Specifically the magazine said, "Is Ron DeSantis Flaming Out Already?" It is more to the point that this guy is arrogant, is on a hate trip with blacks and the LGBTQ community, and did a rotten job with the handling of the Covid pandemic in Florida, in spite of the fact that he claims he did a great job controlling the virus. FACT: The state was number 3 in coronavirus cases and deaths. All because DeSantis and his lunatic surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo claimed vaccines didn't work.
The Atlantic piece by David Frum starts with...
"The Florida governor has a plan to win the Fox News primary—and lose everything else."
To me this translates into the fact that DeSantis is above all an ego maniac who craves attention and demands loyalty. We've been down this road before with Donald Trump and see where that led us. Straight into fascism, building an autocricy that was tumbled but remains in the background of the Republican Party, ready to leap forward again and demolish democracy. DeSantis has his own methods but he has picked up in the residuals of the Trump failed campaign.
DeSantis, like Trump, is not prepared on the issues that confront this country. Like the Russian invasion...
"When a reporter for The Times of London pressed the governor [on the Ukrainian war with Russia], DeSantis scolded him: 'Perhaps you should cover some other ground? I think I’ve said enough.'”
The fact is he had not said anything of substance about the issue. In trying to turn
this around, "DeSantis delivered a more definitive answer on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show..."
"DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president. Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president. The governor began by listing America’s 'vital interests' in a way that explicitly excluded NATO and the defense of Europe. He accepted the present Russian line that Putin’s occupation of Ukraine is a mere 'territorial dispute.' He endorsed 'peace' as the objective without regard to the terms of that peace, another pro-Russian talking point. He conceded the Russian argument that American aid to Ukraine amounts to direct involvement in the conflict. He endorsed and propagated the fantasy—routinely advanced by pro-Putin guests on Fox talk shows—that the Biden administration is somehow plotting 'regime change' in Moscow."
Someone in his gang of minions has convinced DeSantis that this tough guy approach is what the American public wants, but several polls so far reveal that only Republicans are buying in. You don't win elections without contingencies from your opposition and the Independent vote. Frum says Republicans have built themselves a one-stage rocket...
|"one that achieves liftoff but never reaches escape velocity?"
Here are some good reason why DeSantis may be on the way to flaming out...
Florida Republicans will soon pass—and DeSantis pledged he would sign—a law banning abortion after six weeks. That bill is opposed by 57 percent of those surveyed even inside Florida. Another poll found that 75 percent of Floridians oppose the ban. It also showed that 77 percent oppose permitless concealed carry, which DeSantis supports, and that 61 percent disapprove of his call to ban the teaching of critical race theory as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on college campuses. As the political strategist Simon Rosenberg noted: “Imagine how these play outside FL.”
With all these numbers against him, the Florida dictator looks like his candidacy will take the low road that does not lead to the White House. You can read the full story at MSN.com.
My wife and I watched the last session of the January 6 Committee yesterday and the summary and wrap up was very convincing. Donald Trump is corrupt and an anarchist with solid proof from the Committee allowing them to refer prosecution of Trump to the Dept. of Justice on the following charges...
"to prosecute Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement, rebellion or insurrection."
The Committee could also recommend ethics charges against 5 Republicans for refusing House subpoenas: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Of course, the GOP takes over the House in January 2023, but with the amount of chaos surrounding who will be Speaker, it looks like
there will be non-stop turmoil facing Congress.
If you watched, did you see the commitment and passion when Adam Kinzinger spoke? The U.S. Congress will lose a valuable asset when he retires, as well as Liz Cheney leaving due to losing her election. Cheney pledged herself and her career to get rid of Donald Trump, which culminated in the Jan. 6 Committee. Others on the panel were clear in their condemnation of Trump using clips from his administration to illustrate how he broke the law over and over.
There is talk that these prosecution referrals of Trump will face a number of obstacles when it gets to the DOJ. One is Merrick Garland's record of moving so slow in Donald Trump's prosecution, but it is hoped that the latest appointment of fireball prosecutor, Jack Smith, will move things along now. There is also the feeling that, if brought before a jury, a general public would be reluctant to convict
a former president, or a Trump minion would be on the jury.
No matter what, the Jan. 6 Committee has done an excellent job in bringing Donald Trump to justice for his transgressions. We can only hope that the DOJ will do their job now.
Guess who opened the door to domestic terrorism resulting in activity in at least three states? Do I even have to say Donald Trump? He started with immigrants in his early administration calling them rapists, murderers and drug dealers. Then, during his run for president he called for barring all Muslims from entering the United States, then when in the Oval Office...
he signed an executive order titled 'Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States' which became better known as the muslim travel ban.
The new domestic terrorism acts started in North Carolina in Moore County where 45,000 utility customers lost power and local officials declared a state of emergency. Here's the scenario...
"The Homeland Security 'National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin' issued on Nov. 30 said individuals and groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances 'continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the Homeland.'"
Trump labelled a 'domestic terrorist' by former US deputy
secretary of state Richard Armitage...
Since the perpetrators haven't been identified yet we can't definitely place the blame, but five will get you ten that there is some connection to Donald Trump and his followers. And then all the way across country in the northwest there were at least six attacks at electricity substations in Washington and Oregon. Current efforts are in place to determine who is doing this and why. Vox says that "Donald Trump is the accelerant" and everything points back to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots...
"At Trump’s behest, throngs of his supporters descended on Washington, DC, to dispute the results of the presidential election, climbing the steps of the Capitol and busting through its doors and windows. Throughout the day, Trump continued to falsely claim that the election was stolen without any evidence to support this unreality, further riling up his followers to “take the country back.” By mid-afternoon, the Capitol building was breached and one member of the mob had been shot and fatally wounded. Five people died."
"Conservative podcast host Steve Bannon defended former President Donald Trump's call for a 'termination' of the U.S. Constitution over his 2020 election loss."
Steve Bannon is a white nationalist, white supremacist, spreading his agenda around the White House during the Trump administration. It is thought John Kelly, Trump's Chief of Staff, was instrumental in the resignation of Bannon, after which Bannon dissed many on Trump's staff and went on with his anti-American program. Steve Bannon is supposed to be in jail but just a month ago...
"Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon will be allowed to remain free as he appeals his conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot."
Bannon opposed most everything that opposed Donald Trump, but now that Trump
wants to abolish the Constitution, the expected of course, he supports the ex-White House maniac all the way. Steve Bannon even went to the extent of quoting Donald Trump's Truth Social post on his podcast...
"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution."
The Trump organization was just found guilty on all counts of tax fraud by the N.Y. atty. general with more charges of Trump personally being investigated. Bannon barely got a reprieve from jail time and more of Donald Trump's minions are already serving time. As you can see from the visual, above, and also from a Republican, David Rockefeller, the government should be the servant of the people, not their master. The latter is what Steve Bannon and Donald Trump want.
I have lived in Arizona for over twenty years. We left Los Angeles because of the gangs that were slowly migrating up the coast where we lived. When we arrived here and discovered how conservative and far-right the state was (didn't do my homework), we didn't want to leave; rather we thought another liberal presence in the land of the sun could help change the state to, at least, moderate. We have had luck finding other liberals and now Arizona has definitely turned purple, we think on the way to blue.
But as it turns out the Donald Trump administration, which didn't make the state necessarily more red, did incite the brand of retaliatory politics that has resulted in the recent chaotic gubernatorial election. Kari Lake, a radical right Trumpster who is also a 2020 election denier, challenged Democrat, Katie Hobbs, who wasn't squeaky clean but a hell of a lot more honest and qualified than Lake. Hobbs had a narrow win but Lake is still contesting the certified voting results.
Other Trumpsters and 2020 election deniers also lost, but Abe Hamadeh, in a tight race for...
"attorney general, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the preliminary results of an election that had already been headed to an automatic recount."
You can see the stupidity of these people who react with no thought to what they are doing. Idiots. Hamadeh had a guaranteed runoff. But, what puzzles me even more, probably shouldn't in Arizona, is the fact the races are so close. You would think when known anarchists are on the ballot the logic would be that it is a threat to our democracy, vote them down. Much of the country did in the blue tsunami, but not Arizona. The New York Times reports...
Mr. Hamadeh’s lawsuit, filed in State Superior Court in Maricopa County, names as defendants Arizona’s secretary of state — Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who won the governor’s race — as well as the county recorders and boards of supervisors in the state’s 15 counties. The Republican National Committee joined Mr. Hamadeh in the suit as a plaintiff.
Inside The Arizona GOP' 'Anti-Democracy Experiment'...
And on Thanksgiving Day, it was reported that Lake filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County, demanding information about Election Day printer problems. She said, "I still have hope." Here's the scenario...
"Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County officials on Wednesday, accusing them of breaking election laws and demanding they provide information about voters whose ballots were impacted by Election Day printer issues."
But, one of the most critical wins for Democrats was Sec. of State; the position controls state elections and Republican candidate and a Trump denier Mark Finchem had repeatedly said he may not certify some elections. With that area worsening on a daily basis, the Washington Post corroborates the problem in this piece, "Election denial is reaching new levels of absurdity in Arizona." Here's their
take...
"Arizona is home for many of the most fervent true believers in the election fraud myth. Their ire is directed toward election authorities in Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, where roughly 60 percent of the state’s votes are cast. After the 2020 election, the purveyors of the fraud narrative pushed the state legislature to authorize the so-called audit of the county’s vote. That effort confirmed Joe Biden’s victory, but it did nothing to quell the faithful’s suspicions."
That was followed by what WaPo calls the "fraud squad," illegal electors, led by gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake. She, along with the Trump supported gang of mock politicians lost, and as far as I am concerned, Arizona is saved...for the time being. We still have a Republican legislature to deal with and Governor-elect Katie Hobbs has indicated her plan to work with them. Being the self-designated state pessimist, I have my doubts but unlimited hope for turning Arizona blue.
Starting with the corruptive enigma that almost brought down this country, Donald Trump has decided to run for President again.
I, and millions more can't be thankful for that.
I am not thankful for the amount of animal abuse and cruelty that is going on in the U,S, and in the world. In this country an estimated 115 million animals in science labs are killed every year for chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics research. Every 60 seconds, one animal suffers abuse; Every year, more than 10 million animals die from abuse in the US alone; There are over 10,000 puppy mills in the United States.
Millions are definitely not thankful for this. And I do not see how anyone could abuse an innocent animal; it takes a sick human being to do something like this.
Next, the idiot Elon Musk, a leader in electric vehicles, recently bought Twitter and is slowly but surely dismantling one of the best social medias the world has known.
Again, myself and millions can't be thankful for that.
A number of viruses, infections, new variants and most recently a deadly fungus threaten the U.S. population. How did it start and then spread so fast?
Once more, millions recognize that beginning with the pandemic and continuing with the current onslaught of calamities must, to some degree, be blamed on anti-vaxxers that we certainly can't be thankful for.
A recent blue tsunami in the November election is something to be thankful for, but the GOP although barely winning the House, does open the door to idiocies like the Hunter Biden investigation being planned by Jim Jordan.
Certainly nothing to be thankful for on either side of the aisle.
And then there are Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, the shallow and brainless Bobbsey twins that barely tip the meter of double-digit IQs.
If you really searched high and low, there is absolutely no way to be thankful for these two idiots.
Look at gun violence. With two recent incidents of mass shootings at the Univ. of Virginia and another at LGBTQ Club, Club Q, eight are dead along with multiple injuries. There have been 39,005 gun violence deaths so far this year and 34,706 injuries from gun violence.
No one should be thankful for the National Rifle Assn. and its head, Wayne LaPierre, as well as the minions that serve him. Also, those gun nuts out there who have blocked responsible gun legislation.
Perhaps the most pressing problem the world has ever had, climate change is drying up lakes that are critical for reservoirs in the U.S. and causing weather calamities that are changing lives around the world. Although the Republicans take the lead in the denial of this issue. the Democrats have also dragged their feet. WHO estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas by 2025.
How could anyone possibly be thankful for this.
The U. S. has a Supreme Court that has moved so far to the right there are calls for impeachment for at least two judges, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. In the court's recent decision to in effect repeal the abortion act, Roe v. Wade, millions of women have been compromised, and they are mad as hell. They showed their anger in the recent election by turning back the expected red tide.
Yes, there are millions who are not thankful that the right to control their own bodies has been taken away from them.
Democracy is slowly dying, made possible by the autocratic government of Donald Trump's administration in the White House, supported vigorously by the Republican Party.
Who could want their rights taken away from them and end up living like basketball star Brittney Griner has been forced to do? But this is the way they do it in a fascist government.
And the last entry leads to the question of whether Americans could live without their right to vote. If Republicans have their way vote will be restricted for some constituents; as an example, the black vote.
I am not thankful for the many laws the GOP has managed to pass and the new drawing of voting districts just to favor the right.
There are more I know but this is enough for now.
Back to my original question, NO we shouldn't cancel Thanksgiving. What we must do is be thankful that we still have the right to fight tyranny and make it a 2023 resolution to try and mend the fences that have been erected by both the Republicans and Democrats, and return to the use of the two words negotiate and compromise. Without them, we are a lost nation.
New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow, says, "Extremism Is on the Rise … Again." And here I thought it had never abated. But Blow, being the excellent journalist he is, qualifies his headline, written before the Nov. 8 elections, citing one startling fact...
You can see the 291 deniers in the "on the ballot" link, above, with names you will recognize like Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Kari Lake, Herschel Walker; you get the idea. But Blow reports...
In a major speech Wednesday night, President Biden described election denial as “the path to chaos in America.” “It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.” But in truth, the extremism, racism and white nationalism are neither un-American nor unfamiliar.
There are comparisons with the William Howard Taft administration in 1908, later Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on an “America First” platform, which soon became "associated not just with isolationism, but also with the Ku Klux Klan, xenophobia and fascism." Wilson was a racist from the South and is measured against Donald Trump who Blow says...
"is one of the worst presidents — if not the worst — that this country has ever had."
More matching between Wilson and Trump...
It was Wilson who screened “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, a film that pushed the “Lost Cause” narrative and fueled the rebirth of the Klan.
Assessing threats of political violence and rising extremism
on the far-right...
Trump hosted a screening of “2,000 Mules” — a fact-checker-debunked documentary that purported to show widespread voter fraud carried out by “mules” who stuffed ballot boxes with harvested ballots during the last presidential election — at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has called the Southern White House. That film has helped boost his followers’ belief in his lie about the 2020 election.
Civil war has been talked up by Republicans and now they are targeting their own with in-fighting over the upcoming Dec. 6, runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. This is a must win for the GOP and it all boiled over recently between Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott of Florida...
"A long-simmering, mostly private tension between the two men and their allies came to a head this week as their respective political consultants resorted to publicly insulting each other, particularly over how each was approaching the upcoming Georgia election."
Democrats would welcome Republicans keeping their extremism internally as long
as there is no spillover to the rest of the country. Annihilating each other could be the answer to saving our democracy. Neither Trump nor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has offered Walker help, and some say the GOP big guns are not so enthusiastic about Herschel Walker because his win will not give them control of the Senate. And finally, more talk of civil war, this time between Republicans...
"Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is ready [to] unleash a civil war in the Republican Party after its poor showing in the midterms.
"The Georgia congresswoman also indicated she would throw her support behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast."
Have you heard the talk recently from a past GOP congressman who said Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House in name only? He said Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the actual Speaker.
A sham is something that is not what it purports to be; a spurious imitation; fraud or hoax, according to Thesaurus.com. In other words, you have to look deeper to find out just what is going on here. In January of this year U.S. News published the post, "Why Is Joe Biden So Unpopular? Here's a quote from the piece...
"If there were an avatar to accompany the [Joe Biden] PR campaign, it would be an image of the baffled president, lifting America up by its collective lapels and screaming, 'What is wrong with you people? Why don't you LIKE ME!?'"
So, my question is, 'What is wrong with you people? Why don't you like Joe Biden?' And I don't really include Republicans in this question, although there must be some who are on his side but won't admit it. I'm talking about those who should like him, like some Democrats and Independents. Biden supports the left's agenda and has only been hampered by Republicans like Moscow Mitch and Kevin McCarthy and Democrats like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema.
"While the Democrats performed strongly in last week's midterm elections, recent polling shows that President Joe Biden still remains unpopular with the American public.
Following the vote, a Big Village survey, conducted on November 9th and 10th, gave the president a net approval rating of minus 10.5.
So how, then, do you explain this conclusive record from U.S. News?...
"The frustration is understandable. On paper, the Biden administration has racked up some impressive achievements: more than 6 million new jobs were created, a single-year record. Unemployment dropped from 6.2% to 3.9%, another single-year first. Childhood poverty and hunger are down while average wages went up. Biden has the first majority non-white Cabinet in history and presides over the most diverse administration in history. He passed a massive COVID-19 relief bill and an expansive infrastructure package many previous presidents tried and failed to achieve."
Biden touts accomplishments at Cabinet meeting... I know the people have spoken but, in this case, could the American public be way off base? Is there some kind of unknown grudge against Biden? I mean, the President and First Lady Jill Biden are very nice people. So what the hell is the problem? Robert Reich says in The Guardian...
"America is overflowing with good news. Unemployment is down, wages are up, consumer confidence is rebounding, and consumers are spending more (retail sales jumped 1.7% in October, the third monthly increase). Covid seems to be in retreat, at least among those who have been vaccinated. And two big parts of Biden’s legislative agenda – last spring’s $1.9tn American Rescue Plan, and his recent $1.2tn infrastructure plan – have been enacted."
The above article published on Nov. 18, 2021, goes on to talk about the upcoming midterm elections with Reich asking the question, "what’s not to be happy about?" Apparently plenty since Biden's approval at the time was 12 points lower than when he took office, then at 41%. It should be noted here that this is around where Trump’s was for most of his presidency. Current thinking in this Nov. 2021 time period...
Most registered voters say that if the midterm elections were today, they’d support the Republican candidate. Even Trump beats Biden in hypothetical matchups. More than 60% of Americans say the Democrats are out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. And Republican congressional candidates now hold their largest lead in midterm election vote preferences dating back 40 years.
Well, all this proved to be bullshit when the Republican red wave circled for a while and then went down the drain. The Democrats retained control of the Senate, added several governors wins and if the GOP does win the House, it will be on a razor-thin margin.
So, I ask once more, 'What is wrong with you people? Why don't you like Joe Biden?' The American public should think hard about this and if you don't come to a positive conclusion on Biden, you just aren't listening.
Some of the most undone work is the Arizona governor's race between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake. Hobbs leads the Trump lunatic Lake by only one point and Arizona is taking forever for the final vote count. This race has national ramifications in that a Lake win could boost her into the national picture. Rather than document the insanity of her campaign, you can see a compilation of my posts here. It is astonishing to me Lake has gotten this far.Now, back to the national scene with a tug of war between Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis for 2024. The Daily Beast says, "Trump Would Easily Crush DeSantis in Battle Today." That's today but in two years this country could be in a new civil war if the hate-mongers don't back off their rhetoric.
Majority Of Trump Voters Say Civil War ‘Likely’ In Next Decade...
I recently finished The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche and it is frightening. One of the author's findings describes how the next one won't be fought on the battlefield, rather it will be neighbor against neighbor, depending on your political stand. Just think of the consequences especially if you live in a radically right area and you are on the liberal left. I urge you to read my post and if you really want a scare, read Marche's The Next Civil War.
And right in the middle of all this altercation is a war between Donald Trump and
Ron DeSantis that might just surpass 'winner takes all' to a conclusion of 'self annihilation.' It is an unfortunate fact but with the current situation in America this may be the happy ending. If this could take down the Republican Party to a point where they have to negotiate, we have saved our democracy. A recent Mother Jones headline: "The Party of Don’t Say 'Democracy'” says it all...
"Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) sent out a campaign with a solemn, all-caps heading: PARTICIPATING IN OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.
"As I read the email, I noticed that Boebert’s campaign uses a lot of words here to describe our form of government. It’s a “constitutional process.” It’s “representative.” But one word is glaringly absent: “democracy.”
Of course, Lauren Boebert is an idiot but her words reflect the position of the Republican Party. There's more...
Indeed, Republicans across the country are removing the word “democracy” from their lexicon. My colleague Pema Levy reported today that in Arizona, Senate candidate Blake Masters argued that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. “It sounds like a nerdy takedown,” she writes, “but it’s being bandied with frequency by Republicans who also support minority rule and supported overturning President Biden’s 2020 victory.”
Robert Reich says, and I agree, Democrats Can No Longer Compromise with “Authoritarian” Republicans. Republicans no longer understand or condone the word "compromise." From the right, no one since Everett Dirksen, U.S. Senator from Illinois, has mastered his ability to negotiate and compromise for the good of the U.S. Reich says...
President Biden must “push back as hard as he can” if Republicans take control of even one chamber in Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections. He says the administration needs to be clear there is no compromise on the debt ceiling, which he expects a Republican-controlled Congress would challenge, potentially triggering a repeat of the political crisis in 2011 under former President Obama.
Well, the Democrats still hold the Senate and that position could strengthen if Warnock wins in Georgia. The House is still up for grabs but, at best, Republicans will end up with a small majority. The focus is then on 2023, then 2024 with plenty of time for the left to build momentum.
"Republicans Have Made It Very Clear What They Want to Do if They Win Congress." Ezra Klein, Opinion Columnist for the New York Times, sets the stage. It is an extremist agenda that...
"would fall to President Biden’s veto. What Republicans could do is trigger crises they hope would give them leverage to force Biden to accept this agenda or perhaps force him out of office. And even where Republican leaders do not actually believe that crisis would win them the day, they may have to trigger it anyway to prove their commitment to the cause or to avoid the wrath of Donald Trump."
"‘These are conditions ripe for political violence’: how close is the US to civil war?" The Guardian says...
"Nearly half of Americans fear their country will erupt within the next decade. Ahead of the midterm elections this week, three experts analyse the depth of the crisis."
And...
"Barbara F Walter: ‘Judges will be assassinated, Democrats will be jailed on bogus charges, black churches and synagogues bombed’" American political scientist and author of How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them (Viking)
The one clear fact of the dilemma we are in is that it was all caused by the Donald Trump administration and his minions, with near-complete agreement of the Republican Party.
"DeSantis releases ad suggesting God created him on the eighth day as he needed ‘a fighter’" Bizarre as this may sound, this moron has a solid following in the state of Florida. Of all the political maniacs out there, placing Trump as number one, this one must be stopped. Here's the ad,,,
"As images of Mr DeSantis appear onscreen, the ad’s narrator states: 'And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a protector. So God made him a fighter.'”
This is beyond believable but clearly shows this authoritarian clown is serious and that is disaster for Floridians and the United States.
"The results of the midterms may determine if American democracy endures." I am a staunch Robert Reich fan and have been carefully following and posting his views on America's crisis with democracy. We are losing it, thanks to the Republican Party and Reich believes the midterms could set the cursor on the direction the U.S. could take. He says...
"I’m worried that a majority of Republican candidates are telling voters, without any basis in fact, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump."
And...
"I’m worried that if elected, many of these Republicans will make it harder to conduct elections in the future, allow or encourage endless audits of election results, and even refuse to sign off on them."
These are only two of Reich's five "I'm worried that..." comments and the other three are equally chilling.
People are still making up their minds before going to the polls next Tuesday. Over 20 million Americans have already voted and the U.S. Elections Project reports that more Democrats than Republicans have voted early. With a turnout of 154.8 million (66.8% 18+) in 2020, and with expectations higher for the 2022 midterms, there should be an onslaught on Nov. 8. Michael Moore says it will be a blue tsunami. It should be, based on the accomplishments of the Biden
You also must credit certain Democrat congressional members for their support of the President's agenda; and then there are others like Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia that fought Biden all the way. However, the Biden administration hasn't done a good job of communicating their record achievements, an effort I hope to rectify here to the best of my ability. So, just before that surge to the polls, here are the real facts on Joe Biden.
Let's start with jobs: The greatest single year of job creation in American
history, more than 6 million in 2021, a decrease of 16 million receiving
unemployment benefits, and the biggest drop in the unemployment rate in history. Including manufacturing jobs, the biggest yearly increase in US manufacturing jobs in nearly 30 years. Democrats’ new incentives for key industries have already led to announcements of thousands of new manufacturing jobs.
The covid pandemic: Biden executed the most successful American
vaccination program in history – from under 1 percent of adults fully vaccinated to over 75 percent, with over 500 million shots administered – and from less than half of schools open to almost all of them.
Budget: Jerome Powell has been in a year-long effort to lower the inflation with some success. And, there is the Inflation Reduction Act which reduces the deficit by $300 billion.
For Safety: The President passed the biggest anti-violence measure in decades,
including the Gun Safety bill and strengthening the Violence Against Women Act.
Protecting America and our allies: No country has been more active in the support of Ukraine and its fight against the Russians. Biden also kept the NATO alliance together in support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion, brought in two new countries and took out the world’s number one terrorist, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Top Moments of Joe Biden's Presidency...
For diversity and equality: Democrats made lynching a federal hate crime, made Juneteenth a federal holiday and Biden appointed more Black women to the US Court of Appeals in one year than any president in history.
Confronting poverty: The Democrats' child tax credit created the largest-ever one-year decrease in childhood poverty in U.S. history, around 3 million kids were affected. Households saying they didn’t have enough to eat dropped by a third.
Healthcare: Democrats’ new tax credits resulted in a record 14.5
million Americans signing up through the ACA, including 5.8 million new people
getting coverage. They forced drug companies to negotiate prices for the
elderly and capped costs at $2,000 per year. This will save elders thousands annually.
Support the police: Democrats passed 4 bills supporting both police and
crime victims. During Biden's administration he has had to contend with Republicans, especially Donald Trump, advocating violence.
For Veterans: Democrats allocated funds for hundreds of thousands sickened by burn pits in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Climate Change: The Inflation Reduction Act includes the largest investment in history to address global warming. Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and the EPA established strong new fuel economy standards.
Roads, bridges, energy: the bipartisan infrastructure bill will finally fix America’s infrastructure. In 2022 alone, repairs are starting on 65,000 miles of roads and 1,500 bridges, with thousands of jobs created.
As you can see, there is something for everyone. Joe Biden may be softspoken and laid back but he acts with the forceful action this country needs to move back into its place in the world as a leader. We need Biden and supporting Democrats to get the job done after the damage the Republican Party has wreaked on America, led by Donald Trump. We need Joe Biden as president to protect our democracy.
I guess I am picking on Republicans but what can you say with the antics from those like Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron Johnson, to name only a few. The first three are members of the House, Johnson a Senator. Don't get me wrong, there are accusations of Democrat lunatics. Googling that, one in particular came up in the search. Congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee. Didn't find much more than an incident in Trump's impeachment.
So, I decided to see what Cohen stands for and found his issues far from lunacy. As an example, Cohen supports Biden's Student Loan Debt Relief; also for the President's pardons for marijuana possession; the congressman wants to name Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Whatever Cohen says, it can't compare with statements like "the Lord has washed me in the blood of Jesus," from Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker. Bill Maher dubs him an "idiot."
But it is Arizona's gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, who takes the cake. Her
“I’m a true believer that if MLK, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, if JFK were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be America First Republicans,” Lake promised. “I really believe that.”
"despite Greene’s apparent rush to pay her respects to what she believed was a Confederate monument, the monument actually pays tribute to Union troops that battled the Confederates."
"Two factions within the Republican Party are fighting for dominance right now, and the lunatics are winning by a lot. The Gaetz’s, Jordan’s, and Gohmert’s are the ones making the rules now, as they are the ones with the biggest reach and the ones being amplified by right wing media."
As Cousins exclaims the lunatics are winning, he adds more to the gang: "your Josh
Hawley’s and your Ted Cruz’s and of course your Rand Paul’s." The proliferation of these whackos, of course, started with the administration of Donald Trump. With his continued help, these crazed individuals, and many more like them, have managed to nearly bring down the nation. The epitome of this movement was the Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. According to Time...
"More than 840 people have been arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, with charges ranging from obstruction of an official proceeding to assault. But 17 months after the attempted insurrection, a significant number of rioters are still awaiting their sentencing."
One interesting comment is that, although there may be some crazies in the Democrat Party, this list is Republican-heavy; the reality is that Democrats just aren’t keeping pace right now in the crazy department. But one looney stands out in the areas of stupidity and lunacy, Lauren Boebert, Rep. from Colorado, most recently when she proposed an amendment in the House with the result...
"Lauren Boebert's legislation got blocked thanks to House panel's rule targeting 'lunatics.' House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) has a new rule on his committee for people like Boebert. McGovern explained to Republicans that his new rule for his committee says if you're "batsh** crazy, you're not getting an amendment" after he blocked one of Boebert's amendments from going to the House floor."
Biden accuses Trump, "MAGA Republicans" of threatening democracy in prime-time address...
Turning now to the instigator of all this mayhem, Donald Trump's latest rally "Flies off the Rails," as reported by The Daily Beast...
"The QAnon-peppered programming frequently flew off the rails Saturday, as speakers took severe issue with everything from McDonald’s being part of the 'deep state' to “demonic satellites” controlling the voting system in the United States."
And here's a Tweet from the rally...
Opening prayer today at Eric Trump and Michael Flynn’s QAnon event: “God, open the eyes of Pres Trump’s understanding, that he will know how to implement divine intervention. And you will not surround him with RINO trash, in the name of Jesus.”
There is no doubt at this point that Donald Trump's input to these irrational
supporters is what keeps them flying off the rails. And the fact that he continues his terrorist activities, plus the fact he is threatening to run for President again in 2024, should chill the bones of any American who is in his or her right mind. Before I close, a return to Arizona where the politics are sown with lunatics and fertilized with the idiocy of Republican radicals.Arizona's unesteemed chairperson of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward, has "lost her attempt to block a House committee subpoena for her phone records in connection with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building and other events related to the 2020 presidential election," according to Politico. There are also a couple of daffy dingbats worth mentioning--that's all since they haven't been important enough to get a lot of media coverage.
They are Debbie Lesko and Andy Biggs, both full of misinformation and conspiracies but no substance. And the closing act is something I described as un-freaking believable. Wendy Rogers, an Arizona state Senator, urged voters to lie to poll workers on election day. E.J Montini, a local columnist, describes Rogers as a liar, sleezy and "the most unhinged member of the Arizona Legislature (which is saying A LOT).
But, one of the best comments comes from the local paper's opinion column. Dan Peel of Phoenix suburb Scottsdale who said in comparing the races of Katy Hobbs (D), and Kari Lake (R), commenting on Hobbs' accomplishments and Lake whose only real issue is Donald Trump, "just step back and see the big picture. Even if you can only support Hobbs as the ant-Lake candidate, do it. Our democracy and state truly depend on your vote."
YES, not only the state of Arizona but the entire country depends on your votes for Democrats if we are to save our democracy. GO TO THE POLLS ON NOVEMBER 8, AND ENCOURAGE ANYONE YOU SEE OR TALK TO TO VOTE. LIKE MICHAEL MOORE SAID, THIS COULD BE A DEMOCRAT TSUNAMI.
LATE FLASH...
We had another governor in Arizona like Kari Lake wants to be...the bigoted Evan Mecham. Arizona business detested him, and his discrimination of Martin Luther King Day made the state a national embarassment as well as losing the Super Bowl in 1993. Kari Lake, the right-wing conspiracy theorist, follows in his footsteps with her latest salvo aimed at major league football and...
"Dares the NFL to Pull the 2023 Super Bowl from Arizona if She Becomes Governor and Declares Border ‘Invasion’"
It is common knowledge that it is Republicans that have put more guns on the street; more than the U.S. population. Here is the scenario...
"While violent crime rose 28% from 2019 to 2020, gun homicides rose 35%. States that have weakened gun laws have seen gun crime surge. Clearly, a major driver of the national increase in violence is the easy availability of guns."
And lack of police funding...
"While violent crime rose 28% from 2019 to 2020, gun homicides rose 35%. States that have weakened gun laws have seen gun crime surge. Clearly, a major driver of the national increase in violence is the easy availability of guns."
These scripted conversations on gun rights come direct from Wayne LaPierre and his NRA minions who favor guns over innocent lives.
Analysis: The three things Republicans are betting on in the midterms...
Inflation
It isn't Biden’s spending, and wage increases that have caused domestic inflation. It is greedy U.S. Corporations that are "taking advantage of inflation by raising their prices higher than their increasing costs." This also includes things like food and gas during the Covid pandemic. And blaming heavy spending on Biden, not so...
"heavy spending by the US government began in 2020, before the Biden administration, in order to protect Americans and the economy from the ravages of Covid-19 – and it was necessary."
And American workers getting wage increases...Reich says...
"American workers getting wage increases? Wages can’t be pushing inflation because wages have been increasing at a slower pace than prices – leaving most workers worse off."
Hiring an Army of IRS Agents to Harass the Middle Class
Pure bunk. Why would Biden go after the middle class when they are a big part of his plan to improve the economy. No, it is rather the wealthy and tax cheaters that are the target...
"The extra staff are needed to boost efforts against high-end tax evasion – which is more difficult to root out, because the ultra-wealthy hire squads of accountants and tax attorneys to hide their taxable incomes."
If you think Donald Trump is still the biggest liar in the GOP, and that could be what Republicans want, you must consider this wave of misinformation from the right when you go to the polls next month. I urge you to read Robert Reich's post because there is much more than I covered. VOTE DEMOCRAT ON NOV. 8!
Republicans were screwed royally when a conservative SCOTUS voted to repeal Roe v. Wade, enraging a universe of women who have declared all along that they should be in control of their bodies. The New York Times reported that "Decades Ago, Alito Laid Out Methodical Strategy to Eventually Overrule Roe." Well, it happened, and it pissed off 67% of the female population that have been showing their opposition with demonstrations all over the country.
In 1985 Alito "cautioned" President Reagan...
"against mounting a frontal assault on Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that declared a constitutional right to abortion. The Supreme Court was not ready to overturn it, he said, so urging it to do so could backfire."
Alito offered the suggestion of a "reasonable" response to the law allowing conservatives to pounce on the issue in the future. It took three decades but a Donald Trump administration would lay the groundwork by the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. The former Oval Office lunatic could not have picked a more radically right trio. But the move could be the determining factor in the upcoming November elections.
Roe v Wade: Protests as Supreme Court overturns right to abortion...
The ladies could come out in huge numbers for the midterms and assuming they are all fired up over the Roe v. Wade fiasco, it is a reasonable assumption that the majority will vote Democrat. Tom Bonier, a Democratic political strategist and the C.E.O. of TargetSmart, a data and polling firm, revealed the progress Republicans had made since the first of the year. Then...
"But once the actual Dobbs decision came down, everything changed. For many Americans, confronting the loss of abortion rights was different from anticipating it. In my 28 years of analyzing elections, I had never seen anything like what’s happened in the past two months in American politics: Women are registering to vote in numbers I never witnessed before."
It started in Kansas where "voters there defeated in a landslide a constitutional
amendment that would have removed abortion protections in the state." There are Twenty-five states plus DC that have laws protecting abortion access. Bonier reveals in his article that in the state of Kansas, where the Republican Party has dominated politics since statehood in 1861, sixty-nine percent of the new voting registrants were women.
Continuing...
"In the six months before Dobbs, women outnumbered men by a three-percentage-point margin among new voter registrations. After Dobbs, that gender gap skyrocketed to 40 points. Women were engaged politically in a way that lacked any known precedent."
Kansas is an illustration of how the tide can turn so quickly on an issue that affects voters as Roe v. Wade has. It apparently has become serious enough that a GOP strategist warns the party is "getting killed among women over abortion." Brad Reed in RawStory comments...
“I’m convinced that, based on numbers we have, Republicans have to make some kind of leap on the abortion issue,” Arizona GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin tells Politico. “Because they’re getting killed among women.”
Reed uses Arizona Trump backed Senate candidate Blake Masters who "has consistently trailed incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ)." He adds...
Republicans are scared in Arizona and throughout the rest of the country because the SCOTUS conservatives led by Justice Samuel Alito opened a can of worms that could eat their midterm aspirations alive.
It is a well-known fact that the former White House lunatic made the United States the laughingstock of the world. That's right, world-wide, America was known as the country with a leader who was generally certified as mentally unbalanced. Donald Trump played this out daily during his administration and continues his maniacal antics today in a futile attempt to prove he actually won the election in 2020. He didn't by all measures, and now he has another unbalanced clone.
Florida Gov. Ron 'the despot' DeSantis, according to MSNBC "The ReidOut" blogger Ja’han Jones, is...
"turning Florida into an "international embarrassment" after a United Nations racial justice committee flagged the state leader’s anti-riot legislation for supposedly restricting free speech."
Since being elected, DeSantis has passed a multitude of absurd legislation in his state stigmatizing the the residents of Florida. As an example, a federal judge declared his ludicrous "Woke Indoctrination" law unconstitutional. Further, Florida residents have sued DeSantis over revoking Disney’s Special Tax District; LGBTQ groups have sued Florida over the so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law; and Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit over the Florida congressional map signed by DeSantis.
Passage Of Gov. Ron DeSantis' Anti-Riot Law Met With Harsh Criticism...
These are only three of the bizarre moves made by the tyrant who wants to take over this country in 2024. Do you really want this Trump twin to set up his radical hijinks in our nation's capital? And this international incident is an unconscionable event in U.S. history as America continues its fight against the anti-democracy wave passing through the U.S like DeSantis' legislation. Here's the scenario...
"The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Tuesday issued a report examining discrimination across the globe that name-checked Florida House Bill 1, an oppressive anti-protest law pushed by DeSantis, the state's Republican governor."
According to Jones...
"The Florida law, referred to as “anti-riot” legislation by its supporters, is a product of right-wing fearmongering."
Fearmongering has been a regular tool of Republicans to criticize or block anything coming from Democrats. The people of Florida cannot “willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more people.” I get the violent part but who knows if a demonstration is going to turn violent, and I don't really think most Floridians would condone this. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in a ruling...
“If this Court does not enjoin the statute’s enforcement, the lawless actions of a few rogue individuals could effectively criminalize the protected speech of hundreds, if not thousands, of law-abiding Floridians.”
I cannot understand the political climate in the state of Florida re. its support of a clearly defined dictator. But, it is politically compelling that the people of Florida understand what the despot DeSantis is doing to their state and the U.S. and do something about it in November.
