Bernie And Joe Uniting Key To Reclaiming Country

Finally, the kind of unity this country has been desperately lacking and unequivocally needs right now amidst the unprecedented, heartless scourge of President Donald Trump.

Bernie Sanders endorses Joe Biden for president

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/politics/bernie-sanders-endorses-joe-biden/index.html

Sanders: "Today, I am asking all Americans, I'm asking every Democrat, I'm asking every Independent, I'm asking a lot of Republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse."

Biden: "I think that your endorsement means a great deal. It means a great deal to me. I think people are going to be surprised that we are apart on some issues but we're awfully close" on others, Biden said. "I'm going to need you -- not just to win the campaign, but to govern."

Bring it on.

We Still Need Bernie

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) may have dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, but he's not going away. 

Announcing his withdrawal from the race on Wednesday, Sanders said:

"While Vice President (Joe) Biden will be the nominee, we must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic Convention, where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions."

That's a good thing for the American people. And a logical, smart move by Sanders to stay on the ticket.

The Covid-19 pandemic, that's killed nearly 15,000 and infected 430,000 Americans, has not just exposed the criminal fraudulence of President Donald Trump, who for months inexplicably denied the reality of the enchroaching deadly virus.

It's exposing in real time the very same gross economic and healthcare disparities between the haves and the have nots in this country, which Sanders has long decried louder and more consistently than any single presidential candidate in recent history.

Sanders' movement for social equality captures the character and compassion of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt "New Deal," which was instrumental in facilitating our nation's economic recovery from "The Great Depression" of 1929.

Now, more than ever, as the death count mounts daily from the Covid-19 outbreak, and society shuts down, the need for a universal healthcare system, a living wage and a government that actually gives a damn about its people is abundantly clear.

Prior to the pandemic, some 140 million people have been living below poverty or right at the cusp, just paycheck away from going bust and tens of millions were uninsured. But now, as Americans "shelter in place" amidst the Coronavirus epidemic, millions more have lost their jobs, as well as employer health benefits.

A record nearly 17 million workers have filed for unemployment in the past three weeks. Those millions of jobless and furloughed workers now face the uncertainity of keeping enough food on the table and paying bills.

But just as crucially, despite empty promises from the Trump administration, it's still unclear to what degree the suddenly uninsured will get stuck with hospital bills if they get sick.

The $2.2 trillion relief package that Congress passed at the end of March for businesses, government agencies and citizens will help. But it won't be enough to offset expensive hospital stays.

On top of that, it's America's low-wage workers admirably working the front lines at Dollar General's and various essential businesses, who are most vulnerable.

Many of these underpaid workers putting their health on the line to serve the people, face a double or triple whammy.  Not only do they lack lack a living wage. They don't have healthcare either. And sick day pay is either scant or in some cases, non-existant.

So, what to do if they get sick?  They can't afford hospital bills. And they can't afford to not work either. Chances are they'll work sick, risking the spread of the virus to the community.

Americans may have allowed the right's fear mongering of Sanders as a "socialist" to force them to play it safe with Biden, but Sanders' Democratic socialist (there's a difference) ideas have gained wide traction across the homeland, nonetheless.

“It was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe,” Sanders said on Wednesday. “Today they are mainstream ideas.”

"I want to express to each of you my deep gratitude for helping to create an unprecedented political grassroots campaign that has had a profound impact in changing our nation,” Sanders told his supporters.

And Biden, acknowledging the success of the Sanders's movement of "Not me, Us," appears to be graciously welcoming Sanders input in shaping future Democratic policy.

“Bernie gets a lot of credit for his passionate advocacy for the issues he cares about,” Biden said. “But he doesn’t get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we’ve done enough.”

Said Biden: “While the Sanders campaign has been suspended — its impact on this election and on elections to come is far from over."

Amen to that.

Will They Finally See?

Maybe now they’ll wake up.

Maybe now, as a pandemic viscerally threatens the American homeland in the wake of President Donald Trump’s bungled and dismissive initial response to the deadly coronavirus  Coved-19, slavish Trump believer’s eyes will finally be opened.

Unfortunately, it’s come to this. Trump may not be responsible for the disease, but his dismissing it early on as little more than a common cold and a Democratic “hoax,” has exposed his ineptness in ways that his endless lies and inciting and deflecting tweets can’t bury.

Arguably, Trump’s slow response in taking the virus seriously has exacerbated the virus’ impact and will lead unnecsaarily to the loss of American lives.

And pathetically, in a performace akin to a Saturday Night Live outtake, while wearing a “Keep America Great” Trump campaign hat, suggested that he's some kind of a epidemiology whiz with a full grasp of the virus. 

In the meantime, as the Trump administration plays catch up, the President pathetically tries to rewrite history in recent press conferences, claiming he was way ahead of the game and that the virus is "under control" and lies about the availability of testing for "anyone who needs it." 

He plays dumb when asked why he disbanded the White House National Security Council's entire Global health unit in 2018 of which Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has said: "It would be nice if the office was still there."

Trumps’ hopes to assure the people, as all leaders should, rings hollow.

The late American author Gore Vidal once said: "We are in the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing."

President Trump depends on, thrives on such a phenomema. He thinks he can disingenuously recast himself as a guy in charge from the get-go. Unfortunately, too many wanting to desperately believe that Trump is their daddy, will believe that.

The truth has been from the get-go that Trump is a narcissistic, two-bit conman resigned to obliterating the last vestiges of morality, democratic values, health and security of our nation in everything he does, says and tweets. 

As I wrote more than hree years ago in The Hill, “Trump is America's most dangerous home-bred terrorist. His weapons are fear and divisiveness, planted not so subtly in the hearts and minds of the disenchanted, subject to explode anytime.”

Now, more than ever it’s clear that Trump is in over his head, but he'll pull any desperate ploy to obscure that truth -- even if it means many will have to die.

The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed not just Trump's ulterior motives, but the dire need for a universal healthcare sytem. It’s proven that millions of people who contract the disease, won’t be able to afford testing -- let alone a physician's care. So, they’ll keep on working, risking the virus's spread.

Thankfully, Democrats negotiated an agreement with Trump for a bill that will provide billions of dollars towards alleviating those burdens. For now. But for the most powerful country in the world, it’s truly a national tragedy that we haven’t been able to supply the basics of healthcare for the citiizenry like most other major developed countries in the world.

The Disease Of Trump

Now that the disease in the Oval Office is threatening American lives perhaps more viscerally than ever, will President Donald Trump loyalists in the electorate finally snap out of their cult-like trance?

Predictably, Trump is more concerned with a slumping stock market -- due to the threat of the Coronavirus to the United States homeland -- than American lives.

"Trump has become furious about the stock market’s slide, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking," reported The Washington Post recently. But the actual threat of a deadly virus outbreak, in Trump's view, is no big deal.

The President's reported anger with CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) official Dr. Nancy Messonnier's pre-emptive press conference Wednesday to knowledgeably inform the citizenry of potential dangers of the Coronavirus, which has infected some 60 Americans in the States, is more par for the of course.

Nothing matters more to Trump than his perceived successful economy that caters to the richest one percent at the expense of the middle class and poor. Expect more obfuscation of the truth now that Wall Street has officially suffered it's worst week since the 2008 start of the Great Recession.

It doesn't help matters that Trump irresponsibly fired the U.S. pandemic response team and cut CDC funding in 2018, reportedly as a cost-saving measure. The cuts forced the CDC to abandon its foreign aid to prevent the spread of infectious disease in countries -- including China, according to Judd Legum's "Popular Information" newsletter.

And Trump's move of late to appoint Vice President Mike Pence to oversee the U.S. response to the Coronavirus threat doesn't inspire confidence either. As Governor of Indiana, Pence was criticized for mishandling an HIV outbreak that infected more than 200 people in a single county between 2013 and 2015. It took Pence two years before authorizing a needle exchange program that eventually curbed the number of HIV cases.

In a further disturbing move, that reflects Trump's drive for autocratic control, the President has ordered that all government health officials must clear any statements about the Coronavirus, detected in 47 countries and which has caused more than 2,000 deaths, through Pence's office.

At his damage-control press conference, the President also misrepresented the time frame for the availability of a Coronavirus vaccine, seemingly in an attempt to reassure investors of a faltering stock market. A red-faced Trump claimed a vaccine "is coming along quickly."

More than once, administration officials have been obliged to refute Trump's placating embellishment. In that same press conference, a National Institute of Health physician stated that it would be at least a year before a Coronavirus vaccine is available.

In the meantime, right wing hate radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was downplaying the Coronavirus, likening it to "common cold" and absurdly insinuated that Dr. Messonnier's warning to Americans to prepare for the virus, was part of a plot to undermine Trump.

Americans by no means should panic in light of the increased threat of the Coronavirus spreading in our country. But to what degree has President Trump's cuts to the CDC, downplaying and slow response of the virus's threat, already put vulnerable citizens' lives at risk?

Obsessive Trump believers, in the coming days and weeks, may have their best chance yet to more soberly assess just whose side the President is truly on, and for their own good, rethink their undying allegiance.

Normalizing The White-collar Criminal Elite

An emboldened President Donald Trump's long-demonstrated devotion to normalize criminal behavior (his embracing dictators Rodrigo Duterte, Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin) is predictably mutating into something more abhorrently brazen -- all, of course, to muddle the truth of his own glaring guilt.

Mitt And Nancy Derserve "Medal Of Freedom"

Well, that didn't take long -- to put Mitt Romney's head "on a pike."

Now, we know reportedly what a confidant of President Donald Trump meant when he warned Senators that Republicans voting to convict Trump, would end up with their "head on a pike."

CBS News reported just more than a week ago that a Trump confidant said that key senators were warned: "Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike."

Sneaky, black ops Trump operators must have had that attack ad all geared up and ready to roll after Romney was one of just two Republicans who voted to call for witnesses last week in Trump's Senate impeachment trial.

The Senate had barely acquitted Trump of impeachment for abuse of power and obstructing Congress, when Trump's TV ad slamming Romney as some kind of spy hit the airwaves.

Trump and his apologists are such a pathetic, petty, truth-twisting, justice-obstructing bunch. Romney deserves credit. 
It's not easy to be a lone dissenter among your party on such a monumental decision.

And credit also goes to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who appropriately tore up Trump's hypocritical, exceedingly disingenuous, pandering State of The Union address moments after the President finished up Wednesday night. 

In fact, maybe Mitt and Nancy should both be awarded the "Medal of Freedom" for their courageous actions in defense of the American Republic.

Cover Up -- Or Flat Out Betrayal?

Republican Senators willful blindness to the glaring facts that demonstrate Trump's abuse of power and clear obstruction of Congress is not so much a cover-up, as it is a blatant betrayal.

To call the Republican Senators dismissal of the President's impeachable offenses a "cover-up" is really a misnomer.

Our elected Republican representatives - abetted by theatrical, deceptive White House counsel, obstructed justice by any disingenuous means available -- in the light of day and right in front of our face.

Our Founding Fathers obviously imagined a future President of the United States abusing his power to such a degree that it demand impeachment.

What the Founders didn't foresee, was an entire political party of legislators abandoning their oath to uphold The Constitution of the United States and selling their souls to protect a tyrannical cult leader posing as President.

"If you find that the House has proved its case and still find to acquit, your name will be tied to (Trump's) with chords of steel and for all of history," berated lead Democratic House manager Adam Schiff on Monday. 

So far a handful of Republican Senators -- Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), Marco Rubio, (Fla.) and Rob Portman, Ohio, have indicated that the House indeed had proved it's case -- that Trump pressured Ukraine to help him cheat in the 2020 elections by withholding nearly $400 million in vital, Congress-approved military aid.

But those Senators essentially have said "So, what?" Trump's offenses don't warrant impeachment.

Now that it's okay for the president of the United States to shake down a foreign government for political favors how much further will American democracy backslide?

"You may be asking, how much damage can (Trump) he really do in the next several months until the election? A lot. A lot of damage,” said Schiff in his mpeachment trial arguments. “This is why, if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Because right matters and truth matters. Otherwise we are lost.”

Senate Republicans blocking witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, on their speedy way to acquitt the President come Wednesday, will have some explaining to do for some time to come.

How can a legislative body, charged with conducting a fair trial and purportedly following impeachment precedent, deny key witnesses -- like former National Security Advisor John Bolton and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney -- who were figuratively begging to be heard from?

All 15 of the nation's past Senate impeachment trials since 1804 -- mostly judges and a few presidents -- heard from witnesses.

What's a trial without witnesses? A sham.

And exactly why is Chief Justice John Roberts presiding over the impeachment trial if he's going to play the role of a stuffed shirt while our Constitution, rule of law is eviscerated?

Democratic House managers did a masterful job presenting damning testimonial evidence interspersed with video clips of testimony from most of the 17 government witnesses who appeared before the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings in December.

Many of the witnesses in the House proceedings were long- serving Republican U.S. government officials. Some were even Trump appointees.

But White House counsel, led by Pat Cippione, Jay Sekulow and Ken Starr didn't want to hear the damning evidence against Trump, which nailed down the incriminating details surrouding Trump's July 25, 2019 shakedown phone call with the Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelinsky.

They pathetically argued that House  Democrats impeached the President simply because they "don't like" Trump, reducing the President's trial to a mere popularity contest.

Hence, there's no grounds for impeachment here. It's a simplistic, child-like argument our thin-skinned, narcissistic President might make.

Cippione and Sekulow persistently sent up smoke screens, distracting from the facts and challenging the legitimacy of the House's impeachment procedures -- while fear mongering a "partisan impeachment."

But, who are they to accuse the other side of partisanship? That's so Trumpian.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in effect, declared the President "not guilty" through his professed allegiance to Trump, weeks before the Trump's Senate impeachment trial gaveled to order. 

"Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with the White House counsel,” said McConnell in mid December, shortly after the House voted to impeach President Trump. “There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can.”

Meanwhile, President Trump is emboldened to stretch the boundaries of decency, truth and justice that much further in the same way he does at his "Keep America Great" rallies.

Thousands flocked to the boardwalk town of Wildwood, NJ, in the dead of winter this past week to experience Trump's mind-numbing "Reality TV" schtick.

The 7,500-seat capacity Wildwood Convention Center Convention was packed and thousands gathered outside to watch the President on a Jumbotron TV. 

Wildwood is in my neck of the woods. So, I was among the rally goers outside the center to witness the spectacle.

Predictably, the President lied about crowd sizes, embellished job numbers and incited anger toward Democrats, The Press and anything he perceives as a threat to expose his swindling of the American Republic.

And the crowds loved it. Truth is fast becoming obsolete in the theatre of American Republican politics.

It seriously makes you wonder if in Trump's alternate universe, in which so many Americans seems to live, is there anything this brazen, crude and divisive President can do wrong?