Month: November 2021

“Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure Legislation Passes The House of Representatives!

Congratulations are due to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, and the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives on successfully passing the “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation by a vote of 220-213, after a disgraceful eight and a half hour rampage speech by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and the refusal of any House Republicans to support legislation which makes life better for millions of Americans!

The legislation, once it gains approval of the US Senate with some modifications certain, will do the following:

Affordable Child Care
Child Tax Credits
Paid Family and Medical Leave
Universal PreKindergarten
Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits
Medicaid Home and Community Based Services
Raise State and Local Tax Deduction Cap
Medicare Hearing Benefits
Affordable Housing
Immigration Reform
Clean Energy and Climate Resilience
Climate Related Tax Breaks
Spending on Higher Education
A Corporate Minimum Tax on Large Corporations
A Tax Surcharge Targeting the Wealthiest Americans, over $25 million and over $10 million.

The New “McCarthyism”: Kevin McCarthy’s Ambitions To Be Speaker Require Being Subservient To Donald Trump!

California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Minority Leader, is desperate to become Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress (2023-2024).

This requires him being subservient to Donald Trump, and McCarthy will stop at nothing to promote himself, and in the process conduct himself as a charlatan, a man without common decency and any ethical principles!

McCarthy will do anything and everything to support Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and the rest of the traitors and seditionists who were complicit in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, leading to the death of five people, and the physical and mental harm done to more than 140 US Capitol police!

McCarthy will lie incessantly through his teeth, displaying no sense of morality, and throws good people, such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and a small band of other House Republicans, “under the bus”, so to speak!

He has just set a record for more than an eight and a half hours speech overnight on the floor of the House of Representatives, putting on a performance for the extremist right wingers in his caucus, and displaying every bit of poison and hate imaginable!

He calls for the defeat of the Build Back Better bill of President Joe Biden and the Democrats, which would improve the lives of millions of Americans!

There is only one conclusion about Kevin McCarthy!

That is, that Kevin McCarthy should be roundly condemned by all decent people as the leader of the new “McCarthyism”, possibly worse if successful in his quest than his namesake, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, seven decades ago!

Kevin McCarthy is willing to destroy anyone who stands in his way on his mission to become a demagogue, and if bad luck occurs, easily the worst, most dangerous Speaker of the House in 234 years of the history of the House of Representatives!

And finally, ironically, there are indications that the disgraced, twice impeached, two time popular vote loser of the Presidency, Donald Trump, is working to undermine McCarthy’s hope to be Speaker, and would wish Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who is even more unprincipled and dangerous, to become Speaker of the House in 2023!

Even if one is not “religious”, God Help Us! 🙁

Two Profiles In Courage: Liz Cheney And Adam Kinzinger Voting To Censure Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar!

This author and blogger is not a fan of conservatism, and definitely not a fan of former Vice President Dick Cheney, or his daughter, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

He is also not a big fan of Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, whose conservative views are not his idea of leadership.

But both of them, Cheney and Kinzinger, have shown they have principle and are true profiles in courage, who someday will have an historian write a book on their willingness to stand up to extremist Fascist rhetoric and the danger of Donald Trump!

Both are on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection, and both voted to impeach Trump after that event.

And both now have condemned Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, just about the most extreme member of the Republican Party, who put a anime cartoon on Twitter which portrayed the assassination of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a sword combat of Gosar with President Joe Biden.

This advocacy and portrayal of violence is not a laughing matter, and led to the censure of Gosar in the House of Representatives, with only Cheney and Kinzinger, of all Republicans, joining the Democratic majority to take such action, which has only occurred 23 previous times in the history of the lower chamber since 1789!

Gosar should be expelled from the House of Representatives, but that cannot happen unless there was a bipartisan vote of two thirds of the chamber, which will not happen.

But for Republicans to defend the advocacy of violence, and for Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to refuse to condemn Gosar’s action is an outrage that will cause much grief in the future, and particularly if the Republicans, due to gerrymandering, are able to regain control of the House of Representatives in the midterm Congressional Elections of 2022!

This whole situation reminds historians of the Congressional violence and advocacy of violence in the pre Civil War period, particularly in the decade of the 1850s!

Terrifying to think that Congress itself is becoming a battleground of extremism and violence, due to the extremism and danger of Donald Trump!

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy Will Retire At End Of 2022, After Serving As Third Longest Serving Senator!

Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy will retire at the end of his 8th Senate term at the end of 2022, after an amazing 48 years in the upper body of Congress!

He will leave office as the third longest serving US Senator in the 234 years of that historic institution, only behind Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who served 51.5 years, and Democrat Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who served just short of 50 years.

At the moment, he is fourth longest serving, behind Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who served 47 years and a bit more than 5 months, which Leahy will pass in June 2022.

Leahy just passed Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts in total service in late October 2021.

Leahy is the last member of Congress elected in 1974, and the only sitting Senator to have served while Gerald Ford was President, and also to have served while Jimmy Carter was President.

Leahy is the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont, as Bernie Sanders always ran as an Independent. Leahy is easily the longest serving Vermont Senator as well.

Leahy has been, in his long career, Chairman of the Agriculture, Judiciary, and Appropriations Committees, and is President Pro Tempore of the Senate, third in line of Presidential succession.

Leahy also presided over the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump in 2021.

Had Leahy chosen to run for an unprecedented 9th term, he would easily have been reelected and in 2026, would have become the longest serving US Senator ever!

Leahy is a premier liberal and progressive throughout his career, and will be nearing the age of 83 when he retires at the beginning of 2023.

Leahy is a great figure in the history of the Senate, and will be missed when he leaves office!

The United States Has Become A “Flawed Democracy”!

Americans want to believe that their nation is a paragon of “democracy”, but by estimates of many experts who watch how governments change in their level of democracy, the United States has become a “flawed democracy”.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research division of the publication THE ECONOMIST, has rated the nations of the world as “Full Democracies”, “Flawed Democracies”, “Hybrid Regimes”, and “Authoritarian Regimes”.

The United States is in the “Flawed Democracies” category as Number 25, second on the “Flawed Democracies” list behind France, which also has fallen out of the “Full Democracies” listing!

23 Nations are “Full Democracies”, led by Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada. Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Australia and The Netherlands are the next five, with the latter two actually tied for 9th!

Other major nations in the “Full Democracies” list include, among others, Taiwan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Spain, and South Korea.

Inspiring is the fact that Taiwan, Chile, and South Korea have become democracies in recent decades, but sadly so many more nations have moved away from democracy, and the fact that the US and France are put at the top of “Flawed Democracies” is troubling! And Israel and Italy are 5 and 6 as “Flawed Democracies”. And Mexico is way down, near the bottom of 52 nations that are “Flawed Democracies”.

“Hybrid Regimes” are the next 35 nations, and “Authoritarian Regimes” were 57 in number, with the total of nations on the list being 167.

Right Wing Propaganda Attempts To Portray Joe Biden And Kamala Harris As Disasters, When Much Has Been Accomplished!

Right Wing propaganda, whether the Republican Party, Fox News Channel, OANN, Newsmax, or various interest groups that promote domestic terrorism and white supremacy, is working incessantly to portray President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as disasters.

This is all designed to advance the cause of a Republican Congress and state government domination by partisan gerrymandering, as well as whitewash and avoiding responsibility for support of the “Big Lie” of Donald Trump and his criminal backers who incited the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the US Capitol!

One would think that Donald Trump and Mike Pence accomplished so much in office that was positive for the American people and nation, when exactly the opposite is the truth!

Trump did great harm in so many areas of domestic and foreign policy, and the only “winner” was the extremely wealthy, who gained a massive tax cut which added greatly to the national debt, without improving the daily lives of the American people!

Mike Pence proved how much of a sycophant he was, a person supposedly “religious”, “devout”, “moral and ethical”, when he was simply a total hypocrite, with his promotion of hatred, division, and narrow mindedness. He had to be convinced by, of all people, former Vice President Dan Quayle, to follow the Constitution on January 6, 2021, and uphold the Electoral College vote that Joe Biden had won the Presidency.

Pence will go down in history as one of the absolutely worst, most disgraceful Vice Presidents in American history!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal, including providing relief to the American economy through the American Rescue Plan, a total of $1.9 trillion in the spring of 2021. The Physical Infrastructure legislation, providing $1.2 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges, airports rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicle, is being signed into law today by President Biden.

Also, Biden has changed the harsh policy toward refugees promoted by Trump, and cracked down on the abuses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement toward innocent children.

Additionally, Biden returned America to the Paris Climate Accords, and reversed the action of Trump cutting down the Bears Ear National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and he restored protection of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Biden has taken strong action on vaccinations and masking, and brought about a commitment to combating the COVID 19 Pandemic, after Trump minimized the crisis and promoted false solutions. And Biden has not allowed renegade governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott to stop necessary action to protect the American people during this pandemic!

The “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation, held up by moderate Democrats, hopefully will be accomplished soon, as it should be, but with Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema or Arizona, and some in the House of Representatives causing problems, no certainty at this moment, but important for the future of both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the nation at large.

Biden withdrew US military forces from Afghanistan, an action that was promoted by Donald Trump, who wanted to remove them in May 2021, rather than the actual time frame of August 2021. It was a tough decision, but America had been in Afghanistan for 20 years, and most Americans knew it was time to leave.

The NATO nations and others have seen a massive change in American foreign policy by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, restoring our good relations with our allies.

Kamala Harris has been more in the background, but Vice Presidents historically have not been in the forefront so early in an administration, and if one looks back at Mike Pence, for instance, who recalls him playing a leading role in the first year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, or really ever?

This negative portrayal of Harris simply is the reaction of having a mixed race woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency, when she has excellent credentials, were she to have to assume the Presidency!

Donald Trump Is Inciting Violence, And Is A “Clear And Present Danger”, Who Needs To Be Prosecuted!

Former President Donald Trump is openly inciting violence and domestic terrorism, causing threats against even members of the Republican Party who have the “gall” to have voted for an infrastructure bill that helps the nation, and the people in all congressional districts and states.

Trump is totally out of control, and the one third of Americans who are “brainwashed” to follow him, as if he is a cult leader, have become a serious threat to the stability and security of America.

Trump needs to be prosecuted as a “clear and present danger” to the party, to Congress, and to all sane Americans, who now have to fear domestic terrorists daily.

There is a serious issue with mentally ill, unstable people being a threat to law abiding Americans, and Trump is at their leadership, very troubling!

Attorney General Merrick Garland Starts Indictments Against January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrectionists!

Finally, the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland have decided to start indictments against January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrectionists, with the first indictment being leveled against Trump advocate Stephen Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor.

All of the top people behind the conspiracy—including, among others, Mark Meadows, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Miller, Daniel Scavino, Jeffrey Clark, Bernard Kerik, Jason Miller, John Eastman, Nicholas Luna, John McEntee, and Kayleigh McEnany—will, in short order, face indictments if they refuse, as Bannon did, to ignore the January 6 House Committee subpoenas.

The survival of American democracy, and the need to insure that what happened on January 6, 2021, never happens again is urgent. This is particularly so, since, if the Republicans gain back the House of Representatives in 2022, and Kevin McCarthy becomes Speaker of the House, then the nation’s future is at stake, with authoritarian Fascism taking over with those who do not care about what is ethical, moral, or legitimate.

Growing Threats To Election Officials In States, Members Of Congress From Right Wing Trump Supporters!

The refusal of Donald Trump to concede in the Presidential Election of 2020 one year later and counting has created a poisonous, threatening situation for dozens of election officials in many states, AND members of Congress who have been courageous enough to be critical of Trump, including supporting his impeachment and support the infrastructure legislation that passed by a bipartisan vote.

It has also caused threats and confrontations of election board and school board members in many states, including threatening phone calls and emails, designed to discourage people from participating in promotion of American democracy and educational curriculum and more.

Private security and police support is required for so many public officials and staff who never had to worry before now about dangers to their lives and families.

We are in the midst of a “Reign of Terror”, by domestic terrorists and white supremacists, egged on by the 45th President, and yet, so far, nothing seems to be working to hold him accountable, and deal with the horrific situation the nation faces.

And the next rounds of elections, state and congressional in 2022, and the presidential election of 2024, seem highly likely to be a time of potentially greater crises and threats than even the events of the past year, from the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021 onward!

There is a growing sense that America may experience the kind of Fascist authoritarian threat presented in the mid 20th century by Fascist Italy and Benito Mussolini, and Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler, as well as other authoritarian leaders in other nations past and present!

Growing Opposition To Donald Trump Potential Presidential Candidacy In 2024

A year after Donald Trump lost the Presidential Election of 2020 decisively by 7 million popular votes, and the precise Electoral College vote for Joe Biden that Trump won by in 2016, despite losing the popular vote by 2.85 million votes to Hillary Clinton, the beginning of the challenge to Trump’s potential Presidential candidacy in 2024 is beginning in earnest.

The following are challengers to Donald Trump’s potential campaign for 2024. They all have by word and deed made clear their condemnation of Donald Trump:

Former Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey
Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland
Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin
Former Governor John Kasich of Ohio