Tag Archives: donald-trump

I awoke today somewhat relieved

08 Friday Mar 2024

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I’m relieved this morning after watching President Biden deliver the State of the Union message (also a campaign speech) last evening. I’m relieved because it was clear that he still has what it takes to be president, fire in the belly, intellectual acuity, moral clarity, understanding of American history and policy, a grasp of the many issues confronting America in this dangerous era of anti-democratic demagoguery at home and abroad, and common decency, integrity and respect for others.

By nature, as a liberal, I know I’m not alone in being concerned, nervous, disturbed and confused by Biden’s low approval ratings despite his significant legislative and international accomplishments and despite the respect with which he is held as the leader of the free world by America’s allies. My general nervousness that Trump could be reelected remains given what is likely to be a very close election determined by 6 or 7 swing states. But, Biden’s primary weakness – his advancing age – doesn’t concern me that he can’t do the job of president though much of the public’s perception of his age concerns others.

Yes, Biden is old – but clearly he still intellectually has what it takes to lead the country. He also has smart and decent domestic and foreign advisors around him, and his long governmental and lived experience and the wisdom he has gained over many decades gives him a unique perspective to understand where we are along the arc of American history and where he wants to lead us. Like President Obama before him, Biden’s administration is remarkably devoid of corruption and scandal. Not so, of course, with Trump whose administration is likely the most corrupt in all of American history. The old adage that the fish stinks from the head is true with Trump.

When I compare Biden with Trump I’m amazed that any thinking and decent person can support Trump given his massive deficiencies in character, his autocratic disrespect for the law, his responsibility for the insurrection on January 6, his rape and fraud convictions, the many indictments against him waiting adjudication, his massive hostility to the constitutional order and his indecency as a human being. The contrasts between Biden and Trump are so vast that they boggle the mind. I understand that good people will disagree about policy choices made by Joe Biden. That’s normal in a democracy and so I can understand classic Republicans choosing not to vote for Biden or Trump in the general election, though there are conservatives like Liz Cheney who will hold her nose and vote for Biden because she understands that the future of American democracy requires her to do so.

A few years ago, I compiled a list of adjectives used by journalists, op-ed writers, psychiatrists and historians to describe Trump’s character. I counted 170 words and posted them here in a blog. As this presidential campaign heats up, I’m re-posting that list again. Taken individually and together they constitute a sweeping condemnation of a man who has caused millions of Americans to lose their independent judgment, to set aside their courage to resist immorality, to fear a vicious president who will stop at nothing to destroy them personally and publicly when they challenge him, and to compel them to bow down and kiss the ring of a fascistic leader.

Here is that list. If there’s a word you’ve heard about Trump that doesn’t appear here, please send it to me and I’ll gladly add it for the next time I post the list:

“Twice-impeached, convicted rapist, convicted fraud, one-man-crime-wave, corrupt, unprecedented, pathological liar, dishonest, deceitful, grifter, denier, deceptive, insincere, untrustworthy, duplicitous, hypocritical, angry, argumentative, oppositional, divisive, aggressive, mob-boss-like, cyber-bully, intimidating, threatening, vindictive, superficial, uncontrollable, theatrical, unsure, arrogant,  bravado, show- off, rage-filled, controversial, outrageous, arrogant, entitled, intolerant, insensitive, uncaring, hardhearted, indecent, disrespectful, shameless, craven, hostile, hateful, ruthless, cruel, mean, malevolent, dystopian, dark, base, low, abhorrent, decrepit, egoistical, egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic, malignant, unwell, mentally ill, delusional, pathological, unhinged, nihilistic, self-serving, selfish, chaotic, unpredictable, childish, cowardly, manipulative, ignoble, shameful, deplorable, discreditable, licentious, lecherous, reprehensible, sexist, misogynist, racist, white supremacist, Islamophobic, homophobic, poisonous, odious, toxic, evil, bad, criminal, wrong-doer, amoral, immoral, ignominious, worst, catastrophic, chaotic, calamitous, ruinous, disastrous, devastating, damaging, destructive, back-stabbing, double-crossing, two-faced, unfaithful, faithless, loser, weak, morally profligate, sacrilegious, soulless, disloyal, cheater, thief, fraudulent, scandalous, despicable, rancid, grievous, churlish, rude, ill-mannered, bad-tempered, cynical, appalling, profligate, ignorant, foolish, stupid, inflammatory, degenerate, debauched, imprudent, alarming, clownish, reckless, dangerous, murderous, violent, extremist, unworthy, unfit, dysfunctional, incompetent, ineffective, irresponsible, unaccountable, culpable, failed, subversive, illiberal, authoritarian, fascistic, anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, dictatorial, lawless, autocratic, seditious, traitorous, treasonous, insurrectionist, un-American.”         

I’m not a lawyer, but something is obviously rotten in Denmark

03 Sunday Mar 2024

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This past week millions of Americans were stunned by the US Supreme Court’s agreement to decide whether the twice impeached, rape-convicted, fraud-convicted, multi-indicted, disgraced former President Donald Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election in an organized coup d’état. For review, in a one-page unsigned order, the justices ordered a federal appeals court to continue to keep on hold its ruling that rejected Trump’s claims of immunity from prosecution, and the Supreme Court set the date for their oral argument to begin in late April rather than passing and allowing the federal January 6 trial to begin. This means that the federal cases, originally scheduled to be heard on March 4, will be delayed, likely indefinitely until after the election if Biden is elected or not at all if Trump is elected.

John Flannery is a former federal prosecutor from New York who handled widely publicized federal criminal investigations and prosecutions that ran the gamut from securities fraud to a mob prison break, to the bribery of a Congressman and more. He has worked in government over decades on both sides of the aisle, often for Republicans, and he is a formidable legal mind that pulls no punches.

If you are confused about why the Supreme Court took this decision when the lower Appellate Court ruled and wrote what both conservative and liberal legal scholars agree is a conclusive, air-tight, detailed and comprehensive decision that needed no stay from the Supreme Court, listen to Flannery’s 15-minute YouTube video (link is below).

Flannery explains why this Supreme Court decision is based not on the law at all but on the conservative court’s political support of Donald Trump putting to shame the lie that the high court is non-partisan. Flannery urges all Americans who agree with him (I do) to shout from the rafters everywhere and all-the-time that the court has been sorely corrupted at least since Citizens United in 2010, and that if we elect Donald Trump as president America will be well on its way to become a banana republic.

Listen to Flannery here – https://youtu.be/UlVew-MJcpk?si=WAT0QWj23gfp2Khr

Assuming, however, (which I believe) that Joe Biden will win re-election not only because of his remarkable legislative record in the last three years as president, but also his success in renewing NATO and his high moral character and concern for all Americans against Donald Trump who constitutes a fundamental threat to the US Constitutional order, we have to ask what is the remedy to restore integrity and balance to a court that was packed with extremist right-wing Federalist justices by the manipulations and deceit of Senator Mitch McConnell in order to cleanse the Supreme Court of its massive corruption?

Though Biden has been hesitant to mess with another branch of the federal government, the super-majority rule in the Senate ought to be lowered from 60 votes either to 55 or a simple majority, term limits ought to be adopted for high court justices, the number of justices should be expanded to enable every president to appoint one or two justices per term, and an independent ethics commission ought to be established to hold every justice to account as every other judge is so held in the federal judiciary. Such a commission could begin its work by investigating those justices who have taken expensive favors from wealthy donors who may or may not have had cases before the court. The ethics commission also ought to investigate the three Trump-appointed justices (and everyone else too who voted to overturn Roe v Wade) as to whether any of them committed perjury during their Senate Confirmation Hearings when asked directly about their position concerning the authority of “precedent” as established law – all three Trump appointees affirmed that they did – and then all three broke their promise in their very first year on the bench by voting against Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decision.

To do any of the above, restore respect for the high court and help restore American democracy, President Biden must be re-elected and pushed to follow through on a number of suggested judicial reforms, and the Democrats must regain the Senate. To do both will require all of us Americans to work on behalf of and support financially at least eight Democratic Senate candidates (e.g. Joe Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Ellisa Slotkin of Michigan, Colin Allred of Texas, and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell  of Florida – see https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/01/politics/senate-race-rankings-january-2024/index.html).

We also have to do everything we can to persuade young liberals and progressives under 30 years of age that their protest votes against Biden or their voting for a 3rd party candidate, while perhaps based on legitimate concerns, is politically foolish given the stakes in this most important election not only in our lifetime but since the Civil War.

As Biden likes to quote his Dad: “Joey, don’t compare me to the Almighty; compare me to the alternative.” Given Biden’s vast legislative and foreign policy successes, wisdom and experience and that he still has his wits about him despite his age, is there really any question by a long shot who in 2024 is the best alternative for President if we compare Biden with the ignorant, bigoted, corrupt, home-born autocrat and criminal dolt that is Donald Trump?

About Aging and Joe Biden’s Fitness to Lead

14 Wednesday Feb 2024

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Over many years I have collected thousands of quotations on countless themes. In light of the current national discussion about aging as Joe Biden runs again for president as the oldest chief executive in our nation’s history, I thought it worthwhile to share a few thoughts about getting older that have been left to us by writers, artists, philosophers and commentators over the centuries. Hopefully, these can remind us about the positives that come with aging. For those who think that Joe Biden is too old to be president (I don’t – see below), I suggest sending them this list to offer a wider perspective about what, hopefully, will be the destiny of us all, to age gracefully, with dignity and with our intellectual wits and moral compass largely intact.

First, however, I want to say a few words about the negative attitude of many younger people about Biden’s decision to seek a second term. Some 80 year-olds are, indeed, wise to retire and commence the last period of their lives with family and friends, doing whatever they choose that is productive, relevant, creative and meaningful for them. Others who have the wherewithal still, who have their wits and are wise based on a lifetime of experience and learning, who want to continue to work and contribute and are able to do so physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually, they should be encouraged to do so without the second-guessing of younger people who presume that aging means broad-based diminished capacities for everyone over a certain age, whatever that age may be.

Traditional religions revere the elderly for their life-experience and wisdom. Unfortunately, in our western youth-oriented culture, too many people who aren’t yet seniors themselves and don’t fully understand what seniors are able and not able to do assume that anyone older than 65, 70, 75, or 80 automatically can’t measure up to what is required. Though some aspects of our lives are indeed diminished when we age, there are other strengths that make up for what is over and gone. Every older person has to make the decision for him/herself about what they are able and willing to do, and though some professions, businesses and organizations make that decision for them based on quantifiable and justifiable standards, especially when the health and well-being of others are directly affected, many occupations ought to remain open to those who still have capacity and a proven recent track-record of accomplishment.

Joe Biden is one of those who still has the capacity to lead the nation and free world (see my last blog post “Let’s Stop the Bed-Wetting!” – Feb 12) and the op-ed I included there by Dr. Haran Ranganath “Biden Seems Forgetful, but That Doesn’t Mean He is ‘Forgetting'” (NYT – Feb. 12).

I mentioned in that blog that Biden “appears” old due to his arthritic back problems, a life-time of compensating for a stutter, and a quieter and slower speaking style. Those who know him believe he is focused and fully in command of the facts and policies on multiple issues facing this country and world. The NYT’s Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman said this week on MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber that he spent an hour with Biden recently and he detected no diminished intellectual capacity whatsoever, a view that even former Republican MAGA Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy acknowledged privately. Biden’s advisors concur with both Krugman’s and McCarthy’s observations. The DC media bubble and even Jon Stewart in his offensive – IMO – attack on Biden on his maiden re-voyage of The Daily Show on Monday night are having a field day since Special Counsel Robert Hur’s gratuitous, unprofessional and unqualified attack on President Biden’s mental acuity.

I agree with many political pundits who say that it’s high time for Biden to appear everywhere, before the press, on late-night television, etc. and show the country that he still has what it takes to be president. Hopefully, the State of the Union will begin to put to rest the public perception about his mental capacities and the two old guys running for president can be evaluated on the basis of policy differences, competency, decency, morality, mental health, what is good for American democracy and the vast majority of the American people, and for a stable world order led by the United States.

Rob Reiner put it far more succinctly than I did above when he said: “Here’s the truth. Biden is old. But he is a decent moral person who is incredibly effective at governing. Trump is old. But he’s a pathologically lying criminal who is incapable of governing and will destroy American Democracy.”

Here is some food for thought on aging over the centuries:

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” -Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007)

“No one is as old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” -Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

“One does not get better but different and older and that is always a pleasure.” -Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

“Today we are wasting resources of incalculable value: the accumulated knowledge, the mature wisdom, the seasoned experience, the skilled capacities, the productivity of a great and growing number of our people—our senior citizens.” -John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” -Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)

“The compensation of growing old, Peter Walsh thought, coming out of Regent’s Park, and holding his hat in his hand was simply this, that the passions remain as strong as ever, but one has gained – at last! – The power which adds the supreme flavour to existence – the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it round, slowly, in the light.” -Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

“One who greets an elder is as though he has greeted the face of the Shechinah” (the feminine divine presence of God). -Genesis Rabbah 63.6 (300-500 CE)

“In the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.” –Job 12:12 (between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE)

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” -Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“The art of fresco was not work for old me…one paints with the brain and not with the hands.” -Michelangelo (1475-1564)

“All I have produced before the age of seventy is not worth taking into account. At seventy-three I learned a little about the real structure of nature, of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects. In consequence when I am eighty, I shall have made still more progress. At ninety I shall penetrate the mystery of things: at a hundred I shall certainly have reached a marvelous stage: and when I am a hundred and ten, everything I do, be it a dot on a line, will be alive. I beg those who live as long as I to see if I do not keep my word. Written at the age of seventy-five by me, once Hokusai, today Gwakio Rojin, the old man mad about drawing.” -Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)

“What is old age? A sense of isolation, a feeling of holy rage, developing into what I have called transcendental pessimism: a mistrust of reason, a belief in instinct. … the feeling that the crimes and follies of mankind must be accepted with resignation… a retreat from realism, an impatience with established technique and a craving for complete unity of treatment, as if the picture were an organism in which every member shared in the life of the whole.” -Kenneth Clark (1903-1983)

“The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquility of the evening. Old age has its pleasures which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.” -W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

“No human loves life like the one that’s growing old.” -Sophocles (497/496-406/405 BCE)

“Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be, / The last of life, for which the first was made.” -Robert Browning (1812-1889)

“When we’re young we have faith in what is seen, but when we’re old we know that what is seen is traced in air and built on water.” -Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959)

“There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning.” -Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

“For age is opportunity no less / Than youth itself, though in another dress. / And as the evening twilight fades away / The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

“Age is never so old as youth would measure it.” -Jack London (1876-1916)

“The art of growing old is the art of being regarded by the oncoming generations as a support and not a stumbling block.” -Andre Maurois (1885-1967)

“Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the old; seek what they sought.” -Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.” -Sophia Loren (1934- )

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” -Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)