STORIES: Index to Articles
The articles on this site were written by Fed Up New Yorkers’ founder Neil Fabricant. All are based on published reports including news stories, investigative magazine articles, books, and public records.
THE GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFF: WHY IT'S SO IMPORTANT
If you depend on Social Security or Medicare; if you need unemployment compensation; if the COVID pandemic has harmed your income or your loved ones’ health, then you have some very important decisions to make. The election to fill those two Georgia Senate seats will decide whether Mitch McConnell will continue to hold the power to harm your income, your health, even your life. READ MORE.
If you or anyone you care about relies on a Social Security check each month, you should know the answer to two questions. Whose signature was on those checks after the program was launched in 1935? And who’s been trying to get their hands on that check—or even take it away—ever since? Surely you know the answers. But sometimes people: a) forget, b) take Social Security for granted, or c) believe those Republicans who say they care about us. READ MORE.
It’s not news that Donald Trump, and many a Republican before him, used appeals to voters’ racial anxieties or religious beliefs to distract their attention from what they’re really up to. Their real game has always been to steer money toward the very rich, and away from the people they claim to care about. If they can get away with it, Mitch McConnell and his Senate Republicans are coming for your Social Security checks. They’ve already said so. They began shouting about the budget deficits and cutting “entitlements” right after they handed their mega-rich donors a tax break that will cost us 2 trillion dollars! READ MORE.
The Senate runoff election in Georgia isn’t about whether we like any of the candidates of either party. They don’t matter. Republican multimillionaires are only foot soldiers in the Trump Gang. McConnell, his lieutenant, is there to enforce Trump’s orders. He stays in line and keeps the others in line—or Trump gets rid of him. That’s the way it works in Washington; with this crowd especially. So it’s a clear decision. Do you want McConnell to keep his power, or to end it? READ MORE.
Memo to voters: Donald Trump has been working for Vladimir Putin for decades. He’s Putin’s money launderer! He ignores Russian bounties on American servicemen, denies Russian hacking of our nation’s digital assets, and sides with Putin over American intelligence expert. Commentators pretend to wonder what could be motivating Trump to do Putin’s bidding on every issue. I don’t know why they can’t come right out and say the truth: Donald Trump is a Russian agent. He’s been in Putin’s pocket since long before he became President. READ MORE.
TRUMP'S EVANGELICAL ENABLERS
1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a key member of Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board: “There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump. No one!” American evangelicals “have a moral obligation to enthusiastically back the President.” READ MORE.
Ralph Reed’s mother once told “USA Today”, “I used to tell people he was going to be either President of the United States or Al Capone.” In Donald Trump’s America that’s no longer an either/or proposition. Before getting deeper into the Ralph Reed story, I hope it’s instructive to talk a bit about the political ecosystem he inhabits, at least as I see it. I’ll try my best to make it entertaining. But maybe you have to be a political junkie like me to find it so. READ MORE.
Recall that evangelical con-artist and hardliner Ralph Reed was stashed on Enron’s payroll until the time was ripe to take him out of the closet. His new mission? To help deliver evangelicals for the “compassionate conservative.” It was 2000 and John McCain was leading Bush the Younger in the Republican Presidential primary. He had beaten Bush in New Hampshire. The Confederacy was Bush’s firewall: if he lost South Carolina that would be it. Reed was now the Southeast regional coordinator for the Bush campaign. His responsibility was to deliver Florida, South Carolina and three other Southern states. Evangelicals would be key. READ MORE.
Paula White, Queen of the “Prosperity Gospel” preachers, heads Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative. She’s at the top of the pecking order of about thirty evangelical preachers that make up the inner core of Trump’s white evangelical base. READ MORE.
When Donald Trump dispatched militarized police to sweep peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Park, it was in the service of a photo op, in which he held up a Bible. Upside-down. The many evangelical pastors who enable Trump have also turned the Bible upside down, ignoring what it says about false prophets and about disdaining and disregarding the truth. READ MORE.
For the children’s sake: Please hear me out. A personal appeal from Neil Fabricant. I’m not so presumptuous to think I fully understand why so many white evangelicals continue to support Donald Trump. But I understand more than I did only a few months ago. And I’m asking you to think about the children — yours, mine, everyone’s — and also of your own hard-won political influence. Preserve it, and your credibility, and don’t squander that influence on as unworthy a man as Donald Trump. READ MORE.
The set of beliefs held by so many millions of evangelicals may determine my own fate and millions of others. In the minds of so many, people who live ethical lives and think of themselves as decent people are nevertheless destined for a place in hell. Yet despite that view, specifically toward Jews, they also depend on the Israel’s success to fulfill Biblical prophecies, bringing on the Second Coming of Jesus. In the process, however, this belief, hinging on reconstruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, is very likely to trigger yet another round of deadly conflict between Israel and its Muslim neighbors. Donald Trump, while personally indifferent to anything Biblical or prophetic, has encouraged and abetted this yearning for Armageddon. READ MORE.
Fed Up New Yorkers have been reading many comments from evangelical readers and are gratified that not all support Donald Trump. Not by a longshot. But we feel obliged to respond to some of the comments we’ve received from others. Many Trump supporters claim that God has chosen him as our president. Some concede that he’s a flawed man—but who isn’t? That brings two questions to mind. First, why we didn’t hear any of “appointed by God” talk during the eight years that Barack Obama was president? And more important, could God be angry with America? Is Donald Trump the medium through which God has chosen to punish America? For there is no doubt that great punishment is being visited on every corner of our country. READ MORE.
An ardent pro-lifer explains why she is changing her vote in 2020. To her friends who say abortion is the sole reason for their vote for Trump instead of Biden, she asks, “Why? Is that the one and only thing that matters to Jesus? Reading through the Bible, I would say unequivocally ‘NO.’ What does the Bible say directly about abortion? And I ask this from my pro-life heart. The Bible has FAR, FAR more to say about pride, about abusing power to mistreat the poor, about lying, about treating others with hatred, about humility, about seeking forgiveness, about faithfulness — about ALL of that than it does about abortion.” READ MORE.
After we posted our memorandum to Evangelical voters (See link above: “Remember your values …”) responses were swift and surprising. To be sure, plenty of self-described Evangelicals fervently, or angrily, defended their support for Trump. But many more argued that Trump’s behavior, regardless of what beliefs he might claim to hold, was directly contrary to how they understood Christianity and what Jesus said in the Gospels. This seems to bear out polls that show a significant slippage in this crucial group’s allegiance to the president. If even a small percentage of Evangelical voters vote against Trump, or even sit out the election, it may be decisive in important swing states. READ MORE.
For some Evangelical voters, as hundreds of recent social-media comments demonstrate, abortion is the moral and religious imperative that overrides all other issues. Because in many cases this blinds them to Donald Trump’s clearly visible sins, it’s important to understand how this came to be. A hint: it originated as a political strategy by Richard Nixon and the Republican Party nearly half a century ago. And it had a lot to do with racism and last-ditch defenses of racially segregated schools. READ MORE.
Neither reason nor faith can reach neo-Nazis, white supremacists, anti-Semites, conspiracy theorists, and other loathsome Trump followers. They have found their leader and he has found them. But those who are committed to following the teachings of Jesus—as they understand them—are in a different category. We undertook our effort to change their minds because we thought some evangelicals might be open to reason and to moral considerations that reflect those teachings, as we understand them. READ MORE.
Evangelical Christians have been among Donald Trump’s most reliable supporters. But that support has been eroding as the contrast between Trump’s words and behavior and Christian teachings and values has become harder to ignore. Several prominent preachers who once supported him have had a change of heart — in some cases, a true repentance — and are now urging Christians to vote Trump out of office. READ MORE.
TRUMP'S RUSSIAN CONNECTIONS
Despite the Republican denials, the narrative that led to Donald Trump’s impeachment has been beyond doubt. But as illegal and impeachable as it was to strong-arm Ukraine for help in his reelection campaign, and as laughable as the rationale that Trump was “concerned about corruption in Ukraine,” the full story behind this is likely even worse. READ MORE.
Put aside all the obvious negatives. The “I can do anything I want” lawlessness, the vulgarity and vindictiveness of the juvenile delinquent who performs a palsied mockery of a handicapped reporter, the sexual predator, the racist birther, the pathological liar. READ MORE.
One important Russian money laundering scheme is known as a “mirror trade.” Here, a Russian agent on behalf of legal entity (“X”), whose owner is anonymous, directs the equities desk of Deutsche Bank’s Moscow branch to place two trades simultaneously. In one, using rubles, the agent buys for Company X ten million dollars of a blue-chip Russian stock, such as Lukoil. READ MORE.
It’s not just the Putin Gang that Trump launders money for. He also works for Colombian drug dealers, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and terrorist organizations wherever they are. It’s just business. READ MORE.
Our world tour of Trump properties now takes us to Baku, Azerbaijan, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower. In March 2017, The New Yorker published an in-depth piece by contributing writer Adam Davidson: “Donald Trump’s Worst Deal.” Trump made millions from the deal; rather than indicating profitability, “worst” may have signified the most depraved of Trump’s criminal schemes that have come to light thus far. READ MORE.
Donald Trump is killing the U.S. Postal Service because he and Vladimir Putin are set up to rig America’s voting machines. That’s where our election is most vulnerable; not from paper, mail-in ballots, which are by far the safest voting method we have. They want you to fear the wrong things about the voting process. Don’t fall for this Trump-Putin disinformation campaign. But before you see the connection between Russia, the post office and a rigged election, you need to understand how Putin operates, and how he has used Trump. READ MORE.
Memo to voters: Donald Trump has been working for Vladimir Putin for decades. He’s Putin’s money launderer! He ignores Russian bounties on American servicemen, denies Russian hacking of our nation’s digital assets, and sides with Putin over American intelligence expert. Commentators pretend to wonder what could be motivating Trump to do Putin’s bidding on every issue. I don’t know why they can’t come right out and say the truth: Donald Trump is a Russian agent. He’s been in Putin’s pocket since long before he became President. READ MORE.
FOr our children's sake
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words . . . . You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.” So said the teenage Swedish global-warming activist Greta Thunberg at the Climate Action Summit 2019. To give our children a chance at a livable planet, we must remove Trump. READ MORE.
We Americans can learn from how other places have addressed the pandemic. This video shows what Amsterdam looked like when the shutdowns began early this year. Let me appeal to those of you who remain Trump supporters: please, please put aside the politics and take three minutes to watch this video. In March and April, Amsterdam was locked down. People wore masks, socially distanced, and didn’t leave their homes for anything but what they needed, including long, solitary walks. READ MORE.
The words “Nasty, Brutish and Short” refer to our children’s lives if, on January 21, 2021, Trump is still in the White House and Mitch McConnell is still Senate Majority Leader. This famous phrase is from “Leviathan,” written by the seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It’s how he describes life in a lawless society that pits “every man against every man.” Not only nasty, brutish and short but “solitary and poor.” That is almost certainly our future unless we the people can remove Trump from the White House and the Republican Party from its grip on the U.S. Senate. READ MORE.
“Twenty Republicans bolted from their leadership to vote no,” “The New York Times” told its readers about the 2017 House vote to repeal Obamacare in 2017. This isn’t what really happened. By misleading its readers about how Congress really works, this report qualified as fake news. READ MORE.
We all love our kids. But does Donald Trump even care about your kids? Since his election, the tobacco industry has lavished money on him and other Republicans, and suddenly federal health initiatives against both smoking and vaping have been slowed down, stalled, or reversed entirely. Part 1 look at the tobacco industry’s decades-long campaign of lies about its product’s health hazards. all attention to the “cooling” sensation of Kool menthol cigarettWillie was used to advertise Kool from 1934 until READ MORE.
Part 2 documents how graphic warning labels for cigarette packs, mandated by a court order, are being delayed, and how regulations to protect children against exploitation by the vaping industry have been watered down or halted by the Trump administration. You will not be surprised to learn why. all attention to the “cooling” sensation of Kool menthol cigarettWillie was used to advertise Kool from 1934 until READ MORE.
Fed Up New Yorkers have been reading many comments from evangelical readers and are gratified that not all support Donald Trump. Not by a longshot. But we feel obliged to respond to some of the comments we’ve received from others. Many Trump supporters claim that God has chosen him as our president. Some concede that he’s a flawed man—but who isn’t? That brings two questions to mind. First, why we didn’t hear any of “appointed by God” talk during the eight years that Barack Obama was president? And more important, could God be angry with America? Is Donald Trump the medium through which God has chosen to punish America? For there is no doubt that great punishment is being visited on every corner of our country. READ MORE.
An ardent pro-lifer explains why she is changing her vote in 2020. To her friends who say abortion is the sole reason for their vote for Trump instead of Biden, she asks, “Why? Is that the one and only thing that matters to Jesus? Reading through the Bible, I would say unequivocally ‘NO.’ What does the Bible say directly about abortion? And I ask this from my pro-life heart. The Bible has FAR, FAR more to say about pride, about abusing power to mistreat the poor, about lying, about treating others with hatred, about humility, about seeking forgiveness, about faithfulness — about ALL of that than it does about abortion.” READ MORE.
why
TRUMP's INCOMPETENCE AND CRUELTY
Fed Up New Yorkers have been reading many comments from evangelical readers and are gratified that not all support Donald Trump. Not by a longshot. But we feel obliged to respond to some of the comments we’ve received from others. Many Trump supporters claim that God has chosen him as our president. Some concede that he’s a flawed man—but who isn’t? That brings two questions to mind. First, why we didn’t hear any of that “appointed by God” talk during the eight years that Barack Obama was president? And more important, could God be angry with America? Is Donald Trump the medium through which God has chosen to punish America? For there is no doubt that great punishment is being visited on every corner of our country. READ MORE.
Once New York was home to a crew of Mafia hit-men collectively called “Murder, Incorporated,” all with colorful nicknames. Today we have a far more dangerous public enemy with a colorful nickname: “Donnie Bone Spurs.” By now, “The Atlantic” magazine’s bombshell reporting is well known, and despite Trump’s frantic denials, it’s been confirmed: his contempt and lack of understanding for the men and women who serve their country, suffering injury and death to serve us. Who Trump considers “losers” and “suckers.” You don’t need to know much more to understand what a peril this deeply unworthy man presents to American democracy, not to mention national dignity and self-respect. READ MORE.
HOW POLITICS REALLY WORKS
Pam Bondi, Florida’s attorney general, announced in 2013 that she was considering an investigation into the fraudulent scheme called “Trump University,” a scam that defrauded dozens of Florida residents who had filed complaints with her office. Soon afterward, Bondi asked Donald Trump for a campaign “donation.” First came daughter Ivanka’s check for $500. Then, a pro-Bondi political action committee got a $25,000 check drawn on the Trump Foundation’s account. And the state attorney general promptly announced that she was no longer investigating the fraud. READ MORE.
Bribery is one angle of vision from which to view and understand our president and politics more broadly. Politics and politics alone is the domain that matters. Corrupt politics brought us to this point and getting our politics to a healthier place is the only path that can lead us out of the multiple disasters that threaten to destroy our country. READ MORE.
A crew of lobbyists, lawyers and public relations people—hacks and flacks—are the component parts of what we’re calling the Florida Mafia. Its official name is Ballard Partners. The firm’s creator, Brian Ballard, is a veteran Florida lobbyist and fundraiser. That’s a redundancy, of course. Corporate lobbyists and those who lobby for foreign interests collect money from clients who want something from the government, and dispense much of that money to the politicians who can deliver what they want. Their lucrative lobbying fees come off the top. READ MORE.
Since the 1970s, America’s corporate leaders have been conducting a systematic campaign against the U.S. working and middle classes. That campaign’s objective is to transform the U.S. economy for the benefit of the corporations and the rich, through systematic manipulation of the political and judicial systems and the terms of public discourse. So far, it has been wildly successful, even before reaching its culmination in the Trump administration’s assault on the very fabric of the federal government and the achievements of progressive movements since the New Deal. READ MORE.
STORIES IN chronological order
For an alternative listing of the stories above, sorted in the order they were posted, SEE LISTING OF NEWEST ARTICLES.