Hooray! Joe Biden and Kamala Harris share the honor of TIME Magazine “Person Of The Year” for 2020!
They bring hope, promise, sincerity, and decency to the White House.
They face tremendous challenges, but with the help of our prayers, those Americans who are decent and caring about others, they will succeed in overcoming the nightmare of Donald Trump and Mike Pence!
On the day eight and a half months into the COVID 19 Pandemic, as we have reached 250,000 deaths and reached an all time high of 189,000 new infections, one looks back at the Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, which ended the day before the first reported death.
If the Republican Party had abandoned Donald Trump, they would have regained some of their lost dignity and respect, but instead, only Mitt Romney voted to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency.
Had Trump been removed on February 5, 2020, Mike Pence would have become President, and one would like to hope that he would have pursued a different direction relating to the COVID 19 Pandemic.
Had he done so, it is possible to believe that Pence might have defeated Joe Biden in this month’s election, but we will never know what he might have done, and the reaction of voters.
So instead of having a sharply lower death total, we have the reality of as many deaths as the military suffered in World War II, but in less than nine months, not nearly four years, a tragedy of massive proportions!
Donald Trump and Mike Pence have declared war on America, conceding on the COVID 19 Pandemic, refusing to resist it!
This is unimaginable, and both men must be removed from the government by election next week, as the alternative is mass death and Fascist dictatorship!
It will be essential for millions of Americans to march in the streets across the nation, and surround the White House, demanding he leave, as otherwise, the Constitution and rule of law will be totally gone!
There is no compromise, as Donald Trump is a threat to civil order!
Law enforcement must move rapidly to disarm and arrest all those who threaten or provoke violence, designed to keep Trump in office as a Fascist dictator, as we are not Latin America, or Asia, or Africa, or Eastern Europe!
We will not tolerate the loss of the American democracy and human freedom, as Trump and Pence are a menace to our nation!
The Atlantic Magazine has just published an electoral map based solely on American expected voters ages 18-40, known as Millennials (born 1980-1996) and Generation Z (1997-2012) with those born from 1997-2002 able to vote in the Presidential Election of 2020!
It is astounding in detail, as if it pans out and is true, it means a bright future for Democrats, and gloom for Republicans!
According to this electoral map, Joe Biden has 295 electoral votes locked up among those under 40; and 63 more likely; and 70 less likely but favored, for a grand total of 428 electoral votes!
Donald Trump has 49 electoral votes insured, with 44 other electoral votes highly likely, and 17 electoral votes undecided, so it would be a grand total of 110 electoral votes, or 93 insured, with Utah and Indiana questionable.
That last fact is shocking, as one would think Utah would be insured Republican, and Indiana as well, particularly with Vice President Mike Pence being from the Hoosier State.
The Biden states have dark blue for such states as Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all four states having gone for Trump in 2016.
Interestingly, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, and Arizona are all medium blue, making them likely strongly Democratic by lesser amounts now and in the future, and all Trump states in 2016. Additionally, Virginia, which voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 is also medium blue.
Georgia, Texas, Montana, and imagine this, Alaska are all light blue, a good sign for the future as well! But so is Missouri, which few see as going back to the Democrats, after having lost their status as a “reliable” state to be with the winner, starting in 2008 and continuing through 2016. As much as the first two states listed are seen as long shots, the last three are even more so, in theory!
Looking at the Trump states, 15 in total, we have West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma as strongest, while South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming and Idaho are weaker in support among young people.
So, in conclusion, 33 states for Biden, 15 for Trump, and 2 probably Trump but not certain, mirroring what seems to make sense for the national election, with the only real surprises being Alaska and Missouri, and possibly Indiana and Utah, in the estimate of this scholar and blogger!
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.
It is a well known fact that for many decades now, women have been heavily Democratic voters.
The question is how to encourage more women to vote, as if they do, they insure Democratic Party victory in November for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
It is clear that suburban white women, African American women, and Latina women are going to commit themselves to voting, organizing, and convincing others to engage in the campaign, as they despise Donald Trump’s racism, nativism, Islamophobia, his courting of white supremacists, and his misogyny.
They despise him also for his support of those who wish to take the right of a woman to control her body away from them, and also his anti gay and anti transgender agenda.
Donald Trump has been a disaster for women’s rights and human rights, and large numbers of motivated, committed, and intelligent women of all backgrounds are united to remove him and Vice President Mike Pence from office!
Kamala Harris put on a great performance last night in the Vice Presidential debate against Mike Pence, insuring the nation that we will have an excellent stand by for Joe Biden, if emergency arises.
She showed knowledge, principle, and facts, while Mike Pence seemed lackadaisical in performance; was rude and disobedient to the rules, refusing to stop talking when the moderator said it multiple times; and lied incessantly, as if he lives in an alternate universe!
Mike Pence has already proved how incompetent he is, unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump on any utterance or action, and demonstrating how his religion has overtaken him, and wishing to force his extreme theology on the nation.
Pence interrupted Harris multiple times, and the moderator had to say it about eight times during one two minute period where Harris was being denied her right to make her statement on the issue at hand.
Pence, for claiming to be so religious, spewed forth so many lies, and nodded his head negatively when Harris was making points about the Trump Presidency which are totally accurate.
Pence has proved how much of a disaster he is as Vice President, and yet, he may end up in the office briefly if Trump loses his life to the Covid 19 virus, with his reckless behavior which is undermining his health. Or Trump, upon losing in November, might resign, hoping Pence in his brief Presidency might pardon him, something which would be an outrage, but could very well happen!
Arguably the most important Vice Presidential debate since the first one in 1976 is taking place this Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Utah, when Vice President Mike Pence confronts California Senator Kamala Harris.
The possibility of a female Vice President in the next Presidential term heightens interest in this debate between a Vice President who has been unwilling to express his own views with his President, by every measure we have; and a Senator, who headed the Justice system of the state with one eighth of the American people residing, in California.
Kamala Harris needs to address major issues with Mike Pence, and if necessary, be persistent!
These include:
Why are you NOT asserting yourself in this COVID 19 crisis, and allowing Trump family members to run rampant over your responsibility to the nation to invoke the 25th Amendment?
Why are you not emphasizing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large rallies on your own part?
Why have you not condemned white nationalism groups, including QAnon and “Proud Boys”?
Why do you refuse to resist the policy of favoritism toward Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and other dictators, and the worsening relations of the nation with NATO, Canada, Japan, and South Korea?
Why do you show no concern about the immediate loss of health care for 20 million or more people, especially in the midst of a world wide pandemic?
How do you explain all of the failures of Trump, including on;
the Mexico wall:
no health care alternative and plans to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security;
the inhumane treatment of immigrant children and their parents at the border;
the widespread corruption of Trump Cabinet officers and others;
Trump’s failure to match Barack Obama’s economic recovery; Trump’s constant attacks on veterans, Muslims, the disabled, and those who have died, including John McCain, and lack of respect for Ruth Bader Ginsburg;
and so many other shortcomings?
Harris will perform very well, with compassion, concern, empathy, decency, ethics, morality and persistence in asserting herself, and this will make her an excellent and principled Vice President under a President Joe Biden, who has the same character traits as she does.
And if circumstance puts Kamala Harris into the Oval Office, the nation will be well served and be in competent hands!
No matter what the situation about President Donald Trump and the COVID 19 Virus, the Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris MUST go on next Wednesday October 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah!
The American people are entitled to see these two people debate, as the odds of one or the other becoming President in the next term is higher than usual due to age of the two Presidential contenders, and the continuing Corona Virus Pandemic.
We need for the nation to see which of these two is proper to put a heartbeat away from the Presidency, based on their backgrounds, records, and views on major issues.
If need be, they could have a debate remotely and NOT appear in Salt Lake City, but they need to debate, as the future of the nation in the 2020s is at stake.
So no excuses for a cancellation, unless either candidate becomes sick from the COVID 19 virus, or if President Donald Trump were to pass away, but otherwise, it MUST go on!
Donald Trump, having contracted the COVID 19 Virus, creates turmoil and crisis, and brings up the 25th Amendment of 1967, and the Presidential Succession Law of 1947.
Trump has been reckless in NOT promoting face masks and distancing, particularly at his close up rallies, but also in the Oval Office and at other White House sites, and his family refusing to wear masks at the Presidential Debate last Tuesday was totally irresponsible!
Trump should be sidelined for a week or more if he has a mild case, but if severe, it creates a real crisis, that requires the 25th Amendment to be invoked, and brings up the Presidential Succession Law, passed by a Republican dominated Congress in 1947.
If Trump is unable for a period of time to perform his duties, then Vice President Mike Pence can take over as Acting President, as George H. W. Bush did in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan had cancer surgery; and twice under President George W. Bush, having colonoscopies, Dick Cheney was briefly Acting President.
It should have happened when Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981, but it was not invoked.
Were Trump to fail to survive, Mike Pence would become President, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be next in line, followed by Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley of Iowa. The fact that Pelosi is 80 and Grassley 87 is alarming, of course, and right after them would be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is 56, and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin who is 57.
Whatever one’s feelings toward Donald Trump, we should all hope for his complete recovery, but it certainly upends the Presidential Election of 2020, and makes the likelihood of a Vice Presidential debate next week less likely, and would seem to lead to the cancellation of the two remaining Presidential Debates, which really should not be occurring after the disastrous first Presidential Debate, in any case!
Time will tell of course, never a dull moment!
Finally, it is truly ironic that the news of Trump having COVID 19 occurs on the 101st Anniversary of Woodrow Wilson suffering a paralytic stroke in 1919, five months after contracting the Spanish Flu Virus while at the Versailles Peace Conference in France after World War I.
Wilson was never as energetic after suffering from the virus, and it seems to have undermined his case for the Versailles Treaty. And once he had the stroke, his wife ran cabinet meetings, and Vice President Thomas Marshall and the American people through the news media were NOT kept informed about his condition, and we had the longest period of incapacity of any President, lasting until he left office 17 months later in March 1921.