rubber soul

BARACK OBAMA (PART 2)


Election of 2012: There was no doubt Obama would win re-nomination and it was thought he would have a decent chance to win the general against the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Romney, a moderate Republican not unlike McCain, had no trouble winning the nomination but still had to deal with infighting from the more conservative elements like Newt Gingrich which, by now, had the most control over the GOP.

And Romney, despite having come from a political family, had his own drawbacks. He twice made major gaffes, once in the primaries and once in the general. During the primaries, his manager made the mistake of admitting he would change his language to a much more moderate tone in the general election but had to sound like a religious conservative (Romney is, in fact, a Mormon), in order to get nominated. Thus, Romney came off as ingenuine.

The bigger gaffe came in the general campaign though in his infamous 47% speech. There, he essentially accused 47% of the electorate of expecting entitlements. This was more or less the nail in the coffin for Romney.

And, despite a near disastrous first debate, Obama recovered with the next two and Hurricane Sandy proved to be the October Surprise New Jersey certainly didn’t want, but it paid great dividends for Obama, who didn’t think twice about giving the devasted Jersey shore aid.

And, while Obama didn’t win by as large a margin as he had in 2008, the victory was solid nevertheless. Romney would move to Utah and get elected Senator there and become the Republican voice of reason (and against Trump) after McCain died in 2018.



Second Term: Before Obama was even sworn in for his second term, a mentally disturbed teenager entered an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut and fired an automatic weapon killing twenty children and six adults. Needless to say, the second term would begin with a plea for gun reforms which would again fall on deaf ears in a gun crazy country. Obama would again be forced to work with a House that was extremely hostile to him, and a couple of government shutdowns would be one of the results. Only a good working relationship with Speaker John Boehner would save the US from what was being called the fiscal cliff in 2013.

Even his foreign policy would be seen as less than perfect as he proverbially dared Syria to cross a red line. When they did, the US virtually did nothing.

Obama took a tougher stance against Russia when Putin invaded and took the Crimea. While he couldn’t get involved militarily for obvious reasons (Russia has the bomb), he could impose sanctions against the country, which he did fairly quicky. Relations between Putin and Obama soured to say the least and it may have had an effect on the Russian meddling in the 2016 election (Putin was even less of a Hillary Clinton fan).

What Obama couldn’t get done through legislative means (and very little legislatively would be accomplished), he did through executive actions. More than any President before him he used this process to accomplish many of the things he wanted to do such as requiring background checks for gun purchasers at gun shows, and severely reducing carbon emissions from power plants. He also used the bully pulpit in support of gay marriage, something that the Supreme Court would (at least temporarily for now) affirm.

He used his veto power sparingly but when he did, he was very effective. Several times, the Republicans tried to overturn the Affordable Care Act and it eventually would go to the Supreme Court only to be saved by Chief Justice John Roberts of all people. Obama also threatened vetoes on other bills being considered, thus, the bills would either be rejected or modified where Obama found it acceptable to sign.

He also used the power of the pardon with more frequency than previous presidents. He was an advocate of criminal reform and as such, he pardoned 212 people and commuted more than 1700 sentences, the majority of which were long sentences for drug crimes.

And, by 2016, the economy was booming, people were beginning to realize that Obamacare wasn’t so bad after all, and Obama knew how to communicate with the public much in the same way Reagan had three decades earlier. Plus, all and all, he was a pretty cool guy.

So, despite a rancoring cry for change being in the air for whatever reason, Obama himself left office as the most popular President since Reagan, especially when they knew who was coming next.

Post Presidency: Obama, for the most part has gone into private life though he still makes occasional television appearances, often making fun of himself. He has stayed out of the political arena for the most part, though he supported Biden’s campaign in 2020, even appearing with him in a TV interview. He also would be critical of Donald Trump and his followers in general.

And yet he continues to have hope for the nation and the world. His wife, Michelle Obama, has been touted as a potential Presidential Candidate in 2024, but she has been resistant up to this point, Hillary Clinton she is not.

One thing is for certain, with the upheavals of the United States over the past six years, many of us sure miss Barack Obama.

Odd notes: Obama is a good athlete but a lousy bowler

Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize despite doing absolutely nothing to deserve it. Even Obama was shocked.

Final Summary: There was no doubt that Barack Obama was ready to be President, and, in a different era, he would have been one of the greats.

But let’s face it, America really wasn’t ready for a non-white President. No one, and I mean no one, got as much crap thrown at him as Obama had from the birther movement (If he had been a white guy with a Hungarian father, would anyone had cared?), the Tea Party, and other “Pro-American” groups. The Republicans, with few exceptions (two of them being his political opponents McCain and Romney), were so hostile, it’s amazing they didn’t try to have him impeached (luckily, being a black progressive isn’t an impeachable offense- yet).

And yet, despite the unnecessary roadblocks, Obama managed to be a successful President. Will his policies stand the test of time? Well, that remains to be seen and that is ultimately up to us Americans, not him. In the meantime, we do have the ACA, gays can now get married (for now anyway), there are more stringent background checks if you want to purchase a gun and, for a brief time anyway, we felt like there really was hope in this country.

And yes, that feeling of hope was brief, thanks mostly to Donald Trump and his deplorables, but hope has risen before. We thought hope was all lost after King and RFK were shot, but it rose again with Clinton (yes even Bill Clinton) and, to an extent, Jesse Jackson. We lost hope again after 9/11 and then Iraq but then came Obama.

And, you know what, if we can survive Putin and the craziness that is being promised for the next few years, hope will again rise from the ashes.

Because as long as people like Barack Obama are around, hope can never die.

Overall rating: B+

https://millercenter.org/president/obama

__________________

The Batlord

You don't have to lie for the guy. It didn't ensure **** and was at the center of Republican grievances until Trump came along.

__________________

rubber soul

It was the best he could do considering there were also Democrats that opposed universal health care.

Have any nice things to say about Trump? he's next

__________________

The Batlord

He might annihilate the Republican Party.

__________________

rubber soul

45.DONALD TRUMP (I'm the greatest)




Born: June 14, 1946, New York, New York
Died: he won’t go away

Term: January 20, 2017- January 20, 2021
Political Party: Republican

Vice President: Mike Pence

First Lady: Melania Knauss Trump

Before the Presidency: Donald Trump was the son of real estate mogul Fred Trump and he grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Queens, New York. He is said to have been difficult to deal with growing up. His father, thus, sent Donald to the New York Military School where he seemed to enjoy the military drills. However, joining the military was the last thing on Donald’s mind as he was able to get out of the Vietnam Draft with college and medical deferments and, finally, a high draft number.

Trump majored in business at Fordham before transferring to the Real Estate program at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1968 and returned to the family business in New York.

In the seventies, while the Trump family eyed real estate investments all over the US, Donald kept his interests closer to home. He invested in Manhattan skyscrapers and founded the Trump Organization and made himself President with his father as Chairman. By the end of the decade Trump was already beginning to become a household name.

Trump followed in his father’s footsteps and developed vast political connections from both parties, all with the intent to get tax breaks for his businesses. And he continued to expand, building Trump Plaza, the Trump Tower, in Manhattan. Later in the 1980s, he would get involved in the Casino business in Atlantic City and seemingly half the casinos were named after him from a second Trump Plaza to the Trump Taj Mahal. He also was seen as a major player in the failed USFL Football League as owner of the New Jersey Generals.

Trump, though, overplayed his hand a bit, and after lenders cracked down on his unusual financial practices, he was forced to sell part of his empire and had to live on a budget for a time.

But if Donald Trump was ever good at anything, it was in reinventing himself. He finagled his debts for decades before the gambling empire finally crumbled by the mid-2010s. Despite this, he stayed in the public spotlight through a scandalous second marriage that seemed to help his image more than not, a controversial stint as owner of the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants, and even being the subject of a how to book known as the Art of the Deal.

And then, Donald Trump broke into show business. In 2004, with the help of Survivor producer Mark Burnett, he hosted a TV reality show called the Apprentice. In this program, Trump basically played himself as a CEO and would revel at telling contestants they were fired. It became a huge ratings success and it only ended after Trump announced his candidacy for President.

So, in the classic tradition of being able to get anything you want as long as you’re filthy rich to begin with, Trump, by 2015, had owned at least a dozen golf resorts and eight hotel properties in the United States alone, plus various real estate holdings throughout the world. He was said to be at least $650 million in debt. With that in mind, he would simply respond, “I love debt.”

So, now we know a little about Donald Trump, the businessman, but what about Donald Trump the politician? Well, while never really active directly, he had switched parties on a number of occasions and even considered a run on the Reform Party ticket for President in 2000. He even supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Senate. But until Obama’s second term at least, he seemed content on promoting himself by way of the Apprentice.

But being a TV reality star wasn’t enough to soothe Trump’s oversized ego, so he ventured into the political arena and jumped head first into the birther movement demanding that Obama prove he was actually born in the United States (Apparently, a write up in the Honolulu paper from 1961 was fake news). Trump backed off a little after Obama showed his birth certificate, but he was far from done. He developed feuds with various celebrities, notably Rosie O’Donnell, and kept in the news as he kept people guessing as to if he would actually run for President.

On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President.

Summary of offices held: Well, he did own the New Jersey Generals of the USFL and ran the Miss USA pageant. He also hosted the Apprentice on NBC from 2004-2015.



What was going on: Mass shootings, Covid outbreak, Black Lives Matter

Scandals within the administration: The whole Trump administration was a scandal from Michael Flynn, the Russian hacking scandal, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Trump’s Godfather tactics with Ukraine trying to find dirt on Biden (first impeachment), and, of course, the denial he lost re-election that led to the Capitol Insurrection (second impeachment that even got a few Republican votes)

Why he was a good President: Look, he wasn’t, period, okay?

Why he was a bad President: Oh, God, where do I start? He practically did nothing beyond promoting himself. His White House was perhaps the most dysfunctional in history. The few he appointed that wanted to do right were quickly fired so Trump could be surrounded by only yes men. He nearly alienated all our allies even calling Denmark’s female President nasty because she refused to sell him Greenland.

And, of course, there was Covid, which he bungled by simply denying it even harbored a health threat. A million deaths later and the ex-President is now urging people to get vaccinated after seeing his base slowly dwindling.

And, most egregious of all, he all but instigated the January 6th insurrection. Yeah, he did the most for this country since Abraham Lincoln all right.

What could have saved his Presidency: It would have been nice if he had simply used some common sense. I mean, who else would have suggested bleach as a cure for Covid?

What could have destroyed his Presidency: At the risk of being publicly executed if Trump or DeSantis do end up in the White House, there really isn’t much to salvage from this disaster of the Presidency, and of the man himself.

Election of 2016: Trump, as per his M-O, made his grand entrance on an elevator at Trump Tower with his wife, Melania, to announce his candidacy. No one especially took it very seriously, after all, he was just a pompous reality star, right?

But as 2015 came to a close, it was obvious that Trump was getting interest from a sector of the party that felt ignored, mainly less affluent whites who couldn’t understand that the biggest problem was themselves. Trump knew this and exploited it to no end as he railed against immigration in particular saying we would build a wall and Mexico would have to pay for it. It looked like Trump would garner some popularity as an underdog much the same way outsiders like Rick Santorum and Herman Cain had before him.

But Trump was running against 16 other Republicans including Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Mark Rubio, seen as the early front runner. With so many candidates and with a very large pocketbook, Trump actually had a fighting chance.

Trump won the New Hampshire primary in a field with no clear cut favorite, and while he didn’t garner a large number of delegates initially, he stayed in the first tier. Even then, the Republican establishment didn’t take him very seriously.

But they also didn’t properly gauge the anger at the group they too had most exploited, the white working class. For decades, they had appealed to their darker, racist, tendencies in order to maintain power never thinking that it may one day backfire on them.

And backfire it did with Donald Trump being the fuse. Trump managed to humiliate Rubio out of the contest and got away with suggesting Ted Cruz’ father had something to do with the Kennedy Assassination. If anyone dared criticize him in the press, he simply dismissed it as fake news. His followers, some of whom would respond much the same way brown shirts would react to outsiders in pre-Nazi Germany, lapped it up. Even a desperately late stop Trump movement by Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich couldn’t stop the momentum and Trump was reluctantly nominated in a rather lavish convention all arranged by Trump himself.

The Democrats were, of course, salivating, figuring this buffoon would be the easiest win since LBJ over Goldwater and, had someone more likable been nominated, that very well may have been so.

But the Democrats, already experts at taking defeat from the jaws of victory, did it again. For, Hillary Clinton was again demanding her coronation and this time there wouldn’t be a Barack Obama to stop her. Indeed, Obama was secretly endorsing her as he convinced Biden, who had tragically lost his son to cancer that year, not to run. With little competition in the form of Conservative Democrat James Webb, Former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, and avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton seemingly had a clear run at the nomination.

But there was an element that was equally frustrated with the Democratic Party. They certainly loved Obama, but they despised Hillary. But who could be the alternative?

Enter Bernie Sanders. Like Trump, he was brusque at best, but unlike Trump, whose detractors certainly saw him as an unstable egomaniac at best, Sanders was seen as a well meaning curmudgeon. And, indeed, Sanders fascinated the younger voters in particular with his strong sense of idealism, threatening as it may have been to the Capitalist establishment.

But it’s quite likely Hillary Clinton had it rigged in her favor early on. The DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was a Hillary Clinton lapdog and she did everything she could to make the road as rocky for Sanders as possible. She found a way to deny Sanders access to a list of Democratic voters over a minor misstep. She reinstated the access after a large uproar by the public.

Despite the roadblocks, Sanders proved to be formidable, winning New Hampshire and staying within range until Clinton won the California primary. Only then did Sanders concede and then only with some guarantees of a more even playing field for the next election cycle.

So, we were stuck with Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump for the General election or, as the creators of South Park put it, a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. In other words, America was screwed.

And it was an ugly campaign to be sure, mainly from Trump’s end. Some of his rallies became violent. Any woman that crossed his sights was referred to as nasty. And an E-mail scandal involving Clinton was brought to light- by the Russians. It was obvious early on that Putin was supporting Trump behind the scenes, Trump was even publicly encouraging it. Finally, FBI director James Comey put the final nail in Clinton’s coffin when he announced, just before Election Day, that he would reinvestigate the E-mails. He backed off on the statement just before the election but by then it was too late.

In what would be considered one of the biggest upsets in American History, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and half of America mourned what was expected to be the end of the United States as we knew it.

And James Comey would get fired by Trump anyway.

First term: Trump clearly expected his Presidency to play out much like his reality show. He had his Press Secretary brag about the record crowds at his inauguration which was actually only sparsely attended, many of the spectators actually being protestors. Indeed, about the only legislative agenda he had on his mind in 2017 was his attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, something that would finally fail when Senator McCain surprisingly went against the party when it was obvious there would be no replacement. It also became obvious early on that you didn’t dare disagree with the Donald or he would condemn you on his Twitter feed and you’d hear the wrath from his hypnotized supporters.
He scared aides early on when he would ask questions such as “why can’t we use the nuclear weapons?”. He also had to answer to an investigation that the Russians meddled in the election on behalf of Trump. And, of course, he simply dismissed it as fake news.

The other domestic issue was on immigration. Trump did indeed attempt to procure funds to build the wall between Mexico and the US, but he would only get mixed results. And it was obvious that whatever the US did, Mexico wasn’t going to pay for it. More cruelly, and with the advice of his neo-Nazi advisor, Stephen Miller, he signed off on a policy to separate children from their parents when they crossed the US border. This amounted to cruelty that went even beyond the Japanese Internment Camps of the 1940s.

Yes, basically, Donald Trump was, and is, a cruel man, and his followers seemed to get off on it. The people Hillary Clinton once called deplorables felt enabled and would violently counterprotest such as with the protest in Charlottesville to bring down the statue of Robert E. Lee. That protest ended tragically after a woman was run over by a white supremacist. Trump, when pressured for a response, simply noted there were good people on both sides. Well, no one accused him of being a politician.

By 2018, and with only a controversial tax cut for the wealthy as his lone accomplishment, Trump’s numbers, though wildly divided between the parties, was at an all time low overall. And that reflected in the midterms as the Democrats took the House. Thanks to numbers that favored them, the Republicans would be able to hang into the Senate and that would enable Trump to shift the Supreme Court to the far right by the end of his term.

By 2019, the Trump Administration seemed to be in rare form as subordinates from the Vice President on down would publicly praise him as if he were a great emperor. Indeed, Trump wanted to run the US as an emperor and admired strongmen such as Kim-Jong Un and especially Vladimir Putin. He also had re-election on his mind and surmised that his toughest opponent would be Joe Biden.

So, he took a page from Nixon and tried to strongarm Ukrainian President Zelensky to find dirt on Biden’s son. Apparently, Hunter Biden had worked for a company and spent some time in the Ukraine. When Trump held back promised military equipment, even the Republicans took notice. It was also the smoking gun Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reluctant up until then, needed to approve impeachment proceedings, thus, Donald Trump became the just the third President to be impeached, and the third to be acquitted, though this time, one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, had the guts to vote for removal.

Indeed, it looked like the Trump Presidential Reality Show was a great success even as the country was crumbling all around him. But a foe much worse than Joe Biden would stop the Trump Dynasty in its tracks. For a virus, likely originated in China, would plague the entire globe.

Originally called the Corona Virus (Now known as Covid), it began affecting the US in February 2020. It accomplished two things initially. One, it turned the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, into a household name, it also turned the US into a mask wearing nation for the first time in its history, something that previously only seemed to happen in China.

Of course, the US wasn’t ready for this devastating illness that would eventually kill more than a million Americans. President Trump, worried about a Wall Street crash hurting his election chances more than people dropping dead like flies, did very little on the onset, saying the virus would go away. When it was obvious the virus wouldn’t go away, Trump would lash out at reporters and expect gratitude whenever equipment was sent to certain states such as New York, which was especially hit hard in the early going. Indeed, it became a war between those who supported mask wearing mandates and those who thought wearing a mask was something comparable to a Communist plot.

The other great divide in 2020 started in Minneapolis when four policemen, with onlookers with smartphones witnessing, brought down an African American man named George Floyd. One policeman pressed against Floyd’s neck with his knee. Floyd could be seen begging for his life as he complained he couldn’t breathe but the cops wouldn’t relent. Ten minutes later, Floyd was dead, and the nation was awash in mostly peaceful and biracial protests.

Of course, that didn’t stop the MAGA crowd. There would be violent counter protests as one man was decked by a cop in Buffalo for example. Trump himself, infamously, had the Army clear out a peaceful protest at Lafayette Square so he could do a photo op at a local church. And this, all with Covid going on.

Needless to say, Trump wasn’t going to have an easy time winning election, but he did have hope. The Democrats had a knack at screwing things up after all and it honestly didn’t look all that good for them in the Congress this election.

And anyway, Trump couldn’t possibly lose.

Unless it was legitimate, of course.

__________________

rubber soul

DONALD TRUMP (PART 2)


Election of 2020: Despite his obvious unpopularity, Trump was practically anointed as the nominee by the Republican Party, now pretty much in his image. The only real question now was who he would face in the general election. We’ll cover how the Democrats got to their decision in the Biden bio but suffice it to say, that the 77 year old Biden would be his net foil to destroy.

It certainly didn’t make for a popularity contest given that both men were more than ready for the retirement home, but at least Biden promised a return to basic decency, something that was clearly lacking in the Trump era.

Of course, Covid was the overriding issue and, while Biden insisted on wearing a mask and expected his audience to do the same, plus some infrequent and awkward political rallies where people honked from their cars, Trump continued to go on with his unprotected rallies where the Covid spread and some people died, notably, former Presidential candidate Herman Cain. He contacted the virus at the controversial rally in Oklahoma and was dead within two weeks.

Somehow, despite all that, Trump stayed within striking distance of Biden and proclaimed that either he would win the election or if he didn’t, it would be because of fraud. This, of course, would set up some near catastrophic events later, but it also made the Biden camp desperate not only to win, but to do it in such a landslide that Trump would have no cause to dispute the outcome.

And in any other election, Biden probably would have won in a landslide, but Trump was the Anti-Christ at last. He continued to stumble as he finally contracted Covid in October. He recovered thanks to an experimental drug cocktail and went on to make an idiot of himself at the debate with Biden who finally told him to “Shut up, man.”

But White Americans in particular still were transfixed by this second coming and the election was still in doubt. Indeed, it would take several days before the networks declared Pennsylvania, and thus, the election to Biden. He also pulled off close wins in Michigan, Wisconsin, and of all places, Arizona, and Georgia.

Needless to say, Trump didn’t take the loss well as he accused the states of fraud without any proof. He challenged the results in all the five states mentioned even going as far as ordering an investigation from the Attorney General. It didn’t help Trump much though when even AG Barr said the election was legitimate. So did Republican Secretaries of State in Arizona and Georgia, Georgia’s Secretary especially taking a hit with death threats and the like. Lawyers filed countless lawsuits in an attempt to overturn the election; they all failed, even with the Trump supporters. In the end, even the Supreme Court, now loaded with Trump appointees, saw nothing wrong with how the election was conducted. It was obvious to all, like it or not, that Biden won legitimately.

But that wouldn’t be enough for Donald Trump. He didn’t like it when he didn’t get his way, so he would find some other way to stay President.

January 6, 2021: While Trump’s legal teams began to crumble under the weight of the preposterous challenges (some left Trump outright), he developed his own team of sympathizers who had no problem with their own right from outer space challenges. Once respected New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani held a press conference at the Four Seasons… Landscaping Company to announce a challenge to the Pennsylvania count. In a second news conference, Giuliani would be ridiculed when his dye job seemed to melt all over his face.

There were some other crackpots creating challenges such as wannabe lawyer Sidney Powell who came up with her own conspiracies in Georgia along with Lin Wood, previously famous for having represented Richard Jewell in the Atlanta Olympics bombing. And there were others as well as Trump urged his followers to protest the election results themselves. Meanwhile, Trump’s many challenges continued to fail, and he was also unable to get enough people to help overturn the election in the swing states, any of them.

So, January 6, 2021, came around. That was the day the Congress would certify the election in Biden’s favor. Trump desperately tried to get Vice President Pence to decertify the election, but he said he could not do so Constitutionally (he was right). Thus, after all the brown nosing Pence did for four years was for naught as he was now a traitor for standing up to his principles for once.

Another interesting player in the matter was disgraced General Mike Flynn, who suggested imposing martial law so the Nation could have a do-over and declare Trump the winner, you know, like they do in third world countries. Trump even tried to get advice from the My Pillow guy who had his own bizarre ideas. You think the Apprentice got good ratings before? Trump would have had the hit show of the millennium with this bunch.

Anyway, on January 6, Congress convened to certify the election officially. A handful of Republican Senators and Representatives would challenge certain states and the process was expected to go late into the night.

In the meantime, Trump had appealed to his followers to hold a major rally in Washington on that day and indeed they came, thousands of them in fact. Trump even urged them to march on the Capitol. What could possibly go wrong?

There were signs this would not be a peaceful protest early on as alt-right wing groups such as the Proud Boys were suggesting a siege on the Capitol Building itself. It seemed to fall on deaf ears though and the tragic events of that day were about to unfold.

It started off eerily from the beginning. Rallies were held throughout the city, notably by Giuliani and Donald Trump, Jr., neither of who seemed to advocating non-violence.

But the big moment was with Donald Trump himself, who made a public appearance, imploring the protestors to march on the Capitol saying he would even join them. He also condemned Pence for not overturning the election and had more or less turned against him.

As it was, Trump would not join them as the Secret Service had other ideas. Trump instead would be reduced to rooting for the carnage on TV from the Oval Office. As for the mob, the siege began about an hour after Trump made his appearance and it slowly made it’s way into the biggest news event since 9/11. A bunch of right wingers were about to attempt to overthrow the United States. Local police they had professed to support were now being attacked, several would lose their lives in the process. Congresspeople and Senators could be seen running down the halls as the mob descended on them. People were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was ransacked. The circus had come to town and people were begging for the clown show to stop.

And all the while, despite pleas from everyone from the Vice President to even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the National Guard would not be called in for hours. When they finally did arrive, the siege began to recede and the Congress was able to complete its business that night, with a few shell-shocked Republicans even backing off on the recount ruse.

And Trump would become the first President in history to be impeached twice, this time even with a few Republicans other than Romney voting for conviction (though not enough to convict the now former President).

Post Presidency: Trump refused to attend Biden’s inaugural, instead taking Air Force One to his resort at Mara Lago for one last time. As of right now, he is more or less under investigation for his involvement in the January 6th debacle and only time will tell if he actually faces charges, either in Federal Court or in Georgia, where he is under investigation for trying to manipulate the election there as well as in New York, for more tax related matters.

In the meantime, there is speculation that Trump may run again in 2024. Whether he does or not or even if he loses his nomination bid, it is obvious that Trumpism, in some form, is here to stay. Several would be Republican candidates, notably Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, is taking the Trump mantle as his ticket to the White House. Others, such as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, want to return the GOP to a more respectable conservative bastion. One can only hope that the Hogans will succeed, and the Trumps and DeSantis’ won’t.

But we do live in strange times.

Odd Notes: Trump’s family name was originally Drumpf

Trump was married three times (so far anyway)

Trump was part owner of three beauty pageants


Final Summary: I don’t have very many nice things to say here. I guess you could argue he set the tone for finally getting us out of Afghanistan (And people actually blasted Biden for completing the job), but he even managed to bungle that. He alienated almost everyone from the military to educators and health professionals, to practically every Democratic country in the world (It’s pretty bad when your best friends appear to be Putin and Kim Jong-Il). And yet, he continues to have a strong following despite it being obvious that it isn’t about politics at all (the Republican led Lincoln Project knows this), it's about Trump’s own fragile ego. No President, even the worst of the worst ever intentionally put his own interests ahead of that of the country. Is he responsible for the mess that the world is in today? Well, you could say that.

But, let’s face it, the enemy isn’t really Donald Trump. The enemy is us. We’re the idiots who vote for these clowns (and don’t think the Dems don’t vote for their own clowns).

So, until we get wise, we’ll keep electing people that want to dismantle democracy and then we won’t be electing anyone at all. Just as well, who wants to wait in line at a voting booth anyway, right?

Overall rating: F

https://millercenter.org/president/trump

__________________

rubber soul

Okay this is it

46. JOSEPH BIDEN (Old man, look at my life)




Born: November 20, 1942, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Died: Not dead yet. Kamala will have to wait

Term: January 20, 2021-
Political Party: Democrat

Vice President: Kamala Harris

First Lady: Jill Jacobs Biden

Before the Presidency: Joseph R. Biden, Jr. was the oldest child of an Irish Catholic family in Scranton, Pennsylvania. A working class kid, he was known for his scrappy attitude. It wasn’t the easiest of childhoods for young Joe as he developed a stuttering problem. He suffered from bullying as a result but was determined to learn how to speak without stuttering despite the failures of his speech therapist. In the end, Joe triumphED over his affliction and it made him tougher and more compassionate at the same time.

By 1953, fortunes in the Biden family improved and Joe Sr. was now selling cars in Wilmington, Delaware. Still with a stuttering problem, Biden had to endure some heckling at his private Catholic high school, but he managed to overcome the problem once and for all as he excelled in football in particular.

With High School now behind him and his stuttering problem under control, Biden entered the University of Delaware in 1961. Even then, he had political ambitions and was set on studying law. He also found a part time job as a lifeguard at an all African American pool. As the only white there, he took note of the differences in lifestyles between whites, who took their status for granted, and the blacks, who still had to suffer the indignities of being considered second class citizens. This, no doubt, played a large part in Biden’s social liberalism.

Biden met his first wife in 1964. They married in 1966 and would have three children. Meanwhile, Biden studied law at Syracuse University where he graduated in 1968. He initially found work as a corporate lawyer in Wilmington but realized that the job wasn’t for him. So, he became a public defender, defending mostly African Americans on Wilmington’s East Side. This proved to be a springboard for his first election to the New Castle County Council in 1970.

In 1972, 29 year old Biden decided to take a run at two term incumbent Senator Caleb Boggs. Biden wasn’t given much of a chance against the popular Boggs, but he had the support of his family, and they ran a grassroots campaign. In the end, Biden won a very close election against a man he described as a real gentleman.

Biden didn’t have very long to celebrate, however, as tragedy struck just a month later. While Christmas shopping, Biden’s wife and daughter were killed when her car was plowed by a tractor trailer. Biden’s two sons survived the crash and now Biden would be going to Washington as a single father.

Despite the tragedy, Biden quickly made his mark as a United States Senator being quite vocal against Nixon during Watergate and at President Ford as well for pardoning Nixon. Biden also developed a reputation as a commuting Senator who would take the Amtrak home every night after work (Wilmington is about 100 miles from Washington). He was also known for his candor admitting that even as early as 1974, he had some Presidential aspirations.

In 1975, he met his second wife, Jill Jacobs. They married in 1977 and would have a daughter together.

Biden would ultimately become one of the most powerful players in the Senate during his 36 years heading both the Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. He wasn’t afraid of being critical of Reagan and Bush appointees to the Supreme Court, notably with William Rehnquist for Chief Justice, Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas.

In 1988, Biden decided to make his run for President. Still only 45, Biden came off initially as rather Kennedyesque but his campaign never really took off and he had to prematurely withdraw after he was accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock (A sympathetic Al Gore would later note that Kennedy’s famous line from his inaugural address was taken from a quote by Khalil Gibran).

The mini scandal proved to be a blessing in disguise as he was diagnosed with an aneurysm that could have killed him. That was taken care of, and Biden continued on with his career as a prominent and well respected Senator.

During the 1990s, Biden was an advocate for tough on crime legislation and wrote the Senate version of President Clinton’s crime bill which passed with bipartisan support. Though popular at the time, it has since proved to be rather unfair to minorities who suffered quite a bit of abuse by police over the years and Biden would later apologize for the bill.

He had some better legislative achievements over the years though as he introduced the Violence Against Women Act. He would call it his proudest legislative achievement. Biden also learned a lesson about going with the political wind as he opposed authorizing President Bush to wage war in Iraq in 1991. He did support the second Bush initially in his war against Hussein in 2002, as did most Democrats in the aftermath of 9/11. It was a vote he would later regret.

In the end, Biden’s positives very much outweighed his negatives, and he made a second run for the Democratic nomination in 2008. By now, Biden was well into his sixties and some of his youthful charisma was gone. He was also prone to gaffes that could even border on racism such as when he made a comment about Indian immigrants running Seven-Elevens.

Biden’s 2008 campaign never had a chance as he was up against heavyweights like Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. And yet, it all paid off when Obama secured the nomination and pegged Biden to be his running mate.

And Biden proved to be quite the fighter as he blasted the naïve Sarah Palin in the Vice Presidential debate. Even more to the point, he would prove to be the most effective Vice President since Walter Mondale, being essentially Obama’s most trusted advisor. Biden was instrumental in pushing through the Affordable Care Act and influenced Obama in his support of Gay Marriage later. His connections to the Senate were critical in getting a lot of Obama’s incentives passed, even if they were watered down a little at times (remember, this was a Congress that was very hostile to Obama).

In 2016, tragedy would hit Biden yet again as his oldest son, Beau, who he had hoped might run for President himself one day, died of brain cancer. As such, and with skepticism of a Hilary Clinton nomination, there was hope that Biden might make another run at the Presidency. But Biden ultimately (and with advice from Obama it turns out) decided not to make a run of it, possibly something both Biden and Obama may have regretted later.

So, Biden would stay on the sidelines as a respected elder statesman during the Trump administration.

Until he realized it wasn’t just a philosophy that was in deep peril but the idea of democracy itself.




Summary of offices held:

1971-1973: Member, New Castle County Council

1973-2009: US Senator, Delaware

2009-2017: Vice President of the United States

What was going on: Covid, mass shootings, Russian invasion of Ukraine

Scandals within the Presidency: No major ones so far

Why he is a good President: He was a calming influence after the tumultuous Trump administration. He sped up the covid vaccine distribution. He passed an infrastructure bill.

Why he is a bad President: Despite passing a bi-partisan infrastructure bill, he wasn’t able to do much else with a hostile Republican Senate. Plus, the economy took a hit during the Biden years.

What can save his Presidency: A cure for covid, a sudden turnaround of the economy, Ukraine winning the war against Russia.

What can destroy his Presidency: His propensity to make some unbelievable gaffes. The US spirals into a depression. Russia somehow wins. Europe (and the US) steers to the far right.

Election of 2020: Biden initially ran for the Democratic nomination in a field of over 20 candidates. He promised the nation of a return to normalcy after four years of divisiveness under Trump. He took a more moderate stance on issues like Health care, wanting to improve the ACA rather than going all out for single payer like the Progressive wing wanted. His candidacy took off after a win in the South Carolina primary, and, in the end, the Democrats, including the Progressives, united behind him, knowing what the alternative would have been.

In the general election, Biden, for the most part, kept his cool though there were a couple notable moments, such as when he told Trump to “shut up, man” during the debates. In the end, Biden won an election that was closer than it should have been, allowing Trump to use all his mischief in an attempt to overturn the election.

First term: Biden had to contend with the fallout of the January 6 insurrection as soon as he took office. He also had to deal with the covid crisis. He kept Dr. Anthony Fauci on, and they emphasized the need to vaccinate as much as possible (the vaccine had just come out). As of November 2022, the Covid pandemic remains but it has subsided somewhat. Meanwhile, Biden managed to pass an infrastructure bill through a barely Democratic Congress, partly, thanks to a procedure in which the Senate could pass a limited amount of spending bills without a super majority. Mass shootings remained a problem and, again, there is talk about strengthening gun control laws, but, knowing American history, not much can be expected from that. Because of Covid and world events, notably Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the economy is more or less tanking and it is affecting Biden’s ratings significantly. Right now, the consensus is, he will likely lose the House to a Republican party that could be teetering on the verge of fascism, and possibly the Senate as well where the dictatorial stylings of Mitch McConnell will again take over (though, compared to Kevin McCarthy, he looks like Winston Churchill).

Update: As of November 18, 2022, the Republicans do indeed seem to be on track of taking over the House but only by the skin of their teeth. In the Senate, meanwhile, the Democrats have appeared to be able to hang on to their slim majority and may even pick up a seat if enough people in Georgia can figure out that being a dumb football player doesn’t qualify you to be a Senator. Much of the mini upset (many had predicted a red wave) can be blamed squarely on the shoulders of Trump endorsed candidates like Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz. It was also a statement, by some Americans at least, that isn’t always about the economy, stupid. Because if you lose your rights as a human being, the economy doesn’t really matter so much, does it?


Post Presidency: n/a

Odd notes: When Senator, Biden was known to commute to work from nearby Delaware by way of Amtrak.

First Lady Jill Biden teaches as an English Professor

Final Summary: So, with only close to two years under his belt and historically low ratings from the public, it’s safe to say it’s a little too early to give Biden a final grade. It’s likely a difficult two years which will be made even more difficult should he lose the House (likely at this writing) and especially if he loses the Senate (he may survive, the seats up for re-election favor the Dems from a numerical standpoint).

Meanwhile, as of November 18,2022, he remains an unpopular President and only has a slightly more hostile congress because of the Trump controlled GOP that people are finally beginning to reject.

Biden also has the problem with age. Though certainly well meaning, it is obvious he is not as sharp as he once was in the Senatorial days. And people (or at least I do) see Vice President Kamala Harris as a Hilary Clinton, Jr. Not a good combination to be sure.

But as I noted in the Trump bio, we do live in strange times. Maybe the Dems and Republicans will field younger candidates who actually care about our country. Meanwhile, we have to ride the horse of Biden for the next two years, so all we can do is to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

At least we know Biden will give it his best.

Overall rating: Incomplete. Is not halfway through his term yet

https://millercenter.org/president/biden

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GD

Just caught up. What an effort

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