Trump: the final days

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TRUMP RALLY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

“This fire in Chicago.  Very sad.  People are saying – I don’t know if it’s true; you tell me…but people are saying… people come up to me and they say that Hillary Clinton started that fire in 1871.  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  Can you believe it?  Obama says it was caused by a cow!  A cow!  He doesn’t understand cows.  I understand cows.  I’m the only one that understands cows.   I understand cows better than the cow farmers, believe me.  I don’t know.  You tell me.  And why were all those buildings made of wood? Terrible.  Terrible.  In my administration, every building will be made of adobe.  We’re going to bring back the adobe industry.  We’re going to have to have so many adobe jobs, you won’t believe the jobs.  We’re going to give everyone the economics.  And we’ll be doing something about this.  We’ll be looking at things, believe me.”

VIA TWITTER OCTOBER 25, 2016,  1 a.m.

“Did Hillary invent poison?  Some people are saying she did. We’ll be looking into things.”

VIA TWITTER OCTOBER 26, 2016, 3 a.m.

“Ted Cruz’s dad and Hillary Clinton… Kennedy assassination… you tell me…we’ll be looking at her situation.” #CRUZCLINTONKENNEDY

TRUMP RALLY OCTOBER 29, 2016

“That stock market crash in 1929.  Sad.  Obama shouldn’t have let the stocks out.  Why didn’t they just take the stocks?  l don’t know.  I don’t know.  You tell me. Hillary Clinton’s been in politics since World War Two started in 1920.  She could have stopped the stock market crash.  But Sidney Blumenthal and Alexander Hamilton….Such a shame.  In my administration we’ll lock the stocks up immediately.  It will be the first thing I do.  The first thing I do.  We’ll be locking up so many things, you won’t believe the things we’ll be locking up.  We’ll be the world leaders in locking up. Nobody knows how to lock things up like I’ll lock things up.”

TRUMP RALLY OCTOBER 30, 2016

“I’m hearing more horrible things about Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz’s dad.  Horrible things. I wasn’t going to say it, but I have to say it.  Do you want me to say it?  Do you want me to say it?  Alright I’ll say it.  People are saying they were…well, I can’t say it.  I don’t know.  But she was 15.  And she was in the Senate.  She could have stopped the Kennedy assassination. Why didn’t she?  You tell me.  We’ll be looking at some things.  That will be the first thing I do.”

VIA TWITTER OCTOBER 31, 2016, 4:16 a.m.

“Salem Witch Trials.  Terrible.  Obama and Hillary just let them happen. I love the witches.  I’ll do so much for witches, you won’t believe how much I’ll do for witches.  What have they got to lose?”

VIA TWITTER NOVEMBER 1, 2016, 3:37 a.m.

“I’ll release my tax returns when Hillary Clinton releases her 30,000 pages of diary entries from 1963.” #CRUZCLINTONKENNEDY

ENTRY DATED 11/22/1963 FROM THE 30,000 PAGES OF CLINTON’S 1963 DIARY RELEASED NOVEMBER 2, 2016:

“OMG, the President got shot!  Dear Di, I swear Mr. Cruz and I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!!!”

VIA TWITTER NOVEMBER 2, 2016, 4:01 a.m.

“I’ll release my tax returns when Crooked Hillary releases the ‘Lost’ Colony of Roanoke that she stole.”

TRUMP RALLY NOVEMBER 3, 2016

“Have you heard what happened in Hawaii?  Terrible, just terrible.  The Germans bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor, just bombed the hell out of it.  Obama and Hillary telegraphed that all those ships were going to be there in our biggest Pacific harbor.  Did they do it on purpose?  I don’t know.  You tell me.  When I’m president, nobody will know where the ships are.”

VIA TWITTER NOVEMBER 8, 2016

1:05 a.m. “The dinosaurs. People are asking me if this is another example of the mysterious deaths that happen around Crooked Hillary. This situation will be the first thing we do.” #NOTAMETEOR

1:30 a.m. “I’ll release my tax returns when Crooked Hillary releases my puppy that I ‘lost’ in Central Park in 1959.” #IMISSBUDDY

1:36 a.m. “What happened to all the passenger pigeons?  There used to be millions of them. What does Crooked Hillary know about it? We’ll be looking at some things.” #BRINGBACKPP

2:01 a.m. “When I’m president the cyber the economics the African Americans will have excellence, so much excellence, you won’t believe my excellent African Americans.” #IHAVEAFRICANAMERICANS

2:30 a.m. “I’ll release my Muslims when the tax returns, excellent, so excellent, we’ll do very well on October 28, very well.”

2:59 a.m. “We’re looking at some things right now.” #BIGTITS

3:27 a.m. “Fatboy”

3:38 a.m. “Gargle”

TRUMP RALLY NOVEMBER 9, 2016

“Hillary and apples.  At least two bloggers have reported to me privately that they have evidence that is unbelievable.  Unbelievable.  You wouldn’t even believe this evidence.  I got it right off the cyber.  These bloggers…I think one of them was named Beavis…I don’t know….you tell me…these bloggers are saying….incredible.  Just incredible.  She was going by the name ‘Eve.’  So she wasn’t using her real name.  And she ate an apple that she shouldn’t have had.  How did she get this apple?  Did the ISIS give it to her?  Did Sidney Blumenthal steal it from some hard-working family farmer?  You tell me.  You tell me.  But we’ll be looking at some things.  It will be the first thing we do.  We’re going to do very well in the election tomorrow.”

 


Real Syrians

scan0049 scan0048Al and I have travelled outside the United States many times in the past several years.  That was a dream of mine back when we were a financially-struggling young couple tied down by two young children.  And so, in those days, we instead brought the world to us.  Through the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors, we occasionally hosted for a meal people who were visiting our city from other countries.  Over the course of 3 or 4 years, we shared meals with two visitors from Egypt, two from Germany, and many from Japan.  Our favorites, though, were a family from Syria:  Professor H I, his wife N and their chubby, dark-eyed baby boy. (I use only their initials here, on the off chance that using their names could bring them harm)

All of our guests were polite and pleasant, but the I’s were by far the warmest and most engaging.  H was instantly drawn to the bookcases in our cramped dining room.  He had read many of the books that we owned, and we were charmed by his deep knowledge of and respect for American history.  N and I bonded over children and a shared interest in cooking.  I still have and use her tabouleh recipe.

N was comfortable enough with me to express her surprise that my elderly grandparents attended our family Thanksgiving dinner.  “In Syria,” she explained, “we all think that Americans don’t care about your old people.”  She was gratified to learn otherwise, and both she and her husband were gently respectful of my grandparents, and genuinely interested in what they had to say.

We lost touch with the I’s after they returned to Syria, and I hadn’t thought of them for years until the recent civil war in their homeland.  They are now in my prayers daily.  I wonder what happened to them.  They were upper-middle class people with contacts outside Syria, so perhaps they escaped the country.  Or they may be living in the relative safety of Damascus.  I wonder about that baby boy, who was about the same age as my own son.  Did he escape Syria, get a European education and settle someplace like Berlin or London?  Is he fighting alongside government or rebel forces?  Has he been radicalized by ISIS, like so many young men in that part of the world?

I support careful scrutiny of anyone who wants to immigrate to the United States from countries infected with the ISIS virus.  But, in honor of my short friendship with the I’s, I feel compelled to remind my readers that the suffering people of Syria are human beings who read books just like we do, and enjoy good food just like we do, and love their babies and their grandparents just like we do.

God be with you, H and N, I hope you and your boy are safe.

 


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