This President President Just Took Three Big Broadsides in 24 Hours

Yes, really, SO much going on and honestly, precious little of it good or positive for this President Trump.

First up, this was released yesterday.

Former DHS official blasts Trump, endorses Biden

Miles Taylor, who served as the Department of Homeland Security's chief of staff, in a video endorsement of Biden said that working under the current administration was "terrifying."

"What we saw week in and week out, for me, after two and a half years in that administration, was terrifying. We would go in to try to talk to him about a pressing national security issue — cyberattack, terrorism threat. He wasn't interested in those things. To him, they weren't priorities," Taylor says in the video, which was produced by the group Republican Voters Against Trump.

Taylor said that many of the things President Donald Trump wanted DHS to do were impossible and in some cases illegal. He characterized the president as vindictive and self-centered.

"Given what I have experienced in the administration, I have to support Joe Biden for president. And even though I am not a Democrat, even though I disagree on key issues, I'm confident that Joe Biden will protect the country, and I'm confident that he won't make the same mistakes as this president," Taylor, who was at DHS from 2017 to 2019, adds in the video.

That was brutal.

Then this came out this morning, in the last hour or two. And check the source.

Bipartisan Senate report describes 2016 Trump campaign eager to accept help from foreign power

The report highlights some never-before-seen evidence, including allegations about women and potentially compromising material tied to Trump trips to Russia

WASHINGTON — In a thousand-page bipartisan report released Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee said the Trump administration obstructed its investigation with "novel claims" of executive privilege. It painted a portrait of a Trump campaign eager to accept help from a foreign power in 2016.

The Senate report, the most detailed account to date of the Trump campaign's embrace of Russian election interference, also asserted that the allegations that Ukraine interfered in the election — which President Donald Trump perpetuated — originated with Russian intelligence agencies.

The report highlighted some never-before-seen evidence about Trump and Russia, including three allegations of potentially compromising material relating to Trump's private trips to Russia that were unconnected to the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele...

..."Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team's inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump's desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy," the report said. "The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives."

It added, "Russian officials, intelligence services, and others acting on the Kremlin's behalf were capable of exploiting the Transition's shortcomings for Russia's advantage. Based on available information it is possible — and even likely — that they did so."

On Ukraine, the report said that Russian-government operatives from late 2016 until at least January 2020 consistently spread "overlapping false narratives which sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and spread false information about the events of 2016."

I personally, strongly recommend reading that entire article.

And there's more from and about this, too.

Senate report finds Manafort passed campaign data to Russian intelligence officer

Between even just these two events in the last 24 hours, this President took a couple of big, big hits, folks. And with these revelations on his campaign working with the Russians, etc., it's two big problems for him, among at least a few, if not several others, not least of which is the State of New York looking into prosecuting him.

Trump Flails Against Growing Financial Probe 

in New York

Thirdly and finally, this was announced yesterday.

Appeals court lets emoluments case against Trump continue

This President always was in over his head, so to speak. It's my contention he never knew what he was getting into because he clearly never knew our government and/or what's involved or what it takes.

As I keep saying, thanks, Republicans.  That's quite the guy you foisted on us all.

Calm, Unemotional Logic on the November 3 Vote

From actor and activist Robert Redford because we seem to be lacking calm, clear, unemotional logic and thought lately.

"I have a lot of vivid memories of growing up in Los Angeles in the 1940s, but one in particular keeps coming back to me today, in these troubled times. I remember sitting with my parents -- actually, my parents were sitting; I was lying on the floor, the way kids do -- and listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt talking to us over the radio. He was talking to the nation, of course, not just to us, but it sure felt that way. He was personal and informal, like he was right there in our living room.

I was too young to follow much of what he was saying -- something about World War II. But what I did understand was that this was a man who cared about our well-being. I felt calmed by his voice. It was a voice of authority and, at the same time, empathy. Americans were facing a common enemy -- fascism -- and FDR gave us the sense that we were all in it together. Even kids like me had a role to play: participating in paper drives, collecting scrap metal, doing whatever we could do. That's what it was like to have a president with a strong moral compass. It guided him, gave him direction, and helped him point the nation toward a better future.
Maybe this strikes you as simple nostalgia. I've got a touch of that, sure (who doesn't right now?). But I'm too focused on the future to sit around pining for the old days. For me, the power of FDR's example is what it says about the kind of leadership America needs -- and can have again, if we choose it.

But one thing is clear: Instead of a moral compass in the Oval Office, there's a moral vacuum. Instead of a president who says we're all in it together, we have a president who's in it for himself. Instead of words that uplift and unite, we hear words that inflame and divide. When someone retweets (and then deletes) a video of a supporter shouting "white power" or calls journalists "enemies of the state," when he turns a lifesaving mask against contagion into a weapon in a culture war, when he orders the police and the military to tear gas peaceful protestors so he can wave a Bible at the cameras, he sacrifices -- again and again -- any claim to moral authority.

Another four years of this would degrade our country beyond repair. The toll it's taking is almost biblical: fires and floods, a literal plague upon the land, an eruption of hatred that's being summoned and harnessed, by a leader with no conscience or shame. Four more years would accelerate our slide toward autocracy. It would be taken as free license to punish more so-called "traitors" and wage more petty vendettas -- with the full weight of the Justice Department behind them. Four more years would mean open season on our environmental laws. The assault has been ongoing -- it started with abandoning the historic agreement that the world made in Paris to combat climate change, and continued, just last month, with using the pandemic as cover to let industries pollute as they see fit. Four more years would bring untold damage to our planet -- our home.

America is still a world power. But in the past four years, it has lost its place as a world leader. A second term would embolden enemies and further weaken our standing with our friends.

When and how did the United States of America become the Divided States of America? Polarization, of course, has deep roots and many sources. President Donald Trump didn't create all of our divisions as Americans. But he has found every fault line in America and wrenched them wide open.

Without a moral compass in the Oval Office, our country is dangerously adrift. But this November, we can choose another direction. This November, unity and empathy are on the ballot. Experience and intelligence are on the ballot. Joe Biden is on the ballot, and I'm confident he will bring these qualities back to White House.

I don't make a practice of publicly announcing my vote. But this election year is different. And I believe Biden was made for this moment. Biden leads with his heart. I don't mean that in a soft and sentimental way. I'm talking about a fierce compassion -- the kind that fuels him, that drives him to fight against racial and economic injustice, that won't let him rest while people are struggling.

As FDR showed, empathy and ethics are not signs of weakness. They're signs of strength. I think Americans are coming back to that view. Despite Trump -- despite his daily efforts to divide us -- I see much of the country beginning to reunite again, the way it did when I was a kid. You can see it in the peaceful protests of the past several weeks -- Americans of all races and classes coming together to fight against racism. You can see it the ways that communities are pulling together in the face of this pandemic, even if the White House has left them to fend for themselves.

These acts of compassion and kindness make our country stronger. This November, we have a chance to make it stronger still -- by choosing a president who is consistent with our values, and whose moral compass points toward justice."

--Robert Redford, July 8, 2020

Vote, folks.

November 3, be sure to vote.

And vote blue.

Great News on this coming Fall Election!

Check this out from very business-friendly Forbes Magazine this past Saturday.

Nearly 20 Swing State Polls Were Released Today–Biden Leads In All Of Them

Yet more reason, reasons for hope, campers!

On to November!

Vote!!

And vote blue!!

Have You Seen This Ad for the Republicans?

I've seen this ad on TV multiple times and I have to say, I just love it.



"America first", it says and shows Vice President Mike Pence.

But that's it.

Not once do they show the Trumpster.

They seem to be clearly running from him.

Fantastic.

And why shouldn't they? Check out these articles today.

Broad disapproval for Trump's handling of coronavirus

Biden leads Trump by 8 points, holds big advantage among undecided voters: poll

Biden Now Leads Trump In Texas, 

Poll Finds

Bring it on. 

On to November.

Vote blue.

#BlueWave

This Man, Donald Trump, In Senator Lindsey Graham's Own Words

Priceless.


Thank you, Senator Graham. You finally did some things right, albeit some years ago. And unintentionally.

Oh, and thanks, Republicans.

Fantastic, Even Important Proposal for any Biden/Trump Debate

Thomas Friedman writes today in the New York Times an excellent column on any possible, proposed debate, should it/they happen between Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

First, Biden should declare that he will take part in a debate only if Trump releases his tax returns for 2016 through 2018. Biden has already done so, and they are on his website. Trump must, too. No more gifting Trump something he can attack while hiding his own questionable finances.

And second, Biden should insist that a real-time fact-checking team approved by both candidates be hired by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates — and that 10 minutes before the scheduled conclusion of the debate this team report on any misleading statements, phony numbers or outright lies either candidate had uttered. That way no one in that massive television audience can go away easily misled.

So simple. So intelligent. So true.

One has released his taxes. All recent Presidents and presidential candidates have. Mr. Trump should, as well, of course. There should be no question.

On the fact-checking?  Who but either the insecure or those telling untruths should or would be against that?

Oh, yeah.  Bring it on.

Do it, Mr. Biden. Do it, Joe.  Make these two demands.

Let's watch him squirm.

This President Is An Actual Assault on the Nation, Democracy and Our Democracy

This very false, so transparent "Obamagate" this President has created and thrown out there is one thing, that's bad enough, untrue, empty and shallow as it is. Here is what's worst about all this:

'Obamagate' backfires: Documents show Biden, Obama acted properly

"Trump is weaponizing the American government to distract from his catastrophically incompetent pandemic response and the crushing economic fallout."

It is Mr. Trump's eating away at our Democracy, at Democracy itself, at our Constitution, at our laws and our nation that is most frightening. Check this next one out.

Trump threatens to withhold Michigan, Nevada funding over mail-in voting

He Trump seems to think and act as though this is his own money, that we're not a nation, a Democracy. Sure, he and the Republicans want to get fewer and fewer Americans voting at any time but especially this November. They have no qualms whatever in disenfranchising Americans, American citizens, American taxpayers. More people need to see and know this for the very large problem it is, again, for the nation, for Democracy, for our Democracy, no overstatement.

Even Fox's Neil Cavuto has called him out now.

Cavuto: The president making clear to fact check him is to be all but dead to him

Everyone is either 100% with and for this President or he sees them as against him. It's an insane way to go through life but it's a dangerous way for a nation's leader to view the world.

Vote this Fall, folks. Be sure to vote. And vote blue, naturally.

Additional link:

"He Doesn't Want You to Vote": Trump Threatens to Block Funding to Michigan for Sending Absentee Ballot Forms to All Voters Amid Covid-19

We Need To Be Better Than This, America

Since when do we tolerate and take seriously a presidential candidate for whom articles can be written about how many insults they've thrown out?

This, from The New York Times today:

Donald Trump's Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far)

How and why did we lower our standards to this point?

More importantly, can't we be smarter than this?

Shouldn't we?

And as if that isn't bad enough, from the front-runner in the polls from the Right Wing and Republican Party, there's also this:

The GOP Candidates Are Shockingly 

Uninformed About Foreign Policy

This is no way to run a nation, folks.

Links:  Tucker Carlson reveals incredibly vulgar first encounter with Donald Trump

Murdoch: GOPers Must Be Looking Forward to Debate ‘Without Donald Getting All Attention’

RNC Chair: ‘It Doesn’t Matter’ if Trump Sits Out Debate

Biden Tells Dems the GOP Presidential Field Is ‘A Gift from the Lord’

Saudi Billionaire Responds to Trump’s Photoshopped Attack: ‘I Bailed You Out Twice’

Links:  Trump's most notable insults

10 times Donald Trump insulted groups this fall

All the people Trump has insulted in September so far

All the people Donald Trump insulted in 2015

Donald Trump Finds New City to Insult: Brussels 

Truly, which side do you support?

It's a great question.

With only one obvious answer.

That said, we still need to end campaign contributions so our representatives and their legislation aren't continually bought in Washington in either political party, I'll grant you that.

Link: American Voice of Reason

If this is true, the NRA, the Right and all the gun nuts are going to go ballistic

(Absolutely no pun intended).

Breaking, last evening:

Biden says Obama could use executive orders to restrict guns


(Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the White House is determined to act quickly to curb gun violence and will explore all avenues - including executive orders that would not require approval by Congress - to try to prevent incidents like last month's massacre at a Connecticut school.

Kicking off a series of meetings on gun violence, Biden said the administration would work with gun-control advocates and gun-rights supporters to build a consensus on restrictions. But he made clear that President Barack Obama is prepared to act on his own if necessary.

Maybe it would have been a great idea, however, to not make this announcement the day before the Vice President was to meet with the NRA to discuss possible solutions to the repeated killings of Americans in large quantities in the country.

Blame the economy on this President?

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Ladies and gentlemen, gifts from the Republican Party

Click on picture for larger picture and easier reading:

Thank you, George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

Now, don't just try to pawn off these debts onto anyone else, but especially not this administration, thanks.

On last night's debate

First, from Economist, writer, author and former Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Reich:

"I thought Biden won tonight's debate because he came off as genuine, passionate, and brimming with conviction. Ryan, by contrast, seemed like a wooden marionette, a kid out of his depth relative to someone who not only knew the facts but lived them.

On taxes, Ryan couldn't come up with any details about what loopholes he and Romney would close, or how their magic arithmetic (giant tax cut for the wealthy plus $2 trillion more for the military than the Joint Chiefs of Staff want) can possibly be paid for without socking it to the middle class.

By contrast, Biden made the case for average working people whose wages have barely risen in thirty years but who are bearing a higher total tax burden (payroll, sales, property, income) on a higher percent of their income than high rollers like Romney -- and why the well off should do more.

On Medicare, Ryan couldn't explain why his plan wasn't a voucher program that "saved" money only by shifting the costs on to seniors who would end up holding the bag as medical costs rose. Biden effectively defended the President's plan to save Medicare by cutting excessive payments to providers.

Biden also pointed out that Ryan and his allies had tried to privatize Social Security. Score another one for Joe.

On abortion, Ryan had to admit he and Romney would work to prevent women from having the right to choose an abortion if they needed and wanted one. Biden made it clear his religious beliefs about when life began should not, in his view, force anyone who didn't share them to follow them.

I thought Biden's closing could have been tougher, drawing a sharper contrast between the Romney-Ryan "you're on your own" worldview, and the "we're in it all together" belief that has built America -- and which Obama and Biden represent.

But overall it was Biden's night. He not only trounced Ryan, but also, in the process, trounced Romney. Joe Biden is an average Joe solidly grounded in America's working middle class -- nothing pretentious or devious about him -- in contrast to the plutocrat who heads the Republican ticket, and the billionaires who are backing him."

And then there's this from comedian Andy Borowitz from his Facebook page:

"The Democrats should crush a little bit of Joe Biden into a joint and have Obama smoke it."

He's right, of course, and I think we're going to get it, next debate.


Links: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/team-romney-biden-off-balance-strange-025702439--election.html

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Borowitz/38423635680?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Quote of the day

“The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a 'you’re-on-your-own, winner-take-all society', you should support the Republican ticket.

If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility — a 'we’re-all-in-this-together' society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

~-Former President Bill Clinton, last night at the Democratic National Convention

One last look at the year that was

Welcome to 2011, y'all.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Quote of the day--on Republicans and their deficit spending

“...the people of Minnesota, the people of the United States, were absolutely devastated by the eight years of neglect, eight years of a policy that masqueraded as a vision, which was little more than a Ponzi scheme, that Wall Street was conducting. For eight years, all that happened was we piled up debt, we generated losses for the middle class, and the end result was, when we came into office, we inherited, before I a chance to turn on the computer in the office -- Fritz, your old office – we were handed a bill for $1.3 trillion, a projected deficit of $8 trillion for the next 10 years, if we did nothing.”


“...if I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them. To the press: that’s a figure of speech.”   --Vice President Joe Biden.

And like it or not, he's right.

Link to original post:  http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/10/biden-if-i-hear-one-more-republican-tell-me-about-balancing-the-budget.html

Do they have to muzzle Joe Biden or what?

No war

Dumbest Political quotes of 2009

25. "I just get naked, that’s what I do." —Levi Johnston, baby daddy of Sarah Palin's grandchild, on exposing his johnson in Playgirl, as told to US Magazine (Source)

24. "No, no. I have been practicing ... I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." —President Barack Obama, making an off-hand joke during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" (Obama later called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize), March 19, 2009 (Source)

23. "I mean, we've got czars now. Czars like John Holdren, who has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population." —FOX News Channel's Glenn Beck, taking past writings by Obama's science and technology advisor, John Holdren, ridiculously out of context, "Glenn Beck Show," July 22, 2009 (Source)

22. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." —a protester at a health care reform town hall meeting in Simpsonville, S.C., commenting on the government-created Medicare program, quoted by The Washington Post on July 28, 2009 (Source)

21. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." –Obama, attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009 (Source)

20. "So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. ... The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening." —Glenn Beck on his radio show, "The Glenn Beck Program," March 9, 2009 (Source)

19. "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. ... When one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway." —Vice President Joe Biden, dispensing handy tips to protect against the swine flu and freaking us out, "Today Show" interview, April 30, 2009 (Source)

18. "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak that happened when Gerald Ford was president, April 28, 2009 (Source)

17. "We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets." —Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, on the GOP's need for a hip-hop makeover, Feb 19, 2009 (Source)

16. "I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details..." —South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, writing a love email to his Argentine mistress, Maria Shapur (Source)

15."Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House." —a Twitter post by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), comparing the mass uprising of Iranians — utilizing Twitter as an organizing tool — to the GOP's attempt to express dissatisfaction over Nancy Pelosi's decision to adjourn Congress before an energy vote last year. In response, Twitter users mercilessly heckled Hoekstra en masse, turning his idiotic statement into a full-blown Internet meme. "To Hoekstra" acquired its own definition, meaning "to whine using grandiose exaggerations and comparisons." (Source)

14. "She wears little eye-patch underwear. So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!" —State Rep. Mike Duvall (R-Calif.), caught on a live mic boasting to a colleague about an affair with a lobbyist, Sept. 9, 2009. Duvall resigned when the tape was made public. (Source)

13. "That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions." —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a pro-lifer who completely missed the irony of using the same slogan as the pro-choice movement in arguing against health care reform (Source)

12. "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." —a July 31 editorial in Investor's Business Daily warning about end-of-life counseling in health care reform. Hawking, in fact, lives in England and has been treated by their National Health Service, which, by his own account, saved his life (Source)

11. "Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook ... Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate." —Rush Limbaugh, Aug. 6, 2009

10. "The system worked." —Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, on airline security's failure to stop the Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas Day, Dec. 27, 2009. (She later acknowledged that security had failed) (Source)

9. "Hunger can be a positive motivator." —State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-Missouri), arguing in a press release against a program that feeds poor children 18, suggesting they should get jobs instead, June 2009 (Source)

8. "Exercise freaks ... are the ones putting stress on the health care system." —Rush Limbaugh, June 12, 2009 (Source)

7. "O-L-I-G-A-R-H-Y." —Glenn Beck, misspelling "oligarchy" on his chalk board while claiming he had deciphered a secret code that he said was proof Obama was trying to create an "Oligarhy," Aug. 27, 2009, FOX News Channel's "Glenn Beck Show" (Source)

6. "It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out." —Sarah Palin, quitting her job as governor, July 3, 2009 (Source)

5. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly." —Obama, commenting on a white police officer's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., at a news conference, July 22, 2000 (Source)

4. "This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture....I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." —Glenn Beck, on Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show, July 28, 2009 (Source)

3. "The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail." —a spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, explaining Sanford's disappearance and coining the , June 22, 2009 (Sanford later admitted to carrying on extramarital affair with his Argentine mistress) (Source)

2. "You lie!" —Rep. Joe Wilson, shouting out a retort to Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009 (Source)

1. "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel.'" —Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care reform plan, Aug. 7, 2009

Link to original source:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/stupidquotes/a/dumb-quotes-2009.htm