A reminder of the good old days of the 2016 Republican Presidential campaign. Just to keep things in perspective as we watch Ted Cruz switch gears after having been tarred and feathered at the 2016 Republican Convention.
Senators Cornyn and Cruz: your silence and unwillingness to hold Trump accountable for his unconstitutional actions means you tacitly support him. If you back him it also means you have no problem serving as manipulated chumps for a murderous communist fascist dictator.
By the way, protesters at the town hall meetings are not paid. Nor are we bused in by outside far left groups.
We are Americans, your constituents, who want affordable health care. We don’t like it when Russians hack in favor of a candidate to throw a Presidential election. Nor do we like it when your Party’s President, Trump, runs roughshod over our rights as American citizens as well as those for foreign residents who live here. We don’t like that Trump behaves more as an authoritarian dictator than he does a President of a democratic republic with three equal branches of government as well as a free press. We know this for a fact because aside from trashing judges, the White House has blocked CNN, the New York Times, Politico and Buzz Feed, among others, from Friday’s press conference.
Why? Because reporters for these organizations published information about the Trump Administration that the President doesn’t want published?
What is the Trump Administration hiding?
We don’t like it when our representatives do not answer their phones when we call. Nor are we happy when they refuse to hold town hall meetings. We don’t like it when we show up at their home district offices and the staff won’t let us in. The staff will advise us to call to make an appointment, but they turned off the phones. Or worse, as in the case of Ted Cruz’s Houston office, the staff called the police to get rid of us.
I’ve noticed letters popping up in the Houston Chronicle’s letters to the editor section recently. Readers express frustration at not being able to speak to their “representatives.” (A note to Texans. The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board does an excellent job of taking the the state’s leading braying buffoon, also known as the Texas Lt. Governor to task. Texas is being played, too, folks.)
We deserve better than this, Senators Cornyn and Cruz. We pay your salaries as well as for your generous retirement and health benefits, Senators. You work for us, not the lobbyists who try to influence you.
Many of us are waking up to the reality in which we now find ourselves. Recently someone posted the following on Facebook.
"You go to vote and you are gerrymandered. You try to vote while Black or Hispanic and you are questioned. You try to call your Congressperson and the phone is turned off. You read the facts and are told it is fake. You protest and you are told you are paid and then laws are devised to punish protest. You ask for a town hall and you are told no. How long do they think people are going to accept this?"
Your Party’s behavior, actions and agendas, Senators, serve as stark reminders that you share Trump’s authoritarian views when it comes to governing. For you have been silent about Trump’s choice for his chief advisor, Steve Bannon of Breitbart far right “news” who calls himself a Leninist and whose outspoken goal is to dismantle our democratic institutions.
You failed to utter a peep of protest, no, Sirs, instead you cravenly rubber-stamped members of Trump’s cabinet whose sole intention is to destroy the agencies they are supposed to “serve.” You ignored our phone calls and letters begging you not to vote for the most extreme of Trump’s nominees.
It really doesn’t surprise us that you share Trump/Bannon’s authoritarian views, Senators. After all your Party has gone out of its way to rob women of our reproductive rights. It has gutted voting rights. By its refusal to accept federally expanded Medicaid in Texas the GOP continues its cruel and ongoing punishment of the poor in the state.
Bigotry has always been a thinly veiled but guiding principle of your Party. It is how you pit voters against one another. Bigotry is also a means by which you demonize your opponents.
The Republican Party likes to take nice things away from ordinary, everyday people. This is why constituents in red states are besides themselves over the potential loss of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. We know the GOP has no honest, viable or comparable replacement for Obamacare.
Hopefully one day voters will wake up and understand that voting R is the same as throwing oneself in front of a train. Maybe one day working and middle class voters will understand that the R Party works exclusively for its donor class, lobbyists and billionaires. Not to mention, in Trump and his Party’s case, it will also kowtow to Russian oligarchs and a communist dictator.
It is no small wonder why the Republican Party has to rely on gerrymandering, voter suppression efforts, dirty, dark money, rogue FBI and Russian hackers to win elections anymore.
So none of us are really shocked to understand that Trump and his Party would serve as enablers for Putin. This is what Russian hackers, rogue FBI and dirty dark money yielded. While Senators Cornyn and Cruz look the other way, check out Trump and the GOP’s ventriloquist and his plans.
A Russian newspaper editor explains how Putin made Trump his puppet
The editor works for a newspaper that is very critical of Putin.
Fishman, a Russian citizen and himself outspoken critic of Putin, has covered Russian politics for more than 15 years. For the past year, he has monitored the increasingly bizarre relationship between Putin and Trump, with a particular focus on Putin’s strategic aims. In this interview, I ask Fishman how Trump is perceived in Russia, why Putin is actively undermining global democracy, and what Russia hopes to gain from the political disorder in America.
A reporter for Vox asked Mr. Fishman how he views the relationship between Trump and Putin from his perch in Moscow.
It is strange. It looks a bit irrational on Trump's part to be sure. Why does he have this strange passion for Putin and Russia? I have to say, I don't believe in the conspiracy theories about "golden showers" and blackmailing. I don't believe it exists and I don't believe it's a factor. But this, admittedly, makes the whole thing that much stranger.
Mr. Fishman is skeptical about “golden showers,” blackmail and conspiracy theories. He says it is more important to explore the differences between the two men.
I would prefer to talk about how they're different, because those differences are so obvious and extreme. They come from very different worlds. Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer with all that that implies. Trump is a colorful American businessman and showman.
In their habits, they're radically different. Trump is a posturing performer, full of idiotic narcissism. He appears to be a disorganized fool, to be honest. Putin, on the other hand, is calculating, organized, and he plans everything. He also hides much of his personal life in a way that Trump does not.
Then there's also the fact that Putin is so much more experienced than Trump. He has more than 15 years of global political experience. He knows how to do things, how to work the system. He makes plenty of mistakes, but he knows how to think and act. Trump is a total neophyte. He has no experience and doesn't understand how global politics operates. He displays his ignorance every single day.
The reporter for Vox asked Mr. Fishman why Putin was so afraid of a Clinton victory.
Because he knew that would mean an extension of Obama's harsh orientation to Russia, perhaps even more aggressive than Obama. Putin has experienced some difficult years since his 2014 invasion of Crimea, but he didn't expect this level of isolation. He saw — and sees — Trump as an opportunity to change the dynamic.
Mr. Fishman observed that Trump admires Putin’s use of brutal force. This what they do share in common, he said. Finally when the reporter asked Mr. Fishman if Putin had made Trump his puppet, the response:
Of course. This is certainly what the Kremlin believes, and they’re acting accordingly. They're quite obviously playing Trump. They consider him a stupid, unstrategic politician. Putin is confident that he can manipulate Trump to his advantage, and he should be.
Well, there you have it folks. Our President is being manipulated and played by a Russian communist dictator. And his Party, Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz don’t have a problem with that. Which makes all of the above unpatriotic traitors and enemies of the American people.
These are the real enemies of the people that Trump doesn’t want us to know about. This is why the President is at war with the media.
Trump and his Republican lackeys are the clear and present enemies of we the people.
We will not sit down and shut up. We are not going away, Senators.
