CONTROL! China CCP = American Conservative GOP

The thought just hit me and reminded me of a story in the NYT, (China May Ban Clothes That Hurt People’s Feelings. People Are Outraged) back in September. Please be aware, this piece will take a bit of time to read – 5 pages in Word.

Note: USA is not used because we are not a united country, we are a divided country that will continue to be so until more Americans in the conservative grouping wake up and see that we are in the 21^st century and no longer in the 20^th (or 19^th) century… And coming together ‘only’ in times of turmoil and disasters is not how we should be coming together. We should be together – all the time. It only makes us stronger…

CHINA

Xi JinPing and the Chinese CCP want to control everything and everyone that is Chinese and everywhere near the Chinese borders… Or even those Chinese citizens who are living and working in other countries such as America — listen for and check out information regarding illegal secret Chinese Police Stations located here and there around the globe who’s purported reason for being is to assist those Chinese who need passport assistance…

It reminds me of how the American GOP want to control Americans. Yes, they do. Abortions anyone – does that ring a bell – set off an alarm maybe…?

There are so many American conservatives here in our country, TODAY, that wants EVERYONE to return to a backwards period of time where:

• Women are secondhand parties, chattel if you will. And yet, there are many women who simply do not seem to see that and still continue to back conservative political parties. It was not that long ago when women started to get on the road to equality and their fair share of everything in life – especially free will. The suffragist platform fought long and hard to get into making the voices of women heard.
  • Or, these women want to return to that “simple” life where the men control everything…
• People of non-white genetic makeup are secondhand as well, where, again, not long ago – folks all over America of a non-white color had no voice, no equality, no power.
  • And again, here, we have so many people of color who seem not to notice that they are not wanted as equals to many of these conservatives…
• If you were gay (imagine being transgender), you would likely be killed because the conservatives in power did not want what they call abnormal. Ask Mike Johnson, new speaker of the house about abnormal individuals…. Here is something, from Johnson for you to read: Speaker Mike Johnson wanted to criminalize sodomy & called gay marriage the “harbinger of chaos”
  • He also said that gay people should not be a protected class because they “are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles.”
• Folks who wear nose rings or die their hair a brilliant green or blue are looked down upon as an affront to the conservative “American looks”.

AMERICA

Oh yeah, I could keep going but everyone in America should already know about these areas and many others.

Right now, we have a national crisis on Abortion where, thanks to Trump packing the Supreme Court with three members who explicitly lied to the Senate / Judiciary on this very topic. These three members, they were the primary reason Roe v Wade was overturned, let there be no doubt about that – of course they had help from Alito and Thomas as well.

Many political conservative GOP members want to put in place; 15-week bans, 6 week bans or complete bans with no exceptions to the woman carrying the fetus nor pay any regard to the age of the woman who was raped by a relative or a criminal – “12-Year-Old Incest Victims Should Birth Dad’s Child, House Speaker Gunn Says” – Mississippi, Jun 29, 2022

• “Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says abortion should be illegal even for a 12-year-old rape victim carrying her father or uncle’s child. He made the remark to reporters in the hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, allowing state abortion bans to take effect.”  

CHINA

• nose rings
• dyed hair jobs
• pants with holes in the knees
• flamboyant, flashy trendy clothing that individuals like and want to wear
• women wearing shaved heads, on the sides (or one side)
• anyone showing tattoos on TV
• folks wearing costumes in public, as in Cosplay in America
• wearing clothing styles from another country (i.e.: Japanese Kimonos)
• wearing gay pride colors

Xi JinPing wants the Chinese citizen to continue looking like the same, every day, conservative with no room for looking different (or better). Xi wants Chinese to appear in public without:

Xi wants to control the Chinese citizen to where the citizens appear in line with the Chinese CCP, looking alike without deviation of any kind. Everyone in China should be part of a cookie cutter mold with no room for personalization – no afros, no long hair (mainly men), no stylized haircuts. Kind of like getting the Chinese citizens to become more like N. Korean citizens, maybe, hmmm….

AMERICA

Those kinds of things listed above are somewhat like many conservative political members (and ‘many’ conservative American citizens) want all Americans to be like. Not to be out of line with American conservative values – not to be different from the conservative brand.

Conservatives want Americans to believe in “THEIR” God and not believe in anything else, such as:

• Atheism
• Islamic beliefs
• Jewish beliefs (not sure on this one, as there are a lot of Jewish conservatives)
• Humanist beliefs
• Etc., etc., etc…..

Now we have conservative GOP members, after being beaten back by the Americans who want control back for women to make their own decisions about their bodies, who are walking back their absolute and complete bans or short 6/15-week abortion bans. Now they are saying, well, we can work on a compromise.

The problem with these conservative GOP members is that, “who can trust them…?” hmmm…. They might very well put in place what folks believe is something good but then yank it away when conservative GOP members regain power again. And I am quite sure that most of you out there, are aware of conservative GOP members at the state and national level, those who voted against anything positive for LBGTQ+ members and voted for restrictive bans – that there were/are members who later, years later, came out of the closet because they were/are gay. You can do a search on that as well…

Then, not to forget – there are the members who had family members or lovers go and do secret abortions so the public would not be aware.

This is the funny, stupid, sad part – there are people who continue to say that Trump was the right president that we needed at the right time and they believed in Trump. The problem is, it is not true about Trump being the right president – he was not. And if they believed in Trump, then those who stated so – they are definitely NOT the ones to follow today.

Trump caused more damage at home and internationally than any other American president in history. Our national and international standing.

Which other American president has ever elbowed aside a Prime Minister (Montenegro) in public at a NATO meeting (May 2017), just so ‘he’ could move up to the front as if ‘he’ were the almighty, ahem, ‘god’ over all others…

Trump caused more debt because he believed in passing a Tax break, which really helped the rich more than the middle- and lower-class Americans. That tax break without a means to offset what it cost the American public – just added another huge chunk of money to the national debt.

Same as what Ronald Reagan did when he was president. Massive tax breaks, added to the national debt…

Trump has just caused so, so many problems that it will take years to recover. 

Does white supremacy ring a bell, about how it is surging across America?

No, what about white nationalism being the primary way America should be…? Rise of hate crimes since Trump was president and after leaving office with Election Denialism is just running rampant across the conservative GOP hemisphere – does that ring any bells, alarms in your brain regarding Trump…???

Here, here is another aspect of Trump ‘not’ being effective as an American president – CoViD, how long did it take Trump to get the Defense Production Act up and running…? If he had simply pushed that to the forefront, many, MANY American lives would have been spared instead of being doomed to die, due to lack of American products being produced here in America…

Look at one of the front runners for the 2024 GOP candidates – DeSantis. He wants WOKE to die and go away but it is likely he does not even know what WOKE is for. Here is a quick take for those who do not know what WOKE is all about (there is more content out there but I am quite sure you can look it up, to ensure that you are getting unbiased information).

• Woke (wikipedia) – basically, it is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination“.^[1][2] Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial justice, sexism and LGBT rights.  The phrase stay woke has been present in AAVE since the 1930s. In some contexts, it referred to an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in recordings from the mid-20th century by Lead Belly and, post-millennium, by Erykah Badu.
• NPR – What does the word ‘woke’ really mean, and where does it come from?

Individuals like DeSantis do not want anyone around to:

• be WOKE (first in Florida and then hopefully all across America), or
• believe in DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) — and we ARE talking about equality here and “not” reverse racism or forced equality or some symbolic stance to put someone of any race, color, gender into a position of authority when they are not qualified — TRUE equality and diversity and inclusion (we are NOT talking about just giving lip service to some ill meaning acronym) or
• have any corporation believe in those aspects and have
  • no organization who welcomes individuals who believe in these two areas.

DeSantis wants to whitewash history books, to remove black history (you can look that up right…?).  Not even be taught in AP classes or in colleges.

DeSantis was even idiotic enough to state that slaves learned valuable lessons while being slaves or indentured servants, or rather – ‘benefited’ from slavery. Who in their right mind would state that…?
It is like many people around the world today, those who are ‘still’ stating that the holocaust did not happen… This kind of non-belief thinking is like saying WW I & WW II did not happen.

So. Are you seeing the similarities of the Chinese CCP and Xi JinPing and the American conservative GOP…? How much more information, from sources that you trust (and are reputable) do you need?

People and parties who want power to gain control of people in their state, in their country are not the ones to follow.

Democracy is the way forward for everyone. Everyone benefits when democracy is the primary avenue of fairness. You have to realize that you cannot get everything you want, all the time. You have to compromise – that is what democracy is about, give and take. EVERYONE grows when there is fairness and everyone has an equal seat at the table.

There is no place in the world for those who want to control, instead of regulations and laws. Having a state-by-state referendum on abortion is the most idiotic and painful way to enact laws. The federal law on abortion, Roe v Wade should have stayed in place but certain supreme court judges deemed otherwise – they wanted the states to make the laws. Now, women, with their husband or wife, have to take time off from work and ‘TRY’ to go to another state for an abortion and/or to save their own lives.

Look at how long it took for women to get the 19^th Amendment in place – certified in 1920 but women are STILL NOT earning equal pay.

Look at how long it took for Black Americans to gain voting rights – 1965 and we still had regions of this country where black votes were disregarded and disenfranchised.

Do you want to continually be forced to be a member of a nation where inequality continues to exist because you are a Black American or a Woman or a member of the LBGTQ+….?

In a country where conservative GOP members control what you can or what books you can read?

Yeah, remember, there are numerous book bans across America because so many parents do not want their children to be aware of the painful past of how women and slaves were treated nor be allowed to be aware of gays, lesbians, homosexuals of all age groups and of all races and male or female. Ali Velshi, an MSNBC anchor does a lot of content regarding the Book Bans across America if you truly wish to check that out.

Think about it…

Do you want equality in America or do you want to continue to have pockets across America where:

• racism, hatred, hate crimes, women (girls) to be cast aside and/or forced to carry to term and give birth to an unwanted child due to being raped by their father (that is, if the woman (girl) survived the birth)?

Or do you want to be a part of a country that is strong and proud? Strong and proud because of equality, diversity and inclusion for EVERYONE…???!!!

It is bad enough that we have to fight climate change and make the world better for everyone but as it stands, we are going to lose countries and people where ocean levels continue to rise and air pollution is becoming worse at times…

Vivek Ramaswamy republican presidential candidate – Not A Good Choice, Nor Are Others…

Wow…!! 

Vivek would have been the first Indian American to hold the office of President of America (I still refuse to say “United States of America” due to all of the craziness taking place in this country, further dividing it) and I was thrilled to hear about something like this. Until I found out more of his background…

He wants to run on the platform of fighting ‘wokefulness’. He wants to have the states dictate, sorry – determine the fate of women who want to have abortions.

This guy also ‘apparently’ paid some Wikipedia editor to modify Ramaswamy’s profile, wait, let me put this snippet below:
“In May 2023, Forbes reported Ramaswamy had paid an editor to alter his Wikipedia page to appear more favorable to political conservatives before announcing his campaign. The paid editor removed references to his involvement with the Ohio COVID-19 Response Team and his Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans postgraduate fellowship (other editors later restored the removed content, citing the report). Paul and Daisy Soros are respectively the elder brother and sister-in-law of businessman and social activist George Soros, who has been the subject of numerous right-wing conspiracy theories.

Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed that it had paid an editor, but denied it was trying to “scrub” his Wikipedia page. A campaign spokesperson said the edits were revisions of “factual distortions” and blamed a Ron DeSantis-aligned super PAC for amplifying the story.”

—- So, take what you desire from that info, AFTER you do your own research to corroborate the info above.

Moving on. This guy wants to remove America from the Ukraine / Russia situation.

Does he not know that if Russia is ‘not stopped’ that Putin WILL continue perpetuating mass murder, ignoring sovereign powers and authority, continual corruption and killing its own citizens for speaking up. Wait, did I mention dictatorial control of all Russians and hopefully of citizens in countries surrounding Russia…? Disallowing Russian citizens from having ‘free speech’ – forcing these citizens to listen to whitewashed Russian news (from Tass and Pravda – look up the meaning of Pravda for a chuckle of your own).

Stopping Russia will help restore some small amount of peace in the world. Look, this Ukraine/Russian engagement (war) has already united NATO, forging it into a stronger alliance for peace and democracy.

We, America, also have an alliance of friends for peace in Southeast Asia – a united front to stop China from trying to take control of that hemisphere – India, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, S. Korea and even the UK.

How does pulling back from the Ukraine / Russian war in order to protect America first work…?

Allowing Russia to gain control of Ukraine makes Russia stronger and gives them an enabling thought process of “hey, we took over Ukraine, who else can we take control of…?”  It is not just about fighting in Ukraine, it is also about the global economy with Russia trying to influence it, illegally. The FSB and SVR are known to have considerable influence via hacking or killing individuals around the globe. Whether these victims are Russian or another nationality. Go look up the stories on how Russian operatives:

• hacked the country of Georgia’s electrical grid – just because Russia could, then how
• operatives killed activists and journalists with Ricin poison – or throw acid liquids in their faces.

And note for Facebook, LinkedIn and Medium – this is NOT a bully paper against China and Russia. Besides, how does an individual impugn the story and historic knowledge of China and Russia, when it is known FACTUALLY that these two countries are either causing mass murder, detaining hundreds to tens of thousands of people against their will (Uighurs, Falun Gong, Russian activists, etc.).

So hey, if folks in America want to use their votes to vote for someone like Ramaswamy who wants America to turn inwards and THEN have the states dictate individual state laws such as abortion or getting rid of woke culture – go for it.

But, WE have a problem with that line of thought. How many Americans are there out there who learned history in high school and college and then forgot about it?  How many Americans are there who learned whitewashed history of America.  For basis, I know quite a few younger Americans and some of my own generation who learned history that was MISSING a great deal of history for which they discovered years or decades later what they missed in school because the school system failed them. Just look at Florida’s push to whitewash books in the school system and even rig colleges. Racism and the history of racial discrimination was not taught in MANY schools across this country.

How does one stop abhorrent, disgraceful activities if it is not taught in school so students can learn from it? Want to repeat those crimes, do you really want to repeat history? Well, if folks like Ramaswamy are elected into any kind of power, this is what is going to happen because he wishes to stop wokefullness.

Ramaswamy also wants to raise the voting age to 25. Will he also raise the enlistment age to join the military to 25…? Hmmm…. What he is stating is:
“unless a person serves the nation in the military or as a first responder or can pass the civics test immigrants take when becoming citizens.”

Then there are a couple more of actions that Ramaswamy wants to implement – removing the Department of Education and abolishing the IRS.  Sounds wonderful huh…?  Think about it if you agree with Ramaswamy, then think about it again, deeper this time.

Here may be something you have not heard, Ramaswamy considers Tucker Carlson ‘worthy’ of entering the Republican primary, believing that Carlson is a smart and sharp individual… Wow.

States will continue to devolve into individual fiefdoms, if more of us do NOT stand up and vote for the better candidate. We will return to states having inchoate, non-inclusive and discordant laws from those of its neighbors.

We will return to having (I pulled this from Wikipedia for a better description than what I could pass on here) Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in America that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation or violence. The term came from signs posted that “colored people” had to leave town by sundown.

And yeah, we will definitely make a return to back-alley abortions because of the conservative, religious groups who want to talk control of couples, specifically women, bodies.

This is if, IF, we allow individuals like Ramaswamy to consume the taste of power. Life will turn negative, for MANY of us in this country.

IF more people like Ramaswamy get into power because more Americans did not stand up and vote for better people (consider George Santos from New York) – America will devolve into a has been power, fading into the pages of history as a once glorious space where so many people from around the globe wanted to come to.

We will spiral down into a, ummm, haven of pathetic, tribal zones of autocratic, dictators. Dystopia anyone…. Whites only here. Blacks only here. Asians only here. Gays only here.  You know I could go on and on for that line of thinking.  But I am not.

You, YOU have to do some serious soul searching, deep, far reaching and heavy soul searching. And then talk about it with others, outside of your close hold circle – having CONVERSATIONS and not fighting arguments to see where things actually stand and ‘hopefully’ learn something better.

YOU will have to open your eyes and watch and listen to other news outlets for truth. I had a shocking moment with a co-worker a few months ago who made the comment of “oh, that communist news outlet.” Another co-worker and I were talking about CNN and this other co-worker with that salacious comment walked up, heard CNN, then made the comment.

Going back to Ramaswamy, he is a prime example of someone who is doing narrow thinking and not national and international thinking and extrapolating down the road, like, ohhh, say a decade or two.

So, consider the consequences of voting Ramaswamy into power.

• More, much more restrictive control over women’s bodies and back-alley abortion deaths because of possibly contaminated surgical environments, all because the women could not obtain a better environment legally.
• COMPLETELY whitewashed history of America being taught in all schools. With most of the schools having funds diverted to them because of, you know, racial skin tones instead of divvied up amongst all schools. Leaving many schools of people with, you know, skin tones of a different color. Educational deserts…
• Crime. Please. There will be even more heavy handed, jack boot thugs running around the country doing “law enforcement” work because they have a badge and a gun – and NO body cam to record their work.
• Here, chew on this one where Ramaswamy talks about discrimination and affirmative action:
  “If elected, Mr. Ramaswamy said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday (Feb 21, 2023), his first action would be to repeal Executive Order 11246, which has banned discrimination and required affirmative action for federal contractors since 1965.”

Talking about skin tone colors. Does many of the people in America NOT see that there will MORE racial diversity than ever as each year passes. More people are discovering that just because a person is of a different skin color, IT-DOES-NOT-MAKE them a hands-off creature of ill repute or repulsiveness. Diversity is a wonder and it is wonderful. Diversity can make the lives of so many people SO MUCH BETTER.  And improve those around them as that diversity spreads.

What matters is what is that other’s nature. The character of the person is EVERYTHING.

When it comes down to it SKIN COLOR IS NOTHING! It is what that person has in their heart, in their mind, in their character and in their ethics as you look into their eyes…

Personally, I prefer to be around “Woke” individuals who have open mindsets… What do we have to be fearful of?

• Gays? Worried about turning gay if you’re around an LGBTQ person?
• Race? Are you really worried about someone else’s skin color affecting you – or maybe changing ‘your’ skin color due to their presence…?
• Women in power? Really? Afraid of smarter women…..??

And yes, “ALL LIVES MATTER!” So again, start doing some heavy thinking and make better use of your voting power. Please pass on folks such as Ramaswamy. Or Trump. Or DeSantis. They only want to take us back, no, SET US BACK decades. All the gains we as a country have attained – it will all be for naught.

This is not naivety, just pragmatic thinking. 

Having ‘national’ standards is far better than having 20 – 30 wildly differing standards to adhere to in order to not go to jail in the state that is being offended…

Taiwan – Continuous Allies’ Training – Year ‘Round

Simple solution to China continually invading Taiwan’s sovereign air space ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) – implement a continuous (365 days / year) allied training mission on Taiwan, home of FREE Taiwanese individuals.

Have a combined – continual training mission for:

• Navy – landings and sorties
• Army / Marines – landings and guerrilla warfare
• Air Force – landings / takeoffs, mock strafing / bombing runs

Run these side-by-side training missions with the Taiwanese military/air force/navy with multiple Allies – taking turns on the island of FREE Taiwanese or in conjunction with multiple Allies at one time. Protect the Taiwanese ADIZ.

Make landing stages out of use of existing American bases of: South Korea, Japan, Hawaii & Okinawa and allied bases in Australia and even Vietnam…

The only way China, the Authoritarian/Totalitarian, Communist (wannabe Capitalist) country will continue to back down from Taiwan – continually show “very” strong ties with Taiwan, home of those FREE Taiwanese citizens.

What with all the corruption going on in China, far more than in American – many of us are surprised the Chinese economy has not collapsed already. Military and Political leadership, stealing billions of RMB and exporting it out of country, to a safer haven and then later, emigrating from China with their family members to enjoy that largess they stole from the Chinese people.

China is supposed to be a shared prosperity country, yet – only the wealthiest Chinese (military, civilian, political) are able to partake of that “shared prosperity”. The rest (vast majority of Chinese) are basically left to their own ends and suffering through daily life. Chinese government, federal and province and local city – all end up stealing land, sorry, conducting eminent domain and taking the land for a better use for China. This means, selling the land to meet their annual budget or to line their own pockets – the government members. (No need to even consider my making this up – search for this information – focus on Ghost Cities and the taking of generational / village land.)

CHINA’s POWER & CONTROL – Tiananmen Square, Uighurs, Taiwan, SCS

TL;DR / BLUF  (LinkedIn cleaner version)

Chinese government wants to control all of its citizens in everything they do; for everywhere they go; for anywhere they are. It does not matter what the average Chinese citizen wants, it is what the Chinese government wants. Control and power over everyone that they can get away with. And that even includes American citizens, of Chinese descent. At least Americans enjoy freedom of speech to say the “F U” phrase, even in a sentence aimed at the Chinese power grabbing Government”… Meanwhile, no mainland Chinese citizen who might want to expand their own personal, social, political knowledge will never see this post in mainland China due to the censoring Chinese firewall and the sycophants who work or volunteer to filter internet content.

NOTE: original post was blocked on LinkedIn because it was deemed BULLYING & Harassing (seriously, against the Chinese government… Had to remove the “F ” word and the word that rhymes with s p i-t). Additionally, there is no conspiracy content here, this is all factual content, a lot of it pulled from legitimate and transparent news / historical entities. And, there is nothing false here that would give cause to LinkedIn to believe there was Bullying & Harassment involved. Maybe folks like Rachel Maddow would weight in, or Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart or John Oliver and add their gold mine input… Original post here —> https://tinyurl.com/4mhvanh5

China, well, at minimum – the Chinese Government (Xi JinPing and others) wants to have complete control over EVERYTHING within 1,000 miles outside of its borders. Because that is what it appears they want to do – control as much as possible as far as possible with as tight a fist as possible. Ask India and the Nepalese about some of the ‘contact’ they’ve had with Chinese forces…

This really got my dander up, after seeing the latest news on Chinese officials arresting five people in Hong Kong for sedition, over children’s books. Here is just one article for your reference, please do your research and not rely solely on one article: Five arrested in Hong Kong for sedition over children’s book about sheep. While it is a series of children’s book, it talks about: “sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village”, the Chinese government found it enough to arrest these union members for sedition. (Reminds one of Russia in the good ole days, where the “dejournaya”, a Key person, or floor door watcher, normally an elderly woman who had the keys to the rooms on their floor, would report on non-comporting Communist loyalty and behavior or non-Russians in Russia.)

This Hong Kong arrest was a couple of days ago. The Chinese are still arresting people for writing non-good things about China and its leaders… such as China installing Chinese Communist leaders loyal to China to control Hong Kong (and Taiwan) citizens and quash any kind of democratic leanings and ONLY be good little Chinese and blindly follow everything coming out of Beijing’s communistic mouth (I wonder at times if that communistic mouth has turned rotten over the decades and become depraved as well).

Okay, if that is not enough to show you how totalitarian and/or dictatorially hungry the Chinese leadership is, what about several years ago when the Chinese came to New Jersey to “persuade” a Chinese American to come back to China, leaving a note in handwritten Mandarin Chinese on the guys’ door stating “if he is willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!”. In the instance of another target to bring back to China, these Chinese ‘officials’ brought this other ‘target’s’ elderly father as a persuasion tool. Chinese prosecutor indicted in U.S. case targeting extralegal ‘Fox Hunt’ operation — again, one reference to get you started on your own research.  Nine individuals (includes one American private investigator) were indicted this week for trying to “repatriate dissidents whom Chinese government officials wanted to lure back and punish”. The thing is, China does not give a crap at all about where the person they want is at, they will do what amounts to broad daylight kidnapping. Not being hypocritical about this, most governments do daylight grab jobs, but, heck, let me put more of the Post story here:

“carried out an illegal and clandestine campaign to harass and threaten targeted U.S. residents in order to force them to return to [China].”

Some of the targeted individuals might have violated financial laws and were legitimate targets of law enforcement investigations, officials have said. But many others were political rivals, dissidents or critics of the Chinese government. Rather than use established legal systems such as Interpol or request assistance from U.S. law enforcement, U.S. officials have said, the Chinese agents tried to intimidate people into returning to China.”

And of course, you remember Tiananmen Square right?  RIGHT?  The protests in Tiananmen Square, lasting from April 15 – Jun 4 1989, when a brave Chinese citizen stood up to the tank to make it stop while he was holding two bags of groceries – making the tank attempt to dance around the guy, who just kept getting in front of the tank.

This was actually called the “Tiananmen Square Massacre”, when the Chinese government wanted to do a bit of power control against its citizens who wanted to protest.  But the Chinese government wanted it to stop, at any cost – including killing protestors. Check out this one site: Chinese crackdown on protests leads to Tiananmen Square Massacre – remember, do your own research to satisfy your brain and then THINK about it, do your own analysis. A million protestors and the Chinese government killed thousands, indiscriminately shooting at people.

That is a helluva government – one that Donald Trump likes and admires.

You may be asking, “what were the protests about?” Here, let me put that snippet here for you as well: “protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive.”

See, the thing is, Chinese citizens cannot vote someone out, the individual in question would have to voluntarily resign. And you would think that with a million people coming out in protests that that would be a cause for resignations.  No, not in power controlling China.

And ever since 1989, China continues to white wash ANYTHING and EVERYTHING having to do with Tiananmen Square. They are attempting to delete/remove ALL content that they can from history books and web sites. BAD NEWS for Chinese leaders, there are many of us who will always remember the right of citizens to protest along with the killing and arresting of citizens by China’s government and military. We will remember this massacre forever and there are web sites that will memorialize it forever as well…

Do not get me going on Taiwan and the Chinese crackdown of forcing the Taiwanese to kowtow to everything Chinese and NOTHING Taiwanese.  It is all Communist (spit) China or you are locked up or better yet (so the Chinese leadership is thinking) – you are ‘disappeared’…

Then look at the South China Sea (SCS) where China wants complete control of that maritime area, even though other countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.) in the region have claims to the SCS as well and the United Nations agrees with those nations. China claims it has historical rights to the SCS as being under its Chinese sphere of control.

So. What does China do to help bolster their claim?  Why they built a man-made island and put a military installation on it – obvious solution right….???? And with that anchor point, it allows China to expand its Navy with a broader reach, expansion of China’s hegemony.

And do not forget about the Uighurs (Uyghurs). The Muslims of China.  Chinese government does not want them to exist – at all. If you are a Uyghur, hide, or you will be taken to a concentration camp or an “internment camp”, sorry, a “rehabilitation center” or a “re-education center” in Xinjiang. There are somewhere in the 1 – 3 million Uighurs in these camps/centers, likely many more.

Although, you have no choice of which one but there have been MULTIPLE camps built (the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) for this purpose, along with that fantastic razor wire at the top of those great, tall walls, with the Wall Tower Guards accessory built-in to watch over you so you do not sleep walk into the wrong area by mistake…  A camp where you will be forced to cut your hair and shave your beard. Damn. Sorry, I meant, you will be allowed to cut your hair and shave with the result being – if you choose not to, to have someone else do it for you.

You will be forced, sorry, allowed to speak Mandarin Chinese and not your own native tongue and not your predominantly Turkic language.

You have the choice of clothing, as long as it is one of the camp’s uniforms (think prison garb). Here, you do not get to practice archery or horse shoes or boating, no…  But you do get to become a factory worker to produce products (think sweat shop) for various Chinese companies throughout China.

At these camps, you must learn Mandarin, learn to become good CHINESE NON-Muslim citizens.  You must learn to kowtow to the Chinese government and obey it no matter what they dictate.  Think of it as a Marine Boot Camp but with FAR, FAR fewer choices… oh, and for a much longer re-education period of time.

In Xinjiang, the Chinese government-controlled areas, Uighurs must endure every single day of being observed by facial recognition cameras – on every street block, at every intersection and who knows where else. Uighurs must endure Chinese police checkpoints on every block (that is how many there are). But don’t be alarmed Uighurs, the Chinese police exists all throughout China, even in Beijing and Shenzhen and other cities, there are facial recognition cameras abounding in all their glory. China in totality is simply put, a Police State or a Surveillance State if they want something less incriminating…

Here is what the governor of Xinjian said in March 2019 in defense of these camps: directly dismissed comparisons to concentration camps, saying they were “the same as boarding schools.”

Then there is more that many global citizens are not aware of:

 China has made criminal many aspects of religious practice and culture in Xinjiang, including punishment for teaching Muslim texts to children and bans on parents giving their children Uighur names

Many women have come forward, after being finally released from these camps and stated (those brave enough to do so) that they were raped in these camps but the camp officials did not do anything about the crime.

Want one more thing on the Chinese government’s actions against Uighurs, the Chinese is committing genocide (sterilization) against the Uighurs. This is a tough one to prove but if there are multiple women stating this, it is likely a true situation. China wants to curtail the growth of any future Uighur population.

And for all you newly “re-educated” Uighurs, you have lots to look forward to in your new world of Chinese control and dictatorship but. But you cannot look forward to returning home, to your old stomping grounds. Why? Did you not know?

I am so sorry to inform you that when you do finally leave those wonderful “boarding schools” with all those fantastic learning opportunities and outdoor activities – the Chinese government decided it was best to force evacuate ALL Uighur towns and raze them to the ground, wiping out centuries of Uighur history and culture. Then clearing the grounds and rebuilding new structures so the Chinese Han bloodline can flourish.

None of this is new, this has been perpetuated for many years, go back to 2009 with the Chinese government incentivizing the Han Chinese to migrate to the XinJiang or 2017 when the camps were started being built to house the detained Uighurs.

Another source of info: China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

So, China – CONTROL. POWER. TOTALITARIAN. DICTATORIAL??? A lot of horse manure – they want to be a power house in the world of capitalism but it has to be Communistic Capitalism, imagine that.

Think about it – in China, you cannot:

• spit on public grounds for fear of being fined and public credit shaming
  • and if you do obtain too many public shaming points, you CAN be banned from flying or leaving the country for any reason…
• Jaywalk for the same fears above,
• Have the number of children you want
• Bad-mouth Chinese leaders
• Enjoy western practices and habits and styles and language because they MUST follow Chinese culture and styles – not do profanity (watch some Chinese movies like the MEG and see if you see any nudity or hear any profanity – many, MANY Chinese made movies must follow explicit Chinese dictates to make movies)

You HAVE to be puritanical in the Chinese government’s eyes – no nudity in movies, no profanity on t.v. or in the movies – imagine, all lily white Church level cleanness.  But I guarantee you that these same leaders do ‘NOT‘ practice both aspects in their offices and in their jobs.  It is the same old “do as I say and not as I do” horse manure…

There is so much more to discuss where it concerns China and its CONTROLLING government but this should be enough to whet your appetite for some, at least for now.

Is China the kind of country you want to live, one where you cannot enjoy liberties without fear of crossing some Chinese government red line…?

Is China deserving of being a power house on the world stage when it discriminates against some of its own citizens (Uighurs) and has a lock down on any true Progressive Democracy. For example the citizens of China cannot freely:

• roam the Internet from within the Chinese borders to see what is happening in the real world (unless they travel abroad) because of their great Chinese Firewall that filters, censors and blocks ANYTHING not pro-chinese or anything bad about its leaders like Honey Bear Xi Jinping (or is that Honey Poo…?)
• vote for the leadership they choose but must instead follow the pre-elected leadership that comes out of the Communist Chinese Party Politburo
• have their own choice, within limits of course,
  • can you imagine a Chinese citizen saying “F U” to police or government – in print or vocally….?
  • remember, I could not use the full descriptor on LinkedIn, even if it is protected speech…

Does ANY of you out there, living outside of China’s borders, who read this want China to be a global power house or gain further hemi-spheric control of any other country or water way?  It is bad enough they are part of the UN with veto power (just like Russia) and China vetoes ANYTHING that might jeopardize any road blocks or future growth regarding China’s path forward.

And yes, we (America) already have plenty of headaches of our own to try to get our heads around and improve (racial discrimination, gender inequality, political division, chaos & insecurity [conspiracy minded individuals’ – thanks even more to Trump], better infrastructure, better education – across all grade levels and in ALL communities, poverty, etc…) – but at least we recognize them and continue to work on them and not lock up (or kill) people who protest for honesty and transparent democracy or try to extort them into arrest….

EHT BIZARRO World of Trump in America (& a bit on China & Russia too)

Heads up, this is not short… TL;DR   and is meant to be read in chunks (for those wish to read some throttled and seriously restrained comments on the, alleged, deranged and imbecilic president of America)…

(Yes, the title – ‘THE‘ is reversed…)

Part I  A Strange America

So. What is happening to America and to democracy around the world? What happened to leadership that is democratic (not talking about the democratic party here)?  What happened to civility between individuals of American? What happened to respect and equality?

It should be pretty darn clear there is one clearly obvious nexus point for a great deal of this. All you need to do is look at who is sitting, undeservedly, in the White House… And many of us can guarantee that if the Electoral College had to do it again, they would not vote this person into the White House again (especially when the American people decidedly voted for someone else other than Trump – I believe it was Hillary Clinton, right…).

 

We live in Bizarro land. Yes, that is correct, we live in a world where the opposite of everything is taking place. If you have been choking on your own bile, every morning, ever since the 2016 Presidential election, there is a good reason for it – the ‘MOST’ wrong person is sitting in the White House.

As a result of who is sitting in the White House, here is a short list of what has been making you choke and gag, every day (likely all day):

• Illegal insider trading taking place on the White House grounds (corruption, right?) – and no concern from the president…
• We have an American ambassador Pete Hoekstra (Trump’s choice), to the Netherlands disputing his own words (this bullet is about a lack of integrity and honor). Hoekstra had stated in a 2015 conference on terrorism hosted by the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center – “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt … and yes there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” But in a later interview (Dec 2017) with the Dutch current affairs programme Nieuwsuur, Hoekstra stated that content was fake news – even though Nieuwsuur happily rolled the clip from the 2015 interview on air for Hoekstra. And no concern from the president as to how this looks for America, its people and its leaders…
• Firing of Inspector Generals for no valid reason, other than they were doing their jobs to stop/prevent illegalities, fraud and other behind the scenes shenanigans – it seems, allegedly, this president has no regard for law and order and the watchdogs looking to remove current and potential corruption and illegalities…
• Members of Congress and the Senate who, before this current president was voted in by the Electoral College, called the president to be by various monikers and endlessly mocked the large bodied and clownish person. But ever since this person got into the White House, these same Congressmen and Senators are kowtowing to this president, licking his boots (not literally BUT BLOODY WELL CLOSE) and allowing corruption of the law to take place (such as the emoluments clause where many believe this president is guilty of)
• This current inhabitant of the White House relentlessly lambasted Obama for going golfing but look at what is taking place. This occupant of 1600 is going golfing at something like 22% of his time in office (he has reportedly been on the grounds of his golf courses or played golf elsewhere 266 times since becoming President, and that’s as of May 24, 2020), at tax payer expense and at his own country clubs (NOTE: there was no legal divestiture for his business investments/control) – remember how he famously stated in 2016 “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
• Installing a new State Department secretary gutting the State Dept of most of the seasoned, experience, knowledgeable and respected bureaucrats – then not filling many of those positions. Do you remember that individual, that new secretary was Rex Tillerson… the oil CEO? Tillerson’s focus was not on diplomacy…
• The current White House occupant plays down, disregards or ignores calamities that have struck America – remember him throwing toilet paper to people who needed it (in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria) and he believed it to be some sort of game.
• What about ensconcing his unqualified children into very senior White House roles – what did they bring to the White House – or rather, what have they achieved that is worthy of talking about (no, not getting licenses in China to sell products) – many labeled these moves as nepotism but were unable to gain any traction on the violation of nepotism laws (we will need a future unbiased federal court to rule on this but that will be a long time out)
• Can we talk about the 2018 elimination of the NSC directorate for global health and security and bio-defense that would have handled the CoViD-19 problem in 2020 with speed and efficiency (it was eliminated, allegedly, because it was an Obama creation)
• Sheesh, this could continue on for page after page but you get the idea – we really hope so.

 

We, America, have someone who is supposed to be a world leader, sitting in the White House. Yet, instead of being that leader this individual has instead usurped: leadership, decency, democracy, a global role model status for anyone who wants to grow and be respected and become a leader themselves. (Note: the United States is not used in this paper because we are not a united country – we are more divided than ever before.)

We have people who want to flaunt the old 2^nd Amendment, the right to bear arms. The 2^nd amendment was completely relevant for the militia at the time when the British were prevented from taking over the American colonies in the 1700’s.

Yet today, we have many contemporary individuals today who have gun stashes of upwards of 20, 30 and 50 different weapons (with thousands of rounds) and these folks are not weapons’ collectors. As a former Marine, I actually like weapons as well but I have no need to collect weapons for fear of an invasion. Although, in case our government ever turns dictatorial, arms collection here will become a different endeavor…

But. Who is going to invade America?

• Has Russian been building up a secret army just off the coast of our country, but are so well camouflaged that we cannot locate or detect them?
• Maybe it is the Chinese with their Communistic world view?
• Or even worse, is it the poor hungry desperate immigrants without legal documentation invading America with their unseen deadly weapons?

Today, in 2020, we have a military, along with the National Guard. Neither of these entities were present back in the days of yore.

Do not get me wrong, as a former Marine, if this region I live in allowed weapons, I would buy a few as well – just not 20 – 50 of them or go storming some local state capital flaunting the weapons…

 

Part II             Logic, Strategy and Diplomacy

If decent, logical, serious individuals “STILL” have to continue to convince the American public of the wrong doings or ill-conceived ideas and just bad thought processes of the current president and it is not sinking in – something is wrong with a large percentage of Americans.

We have a president who is, allegedly, illiterate, indecent, corrupt, discriminatory (okay – racist) and who’s IQ, also allegedly, is not in a very decent range of intelligence. Besides lacking leadership skills, this individual also severely lacks any real degree of communication and diplomacy skill sets. If he did, America would not be seen in the light it is across the globe.

This individual cannot string together a sentence that makes any sense.  Well, hang on a moment. It may make sense if ‘you’ went to the same high school and college with this person and ‘you’ had the same classes with this person. We have no idea how well this individual did in school at any point.

So, you did not do so great in high school or college or grad school (wait, this person did not go beyond undergrad status) – so what? Grades reflect what one learns up to that point, with or without good teachers or a good educational system. What matters is if you continue to grow and do better after not doing so well at any level. What matters is if you continue to be better in your life.

Forbes magazine put out a story, as well as others, in Feb 28, 2019 where:

• Michael Cohen testified to Congress that, under directions from Trump, he sent letters to Trump’s high schools, colleges and the College Board (creator of the SAT),threatening them with legal action and jail time if they ever released Trump’s academic records. Cohen provided a record of one such letter sent to the president of Fordham University, which Trump attended for two years before transferring to complete his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump’s high school has confirmed receiving an identical letter, while the University of Pennsylvania and the College Board declined to comment.

What is wrong is wrong…  That is not hard to see or to fathom.  If someone who is supposed to be a role model states: “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” – that is not someone you are supposed to look up to or follow.  That is, unless you yourself are amongst the callous, gross, indecent minded imbecilic Cretin of the gutters. There is supposed to be something called, respect for others, no matter who they are. Wait a moment – there’s more. There is also:

• decency,
• equality,
• honesty,
• compassion,
• empathy,
• integrity,
• ethics and
  
• non-discrimination and
• diversity

Where has all of the above disappeared to from this current administration. It is as if the mass majority of individuals the current president selects and installs into a senior office turns out to be a dishonest, greedy, corrupt individual.

• Who in their right mind, in the top role position of the EPA builds a SCIF (a secure office) in their own office, when there is already an existing one, one floor away? Or has him/her chauffeured around in an armored vehicle when the position does not rate such a vehicle. Scott Pruitt wanted a ‘secure’ ‘sound-proof’ phone booth… That position does not require that kind of security.
• What about taking private jet rides around the country, at tax payer expense…
• What about going shopping on a federal jet, at tax payer expense (this was, allegedly, Mnuchin and his wife back in 2017 – recall Louise Linton’s extravagant and glorious exit and pose from the plane with the bags of purchased goods).
• There is so much more that could go here as well and if you did not live and breathe solely in a filter bubble, then you will know that there is more. But if you isolated yourself to a safe zone of like-minded individuals, none of whom dared to grow and venture forth to look at other possibilities, at other avenues – then it is likely you only know one silo or one tunnel vision cone of information. What you believe may be completely wrong. But due to being in that filter bubble, it is difficult to convince you to expand and do better.

 

Part III           The World

What happened to America’s global role of leadership and statesmanship? Again, a certain specific individual is what happened. America has become a laughing stock of and to the world. Our allies are alienated because of this individual. Our leadership on the world stage has eroded horridly to lower levels. It is only through the guts and leadership of certain state governors and mayors and some business leaders and numerous American citizens doing all they can to keep our head and chin up in the world.

As we can see, there are numerous leaders in other countries who want to emulate Trump and the fake news hoopla. And they have been as well as gaining incredible autocratic and dictatorial powers where the citizens of those countries (Philippines, China, Russia, Hungary, Brazil, etc.) are simply screwed and cannot seem to get out of the rut they find themselves in because those leaders have the military to back up any areas that the dictators/autocrats desire.

 

Look at China

There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of choice there. China forcibly removes freedom at every avenue it can, in order to “preserve the safety of people within its borders and preventing threats to a stable society” in their country from other sources.  This is a complete sham and the Chinese citizens are not all aware of it – because of the Chinese leadership’s control of all media and avenues of travel.

You also have to take into consideration that the Chinese leader made himself, ahh, sorry, the Chinese National People’s Congress voted that there be no term limits on the current leader of China. How nice is that – Dictator for Life, sorry – what was meant was, President for life of a country with 1.3+ billion people. This outcome was determined as follows: Two delegates voted against the change and three abstained, out of 2,964 votes. Nice, eh…? Almost a clean sweep.

Remember the Hong Kong citizenry acting to retain its freedom in late 2019 and the Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey tweeted an image that read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” (By the by – EVERYONE should stand with Hong Kong as they lose their right to total freedom; loss of a free press, free speech, free movement, facial recognition surveillance {even more than what we have in America} and become a more communistic country – for those that choose to stay in Hong Kong – many will find some way out of that island country over the next several years – an exodus.) Before he deleted due to comments and stress from various avenues of contention. But – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finally came around and supports Morey’s right to free speech. Of course, in return, China was appalled and had the gall to come back with:

• The Chinese-run television network said it was “strongly dissatisfied” with Silver’s remarks.
• “We oppose Silver’s claim to support Morey’s right of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech,” CCTV said in its statement in Chinese, which was translated by CNBC.

In reality, how in the heck can China, a Communistic society (but they really want to be Capitalistic, don’t they…) DARE to say that free expression that challenges ‘anything’ is not within the scope of freedom of speech???!!!!  Not when the Chinese government does not allow its own citizenry to any of it. China controls the media. China controls the countries internet access and continues to tweak their ‘Chinese Firewall’ in order to censor everything that travels over the air or via cables.

• People are not allowed to talk about leaders in a bad light, as other countries do.
• Any word that the Chinese government deems to worthy of censorship is blocked from the internet and not allowed on any media. Here is a fairly good article on “68 Things You Cannot Say on China’s Internet” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/world/asia/china-internet-censorship.html or this other article “In China, you can’t say these words” https://share.america.gov/in-china-you-cant-say-these-words/
• Take the Uighur (or Uyghur) situation in the XinJiang region. The Chinese government deems them to be dangerous and has razed many of the Uighur towns to the ground and put the people who once lived there, into camps (imagine something, kind of like a concentration camp – just not as horrific). Yet the Chinese calls them re-education camps where the Uighurs are required to shave their beards, removing that identity aspect. All movement is controlled by surveillance cameras (everywhere in Uighur inhabited areas, not just the camps) and identities. Uighurs are not even allowed to have certain tools because they could be construed as weapons. The Chinese have even gone so far as to engrave certain cutting tools with the owner’s identities on the tool AND then are required to check it out and return it like a library book (complete control of those tools) – controlled by the police.
• People of China face public shaming for spitting in the streets (it can be caught on camera and put up on a large billboard – live video) – but wait, it does not end there. The citizens can be assessed points in the Chinese “Social Point System”, which started in 2014. It is about regulating individual and group behavior for activities such as: bad driving, smoking in non-smoking areas, not paying bills on time, spending too much on video games. Now, if you acquire too many points, you can be: banned from flying or catching a train; banned from luxury options (like 1^st class seats); throttling internet speeds; being banned from the best schools (including your children). Think about that kind of restriction in the western world.
• China wants to own the SCS (South China Seas) instead of sharing, stating that territorial waters belongs to China and not shared amongst, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, and says, basically that
  • there is no ‘freedom of navigation’ in that area to foreign military/navies
  • and going as far as building man-made islands and militarizing them to support the Chinese claim, even though the Hague is on the side of the Philippines as to the waterways is not owned by China

So, for a leader of one country to put their Big Brother restrictions on citizens of another country and expect other nations to kowtow “their own” draconian methods of “lack of freedom of speech” or “lack of freedom of action” – what does that does mean, hmmm…? 

How can the leader of a country with all these restrictions say they have a stable society when the society is controlled by the government and military?

The people:

• do not have any true freedom
• cannot congregate
• cannot vote bad leaders out either (so it seems)

What do you believe, does China have a ‘stable society’ or that free speech threatens another country’s national sovereignty?

            Chinese citizens will never see this paper within the borders of China because of the content of this paper.

 

Russian president – Putin. What can you make of this other president for life? He basically owns Russia and the people are somewhat locked into a state of hopelessness and are unable to do anything. It is somewhat hard to figure out how the people just do not create a national up-rising force Putin out, so we will not see that happen.

But how does a country’s President become a billionaire? It has been reported by several sources, one of which is the CIA that Putin has anywhere from $70 – $200 billion stashed away – yes, BILLION. Reportedly, he is at the $22 Billion mark. How does that happen, legally?

And do not get your hopes up to run against Putin because competition against him appear to have bad josh, bad luck. They die. They get poisoned. They gain criminal charges and if you have criminal charges in Russia, you cannot run for top offices, so they say. And let’s not forget the military and the underworld henchmen who just might, out of their love for Putin (yeah, right) take out the competition and it then becomes complete deniability for Putin and his party.

 

There is just so much more to be said about Putin, Xi, Maduro (Venezuela), János Áder (Hungary), Duterte (Philippines) and even more about Trump.

But where do we go from here? How do we do it? Well, education is one of the first steps – educating everyone and allowing everyone to vote is a second step. Ensuring EQUALITY is flat out the foundation and cornerstone of EVERYTHING from henceforth!  We all have to do better, not just in America but around the globe.

At the same time, we have to prevent other countries from interfering our countries elections. We have to prevent fake news from gaining ground (yes, the real fake news where there is no basis in reality and not ‘alternate facts’ as Kellyanne Conway stated it), while at the same time barring harmful and dangerous conspiracy individuals/groups.

 

All we can do is – TRY.

Be better than others and lift them up in turn. Stop stepping on the backs of others just so you can put your face in the spotlight. Just do the right thing. Most of all, it takes courage – courage to stand up and be counted and help make everyone accountable. Take U, she is a child and look at what she has accomplished and it was not out of wanting to be in the spotlight, it was due to making people aware that the world has to change regarding climate change.

But, individuals like the one in the White House, he has no courage whatsoever. He does not stand up for inequality. He does not stand up with empathy for those going through disastrous changes in their lives. He for sure does not have the courage to stand up and face America’s lack of true justice.

The American president does even have the backbone and courage to stand up and fight, internationally and collaboratively on CoViD-19 instead of finger-pointing. What individual in their right mind cuts out the World Health Organization and throttles the CDC…?

And not least, where is the courage to stand up against Police injustice in America, specifically against Brown, Yellow and Black people of this country…

But he does have an affinity, allegedly, for reneging on promises, greed and alleged corruption (*Ask the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York back back in 1979-1980 about Trump’s promise to give them the Bonwit Teller’s sculpture.)

We have to ensure respect, diversity, non-discrimination and equality are the bedrock of this country – maybe then we will actually be a United States.

 

*Bonwit Teller and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bonwit Teller closed its flagship store in 1979 and sold the property for $15 million to a Long Island real estate developer. Despite his plans to demolish the old Bonwit Teller building, the buyer promised to preserve the Deco grillwork and bas reliefs at the request of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The buyer was none other than Donald Trump. In 1980, Trump demolished Warren & Westmore’s elegant Art Deco emporium to make way for his $100 million Trump Tower. In what became a sadly typical turn of events, Trump cut corners everywhere he could and bullied those who stood in his way. To pour the foundations, Trump enlisted S&A Concrete, a known mob front for Paul Castellano and “Fat Tony” Salerno. He paid 200 illegal Polish immigrants as little as $4 an hour to work 12-hour days, 7 days a week. The so-called “Polish Brigade” worked without benefits, hard hats, and sometimes even homes – during the 1980 transit strike, many were forced to sleep at the construction site. Then there were the lawsuits. He sued the city for a tax abatement on the property. He sued one contractor for “total incompetence” and threatened to sue a labor lawyer for $100 million.

The reasoning:

John Baron, a spokesman for the Trump Organization—who, the New York Daily News discovered, turned out to be Donald Trump himself in disguise—told the Times that “the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them.” He said it would have cost $32,000 to remove the sculptures and cited appraisals by three independent appraisers that found them to be “without artistic merit” and worth less than $9,000. Their removal, he said, would also have delayed demolition work by at least a week and a half. (Trump, as himself, later estimated the cost of preserving the panels at $500,000.)