Debt Ceiling Shenanigans

This is called Playing Chicken with the debt ceiling. If the ceiling isn’t raised, according to Treasury Secretary and person-who-has-had-just-about-enough-of-these-stupid-shenanigans Janet Yellen, America will default on its debts somewhere around June 1. If that happens, all economic hell will break loose, likely plunging the United States into a recession and potentially bringing the global economy down with it.

Republicans in Congress raised the debt ceiling three times under President Donald Trump without issue, even as Trump was adding nearly $7.8 trillion to the national debt. The U.S. debt increased $9 trillion during the eight years Obama was in office.

The ceiling cap is all about trying to alert that the Congress has voted to spend money it does not have. The Committee on Ways and Means has the responsibility for raising the revenue required to finance the Federal Government. This includes individual and corporate income taxes, excise taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes. Clearly the Committee has not done its job.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to win points with the extremists in the G.O.P. by threatening to not raise the limit. Everyone agrees the government should not spend money it does not have. The savings the G.O.P. want to make are all on the backs of the poorest Americans.

At the end of the day Biden and McCarthy will reach a compromise. The consequence of no compromise will be devastating for the United States and the rest of the world.

President Joe Biden and Ex-President Donald Trump are the likely candidates in the 2024 election

Trump and Biden participate in the final presidential debate at Belmont University, in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 2020. (Jim Bourg / Pool /AFP via Getty)

Polls for the past six months or so have consistently shown that a majority of Americans do not want to see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And yet, unless health issues sideline one or the other (or unless a newly unemployed Tucker Carlson decides to take his angry-racist-preppie shtick into politics), the Trump-Biden showdown feels inevitable.

Trump and Biden are likely to be renominated for very different reasons. Obviously, Biden is the incumbent—and has been a remarkably successful president under difficult circumstances. Whatever the grousing from Democratic faithful, parties do not torpedo their own president: The only sitting chief executive who was elected in his own right and then denied renomination for another term was Franklin Pierce, in 1856. (Four others were denied nomination after becoming president upon the death of the incumbent.).

Is this the best we can do?

The U.S. Constitution is Not the Bible

Jackie Calmes nailed it in the Los Angeles Times. The unwritten GOP planks of their campaign for the presidency and control of congress are:

Anti-abortion extremism
Pro-gun absolutism
Anti-LGBTQ activism
Book banning
Vote suppression
Election denialism

These are the issues that are dividing this country. There is apparently no compromise among the extreme loyalists. Perhaps Marjorie Taylor Greene’s suggestion that it’s time for a divorce should be seriously considered.

At the very least many of those people who register as an independent will be pushed into the Democratic Party.

Sadly many Americans treat the Constitution as if it is a bible. Their view is that whatever was written in 1787 and 1788 was a mandate that must be obeyed as if it was handed down by God. That is the reason the pro-gun groups treat their right to own guns as a right handed down by God. So even though there is Article V that defines the procedure those that believe they just cannot bring themselves to make changes. It has been amended 27 times.

It is time for Senator Feinstein to Retire with Dignity

Dianne Feinstein October 14, 2020 questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barret

Reaching the position of United States senator is a role almost every politician dreams to achieve. There are no term limits and so once obtained they remain there almost to the day they die. Eight senators died in office since the year 2000. The last was John McCain who died August 25, 2018 from uncurable brain cancer.

In 2003, South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond retired at the ripe old age of 100 after 48 years in the Senate. The not-so-hidden secret was that his staff did everything but actually push the vote button during his last term, which ended six months before his death.

The current leader of the Republican caucus in the Senate is Mitch McConnell who is 81. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader is a mere 72.

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the oldest serving member of the Senate, at age 89, has missed 60 of the 82 Senate votes taken so far this year due to illnesses. After announcing that she was not running for re-election, the following day she has forgotten that she had made the announcement.

With memory problems and the stresses of participation in the Senate it is time for Senator Feinstein to retire with dignity.

Then comes the next issue. Governor Gavin Newsom will be deciding who will replace Feinstein.

The Sad Presidency of Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter was a one term president. Ronald Reagan replaced him. The economy during his presidency was notable for a stagnant economy that included high unemployment and high inflation. It was a time of long lines for gasoline, a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and a siege at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. The 52 hostages held at the embassy were not released until the day after Carter relinquished the presidency. The hostage event, I believe, was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Carter’s presidency.

On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took them as hostages. The hostages were held for 444 days. If there was an effort to free the hostages it was never made public.

Today as Carter is in hospice care almost everyone talks about what a great American and president he was. It’s just not true and most of us know it.

Presidents of the US: President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 7, 2009, with President George W. Bush and former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.(J. Scott Applewhite Associated Press)

GOP removes Rep. Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee

Citing her comments on Israel and Jews the Republican-led House Thursday voted along party lines to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over previous comments she had made.

Born in Somalia, Omar fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States, according to her congressional biography. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family, living in the city that she now represents in Congress. Omar is a Muslim. She has been a fierce critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and routinely questions U.S. aid to Israel.

Omar faced criticism in 2019 from both sides of the aisle for comments she made during a town hall and for controversial Twitter replies.

During the town hall event, Omar suggested Israel demands “allegiance” from American lawmakers, adding that “a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, (think) that everything we say about Israel (is) anti-Semitic because we are Muslim.”

If it was up to me I would expel her from the House of Representatives along with others who have made racist remarks. Omar was just re-elected and so her constituents want her to continue serving. This is how democracy functions.

GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser. Greense was re-elected too.

Sadly Omar’s hate is no joke.

Trump- The Superhero

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Laughs Out Loud at Trump’s Superhero ‘Major Announcement’ Tease: ‘We Are in Third Grade’

Trump reveals ‘major announcement’ — a digital trading card collection for $99 per card

This is the man many Republicans want to lead the United States. Just what we need. A child leading our country.

A voice of Independence

Arizona Senator Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has changed her registration from Democrat to independent. She wrote her reasons in the Arizona Republic and they were posted to that newspaper’s website. You can read the entire article here but the following are the consequential parts.

I too am registered as an Independent in California. I too am sick of the non stop bickering and one upmanship where making political points is more important than doing the right thing.

“Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.”

“In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought. Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.”

“Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes.”

“Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different. I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. I committed I would not demonize people I disagreed with, engage in name-calling, or get distracted by political drama.”

“I promised I would never bend to party pressure, and I would stay focused on solving problems and getting things done for everyday Arizonans.” 

“My approach is rare in Washington and has upset partisans in both parties.” 

Could this be the end of the two party system in the United States? Not likely. The most we can hope for is a third party of consequence.