Politics & U.S. government

(July 4th, 2020) I love my country and I consider myself to be a patriot, but I am also ashamed of my country and do not believe that we are coming close to being the symbol of freedom and democracy that we pretend to be. While my love for this land runs deep, my true allegiance is to the whole earth and all of her people and life.

I have never really celebrated the 4th of July since I was in my early 20s because I became aware of how deep and painful the injustices are that we blind ourselves to here, and how we as a government spread injustice and misery around the world through our wars, being the largest arms dealer in the world and destroying functioning democracies to prop up friendly dictators. This has continued as long as I have been alive.

Since I was 23, I have fought against the military, environmental, and social justice policies of our government, both Democrat and Republican. I consider every president in my lifetime to be guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violators of our constitution. (But I love what Jimmy Carter has done since his time in the office.) I wish our domestic and foreign policies have spent more effort and money on compassion and humanitarian assistance then war. We will never be able to bring democracy anywhere with the barrel of a gun.

I do not have the strength, stamina or clarity of vision that I had just even 10 years ago (compounded my my constant migraine that makes everything more difficult), yet I am committed to spending the rest of my life doing what I can to help push my country to acknowledge our true (not whitewashed) history. We must take the important first step to acknowledging the suffering and crimes that we have caused so that we can commit ourselves to making the critical changes necessary before we can be the true global symbol of freedom and democracy and bring peace and justice to the world while mitigating as best as possible the continuing climate crisis, that I believe we can

Peace and love to you all. I hope you will join me in celebrating our interdependence with all life and bringing a new United States to life.

 I was on Parler for several weeks before it was taken down. I wanted to see for myself what was being portrayed in the media. The reality was much worse. I could only handle it for 10-15 minutes a day. The overt anger, hatred, racism, false information, threats and promises of violence was palpable and would quickly wear my migraine brain out. I caught a few screenshots here and there because I felt that I was like an archeologist and  should be documenting this in some way. It was like entering a completely alternate reality with it’s own set of rules and logic and facts. Qanon (The belief that the world is ruled by a cabal of pedophile satan worshipers and that most of the political and liberal elite are part of this hidden conspiracy) Christian, white supremacy, MAGA, were all mixed up and intersected together driven by a fairly small number of “Influencers” and right-wing media personalities and organizations (who I think are making bucketloads of money from the Trumpers). They all seem to have one immediate focus: Overturning the election by any means necessary making sure Trump remains president and all of his enemies are rounded up and imprisoned or executed.

These screenshots are presented for archival and educational purposes only. I find most of the memes and personal thoughts to be deeply offensive and troubling.

https://www.facebook.com/reinard.knutsen/posts/10221984831543819

(10/1/20) Why I think Trump is the most evil, undemocratic, unconstitutional, corrupt, disastrous, racist, and downright stupid president in my lifetime and why I believe we need to DUMP THE TRUMP!

I am unable to engage much in politics. My migraine escalates immediately and I soon become incapacitated and unable to think and communicate clearly. I tried to watch some of the debate on Tuesday, I tuned in about 45 minutes into it and I only lasted five minutes. What a farce and what an embarrassment to our country and political process.

Yet, I did not have to watch the debate to know that Trump is evil and has to go (and the current GOP agenda has to be defeated) and Biden is less evil and not the ideal candidate to lead our nation. I hope to post soon about what I like and don’t like and don’t trust about the Biden/Harris candidacy, but this is all about why I think we need to Dump Trump.

This is from a June 8, email to an extended family member who is a Trump supporter but even though so much has happened since then, I still think is relevant to the fundamental corruptness of Trump.

“Because of my migraine I am unable to spend more then a few hours a day on the computer and since I personally have not done any writing or collecting of statistics on the many ways that the Trump administration has acted undemocratically and unconstitutionally, I wanted to spend some time collecting some of the resources that I knew about and others that I googled and read. I will post links to these stories below. This exercise has been helpful for me. Thank you. I am sorry if I use any language that might offend you, but my migraine has affected my cognitive and communication abilities.

I want to note that I am not a Democrat though I have voted in the last two Utah Democrat primaries for Bernie Sanders and for Dennis Kucinich before that, but I have never voted for a Democrat president and have always voted for the Green Party presidential candidate since 1996. I think both parties are corrupt and inherently undemocratic and we are never going to have real political freedom until we have campaign finance reform and we are able to break the duopoly and allow easier access to the local and national political life for other political parties.

I have protested every president since Ronald Reagan when I became politically active in 1986. I have opposed policies and actions by Ronald Reagan, both Bushes, both Clintons, and Obama. As far as I am concerned they all violated the constitution, human rights, the environment, and enacted economic policies that hurt the middle class and poor and military and foreign policies that have created non stop crisis’ around the world resulting in the deaths of countless millions of civilians since world war two. Jimmy Carter is the only President in my life time that I like, though I think he has done much more good as an ex president then while in office.

But, of all the presidents that I have fought against, I believe that Trump is the most evil, undemocratic, unconstitutional, corrupt, disastrous, racist, and downright stupid president in my lifetime and why I believe we need to Dump Trump.  (I wanted to say more, but it is late and I want to get this posted so that I can go to bed and rest my head.   

At the bottom of this list, and perhaps most importantly is the text from Trump’s recent call to the Governors regarding the growing Black Lives Matter movement and the protests that turned violent after actions by law enforcement. https://www.cnn.com/.../wh-governors-call.../index.html  Please take the time to read his own words (He is insane). I cut and pasted the text so there are a lot of other interesting talks by General Miley, Def Sec Esper, Attorney General Barr and several governors.

Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, (He does not exonerate Trump as the president claims) https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

10 Crimes for Which Donald Trump Should Be Impeached

1. Trump uses the presidency for his own personal gain.

2. Trump has countless conflicts of interest and personal ethics violations.

3. He encouraged a foreign country to interfere in the US presidential election.

4. He publicly lied about his business dealings with Russia.

5. According to the Mueller Report, Trump attempted to obstruct justice multiple times.

6. He violated campaign finance laws.

7. Trump urged a foreign leader to help him smear his political opponent.

8. Millions of dollars that were raised for Trump's inauguration are STILL unaccounted for.

9. Trump illegally used his charitable foundation for political purposes.

10. Trump violated national security by giving his son-in-law top security clearance.

https://soapboxie.com/.../11-Crimes-For-Which-Donald...

Donald Trump’s Nuke-Testing Idea Is ‘Catastrophically Stupid’ https://www.forbes.com/.../donald-trumps-nuke-testing.../...

The first 5,276 false things Donald Trump said as U.S. president 6/2/19 https://projects.thestar.com/donald-trump-fact-check/

The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.

https://www.nytimes.com/.../trump-environment-rollbacks.html

A running list of how President Trump is changing environmental policy: The Trump administration has promised vast changes to U.S. science and environmental policy—and we’re tracking them here as they happen.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/.../how-trump-is.../

RULE OF LAW

President Trump, Mocking the Constitution

https://www.theusconstitution.org/.../president-trump.../

Former Pentagon Chief James Mattis Blasts Trump for Violating Constitution, https://nymag.com/.../former-secdef-mattis-blasts-trump...

Andrew Wortman created a well-researched and annotated thread that compiles 100 of Trump’s Constitutional offenses.

https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1120555910630342657

Trump plan to deploy troops in cities shocks generals

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-plan-to-deploy-troops-in...

Trump Administration Struggles To Explain What’s Criminal About 'Obamagate'

https://www.forbes.com/.../trump-administration.../...

Long List of Trump’s Legal Headaches

https://www.bloomberg.com/.../impeachment-adds-to-a-long...

The 10 worst things that Trump has done in 2019

https://www.dailykos.com/.../-The-10-worst-things-that...

Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress

https://www.nytimes.com/.../us/politics/trump-impeached.html

Report: 60+ Court Decisions Have Ruled Trump Policies Unconstitutional

https://hillreporter.com/report-60-court-decisions-have...

Russian Investigation Was Not A Hoax — Rod Rosenstein Contradicts Trump

https://hillreporter.com/russian-investigation-was-not-a...

ANTIFA Is Added To List Of Terrorist Groups By Trump

https://hillreporter.com/antifa-is-added-to-list-of...

Trump May be Railing Against Vote by Mail but GOP is Aggressively Pushing It

https://hillreporter.com/trump-may-be-railing-against...

Trump Hotel Charging Big Bucks For July 4 2020 Weekend

https://hillreporter.com/trump-hotel-charging-big-bucks...

WE ARE REPUBLICANS, AND WE WANT TRUMP DEFEATED

The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet. https://lincolnproject.us

Trump's ex-chief of staff agrees with Mattis: 'We need to look harder at who we elect'

https://thehill.com/.../501331-trumps-ex-chief-of-staff...

Ex-Joint Chiefs chairman: Trump threat to use military on protesters 'very dangerous'

https://thehill.com/.../501303-ex-joint-chiefs-chairman...

Ex-Defense secretary criticizes Trump for using military for 'partisan political purposes'

https://thehill.com/.../501293-ex-defense-secretary...

Trump expected to sign order lifting environmental review for big projects

https://thehill.com/.../501153-trump-expected-to-sign...

Trump social media order starts off on shaky legal ground

https://thehill.com/.../500221-trump-social-media-order...

Supreme Court to hear Trump administration plea to end DACA program for immigrants who came as children

https://www.usatoday.com/.../immigration.../2660091002/

Trump immigration policy on the line as Supreme Court weighs

https://www.cnbc.com/.../trump-immigration-policy-on-the...

MUSLIM BAN - https://www.au.org/tags/muslim-ban

Milley, America's Top General, Walks Into a Political Battle

https://www.yahoo.com/.../milley-americas-top-general...

READ: President Trump's call with US governors over protests

We're strongly looking for arrests. You have to get much tougher. You're gonna get over it. I know Gov. Walz is on the phone and we spoke and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days, I asked him to do that. You know, a lot of me -- we have all the men and women that you need. But people aren't calling them up.

You have to dominate. If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. They're going to run all over you, you'll look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate, and you have to arrest people, and you have to try people and they have to go to jail for long periods of time.

You have everybody on tape, you gotta arrest all those people, you gotta try them. And if they get five years or ten years, they have to get five years or ten years. There's no retribution. So I say that and the word is dominate. If you don't dominate your city and your state, they're gonna walk away with you. And we're doing it in Washington, in DC, we're going to do something that people haven't seen before. But we're going to have total domination. And then you have to put them in jail and you have to authorize whatever it is, whoever it is you authorize,

And I said you gotta use the National Guard and take numbers (INAUDIBLE). They didn't at first, then they did, and I'll tell you that's true, I don't know what it was ... those guys, third night, fourth night, they walked through that stuff like it was butter. They walked right through and you haven't had any problems since and I mean they know -- they're not going to go there, they're going to go some other place. But once you called that and you dominated, you took the worst place and you made it -- they didn't even cover it last night because there was so little action. So, you dominated, you dominated. Now what happened in New York, I have to tell you, I live in Manhattan. What's going on in Manhattan, I have no idea. New York's finest, they gotta be -- they need to do their jobs. I don't know what's happening in Manhattan but it's terrible. And because it's New York, because it's Manhattan, it gets a lot of press, so they really spend a lot of time on it. but New York is gonna have to toughen up and we'll send you National Guard if you want. You have the largest police force in the country, 40,000 people I understand, but what's going on in New York is terrible, it's terrible.

If you're weak and don't dominate the streets they're gonna stay away from you until you finally do it, and you don't want that. Philadelphia, you better toughen up because what's going on in Philadelphia like New York is terrible. It's terrible. You better toughen -- they never leave. I know you want to say all...hundred people. You've got a big National Guard out there that's ready to come in a time like now. I tell you, what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated. And it happened immediately.

All of the sudden my wife said to me, 'wow look at all these people.' They got out and were wearing dark black uniforms. They got out and they were there in the houses and they walked right down the street, knocking them out with tear gas, tear gas. Those guys, they were running. And the next night it was much less and then the next night, it's like you know what happened, they went to other cities. They're all looking for weak spots. Now what they're going to do is they're going to search out for perhaps smaller cities, smaller places. You've got to arrest these people. You've got to arrest these people and you've got to judge them, and you can't do the deal where they get one week in jail. These are terrorists, these are terrorists, they're looking to do bad things to our country.

They're Antifa and they're radical left. And the reason you have other radicals is because they've been watching this for years, many years. And they don't like this. Go back and study Occupy Wall Street, because you'll see the way that is, a thing of beauty, everybody said 'I can't believe how easy it was' it was an hour of...and when it was all over it was a beautiful thing. And that's the way it has to end for you,

I don't know what it is, politically where you don't want to call out people. They are already willing and able they want to fight for the country. I don't know what it is. Someday you'll have to explain it to me. But it takes so long to call them up. We're waiting for you, we're shocked there's areas, LA, we're shocked you're not using the greatest resource you can use and they're trained for this stuff and they're incredible. Why you're not calling them up? I don't know, but you're making a mistake because you're making yourself look like, look like fools. And some have done a great job. A lot of you, it's not, it's not good, it's very bad for our county. You know what, other countries watch this, they're watching us and they say 'boy they're really a pushover.' And we can't be a pushover. And you have all the resources, it's not like you don't have the resources.

So, we automatically have our experiment and that's...I hate to say, Minnesota, you had the first part, which was weak and pathetic, and you had the second part, which was domination, and those guys probably, largely left their (inaudible) one of your cities, one of your states because they're not getting anywhere in Minnesota anymore. So you have that perfect contrast of Minnesota phase one, Minnesota phase two. It's a beautiful thing to watch. It just can't be any better. There's no experiment needed. You don't have to do tests.

That's right. And you know when they have bricks you know they come armed with bricks and they have bricks and rocks big rocks and they have other things and they throw them, you know you're allowed to fight back. You don't have to have a brick hit you in the face and you don't do anything about it, you are allowed to fight back. Now I'm not asking my attorney general to have to stop me from saying that, but I would say that if a brick is thrown at somebody and it hits him, or maybe if it misses him, your very tough, strong, powerful people are allowed to fight back against that guy and very strongly and powerfully. That's what I think

You don't have to be careful, you don't have to be too careful and I'll tell you, you have to do the prosecutions, you don't do the prosecutions -- they're just going to be back. Whether it's in two years or two months they're gonna be back and you gotta do the prosecutions and you know when someone is throwing a rock, it's just like shooting a gun -- just like having a -- (INAUDIBLE) hit somebody in the face, wipe them out practically, we have a couple people badly hurt and there's no retribution, so you have to do retribution in my opinion, you have to use your own legal system. You do have a great legal system from everyone I've been speaking to but if you want this to stop you've got to - you have to prosecute these people,

OK, I want to thank all of you, be strong, be tough, be smart, be safe, be safe, very unfortunate and uh (INAUDIBLE) of the people you have to do it right. Many, many people, you know Mr. Floyd but there are many other people who have been badly hurt and killed and the way we're going to do it, the way we're going to stop the problem is to be fair and be strong, you have to be strong. Use our national guard, you're much better off with too many than too few. That's one thing we have to have, too many is a good thing, too few is unacceptable so go out there and get 'em,

https://www.cnn.com/.../wh-governors-call.../index.html