FERVOR

FERVOR

Comprehension:

Do you like the word fervor? I most certainly do, for to begin with, it is a little word with intense meaning. When spoken, it, in English anyway, uses the tongue as a diving board then jumps off the tip of the tongue plunging out into the external abyss for all to hear and bear witness to. By definition, fervor typifies ardor exemplifying either heated spirit, vigorous exposed feelings or heightened emotion.

Now, fervor can exhibit a good thing in showing emotion on principle and standing behind a core of beliefs, but when it gets out of hand it can roll out into a mob mentality. By all accounts when religious fervor or political pitched fever erupts, folks no longer have a civil mind. Reason, substance, any trace of common sense, critical thinking, facts, comprehension and civility are flung out the door. These qualities no longer matter in being displaced and expunged by emotive forces. No longer does the reasoned mind function; it has been taken over by primal emotion.

Take for instance the Republican National Convention held in Cleveland this past week. Honestly what were the highlights? Focal point features included roll call chaos, delegate walkouts, plagiarism, a whole lot of hollering by attendees and attenders, a whole slew of Hillary bashing mystical chants, exclusivity, scapegoats, a Cruz rebellion, a VP appearing as a smart contender replacing a usually grumpy face with a stolid face facade in attempts at giving off a stern air of authority, more Hillary bashing, lack of conceivable behavior and the presidential nominee giving not one ounce of substantive policy issues, but instead, replaced by a fear mongering speech loaded with fall guys that only Trump can protect the nation from sprinkled with lies throughout and more Hillary bashing.

Below is a video composed by John Oliver that fairly well sums up the Republican convention. When afforded the time click on it and watch.

        

It literally amazes me how on Earth can working and middleclass voters say Trump will give us back America. Besides...who has taken America from them? It’s certainly not minorities, immigrants, refugees or other religions; it is the wealthiest one percent.

These working and middleclass, usually under educated whites are totally whitewashing the fact that Trump, who has always belonged in that elite 1% class, is running as a Republican, the very party that has through legislation denied working and middleclass Americans unemployment extensions, quality healthcare and higher wages. Republicans have systematically dismantled workers’ only true voice...unions and unilaterally have axed funding for foreclosure relief mortgage programs that were critical when the recession hammered homeowners’ savings and income stability/prospects. GOP legislation has also cut pensioner benefits and veteran benefits.



The Republican Party has literally done nothing for the hurting middleclass, veterans and poverty stricken Americans except for obstructing the very programs and legislation Democrats and Obama fought for to help average Americans; in particular during the Great Recession crisis. If one seriously at least gave a glance at Republican legislation, it is not for struggling Americans, but for the elite.   

Forget substance, playing on fear and bias is the Republican way. Make things up and make a slogan out of it for all to cheer. For instance, it was convenient to tag Obama as the worst president ever and he will take America down. They repeated this over and over for it to stick to the gullible like gorilla glue. But for sure we are all far better off now than we were eight years ago. All numbers indicate so.

Now, since Obama’s successful policies foiled its intent, the GOP has transferred their slogan to Hillary. She will be the worst president ever and take this country down. Is this the type rhetoric one really wants to unite around with no substance, only darkness and character bashing?

Unconventional Convention:

Although as I type today this Sunday July 24, there is a bit of an uproar with Democrats before starting into the Democrat National Convention (DNC) tomorrow this coming Monday July 25. Democrat committee chair, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz has resigned due to some Democrat committee e-mail leaks. Most likely the leaks originated from WikiLeaks’ hacked material that is presently in the hands of Russia. Putin would love to see Trump win, so timed the e-mail leaks right when the DNC was about to kick off. The e-mails revealed clear prejudices within the Democrat committee ranks in favoring Hillary with Schultz even relating that Bernie Sanders will not win in one e-mail of hers. This is not a good way to start off a convention, but we’ll wait and see how the contents of the convention play out.

Now that the nonsense above is over, for sure the Republican National Convention held in Cleveland last week is certainly no way to run a show. The antics carried out there throughout were more like a spectacle than an adult performance.

Next month, we’ll compare notes between the two convention outcomes, but for right now since it’s already over, we’ll elaborate a bit on the RNC big circus top event.

Let’s see, first we had an atrocious Republican platform formulated and designed as a wish list on what the GOP intends to make law. Some of the GOP convention platform included: making Christianity the official American religion which is totally going against the U.S. Constitution. They proposed furthering corporate tax cuts in saying, “We propose to level the international playing field by lowering the corporate  tax  rate  to  be  on  a  par  with,  or  below,  the  rates  of  other  industrial  nations.” Only problem with that is if Republicans truly want to put us on par with other nations, then they’ll have to increase taxes, not decrease. In emerging or developed countries, only Chile and South Korea are less taxed in the wealthier nations; all other wealthy nations have higher taxes.

A few other GOP goals are to:

A)  Deregulate banks (ya know to set up for Great Recession II),

B)   Repeal all environmental laws,

C)   Ax consumer protection,

D)  Appoint anti-LGBT justices,

E)   Further loosen gun laws,

F)    Expand fracking,

G)  Require work for welfare recipients while further cutting SNAP (food stamp) budgets,

H)  Extensively expand the burial of nuclear waste (except not in their backyards),

I)      Rebuff global climate change agreements,

J)     Privatize Medicare,

K)  To definitely build the border wall (ya know, to replace the Berlin Wall) and they consider this their “highest priority,”

L) Penalize cities that give sanctuary to immigrants and migrants (even though this goes against their philosophy of the federal government intervening on state and local governments),

M)Give all federal lands to state governments and private citizens,

N) Declare coal as ‘clean energy’ even though environmental experts all agree burning any form of coal releases loads of dangerous pollutant heavy metals in which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tried to curb to only be thwarted by GOP politicians,

O) Require Bible studies in all public and private schools (another direct    violation to the U.S. Constitution),

P) Cancel the Iran nuclear treaty even though it is working according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),

Q)Federally mandate and restore the death penalty while ignoring the   recent   rash of DNA results proving an inmate on death roll as innocent,

R)To further increase the defense budget even though it currently eats up 58% of the total national budget,

S) And pornography, (not guns...oh no), should be considered “a public health crisis” even though X-Hamster, a pornography website said it experienced its largest hit amounts ever in Cleveland during the week of the RNC. Go figure...

A nice list, huh...

Then there was the roll call debacle with sides shouting at one another interrupting announcements, speakers leaving the podium halfway through their speech, while throngs of delegate crowds left leaving three-quarters of the convention hall’s seats empty.

Representative Steve Womack (R-AR) who broke the gavel when he first pounded it was just a prelude of the disarray to come. Womack went up to the podium announcing that the anti-Trumpers had been overruled in their wish for a roll call vote on the adoption of the Republican rules. This was a last ditch effort in the anti-Trumpers forces to halt any furtherance of Trump’s official nomination.

The anti-Trumper delegates in opposing the rules had hoped to vote them down in the roll call. According to the current rules, the anti-Trumpers needed a minimum of delegates from seven states to invoke the roll call, in which earlier they say they had eleven states. Womack announced that several states had abandoned their original vote for a roll call without stating specifically which states had done so, thereby negating the roll call.

Mayhem erupts as Womack exists off stage, most likely mumbling under his breath wanting to pop House Majority Leader Paul Ryan in between his nostrils, for it was Ryan as leader of the majority Republican House that should’ve been making the announcement. But instead, he relegated the duties to Womack in knowing full well what a disturbed hornet’s nest it was going to create.

Considering Womack’s simple and single voice vote trumping a delegate roll call, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli began leading the protest roars while the entire Colorado and Iowa delegates walked out of the building.

The ‘Right Wing Watch’ video below gives a bit of detail of how ‘unity’ is displayed by Republicans.

   

To get Republicans back on par with one another, Demeaning Hillary chants were instigated and orchestrated by speakers and the crowd alike. This is about the only item that unified the Republican sects throughout the whole convention.

The usual Hillary sign fodder for sure showed up with ‘Crooked Hillary’, ‘Trump that _itch’ and with a photo of Hillary expressing, ‘Life’s a _itch, Don’t Vote for One.’ I left out the ‘B’ leaving itch, but you fully get the phrase. There were even placards displaying, ‘KFC Hillary Special with 2 Fat Thighs, 2 Small Breasts…Left Wing’.

But what is infringing on the egregious, are the chants of “lock her up” that was recited not only by the crowd but by the speakers themselves such as in the speech of retired General Michael Flynn as witnessed in the video below.

Surely, why should they not chant ‘lock her up’ when they are being coerced and worked up into its frenzy by the likes of Chris Christie? Apparently, he must’ve thought he was real cute in whipping out bogus Hillary accusations then asking the crowd, “Guilty or not.” After each accusation of his can you remotely guess what the crowd’s verdict was? Pretty good guessing, for they were all ruled as guilty as the ‘lock her up’ chant resonated during Christie’s false accusations of her lying and criminal activity.

It is hard to imagine though how Mr. ‘Bridgegate’ Christie himself can trash someone else over lying and criminal activity. Christie was about the only GOP heavy political leader that gave a speech at the convention. I use the term ‘heavy’ lightly in stating an oxymoron here, but nonetheless, it doesn’t infer weight. 

The infringement on being egregious got worse though, as it became ‘downright egregious’. Trump’s veteran’s adviser and a current New Hampshire state representative, Al Baldasaro had this to say prior to the RNC on the ‘Jerry Kuhner Show’ when asked about Hillary, “This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”

He got a call by the secret service after that comment, but apparently it didn’t sway him much for he repeated it again at and during the RNC.

Broadcasting live from within the RNC, when asked by the white nationalist ‘Liberty Roundtable’ radio’s broadcaster what should be done with Hillary, Baldasaro said, “Actually, she (Hillary) should be put in front of a firing squad for treason.”

Not to be outdone, Republican Michael Folk, a lawmaker in West Virginia’s House of Delegates declared that Hillary should be hung at the Washington Mall. His actual tweet is above.

Now all this might be funny serious for some who claim they’re sick and tired of ‘political correctness’, but this is pressing pass the bar of no return. For leaders to express this when they know full well there are those right-wingers salivating through their gills in agreeing with this, while also exercising another Republican stance of limitless military-style gun ownership. There’s just too bad an admixture in these angry white boys to be toying with. This little nudge is all it would take for the hate mongering gun crazed. One of them is liable to attempt it.

Yes you read right, white supremacists and nationalist parties were in attendance and had their social media and tweets put up on the big screens. No the tweets weren’t screened and were on display pretty much throughout the four days of the convention.

Because he is a rabid Trump fan, white supremacist and broadcaster, Matt Forney reported live from the floor on the convention’s Tuesday events. Forney has a long record list of racist and sexist comments. A couple are, “Blacks do nothing but murder cops, rob and rape people, and bring death and destruction wherever they go. He continually calls for “black control” always refers to Trump as “God emperor Trump” and points out his belief that women deep down desire to be raped and beaten.

Tweets from various white nationalist groups were from #AltRight, #ProWhite, #RaceRealist and #LoveYourRace. Some of the tweets said by ‘Western Triumph’ were, “Hillary says whites should "recognize our privilege". I say whites should recognize (((the traitors))), and begin the Great Purge!” and “Detroit, Birmingham, Baltimore, etc Proof is clear: Whites build things, and blacks destroy them.Hence.....Africa.”https://twitter.com/h0woriginal/status/...  

The tweet in the below photo is from ‘VDARE.com’, a Virginia based anti-immigrant hate group that quoted South Carolina’s Chris Collins. This group, supposedly composed of “intellectually inclined” white nationalists offers donors “patriot packs” composed of various supremacists’ paraphernalia.

No sir/ma’am, not one was filtered. Whether this was just a sloppy overlook or intent, who knows, but I will tell ya one thing’s for sure...there weren’t any liberal tweets that made it through the filter.

Nationalist parties have been making robocalls for Trump ever since the GOP primaries. They’ve pretty much all have endorsed him, for they see eye to eye and Trump will cater to anyone who will vote for him. In a way, they both appeal to one another. Trump even uses slogans straight from these hate groups. With this, Republicans have willingly allowed their party to be infiltrated with white nationalist dogma just to retain power; loyalty of party over nation.

Why on MSNBC this past July 06, 2016, Republican strategist, Rick Wilson confessed that Trump supporters “range in sophistication from the guys who are fairly clever race-baiters to the crazies in mom’s basement screaming for Hot Pockets and a new Holocaust” and that “racism is baked in the cake” when it comes to Trump.

Yepper sports fan, even as Trump’s nomination speech had just ended, a tweet from white nationalist ‘Western Triumph’ was displayed on the convention floor’s big screens for all the fascist minded to see. Generic for sure, but all the same, understand its source, intent and influence. The white supremacist tweet broadcast to the world at the RNC convention is below.

Now, instead of all the fear Republicans represent due to liberal causes, it just might appear that it should be the progressives to be a tad fearful. For me personally, this is an assault on what it truly means in being American.

Rudi Giuliani was pert near frothing at the mouth acting as if he was going for a heart attack while slinging slurs on Hillary. Meanwhile, someone called for a doctor and after being resuscitated by Dr. Ben Carson, Giuliani was carried off stage where Carson takes over the podium and ensures us Hillary acknowledges Lucifer through Saul Alinsky, an American organizer for the poor. If Carson feels it’s pure sin on Hillary’s part to be a fan of Alinsky’s he might want to also include on that list,one of the greatest heroes of American conservatism, William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley also admired him and stated Alinsky was, “very close to being an organizational genius.”    

Then Carson took over a Fox News microphone proclaiming to Fox’s moderator, Greta Van Susteren, “All of the Trump children are absolutely delightful people. And I think that speaks volumes about the man. Anybody who can raise children, particularly in the environment they came up in, which I think is a disadvantaged environment. Because I know a lot of people who are very rich and their kids are so spoiled, and I think it’s a disadvantage. I really do.” A few more attacks of the ‘affluenza’ disease first exposing Ethan Couch and now the Trump children, why we might have an epidemic on our hands.

Gee, I wonder what the children’s advantage in tin plated poverty really is over the Trump children’s disadvantage in pure gold wealth? I wonder... 

As they say in West Texas, Whoa cowpunch...plagiarism...now that’s ah whole ‘nuther matter.

Yes indeed, Melania Trump did plagiarize a portion of Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech. At first on day one, the Trump campaign and he himself denied it, then they tried to deflect the blame, then they accepted it but put spin on it, even said it was okay to plagiarize and then on the third day, they blamed it all on a 65-yr-old fall guy junior speech writer. Finally, the speech writer takes the blame rap.   

Denial: After revelations by journalist, Jarret Hill that the Melania Trump speech plagiarized FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s speech, the denials came rolling in. Donald Trump denied his wife committed plagiarism and even though the Trump campaign originally expressed Melania personally wrote her speech, but had a little help from speech writers, Trump said he would fire whoever might’ve plagiarize.  

Chris Chrisitie comes out to absurdly say, “If we’re talking about 7% of a speech that was really, universally considered to be a good performance by Melania. I know her. There’s no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech.”

Ben Carson remarked that he saw no evidence of plagiarism and if there was, it was a good thing. This is his comment, “I don’t think they were plagiarized. I think there are general principles that are very valuable to Americans, and of course to express those principles you’re going to use similar language. If we happen to share values, we should celebrate that, not try to make it into a controversy.” So to Carson that’s a good thing, huh...I just might wonder what would be the Republican response if it had been the other way around.

Trump campaign spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson said on the website ‘The Hill’ that, “This concept that Michelle Obama invented the English language is absurd.”

Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort in an interview with CNN’s ‘New Day’ called the plagiarized allegations “crazy” that, “There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech.” Later on a CBS interview he stated, “We’re talking about words like compassion, love of family, respect. These are not words that are unique words that belong to the Obamas.”

Deflection: Thomas Del Beccaro, a California Republican candidate running for the U.S. senate really made his campaign look stupid when he tweeted, “#MelaniaTrump proved tonight she is total opposite of #MichelleO. No anger. No complaints. Just about what can happen through opportunity.” Ya know, as if Michelle’s own words from Melania’s mouth somehow made Michelle seem like an angry black woman, but reasoned when they flowed from Melania.

Paul Manafort finally hints at admitting Michelle’s words were stolen at a press conference, but blames it all on Hillary of course, when he whined, “There’s a political tint to this whole issue. The Clinton camp was the first to get it out there and try to say there was something untoward about the speech that Melania Trump gave. It’s just another example, as far as we’re concerned, that when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person.” But lo for Manafort, the Clinton campaign never did comment or issue a statement about the plagiarism scandal, much less to be the first to put it out there.     

Fox News’ financial commentator, Stuart Varney proclaims, “I say the mainstream media is pathetic on this and I mean that in every shape of that word. Pathetic. This morning, I wake up and I’m looking at the headlines of the major news outlets and they say, “Oh, she is a plagiarist!” They’re doing anything they can to bring her down, to bring the Republicans down. Why is she a plagiarist? Well, in one paragraph that she came out with last night, she used the expression,‘“Your word is your bond.’”  Do what you say you’re gonna do. Treat people with respect.” Actually there Barney it was Mrs. Obama’s expression.

Varney finally adds a really oddball conclusion when he piques, “I really think the mainstream media wants America to be more like bankrupt, socialist Europe. I think they’re leading us down that path. They just want to get us there as fast as possible. What a disgrace! What a disgrace!” Really, what does that have to do with Melania’s plagiarism? The word disgrace I suppose.

Picking on Saul Alinsky again, Republicans then propagandized that Michelle plagiarized Alinsky from his ‘Rules for Radicals’ in her 2008 speech by a few words from one sentence. Really? Michelle Obama: “And Barack stood up that day, and he spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about the world as it is and the world as it should be.” Saul Alinsky: “The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be.” The whole sentencing between the two has nothing to do with each other in conveying different meanings.

In the plagiarism being blatantly revealed, Michael Savage in his crybaby way, attempts to deflect on his right-wing radio show by crying, “Oh yeah? Well Hillary Clinton ‘looks like Stalin’s housekeeper.” not that he hasn’t said this before, for he recycled it from when he first said this about Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders.

Savage further continues on deflecting from the stolen speech by talking about Melania’s beauty in stating, “You know, she’s so appealing that she’s liable to garner a good percentage of Hillary’s woman vote simply because she’s so appealing. Now, regarding Melania’s speech, yes, there’s some overlap, but that’s of course not the issue.” For savage it’s more about beauty and the beast rather than honesty and ethics over lying and stealing.    

Spin & OK: The RNC’s chief strategist, Sean Spicer in a very stupid way claims plagiarism is OK as long as who it is you’re plagiarizing. Spicer claimed on CNN that it wasn’t Michelle Obama she plagiarized but the ‘My Little Pony’ cartoon character, Twilight Sparkle with the dream portion of the speech. The video is below.

‘Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody puts spin on Melania’s speech in insisting it was OK. On Pat Robertson’s ‘700 Club’ Brody portended, “The long-term story here, Pat, is that the reality is that Melania Trump gave a very good speech last night. She was poised, smart, articulate on that stage on Monday night and what that means, Pat, going forward is that Melania Trump needs to get out on the stump.  Cleary, she is articulate, doing a very good job — and they need help among women voters and she can be a key part of that.”

I guess Brody, the good Christian that he is, conveniently forgot about the ninth commandment in lying. Even Robertson appeared a bit lustful with his olden self by noting Melania Trump was, “We mentioned the language in that speech, although she was absolutely gorgeous and I think that's why they wanted to put her on. Mr. Trump has a good eye for beauty.”

‘Fox & Friends’, Brian Kilmeade actually said it’s OK for her to plagiarize, for, “It actually applies to her life. It talks about her parents and the values and the values she wants to put to her kids.” Hmmm, again, I ponder what he would’ve said if it were the other way around with a black woman stealing from a white woman? Would it have been good for her black kids...I just ponder...

Fall Guy: As the plagiarism scandal rolled into its third day, the Trump campaign pinned it all on a grandmother and former ballerina, Meredith McIver. This lady who helped in the speech writing became the fall guy. She came forth with a written letter in which a copy of it is below.

Ya see, the thing is, why did she not expose her plagiarism in the beginning? She appears honest. All the blame was now wrested on her shoulders alone. Funny thing though, she’d taken the blame for Trump once before.

In a 2007 deposition, Trump was being hammered for overstating in his books of him of being in debt for billions and billions of dollars, but still managed a miraculous comeback. Trump acknowledged the over statement, but insisted he didn’t write that in his books. Guess who he blamed that on...yep...Mrs. McIver. So now she’s been blamed but once again and has taken the fall for another Trump.

Stephen Palitz, a lawyer friend of Mrs. McIver who claims he has known her for decades said while pointing out her meticulous attention to detail, “It sounds like she sort of stepped up and fell on her sword.”     

I guess that right-wingers love the same words when it only comes from the mouth of a white woman as second hand. Other than that, if they had heard the original words poured out from Mrs. Obama’s mouth, they would’ve spat on it right away.   

Not only should the obvious plagiarism be an embarrassment, but in how the Trump campaign and Republican households responded to it should even be more so. I mean of all people to plagiarize. Right-wingers literally despise Michele Obama calling her anything from a man in drag to a monkey. This had to sting having their hopeful First Lady Melania steal words directly from First Lady Michele Obama. Below, from ‘News Corpse’ is the side-by-side comparison of the two speeches.

I’ll end this section with just a comment concerning Ted Cruz and his debacled contribution to the convention. For next month’s article we’ll cover Trump’s acceptance speech side-by-side with Hillary’s.

Some say Ted Cruz’ refusal to endorse Trump then have to walk off stage amidst screaming boos was principled. Hogwash! Cruz is as egomaniacal as Trump; he’s just much slyer with it. All Cruz is doing is betting on Trump losing the 2016 election while kicking off and already campaigning for the 2020 election.

Closing Segment:

Racists don’t just pop into view from out of nowhere. Just like Trump, they have a history and that history has been embedded in the Republican Party for over half a century. Again, just like Trump, they have bid their time, sometimes testing the waters, but now it is, in their minds to jump in and fan the flames. Racists not only feel connected to Trump, they feel Trump is them.

Filtering through the GOP, a prelude of the party’s comradery with racism really kick started under Reagan’s helm with his “welfare queen” and “black buck” statements in using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks.

White nationalist group: American Freedom Party

Although the Republican Party has always had nationalism hitched and anchored to their politics, they never quite exposed it like the Donald has. He became the megaphone for racism exposing the party for what it has been promoting under the bed sheets. Trump exposed the GOP. Yes he is getting the racist vote, even is recharging their burning crosses, but Republicans have all along been receiving the racist vote and this isn’t by coincidence. Racists trust Trump more for he energizes them instead of just accepting their vote as the Republican Party has done.

This rocky relationship, due to Trump has now turned on the Republican Party. The RNC had no choice but to accept Trump for they knew if they didn’t their base composed of ignorance, bigotry and racism would create untold upheaval. This current GOP is in disarray. It cannot climb out of its hole.

Yes, they are claiming the voter base is angry, but don’t confuse cynicism with wisdom. This right-wing anger has no roots in wisdom. For the youngest of children on playgrounds, it’s so easy to criticize another child for a fault. This is exclusive behavior. Where with wisdom, there is always recognition of others’ merits and of what can be learned from another. This is inclusive behavior.

Cynicism comes from a self-inflicted deepened wound; wisdom is a resultant of enduring shared hope. Progressive thought resides more in experienced hurt and pain, where fear and panic is more of a conservative gut reaction. I just wonder which side of the political aisle is rooted more in wisdom and which one is more in cynicism. I’ll let you decide...

In Promoted Reporting,

BJA

07/31/2016