Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Wanting a return, again, to normal

Every living, breathing, thinking American should join me in this simple request … a return to normal conduct by the president of the United States, his/her Cabinet, the political team that works for the individual in charge and a Congress that doesn’t demonize the other side as the spawn of Satan.

I soiught such a return at end of Donald Trump’s first term in office. Voters delivered it by elected Joe Biden president of the United States. Biden had spent his entire professional life in public service. He knew how the government works — or doesn’t work, in some cases — and sought to bring normal behavior back to the White House.

President Biden succeeded famously.

He served one term before the wheels flew off and he got caught in the mental acuity rumor mongering. Trump managed to parlay a weird public desire for weirdness into an electoral victory in 2024 and now we’re in the midst of a hostile dismantling of our democratic process.

Trump promised to exact revenge on his foes. He’s delivering the goods. All the while he is conducting himself in an amped-up version of his first presidential term. Who in the world knows where this is headed?

With all of that I want to wish out loud once again for a return to normal behavior. A return to what the late John McCain called “regular order.” I want spirited debate, but I don’t want recrimination and revenge when the lights go out.

The American political system appears to be broken. I do not believe it is beyond repair. Joe Biden managed — to the extent he could with GOP control of Congress — to restore a sense of normal behavior during his single term as president. He left the presidency after getting plenty of constructive things done for the country.

Trump is now well into the first year of his final term in office. I want him to succeed, too. I also want there to be a return to normal behavior, decorum, dignity and grace among opponents. With this guy in charge of the executive branch — and his penchant for surrounding himself with sycophants — my hope is fleeting.

However, I will keep the faith.

military news

Zelenskyy must take part!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a spectator, a bystander in what has turned out to be the bloodiest ground war in Europe since World War II.

Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago seeking to overrun the sovereign nation. It was supposed to take only a few days. The fight has turned into a quagmire, thanks in large part to the huge aid packages recommended by then-President Joe Biden.

Now, Donald Trump wants to meet with Russian goon Vladimir Putin — in Alaska, no less — to seek a way to stop the violence, the bloodshed, the war. I applaud the end Trump is seeking. I am concerned that a conclusion will not include the first political casualty of the Ukraine war, the president of the country that Putin attacked.

Zelenskyy already has rejected a Russian proposal that requires Ukraine to give back land it took from the Russian invaders. Russia is making zero concessions for the illegal invasion it launched. Or for the war crimes it has committed by bombing schools and hospitals. Or for the civilians the Russian army has killed.

Zelenskyy is not a spectator. He has been an active participant in this war. He needs a place at the negotiating table and he deserves to have his beliefs heard above the din of the battle.

medical news

Another conspiracy given birth

Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis is bound to run its course, no matter where it ends up.

If the former president is able to beat back the aggressive form of prostate cancer — which I and others hope happens — we’re going to see the temporary end to what is likely to occur if the president’s cancer fight ends in another fashion.

What will occur will be the birth of yet one more never-ending conspiracy theory. This one will center on allegations that the White House covered up President Biden’s cancer, that staffers knew he suffered from “aggressive prostate cancer,” but wanted him re-elected in 2024, so that he could resign and hand the presidency over to Vice President Kamala Harris.

I don’t feel good about the former president’s prognosis. He is 82 years of age. He has had cancer before, many years ago. But no one ever talks about that.

I am not privy, nor is anyone outside the White House, to what people knew during Biden’s term as president and when they knew it. A couple of questions keep nagging at me regarding the conspiracy theorists.

One is, why even worry about such a thing now? Joe Biden is no longer president. He has exited the political arena after serving what many millions of us consider to be a successful presidency. I am not going to spend a moment of my time thinking about what the White House medical staff knew and whether they covered it up.

The other is that we’ll never know the answer, except that if the White House medical team says it hid nothing, that is going to be good enough for me.

Conspiracy theories are the stuff of individuals who have too much time on their hands and too little to fill their vacuous noggins.

International news

What could go wrong?

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the White House today supposedly to cement a deal over some mineral rights with the United States.

It didn’t end with anything signed. It ended instead with Zelenskyy storming out a shouting match with Donald Trump, who along with Vice President J.D. Vance, managed to insult the beleaguered Zelenskyy to the point of immense frustration.

This man is our ally, or at least he was our ally when Russian forces attacked Ukraine three years ago while Joe Biden was president of the United States.

It’s all changed now that Biden has retired and Trump has returned to power. Trump has buddied up to Russian goon Vladimir Putin, taking up where he left off when he lost his re-election bid to Biden in 2020.

That a meeting with Zelenskyy would crater as it did today should have surprised no one, given Trump’s propensity for saying the wrong things at the wrong time.

International news

Trump to abandon Ukraine

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Donald J. Trump is on the verge of abandoning a longheld U.S. foreign policy, which calls for this nation to stand firm against aggression from nations that seek to undermine democratic sovereignty.

He’s going to meet soon with Russian thug/goon Vladimir Putin to “negotiate” a deal to end the war in Ukraine. The two pals no doubt are going to stick in the ear of Ukraine President Volodymr Zellenskyy, who’s been fighting his heart out against the Russian aggressors for the past three years.

How was he able to keep the Russians at bay while inflicting grievous casualties on the aggressors? Because U.S. support provided by President Joe Biden in concert with our NATO allies.

Well, Trump is now sitting in Biden’s former office and he and his MAGA cultists appear set on flattening Zellenskyy’s efforts against the Russian invaders.

I have no clue the direction these “negotiations” will take. I’m not smart enough to figure that out. I sense, though, that NATO, the EU and much of the free world is going to feel betrayed by the new administration’s cozying up to Putin.

I also believe Putin will see this suck-up policy as giving him license to continue his aggression in eastern Europe.

crime news, legal news

No moral equivalence here

Right-wing MAGA fanatics need to take great care when attaching moral equivalence to two vastly different actions taken by two equally vastly different men.

In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to members of his family, believing they would spare them from the hassles of being harassed by federal officials loyal to the incoming POTUS.

Those pardons were, shall we say, weird and kind of bizarre. As it has been said many times, innocent people do not need to be pardoned. The family members pardoned by President Biden hadn’t even been charged with any crimes.

Then came the horrendous blanket pardons issued by Donald Trump, freeing about 1,500 traitorous mobsters from punishment for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection against the government. They sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and attacked with all-due violence the Capitol cops seeking to protect members of Congress from the hysterical mob.

Some right-wingers have sought to attach the Biden pardons with the Trump pardons. Not a chance! There isn’t a scintilla of moral equivalence to be found!

One of the pardoned traitors, by the way, got into an altercation with Indiana police over the weekend and was shot to death by the cops. History seeking to repeat itself? Well … go figure.

What Trump did in pardoning all the convicted mobsters was send a clear signal that the president had their back in the event they might try to do something similar in the future. The president also gave the middle finger to cops who had suffered grievous injury in defense of our government.

Trump has taken the same oath twice to “protect and defend the Constitution.” He tossed that oath into the crapper the first time and there’s not a thing that I can detect that will prevent him from doing it again.

Therefore, let us end the idiotic attempt to equate the pardons issued by the departing president with those given by the individual who succeeded him.

national news

‘Great’ precedes ‘good’

Walter Isaacson, a political journalist of some renown, believes that Donald Trump already has established himself as a “great” president, but now must work on becoming a “good” one.

The difference, if I heard Isaacson correctly on a TV interview, suggests that Trump already has established his place in history as a politician of significant presence. He has reshaped the political landscape in a way that bears no resemblance to what it used to look like.

His task now is to do some “good” for the country he governs. Isaacson called Trump’s triumph over Kamala Harris a sweeping victory, in that he carried all seven of the swing states being contested. Granted, he didn’t win the “landslide” he keeps suggesting.

It was an important victory nonetheless, Isaacson contends.

Still, Trump — and this is my view — needs to channel the rage he still carries from his 2020 defeat at the hands of Joe Biden into constructive legislation. Dude needs an agenda on which he can hang his hat. I don’t see one. Nor do I see any evidence from Trump that he can craft anything of the sort.

All of this makes me doubt that Trump ever will achieve the “good” part of the office he has won.

national news

Custom gets flushed

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Customarily, presidential inaugural speeches are intended to appeal to Americans’ highest ideals, setting a tone for the incoming administration to follow.

But … as is always the case with POTUS No. 47, custom got flushed down the crapper today. Donald J. Trump took his oath of office and then launched into all the campaign talking points he used to win the election in November.

He didn’t bother to thank his predecessor, President Biden, for his five decades of public service, or to congratulate his 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for the spirited campaign she waged against him.

Oh, no. None of that grace was to be heard in Trump’s speech. He railed yet again over what he called the decline of our nation, vowing to “make America great agaiin.”

It was vintage Trump. Frankly, it sickened me.

I decided to watch his speech hoping I might hear a word of grace from the man who violated the very oath he took in 2017. I hoped he might have learned a lesson or two from what I consider to be a failed presidency the first time around.

I was disappointed.

Just maybe, though, I shouldn’t have set my hopes too high.

Uncategorized

Will new POTUS follow this custom?

Presidents take their oath of office and, dating back for a good while, often open their inaugural speech with a tribute to the man who preceded them immediately in the high and exalted office.

Americans have seen a lot in recent days of President Carter turning to his predecessor, President Ford, and thanking him in 1977 “for all he did to heal our land.”

Every president since then — except for one — has issued a word of thanks for their predecessor’s service to this land. The exception, of course, was President Biden, who in 2021 took office while his predecessor, Donald Trump, was flying to Florida after refusing to concede that he lost the 2020 election.

We have another presidential inaugural on tap. Monday at noon, Trump will take an oath and then will stand in front of the world to deliver a speech that normally sets the tone for the presidency. Will the new president thank his predecessor who, after all, has stayed the course and helped transition from one administration to the next one?

I won’t predict what Trump will do or say. My hope is that he will turn to his predecessor and finally — finally! — put the Big Lie to rest once and forever by declaring that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

I know. My expectations at times are unrealistic.

International news, military news

Is peace now possible?

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In this season of never-ending negativity, we now might be able to rejoice in some seriously good news … from the Middle East of all places!

Israel and the terrorists known as Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire that begins Sunday. Furthermore, they have agreed to a significant swap of hostages, meaning that the families of Israelis and Americans held captive since the Oct. 7, 2023, rocket attacks can be set free.

I am going to hold out hope that the cease fire agreement holds up and that the violence that erupted with Hamas’s brazen and bloody attack will end. Let us not call it a peace agreement, because the cease fire only means the bitter enemies will stop killing each other for the time being.

Let’s be clear on a couple of key points. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and said the only path to peace would require the destruction of the terrorist leadership; it appears that Israel has accomplished its stated aim. However, it has come at a horrific price for the Palestinians caught in the middle of the fight between Israel and Hamas. Thousands of innocent people have died since Hamas started this war.

Thus, the ceasefire — brokered in large part by President Biden’s team — requires an immediate rebuilding effort. It must commence fully, not on a piecemeal basis. It must include massive deliveries of food, water, construction equipment, medical supplies and personnel to help Gaza residents seek to restore their shattered lives.

To that end, Joe Biden and his team deserve the highest praise any of us can give for their tireless work in bringing an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.

Now, though, the hardest task of all awaits … finding a path to a permanent piece in a region that knows only heartache and despair.