American Democracy

Joe Biden At Age 81—Physically Fit, Solid Record Of Accomplishment, Safe For Future!

Ronald 16 Comments

President Joe Biden is 81 years of age today, and on this birthday, we wish the President all the best.

Despite his age, Joe Biden is physically fit, has a solid record of accomplishment, and is a safe, competent choice for the next four years.

The likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is none of the above, and is a danger to the nation and the international community, with his raving and threats to establish an authoritarian Fascist government if he ends up in the White House!

Joe Biden has accomplished more in domestic affairs than any President since Lyndon B. Johnson, and has provided strong international leadership, solidifying NATO, and backing Ukraine and Israel, two crucial situations that will affect the future of world affairs.

Biden has always been underrated, and faces strong headwinds in the upcoming Presidential Election of 2024, but he represents the survival and stability of American democracy and international stability!

Let all decent people wish Joe Biden a Happy Birthday, and support this decent, compassionate man as he faces challenges greater than any President since World War II!

Time To Bar Donald Trump From State Ballots Under 14th Amendment, Section 3!

Ronald 1 Comment

Congress passed and the states ratified the 14th Amendment after the Civil War, including Section 3, which bars those who have mounted insurrection against the US Government from ever again serving in federal or state government.

This was a reaction to the Confederate rebellion against the United States from 1861-1865, which resulted in the deaths of a third of a million soldiers.

But by being part of the 14th Amendment, it could be applied to any future threat to the United States government, which most certainly, the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection was to American democracy and the rule of law.

So it is in the power of state legislatures and state Secretaries of State to bar any candidate for public office who waged insurrection on January 6.

So “Blue” states, such as large electoral vote states California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, as well as others, have the power to take action barring Donald Trummp from being on the ballots for the Presidential Election of 2024!

It is urgent that such action be taken NOW!

The Most Historic Turning Point Trial For American Democracy’s Survival!

Ronald 2 Comments

American democracy’s survival is the crucial point for all Americans to understand, as Donald Trump, now indicted for the third time, in the most crucial of all cases, will face justice sometime in 2024.

If he fails to be convicted, it will mean that the concept of the rule of law has been destroyed, and it will cause the death of the American experiment two years short of its 250th anniversary in 2026!

If Donald Trump gets away with the abuse of power, what can stop either him or a future authoritarian tyrant from doing it again, and leading to violence, bloodshed, and potential civil war?

America’s place in the world will be compromised if Donald Trump is not convicted, and it will embolden Russia, China, North Korea and Iran to exploit the result, and destroy NATO and our other alliances around the world!

This upcoming trial is one of the crucial moments in American history, alongside the Civil War; the Great Depression; entrance into World War II; the Cuban Missile Crisis; and the September 11 attacks!

Those who continue to defend Donald Trump will go down as villains in American history, their reputations besmirched for a man who has no concerns except for himself!

247th Anniversary Of American Independence, And Nation’s Democracy Is Endangered!

Ronald 1 Comment

Today is the 247th Anniversary of American Independence, and with only three years until the Semiquincentennial of our nation’s history, American democracy is in great danger!

The threat that Donald Trump might return to the White House and promote revenge and fascist demagoguery is horrifying, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also presents a “clear and present danger” to our nation, with his attacks on the rights of women, racial minorities, gays and transgender people, and his promotion of an extremist Christianity and authoritarianism that represents great harm!

The Supreme Court is the most extreme in a century, taking away basic human rights that were extended by earlier Supreme Courts, but now effectively robbing Americans of rights they have worked so hard to attain!

Many state legislatures are undermining the right to vote, and interfering with education, health care, and at the same time expanding gun rights leading to mass murders with no regulations of who can have what firearms in their possession!

Just as Abraham Lincoln was in the right place at the right time in the 1860s; and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the right place at the right time in the 1930s and early 1940s; so is Joe Biden today’s equivalent of what is needed to preserve democracy!

The efforts must be made to assure that Biden can continue his good deeds after two and a half years in office, and overcome the many crises the nation faces, the most dangerous since the 1960s, and in many ways on the level of the 1860s and 1930s-1940s!

Gerrrymandered State Legislatures–Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Texas And Other Republican States!

Ronald 3 Comments

Gerrymandering of many state legislatures, particularly in “Red” states, has led to the movement to take away democracy.

This is particularly noted in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, as those state legislatures take unprecedented action to strip voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and to reject any regulation of guns, despite consistent, every day, occurrences of gun massacres!

The “red” states are the centers of greater carnage than in “blue” states, which are totally the opposite of the “red” states on the major issues of civil rights.

Many state legislatures have become the center of autocratic leadership, such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, but also including many other states!

In Age Of News Media Decline, Two Reputable Newspapers Remain The Saviors Of American Democracy!

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In an age of decline of News Media sources, on the local level, and on the national level, in a competitive market for news sources that are reliable and steady, two long established and reliable “national” newspapers remain the rock of the business of journalism!

I am referring to the New York Times (published since 1851) and the Washington Post (published since 1877), which have been over the long run the most reliable and reputable news sources, despite the harsh attacks and criticisms of authoritarian critics.

The more these two great newspapers are attacked, the stronger they become.

Of course, there are other news sources of shorter history of duration that are wonderful and contribute to the promotion of facts and truth. But without the New York Times and Washington Post for the past century and a half, and particularly in the modern era since the abuses of Richard Nixon in the 1970s until the present, American democracy, under great stress and duress more than ever in the age of Donald Trump since 2015, would be in ever greater crisis than it is!

Supreme Court Ethical Violations Are Totally Out Of Control!

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The Supreme Court, already outrageously extremist right wing, due to the three Donald Trump appointees added to the arrogant, nasty Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, the appointees of the two Bush Presidencies, is now even further in violation of ethics!

It turns out that Chief Justice John Roberts has judged in cases that involve financial matters affecting his wife!

This blogger has always tried to give slack to Roberts, but at this point, he is the head of a Court out of control, and refuses to testify before a Senate committee on Judicial ethics, of which the Court, clearly, has ZERO!

Roberts has been on the Court for 18 years, Thomas 32 years and Alito 17 years, and it is time for these unethical Justices to retire!

Of course, they will NOT do so, but that is the argument for expansion of the Court, as this is very different than the controversial so called “Court Packing Plan” of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, which was defeated!

That Court in 1937 had declared several New Deal laws unconstitutional, but the Court in the present is way beyond any earlier abuses, and longevity of Court members is out of control as compared to history!

There is a need for term limits on the Court, and for now, to balance the Court and make for fair constitutional law, new members need to be added!

Until that occurs, which is of course unlikely, the Court will have further rapidly declining prestige and support of public opinion, which does matter in a democracy!

Nikki Haley Goes Low, And It Clinches Her Doom In Presidential Race!

Ronald 12 Comments

Former Republican Governor of South Carolina and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley once had great promise and a future in American politics.

But now, that is totally gone, as she has revealed herself to be rude, nasty, and lacking sensitivity on the issue of age and race!

To claim that electing Joe Biden in 2024 insures that Kamala Harris will be President is clearly a disgusting attack on both the age and race fronts!

Why would anyone who was decent claim that Joe Biden almost certainly will not be alive to finish a second term at age 86, when no one can possibly know the age longevity of anyone?

Just because Joe Biden “flubs” every once in awhile is not proof of lack of mental agility, and his half century experience in government is invaluable, and the lack of respect for him is atrocious!

Donald Trump is only three and a half years younger, so who can say, with him being in poor physical shape, and his clear mental and emotional disorders, would live for five years. And he is, of course a threat and danger to American democracy, as he has already proved that to be so in his incitement of the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection, and his assertion that he wants revenge and retribution, which motivates him to run in 2024!

The elderly population over 65 is not going to take kindly to such ageism on Haley’s part!

And it is clear that Haley, herself of South Asian heritage, is using the race card, that the world will collapse if a black mixed race woman, who has superb credentials, possibly might succeed to the White House if Biden were to pass away!

This is the same hysteria that was visited upon Barack Obama, as racism continues to be promoted and encouraged by Republicans!

Kamala Harris is better qualified to be President than any Republican woman who might be in the mix as a Vice Presidential running mate for the Republicans, with or without Donald Trump as the Presidential nominee!

Would Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, Kristi Noem, or even Nikki Haley herself come with better credentials than Kamala Harris?

The answer is clearly “NO”, as Harris has proved herself in many years of experience in California state government, as a US Senator, and now Vice President, and is certainly better in “performance” than past Vice Presidents for the Republican Party, including Mike Pence, Dan Quayle, Spiro Agnew, or failed Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin!

Donald Trump Raves About Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, And Republicans Stay Silent!

Ronald 3 Comments

Former President Donald Trump is demonstrating yet again how dangerous and crazy he is, and yet the Republican Party acts prostrate toward him!

Trump went on Fox News Channel and was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, who we know has said he hates him, but still has him on his show, as the goal is, ever after, to make money for Carlson and Fox News Channel by allowing Trump to spew forth his authoritarian impulses!

Trump praised Communist dictators Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, Xi Jinping of China, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, lavishing them with glowing statements about how smart they are, and how brilliant they are, despite their well known record of human rights violations against their own populations, and threats to their neighbors.

And although one might say Putin is NOT a Communist, since the Russian Federation supposedly replaced the Soviet Union in December 1991, reality is that Putin WAS a Communist functionary in the Soviet KGB in the 1980s.

Imagine this, Communism was the enemy to decades of Republicans from the time of the Russian Revolution to the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It made the careers of innumerable Republicans, including the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy, President Richard Nixon, and a massive number of others.

But along comes Trump, glorifying and praising these dangerous and unstable authoritarians, who could also be termed “Fascists” in their tactics, such as past horrors as Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, Juan Peron of Argentina, and Francisco Franco of Spain in the 20th century.

The differences between “old line” Communists and modern Fascists are miniscule, and to have an American President praise such tyrants, and his party stays silent, is truly proof that the Republican Party and Fox News Channel are a danger to American freedom, security, and democracy!

How is it that Republicans have completely changed their perception of foreign enemies, and are engaged in similar tactics to undermine the civil rights and civil liberties of millions of Americans, who do not fit the image of white supremacy Christianity?

What has happened that the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Reagan has reached this point?

MAGA House Republicans Visit Criminal Insurrectionists In DC Jail!

Ronald 27 Comments

The MAGA House Republicans, who are beyond the pale in their behavior, visited criminal Insurrectionists who were engaged in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack a couple of days ago.

Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and about 20 others, claimed these insurrectionists were “political prisoners”, and complained about their jail conditions.

But two Democrats who went with the Republicans to monitor the situation–Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Congressman Robert Garcia of California–made clear that the conditions of the DC jail are far superior to the general jail and prison conditions in most American states, and particularly in southern states.

These same MAGA Republicans also are pressuring, illegally, that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg testify about the “Stormy Daniels” case against Donald Trump, which seems likely to lead to an indictment.

This is totally illegal, for Congress to intervene in local investigations and prosecutions.

The fact that MAGA Republicans are still willing to back Donald Trump no matter what the circumstances is a development that is very worrisome.

And the fact that Donald Trump is still seen as the favorite for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, even over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is horrifying and a sign that American democracy is under dire threat!