We Stand With Charlottesville

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -- Barack Obama

Yesterday there was a gathering at De La Guerra Plaza in downtown Santa Barbara to express solidarity with our friends in Charlottesville, Virginia, after the horrific events of Saturday. We showed up to condemn white supremacy and continue the fight for justice and liberty for all.

After a moment of silence, several people spoke, including one from the local group from SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national group dedicated to organizing white people to fight for racial justice.  It was a good-sized group attending the rally, especially given the lateness of the event's organization.

There wasn't much local coverage.  Noozhawk had a story.

I took a couple photos.

Little Sister Resister
The reverse said, "Love and Kindness Always Win"

panorama shot

One of the main points at the rally was that, while it is important to show up at rallies and demonstrations, it is what we do in-between times that will make the difference. We must continue to strive for change.

Santa Barbara is an insulated bubble. We don't feel the impacts of racism here as keenly as folks do in other parts of the country. But we must always raise our voice and act! Get involved and stay involved. Look for your chapter of SURJ, Just Communities, Indivisible, or other resistance groups. Get out the vote. Get involved in local politics. Inspire others.

Own your part of racism and oppression, even if it has been simply silence. Be silent no more. Speak out against hateful words and acts.  Be the change you want to see.

Do something. 

Here is a great essay: White Feelings 0-60 by Erynn Brook

The Southern Poverty Law Center put out an Action Guide. (Thanks to my Big Sister Resister for pointing me to this)  Go! Do Something!

If you don't have the time to get involved, perhaps you have the money.  Donate to organizations that fight the fight. Here are a few good ones to donate to:

The Southern Poverty Law Center
The Anti-Defamation League
The NAACP

or any of the organizations listed here: Racial Equity Resource Guide. Be sure to do your homework and check with Charity Navigator or another watchdog before you send your money anywhere!

I also wrote about hate groups and the uptick in hate violence a few weeks ago. You can read my post here: Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate....

Resist!

To Russia With Love

"Помни, я всегда рядом" ("Remember, I'm always next to you") 💕

I've written a lot about the Bully-in-Chief's words. He does not think twice about insulting anyone and everyone in his path. No one -- well, almost no one -- is safe from his bullying insults.

Today we play, who did he say it about? Friend, Family, or Foe?

Before we play the guessing game, just a small (and I mean tiny) sampling of insults for any Joe Schmo walking the planet. He insults people across the board... no matter who they are, even "normal" / non-enemy people such as journalists, actors, and Supreme Court Justices.  Take a look at these tweets...

I feel sorry for Rosie 's new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with @Rosie--a true loser. (about Rosie O'Donnell -- one of many hateful tweets about her)

You must admit that Bryant Gumbel is one of the dumbest racists around - an arrogant dope with no talent. Failed at CBS etc-why still on TV?

Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot - resign!

I have watched sloppy Graydon Carter fail and close Spy Magazine and now am watching him fail at @VanityFair Magazine. He is a total loser!  -- about Graydon Carter, Canadian journalist and magazine editor. 

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes.

The hatred that clown @krauthammer has for me is unbelievable – causes him to lie when many others say Trump easily won debate. -- about Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist. 

But even family and (would-be) friends are not spared. Can you guess who he was talking / tweeting about? (answers below)

Lightweight Senator @---- should focus on trying to get elected in <Southern state>--- a great state which is embarrassed by him.

Every Poll has me winning BIG.If you listen to dopey ----, a Trump hater, on @oreillyfactor, you would think I'm doing poorly. @FoxNews

Truly weird Senator --- of <Southern state> reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at DEBATE!

@--- was terrible on @TheFive yesterday. Angry and obnoxious, she will never make it on T.V. @FoxNews can do so much better!

@--- You were born stupid! 

Dopey  @--- I'm worth $8 billion and you're worth peanuts...without my show nobody would even know who you are.

.@--- is a low class slob who came to my office looking for consulting work and I had zero interest. Now he picks anti-Trump panels!  

Dummy writer @---, who wanted to do a second book with me for years (I said no), is now a hostile basket case who feels jilted!  

When --- asked me for my endorsement last time around, he was so awkward and goofy that we all should have known he could not win!

“I would never buy ---  any decent jewels or pictures. Why give her negotiable assets?”

“If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”  (OK, I couldn't make this horrible, disgusting, insulting quote anonymous)

But there is one person about whom TЯUMP has not uttered a single unkind word.  I dare you to find one. I couldn't. No, SCROTUS becomes a giggling pile of goo when he talks about his one true love. Oh! those butterflies! Here is what he has said about Putie the Cutie. (I owe a great debt to CNN for compiling these)

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/07/TRUMPPUTIN2-bennett.jpg&w=1484

Feb. 10, 2014
On "Fox and Friends": When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, (Putin) contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us ... I’ll just say this, they are doing – they’re outsmarting us at many turns, as we all understand. I mean, their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us. If you look at Syria or other places, they’re outsmarting us.”

Oct. 3, 2013
SCROTUS tells Larry King on Ora TV that Putin has done “a really great job outsmarting our country.”

April 12, 2014
The tiny-fisted cheeto tells Fox Business’ Eric Bolling that Putin was nice to him during Miss Universe.

April 12, 2014
“We just left Moscow,” Trump said. “He could not have been nicer. He was so nice and so everything. But you have to give him credit that what he’s doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong.”

In the same interview, the Mango Monkey praises Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

“Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle ...And he’s taken it away from the President, and you look at what he’s doing. And so smart. When you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, OK, ‘We’ll go and take it over.’ And he really goes step by step by step, and you have to give him a lot of credit.”

April 16, 2014
“Putin is having a great time toying with the President,” Trump says on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

tweet April 28, 2014
Putin has shown the world what happens when America has weak leaders. Peace Through Strength!

March 18, 2015
SCROTUS told the Daily Mail about his relationship with Putin: “the relationship is great, and it would be great if I had the position I should have.”

Li'l Faustus also said he received “a gift from Putin – an award and a beautiful letter.”

July 8, 2015
To CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he stated that if he were to become president, Putie would turn over Edward Snowden to the United States.

“I think I get along with (Putin) fine. I think he would be absolutely fine. He would never keep somebody like Snowden in Russia. He hates Obama. He doesn't respect Obama. Obama doesn't like him either. But he has no respect for Obama. Has a hatred for Obama. And Snowden is living the life. Look if that -- if I'm president, Putin says, hey, boom, you're gone. I guarantee you this.”

He retweeted someone stating Cutie Putie's supposed respect:"@bluestarwindow: @realDonaldTrump @bdean1468 Putin knows that Obama is a danger to the world. Putin will respect President Trump" True!

Sept. 29, 2015
Trump tells Bill O’Reilly: "I will tell you that I think in terms of leadership, he is getting an 'A,' and our president is not doing so well," Trump said. "They did not look good together."

Oct. 6, 2015
Trump tells conservative radio host Michael Savage he’s met Vladimir Putin and he's "great."  “Yes. Yes, a long time ago. We got along great, by the way.”

Dec. 18, 2015 (quote from CNN):

Trump said on Morning Joe that Putin was a better leader than Obama, and dismissed Joe Scarborough’s allegations that the Russian president “kills journalists that don’t agree with him.”
He added: "I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. There's a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing going on, a lot of stupidity."

“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” Trump said.

Dec. 20, 2015
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week"
“As far as the reporters are concerned — as far as the reporters are concerned, obviously I don't want that to happen. I think it's terrible — horrible. But, in all fairness to Putin, you're saying he killed people. I haven't' seen that. I don't know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he's killed? Because I've been — you know, you've been hearing this, but I haven't seen the name. Now, I think it would be despicable if that took place, but I haven't' seen any evidence that he killed anybody in terms of reporters.”


Dec. 21, 2015
To Iowa radio host Simon Conway, “I’ve always had a good instinct about Putin. I just feel that that’s a guy—and I can analyze people and you’re not always right, and it could be that I won’t like him. But I’ve always had a good feeling about him from the standpoint.”


April 26, 2016
SCROTUS, in a primary victory speech “We're going to have a great relationship with Putin and Russia.”

April 28, 2016 (quote from CNN)

Trump says Putin has been “very nice” to him:  "I'm saying that I'd possibly have a good relationship. He's been very nice to me," Trump told Bill O’Reilly. "If we can make a great deal for our country and get along with Russia that would be a tremendous thing. I would love to try it."

June 3, 2016
At a rally in California: “Then Putin said, ’Donald Trump is a genius, he’s going to be the next great leader of the United States.’ No, no, think of it. They wanted me to disavow what he said. How dare you call me a genius. How dare you call me a genius, Vladimir. Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with Russia? Wouldn’t that be good?"

July 27, 2016
At a campaign rally in Scranton, PA:  “wouldn't it be a great thing if we could get along with Russia.”

Sept. 7, 2016
SCROTUS says in a town hall with NBC’s Matt Lauer that he considers Putin a stronger leader than Barack Obama: “If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him. I've already said, he is really very much of a leader. I mean, you can say, 'Oh, isn't that a terrible thing' -- the man has very strong control over a country. ...“Now, it's a very different system, and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.”


Awwww..... 💖

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/08/cartoons-donald-trump-meets-with-vladimir-putin/

Putie has got something on SCROTUS.  Blackmail is the likely answer for this unabashed love affair.  Perhaps Little Sister Resister will explore that in a future post.....

In the meantime. #Resist!


********************

Now for the answers, friend or family?

Lightweight Senator @RandPaul should focus on trying to get elected in Kentucky--- a great state which is embarrassed by him. -- about Rand Paul, Republican Senator

Every Poll has me winning BIG.If you listen to dopey Karl Rove, a Trump hater, on @oreillyfactor, you would think I'm doing poorly. @FoxNews -- about Karl Rove, Republican strategist for President Bush / de facto President.

Truly weird Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at DEBATE! --about Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) again

@MeghanMcCain was terrible on @TheFive yesterday. Angry and obnoxious, she will never make it on T.V. @FoxNews can do so much better! -- about Meghan McCain, Fox News contributor and Senator McCain's daughter

@michellemalkin You were born stupid!  -- about Michelle Malkin, Conservative Blogger and Fox Contributor

Dopey @Lord_Sugar I'm worth $8 billion and you're worth peanuts...without my show nobody would even know who you are. -- about Lord Sugar,  Fellow billionaire and star of the British version of "The Apprentice"

When Mitt Romney asked me for my endorsement last time around, he was so awkward and goofy that we all should have known he could not win! -- About Mitt Romney, Republican Governor of Massachusetts and Preisidential candidate.

.@FrankLuntz is a low class slob who came to my office looking for consulting work and I had zero interest. Now he picks anti-Trump panels! - about Frank Luntz, Republican PR guy and Fox News contributor

Dummy writer @tonyschwartz, who wanted to do a second book with me for years (I said no), is now a hostile basket case who feels jilted! -- about Tony Schwartz, who collaborated and ghost-wrote "Art of the Deal"

I would never buy Ivana any decent jewels or pictures. Why give her negotiable assets?  -- about his then-wife Ivana

And on The View (just seeing this on my blog gives me the willies): “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

#Resist #Resist #Resist

200-Day Check-In

"You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it." Paulo Coelho

In one of my early posts in February, I predicted that President Asterisk's ouster would come within 200 days, and it would be by impeachment. I said, "The Russian thing will surely implode very soon and there may be good reason not only to impeach TЯUMP but to jail him."  

Two hundred days is upon us, and he's holding on. But barely. I believe an ouster will come, as the Russia thing is indeed imploding. 200 days was a little optimistic, but maybe by the end of the year? Surely not after the 2018 elections.  I still predict it will be by impeachment or threat of impeachment. Pressure to resign in the face of impeachment?

Let's see where we are at this 6-month-ish mark.  Here are my memories of the timeline, with what I consider the most smokingest of guns, and my take on Current Events.  These are just highlights from my pea-brain. For the bigger picture, refer to FactCheck.org's timeline or this excellent interactive timeline from the Washington Post.

Of course we all heard the rumblings even during the campaign. Remember when the Tiny-Fisted Oompa Loompa himself called upon Russia to hack Hillary's emails and find those missing ones?



The Russia Thing really started to gain steam when National Security Advisor Mike Flynn was fired, before Month 1 was out. The official reason was that Mike lied to VP Pence about his meetings with the Russian Ambassador. But this piece of stink cheese was really the first inkling that not only did the Russians interfere with our election, but that the TЯUMP campaign actively colluded.

(Yes, I know, it's not official that collusion happened. But it happened. We all know it happened. The facts will continue to emerge and there soon will be Official Evidence that it happened, up to the highest level.)

Around the same time. Spicey backpedaled HARD when he talked about Paul Manafort in his "limited role" in the campaign.  Yeah. Limited role as Effing Campaign Manager. Oh yeah, I forgot. It's the Backwards Administration. Lies are Truth.

Around the time that Manafort's role was re-imagined, Mike Flynn, "Mr. When-you-are-given-immunity,-that-means-you-probably-committed-a-crime" himself, asked for immunity in exchange for his testimony to Congress.

Ummmm....no.  Thank you. No. (Not at this time)

In March, FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers testified in front of Congress and stated that the investigation had extended to include members of the TЯUMP campaign staff. It was a bombshell.

Shortly after that, Representative Kevin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, ran to the Whitewash House with information pertinent to the Russian investigation that he obtained from .... the Whitewash House. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) was the first in my memory to publicly state the need for an independent investigator when he rebuked Nunes's actions.

The stuff really started to fly in May and June. On May 9th, 45 fired FBI Director James Comey and admitted on National TV, and to the Russians themselves, that he fired Comey to make the Russia thing go away. This was a blatant admission of Obstruction of Justice, and a couple weeks later Comey testified that SCROTUS indeed tried to obstruct justice when he got the blending-in-with-the-curtains-guy alone and pressured him with, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." And when Jim didn't, Jim was axed.

In May, former FBI director Robert Meuller was named to head the special investigation. He got busy quick, doing much more than the congressional investigation committees did, and as of last week, he has convened a grand jury.

In the meantime, SCROTUS has asserted -- by tweet, of course -- his power to pardon, and he has inquired into if he has the power to pardon himself and his family. Let that sink in.  The President* of the United States wants to be able to pardon himself. 

Let's move right to the sentencing phase, shall we?

But maybe he's not even under investigation. Maybe? Yes? No?




Junior himself laid another golden egg of evidence when he released his emails ahead of the New York Times, admitting that he took a meeting with Russians for the purpose of obtaining dirt on Hillary.

OK, really? Can we stop this thing now? Please?

No. It goes on.  And the Mango Mussolini continues to insist that the investigation is a "witch hunt" and "fake news." His minions keep rallying around the "fake news" line. It's really getting annoying.

The press continues to dig, leaks continue to pour from the Whitewash House. The trickle has become a waterfall. It's hard to tread through all the muck. Someone wants us to know things. Many things. Bad things.

http://api.theweek.com/sites/default/files/mrz080617dAPR.jpg

In only six months, we have gone from an inkling of wrong-doing by our #AlternativeLeader to a raging river of evidence. To compare, it was 2 years, 1 month and 23 days between the break-in at the Watergate Hotel and the resignation of President Nixon.

Keep your eye on that Grand Jury.

This isn't going away, and can only end in one way. Republican leadership is starting to turn on SCROTUS. The momentum is gaining. Articles of Impeachment have been filed by Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), this time on the basis of Obstruction of Justice. I'm confident that it won't be long before some brave Republicans will put Country first and will pressure 45 to step aside and let us return to calm waters.

....If calm waters can be reclaimed. This opinion piece in the Washington Post and this one from The Week paint a scary scenario. It may be that our Republic has been damaged forever.

*

Other recent events at the 200-day mark:

The Whitewash House is a revolving door of staffers. When SCROTUS can get someone to take the job, they leave soon after. Hundreds of positions still aren't filled. CNN reported that of over 500 positions that are deemed essential, only about one-fifth have been filled. This is far behind the last three Presidents at the same point in their terms.

He is being very vile to Attorney General and Chief Elf, Jeff Sessions, who has stood by him through thick and thicker. Jeff may be next though the revolving door.

The Republicans' attempts at repealing the Affordable Healthcare Act have failed miserably, and SCROTUS plans to sabotage the ACA in some sick attempt to create failure, and thus, crisis.

SCROTUS used some strong rhetoric to North Korea and brings us one step closer to war.

You know, business as #notnormal.

Stay afloat. Resist.

Tongue Lashing: SCROTUSese Part 2

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis, 7-27-2017

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." -- George Orwell

In my last post I looked at some aspects of the language of the Twitiot.  I looked mostly at the incredulity of it: the bizarre discourse, the tweeting, the nonsense.

Today, in Part 2, I look at the ways in which the language of the Rabid Yam is changing our very language, the way we use it and the words we use.

SCROTUS is using a whole new kind of language, different from any President before and different than most government officials. I'm calling it Ugly Talk. It's the language that demeans, disparages, and incites hate against groups, particularly Mexicans, women, and Muslims.

Ugly Talk is becoming the new normal.

This week he described Mexicans this way:

The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people — these beautiful, beautiful, innocent young people — will find no safe haven anywhere in our country. 

And you've seen the stories about some of these animals. They don't want to use guns, because it's too fast and it's not painful enough. So they'll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others, and they slice them and dice them with a knife, because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die. And these are the animals that we've been protecting for so long. Well, they're not being protected any longer, folks.

The one time he can string words together in Standard American English, he uses horrendous imagery to disparage Mexicans. This quote is so packed with unpleasantness, it is hard to absorb.

This week he also spoke to a group of police officers. He encouraged them to go ahead and be rough. Here is some Ugly Talk to police officers:

Now, we’re getting them out anyway, but we’d like to get them out a lot faster. And when you see these towns, and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough — I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’ 

Like, when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over their head. Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, ‘You can take the hand away, O.K.?’

We all know about his hateful language toward women. There are dozens of examples and I really don't want to present them here. You know what they are and where to find them.  His language about women is some of the ugliest of Ugly Talk.

With him as a role model and thereby an appover of Ugly Talk, his staff also has started using detestable language. The new Whitewash House Communications Director, --communications director-- smarm-master Anthony Scaramucci, in an interview with the New York Times, said these things that follow. I'm sorry for this language on my blog. It is bigly Ugly Talk. Our government officials now communicate this way.

What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President's agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people.

 I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own cock.

Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac..."Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months."

What is becoming of us?!

It's scary to think that this bullying language is becoming the new normal. We can't let this become normal.


Not only is Ugly Talk becoming the normal government style, language is becoming meaningless. Lies are alternative facts.  News is fake.

"Fake News."  Now that's a loaded phrase, isn't it?  It used to be relegated to the likes of tabloids like The National Enquirer or Weekly World News, both of which enticed us at supermarket checkout counters with blazing headlines claiming, Elvis Is Alive! or  Ted Kennedy Secret Love Child!

<As an aside, I find it surreally ironic that one of SCROTUS's allies in the press is the freaking National Enquirer, the Grand-daddy of Fake News.>

Legitimately fake news became part of the national consciousness around election time, when it was brought to light that news stories on social media were made up, meant to mislead, misdirect, and incite. It was shown that big data could be used to target individuals with news that would influence them. I explored this subject in depth in one of my early posts.

After Hair Hitler won, the definition of "fake news" simply became "news that SCROTUS doesn't like."  There's real power in those two words. The phrase undermines the legitimate press, a institution that is important to the very core of our Nation's identity and security. We depend on the press to be the eyes and ears of the People. To call them "fake" is to de-legitimize them, to de-legitimize us, the Citizens. It upends one of our very basic tenants of our Republic - the First Amendment of the United States Constitution! And that is disturbing. And not normal. And it shows that language can be powerful and dangerous.

Read this article from NPR, which, with linguist George Lakeoff, parses the phrase "fake news" and illustrates the real danger of this concept becoming the norm.

Bigly. Sad! Tremendous. Yuuuuuge. These SCROTUS-isms are slithering into our vernacular.  The New York Times used a SCROTUS-tweet-style headline recently:   Trump: Trapped in his Lies, Keeps Lying. Sad! 

Even before the election, his catch-phrases crept into advertisements. His style is mimicked by comedians, cartoonists,  and the man on the street. TЯUMP-isms have found their way into our fabric. And they may be changing political discourse forever, in all the ways that I've outlined here.

Watch this excellent video about how SCROTUS-ims are changing our language, quickly and bigly.

So, Little Sister Resister, are there any positive ways that SCROTUS's language usage is changing us?

I'm glad you asked! You know that Little Sister Resister tries to find the positives in this nightmare we are living through.  And, acutually, yes, there are some tremendous positives!

45 is making dictionaries great again! People are becoming more tuned in, listening closer, and they are looking up words more often. People are looking to Dictionaries to be a trustworthy source to lead them the Truth. ...And the more Truth in these weird Orwellian times, the better. 

Another positive. Nascent English-as-a-second-langauge learners are using TЯUMP speeches to help them learn the language.  His simplistic, repetitive style, it turns out, is a perfect place to learn English. Kind of scary, yes, I admit it.....but any learning is good learning in my book! 

OK. That's all the positives I could find.  Oh, maybe one more.  His language is fodder for our comedians. I leave you with Samantha Bee, in an avant-garde short film rendering of the wonders of SCROTUS-ese. 

As always, thank you for reading. And keep up the Resistance!

The Language Butcher

"The Portrait of a Blinking Idiot"

--Arragon, The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare

Little Sister Resister is a language person, and always has been. Language has been my avocation and also my vocation. So, I find the unique new-found language of SCROTUSese fascinating. It's also disgusting and frustrating and confounding.

The Linguist in me wants to look at his language scientifically. There is nothing I'd love better than to analyze his speech myself. But I don't have the time, nor truthfully, the expertise. But luckily there have been plenty of language scientists analyzing his language for us. 

SCROTUS himself has said “I love the poorly educated!” -- and we know he loves himself most of all. So, let's look at this Language Butcher, shall we?

One of the first probes into his language that I found interesting was this analysis, posted on YouTube a full year before the election.  It's an interesting theory, that he is a salesman and uses language to that end.

<

The video analysis above points out that other analyists have pegged SCROTUS's language at a 4th grade level.

A different analysis (cited here by the Washington Post) that looks at Presidential language complexity throughout history, pegs SCROTUS at 6th grade level. Or at times, he sinks to the 3rd-grade level. Whichever it is, it is low, one of the lowest in our history. And I submit that this low-complexity by itself can account for his appeal to his base. In general, however, most recent Presidents have had low-level speech, between 6th and 7th grades, as Carnegie-Mellon researchers have discovered.  There is much more to SCROTUS's language than just the low level of complexity.

When he has a teleprompter in front of him, or a script, he does OK. Mostly OK.  

He sounded pretty darn Presidential when he read his February 28 address to the joint houses of Congress, didn't he? He had a decent speech writer, and he read the words real good. Many of us came away from that speech thinking, "Well, damn! He can sound like a President!"  It was short-lived. 

Even when he has a script, he interjects his own nonsense. And I mean nonsense in the true sense of the word. NON-sense.  

One example. In March, 2017 he interviewed Dr. Peggy Annette Whitson, a record-setting astronaut, and it was painful to watch. He could barely read the script, and his ad-libs were cringe-worthy.

He performed well reading his inaugural speech, I've heard. I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to it, but here it is for reference.

This speech itself has been analyzed front to back. Here is a brief analysis of the inaugural address, which compares it to all 57 other inaugural speeches. SCROTUS's speech is in the running for the simplest speech, which is the trend in modern times, and wins the shortest-sentence category. 

This analysis looks at the use of the language in the inaugural speech to the end of promoting a victim mentality, which goes directly to SCROTUS's frequent fervent appeals to his base.

Here is an annotated version by the New York Times that is more of a socio-political analysis, still interesting, so I include it.

And then there is his spontaneous speech. Train wreck. A train wreck of language. Not even language. There is barely syntax. There are strings of words without much of anything else. I posted before, about his interviews with Time and with the Associated Press. Almost every spontaneous utterance he spouts is unintelligibile.

Here is a clip from the Summer of 2015, right around the time he announced his candidacy.

/span>

Here's the transcript of this "sentence," if you don't care to watch the foul lump of deformity spout his gross concoction of word-like substances:

Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist  and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart —you know, if you're a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it's true!—but when you're a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that's why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we're a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it's not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it's four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven't figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it's gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians  are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.

If you understand this, please let us know in the comments!

In an earlier blog post I pointed you to the transcript of a couple press interviews, one with Time magazine and one with the Associated Press. Both organizations printed the entire transcript of the interviews, in all their fatuous flapdoodle. 

Here they are again. Read them if you dare. You may feel like you are in a parallel universe after reading them. It's English, and yet..... it's not!

Time Magazine transcript, March 22, 2017

AP Interview transcript, April 23, 2017

If you think it's bad for us native English speakers, you can imagine that his incoherence has been a problem with interpreters. They have bigly difficulty translating SCROTUSese. This article from The Independent describes the mighty struggle that Japanese translators suffer, and the anxiety they feel over sounding "stupid." Hindi translators don't bother translating the whole, but resort to summarizing and offering sound bites. The effect is that it is easier for their readers to understand, and it makes him sound intelligible. Read The Guardian's article for more. Fascinating stuff.

Newsweek also outlined the struggles that translators, particularly Japanese translators, have. The pain is real. 

NPR has a good interview with a Persian interpreter, who described his problems as a SCROTUSese-to-Persian translator.

As alarming as non-sensical he sounds, to us and to foreigners, his base perceives this differently than we do. This article from Scientific American delves into their differing perceptions. His supporters see him as "a straight shooter" who "doesn't mince words." And they are right. He doesn't mince words. He puts them in his VitaMix and turns the dial to 11. 

This analysis from ThinkProgress also opines that his use of language makes him seem more anti-politician, which is what his base likes about him.

"I have the best words." --SCROTUS

So, what about his words? Without an analysis of the whole of his language, we can look at just the words.

Vanity Fair describes an artificial intelligence analysis that compares the Candidate Cheeto's most frequent words with Candidate Clinton's. Interesting read.

Cogito, another artificial intelligence beast, looked at a few different classes of words during his inaugural speech as part of a bigger analysis. Follow their links for more.

Your Dictionary outlines his 20 most used words in a slide show with examples. Here are the 20 most-used words:

Win/winning

Stupid 

Weak 

Loser 

We 

They 

Politcally correct 

Moron 

Smart 

Tough 

Dangerous 

Bad 

Lightweight 

Amazing 

Huge 

Tremendous 

Terrific 

Zero 

Out of control

Sounds like a schoolyard bully to me.

And then....and then.... there's the whole Twitterverse. Oh my goodness, that is a whole bowl of linguistic soup, right there. Not only is Twitter a dialect unto itself (or set of dialects), SCROTUS's reliance on it as his chief method of communicating to the masses is *ahem* unpresidented! And wow! does he mangle things there!

He has gifted us grammar nerds a wonderful treasure trove of bigly gaffes. I've said it again and again to third graders: You, too, can become President! Just have a look. It's enough to make a grammarian covfefe on the spot!

Here's another complication of Twitter gaffes, compiled by Business Insider. And even FAUX News has a list.

Face it, he's an idiot.

(An aside: Just for fun, here is a good link. It archives every single SCROTUS tweet. Beautifully searchable. The TЯUMP Twitter Archive)

All of this brings us to the original article that my friend Karen shared with me, Trump’s Degradation of the Language, when she asked me to blog about his language. He degrades language and makes it superfluous. Lies become alternative facts. The salesman becomes the shyster. The language itself doesn't matter anymore.

SCROTUS's language does not stand on its own, and it's not in a bubble. It is having an impact on our greater language evolution. Language is a leaving, breathing beast, always evolving. SCROTUS's interesting use of language and all the talk of it, is effecting a change in our language. But that's the stuff of another blog post. Part II to come. 

(sorry, Karen, Part II may have been what you were after!)

In the end, all of this may all simply be the reflection of a man falling down the rabbit hole of dementia. None of it is intentional, and all the analysis in the world doesn't change the fact that his language is not normal. In the least. Not any part of it. All of the reading that I've done for this post -- and I've done a lot, as you have if you clicked through to some of those links -- brings me around to the dementia angle. There is something very wrong with him. I outlined this theory in an earlier post from April, and I'm cemented in my belief that he is suffering from dementia. Or rather, we are all suffering from his dementia. Other writers are bringing this issue to light. Statnews recently published an excellent analysis and comparison.

If it's true, it could go very bad. We're in real trouble. 

Thanks for reading. Keep up the Resistance!

Who said it? Don Corolone or Don Scrotolone?

"A group of politicians deciding to dump a President because his morals are bad is like the Mafia getting together to bump off the Godfather for not going to church on Sunday." -- Russell Baker

Who said it? Mob Boss or Toddler Boss? (answers below)

1. "Goddamn FBI don't respect nothin'."

2. "A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults."

3. "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty."

4. "Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family."

5. "Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut."

6. "The only one who can do what I do is me."

7. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it"

8. "I'm just a businessman, giving the people what they want."

9.“I never lie to any man because I don’t fear anyone. The only time you lie is when you are afraid.”

10. "You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible."

11. "Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.”

12. “It has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars."

13. "The best way to enter our business is to be born into it."

14. "They better be careful or I will unleash big time on them."

15. "Maybe he should have been roughed up."

16. “I can’t stand squealers, hit that guy!"

17. "I'll beat the crap out of you!"

18. "You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!" 

19. "To me being a gangster was better than being President of the United States."


And I'm just gonna leave these right here.....

The Cabinet Love-Fest (video)

*  

The Don demands loyalty (video)

Who said it?

1. "Goddamn FBI don't respect nothin'."  Sonny Corelone, The Godfather

2. "A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults." Don Vito Corelone, The Godfather

3. "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty." SCROTUS

4. "Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family."  Don Vito Corleone, The Godfather

5. "Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut."  James Conway, Goodfellas

6. "The only one who can do what I do is me."  Frank Costello, The Departed

7. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it" SCROTUS

8. "I'm just a businessman, giving the people what they want." Al Capone, American gangster

9.“I never lie to any man because I don’t fear anyone. The only time you lie is when you are afraid.” John Gotti, American Mafia Boss

10. "You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible." SCROTUS

11. "Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.” Sonny Corolone, The Godfather

12. “It has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars." SCROTUS

13. "The best way to enter our business is to be born into it."  Joseph Massino, American mobster

14. "They better be careful or I will unleash big time on them." SCROTUS

15. "Maybe he should have been roughed up." SCROTUS

16. “I can’t stand squealers, hit that guy!" Albert Anastasia, American mafia boss

17. "I'll beat the crap out of you!" SCROTUS

18. "You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!" SCROTUS

19. "To me being a gangster was better than being President of the United States."   Henry Hill, Goodfellas

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today's topic was suggested by a good friend, another Sister Resister. Thanks, Karen!


One of the blights upon our country is racism and hate violence. This horrid set of behaviors has been around as long as people began to congregate into groups. In America, hate, unfortunately, has a thread in the underpinning of our nation's history. Much has been written about the increase in hate acts since November 8, 2016. Has there really been an increase? And what does it look like?

The topic is in the forefront of our minds. Just a couple weeks ago, two brave men died defending two young women, one black, one wearing a hijab, on a Portland train who were being harassed by a hateful man. The murderer was spouting hateful, racist remarks before three men confronted him. The murderer began stabbing. He killed two and seriously injured a third.. The city of Portland was wounded deeply by this hate crime, including my friend who asked me to write about it.

Portraits of Three Heroes: Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23; Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, who survived the attack; and Rick Best, 53

The Portland incident is just one of a large number of hate crimes committed since the election.

As Vox has reported, it is hard to measure the increase in hate crimes, as the FBI and other police organizations do not keep good statsitics on hate crimes. It is hard to track hate crimes for a variety of reasons, including the fact that police agencies vary on how they categorize crimes; the fact that some states don't have hate crime laws at all; as well as the fact that hate crime victims underreport the crimes against them.  As hard as it is to measure the increase in hate crimes, I conclude that such crimes are probably vastly underreported, if anything.

Despite the difficulty in pinpointing hate crimes, there are some statistics that we can look to. The Southern Poverty Law Center has determined that there is an increase in hate groups. The Right should be able to agree to that fact: even Faux News reported the SPLC's findings.  SLPC reports that hate groups against Muslims in particular tripled between 2015 and 2016.

If there is an increase in hate groups, it follows logically that there is an increase in hate violence. Peeple who convene on the basis of hating a group of fellow human beings are not sitting around crocheting doilies. The SPLC's report outlines an increase in hate crimes as well, citing FBI statistics, including a 67% increase in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 alone. The excellent article gives additional links to issues surrounding hate groups.

Before we go to too far into the effects, let us look at the source of the hate.  The authority figure, the permission-giver: the Hater-in-Chief.

SCROTUS does not shy away from hateful rhetoric. He does not always reproach hateful rhetoric. In fact, he embraces it. He is, quite simply, a purveyor of hateful rhetoric.  He has insulted Mexicans left and right, calling them rapists; he asserted that a federal judge with Mexican heritage could not be impartial because "he's a Mexican;" and, of course, he has his dream to build a wall.

His hatred toward Muslims, in words and actions, is well-documented. In words, for example, he insulted a Gold Star Family, who happened to be Muslim, when the soldier's father spoke about their hero son at the Democratic National Convention. And of course, his most famous action of Muslim hatred: his two executive orders -- luckily deemed illegal by the courts -- banning Muslims from certain countries. He targeted seven countries from which to ban Muslims, though no violent act in the US has been at the hands of any citizen of any of the targeted countries,. "Coincidentally,"  the countries who HAVE exported violent criminals to commit violent acts in the US but who do business with SCROTUS, are conspicuously off the ban list.  Luckily, we have checks and balances, Bitch, and that sh*t won't fly in the courts!

I am not even going to touch his misogynstic rhetoric and actions in this post.

The man is a violent man. SCROTUS himself directly promoted violence at many of his campaign rallies. Washable has a ton of videos here, where the Orange Mussolini fosters violence against protesters. A wise Federal Judge has allowed a lawsuit to go ahead against SCROTUS which alleges he incited violence at one of his rallies.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a comprehensive article about what they call The Trump Effect, emboldening haters to act out their hate. Read it here.

There are many, many instances where SCROTUS inflamed his supporters and emboldened them to act out. There have been plenty of reports of violence in the name of The Tiny-Fisted Cheeto.  It is really overwhelming how many hate crimes have been committed since the election. There are way too many to even give a representative few here.  It's actually staggering, and quite sobering. There are groups tracking hate crimes, however, and I've included links below.

ThinkProgress has also compiled statistics more narrow than the SPLC's, but still alarming. They include an accounting of the increase in hate violence in our great land directly referenced to SCROTUS.  From ThinkProgress:

And while Trump has done little to quell the rise in hate, the connection between many of these occurrences and his presidency is clear: 109 (42 percent) of the incidents we tracked over the past three months included specific references to Trump, his election, or his policies.

Slate.com has an updating list of hate crimes reported across the country.

ProPublica is also tracking hate crimes across America.

These are difficult to read, but it is important that we do, and that we do not stick our heads in the sand, and that we do not let TЯUMP supporters whitewash the facts.

When your SCROTUS-supporting "friends" cry out about violence against TЯUMP supporters, you can cite ThinkProgress's statistics. They include an "other" category. Of the 261 hate crimes they documented in their report, 40 were against "others," which include  "women, immigrants, Trump supporters, anti-Trump protestors and other individuals."  Violence against SCROTUS supporters happens in very small numbers. So small that I had trouble finding incidents reported by reputable sources. One source I found was from Breitbart, which reported ten (10).  Ahem. Breitbart. Ten.  The SPLC reported 27.

Compare that to the 867 bias-reacted acts complied by the SPLC in the first 10 days after the election.

In the end, the fact of the matter is, our #AlternateLeader is horribly hateful. He is racist and misogynistic, and he advances those views among his followers. But even if he weren't, even if he didn't spew hateful remarks and incite violence, his silence in the face of violence is deafening. He has been slow to condemn violent acts, or quiet altogether, including being very slow to respond to the Portland train attacks.

Eldridge Cleaver remarked, "You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem."  SCROTUS is not only part of the problem; he is the problem.

There may not be an increase in hate itself in America.  Hate has been around since the dawn of man. But in 2017,  there is a well-documented  increase in the boldness of haters to express their noxious viewpoints. That is a fact.


And so what do we do, brother and sister resisters?  We continue on our path of love. We commit frequent Acts of Love. We engage people in conversation. We continue to be the ones who stand up to harassment. We urge our representatives to create legislation that punishes hate crimes and fosters love and acceptance, or at least tolerance. We continue to protest peacefully. We donate to organizations that resist hate, such as the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League. We love, fiercely and with abandon, every person that strives to live in peace within our great country's shores.  And we drive out hate.