was considered the more truthful one--Maybe because Trump’s lies were entertaining.

The emails: There was absolutely nothing noteworthy about the so-called email scandal.” When Clinton decided to use a private email server, as she had done as a Senator and as previous Secretaries of State had done, I’m sure she never thought it mattered. She was not doing it for nefarious purposes. And national security was in no way harmed by her using a private server. 

The FBI investigated the emails for over a year and concluded no crime had been committed. Comey said, “It wasn’t even close.” Unfortunately, he said a lot of other things also, despite the fact that the FBI had never before commented publically on a case. Even when they recommend indictment, they don’t comment.

Comey, a Republican, couldn’t indict Hillary, so he decided to smear her. Twice!

As KellyAnne Conway, the chair of Trump’s campaign, said “It doesn’t matter if it is true or not, the damage has been done.” Conway could barely contain her glee.

The speeches: Every prominent person in government gives paid speeches once they leave office. (Elected officials are forbidden by law to give paid speeches while in office—that is why Bernie Sanders could claim that he got zero bucks from speeches.)

 Corporations do not pay big bucks for these speeches because they want favors. They do it because it is good business—when a high profile person gives a speech for them, they get prestige and more attendees at their conferences.

Hillary also did free speeches and speeches where she was paid much lower fees. She did these speeches in support of charitable organizations and for other worthy causes..

The Clinton Foundation: The claims about the Clinton Foundation are also baseless. No one in the Clinton family took a penny from the foundation. No political favors were ever given in return for donations. Independent organizations that rate charities have always give the Clinton Foundation the very highest ratings.

WikiLeaks: There was nothing scandalous in the hacked emails of Hi8llary’s campaign chair, John Podesta. Yet every day, the media would select one email and carry on like it was a big deal. They would drop the story the next day to focus on the next nothing-burger. Personally, I am amazed that out of 40,000 emails there was nothing noteworthy.

Donald Trump is the Crooked One.

While the media was pounding Hillary, they were ignoring Donald Trump’s crookedness.

Dishonesty: There are too many lies to mention them all. Let’s just take the biggest one--The one where he said that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. He repeated this for years, and then under pressure during the campaign he called a press conference and said “Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.” And then he refused to say one more word about it ever again.

Trump University: Trump University swindled people out of tens of thousands of dollars. It targeted the people who could least afford to lose the money.

Deadbeat: Trump has been sued hundreds of time for refusing to pay small businesses and workers what he owed them for the services they provided. There were hundreds more who couldn’t afford to sue him, so they just had to eat the loss. Some of these businesses were forced into bankruptcy.

He declared bankruptcy six times, but not before he transferred all of the money out of his corporations, leaving his investors to suffer the loss.

The Trump Foundation: Donald Trump set up a fraudulent charitable foundation. He did not register it as required by New York State Law. Trump put very little of his own money into it; instead he solicited donations from other people, and then used those funds to make a gift while taking credit for the gift. He also used the foundation’s money for his personal expenses, including an apparent bribe to Florida’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to get her to drop an investigation into Trump University. The New York Attorney General is investigating these frauds—I hope the investigation is not dropped just because Trump won the election.

There’s so much more, but I don’t want to add another 2000 words to this piece. You can read the book shown at the end of the essay. 

Donald Trump Runs for President: The Reality Show

Donald Trump’s whole campaign was a reality show. Reality shows are very popular on TV, and this one was no exception. He got well over a billion dollars of free time on TV for his reality show.

Is Donald Trump really, a racist, xenophobe, misogynist, ignoramus, white supremacist or does he just play one on TV? I guess we will all just have to wait and see.

What Trump wanted to do was to set up a media conglomerate for the yahoos. He would have lots of money, lots of attention, and very little work on his part. As he said during the campaign:“If I lose, I go back to a great life.”

Scared Shitless

I’m pretty sure Trump started this whole thing as a publicity stunt and it took on a life of its own. He wanted to win, but he never really wanted to BE president. Now that he has won, no more great life for him.

The White House is a step down for him. His gold-plated Fifth Avenue penthouse is so much nicer. He’ll have no privacy due to the Secret Service and the press following everywhere (No more pussy grabbing.) He will be under constant attack from the public and the press—he’ll get the blame for everything that goes wrong. He will be in a high stakes game of tug-o-war with Congress.

Trump seems a little more subdued, though he still has his bad habit of tweeting. I think he has quieted down a bit because he is scared shitless

--Catherine Giordano

CLICK HERE for
 The Making of Donald Trump

Here's a book by a Pulitzer-Prize wining author if you want more details about the Donald's failures and shortcomings.

This what the yahoos have cost us. They will be sorry for voting for Trump, but those of us who were smart enough to vote for Hillary will have to suffer alone with them  Skip down to number 71 for the list. And then see the addendum for more things lost. 1010 reasons just wasn't enough. 

101 Reasons to Dump Trump

You might also like to read some of my other essays about the election. 

Brace for Impact

The Orange Hitler

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Donald Trump is Whiny Little Bitch

Addendum: To you want to fight against the yahoos in America? Please join this facebook group: Blue America Fights Back 

Trump is Putin's Puppet

by Catherine Giordano

Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump "Putin's Puppet.:
So he called her a puppet!

News Update: Russia Intervened to Elect Trump
It is clear now that Russia intervened in the presidential election to help Trump win. The CIA had the information months ago, but it was withheld from the public. When Hillary called Trump Putin's puppet, Trump denied. It seems very probable that he knew she was speaking the truth 

Trump will be repaying his debt to Russia throughout his presidency., Trump has already begun repaying the favor by selecting Texas oilman Rex W. Tillerson. as Secretary of State. Tillerson has never served in government, has no experience with foreign policy issues, but he is very chummy with Russia. In 2013, he was even given "Order of Friendship" award--the highest honor that can be given to a foreigner.  Moreover, Tillerson as the CEO of ExxonMobil Oil, has often been in opposition to American foreign policy favoring the Russian position instead. 

We also now know that during the campaign, many Trump advisers and surrogates were in frequent contact with the Russians. These include Jeff Sessions (who was appointed to be Attorney General), Paul Manafort (campaign manager), Jared  Kushner (son-in-law), Mike Flynn (appointed as National Security Adviser, but forced to resign) Carter Page (adviser), and others. 

We may have assets of the Russia in high governmental office--very high.    


Donald Trump's Weird Habit

Every week, Bill Maher makes Donald Trump the butt of his jokes. But there is one very funny thing about The Donald that Maher does not mention. It is Trump's weird way of accusing other people of things that are actually true about him and untrue about the other person. 

There is a word for this. Psychologists call it “projection.” 

The definition from Wikipedia is: 

“Projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities … by denying their existence in themselves while attributing  them to others." For example, a person who is habitually nasty may may accuse other people of being nasty.”

I’ll add that projection is more common with negative traits. Also, it does not have to be done unconsciously.

Crooked Hillary

It began with Trump calling Hillary “crooked.” Hillary is not crooked in the legal sense of the word. A lot of politically-motivated accusations have been made, but the investigations, some lasting years and costing the taxpayers millions of dollars, have never found her guilty of any wrong doing.

Trump on the other hand, routinely cheats in business. Here are just a few examples. 

• He has been sued successfully many times by customers and contractors who he cheated. Others have just had to accept the losses, because they could not afford the legal fees to pursue their case.
• His “Trump University” case is currently in the courts. His phony university bilked vulnerable people, sometimes draining their life savings. He could be convicted of racketeering.
• The state of New York is investigating his “Trump Foundation” for illegalities. He publicly announces that he is giving money to charity, but many of these charities say they have not received any donations from him.
• Donald Trump used the Trump Foundation to send Pam Bondi, AG or Florida, a $25,000 bribe. It worked. She declined to pursue an investigation into Trump University. This was a double whammy of crookedness--misusing charitable funds and paying a bribe.   

So who is the crooked one? Who should be in jail?

You’re a Puppet

In the third Presidential Debate on October 19, 2016 Hillary Clinton was talking about how Russia is behind the hacks of the emails of people in the Democratic campaign. She said that Russia is interfering in the election because they prefer to have their “puppet” Donald Trump as president.

Trump immediately responded “You’re the puppet,” interrupting Hillary to do so. This was not only a ridiculous statement, but it made Trump sound like a third grader. Trump, however, was evidently blind to how bad this sounded because within a minute he repeated it, again interrupting Hillary to do so.

I’ve noticed that he does things like this all the time. For instance, he lies constantly, but calls others liars. 

He also says that Hillary is unfit to be president and does not have the temperament to be president. These are accusations that many say about him. They are obviously true for him, but laughable when applied to Hillary Clinton. Even people who don’t like her admit that she is the most qualified person ever to run for president and that she is a smart, serious, and hardworking person.

Did you see the Melania Trump interview with Anderson Cooper? Even Donald’s wife thinks he acts like a child. She said, “Sometimes I say I have two boys at home — I have my young son and I have my husband.” Her son, Barron, is 10 years old. 

The Plot to Hack America

Malcom Nance, a globally recognized counter-terrorism expert and Intelligence Community member, published The Plot to Hack America in October 2016 Consequently, he can’t answer about what happened on Election Day, but his research and expertise certainly shows that it is possible that Russia hacked the election. But, perhaps they didn’t need to hack the election itself—they accomplished their goal with Wiki-Leaks.

Weak, Sick, and Drugged

Trump states every chance he gets that Hillary is in very poor health. He claims she is too weak to get through a debate. For days, he demanded that Hillary take a drug test before the third debate because she was probably using drugs to get through the prior debates. He also claimed that after the debates, Hillary is so drained that she has to limp off the stage. He then acts this out for his rally audiences, mimicking a person falling over.

I watched all three debates. It was not Hillary who was losing energy as the debate progressed. She looked and sounded exactly the same from beginning to end. At the end, she was smiling and laughing with supporters.

Trump was the one who looked drained.  After each debate, all the TV commentators said that Trump had a good 30 minutes, but then seemed to run out of steam. His answers become more and more rambling and incoherent.

I agree with these commentators. I have also noticed that his face gets more and more red as the debate goes on. I also noticed at one point toward the end, Trump was using his finger to wipe sweat from his face. (I think that was what he was doing.) He took his index finger and dragged it from left to right across the space just above his upper lip, apparently wiping away flop sweat. Additionally, at the third debate, he was leaning on his podium, most likely for support, especially toward the end. (Hillary was not.) As soon as the debate ended, he rushed out of the debate hall and got into his car. He had no energy left to greet well-wishers.

At each of the three debates, Trump was audibly sniffing.  I’ve watched him do rallies on TV and he never sniffs at these events. It seems to me quite likely that he is medicated prior to the debates and this medication causes sniffing.

Sexually Assaulting Women

I half expect Trump to start accusing Hillary of sexually molesting women.  But perhaps, that is a bridge too far for even Donald Trump.

Trump did call Hillary "such a nasty woman." This from the King of Nasty. The person who has insulted just about every group in America--women, Muslims, Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, and the handicapped. All Hillary has done is be nasty to one person, a person who truly deserved it, Donald Trump himself. 

Maher Urges His Fans to Vote for Hillary

Each week on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Trump urges his fans to vote for Hillary. He supported Bernie during the primaries, but now, like Bernie, he is voting for Hillary. He urges his supporters not to help Trump get elected by voting third party.

In fact, Gary Johnson, running as the Libertarian Party candidate, is often the butt of Maher’s jokes. Maher mocks him as a know-nothing. In a recent show, he mocked Johnson for not being able to name a single foreign leader when he was interviewed by Chris Matthews. Maher said, “He said Brangelina.” (Actually Johnson just stammered and then gave up without naming anyone.)  

Vote for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump as President and Commander-in-Chief is the very worst thing that could ever happen to our country.

Bill Weld, Johnson's running mate, has given interviews on TV endorsing Clinton. He says that we cannot risk a Trump presidency. 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Donald Trump has been called "unhinged" by so many, even by Republicans. Guess what he is now saying about Hillary: "She's unhinged."  It doesn't even make sense. If anything, Hillary is too controlled and not spontaneous enough. She's the exact opposite of unhinged, but saying something ridiculous has never stopped Trump before. 

Here's the latest example of Donald being unhinged. In the middle of a speech at his rally, he start's reciting these words, as if they were a mantra. "Nice and cool. Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy, Donald. Nice.” The advice that was likely whispered into his ear by a campaign adviser just before he went out on stage. He was supposed to keep those words in mind,not say them out loud. Evidently he is so unstable that he had to say them out loud to keep himself from flying off the handle. 

By the way, Maher did a special live comedy show on facebook, titled "Whiny Little Bitch." He said Trump has "the impulse control of a grease fire." No wonder he needs to recite a mantra. 

I think Trump accuses others of his own misdoings. If he accuses them of something, it prevents them (to an extent) from accusing him of that thing. If they did, it would sound like they were just parroting his accusations.

Imagine if Hillary said, "Donald Trump is crooked." It would make her sound like the child who chants "I am rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you." However, this kind of thing doesn't seem to hurt Trump. His supporters like it when he acts like a child. 

Addendum: To you want to fight against Putin's Puppet? Please join this facebook group: Blue America Fights Back 

You might also want to read:

Brace for Impact

The Orange Hitler

Donald Trump is Whiny Little Bitch

Michael Moore's Five Point Plan


The Revenge of the Yahoos


Watch the video clip.

Donald Trump Is a Whiny Little Bitch

Donald Trump is a Whiny Little Bitch

by Catherine Giordano

Bill Maher has been calling Donald Trump a "whiny little bitch" on his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, for months now, almost from the time Trump won the Republican nomination for president. Maher was prescient because now everyone is calling Trump a “whiny little bitch,” ever since Trump realized he is losing and started proclaiming that the election is rigged.

Even President Obama had to call him out for his whining. During a press conference a reporter asked him about Trump’s claims that the election is rigged. Obama patiently explained that there is no evidence of this, and in fact, it would be next to impossible.* Then Obama told Trump to stop whining. He said:

“If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don’t have what it takes to be in this job, because there are times when things don’t go our way — or my way…. I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.”

When Trump loses this election, as all the polls currently predict, it will be just one more failure in a long list of failures. He is not the genius businessman that so many think he is. Mark Cuban, a multi-billionaire who has been very successful in business, scoffs at the idea that Trump is a good businessman and he can back up his opinion with facts.

I started to think about why so many people think Trump is a good businessman. I think it is because he played one on TV. Trump’s reality show, The Apprentice, was very popular.

I only watched 1½ seasons and then I lost interest. 

The show wasn’t about providing challenging tasks to test the contestant’s mettle—it was about promoting Trump’s many business interests.

It wasn’t about selecting the contestant who demonstrated the greatest talent for business--it was about keeping the contestants that were ratings bait on the show as long as possible.

The point I want to make is that Trump played the great businessman on the show. The contestants idolized him (or pretended to idolize him) and called him a genius. Each week, the show would end with Trump sitting in the boardroom like a god and deciding who lived to fight another week and who “died” by being fired.

Anyone who watched that show year after year had to come away thinking Trump was a great businessman. He wasn’t. He only played one on TV.

Even if he was a great businessman, why do people think that being good at business equates to being good in government? Business and government operate in very different ways.

A CEO of a company issues commands and his underlings scurry to do his bidding. A president has to cajole and compromise with 538 members of Congress to get anything done.

A CEO of a company has only one objective-- to make a profit, preferably a really big one. A president must serve the 320 million citizens of the United States.

A CEO creates jobs by hiring people to work in his business. A president creates jobs through economic policy that creates a climate favorable to business. 

So many say That Trump will be honest as president because "he doesn't need the money." Do they understand that most people, and especially Trump, are very greedy. They never have enough money. Trump's history of fraud is more than evident as a businessman. He will be much worse as president.  

So if Trump is whining now, I can’t imagine how much whining he will do when he finds out being a CEO is very different from being a president.

I hope Trump keeps on whining. It doesn’t make him look like a winner; it makes him look weak, like a whiny…little… bitch.

P.S. Now he is whining that the third debate was rigged. He says Chris Wallace, a Fox News anchor, gave Clinton the debate questions in advance. Blatantly untrue. Another day, another whine. But he is getting nuttier everyday. and his gullible supporters believe every nutty thing he says. 

Post Election Post Script: Trump won, but he is still whining. He doesn't like that Clinton has 2.5 million more votes than he has so he is claiming there are millions of illegal votes. (Actually if Hillary had gotten a total of just 100,000 more votes in just three states she would have won the Electoral College too. 

Trump is also claiming he won the Electoral College in a landslide. He won 306 to 232 which is 56.9% of the Electoral College.This is not a landslide by historical standards. John Pitney, a professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College, put together a chart showing the Electoral College win for every president since George Washington--Trump ranked 46th out of 58 U.S. presidential elections.


Trump continues to whine. Alec Baldwin makes fun of him. A "so called Judge" (actually a Bush appointee confirmed 99 to 0) won't let him tear up the Constitution with his Muslim ban. He even whines because Nordstrom Department Stores dropped his daughter's fashion line because it was unprofitable for them. 

__________

*I disagree that it is impossible to rig an election. If the election is close, it can be rigged. Only a relatively few votes in just one or two states can make the difference. Post Election Post Script: It looks like the election was rigged, by Republican operatives, and in Trump's favor. Exit polls are the most accurate polls. And even the exit polls showed a win for Hillary.

Some say it was rigged for John Kennedy in 1960. It might have been rigged In Ohio for George W. Bush when he ran against John Kerry in 2004. A very partisan Republican Secretary of State and a few cohorts locked themselves in a room, and when they emerged, GWB was the winner in Ohio.

Voter suppression can also rig an election. Florida was rigged for GWB in 2000 by his brother, Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida at the time, by purging people from the voter rolls. Many times, Republicans have rigged the election by providing too few polling places or too few voting machines in heavily Democratic areas to cause long waits that discouraged people from voting. (I have never heard of these types of shenanigans when Democrats are in control.)

There are many ways to rig an election. Ironically, the one that Trump is claiming will rig the 2016 election, voter impersonation, virtually never happens. There are major criminal penalties for voter impersonation. Why would someone risk that just to cast one extra vote?

CLICK HERE for
 The Making of Donald Trump

Here's a book by a Pulitzer-Prize wining author if you want more details about the Donald's failures and shortcomings. 

Addendum: Do you want to fight against having a whiny little bitch in the Oval Office?  Do you want to fight back against possible Russian hacking of the election. Please join this facebook group: Blue America Fights Back 

Donald Trump: Move Over Jesus

by Catherine Giordano

The Republican Convention was a hate-fest.

Maher used the Munch painting "Scream
to create a Trump Pence poster.

There’s almost no need for satire because the convention “hoisted itself on its own petard.” (This phrase comes from Shakespeare and it literally means to be blown up by one's own bomb, but as an idiom it means "to be harmed by one's own attempt to harm someone else.") 

Nonetheless, Bill Maher, on his special convention shows, struck a few more blows, ripping into the convention, and particularly Donald Trump, with his razor-sharp humor.

Maher said that “Trump stole his speech from a Saw movie,” the horror-movie where a villain uses a chain saw to kill his victims. It was definitely from the slash-and burn school of politics.

Trump depicted the United States as a country in crisis, beset by criminals, terrorists, economic decline, everything but rampaging zombies. Maher described it like this: “Did you see Donald Trump’s speech? If that had been any darker it would have been shot by the police.”

Trump’s speech was so negative and so focused on arousing fear that it could best be depicted by a poster that Maher created—a take-off on the famous Munch poster kown as “The Scream.” I’ve recreated it and put it at the top of this essay.

Trump’s speech, aside from being really dark, was full of lies. Fact checkers had a field day—some found that 80% of his statements were false, misleading, and/or exaggerated.

Trump screamed every word of his speech and went on for 75 minutes—one of the longest acceptance speeches on record. He had evidently decided that when you have nothing to say, say it very LOUD and very looong, and hope no one notices that you are an orange ignoramus.

There was so much wrong with Trump’s speech that it is hard to know where to begin. I’ll just focus on things relating to religion.

After detailing his Hellish vision of America, Trump said, “I alone can fix this.” This led Maher to say, “Move over Jesus. There’s a new savior in town.”

Maher said it to be funny, but I think he is onto something. Trump enumerated problem after problem and said over and over a variant of “This ends on Day One when I become president.” He never gave any hint of how he would fix things and how he would pay for everything he wants to do. (Remember, he’s going to slash taxes, too.) . It’s all just magically going to happen. Perhaps he thinks he has God-like powers. (What was that blue smoke about on the first day of the convention if not an attempt to make him seem to be a god?)

Note: Trump never mentioned God at all in his speech, except for the ritual “God bless you” that all politicians say at the end of their speeches. Make of that what you will.

Trump also touched upon one of my pet peeves: Tax exemptions for churches. I want to end them; he wants to expand them. More specifically, he wants to allow churches to openly participate in politics so Evangelicals can [“speak] your minds from your own pulpits.” OMG! His proposal is so unconstitutional, but it might come to pass if he is elected. Churches using government money not only to preach, but to tell people how to vote!

Read more about tax exemptions and why they should be ended.  Should Churches Be Tax Exempt?

Last point: I am dismayed that Trump continues to pander to Evangelicals, and even more dismayed that they are falling for it. He proclaims that he loves the evangelicals, and apparently they love him back despite the fact that he is the embodiment of everything they preach against.

Read more about how Trump has pandered to Evangelicals from the early days of his campaign to now.   DonaldTrump: I Love the Bible and Other Panders

CLICK HERE for
 The Making of Donald Trump

[Here's a book by a Pulitzer-Prize wining author that can explain why The Donald is The Donald. The Making of Donald Trump by Donald Cay Johnston is a brand new book, and you can be among the first to read it.]

Trump showed his love for the Evangelicals by choosing Mike Pence as his running mate Pence is an ardent Evangelical, and he is one of the most socially-conservative politicians in the country.

Pence was chosen by Trump (or maybe for Trump) in part to shore up his support among Evangelicals. Trump clearly has no respect for his running mate; he belittles Pence at every opportunity.

• Pence had been told by the campaign that he was the VP pick. He flew to New York for the public announcement. Pence was sitting in his hotel room, while Trump made a call into Fox News to say he hadn’t made a final choice. 
• When he announced Pence as his choice, Trump talked about himself for about 30 minutes and barely mentioned Pence. 
• Usually, the nominee stays on stage when his VP makes his remarks, but Trump left the stage. Trump not only left, he walked in front of Pence, pushing him backwards so he could pass. 
• At their joint interview on 60 Minutes, Trump treated Pence as if he was his kid brother, giving him a shoulder-nudge as he forgave him for making a mistake by voting for the Iraq war.
• The next day Trump said, pretending it was joke, "If I don't win, I'm gonna blame, Mike, right! “ Pence was standing right there behind him when Trump said this. 
• After Pence’s convention speech, Trump came on stage and gave him a big air- kiss. It was the kind of thing a drunk uncle might do to his 6-year old nephew after the kindergarten pageant. 

Pence grins and bears these humiliations—what else can he do? Trump is such an ego-manic narcissist that he can’t bear to share the limelight, even for a minute. I don’t like Pence, but I feel sorry for him. On the other hand, he sold out for a chance at power. No other Republican with a future wanted the job.

Question: If Trump treats his own running mate so poorly, how will he treat average Americans?

Sidebar

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You know who is really smart? Gary Trudeau who does the comic strip Doonesbury. He has inserted Trump into his comic going back to the eighties. It is eerie how he predicted so much of what Trump is doing and saying now. I saw this on TV and had to have it.

Back to Bill Maher

Trump may be presenting himself as a “Savior,” but what he really needs is someone to save him from himself. If this were the “Donald Trump Runs for President Reality Show,” it might be entertaining, but it is actual reality, and it is frightening.
Here’s the video of Bill Maher discussing the Republican Convention. It includes the Edvard Munch "Scream" painting transformed into a campaign poster for Trump-Pence.

Trump is losing according to the most recent polls. But, you never know what can happen. "Heaven help us" if he becomes president. (Just joking about the "Heaven part." I'm an atheist just  like Bill Maher.)

Are Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright Sexist?

Gloria Steinem

by Catherine Giordano

Bill Maher and Gloria Steinem had a wide ranging conversation during the interview segment on Real Time with Bill Maher on February 5, 2016. But one-minute of that interview is getting all the attention. The claim is that Steinem thinks that girls only support Bernie Sanders because the boys are supporting him.

By the way, Steinem has been misquoted a lot. What she actually said was “When you are young what you are thinking is where are the boys—the boys are with Bernie.” Maher said, “If I said that … “ and then mimed having his face slapped. Steinem replied, “No. How well do you know me?” It’s not clear if she was retracting her statement or merely saying she wouldn’t slap Maher for being sexist.

A day later on February 6th at a rally in New Hampshire every sitting female senator (except for Elizabeth Warren) was on the stage at a rally for Hillary Clinton.. Other females who hold or have held elected office were there also. The first female secretary of state for the U.S.A. Madeleine Albright was also there. The purpose of this rally was to show women standing in solidarity to support the possible first woman president of the United States. At the conclusion of a brief speech, Albright said “There is a special place in Hell for women who do not support other women.”

Horrors! Are these two icons of feminism and exemplars of women who have achieved success sexist?

Are Steinem and Albright Sexist?

Of course not! Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright were fighting for the goals of feminists before most of us had even heard the word.

If Steinem and Albright are guilty of anything they are guilty of not understanding young women and how feminism has changed since they were young women. Their comments reflected the situation that applied when they were young.

Albright is 78 years old and Steinem is 81,and they are still fighting for the advancement of women. We should applaud them for continuing the fight at their advanced age. As Steinem said during the interview with Maher, “Most people my age are dead.”

When Steinem and Albright were young, women were a small minority on college campuses and they openly admitted that they went to college to get their MRS degree. Today the majority of the people getting college degrees are women. It was the feminists like Steinem and Albright that made that possible.

I’m younger than Steinem and Albright, but I remember when I was a young woman frequently hearing the suggestion that if a single woman wanted to meet an “eligible” man, she should volunteer for a political campaign because it is “where the boys are.” Steinem was probably accessing that memory when she made her comment.

Back in the day, women had to fight hard and stick together to change how women were treated in society. The men had the "old boys network" and women needed to have something similar. This is probably why Albright made the comment about women supporting other women. She didn’t come up with this line just for Hillary’s benefit. She has been saying it for years. It was a light-hearted comment; it was a joke and everyone on stage laughed. Unfortunately, I have read reports that make it sound like Albright was literally damning young women to Hell.

The young women of today take the freedom’s and opportunities that they have for granted. They don’t even want to be called feminists. They have no understanding of what it was like for an earlier generation of women.

Take a look at Steinem's new book about her life's journey as a leading feminist. I recommend this book to young women. I lived it; they didn't.

CLICK HERE for a free preview of
 My Life on the Road 

The reaction to these two comments is what I call “taking calculated offense.” No one is really offended, but they pretend to be because it serves their purpose. Albright was merely trying to tell young women that it is important for women to support each other. Steinem is in no way connected to the Clinton campaign so whatever she says is merely her opinion and is irrelevant.

Are the Bernie Bros sexist?

You bet your sweet bippy they are. The "Bernie Bros" is a name given to the men who are all over the internet insulting women with profanity and threats for merely expressing an opinion in favor of Hillary. It is ugly and scary.

I myself have experienced a mild form of this from some men who dislike my opinions. They condescend by calling me “My Dear” or suggesting I’m writing because I am bored housewife. The insults I have received are nothing compared to what the “Bernie Bros” are dishing up, but I can understand how these ugly comments are meant to intimidate women into silence.


What does any of this have to do with Clinton and Sanders?

Absolutely nothing. The comments or Steinem and Albright have nothing to do with Clinton’s campaign. And let me make it clear that I don't think that Bernie shares the views of his "Bros," but perhaps it explains why Sanders is doing so well in polls and votes. It suggests that some of the people supporting him are not so much for him as they are against the idea of a woman president.

Here is the video tape of the Maher-Steinem interview. The “Where the Boys Are” segment comes at the 3:45 mark.

By the way, Steinem apologized the next day retracted her statement, and praised women for their activism in the political arena.   

Here is a video clip of the Madeleine Albright statement. Notice everyone is laughing at the "special place in Hell" joke.

Colbert, Maher, and Pascal’s Wager

Bill Maher with Stephen Colbert

by Catherine Giordano

Bill Maher was a guest on Late Night with Stephen Colbert discussing Pascal's wager. It was a lively discussion with a lot of beeeps. Maher is used to HBO where he hosts Real Time with Bill Maher Fridays at 10 pm. It seems like he forgets that you have to watch your language when you are on a network show. Or maybe, he just doesn’t give a beeep!

Maher talks a lot about sex, religion, and politics—it’s his comedic bailiwick. Colbert gently chided him for that saying that he must not get invited to any dinner parties since everyone knows you should never talk about sex, religion, and politics.

Oh really, I think it is the only thing worth talking about, although lately, I have the discussions via blogging and not at dinner parties. At dinner parties, I make small talk. But when I really want to know someone, a discussion about religion and politics will usually give me a very good sense of who they are. (I’ll leave the discussion of sex out of it until such time as I know someone well.)

Colbert is Catholic. Maher was raised Catholic, but is now an atheist. Atheism is part of his brand. I always wondered just how Catholic Colbert really is. Tonight Colbert cleared that up. He said, “I’m not very good at it. I suck at being a Catholic.” It seemed to me he was saying that he was Catholic because being Catholic is a family thing--"a connection with his ancestors" is how he put it. .

Colbert then teasingly invited Maher to come back to Catholicism. “The door is always open.” He brought up Pascal’s Wager to goad Maher. Maher took the bait and launched into a discussion about religion not being the answer to anything. It was lively and not without a few beeeps.

Nonetheless, there was not much of a discussion about the pros and cons of belief. There are many reasons not to take this bet. The most frequent criticism is “What if you choose the wrong god?” (Pascal’s wager assumes that the Christian God is the only God.) This argument was featured on an episode of the Simpsons.

There are many other fallacies in Pascal’s Wager. And to be fair, there are a few reasons to accept the wager, although eternal damnation in Hell is not one of them. I wrote a whole essay on it. Please click the link o see a complete discussion of the pros and cons of each side of the wager.

Pascal’s Wager: Is It a Good Bet?

Here is a link to the video of the Maher-Colbert discussion of Pascal’s Wager.

Why do so many people insist there must be a god because they feel his presence? Blaise Pascal was a brilliant scientist and inventor, but he knew nothing about neuro-science. Biologist John Wathey does and in his new book (published in 2016) he will take you on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. Well-researched, yet elegantly written in a jargon-free and accessible style, he presents a compelling interpretation of the evolutionary origins of spirituality and religion.

CLICK HERE for a free preview
of The Illusion of God's Presence

Both Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert have written books. Check them out. 

CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE