Month: October 2020

The Ten Most Disgraceful United States Senators In The 116th Congress

Ronald Leave a comment

The United States Senate is a great institution, which has had 1,984 members in its 232 year history since 1789.

It has had its heroes and champions, but also some of the worst demagogues and villains imaginable.

As we come up to the 2020 elections, this is a time to look at who this author and blogger considers to be the ten most disgraceful US Senators in the 116th Congress.

There will be disagreement on any such list, of course, but this author and blogger sees the top ten most disgraceful US Senators to be all Republicans, unconcerned about the COVID 19 Pandemic, the economic collapse in what is fast becoming the Second Great Depression, and the racial injustice that prevails in our society.

So here goes the list, with ranking of the level of evil being attempted below:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—who has shown complete hypocrisy on the Supreme Court regarding Merrick Garland in 2016 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, and is someone who should be defeated for reelection in November, but in Kentucky it is hard to get people to understand the depth of his venality on so many matters and issues. Were he to lose next month, it would be a massive victory of major proportions!

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina—who has a much tougher challenge to reelection, and has gained the enmity of many people who see him as having totally abandoned any sense of ethics or morality regarding President Donald Trump, including allowing his former friendship with the late Senator John McCain to be thrown aside with abandon, since McCain’s passing in 2018.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas—who this author and blogger thought in 2016 was more dangerous and terrifying than Donald Trump, and who remains a truly evil, dangerous, egocentric threat, and with plans to run for President in 2024.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas—also seen as certain to run for President in 2024, and perceived as particularly dangerous in his views and outlook on just about any major issue that arises.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin—who has been an outrage and totally corrupt and manipulative, and makes one wonder why his state chose him twice for the Senate in 2010 and 2016 over their exceptional Senator Russ Feingold.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri—who is the youngest Senator at present, having defeated Claire McCaskill in 2018, and with grand ambitions to run for President in 2024, with a very hard Right set of values that makes him totally terrifying to any sane person!

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky— who is a fake libertarian and total phony, but seems likely to run for President again in 2024, and one wonders why anyone would go to this privately licensed eye doctor, who is not accredited by national organizations which he has repudiated, and who expresses the weirdest ideas imaginable, not impressing anyone who has intelligence!

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma—who is running for reelection at age 86, and rejects science and climate change, and if he survives, would be one of just a few who would be in office in their 90s, a horrific thought! Oklahoma can do better than this, but unlikely Inhofe will lose next month, sadly!

Senator Rick Scott of Florida—-a felon who got away with Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and was elected twice as Governor and now to the Senate by less than one percent of the vote each time, and who did great harm in the Sunshine State when Governor, and is often called “Lord Voldemort” of the Harry Potter series, as Scott resembles him in appearance, but without the smashed nose, lol!

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee—the only woman in the group, but with a long held reputation as an extremely nasty, mean spirited Congresswoman, who sadly was elected to succeed Bob Corker, who was a reasonable conservative Republican and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, who turned against Donald Trump, and retired in 2018.

I welcome commentary and viewpoints on this list!

Science And Medicine Organizations And Agencies Declare War On Donald Trump

Ronald Leave a comment

The New England Journal Of Medicine, The Scientific American, Nature Magazine, and Science Magazine (American Association for the Advancement of Science)—all major scientific journals—have declared war on President Donald Trump, as he has repudiated and ignored science and the environment, not just in the COVID 19 Pandemic, but also by his known ignorance and rejection of science and medicine.

Nobel Laureates, and the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine have also denounced the refusal of the federal government to listen to scientists and doctors.

And there is clear cut high levels of dissatisfaction in other government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Geological Survey.

Anti Intellectualism Run Rampant: The War On Knowledge, Education, Facts, Science, History

Ronald Leave a comment

America is in a crisis of anti intellectualism run rampant, and it is undermining the nation in the present and the future!

There is a war on knowledge, education, facts, science and history.

Ignorant people, led by the President of the United States, are telling us we do not need any of these basic parts of a decent society.

This, if not overcome, will lead to the deterioration and decline of the country, to the detriment of all of us.

Just because many Americans do not move on in education beyond high school does not mean it is a virtue.

The saying “Ignorance is bliss” is NOT true!

America On The Road To Worst Loss Of Life Than Any And All Wars In American History!

Ronald Leave a comment

America is on the brink of the worst loss of life in its history, having already surpassed World War I, The Vietnam War, The Korean War, and all other wars, except World War II and the Civil War.

With the greatest loss of life being in the Civil War (620,000), that is likely to be passed by mid year 2021, no matter whether Joe Biden becomes President in January 2021, as the projection is for 400,000 by that date, and any policy to deal with the COVID 19 Pandemic will take time, so sadly, but assuredly, America will pass the Civil War in totals.

By the time the pandemic is overcome, it is likely that America will surpass the 1.4 million combined killed in all of America’s wars combined!

And the Spanish Flu Pandemic estimate of 675,000 from 1918-1920 seems likely to be surpassed, and the way things are developing, the total loss of life from the COVID 19 Pandemic may surpass 2 million over time, more than the wars and the Spanish Flu Pandemic combined!

Donald Trump Suggests He Might Leave America If He Loses: Prevent That By Seizing His Passport!

Ronald 2 Comments

Donald Trump has told his adoring crowds at events without masks or social distancing that he may leave America if he loses the Presidential Election of 2020.

The answer is that he must be prevented from doing so by seizing the passports of not only Trump, but of his wife and entire family, including in laws.

The Trump Family and the President must be held accountable in a court of law, and must pay the penalty for their innumerable legion of crimes.

And that should also apply to all Trump collaborators, in and out of the Presidential Cabinet, including Rudy Giuliani, who is still causing trouble and disarray.

The American people will demand an accounting and punishment to deter any future Chief Executive and his or her family from trying to match or surpass the criminality of the Trump Family!

Republican Senator Ben Sasse Of Nebraska Is A Disgrace For Only Speaking Out Now Against Donald Trump!

Ronald 2 Comments

Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska was one of a few Republicans in the Senate that this author had felt had a future, and had some validity.

Sasse is highly educated, with a Ph. D. in American History from Yale University, and having taught at the University of Texas, and being President of a small Lutheran university, Midland University, in his home state.

While disagreeing with Sasse on most issues, this author found him intriguing and a potential future Presidential candidate, but he has destroyed himself by refusing to criticize Donald Trump, until just now in a private conversation that was leaked.

Sasse is assured of his seat in Nebraska this November, with a splintered Democratic Party opposition, but he has lost all credibility, and this blogger is totally disillusioned that even a so called “principled conservative” has demonstrated that he has no real guts, courage, or moral and ethical beliefs!

Sasse will remain a Senator, but it seems unlikely that he has a future Presidential campaign due to his now strong criticism of Trump!

The Corruption Of The Supreme Court, With Five Appointees By Presidents Who Lost The Popular Vote!

Ronald 1 Comment

With the likelihood that Amy Coney Barrett will be successfully confirmed to be the replacement of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the Supreme Court, we are about to have a Court with five appointees by Presidents who lost the national popular vote, but still won the Electoral College.

George W. Bush lost the national popular vote to Vice President Al Gore in 2000 by a 540,000 margin, but was able to select Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito in 2005 and 2006.

And now Donald Trump, who lost the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, by a 2.85 million margin, has been able to select Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and now Amy Comey Barrett in 2020.

And even more infuriating is that three of these five appointees helped the George W. Bush campaign in the Bush V Gore Supreme Court case, assisting him winning the case in a majority Republican selected Court in December 2000–specifically, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Comey Barrett!

And the right wing Federalist Society, which has been on a 40 year campaign to make the federal court system move to the extreme right on such issues as health care, abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, so called freedom of religion, deregulation of the economy and the environment, suppression of voting rights and labor rights, has fully succeeded in its campaign to undermine American democracy and a sense of humanity!

So when one complains from the right side of the political spectrum at the “horror” of Democrats “packing the Court” if they were to add seats to the Supreme Court, one has to say the level of hypocrisy is enormous, when that has been the commitment for four decades of the Right in American politics.

And who can say that if the Republicans were to win control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency, that they would not be willing to promote “packing of the Court’, so that they could add two to four more seats to the Supreme Court, and make the Court not just the 6-3 margin it will now be, but possibly 8-3 or 10-3, if two to four seats were to be added!

And one more point: Two of the six member Republican majority have had sexual misconduct hanging over their heads, although it has not affected their tenure on the Court, speaking specifically of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. So the ethical and moral standing of the Court has been damaged irrevocably!

But do the conservatives and the Federalist Society care about this? Not one iota!

COVID 19 Pandemic And Health Care Crisis Will Be Decisive Factors That Decide 2020 Elections

Ronald 8 Comments

The 2020 Presidential and Congressional Elections are being decided based on the COVID 19 Pandemic and the Health Care Crisis related to it, and to the reality that 20 million or more Americans are in danger of losing their health care under the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care).

Obama Care is far from perfect, but to strip it away from desperate people who have it as their only lifeline is cruel, heartless, and terrifying, and the voters clearly will decide to punish the party and the President very willing to harm people, even though they claim to be the part of Life, while having no concern about the loss of 215,000 lives, likely to be doubled by Inauguration Day.

The American people may not love the Democratic Party and Joe Biden, but they do love living and having a government that cares about them, and they see in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris leaders of empathy, decency, compassion who would change the course that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have taken us on, causing the greatest loss of life since World War II, and in just seven months time.

So Joe Biden will win handily in three weeks, and the Democrats will gain control of the US Senate and add to their numbers in the majority of the House of Representatives, and will take action after January 20, 2021, with commitment to purse a policy similar to the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt nine decades ago!

Democrats Gaining In Southeast And Southwest, Likely Transforming American Politics In The 2020s

Ronald 2 Comments

Indications are that Democrats are starting to gain support in both the Southeast (North Carolina, Georgia) and the Southwest (Arizona), and are running even in Florida and Texas, and keeping their lead in Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.

If this trend continues, the Midwest Rust Belt states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania), while still important, will be less significant in future Presidential elections.

And it looks as if many of the Senate seats that are being decided this November will end up with a Democratic Senator–as in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The electoral map in future elections will be vastly different than it has been in previous election rounds.

The Donald Trump Base Is Withering Rapidly

Ronald 2 Comments

As the election day ticks down to 22 days today, it is clear that the Donald Trump base of about 35-40 percent is withering rapidly.

The COVID 19 Pandemic and the outrageously poor reaction of Donald Trump and Mike Pence to that disaster is turning senior citizens and even white working class men away from Donald Trump.

The fact that he has called his followers “disgusting”, and glad he does not have to shake their hands, is being noted by many former Trump supporters who now realize Trump would not want them at his Mar A Lago residence in Florida.

Trump is massively losing among those of his former supporters who have a brain and intelligence, morality, and ethics, and see what a disgusting human being he is!

More Trump backers in 2016 have seen how dangerous and unstable he is, and how his narcissism has led him to endanger American foreign policy, and side with authoritarian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Mohammed bin Salman, among others.

Many conservatives are realizing that Trump is not a conservative, and many former Republican officeholders have repudiated him as a destroyer of Republican Party history and values.

Trump has made no effort to expand his receding base, and every poll, even on Fox News Channel, shows Joe Biden far ahead in “swing states”, and competing even in states that by all rights should not be contestable, including Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Arizona.

This is not an issue of whether Joe Biden is a perfect candidate, as no such person exists, but rather whether he represents the interests and concerns of average Americans, whose families have struggled and continue to struggle.

Joe Biden comes from a working class background, and has always had the traits needed for a President—intelligence, knowledge, experience, compassion, empathy, decency, morals, ethics, humanity, and a magnificent record of service unmatched in American history.

The nation is realizing Joe Biden is the right person to deal with the worst conditions we have seen since the Great Depression, far greater than the Great Recession of a decade ago. Only his approach to the future, with Kamala Harris by his side, can help the nation to recover from the COVID 19 Pandemic, the economic calamity, and the racial divide that has been encouraged by the Trump Administration.