Great Depression

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.

America Is In The Most Dangerous Constitutional Crisis In All Of Its History, More Than 1860 Or 1932!

Ronald 4 Comments

Shocking but true, America has just entered into its most dangerous constitutional crisis in all of its history, more than 1860 or 1932.

The Civil War has always been regarded as the most difficult moment constitutionally, as the Civil War was on the horizon, but Abraham Lincoln won the election, and was inaugurated peacefully on March 4, 1861.

The Great Depression was at its worse at the time of the election in 1932, but Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election, and was inaugurated peacefully on March 4, 1933.

Both Lincoln and FDR faced assassination threats, but both survived and became our greatest Presidents.

Other times, we have had contested or close elections, as in 1800, 1824, 1876, 1880, 1916, 1960, 2000, and 2016, but always there was a peaceful transition of government from one President to another, without rancor.

But now, yesterday, President Donald Trump indicated that he would not guarantee a peaceful transition of power, that the mail ballots should be thrown out, and his administration continue in office beyond January 20, 2021, and that an extra Supreme Court Justice might be enough to rule in Trump’s favor. Also, there are plans behind the scenes to have Presidential electors in many swing states be convinced to support Trump in the Electoral College, even if Trump is seen as losing the popular vote in many states.

This is alarming, and presages a constitutional crisis that would be worse than 1860 or 1932, and a move by Trump to destroy the Constitution and rule of law, and the establishment of an authoritarian Fascist oriented dictatorship!

It means we have a tense 40 days until the election, and a potentially tense 78 days to Inauguration Day, whereby Trump could declare martial law, or we could have both Trump and Biden coming to Inauguration Day as the perceived winner by their own camps, and how that would be handled.

Our system of government has always been based on the loser accepting defeat, not being a sore loser, and not threatening to provoke violence by his supporters, but Trump is already doing this at his no mask, no social distancing, rallies, an alarming development.

This is a moment of reckoning for all elected Republicans, that while they want to compete to win power, that they have to respect the Constitution and rule of law, and NOT support a renegade President, if the election results are clearly in favor of Joe Biden, as is expected.

We have to hope that Biden wins by a massive margin, as otherwise, we are in uncharted territory, and even if it is a massive victory, Trump might claim it is a stolen election, and throw it to the courts, and a newly appointed Associate Justice could be the decisive factor in deciding whether we retain our democracy.

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ironically, could be a major turning point in American history in a negative fashion way beyond the passing of this great woman!

We cannot allow that to occur!

Fascism Is On The Horizon If Donald Trump Is Reelected: Warning Of Author Sinclair Lewis In His Work “It Can’t Happen Here” In 1935

Ronald 18 Comments

In 1935, Novelist Sinclair Lewis wrote a prophetic novel, “It Can’t Happen Here”, stating that what was happening in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini and Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, could happen in the United States. Lewis wrote that it would be “clothed in a flag and carrying a Bible!”

This was way before the horrors of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reached their peaks over the next decade, but already enough evidence of the dangers of the manipulation of minds with emotional rhetoric dividing groups in a society, based upon race, ethnicity, religion, and national origins.

Lewis was warning about the potential dangers represented by Huey Long of Louisiana, who was assassinated months later in 1935, with the story of his assassination covered in my book “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield Publishers 2015, Paperback Edition 2017).

It could also be applied later, in the 1950s, to Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin; to third party Presidential candidate George Wallace of Alabama in 1968; and to President Donald Trump.

Only Trump, with his Fascist appeal, backed up by military, police and evangelical support, and rallies to appeal to those who are racist oriented, and also nativists, white supremacists at Charlottesville, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and misogynistic, is a clear and present danger, as he is the President of the United States.

He has stoked Fascist appeals as a manipulative method for the past five years since he announced his candidacy in 2015, and has set out to destroy all traditions and norms!

A lot of intelligent people, including those I know or knew, and also a lot of not so bright people who have emotional attachment to Donald Trump, since they are ignorant and share his horrific beliefs, have rallied around him.

And yet, many conservatives and Republicans who really care about our Constitution and rule of law, and the perpetuation of our democracy, are alarmed by Trump’s constant attack on “Fake Media”.

Trump calls everyone and everything which opposes his authoritarian bent as unAmerican. He waves the American flag as if he owns patriotism, when it is his critics who are truly patriotic, and care about human rights and freedom.

Donald Trump incites in a crazy manner on Twitter daily, and in the midst of the greatest crises since the Great Depression and World War II, he ignores and refuses to take responsibility for the Second Great Depression and the CoronaVirus Pandemic!

He stokes bloodshed and violence in attacking those who are promoting the need for racial healing, and encourages right wing hoodlums in the streets of Portland, Seattle, Kenosha and elsewhere,

This presents the danger of greater violence in the two months left to the Presidential Election of 2020, and the interim to the next inauguration, and his stated refusal to accept defeat if the election goes against him, an absolutely terrifying scenario!

It would seem that his opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, face constant threats of assassination, and this author of a book on assassinations is truly alarmed that someone who is a Trumpite will attempt to do that!

If Trump is reelected, this nation will be threatened in its basic values in a way never having come to power with Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, or George Wallace, despite these earlier threats in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1960s. It will be an authoritarian dictatorship without any control, a nightmare that will mirror the horrors of Fascist Italy and even Nazi Germany!

As Sinclair Lewis wrote in “It Can’t Happen Here”, it actually “Can Happen Here”!

46 Years Since Richard Nixon Resigned, And Nation Would Benefit If Donald Trump Did The Same, But He Is No Richard Nixon!

Ronald 2 Comments

In 1974, on this day, August 9, the 37th President of the United States resigned from office, succeeded by Gerald Ford.

That was a great day, as a lawless, corrupt President, Richard Nixon, pressured by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress, willingly left, still a believer that he had been wronged, but ending a constitutional crisis, and giving us a President, Gerald Ford, who was certainly not without faults. But Ford was far better than the horror if Vice President Spiro Agnew had not been discovered for his corruption and forced to resign in October 1973, as Agnew would have been even worse than Nixon, so America was saved.

Now we have a President, even more lawless and corrupt than Richard Nixon, a willing accomplice of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a scenario that never would have crossed the mind of Richard Nixon. Donald Trump is working to destroy our whole constitutional system of government, and manipulates and distorts and lies, willing to do anything to gain absolute power by being reelected this November.

Richard Nixon had real accomplishments, despite his evil nature, and some of his greatest accomplishments are being destroyed by Donald Trump, who wishes to undo all good done under both Democratic and Republican Presidents in the ninety years since Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the Presidency during the First Great Depression.

Now, Donald Trump is presiding over a Second Great Depression, even more heartless and lacking in empathy or concern than Herbert Hoover.

And his Vice President, Mike Pence, is a religious extremist, with no principles, and hoping to impose his and his wife’s evil, narrow minded views about women’s rights and gay rights upon the nation in the future. He wishes to promote the extreme right wing views of disgraceful hypocrites, such as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, and others who want a theocracy in America.

So on the 46th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation, the nation is faced with a crisis that may become worse, with the US Postal Service being politically manipulated to attempt to undermine mail voting. This is occurring in a time of a massive CoronaVirus Pandemic that the government on the national level and in many Republican states, including my resident state of Florida, are failing to deal with. This is creating an even greater health crisis that makes America the embarrassment of the entire world community!

Will America Tolerate 20 Million People Being Made Homeless? The Long Term Damage Of Such A Scenario!

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Starting in August and for many months, maybe years after, America is on the brink of having up to 20 million people being made homeless by the second Great Depression and CoronaVirus Pandemic, with Donald Trump and the Republican Party unconcerned about it.

The refusal of Republicans in the US Senate to take action on extending protection for people who cannot pay their mortgage or rent, since they have lost their jobs and income, is infuriating beyond belief.

The emotional damage being done to millions of children and their families will scar the future of America!

The nation cannot tolerate the long term damage of such a scenario, and crime and violence will escalate, and will likely lead to mass death all over the nation.

The only answer offered by Donald Trump is “law and order”, making many think police brutality will be encouraged more than ever, and now federal troops coming in to cities when the state and local governments have not authorized it will only lead to civil war in much of the nation.

It seems clear that only, hopefully, when the Democrats win the US Senate and keep the House of Representatives in November, and when Joe Biden takes the oath of office in January, will we start to react to the disaster perpetrated once again as in the late 1920s, by the Republicans and their President!

But Donald Trump and the Republicans of 2020 are much more evil and disgraceful than Herbert Hoover and the Republicans at the beginning of the Great Depression 90 years ago!

The CoronaVirus Pandemic Will Be Known To History As The Trump Pandemic: A Total Failure Of Presidential Leadership, Causing Massive Loss Of Life Unseen Since World War II And In Five Months, Not Years!

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It has come to the point that with more than five months of the CoronaVirus Pandemic, and more than 140,000 American lives lost, more than any time since World War II, and no sign of any decline in deaths or infections, that we can say this virus can be called the Trump Pandemic.

For the leading nation in the world, or so we claim, the concept that America has the largest number of cases and deaths by far is mind boggling.

Donald Trump had a chance to deal with this crisis in a manner that would insure reelection, but he has proved to be totally incompetent and uncaring about the loss of life.

We have never had a President like Donald Trump, not even Richard Nixon being comparable.

So history will record the Trump Pandemic, and it will stick to Trump, as Herbert Hoover was saddled with the Great Depression, that he was unable to resolve, as conditions became worse 90 years ago.

Horrifying Reality: Tens Of Millions Of Americans Will Go Hungry And Be Homeless In Coming Months!

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With Congress not moving toward additional assistance in the midst of the CoronaVirus Pandemic, due to the refusal of the Republican Senate to take action, and the resultant collapse of the American economy, the horrifying reality is that tens of millions of Americans will soon go hungry and be homeless!

It is obvious that we are moving into a Second Great Depression, with more than triple the population of America as compared to the 1930s, and it will have massive ramifications.

We will see the poor more harmed than the middle class and the wealthy, and racial minorities and single mothers with children will be the major victims.

Crime will rise, much of it in desperation by hungry, homeless citizens, and at least for the next six months, we will be living in a literal Hell, as we have a President and administration that has no compassion, no empathy, no decency, and is refusing to do anything to assist the needy among us.

Donald Trump is far worse than Herbert Hoover, and the hope has to exist that Joe Biden and his team will be able to come to the rescue, with a new New Deal, of the type that Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated in response to the Great Depression.

To listen to Republicans and conservatives would mean do nothing and have great harm continue, causing suicides, child abuse, health crises never ending, and deaths rising, not only from the CoronaVirus Pandemic, but also from starvation and deprivation.

We have been put into this living Hell by a man so criminal and obscene that he will go down in the annals of history as the most cruel, evil national leader in American history.

It will take years, not months, to overcome the damage that has been done, and will continue to occur until the cancer of Donald Trump is removed, and he is held accountable for his crimes, and transgressions!

Trump Is Clearly A National Security Risk After Revelation About Russian Payments To Taliban To Kill American Military In Afghanistan

Ronald 19 Comments

Donald Trump is proving what any sane American knows: that he is a traitor tied to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and has been from the beginning of his Presidency.

The revelation that Russia made payments to Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, and that Trump has done nothing about it, and claims no knowledge had ever been given to him regarding this, is totally infuriating, and requires a swift removal from office.

If only Vice President Mike Pence had guts and courage, and worked to gain the support of a majority of the Trump cabinet, Trump could be forced out, but clearly, that is not about to happen.

There are rumors that Trump might resign, due to his poor reelection polls, but that is still hard to believe, and one has to wonder what Mike Pence and cabinet members knew, and whether they have been in on the scam.

America is in a very bad time, with the CoronaVirus Pandemic, the economic depression, the racial animus, and now this national security issue.

This is, more now than when the Impeachment trial took place, the most crisis ridden moment since the Great Depression, and possibly more so than the events of the 1930s.

There are signs of some Republicans in Congress starting to stir in anger, but the party has been so feeble, one wonders what will come out of the situation.

More than ever, for sure, it is urgent that Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump by a massive margin in November, or the nation is doomed long term!

Pandemic Now Affecting Sun Belt “Red” States, Not “Blue” States, And Yet Trump Ignores It And Refuses To Wear Face Mask As Example To Americans!

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The COVID-19 Pandemic is raging in the Sun Belt, more furious than ever, the so called “Red” states, including Florida, Texas, and Arizona, while before it was more manifested in the Northeast and the Pacific Coast, so called “Blue” states.

But Donald Trump is ignoring the pandemic, which has killed 125,000 Americans in four months, more than World War I, or more than Vietnam and Korea combined!

He continues to refuse to set an example of the importance of wearing a face mask, and has, in a grievous manner, held political rallies in Oklahoma, Arizona and Wisconsin, and intends to do more such rallies, and is exposing thousands to the potential of spreading the virus.

This includes dozens of Secret Service agents, which demonstrates his lack of respect even for those who protect him!

Donald Trump is a total failure in this crisis, and will go down as responding worse than even Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression or James Buchanan in the pre Civil War years!

American Democracy Has Survived Other Catastrophes, But Will It Survive COVID-19?

Ronald 1 Comment

America seems to be in its death throes as a democracy, as too many Americans have no concern about the loss of life, demeaning it as “only old people”, which is not the case, and just concerned about having a “good time”, and avoiding any sacrifice for the common good!

America will not survive COVID-19 at this rate, as everyone simply thinks about “Me, Myself, and I”, and is ready to give up their freedom to a tyrant, Donald Trump, who has no regard for anyone or anything, other than his own aggrandizement!

This is not the nation which survived in common sacrifice internally during World War II and the Great Depression!

We have become a nation of self servers, and we have lost our souls, and when that is happening, it indicates the downfall of the American Republic which has survived through thick and thin for 244 years this July!

It is hard not to be pessimistic about the future, as we are facing much larger numbers of deaths than 100,000 on Memorial Day, and many Americans go about their business not showing any concern about the loss of human life, only about pleasure and money, and unwilling to accept any inconveniences!

And these selfish, despicable people are sending the wrong message to their children, and one day when they are older, they will reap and sow what they have wrought!