It’s time to Break It Down!

Last night as I contemplated what to write about this week, I pondered momentarily keying on Rick Perry, prospective Energy Secretary. The irony here is stunning. On November 9, 2011, under the glare of the bright lights of the 2012 GOP Candidate’s Presidential Debate stage in Rochester, MI, Governor Perry had an “Oops” moment, which he later described as, well, embarrassing.

The Texas Governor had spent a good deal of his campaign revving up the rhetoric regarding his intent to dismantle the Commerce, Education, and Energy Departments. Suffice it to say it came as more than a bit of a shock when he found himself immersed in an epic memory fail. It went a little something like this:

“It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone – Commerce, Education and the um, what’s the third one there? Let’s see. Oh five – Commerce, Education and the um, um.”

Mitt Romney, standing two podiums to Perry’s right, offered the Environmental Protection Agency as a suggestion.

“EPA, there you go,” Perry said.

But then, the Texas governor quickly retracted his statement, saying the EPA doesn’t need to be eliminated but simply rebuilt.

Again, he tried to name the third mystery agency.

“But you can’t name the third one?” CNBC moderator John Harwood asked.

“The third agency of government I would do away with – the education, the uh, the commerce and let’s see. I can’t the third one. I can’t. Sorry Oops.”

The third agency Perry couldn’t think of was the Department of Energy, which he had railed against on the stump nearly every day.

Perry finally remembered the third agency 15 minutes later after referring to his notes, saying, “By the way, it was the Department of Energy I was talking about.”

Afterward, he tried to make the best of a very bad situation.

“Speaking of boots, I’m glad I had my boots on tonight because I sure stepped in it out there. I stepped in it.  Man, yeah it was embarrassing.  Of course it was.

From time to time, you may forget about an agency that you are gonna zero out. Everybody tomorrow will understand the Energy Department is one of those that needs to be done away with.”

About 10 weeks later, January 19^th, Perry officially withdrew from the campaign. The reality of the situation is, he was done November 9^th. He never recovered.

Fast-forward to the 2012 GOP Primary season and the former Governor was back on the trail. This time faced with the (apparently) irresistible force that is Donald Trump, Perry would refer to Mr. Trump as:

“A cancer on conservatism” and “a barking carnival act.”

In response, Trump said of Perry:

“Perry did an absolutely horrible job of securing the border. He should be ashamed of himself.”

So now, in a double dose of irony, Mr. Trump and Governor Perry appear ready to kiss and make up. In what, at least for the purpose of this summary, I will declare a win-win-win scenario. Perry gets a job, Trump gets the last laugh, and we…we get to watch it all unfold. Enough already about Governor Perry.

Last night, as I was considering the topic du jour, I came across a PBS Special written and produced by Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns, & David McMahon, examining the 1989 Central Park 5 case. I have already written about this horrendous historical hazing, but I could not stop watching. Nine weeks ago, on October 12, I penned a post entitled, “Deny, Decry, Defend, Deflect, Divert, Dissemble, and Dismiss: The Trump Mantra!” The case was the focus of the piece. I believe it captured the essence what happened, and of course, it pointed out Donald Trump’s role in it.

Today, I’m just going to play it again. The story included 10 examples of what I consider classic Trumpisms. For this post, the last bullet is an appropriate lead-in:

• Ran an ad calling for the State to kill five schoolchildren

The list above is not intended to reflect a Top 10 of Mr. Trump’s offensive deeds or actions. In fact, it is an acutely abridged version of what some might refer to as his parade of despicable antics. I am going to briefly elevate the last of the preceding bullets notated. That bullet summarizes the Central Park jogger case, which was a 1989 case familiarly known as the Central Park 5.

A woman was attacked while jogging in New York City‘s Central Park, on April 19, 1989. The encounter consisted of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The 28-year-old victim remained in a coma for 12 days. The New York Times characterized the assault as one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.

When the story broke, it was detailed by police and prosecutors as a band of young people, part of a larger gang, rampaging Central Park, and mercilessly beating and assaulting the jogger. The story exploded upon the public sphere, having been fanned by both politicians and sensationalized media accounts.

Five black and Hispanic young men, ages 14 to 16 were arrested, and subsequently convicted. Despite the fact all of them asserted that the incriminating statements they gave had been coerced by authorities, their statements were ruled admissible, and led to convictions in 1990.

In 2002, the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) found DNA and other evidence that the woman had not been beaten and raped by the five teens. Instead, another man, a convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed to acting alone in the attack, was the perpetrator. The DA concluded that the new evidence, if available, could have resulted in a different verdict during the trial. He joined a defense motion asking that the convictions be vacated.

In 2014, the five men agreed to a $41 million settlement from New York City to resolve a civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment. The settlement averaged about $1 million for each year the men were imprisoned. Current Mayor Bill de Blasio deemed it a “moral obligation to right this injustice.” The suit alleged false arrest, malicious prosecution, and a racially motivated conspiracy to deprive them of their civil tights by the city’s police and prosecutors. It is worth noting, the previous Mayor, Michael Bloomberg vigorously denied and fought against the suit in federal court for more than a decade.

Let’s rewind. On May 1, 1989, Mr. Trump published an ad in the New York Daily News calling for the State to kill the five teenagers who had been arrested, convicted, and as we now know, confessed to the crimes under police coercion. Though convicted, they were not guilty, a fact later proved by DNA and other evidence.

In retrospect, it is clear the possibility that the Central Park 5 might be innocent never occurred to Donald Trump. Apparently, it still hasn’t. He emblazoned his opinion in a New York Daily News ad with a clarion call to anger and fear: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

Years later when the city offered to settle the case, Mr. Trump again took to the New York Daily News with an op-ed full of disgust. He insisted it was “ridiculous” that the city offered a settlement, and that “settling doesn’t mean innocence.” This was, and still is his position, even after the men were exonerated, and moreover, after DNA evidence established without a doubt that someone else (who also confessed) was the culprit.

Just last week Trump told CNN in a statement “they admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”

This choice to embrace some facts, while opting to ignore others, such as the new DNA evidence and corresponding subsequent confession, are emblematic of what I have come to characterize as the Trump Way…his hardwired philosophy, if you will. This is an artful design with seven key principles. He has already written The Art of the Deal (1987), and The Art of the Comeback (1997). Perhaps his next tome should be entitled, The Art of “Deny, Decry, Defend, Deflect, Divert, Dissemble, and Dismiss: The Trump Mantra!” At least, that what it was called a couple of months ago. Today, it’s, “The Central Park Five: Revisiting A Travesty!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/rick-perrys-debate-lapse-oops-cant-remember-department-of-energy/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/rick-perry-forgets-agencies_n_1085249.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/perry-to-end-bid-for-presidency/?_r=0

http://time.com/3968398/donald-trump-rick-perry-cancer/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/politics/donald-trump-rick-perry/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/opinions/trump-wrong-on-central-park-5-case-callan/index.html

http://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-is-wildly-wrong-about-the-central-park-5-even-by-donald-trump-standards/

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/donald-trump-and-the-central-park-five

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664482/Donald-Trump-slams-40M-settlement-Central-Park-5-disgraceful.html

http://www.attn.com/stories/11902/why-donald-trump-wrong-to-question-innocence-central-park-5

http://www.mtv.com/news/2922644/the-central-park-five-ad-told-us-who-donald-trump-really-is/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/06/politics/reality-check-donald-trump-central-park-5/index.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-continues-hammer-central-park-article-1.2821286

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-says-central-park-five-are-guilty-despite-dna-n661941?cid=public-rss_20161009

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/trump-larry-king-central-park-five/index.html

http://time.com/4525394/warren-buffett-donald-trump-tax-presidential-debate/

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161010005859/en/Tax-Facts-Donald-Trump

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Central_Park_Five

It’s time to Break It Down!

Several months ago, July 13^th to be precise, I penned a post entitled, Black Lives Matter: Of That I Am Certain! In that post I opened with a statement affirming the sensibilities of a certain segment of Americans. Here is what I wrote 5 months ago:

Fact. There are many Americans who simply refuse, under any circumstances, at any time, in any place, to consider the prospect their country in general, and especially themselves in particular, ever tolerate even the hint of a suggestion that they harbor the most remote scintilla of racist thought, deed, or action in exercising their life’s functions. In fact, if you happen to suggest that one of these people is racist, that person will deny it quickly and robustly, and then just as speedily and fervently, insist that by the mere introduction of such an idea, you, in fact, are the racist.

Over the course of that blog, I briefly examined the 1857 Dred Scott Decision. In that case Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the Opinion. Speaking about the clause in the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal,” Taney wrote:

“It is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration.”

Taney went on to say the following:

“The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect”

The bottom line, in the eyes of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) was, Mr. Scott had no right to sue because as a black man he was never intended to be an American. In the course of human events, as the phrase goes, it’s easy to contend now that something that unfolded 159 years ago when our country’s social norms were so clearly framed by different values than widely accepted today, has no correlation to contemporary norms and behaviors. That may sound like a completely rational and in fact documentable fact pattern. Well, it is…in some instances…but definitely not in others.

As I mentioned in the July post, while defending Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s refusal to issue marriage licenses out of her religious opposition to same-sex marriage, Mike Huckabee said:

“The Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford – which held that all blacks, free or enslaved, could not be American citizens – is still the law of the land even though no one follows it.” 

“I’ve been just drilled by TV hosts over the past week, ‘How dare you say that, uh, it’s not the law of the land? Because that’s their phrase, ‘it’s the law of the land.’ Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land, which says that black people aren’t fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?’”

It’s 2016, and there are those among us whom for all practical purposes maintain the same view as that articulated by a SCOTUS Decision in which the sesquicentennial was observed nearly a decade ago. Last night at Texas A&M University, Richard Spencer, the self-proclaimed leader of the movement known as Alt-Right, which most objective observers refer to as white supremacists, brought his own unique message of “hope and change” to the campus. Sort of.

He was not an invited guest of any student, faculty member, or campus group. The University rents space for groups and individuals, and Spencer’s appearance fell under the broad rubric of free speech. Due to First Amendment rights, there was no viable means to block him from coming to speak at the school in College Station.

Another white nationalist, Preston Wigington, secured the space and invited Spencer to appear. Wigington, who reportedly attended Texas A&M for a year, was crowned “Strongest Skinhead” in 2005 at Hammerfest, a neo-Nazi gathering, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He had tried with little success to host other Alt-Right events at A&M over the years. While they consistently attracted small crowds, Spencer was expected to change that. This time he has gained national attention, including an interview by a CNN reporter Monday, prior to Spencer’s visit yesterday. In one exchange, the reporter, Gary Tuchman posed this question:

“By saying that all Somalis shouldn’t come here, isn’t that being a bigot?”

After a long pause, Mr. Wigington responded by saying:

“Um, sometimes maybe being a bigot is wise.”

At A&M, Mr. Spencer was even more direct. Although he denied being a white nationalist, he said during his remarks (which did meet with campus protests):

“At the end of the day, America belongs to white men.”

All of this brings me full circle and back to the shooting death of Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, April 4, 2015. In summary, Officer Michael Slager shot Mr. Scott (5 times…in the back), during a traffic stop. The shooting was caught on tape by a by-stander. The video revealed the officer appeared to drop his Taser near the decedent’s body after shooting him. He then proceeded to handcuff Mr. Scott…instead of calling for an ambulance. He did, however, announce “shots fired” into his radio after he shot the Mr. Scott.

During the trial Officer Slager stated (the National Get Out of Jail Free Card Code for Police Officers) that he feared for his life. He maintained this despite the video showing Mr. Scott fleeing, and estimated to be 18 feet away when he shot him. Slager said Scott had taken his Taser. This could not be confirmed by the video, although…as noted above, Slager could be seen dropping something near Scott’s body. Presumably the Taser that Slager alleged Scott had taken from him. When asked if Mr. Scott, while fleeing, and 18 feet away was far enough away for him not to fear for his life, he said no, he believed Scott could still turn around (with no weapon it appears) and attack and kill him. That is, after all, the threshold for fearing for one’s life, right?

News accounts emerged last Friday indicating that one member of the jury was unable to vote to convict Officer Slager. Not for murder, and not for manslaughter. The video was clear and compelling enough to convince 11 of the 12 jurors. Keep in mind the jury was composed of six white men, five white women and one black man. The identity of the lone holdout was not revealed. I am inspired to go way out on a long thin limb and venture that with 11 out of 12 odds, the recalcitrant juror was one of the white members.

The defense blocked nine potential members, seven of whom were black. Asked about that, Judge Clifton Newman, who is black, responded, “They…(said) that they could be fair and impartial,” speaking of the white jurors. That is their duty and obligation. That is what we should expect. In fact, there is a good chance 10 of 11 did. The only problem is, this was not a game of horseshoes; close does not count, nor is it good enough.

So, with all due respect, because of Roger Taney, because of Mike Huckabee, because of Preston Wigington, because of Richard Spencer, and because of the lone unnamed holdout juror in Charleston, South Carolina, I am left with one totally inescapable conclusion…“The Walter Scott Mistrial: This is Why #BlackLivesMatter is Necessary!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Walter_Scott

http://www.qpets.tv/video.php?sort=date&id=E6C0tho0S1Y

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/walter-scott-michael-slager-north-charleston.html?_r=0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/12/06/walter-scott-and-the-presumption-of-guilt-for-black-americans/?utm_term=.3c91dc2faf6c

https://gma.yahoo.com/walter-scott-shooting-witness-hard-see-mistrial-michael-221905594–abc-news-topstories.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/walter-scott-mistrial-early-test-trump-civil-rights-220223072.html?ref=gs

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mistrial

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/06/504590362/scott-family-lawyer-reacts-to-mistrial-in-s-c-police-shooting-case?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=law

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/us/michael-slager-murder-trial-walter-scott-mistrial/index.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-slager-trial-jury-deadlock-walter-scott-case/

http://www.wbtv.com/story/33917392/take-a-stand-michael-slager-mistrial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_University

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B._Spencer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNpoZxtYdc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nationalism

It’s time to Break It Down!

As the 2016 Presidential Election season wound down recently, a counterintuitive and for many, troubling, alliance was highlighted by a number of observers. The GOP Nominee, and subsequent winner of the Election, having garnered 316 Electoral Votes (270 Electoral Votes are required to be elected President), Donald Trump, attracted the support of the lion’s share of white Americans who identify as Evangelicals. According to CNN exit polls, 80% of persons who identified as born-again or Evangelical Christian said they voted for Donald Trump. Of those polled 16% said they voted for Hillary Clinton, while the remaining 4% said they voted for someone else, or they did not respond to the question. (National Polling based on 24,558 Respondents)

Over the past 17 months I have unpacked numerous aspects of the, shall we say, unconventional means and methods employed by Mr. Trump on what we now know was his road to the White House. By and large, many, if not most of those means and methods would likely be deemed incongruous with the folkways and mores of the born-again and Evangelical Christian community.

Before I examine this oddity any further, allow me to establish (at least from my viewpoint) some of the baseline parameters of Evangelicalism, and the born-again, and Evangelical movement:

• Evangelicalism

The term “Evangelicalism” is a broad definitional “canopy” that covers a diverse number of Protestant traditions, denominations, organizations, and churches. In the English-speaking world, the modern term usually describes the religious movements and denominations which sprung forth from a series of revivals that swept the North Atlantic Anglo-American world in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The concept of evangelism—revival-codified, streamlined, and routinized by evangelists like Charles G. Finney (1792-1875)—became “revivalism” as evangelicals set out to convert the nation. Post World War II, changes in American society wrought by powerful forces such as urbanization and industrialization, along with new intellectual and theological developments, began to weaken the power of evangelicalism within American culture.

In the 20th century evangelicalism still held the status of a pervasive American “folk religion.” This is particularly so in many sectors of the United States, especially the South and certain areas of the Midwest.

• Evangelical Christian

An Evangelical Christian is a Protestant who spreads the Gospel. In recent decades the term has narrowed to designate a white conservative Protestant, usually with a belief in the inerrancy of scriptures. “Evangelical” includes Fundamentalists.

Fundamentalism” is not an organization but a style of religious activism:

• Fundamentalists are fighting evangelicals taking on mainstream religion.
• Most Fundamentalists believe in Dispensationalism (which most Calvinist Evangelicals reject).
• The largest Evangelical church is the Southern Baptist Convention, which is largely Fundamentalist.
• Also important is the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, which is both Fundamentalist and Lutheran.

There is no single accepted way to define who is an Evangelical. Pollsters often pose the query, “Are you a born-again Christian?” to define the group. Sociologists tend to look at membership in specific denominations, and often include the Holiness Movement, Pentecostal and Nazarene groups. Some scholars focus on the Bible beliefs, together with a personal commitment to Christ.

Christian researcher and author George Barna defines “Evangelicals” as a subset of those who meet the basic criteria defining born again Christians, but who also meet several other doctrinal conditions. A distinction is then enabled to be manifest in other areas of faith beliefs.

That is a lot of preamble to lead to what I consider an inescapable conclusion. To wit, Donald J. Trump is an unlikely candidate to be embraced, endorsed, and ultimately adopted by anyone who wears the label Evangelical. At least, that would seem to be the case at first blush. However, deeper inspection reveals there is a dark, and frankly, nefarious association between Southern Evangelicalism and racial enmity…racism, if you will.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II recently penned an essay on Evangelicalism that appeared in a number of publications, including this past Sunday’s early edition of the Washington Post. Rev. Dr. Barber is the Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in Goldsboro, NC, a North Carolina political leader, national board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and chair of their Legislative Political Action Committee. He is President of the NAACP’s North Carolina state chapter, the largest in the Southern United States, and the second largest in the country. Since 2007, Rev. Dr. Barber has been leading “Moral Mondays” civil-rights protests, usually in North Carolina’s state capital, Raleigh.

You can get the sense of the thematic tenor of the essay from its title, “The Racist History of Southern White Evangelicalism and the Rise of Donald Trump.” It is natural to want to believe that racism and Evangelicalism or Evangelical Christendom are antithetical. Of course many of the folks who marveled at the verbal stylings of Donald J. Trump on the campaign trail could naturally have thought the same thing about any perceivable relationship between Mr. Trump and Evangelical Christendom. Apparently, if they did, they were wrong.

In the essay, Rev. Dr. Barber points to Franklin Graham’s (son of the Rev. Billy Graham) response to Donald Trump’s victory. As he noted, Graham said:

“Political pundits are stunned. Many thought the Trump/Pence ticket didn’t have a chance. None of them understand the God-factor… While the media scratches their heads and tries to understand how this happened, I believe that God’s hand intervened.”

Barber credited Trump with believing that racism in its most raw and most overt form is anathema. And yet he (Graham) thanks God for the same triumph that white nationalists/Alt-Right members celebrate because he (Graham) is an heir to a religion that accommodated itself to slavery in America, and that has morphed over and again for a century and a half to fuel every backlash against progress toward racial justice in American history.

In its most recent iteration, the squishy foundation and framework of Evangelicalism and its nexus to among other things, bigotry, sexism, and yes, racism runs directly through Donald Trump. In his voluminous tawdry exhortations, and angry tweets and retweets, he has managed to excite and attract an eclectic mix that includes, the KKK, the Alt-Right, and oh yeah, Evangelicals, AKA the Religious Right.

Mr. Trump kicked off his campaign Tuesday June 16, 2015, promising to “Make our country great again.” Fairly quickly he went all in on Mexicans, saying:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Not long after his kickoff Mr. Trump upped the ante by claiming he would build a wall on the Southern Border. I suppose, to put a cherry on top of that, he added, and Mexico will pay for it. Soon to follow, he suggested a ban on Muslims entering the country, and for good measure, added that Mosques should be “monitored.” Keep in mind, all this with a backdrop of Trump unofficially launching his campaign by effectively becoming the voice of the Birther Movement, in which he not only argued that President Obama, the nation’s first Black President, was not born in America…but, also that he was a Muslim.

In Barber’s essay, he posits that God did not intervene in Mr. Trump’s election, but quickly injects, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association did. He noted that Graham spent $10 million in 2016 to promote a backlash against President Obama in God’s name by organizing prayer rallies in all 50 states. In concluding his national tour in North Carolina, Graham, standing on the steps of the state capitol, told thousands assembled that they need to know the true name for those who call themselves progressives: atheists. In essence, Barber added, sadly, Franklin Graham believes that a God who does not bless white America’s fear and nostalgia is no God at all.

For his part, Mr. Trump left a trail of incendiary assertions, allegations, and claims. I have included below a less than exhaustive list of Mr. Trump’s comments, including him saying:

• Mexicans are thugs and rapists
• We should ban Muslims
• “The blacks”
• “The blacks” are living in hell (as he allegedly attempted to secure black votes)
• What the hell do you have to lose (also while purportedly seeking black votes)
• He didn’t mock a disabled journalist…after he did
• The media and the electoral system are rigged
• McCain is not a war hero
• Thousands of Muslims in NJ celebrated 9/11
• Obama is a Muslim
• He could walk Down 5th Ave & shoot someone & not lose any votes
• If he wins he’ll lock Hillary up
• He will repeal & replace Obamacare…with something terrific
• He’d be dating his daughter if he wasn’t her father
• Said not paying taxes made him smart
• Said he knows more about the military than the generals
• Said multiple bankruptcies means he knows how to work the system
• He get his military strategy from TV
• A judge was unqualified due to his Mexican Heritage (Indiana born)
• Grab ‘em by the genitals (using a crude term)

In my own foray across the Rubicon that separates me from understanding the religious and ethical basis of the relationship between the Evangelical community and Donald J. Trump, I found one person who gave me his earnest appraisal of why he…and presumably Evangelicals like him, supported Mr. Trump. His answer was pretty basic. He stated that he believed the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is crucial, and that Mr. Trump will appoint Pro-Life jurists to the SCOTUS. He rationalized that Pro-Life trumps (pun intended) everything else. Full stop.

I believe that is his personal bottom line. I also believe that Make America Great Again is a dog whistle, and that the open and enthusiastic support of the KKK/Alt-Right of the GOP Nominee and winner of the election is not just a rarefied, inexplicable coincidence. It was cultivated, it was earned, and it should concern every individual who claims to believe in the principles and tenets embedded in the Bible. Until Evangelicals make a straight forward repudiation of the KKK, the Alt-Right, and the speech and behavior of Donald Trump that inspires their allegiance, I find it difficult, no, make that impossible, to simply permit them to wink and nod and act as though this charade is OK. I will hold them personally responsible for their actions, or lack thereof, in this matter. It is what it is, and I for one will not pretend it’s otherwise. It is…“Southern White Evangelicalism and Racism: A Compelling Intersection!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://the-levant.com/the-racist-history-of-southern-white-evangelicalism-and-the-rise-of-donald-trump/

http://newsok.com/article/feed/1118955

https://thehillnews.net/news/The-racist-history-of-Southern-white-evangelicalism-and-the-rise-of-Donald-Trump/

http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/national/president

http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining-evangelicalism

http://religion.wikia.com/wiki/Evangelical_Christians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barber_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Graham

https://billygraham.org

It’s time to Break It Down!

Originally posted on November 24, 2010, and prior to today, subsequently on November 27, 2013, November 26, 2014, and November 25, 2015.

As in the past, since it is Thanksgiving Week, this post will deviate from the standard fare. I know that travel schedules (in some cases impeded by weather events this year), meal planning, family time, shopping, football, parades, and if there is any time remaining, relaxation, will dominate this week. However, it is Wednesday, so there shall be a blog and it will definitely be brief.

Those among us who have perfected humility, and ascended to a genuine Nirvana state, have no doubt also elevated giving thanks to an art form. The rest of us must fully invest our appreciation in the notion, “That’s why we have Thanksgiving!”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, which kicks off what we commonly refer to as the Holiday Season. Almost instinctively, Thanksgiving and Christmas come to mind. Yet, there is so much more than that to the Season.

Over the next 54 days, many of us will enjoy succulent feasting at Thanksgiving, exchange gifts and contribute to the needy during Hanukkah. We will buy, give, exchange, and/or receive gifts at Christmas, eat, drink, and celebrate the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa, and party and toast the dawn of 2017 on New Year’s Day. We will honor the life and works of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on MLK Day. In addition, even in these tough (though improving) economic times, this weekend, millions of Americans will pay (literally) homage to our most celebrated of shoppers’ holiday weekends, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, by rising early, and proceeding to scour the aisles for those perfect gifts…and if not perfect, at least cheap, relatively speaking. There are even some precociously enterprising businesses that will start the shopping clock Thursday. Sigh!

In past years, I have recounted my reasons for being thankful. This year I find that I have more reasons than ever to sit contemplatively in humble repose, and affirm boldly, that I know, without caveat, not only the goodness, no the greatness of God, but also of his inestimable and inexhaustible beneficence. I thank Him for deliverance, and for imbuing me with the sense and sensibility to discern the distinction between kairos and chronos, Greek concepts for God’s time, and man’s time, respectively.

Eons ago, when I was a college student, I pledged a fraternity. It is familiarly known as the Oldest, Boldest, and Coldest, but I digress. The point of this reference is that during the erstwhile pledge process, as prospective initiates, we were required to learn a number of poems. There were many, each selected to convey a specific life lesson. Many of them have stayed with me, but none more than Invictus, written by English poet, William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). The Latin translation for Invictus is Undefeated. You may recall it, but just in case, see it below:

Invictus (Latin for Undefeated) By William Ernest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

So, as you go about your way tomorrow, and all the tomorrows that follow, recognize that Thanksgiving, at its core, is not simply a day on the calendar. It is a spirit that dwells within each us, an impulse that prompts us to thank God (for our being undefeated), and for the graciousness to share His blessings with our fellow men and women. Indeed, everyday is “A Time for Giving Thanks Redux ’16!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link:

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.”

Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

 Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ernest_Henley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year’s_Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

It’s time to Break It Down!

So as we wind down week one in a post Donald Trump election world, an interesting phenomenon has emerged. A host of Trump surrogates and supporters have come forward in a fairly haughty way to dismissively ask what is the abundance of anti-Trump vitriol all about, and why don’t folks just get over themselves and their petty opposition to Donald Trump? After all he did win; now he has a mandate to “Make This Country Great Again.”

President Obama and Hillary Clinton have both urged America the collective to move ahead and help facilitate the peaceful transition of power, which is after all, what we do here in these United States. The President and Mrs. Clinton are in a very real way obliged to do just that.  I respect their appeal.

Obama really must do this because George W. Bush did the same for him, and also because the forty-two Presidents who preceded President Bush artfully handed the baton to their successors as well. As for Mrs. Clinton, if her decades of public service have trained her to do anything, it is, as Kipling said in verse two of his well-know poem, “If”:

“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;”

As a Governor’s wife, as America’s First Lady, as the Junior Senator from New York, and as the Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Clinton, indeed, has earned her share of kudos, and met with more Triumph than most. Alas, as one of the final two candidates vying for the Democratic Party’s Nomination in 2008, and as the Party Nominee in 2016, she has engendered Disaster on a level the vast majority of Americans will never know.

In 2008 she gave a gracious concession speech and subsequently worked with fervor to help Barack Obama secure victory in the race for the Presidency. She then joined the Obama Administration and served as Secretary of State during his first term in office. She has established, I think, that she has the wherewithal to win, and to lose, and still maintain a laser-like focus on perfecting our Union. So as we transition, be it smoothly, or more likely fitfully, into a Trump Administration, in the grand scheme of things, we will do it peacefully.

But hold on. I’m not Barack Obama, and I’m certainly not a 69-year-old white woman. So before we rush to embrace the suggestion that we just get over ourselves, at least before I do, let me be crystal clear, I reserve the right to vent. No, it is not my aim or intent to riot and create mayhem. I repeat, it’s not my aim or intent.

Americans of all stripes have an opinion about our President. And they should. President Obama has led our nation for 8 years, through tough times, and even though some refuse to admit it, through increasingly better times. Since 2009 we have transitioned from a Great Recession economy to:

• An economy that hemorrhaged 800,000 jobs per month to an economic engine that has added private sector jobs for 73 consecutive months
• An economy that has added over 15 million jobs
• An economy that fostered the best over all jobs growth in 18 years
• An economy that saw unemployment cut in half (from 9.8% in October 2010 to 4.9% in October 2016)
• An economy in which his policies saved the American auto industry
• An economy that was bolstered by his policies that reformed the banking system
• An economy in which his policies led to the rebound of the housing sector
• An economy that saw the strongest dollar in three decades
• An economy that cut the Bush era deficit by two-thirds, over a $trillion
• An economy that saw the Dow rise from a tepid 7,949 in January 2009 to record levels of over 18,000, reaching 18,923 yesterday

In addition to all things economy, POTUS pushed through the historic Affordable Care Act which transported 20 million Americans from the desert of no health insurance to the Promised Land of Health Care that eliminated pre-existing conditions clauses, keeping children under age 26 on their parents policy, preventing discriminatory higher costs for women, adding an annual free wellness visit, and introducing a feature to hold insurers accountable for premium increases of 10% or more. In the arena of foreign policy, he wound down and or decreased America’s level of participation in multiple wars, resumed formal relations with Cuba, and negotiated a historical accord with Iran that diminished their nuclear arsenal, and reduced their capacity to produce a nuclear warhead. Thank you President Obama.

It is my belief that those accomplishments, which are by no means part of an exhaustive list, ensure that Mr. Obama will be viewed among the list of most substantial Presidents. Here is where I must note; his legacy would be greatly expanded were it not for a concerted pact among Republicans to obstruct every initiative he proposed. But the disrespect did not end there, as if that were not enough.

In and out of the halls of government, President Obama, who won the Presidency twice, clenching both the popular vote and the Electoral College by the way, was called a lie by Congressman Joe Wilson, of South Carolina, as he spoke to a joint session of Congress, he had his citizenship questioned by the Birther Movement, which was for all practical purposes led by Donald Trump, and he and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, were routinely mocked and called names by normal citizens, and government officials. He was called a Muslim, which in and of itself should not be a problem, and a Socialist, despite his Democratic Party affiliation, among a host of other things, the vast majority of which were distinctly unflattering.

Just recently, a West Virginia public official and a Town Mayor were involved in trading Facebook comments in which one referred to Mrs. Obama as an “Ape in heels,” while the other co-signed. And this does not stop with little known individuals of whom you have never heard. Trump pretty much single-handedly kept the Birther Movement going long after it was widely accepted that the effort was a bogus initiative, designed to delegitimize the President. That makes it all the more noteworthy that Donald Trump did not concede President Obama was born in America until two months ago, September 16, 2016.

It is in that context I reflect upon the calls to move forward, to get over it, to accept the outcome of an election in which the Trump said in advance, he would accept the outcome…if he won, and who claimed before voting began in most places that the election was rigged, the media was biased for his opponent, and that cheaters were trying to steal the election (from him).

So allow me to summarize quickly. Republicans spent eight years disrespecting, demonizing, trying to delegitimize, and obstruct President Obama. I believe one conservative radio personality’s comment as President Obama began his first term was, “I hope he fails.” The Senate Majority Leader declared his top priority was to make President Obama a one term President. But now I’m told we should “Come together to support our President Trump…because his success is our success.” Really? It’s been 8 days for Mr. Trump, and after 8 years President Obama continues to be targeted by obstruction, verbal assaults, and other insults. Puhleeze! Let me coin a new term. This is the epitome of “hyper-hypocrisy.”

I have felt for some time, unlike many of my friends, that I’m glad President Obama and the First Lady are seeing their tenure in the people’s White House come to an end. I do not wish for even a moment that he could serve a 3rd term. America the exceptional has not earned the moniker when it comes to its treatment of our President, which has been despicable. I do not want the “Hatriots” to have the opportunity to engage in such reindeer games for even one more moment. “What’s Next? I Can Only Tell You What’s Not!” Appeasement.

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/w-v-mayor-friend-joke-michelle-obama-ape-heels-article-1.2873128

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if

It’s time to Break It Down!

I suppose the good news is “We The People” have spoken, and Donald Trump will accept the results!

I spent yesterday completing a 500-mile round trip commute to my hometown to attend the funeral of a relative. As is typically the case with funerals, they tend to be sad occasions that also provide an opportunity to catch up with surviving relatives, as well as old friends. Yesterday it also created a diversion (for me). Having voted early, as I have every year since the practice became an option, I was not conflicted about abandoning my franchise, so I was able to spend the day in support of family, which should always be a priority anyway.

While it made for a 12-hour day, most of it, nearly nine hours, spent driving, I still retuned home by around the time polls closed in North Carolina, and in a number of other states. In last week’s post I noted that the race could run late into the night, but that if it did, it would be an indication that a number of things had gone much poorly, relative to what Democrats anticipated.

Well, at 1:00 a.m. Eastern, not only was the Race still unfolding, there were strong indications Donald Trump would actually win the Presidency. CNN showed Trump with a 29 point Electoral Map edge, 238-209, while Fox News showed Trump ahead with a 45-point advantage, 254-218. At around 2:40 a.m., though the race had not been called officially, Mrs. Clinton call Mr. Trump and conceded the race. Remember, 270 Electoral Votes are required to claim the Presidency.  With Trump leading in several of the remaining States…it was over!

To briefly revisit an admonition I made early on, I believed, based upon his having pulverized 16 Republican opponents, that he could very well best Hillary Clinton. Mind you, that was not to say he would. Rather it was to advise all to guard against taking the  opponent lightly. That is precisely what I believe too many Democrats did.

While the lead is unquestionably Trump wins, let’s be clear there is more to this than just that. One CNN analyst, Van Jones, called it a whitelash. I do believe that is a part of it, but not all by any stretch. Mr. Trump garnered more votes, from Millennials, more votes from Hispanics, and more votes from women than pollsters projected he would. In his best populist verbal meme, he maintained that he would be the human equivalent to BREXIT. And so he was.

Quickly, let’s consider briefly what’s in store for the soon to be “Great Again America.” Candidate Trump promised, among other things, the following:

• Repeal and Replace Obamacare
• Restore a Conservative Supreme Court
• Build a Wall on the Southern Border
• Make Mexico Pay for the Wall Along the Southern Border
• Enact a Muslim Ban
• Eliminate Common Core…and Possibly the Department of Education
• Defund Planned Parenthood
• Bar Syrian Refugees
• Make (the Strongest) Military (in the History of the World) Stronger
• Throw Hillary Clinton in Jail

That’s 10 out of dozens of things Mr. Trump promised to do. I presume they represent, at least in part, a pathway to renewed greatness.   We will see.

Meanwhile, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump…”Election 2016: It’s Trump!”

I’m done; holla back!

It’s time to Break It Down!

According to the official Election 2016 Clock, only six days remain before D-Day, or as it were, E-Day. By the time I release my next post, the polls will have closed in most states, with the possible exceptions of Alaska and Hawaii. There is a better than reasonable chance that results from enough states will have been tallied to determine the next President. If not, that would be a sign we are probably in a down to the wire nail biter of an election.

This marks the third Presidential Election during the nine years I’ve done the blog. In the previous two instances, Obama-McCain in 2008, then Obama-Romney in 2012, I opted not to make a formal endorsement. Over the years, Presidential Elections are often framed by caustic and rambunctious exchanges…between the candidates, their surrogates, and certainly their supporters. I am sure I don’t have to tell you this year has featured all of the above.

In the midst of the hoopla that is a Presidential Campaign it is not uncommon to hear principals and others characterize “This Election” as the most important in our lifetimes. I am not sure if I have ever felt that way before. The election and re-election of Barack Obama, our nation’s first African American President, were critical development in the history of governance in our country. Likewise, if Hillary Clinton were to become the first woman elected President; that too would be of similar critical notoriety.

This year, however, for reasons well beyond symbolism, racial barriers, and glass ceilings, I am fully persuaded that “This Election” is the most important in my lifetime. Yes, so important that I am compelled to endorse a candidate. If you noticed the title, it is apparent that there is no suspense in my choice. And that is fine. In my view there is little to compare the two leading candidates. If you listen to the candidates themselves, they have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to disqualify each other. The thing is, from my vantage point, one candidate is eminently qualified, while the other is utterly unqualifiable.

America 2016 is separated by a huge and deep ideological chasm. In addition to the uncivil political war waged daily from each side of the aforementioned divide, the two candidates have between them the highest negatives in the history of tracking Presidential candidate popularity, or as is the case in this instance, the lack thereof.

Mrs. Clinton has had a host of detractors since her days as First Lady…of the State of Arkansas. As her profile elevated, so did the pushback, much of it partisan. She left Little Rock for Washington when her husband was elected President, and she became a very nontraditional First Lady of our country. She led the charge on behalf of the Administration for Healthcare Reform, in a losing effort. Also during her husband’s tenure, he proposed, and she supported a crime bill that passed through Congress and is to this day blamed for the spike in America’s prison population that makes us the largest incarceration machine in the world. But, among all her issues, in Arkansas, and later in Washington, perhaps the one that raises the most hackles is the assertion that she bullied a number of women who accused her husband of having engaged them in various sexual entanglements. She then went on to become the Junior Senator from New York, and after that, U.S. Secretary of State. The record reflects that her approval rating soared during her time in both posts.

Near the end of her service as Secretary, she was ensnared in controversy, stemming from an attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi September 11, 2012. Then in March 2015, the now infamous email scandal emerged, based loosely on Clinton having used a personal email server while in her capacity as Secretary of State, and possible having communicated confidential information. While Mrs. Clinton was questioned during multiple Congressional hearings on both matters, as well as by the FBI on the email scandal, she was not found to have committed any crime.

Donald Trump spent many years, primarily known as business titan. Along with co-author Tony Schwartz he wrote a biography entitled the Art of the Deal in 1987. But Trump, partnering with his developer father, Fred, had already gained a measure of notoriety. In 1973, the Nixon Justice Department sued the Trumps for racial discrimination because they would not rent apartments to African Americans. At the time, the 27-year-old Trump presided over Fred Trump’s realty company, Trump Management. The suit, against Trump, his dad, and their company alleged that the Trumps violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The case was settled and Trump never admitted guilt, although, Trump Management had to sign an agreement, which included stipulations intended to prevent future discrimination at their properties.

In 1989 Trump took out a full-page ad in the Daily News that included the headline, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” This was in relation to a case familiarly known as The Central Park 5. Five black and Hispanic teens were accused of raping a Central Park jogger. Trump, convinced of their guilt, wanted them to face the Death Penalty. Subsequently another individual confessed to the crime, and his DNA corroborated his guilt. The City went on to grant the 5 innocent defendants a $41 million dollar settlement. Trump was livid, and argued that the teens had confessed, even though they insisted during trial that their confessions were coerced. Of course, that should have been irrelevant, given the subsequent confession and DNA evidence. But, apparently, Trump was being Trump!

In 2011 Donald Trump contemplated running for President. In February of that year when speaking to a conservative conference, he said:

“Our current President came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: the people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is. It’s crazy.”

He continued with these debunked assertions until September of this year, 15 months into his Presidential Campaign.  He made numerous factually discredited statement about the subject, including the four below:

March 28, 2011, on Fox News

“He doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me — and I have no idea if this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be — that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’ And if you’re a Muslim, you don’t change your religion, by the way.”

May 29, 2012, to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

“An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”

August 2013, to ABC News

“How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

December 12, 2013, in tweet about the death of Loretta Fuddy.

“Well, I don’t know — did he do it? … Well, a lot of people don’t agree with you and a lot of people feel it wasn’t a proper certificate.”

January 6, 2016, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet … I don’t talk about it anymore. The reason I don’t is because then everyone is going to be talking about it as opposed to jobs, the military, the vets, security.”

Finally, Mr. Trump decided to drop the charade. Friday, September 16, Mr. Trump, during a press conference at his Washington Hotel, uttered this tersely worded statement on the subject:

“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. “Period.”

Only hubris could make anyone think that after a five year campaign arguing that President Obama was not “Made in America,” the conversation would be ended by a 10-word statement.  As they say, “Hope springs in the human breast.”

Those are just a few of the highlights. During this campaign, Mr. Trump has left a trail of comments, most of which would be considered outrageous, untrue, or straight up ridiculous, had anyone else had the temerity to submit them in any public discourse, to say nothing of a Presidential campaign. I have included below a non-exhaustive list Mr. Trump’s comments including him saying:

• Mexicans are thugs and rapists
• We should ban Muslims
• The blacks
• The blacks are living in hell
• What the hell do you have to lose (purportedly seeking black votes)
• He didn’t mocked a disabled journalist…after he did
• The media and the electoral system are rigged
• McCain is not a war hero
• Thousands of Muslims in NJ celebrated 9/11
• Obama is a Muslim
• He could walk Down 5th Ave & shoot someone & not lose votes
• If he wins he’ll lock Hillary up
• He will repeal & replace Obamacare…with something terrific
• He be dating his daughter if he wasn’t her father
• Said not paying taxes made him smart
• Said he knows more about the military than the generals
• Said multiple bankruptcies means he knows how to work the system
• He get his military strategy from TV
• A judge was unqualified due to his Mexican Heritage (Indiana born)
• Grab ‘em by the genitals (using a crude term)

There is more, so much more. But that’s enough to make the point (I certainly hope). I’ve heard a lot of folks say the candidates are so bad, or I wish we had better choices. I think I will just write-in someone, or maybe I’ll stay home and not vote. Do not do either of those things. The idea that both of these candidates are bad, and for all practical purposes, equally so, is just plain wrong. The premise itself is an assertion of a false equivalence. This is a dangerous moment in time.

Whether one calls it discouragement or straight up suppression, if you might vote for Hillary, Mr. Trump and the GOP want you to stay home. That is how they win. The reality is it’s the only way they can win. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they cannot win, or even that it’s improbable. Rather, I’m saying if Democrats and left leaning Independents vote, Hillary wins. Democrats know that, Republicans know that, Independents know that, even Assange and Putin know that.

The GOP currently employs what I call Political Dred Scott Syndrome. They believe Democrats have no policy designs Republicans are bound to respect. They endlessly prosecuted Bill Clinton, they obstructed President Obama from day 1, and they are now desperately trying to suppress and depress the vote in order to deny Hillary’s path to the White House. The fact is, we long ago reached a point at which the GOP Mantra is no Democrat is worthy of the Presidency, and no amount of success, experience, or skillful rigor will change that…in their minds. This is painfully clear when one considers the GOP is now rallying around its Nominee, whom incidentally, has zero experience in managing or operating governmental enterprises at any level. Add the non-existent experience to his propensity to wing it, to lose focus, and to denigrate anyone and/or any institution that does not kowtow to him. That he is a mere six days away from possibly being catapulted into the leadership of the most powerful nation the world has ever known should give each and every one of us pause.

Democrats  and reasoning Independents must exhibit steely resolve and exercise their franchise, lest we be saddled with a President that even a large segment of his own Party admits is politically, morally, ethically, and temperamentally beneath the office. So, Raise Up Obama Coalition, let’s do this. Vote. Vote Early! “For President: Vote Hillary Clinton!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

It’s time to Break It Down!

Mercifully, we are in the “Final Days” of the 2016 Presidential Election. As of this morning, 13 days remain before D-Day, November 8^th. That is not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. However, in an election pairing what are arguably the two most unpopular candidates in the history of Presidential Elections, and two campaigns largely framed around efforts to expose and leverage their opponents’ “un-favorability,” there is always a chance that the next new thing will be the last straw…the one that breaks the proverbial camel’s back.

For Mr. Trump, the Theme-of-the-Week, this week, apparently is, the media is displacing, or at least challenging Mrs. Clinton for the title of the most crooked thing going. They (the media) are central players (according to Trump) in rigging the election for Clinton. Mr. Trump has ramped up attacks on the media. He asserted that Saturday Night Live (SNL) skits that lampooned him were evidence of media rigging of the election. He made this argument despite the obvious fact the comedy also satirizes Hillary Clinton. Reflection and balance are not his strengths.

As you may know, Mr. Trump is no stranger to the media. According to a March 16 story in CNN Money, Mr. Trump earned nearly $2 billion worth of free media attention up to that stage of the primaries. No one should have to tell you that is a lot of free media. How much? To put it in context, it exceeded the total value of all of his GOP competitors combined. These findings were part of a study conducted by The New York Times using mediaQuant and SMG Delta data. The study also found that Mr. Trump accrued:

• More than six times as much free coverage as his closest competitor, Ted Cruz
• More than two-and-a-half times as much free coverage as Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side

Suffice it to say the study proffered evidence that the American news media has given preponderantly more coverage to Trump than to any other candidate who sought the Presidency during the Campaign 2016 cycle. In light of findings related to this story, it is interesting, to say the least, that Mr. Trump’s heretofore shield of invincibility and/or his status as a media darling had been punctured or otherwise compromised by the very entity many reasonable observers would infer propelled him from a mere guy in the pack to frontrunner status during the primaries, and ultimately, to the GOP Nomination.

Now if you are for Donald Trump, you may argue (And I would expect you to do so) that not all of the attention Mr. Trump garnered in the media is positive. Wow, Sherlock, that’s just plain brilliant. But hold up; wait a minute. Before you go getting carried away, to paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson in the Capital One commercial, “Don’t let that go to your head Gary.” As a rejoinder, that is true…but pointless. Or at least it is inconsequential in the framework of a head-to-head comparison.

Why, you may ask? It is pointless or inconsequential because no candidate is guaranteed that all coverage will be positive. Reporters are constantly looking for angles to explore and different aspects to present regarding candidates and their stories. Mrs. Clinton’s coverage was not encased on a crystal stair either. She’s had to navigate an early Black Lives Matter (BLM) SNAFU, the super predator comment, the email imbroglio, the Iraq War vote, and currently, the Affordable Care Act premium increase, among others. When one lives in the fish bowl that is the public sphere, in which all politicians reside, most especially major Party Presidential Nominees, it behooves one to recognize the primacy of the inimitable law of gravity…”What goes up must come down.”

And so it is. Last Thursday, Trump made a comment some considered eye opening, others provocative, and still others, simply affirming. During Wednesday’s Final Presidential Debate of the 2016 Election Season, Mr. Trump declined to answer a direct question from Debate Moderator Chris Wallace regarding whether he would concede, were he to attract fewer votes than Mrs. Clinton (again, note, just as last week, I did not say lose). At a rally Thursday, he said he would absolutely respect the election results…if he wins.

There is an obvious trend afoot. When things are good…they are r-e-a-l-l-y good. When the media is kind to Mr. Trump, when the polls say he is ahead, and when he won primaries, the system was not rigged, the polls were great (and he reveled in them at every rally), and the media was his trusty sidekick and adoring mouthpiece. Right now, things are no so good. Mr. Trump has encountered a few headwinds from the previously docile and compliant media. His alleged sexual assault accusers get lots of air play, ad he lags in most reputable polls. Oh my, what is an entrepreneur to do?

Well, if that entrepreneur is Donald Trump, the answer is simple. Innovate! Create your own media enterprise. Monday, with 15 days left until Election Day, Team Trump broadcast its first “nightly campaign coverage from Trump Tower, and Trump TV was born, in a manner of speaking. The virgin episode lasted 38 minutes, and presaged shows that will air each night until the election. It featured several of his surrogates covering political news of the day, one presumes unrigged, from a Trump perspective, and led up to a Trump Rally in Tampa.

There is understandably a level of speculation about what all this means. Nascent possibilities abound, including the questions, is it:

• Trump’s reaction to a “rigged media”
• Queuing up his post “Apprentice” TV presence,
• A gambit to spur fleeting sizzle associated with the Trump brand as his Presidential Campaign falters, by most accounts
• All of the above

Of course, I do not know Donald Trump. I must note, he has suggested he is not interested in actualizing a full-scale Trump TV endeavor. That is what he has said, anyway. However, CNN Money reported in a story from Monday of last week that his son-in-law may have provided a tell regarding the potential imminence of Trump TV:

“Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November,” the Financial Times reported Monday

I am not close to any of his surrogates either. I do know people who support him, and let me be clear, the ones I know, I like. They (the ones I know) all have other opinions, many of which I agree with. Each of the above possibilities has some level of merit. But lest I leave anyone with the impression that the actual answer matters (to me), it does not. The questions were rhetorical…but the point was not. For me, that point is completely encapsulated in the title of this post…”If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em: Trump TV Debuts!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/302776-live-from-trump-tower-its-trump-tv

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/15/media/trump-free-media-coverage/index.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/trumps-rigged-game/504299/

http://www.wxyz.com/newsy/donald-trump-tries-to-tune-out-trump-tv-rumors

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/ct-what-could-trump-tv-look-like-20161025-story.html

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/10/25/Trump-campaign-launches-nightly-Facebook-Live-broadcast/9381477418913/

http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/17/media/trump-tv-donald-trump-tv-network-speculation/index.html

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/24/499229641/trump-tv-launches-its-pilot-with-pitch-to-his-base

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/25/trump-no-interest-in-trump-tv-campaign-debuts-show.html

http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/10/donald-trump-appears-to-test-out-tv-venture-230023.

It’s time to Break It Down!

Back on May 11, 2016, more than fiver months ago, I penned a post entitled, “Fact Free Universe: The Quintessential Trump Advantage” (https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2016/05/11/fact-free-universe-the-quintessential-trump-advantage/). In that post, I elaborated on the degree to which Mr. Trump, in framing his campaign’s narrative, was not constrained by even a fleeting appearance of truth. Neither his surrogates nor his supporters seem the least bit interesting in establishing any foundation for veracity or fact-based accountability when it comes to defending and repeating ad nauseam the often-groundless assertions uttered by their candidate. It is as if he operates in what I have deemed, a fact free universe.

To complicate matters further, the media has largely taken the position that it is utterly incapable of taking Mr. Trump to task for his every deviation from the truth table. Even one of the journalists responsible for moderating the Presidential Debates wants no part of monitoring Mr. Trump’s aversion to facts. Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who will moderate the final debate of the 2016 Campaign tonight has said, “I do not believe it’s my job to be a truth squad. It’s up to the other (Nominee) to catch them” if they lie during the debate.

In deed, that may sound reasonable on it’s face. The moderator isn’t running for President, after all. However, the reality is, when one is dealing with Mr. Trump that can be problematic. Several organizations have concluded Mr. Trump is a veritable voracious arbiter of fact free assertion. At some point, it is conceivable that if Mrs. Clinton is tasked with fact checking every Trump truth violation, she will be left with little or no time to answer the moderator’s questions or to promote her own policy prescriptions. That is not a desirable outcome, neither should it be an acceptable one.

As I noted in the May 11^th post, Joseph Heller asserted “In his 1984 tragicomedic novel God Knows, “The truth is whatever people will believe is the truth. Don’t you know history?” In that light, Mr. Wallace is on point, and Trump is simply channeling Machiavelli, and doubling down on Malcolm X, in a, “The end justifies the means,’ and a “By any means necessary” kind of way, respectively. But. Lest you missed my previously referenced blog, or in case you have forgotten one of its essential points, reflect upon this passage from that post:

“In the March 13 Edition of Politico, in an article entitled Trump’s Week of Errors, Exaggerations and Flat-out Falsehoods, the magazine makes the case that Donald Trump is a veritable truth avoidance machine. This was a month ago, and several weeks before Trump was elevated through a series of convincing Primary wins to the GOP’s presumptive nominee status. The magazine in effect fact-checked a week’s worth of Mr. Trump’s verbal stump speech stylings. This amounted to 4.6 hours of speeches and press conferences from North Carolina to Missouri.

In summary, what they found was more than five dozen statements deemed mischaracterizations, exaggerations, or just flat out false. These were deemed material that would not have made it into one of the magazine’s stories, or in some instances would have lead to scuttling a story altogether. According to Politico, it amounted on average to roughly one misstatement every five minutes.”

Let Hillary fact check Trump? Good luck with that!  Of course I can understand why that would be among Team Trump’s fondest desires.

So much for the preamble, let’s move on to the meat of today’s topic. As we enter the final 20 days before the 2016 Presidential election, the elusive set of values and data that the pundits, analysts, and candidates refer to as the “fundamentals of the campaign” are settling fast. As they do so, Mrs. Clinton holds a small lead in most national polls, a lead by varying amounts in most of the swing sates, and a substantial lead among several key demographics, including:

• Women overall
• College educated white women
• College educated whites overall (a group that Democrats have never have won in exit polls dating to 1976)
• Nonwhites
• Democrats
• Democratic-leaning Independents (who supported Bernie Sanders)
• Registered voters
• Likely voters

At the same time his opponent is solidifying critical support among those important segments cited above, Mr. Trump is amassing an ominous collection of unfavorables. Recent polling shows:

• 79 percent of Americans polled say he doesn’t show enough respect for people he disagrees with
• 70 percent express anxiety about a Trump presidency
• 67 percent think he lacks the personality and temperament it takes to serve effectively
• 64 percent doubt his understanding of world affairs
• 63 percent see him unfavorably overall
• 62 percent say he’s not honest and trustworthy
• 61 percent think he’s unqualified for office
• 60 percent think he’s biased against women and minorities

Furthermore, on his handling of his dispute with the parents of fallen Muslim U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan: 73 percent disapprove, including 59 percent of Republicans. All this was underscored by the revelation that Mr. Trump, who refuses to reveal his taxes, took a nearly billion dollar write-off on his taxes, likely went nearly two decades without paying federal taxes, and was accused by several women of sexual assault.

As he is someone Mr. Trump would cast into the rigged media category, I doubt the candidate follows his work, but based on yesterday’s data, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight forecast put the chance of winning the Presidency at the following:

• Hillary Clinton – 87.4%
• Donald Trump – 12.6%

One might say the rudiments of a trend are developing. With these elements as a backdrop, Team Trump has conceived, and he especially, is promoting a catchall explanation for what in his own mind, and no doubt the minds of those who support him, is the unthinkable…the fact that he could possibly awake the morning of November 9^th as something other than a winner. I used that awkward phraseology in honor Mr. Trump’s personal conviction that he never loses…or fails.

Nevertheless, for several days now, Mr. Trump has flatly, vociferously, and consistently insisted that the election is rigged. He claims that there is widespread voter fraud, and he maintains that the media is complicit in carrying out what would be (if it were in fact so) a patently illegal scheme. Monday he tweeted, “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naïve!”

His fellow New Yorker, surrogate, and former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has taken to the airways to parrot Mr. Trump’s paranoia. Sunday, on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Mr. Giuliani said, “Dead people generally vote for Democrats instead of Republicans. If you want me to tell you that I think the elections of Philadelphia and Chicago are going to be fair, I would have to be a moron to say that.” My unscientific guess is there are those who believe he is a moron, based in part on what he said above.

While I am in no position to speak for them, I have the impression that many self-respecting Republicans are flatly embarrassed by this ridiculous, and more important, unsubstantiated claim. It is nonsense such as this that poses an existential threat to our Democracy. Mr. Trump actually seems to be inviting his gaggle of avid supporters to activate and revolt, should he lose, which appears more of an inevitability each passing day.

Fortunately, a cross-section of individuals who have claimed the GOP for longer than the current political cycle has come to the defense of the functional operation of the American electoral system, both historically, and contemporarily. A veritable Who’s Who of GOP elected officials has dismissed the idea as utter tomfoolery. Four of the notables who have distanced themselves from this absurdity include:

• Jon Husted, Ohio Secretary of State – It’s important to note, Ohio is not only a swing state, but a state no Republican has ever won the Presidency without winning. Mr. Husted says, “I can reassure Donald Trump, I am in charge of elections in Ohio and they are not going to be rigged. I’ll make sure of that.” He went on to say, “It’s bipartisan, it’s transparent, and there’s just no justification for concern about widespread voter fraud.”
• Marco Rubio, Florida’s Junior U.S. Senator – Florida is the poster child for concerns about voting tabulation, dating back to the 2000 Election of George W. Bush, when he ostensibly won the election by beating Al Gore in the state of Florida by 537 votes. Senator Rubio summarily rejected Mr. Trump’s claim, saying, “This election is not being rigged. We have 67 counties in this state, each of which conduct their own elections. I promise you there is not a 67-county conspiracy to rig this election.”
• Paul Ryan, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives – The nation’s top elected Republican House Member has disavowed the Nominee’s claim. Speaker Ryan said in a statement released by his spokesperson, AshLee Strong, “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity.”
• Mike Pence, Candidate for Vice President of the U.S. – Mr. Pence, the Nominee’s own running mate, parsed words with, and pushed back on the President’s Press Secretary, Josh Earnest.  After Earnest said Mr. Pence wasn’t concerned about voter fraud, Pence haggled, but still managed to land on a spot dismissing the issue. He ultimately said, yesterday, “I’ve got a news flash for you, the President’s press secretary doesn’t speak for me. They’re not worried about it (speaking of voter fraud) because they are denying it’s happening, I’m not worried about it because I know the American people are not going to let it happen.” While his comments seethed with an undertone of inviting Trump supporters to engage in acts of voter intimidation, in the final analysis, he still refused to give credence to this travesty of a deception.

While the counter narrative emanating from GOP mavens, which represents a break with the Nominee, may be somewhat surprising, it comes as no surprise at all President Obama offered direct and terse pushback to the notion of voter fraud upending the election. During a news conference in the Rose Garden yesterday, President Obama said Donald J. Trump should:

• “Stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.”

POTUS, noting that though the history of America’s democracy is filled with stories of spirited, if not contentious contests, when they are over, regardless of the victor’s Party, the loser congratulates the winner, reaffirms our democracy, and moves forward. He added:

• “That’s how democracy survives.”

Let me put a bow on this by citing contemporary research on the subject. Justin Levitt, Professor at the Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and an expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, with a particular focus on election administration and redistricting, conducted a study on voter fraud. Levitt tracked both allegations and prosecutions for voter fraud from 2000 to 2014. He looked at incidents that included general, primary, special and municipal elections. More than 1 billion ballots were cast in that period in general and primary elections alone. Of those billion + ballots, he found 31 incidents, anywhere in the country, that rose to the level of “possibly” having been voter fraud.

Some of the cases have been thoroughly investigated, and a few resulted in prosecutions. A number of the others have not. Professor Levitt opines that some will be debunked due to a problem with matching people from one computer to another, a data entry error, confusion between two people with the same name, or someone signing in on the wrong line of a pollbook.

Voter fraud is illegal and should be taken seriously. In fact, the record seems to indicate that by every reasonable assessment, that is exactly what is happening. Thirty-one instances out of one billion ballots cast over nearly a decade and a half would suggest all due care is applied in our running election system, and there is no viability to Mr. Trump’s claim of election fraud. So here we are, less than 3 weeks until the election, and the integrity of the election system is under assault. Fortunately, it would seem, this is a true case of false alarm for the nation. Perhaps, though, the concern is valid for a campaign that has for sometime chosen to operate in its own fact free universe. To that end, as I conclude, this is what we know…”Trump Spin: Democrats Are Trying to Steal the Election Through Voter Fraud!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2016/05/11/fact-free-universe-the-quintessential-trump-advantage/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/us/politics/obama-donald-trump-election.html

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/15/politics/donald-trump-rigged-election-hillary-clinton/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/18/donald-trump-says-the-election-is-rigged-heres-what-his-supporters-think-that-means/

http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/15/media/donald-trump-media-journalists/index.html

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-election-20161017-snap-story.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clinton-opens-23-point-lead-women-gains-democrats/story?id=41148222

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/10/16/rigged-election-chorus-complaint-team-trump/92195244/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/opinion/the-success-of-the-voter-fraud-myth.html?_r=0

http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/09/04/fox-s-chris-wallace-its-not-my-role-presidential-debate-moderator-be-truth-squad/212845

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/president/

http://www.politico.com/2016-election/polls/

http://www.cnn.com/election

http://www.abc-7.com/story/33406503/polls-clinton-leads-trump-in-key-swing-states

http://fox40.com/2016/10/13/swing-state-polls-show-trump-path-to-wh-narrowing/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/politics/swing-state-polls-hillary-clinton-leads-trump/index.html

http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/trumps-talk-of-rigged-election-alarms-florida-election-officials-20161018/

http://wishtv.com/2016/10/18/marco-rubio-rebukes-donald-trump-this-election-is-not-being-rigged/

http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-husted-donald-trump-rigged-election-ohio-polls-2016-10

http://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-mike-pence-gop-vote-outcome-20161016-story.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-tells-donald-trump-stop-whining-election/story?id=42883773

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

It’s time to Break It Down!

Twenty-seven days to E-Day, and for the vast majority of people, it cannot get here quickly enough. I would have to imagine Clinton supporters are slightly more interested in getting it over with, based on today’s polling, since Mrs. Clinton leads in most polls at the moment.

Last week I wrote about the first of the Campaign’s infamous October surprises, which dealt with Mr. Trump’s taxes, and the smart, brilliant, genius way in which he has, despite his alleged $10 billion worth, avoided paying any, perhaps for the better part of two decades. In Sunday night’s second Presidential Debate, he asserted that Mrs. Clinton’s wealthy donors had used the same strategies he does, specifically identifying the Carried Interest Forward provision, and directly naming Warren Buffet among those donors.

Mr. Buffet, who does support Mrs. Clinton, and who backed President Obama before that, responded quickly to that claim, to which he took great exception. After advising that Mr. Trump had clearly not seen his taxes, Mr. buffet noted that he has paid taxes every year for 72 years, dating back to 1944 (incidentally, two year longer than Mr. Trump has been alive), and added that he has copies of all 72 returns. He also indicated he has never used the Carried Interest Forward provision. He not only cited specifics about his own taxes, he revealed details about his 2015 return, including, according to Business Wire:

• Adjusted Gross Income – $11,563,931
• Deductions – $5,477,694
• Allowable Charitable Contributions – $3,469,179
• With the exception of $36,037, the difference between deductions and charitable contributions went toward State Income Taxes
• Total Charitable Contributions – $2,858,057,970
• Of that number, more than $2.85 billion was not taken as deductions (and never will be), based on tax law limits to charitable deductions
• Total Federal Income Tax – $1,845,557

Mr. Buffet said his contributions for previous years reflected similar contributions, deductions, and tax rates. Forbes Magazine has pegged Mr. Buffet’s worth at $65 billion. In his most pointed comments direct at Mr. Trump, he revealed that he had been audited by the IRS on multiple occasions, including currently, and that he has no problem making his tax information public while being audited. He added that neither would Trump – at least not a legal problem.

Of course, in the week that has passed since my last post, there has been another October surprise that rocked Trump World. Last Friday a video was released showing Mr. Trump making remarks that a vast segment of the American population characterizes as him describing his propensity to commit sexual assault on women. Mr. Trump apologized, then downgraded his remarks to what he called “locker room talk,” then he attempted to further inoculate himself by claiming Bill Clinton said far worse to him on the golf course. All in all, it is unclear whether Trump is attempting to minimize the negativity of his own comments, or once again trying to insert Bill Clinton into the role of bad guy, to lower the temperature of the fix in which he finds himself.

This latter imbroglio led to a number of prominent republicans rescinding their endorsement of Mr. Trump, some of whom declared they would not be voting for him, and a few who actually indicated they would be voting for Mrs. Clinton. Even the Speaker of the House has said he will no longer defend Donald Trump, and that he will, for the next four weeks, focus on electing down ballot Republicans. Not surprisingly, Mr. Trump responded by attacking Speaker Ryan, calling him weak, and a few other not so positive things.

While much of the current conversation around the GOP Nominee centers on his “sexcapades,” or at least his potty mouth, I want to highlight another of his high profile escapades…and he has had many, before, and during his campaign. He has:

• Employed racist comments, tactics, and actions
• Demeaned women
• Roiled anti-Muslim sentiment
• Disparaged Mexicans
• Embraced harassment of blacks at his rallies
• Attacked the notion that John McCain was a war hero
• Antagonized a Gold Star family
• Belittled a former Miss Universe
• Alleged the President was not born in America
• Ran an ad calling for the State to kill five schoolchildren

The list above is not intended to reflect a Top 10 of Mr. Trump’s offensive deeds or actions. In fact, it is an acutely abridged version of what some might refer to as his parade of despicable antics. I am going to briefly elevate the last of the preceding bullets notated. That bullet summarizes the Central Park jogger case, which was a 1989 case familiarly known as the Central Park 5.

A woman was attacked while jogging in New York City‘s Central Park, on April 19, 1989. The encounter consisted of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The 28-year-old victim remained in a coma for 12 days. The New York Times characterized the assault as one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.

When the story broke, it was detailed by police and prosecutors as a band of young people, part of a larger gang, rampaging Central Park, and mercilessly beating and assaulting the jogger. The story exploded upon the public sphere, having been fanned by both politicians and sensationalized media accounts.

Five black and Hispanic young men, ages 14 to 16 were arrested, and subsequently convicted. Despite the fact all of them asserted that the incriminating statements they gave had been coerced by authorities, their statements were ruled admissible, and led to convictions in 1990.

In 2002, the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) found DNA and other evidence that the woman had not been beaten and raped by the five teens. Instead, another man, a convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed to acting alone in the attack, was the perpetrator. The DA concluded that the new evidence, if available, could have resulted in a different verdict during the trial. He joined a defense motion asking that the convictions be vacated.

In 2014, the five men agreed to a $41 million settlement from New York City to resolve a civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment. The settlement averaged about $1 million for each year the men were imprisoned. Current Mayor Bill de Blasio deemed it a “moral obligation to right this injustice.” The suit alleged false arrest, malicious prosecution, and a racially motivated conspiracy to deprive them of their civil tights by the city’s police and prosecutors. It is worth noting, the previous Mayor, Michael Bloomberg vigorously denied and fought against the suit in federal court for more than a decade.

Let’s rewind. On May 1, 1989, Mr. Trump published an ad in the New York Daily News calling for the State to kill the five teenagers who had been arrested, convicted, and as we now know, confessed to the crimes under police coercion. Though convicted, they were not guilty, a fact later proved by DNA and other evidence.

In retrospect, it is clear the possibility that the Central Park 5 might be innocent never occurred to Donald Trump. Apparently, it still hasn’t. He emblazoned his opinion in a New York Daily News ad with a clarion call to anger and fear: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

Years later when the city offered to settle the case, Mr. Trump again took to the New York Daily News with an op-ed full of disgust. He insisted it was “ridiculous” that the city offered a settlement, and that “settling doesn’t mean innocence.” This was, and still is his position, even after the men were exonerated, and moreover, after DNA evidence established without a doubt that someone else (who also confessed) was the culprit.

Just last week Trump told CNN in a statement “they admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”

This choice to embrace some facts, while opting to ignore others, such as the new DNA evidence and corresponding subsequent confession, are emblematic of what I have come to characterize as the Trump Way…his hardwired philosophy, if you will. This is an artful design with seven key principles. He has already written The Art of the Deal (1987), and The Art of the Comeback (1997). Perhaps his next tome should be entitled, The Art of “Deny, Decry, Defend, Deflect, Divert, Dissemble, and Dismiss: The Trump Mantra!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/opinions/trump-wrong-on-central-park-5-case-callan/index.html

http://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-is-wildly-wrong-about-the-central-park-5-even-by-donald-trump-standards/

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/donald-trump-and-the-central-park-five

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664482/Donald-Trump-slams-40M-settlement-Central-Park-5-disgraceful.html

http://www.attn.com/stories/11902/why-donald-trump-wrong-to-question-innocence-central-park-5

http://www.mtv.com/news/2922644/the-central-park-five-ad-told-us-who-donald-trump-really-is/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/06/politics/reality-check-donald-trump-central-park-5/index.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-continues-hammer-central-park-article-1.2821286

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-says-central-park-five-are-guilty-despite-dna-n661941?cid=public-rss_20161009

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/trump-larry-king-central-park-five/index.html

http://time.com/4525394/warren-buffett-donald-trump-tax-presidential-debate/

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161010005859/en/Tax-Facts-Donald-Trump

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Central_Park_Five