In keeping with tradition, New Millennium Writings is taking a stand. Please help us rescue our still-young Millennium, which appeared to be dawning with such promise at our founding in 1996.
Has it really come to this? Any one of these 70-plus reasons should be enough to persuade anyone who wishes the best for our descendants and our world. I could list many more.
I do not cite sources because all of these have been reported by multiple reliable sources, and life is short. If I err, reply below or send proof to DonWilliams7@charter.net.
— Don Williams, Editor Emeritus
70-Plus Reasons To Reject Trump And Rescue Our Endangered New Millennium
- His running mate called him “America’s Hitler.” Who rewards such comparisons?
- Do you really want a narcissist holding the nuclear football?
- He called Climate Change a Chinese hoax. Look around you.
- He lost the popular vote twice by a total of 10 million votes yet claimed victory.
- Says he won’t be a dictator “except on Day One.” Do you believe him?
- Calls for “one really violent day” to fight crime.
- Said he will begin imprisoning political opponents as soon as elected.
- Lied repeatedly about 2016 and said he will lock up illegal voters going back to 2016.
- Said he will start rounding up millions for deportation as soon as he takes the oath.
- “It will be bloody.”
- Broke his oath to uphold the Constitution.
- CIA analyst Kevin Carroll said he demanded we bomb Mexico with B52s.
- Stoked rage and fear of civil war by accusing Democrats of trying to kill him, even though the man who shot him was a registered Republican armed with an AR-style weapon, made easily available thanks to the NRA. The man who stalked Trump at Mar-a-Lago voted for him in 2016.
- Gen. Milley called him “Fascist to the core.”
- He threatened to withhold FEMA money from California because it’s blue.
- Suggested Milley remove the navy from Pearl Harbor because it’s blue.
- Expressed ignorance of what happened there.
- Summoned thousands to Washington to halt the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021.
- Urged Security operatives to remove weapons detectors before the Jan. 6 march on the Capitol.
- Encouraged crowds to march to the Capitol.
- Told the Proud Boys and others to stand down and stand by.
- Suggested then-Vice-President Mike Pence should be killed.
- Said “So what” when informed Pence was in danger.
- Failed to intervene as mobs ransacked Congress.
- Promised to pardon these traitors to democracy.
- Said his top general should be killed for treason.
- Asked generals to show him respect like Hitler’s generals.
- Called American soldiers killed in action “suckers and losers.”
- Scorned heroic John McCain who saved Obamacare by casting the deciding vote for the ACA.
- Promised to end Obamacare, then applauded J.D. Vance who lied about it during the debate.
- Took out full-page ads demanding the Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five, be executed.
- Secretly took the Covid vaccine after telling Americans to inject bleach.
- Exploded the national debt more per year than any previous president.
- A score of former assistants have turned on him.
- Hundreds of true conservatives have turned on him.
- Convicted of 34 felons, he would be in prison by now if not for stacking the Supreme Court.
- He is a deadbeat, infamous for not paying workers and investors.
- He declared bankruptcy over and again.
- He hawks all manner of memorabilia online. The most mercenary president ever.
- His mentor was Roy Cohn, legal counsel for the reviled Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
- He only dropped his mentor after Cohn got AIDS.
- Referred to immigrants as cutthroats, rapists, criminals, pushers, and much else over and over.
- Called for deporting thousands living legally in Springfield, Ohio.
- Falsely accused Haitians of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.
- Falsely accused Biden of withholding aid to Red States after he himself withheld disaster relief from Blue States.
- Even though he never won a majority, he appointed three members of a Supreme Court who have granted him immunity from prosecution, undermined climate, gun, and labor regulations, and eroded women’s rights to privacy and power over their own bodies.
- J.D. Vance falsely stated that illegals are smuggling lots of guns from Mexico while well aware that we are the ones exporting guns TO Mexico — a nation that has the world’s toughest anti-gun laws, yet is flooded with AR15s and other weapons from the U.S.
- He would be the oldest man ever elected president, and it shows in rambling rants and miscues.
- Vance has said we should “rip out” America’s leadership class “like a tumor” and suggested authoritarian rule would be acceptable.
- Trump cheerleader Tucker Carlson lauded guests who say Hitler wasn’t so bad.
- Trump was adjudicated guilty of rape in a civil suit.
- Paid porn stars and others to keep quiet about having sex with him.
- Has been accused by 17 women of rape or sexual aggression.
- Was credibly accused of raping a 13-year-old.
- Squelched FBI efforts to investigate sexual aggression and other crimes committed by a Supreme Court nominee.
- Bragged about walking through a dressing room of teenage girls in states of undress during a beauty pageant he sponsored.
- Bragged about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his taste for girls “on the younger side.”
- “Grab ‘em by the pussy.”
- Trump University.
- Mocked a physically handicapped reporter.
- Mocked a woman who accused him of groping her on a plane.
- Spoke of himself in godlike terms, saying the woman would not have been “the Chosen One.”
- Said “I hate Taylor Swift.” Maybe your mother, like mine, taught you never to say I hate you, because it means you wish the person dead.
- Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, and other beloved artists are for Kamala.
- Suggested Ted Cruz’s father conspired to have John F. Kennedy assassinated.
- Held secret meetings with Vladimir Putin before and after he invaded Ukraine.
- Put the Taliban in charge of aspects of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Fawned over murderous dictator Kim Jong Un.
- His former campaign manager, Steve Bannon, is a white supremacist, a wacko mystic, and an admirer of dictators, according to biographies I have read. Bannon has said he helped Trump become president in order to bring down the system and initiate a new world order.
- Told an estimated 30,000 lies during a four-year period, according to the Washington Post.
- Suggested police should rough up suspects before hauling them to jail.
- Kamala Harris is one of the most qualified candidates ever. She served as Vice President, and before that as Attorney General and Senator from our largest state—one that outranks most countries based on population, economy, and much else.
- Isn’t it way past time that a member of the true American majority—women—became president? Make it happen for our children, our sisters, our mothers. Why turn our backs on this opportunity to seize history and take a giant leap forward?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Williams founded New Millennium Writings in 1996. He was a presence in print and online until 2017, when he began writing a book of regional history. For 22 years he wrote for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, including a prizewinning column that helped turn the tide against the Bush/Cheney endless wars and disastrous energy policies. His columns appeared widely, including at Opednews.com, ReaderSupportedNews.com, NewMillenniumWritings.com, Truthout, CommonDreams, Buzzflash, Antiwar, and many others. His book Heroes, Sheroes and Zeroes, the Best Writings About People, is under revision for a second printing. Articles and short stories have been featured in Poets & Writers (two covers), Writers’ Digest, The Crescent Review, The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chattahoochee Review, Smokies Life, and various other papers, periodicals, and anthologies.
He’s won dozens of writing awards, including a Golden Presscard Award, the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize, awards from Scripps Howard Newspapers, the Associated Press, UPI, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Michigan Journalism Fellowship. He has interviewed or profiled Ken Kesey, Alex Haley, Lee Smith, Alan Cheuse, Mike Wallace, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, William Kennedy, James Lovell, Lee Smith, Larry Brown, Dolly Parton, as well as presidential candidates, entertainers, street people, prisoners, schizophrenics, and adventurers — including 10 of the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon.
He’s experienced astronaut training, war games, peaceful demonstrations; flown in gliders, choppers, jets and more; swam with manatees and dolphins; hiked up an active volcano; experienced Summer Solstice at Stonehenge and partied under the Kremlin Wall; sang backup to Dolly Parton during an impromptu concert for an ailing fan. He likes to run and has completed three marathons and placed in many other races. In 2011, he was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. He has two books in progress and intends to resume blogging about much of the above, as well as adventures to come.
70-Plus Reasons... © 2024 Don Williams
74. Separated children from their parents at the border, causing immeasurable intergenerational trauma.
Indeed I keep thinking of more glad you mentioned this one.
Remember when any ONE of these reasons could disqualify someone? Sheesh. Glad you are still fighting the good fight, Don.
Thank you Jendi. So good to hear from you.
In his 2017 essay in Foreign Affairs magazine titled “How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That’s a Giant Problem,” Tom Nichols, Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, wrote: “Americans have reached a point where ignorance—at least regarding what is generally considered established knowledge in public policy—is seen as an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to demonstrate their independence from nefarious elites—and insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong.”
At the same time, Nichols acknowledges, “Experts are often wrong, and the good ones among them are the first to admit it—because their own professional disciplines are based not on some ideal of perfect knowledge and competence but on a constant process of identifying errors and correcting them, which ultimately drives intellectual progress.”
But ignorance can be dangerous, even fatal.
Millions of Americans believed President Donald J. Trump when he called COVID-19 “a hoax” in 2020, then refused to follow CDC guidelines and thousands, needlessly, tragically, died.
Mr. Trump once described himself as “a stable genius.” Should we trust Mr. Trump, now seeking a second term as president, or should we place our trust in recognized experts in economics, climate science, national security, and American history?
In a Sept. 24 open letter, 405 economists and former White House policy advisors concluded, “The choice in this election is clear. It is a choice between inequity, economic injustice, and uncertainty with Donald Trump or prosperity, opportunity, and stability with Kamala Harris.”
A letter signed by 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists on June 24—when President Joe Biden was the nominee—stated, “While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we all agree that Joe Biden’s economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump’s. We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world, and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy. Many Americans are concerned about inflation, which has come down remarkably fast. There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation, with his fiscally irresponsible budgets.”
Under Mr. Trump, the national debt increased by about 40%.
What about human-caused climate change that threatens to make our planet uninhabitable? In 2012, Mr. Trump tweeted, “It’s freezing and snowing in New York—we need global warming!” And in a 2022 interview on “Fox Business Network’s Varney & Company Monday,” Mr. Trump told Stuart Varney that climate change is “a hoax.”
Skepticalscience.com wrote: “In climate science today, there is overwhelming [greater than 97%] expert consensus that CO2 traps heat and adding it to the atmosphere warms the planet. Whatever claims are made to the contrary, that principle has been established for almost seventy years, since the publication of a landmark 1956 paper by Gilbert Plass. The paper’s title was, ‘The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change.’ It explained in detail how CO2 traps heat in our atmosphere.”
On Sept. 27, Bill Nye, aka “The Science Guy,” told MSNBC, “One side is pretending climate change is not happening, and the other side is doing something about it. Now the choice is clear. You have to vote for Harris-Walz.”
As Category 4 Hurricane Milton devastated Florida, Monica Medina, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, decried the GOP Project 25’s proposals to dismantle research and funding related to climate change. “The Trump plan is as dangerous as these storms themselves,” Medina told MSNBC.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump claimed, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.”
However, in a Sept. 24 letter to the public, 111 GOP officials—including former members of Congress, defense secretaries, C.I.A. directors, and other national security officials—endorsed Ms. Harris and called Mr. Trump “unfit to serve.”
The letter stated, “As president, he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and this country’s founding documents.”
The letter quoted former vice president Mike Pence, who, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, memorably said that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”
Where does Mr. Trump—who left office with the lowest approval rating of any president in U.S. history—rank among the 44 American presidents?
According to the Washington Examiner, Mr. Trump told the authors of the 2018 book, Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State is Undermining the Presidency, “The amazing thing is that you have certain people who are conservative Republicans that if my name weren’t Trump, if it were John Smith, they would say I’m the greatest president in history and I blow Ronald Reagan away.”
The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey asked respondents to rate all presidents with 0 being considered “failure,” 50 being “average,” and 100 being “great.” The more than 500 members of the American Political Science Association ranked the twice-impeached Mr. Trump, who was convicted of committing 34 felonies while in office, as the worst president with a 10.92 score, while Abraham Lincoln scored the highest at 93.87.
All voters in the Nov. 5 presidential election—especially the estimated 5% to 10% who are undecided—should strongly consider the informed, evidence-based conclusions of these authorities.
As Nichols explained, “Laypeople cannot do without experts, and they must accept this reality without rancor. Experts, likewise, must accept that they get a hearing, not a veto, and that their advice will not always be taken.
This expert then offered a dire warning: “At this point, the bonds tying the system together are dangerously frayed. Unless some sort of trust and mutual respect can be restored, public discourse will be polluted by unearned respect for unfounded opinions. And in such an environment, anything and everything becomes possible, including the end of democracy and republican government itself.”
We are all numb today. Numb with grief. Kamala Harris addressed the nation today with poise, dignity, and respect. And it was no surprise to us because we know her that way. As young people at Howard cried in the crowd, we also did at home. Her concession speech was like no other, and only one Kamala could deliver. A message of hope ,perseverance, and resilience is what she asked of us, the American people. And we will honor her dream as she has honored ours, in our yearning to see ourselves in our neighbor, and wanting no more or no less for each other. This is our dream. And Kamala’s dream.