Are you better off?

Every now and then, when I'm perusing Facebook these days, somebody inevitably posts – usually a Republican – President Ronald Reagan's now-famous question to voters: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

The question has become nearly iconic during every election season. It doesn't matter who's running for office, or which party they represent. It's a many-faceted question that almost always demands a response. It's a dig, it's accusatory, it's penetrating, it's superficial, it can be rhetorical and it can be literal at the same time. It's not avoidable.

I've thought about this a little bit. My own question is why are some people asking this now?

But let's take a look.

Four years ago was August 2020. The now-34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump was the president and he was running for a second term. And he was drowning in Covid-19, which, by that point, had claimed the lives of at least 350,000 Americans in a pandemic he totally mishandled. He asked if we could maybe inject bleach. And some people did. Thank you, Dr. Trump.

I think there's been a collective amnesia that has conveniently (for Trump, at least) blocked out the temporary morgues that sprang up, complete with refrigeration trucks, outside of hospitals as people died on their ventilators. Well, if they could get a ventilator in the first place. It was real carnage, not the kind you make up for an inauguration speech.

To his credit, Trump did bring us Operation Warp Speed, which gave us a Covid vaccination when we needed it most, and in record time. But then, paradoxically, he downplayed the vaccination, creating anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. People died, predominantly cultist Trump Republicans. Trump even came down with Covid himself and required life-saving efforts from a medical team at Walter Reed Hospital.

So there's that. Covid. It set the stage for what would follow. The unemployment rate rose to 15 percent. The supply chain was in its initial stages of breakdown. Inflation was low, 1.9 percent or something like that early on, but the worldwide pandemic would jack that up to nearly 10 percent by the time Joe Biden took office.

The economy was strong under Trump (which he inherited from President Obama), but then Covid came on big time in March of that year and suddenly, both the job and stock markets cratered. Guess who stood by and played golf? Thank you, Prof. Trump.

All of this chaos was handed over to Biden, who had exactly one day – his Inauguration – to enjoy as his honeymoon period. But working with a severely divided Congress, Biden has created more jobs – about 15 million – than any one-term president. The inflation rate has dropped to 2.9 percent as wages rise.  The unemployment rate has fallen to about 4 percent. A couple weeks ago some high-profile hostages were released from Russia, and this week, the administration announced it has renegotiated lowering prescription drug prices with Big Pharma. I'll be able to afford my Eliquis in a year. Border crossings are so low that Texas Governor Greg Abbott doesn't have any illegals to ship off to Northern sanctuary cities anymore. 

Crime is down. Well, except for Trump crime. Why is this guy still the Republican candidate?

My 401k has never been better. Has yours?

So the next time somebody asks if I'm better off than I was four years ago, the answer is a resounding Hell yeah! Vote blue.

Building Walz

There's at least two things Republicans should never do during campaign season (or ever, for that matter): they should never accuse their opponents of lying, and they should never make an issue of the southern border.

The lying part is easy to discuss. When former President and convicted felon Donald Trump was in office, he let loose with approximately 30,500 documented lies, with the bulk of them – about 15,000 – coming in the final year of his presidency, according to The Washington Post.

So any accusations of political opponents lying for gain only adds to the considerable pantheon of Republican hypocrisy. Go ahead and lie and see how well that expands your tent. You are, after all, the party of the Big Lie.

The lying issue came to my attention after vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, in his self-righteous indignation, said his opponent, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, lied about Walz' military service when Walz said in a 2018 video that he carried a gun into combat. Vance also argues that Walz retired just in time to avoid his unit's deployment to Iraq, insinuating cowardice as well as disloyalty to his men.

Let's back up a minute. Walz is a 24-year veteran of the National Guard who achieved the rank of command sergeant major, the highest rank an enlisted man can reach. He was deployed twice in those 24 years – once to Norway above the Arctic Circle, and another time to Italy in 2003 while backfilling troops who were headed to Afghanistan.

Vance is also a veteran. He enlisted in the Marines after high school and was subsequently deployed to Iraq. Apparently, that's enough for Vance to jump on Walz' case since Vance was actually in a war zone. He asks Walz "what gun did you carry into combat?"

What Vance doesn't say much about is that during his tenure in Iraq, he was was a correspondent armed with a keyboard and where he quickly skyrocketed to the rank of corporal before serving out his enlistment. Technically, by virtue of rank, Vance should be saluting Walz, not denigrating him.

Additionally, Walz – who served with an artillery unit and consequently suffered hearing loss – retired after 24 years as a Guardsman. In January 2005, after much consideration, he filed a statement of his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress, so his decision to retire was already known. By May of that year, he officially retired, and in July, his unit received it's mobilization alert. It's not until 10 months later, in 2006, that his unit is actually in the field.

By this time, Walz would be 41 years old with a hearing impediment. I'm not sure that's who the military wants on its front lines.

But I find it beneath any sense of dignity that Vance should attack a fellow veteran for his service. This simply illustrates that the Republican party has shown no sense of dignity or respect anywhere during the Trump years.

I don't think Walz' misstep in the 2018 video was intentional, but even if it was, the Harris campaign has addressed the issue.

“In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke,” said Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt. “He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children.” 

That's another blog right there.

As for the border, well, Trump surely had his opportunity to fix things during his presidency. He did build 452 miles of border wall that Mexico did not pay for (the US taxpayer did, at the tune of $15 billion), but his most disgusting legacy is the separation of young children from their families. That was actually administration policy. Nice job fixing the border there.

Now Trump says he wants to build "detention" camps for illegal immigrants. Guess who's going to pay for that?

Even worse, the GOP recently vetoed a strong border security bill authored by Oklahoma Senator James Lankford. They did so because Trump thought the bill, if it passed, would give Democrats the credit and the advantage in the upcoming elections. The bill seemed to be a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it would have been progress to a problem that has plagued several administrations – both Republican and Democrat – for decades.

So now, whenever the GOP attacks Democrats about the border, it's a weak argument with little substance.

Just like most everything else they propose.

Weird

When former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took the stage on Wednesday to answer questions before the National Association of Black Journalists, it kind of surprised me that he wasn't wearing a white robe with a pointed hood.

In one of the most repulsive spectacles of his repugnant career as a politician, Trump insulted, insinuated, implied and incensed an entire culture with elements of his white supremacy.

His tirades began almost before he settled into his chair when he scolded ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott for not being "nice" after she posed her opening question of the event.

What a boor he is. Journalists aren't tasked with being nice. It is their job rather to ask the tough questions – especially of elected officials –  in an effort to seek truth and accountability. Those are two things that Trump repeatedly shows us that he knows nothing about.

After thus setting the tone right from that start of the Q&A for the next 35 minutes, the bottom came fast when he said he didn't know that presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was Black (her parents are Jamaican and Asian). 

Ridiculous. Who is he to question how a person identifies herself? So who is he, indeed? He's an adjudicated rapist. He's a 34-times convicted felon awaiting sentencing. He's a fraudster. These are absolute truths, in the way that it's true Harris is Black. So the question is, when will Trump identify himself as a felonious rapist and fraud?

If his appearance before NABJ was meant to clarify his always inarticulate positions for Black voters, I think he instead began shedding votes like a (Donald) duck sheds water. I don't see how this kind of performance (which I thought was intentional) helps his candidacy, either among Blacks or other voting coalitions.

It just highlights his repugnance.

I can only imagine that Trump pooped in his pajamas Friday morning when he learned that 16 prisoners were released from Russia, including Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich. Trump once claimed only he could get Gershkovich back home because of his "close" ties with Putin. Trump said he would do that after he won the election in November.

So instead of being gracious and welcoming the prisoners back home, Trump became his truculent self and criticized the entire process, saying he could have done better.

He claimed he could have gotten all the prisoners back home without making concessions in the deals to have them released.

Truth is (there's that word "truth" again), Trump is lying. Imagine that. During his first term as president, three Taliban leaders were exchanged for one American in November 2019. In December 2019, one Iranian prisoner was exchanged for on American. Later, 5000 Taliban prisoners were exchanged for 1,000 prisoners "of the other side" in February 2020. In July 2020, one Iranian prisoner was exchanged for one American. And in October 2020, a total of 250 Houthi rebels were exchanged for two Americans.

That's the Art of the Deal right there.

Weird.

 

Well, that was quick

I certainly didn't see that one coming.

I thought 81-year-old Joe Biden was doing a pretty good job as president of the United States. In a country that's severely divided by its political biases these days, Biden has succeeded in bringing us some critical bipartisan legislation.

Witness:

• The American Rescue Plan (a stimulus plan to speed up the nation's recovery from the economic and health effects of COVID-19).

• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (investment in drinking water and eliminate lead lines, among other things).

• The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (provides federal grant funding to states for crisis intervention programs).

• The CHIPS and Science Act (funding to create semiconductors in the United States).

• The Pact Act (eliminating benefits delays for veterans).

• The Respect for Marriage Act (requires states to recognize same-sex marriages and protects religious liberty).

• Confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court

• The Inflation Reduction Act (a law that aims to reduce the federal budget deficit and lower prescription drug prices).

• Protecting the Affordable Care Act.

• Student Debt Relief.

In addition to those accomplishments, border crossings are down nearly 58 percent over last year (and certainly lower than that under the Trump administration, which made Nazi-like child separation from parents an actual thing). Also, the violent crime rate has dropped 15 percent in the first three months of 2024 while murders fell 26.4 percent and rapes dropped 25.7 percent. The unemployment rate is 4.1 percent (it was 14.90 percent under Trump in April 2020, so were you really better off four years ago?). The inflation rate is 3 percent, down from a high of 9 percent during the peak of the COVID crisis. It's been a remarkable run. So I had mixed emotions when Biden announced last Sunday he wasn't going to seek a second term.

Yay, I said to myself because Biden looked horrible in his debate last month with convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump. Clearly, Biden's age had caught up with him.

Oh, no, I said to myself because Biden is a decent human being whose administration has had considerable success (see the list you just read above).

I wasn't particularly impressed when he endorsed Kamala Harris, his vice president, to be the next president. Until I was.

Just like that, Harris has energized the spirits of the Democratic Party. Fundraising has skyrocketed (nearly $100 million in 48 hours). Volunteers are rising to help. And for the first time in several months, Democrats feel like they're firmly on the right track.

Harris, 59, has attracted the youth vote while at the same time making Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to run for president. She's building interest among the Black and Hispanic communities, which are critical demographics. Voter enrollment has increased. She herself has shown remarkable growth since her own brief presidential bid four years ago. It could be because of all that on-the-job training she had as the vice president. At any rate, her transformation into a serious candidate has been remarkable. Even down-ballot Democrats seem buoyant about their chances.

There are exactly 100 days to go until election day. Anything can happen in those three months. Look for the campaign to turn particularly bitter, and look for Trump to become even more childish with his absurd nicknames and tantrums in the face of his opponents (Aww, he's just joking). Past experience shows he never ran a proper government in his previous term – he ran an asylum based on personal loyalty to him and not to the Constitution, which at times he's even threatened to suspend.

This is not to say Harris has the election in the bag. Trump has shown a remarkable resiliency over the years to weasel out of jams, although he's been aided by recent favorable (though questionable) court decisions.

But the Democratic Convention is coming up in a few weeks. Trump is still awaiting sentencing for his 34 felony convictions. Both could give Harris a significant bounce in the polls and at just the right time.

Buckle up. It's going to be some ride.

 

Project 2025

Perhaps one of the most remarkable documents in world history is the Constitution of the United States of America. It might be right up there with the Magna Carta, which said the English king and his government were not above the law. That was back in 1215.

Hmm.

The Constitution sets the guidelines for the creation of our democratic republic. It is invigorating in its scope, even in its opening paragraph: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 It's inspiring. It's unprecedented. It's glorious. Ratified in 1789, the Constitution offered an earth-shaking form of government in a world filled with monarchies. You know, King Louis this and King George that.

You would think that the Constitution, all 4,400 words of it, should be enough for us. That's especially true when you add in the Bill of Rights – the original first 10 amendments – which were designed to protect the citizenry from an overbearing government.

But no. In a country whose demographics are inexorably changing from white to non-white, a band of right-wing hair brains known as the Heritage Foundation have presented their own 900-page document on how to conduct (or deconstruct) the American government. It might as well be America's Mein Kampf.

It's called Project 2025. It was actually published several years ago in 2023, but with the approach of the 2024 election in November, the so-called Presidential Transition Project has drawn deeper scrutiny. This is especially so because if former president Donald Trump should regain the presidency, he'll put into effect many of the proposals found in P2025. The plan is to implement much of P2025 in the first 180 days of a new Trump administration. It basically serves as the de facto Republican Party platform.

One quick glance at the bullet-point proposals reveals an unlikely vision of an America we would no longer recognize. Some of these proposals are already in effect, one way or another, thanks in part to a partisan Trump-loving Supreme Court:

• A complete ban on abortions without exceptions (pages 449-503). Already in effect in some red states.

• Ban contraceptives (page 449). What? Let me get this straight. We're going to have more unwanted children because there are no contraceptives, forcing many women – most likely those who are poor – to seek abortions that are illegal. Sounds like an overbearing government to me.

• Elimination of unions and worker protections (page 581). Well, that's a century of progress down the tubes. Say farewell to overtime and while we're at it, let's have 10-year-olds operate heavy machinery 12 hours a day. You don't think so? Who's got control of the Supreme Court these days?

• Cut Social Security (page 691). Yeah, right. A workforce filled with 75-year-olds working for minimum wage. They'll have to because... 

• ... End the Affordable Care Act (page 449). Not only will we be dumber as a nation, but sicker, too. Republicans have no plan to replace the increasingly popular Obamacare.

• Eliminate the Department of Education (page 319). That ought to make us dumber (read more controllable. Anyone seen a civics class lately?). Their reasoning is that students are being indoctrinated to become liberal by all those liberal teachers and professors.

• Teach Christian religious beliefs in public schools (page 319). For P2025, this is really their own brand of indoctrination. And in a government designed for We the People, how do you think the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other religious communities might feel about this? Christian nationalism is knocking at the door and thinking only of itself.

• Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education (page 319). See, we told you that slavery wasn't the cause of the Civil War.

• End climate protections (page 417). Notice how hot it's been this summer? Notice how we haven't gotten any snow here the past two winters?

• End marriage equality (page 545-581). I'm not sure what this means exactly. We love who we love. Does it mean ending gay marriage? Does it mean a woman is not the equal of a man in a marriage? Why is this even a thing? Oh, right. Christian nationalism.

• Defund the FBI and Homeland Security (page 133). Well, that ought to make us weaker in addition to being dumber and sicker. Remember when Republicans were the Law and Order party? Now we have a Republican candidate for president who is a convicted felon 34 times over. How did this happen?

• Mass deportations of immigrants and incarceration in "camps" (page 133). We tried this once during World War II by putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps and ended up eventually paying those affected Japanese families $1.6 billion in reparations. Nazi Germany, where they read Mein Kampf, took their camps a little further. Additionally, there are about 10 million undocumented immigrants in this country working at jobs for a nation that is starving for laborers because the unemployment rate is so low (4.1 percent). Imagine what might happen to the economy if you take those people out of the work force. Can you say recession?

• Eliminate Federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (pages 363-417). So you like botulism in your food? Polluted lakes and rivers? Notice the intensity of tornadoes and hurricanes lately?

The Heritage Foundation is an ultra conservative think tank that has Trump's ear (in case you wondered where his ear went), but after perusing some of the bullet-points of this document, I have to wonder what they're actually thinking about. Power, mostly. Control. Money, no doubt. Making women second-class citizens. I don't see much in this manifesto that promotes the general welfare or secures the blessings of liberty for our posterity.

In fact, this might be the most un-American document I've ever seen. 

November is approaching. You know what to do.

Has everything changed?

I was going to write my blog about Project 2025, the Republican Party's repulsive 900-page guideline on their plans to deconstruct the American government and rebuild our country into a conservative white man's orgiastic wet dream under an expected Trump presidency.

You know, immigrant detention camps. Christian nationalism. Voter suppression. The end of medicare and social security. Stuff like that.

And then the rifle shots rang out, like they often do in this country. The shots were aimed at Donald Trump himself, giving a campaign speech in a rally in Butler, PA., yesterday.

Those shots changed everything, I think. In what was essentially a 50-50 campaign for the presidency against incumbent Joe Biden, yesterday's horrific events (one person was killed and two others were critically wounded for doing nothing more than attending a carnival barker's sideshow) will virtually hand Trump the keys to the Oval Office. As well as the nuclear codes. And state secrets. Again.

Trump luckily suffered only a grazed ear in the shooting, but the blood trickling down his face will serve him well in campaign posters, maybe as soon as tomorrow when the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee. He now looks like a war hero, after all. As the former Commander in Chief, does Pvt. Bonespurs qualify for the Purple Heart? The Congressional Medal of Honor? Stay tuned.

But now he will have an element of sympathy behind him, as well as the anger of his retribution and a sense of martyrdom. All of this, and perhaps more, will carry Trump into the presidency and there's nothing the Democrats can do about it. I bet Trump's poll numbers take a 10-point bounce. His voters are energized more than ever by this event.

Already conspiracy theorists are claiming that this was a deep state CIA operation, but early indications are that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, now deceased, was just two years out of high school and was a registered Republican. I wonder how that little tidbit will fit into the overall scheme of things?

I want to say that assassinations only happen in banana republics, but the United States host lost four of its presidents in the last 235 years (dating back to the ratification of the Constitution in 1789). That comes out to one murdered president every 59 years. Throw in attempts to Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and then to candidates like George Wallace and Robert Kennedy, well, assassination is something of an American tradition. If we disagree with someone, shoot them.

So does the conversation turn once again to guns? Probably should. Probably won't.

In the meantime, we're probably four months away from another Trump presidency. Four months away from the implementation of Project 2025. Four months away from more Trumpian chaos and insanity. Four months away from the possible end to the American experiment in democracy.

Everything is changing. Except this: Trump is still an adjudicated rapist. He's still guilty of fraud. And he is still a 34-times convicted felon.

 

What now?

Did you know that there are only 4,400 words in the original U.S. Constitution?

And not a single one is the word "immunity." Nor "democracy" for that matter. Or even the word "God." You can't find them. Not there.

I bring this up because this past Monday the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a stunning 6-3 conservative majority opinion that our presidents now have total immunity in the core powers of their office for "official" acts (as opposed to "private" acts) that they might commit while serving in office. SCOTUS left it up to the lower courts to decide between what is private and what is official and then quickly left town in their RVs. Cowards.

That ruling suggests presidents are now above the law, which essentially puts them above the Constitution, the very document that created and endowed their position in the first place. Go figure.

What is amazing to me is that prior to Monday's decision, there was no need for a Supreme Court ruling as to whether or not a president had total immunity in order to function. Andrew Jackson didn't need it during the civil rights abomination of The Trail of Tears. Abraham Lincoln didn't need it while bending (or ignoring) certain laws when conducting the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt didn't need immunity when he created detention camps for Japanese-American citizens during World War II. Harry Truman didn't need it when dropping atomic bombs on Japan.

But Donald Trump needs it. Trump, an adjudicated rapist who is seeking a second term as president, also has 34 felony convictions that he would like to see disappear. So he took his case  – Trump v. The United States – to the Supreme Court, where five of the nine judges were appointed by presidents (including three by Trump in his first term) who lost the popular vote. Minority rule. Ain't democracy great?

There was no need to mention immunity in the Constitution because the Founders already established the Speech and Debate clause (Article I, Section 6, Clause 1), something which could confer immunity to congressmen, if they needed it. Presidents, however, supposedly were not granted immunity. Do you think there could be a reason why? Did the Framers know what they were doing? Does the Roberts court?

The actions of this seemingly partisan Roberts court seem to follow the road map set up by Project 2025, a 900-page manifesto composed by the Heritage Foundation that wants to reshape the government in its conservative image. It's already foaming at the mouth impatiently waiting for Trump (whose name is mentioned more than 300 times in the treatise) to win election in November so it can begin its fascist policies of power and control.

Two years ago the court overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating a 50-year-old freedom for women to have autonomy over their own bodies and reproductive rights.

Last week, the court reversed a 40-year-old precedent in the Chevron case, which now curtails the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws. What stare decisis?

One by one, the guardrails of a government based on the separation of powers that worked so well for nearly 250 years are falling apart, enabled by a severely diminished and narrowly focused Supreme Court. 

We are moving ever closer to a single option of salvation: our vote. Read Project 2025. Educate yourselves. Save yourselves. Save democracy.