Billionaire Republican Donald Trump says if he is President he will fix America. Listen carefully if you care about the Bill of Rights, living wages, racial and gender equality and climate change.

Trump vows to “make America great again.” But great for who?

Trump says wages are too high!

In the first Republican debate, Nov. 10, 2015, Trump said wages are “too high.” The U.S.“is a country that is being beaten on every front….taxes too high, wages too high. We’re not going to be able to compete against the world.”

Is Trump saying greatness is forcing workers to try and survive on less than the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage? Trump also supports “Right to Work” (for less) legislation that weakens unions so workers would not be able to organize for their rights.

Taxes “too high?” Trump wants to lower or even repeal the corporate income tax claiming that will “create an unprecedented jobs boom.” This is Reaganomics trickle down on steroids. The big corporations just deposit their tax gifts in the Cayman Islands and export jobs to nations that pay the lowest wages. That is where Trump, himself stashes his billions. No wonder he hasn’t released his tax returns. The result is an ever widening income gap between the .1% billionaires and the rest of us 99.9%. Cutting taxes on the wealthy means savage cuts in government services and jobs including our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and childcare.

Trump cheats workers and contractors

Since the 1980s workers have filed over 3,500 lawsuits against Trump for cheating them of hundreds of millions of dollars in the construction and maintenance of his empire of hotels, casinos, and resorts. (USA Today Network).

New Jersey Casino Control Commission files show that in 1990 at least 253 subcontractors were not paid for $69.5 million for work at Trump’s Taj Mahal.

Trump has been charged with 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for not paying overtime or the minimum wage to thousands of workers. Forty-eight servers at Trump’s Miami golf course won an average of $800 each for wage theft compensation.

Those who fight to win back wages face years of legal stalling tactics and legal fees. Some contractors have been forced out of business.

Making America “great again?” Don’t be fooled by such a bully.

Trump uses hate and fear to divide us

Trump maligns immigrants. At his Iowa news conference, Aug. 31, 2015, Trump had his security guards remove the respected Mexican American journalist Jorge Ramos when he asked Trump to clarify his vow to evict 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.,” Trump ranted. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Trump still vows to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and still smears them.

Trump smeared Humayun Khan, a Pakistani-American Muslim soldier in the U.S. Army who died in Afghanistan. His father, Khizr Khan told the Democratic Party convention, “Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims, disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own Party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.”

Trump maligns African Americans

Trump convened a news conference recently to proclaim President Obama “was born in the United States, period.” Does he really think he can make amends with one short sentence for five years of spreading the lie that Obama was not born in the U.S. and his presidency was illegitimate? Recently, Trump made the bizarre accusation that Obama and Hillary Clinton are “founders of ISIS” the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. Trump appointed white supremacist, anti-lgbtq bigot Stephen Bannon as his campaign CEO.
At the Republican National Convention, speaking of recent killings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Trump said “Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation…The attacks on our police and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our way of life.” Yet the Justice Department reports crime has fallen dramatically. What is also alarming is the numbers of unarmed African Americans shot to death by white police officers.

Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of the NAACP, accused Trump of “scapegoating communities of color” insinuating they are “terrorists” threatening “our way of life.” In Trump’s speech “Not once were the names and stories of people like Philando Castille and Alton Sterling mentioned….Tamir Rice, a 12 year-old boy gunned down by police as he played in a park in Cleveland.”

Trump promises to unleash police, to free them from accountability for their resort to lethal force. Trump is threatening fear, intimidation, and outright terrorism against those seeking progressive change in America.

The Rev. William Barber, leader of the “Moral Monday” movement, wrote an open letter to Trump before he visited North Carolina. “Your campaign, like the leadership of our ([North Carolina] Legislature and Governor does not represent the politics of Lincoln. Instead, your campaign presents an extremist philosophy of hate, greed, racism, classism, and xenophobia.”

Trump maligns women

Fox News newscaster, Megyn Kelly, asked Trump to explain his use of expletives to describe women. Trump snarled back that Kelly is a “bimbo.” She was going to ask about his use of words like “fat pigs” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.” In a 1991 Esquire interview, Trump said negative coverage in the media doesn’t matter “as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of a…”

Trump is on record opposing equal pay for women and opposes paid medical and family leave.

Trump denies climate change

Asked to explain his scorn of warnings that man-made global warming is causing sea level rise, extreme weather, and threats to the very existence of life on earth, Trump said “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” He has repeatedly described climate change as a “hoax.” He is a darling of the oil, coal, and gas billionaires who do all in their power to block any measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions even as our planet becomes hotter..

Trump wants to limit voting rights and democracy

On NBC “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd asked Trump if he favors “same day” voter registration to make it easier for people to vote. Trump retorted he favors voter ID laws to ferret out voter fraud. He said only citizens should be allowed to vote.

Todd replied it is the law that only citizens can register and vote.

“No it’s not,” Trump snarled. “I mean, you have places where people just walk in and vote….You’ve got to have real security.”

Trump recently charged that if he loses Pennsylvania in the general election it will be because of “cheating” in certain urban centers, obviously referring to the majority African American city of Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold.

But election officials say “fraud” is not a real problem. The real problem is that only about half of eligible voters cast ballots. Democracy in America depends on vastly increasing voter participation with every possible way to make it easier to vote. And freeing our political system of enormous amounts of corporate cash that has turned our elections into a giant auction controlled by the highest bidder.

Trump is a fraud

Donald Trump is not the first demagogue to vow to “make great again” a nation beset with economic, social and political crisis. Remember Hitler? Mussolini? Trump wants to return us to an earlier age. When segregation ruled supreme? When women did not have the right to vote? When there was no Minimum Wage or anti-child labor laws? When unions were few and far between? Is that the past glory Trump has in store for us?

Speaking to the Alaska AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, president of the labor federation, called for a huge nationwide outpouring of voters November 8 not only to defeat Trump but also to elect a Democratic majority in the House and Senate:

“Donald Trump is not only dangerous, he is blatantly dishonest,” Trumka said. “He pretends to love a cause, but he’s a fraud….He wants us to believe he will stand with working people and defend unions when he spent his entire life trying to cheat us and destroy us…..All you need to know about Trump: He thinks our wages are too high and he has stolen our pay time and time again…..Donald Trump is profoundly unfit to be president.”

Listen to Donald Trump and we can see that in this election democracy is at stake. Appointments to the Supreme Court are at stake. The future of our jobs, our families and the planet is at stake. The election is close. It will take a united landslide voter turnout to win. Bring family and friends. Beware the Trump.

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