Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Stay the course, Mr. POTUS

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You are getting boatloads of advice, Mr. President, on what to do in the wake of your dismal debate performance the other evening.

So, I reckon you won’t mind one more nugget from the Heartland.

This American patriot wants you to stay in the race. Don’t surrender to those who want to cut their losses, believing now that you are doomed to lose to Donald J. Trump. I am not one of them.

Advice nugget No. 1:  get rid of the team that prepped you for that first encounter in Atlanta. At the very least, shed yourself of the person in charge of the team.

I watched every cringeworthy moment of the debate, Mr. President. You looked to my eyes as if you were crammed full of facts. You unable to unload many of them on Trump, the pathological liar who demonstrated once more his inability to tell the truth. Every … single … thing that flew out of Trump’s mouth was a lie.

The editors of some of America’s great journalism institutions have swallowed “needs to quit” bait.

I am not taking that bait. There remains plenty of time for you get your campaign aimed in the correct direction, You also have another debate scheduled in September.  You have been through enough of these to know what you need to do,

Your foe is a shameful frontrunner who doesn’t give a damn about those of us out here in the heart of America. I believe in your decades of public service, Mr. President. I want other Americans to believe in them, too.

You, sir, are the only person who dan deliver that message.

national news

Turning away from debate

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All eyes are turning — or at least many of them are doing so — toward the Atlanta stage where President Biden and Donald J. Trump are going to joust in that much-anticipated first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.

This blog post is going to point itself elsewhere for the time being.

We have a lot of issues to settle in this angry world of ours.

How do we negotiate a settlement between Russia and Ukraine? How do we do the same in Gaza where Israel has gone to war with Hamas? How do we make sure Iran doesn’t acquire nuclear weapon capability? How do we secure our border? How do we control inflationary pressure on those things we purchase at the store? How can we improve public education?

Biden and Trump aren’t likely to come close to providing any solutions. We instead are going to focus on the show biz aspect of the joint appearance.

I am going to concentrate my energy on seeking solutions to the critical problems facing this nation. I am sure my phone will ring tonight after the debate. My friends and family will ask who I thought “won.” I won’t be callous and say, “I don’t know and I don’t care.,”

I suppose all of this is my way of lowering expectations for what happens this evening. Two men who are thought pretty universally to be profoundly unable to face the problems that trouble us won’t provide any answers,

It’s all for show, man. Got it? Good.

national news, political news

Waiting anxiously for debate

For a long time I have been cautious about referring to events when two or more politicians stand on a stage as “debates.”

They aren’t, really. they have allowed the candidates to pontificate and excoriate their foes. But they do occasionally bring moments of excitement. They even have helped turn elections in favor of candidates.

Do you remember the time in 1976 when President Ford said Eastern Europe was “not dominated” by the Soviet Union? Of course it was! He lost the election that year. Or when Ronald Reagan asked us in 1980 whether we were “better off than you were four years ago.” We weren’t. Reagan won in a landslide.

The format for the Thursday appearance with President Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump will be without a studio audience and will have a sound cutoff when the candidates exceed the time limit or when they tell a lie knowingly.

I am one American patriot who will wait anxiously to see how Trump handles the mike sound issue. He and his MAGA cult followers already are saying the debates is rigged. Who knew?

Something tells me we might see more than our share of meltdowns as Trump seeks to lie his way past the silent mikes. Will it influence the end of this miserable campaign? I damn sure hope so.

political news

Stakes are um … huge!

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One week out and I am trying to recall the last time I looked forward to a presidential debate with such trepidation.

I cannot remember when that occurred. Maybe it never did.

President Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump will go toe-to-toe next week in the first of two planned joint appearances.

Biden and Trump are running neck-and-neck. Why is that? That’s beyond me. However, the polling suggests a photo finish this election cycle.

Here is my hope for a debate outcome.

My hope is that President Biden brings his “A” game. That he remains cool, calm and collected. That he reminds viewers of what lies ahead if voters are dumb enough to send the former numbskull in chief back to the Oval Office. That he reminds us that we cannot possibly elect convicted felon to the nation’s most glorious public office. That he tells us of the existential threat to our democracy if Trump is able to give Russian goon Vladimir Putin a free hand in his immoral invasion of Ukraine.

And that he just lets Trump zoom into orbit with his nonsensical rants about The Big Lie and how much “love” was shown during the violent assault on our Capitol on Jan. 6.

This debate could be the game changer that many of us hope occurs.

International news

Biden restores compassion to immigration

Joe Biden has been vilified unfairly by his critics for what they contend is the president’s so-called “open border policy” on immigration.

The president is seeking, as of today, to strengthen our borders while seeking also to treat immigrants with compassion. He issued an executive order that aims to give undocumented spouses of immigrants a greater pathway to US citizenship.

The Texas Tribune reports: “President Biden has consistently used his executive powers to create additional legal pathways for immigrants, and today’s joyous announcement will help keep many of these mixed-status American families together,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar said in a statement. Escobar is a national co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign and introduced legislation, the American Families United Act, that would offer similar protections for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.

What is in his plan? Biden wants to make it easier for so-called Dreamers to qualify for work authorization; undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens will have to have lived in the United States for10 years to qualify for the authorization; those who qualify can apply for a three-year work permit.

None of this smacks of an “open border” policy to my eyes.

One of the major beneficiaries of this policy are those who came here as children when their parents entered the country illegally. The United States is the only country they have known. However, many Republicans — such as Donald Trump — want to deport them immediately. The don’t give a damn about keeping families together, or allowing them to continue to prosper in the only country they have known.

Biden announces protections for undocumented spouses of citizens | The Texas Tribune

I refer here to Deferred Action on Childhood Arrival, an executive order issued by President Obama that aims to grant a form of amnesty to those US residents who came here as children. Obama left office in January 2017 and Trump threatened to deport them all. Then Trump got defeated in 2020 and Biden seeks to restore compassion to our immigration policy.

DACA recipients and their spouses deserve to be treated with kindness, not with blind anger.

crime news

‘No one is above the law’

No U.S. citizen is above the law … that includes former presidents of the United States or the direct family members of the current president.

Hunter Biden, the surviving son of President Biden, is guilty of three counts of violating federal law in the purchase of a firearm. He faces a potential prison term of 25 years if the federal judge who presided over the case sees fit.

Biden likely won’t get that stiff of a sentence. There appears to be a decent chance he will avoid any lockup time. If I were King of the World, I would dictate that Hunter Biden receive a lengthy probationary sentence. That would be within the judge’s sentencing guidelines. It works for me, as it remains faithful to the “no one is above the law” mantra.

As for the ex-POTUS, whom the New York jury convicted of 34 counts of campaign law violation for paying the adult film actress 130 grand to keep quiet about a tumble the two of them took, he faces a possible jail sentence as well.

I am willing to accept any punishment that the judge is preparing to hand out, although a big part of me wonders if Donald Trump is bellowing his way into some jail time by attacking the judge, the jury and the system itself. Has the criminal defendant shown any remorse? Hah!

Yep. No one is above the law.

crime news

DOJ isn’t anti-GOP … got it?

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Let us all just take a deep breath while pondering a key jury verdict … and then dispel this fu**ed-up notion that the US Department of Justice is being “weaponized” for use against Republican politicians.

Hunter Biden, the surviving son of Democratic President Joe Biden, has been convicted by a jury of three felony counts related to his purchase of a firearm while he was abusing drugs.

It was a federal case, meaning that DOJ prosecuted it. It’s the same DOJ run by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who this past week mounted a stern and forceful defense of his agency’s conduct.

“No one is above the law,” became the mantra of the DOJ as it prosecuted Hunter Biden. It was the same mantra followed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office achieved a conviction of Donald J. Trump on a hush money charge.

Will the Biden conviction silence DOJ’s critics? Will they ever acknowledge publicly what most of the rest of us know, that the AG takes seriously the oath he pledged to defend the Constitution?

I shall add that President Biden has declared that a pardon for his son will not occur. 

I should point out, too, that two more Democratic politicians — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — both have trials pending; they, too, are being prosecuted by the Justice Department.

This idea that jury verdicts are “rigged” and that the system is “corrupt” and “broken” just does not wash.

The only “rigging” that has occurred within the federal system has been done by the 45th POTUS, the purveyor of the Big Lie and the man who now stands before us as a convicted felon.

crime news

Pardon, or no pardon?

What is a man to do when he holds the highest office in the land and his son is facing possible prison time if he is convicted of a federal crime involving drugs and the purchase of a firearm?

Does he pardon the son …. or not?

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, might get a 25-year prison sentence if a jury convicts him on all counts stemming from his purchase of a gun while he was being treated for drug addiction. The issue, as I understand it, is whether he lied about the drug use when he bought the gun.

Meanwhile, Daddy Biden holds the exclusive power to pardon his son of all crimes by virtue of the office he occupies.

My own bit of unsolicited advice to the president? Don’t do it if Hunter escapes any prison time. For my money, I don’t think he will serve any time behind bars … but that’s just me.

Dad wants to be re-elected president at the end of the year. Do you remember the last high-profile presidential pardon and the impact it had on the results of that election? In 1976, President Ford was running for election. One month after taking office, in September 1974, he pardoned former President Nixon of all crimes associated with the Watergate scandal. That act likely destroyed Ford’s chances at election.

I cannot provide any counsel for what Joe Biden should do if his son is tossed into the slammer. That’s why we pay POTUS the big dough.

International news

Bibi is getting ‘fickle’?

No one ever should ascribe the term “fickle” to Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the fiery and ferocious prime minister of Israel.

He declared war on Hamas, the terrorists who on Oct. 7, 2023 launched the hideous rocket attack from Gaza into Israel. They killed more than 1,000 Israelis. Israel responded with a massive show of force that has killed many times more Gazans. Netanyahu’s stated aim is to “destroy Hamas.”

OK. But now the Israelis have a serious proposal to end the violence on the table. Bibi said it’s a non-starter, even though President Biden said late this past week that Israel had worked out the framework of a permanent peace deal with the United States and Hamas.

What gives?

I get that Netanyahu wants to destroy Hamas. I am with him fully. Hamas is a bloodthirsty terrorist organization whose sole intent is to destroy Israel. At what cost is Israel willing to go before declaring Hamas to be dead and buried?

The bloodbath cannot continue. My hope from afar is that Netanyahu can find it within himself to negotiate an end to this warfare and start cleaning up the damage that his country’s vaunted military has inflicted.

Joe Biden, national news

Yes, he will ‘leave’

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Robert DeNiro kinda got ahead of himself today when he launched into a highly emotional rant about the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor said that POTUS No. 45 “will never leave” if he’s elected president in 2024. He said it repeatedly.

Oops. Yeah, he will leave.

Here’s the deal that DeNiro has declined to acknowledge. POTUS 45 is 77 years of age, just a bit younger than President Joe Biden. No human being is immortal. No one! We all meet the same fate, which is that none of us gets out of here alive.

Sooner or later, the former Liar in Chief is going to croak. He’ll be gone. We won’t have this old man to kick around any longer. Eventually, it’ll happen. Eventually!

Do I wish that moment will arrive sooner rather than later? Hah! As my dear Mom used to say: I’ll give you three guesses … and the first two don’t count.