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Will the Black History Museum describe how a Republican-controlled Congress refused to allow Pres. Obama to govern during his last six years in office, refusing to approve his appointments to critical government positions, etc.? They should have a special section devoted to Mitch McConnell.

The question seems to come up every year. “Is there a Santa Claus, a really real Santa Claus?” The answer, of course, is yes, but not everyone has been lucky enough to actually see him in person, in the flesh. The only recorded sighting was reported in a poem many years ago entitled “’T’was the night before Christmas”. It described in detail the arrival of a “right jolly old elf who filled all the stockings” and then flew away in a sleigh drawn by tiny reindeer. That one eyewitness account is enough to convince me. And all the Santa’s helpers in their white beards and red suits at shopping malls and Salvation Army bellringers serve to remind us that, at this golden kindly time of year, his spirit is everywhere… If we want it to be.

It has become apparent that, for Trump, populism means corporatism, another term for Reaganism.

All signs point to a catastrophe of colossal proportions, just waiting to explode on January 20, 2017. The various villains Trump is choosing to fill out his cabinet and head up the agencies, bureaus, and offices of government are a veritable rogue’s gallery of “hit men” who make no secret of their intention to emasculate some of the important institution, laws, and regulations, America has developed over the past 2 1/2 centuries. The only hope for the future of America-as-we- know-it is for Trump to be denied the presidency by action of the Electoral College. If enough Electors realize the direction Trump’s,transition team is taking, perhaps an electoral miracle can happen.Reportedly, there are people working on it.

The Republican mantra since 2008 has been “hate Obama, allow nothing good or necessary to happen for which he might get some credit”. This tactic is new in American politics. Never before has one party shut down government for a reason so flimsy as their dislike of the president, himself, his very person. But they have gone beyond simple opposition, way beyond. They have gone all the way to downright simple ugly HATE, and have been applying this hate , universally, and to the Nth degree since Obama’s very first day in office. But why? No other president has ever been treated this way while in office. Now Paul Roberts (December 3, 2016) wants Donald Trump to “sign out” all of Obama’s executive orders on day one of the Trump presidency. Never mind the necessity of Obama using executive orders to govern precisely because Congress refused to do its job. Never mind that no Republican will ever, and I do mean ever, admit the real reason why this lily white Republican Party decided to destroy the first minority president in America’s history. Never,ever will that be acknowledged.

I am having trouble understanding the December 1, 2016, political cartoon by Nick Anderson. It features Nancy Pelosi. You remember her. She is the one who shepherded the Democratic Caucus through the House during the first two years of the Obama administration when more progressive legislation was enacted than in any Congress since the 60s. Anderson would have us believe she represented “more of the same” at a time when America wanted change. Can someone tell Mr. Anderson that it was Hillary Clinton campaigning for president, not Nancy Pelosi? Actually, Pelosi would probably have garnered more positive, and certainly less negative, response than Clinton. Bottom line: Nancy Pelosi knows how to get legislation through Congress and is probably the only person, man or woman, in America who knows how to do so. This might be why the Republicans hate her so very much.

Isn’t it remarkable how people who know literally nothing about a given subject can make such a definitive and absolute statement is this: “we have neither the demographics nor the resources to support passenger rail.” The writer could be excused for being uninformed about available resources, that is understandable; but there is no excuse for being so ignorant about the demographics of passenger rail. All you need to do is take a look at a road map of Santa Cruz County, one that includes the UP rail line.

Get ready for a catastrophe the likes and extent of which will be worse than anything America has ever experienced in its entire history; worse than the Great Depression; worse than Reconstruction; Jim Crow on steroids; and austerity with a capital A. Donald Trump is not recruiting a cabinet and department heads to run a government. He is recruiting a wrecking crew to ruin a government, and negate a century or more of progress. The worst of the worst from the Reagan and Bush years are coming out of the woodwork like zombies. Only they are not zombies. They are real live villains who hate government in all its forms (except military) and will be positioned to inflict the maximum misery upon those least able to defend themselves.

What is becoming even more disturbing than the election of a certified con man as president, is the type of people he is bringing into positions of authority. For example: Steve Bannon, the country’s leading white supremacist; John Bolton, America’s foreign policy loose cannon; Rudy Giuliani; and so many others. Will we be seeing villains like Elliot Abrams, Oliver North, even Henry Kissinger, and who knows who else? Will they be resurrected from the bad old days of Reagan and Bush? There were some good people in both of those administrations, but they are not the ones being talked about during the Trump transition.

Jack Stone(November 16, 2016) says Trump “got a mandate.” That’s about as silly and empty- headed as much of the quotable stuff spouted by Trump himself. Trump’s targets included: the ACA, ISIS, illegal immigrants, pregnant women, various federal regulations, and other things which I can’t even recall, but not one of his rants laid out any specifics that could be called a mandate of any kind. Judging by the management of his transition team, it is anybody’s guess what his real agenda will be, anyway.