Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Donald Trump Is Not Going Away

The Trump campaign announced in early December that the president’s fundraising operation raised $207.5 million since Election Day.

The majority of that money is likely not going to any sort of legal account. Trump’s fundraising operation is instead sending it to a new political organization created by the president: a leadership PAC called Save America PAC, a type of vehicle popular with both parties on Capitol Hill but long derided by watchdogs as essentially a type of slush fund, with few restrictions on how the money they raise can be spent.

Trump’s Save America PAC started 2021 with more than $31M, filings show.

“The more money [Trump] stacks up in his committee, the greater his grip will remain on many elected Republicans who will fear those resources could be turned against them,” Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant, told Politico.

Save America is on Facebook.

Trump is motivated by his popularity among the Republican party membership and the devotion of so many GOP members of congress.

As recently as January 6 Texas Senator Ted Cruz said “39% of Americans … 31% of independents … 17% of Democrats believe the election was rigged.”

Would Republicans in Washington stand by Donald Trump’s “big lie” if they knew it could cost the party a fifth of its voters?

A nationally representative Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following the Capitol insurrection confirmed the large number of Republicans who believe Trump’s false assertion that the 2020 election was the result of illegal voting or rigging: 62% of the GOP, plus 17% who are “not sure” about the election’s legitimacy. However, the poll also shows how the remaining 21% of Republicans who believe the results were accurate and legitimate may be poised to vote for Democrats in the future.

We will be seeing Trump running for office in 2024. Even if he doesn’t win the nomination it will be an entertaining four years.   The media, like a moth attracted to light, will not stay away.

Biden Will Lie to You

The Atlantic

Biden Will Lie to You

All presidents do.

JANUARY 26, 2021
Adam Serwer
Staff writer at The Atlantic

President Joe Biden
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / GETTY

All presidents lie. Even so, the Trump administration weaponized dishonesty to a remarkable degree.

Donald Trump did not merely lie to exaggerate his accomplishments, or smear his opponents. For Trump and the Republican Party, lies were a loyalty test. To reject Trump’s lies or exaggerations, even if they contradicted prior assertions by the now-ex-president, was to express disloyalty, the only Trump-era sin that was unforgivable by his faithful. This allowed the president to fashion for his supporters alternate realities whose tenets could not be questioned, such as his false allegations of voter fraud.

That was not the only lie of consequence, of course. The president manufactured terrorism threats from the left, and suppressed warnings about those on the right. He punished government officials who properly engaged in oversight and rewarded those who misled the public as he wanted. Most damaging, he lied about the scope and danger of a pandemic that is on course to kill half a million Americans. Listing his lies would require more time than I can offer here.

The Biden era presages a return to typical presidential dishonesty, without the cult of personality that defined the Trump era. But presidential lies were destructive long before Trump appeared, so the press and the public should resist the temptation to assume that the Biden administration will always be on the level, or that its dishonesties can be forgiven because Biden’s predecessor wielded falsehood with such abandon. There will be moments when the public interest conflicts with the political interest of the White House, and during some of these moments, the president will lie.

Presidents lie for all sorts of reasons. Lyndon B. Johnson lied about the Vietnam War, as did Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Ronald Reagan lied about selling weapons to Iran to fund right-wing militants in Nicaragua. George H. W. Bush lied about raising taxes; his son George W. Bush lied to facilitate his push for war in Iraq. Barack Obama lied about how the Affordable Care Act would affect preexisting health-insurance plans. Prior to becoming president, Biden was known for bluster and exaggerations, including most memorably the falsehood that he was arrested while trying to visit an imprisoned Nelson Mandela. These are deceptions, not mere errors of fact, which all mortals make.

Sometimes presidents lie because the politics of their actions are inconvenient. Sometimes they lie because they believe the facts would harm national security.

Sometimes they lie to cover up their own misdeeds. Sometimes they lie to conceal friction between themselves and their political allies, or even their political adversaries. Sometimes they are simply bluffing; other times they will lie by omission, misdirection, or understatement. We are unlikely to be treated to the spectacle of obsequious Cabinet members publicly licking Biden’s boots on camera, but that is not the standard upon which presidents should be judged.

Already, Biden has sought to mislead the public by setting expectations for vaccinations that experts have said are too modest—which will allow the president to declare his approach a great success if the goal is exceeded. On Thursday, Biden insisted that 100 million vaccinations in 100 days was an ambitious goal that the press had declared impossible

I found it fascinating—yesterday the press asked the question: Is, you know, 100 million enough? A week before, they were saying, “Biden, are you crazy? You can’t do 100 million in 100 days.” Well, we’re going to, God willing, not only do 100 million, we’re going to do more than that. But this is—we have to do this. We have to move.

This was, in fact, false—the Trump administration had nearly reached that pace by the time Biden took office, despite its mishandling of both the pandemic itself and vaccine supply. Speaking to The Washington Post, the vaccine scientist Peter Hotez said that “1 million vaccinations per day is not nearly enough if the aim is to halt virus transmission in six months.” The Biden administration has since claimed that the 100 million target was “a floor, not a ceiling.” On Monday Biden announced a new target of 150 million vaccines over the next hundred days, a tacit acknowledgment that the original goal was not as ambitious as he had claimed.

Biden’s remarks are nowhere near as egregious as Trump’s insistence that the virus would “disappear,” but Trumpian lies should be neither floor nor ceiling. The standard should be the plain truth, even though the Biden administration will, at times, inevitably fail to meet it. Biden will lie. All presidents do.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me

‘Played’ by GOP in the Obama era, Biden and the Democrats are getting ready to move on their Own

As of Jan. 29, his 15th day in office, Biden has signed a total of 22 executive orders. The president is unlikely to wait more than a few days for Republican Party participation in his plans.

As told in the Los Angeles Times
In the months-long struggle through 2009 to pass the Affordable Care Act, some Senate Democrats were so determined to give President Obama’s chief domestic initiative a bipartisan cast that they spent much time courting a few Republicans, especially senior Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.

Endless rounds of negotiations produced nothing, and Democrats began to feel as if they were being played. Obama finally sought closure. He asked Grassley: What if Democrats agreed to all his proposed changes — then would he support the bill? “I guess not, Mr. President,” Grassley replied, according to Obama’s memoir, “A Promised Land.”

Grassley is still in the senate and the likelihood that he will be more amenable to Biden’s plans than he was to Obama’s Affordable Care Act is some where near a zero. Biden learned a lesson from the GOP opposition to the ACA that delayed its implementation by more than a year after the inauguration of Obama.

So as the saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Joe Biden will not accept the waiting game in implementing his plans. The Democratic Party majority is thin and the possibility that it could be lost at any time will motivate him to push for those plans without GOP participation.

All Problems – Blame the Jews

It is a classic haters scenario.  All problems in the world are to be blamed on the Jews.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2018 speculated that the Rothschild family may have used a laser beam from space to start a devastating California forest fire, as a means to profit from it.

The Republican Jewish Coalition said the latest revelation about anti-Semitic conspiracy theories embraced by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene are “indefensible and unacceptable.”

In this instance it is part of the QAnon conspiracy theory group.

The best thing we can do is laugh at Greene’s nonsense.

Jews in Space  may refer to: List of Jewish astronauts; “Jews in Space“, a short segment in the 1981 film History of the World, Part I

Bidenism was on Full Display from the Get-Go

Biden signs many executive orders during his first week in office 

It’s been a whirlwind of action for President Joe Biden starting the very day he was inaugurated.

Just hours into the job, Joe Biden signed orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord, mandate masks in federal buildings and rescind the Keystone pipeline permit.

Then he in a round of executive orders, he extended moratoriums on evictions and student loan, rejoined the World Health Organization and expanded food assistance. Took action reopening enrollment on the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges as part of two health care executive actions that he signed Thursday, taking a step to help uninsured Americans that former President Donald Trump rejected.

He proposed a massive overhaul of immigration laws, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

All of his actions were all executive orders. Next come the hard part. Getting the congress to pass the legislation he wants. With Democratic Party control of both houses of congress, even though its very thin, we can expect the president to leave no stone unturned in obtaining the results he wants.

Folly of the Buy American Program

President Joe Biden’s Buy American program is a mistake.  It is an assault on our allies.  It is anti-competitive.

iPhones are made in China because the cost of making them in America would make them too expensive for most people.  Actually the newest iPhones are too expensive for most people now.

More than 40 million American jobs depend on trade, and trade is critical to the success of many sectors of the U.S. economy.

98% of the roughly 300,000 U.S. companies that export are small and medium-sized businesses, and they account for one-third of U.S. merchandise exports, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

American imports totaled $2.614 trillion in goods in 2019.

Here are the top ten items imported items into the United States.  My source in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

1. Machinery (including computers and hardware) – $386.4 billion

2. Electrical machinery – $367.1 billion

3. Vehicles and automobiles – $306.7 billion

4. Minerals, fuels, and oil – $241.4 billion

5. Pharmaceuticals – $116.3 billion

6. Medical equipment and supplies – $93.4 billion

7. Furniture, Lighting, and Signs – $72.1 billion

8. Plastics – $61.9 billion

9. Gems and precious metals – $60.8 billion

10. Organic chemicals – $54.6 billion

The total dollar value of every U.S. import translates to about $9,457 for every resident in the country.

The United States’ greatest trading partners are also those who provide the most of the country’s imports. Based solely on the strength of goods (not services), the most powerful nation in the world receives the most imports from China (18.2%), Mexico (14.4%), and Canada (12.7%). Rounding out the list of the top 10 United States imports are Japan, Germany, South Korea, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, accounting for approximately 23.9% of the rest of U.S.-bound imports.

Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Chile, and Brazil are also the largest importers of American-made food products, including horticultural goods, sugar, and tropical products unique the North American climate. Nearly $14 billion in food goods go to these countries each year.

The raw material to make those imported items costs the same whether they are purchased in the United State or elsewhere. It is the cost of labor that makes products manufactured in the United States more expensive.  There is no way Americans will work for the low wages that are common so many countries around the world.  Things are going to get even tougher as President Biden pushes for a $15 per hour minimum wage.

Vast productivity gains relating to increased use of automation and information technologies have helped U.S. manufacturers retain and in many areas enhance their global competitiveness in recent years, even as the number of Americans employed in manufacturing has declined since its peak in 1979.

The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that exports of manufactured goods directly support more than 6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs—roughly half of all manufacturing employment.

Perhaps Biden’s efforts in his Buy American program is not a serious effort but is just saying the right thing politically.  After all we should do everything we can to encourage companies to make their products in the United States.

In the end, we cannot turn our back on international trade. It is an inevitable part of the world in the 21st century. We simply need our elected leaders to prioritize initiatives to open foreign markets so that U.S. companies can sell more of our goods and services overseas. Trade can provide a path to jobs and prosperity if we have the courage to seize it.

Trade can provide a path to jobs and prosperity if we have the courage to seize it.

The Corruption of an Admired Councilman

Former Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison for lying to federal authorities about his dealings with a businessman who provided him $15,000 in secret cash payments and a debauched night in Las Vegas. “There’s simply no adequate explanation as to how he totally lost his moral compass and committed this crime,” said U.S. District Judge John F. Walter. Englander, 50, is the first person to be sentenced in a sprawling federal investigation into corruption at Los Angeles City Hall. He pleaded guilty in July to scheming to falsify material facts, a felony. “I’ve hurt the very people I love the most,” Englander said at his sentencing.

Englander is not alone in the corruption at the city LA City council.  Former Councilman Jose Huizar is awaiting trial on bribery, racketeering and other charges on allegations of shaking down developers seeking approval for major downtown building projects. A former deputy mayor to Mayor Eric Garcetti Raymond Chan, and Huizar’s special assistant, George Esparza have wither been found guilty or are pleading guilty.

The troubling part of this story is that the LA city council has the power to grant construction permits.  The advice of neighborhood councils, made up of the citizens, is ignored. Those councils are advisory and have no power to do anything in their communities. 

How can this situation be resolved?  Power should be given to every neighborhood council to administer everything from street repairs to tree trimming to parking enforcement.  The councils should not be advisory. That would require changes so the city charter.  Since the council members see their positions as fiefdoms they will fight any change in their power.

The Dogs have Taken Over!

The First Dogs have entered the White House.  Champ and Major Biden have moved into the White House.  Both are German Shepherds.  Champ is 12 years old.  Major is 2 years old.  Major is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.

Having two dogs myself I can tell you that they will soon be the bosses of the White House.  That’s OK.  Dogs always sense danger and they will be the likely protectors of Joe and Jill Biden.

Arcane – The Filibuster

The filibuster is Unfathomable, and Obscure. It is complicated and therefore understood or known by only a few people.

Filibuster is a tactic used in the United States Senate to prevent a measure from being brought to a vote by means of obstruction. The most common form occurs when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure.

The Senate can overcome a filibuster if it invokes cloture — a vote by 60 members of the Senate to place a 30-hour time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter.

Cloture, adopted as Rule 22 in 1917, used to require a two-thirds majority vote. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining a two-thirds vote, the Senate changed the rule in 1975 and reduced the number of votes required to three-fifths (or 60).

In 2005 Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatened to use the nuclear option to end Democratic-led filibusters of judicial nominees submitted by President George W. Bush. And in July 2013, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened its use to stop Republicans from filibustering President Barack Obama’s executive-branch nominees.

Senators have never successfully made good on their threat to invoke the nuclear option and bring an end to the filibuster, but if they did, it could have huge consequences for the future of the Senate and the ability to keep the majority in check.

In November 2013, Senate Democrats led by Harry Reid used the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote rule on executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments. In April 2017, Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell extended the nuclear option to Supreme Court nominations in order to end debate on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch.[2][3] McConnell loves the filibuster when it suits his purpose.

Filibuster is called respect for the minority. And this is called democracy in America.