Biden: Coming Out of Trump's Shadow

 President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took their oaths of office before noon in Washington Wednesday.  Because of a virus that has so far killed more than 400,000 Americans, and because of a violent mob that threatened to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory at the suggestion of the previous President, the inauguration at the U.S. Capitol was witnessed only by an invited and socially distanced live audience, several thousand National Guard troops watching for a palace coup, and a worldwide TV and online audience.  

Donald Trump chose to spend the remaining hours of his presidency granting pardons and clemencies to such luminaries as Steve Bannon and rapper Lil Wayne, but not for himself or his family.  He left the White House early Wednesday morning, ditching the inauguration for Mar-a-Lago in Florida as he flew in Air Force One for the last time while being serenaded by a recording of Frank Sinatra's "My Way". All the while insisting that he really won the election.

A week after the insurrection, Trump was impeached for the second time in American history by the House on a 232-197 vote.  The Senate has delayed his trial until Biden gets his feet wet in the White House.  Despite a Democratic majority, about all the Senate can do to convict Trump (now that he is no longer President) is to make sure he never runs for office again.

The confrontation at the Capitol, which left five people dead and American democracy in peril, was the last straw for those who once associated with Trump.  He had been kicked off his beloved social media accounts.  Corporations are taking a hard look at their campaign contributions to Republicans, cutting off those who sided with the insurrection and voted against Trump's impeachment. Fox News Channel is losing its conservative TV viewers to upstarts like Newsmax and One America News. Worst of all (for Trump, that is), the 2022 PGA Championship has been pulled from his New Jersey golf course.

In the first year or so of the Biden administration, the new President faces a major task in undoing the many policy reversals of the previous President.  Going back to the Paris climate accords, easing the travel ban on certain foreigners, and taking the ongoing threat of coronavirus much more seriously are a good start.  But the long shadow of Trump and Trumpism in Washington and elsewhere will make it much more difficult to get Biden's agenda across, and to achieve the unity he says he wants.  Let's see if he and Vice President Harris can overcome the shadow.

Siege On Capitol Hill

 In the early morning hours of January 7, 2021, a joint session of Congress certified Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump with a final tally of 306 to 232.

This would have happened sooner if it had not been for the right-wing mob that had stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington the previous day.  Encouraged by Trump, who believed his re-election was stolen from him because of voter fraud in certain states when in fact he had lost by seven million votes to Biden, the largely white and unmasked crowd marched in support of a man who they believed was the only one who could fix America, attempting to stop a vote that could overturn an election he lost.

The results were a trashed Capitol, people making themselves at home in the House chamber and in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, members of Congress evacuated to secure locations, smashed windows and furniture.  Four of the intruders died, and 80 of them were arrested.  Millions of people watched the events unfold on TV and online, wondering if America had gone totally bonkers.  

Some call the insurgents terrorists.  Some call them thugs.  Some call them insurrectionists.  Whatever you call them, those who participated in this attack on our democracy should be prosecuted as much as possible.  Having said that, though, can you imagine what would have happened if Black people had been involved?

This had been coming for more than four years, so no one can say they were surprised.  Trump's race-baiting, rule-breaking, dictator-worshiping, publicity-seeking, facts-optional Presidency has resulted in a divided nation and a weakened world power.  We don't know anything about his tax returns or medical records. All the "loyal subjects" he hired have either quit, been fired, or rewarded with pardons.

Thanks to the apparent coup attempt, there is now talk in political circles of the President being removed from office by way of impeachment (which they tried once) or the 25th Amendment, since he'll never resign voluntarily.  You in Congress have had four years to do something about Trump.  Instead, every time those measures are brought up, you always find an excuse not to do it:  The GOP will never go for it.  Nasty tweets.  Let the voters decide, etc. (They did.  They rejected him.)  Well, there's two weeks left in Trump's term.  If there isn't a removal or another impeachment, what's the excuse this time?  If we're lucky, Trump can pass the time by playing golf without being told time's up.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will officially begin serving their new roles starting on January 20.  They face a gargantuan job of cleaning up the messes Trump made, which includes managing a pandemic that has so far killed over 350,000 Americans, and healing the divisions--political and otherwise--that have been around long before the current occupant took office.  Fortunately for Biden and Harris, the Democratic Party now have control of both houses of Congress, with two Blue candidates winning Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

But most of all, can America survive two more weeks of Donald Trump as President?

2020 In Hindsight

 It was a year that began with the impeachment of a President accused of high crimes and misdemeanors by the House of Representatives, yet was acquitted by a Senate whose party was held in thrall by the same man whose careers they depended on, so they let him skate.  It ends with this same President defeated at the polls, yet as his term nears its conclusion continues to cling to the notion that Democratic voter fraud made him the real winner. And President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are waiting in the wings.

It was a year that began with a viral outbreak in China that spread to the rest of the world with devastating consequences.  The President, when told about it, chose to sit tight and refer to it as a hoax.  As casualties across the United States mounted and life as we knew it went undercover, he held "superspreader" campaign events with masks optional before getting sick himself.  By the end of the year, with over 300,000 dead and millions infected, the President no longer seems to care about the virus that came to be known as COVID-19 ruining his chances of re-election.  If he ever did.

It was a year when George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black individuals were murdered by police officers who thought they were breaking the law--just because they were Black.  This led to demonstrations and rioting in the streets of major cities, Black Lives Matter becoming more than just a slogan, athletes and entertainers picking up the mantle for social justice, and much soul searching no matter who you were.  The President's response?  He sent National Guard and other troops to quell demonstrators in such cities as Washington and Portland, OR while posing with an upside-down Bible and yelling "LAW AND ORDER!", representing neither.  Cha-chung.  By year's end, we still don't know what really happened to Floyd, Taylor and the others.

It was a year when, because of coronavirus, everything was closed or went underground.  Events were postponed or canceled.  Zoom meetings became one of the safer ways to communicate.  Unlikely products such as toilet paper and household cleaning products became scarce.  Streaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix had big years as people didn't have much to do but watch TV, and theaters were forced to close.

It was a year when someone like Sarah Cooper could do dead-on impressions of the President and the First Lady and be a hit on social media, leading to a Netflix TV special.  Or when Taylor Swift recorded three albums in a year's time ("Lover", "Folklore", "Evermore"), two of them during the pandemic.

It was a year when sports continued against all logic while the pandemic raged.  The NBA, NHL and WNBA conducted their regular season and playoffs inside tightly-controlled bubbles.  Major League Baseball, the NFL and college football played their seasons in empty stadiums under open skies.  There were some postponements due to players either becoming ill or testing positive for the virus.  It was clear this was all done for the benefit of TV networks, whose lucrative contracts with the leagues may have possibly kept them from going under, never mind the health and safety of the players.

Most of all, though, it was a year of death. Herewith, an extensive list of those you might have heard of who passed away during 2020, whether it was due to COVID-19 or not.  Cue Sarah McLachlan's "Angel".

Don Larsen, Sam Wyche, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Edd Byrnes, Buck Henry, Jim Lehrer, Kobe Bryant, Jack Burns, Marj Dusay, Fred Silverman, Mary Higgins Clark, Gene Reynolds, Willie Wood, Kirk Douglas, Roger Kahn, Orson Bean, Paula Kelly, Zoe Caldwell, Ja'Net DuBois, Mickey Wright, Pop Smoke, Jeanne Evert, AP Indy, B.Smith, Ahmaud Arbery, Clive Cussler, Lee Phillip Bell, Bobbie Battista, Ruth Born, Mal Sharpe, Roger Mayweather, Lyle Waggoner, Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Wynn, Orlando McDaniel. Joe Diffie, KT Oslin, Pierre Cardin, David Stern, Jacob Blake, Ed Farmer, James Drury, Al Kaline, Herb Stempel, Carl Dobkins Jr., Linda Tripp, Mort Drucker, Saul Turteltaub, Pete Retzlaff, Jim Frey, Stirling Moss, Hank Steinbrenner, Milt Sunde, Bobby Lewis, Matt Keough, Don Shula, Barry Farber, Brian Howe, Roy Horn, Little Richard, Betty Wright, Jerry Stiller, Pepper Rodgers, Phyllis George, Fred Willard, Ken Osmond, Chuck Graham, Jerry Sloan, Eddie Sutton, Larry Kramer, Randy Staten, Pat Dye, Lee Grosscup, Wes Unseld, Johnny Majors, Dick Garmaker, Mike McCormick, Jean Kennedy Smith, Lester Crystal, Benny Mardones, Carl Reiner, Sean Connery, Regis Philbin, Chadwick Boseman, Phil Niekro, Ann Reinking, John LeCarre, Charley Pride, David Lander, David Prowse. Diego Maradona, Alex Trebek, Nikki McKibbin, Leanza Cornett, Conchata Ferrell, Whitey Ford, Johnny Nash, Eddie Van Halen, Helen Reddy, Mac Davis, Gale Sayers, Pamela Hutchinson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Diana Rigg, Lou Brock, Cliff Robinson, Reni Santoni, Wilford Brimley, Alan Parker, Herman Cain, Olivia de Haviland, Grant Imchara, Naya Rivera, Kelly Preston, Charlie Daniels, Nick Cordero, Hugh Downs, Ian Holm, Chuck Yeager, Ken Hansley, John Prine, Joe Morgan, Bob Gibson, Tommy DeVito, Winston Groom, Stanley Crouch, Shere Hite, Tom Seaver, John Thompson, Gail Sheehy, Ben Cross, Trini Lopez, Sumner Redstone, Brent Scowcroft, Pete Hamill, John Saxon, John Lewis, Christo, Lynn Shelton, Peter Beard, Brian Dennehy, Honor Blackman, Bobby Mitchell, Tom Dempsey, Bill Withers, Curly Neal, Stuart Whitman, Max von Sydow, McCoy Tyner, James Lipton, Robert Conrad, Terry Jones, Jim Ramstad, Sid Hartman, Tom Hanneman, Chris Doleman, Tarvaris Jackson, Bob McDonald, John Hankinson, Henri Richard, Tom Heinsohn, Paul Hornung, Rafer Johnson, Dick Allen, Kevin Greene, KC Jones, Ron Perranoski, Nancy Dorsch, Dawn Wells

Everybody, it seems, is looking forward to 2021.  Let's see where it leads to.

The Man Who Came to the White House--And Stayed

It's been three weeks since the election, and only now has President Donald Trump gotten over himself long enough to allow his successor. President-elect Joe Biden, to begin the transition in earnest prior to his inauguration on January 20.  The General Services Administration gave the go-ahead on Monday.  Biden and his transition team can finally look over all the correspondence and briefings he needs to know about.

But don't think for one moment Trump has abandoned his increasingly quixotic quest to regain the Presidency, in spite of evidence to the contrary.  He has yet to concede the election to Biden, even though the former vice-president has amassed 80 million votes to Trump's 73 million--more than any other candidate in history.  Biden also leads in the Electoral College vote 306 to 232.

Claiming voter fraud and other irregularities, Trump and his gang of fools (also known as his attorneys) have been striking out in the courtrooms of battleground states, leaving behind hollow reassurances to the President's base at every parking lot and strip mall they could find. They haven't looked good doing so, not even with Rudy Giuliani's hair dye.

It's not as though Trump is all that eager to do his job these days.  There's a pandemic going on with 12 million cases of Covid-19, a quarter of a million dead, and people ignoring pleas to mask up and stay home this Thanksgiving--even with vaccines on the horizon.  You've heard of the phrase "when the going gets tough, the tough get going"?  With this President, when the going gets tough, the tough tweets, watches Fox News, then goes golfing.

Meanwhile, Biden has been busy putting together his new staff during the delay, while at the same time reassuring the country that help is on its way.  The President-elect announced his national security cabinet, which includes familiar names such as Janet Yellin for Secretary of the Treasury and former Senator and 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry as climate advisor.  Most of the rest of the nominees (pending Senate approval) are diverse and experienced in government affairs, unlike the revolving door of unqualified yes-people and family members who served during Trump's administration.

It looks like the Democratic "blue wave" in Congress never materialized, which makes Biden's efforts to get things done a lot more complicated.  The Democrats still have the House of Representatives by a 220-208 margin.  But the GOP is still holding on to the Senate 50-46, pending the outcomes of two runoff races in Georgia, meaning Biden might still have Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to deal with.

One reason Trump is taking desperate measures to keep his job is that once he leaves office, he faces numerous federal and state charges against him for everything from financial fraud to sexual assault.  It is more likely, however, that Trump will be filing for bankruptcy rather than see a day behind bars.  He's already on his way to letting his cronies go scot-free, having pardoned Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.  Maybe he'll do the same thing for himself and his family.

So whether Trump finally throws in the towel and concedes, or waits for the Electoral College to to decide his fate, his spectre for the next few weeks will be hanging over the White House like an unwanted house guest who's stayed too long.  Because if he can't move on, neither can the country.

 

Biden Wins. Trump Pouts.

After four agonizing days and nights of needing just one or two more states to make it past the Electoral College-mandated 270 mark, former Vice President Joe Biden finally passed that hurdle when the TV networks declared him the winner in Pennsylvania Saturday morning. He will become the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021.  Senator Kamala Harris of California becomes the first woman and person of color to be Vice President.

The votes are still being counted as of November 7 in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia with Biden in the lead.  But Pennsylvania was the big prize with 20 electoral votes.  Biden won more popular votes than anyone in history with more than 74 million.

Donald Trump becomes the first President since 1992 to be defeated for a second term.  For a man who's used to "so much winning", as he might have put it, he's not handling losing very well.  His nationally-televised rants about Democrats committing voter fraud and threats of suing his way to a second term, possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, did nothing but paint him as a desperate old man clinging to the spotlight.  And what was he doing when Biden was announced as the winner?  Playing golf, which is a typical move whenever the President wants to get away from reality. Conceding?  Are you kidding?

But Trump won over 70 million votes, and if that doesn't tell you how divided the United States is right now, I don't know what will.  Seems there are a lot more folks outside his political base who liked how he's handled the coronavirus pandemic (which is currently near ten million cases and over 236,000 dead, with the worst still to come), the pre-Covid economy and other kinds of behavior unbecoming a President.  If Trump had so much as taken the pandemic seriously, not only would he have saved a lot of lives, but he would have won a second term too.  

As it stands, Biden won because people got sick of all the lies, all the racism, all the tweeting, all the corruption, all the nepotism, all the spinelessness of the GOP, all the ignoring of his Western allies and coddling of dictators, and, most importantly, ALL TRUMP ALL THE TIME. By contrast, Biden has been in and out of public office for nearly 50 years and seems to know how to deal with the world.  He may be older than Trump (78 by inauguration), but he's exactly what America needs right now.  Boring but competent.

Now that it's all over but the pouting, the next three months should be interesting.  As President-elect Biden and his transition team hit the ground running, what will President Trump be doing in the days before his TV show of an administration goes off the air?  Will he cooperate with Biden's team?  Will he fire everyone right and left?  Will he find a way to stay out of prison?  Or will he simply fade into America's collective rear view mirror?

"Rounding The Turn" to Election Day(s)

 In a few days (or so) will come the event we've waited four years for.  Will President Donald Trump win another four year term in the White House?  Or will defeat at the polls to former vice president Joe Biden finally do what scandal, impeachment, Covid-19 and just plain buffoonery could not--remove him from office?  If that's the case, will Trump do so gracefully?

Most of the polls nationally and in battleground states indicate that Biden has a sizable lead over Trump.  But no one, not even Biden, is convinced that the Democrats have this one in the bag yet.  Remember 2016?  Or even 1948, if you've done your research?  Those elections taught us that polls and the popular vote doesn't matter.  Only the Electoral College matters, and a few votes in the right places is Trump's best hope for defying the experts once again.

Trump's (mis)handling of the coronavirus crisis has led to (as of 10/29) nearly nine million cases and over 227,000 deaths, including himself and most of the White House staff.  And the worst is yet to come as winter approaches. Yet he insists on jetting around the country to rallies attended by thousands of supporters who don't mask up, spreading disease wherever he goes.

Lacking a real plan to control the virus without hurting the economy, the President tells anyone who'd listen that we're "rounding the turn" in developing a vaccine that won't be available to everyone until next summer.  Trouble is, it sounds like what President Herbert Hoover kept saying as the Great Depression got worse:  "Prosperity is just around the corner".

It also doesn't help that the Trump administration has all but surrendered to the virus, offering scant suggestions that don't involve mask wearing and social distancing while muzzling the experts, who have a better idea of what's going on than the politicians do.

The U.S. Senate's confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as the newest Supreme Court justice, so soon after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Americans are voting early, is a clear indication that Trump and Senate Republicans are imposing their will on the country long after they're gone, leaving hot-button issues like abortion and the Affordable Care Act at the mercy of a conservative-majority court.  The Democrats, if not Biden, are screaming about the GOP's "court packing" and vow revenge.  But any attempt to do some of that themselves, including adding two more seats, will likely result in leaving the Court's conservative majority intact.

In spite of the millions of people who waited in line for several hours to vote in a shrinking number of polling places across the country, and in spite of all those who wanted to avoid getting sick on Election Day by voting early by absentee ballot (your Postal Service mail delivery might vary), the winner might be determined by six conservative justices and three liberals if the totals between Trump and Biden are close enough, and Trump demands a recount  If there's interference by a foreign government, that's another story altogether.

So yes, we're "rounding the turn" all right.  Do we really want to know what's around the corner?

Debates and Consequences

 For someone who loathes wearing masks and thinks a deadly virus that has so far killed over 210,000 people in the United States alone is no big deal, it came as a shock when President Donald Trump was forced to spend last weekend fighting COVID-19 symptoms in a military hospital.  He has also infected nearly everyone in his path, which includes White House staffers, key associates and wife Melania.  Not to mention those he met along the campaign trail, and in his first presidential debate with former vice-president Joe Biden (who tested negative), all with nary a mask in sight. 

If you thought getting the virus would somehow humble the President into understanding the devastation around the country he helped create, you'd be wrong.  Trump made a dramatic, made-for-TV return to the White House, declared victory even though he's still contagious and should really be in quarantine, and claimed that if he beat the virus, we can too.  That is, if we had the superior medical care Presidents usually get (and even if he weren't President, Trump would still be able to get the best docs available) and experimental drugs that are more powerful than, say, Tylenol.

The first debate with Biden was such a disaster that it was suggested none ever be held again,  But the committee handling the debates insisted on another one, so they scheduled one for October 15.  Because the President got sick, what was supposed to be a town hall setup has been changed to a glorified Zoom meeting.  But Trump said he didn't want to waste his time on a virtual debate, so unless he's persuaded otherwise, there's not going to be one.  Biden will use the time to do his own town hall for ABC News.

The debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Senator Kamala Harris in Utah did come off Wednesday, plexiglass and all.  Neither candidate answered critical questions from moderator Susan Page of USA Today about whether Trump would accept the results of the election, or whether there would be a peaceful transfer of power if he lost.  Harris won the debate because Pence was too busy talking over both women and going past his allotted time to notice that there was a fly on his head.

Whether you think President Trump is hopped up on drugs and can't think straight as he's recovering, or if he's just being himself, you have to wonder how much longer America and the world can put up with his antics.  Whatever happens on or around November 3, we'll have to live with the consequences.