Presidential Election Of 2024

Shocking, Disturbing Assassination Attempt Against Donald Trump!

The nation and the world is reeling from the shocking, disturbing assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Much is unknown about the assassin, and the motivation, but violence against any political leader is totally reprehensible.

It is a relief that Trump was only slightly injured, although sadly, one person was killed and two others were seriously wounded in this dastardly assassination attempt.

Having said all that is appropriate to say, one must recognize that the right wing in this country and Donald Trump himself has been escalating their rhetoric, advocating violence and bloodshed against their perceived “enemies”.

So use of such rhetoric only promotes such action, and already, the right wing is politicizing the tragedy, and seems ready to raise the stress level ever further, putting candidates for public office in danger, and particularly the Democratic Party opposition led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It looks likely that ever more danger and threats will undermine the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024, and short term at least, will probably lead to a political advantage for Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

With the status of Joe Biden, as to whether he will continue to run, or bow out, still up in the air, we are on the road to the most tumultuous possible situation since at least 1968, but in many ways, going back to 1860!

Also, this author and blogger wishes to respond to one reader who was upset that I posted a final article a short time ago about the dangers of Project 2025.

That article was planned before this horrible event, and even in the midst of this terrible tragedy, freedom of expression remains an American virtue, and there is no need to stifle such a basic civil liberty!

Project 2025: Final Conclusions On Danger Of Extremist Right Wing Agenda!

This author and blogger has spent a week describing the organization, the Heritage Foundation, and its threatening leader, Kevin Roberts.

There is so much that needs to be written about Project 2025, but I will summarize for now the major ideas and points, with the possibility that in the future weeks and months, the subject of this threat to American democracy, the Constitution, and rule of law will be addressed further.

Project 2025 presents a threat to the nation in so many ways:

The possibility of a dictatorship, with dangerous followers and believers in Donald Trump, imposing their will on the American people, and destroying the nation as we come upon its 250th anniversary in 2026.

The destruction of the federal government and its agencies and departments, ending the civil service bureaucracy created under the Pendleton Act of 1883.

The threat to America’s position in world affairs, with the possibility of the destruction of our foreign alliances, and instead, collaboration with authoritarian dictatorships, based upon the Communist model, despite Trump claiming the Democrats are “Communists, Socialists”!

The destruction of the environment, as climate change and global warming becomes more of a crisis every year, undermining the health and safety of millions of Americans, mostly those who are poor and deprived.

The clear racism and antisemitism and misogyny that Project 2025 promotes, in the name of white Christian nationalism and supremacy, in a nation founded on separation of church and state.

The threat of military and police control, taking away the civil liberties of the Bill of Rights and the Civil Rights Era under Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Supreme Court in the 1950s and 1960s.

The destruction of the American economy, with the continuing dominance of corporations and billionaires, and the subjugation of workers and unions, all in the name of unbridled capitalism, as existed in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century in America.

The undermining of public education, instead promoting propaganda and mistruths about history, science, literature, and other areas of the curriculum, all part of a plan to control the minds of the future generations to accept the goals of those who wish to control them in an authoritarian matter long term!

The arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of political critics and destruction of a free press, and expanding a judiciary that promotes a right wing agenda long term!

These threats must be met by resolve to prevent this extremism from gaining power, and destroying the American nation!

Project 2025: Pro Authoritarian, Anti Democracy!

Project 2025, the 900 plus pages document from The Heritage Foundation, is a total disaster when it comes to foreign policy.

It promotes “warm” relations with the Russian Federation, despite its war with Ukraine; with China, despite the looming threat to Taiwan: and with North Korea, despite the looming threat to South Korea and Japan, and really all of Southeast Asia.

Trump would refuse to support Ukraine, a continuation of his view on that nation; and has been sharply critical of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), endangering the 32 nations in that alliance, which has promoted European stability and democracy in most of those nations.

Donald Trump is promoting isolationism, failing to understand that it endangers national security and undermines American intelligence agencies and the close relations our nation has, including cooperation between the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense with foreign governments.

The fact that he praises Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea on a continuing basis is alarming and dangerous!

Project 2025: Authoritarian Fascism Replacing Democracy!

Project 2025, the work of the Heritage Foundation, is a declaration of war on American democracy, the US Constitution, and the rule of law.

Authoritarian Fascism would replace the kind of government we have had for nearly 250 years.

It would establish a dictatorship, with a crazed, unstable criminal in charge, and even if Donald Trump was not aware of policy details, there would be a massive number of ideological loyalists, much younger, who would be making policy and enforcing discipline, with some of them already involved in illegal and criminal activities in the first Trump administration.

Trump has made clear he wants to be a dictator on Day One, but clearly it would not stop on that day!

Project 2025 would allow Trump the ability to deploy the military against American citizens who utilized the right of assembly to protest government policies!

Project 2025 would promote the arrest and deportation of up to 11 million non citizens, who would be placed in internment camps, a reminder of what happened to Japanese Americans in World War II!

Project 2025 would allow the termination of tens of thousands government employees, to be replaced by Trump loyalists, who would have a deleterious effect on government policy in a multitude of areas!

Project 2025 would promote Christian Nationalism, and impose religious beliefs in public schools, already occurring in Louisiana and Oklahoma, ignoring the reality that it would undermine religious freedom and separation of church and state!

Project 2025 would allow political persecution of opponents, both in government and the media, with Trump threatening imprisonment of prominent critics, including those who investigated the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection!

Trump himself has said that while he wants everyone to vote in 2024, that he does not care if they vote after that, implying there may not be any future elections as he would be President for life!

So much more will be delineated in future articles, but all of the above is alarming to the extreme, and every effort must be made to insure that Donald Trump never gets near the Oval Office again!

Joe Biden Harming His Legacy By Stubborn Refusal To Accept That It Is Time To Retire!

President Joe Biden is harming his legacy by his stubborn refusal to accept that it is time to retire, and digging in to ignore entreaties that it is time for a new generation to lead the Democratic Party.

Biden comes across as delusional, in the face of public opinion polls that show him trailing badly behind Donald Trump, and behind Democratic state races of incumbent US Senators.

His comment that if Trump won, he would still feel he had given it his best effort, indicates he does not understand the great harm he will have brought about, and the fact that his legacy will be destroyed by Donald Trump by plan and revenge!

Biden’s ranking in history will decline as a result, and his image will have been permanently damaged by what would be seen as his selfishness and self centeredness, and refusal to see reality.

And his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, would have her reputation and legacy also permanently harmed by her refusal to recognize that her husband needs to have private time, away from the burdens of the Presidency, and ability to write his memoirs and plan his Presidential Library while he is alive and functioning.

Biden Interview With George Stephanopoulos Not Convincing!

The George Stephanopoulos ABC primetime interview with President Biden on Friday night was not convincing that Biden is capable of being President for the next four years.

Biden clearly has aged in the past year, and the fact that he will not agree to a neurological and cognitive test is troubling.

Also, Biden claims that Democratic leaders will not intervene to convince him not to run, which seems delusional at this point.

He did not “think” that he had watched the June 27 debate since it occurred, which is odd that he was not giving an answer of certainty.

Joe Biden is allowing his ego to get in the way of reality, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, by encouraging him to resist calls to withdraw from the race, is undermining the likelihood of Democratic victory for Congress, as well as stopping Donald Trump.

The push by some members of Congress to promote Biden’s withdrawal is creating a major crisis of confidence, which can only help the Republican Party and Donald Trump!

Rationale For Joe Biden To Retire

Joe Biden has been an excellent President, but it was a mistake for him to decide to run for reelection at age 81.

The fact that he had a disastrous debate performance in the June 27 Presidential debate, while tragic, was a blessing that it happened now, not in September, when it would be too late to withdraw, and likely, would be a fatal situation.

The odds of him finishing a second term alive under the stresses of the position are not good, and he could be incapacitated, whereby he would have to leave office, or be in the kind of condition that Woodrow Wilson was in his last two years in office.

His wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is very devoted to her husband, but needs to be realistic, and wish for her husband to have peace of mind, and have the burdens of office taken off him, so he can have a pleasant and, hopefully, prolonged, retirement period.

Every President since 1900, with the exceptions of Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy have retired, and every President since Herbert Hoover has had a Presidential Library open while he was alive, other than JFK, with even FDR starting the planning of his library in his second term, and “founding” it in his third term in office.

It is time for Joe Biden to retire, enjoy private life, and hopefully, live to write his memoirs and open up his Presidential Library.

He has nothing to be ashamed of, as he saved America from Donald Trump, and now it is time to pass on that responsibility to others, with Kamala Harris ready to take the charge and attack against Donald Trump and everything evil that the Republican Party stands for.

Who Could Be Running Mate For Kamala Harris?

If Joe Biden were to decide to withdraw as the Democratic nominee for President in 2024, a heavy favorite to replace him would be Vice President Kamala Harris, although other Democrats might decide to contest her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

If Harris is the Presidential nominee, the question is who would be a good choice for Vice President?

It would seem to this author and blogger that either a “swing state” Governor or someone who has proved ability to win office in a “Red” state would make the most sense.

So this author and blogger proposes one of the following two individuals:

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, age 51

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, age 46

Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state with 19 electoral votes, and Shapiro, who is Jewish, has had years of state experience as Attorney General of his state before being elected Governor by a solid margin, and is very popular, and seen as a future Presidential contender.

Kentucky is a “Red” state, but Beshear has been able to win the Governorship twice, and is highly popular, and could, in theory, put Kentucky’s 8 electoral votes in play, which would be a welcome potential addition to the Electoral College total for the Democrats.

248th Anniversary Of Declaration Of Independence, And America Is In A Constitutional Crisis! :(

We have arrived at the 248th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, declared on July 2, 1776, but with the final document being formulated and first signed by some of the delegates on July 4.

This is an anniversary with mixed feelings, as the American Republic is in danger of an absolute, authoritarian Fascist government being perpetrated on it by a renegade, right wing extremist majority of the US Supreme Court!

The Supreme Court is out of control, and the majority supporting the right wing, Fascist agenda of former President Donald Trump, and making it nearly impossible to hold him accountable for the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection and other crimes!

The balance of power of the three branches of government has been upended by the Supreme Court, in favor of an agenda to take away American democracy and the rule of law.

The only possible prevention of further extremism is the victory of the Democratic Party, but with a candidate who clearly is declining in his abilities, and thus causing a crisis that may insure not only his defeat, but a disastrous set of losses in Congress and state governments for the party and the nation!

So it is essential for Joe Biden to recognize reality, that he is not fit to serve until age 86, and therefore, to do the right thing and announce he is withdrawing from the Presidential race!

Kamala Harris Would Be Favored, If Joe Biden Decided To Withdraw: So What?

If Joe Biden were to decide to withdraw as a candidate, after the disastrous CNN Presidential debate five days ago, it is clear that Vice President Kamala Harris would be favored to be the Democratic Presidential nominee against Donald Trump.

So what is this author’s and blogger’s response, as Harris is perfectly capable of being President, and arguably more so than a number of recent Vice Presidents or Vice Presidential candidates.

Would any rational observer say that Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, or Mike Pence were better qualified, or that Dick Cheney, with his authoritarian qualities, would have been a preferable choice? And what about Sarah Palin, who was a potential threat to be Vice President?

Most of the opposition from the right wing about Harris is based on her gender and race, as she proved to be perfectly qualified as San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, and California US Senator.

While there would be those who would prefer alternatives, Harris is a hearbeat away from the Presidency already for three and a half years, and is perfectly capable of being President, and doing a good job of upholding the Constitution, American democracy, and the rule of law, and certainly far better than Fascist authoritarian Donald Trump!

Harris would unify African American women, racial minorities in general, and white progressives and moderates who would see Donald Trump as “a clear and present danger”. She would perform very well against Trump in a debate format, as well.

Her Vice Presidential running mate could be Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who has proved he could win a “Red” State more than once; or Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, leader of a crucial “swing state”.