Another day, another broken promise (and more lies) from Donald Trump.
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake. Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble . . .”— Witches’ song from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
THE BIGGEST LIE OF ALL in recent days (Oct. 21)—With Congress not even in session or about to be, lying Donald spouted off that a new big tax cut for middle-class Americans will be passed by Nov 1 “or even sooner”—during the 14 days before the mid-term election. Sadly, some people will believe that bull spit. No such plan exists.
During his 2016 presidential run, then candidate Trump frequently brought up the ancestry issue to discredit Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a prominent opponent. She had mentioned family legend of her having Native American ancestry. He seized the opportunity to disparage her by nicknaming her Pocahontas. “She made up her heritage, which I think is racist,” Trump told NBC News in June of that year. “She used the fact that she was Native American to advance her career. Elizabeth Warren is a total fraud.”
To such a benign comment from Elizabeth, that was a pretty vicious response—especially from a true textbook fraud who actually has been making things up on a daily basis for many years.
Donald has harped on that matter at every opportunity over the past couple of years—referring to Warren as “Pocahontas” even at an event honoring the efforts of Native Americans in World War II. At a rally in Montana this past July 5, Trump went off on a lengthy rant about this one of his favorite targets: Elizabeth Warren and her family’s belief in some distant measure of Native American ancestry. Through it all, Warren has been rumored to be a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. Donald, with glee, told the rally crowd he looked forward to making Warren “prove” her Native American heritage on the debate stage if the two were to square off. “I’m going to get one of those little $2 [DNA testing] kits and in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims she’s of Indian heritage . . . ,” Trump said. “And we will say, ‘I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian’."
The crowd cheered wildly. What manner of people are those who cheer on such a petty, self-absorbed bully—endorsing a deceitful and chaotic presidency?
And stop and consider. Donald was talking as he expected that this minor ancestry thing might be a major issue in an actual on-stage presidential debate, playing a key role in deciding who occupies the Oval office. A more crucial issue than the welfare of the public, the economy, national defense, the environment . . .
In an unprecedented effort to diffuse lingering questions about her heritage ahead of a possible presidential bid, Warren on Oct. 15 released the results of a DNA test that she said proves she has a Native American in her ancestry. The test — conducted by Stanford University professor Carlos D. Bustamante, a leading authority on genetic ancestry, and his team — showed “the vast majority” of Warren’s ancestry is European, but also showed “strong evidence” that Warren’s DNA sample reveals a Native American in her family tree “six to 10 generations ago.” Slight perhaps, but there.
Warren has said originally that, according to family lore, her great-great-great-grandmother O.C. Sarah Smith was at least part Cherokee Indian. She had claimed nothing beyond that.
After the DNA findings she also tweeted Trump: “By the way @realDonaldTrump: Remember saying on 7/5 that you’d give $1M to a charity of my choice if my DNA showed Native American ancestry? I remember – and here's the verdict. Please send the check to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center: http://www.niwrc.org/donate-niwrc"
Trump immediately labeled the findings “bogus,” blindly assuming greater knowledge through his special self-proclaimed “genius” than a learned expert in the field of genetics.
Soon following came his denial as quoted in the heading of this blog (“I didn’t say that,” etc.). A quick Google search promptly located a video, tagged Fox News, of his entire July 5 rant against Warren, complete with gestures and vocal dramatics. It ends with the comment: “I will give you a million dollars . . .”
See: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/05/trump_offers_1_million_for_pocahontas_elizabeth_warren_to_take_dna_test.html
Promises, promises. Still waiting to see those tax returns, Donald. And why don’t you try dredging up a little actual brain power and responding to some of Warren’s ongoing charges against your administration—instead of prancing and ranting about next to nothing at one of your personal pep rallies?
As a typical American mongrel, I’ve never messed with DNA. I have traced via documentation ancestry that includes English, French, German, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Danish, a slight touch of Norwegian and perhaps Spanish. Some of its detail goes back well before the 1066 Battle of Hastings and likely has disappeared from my DNA over a millennium or so.
I hope no one will make a federal case of it when I say I seem to descend from Charlemagne. The Mayflower Society also has verified my 1620 Colonial beginnings.
I’ve always yearned to find Asian, African and Native American ancestry. I have authored and published six large volumes of my family ancestry. However, the closest I’ve come to any of those was my great grandmother (nee Warner, 1853-1952) who passed down the family legend to me when I was in my 20s that I’m descended from a Delaware Indian princess eight generations or so ago, from some point in the 1700s when my Warner family and the Delaware occupied the same general territory. My only remaining possibility is a Warner from that time for whose wife recorded history apparently includes no maiden surname.
I’m like Elizabeth Warren was in mentioning her family lore in a casual way—until she was pushed to the DNA route by flap-jawed Donald, who is ever poised to seize and exploit the slightest opening to denigrate and defame any non-worshiper seemingly intent on diminishing his power or glory in some way.
He’s now busy blaming Democrats for a surge of Honduran and,Guatemalan refugees at Mexico’s southern border. That’s quite a stretch for your fear-factor mode, Donald. But let’s remember that for the past 21 months it’s been Republicans, not Democrats, who have controlled the government, passing the laws and approving the budget—disastrously.
I’m satisfied with my Indigenous-American family legend which I could not document. And like Elizabeth with the Cherokee, I’m not out to steal any wee bit of the proud heritage of the Delaware. But I believe these tribes should be proud rather than hostile that we yearn to share a drop of blood with them. I believe that was an actual physical tradition in early times. “Blood brothers” and all that.
AMONG OTHER SELF-AGGRANDIZING LIES—Donald Trump on the morning of Oct. 11 defended his decision to hold a political rally in Pennsylvania as Hurricane Michael ripped across the southeastern U.S., saying he could not disappoint his many fans. “We had thousands of people standing on line,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox & Friends. “It’s a great thing that’s happening. It’s a great movement in our country. I go make a speech in a 12,000-seat auditorium, and people start lining up two days early. I mean, literally, they bring tents.” That quote in the Erie News was followed by a corrective note: “The actual capacity of Erie Insurance Arena is 9,000 . . . the line outside the arena began forming on Wednesday morning, about 12 hours before the event.”
Yet, many still insist on defending this devious, pompous excuse for an American president.
THERE IS NO ‘GREAT MOVEMENT’ on your behalf in the country, Donald—au contraire. Please quit trying to create a phony bandwagon. Women comprise the true great movement these days. It just gained a little more speed the other day when your mean little mind inspired you to refer to a very attractive young woman as “Horseface.” Coincidentally, you in many circles of conversations today are referred to as the other end of the horse.
.
.
