national news, political news

What does Biden’s courage mean?

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Time gives us a chance for reflection, and so just a few hours after hearing gut-wrenching news of President Biden’s decision to bow out of the 2024 presidential race, I want to reflect briefly on what I believe it means.

And not just for the candidate, but for the country he loves.

Every strand of Joe Biden’s being seemed to pull him toward staying in the race. I mean, he ran for the presidency twice before actually winning the 2020 contest. He sought the 1988 Democratic nomination, but got derailed over a plagiarism scandal. He ran again in 2008, but fell to the Barack Obama buzzsaw.

He had a horrible debate performance in mid-June. He vowed to stay in. Democrats bailed on him. The money spigot dried up.

Then this past weekend came the announcement: He would end his candidacy and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Biden likely knew he couldn’t defeat Donald Trump. He stepped aside to let a young, more intellectually agile public servant, VP Harris, make her effort to keep Trump out of the White House.

He said he did it out of love for his country, which he wants to shield from the evil impulses that Trump would deploy if he gets the chance at another presidential term.

Joe Biden served his country honorably for more than 50 years … as a senator, vice president and president. He left his most indelible imprint on our nation by walking away from a fight he knew he couldn’t win.

That’s how you define patriotism.

national news

Where is boorishness written?

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I am quite sure that there is no written rule that requires members of Congress to conduct themselves like a**holes when questioning witnesses on sensitive topics.

Therefore, I must ask: Where does Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, get off treating the head of the Secret Service as crassly as he did this morning?

Kimberly Cheatle testified today about her department’s failure to protect a former president of the United States against someone who fired off several rifle shots at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

Cheatle admitted the Secret Service committed many grievous efforts while seeking to secure the rally site for Donald J. Trump. She said her department is in the midst of an investigation into what went wrong. She told Jordan she intends to repair the damage.

Jordan, though, wouldn’t let up, He wouldn’t let answer questions before launching another barrage of belittling Cheatle. He said Cheatle didn’t answer “a single question.” Well, no sh**, Sherlock. He wouldn’t let her answer them!

Don’t misunderstand me. I, too, am angry over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump from the gunman. However, if you’re going to summon a principal in that near-tragedy to testify … then give her the chance to explain!

national news, political news

Stop the ‘quit now’ diatribes

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MAGA cultists who are foaming at the mouth over President Biden’s decision to cease his re-election campaign need to take a breather and cast an eye toward realism … if that is possible.

They are proclaiming that since Biden said he is “unfit to run for re-election, he is unfit to hold the office,” and therefore he must resign immediately. Give me a fu**ing break! We all know what happened Sunday. I applaud Joe Biden for reaching a conclusion he believes is best for the country. He won’t seek a second term and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic Party presidential nominee. He said he will continue to serve as president and will work when he can to elect Harris if she’s nominated in Chicago later this summer. The MAGA cult members, led by their supreme leader Donald Trump, have lapped the field already in declaring that Biden must go. Trump issued a typically tasteless, crass, boorish response to Biden’s announcement; his followers have climbed aboard the Trump clown car. If a medical doctor examines the president and concludes he must resign, then I’ll listen. Short of that … the MAGA goons should just shut the hell up!
national news

Now what for Election 2024?

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I am pretty sure I will remember where I was when I heard the stunning news of the day, that President Biden had ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

It’s a mind-blower to be sure. We now are trudging down a never-before-traveled trail. A sitting president who had his party nomination locked up has tossed it into the crapper because (a) he apparently no longer believes he can win and (b) too many questions remain over whether he has the snap to serve another four years in power.

This was Joe Biden’s call to make. I have said I would support whatever decision he made. Part of me wanted him to stay in the race, but it became untenable as scores of Democratic politicians and big hitters bailed on him.

What about Vice President Harris? She is a known quantity. Now she gets to pick a VP running mate, presuming she wins the Democratic Party nomination later this summer. It would seem to be a no-brainer, given that the delegates chosen to support President Biden were on board with VP Harris as well.

My head is still spinning at this moment. There will be plenty to say about the campaign that is going take shape …. all over again!

***

Oh, just so you know, I was watching a theater production of “Mama Mia!” in Fort Worth when I heard the news … in case you’re interested.

national news

So much to ponder this election cycle

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This big world is full of issues, talking points and factors that zoom right past my pointy little head.

Here’s another one I want to examine briefly. How does a president as successful as Joseph R. Biden Jr. struggle with polling data that suggest he is going to get his clocked cleaned on Election Day?

I do not get it!

Biden inherited an economy in free fall from the COVID pandemic. Joblessness was through the roof. Hundreds of Americans were dying daily from the killer virus. Our national budget deficit was skyrocketing. His presidential predecessor had sought to undermine the “peaceful transition of power.”

President Biden took office and managed to work with Congress to enact an infrastructure rebuilding bill, approve the Inflation Reduction Act, approve climate change legislation. He issued executive orders that took aim at reducing prescription drug costs.

Joe Biden is in the midst of a successful presidency. Now he’s in deep trouble of being forced out of the re-election campaign because Democratic Party honchos are worried he cannot beat Donald Trump, the GOP nominee.

How in the world does the president wrap his arms around the juxtaposition of those facts. Unemployment is down, the budget deficit is shrinking, our alliances are strong … but he’s trailing in the polls and experts are telling him his chances of winning are shrinking daily.

The MAGA cultists who comprise Trump’s base are energized. Biden’s base is demoralized. Trump has a deeply flawed moral character that he seems to wear like a badge of honor. Biden enjoys deep affection among those who are close to him.

Up is down and down is up. The man who lost the previous election now might be poised to beat the man who defeated him four years ago. What the hell is wrong with this country?

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Does Joe stay … or go?

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My mind has been flip-flopping like a fish out of water on the issue of President Biden’s viability as a presidential candidate in 2024.

I believe I have reached a conclusion on this matter, so I will share it with you right now.

The president needs to step aside. He needs to hand the top spot on the Democratic ticket to Vice President Kamala Harris, who needs then to find a suitable running mate to carry the fight forward against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

I will offer only one caveat. If the president stays in, I’ll be with him until hell freezes over. Which ain’t gonna happen.

The foremost issue must be to keep Donald Trump from darkening the Oval Office’s door ever again.

I have been watching many of VP Harris’s speeches over the past few days and to my aging but still perceptive ears, she has found her voice. One hears no quiver in her voice. She is certain on where she stands and she delivers her views with vigor and conviction. The vice president relies heavily on her years as a prosecutor, telling cheering audiences, “Let’s look at the facts.”

When I watch the vice president recite chapter and verse how Trump and Vance are wrong, on, say, women’s reproductive rights, I see a stand-up champion. When she talks about how the GOP talks out of both sides of its mouth on seeking “unity,” I see a fierce fighter.

Sadly, the Joe Biden I grew to admire from his first days in the US Senate — the ferocious and occasionally garrulous advocate he became — no longer exists. Make no mistake, though, on this key point: Joe Biden has been one of the better presidents of the past century and he accomplished plenty during his time in office. He will leave office, whether this coming January or in January 2029, with his head held high.

However … the Democratic Party leadership is bailing on him. The source of the money the party will need to defeat Trump has dried up. President Biden should step aside.

Joe Biden chose well when he picked Kamala Harris to run with him in 2020. It’s her turn now.

political news

Unity message: MIA

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I tried to listen to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention, but when he kept going on and on with his embellished version of the assassination attempt on his life, I threw in the towel.

Still, I managed to read a good bit of the text of his speech and discovered that he threw out the word “unity” many times, but the message he delivered sounded very much like his two previous GOP acceptance speeches.

He talked about wanting to be president for all Americans, not just the portion of us who cling his words. Fine. Good deal. How will he deliver on that promise? He didn’t say. I reckon he doesn’t know what he would do … if anything!

For many Republican presidential primaries dating back to around the 1976 season, abortion has been top-of-mind stuff for GOP delegates. Not this year. Did you notice the absence of any mention of the practice? I did. It’s because Trump and his cult followers know they are on the wrong side of that issue.

Unity is essential for anyone who wants to govern. It’s no different for Donald Trump. His problem, though, is that he has built his political career on the notion of dividing and conquering.

 

 

Donald Trump

What has happened to us?

You want any graphic example of just how topsy-turvy the US political system has become? Look at what is happening in Milwaukee this very evening.

Republican convention delegates have nominated a former POTUS who was impeached twice during his term in office, who is accused of instigating an attack on our government and of trying to overturn a free and fair election, who has been convicted of 34 felony counts, is indicted on four additional felonies, been deemed liable for the rape of a woman and has admitted to being a sexual assailant.

What’s more, GOP delegates are standing tall, firm and foursquare behind Donald Trump. They are united behind this man’s candidacy.

Meanwhile, Democratic political leaders are turning on the incumbent president, Joe Biden, because of a poor debate performance, many of them calling on him to forgo his re-election campaign. They are splintered and Biden is in actual danger of losing the election to the guy he defeated four years ago.

Many of us who have been around long enough remember earlier times when we wondered whether our system could survive tempest and tumult.

But …. nothing like this!

I am at a total loss to understand what has happened to my beloved United States of America.

national news

Then and now: big difference

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There might be some temptation to compare the pressure that President Biden is feeling from Democratic lawmakers to that which fell on President Nixon in the summer of 1974.

There’s a heap of difference between the circumstances.

Biden’s heat is coming from Democratic leaders who are urging him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, fearing he is sure to lose to GOP nominee Donald J. Trump. Biden doesn’t see it that way. He believes he has a path to victory and to be blunt, I share his belief that the fight ain’t over. Yes, the questions are lingering about Biden’s mental acuity in the wake of that debate fiasco, but he’s showing signs of recovery from that stumble-bum performance.

In August 1974, Richard Nixon faced a different set of circumstances. The House Judiciary Committee was preparing articles of impeachment against the president over his covering up of the Watergate scandal. Several senators stepped up, ventured to the White House and told Nixon the following: The House is going to impeach you, Mr. President, and the Senate is going to convict you in a trial that will commence. You need to resign.

Moreover, the message came from the likes of Nixon’s fellow Republicans, such as Sens. Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott … both of whom told Nixon they would vote convict him of the crime of coverup.

Nixon had no choice but to resign. He did the next day.

The drama playing out today is far from finished, despite what many in the media are reporting.

International news, military news

Russia about to gain a WH friend?

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Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his 2024 Republican Party presidential running mate should send chills up the spine of every “real Republican” out there.

Why is that? Because Vance, a freshman U.S. senator from Ohio, has emerged as Russia’s most vocal ally in the ridiculous debate over whether we should continue to assist Ukraine in its valiant fight against the Russian invaders.

Vance has made it clear: If he has any say in the matter, the United States won’t spend another dollar to assist Ukraine as it fights for its life against the immoral, illegal and unprovoked invasion by the Russian armed forces.

There has been plenty of talk about this election being a fight for democracy. That fight is playing itself out on the battlefields of Ukraine, which is fighting to preserve its democratic government against. the authoritarians in Moscow who want to take Ukraine back as a “Russian state.”

President Biden has been steadfast in his support of Ukraine, vowing to keep the United States engaged by sending money for military hardware essential for Ukraine to defeat the Russian aggressors.

Now, though, Trump and his “friendship” with Vladimir Putin stands in the way. Moreover, Trump now has a vocal running mate who is standing openly and foursquare with Putin’s designs on spreading his dictatorial regime beyond Russia’s borders.

Republican political orthodoxy used to stand against Russian aggression. We engaged in a decades-long cold war with the Soviet Union to keep them from advancing beyond their territorial limit. Two presidents named Bush, and others named Nixon, Eisenhower and Reagan stood strong against the tyrants.

We must not let the Russians win this fight!

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