Bad Business Decision – David Duke

Between the Chump and his white right followers, the country is massively pushing back and that is growing….Fast.

There have been literally dozens of “unfriendings” of racist neo-nazi and white supremacist trolls by corporations and citizenry across the nation as the racist scum have been uncovered. The simple fact being white Americans don’t want these violent terrorists in their midst. Part of that is due to a social lesson from back in the pre-Civil Rights era where these monsters were able to terrify white citizens into compliance with their hate. Normal white folks had to fear the KKK and white supremacists not only from a violent attack standpoint but retribution through social ostracism. What held Jim Crow up was in large part…Fear.

The Chumph’s encouragement and support of these neo-Nazi, KKK, alt-right and other racist and white supremacist groups has indeed fueled the growth of these groups…But it has also lit a level of anti-white-nationalist opposition not seen since pre-Nazi Germany. That opposition ranges from verbal rejection to protests…To outright physical attacks by the more extreme antifa elements directed against the right wing hate groups.

The DHS is examining declaring the antifa movement as a “Domestic Terrorist” organization. After years of the white-right threatening America with their guns, elements of the far left have begun up-arming themselves. Because these left wing groups, unlike their right-wing counterparts don’t have a history of mass murder and bombings – the DHS has largely ignored their growth.And as such has no idea of their organization, the scope of their organization, and only an inkling relative to how fast they’re growing. Declaring then terrorists is part of the white nationalist Chumph’s government strategy to eradicate opposition to their fascist and illegitimate regime. Not much different than the white-wing trying to demonize BLM.

The one way to insure that a group becomes extremist and violent is for the government to attack it. It is what produced groups like the Weathermen back in the 60’s, and it is what will lead to increasing violence in the streets today.

At some point this blows up.

In the meantime, anti-racist sentiment in the general population is becoming costly for the bigots.

David Duke with Spanish white nationalists

Staff walkout forces Minneapolis bar to close after owner gets outed as David Duke supporter

A Minneapolis, MN bar closed its doors on Friday after its staff walked off the job, performers canceled their engagements and customers threatened to boycott over owner Julius de Roma’s donation to the failed U.S. Senate campaign of ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

The Hill reported Saturday night that Club Jäger faced a swift and heavy backlash after the Minneapolis City Pages revealed that the de Roma donated $500 to Duke’s campaign.

“Here’s a hard fact: De Roma donated $500 to David Duke’s Senate campaign in October 2016, one month before the general election, and about 40 years after Duke went public as one of America’s proudest racists,” wrote City Pages‘ Mike Mullen earlier this week.

“A review of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) files shows De Roma has donated to libertarian causes in the past — he supported both Ron Paul and Rand Paul — and has occasionally given to Republicans; last year he donated to the Trump presidential campaign. The October 2016 donation appears to be his first time supporting Duke, a frequent candidate for office,” the report continued.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune said Saturday, “Former employees, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Friday that Club Jäger was closed and the 17 employees at the North Loop bar were out of jobs. Employees were incensed when they learned about the owner’s donation to Duke, and the decision to close the business was made by those who ran it, not the owner, they said.”

De Roma defended the donation in a TV interview as his right.

“It’s just free speech,” he insited to WCCO. “What do you expect? It’s basically something that is blown up beyond what it should be.”

Last week, a California restaurant owner was also outed as a donor to Duke and is currently facing a backlash of his own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBpcD4oxS7U

 

 

CIA Exodus Because of Trump

A lot of folks in the Government feel the same way…

I didn’t think I’d ever leave the CIA. But because of Trump, I quit.

Edward Price worked at the CIA from 2006 until this month, most recently as the spokesman for the National Security Council.

Nearly 15 years ago, I informed my skeptical father that I was pursuing a job with the Central Intelligence Agency. Among his many concerns was that others would never believe I had resigned from the agency when I sought my next job. “Once CIA, always CIA,” he said. But that didn’t give me pause. This wouldn’t be just my first real job, I thought then; it would be my career.

That changed when I formally resigned last week. Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional.

This was not a decision I made lightly. I sought out the CIA as a college student, convinced that it was the ideal place to serve my country and put an otherwise abstract international- relations degree to use. I wasn’t disappointed…

Trump is standing in front of the most sacred place at the CIA – the wall commemorating those who died in service to America. Their names are not listed on the wall for security reasons. Not only a national disgrace – but a lot for patriotic Americans risking their lives to handle.

As a candidate, Donald Trump’s rhetoric suggested that he intended to take a different approach. I watched in disbelief when, during the third presidential debate, Trump casually cast doubt on the high-confidence conclusion of our 17 intelligence agencies, released that month, that Russia was behind the hacking and release of election-related emails. On the campaign trail and even as president-elect, Trump routinely referred to the flawed 2002 assessment of Iraq’s weapons programs as proof that the CIA couldn’t be trusted — even though the intelligence community had long ago held itself to account for those mistakes and Trump himself supported the invasion of Iraq.

Trump’s actions in office have been even more disturbing. His visit to CIA headquarters on his first full day in office, an overture designed to repair relations, was undone by his ego and bluster. Standing in front of a memorial to the CIA’s fallen officers, he seemed to be addressing the cameras and reporters in the room, rather than the agency personnel in front of them, bragging about his inauguration crowd the previous day. Whether delusional or deceitful, these were not the remarks many of my colleagues and I wanted to hear from our new commander in chief. I couldn’t help but reflect on the stark contrast between the bombast of the new president and the quiet dedication of a mentor — a courageous, steadfast professional — who is memorialized on that wall. I know others at CIA felt similarly.

The final straw came late last month, when the White House issued a directive reorganizing the National Security Council, on whose staff I served from 2014 until earlier this year. Missing from the NSC’s principals committee were the CIA director and the director of national intelligence. Added to the roster: the president’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who cut his teeth as a media champion of white nationalism.

The public outcry led the administration to reverse course and name the CIA director an NSC principal, but the White House’s inclination was clear. It has little need for intelligence professionals who, in speaking truth to power, might challenge the “America First” orthodoxy that sees Russia as an ally and Australia as a punching bag. That’s why the president’s trusted White House advisers, not career professionals, reportedly have final say over what intelligence reaches his desk….

 

Top Black Staffers Flee RNC

Apparently conditions n the Republican Party have caused an exodus of even die hard black conservatives from the Republican National Committee. Not all are leaving the Party, but there does seem to be a movement to jump the rotted scow of a Republican ship, before it sinks. Although none will say it, it appears the siren call to racists by the Party’s leading candidate, Trump, has become so toxic as to penetrate even black conservatives notoriously thick cast iron stomachs.

Top Black Staffers Leave The Republican National Committee

The RNC, which has made broadening its base a priority, just lost its head of black outreach.

The Republican National Committee is losing the person who leads the GOP’s outreach to black communities, as first reported by NBC News and confirmed by The Huffington Post.

Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield, the national director of African-American Initiatives at the RNC, is leaving the organization to work for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) as his director of intergovernmental affairs. Her last day is set to be Friday, and she is the second black top staffer to depart the RNC this month.

Quarker-Hartsfield joins several other staffers of color who have departed the RNC recently. Orlando Watson, communications director for black media, left earlier this month. Tara Wall and Raffi Williams, son of Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, both left their press positions at the RNC late last year. 

RNC Chair Reince Priebus has said that expanding the party and reaching out to groups of people who don’t usually vote Republican are priorities. After the 2012 elections, he famously released an autopsy report concluding that the GOP needed to broaden its base if it wanted to survive a changing country.

“The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic or community or region of this country,” Priebus said at the time.

But the GOP’s presidential front-runner, Donald Trump, threatens to upend much of that work with his incendiary comments about women, immigrants, protesters andMuslims that appall many members of his own party.

Asked about her decision to depart, Quarker-Hartsfield told HuffPost, “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the RNC. It has been an honor to work for Chairman Priebus during an exciting time in politics. It has been exciting to have a front row seat to a national Republican movement to maintain the House and win back the Senate. Chairman Priebus is an innovative leader who empowers his team, and serves my Party as a humble servant leader.”

Williams denied that he left the RNC because of Trump.

“I left because I was just ready for something new. They were good to me, they treated me very well and I have no complaints about the place,” he told HuffPost. “I think it’s a part of the natural cycle of the RNC. People come and go.”

A recent USA Today poll showed that if Trump faces off against Democrat Hillary Clinton in November, voters of color would overwhelmingly reject the business mogul. Black voters were the most pronounced, backing Clinton 67 percent of the time.

 

 

Black Cons Leaving Republican Plantation…

To be a Black Republican has always taken a cast iron stomach. The principal function of black conservatives is a front men, to be placed in visible positions for the press to provide plausible deniability to the Republican racism issue.

While both parties have their requisite numbers of hotheads, racists, and morons – the Republican hog has fed at the trough of racial animosity since the days of Raygun. The penalty for that has been the evolution of a Party dominated by small minds, and even smaller morality. If you don’t believe that, look at the assorted weak sisters and mental midgets which now dominate the Republican wannabe President list. The salient point here being “wannabe”.

It’s not about America anymore, it is about special interest groups and “the base”, which in the case of the Tea Party which now dominates the Republican body politic is hardly distinguishable from the Third KKK or the German American Bund.

I think the key point here is that the flocks of folks deserting the sinking ship aren’t suddenly coming to their senses and becoming progressives – what they are becoming is “not-Republicans”. They are holding on to a conservative dream which has been sold down the river so many times…

They are left in an ocean of disappointment.

The latest escapees? Black conservatives, tired of holding that lantern out there on the lawn.

Former "Black Republican", now Independent, Ken Barnes

Viewpoints: Racist cartoon of Obama forces me to leave GOP

I was one of those rare species: a black Republican, the guy willing to spit into the wind of conventional thought, who was often showcased on camera at party events to prove inclusiveness.

But as a proud black man, I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party.

Being a Republican has long been a part of my personal and professional identities, so leaving the party is a difficult and emotional decision.

In 1998, as a young man searching for what I believed were shared values, I cut ties with the Democratic Party and became a Republican. Democrats, in my view, had become unwelcoming to those holding center-right views not in lockstep with the party, and it was my belief that through hard work, the Republican Party could be utilized as a vehicle for improving our community.

For the next 13 years, I dedicated myself to growing the conservative base of the Republican Party, and in the process bound myself in emotion and deed.

During that time, I worked on behalf of Republican candidates at all levels, from presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, on down to local elections.

I have had the pleasure of serving as president of the Sacramento Republican Assembly, a term as a member of the California Republican Party executive committee, and most recently as treasurer of the Sacramento County Republican Party.

Last year alone, I donated more than 400 hours of my time to the Republican Party and made financial contributions to a number of Republican candidates.

As of late, however, when I look at myself in the mirror there is one question which perplexes me: Can I, in good conscience, remain affiliated with an organization whose message purveyors of racism and bigotry find attractive?

 

The Prez Kicks the Habit

As an inspiration to anyone struggling with quitting the cancer sticks –

President Obama has quit the habit.

No more smoke-filled rooms for Obama?

The president may have kicked his smoking habit once and for all. It has been about nine months since the president’s last cigarette, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Gibbs said he still chews Nicorette, but that the president used “stubborn willpower” to stop.

“It was a commitment that I think he made to himself at the end of the health care and with his two daughters in mind,” Gibbs told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

Gibbs also said this is the longest period, in the almost eight years he’s known the president that he’s gone without smoking.

“It’s really stuck,” Gibbs said.