Monday, November 02, 2020

As you get ready to go to the polls, remember to stay safe!

Also remember: Joe Biden was part of the administration that: · Ended the Great Recession · Killed Osama bin Laden · Ended pre-existing condition clauses and brought affordable healthcare to more than 20 million Americans. · Created more jobs in the last 3 years of their administration than Trump did in the first 3 years of his. Trump’s administration: · Ignored Coronavirus and allowed unprecedented numbers of Americans to die from Covid-19 · Brought us the Even Greater Recession · Legitimized North Korea and got nothing in return and then Empowered Iran’s Nuclear Arms Buildup · Is in court trying to end protections for preexisting conditions and to take away affordable healthcare from 20 million Americans. · Lost more jobs in the last year of his administration than were created the first 3 years.

Trump’s FAKE economy.

As you get ready to vote, it’s reasonable to look at the facts about Trump’s legacy. And foremost, Republicans want you to believe he had, until Coronavirus, an economic record to brag about. That may not be so true. And given his horrendous response to Covid-19, it’s fair to include that disaster in his record as well. But first, let’s consider his results for the Pre-Coronavirus years. Even pre-pandemic, the only thing extraordinary about what Trump accomplished is the misleading rhetoric from Trump and Republicans to convince you he accomplished anything special. Let’s look and see why that’s true. Trump inherited a growing economy in recovery. But, his supporters argue, he took a tepid recovery and gave it gas. Maybe, but how much gas? Not much, it turns out. In the last 3 years of the Obama administration more jobs were created than in the first 3 years under Trump. If you factor in the pandemic, which is fair since Obama dealt with Flu pandemics and Ebola---he just handled them better---there would not even be a comparison to make! BUT, we will leave out 2020---for now. Economic growth? Obama averaged 2.3 %, Trump 2.5 %. Obama promised nothing but to turn the country around---and he did. Trump promised 4% growth and missed BIGLY! Now, before Covid, Trump had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. Amazing you say! Well, when he took over form Obama the unemployment rate was 4.7%. Down another 1.2---not so amazing, after all, at least not compared to Obama/Biden. Obama/Biden took over a rate that was still going up because of the Great Recession and would hit 10% soon after Obama came into office. He brought it down to 4.7%---now that’s amazing! Stock and income growth, similar under both presidents. I say similar because they actually are better under Obama, but he did what Republicans never do---got us out of recession, not into one! But that tends to give your numbers a boost because they are coming from a downturn. We are seeing that now because Trump was crowing about 2020’s 3rd quarter growth, but it was only so high because of the great Trump Virus Contraction and Recession of the second and third quarters. Which he is now extending thanks to his complete inability to deal with the ongoing crisis. But here is why Trump’s economy is really FAKE NEWS. Because to get what little he got---he piled on the debt, another $2 trillion! And what did we get for that $2 trillion? Did Trump fix our roads and bridges as he promised? NO. A new, better, cheaper health care plan, that Trump promised? NO. A wall funded by Mexico? NO. Funded by us? YES, but only a little piece because we weren’t supposed to pay for it and don’t have the money for it---in fact he stole what we’ve paid so far form our military budget. We got nothing that Trump promised. But what we did get for the $2 trillion---is our rich got richer, our corporations paid little taxes and blew through all the excess gains by raising their stock prices, lining their pockets and when the pandemic hit---they were broke, unprepared, with nothing saved for a tough time and then they---begged for government socialist handouts! And drove up the deficit even more! That’s why Trump’s economy is all FAKE NEWS. He didn’t do any better than anyone else. He started with a head start form Obama/Biden that most administrations never have the luxury of starting from. Certainly, Obama/Biden didn’t---they started with the previous Republican administration’s Great Recession. Trump didn’t deliver any of the desperately needed infrastructure improvements, he didn’t deliver a better, cheaper health plan, or ANY health plan and yet he took Obamacare to court and is trying to end its coverage and its protections! THINK ABOUT THAT. He didn’t even deliver on his global promises. While the results of his trade deals are still on hold because of the pandemic, it is worth noting that neither Trump nor his supporters seem to understand how tariffs work? China doesn’t pay the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on imported products. They get paid by U.S companies that import the items when they enter the U.S.. often, these companies then pass the costs of tariffs on to customers----us---by way of higher prices. Or they don’t—and they eat the costs and have lower profits. But CHINA MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT PAYING THE TARIFFS! However you look at it, the Trump economy pre-Covid was a very, very expensive, very, very mediocre economy. Now, we can factor in 2020. The United States has the worst response to the pandemic of any leading nation---or just about any nation—period. Worse death rate, worse spread, longest downturn, hardest hit economy. That’s on the Trump administration and it’s ineffective first response (downplay the virus and ignore it) followed by its awful continued response (continue to let people spread the disease, and tell everyone how great we are doing while our infection rate and death rate is a modern health catastrophe). Think about all of this---the facts---the truth---as you get ready to safely #Vote2020. We can turn this around. We can fix this. There is a reason Joe Biden and Democrat Senate candidates are all leading by huge numbers in the polls. Because the American voters know that our lives and our country’s future, depends on this election. #Vote2020

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The Politicization of the Supreme Court is a Mistake and History Will Not Be Kind.

Up until relatively recently The Supreme Court has been handled in a reasonable way. The court worked and remained in balance. That changed when Republicans decided to break our constitution and throw it in the trash. I am of course speaking too their nonsense rationale for not holding hearings and seeding Obama's appointee, Maryland, in the last year of his presidency. There is nothing in the constitution to back up they are refusing to hold hearings. The constitution explicitly states that the president appoints and the Senate hold hearings and seat. Mitch McConnell and his Republican gang, hewing closely To the methods of Vladimir Putin the thug who helped elect Donald Trump, The GOP abandoned patriotism and the constitution Of course that wasn't McConnell’s only shredding of the constitution. As Donald Trump pointed out during the first debate with Joe Biden, There were a lot of open judge seats in the federal courts that he got to fill. Trump actually blamed Obama for leaving the seats empty. But of course, everyone knows that McConnell's Senate refused almost every appointee Obama put up for the court. Less particularly unpatriotic Republican controlled Senate has been shocking its responsibilities and spitting on the constitution for the last 10 years. This is particularly calling when the administration they serve is once again voted in by the minority of photos an the population of the states these senators represent represents a minority of Americans. Now, in a bid to control the highest court for decades to come they seat an appointee, on a completely partisan basis with the lowest Senate vote count in the last 100 years, from an unpopular president with only a week to go before the election. It should come as no surprise that the most unqualified judges sitting on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas and now Barrett were appointed by Republicans. Republicans are not interested and good jurisprudence. They are interested in appointing young ideologues who will tow the party line. experience on the bench tends to moderate extremist views and so we have a couple of judges who spent almost no time on the bench. And so it will come to pass, thanks to Trump's Virus (In all fairness to the Coronavirus, It's only Trump's virus in the United States where he allowed it to run rampant), and Trump's Great Recession, that just like after George W Bush’s Great Recession before it , the country will inevitably vote in Democrats to fix the mess that was made by a Republican administration voted in by the minority of voters.

You May Have Heard---An Election is Coming.

Sure, there are many reasons to fear this election because of the results in 2016. But let's actually consider that. Trump won with a minority of votes because of the quirkiness of the Electoral College. He could do it again, but let's understand that there is no silent majority voting for Trump. He's not more popular and he never had a majority. So, next to consider, does he have the support he had in the past? Well, while a lot of people who voted for him have made it clear that they’re going to vote for him again, there are a lot of people who say they voted for him and that they're not going to vote for him this time. A lot of Republicans are being very vocal and in-your-face about that! The real question about the election for Trump, is did he convert anyone over to his side since the election? What policies would have brought people to him? Would his impotent handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to die, be a particularly popular selling point to move over to the Trump camp? How about his embrace of dictators while insulting our allies? Do we think that would bring a lot of people over to the Trump camp? Does his support of those malevolent leaders even when they put bounties on our own soldiers lives, really help him? Or when those thugs continue to ignore international law and build up their nuclear capabilities while expressing their love for Trump---do we think that really sways undecideds? There is Trump's attempt to get rid of Obamacare and the guarantees for pre-existing conditions that come with it, without crafting any sort of workable health care plan to replace it. This also carries with it the promise of putting millions of working Americans back on the list of the uninsured. Do we think that's a good selling point? How about the way he took Obama's recovery and while extending it, also added $2 trillion to the national debt? And what did we actually get for that $2 trillion of additional debt? Such a weak economy that it collapsed as soon as the pandemic hit. And as the rest of the world weathered the storm, we didn't even mount a response as coherent much less comprehensive, as all the other developed countries…. And yet they were able to bounce back from their closures, while our economy is still damaged and losing jobs and our country is STILL dealing with a raging pandemic. (New record number of cases just this past Friday). So, what exactly would bring people to Trump who haven't already been there? And if he kept most of the people who voted for him without keeping all of them, that doesn't leave things looking too good for him in 2020. And if the disaster that was the Trump Administration brings out more voters then we saw last election, it would seem likely that most of that motivation will be for people to get rid of him. This is not 2016. The polling back then was actually all within the margin of error and in fact most of the things that said Hillary would win were simply based too much on the nation and not enough on the Electoral College. Now pollsters are taking that seriously into account. Everyone is watching the states though the mood of the nation is also relevant. There are a lot of reasons why Trump won but they had to do with a lot of factors that are not in play this time around. It looks like this time, rather than being swayed by Russian bots that told them that Hillary did bad things and then being complacent because the polls said she would win anyway, this time the public will come out and vote to repudiate failure and hatred. And if all goes as it should polls look as if the voters will take Trumps enablers in the Senate down with him. We are not in the clear in 2020. The Russians are still cheating for Trump. Republicans have kept the pandemic raging to help them suppress the vote they knew they weren't going to get because they handled the pandemic so poorly in the first place. But there are signs that the electorate will correct the disastrous mistakes of 2016 and elect a government that can begin to fix he mess Republicans have, once again, made of the country.