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And Now… We See The Real Donald Trump…
This very morning, The New York Times has done an excellent, well-researched deep dive into Mr. Trump’s historical rental property practices. It puts the lie to his claim that blacks have nothing to lose in voting for him. Not that anyone would be surprised, but here is the proof — stone cold.
Here it is — do go read it all:
…Mr. Leibowitz was called to testify at the commission’s hearing on Ms. Brown’s case. Asked to estimate how many blacks lived in Mr. Trump’s various properties, he remembered replying: “To the best of my knowledge, none.”
After the hearing, Ms. Brown was offered an apartment in the Wilshire, and in the spring of 1964, she moved in. For 10 years, she said, she was the only African-American in the building.
Complaints about the Trump organization’s rental policies continued to mount: By 1967, state investigators found that out of some 3,700 apartments in Trump Village, seven were occupied by African-American families.
Like Ms. Brown, the few minorities who did live in Trump-owned buildings often had to force their way in….
A former Trump superintendent named Thomas Miranda testified that multiple Trump Management employees had instructed him to attach a separate piece of paper with a big letter “C” on it — for “colored” — to any rental application filed by a black apartment-seeker.
[Editor’s Insert: Here is a poignant short piece, of Mae Wiggins (who, after a protracted legal battle, prevailed against Mr. Trump), describing her experiences for the Times’ web video-graphers.]
The Trumps went on the offensive, filing a contempt-of-court charge against one of the prosecutors, accusing her of turning the investigation into a “Gestapo-like interrogation.” The Trumps derided the lawsuit as a pressure tactic to get them to sign a consent decree like the one agreed to by Mr. LeFrak….
After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the Trumps gave up and signed a consent decree….
Equal housing activists celebrated the agreement as more robust than the one signed by Mr. LeFrak. It required that Trump Management provide the New York Urban League with a weekly list of all its vacancies….
This story offers a hauntingly-ringing echo — in my own past experiences. Testers and racist landlords — in federal court, in Chicago, in 1985. We too concluded at an almost identical settlement, with that landlord — as mentioned above. All the damages went to charity — the UNCF and to an open housing 501(c)(3). Now you know.
Tonight, We Return To Examining Mr. Hinderaker’s Penchant For Lying — About Race
I opened this blog about 15 years ago now, at another web-hosting service (now defunct — so lots of that archive material is largely down the memory hole). I opened it to track Mr. Hinderaker’s endless stream of confabulations — back then, mostly about the Iraq War, and Messrs. Cheney and Bush telling the same lies Mr. Hinderaker then repeated, to drive America into that war. [And to disastrously expand the war to where the enemy was… not present.]
In any event, during this intervening decade and a half, Mr. Hinderaker was caught repeatedly telling lies about the state of race relations in general — and the criminal justice statistics by race in particular. He told those lies presumably to stoke white fear — and “legitimize” openly racist views, on the far right.
Fast forward 15 years — and facing a nearly certain Trump annihilation in November at the polling places, John returns to telling his race-baiting lies, in the hopes of driving wedges into HRC’s campaign base.
Tonight he asserts that our 44th President has intentionally created and “fostered” race-based hate but Donald Trump… hasn’t(?). [Having watched Mr. Hinderaker all these years, he generally believes that being a person of color, and saying that one sees disparate treatment based on race — is a form of race hate baiting. Where I come from, that is “speaking truth to power.” It is factual. But I digress.]
Let us examine the facts, then. Here — in June 2015 — is what Mr. Obama said immediately after nine people of color were murdered while at a bible study and prayer meeting, at Mother Emmanuel, by a deeply twisted young white supremacist. [Here is what John said.] This was a moment when President Obama could have chosen to appeal to those divisions we all see from time to time. Did he? Of course not.
Here is a bit, from Mr. Obama:
…The fact that this took place in a black church obviously also raises questions about a dark part of our history. This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked. And we know that hatred across races and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals.
The good news is I am confident that the outpouring of unity and strength and fellowship and love across Charleston today, from all races, from all faiths, from all places of worship indicates the degree to which those old vestiges of hatred can be overcome. That, certainly, was Dr. King’s hope just over 50 years ago, after four little girls were killed in a bombing in a black church in Birmingham, Alabama.
He said they lived meaningful lives, and they died nobly. “They say to each of us,” Dr. King said, “black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely with [about] who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American Dream.
“And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace….”
I do not see hatred there. I see not divisiveness — I see an appeal to our nobler selves. All of our nobler selves — white, black and brown and yellow.
In contrast — in this post , immediately below — we saw how Donald Trump reacted when black kids were accused (falsely it turns out) of crime against a white woman. He took out a Y-U-G-E advertisement, in a New York paper, and sought the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York. That penalty hadn’t been available for rape, for over 100 years, in New York. So who divides? Mr. Trump, who sought an “organized lynch mob” be authorized by the Governor and the legislature, just hours after these young men were (again wrongfully it turns out) arrested.
No call to unite — only a call to bring the rope and the torches. He is a lost soul.
Again — all of which proves Mr. Hinderaker is just a recidivist liar — about race. And HRC will win by a safe margin in November — we can all expect that now, given this open dishonesty in every corner of the rhetoric from of Mr. Trump’s surrogates — such as they are.
So, This Is The “New” Trump?! Smells Just Like The “Old Trump”.
Having supposedly once again “reset” his campaign this week (e.i., overseen the orchestrated departure of his top campaign staffer(s) for a second time, just since May 2016), we were told we’d see a new Trump — one that would openly appeal to communities in which he is presently running much less favorably, in the polls, than either Romney or McCain did, before him.
And… this is what that looks like — quoting the Washington Post now:
…”Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?” he asked. “You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”….
[Note especially that he falsely personalizes poverty — “YOUR poverty, blacks” — as a group!] This from the guy who equivocates about support for David Duke. This from the guy who openly stoked the birther nonsense (claiming our 44th President wasn’t even an American) when he “half-ran” in 2012.
This from a guy who said repeatedly that our first African American President “founded ISIS”. This from a guy who took out a (paid) full-page ad (imaged, at right) calling for the death penalty against five black teenagers in New York City who were accused of rape — wrongly, as it turned out. Nothing to lose?
The community is much smarter than this. All Americans are smarter than this. These are just his latest lies.
Thank you for making your views plain — and making them plain only to an audience, in a lilly-white suburb well-outside of Detroit. My opinion? This is his version of a dog whistle.
“You people really suck. Now, vote for me.”
Charming, Mr. Trump. Truly charming.
Shorter Trump: “Stop Quoting Me.” It’s Hurting My Chances.
I think the below is a res ipsa moment. That is, the “thing” speaks for himself — from his latest Twitter feed rant:
“…If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%….”
I’ve simply quoted the words he says, in most of mine, below. There can be no false meaning put into his actual words, especially when he doesn’t disavow them — for days on end.
Words mean what they mean. And he is losing precisely because of his own views — expressed in his own words. That’s how this whole free democratic election thing words, Mr. Trump.
Stop being you, and maybe your brand would arrest its plunge, in the polls — but probably not.
[And a sincere hat tip — to the sublime Rick Laurent — for his political cartoon art. Do go see.]
Astonishing. Is It Mr. Trump’s GOAL To Lose The Election?
After repeated opportunities to correct a “patently false” line of attack, Mr. Trump continues here on Thursday at Noon Eastern, to claim that our 44th President FOUNDED the Islamic State (in between his time as a US Senator, and becoming the Commander in Chief, I suppose — as we all know what he’s been doing, since January of 2009, non-stop, 24 by 7). I. Can’t. Even. Wait a sec — yes, I can:
There can be (in my estimation) only two explanations here: (1) Mr. Trump is increasingly — and alarmingly so — suffering from a mental defect; or (2) he intends to lose the election in November on purpose, because governing is just more work than he’s willing to do (the run having allowed him to promote his brands non-stop for a year, for free — some $1.8 billion of free TV time, to date).
This I think — is finally beyond the line that even his most rabid supporters could suspend disbelief about — here’s the latest Washington Post article on it:
…Donald Trump repeatedly accused President Barack Obama of founding the Islamic State group on Thursday, refusing to take back a patently false allegation even when questioned about the logic of his position.
A day after lobbing the attack against the president during a rowdy rally, Trump pressed ahead during a round of interviews. The Republican presidential nominee brushed off conservative radio commentator Hugh Hewitt’s attempt to reframe Trump’s observation as one that said Obama’s foreign policy created the conditions in Iraq and Syria that allowed IS to thrive.
“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Trump said, using another acronym for the extremist group that has wreaked havoc from the Middle East to European cities….
I cannot fathom the depravity it takes to lie about such obviously, and so easily verifiably, false conspiracy theories. He will suffer the worst landslide loss in modern history, and likely take most of his GOP under-card down with him. if they do not promptly renounce him. [Are you reading this Mr. Hinderaker? You are clearly at least one whopper “behind”, in the Trumpster’s parade of lunacy. Do try to keep up — he’s your personally-endorsed candidate, afterall.]
Former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (AZ), Is Right — On Mr. Trump’s Latest Incendiary Remarks…
This will be quick, for “brevity is the soul of wit” — and I think my graphic really says all there is to know about Donald Trump, after today. But the news today — via NPR, is here:
“…Hillary Clinton’s twitter account sent out a message from former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was badly injured in a shooting at a constituent outreach event she held in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 that killed six people.
.@realDonaldTrump might astound Americans on a routine basis, but we must draw a line between political speech & suggestions of violence.
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) August 9, 2016
The U.S. Secret Service, charged with protecting both nominees, said on Tuesday evening that it was “aware” of Trump’s comments, but the agency did not comment further…”
And at least one Powerliner (hint: not Mr. Hinderaker) has the courage to say it is inappropriate. He will lose in a landslide — and that will be sweet justice.
Fifty GOP Security & Intel Heavyweights Declare: “Never Trump.”
The notion speaks for itself — 50 national security experts, all of whom served under Republican Presidents — declare Donald Trump “unfit” and “the most reckless” candidate of any major party, in modern history. And they did so, in a published open letter. Here’s the Washington Post on it:
…A group of 50 former national security officials, all of whom have served Republican presidents from Richard M. Nixon to George W. Bush, have signed an open letter calling Donald Trump unqualified to be president and warning that, if elected, “he would be the most reckless President in American history.”
The letter offers a withering critique of the GOP nominee, saying he “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president. The signatories declare their conviction that he would be dangerous “and would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”
They state flatly that none of them intend to vote for Trump in November. Some have decided to vote for Hillary Clinton, while others intend to sit out the election or write in another name, said John Bellinger III, a former legal adviser to Condoleezza Rice and the writer of the letter’s first draft.
“We also know that many have doubts about Hillary Clinton, as do many of us,” the letter says. “But Donald Trump is not the answer to America’s daunting challenges and to this crucial election. We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history….”
‘Tis amazing — and saddening — that Mr. Hinderaker cannot admit what essentially all the smarter people in his party have already said in public. Time to renounce, Mr. Hinderaker.
Past time.
Mr. Trump Is MUCH Further Behind Now, Than Mr. Romney Was At This Point, In 2012.
Nate Silver has had an impeccable run, picking national electoral political races, in the US, since 2008.
You should believe his algorithms, when they solidly reflect that Mrs. Clinton has opened a much larger lead — and later, too — than Mr. Obama held over Mr. Romney in 2012. In fact, Mr. Silver is expressing concerns about damage Mr. Trump’s “erratic” candidacy is doing down ticket, to the GOP. And he is right. But on the top of the ticket — this picture is worth many thousands of words:
Trump’s Latest Gambit: A 2004 War Death is On HRC’s And BHO 44’s Hands(!?)
And now, Trump’s talking points blame HRC and BHO 44 for Capt. Khan’s death — in 2004, when Bush/Cheney were calling all the shots. Hilarious. And sad, for our nation.
Four years before BHO44 ran for President (he was still in the Illinois state legislature, then), and while HRC was a Senator, in NY — one of 100 votes.
Nutty — but that was what Katrina Pierson (an official Trump ’16 spokesperson) said, last night on cable:
…A spokeswoman for Donald Trump placed blame on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the June 2004 killing of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan in Iraq — even though the death occurred more than four years before Obama became president and before he joined the federal government.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday evening, Katrina Pierson said, “It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagements that probably cost [Khan] his life….”
Well. That’s precocious.
Good luck Mr. Hinderaker. Every day that you do not renounce your support — you own all his lunacy — just like this.
