~ Personal Commentary
Early release of August 14th Network For Stronger Together Blog!
It's long, but we owe it to Hillary to remember #WeWereWarned
Focused read in 4-6 minutes
and/or 31:11-minute video -- put it on in the background while you work!
TY!
and/or 31:11-minute video -- put it on in the background while you work!
TY!
#WeWereWarned
– Straight up!
"Transcript: Hillary Clinton's full ("Alt-Right") remarks in Reno, Nevada
(Gently edited and highlights are my own...)
My original plan for this
visit was to focus on our agenda to help small businesses and
entrepreneurs.
This week we proposed new
steps to cut red tape and taxes, and make it easier for small
businesses to get the credit they need to grow and hire.
Because I believe that in
America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it.
We’ll be talking a lot
more about our economic plans in the days and weeks ahead.
But today, I want to
address something I hear from Americans all over our country.
Everywhere I go, people tell me how
concerned they are by the divisive rhetoric coming from my opponent
in this election.
It’s like nothing we’ve heard
before from a nominee for President of the United States.
From the start, Donald Trump has built
his campaign on prejudice and paranoia.
He’s taking hate groups mainstream
and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major
political parties.
His disregard for the values that make
our country great is profoundly dangerous.
In just the past week, under the guise
of “outreach” to African Americans, Trump has stood up in front
of largely white audiences and described black communities in
insulting and ignorant terms:
“Poverty. Rejection. Horrible
education. No housing. No homes. No ownership.
Crime at levels nobody has seen…
Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”
Those are his words.
Donald Trump misses so much.
... Trump’s lack of knowledge or
experience or solutions would be bad enough.
But what he’s doing here is more
sinister.
Trump is reinforcing harmful
stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his most hateful
supporters.
It’s a disturbing preview of what
kind of President he’d be.
This is what I want to make clear
today:
A man with a long history of racial
discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from
the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the
Internet, should never run our government or command our military.
If he doesn’t respect all Americans,
how can he serve all Americans?
Now, I know some people still want to
give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
They hope that he will eventually
reinvent himself – that there’s a kinder, gentler, more
responsible Donald Trump waiting in the wings somewhere.
After all, it’s hard to believe
anyone – let alone a nominee for President of the United States –
could really believe all the things he says.
But the hard truth is, there’s no
other Donald Trump. This is it.
Maya Angelou once said: “When someone
shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Well, throughout his career and this
campaign, Donald Trump has shown us exactly who he is. We should
believe him.
When Trump was getting his start in
business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent
apartments to black and Latino tenants.
… Since then, there’s been a steady
stream of bigotry.
We all remember when Trump said a
distinguished federal judge born in Indiana couldn’t be trusted to
do his job because, quote, “He’s a Mexican.”
Think about that.
The man who today is the standard
bearer of the Republican Party said a federal judge was incapable of
doing his job solely because of his heritage.
Even the Republican Speaker of the
House, Paul Ryan, described that as “the textbook definition of a
racist comment.”
To this day, he’s never apologized to
Judge Curiel.
But for Trump, that’s just par for
the course.
This is someone who retweets white
supremacists online, like the user who goes by the name
“white-genocide-TM.” Trump took this fringe bigot with a few
dozen followers and spread his message to 11 million people.
His campaign famously posted an
anti-Semitic image – a Star of David imposed over a sea of dollar
bills – that first appeared on a white supremacist website.
The Trump campaign also selected a
prominent white nationalist leader as a delegate in California. They
only dropped him under pressure.
When asked in a nationally televised
interview whether he would disavow the support of David Duke, a
former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump wouldn’t do it. Only
later, again under mounting pressure, did he backtrack.
And when Trump was asked about
anti-Semitic slurs and death threats coming from his supporters, he
refused to condemn them.
Through it all, he has continued
pushing discredited conspiracy theories with racist undertones.
… This is what happens when you treat
the National Enquirer like Gospel.
It’s what happens when you listen to
the radio host Alex Jones, who claims that 9/11 and the Oklahoma City
bombings were inside jobs. He said the victims of the Sandy Hook
massacre were child actors and no one was actually killed there.
Trump didn’t challenge those lies. He
went on Jones’ show and said: “Your reputation is amazing. I will
not let you down.”
This man wants to be President of the
United States.
I’ve stood by President Obama’s
side as he made the toughest decisions a Commander-in-Chief ever has
to make.
In times of crisis, our country depends
on steady leadership… clear thinking… and calm judgment…
because one wrong move can mean the difference between life and
death.
The last thing we need in the Situation
Room is a loose cannon who can’t tell the difference between fact
and fiction, and who buys so easily into racially-tinged rumors.
Someone detached from reality should
never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.
It’s another reason why Donald Trump
is simply temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States.
Now, some people will say that his
bluster and bigotry is just over-heated campaign rhetoric – an
outrageous person saying outrageous things for attention.
But look at the policies Trump has
proposed. They would put prejudice into practice.
And don’t be distracted by his latest
attempts to muddy the waters.
He may have some new people putting new
words in his mouth… but we know where he stands.
… Don’t worry, some will say, as
President, Trump will be surrounded by smart advisors who will rein
in his worst impulses.
So when a tweet gets under his skin and
he wants to retaliate with a cruise missile, maybe cooler heads will
be there to convince him not to.
Maybe.
But look at who he’s put in charge of
his campaign.
Trump likes to say he only hires the
“best people.” But he’s had to fire so many campaign managers
it’s like an episode of the Apprentice.
The latest shake-up was designed to –
quote – “Let Trump be Trump.” To do that, he hired Stephen
Bannon, the head of a right-wing website called Breitbart.com, as
campaign CEO.
To give you a flavor of his work, here
are a few headlines they’ve published:
“Birth Control Makes Women
Unattractive and Crazy.”
“Would You Rather Your Child Had
Feminism or Cancer?”
“Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control
Movement’s Human Shield”
“Hoist It High And Proud: The
Confederate
Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.”
That one came shortly after the
Charleston massacre, when Democrats and Republicans alike were doing
everything they could to heal racial divides. Breitbart tried to
enflame them further.
Just imagine – Donald Trump reading
that and thinking: “this is what I need more of in my campaign.”
Bannon has nasty things to say about
pretty much everyone.
… According to the Southern Poverty
Law Center, which tracks hate groups, Breitbart embraces “ideas on
the extremist fringe of the conservative right. Racist ideas.
Race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim and
anti-Immigrant ideas –– all key tenets making up an emerging
racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.’"
Alt-Right is short for “Alternative
Right.”
The Wall Street Journal describes it as
a loosely organized movement, mostly online, that “rejects
mainstream conservatism, promotes nationalism and views immigration
and multiculturalism as threats to white identity.”
The de facto merger between Breitbart
and the Trump Campaign represents a landmark achievement for the
“Alt-Right.” A fringe element has effectively taken over the
Republican Party.
This is part of a broader story -- the
rising tide of hardline, right-wing nationalism around the world.
Just yesterday, one of Britain’s most
prominent right-wing leaders, Nigel Farage, who stoked anti-immigrant
sentiments to win the referendum on leaving the European Union,
campaigned with Donald Trump in Mississippi.
Farage has called for a ban on the
children of legal immigrants from public schools and health services,
has said women are quote “worth less” than men, and supports
scrapping laws that prevent employers from discriminating based on
race -- that’s who Trump wants by his side.
The godfather of this global brand of
extreme nationalism is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
… Of course there’s always been a
paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment. But
it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging
it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.
On David Duke’s radio show the other
day, the mood was jubilant.
“We appear to have taken over the
Republican Party,” one white supremacist said.
Duke laughed. There’s still more work
to do, he said.
No one should have any illusions about
what’s really going on here. The names may have changed… Racists
now call themselves “racialists.” White supremacists now call
themselves “white nationalists.” The paranoid fringe now calls
itself “alt-right.” But the hate burns just as bright.
And now Trump is trying to rebrand
himself as well. Don’t be fooled.
There’s an old Mexican proverb that
says “Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are.”
… This isn’t just about one
election. It’s about who we are as a nation.
It’s about the kind of example we
want to set for our children and grandchildren.
Next time you watch Donald Trump rant
on television, think about all the kids listening across our country.
They hear a lot more than we think.
… This is a moment of reckoning for
every Republican dismayed that the Party of Lincoln has become the
Party of Trump. It’s a moment of reckoning for all of us who love
our country and believe that America is better than this.
Twenty years ago, when Bob Dole
accepted the Republican nomination, he pointed to the exits and told
any racists in the Party to get out.
The week after 9/11, George W. Bush
went to a mosque and declared for everyone to hear that Muslims “love
America just as much as I do.”
In 2008, John McCain told his own
supporters they were wrong about the man he was trying to defeat.
Senator McCain made sure they knew – Barack Obama is an American
citizen and “a decent person.”
We need that kind of leadership again.
Every day, more Americans are standing
up and saying “enough is enough” – including a lot of
Republicans. I’m honored to have their support.
And I promise you this: with your help,
I will be a President for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
For those who vote for me and those who don't.
For all Americans.
Because I believe we are stronger
together.
It’s a vision for the future rooted
in our values and reflected in a rising generation of young people
who are the most open, diverse, and connected we’ve ever seen.
Just look at our fabulous Olympic team.
Like Ibtihaj Muhammad, an
African-American Muslim from New Jersey who won the bronze medal in
fencing with grace and skill. Would she even have a place in Donald
Trump’s America?
When I was growing up, Simone Manuel
wouldn’t have been allowed to swim in the same public pool as Katie
Ledecky. Now they’re winning Olympic medals as teammates.
So let’s keep moving forward
together.
Let’s stand up against prejudice and
paranoia.
Let’s prove once again, that America
is great because is America is good.
Thank you, and may God bless the United
States."
You can read Hillary's remarks in full here
↓
Also, you can watch and/or listen to Hillary's "Alt-Right" speech below:
Focused Thought in 30 seconds
Focused Action 30 seconds
You can share Buzzfeed's compilation of Hillary's Tweets here
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐ Political/Gov. Legal Opinions | MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent | Emmy-winning reporter | Host of The Beat With Ari
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
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(Remember 2018...)
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Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
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Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Democrat
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