politics – Page 4

The Debate Over Whether Biden Should Debate

August 4, 2020 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

There is a political saying … “never get in the way of an incumbent who is digging his own grave.”

With Trump’s polling numbers getting worse by the day, the question many are asking is whether Joe Biden should agree to debate his opponent. The consensus among many political pundits seems to be that debates could only hurt Biden so why take the risk? Why give Trump a helping hand out of the deep hole he keeps digging for himself?

Former White House Press Secretary, Joe Lockhart, offered this advice to Obama’s VP, “Whatever you do, don’t debate Trump.” As he sees it, Trump “will take the truth and destroy it, and Biden will be in the position of correcting him over and over and over again. I don’t think he should give him that platform.”

Thomas Freidman of the New York Times writes, “Biden should declare that he will take part in a debate only if Trump releases his tax returns for 2016 through 2018.” This is Friedman’s way of saying there should be no debates. The odds of Trump, who has gone to extraordinary legal lengths to hide his returns, agreeing to release his tax filings conjures up an image of flying pigs.

On the flip side, some are saying Biden should definitely take on Trump.

Writing for Newsweek, Peter Roff observes, “We need to see as much of the candidates as we can … It would be refreshing to see them go head-to-head for an hour each time on a single topic, four picked by one campaign and four picked by the other. It’s a formula for a robust discussion that will get, hopefully, at what’s on the minds of the candidates and the American people.”

Elizabeth Warren wants her former rival to debate Trump. “I know that Joe Biden will show who he is, a man of both empathy and competence, and I’d like the American people to have a chance to see that,” said Warren.

If Biden skips the debates, he does not give Trump a platform to lie to the American people as he did in 2016. He takes away Trump’s chance of improving his lot. Those who are voting for Biden won’t hold it against him. And aren’t presidential debates just elaborate made-for-TV spectacles that rarely sway voters one way or the other? In this election, opinions of the two men are pretty much baked in.

If Biden agrees to debate, yes, he gives Trump the ability to spew a bunch of lies but he’ll also give him the opportunity of making a fool of himself. A cool Joe Biden would undoubtedly get under the thin-skinned “stable genius.” Could we be treated to a, “No puppet. No puppet. You’re the puppet” 2.0?

The bottom line is whatever Biden decides, it will be the right decision. He really can’t lose.

Photo | cnbc.com

Enough With The “What If Trump Refuses To Leave Office” Nonsense, OK?

July 25, 2020 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

Articles about the possibility of Trump refusing to leave office after a November defeat are seemingly everywhere. Bill Maher, on his HBO show, Real Time, has been warning about this scenario for some time. And now, after Trump’s interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace, we have renewed interest in the possibility that Trump might hole up in the White House after being voted out on Election Day.

“I have to see,” Trump answered Wallace’s direct question as to whether he will “accept the results of the election” win or lose.

Here’s the thing. It is not up to Trump to accept or reject the election results.

If he loses the vote, Trump will no longer be president as of January 20, 2021. Because the president immediately and automatically surrenders his constitutional authority when his term expires, he would lack the power to direct the U.S. Secret Service or other federal authorities to protect him.

Sure, if Trump could get away with refusing to leave the Oval Office, he undoubtedly would try. But he can’t.

Fred Kaplan, in an article for Slate.com, clearly explains what would happen after a Trump defeat:

On the dot of noon [January 20, 2021], the nuclear codes, which currently allow Trump to order and authenticate a nuclear attack, expire. The officer who has been following him around everywhere with the “football”—which, contrary to popular belief, is not a button or a palm print but rather a book filled with various launch codes—leaves. If Trump and whatever lackeys stay with him prevent the officer from leaving, another officer, holding a backup football, would join Biden at the inauguration ceremony.

By the same token, the entire U.S. military establishment will pivot away from ex-President Trump and salute President Biden. The principle of civilian control is hammered into American officers from the time they’re cadets—and the 20^thAmendment of the Constitution states, “The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20^th day of January”—no ifs, ands, or buts.

If Trump orders the military to do anything, they will refuse his order. If any officers obey his order—say, to circle the White House to keep him in power—they would certainly be tried and convicted on charges of mutiny and sedition, and they would know this before taking the leap.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service will abandon Trump, as they do every president whose term is up, except for a small detail assigned to protect him and his family for the rest of their lives.

Overseas, foreign leaders will cut off relations with the U.S. ambassadors in their capitals and await instructions from Biden or his acting secretary of state.

Meanwhile, Biden’s acting attorney general will have drawn up arrest warrants for Donald J. Trump and anyone who remains at his side on charges—at minimum—of criminal trespassing. If Trump calls on the armed forces or militias or the nation’s sheriffs to come defend him, he might also be charged with incitement or insurrection.

Yes, there are a lot of things to worry about each day Trump remains in the White House (especially between a November defeat and a January inauguration). But his refusing to leave office after a loss is not one of them.

Photo | inquisitir.com

Leader Of Mask-Less Covidiots Finally Dons Mask In Public

July 13, 2020 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

More than three months after health officials from his own government recommended all Americans cover their faces when social distancing was not possible, Donald Trump donned a mask in public.

Trump was pretty much “forced” to wear a mask while visiting wounded soldiers at Maryland’s Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week.

As he is the leader of the group many now refer to as the “Mask-Less Covidiots,” Trump made it clear to his followers this was a unique situation, implying we might not see such a common sense effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 coming from him again anytime soon.

“I think when you’re in a hospital, especially in that particular setting where you’re talking to a lot of soldiers and people that in some cases just got off the operating table, I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask,” Trump said. “I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place.”

According to nearly every healthcare professional, the “time and place” to wear masks in public is … always and everywhere! At least for the foreseeable future.

Even as the virus spreads once again out of control across the country, neither Trump nor Pence, who ostensibly heads the U.S. coronavirus response, feel it’s necessary to issue a federal mandate to wear masks in public. As Pence sees it, while wearing masks is a good idea, the White House wants to “defer to governors” on whether or not to order people to cover their faces in public!

Because of this inexcusable federal inaction, the Mask-Less Covidiots have been making their presence felt throughout the country, the most recent onslaught coming this past weekend at a grilled cheese bar and restaurant in Windemere, Florida.

Florida, the state that reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24-hours this past Sunday.

Of course, Florida, unlike some other states, does not have a statewide mask requirement as its governor, Ron DeSantis, is a loyal foot soldier in Trump’s Mask-Less Covidiots brigade.

Photo | abcnews.com/AP/patrick semansky

Trump Tosses Up Wilted Word Salad Enough To Make Mama Grizzly Green With Envy

June 13, 2020 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

Ugh?

Donald Trump, in a Fox News interview with Harris Faulkner, was asked what he thinks protesters across the country are demonstrating against following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.

“So I’m curious, from you, what do you think the protesters — not the rioters and the looters, we’re intelligent enough to know the difference in our culture, right? — what do you think they [protesters] want?” Faulkner asked Trump. “What do you think they need, right now, from you?”

Here is Trump’s answer, verbatim:

“Protesters for different reasons. You’re protesting also because, you know, they just didn’t know. I’ve watch — I watched very closely. Why are you here? They really weren’t able to say, but they were there for a reason, perhaps.

“But a lot of them really were there because they’re following the crowd. A lot of them were there because what we witnessed was a terrible thing. What we saw was a terrible thing. And we’ve seen it over the years. We haven’t, you know, this was one horrible example, but you’ve seen other terrible examples. You know that better than anybody who would know it. And I know it. I’ve seen it, too. I’ve seen it before I was president. I’ve seen it. I think it’s a shame. I think it’s a disgrace. And it’s got to stop.

“At the same time, you also know that we have incredible people in law enforcement that we have to cherish them and take care of them. And we can’t let something like this, we have a bad apple go out and, you know, destroy the image of a whole of millions of people that take really good care of us. And then you have a movement where they say, let’s not have a police department. And you say, where are these people coming from?”

Way back on Feb., 22, 2016, before he was “elected” president, Jennifer Rubin wrote an article in the Washington Post titled, “Trump’s word salads conceal his ignorance.”

Rubin went on to say, “Donald Trump demonstrated how maddeningly incoherent and inconsistent he can be. Listening to him over and over again, however, one begins to suspect this is an act to avoid close scrutiny.”

I’m sure if Ms. Rubin were to write such a piece today, with the benefit of hindsight, the headline might read, “Trump’s word salads reveal his utter ignorance and mental instability.”

Who would have ever thought Mama Grizzly, Sarah Palin, queen of the word salads, would one day be supplanted by Donald Trump, king of the mumbo jumbo!

Photo | sites.psu.edu

Coronavirus Reminds Us Once Again … There Is No Cure For Stupid

April 19, 2020 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

Remember the anti-Obama Tea Party movement, when thousands of crazies hit the streets protesting that communist plot … Obamacare?

It seems we are now in the midst of a relapse of that decade-old anti-government activism. Demonstrations are popping up in many places protesting the stay-at-home orders issued by state governors because of the coronavirus.

“They have a very Tea Party feel,” said Tea Party Express co-founder Sal Russo of the demonstrations.

So far, however, the protests have not been as big as the ones from the Tea Party days. But that could change rapidly as Trump and his favorite network, Fox News, support and encourage the demonstrators.

And just like with the Tea Party protests, we are witnessing stupidity, and illogic, at its highest level through signs the protestors are displaying.

Perhaps the most iconic, and dumbest, anti-Obamacare sign during the Tea Party days was the “Keep Government Out Of My Medicare! You Damn Socialists!”

Now we’re seeing signs such as “Give Me Liberty … Or Give Me Covid-19”

We have “Social Distancing = Communism.”

Then you have “That Face Mask You Were Duped Into Wearing Symbolizes You Losing Your Freedom Of Speech.”

Yet, among these wacky signs, you occasionally see one that actually hits on the real hardships brought about by the coronavirus lockdown orders.

My favorite one of these? “I need a haircut.”

Photo: pbs.twimg.com

Washington Post’s Max Boot … Trump Worst President. Ever.

April 5, 2020 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

On a day when conservative columnist Max Boot makes a persuasive case in the Washington Post for why Donald Trump is the worst president … ever, another writer, Becket Adams, in the Washington Examiner, writes how George W. Bush is gaining a “strange new respect.”

“The man who is held personally responsible for the state and local failures of Hurricane Katrina,” writes Adams, “ is enjoying some positive press this weekend following the publication of a report detailing his efforts as president to prepare the United States for a viral outbreak.”

Adams notes that, in 2005, Bush uttered, “If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare. And one day many lives could be needlessly lost because we failed to act today.”

If only the current occupant of the White House shared such respect for preparedness.

In the movie Airplane!, Lloyd Bridges plays the stressed-out air traffic controller who laments he picked the wrong week to give up amphetamines.

Unfortunately for the nation, in 2016, we picked the wrong time to elect the worst president. Ever.

Photo | chron.com

Coronavirus Proves Highly Resistant To Political Spin

March 15, 2020 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

Donald Trump knows only one way of handling a vexing problem … to knowingly downplay the situation and offer an alternative, biased interpretation of the “facts” in order to sway public opinion in his direction.

And so it was with the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Trump went from claiming the Democrats were making the coronavirus “their new hoax” to saying “it will go away.”

As the outbreak was worsening, Trump kept downplaying the potential for the virus to spread throughout the U.S., even suggesting without scientific evidence, that the number of cases would soon decrease.

At a news conference only 10 days ago, Trump said the number of cases “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”

“We’re going very substantially down, not up,” Trump added.

Of course, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. The number of confirmed infections, and deaths, only continues to increase.

As one might expect, and surveys bear out, Democrats take the gravity of this pandemic more seriously than do Republicans.

And, according to Jennifer Rubin, Republicans are doing so at their own peril.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “AM Joy”, the Washington Post conservative columnist said the daily drumbeat of misinformation coming from the White House and Fox News that has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic will likely lead to more deaths among Republicans than Democrats.

Taking aim at the Fox News propaganda machine, Rubin offered, “Here is a particular cruelty/irony that it is their core viewers, the Republican older viewers, who are the most at risk. And when you think about it, which party immediately canceled all of their rallies? Which party immediately started having their political figures really portray and use their lies as an example? It was the Democrats.”

Some may cynically wonder if this isn’t just another example of Darwin’s theory of evolution (survival of the fittest).

No matter how much Trump and his sycophants wish otherwise, the coronavirus pandemic is here; it is spreading. And like gravity, it’s a fact that can not be politically spun.

Photo | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

O’Donnell: “51% Of The Senate Defies 75% Of The People”

February 1, 2020 By John DeProspo Leave a Comment

Last night on MSNBC’s The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell talked about how it’s possible the Senate could defy the will of the people to hear witnesses at Trump’s impeachment trial. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, 75% of Americans favored the Senate allowing witnesses.

“When you’re watching the United States Senate on days like today, it’s always important to remember you’re not watching democracy in action,” said O’Donnell. “The Senate is now, always has been, and always will be an anti-democratic institution because the Senate does not represent people, the House represents people, that’s why it’s called the People’s House. The U.S. Senate represents land.”

“And because people are not evenly distributed over our land,” continued O’Donnell,” the 760,000 people of North Dakota get two United State senators and the 39 million people of California get two United States senators.”

“California gets 53 members in the House of Representatives and North Dakota gets one. And that is fair,” O’Donnell offered as an example of what democratic representation looks like.

O’Donnell took issue with the common refrain that yesterday’s Senate vote to block witnesses killed our democracy.

“American democracy didn’t die today. American democracy once again revealed its most serious structural flaw … the United States Senate.”

O’Donnell implored Democratic voters to concentrate on winning the United States Senate just as much as winning the presidency “and making our government more responsive to the will of the people … what a true democracy is supposed to represent.”

It should be noted that up until 1913, Senators were elected by state legislatures. The 17^th amendment to the Constitution changed all that by allowing direct votes by the people.

While revamping the Senate is a fantasy, wouldn’t it be nice if that other undemocratic and outdated institution, the Electoral College, were also reformed in favor of a direct, popular vote?

Photo | variety.com

Our Democracy Is Just A Frog In Slow Boiling Water

January 31, 2020 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

Our democracy is slowly slipping into fascism thanks to Trump and his Republican enablers. Will we realize we’re being cooked before it’s too late? Vote like the future of your country depends on it … because it does!

Photo | washington press/ occupy democrats

The Real Oath Senate Republicans Took Within Their Minds

January 29, 2020 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

The United States Senate likes to call itself “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” But as we are seeing with Trump’s impeachment trial, the only thing senators are doing is deliberately violating their oaths of office.

The Oath Act of June 1, 1789, was the first legislation passed by the Senate and the first law signed by President George Washington. It simply read: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

Following the Civil War, the Oath was amended several times to now read:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Besides the above oath taken by each senator-elect before assuming office, all 100 senators took the following special oath before the start of Trump’s impeachment trial:

“I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [Donald John Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.”

We all know, because some have actually told us, not all Republican senators will be living up to their sacred oaths to do impartial justice.

I’m guessing while mindlessly mouthing their prescribed oaths, these were the words that actually registered within their brains:

“I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump I will do all I can to exonerate him even though I will be presented with a mountain of incriminating evidence which will clearly show he violated his oath to the Constitution and laws: so help me my constituents.”

Of course, the more religious members of the Senate had their fingers crossed behind their backs while the impeachment oath was administered by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Photo | msnbc.com