It’s not the problem of homelessness, nor its impudently proud reputation as a Sanctuary City that riles Trump about San Francisco. No, Donald Trump is the only President in history to openly malign American cities for no other reason than the fact that they didn’t vote for him. An Open Letter to:
Donald J. Trump President of the United States Re: San Francisco
Dear Mr President:
During the entire time of your tenure, you have referred to yourself in superlative terms. You are the “greatest” President possessing “great unmatched wisdom”. You have always placed your Presidency in the “best”, “greatest”, “smartest” categories. But after your denigration of my home, San Francisco, I feel you have earned another, less admirable, but notable superlative (hence the well-earned medal):
Yes, I think your comments about San Francisco (“Dangerous, disgusting slum”) are tantamount to treason, for they undermine with intent to harm a beloved American city as much as any foreign invasion. And for no other reason than San Francisco didn’t vote for you in 2016.
Forget your lame excuses:
...it’s a once-great city now in the hands of do-nothing liberals like Nancy Pelosi, ...it’s a Sanctuary City harboring killers and rapists ...it’s a godless, drug-infested blight on America that needs me to clean it up.
The real reason for your attacks is that even before your election, you considered San Francisco (indeed most of California) to be “enemy territory” and should be treated as such.
And above all, it is your unabashedly petty vindictiveness resulting from a thin-skinned nature that makes you the most un-Presidential, the most treasonous President.
I have been a proud resident of San Francisco for over 45 years* and while it has had the problems which many cities face, it has always approached them with intelligence, compassion and dignity; admirable human traits which you , in all honesty, lack.
In abundance.
San Francisco is a city that has had its lowest crime rate in years. In terms of pollution, it is a city that has been battling your administration's gutting of the Clean Air Act (as well as your bogus claim that needles are flowing into the ocean). It is a city that has weathered the Age of AIDS with unparalleled compassion and continues to fight for human rights.** It is a diverse city, immune to the kind of xenophobia you so enthusiastically spread. It is a cultural city, having the most art institutions per capita in the U.S. And above all, it is a proud city, a city that should never be as maligned as a “dangerous, disgusting slum” by a man who knows nothing about it, with one exception: it didn’t vote for him.
Be it against a country, a state or a city, (as one writer put it) you, are obsessed with revenge.
It’s called “Get Even.” Get even. This isn’t your typical business speech. Get even. What this is a real business speech. You know in all fairness to Wharton, I love ’em, but they teach you some stuff that’s a lot of bullshit. When you’re in business, you get even with people that screw you. And you screw them 15 times harder. And the reason is, the reason is, the reason is, not only, not only, because of the person that you’re after, but other people watch what’s happening. Other people see you or see you or see and they see how you react. - Donald Trump, Toronto 2007
Mr. President, even as you face numerous charges against you, it seems tragic that none of your most disgusting, treasonous traits are considered impeachable. Yet even more tragic: some of your ardent followers have even considered those traits admirable, or at least, electable.
But as you know, the citizens of San Francisco considered those traits impeachable long ago.
I suppose I should pity a man so insecure and thin-skinned that he wildly lashes out at the smallest criticisms, but when that insecurity manifests itself in a petty vindictiveness followed by treasonous words and deeds, pity is the last thing I can think of. And When it comes to your childish reactions to any form of criticism, I can only offer this advice:
Mr President, grow a pair.
But you won’t. You’ll continue to berate your perceived enemies via Twitter ad nauseum. You’ll continue to demean American citizens, American cities, American institutions, as relentlessly as you do entire (“shithole”) countries.
So with a President like you, who needs enemies?
Certainly not San Francisco.
*Originally from Chicago, another American city you have maligned And characteristically, another city that didn’t vote for you. ** a compassion never even approached by your stalwart Evangelical Right, many of whom forced People With AIDS (PWAs) to seek succor in San Francisco - so that they could die with dignity. I was a client intake volunteer for the AIDS Emergency Fund at the time and witnessed this compassion. ***Disclosure: I have been a community activist for much if those 45 years (please view my video profile) as well as the recipient of the Jefferson Award for Community Service for tutoring children in San Francisco’s Bayview district. Yes, I am a bit biased. The Bayview was, at the time, a place where I had to report gunshots twice a week, where our building was shot up twelve times by a high powered rifle (gang-related), and where there were 6 homicides in 5 years.
However, Mr. President, at the same time, the area was home to the kindest, most compassionate, most humanitarian people I’ve ever experienced in my life. They and my other friends helped and inspired me through my time there. While harrowing, it was a profoundly humanizing experience the likes of which you could have gone through to educate yourself about that part of America, but instead you opted for a life of exclusionary privilege and ignorance.
Currently, I am helping a worthwhile non profit (Demonstration Gardens) to teach environmental literacy to children and adults in SF’s Tenderloin, the district upon which you based your “tent city” tag.
It is a formal address to Congress about affairs of our democracy, what has happened and what we can do to move things forward. It makes the case for legislation to be passed and foreign policies to be adopted. In the early years of government, the President wrote the SOTU for Congress , but it took television to make it an address to the people. Trump, however, sees it (as with everything) as an extension of himself. Sooo...
It is NOT:
- An episode of “The Apprentice.” In Trump's mind, it may be geared towards a it-must-be-true-because-he-says-it-on-TV audience. But there can be no “reverse engineering” as one producer put it. The President cannot change the focus, style or subject matter on a whim.
- A Trump rally. Congress may give standing ovations to some pints, but (hopefully) no one will be wearing a red MAGA cap.
- A Fox and Friends appearance. The President will not be addressing a group of sycophants (or at least not as many as he would like)*
- A showcase for Trump to “act” presidential. He doesn't realize that in speech, tone and demeanor is not just for SOTU.
“I write my own speeches”
LOL! We know he didn’t write his last SOTU address and this time will be no different because:
- There will be at least twenty big words that are not in Trump’s vocabulary - The Style will be coherent - The address will be far too long. Ghostwriter Tony Schwartz said that Trump did not actually write “Art of the Deal”. A speech that long would take Trump many hours to write, and, as noted in the just-leaked daily schedule, Trump spends too much “executive time” each day to delve into anything that labor intensive.
In fact, given Trump’s now infamous “allergy to reading” he probably hasn’t taken the time to read the whole thing, a fact that will cause the SOTU’s address writers to have panic attacks resulting from the nightmarish possibility that he will go off script (see above reaction).**
And although he will not have written it, the SOTU address will still be full of misstatements Trump will have insisted be included. (Last year, Trump's SOTU was analyzed and his misstatements brought to the fore). It will be packed with a kind of disingenuous drivel, glossing over the harsh words he had for Pelosi and Schumer and the Shutdown, making him look as if he is magnanimously teaching out to Democrats in a plea for unity. So much disingenuous drivel in fact, that Stacey Abrams will be hard pressed to keep her cool during her rebuttal and not die laughing.
He's already tweeted that his theme of unification will be a farce and that he's going ahead with emergency strategy:
"Dems do nothing. If there is no Wall, there is no Security. Human Trafficking, Drugs and Criminals of all dimensions - KEEP OUT!"
Battle of the Guests
Like his first SOTU address, there will be protests in various forms in contrast Republicans who give him standing ovations, but this year's invited guests may provide greater entertainment. The roster alone screams "War!" Of course, it would be fun if SOTU were to be set in a school cafeteria where a food-fight would commence, but the House Chamber will instead be filled with tension, scowls and boos as well as applause. Trump may be distracted by the looks of: - Victorina Morales, an immigrant without legal status living in New Jersey who was fired from the Trump National Golf Club.
- A Transgender Sailor Who Challenged Trump's Military Ban - A mother and child separated at the border
- Ana Maria Archila, one of two women who was recorded in September confronting then-Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator - A Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center employee who was furloughed during the shutdown. - A Transportation Security Administration agent. TSA agents were required to work without pay during the shutdown - a former golf club employee, Sandra Diaz, who did not have legal status during her employment, is now a legal permanent resident of the United States.
...while Democrats will hear the cheers from: - A middle class welder heralded as a dreamer taking advantage of Trump's tax break. He has a six figure salary, but hey, he's black! - Parents of two teens killed by MS-13 gang members. Absolute proof that immigrants are bad. Wikipedia:
There is no evidence that weak immigration enforcement orsanctuary citypolicies contribute to MS-13 activity. Republican politicians, President Trump in particular, have falsely accused Democratic politicians of supporting MS-13.
- A Southern California firefighter who would not have had to save children and adults staff from a wildfire is California had better forestry management and techniques like Finland's raking.
President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning that viewership for his first State of the Union address was “the highest number in history.”
While it will be interesting to watch Stacey Abrams intelligently rebut Trump's hyperbole, his attacks on Democrats,and his gestures indicating how very (ahem) on-the-money he is, the SOTU address response will show America how deeply divided it is in the ideologies and the support of a know-nothing, do-nothing President.
* Chief sycophant spokesperson, Stephen Miller insulted the intelligence of most of Americans when he said this:
**Somewhere along the line, someone must have sat him down and told him these things before the first SOTU. They probably has reminded him that to many, he sounded “presidential” in the last SOTU. So remember, Donnie Boy, to keep to script no matter what. Because if you go off script, we're all doomed.
There is no depth, no substance to the 45th President of the United States. He provides no details, no resources, no factual basis, not even any continuity of any sort to his rhetoric. He seems to think that he doesn’t really need to present any substance, just what he calls “common sense” and “gut instincts” punctuated with “I know more about _____________(fill in the blank) than anyone”.
Witness:
Oh yes, and “I’m very smart”, “I’m a genius”. Apparently no one has ever told him that truly intelligent people almost never talk about their own intelligence - they possess confidence in their cognitive abilities - and that only intellectually insecure people boast about their brainpower. He boldly states “facts” and figures, gives examples, tells stories as if plucking them out of thin air. So much so that people surmise he knows next to nothing about anything.
“We’re not sure how the president is sourcing his number and really wouldn’t want to speculate,” said David Ray, communications director for FAIR.
FAIR is a staunch supporter of Trump. His “allergy to reading” (as one journalist put it) is acute and telling: Trump’s lack of knowledge with regard to any given topic has even prompted staunch supporters like Tucker Carlson to call him ignorant. Some (like David Packman) even call him functionally illiterate.
On his aversion to reading PDBs (Presidential Daily Briefings):
"I don't have to be told — you know, I'm, like, a smart person," Trump said. "I don't have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next eight years. It could be eight years — but eight years. I don't need that."
One person who interviewed him put it in frightening terms: “An existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.”
An empty mind accompanied by an empty heart. That may be a bit too harsh an analogy, but there are times when Trump seems to have a small conscience overshadowed by gigantic self worth. Or as one friend of mine put it: "elephantiasis of the ego."
Think of a rich, spoiled bully, totally uncontrollable: one whose father fostered his narcissism saying “everything he touches turns to gold” while pumping money into his son’s projects and bailing him out repeatedly out of failures. Think of a kid who thought studying anything was pointless, because he was already rich and knew that if he stuck with his father he would become richer. Think of a kid who developed a fantasy world where he would never apologize because he was so very entitled. And think of a kid-turned-teen-turned man who eschewed reading anything past a headline because reading anything was difficult, boring and a waste of time.
And besides, anything worth knowing was on TV where money was king and news was encapsulated for his benefit. Sitting in front of a television instead of reading a book is for many Americans more enjoyable, but in Trump’s case, watching TV substituted for formal education. Attending schools like Wharton was a necessary nuisance: he had to go to classes for appearances sake, but gleaning anything from instructors and books was as useless as interacting with classmates who were not in his class of "smart". One professor called Trump "the dumbest student I ever had." And some classmates recall him asking rather clueless questions in class.
“I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words,” he said at a rally last December; Wharton, he said on Meet the Press, “is probably the hardest there is to get into,” adding, “Some of the great business minds in the world have gone to Wharton.”
As for Trump's Wharton degree of Bachelor of Science in Economics, the man who told Larry King that before The Apprentice, he "didn't know what demographics were," may not have actually earned it - at least not in economics. Fred Trump's money may have helped him get out of Wharton as well as into it. In the meantime, others may have earned cash for taking his tests and writing his term papers.
A "very stable genius"?? Consider Randy Rainbow's hilarious take on that statement (see below). Such self indulgent over-the-top statements from Trump have invited, no, encouraged mockery. But encapsulated in his own clueless world, he doesn't see how ... or why. The same goes for the response to his address at the U.N. - "I wasn't expecting that." Trump's development summed up: he has probably suffered from a rare form of learning disability which one might facetiously label PECD - Progressive Entitlement Cognitive Deficiency resulting in an aversion to reading and learning ... anything. PECD also causes disdain for people with higher intelligence while building up a feeling of superiority. In short: a person with PECD is apt to know nothing while bragging that he knows everything. Sounds snarky, but when it comes to Trump ...
Trump's brag about his performance on "The Apprentice" led producers who worked with him on the show to set the record straight:
A TV producer who oversaw the first five seasons of President Trump's former reality television show “The Apprentice” says those working behind the scenes often “struggled to make Trump seem coherent.”
“He wouldn’t read a script — he stumbled over the words and got the enunciation all wrong."
“The Apprentice," helped pave Trump’s path to the presidency by ending a downward slope in his professional life and giving him the appearance of a tycoon.
“Most of us knew he was a fake,” Braun, who worked on six series of the show, told The New Yorker. “He had just gone through I don’t know how many bankruptcies. But we made him out to be the most important person in the world. It was like making the court jester the king.”
Braun also told Bill Maher Trump told him he should tell people he was #1 in the ratings even though he hadn't been #1 for five years: "Jon, you tell them, they'll believe it."
Narcissism, Distrust and.. And Vulnerability
It has long been known that there are certain facets of Trump's life in which he switches to a fantasy level that is unthinkable to the rest us. This fantasy world developed in early stages when he thought he knew more than teachers. Later, when he left the real world of boring learning for the fantasy world that his ego had created, along with help from his father, he encapsulated himself - enshrined himself so to speak- in a world where he was always the winner and that he was a man with a greater destiny than anyone else, especially when it came to money and power. Conning people to go along with his bravado became easier: they didn't need details - they could get those from underlings and no one questioned his sincerity. If his rich father said he was the "golden boy", they believed it. When Trump said something was "the best", it just had to be. After all, wasn't the real estate game just solid bullshit?
Trump as the Real Estate Boy Wonder aka Never too young to start peddling bullshit
It is significant that so many voters seemingly believed Trump’s I-Know-Everything narrative, especially after red flags were raised (like not releasing his tax returns). Watching the above video, it seems impossible to believe in such a braggart. Such egotism is usually put down quickly and permanently. Has the U.S. fallen for a hollow con man because it is hollow itself? Exceptionalism is, in itself, a form of narcissism. Or maybe, just maybe its education is complimentary to his disability: an education built on chyrons and showmanship along with distrust of politicians and, more importantly, truly intelligent people.* To some, it may (flippantly) sound as if we're saying that half of America was home-schooled in a trailer park, but the lack of scrutiny in the American public is really a serious matter: once the dye is cast and they vote for someone like Trump, they have bought into the "America first/Make America Great Again" exceptionalism/narcissism and refuse to believe they made a mistake. Opposition to their decision is tantamount to treason. In other words, they lack the depth to believe in anything but the man who himself lacks depth.
Just as some Americans distrust intelligence, so does Donald Trump. His administrative picks have depended on loyalty through flattery and monetary support, not experience and knowledge of the appointment's focus. Trump's "gut instincts" about people involve cronyism because cronies are people who have proven their loyalty by donations in one form or another. They also involve the trappings of beauty no matter how skin deep. For example: Katrina Pierson. Here was a beautiful female who could spin, but not very well (remember her "novelty tradition" statement defending Trump's unwillingness to release his tax returns?).
And it is this narcissism, this distrust of intelligence that lends itself to the kind of gullibility Russia preyed upon: the Moscow Project shows how early Russia had started to cultivate Trump, seizing upon his desire to develop business in Russia, funneling money-laundered loans to him when American financial institutions would not lend him a dime. Putin was wise to let Trump be Trump from the beginning and up through the campaign, all the while amassing payback and means of intimidation. Trump's inexperience and ignorance would serve him well. But Putin was surprised in how very ignorant and erratic Trump's narcissism made him. He knew Trump was ignorant, but not THAT ignorant ... and inept. Poor Putin, he had to keep reminding Trump how much he owed to Russia and how easy it would be for him (Putin) to pull the rug out from underneath everything. And how he, not Trump, controlled the world.
Putin makes Trump jealous ... and a bit intimidated The secrets of Helsinki screamed "We OWN you!
An aside:
To get the latest full picture of Trump's long time involvement with Russia, read The Moscow Project. Yes, it's long and involved, but also thorough in it's analysis of the collusion, of all the operations and operators involved, of all the implications and possibilities. It also outlines a man who's vanity and ambition was used to the fullest extent by Russia. Putin had knowledge of all of Trump's "successes" and most certainly of his failures. After all, he was a top KGB officer (Lieutenant Colonel) when Trump made his foray into Russian business dealings. He knew of Trump's peccadilloes and vindictiveness and used them to add weight to his (Putin's) demands. "What does Putin have on Trump?" is one of today's headlines proffered by Nancy Pelosi.
The Wasted Month
In the eyes of some aides and outside advisers, an entire fruitless month has passed that cannot be recouped, a waste of the most valuable asset a White House has: the President's attention and time.
A month ... for the entire country as well. A month of a temper tantrum resulting in lost jobs, no paychecks, almost catastrophic airport delays and terminal closures, market plunges and an approval rating on the skids. All by a man who could not consider the consequences against his need to keep his base happy and uphold his self image as a winner. A victim of his own vain fantasies and lack of regard for learning
The wall/shutdown situation and Trump's collapse against reality proved just how clueless Trump is about the rest of human nature outside of his inner world. He will, of course, take solace in the spin of some supporters:
"This is for three weeks," Trump adviser turned Fox analyst Sebastian Gorka told Dobbs. "As far as I'm concerned, this is a master stroke."
Trump can retreat into his fantasy world with supporters like these and leave only his hollow shell for the rest of the world.
All together, Trump and his supporters may be the REAL CRISIS America faces today.
A Last Word: To some, ending this writing on a humorous note might lessen seriousness of Trump's lack of substance, but believe me when I say if we can't take a moment to laugh at Trump's disastrous treatment of the Presidency, we deserve it. In a few short years, Randy Rainbow has become a YouTube internet sensation with over 250,000 subscribers waiting anxiously for his next take on the country's right-wing political hypocrites and scam artists. His articulate artistry and creativity can only be described as bi-products of genius - sort of like a concrete definition of what Trump thinks he is. And perhaps his best parody is a take on Trump's "very stable genius" tweet.
Set to the song I am the very model of a modern major general from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, Rainbow's parody beautifully captures the absurdity of Trump's temperament and how much of the world sees him. Enjoy!
*One particular anecdote concerning Adlai Stevenson could be an example: Stevenson was considered an egghead" in his day and America was very suspicious about cerebral candidates who thought things over quietly and in depth. Once when Eleanor Roosevelt was campaigning, someone shouted "Stevenson's an ass!" and without missing a beat, Roosevelt said "...nevertheless" and continued speaking, lauding Stevenson.
The hangover. The only ray of hope for that throbbing head is that it won 't last forever. So how many of you readers have not quite gotten over it? One reason: perhaps your brain has switched its motor neurons to its memory function. In other words, the bad memories of 2018 are creating your headache. And you realize the ray of hope is getting dimmer. And as 2019 proceeds it may continue to get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer while the consequences the Trump era's 2018 become more acute.
2018 could be termed politically as "The Year of Repeal and Deregulation." While trying to repeal Obamacare, the Trump administration worked hard to repeal and deregulate almost everything else. Why? Because in certain sectors, Trump's bullshit struck a chord: everything that Obama did was bad for you, no matter what it was. And my administration is going to Make things (and America) Great Again! So, in effect, people drank Trump's fake champagne, totally disregarding the fact that most of America was going to suffer from the hangover. (Call it the results of "second-hand irresponsible drinking").
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday warned investors that the company expects to fall as much as $9 billion short of its earlier revenue target for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. In a rare guidance revision, Cook pointed to a struggling market in China as the biggest factor for the change.
Needless to say, the DOW took a serious hit as well as Apple stock. Another casualty of Trump's 2018 antics, or in other words, "It's Trump's Trade War, stupid!"
And Trump? Due to his lack-of-reading habits, Trump probably doesn't know anything about these things except for the fact that rules were made to be broken or changed to his own egotistical benefit. Like his executive orders, he can brag about how many he's signed, but couldn't possibly give you any details as to WHAT he signed. And couldn't tell you anything about the repeals and deregulations listed below.
Scary.
And he knows absolutely nothing about the ones pending (in process).
Scarier.
Below is a partial list of repeals and deregulation compiled buy the BROOKINGS INSTITUTE. To be fair, some of these were enacted in 2017, but their effects were most probably not felt until 2018 (when the REAL hangover commenced). The full scope of the findings is worth reading, but warning: it may only make your hangover worse.
EDUCATION
Title IX Guidances on Transgender Student Rights (Repealed - Betsy DeVos and Mike Pence got their say)
School Accountability Rule (Repealed)
HEALTH:
Religious and Moral Exemptions from Contraceptive Coverage Mandates (In Effect )
Definition of Short-Term Limited-Duration Insurance (In Effect - changed to longer terms)
State "Empowerment Waivers" for the Affordable Care Act (In effect - one of the first steps to defunding Obama Care)
Firearms Prohibition For The Mentally Disabled (Repealed - the NRA rejoiced)
State Funding for Abortion Providers (Repealed - The Christian Right rejoiced)
IMMIGRATION
Asylum Seeker Restrictions (In Effect)
Commercial Real Estate Appraisal Rule (Repealed)
Reclassification of Major Sources as Area Sources under the Clean Air Act (In Effect)
ENVIRONMENTAL
Methane and Waste Prevention Rule (In Effect)
Methane Rule (Emissions) (Partially In Effect)
Endangered Species Act: Mitigation Rule (In Effect)
Lowering Renewable Fuel Standards for 2018 (In Effect)
Oil and Gas Fracking Rule (Repealed)
Reclassification of Major Sources as Area Sources Under the Clean Air Act (In Effect)
Oil , Gas, and Coal Lease Valuation Rule (Repealed)
Power Plant Pollution Rule (Repealed)
TELECOM:
Wireline Infrastructure Rule (In Effect)
5G Protection Program (In Effect)
FINANCIAL
Corporate Credit Unions Rule (In Effect)
Commercial Real Estate Appraisal Rule (In Effect - easing limitations on commercial Real Estate)
Disclosure Exemptions to Certain Nonprofits ,(In Effect)
Dealer Markups Guidance (Repealed)
Regulatory Capitol Rule for Small Banks: Transitions (In Effect)
Repeal of R&D Technical Interchange (In Effect)
Main Studio Rule (Repealed)
Arbitration Rule (Repealed)
Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers (Repealed)
LABOR
Drug Tests for Unemployment Compensation (Repealed)
Federal Acquisition Regulation / Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces (Repealed)
FARMING
Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices/Animal Welfare Rule (Repealed)
Farmer Fair Practice Rule (Scope of Anti-Competitive Practices) (Repealed)
Donald Trump's, New Year Tweet:
“HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.. JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!”
