Presidential Election Of 2016

Points To Ponder As Second Impeachment Trial Of Donald Trump Begins

Ronald 1 Comment

As the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins today, some points to ponder are worth considering.

Donald Trump lied incessantly over a fixed election when 60 court cases unanimously agreed the election in the various states being contested was totally fair, and lacking any corruption, as compared to 2016 and other earlier electionss.

Donald Trump was gleeful, enjoying the Capitol Insurrection, and unconcerned about the harm being done to the building, and the occupants, including many members of both houses of Congress, and Capitol Hill Police and staff members.

Donald Trump was inciting violence against his own Vice President, Mike Pence, and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the two people in line of succession after himself, and had no concern about their welfare.

Donald Trump did not call in National Guard reinforcements promptly, forcing Mike Pence to assert himself finally after four years of being obsequious.

Donald Trump has never expressed any sense of sorrow over the loss of life of a Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, and the other four victims of the Capitol Insurrection.

Donald Trump incited the mob by his language, and cannot claim that what he said was not promoting violence and destruction.

Donald Trump is like any citizen, not above the law, accountable for his behavior and actions, and does not have the constitutional right to promote insurrection and sedition, which is not part of freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

Donald Trump should be convicted as a warning to future Presidents that such abuse of power and promotion of violence and destruction will not be tolerated, and that politics is not the issue, but the survival of American democracy, and the regulation of executive power in the Presidency!

What A Wonderful Inauguration Tomorrow Of Joe Biden And Kamala Harris!

Ronald Leave a comment

What a wonderful inauguration takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20, 2021!

A President and Vice President who have empathy, compassion, common decency, and exceptional character to lead us out of the nightmare of Donald Trump and his racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, nativist, and misogynist followers, offer recovery and advancement in the next four years!

If Donald Trump had won, our nation would be in the throes of a full scale Fascist dictatorship, and the attempted coup on January 6, thankfully, was overcome, but showed just how dangerous a situation we would be in if Trump had won, or stolen the election, as he clearly did with Russian collusion in 2016!

To deny the truth and reality is no longer going to be acceptable, and this author and blogger will not associate with anyone who tries to deny truth and reality about Donald Trump!

So tomorrow, we will have our second Catholic President of Irish ethnicity (after John F. Kennedy); our first woman and African and Asian heritage as our Vice President; and with our first Latina (Puerto Rican) Supreme Court Justice (Sonia Sotomayor) giving the oath to Kamala Harris; and with the first Second Gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, bringing the highest level person of Jewish ethnicity into the top levels of government! We also will be bringing a true educator, Dr. Jill Biden, in as First Lady!

And also, we have our first Jewish Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer; and our first Jewish Senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff; and the first African American Senator from Georgia, the Reverend Raphael Warnock (who was pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, earlier having Martin Luther King, Jr as its pastor; and the first Latino Senator from California, Alex Padilla, with all three Senators being sworn in tomorrow when the Democrats take control of the US Senate!

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have major challenges not matched since Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and let all of us wish them the best, and knowing they have our backs!

Trump Refusal To Accept Danger Of Russian Cyber Attack Alarming, As If FDR Did Not Accept Pearl Harbor!

Ronald Leave a comment

We have learned that Russia conducted a cyber attack, in many ways equivalent of Pearl Harbor, on many government agencies, and yet Donald Trump has refused to accept reality, and it adds to the long held idea that Trump is a Russian “traitor”, ready to sell America to the Russians, and undermining our defense.

If Franklin D. Roosevelt had acted casually after Pearl Harbor, it would have been, indeed, very suspicious.

The Russian connection to the Presidential Election of 2016 is clear to anyone who read the Mueller Report, and Trump has given away information to the Russians in the Oval Office in 2017, and accepts everything Vladimir Putin claims is truth, rather than his own military and intelligence agencies.

But now, outgoing Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have made clear of the Russian involvement in the cyber attack, affecting our national security.

So once Donald Trump is out of office, a full investigation of his collaboration with Putin and Russia is required, and Trump needs to be held accountable for his clear cut treason!

The Hall Of Shame: Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy Lead The Pack!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Party has become a total embarrassment and disgrace, which will scar the memory of great Republicans of past generations.

Republicans are refusing to acknowledge the massive 7 million popular vote win of Joe Biden, as Donald Trump continues to act in an unpatriotic, uncooperative manner, including showing grace in defeat, inviting Joe and Jill Biden to the White House, and cooperating with the transition team on so many important matters, including the COVID 19 Pandemic and the National Security of the United States.

The Hall of Shame includes many, but leading the pack are the following:

Rudy Giuliani, once the much celebrated Mayor of New York City, who has made a fool and mockery of himself in his endless quest to destroy the victory of Joe Biden, and it is clear that Giuliani is seriously demented, mentally ill, and needs to retire from public life, although he also faces the danger of prosecution, that even a Presidential pardon may not totally exonerate him from a potential prison term.

Ted Cruz, who has humiliated by Donald Trump regarding his wife and father, and yet has become a total sycophant, and was willing to argue a case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court until the Supreme Court yesterday rejected in one sentence any challenge to the results of the Presidential Election of 2020. This blogger and author has always found Cruz to be the most despicable possible would be President, and thought in 2016 that Cruz on paper was more dangerous than Donald Trump, and the recent escapades of Cruz just add to the total disgust felt about this disgrace!

Rand Paul, who also alarmed this blogger when he ran for President in 2016, advocating the preposterous libertarianism of his father, former Congressman Ron Paul, who is now retired, but has a horrid history of antisemitism and racism in his past, and his son, if anything, much worse, in his delusions. This includes his denunciation and regular attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the true hero of the present Covid 19 Pandemic. This monster plans again, like Cruz, to seek the Presidency in 2024, and both of them are a cancer on the future of the Republican Party!

Mitch McConnell, who hopefully will NOT be Senate Majority Leader after the Georgia Special Senate Elections Runoff on January 5, as he has been the most destructive Senate Majority Leader in memory, going back to making clear his desire to make Barack Obama a one term President. He also denied Obama the right to the appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016; refused to have dignity and prevented a Supreme Court replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg with only weeks before the Presidential Election of 2020; and lacks respect for his former colleague, Joe Biden, in refusing even now to acknowledge that Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, from California, who has been a horrid leader of his party, making former Republican leaders Paul Ryan and John Boehner, look good by comparison, when both were obstructionists, and in the case of Ryan, like McCarthy, total sycophants to the evil of Donald Trump!

Joe Biden Victory Looking More Impressive As Vote Count Has Reached 99 Percent!

Ronald Leave a comment

Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the Presidential Election of 2020 looks more impressive by the day, and now, 99 percent of the vote is in, and Biden has 80.1 million votes to Trump’s 73.9 million votes, so a lead in popular votes of 6.2 million!

Assuming the same division of votes in the remaining one percent not yet tabulated, the final vote should be 80.9 million votes for Biden, and 74.6 million votes for Trump, a margin of 6.3 million votes.

This is nearly two and a half times the popular vote lead of 2.85 million that Hillary Clinton had over Donald Trump in 2016, and it makes Trump on the losing side of the popular vote in the two elections by a total of 9.1 million!

So Trump in the popular vote was twice a massive loser, with George W. Bush the loser in 2000 by 540,000; Rutherford Hayes in 1876 the loser by about 250,000; Benjamin Harrison the loser in 1888 by about 90,000; and John Quincy Adams the loser in 1824 by about 38,000.

And Joe Biden won the Sun Belt states of Arizona and Georgia, and retook the Midwest states that Hillary Clinton lost by small margins in 2016—Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin!

When Donald Trump won in 2016, he declared it a landslide with 306-232 in the Electoral College, but now that Joe Biden has accomplished the same electoral vote by taking five states from Biden, suddenly it is sore loser behavior, very infantile, on the part of Donald Trump, but the plans for the inauguration and setting up of the government over the next 53 days will continue to move forward!

Trump may never concede, but it does not matter, and only makes him look terrible in the eyes of history. And he may not show up at the Inauguration, which only John Adams in 1801, John Quincy Adams in 1829, and Andrew Johnson in 1869 failed to do!

And let us be honest, who cares if Trump shows up or acts civil, since that is NOT his nature, and his presence would actually besmirch the festivities, as we finally have dignity, decency, competence, knowledge, compassion and empathy back in the White House, which is sorely needed after the nightmare disaster of the corrupt Trump regime!

Joe Biden Victory As 46th President More Impressive By The Day As The Final Two Percent Is Tabulated

Ronald 2 Comments

With votes still being counted in the Presidential Election of 2020, it is clear that the Joe Biden victory is more impressive by the day.

Biden has now twice as large a popular vote lead over Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton had in 2016, and gained the exact same result in the Electoral College that Donald Trump had four years ago, 306-232.

Biden will end up winning 80 million votes, in an election where it seems 18 million more people will have voted than in 2016. He has a 3.6 percentage point lead over Donald Trump as the final two percent is tabulated.

The fact that Biden won back the Midwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania) that Hillary Clinton narrowly lost in 2016 is a massive accomplishment.

Winning two Sun Belt States (Georgia and Arizona) is also a major event, and shows signs that the Sun Belt will move toward the Democratic Party as the 2020s go by, and once that happens, the Republican Party, unless it changes its racist and nativist agenda, will never win the Presidency again!

“Socialism” And “Defund The Police” Killed Democratic House Numbers, Endangering Majority In 2022

Ronald 1 Comment

The Democratic Party needs to realize that if it goes too far to the Left, it will doom President Joe Biden’s efforts for success!

Unfortunately, the Congressional Elections of 2020 demonstrated that the nation is still very split on what is desirable to accomplish, as the Republican opposition and Donald Trump utilized fear of the word “Socialism”, as if Joe Biden and the Democrats are equivalent of Communist leaders in Cuba, China, the Russian Federation, and other left wing regimes, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua!

This shows total ignorance of the term “Socialism”, and the reality that America is a mixed Capitalist-Socialist nation, with the Socialist party of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas in the first half of the 20th century contributing many ideas, which over time, were part of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and many other progressive reform since then.

But it is clear that had Bernie Sanders somehow been the Democratic nominee for President, he would NOT have been able to win, as only a moderate centrist with a tip to the Left, as Joe Biden has been his whole life, could possibly have won back the Midwest states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, along with the Sun Belt states of Georgia and Arizona, and not lose any of the 20 states that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Also, while there have been too many outrageous examples of police abuse and brutality, and particularly against African American males and Latino males, and really even females, the answer is police reform and accountability, not “Defund the Police”, as they are still essential.

Sadly, the Senate only saw two Democrats elected (Mark Kelly, John Hickenlooper), while one (Doug Jones) was defeated, gaining only one seat, to 48, although Georgia creates an opportunity in its runoff election for the chance to have a 50-50 Senate, that Vice President Kamala Harris could organize as a Democratic Senate, with Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader, instead of the horrible Mitch McConnell.

But there is danger of the House of Representatives, in a midterm election, going back to the Republicans, since they have gained at least 5-7 seats in the 117th Congress, and with the reality, that the party in the White House usually loses seats in the following midterm election.

The Senate will have, again, twice as many Republican seats up for election in 2022, but this scenario did not work out in 2020, so no assurance there either of retaining or gaining a Democratic Senate majority, which is so urgent to make Joe Biden a successful President!

Joe Biden The Sixth Vice President To Be Elected President

Ronald 8 Comments

Joe Biden is the sixth Vice President to be elected President.

Four of the six were elected from the Vice Presidency:

John Adams after George Washington 1796
Thomas Jefferson after John Adams 1800
Martin Van Buren after Andrew Jackson 1836
George H. W. Bush after Ronald Reagan 1988

Richard Nixon was elected eight years after losing the Presidency in 1960, and was the first Vice President to be elected President in 132 years.

And now, Joe Biden was elected President four years after leaving the Vice Presidency, not attempting to run due to the death of his son, Beau Biden.

Many have speculated that had Beau Biden not passed away, that Joe Biden would have competed with Hillary Clinton for the 2016 nomination, and might have defeated her, and gone on to win over Donald Trump.

Sadly, if that had happened, the nation would have avoided the horrible tragedy of Donald Trump and the damage he has perpetrated.

But at least, now, Joe Biden can right much of the wrong of Donald Trump, and he will carry on the Barack Obama tradition!

Additionally, four of the nine Vice Presidents who succeeded to the Presidency due to the demise of the President, went on to be elected to a full term—Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Harry Truman in 1948, and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

The other five Vice Presidents who succeeded to the Presidency were not elected on their own—John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Alan Arthur, and Gerald Ford, who succeeded Richard Nixon after his resignation, and was the only Vice President not elected to either the Vice Presidency or the Presidency, as he lost to Jimmy Carter for a full term in 1976.

Joe Biden On Road To Presidency, But Without Democratic Senate, A Major Handicap For Success!

Ronald 26 Comments

Joe Biden is on his way to the Presidency, but sadly, he will not have a Democratic Senate, as the situation now stands.

So this is a major handicap for success of a Biden Presidency.

Mitch McConnell won reelection, and seems almost certain to remain Senate Majority Leader, unless both Georgia seats up for election, not likely to be decided until January, go to the Democrats, which seems highly unlikely! Also still up in the air is Alaska and North Carolina, but it does not look good for the Democrats at this writing, and Michigan Democrat Gary Peters is losing his race at the moment.

Donald Trump will mount legal challenges, but it seems certain that Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States, although not under the hoped for landslide that did not develop, as Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Texas went to the Republicans, leaving Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina still in play in the Electoral College, along with Nevada still not final for Biden at this point. But happily, Arizona and Wisconsin switched from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020!

Biden could gain 270 electoral votes in the next day or two, if and when Nevada, Michigan and Georgia put him over the top! And Pennsylvania and North Carolina are still possible!

The News Media And Public Opinion Polls On Trial On Election Day: Are They Reliable?

Ronald 6 Comments

Today, Election Day 2020, it is clear that the news media, particularly the establishment media–the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC–need to be demonstrated to be reliable and accurate in their coverage of the 2020 election campaign.

Or will they have “egg in their faces” again, as in 2016, when there was total shock at the result of the election, the victory of Donald Trump?

And the same goes even more with the multitude of public opinion polls, which misjudged what was about to happen, and also the prognosticators, many well known, and some like this author and blogger, NOT well known, who all believed Hillary Clinton would win the Presidency!

A one time blunder, or error, can be explained, as it was in 1948 when no one thought Harry Truman would defeat Thomas E. Dewey!

A second time, when all evidence is that Joe Biden will likely win a landslide victory over Donald Trump, would be fatal in many ways, making Americans unwilling to believe the major news media and public opinion polls in the future!

Hopefully, the right wing news media, notorious for lies and deception, most notably Fox News Channel, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal, all Rupert Murdoch owned and operated, will be repudiated beyond any redemption! The same applies to right wing talk show radio hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and a host of other extremists who exploit the American people on a regular basis!

Hopefully, we will know sometime tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4!