Vice President Kamala Harris

MAGA Republicans In Charge In House Of Representatives: Its Implications!

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Having “slept” on the elevation of Mike Johnson to the Speakership of the House of Representatives, this author and blogger has woken up to the horrors of this MAGA Republican, who seems to be a “nice” person on the surface, but has horrendous views on so many issues!

This man, now two heartbeats away from the Presidency, is a rabid social conservative who is vehemently opposed to abortion, gay rights and gay marriage, and has a hardline Christian view of marriage and family, more like the 1950s and earlier!

Johnson also led the Election Denier movement in support of Donald Trump, and has never backed away from refusing to accept that Joe Biden is President.

Also, he has spoken in favor of changing Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

Johnson is the Speaker with the least government experience since the 1880s.

He is also not a supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia under Vladimir Putin, and is likely to have a difficult relationship with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

So, while the whole fiasco of the Speakership battles is likely to harm the Republican Party in 2024, for the next year, and including through the lameduck session after the Presidential Election of 2024, there could be a massive crisis in acceptance of the election results with a Trump supporting MAGA Republican in charge in the House of Representatives!

Kamala Harris At 59, And Her Future Role In American Government!

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Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated her 59th birthday yesterday, and she is seen as a strong partner of President Joe Biden.

Constantly under attack by conservatives and Republicans, she has played the proper role of remaining in the background, not trying to take attention away from the President, which is the proper role for a Vice President.

But she has become more visible on the issues of abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun safety reform, and the promotion of truth in education, including denouncing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promoting a distorted view of African American history and slavery, and also, his attack on the field of psychology and the teaching of gender and sexuality.

Harris speaks for those who are being attacked and abused, as the Supreme Court moves the nation backward on issues that were thought to be settled decades ago, but clearly are not resolved.

Harris is a very intelligent woman, with a career of being a prosecutor in San Francisco; Attorney General of California; and four years as a United States Senator!

She is superbly qualified to be President, if tragically, in the next five years, she was called upon to take the Presidential oath.

Hopefully, President Biden will win reelection and served capably, as he has so far, but the nation can be comfortable with the possibility of a succession, knowing this is a woman of compassion, decency, empathy, and sincerity.

Republican Presidential contender Nikki Haley has disgraced herself since she had courage as South Carolina Governor in 2015 to take down the Confederate flag after nine black churchgoers were slaughtered. She has lost all credibility, when she suggests that Joe Biden will die and Kamala Harris will be President in the next term, as if that would be the most horrendous thing possible, and it disqualifies Haley’s own Presidential ambitions.

One woman of Asian Indian ancestry feels a need to attack a woman of similar Asian Indian and Jamaican ancestry as unqualified, when clearly, Harris has far better credentials than Nikki Haley has ever demonstrated, particularly Haley’s bending to Donald Trump, and agreeing that if he is the nominee of the Republican Party in 2024, that she would support him!

Kamala Harris Starting To Demonstrate Her Strengths As Vice President, And Potential Future President!

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Kamala Harris has been Vice President for two and a half years now, and she has had a poor public image, being often portrayed as weak and ineffective, in public opinion polls.

A lot of this is pure right wing propaganda, with heavy elements of misogyny and racism.

If one examines earlier Vice Presidents of the Republican variety, one realizes how horrendous they were:

Mike Pence, unwilling even now to stand up to Donald Trump for his transgressions, including the threat to the lives of Pence and his family on January 6, 2021.

Dick Cheney, technically qualified, but a miserable wretch of a human being.

Dan Quayle, a total disaster and embarrassment as Vice President.

Spiro Agnew, a crooked felon, forced out of office.

And then the Republican Vice Presidential nominees who, thankfully, never were in that role:

Sarah Palin 2008

Paul Ryan 2012

Jack Kemp 1996

William E Miller 1964

And then, the potential Vice Presidential list for Donald Trump, if he became the Presidential nominee again, a total nightmare of lunacy and insanity!

Meanwhile, Democratic Vice Presidents and nominees were superior by far:

Hubert Humphrey 1964
Edmund Muskie 1968
Sargent Shriver 1972
Walter Mondale 1976, 1980
Lloyd Bentsen 1988
Al Gore 1992, 1996
Joe Lieberman 2000
Joe Biden 2008, 2012
Tim Kaine 2016

The only terrible choices were Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and John Edwards in 2004.

Harris has had an impressive career in California Government, and has been, by necessity, the most active Vice President, due to the narrow division of the Senate, necessitating that she break more tie votes in the Senate than any Vice President, surpassing John C. Calhoun under President Andrew Jackson from 1829-1832, recently!

Harris is now becoming significant, as she makes the issues of women’s rights and civil rights the center of attention, including attacking the end of abortion rights, and the promotion of outrageous interference with the teaching of American history and slavery, as advocated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and spreading nationwide in Republican states!

This is raising her profile, as she would certainly be the frontrunner to be President after Joe Biden, either when he leaves office, or if he was unable to finish his time in office!

Texas Governor Greg Abbott And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Should Be Prosecuted For Mistreatment Of Immigrants At The Border!

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Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is at it again, sending undocumented immigrants at the Texas border who are escaping persecution, violence and poverty from Central America, to Washington DC and the home of Vice President Kamala Harris, without any notice to authorities at a time of extremely cold weather and inadequate preparation!

The governor, who is in a wheelchair, shows zero compassion for the plight of immigrants, including many young children and babies, and is playing a political game, thinking it will boost his own credentials for President in 2024.

Abbott is in a competition with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has used similar tactics, with both men having no common decency, compassion, and concern for human life, although both are anti abortion activists.

They profess to be “good Christians”, but this is not the teachings of Jesus Christ, or Pope Francis.

The response should be arrest and prosecution of Abbott and DeSantis for cruel, reckless mistreatment, and neither should be given any possibility of running for President on such a racist, nativist, extreme right wing philosophy, which promotes hate and division!

A Great Advantage For Democrats In Senate In The 118th Congress!

Ronald 3 Comments

With the gain of one seat by Democrats in the US Senate, the political equation changes dramatically!

Now there will be one more Democrat on every Senate committee, rather than an even number.

No longer will Vice President Kamala Harris be needed regularly to break Senate ties.

No longer will it be essential that both Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona be in on every vote, and with both of them facing reelection in 2024.

It will be easier to gain judicial confirmations, very important for the future of the courts, and were a Supreme Court Justice leave the Court, it could create a more balanced Court.

If there was a vacancy or party switch, the Democrats would still control the Senate.

Legislation will be easier to pass the Senate, although it likely would fail to gain support of the narrowly majority Republican House of Representatives.

Finally, keeping the control of the Senate will be very difficult in 2024, as only 10 seats are Republican controlled, and will be hard to gain, so the Democrats have to work to find a way to avoid more than a one seat loss.

Some of the Republicans running for reelection in 2024 are particularly despicable, and Democrats need to find viable candidates to fight them, and hopefully, defeat them, including

Ted Cruz of Texas
Rick Scott of Florida
Josh Hawley of Missouri
Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee

It is time to start recruitment of Democrats in Texas, Florida, Missouri, and Tennessee to attempt to gain at least one or two Republican seats in 2024!

At the same time, at least 3 Democratic Senators are likely to have a rough time in 2024, including Manchin and Sinema, along with Jon Tester of Montana, and Sinema is likely to have an intraparty battle with Ruben Gallego, 7th District Congressman.

Comparing Kamala Harris To Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, Spiro Agnew!

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Kamala Harris has been Vice President for nearly a year, and has faced brutal criticism and attacks, and suggestions by some that she resign, because she has not been assertive in the role of Vice President.

Of course, these suggestions come from Fox News Channel anchors Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, who are actively involved in attempting a coverup of the events of January 6, 2021, even though they were stunned by the events of that day, and tried to reach Donald Trump to express their dismay.

It is insulting that conservative supporters of the January 6 Insurrection have the gall to attack Kamala Harris, when the major issue is that she is a woman, and of mixed African and Asian American heritage, as her father is from Jamaican origin and her mother of Asian Indian origin.

Who are the critics turning to as models?

Is it Mike Pence, who refused to speak up at all to Donald Trump for four years, but at least had the guts to uphold the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden on January 6, facing the threat of being hanged by rioters? That is his only redeeming quality.

Or is it Dick Cheney, who while qualified by experience, was a dangerous, out of control Vice President, under George W. Bush, who enriched himself by America’s engagement in two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through leadership of Haliburton, and endorsed the use of torture against war prisoners?

Or is it Dan Quayle, who made everyone nervous for four years about the health of George H. W. Bush, as Quayle demonstrated how dumb and clueless he was?

Or was it Spiro Agnew, who resigned from office as a felon, after nearly five years a heartbeat away from the Presidency under Richard Nixon?

The only truly reputable Republican Vice President in the past half century was George H. W. Bush under Ronald Reagan! Although it must be said that the abbreviated Vice Presidency of Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford was also decent!

Meanwhile, Democrats could be proud of their Vice Presidents—Walter Mondale under Jimmy Carter; Al Gore under Bill Clinton; and Joe BIden under Barack Obama!

Kamala Harris is in the tradition of decency and dignity of Mondale, Gore, and Biden, and will do a fine job over the next three years, with her excellent qualification as former San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, and US Senator!

Right Wing Propaganda Attempts To Portray Joe Biden And Kamala Harris As Disasters, When Much Has Been Accomplished!

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Right Wing propaganda, whether the Republican Party, Fox News Channel, OANN, Newsmax, or various interest groups that promote domestic terrorism and white supremacy, is working incessantly to portray President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as disasters.

This is all designed to advance the cause of a Republican Congress and state government domination by partisan gerrymandering, as well as whitewash and avoiding responsibility for support of the “Big Lie” of Donald Trump and his criminal backers who incited the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the US Capitol!

One would think that Donald Trump and Mike Pence accomplished so much in office that was positive for the American people and nation, when exactly the opposite is the truth!

Trump did great harm in so many areas of domestic and foreign policy, and the only “winner” was the extremely wealthy, who gained a massive tax cut which added greatly to the national debt, without improving the daily lives of the American people!

Mike Pence proved how much of a sycophant he was, a person supposedly “religious”, “devout”, “moral and ethical”, when he was simply a total hypocrite, with his promotion of hatred, division, and narrow mindedness. He had to be convinced by, of all people, former Vice President Dan Quayle, to follow the Constitution on January 6, 2021, and uphold the Electoral College vote that Joe Biden had won the Presidency.

Pence will go down in history as one of the absolutely worst, most disgraceful Vice Presidents in American history!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal, including providing relief to the American economy through the American Rescue Plan, a total of $1.9 trillion in the spring of 2021. The Physical Infrastructure legislation, providing $1.2 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges, airports rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicle, is being signed into law today by President Biden.

Also, Biden has changed the harsh policy toward refugees promoted by Trump, and cracked down on the abuses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement toward innocent children.

Additionally, Biden returned America to the Paris Climate Accords, and reversed the action of Trump cutting down the Bears Ear National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and he restored protection of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Biden has taken strong action on vaccinations and masking, and brought about a commitment to combating the COVID 19 Pandemic, after Trump minimized the crisis and promoted false solutions. And Biden has not allowed renegade governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott to stop necessary action to protect the American people during this pandemic!

The “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation, held up by moderate Democrats, hopefully will be accomplished soon, as it should be, but with Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema or Arizona, and some in the House of Representatives causing problems, no certainty at this moment, but important for the future of both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the nation at large.

Biden withdrew US military forces from Afghanistan, an action that was promoted by Donald Trump, who wanted to remove them in May 2021, rather than the actual time frame of August 2021. It was a tough decision, but America had been in Afghanistan for 20 years, and most Americans knew it was time to leave.

The NATO nations and others have seen a massive change in American foreign policy by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, restoring our good relations with our allies.

Kamala Harris has been more in the background, but Vice Presidents historically have not been in the forefront so early in an administration, and if one looks back at Mike Pence, for instance, who recalls him playing a leading role in the first year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, or really ever?

This negative portrayal of Harris simply is the reaction of having a mixed race woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency, when she has excellent credentials, were she to have to assume the Presidency!

Gavin Newsom’s Massive Recall Victory A Major Plus For Democrats In 2022 And 2024!

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California Governor Gavin Newsom won a massive victory in the Recall Election perpetrated by Republicans in the state.

He won just about the same percentage of the vote that he had won when elected Governor in 2018, and the same amount that President Joe Biden won when elected in 2020.

Larry Elder was a true disaster, and weakened the Republican Party in California, already in a very weak position since the anti immigration legislation passed in 1994, and rejected by the courts.

The Republican Party fell into a total collapse, and have not been able to win many Congressional seats since, and are a weak minority in the California state legislature.

Even Orange County, usually Republican, backed keeping Gavin Newsom by a small margin, and has seen its four GOP Congressmen lose their seats in 2018, and only two of those four seats were won back in 2020.

This smashing victory puts Gavin Newsom into the national spotlight ever more, as he represents one of every eight Americans as it is, so if Joe Biden does not run for reelection, Newsom, assuming he wins a second term, which is highly likely, may announce for President.

That could set up an interesting challenge for Vice President Kamala Harris, also from California, unless Harris becomes President upon the possible demise of the President, giving her an automatic advantage.

Six Month Anniversary Of President Joe Biden: A Positive Change And High Public Opinion Ratings!

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Today, July 20, marks the six month Anniversary of the Joe Biden Presidency!

What a vastly different six months these have been, and Joe Biden’s public opinion ratings rank in the high 50s to low 60s, depending on which assessment is examined.

Many problems have arisen, as with any President who comes into office, but Biden is pushing ahead on infrastructure legislation, and wants a large “human infrastructure” bill, based on “reconciliation”, 50 Democratic votes and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continue to present problems in trying to overcome the filibuster, and may prevent progress on voting rights, very sad indeed.

Foreign policy issues are rearing their ugly head, including new ones on Cuba and Haiti in just the last few weeks.

This along with the usual foreign policy challenges, with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.

Environmental progress has been outstanding, and while the unvaccinated remain a problem with the Delta Variant of COVID 19, and the unhelpful propaganda against vaccination by right wing media, it is still amazing how many Americans have already shown patriotism and common sense on this matter.

If only Joe Biden had the conditions of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933-1936 and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1964-1966, he would have been able to accomplish much more, but still there is optimism, and the hope is for greater progress in the next six months!

Joe Biden And Infrastructure: Showing Proof Of Bipartisanship, But Also “Reconciliation” Tactic Being Used

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This is a defining moment on the issue of infrastructure, as it appears that enough Republican Senators have agreed to back a $1 trillion plan on roads, bridges, railways, and broadband.

Clearly, the disaster in Surfside, Florida, where a condominium building collapsed, causing a major loss of life, and demonstrating the danger of global warming on buildings near waterways and coast lines, makes infrastructure projects, long needed, an urgent matter.

But additionally, there is a need for spending on “human infrastructure”, including child care, education, and health care, part of Joe Biden’s American Families Plan, which few if any Republicans will support.

So clearly Budget “Reconciliation”, where the 50 Democratic Senators plus Vice President Kamala Harris together will be enough to pass such larger spending priorities.

Certainly, the bipartisan deal is essential, but the Human “Infrastructure” in some form of legislation, is essential.

Political maneuvering and some compromises will be unavoidable to keep all Democrats in support of the broader legislation in some form.