COVID 19 Pandemic

Florida Under Authoritarian Oriented Governor Ron DeSantis!

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The state of Florida s governed by an authoritarian oriented Governor, Ron DeSantis!

DeSantis is promoting limits on women’s rights to an abortion as Mississippi has done, and which now is a case before the US Supreme Court!

DeSantis is working to limit voting rights, even though there were no issues with voting in the 2020 state elections!

DeSantis is working to limit educators in teaching about the truth of American history, including the realities of racism, slavery, and segregation!

DeSantis is working to prevent any discussion of sexuality, and victimizing children who may have sexual feelings other than being straight, including reporting any such evidence to parents, thereby threatening the emotional, mental, and physical health of adolescents!

DeSantis is working to penalize school boards which want to protect children from COVID 19, by stripping funding from counties that defy him, undermining public education from needed financial support!

DeSantis is working to silence free speech and any criticism, by being arrogant and authoritarian toward any criticism from university scholars and the news media!

DeSantis is trying to interfere with redistricting and reapportionment of the state legislative districts and Congressional districts to undermine minority representation after the Census Bureau count of population!

DeSantis has called for the right of citizens to use deadly force with their automobiles at demonstrations that block traffic, an extension of the state “Stand Your Ground” law, and is against any gun control regulations!

DeSantis is against any support of refugees coming to Florida from foreign nations, seeing any such actions as undermining public order and safety!

DeSantis has worked to undermine any initiative by President Joe Biden, and has been extremely confrontional and arrogant, refusing to cooperate with the federal government on every imaginable issue!

DeSantis has supported Donald Trump in every way imaginable since the January 6, 2021 Insurrection, and clearly sees himself as the inheritor of the Trump tradition!

The War On Learning Truth And Reality In Schools And Libraries: The Dangerous Censorship Movement!

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American public education and public libraries are facing a massive crisis of extremist right wing ideology promoting censorship, preventing truth and reality of history, science, and free thought to flourish.

The attack is on against teaching the truth of racism against African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and the widespread antisemitism against Jews over the history of America.

White Supremacists want to wipe clean the truth about slavery and racial segregation, mass extermination of native peoples, and even the facts and reality of the Nazi Holocaust in World War II.

They express concern for the feelings and insecurities of white children that they believe will have guilt over the historical past, when that is preposterous!

What all children should have is an awakening of their minds to the horrors of the past so as to be able to deal with them in a far better manner in the future, but covering up for past wrongs is never the answer, as ignorance is NOT bliss!

The same applies to sexuality, the thought that somehow children cannot handle the recognition of sexual expression, not only heterosexual, but also gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals, as expressed in literature. This censorship on such matters only endangers children who will be treated as if their inner feelings have no significance, and sadly, will lead to more suicides and mental illness!

And allowing religion to replace science, and to repudiate science, as so many antivaxxers promote, is dangerous in the struggle against the COVID 19 Pandemic, as well as undermining the fight against global warming and climate change!

First Year Of Joe Biden Presidency Has Greatest Economic Advancement Since Ronald Reagan In 1984!

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The statistics are in: America in 2021 had the greatest economic advancement since Ronald Reagan in 1984!

More jobs created; stock market advanced more; unemployment dropped at record level; and the economy improved 5.7 percent from 2020!

There is still the problem of COVID 19, which has dragged down the economy from what it might have been.

There is still the problem of supply shortage of many products, most notably cream cheese, but also many other products.

There is still the problem of inflation occurring worldwide, not only in America.

There is still the problem of too many jobs being unfilled, and the need to raise wages.

So the work on the economy is not done, but it is proper to salute Joe Biden and his Presidency for a fantastic beginning, with promise of more to come!

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Besmirches Family Name, And Compares Vaccines To Nazi Germany And Anne Frank!

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the namesake of his famous father, New York Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is clearly a mental case, who espouses conspiracy theories against all vaccinations, including COVID 19.

He is also against masking, and has no concern about the loss of 860,000 Americans in the two years of the COVID 19 Pandemic!

He spoke at a rally in Washington, DC, this past weekend, alongside other nutty, wacky conspiracy theorists who are promoting the Death Cult, clear and simple!

And Kennedy had the gall to compare vaccines to Anne Frank, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews in World War II!

Additionally, he has claimed that all vaccines cause Autism, which has no scientific validity!

What could be more reprehensible than to compare a life saving vaccine to mass murder by the Nazis?

Kennedy has no shame, but even his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, has openly disagreed with her husband’s lunatic viewpoint, and one can expect that RFK Jr. will soon be divorced yet again!

He also disgrees with his mother and most of his siblings about the assassin of his father in 1968, Sirhan Sirhan, taking the lunatic view that Sirhan did not murder his father, a shocking and totally disgusting assertion!

RFK Jr. seems to have elements of mental illness, and meanwhile, he has besmirched the family name, and one can be sure his own father would be shocked, and would repudiate his renegade son!

Extremism On Both Sides Lurks In Upcoming Midterm Congressional Elections!

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It is very sad and troubling that extremism on both sides lurks in the upcoming midterm Congressional elections.

It is much more so on the Republican side, but some Democrats are also clearly not willing to cross the aisle, and that means nasty days ahead, probably worse than now, as the nation moves closer to the possibility of inability of Congress to get anything done, despite the multitude of problems, including:

COVID 19 Pandemic
Climate Change
Escalating Crime
Mental Health Crisis
Protection of Civil Rights
Protection of Women’s Rights
Protection Of Gay Rights
Threat of Russia Against Ukraine
Threat of China Against Taiwan
Threat of Middle East War Between Israel and Iran

and many other problems and issues!

Joe Biden’s Economy

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Joe Biden’s economy first year:

Stock Market up to all time high, although it went down this past week, the most since March 2020.

Unemployment dropped 2.5 percent, an all time record, as 6.2 million jobs were created, the most in a first year of a Presidency.

All sectors of the economy saw job gains, and the American Rescue Plan caused unemployment to fall faster than expected.

People had more disposable income in 2021, even taking inflation into account.

Poverty among children fell by 38 percent from 2020 to 2021.

One third fewer people reported they did not have or sometimes did not have enough to eat in December 2021 than in December 2020.

Workers were empowered to take better jobs, as they were able and willing to quit, being able to get higher pay, better benefits, and working conditions.

Applications to start new businesses increased dramatically in 2021.

Clearly, while economic conditions are much better, to the average American, inflation is a nightmare, and the COVID 19 Pandemic is having a deleterious effect on the mood of the American people.

So there is a lot of discontent with the Joe Biden Presidency as many Americans are unhappy at the stress and uncertainty that the Pandemic has caused.

But if clearcut thinking is employed, does anyone think a fifth year of Donald Trump would have produced similar or better economic results?

First Year In Oval Office Under Most Presidencies Problematical, And Joe Biden Better Than Many!

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One could argue that Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal in the first year, while often having disappointments and shortcomings.

Two major pieces of legislation were accomplished (The American Rescue Plan, and the Physical Infrastructure legislation), and the only reason why the Build Back Better bill and voting rights have failed to be accomplished is the opposition of two Democrats–Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema–and the reality of an equally divided Senate for only the third time in American history!

While inflation has become a major problem, the stock market dramatically rose, more jobs were created in the first year of a Presidency than any other administration, and the unemployment rate has dropped to a very low rate.

There are still the issues of the COVID 19 Pandemic, and the disaster of Afghanistan withdrawal, but the first issue was unpredictable as the worst health crisis in a century, and the second would have been the same result had Donald Trump stayed on as President, since he had made a deal with the Taliban without Afghanistan government involvement, to leave in May 2021, NOT as occurred in August 2021!

So some disappointing developments in the first year of a Presidency are not unique to the 46th President!

When one looks back at other Presidencies, it is actually quite common that the first year of a Presidency is a learning curve, and does not reflect on whether such Presidents will be, in the long run, successful, and also have the possibility of successful reelection.

The following Presidents had very successful first years—Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, George H. W. Bush!

Three Presidents had what could be described as mixed records in the first year in office–Dwight D. Eisenhower, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

The following Presidencies in the 20th and 21st century were far from successes in their first year:

Harry Truman 1945
John F. Kennedy 1961
Richard Nixon 1969
Gerald Ford 1974-1975
Jimmy Carter 1977
Ronald Reagan 1981
Bill Clinton 1993
Donald Trump 2017

Among these eight Presidents, four—Truman, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton–won reelection.

So it is not time to say that Joe Biden will fail to succeed, as he already has in many respects, and it is not time to say he cannot win reelection fo a second term!

The Major Goals For 2022: Accountability For Donald Trump, Voting Rights Insured, And Biden Agenda Accomplished!

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As the year 2021 comes to an end, the major goals for 2022 are clear!

First, there MUST be accountability for the sins and crimes of Donald Trump and his seditionist supporters of January 6, and that includes proper punishment for the Congressmen and Senators who supported Trump during and after the attack on the US Capitol. So the Republican Party must be purged of its treasonous elements, and expulsion and prosecution must occur!

Second, voting rights must be insured, by changing the filibuster, as voting is the most basic right every American citizen has, other than freedom and liberty itself!

Third, the Joe Biden Agenda, as expressed in the Build Back Better bill, must be passed, maybe in modified form, but essential for the promotion of the middle class and the poor!

Despite the many challenges Joe Biden faces in 2022, this author and blogger senses that the US Senate will go majority Democratic, and that the House of Representatives, after reapportionment of seats, and even with the sin of gerrymandering, is likely to be evened out in such a way that the Democratic Party has a good chance of retaining the House majority. To allow the seditionist, treasonous majority of the House Republicans to gain control, and whitewash the US Capitol Insurrection, would be true destruction of democracy, and every decent person must resist that to the extreme degree during this upcoming year!

The year also brings the continued danger of the COVID 19 Pandemic; high inflationary pressures; continued climate change and global warming challenges; and the mental health crisis facing the nation.

And threats of war and bloodshed create a massive challenge as well, particularly regarding Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan.

So there will be plenty to worry about and write about in the next year, and I wish the best to all my readers in the new year 2022!

The Poisonous Nature Of Fox News Channel Deadens The Brain!

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Chris Wallace is no longer with Fox News Channel!

Shepard Smith is no longer with Fox News Channel!

Any decent journalist would NOT work for Fox News Channel, which preaches lies, mistruths, misinformation, and promotes sedition and treason after the January 6, 2021 Insurrection at the US Capitol, inspired by Donald Trump!

Fox News Channel has anchors in the evening who are truly massive liars and deceivers, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham, all of whom are vaccinated but do not promote vaccination and masks!

All of these individuals were concerned and alarmed by January 6, and we know they tried to contact Donald Trump, but now they ignore reality and facts, and inspire the Republican Party in its self destruction!

All of these individuals denounce people of principle, who are strongly conservative, such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and the small band of Republicans who believe in the rule of law and the Constitution, and want Donald Trump and his minions held accountable!

Fox News Channel promotes fear, ignorance, and hate; sees the world as simple and black and white; distrusts science and education; supports government by the wealthiest, with no concern for the poor and middle classes; and endorses religion in schools and government, rather than the basic constitutional principle of separation of church and state!

Fox News Channel has become the “Bible” for a majority of people best defined as white supremacists, antisemites, Islamophobes, nativists, misogynists, and homophobes!

The poisonous nature of Fox News Channel, and also One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax TV, which are even worse, imagine that, helps deaden the brain of common sense and common decency!

Assessment Of Biden’s First Year: A Lot Accomplished With A 50-50 Senate!

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Conservative journalist David Frum, who worked in the George W. Bush Administration, makes clear that Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal in his first year in office with a 50-50 Senate, more accomplished than even Barack Obama with a 57 member Democratic Senate in 2009!

But the naysayers are at work, claiming the Biden Presidency has not been a success, due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, inflation, and Afghanistan.

That is preposterous, as if Donald Trump had been in office, for certain the first and third issues would have been no different, and the second one would have occurred no matter what was done!

Trump had misled and botched up the COVID 19 Pandemic, and regarding Afghanistan, had made an agreement with the Taliban with no Afghanistan governement involvement in 2020, to withdraw from that nation in May, not August 2021!

Inflation happens in cycles, and under Ronald Reagan it was a major issue in 1982 midterms but was resolved by 1984 when Reagan ran for reelection.

The hope is that the same will occur in the next year, and will not be as big an issue as it is presently!