Silence is Betrayal

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
The words of Doctor Martin Luther King
hang heavy in the air. Intentions fail
to halt the arc of hatred’s brutal swing.

The centuries of organized oppression
are coming to a climax. You and I
must take a stand for justice. Shy discretion
is not a virtue when the stakes are high.

As hard-won rights are carelessly dismantled
before our eyes, the growing battle zone
erupting in the streets cannot be handled
with slacktivism. None should march alone.

Resisting with a vengeance, beat the drum
and shout in unison, “The time has come!”

===
Mary Boren, 6/28/17

The Enablers

Rather than stand up to his president, calling emergency hearings, or otherwise use his powers to address the wrongdoing, a Republican senator with subpoena power is saying he won’t do anything until the press does his job for him. But Burr did better than Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who literally flipped off a reporter asking about the news. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told my colleague Dylan Scott, “If the FBI director feels the president did something inappropriate, he should come in and tell us,” and dismissed the need for a special prosecutor, saying, “Nobody’s showed me a crime anywhere.”

 

The sad truth is that whether or not Trump is “brought down” has at best an indirect relationship to the gravity of the charges against him. His fate depends much more heavily on how Republican leaders in Congress respond to the scandals in question than it does on those scandals’ details or severity. Trump is the American president. He can only be removed from office if a majority of the House votes to impeach and a two-thirds majority of the Senate votes to convict.

 

The Comey scandal won’t end Trump’s presidency
unless Republicans agree it should

Vox

 

It’s as quiet and still as a mouse
in the halls of the Senate and House
where courageous conviction
is visible fiction
enabling a plundering louse.

Mary Boren, 5/31/17

 

Legislators won’t listen to us

The Republican Congressman hid out on the roof of his office on Tuesday in response to a group of angry voters who appeared at his office hoping to share their gripes with the elected official who has refused to hold a Town Hall in recent months.

 

[…]

 

The lack of accountability being displayed in the Republican party as of late is staggering. From congressional candidates who assault reporters to elected officials who are driven to the roof to hide from the people who pay their paychecks, the culture of the Republican party is degraded beyond repair.

 

Congressman Darrell Issa Hides From Angry Constituents
on Roof of District Office

The Ring of Fire Network

 


Legislators won’t listen to us
about issues we need to discuss.
They’re too fearful of crossing
the man who is tossing
America under the bus.

Mary Boren, 5/31/17

 

While the planet’s most infamous fibber

President Trump’s isolated and short-sighted view threatens to quash years of deliberation and work by corporate leaders, scientists, educators, social actors and others who work tirelessly to protect the planet. Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement would not only jeopardize America’s status as a world leader, but undermine our competitiveness in the emerging clean-environment global economy.

 

[…]

 

The president needs to recognize that he represents the entire country; not just the Trump Organization. He is the president of the United States of America. And most Americans want this nation to lead on battling climate change. We cannot afford to be left behind as the rest of the world moves toward a clean economy.

 

Trump’s misguided thinking on Paris Agreement
does disservice to America

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Opinion, The Hill

 


While the planet’s most infamous fibber
has Twitter obsessing on jibber,
how many will notice
one embecile POTUS
is selling us all up the river?

Mary Boren, 5/31/17

 

Insignificant people, make way

The latest moment from President Donald Trump’s trip abroad to go viral is a brief video which appears to show Trump moving aside another NATO leader so he can be front and center in a photo.

 

The moment, which has been widely shared on social media, shows Trump putting his hand on Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, and stepping around the him before adjusting his jacket.

 

A number of social media users have criticized the president for the move, including filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who shared the video on Twitter with the caption, “A class act. A statesman. A real gentleman.”

 

Trump Shoves NATO Leader Aside, Twitter Reacts: ‘Classy Leader Alert!’
The Wrap

 


 

Insignificant people, make way
for the clown from the U.S. of A.
as he jockeys and shoves
to the spotlight he loves:
“Look at me all day long every day!”

Mary Boren, 5/25/17

 

So the CIA head testified

During a House Intelligence Committee Hearing on Tuesday, former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed he’s aware of communications between the Trump campaign and Russian officials that sparked concern about possible collusion.

 

[…]

 

That “information and intelligence,” Brennan added, led to the FBI’s counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign, which began in July 2016.

 

Brennan was responding to a question from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) about evidence of collusion that seemed intended to highlight that no such evidence exists. His effort backfired. During House Intelligence Committee hearing about the Russia probe, Gowdy has repeatedly tried to change the topic from possible collusion involving the Trump campaign to leaks.

 

Trey Gowdy’s effort to throw cold water on
Trump-Russia collusion backfires spectacularly

Think Progress

 


 

So the CIA head testified
and as much as the congressman tried
to silence critiques
by obsessing on leaks,
there’s a story that can’t be denied.

Mary Boren, 5/25/17

 

To our sisters and brothers, what’s sadder



In short, our analysis indicates that Donald Trump successfully leveraged existing resentment towards African Americans in combination with emerging fears of increased racial diversity in America to reshape the presidential electorate, strongly attracting nativists towards Trump and pushing some more affluent and highly educated people with more cosmopolitan views to support Hillary Clinton. Racial identity and attitudes have further displaced class as the central battleground of American politics.

 

[…]

 

While race and racial attitudes have been and continue to play an important role in support for Republican presidential candidates, fears about growing racial diversity appear to be uniquely important to support for Trump compared to previous Republican candidates. Although our analysis does not speak to whether these attitudes were primed by Trump’s campaign, or whether he capitalized on emergent attitudes and rode them to victory, it seems clear that they will play a key role in the future of the Republican Party.

 

Fear of Diversity Made People More Likely to Vote Trump
The 2016 election was really a battle about having an open society.
Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel, The Nation

 


To our sisters and brothers, what’s sadder
than seeing America splatter
with racial detritus
designed to divide us
by blocking the rungs of the ladder.

Mary Boren, 5/19/17

 

As Comey’s recounting a medley


Just one of several instances of unwanted attention described in the article:

Mr. Comey has spoken privately of his concerns that the contacts from Mr. Trump and his aides were inappropriate, and how he felt compelled to resist them.

 

[…]

 

Mr. Wittes said Mr. Comey told him that he initially did not want to go to the meeting because the F.B.I. director should not have too close a relationship with the White House. But Mr. Comey went because he wanted to represent the bureau.

 

The ceremony occurred in the Blue Room of the White House, where many senior law enforcement officials — including the Secret Service director — had gathered. Mr. Comey — who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and was wearing a dark blue suit that day – told Mr. Wittes that he tried to blend in with the blue curtains in the back of the room, in the hopes that Mr. Trump would not spot him and call him out.

 

“He thought he had gotten through and not been noticed or singled out and that he was going to get away without an individual interaction,” Mr. Wittes said Mr. Comey told him.

 

But Mr. Trump spotted Mr. Comey and called him out.

 

“Oh and there’s Jim,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s become more famous than me.”

 

With an abashed look on his face, Mr. Comey walked up to Mr. Trump.

 

“Comey said that as he was walking across the room he was determined that there wasn’t going to be a hug,” Mr. Wittes said. “It was bad enough there was going to be a handshake. And Comey has long arms so Comey said he pre-emptively reached out for a handshake and grabbed the president’s hand. But Trump pulled him into an embrace and Comey didn’t reciprocate. If you look at the video, it’s one person shaking hands and another hugging.”

 

Comey, Unsettled by Trump, Is Said to Have Wanted Him Kept at a Distance
Michael Schmidt, The New York Times

 

As Comey’s recounting a medley
of efforts to get in his head, the
invasion of bubble
foreshadowing trouble
is creepy, pathetic, and deadly.

Mary Boren, 5/19/17

 

How long must America wait

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller to act as special counsel investigating Russian meddling into the 2016 election is an unexpected development in the issue that’s roiled the early days of Donald Trump’s administration. While it’s also a relatively unusual step in recent history, we do know one thing about it: The odds are good that it will take a while.

 

The Fix walked through a number of times that outside investigations have been launched in American history. But before we get too far down the path of exploring how long those took, it’s worth clarifying what exactly we’re talking about.

 

Continue reading …
How long will the special counsel’s investigation of Russia take?
Possibly years.

Philip Bump, The Washington Post

 


 

How long must America wait
for the law to resolve the debate?
Will the diligent Mueller
find proof in full color
of criminal actions too late?

Mary Boren, 5/18/17

 

In the face of each ludicrous lie told


Morning Joe dropped a very revealing nugget on Monday’s show, with both Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski accusing White House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway of being a fraud.

 

Now, obviously, Conway’s regular use of “alternative facts” is nothing new, but Mika and Joe went even further, alleging that she secretly hates Trump and made it known to them after appearances on their show during the campaign.

 

Per Brzezinski:

 

“This is a woman, by the way, who came on our show during the campaign and would shill for Trump in extensive fashion and then she would get off the air, the camera would be turned off, the microphone would be taken off and she would say ‘bleeech I need to take a shower’ because she disliked her candidate so much.”

 

Scarborough backed it up 100%.

 

Kellyanne Conway Secretly Hates Donald Trump
Mediaite

 


 

In the face of each ludicrous lie told
when Kellyanne opens her pie hole,
those verbal contortions
of epic proportions
are worthy of Anderson’s eye roll.

Mary Boren, 5/16/17