Today (5 September 2018) the reputable New York Times published an Op-Ed with the titled ‘I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration’. The Op-Ed piqued the interest of the blogmaster NOT because it exposes a kind of chaos swirling in the White House BUT that it was credited to an anonymous source. In a nutshell the vaunted traditional media admits it sees the benefit to protect its source by posting the Op-Ed under an anonymous byline.
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
President Trump at an event in August at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. CreditCredit Tom Brenner for The New York Times
The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
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183 responses to “White House Insider Trumps Trump”
MoneyBrain
New York SLIMES.
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Sargeant
There he goes again with the name calling, didn’t you criticize me for calling someone Auntie Jemima? What are you going to call Mathis; Cohn or Kelly?
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WARU
lol…now this is the real rum shop fun, although the democrats are saying, unless we see more, we ain’t buying it, but regardless, fun can’t done…those same WH employees are going to bury that tangerine toad..
Chief of Staff Kelly?Did he not lie on a Congresswoman Frederick Wilson D-Fla?And on the back of it flatly refused to apologize when the press called him out on it.I hope he wrote this Op-Ed and Trump fires his donkey from the WH.
According to Michael Avannati lawyer for Stormy,he would likely have Trump up before the magistrates soon and he thinks Trump would perjure and re perjure himself leading to his exit from the WH
Diplomats in the State Department are growing increasingly uneasy about their role under the Trump administration, according to a report on officials familiar with the department.
The recent departure of John Feeley as ambassador to Panama has left other diplomats wondering whether they should follow his lead and resign, especially in the wake of Trump’s reported comments calling dozens of nations around the world “shithole countries,” according to a report from McClatchy.
Already the department is faced with major staffing holes. SIXTY PERCENT OF TOP-RANKING DIPLOMATS IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT HAVE LEFT AND APPLICATIONS TO JOIN THE CORPS HAS FALLEN BY HALF, according to the American Foreign Service Association.
Officials say that Feeley’s letter of resignation, which stated that he could no longer faithfully serve the president, was an example of disintegrating morale across the entire department. Staffers are said to have lost confidence in the Trump administration’s ability to approach diplomacy effectively
“Given what happened in the last few days, people are wondering how are they going to be effective in an environment like this,” a U.S. official who works regularly with the State Department told McClatchy.
State staffers were shaken by Feeley’s sudden resignation, and say that it has left them questioning their own commitment to an administration that they say is undercutting the diplomatic corps’ work and hurting the reputation of the U.S. around the world.
Feeley is not the only example of a shaky staff.
Sources say that some diplomats are conflicted, caught between the desire to defend the ideals of diplomacy and the feeling that staying on represents an approval of the Trump administration’s style. That conflict has already proved challenging for diplomats like Elizabeth Shackelford, foreign service officer who worked in Nairobi, who resigned in November over the administration’s “stinging disrespect” of the State Department.
Officials who have worked in the department for years see the change in morale as a major problem. Mark Feierstein, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs under President Barack Obama, said he’s surprised more diplomats haven’t quit already, considering Trump’s behavior and policies.
“Trump has given ambassadors over the last year many reasons to resign,” Feierstein told McClatchy before referencing the president’s alleged “shithole” remarks. “Yesterday was only one. There were plenty others. And there will be more.”
The Trump administration, however, has portrayed the shrinking of staff as intentional and a means of making the State Department more efficient.
“The most important thing I can do is to enable this organization to be more effective, more efficient,” Tillerson told U.S. Embassy employees in London last September. “Because if I accomplish that, that will go on forever and you will create the State Department of the future.”
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Simple Simon
When people won’t work with you. when they would rather go home and graze grass, is time to acknowledge that something is very wrong
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NorthernObserver
“the reputable New York Times”, getting more and more difficult given the heavy political divide to ascertain reputability.
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WARU
It actually now makes you wonder what Barrow gave up to gain a facade called independence. .without complete sovereignty, stupid leaders.
“United Kingdom is threatening to rescind Mauritius of it’s independence rights if Mauritius doesn’t give them a huge chunk of land for it’s Military base. This happens as BRAINLESS, sell out presidents of kenya, Nigeria, and SA were hosting british PM without any push back. .
Africa Digestive”
“Officials from Mauritius have told United Nations judges that the UK pressured its leaders into giving up the Chagos Islands as a condition of independence.
The claim by the Indian Ocean island nation about its former colonial power could have an impact on a strategically important US military base.
Judges at the International Court of Justice began hearing arguments for an advisory opinion the UN General Assembly requested on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
The largest island, Diego Garcia, has housed the US base since the 1970s.
Mauritius claims the UK illegally maintains sovereignty over the Chagos Islands (AP Photo/Mike Corder)
Mauritius defence minister Anerood Jugnauth told judges: “The process of decolonisation of Mauritius remains incomplete as a result of the unlawful detachment of an integral part of our territory on the eve of our independence.”
Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and was taken unlawfully by the UK in 1965, three years before the island gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory.”
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45govt
The NYT is a lefty rag in the manner of Britain’s Guardian – no more to be relied upon for objective reporting or analysis than Wot A Racist Ulcer I Is.
For some perspective read this, and those with closed minds, or what passes for them (WARU for example, whose increasingly unhinged hatred threatens to blow her into little bits of shite), and sufferers from Trump Derangement Syndrome can keep gnashing their gums..
You do realize the issue here is whether the revelation from the anonymous senior WH person is true? The NYT is the conduit. To attack the newspaper is myopic.
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45govt
I attack the NYT because it is a lefty rag – nothing to do with myopia. Do you think they would as assiduously print any rumours about the Clinton gang, or The One?
Have you seen this? Even that fake news outlet CNN sometimes cannot avoid reality.
You are shifting the conversation. The blogmaster concedes the the NYT is left leaning, it does not change what the anonymous senior WH staffer has conveyed. A WH devoid of leadership mired in incompetence, conflict and divisiveness.
This interview is one of many that has taken the cake. Graham is a man making a 180 degree turn and why? Party politics above all. While they dither Trump has grabbed democracy by the P*****.
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WARU
The NYT has ALWAYS been a reputable newspaper in the US..just like they will never reveal who the WH staffer is…they will NEVER make up this story…so you can guarantee that it is true and it could be Kelly…but if the tangerine toad tries to mess with this person whomever it is….he can guarantee.it will be his final day at the WH as useless president…
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Simple Simon
@45govt September 6, 2018 2:31 AM “breitbart”
You quote sousy, smelly, untidy breitbart as an impartial source?
Wot an idiot you is.
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45govt
Yet, not nearly as simple as you Simon – but then that would be difficult. Breitbart is to you is what the NYT, CNN, MSNBC, the BBC, Guardian et al are to me.
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WARU
And dont think the NYT dont have the credentials and nearly 200 years of readership leadership to back it up…..everyone of their syories..
“The New York Times (sometimes abbreviated as The NYT or The Times) is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper.[9][10] The New York Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation.”
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555dubstreet
You have to know how the system works in order to manipulate it
There are two sides to the same coin which is an analogy to life and universe like Yin and Yang
Heads : 25th Amendment requires the VP to become Potus when invoked
(Pence is the prime suspect of the anonymous resistor testifying)
Tails : Trump will invoke his national security privilege to override all national and international law
and will also start a new war to be safe to get nationalist jingoist supremacists (i.e. all americans) onside
Sometimes the battle is not between right and wrong but between truth and lies
((▶)) Sipple Out Deh (aka War Ina Babylon)
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WARU
everyone of NYT STORIES…is reliable…they are a due diligence newspaper.
You are trying to take the blog down a path to nowhere. The issue is not about NYT. Which senior WH staffer would be motivated to write such an article. This comes after Woodward’s book.
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RobertD. Lucas
I posted the following on Face Book last night.:
Robert Lucas As I have said previously, there is a concerted effort by unelected people to stage a coup in the USA. I find it ironic that an unelected person talks about thwarting the will of a duly elected president all for the purpose of democracy. I wonder if the person has studied what he was saying? No one voted for him. He cannot decide for the rest of the populace what democracy is. His view of democracy is colored by his dislike of the president. All this talk about amorality is a lot of bs. Does he want to say that the American people did not know who Trump was ,when they elected him? Basically, what we have here is case of high treason. To any objective onlooker, it is quite apparent the main-stream press is in cahoots with the attempt to stage a coup. What this whole thing highlights is that there is a claque of career professionals who seem to think that their way is the only way. I am reminded of the brightest and the best during the Viet Nam affair. Events proved that they were neither bright nor were they the best. Similarly with the Iraq affair. From day one there has been talk of impeaching Trump. The Russian collusion is just a lot of bs. How could the Russians exert influence over three-hundred million to vote in the way they did? America seems headed for a civil war
Your comment ignores the many events that have popped up under Trump’s watch putting him in a bad light. He was democratically elected, the same people and those who did not have the right to leverage the organs a democracy affords to voice disapproval.
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de pedantic Dribbler
Mr Blogmaster, first a pedantic point 🤣….you note that “…BUT that it was credited to an anonymous source. In a nutshell the vaunted traditional media admits it sees the benefit to protect its source by posting the Op-Ed under an anonymous byline.”
I get it that the op-ed itself is anonymous but there ia a red line of protecting sources that is deeply sacrosanct with your so called traditional media so whether drafted under the editoral board’s byline with copious quotes or presented it as done…there really is LITTLE difference of impact re this essay.
Now, that apart this is dangerous, ineptly done and unfortunately finally affirms the US administration under this POTUS as operationally not effectively much different to that of a Chavez or a Duterte…in short, an authoritarian, strongman demagoguery that is dividing that nation irreparably.
Immediately, as a sample of US and worldwide reaction, the first two comments here said it clearly: blame the media as slime, left leaning haters of POTUS….RATHER than any valid and real concern that sensible, reasonable American citizens feel so concerned about the well being of their nation (and the world) that they are willing to subvert the laws and constitution of that same nation to implement this soft coup d’etat….
Thus, I agree with those in the media who state that this person or persons MUST resign and openly present to Congress the dire concerns they have of this POTUS….You CANNOT OPENLY (yet covertly) subvert an elected leader in this way.
THIS IS UNHEARD OF MADNESS IN THE FREAKING US. This shot across the proverbial bow is indicative of greivous imminent decisions someone is attempting to highlight.
We are doomed…this CANNOT end well.
Generally, II would also ask the impractical Trump supporters: why would reputable men like Tillerson, Gen McMaster and Cohn (just to name 3) act and say the things attributed to them ! Are all of them and the many others who have questioned POTUS fitness also despicable slimy, left leaning fake newsers…is Sessions who once was this nobel southern of impeccable conservative credentials now also just a slimy faker because he acted ethically and REFUSED to accede to the POTUS illegal suggestions.
The damage is already done. This man has therectically commited a mass shooting at high noon on Fifth Ave right smack outside the imposing St. Patrick’s Cathedral no less too….and yet the devout stream out to protect him and condemn those who seek to curb his further uncontrolled destructive acts.
What should concern the world is that we have a leader of the so-called free world who has zero integrity, however, the economic performance is headed in the right direction and this is all that matter to some, even Christians? They are prepared to toss value and moral positions through the window.
Here is the question: how is leadership defined?
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Sargeant
The people here slamming NYT were cheering when one of its writers ( Judith Miller) wrote articles based on false information that indirectly led to the Iraq war. A war that the US is still paying a price for and a war that has led to the current instability in the Middle East.
Breitbart: a hotbed of white supremacists (nuff said)
The anonymous opinion writer? He/She just confirmed what many people suspected and have written (even if we are not insiders)
Lindsay Graham: Mc Cain is buried and he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, he is facing reelection so he must placate the base and pay obeisance to Trump.
Finally many people around Trump have a poor opinion of him, Woodward’s book will confirm this but Republicans support him because they will get the Judiciary they want for a generation ( look for a roll back of affirmative action and electoral laws that discriminated against blacks among others) as CJ John Roberts famously said “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race “ They also get tax cuts that favour the rich, remember Trump’s line to a group of his wealthy friends at Mar-a- Lago just after the tax bill was passed “You just got a lot richer”.
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WARU
300 million people did not vote for trump…technically he did not win the election…it’s the retards in the ELECTORAL COLLEGE whom am sure are made up of a bunch of backwoods uninformed racists….put trump in the WH…people accepted this only because of Killary’s track record..
How soon we forget.
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WARU
Besides..all of that is now moot…Woodward was instrumental in bringing down Nixon…trump is not even a challenge for him, they did not even know he was walking around the WH collecting data…they did not even know who he was.,,.steupppps.
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Freedom Crier
America Choose a Conservative Government…Who Will Continue to Support this President…
Ah…Loyalty!! I might be ‘old-time’ in my view but if I work for an entity and I disagree strongly with it’s operations…. I resign & leave!!! I don’t try to undermine its operations….. that would make me a traitor!
Why do we talk about what percentage of the electorate voted for Trump? Should the leader by definition not represent ALL the people?
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peterlawrencethompson
A rudimentary linguistic analysis of the NYT op-ed hinges on the use of the word “lodestar,” which is not in common American usage. Most of the people in the West Wing have copious public records of things they have written or public speeches they have given, but only one is on record having used that particular bit of vocabulary before. Not only has he used it before, but it is one his favorite inspirational totems… he is quoted using it several times over the past year. VP Mike Pence really likes that word… he could be setting the stage to make a post midterm impeachment of Trump more comfortable for both sides of congress. On the other hand leakers deliberately salt their leaks with other people’s favorite words to throw bloodhounds off the scent. Pence’s office denied that the vice president wrote the op-ed.
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peterlawrencethompson
Trump is obviously an incompetent nincompoop, but then again so was our immediate past PM.
The more important indictment is that he is deeply racist as he has proven over and over again from long before he was elected (calling for black people who had been proven innocent by DNA evidence to be executed anyway in a full page ad he purchased in the, get this, New York Times).
Given that everyone knows he is a racist, even those who deny his racism know this, there is no way to avoid the conclusion that voicing support for him is itself a racist act. So Freedom Crier and 45govt have yet again outed themselves as racists by their enthusiastic support of Trump. MoneyBrain walks a fine line by condemning all of Trumps opposition like the NYT, but soft peddling actual support for Trump.
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Simple Simon
@RobertD. Lucas September 6, 2018 6:54 AM
i am not sure what bob is smoking this morning. But whatever it is he needs to stop. NOW.
The use of the special words are being flogged to death, clearly the anonymous NYT columnist would seek to mask him or herself by throwing a smoke screen?
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Simple Simon
@ks September 6, 2018 8:53 AM “Loyalty if I work for an entity and I disagree strongly with it’s operations I resign & leave. I don’t try to undermine its operations that would make me a traitor.”
What if the organization doing bad things? Can you explain WHY you think it treacherous to clean up an organization from the inside?
It is NEVER EVER treacherous to do the RIGHT thing.
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de pedantic Dribbler
“Here is the question: how is leadership defined?”
Well Mr Blogmaster, esoterically and academically lots of definitions (The Myths of the Strong Leader by Brown being as good a source as any other) but bluntly and practically the Darwin model of survival of the fittest is most apt definition: he or she who is strongest and most vicious in surviving adversaries will lead those thronged around!
In that regard this POTUS is formidible.
…there was upward trending excellent economic numbers before this POTUS and Graham or Bush or now Pence would have appointed conservative judges too…so there must be some other metrics that supposedly allow these supposed Christian folks to overlook repeated lying, attacks on legality, the basic rules of law and this relentless assault of the First Amendment of their much heralded constitution.
The irony is so stark to be uncontrollably hilarious: this POTUS ran on false claims that others will remove 2nd Amendment rights and too the importance to elect judges to uphold the written intent of said constitution….YET …
…He completely tries to take away the 1st Amendment rights and thrashes the constitution repetedly.
There must be a distinction between the effective leader like the pied piper of Hamelin who led his ‘devoted followers’ because they were mesmerised by his sweet tunes and the real leader who leads a divergent group of acolytes and naysayers because he has shown them a positive and workable way forward.
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Bush Tea
@ Simple Simon
i am not sure what bob is smoking this morning.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Like what..?!
Bob knows a lot about micro-biology ….. PERIOD.
Why should he not be entitled to talk shiite about politics….?
The problem comes from those who claim expertise and high learning…
and then cannot make BASIC sense in THEIR OWN areas of claimed expertise….
This is NOT intended to offend GP..
However, if it does, he can complain to the Trinity for Bushie….
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Sargeant
PLT stealing part of my thunder re Pence.
The opinion piece is not a paean to liberalism, the writer is a conservative who acknowledges that by and large they are getting their agenda through, the problem is that Trump is unable to stick to the program. He still yearns for the adulation of those whom he claims to despise (publicly) and reacts petulantly to their every criticism. He gets basic facts wrong and always has to be tutored about the ways of the world.
The writer invokes the 25th amendment and who benefits but the ever-unctuous Pence. Publicly deferent and obsequious, walks the tree steps behind the leader even stages his “walk out” at a football game where he knew before attending that players would kneel but a true conservative. This is a man who would not be a personal friend of the “Donald’ given his immorality, three wives, infidelity and the porn stars but who as Gov. of Indiana was behind a bill called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” which discriminated against gays and other minorities and who only backed down when Corporations threatened to boycott Indiana. This is a man who would not have dinner alone with a woman in deference to “Mother” (that’s what he calls his wife). This is a man who is privately cultivating support of the Evangelicals in preparation for his own run and if Trump stumbles would inherit the whole ball of wax.
Yeah the 25th amendment, Pence would welcome it and we would see what a true Conservative can do.
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Bush Tea
@ Simple Simon
It is NEVER EVER treacherous to do the RIGHT thing.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is the MOST BRILLIANT thing EVER said on BU …or anywhere else for that matter.
You are hereby forgiven by Bushie for being ‘simple’
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Sargeant
“immorality”
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WARU
I am firmly of the opinion. .that ….FACT…trump has an extremely short attention span…goldfish are genuises compared….and with that…at least for half the day, every day, he completely forget he is president and all that such a title entails…
Plus he is an illiterate who can barely read and write and cannot comprehend diddly squat. ..his own teachers said that.
Pence might be the informant but equally the Secretary of State Pompeo is relishing a presidential run himself and could be the fly on the wall.I think Pence is a yes man,a fence sitter.Pompeo is an aggressive ambitious bully type negotiator just a cut below the John Bolton type.
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Freedom Crier
peterlawrencethompson
September 6, 2018 9:22 AM
@ Peterlawrencethompson… As a Communist Marxist and you hold such a Disdain for people of European Decent …Then Why and you taking Money from the Capitalist EU…Where you say the Million Dollars they recently sent you is being used to Further Entrepreneurial projects in the Region? Marxist do not believe in Free Enterprise…so who is Monitoring and Controlling that money…a Marxist?
Hitler painted himself as a humanitarian…smoke and mirrors….that fraud.. don’t fool certain black people anymore..
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peterlawrencethompson
Freedom Crier September 6, 2018 10:02 AM
My grandmother was a White woman and I have always had close friends of all ethnicities. Your response to me does not make any sense… you try to paint me as a communist but cannot reconcile that with my day job teaching entrepreneurship or my record of being an entrepreneur.
The picture that you posted is fraudulent… Trump was one of 80 individuals to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1986, the first year that the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations gave out the award. Trump was honored because he gave money to support the establishment of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations which was founded by his friend William Denis Fugazy Sr., a transportation magnate from New York City It was set up in order to protest the awarding of “medals of liberty” to a group of 12 recent immigrants that included a Chinese-born architect, a Costa Rica-born astronaut, a leading expert on the psychology of race, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, but no “Irish, Italian, or Polish” (ie. White) people. The entire award is a monument to White fragility as a backlash against an award that didn’t honor enough White people.
Trump was on the list because he gave them money, absolutely nothing to do with that lie about contributing to “Black youth.” https://us-east-1.tchyn.io/snopes-production/uploads/2016/09/trump-immigrant.jpg
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peterlawrencethompson
@Freedom Crier September 6, 2018 10:02 AM
You have yet to accept my offer to come and visit what the real effort to build freedom for Barbadians looks like; it has nothing to do with being a “Crier:” being full of noise and hot air without any substantive contribution.. I will be a gracious host despite your racism.
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WARU
No matter what this fraud posts..trump will ALWAYS be a fraud AND a racist…it is in his DNA unclean and irredeemable..
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Freedom Crier
Hear from a very dear friend of mine whose father was an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Barbados.
He now resides in the US and was a Democrat before becoming Republican… he wrote…”That’s true!, some way around this period in time last year…. there were about 18% Black followers of Pres Trump… after about several months there were about 24 %.. then this WALK AWAY MOVEMENT kick in, only several months ago… and the last report a few days ago have Black support at 36 %.. by 2020 you can imagine how many there will be…the sleeping giant has awoken…I am laughing my as*s off at the mostly educated idiots, who don’t want to leave the plantation…. because they feed off the weak and uneducated misinform poor people.. they are told a lot of lies by the BLACK DUMORATS PARTY MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS …but Pres Trump had shown them, he wants them to share the AMERICAN DREAM, WHICH HAD BEEN STOLEN FROM THEM BY THE FEW THE EVIL LAP DOG EDUCATED BROTHERS.. Puppets
@Freedom Crier September 6, 2018 10:49 AM
So what? There are many many Black people who are brainwashed by White supremacist ideology. At least 36% according to this recent poll.
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peterlawrencethompson
@Freedom Crier September 6, 2018 10:49 AM
But you should know that the Rassmussen poll that you are citing is of very poor quality… the Quinnipiac University poll is much more reliable and it shows that Trump’s approval rating is currently 9% among black voters.
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