A Political Party in Disarray

On stage with his appointees 11-24-20 is the man with a halo

‘America First’ may be gone but what will replace it?

The Democratic Party is in disarray. Worse than the loss of seats in the House of Representatives their lack of unity translates into a two year, perhaps four years, of grid lock in the congress. The Republicans are dancing with joy.

There is a reason for the lack of unity in the Democratic Party. The moderates and the “progressives” have totally different goals for moving the country forward.

The Green New Deal is a list of the liberal agenda items as listed in the Washington Post on February 19, 2019. It is after all a 21st century version of FDR’s New Deal.

All great ideas but are they realistic? Listed below are four of them.

“Upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.”

“Overhauling transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible, including through investment in – (i) zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing; (ii) clean, affordable, and accessible public transportation; and (iii) high-speed rail.”

“Spurring massive growth in clean manufacturing in the United States and removing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and industry as much as is technologically feasible.”

“Working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible.”

Moderates see a public option over Medicare for All, keeping illegal entry into the U.S. a criminal offense, reform the police rather than defunding the police as more reasonable solutions that more Americans are likely to support. Those are the ideas that Joe Biden’s primary advisers are likely to support because they reflect his views.

Joe Biden needs the support of those liberals/progressives to push his agenda through the congress. He also needs the support of moderate Republicans in the Senate.

Remember it was President Barack Obama who said there are not red states and blue states. There is the United States. As great an orator as he was his adversaries wanted to make him a failed one term president.

Given the Democratic Party divide and the GOP determined to make Biden’s presidency a failure, it is difficult to see a success path for the Biden presidency.

Civil War or Autocracy?

Is this what the start of a civil war looks like in America in 2020?

Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters of all stripes, including right-wing and far-right groups, rallied in Washington, DC, on Saturday to protest the election results and fights erupted between Trump supporters and Biden supporters.

Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme political power to direct all the activities of the state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control. An autocrat is a ruler who has absolute power. That is the dream of Donald Trump.

In an extension of Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said the administration plans to remain in place for another full term. But it won’t be his last term.

I wish it wasn’t so but Donald Trump will not be giving up the presidency. Somehow he will be inaugurated for his second term on January 20. And I predict he will be inaugurated for his third term on January 20, 2025. By that time the congress will have will have been sidelines and on the way to elimination as an unnecessary waste of time and Trump will remain in office for the rest of his life with absolute total power. We have the GOP to thank for this. By 2025 some Republicans will realize their error. History will note the end of the American democratic republic in history books written in other countries. In 2025 there will be controls on the “free press.” The constitution will be a memory by the end of Trump’s third term.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for example, said Tuesday that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” And Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said Friday that the White House is operating “under the assumption” that Trump will serve a second term in office.

Other than a Supreme Court with a backbone and a populace that says No to Trump’s ambition the path is clear. Over 70 million people voted for Donald Trump. That is not a majority but is a substantial minority.

I fear this could be the end of the world’s greatest democracy.

Return of the “Hoovervilles”

From History.com “During the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted approximately a decade, shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people were evicted from their homes. As the Depression worsened in the 1930s, causing severe hardships for millions of Americans, many looked to the federal government for assistance. When the government failed to provide relief, President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, and the shantytowns that cropped up across the nation, primarily on the outskirts of major cities, became known as Hoovervilles.”

Now in 2020 thanks to Covid-19 millions of people have lost their jobs
and after on dose of help (the CARES Act) those people are about to lose their homes. Those without adequate savings to tide them over to a time when their jobs will recur may be facing the same fate as the homeless of the 1930s. The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that as of January 2019, well before the virus there were an estimated 567,000 homeless people in the United States. The largest numbers are in the West Coast states.

Hoovervilles are already occurring in Los Angeles as the tented homeless live along freeways, beneath freeway underpasses, and on major boulevards. Others with motorhomes have parked along boulevards in industrial areas hoping that the police will not tell them to move their rigs.

Articles about the homeless in the Los Angeles Times are numerous. Four of those articles in November alone.

Homelessness is up in Los Angeles County for the third time in four years, a result of an ever-growing number of people who cannot afford the region’s high housing costs. This year’s homeless count is 66,433 people. That’s up 12.7% from 2019.

Proposition HHH was sold to L.A. voters as a funding mechanism to get at least 10,000 Angelenos, and likely more, off the street and into permanent housing. That housing is supposed to come with accompanying services, like counseling, to help people stay housed — it’s called “supportive housing.”

Sadly many people have no sympathy and seem to believe that the homeless are all on drugs/alcoholics, are likely to harm their children, and they are all thieves. Consequently that supportive housing was never implemented.

Solutions are using the Los Angeles Convention Center and abandoned buildings far away from residential neighborhoods to house the homeless.

Wait a minute that solution is not the answer for those who refuse to live in the provided housing for a variety of reasons including mental illness, and fear their lives are in jeopardy from other homeless people.

Society’s solution for those refusing help is chasing them away from places we see from our cars.

“And that’s the way it is.”

Homeless in a upper income neighborhood near my home.

COVID-19 is the Number One Issue

A visual journey through the microscopic world of the coronavirus shows how masks provide an important defense against transmission.

Compliments of the New York Times

‘Covid, covid covid’ – Trump says opponents are using the pandemic to make him look bad. His opponents are correct. And Yes his opponents and the news media has every right to report the facts to the public. His handling of the virus has been a disaster. By Trump’s own admission to Bob Woodward in February he knew that the disease was going to have a disastrous impact on the public but wanted to ‘play it down.’

THE NYT notes that there have been 500,000 cases recorded this week, and “half of U.S. counties saw new cases peak during the past month. Almost a third saw a record in the past week.” TAKE A LOOK at the hardest-hit areas, and they line up with some of the most critical areas for the presidential contest: vast swaths of Midwestern swing states.

WaPo’s JULIE ZAUZMER notes: “The daily rate of new coronavirus cases in DC rose above 10 per 100,000 residents today for the first time in months. Today’s rate is the highest since June 8. On Sept. 30, we were at 5.1 per 100,000.”

Mismanagement of controlling the virus spread provides another message. Donald Trump does not function well in an emergency. He turns everything into an opportunity to remake the government in his image.

We have now had 27 hurricanes hitting the Gulf coast this year. The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year from June through November. We could experience more this year. Hope is not a strategy. “The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.”

As I post this commentary early afternoon in California the number of new corona virus exceeds 67,000 today. Yes, ‘Covid, covid covid’ should be topic one!

Donald Trump Is Scared

Source: Peter Nicholas in The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and my own thoughts

People have speculated that Trump’s COVID-19 treatment altered his judgment. They are incorrect. His judgement and behavior have always been erratic. Based on all the reports from those who have known Trump for years tell of a man who believes he has the right to demand whatever he wants.

He seemed as if he might be delirious. He blasted out bewildering tweets in all caps. Sick and infectious, he circled the perimeter of the Walter Reed hospital in an armored SUV, waving to supporters. He demanded the arrest of his opponents.

None of this behavior especially surprises those who’ve heard Oval Office rants dating back to the start of Trump’s presidency. “In terms of his current behavior, to me it looks like just another day at the office,” John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, told Peter Nicholas of The Atlantic “He doesn’t need steroids to behave this way.”

Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that President Donald Trump “is the most flawed person” he’s ever known.

It is now reported that in Oval Office meetings, John Kelly, the president’s ex–chief of staff, would clear the room of lower-level aides when Trump grew irate. “His face would get contorted and red, and you could see spit flying out of his mouth because he would get so mad about something,” Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, told Peter Nicholas. “Sometimes he’d get mad about something that wasn’t even the topic of the meeting.”

In appearances this week, he has vented his frustrations with suburban women — a critical voting bloc that polls suggest he has lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden — mixing an uncharacteristic personal plea with raw resentment and a curious claim of achievement.

“Suburban women, will you please like me? I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?” Trump said at a rally in Johnstown, PA.

Right now, the pressure Trump may be “feeling, knowing that he’s going to lose the election, is intensifying everything that we’re seeing and putting him in a hyper-agitated state,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, told Peter Nicholas.

It might all get worse. As Election Day nears, Trump’s dread may only grow, and his outbursts may only become more desperate. He may step up attacks in hopes of staving off a loss that he’d see as an intolerable rebuke. For someone who craves adulation and can’t ever seem to get enough, defeat could leave a hole that no treatment can remedy.

Joe Biden Is Not the Truth Teller

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Easter Prayer Breakfast in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Donald Trump is a well known liar and obfuscator. Is Joe Biden any better? If you didn’t catch it here are three topics Joe Biden attempted to evade in last night’s town hall. This was pointed out by Alice Stewart on a CNN posting on their web site.

1. Fracking

The bad is Biden’s not-too-credible answer on fracking. Despite saying that he does not propose banning fracking, he pledged during the primaries to “establish an enforcement mechanism to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050,” which, as CNN has reported, “would almost certainly require a significant reduction in fracking.”

His denials that he would ban fracking are simply not credible. Even host George Stephanopoulos said “not everyone buys your denial.”

Instead of answering the question, he filibustered on renewable energy, zero emissions, and hauling chicken manure. While he talks of transitioning to new technologies, the truth is Biden is beholden to the far-left policies of the Green New Deal. In an effort to not alienate moderates, his campaign site calls the policy “a crucial framework.” You can’t have it both ways.

2. Tough on Crime

Another bad reply deals with the 1994 Crime Bill. When asked if it was a mistake to support the bill, Biden said yes, but only with regard to what happened on the state level. He neglected to mention he wrote the bill; it was his signature piece of legislation.

3. Packing the Supreme Court

The ugly is Biden’s outright refusal to tell us where he stands on the issue of expanding the Supreme Court if elected president. The Democratic nominee again refused to go on record about court packing. Expanding the court is supported by the far-left base attempting to dilute the power of the majority of conservative justices on the Supreme Court. Even CNN Democratic commentator Van Jones gave Biden a “D-” on this response when talking with Anderson Cooper.

America’s Vanishing Social Security Trust Fund

This is a serious topic that neither Joe Biden not Donald Trump is interested in talking about. No wonder. It’s complicated and most people expect their elected representatives to solve the problem.

The United States Social Security Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. But you wouldn’t know it. Politicians try to use it to their advantage.

The Social Security trust fund will run out of its funds in a dozen years or so if nothing is done. Some experts say the government should tap general revenue to pay beneficiaries.

A monthly check from Social Security is the only thing keeping millions of older Americans out of poverty. Half of married senior citizens and 70% of unmarried seniors get at least half of their income from it, according to the Social Security Administration. It is the indispensable retirement solution. But the trust fund that pays old age and survivor benefits is going to run out of money sometime in the 2030s.

Those hard facts have raised a question:
Should Social Security stop depending just on payroll taxes and the trust fund to pay benefits and start supplementing those sources with general tax revenue? The debate came to a boil in August, when President Trump floated the idea of a permanent cut in payroll taxes, which would presumably necessitate a big infusion of general tax revenue to keep benefits whole.

A lot of advocates for Social Security worry that tapping general revenue will make people perceive the program as welfare rather than a mutual insurance compact among workers.

On the other hand, drawing on general funds would make it easier to pay scheduled benefits to the Baby Boom generation without big hikes in payroll taxes.

Faced with this scenario, the usual response is to choose from an unpalatable menu for fixing Social Security’s finances, such as raising the retirement age, choosing a stingier cost-of-living adjustment, or increasing the payroll tax rate. Democratic Representative John Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the Social Security subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, is sponsoring the Social Security 2100 Act, which raises benefits slightly while gradually lifting the payroll tax rate for workers and employers from 6.2% to 7.4% and subjecting wages over $400,000 a year to payroll taxation.

But none of the choices on the menu undo the core problem, which is that American society has aged. The number of beneficiaries per 100 covered workers has risen from 25 in 1965 to 29 in 2000 to 36 this year, and it’s expected to reach 45 by 2040.

Here’s what a Biden presidential win may mean for your Social Security benefits as reported on CNBC. Biden would increase the special minimum benefit, which was created to provide low-earners with adequate benefits. Biden calls for setting that figure at 125% of the federal poverty line. That would bring it to $1,301 from $886 a month as of 2019, according to an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump would like to cut payroll taxes to put more money in every family’s hands now to boost the economy but offers no plan on keeping the program afloat.

Melt Down

The coronavirus is now pulsing through the capital: Three Senate Republicans — MIKE LEE of Utah, RON JOHNSON of Wisconsin and THOM TILLIS of North Carolina — all have tested positive. This reduces Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’S majority to 50-47 for the time being. This situation will impact upcoming interviews of Amy Coney Barrett nominated for the Supreme Court. The Dems have one more arrow to shoot at this nomination. Can approval of her be stopped? Doubtful unless the virus brings the senate to a standstill.

Donald Trump’s words and behavior are impossible to understand. Some have suggested that the meds he received at Walter Reed Hospital may have effected his judgement.

First he arrives back at the White House from Walter Reed Hospital and he tears of his mask. Oh, wait a minute. I don’t like how that video came out, we have to do a re-do of my arrival.

Today Trump is reported to have said, “I Got the Coronavirus to Prove I Could Beat It Because That’s What Leaders Do!” Really? After all the effort you made to keep ill people away from you, you suddenly decided to get the infection. Is anyone going to believe this claim?

President Donald Trump has ordered his negotiators to halt talks over a new stimulus package, after the two sides have struggled for months to reach a deal, a stunning move that puts an end to last-ditch efforts for a major economic relief package as millions are reeling from the coronavirus crisis.

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets Tuesday afternoon.

This would be a give away to Democrats who will say Trump doesn’t care about you.

Instructions to sycophant Mike Pence is no plexiglass shield at tomorrow’s debate. We need to show strength.

I cannot offer any reasonable explanation for Trump’s behavior. If this mad man is re-elected I fear what the next four years will do to this country.