Public Opinion

Supreme Court Ethical Violations Are Totally Out Of Control!

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The Supreme Court, already outrageously extremist right wing, due to the three Donald Trump appointees added to the arrogant, nasty Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, the appointees of the two Bush Presidencies, is now even further in violation of ethics!

It turns out that Chief Justice John Roberts has judged in cases that involve financial matters affecting his wife!

This blogger has always tried to give slack to Roberts, but at this point, he is the head of a Court out of control, and refuses to testify before a Senate committee on Judicial ethics, of which the Court, clearly, has ZERO!

Roberts has been on the Court for 18 years, Thomas 32 years and Alito 17 years, and it is time for these unethical Justices to retire!

Of course, they will NOT do so, but that is the argument for expansion of the Court, as this is very different than the controversial so called “Court Packing Plan” of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, which was defeated!

That Court in 1937 had declared several New Deal laws unconstitutional, but the Court in the present is way beyond any earlier abuses, and longevity of Court members is out of control as compared to history!

There is a need for term limits on the Court, and for now, to balance the Court and make for fair constitutional law, new members need to be added!

Until that occurs, which is of course unlikely, the Court will have further rapidly declining prestige and support of public opinion, which does matter in a democracy!

Chaos, Anarchy, Tumult, Disarray, Fury, And Sniping In The White House: Unseen In All Of American History

Ronald 4 Comments

The Trump White House is in crisis, with chaos, anarchy, tumult, disarray, fury, and sniping going on constantly, unseen in all of American history, not even in the darkest days of Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal!

The Trump White House is fortunate that no major domestic or foreign crisis has emerged, because if it did, the reaction would be hard to predict, as there is total distraction, as the survival of the Presidency is at stake, with fighting among staff members, and even family members quite evident.

The Cabinet and top staff know they will be contradicted by their boss’s tweets, as he is very willing to “throw anyone under the bus”, as his own ego and narcissism rule over loyalty to hard working, committed staff, who if they were smart enough and considered their own survival and happiness, would resign en masse, leaving him in the lurch.

Trump does not deserve the loyalty or commitment of his appointees, and the split between his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son in law Jared Kushner is testing family loyalties too.

Donald Jr has caused a total crisis in the White House, with his decision to meet in June 2016 with Russians, who supposedly had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and brought along his brother in law with him, along with then campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The Russian “collusion” is clear, and could lead to charges of treason, along with other charges against the President, his son and son in law, and many others around the Trump circle.

Many are seeing the six month anniversary of the Trump Presidency a week from now, as a marker, and with a steady down hill descent in the next six months, if Trump even lasts that long.

And apparently, Vice President Mike Pence is trying cautiously to separate himself from the disaster, as he could be realizing that a Pence Presidency is more possible sooner, rather than later.

One scenario is that Trump would pardon his family members before resigning, and that Pence would then pardon him, a la Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974.

How that would affect public opinion is hard to predict, including the Trump loyalists, who continue to live in a “parallel universe” of their own making, demonstrating how dangerous such ignorance and stupidity can undermine American democracy!

Obama Care Survives: Massive Defeat For Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, And Republican Party, And Public Opinion Is Turning Negative!

Ronald 5 Comments

Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and the Republican Party have suffered a massive defeat, in their failure, after 60 votes over the past six years to destroy Obama Care, and now being unable to control their own caucus and accomplish its demise yesterday in the House of Representatives.

The Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, Can still undermine the enforcement of the law, and cause it to fail, but it will put the blame on Donald Trump for failure to enforce the law as it is, until and when it is repealed and replaced.

The irony of it all is that Obama Care is really the Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich Heritage Foundation program of 1993, offered as an alternative to Hillary Care, and is also based on Romney Care in Massachusetts, but once Obama was elected, the GOP decision was to refuse to accept any health care plan, and Mitt Romney ran against his own program in Massachusetts, when he opposed Obama in the 2012 Presidential election.

So both the Republican Party and Mitt Romney were engaged in total hypocrisy, when Obama settled for what has become law, due to the difficulties in gaining “a public option”, or promoting “Medicare For All”, a single payer system, when both would have taken control away from the health insurance companies.

The proposed bill that never came to a vote yesterday would have caused 24 million to lose all health care coverage, and would have given massive tax cuts to the wealthy yet a third time, after Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and George W. Bush in the 2000s, taking the needs of the wealthy who do not need a tax cut over the needs of millions of Americans.

Donald Trump has failed, and has discovered that his business methods do not work in politics, with him having believed like Ross Perot in the 1990s, that all you had to do was take the politicians into a room, and you could force them to do what you want, and both Perot in theory then, and now Trump in practice, is learning otherwise.

So we saw yesterday a rare moment of humility by Trump, who had claimed Obama Care would be gone on the first day of his Presidency.

We also saw yesterday the gleeful Paul Ryan, so anxious since college to destroy the social safety net while drinking kegs of beer and failing in love with lunatic Ayn Rand, finally getting his comeuppance.

The GOP is doomed as long as they allow the 30 or so members of the House Freedom Caucus to hold them hostage, a group which forced John Boehner out of the Speakership in 2015.

It is time for Ryan to start working for bipartisan government, and ask Democrats for help, as otherwise the GOP will fail to get anything done, since the anarchistic Freedom Caucus is out to destroy government itself, and must be repudiated totally, and told where they can go.

The Republican Party may be the majority right now, but public opinion has turned against them on health care, with only 17 percent supporting the failed Ryan health care plan.

So Ryan Care or Trump Care lies in ruins at this time, and it is well deserved.

Bill And Hillary Clinton Revisited: The 1990s And Now!

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Throughout the 1990s, Bill and Hillary Clinton were put through the constant torment of accusation, investigation, rumors, character assassination, and, ultimately, the stain of impeachment by a Republican party and a conservative movement led by party officials who were corrupt themselves, including in their personal life, but setting out to destroy President Clinton and any hope of his wife having a political future!

But Bill Clinton survived the impeachment, left office very popular, and he and his wife, an accomplished leader as US Senator from New York and Secretary of State, remain highly popular among the American people, with every indication, at this point, that if Hillary chooses to run for President in 2016, that she would leave other Democrats, as well as the Republican opposition, in the dust!

This is, ultimately, why there is the attack going on right now by the right wing to build up the so called “scandals”, that are not a scandal, but a political ploy to weaken President Barack Obama, so he cannot achieve any of his goals in his second term, but also to destroy Hillary Clinton’s prospects for the White House!

Face the facts: Hillary Clinton does not have a perfect record in public office, any more than Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, or anyone else! But to believe that her shortcomings, any more than theirs, is enough to make the mediocrity of Republican leadership or Presidential candidates able to overcome her and return the White House to Republican hands in 2016 is to live in a state of delusion and fantasy! As in the 1990s, the Clintons may be under attack, but they will triumph, ultimately in public opinion, as much as will President Barack Obama, in the face of the lunatics who wish to impeach him and remove him from office, with the odds of removal even lower than Bill Clinton faced in 1998-1999!

The Growing Role Of Political Satire And Comedy In Influencing Public Opinion

Ronald 1 Comment

This 2012 political campaign has demonstrated a growing role of political satire and comedy in shaping public opinion, and has emerged as a real challenge to conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel.

Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert have become major players in the media, and the Capitol Steps series conducted every weekend at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC, and in numerous venues all over the nation throughout the year, has also had an effect on how people perceive politics.

Only in a democracy such as ours could this occur, and it is to be applauded, as in the midst of crisis and turmoil, it is good to reflect on personalities and events, and laugh, rather than always be angry!

So we should salute the impact of political satire and comedy as good for public health!

Barack Obama And Foreign Public Opinion 17 Months In Office

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President Obama remains popular overseas after 17 months in office, as indicated by recent surveys done by the Pew Research Center.

Especially favorable in Germany (90 percent), France (87 percent) and Great Britain (84 percent), the President’s ratings in Russia (57 percent) and China (58 percent) were also notable!

The one area of the world where Obama has major problems is the Middle East and the Muslim countries, generally, who still have a major suspicion of the United States, due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the confrontation with Iran, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So even in “friendly” Muslim countries such as Egypt, the President’s standing is only 17 percent, despite Obama’s outreach to the Islamic world!

Interestingly, at home, 65 percent like Obama’s foreign policy, despite the attempts of conservatives and Republicans to attack and be critical of his initiatives!