Congress

The Time For Major Social Change Is Here!

Here we are in September 2021, and it is time for major social change, what the Democrats and Joe Biden are trying to bring about as Congress returns from its summer break!

We need to provide Medicare expansion, including for eyes, teeth, and hearing.

We need to provide Medicare coverage at age 60.

We need to provide decent child care and elder care, so that many people, particularly women, can go back to work in an economy where most families need two incomes, although many poor only have one income, and are faced with the need to take care of their children or elderly relatives.

We need to provide early educational intervention before kindergarten, as a way to advance literacy and the love of learning at the age when most children are open to all kinds of knowledge.

We need to provide two years of college free tuition so that all those leaving high school have an opportunity to explore their futures, both in opening up their eyes to truth and facts, but also to career training that can improve their lives over the long haul.

We need to promote that young men do not ignore college and education, at a time when 60 percent of college students are females, leaving males behind.

We need to promote protection of the environment, and the advancement of actions to cope with climate change.

We need to promote raising the poor to a future of hope and change.

There is no excuse to avoid the responsibility of improving the lives of all Americans, and making clear that those who are more fortunate have a responsibility to pay their fair share of taxes, and this includes corporations, as well as wealthy people who invest, not only those who work!

Twenty Years Since September 11, And The Terrorists Won! We Have A Divided America Worse Than The 1960s!

It has now been a full generation since September 11, 2001!

Sadly, the terrorists won!

We have a more divided America now than we had in the 1960s!

There is no sense of unity, and one of the two political parties, the Republican Party, is a shell of itself, totally contradicting the heritage of the party, and now a full blown Fascist Party, which has no concern about public health, public safety, or common decency!

It is nearly impossible to accomplish any great goals, as occurred with the “Great Society” in the 1960s, as the Republicans are nihilists, libertarians, who do not care at all about anyone other than themselves. Their wealthy benefactors only care about keeping taxes low, not dealing with the many social and economic problems of a society which is becoming more inequitable every year.

The Supreme Court is the most extreme it has been since the 1920s, and is losing public respect, and there is no sense of humanity, empathy, compassion in the public sphere by close to half of the Congress, only out to promote cruelty and suffering of the masses of Americans.

So the terrorists won. and only the corporations and wealthy have benefited, and this portends future conflict that could escalate the terrible divisions now so evident in America!

Important To Have A US Ambassador To Israel Who Can Promote Middle East Peace

The position of being US Ambassador to Israel becomes ever more important after the recent 11 day war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Antisemitism is rising in America and around the world, due to the harsh Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, justifiable as a self defense tactic against Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, but still causing grief for Israel even among many younger American Jews.

Someone who knows the Middle East well, and could do the job of pressuring Israel toward negotiations for a two state solution, promoting what President Joe Biden wants and thinks is essential for Middle East peace long term, is the goal.

And former South Florida Congressman Robert Wexler could be the person to do it, and is supposedly on the short list for the position.

Wexler has been the President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center For Middle East Peace since he left the Congress in 2010. It is an American Non Profit Advocacy Group that works with leaders and policy makers in the United States and the Middle East to help reach a just and comprehensive peace that will bring an end to the Arab-Israeli Middle East conflict. Meetings, travel, conferences, workshops, and diplomatic exchanges further the mission of this group.

The Reagan Era Is Over, And An Age Of Progressive Reform Is Upon Us!

One Hundred Days of Joe Biden, and there has been no leaks from the White House, and no scandals in the White House!

What a refreshing time, with competent, experienced, decent people working with the man everyone has underrated!

Joe Biden has surprised progressives, such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and he has shocked Fox News Channel and other right wing media, and the Republican Party, who have no real alternative to what he is doing, so are creating false stories and demonstrating pettiness, as they realize the age of Ronald Reagan is over.

Government is good, not evil, and the Reagan Era demonstrated how much we need MORE federal government, as states governments, overall, are a horror of incompetence, particularly in Republican governed states that are undermining democracy!

The petty attacks on Joe Biden over his age are part of ageism, pure and simple, as it is not only Joe Biden who is in his 70s, but indeed many members of Congress of both parties, and what it comes down to is the sincerity and commitment to the public good of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and other older Democrats, as compared to the mean spiritedness and lack of concern of many Republicans of older age, including Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley.

Joe Biden Performing Greatly, And The Economy Is Soaring As Biden Speaks To Congress Tonight!

The economy under Joe Biden is soaring, possibly on the way to the best year since 1984, and the stock market has gone up about 16 percent.

More than 1.3 million jobs have been added since Biden took the oath of office about 100 days ago.

Kindness, empathy, and compassion, all Joe Biden traits, are helping to make him very popular.

Tonight, he will give a speech to a joint session of Congress, promoting a $1.8 trillion dollar “American Families Plan” that will dramatically expand access to education and safety net programs for families.

Two years of tuition free community college; pre Kindergarten for all 3 and 4 year olds; and paid family and medical leave for all workers are included in the plan. Hundreds of billions of dollars would be spent on fighting child poverty and ensuring affordable child care nationwide is also part of the package.

Wealthy Americans and investors would pay more taxes, and greater enforcement of tax laws by the Internal Revenue Service would be utilized also.

The Economic Stimulus plan spent $1.9 trillion, and the proposed Infrastructure plan would cost $2.3 trillion, and with the $1.8 trillion proposed Family plan, it would mean the government is spending approximately $6.2 trillion since Joe Biden became President.

It will face major opposition from the Republicans in Congress, as well as some moderate Democrats, so the question is how much of Joe Biden’s ambitious plans can be actually accomplished in 2021!

Rural America In Rapid Decline, But Having Ability To Prevent Change

Rural America is in rapid decline, but has the ability to prevent change, due to gerrymandering, and the fact that the declining white population can cause grief in Congress and in many state legislatures.

60 million people live in rural areas, which contain 97 percent of the land area of the nation.

So 23 percent of the population have an impact, and are against progressive reform, and the advancement of the interests of urban America, and of people of color, and people of superior educational accomplishments.

Rural America is a drag on the progress of the nation in the 21st century, but they are able to wield great power politically, and they present a threat to the future stability of America, as many people in rural America seem willing to consider the concept of secession.

So one has to wonder if a future breakup of the nation is conceivable!

Inauguration Day Has Arrived: A New Beginning, And Need To Insure Donald Trump Will Never Hold Office Again!

Inauguration Day 2021 has finally arrived!

A new beginning under a very decent, compassionate, empathetic, and genuine man, Joe Biden, who cares about unity and progress, is awaiting us in a few hours, and the cancer of Donald Trump, the great national nightmare, is over!

Let us all pray for a peaceful celebration of the inauguration of the 46th President, and yet feel sadness that 25,000 National Guardsmen are needed today to insure the safety and security of the new President and the entire group of government leaders that will commemorate the transition of power!

Every effort must be made to insure that Donald Trump will never hold public office again!

And every decent person must work to insure that anyone of the mentality of the extreme right wing, hateful and anti democracy, never again is a threat to come to office in America!

So those who wish to be the new Donald Trump, such as Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and others, must be denied any chance to be a national leader!

Both of those disgraceful Senators, as well as all others who attempted to overthrow an election result by insurrection, need to be expelled from Congress, and be prosecuted for their crimes!

These people who have committed treason must be added to the list of such traitors in history, including, the following—-Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph McCarthy, and Donald Trump!

A Very Emotional Time With Many Thoughts Which Will Require Time To Process

The last 48 hours have been the most emotional roller coaster imaginable!

It began with great excitement as Georgia saw the victory of both Democratic Senate candidates, the Reverent Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, marking the first African American Senator from a Deep South state since Reconstruction, and the first Jewish Senator in the history of the state.

It also meant that the Democrats would control the US Senate under new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and that Joe Biden would be able to have more success with a Congress controlled by his party, even if paper thin control.

But then, we had the first attack on the US Capitol Building, the home of Congress, since the British attacked on August 24, 1814 during the War of 1812, and done by a right wing Fascist terrorist, insurrectionist group of Donald Trump supporters, and egged on by Trump himself, as well as his son, Donald Trump, Jr. and Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor. These three men are guilty of treason and sedition and need to be held accountable!

The Capitol was defiled, and our national security was in danger, and it caused America to be ridiculed in the eyes of the world, which have seen America as the image of democracy being threatened by an egomaniac who wanted absolute power!

So even though at this writing, there are only 13 days to the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the push is on to impeach and remove the President, a second attempt, or to invoke the 25th Amendment, with great pressure being brought on Vice President Mike Pence by Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to prod the Trump Cabinet to join him in taking the Presidency away from Trump, and giving the authority for the remaining days of this term to Mike Pence.

There will be much need to process these events, as the nation and its future remain at risk, as this author and blogger publishes this entry!

Mike Pence, A Dozen Republican Senators, And 140 House Members Are Promoting Treason And Sedition!

We are about to witness treason and sedition being promoted by Vice President Mike Pence, along with a dozen or more Republican Senators, and at least 140 House Republicans.

What is normally and traditionally a ceremonial counting of the Electoral Vote in a joint session of Congress, presided over by the sitting Vice President, is now becoming a mockery, as Donald Trump contested the result and has lost in every court setting, including twice in the Supreme Court with a Republican majority, including three Trump appointees!

Mike Pence is going along with a challenge in order to promote his own future Presidential candidacy, in the hope that Donald Trump will not run in 2024, and will support him, and the same is the reasoning why Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas are leading a fight that undermines the Constitution and rule of law.

The 14th Amendment, Section 3, makes clear that what these Republicans in Congress and the Vice President are doing is promoting treason and sedition. By all rights, they should all face arrest, trial, and incarceration, as they are provoking dangerous and reckless behavior by Trump and his supporters, leading to likely confrontations, bloodshed, and violence on Wednesday, January 6, and even more seriously, on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021, when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are inaugurated President and Vice President.

America is not a banana Republic, but Donald Trump has no issue in burning down the Republican Party, and the future of public safety in the middle of a pandemic worsened by his own lack of concern for human life!

Mike Pence’s job on Wednesday is not to promote his own advancement, but rather fulfill his constitutional duty followed by every Vice President, those on the winning side of an election, but also those on the losing side, as for instance, Richard Nixon in 1961 and Al Gore in 2001.

History will condemn these law breaking Republicans and Mike Pence for the disgraceful actions they are taking, but at the end, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be in charge of the government in 17 days!

Senator Josh Hawley A Threat To American Democracy And Civil Order, And Must Be Repudiated!

The New Year of 2021 is upon us, and now we face a dire threat from a young US Senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, at present the youngest Senator at age 41, who defeated Democrat Claire McCaskill in 2018.

Hawley has made a major blunder in joining the Trumpite extremists, mostly Southerners, in the House of Representatives, who are plotting to undermine the normally placid counting of the Electoral College votes in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Vice President Mike Pence is responsible for operating a peaceful, ceremonial and routine counting of the electoral vote, as has been done constantly by the sitting Vice President at the end of every Presidential term.

Hawley is a highly ambitious young man, who is plotting a Presidential run in 2024, but he is ready and willing to be a threat to American democracy and civil order, by challenging the obvious victory of Joe Biden for the Presidency.

He is joining the true whackos who are a disgrace to the Republican Party, out to promote an outgoing President who is authoritarian oriented, and has no concern for the American people, only about aggrandizement of his own power.

Hawley is destroying his future, and is proving how reckless he is, despite criticism from fellow Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania!

Hawley should be repudiated by all who believe in the Constitution and rule of law, and should be drummed out of the Senate for his abuse of power, as one can sense, in a fashion, he is a new Joseph McCarthy in relation to running rampant on an autocratic bent for his own advancement!