Author: Ronald

Republicans For Biden Or Not Supporting Trump

Ronald 1 Comment

There are many Republicans, mostly not presently in public office, who have made it clear they are not supporting Donald Trump for reelection, and some going further and endorsing Joe Biden.

Among those making clear they will not back Trump are the following:

Former President George W. Bush

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton

Former Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona

Retired Four Star Navy Admiral William McRaven (who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011)

Among those expressing doubt but not yet committing are the following:

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin

Former White House Chief of Staff and General John Kelly

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Former Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina

Former Director of National Intelligence and Senator Dan Coats of Indiana

Among those formally endorsing and supporting Joe Biden are the following:

Former Governor and Congressman John Kasich of Ohio

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman

Former California gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman of California

Former Secretary of Defense and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel

Former Secretary of Defense and Marine Corps General James Mattis

Cindy McCain, wife of former Senator John McCain

Former Presidential contender in 2016 Carly Fiorina

Former Congresswoman Susan Molinari of New York

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor

Retiring Florida Congressman Francis Rooney

Conservative commentator George Will

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt

Republican strategists Rick Wilson

Republican strategist John Weaver

Republican strategist George Conway, husband of Trump advisor KellyAnne Conway

Also, a number of Republican groups opposed to Trump are spending tens of millions on advertising to oppose Trump, including

The Lincoln Project

Republican Voters Against Trump

43 Alumni For Joe Biden PAC (referring to George W. Bush)

Republicans For The Rule Of Law

All Star Lineup For Four Nights Of Democratic National Convention

Ronald 10 Comments

The Democratic National Convention is being held remotely this week from Monday to Thursday, and there will be an all star cast of speakers each evening.

Monday night, the speakers will include, among others–Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, Doug Jones, James Clyburn, Bernie Sanders, and Michelle Obama, along with Republican John Kasich.

Tuesday night, the speakers will include, among others—Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bill Clinton, and Dr. Jill Biden.

Wednesday night, the speakers will include, among others—Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama.

Thursday night, the speakers will include, among others—Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Tammy Baldwin, Tammy Duckworth, Chris Coons, Andrew Yang, and Presidential nominee Joe Biden.

It will be an opportunity for the Democrats to display all of their “stars”, who have, together, contributed to the present day version of a party that has done so much for America over the decades since Franklin D. Roosevelt onward, responsible for most of the domestic reforms and foreign policy stability that marks the periods of Democratic Party control of Congress and the White House!

Typical For A Democratic President To Select A Republican Secretary Of Defense

Ronald 9 Comments

History demonstrates that it is typical for a Democratic President to select a Republican for his cabinet, with the Defense Department the usual position awarded to a member of the opposition party.

This was true with Robert McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The same scenario occurred with William Cohen serving under Bill Clinton in his second term.

And under Barack Obama, we saw carryover Robert Gates and later Chuck Hagel head the Pentagon.

If we go back to before the Defense Department was created in 1947, it was known as the War Department, and Republican Henry Stimson served as Secretary of War for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Republican Robert Lovett served for two years in that position under Harry Truman.

Only Jimmy Carter among Democratic Presidents never had a Republican serve as Secretary of Defense, but he did have James Schlesinger as the first Secretary of Energy.

So it seems likely that Joe Biden will pick a Republican for the Cabinet, and the most likely choice would be former Congressman and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who will deliver a speech of endorsement at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night.

QAnon Conspiracy Theory Overtaking Republican Party, With Victory Of Marjorie Taylor Greene

Ronald 12 Comments

There is an element of totally crazy conspiracy people, known as the QAnon believers, which advocate a supposed secret plot by an alleged “deep state” against President Donald Trump and his supporters.

QAnon has accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high ranking public officials of being members of an international child sex trafficking ring. They claimed that Hillary Clinton was part of the child sex trafficking ring, and that Barack Obama and George Soros were connected to a great conspiracy against Donald Trump, who is portrayed as being totally innocent of any charges against him.

The FBI has said that QAnon is a likely domestic terrorist group, and Twitter has banned it from its platforms.

QAnon has promoted antisemitism, racism, nativism, and arguments that only Donald Trump can save the nation, making him out to be a demigod.

And now, we will have at least one, possibly more, members of the 117th Congress in 2021, who espouse these theories, but are being elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, and will have a platform to espouse their crazy, hateful rhetoric.

One such person is the future new Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was repudiated by Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, until she won the nomination this past week, and has now been embraced by both McCarthy and by President Donald Trump.

Greene spews racist, nativist, islamophobic, and antisemitic utterances, and refers to “Satan worshipping pedophiles'”, who are out to bring Donald Trump down, and also brandishes a rifle, and promotes all kinds of lunatic conspiracy theories in a reckless manner.

She makes crazies like Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Devin Nunes of California appear, by comparison to her, to be “moderates”!

QAnon has spread like wildfire on Facebook groups, and is seen by some as a religious cult, with no interest in fact checking or any sense of accuracy. Greene will become a total nightmare for a party which already is too much oriented toward extremist right wing fringe elements.

National Face Mask Mandate Urgently Needed As Covid-19 Spreads, And With Flu Season On The Horizon!

Ronald 26 Comments

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have come out swinging on the need for a national face mask mandate, desperately needed as the CoronaVirus Pandemi spreads wildly, and with the flu season on the horizon.

If only Donald Trump and Mike Pence had promoted this, the number of deaths, nearing 170,000, would have been far less, possibly half or two thirds lower.

Instead, Trump and Pence have encouraged aggression and violence by their nutty supporters, and have endangered our nation, which has, by far, the highest number of deaths and cases, due to their negligence.

If we are the greatest nation in the world, this should not be happening, but sadly, Donald Trump has no concern for the loss of life, and neither does the hypocritical, supposedly Pro Life, Mike Pence!

It is estimated that at least 40,000 future deaths between now and Election Day could be saved, if only what Biden and Harris call for, was done by Donald Trump.

But he has no regard for the losses of so many Americans, so when Biden comes into office, we will impose a national policy with penalties for those who refuse to obey.

And some people who say this is Marxism, are demonstrating how clueless, ignorant, and purely dumb they are, and need to study up on political philosophies and history, as they need to be educated on true authoritarianism, the constant threat of Donald Trump in office!

Government can impose requirements for public safety, and face masks are now such a requirement that needs to be mandated !

The Republican Attack On Kamala Harris Begins, Including “Birtherism”, But It Will Not Succeed!

Ronald 13 Comments

The Trump Presidency, the Republican Party, and the extreme right wing Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio and propagandists are already deeply in attack on Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris in every possible and obscene way imaginable.

This includes preposterous claims that Harris was not born in America, when she was born in Oakland, California, and therefore the “birtherism” charge used against Barack Obama is coming back.

She is being called too progressive or not progressive enough, and being portrayed as becoming the future President, since Joe Biden, supposedly, is close to being feeble mentally, and will resign soon. This is said after Biden conducted a great speech yesterday and today, as well as Harris doing so, and inspiring people that there is a coherent future after Donald Trump.

Joe Biden can bike vigorously, and is in good physical shape, while Trump rides in a golf cart, and becomes more incoherent by the day, totally delusional, and clearly terrified that Biden and Harris have such a large lead in all polls.

So now Trump is trying to prevent people from voting by causing massive postal service delays, which also endangers people getting their medications on a sustained basis by mail.

Trump is totally out of control, hysterical, while Biden and Harris are promoting a national mask policy for the next few months, as a consistent manner to curb the number of people who get the CoronaVirus and cut the number of deaths, which are at a high now, more than anytime since May!

A Sense Of Excitement And Expectation About The Biden-Harris Ticket!

Ronald 29 Comments

It has been a wonderful 24 hours since Joe Biden announced he was selecting Senator Kamala Harris of California as his Vice Presidential running mate.

We will have a Vice President who is a female, of immigrant parents from India (her mother) and Jamaica (her father), and is married to a Jewish lawyer, Douglas Emhoff, who would be the first Jewish “Second Gentleman” and, of course, the first spouse of either the President or Vice President who would be male.

Also, Emhoff is exactly one week older than Harris, both born in October 1964, and Emhoff has two adult children, one son and one daughter, who are very close to their “second mother”, and with good relations between Emhoff and his former wife, and also between the former wife and Harris.

Harris has had 17 years in public office in California, seven as District Attorney of San Francisco; six years as California Attorney General (representing one out of every eight Americans, a greater jurisdiction than any other state attorney general, and with only the appointed Attorney General of the United States having impact over more people); and four years now as US Senator.

Harris is also only the second black woman elected to the US Senate, after Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun in the 1990s.

The likelihood is that Kamala Harris will eventually be President, either possibly by succession (as is the possibility of every Vice President), or by election following Joe Biden’s time in office.

Harris is a woman of great empathy and compassion, and in that regard, is the same as Joe Biden, and it is a blessing to have such traits in what will, hopefully be the next President and Vice President of the United States.

They are a great team, and give America hope in a time of unparalleled challenges with the CoronaVirus Pandemic, the Second Great Depression, and racial turmoil.

Hooray! 12 Year Anniversary, And 6,800 Articles On “The Progressive Professor”!

Ronald 5 Comments

Today, August 11, is the 12th Anniversary of “The Progressive Professor”, and with this posting, exactly 6,800 articles have been published!

Along with the articles, there have been exactly 21,000 comments by readers and myself as I post this, and I wish to thank all those who have contributed to this blog with their insights!

This author and blogger has been passionate about this blog, and hopes to continue for the long haul, shooting first for 15 years, then 20, and hopefully, 25 years!

I want to thank my son, David Feinman, for inspiring me to begin this blog back in 2008. It keeps me intellectually engaged, along with my writings on my additional blog on History News Network, and my radio engagements, along with my lectures to various groups, and my continued teaching on the American Presidency at Florida Atlantic University.

Hopefully, the progressive cause will be advanced in the upcoming years, after setbacks on a regular basis in the past 40 years, from the election of Ronald Reagan to the disaster of the Presidency of Donald Trump.

It is hoped that Joe Biden will restore and improve upon the Barack Obama legacy, and that whoever his running mate is, may eventually become the 47th President to follow Joe Biden!

Centennial Of 19th Amendment On August 18, 2020: Time For A Woman VP And Eventually President!

Ronald 3 Comments

On August 18, 2020, we will be celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment, giving all women the right to vote.

The battle for women suffrage was a long, hard fought struggle for 72 years, since the first national call for the right to vote for women occurred at the Seneca Falls, New York Equal Rights Convention in 1848.

It took fifty years after the 15th Amendment, giving African American men the right to vote in 1870, before the battle for women, white and nonwhite, to gain that similar right was accomplished, as it was thought to be too extreme and radical after the Civil War, crazy as that is, when one looks back!

It was the work of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the convention, and over the next 72 years, Stanton continued her activism, and was joined in it by such figures as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul.

And the final push for the 19th Amendment came from the first woman to serve in Congress, in the House of Representatives, Republican Jeanette Rankin of Montana.

Now, we will have a woman Vice Presidential nominee, to be announced soon by Joe Biden, and a strong chance that whoever is selected will become the first woman Vice President, and possibly, a future President!

Attacks On Mental Acuity Of Joe Biden By Jewish Conservative Talk Show Hosts Only Undermining Their Credibility

Ronald 13 Comments

It is very disillusioning that a number of Jewish Conservative Talk show hosts are becoming notorious for their vicious attacks on Joe Biden’s mental acuity and fitness, ridiculing him in a shocking manner.

These same characters would never attack Ronald Reagan, who clearly was mentally impaired, and of course, they overlook the constant evidence of the mental decline of Donald Trump.

Who are these disgraceful talk shows hosts who have no dignity, ethics, or morals?

David Horowitz

Dennis Prager

Michael Savage

Mark Levin

Ben Shapiro

All five have been involved over the years in all kinds of controversies, demonstrating a total lack of ethics, and undermining their reputations to anyone who believes in common decency.

The two thirds to three fourths of American Jews who believe in common decency, and have compassion and empathy about issues and personalities in public affairs, are appalled by the willingness of these characters to defend a lawless, immoral, dangerous President, who has demonstrated every day how he is willing to destroy American democracy in his desire to destroy the Constitution and the rule of law.

Just the fact that they fail to see that Trump consorts with and justifies antisemites, such as David Duke and Richard Spencer, and that he promotes racism, nativism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and misogyny is an insult to all who are Jewish who believe in the basic teachings of the faith.

They actually are promoting antisemitism, and endangering American Jews in the process, without any moral compass or concern.