Month: May 2017

Mike Pence: A Morally And Ethically Challenged Vice President, Who Signed A Pact With The Devil, And Now Is Suspect As Possible Successor!

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Vice President Mike Pence is facing a very difficult situation, as Donald Trump implodes, and as his prospects of staying in office for the next three years and eight months becomes more difficult to accomplish. Mike Pence, by agreeing to run for Vice President, became tied to the fate of Donald Trump, and one could argue that he signed a pact with the devil. He could, ultimately, benefit, by becoming the 46th President of the United States, but let’s not jump to that conclusion quite yet.

In the midst of the Trump crisis of leadership, Mike Pence himself is coming under a moral and ethical cloud, as he has been shown to have lied about when he learned about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russian government leaders, including Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ambassador to the United States.

And actually, there now seems to be evidence that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also seemed to know of Trump collusion with the Russian government as early as June 2016, and told his House colleagues to stay quiet and remember they are part of a team to work for the party over any such evidence.

So we might be faced with a constitutional crisis worse than imagined as the top three leaders of the government under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947–the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives–might all be compromised as having knowledge of or collusion with a foreign government that worked to undermine the American electoral process, and to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the Presidential Election of 2016.

If that unbelievable scenario turns out to be totally the case, then we would have the unprecedented situation of Senate President Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has been in the US Senate for more than 40 years, and is the longest serving Republican Senator in all of American history, and age 83, becoming President of the United States!

Can this really be happening? Stay tuned!

The Donald Trump Voters And Loyalists: Their Characteristics

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One listens and watches news coverage of Trump voters and supporters, and remains amazed that his followers fail to see any shortcoming in Donald Trump, and remain loyal, more than 90 percent so after four disastrous months, as of today, May 20.

We have never had a President stir up so much trouble and chaos in four months in office, and have nothing to show for it, except one Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch.

What motivates these Trump voters and loyalists? What are their characteristics?

It seems clear the following is a list of factors in no special order.

Many are highly religious, whether Catholic, Christian, or Jewish, and they are accustomed to the acceptance of authority and hierarchy, and are not the type to challenge, but rather accept.

Many are poorly educated, have low self esteem, and hate educated, smart people, and the concept of “facts”.

Many are struggling to survive economically, and fail to see that the “swamp” that Donald Trump pledged to destroy, is in full control, with all of the billionaires and multimillionaires, so they have been successfully bamboozled by a true demagogue, who could not care less about the plight of the working class whites who supported him.

Many are, sorry to say, pure racists, nativists, antisemites, and Islamophobes, who hate African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, and Muslim Americans, who they feel are “stealing” the “birthright” of white Christian Americans, who are “entitled” in a way these groups are not.

Many are believers that the family structure has been destroyed by feminism, and believe woman should be second class citizens, and sadly, many of their wives and daughters and sisters and girlfriends are too willing to accept their status as being inferior, having been brought up to “obey” men, and strict orthodoxy in religion promotes that.

Many of the men love the kind of raw, gross behavior of Donald Trump, as he is seen as like “one of the guys” at the local bar, the local hangout, and as an example of the macho male, that many have been brought up to believe is a good trait.

Many have no compassion for others who are sick, disabled, or poor. as those are seen as signs of weakness, except when those close to them suddenly end up in one of these categories, a total contradiction of their way of life.

Many are simply those who have no understanding of the importance of government, and are basically selfish and self centered, and have no social commitment to anyone they do not know personally.

Sadly, these characteristics demonstrate that America has about one third to 40 percent of the nation which contributes nothing positive to the future of America, but allow a small class of wealthy, mean spirited people to dominate and control their reasoning and emotions.

There is no simple answer as to how to combat this trend, but it is a sign of danger for the future of the American nation.

The Coming Foreign Trip Disaster Of Donald Trump

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Donald Trump is about to engage in a nine day foreign trip, which is bound to be a total disaster.

He will visit Saudi Arabia, the home of the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, and it will be delicate to do so, after his anti Muslim rhetoric and his attempted Muslim bans.

He will visit Israel, after having revealed Israeli intelligence information to the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian Ambassador to the United States in the Oval Office, and backing away from the idea of recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and hinting that Israel must agree to concessions to the Palestinians, as he pursues “the art of the deal”. Also, he has refused to visit Masada, since he cannot have his helicopter go to the top of Masada, and is unwilling to take a cable car to the Mount. He also plans only 15 minutes at the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, which will alienate many Israelis and American Jews.

He will visit Vatican City and Pope Francis, and has been highly critical of the Pope, who has been dismissive of Trump’s rhetoric and his planned Mexico Wall.

He will be at the NATO summit in Belgium, having alarmed members at his on and off attitudes towards the significance of the alliance, and his pro Russian tendencies that are now being investigated, and could lead to his Presidency in flames.

He will also be be at the G-7 summit with our major economic partners–Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, to be held in Sicily, Italy.

There will be plenty of opportunity for flubs, blunders, embarrassments, and Trump is not good at sitting through long sessions, gets bored easily, and is not willing to do the preparation, and reading, required to be knowledgeable and competent at international meetings with experienced and competent diplomats and foreign leaders.

Despite what Trump claims, he is NOT a good student, and clearly has a variation of Attention Deficit Disorder, along with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and a likely possibility of Dementia or Alzheimers.

Trump is not up to this trip, which is too long and detailed, and cannot sleep in his own bed, and he is very intense about actually being seriously tested and challenged, as his Presidency deteriorates around him.

Barack Obama made his first foreign trip to Canada, and George W. Bush to Mexico, and after what is likely to be a disastrous trip, who knows if Trump will not just hole himself up in the White House, and scream and yell at his family and his aides, as he faces the end of his Presidency, as a total disgrace to the institution of the Presidency!

Trump The Most Vilified And Attacked Person In American History? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

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Yesterday, President Donald Trump gave the commencement address at the US Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

Instead of focusing on the futures of the graduates, Trump spent most of his time bemoaning the fact that he is under attack and widespread investigation due to his Russian connections, of course denying everything, and terming himself a “victim” of the news media and political opponents. And today, at his rare press conference, Trump claimed he is the victim of a “witch hunt”, something he learned about from the evil Roy Cohn, the Joseph McCarthy henchman in the 1950s “Red Scare”, who was an adviser to him in the 1980s, and taught Trump how to be a demagogue.

Does this sound familiar?

YES, it reminds us of 45 years ago in the midst of Watergate and Richard Nixon, and Nixon was lying, as Trump is lying today!

Trump claimed he is the most vilified and attacked person in all of American history? Really? 🙂 HAHAHAHAHAHA!

What stupidity and ignorance of our history our President has!

No other President has ever suffered such attacks, heh?

Ask Abraham Lincoln that question, and even today, Southern Confederate sympathizers call him a murderer and criminal and dictator!

Ask Richard Nixon, who also portrayed himself as a “victim”, and remains controversial ever since he entered public life in 1946, and continues to be so today!

Ask Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was called every nasty name imaginable, and still is vilified by the right wing conservatives and libertarians to this day!

Ask Jimmy Carter, who has endured more years alive of being bitterly condemned, and remains so at 92 years of age!

Ask Bill Clinton, who remains detested by millions of people for his sexual exploits, which led to Clinton’s impeachment a generation ago, while they ignore the greater sexual exploits of Donald Trump in his lifetime, and not even trying to keep it secret!

Ask all of the other Presidents of the United States, who all faced constant criticism and attacks, but understood when one is in the public sphere, this is par for the course!

And ask Barack Obama, our most recent President, who endured and still does, vicious and vehement condemnation by racists, and right wingers who worked to undermine the 44th President since Day One, and will stop at nothing even in retirement, and were and are encouraged to do so by the 45th President, who has spread lies about Obama, and continues to assert, with ZERO evidence, that Obama wiretapped him in Trump Tower. Knowing what we know today, that wiretapping that did not occur should have occurred, so as to prevent the election of this reckless, dangerous, and crooked 45th President, who is still trying to cover up his Russian connections, a true example of treason!

And getting away from Presidents, what about the vilification of such “villains” as Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace, Spiro Agnew, and innumerable others?

Donald Trump is a constant embarrassment to himself and to the institution of the Presidency!

From 9-11 To 11-9: One American Tragedy To Another!

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The 21st century began with the horrific attack on September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3.000 civilians of many nations.

It ushered in a 15 year period of turmoil, division, and tremendous spending to fight terrorism and wage two unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has led to persecution of Muslims in America, and promotion of nativism, racism, and antisemitism.

It has caused the two major political parties to fight each other in a way that prevents any cooperation on just about anything.

And then, in the midst of all this chaos and anxiety, along came a charlatan, a rookie in politics, a crooked businessman, a narcissist to the extreme, who was able to convince working class white males that he was their “Superman”, and would end terrorism, crime, and fight Wall Street, all fabrications.

So from the 9-11 tragedy, we went to 11-9, November 9, 2016, the declared victory of Donald Trump, who has caused more division and hatred than anyone in the past 15 years.

And he won due to the quirks of the Electoral College, having only one serious opponent who won electoral votes, but only winning 46 percent of all votes cast.

And November 9 is also the day in 1938 when we had Kristallnacht, the “Night of the Broken Glass”, when thousands of Jews became victims of a pogrom, as businesses and synagogues went up in flames and ushered in the beginning of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, which killed six million Jews by 1945.

With the rise of white supremacy, and characters such as Richard Spencer and David Duke backing Donald Trump’s attacks on Mexicans. Muslims, and all immigration under attack, one can sense that we might be moving toward Fascism, with only the scandals around Donald Trump giving us the hope that his agenda may be stalled and prevented permanently.

The “Blind, Deaf, And Dumb” Loyalists To Richard Nixon, And Now Donald Trump: Nothing Will Convince Them To Repudiate Their “Hero”!

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Forty three years after Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, and 23 years after his death, there are still Nixon loyalists who will swear that Nixon did nothing wrong, that the difference between him and other Presidents is that “he got caught”, a comment this blogger hears much too often, and causes me to roll my eyes, thinking what a moron such a person is, and moving on, shaking my head.

Well, now, we are seeing the same scenario with Donald Trump, who has his “blind, deaf, and dumb” loyalists who will swear by him no matter what he says or does, but if Barack Obama or Bill Clinton had said or done the same, they would be calling for his lynching!

Nothing will ever convince these Trump loyalists to repudiate their “hero”. They are helplessly “in love” with his persona, and this is very disturbing.

It is one thing to love and admire Franklin D. Roosevelt, or John F. Kennedy, or Ronald Reagan, all of whom were in the mainstream political tradition.

But to admire a person who is reckless, worships authoritarian leadership, and undermines the concept of the rule of law, is a threat to our basic institutions of government.

Many do not wish to admit the truth, that we are in a constitutional crisis much greater than Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal, and bordering on the danger that the Civil War under Abraham Lincoln represented to the survival of American democracy.

We must not sit back and tune out what is going on, but instead need to organize massive marches and demonstrations to force the Republican Party majorities in Congress, the Trump Cabinet officers, and Vice President Mike Pence to do what is essential for America, not for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is NOT God, and his appointees must do the right thing, and announce their split with the President. The worst thing that could happen is that they are attacked by the extremist right wing forces that back Fascism, and they lose their paychecks. But they do not need their paychecks to survive, as millions of Americans do, and their reputation in history is endangered if they continue to back the lunatic who resides in the White House.

This is also true of Mike Pence, someone I do not admire, but has the constitutional responsibility to act, and move toward invoking the 25th Amendment, Section 4, immediately, taking authority as “Acting President” expeditiously!

The Republican Party Agenda In 2017: Destroy Obama Legacy And New Deal And Great Society, And Ignore Trump Abuse Of Power

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The Republican Party of 2017 is hellbent on destroying entirely the Barack Obama legacy, and all political, social, and economic reforms of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, along with other reforms even by Republican Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, and Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

They are willing to cope with the insanity of Donald Trump, willing to ignore the abuse of power by the 45th President, and in the process, undermine civil liberties, civil rights, labor rights, women’s rights, consumer rights, protection of the environment, and the rights and protection of the disabled, elderly, and poor among our population.

In the past, the Republican Party was the conservative mainstream in American politics, but now the most mean spirited, nasty, uncaring elements have held sway over the party apparatus, and no longer care what public opinion polls indicate, that there is strong, vehement opposition to going back to the America of the Gilded Age and the 1920s, and in so doing, destroy all progress, and put America further behind more advanced nations in Europe, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand worldwide.

History Tells Us Many States Are Not Protective Of Their Population: Reason Why We Need Federal Government!

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Conservatives and libertarians love to promote the propaganda that “states rights” are the best government, and that state governments are there for their population’s needs.

History tells us otherwise, clear and simple.

“States rights” promoted 76 years of slavery under the Constitution, until it was ended by the Union winning the Civil War over the Confederacy.

“States rights” promoted segregation of the races for nearly a century after the Civil War until the 1960s.

“States rights” promoted laws against marriage, including blacks and whites, and gays and lesbians.

“States rights” promoted vigilante justice, including lynchings, chain gangs, and overly harsh criminal justice laws.

“States rights” promoted men having dominance over their wives in marriages, and resulting abuses toward women.

“States rights” promoted inferior education, including denial of historical facts, and of science, favoring religious ideas over facts.

“States rights” promoted violations of voting rights, with the intent of ruling white upper classes controlling who could vote.

“States rights” promoted denial of health care to people, while insisting on all fetuses being taken to birth against a woman’s wishes.

“States rights” promoted resistance to the Bill of Rights, and to federal government political, social, and economic reforms that made America pursue the goals of democracy, equality, and justice.

Those states that have regularly promoted “states rights” have been the most backward, the most discriminatory, the most regressive. the poorest, and have depended on the more advanced and open minded states for their economic existence.

It is the “Red” states, those in the old Confederate South, and in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West, where we see the worship of “states rights”, as long as the elite political and religious hierarchy keep control over their populations, and keep them ignorant and under mind control.

History tells us that these states are not protective of the needs of their population, the reason we need a strong, assertive federal government, ready to step in, and having bettered life for people who are seemingly unaware how they have been manipulated by corrupt state governments.

California Politics: From “Senior Citizens” To “New Generation” Heirs Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, And Eric Garcetti: Potential Presidential Candidates

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California, one out of eight people in America, is finally seeing a political turnover, with the retirement of Senator Barbara Boxer (age 76)in 2016, and the future retirement of Governor Jerry Brown (age 80) at the end of 2018.

Now it is urgent that Senator Diane Feinstein, who will be 85 in 2018, decide NOT to run for another six year term. The best choice to replace her is Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“Senior Citizens” in their late 70s or 80s should not be running for office, although many have, but it is time for California to set the standard, and already they have Senator Kamala Harris to replace Senator Boxer, and the likelihood of Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom succeeding Jerry Brown as Governor.

Having leadership in their late 40s and early 50s would be a sign that the Golden State is looking to the future, and interestingly, all three–Harris, Newsom, and Garcetti—would be potential Democratic Presidential candidates in 2020, 2024, or beyond.

Fresh, young blood is desperately needed to deal with the issues of the 2020s and beyond, and no matter how good a record some may think Diane Feinstein has had, it is time to retire, Diane! Do you get it?

Could It Be A Battle Between Two Upper Septuagenarians For The Democratic Presidential Nomination In 2020?

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This blogger has written recently on the potential field of candidates for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, with him emphasizing the desirability of a “newer” generation of leadership in their 40s and 50s.

But having said that, the possibility does exist that the major battle for the nomination could be between two upper septuagenarians with long political careers, and many people who greatly admire them.

I am referring to former Vice President Joe Biden, who also served 36 years in the US Senate from Delaware; and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has served 27 years in Congress, in both the House of Representatives and Senate as the first successful long term Independent Socialist, who only became a Democrat when he announced for President, and now is officially an Independent again, although he caucuses with the Democrats.

Biden will be 78 two weeks after the 2020 election, and Sanders will be 79 shortly before that election.

Both are dedicated public servants, who have millions of admirers who remain ready to support their favorite candidate, if they decide to run for President.

Biden is comparatively more centrist, while Sanders is the extreme left of the Democratic Party.

Were both to run, while they would have many other candidates competing, it could be a battle royal for the ages, with their advanced age being an issue, although Donald Trump, were he to run in 2020, would be 74 and a half at the time of the election.

We have never had two people in their 70s as the alternatives, although Hillary Clinton was 69 in 2016.

Trying to predict who would triumph is quite a challenge, but this author thinks that Biden would have an easier time, with his Establishment credentials, and with Sanders still having to deal with the “Socialist” label, and being Jewish, even though he is not at all devout.

In the long run, however, it would still be preferable to have a “newer generation” of leadership leading the Democratic Party and the nation into the 2020s.