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One Month Anniversary Of The Biden Presidency: Tremendous Initiatives And Goals And Early Success!

Ronald 2 Comments

It is today one month since Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States, and there is a sense of great optimism.

The basic decency, compassion, empathy of Joe Biden is very evident, and he has staked out goals in foreign policy and domestic policy, canceling out most of the damage done by Donald Trump in his horrendous four years in office.

Biden has embraced NATO and our democratic allies in Asia;

has made clear that America will hold authoritarian governments around the world accountable for their outrageous violations of basic freedoms;

has selected an exceptional group of Cabinet and other advisors to deal with the myriad of issues he faces, greater than anyone since Franklin D. Roosevelt nine decades ago;

has committed himself to the fight against climate change;

has dedicated himself to the need for immigration reform, and to protect DACA recipients who have been living in uncertainty for the past five years;

has worked to promote the environment and conservation after the worst environmental record of any American President;

has been moving forward on a major economic relief bill;

has surpassed his goal of daily vaccinations against COVID 19 and made it a national commitment, not just left up to states alone;

has made the fight for civil liberties, civil rights, and the struggle against racism, nativism, misogyny a major commitment;

has endorsed full protection for the gay and lesbian community;

and above all, has restored the dignity and prestige of the American Presidency which was in rapid decline.

Joe Biden may not be able to accomplish everything he wishes, due to political realities, but his heart is in the right place, and he clearly is out to promote progressive goals and work against domestic terrorist groups which endanger American democracy.

Kamala Harris Main Arguments To Use Against Mike Pence In VP Debate On Wednesday Evening

Ronald 1 Comment

Arguably the most important Vice Presidential debate since the first one in 1976 is taking place this Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Utah, when Vice President Mike Pence confronts California Senator Kamala Harris.

The possibility of a female Vice President in the next Presidential term heightens interest in this debate between a Vice President who has been unwilling to express his own views with his President, by every measure we have; and a Senator, who headed the Justice system of the state with one eighth of the American people residing, in California.

Kamala Harris needs to address major issues with Mike Pence, and if necessary, be persistent!

These include:

Why are you NOT asserting yourself in this COVID 19 crisis, and allowing Trump family members to run rampant over your responsibility to the nation to invoke the 25th Amendment?

Why are you not emphasizing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large rallies on your own part?

Why have you not condemned white nationalism groups, including QAnon and “Proud Boys”?

Why do you refuse to resist the policy of favoritism toward Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and other dictators, and the worsening relations of the nation with NATO, Canada, Japan, and South Korea?

Why do you show no concern about the immediate loss of health care for 20 million or more people, especially in the midst of a world wide pandemic?

How do you explain all of the failures of Trump, including on;

the Mexico wall:

no health care alternative and plans to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security;

the inhumane treatment of immigrant children and their parents at the border;

the widespread corruption of Trump Cabinet officers and others;

Trump’s failure to match Barack Obama’s economic recovery; Trump’s constant attacks on veterans, Muslims, the disabled, and those who have died, including John McCain, and lack of respect for Ruth Bader Ginsburg;

and so many other shortcomings?

Harris will perform very well, with compassion, concern, empathy, decency, ethics, morality and persistence in asserting herself, and this will make her an excellent and principled Vice President under a President Joe Biden, who has the same character traits as she does.

And if circumstance puts Kamala Harris into the Oval Office, the nation will be well served and be in competent hands!

Best Strategy For Joe Biden: Emphasize Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Under Attack By Donald Trump And Republicans, To Working Class And Senior Citizens

Ronald 10 Comments

There are many issues that need to be discussed and emphasized by Joe Biden and his running mate, and Democrats in general, during the upcoming Presidential and Congressional Election campaigns of 2020.

Certainly, these include the CoronaVirus Pandemic, the racial turmoil that has arisen anew since the George Floyd murder, and the economic Great Depression that have gained the most attention in these past six months.

Also, the need to discuss the issue of climate change and global warming, and the dangers to American foreign policy presented by Donald Trump’s reckless attacks on our intelligence agencies and foreign policy establishment, which has undermined our relations with our NATO allies and other democratic nations around the globe, must be discussed. Trump’s flirtation with authoritarian leaders, including Russia, China, North Korea, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, Brazil and elsewhere is also a major threat to global security.

But despite these and many other issues, ultimately, the major message that will gain more working class and senior citizen support is to emphasize what Democrats have supported, and have battled to preserve—programs passed by generations of Democrats, and widespread attacked by Republicans, and particularly Donald Trump in the last four years.

That is, the social justice programs that matter the most:

Social Security, passed under FDR in 1935, the lifeline for millions of people.

Medicare and Medicaid, passed under LBJ in 1965-1966, which has been a literal lifesaver for millions of Americans.

The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, passed under Obama in 2010, and constantly under attack by Republicans who have no alternative plan, and which has been a blessing to thirty million Americans.

None of these programs were perfect or are perfect, but if left up to the Republicans of the past, and even more in the present, they would never have existed, or would have died over the years!

So Democrats need to emphasize this, that all these programs are scheduled for ultimate undermining and destruction, if, God forbid, Trump won a second term, and had a Republican controlled House of Representatives and Senate!

Explaining this reality to the working class and senior citizens is the best way to get them out to vote, not sit on the sidelines, or believe the lies and propaganda of the evil Republican Party!

Donald Trump Has Finally Gone Too Far: A Sense That Trump Has Endangered Public Health And His Own Presidency’s Ability To Survive

Ronald 55 Comments

Through all of the outrages and obscene words and actions of Donald Trump, even through his impeachment trial, the sense is there that Donald Trump has now endangered public health and his own disgraceful Presidency’s ability to survive.

His acting like a Medical Doctor, and giving his stupid, cult like followers advice on medications and now on ingesting or injecting disinfectant into their bodies has led to some hospitalizations and likely deaths. Others are not understanding that the President is totally unhinged and dangerous, and that they should ignore his ranting and raving in his daily, disgraceful displays of insanity!

Trump is now being given advice to stop participating in the daily updates, and on Friday, he took no questions and ended the press conference within a few minutes.

If he has not lost all credibility now, and if he continues to have a “Jim Jones” type effect on his lunatic followers, then those morons will deserve to die, and at least clean our nation of people who support his racism, nativism, and misogyny. The danger he presents to our domestic progress represented by the New Deal of FDR and the Great Society of LBJ, and to a stable foreign policy in support of our allies in NATO and in East Asia is massive.

And now, he threatens to destroy the Postal Service; stop all immigration when it is an essential part of the American success story and necessary for economic growth; eliminate all environmental laws on the books; and to bomb Iran. The latter is a ploy to gain an image as a wartime President, making it possible for him to be reelected, but he must be prevented from any such action.

The pressure to resign, and let Vice President Mike Pence finish the term, will start to grow to prevent a total destruction of the Republican Party, and the sense that he might finally have reached the point, where the nation’s safety and security is at stake.

Clearly, anyone who still will take the view that Trump should be reelected, as Joe Biden and his potential female running mate have this or that fault or shortcoming, is a sign that such person has severe mental illness, and cannot see what is essential for the nation!

That is the resignation of Donald Trump, far more dangerous now, than Richard Nixon was, when he resigned on August 9, 1974!

A Delicate Time, As Reaction Of Donald Trump To Attack On Two Military Bases In Iraq By Iran, Could Lead To Total War In Middle East

Ronald 20 Comments

Five days after the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by orders of Donald Trump, Iran has reacted by attacking two US bases in Iraq.

This could lead to total war in the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia leagued against Iran, but with Trump not getting unified support from usual allies, such as in NATO.

Trump could be responsible for World War 3, as likely, China and Russia and Turkey would be leagued against us and with Iran.

This evil man is disrupting the entire world, as he has in the United States, and he cannot leave office soon enough, but already, the damage he has done will reverberate for many years, likely for decades!

Donald Trump Foreign Policy A Total Disaster!

Ronald 12 Comments

President Donald Trump has totally destroyed American foreign policy, creating a massive disaster which will impact the nation and the world for long beyond his tenure in office.

He has damaged our relationships with our democratic allies in NATO, along with our alliance with Japan and South Korea.

He has developed a total admiration for authoritarian dictatorships, including Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, and Brazil.

He has created a situation in the Middle East that is causing disintegration of any hope of stability, by helping Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey massacre the Kurdish minority that helped the world against ISIS. And he claims to be unwilling to trust Iran on the repudiated Nuclear Deal, but now is helping them and Vladimir Putin to increase their influence in the Middle East, a situation which also endangers Israel.

ISIS now is again a major threat to the world, particularly to our allies in NATO, and Trump seemed to encourage that with his outrageous comments last week, showing lack of concern with that reality. But it will also affect the United States as well over time, and will make it more dangerous for Americans to travel world wide, as ISIS will be out to attack Americans, as well as Europeans.

Trump is totally clueless on foreign policy, and has fired anyone who has any sense of reality on the subject, and now has sycophants working to destroy the Foreign Service and the State Department, a long range detriment to any future President who will follow Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

This is only one of a multitude of reasons why Donald Trump needs to be removed from the Presidency, but will 20 Republicans join 47 Democrats in doing what needs to be done, to rid the Presidency of this menace to the nation and to the world?

Sadly, the odds are strongly against it!

Donald Trump And Disposal Of Human Rights, The Goal Of Jimmy Carter Four Decades Ago

Ronald 6 Comments

In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter enunciated his belief in human rights, and pursued a policy of denunciation of those nations which denied human rights to their citizens.

Now, four decades later, President Donald Trump has totally reversed such a policy, and has embraced leaders of nations which massively violate human rights.

So we see Trump embracing Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation ; Kim Jong Un of North Korea; Xi Jinping of China; Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia; Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt; Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey; Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines; Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil; Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland; Viktor Orban of Hungary; and other authoritarians who deny basic civil rights and civil liberties to their citizens, and persecute minorities and immigrants in their midst, and threaten journalists, extremely alarming and disturbing.

At the same time, Trump attacks and is critical of the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Canada and the other nations in NATO, and it is clear that he is enamored with dictators over democratic leaders.

In so doing, Trump is undermining the concept of liberal democracy, and destroying American constitutional principles, damaging the image of America, and destabilizing international affairs.

April 2, 1917: Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress To Declare War On Germany, Ending US Isolation From World Affairs

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On this day 102 years ago, President Woodrow Wilson transformed America forever, as he went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, putting America into the “Great War”, World War I, four days later.

Other than intervention in Latin American affairs, and the gaining of island territories overseas in the late 1890s, the US had avoided foreign controversies, other than Theodore Roosevelt winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for being the mediator bringing about the peace treaty at the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

But from this point on, with the exception of a virulent isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s, which did NOT keep us out of the necessary involvement in World War II, the United States has faced its responsibilities of world leadership since the 1940s, committing to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership and leadership in official ceremonies on April 4, 1949, seventy years ago.

Bob Corker And Jeff Flake Both Retiring, Should Use Their Influence On The Senate Foreign Relations Committee To Quell Donald Trump

Ronald 4 Comments

Two Republican Senators have decided not to run for reelection, and both have been critics of Donald Trump.

Bob Corker of Tennessee is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, and Jeff Flake of Arizona is on the committee.

Both have no reason to cooperate with Donald Trump, now after this horrific week of foreign policy. We have witnessed the trashing of NATO and the European Union, and criticism of leaders of major allies, including Angela Merkel of Germany, Theresa May of Great Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Justin Trudeau of Canada by Trump. At the same time, we have seen the praise and secret diplomacy of Trump with Vladimir Putin, causing an uproar, and now Trump’s invitation to Putin to come to the White House in the fall, possibly before the midterm elections, or alternately to witness the military parade ordered by Trump for Veterans Day, to be celebrated Saturday November 10 in Washington DC.

Corker and Flake, along with others, should denounce the Putin invitation and the wasted money on an unnecessary military parade, so that Donald Trump’s ego is further glorified.

The two Senators should do everything possible to make life for Trump more difficult, and should refuse to move forward on any policy, foreign or domestic, where their votes are needed to make a majority.

Both should order more subpoenas to require administration cabinet members to testify under oath, and make clear that they have declared war on the corrupt Presidency of Donald Trump!

Their leadership could make a difference in so many ways, and encourage more Senators on the Republican side to join them and the ill Senator John McCain of Arizona, and the principled Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who has been a never ending critic of Donald Trump, and could face retribution when he faces his own reelection in 2020.

Of course, it is possible to imagine that Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Ben Sasse could end up challenging Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination of 2020 against Trump, or Vice President Mike Pence, were he to become President later in this term.

Bob Dole And John McCain: True War Heroes; Donald Trump: True Coward, Draft Dodger, And Traitor To America!

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Today is former Senator, Vice Presidential nominee, and Presidential nominee Bob Dole’s 95th Birthday.

Next month, on August 29, God willing, will be the 82nd Birthday of Senator and Presidential nominee John McCain.

Both Dole and McCain certainly were partisans in the political battles over the last few decades, but both were also war heroes, who suffered and continue to suffer great pain, from their participation in World War II and the Vietnam War.

In many ways, it is a miracle that both have survived so long, and that McCain, fighting cancer, continues to battle with great courage.

Both served their nation in different wars, and did not try to evade a military commitment.

Both are great men, whether one agrees with their political careers and their rhetoric and votes on a myriad of issues.

Then, tragically, we now have a President who has proved to be a true coward, a draft dodger with five deferments (using bone spurs in his foot as an excuse to avoid service, and having the financial connections to evade service while others went to war), and to top it off, a proved traitor to America.

Donald Trump has refused to acknowledge clearly and openly that the Russian government under Vladimir Putin engaged in and continues to engage in collusion to help Trump win the White House over an avowed Putin critic, Hillary Clinton. He has disgraced America while undermining our allies in NATO, and endangered our national security.

And Trump still is an open critic of John McCain as he fights cancer, a true measure of how disgusting and despicable the 45th President is.

So today is a day to applaud Bob Dole, and to pray for John McCain to reach his 82nd birthday on August 29, and to work to force Donald Trump from the Presidency, as a man who has undermined the reputation and image of the office held by others who were great men, and even those not great, at least having dignity and honor despite their faults.