My Opinion: All the Good-Time Friends Gone with the Trump Wind

 Most of the liberal Democrat acquaintances I have on Facebook are part of the reason Trump won the election; they should have been more active and come out stronger for Bernie Sanders, but instead they supported Clinton. Most never joined grass root organizations or volunteered to improve their communities. Instead, they embraced capitalism and materialism and confused passive resistance with passivity. There are some old friends on Facebook, that I have met in person, that I feel comradely with; every other comrade on Facebook I have never met. 

I had my last conversation with one old friend last evening; I felt I had to block him from my two main Facebook pages and Messengers because he kept saying I was denying the Chinese “1.5 million murdered” in Tibet, but I never denied or believed it. I merely responded that he should pay attention to what he could do in his community now; that the past has its causes and reactions and can’t be changed, but the future can be changed. Because of the politicization, he is not fun to talk with anymore; he resented my joke comparing Finland and America's educational system; they were Finnish, I said, but in my assessment, the U.S. was “finished.” Joining a chorus of condemnation of Trump, I reminded him he could have done something to forestall him. He was embarrassed by my saying I hadn’t seen him help improve the union at the public school we worked at, hadn't joined any protests, or done any community service. He sounded like a hypocrite. In response, he lashed out at me with red baiting pushing me into defending China against U.S. and European aggression.  

      In another instance, I ‘unfriended’ and blocked a colleague for being a Democrat-hating Trump supporter. This person had always been inactive and disinterested in education or union affairs at the school where we worked,  but I used him as a foil: “A foil usually either differs dramatically or is extremely similar but with a key difference setting them apart.” We were both humorous ESL teachers that retired with a 25-55 union-city buy-out, a year apart, and we had other personal similarities, but there were major differences in our personalities and ideals as well.

 He had never been my friend outside of school, though he became friendly on the internet sending me curious landscape and stuff after I retired in Taiwan, but politically our ideals became apparent. For example, I was an altruistic defender of immigrant rights, was faculty adviser for a social action club, and seriously tried to empower my ESL students with proactive methodology. My colleague, however, wasted the students’ time, according to "Rate a Teacher" on the internet, caring only to get through the school day doing as little work as possible. He was found out engaging in personal business in class  but got away with it after filing a union grievance. 

There is no more fun to be had from this old friend, either. We showed our true colors when he sent an e-mail of a navy choir singing Four Season songs and I joking commented they looked like “Good Humor Boys,” a reference to the bike-riding ice cream sellers and “Jersey Boys” the musical, because of their white uniforms. He felt I had insulted the U.S. military, effectively exposing his jingoism.

One by one, the flimsy ties I have with acquaintances and colleagues from the U.S. are breaking apart; the only friends left are Democrats and liberals. There is only one pro-Trump supporter left: a secretary I never spoke with when we were colleagues. I gave her a piece of my mind when she posted a meme that said Americans should give Trump a chance. I will not comment next time; simply unfriend her, too. 

One of my old Brooklyn neighbors posted a monologue video from an Iraqi War vet who supported Trump’s Muslim ban. I disagreed with the meme in a comment and the old neighbor has backed off reverting to his car and dog posts. I try to remain good-time and neutral with non-political friends, but if they read memes I share and write disagreeable comments, I will respond, even if it means the good times are gone. I turn to my new friends and comrades, on the internet and in person, for solidarity. 

My Opinion: It Is Good To Fight Back Against Fascists

An old neighbor posted a video on Facebook from a "U.S. Marine [who] reveals the truth about Trump's travel ban." He says that people who hate The U.S. for their policy in Iraq shouldn't be allowed to travel there. This U.S. Marine, as all U.S. military, should not be invading other countries to support the U.S. pillage of their natural resources. No Muslim would be angry if their homeland security wasn't breached by invasion from the U.S. This incursion into the Middle World is not WW II where the U.S. was fighting the fascists. The people of the Middle World only react to Western incursion as you would if someone came into your backyard.

You think the radical destruction of property in Berkeley where a White Supremacist was invited to speak was wrong? 

You're saying the Germans and Jews should not have fought back against the Nazis? You're saying it was good for the Chinese in Nanjing to stand lame and let the Japanese kill them, that it was okay for the British (the first one of the seven) to invade China in the Opium Wars without fight back from the Chinese people? That there shouldn't have been a Polish or French underground?

Don't be crazy!

Actions speak louder than words. The fight-back will empower millions of rational American citizens and alert others to the danger. This is not a time to sit on one's hands and belittle the seriousness of the problem.

Don't you think white supremacists should think twice about public speaking and college presidents should reconsider having these hateful people speak on their campuses? The ten thousand people who shouted down David Duke from the KKK who Giuliani invited to speak in front of City Hall taught our wonderful mayor and racists a lesson. The threat of violence did the trick. It is a useful tactic especially considering all the innocent people, in the U.S. and the world that have been injured or killed by these fascists.

Amazon says their best-selling book in the US is 1984. The “silent majority” should read Animal Farm and see how the animals organize radically, twice, to push out the fascist farmer and pigs. Both books weren't translated into Chinese until recently, but they were translated into Russian; the USSR didn't ban them, saying they were allegories for the U.S.

If you wish people in Cuba, China, North Korea and the Arab nations would read Animal Farm, wish granted. Cubans read it, too, and it is translated and well-read in Arabic, too. They think it's the U.S Orwell was writing about and that is exactly what Orwell meant it to be; Animal Farm's setting is the Midwest and 1984 is in the U.K. Orwell supported anarcho-syndicalism in the Spanish Civil War.

So you are “non-violent” and say the right wing took over the U.S. without violence...As Trump's mentor said, the courts are more powerful than machine guns.

Not true.

The U.S. government has been the violent perpetrators massacring and oppressing people since George Washington; the mask of decency worn by Clinton and Obama were just masks. They took over non-violently, too.

If courts were more powerful the U.N. would have gotten the U.S./NATO out of the Middle World years ago.

With all eyes on Trump, Republicans are planning to break unions for good. Every union (like the UFT) should tremble at this. How many workers would pay dues if it wasn't automatically deducted from our paychecks? I wouldn't, until the UFT started acting like a real militant union and standing up for workers rights.

Senate votes to repeal transparency rule for oil companies.

An Arkansas law makes performing the procedure used in 95 percent of second trimesters a felony, with no exception for rape or incest—and allows family members to stop it.

At any time in American history, fighting back against an assault on our liberties would have been justified. 

Krauthammer
He admits Trump doesn't know what he's doing but supports American sweatshop abroad as a sign of sacrifice in the name of democracy, but it was only to give the illusion that socialism wasn't good; it was a band-aid. Krauthammer has always barked up the wrong tree in denying people are socialist beings, whose purpose on earth is to help one another grow.

I just read his editorial in the Washington Post, the newspaper bought by The Amazon crook; vested interest in keeping up the exploitation. Bring the sub-living wages home, that's all Krauthammer is against, as the Republicans use the smokescreen of Muslim Travel Ban to decimate the labor, women's and public education advances.

The “gift” of Trump agitation should be exploited to the fullest to rid the American people of oppressors; at least go down fighting.  

Bill to Destroy U.S. Workers Unions

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/republicans-unions-right-to-work-bill