<![CDATA[ARMCHAIR AMERICAN: A VIEW FROM THE CENTER

<![CDATA[ARMCHAIR AMERICAN: A VIEW FROM THE CENTER - Blog]]>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 18:35:38 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Here Come the Tariffs. Hold on to Your Wallets and Stock Portfolios.]]>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 03:59:49 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/here-come-the-tariffs-hold-on-to-your-wallets-and-stock-portfolios

We are on the eve of President Trump's historic “liberation day” for the implementation of tariffs. I know that his favorite word is "tariffs", but I wish that someone would read to him Ronald Reagan's speech to the nation on April 25, 1987. Reagan knew the true cost of tariffs and the damage they could do to the economy and the livelihoods of Americans.

Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade

April 25, 1987

"My fellow Americans:

Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan will be visiting me here at the White House next week. It's an important visit, because while I expect to take up our relations with our good friend Japan, which overall remain excellent, recent disagreements between our two countries on the issue of trade will also be high on our agenda.

As perhaps you've heard, last week I placed new duties on some Japanese products in response to Japan's inability to enforce their trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors. Now, imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take. And in a moment I'll mention the sound economic reasons for this: that over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. But the Japanese semiconductors were a special case. We had clear evidence that Japanese companies were engaging in unfair trade practices that violated an agreement between Japan and the United States. We expect our trading partners to live up to their agreements. As I've often said: Our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.

But you know, in imposing these tariffs we were just trying to deal with a particular problem, not begin a trade war. So, next week I'll be giving Prime Minister Nakasone this same message: We want to continue to work cooperatively on trade problems and want very much to lift these trade restrictions as soon as evidence permits. We want to do this, because we feel both Japan and the United States have an obligation to promote the prosperity and economic development that only free trade can bring.

Now, that message of free trade is one I conveyed to Canada's leaders a few weeks ago, and it was warmly received there. Indeed, throughout the world there's a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. Now, there are sound historical reasons for this. For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of the suffering it caused is deep and searing. And today many economic analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation passed back in that period called the Smoot-Hawley tariff greatly deepened the depression and prevented economic recovery.

You see, at first, when someone says, ``Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,'' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works -- but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.

The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity. Now, it hasn't always been easy. There are those in this Congress, just as there were back in the thirties, who want to go for the quick political advantage, who will risk America's prosperity for the sake of a short-term appeal to some special interest group, who forget that more than 5 million American jobs are directly tied to the foreign export business and additional millions are tied to imports. Well, I've never forgotten those jobs. And on trade issues, by and large, we've done well. In certain select cases, like the Japanese semiconductors, we've taken steps to stop unfair practices against American products, but we've still maintained our basic, long-term commitment to free trade and economic growth.

So, with my meeting with Prime Minister Nakasone and the Venice economic summit coming up, it's terribly important not to restrict a President's options in such trade dealings with foreign governments. Unfortunately, some in the Congress are trying to do exactly that. I'll keep you informed on this dangerous legislation, because it's just another form of protectionism and I may need your help to stop it. Remember, America's jobs and growth are at stake.

Until next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you".

Here is a link to the radio address.

If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.

Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[DOGE Privacy Act Requests.]]>Sun, 16 Mar 2025 22:55:11 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/doge-privacy-act-requests

The executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) instructs all federal government agency heads to ensure that DOGE has full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems. This means that Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have access to your Social Security records, tax returns, medical records from Medicare and Medicaid, student loan documents, military records, and any other federal program that you have participated in.

I for one don’t trust DOGE or Elon Musk to safeguard this data or to prevent it from being used to benefit themselves or the Trump Administration. This is potentially the greatest breech of Americans’ personal data in history.

The first step in safeguarding your personal data is to determine what data of yours has been obtained by DOGE. Under the Federal Privacy Act of 1974 citizens have the right to access personal information held in any U.S. government records system. Representative Jamie Raskin is encouraging all U.S. citizens to join him in filing formal demands for access to their data obtained by DOGE. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued an injunction commanding DOGE to comply with citizen requests for their personal data under the Freedom of Information Act.

Jamie Raskin is a Democrat from Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, and in my opinion is one of the smartest members of Congress. He is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and a former professor of constitutional law. I have followed Representative Raskin’s lead and filled out my Privacy Act request, and you can do so by filling out the form at this link.

Fill out the form, print it out and mail it to DOGE at the address specified at the top of the letter. If enough citizens send in a Privacy Act Request it may overwhelm DOGE’s ability to respond, slow down their activities, and put them on notice that American citizens are paying attention.

If you prefer not to access the link, here is a copy of the letter:

March 16, 2025

U.S. Department of Government Efficiency
736 Jackson Place,
W Washington, D.C. 20503

RE: Privacy Act Access Request

Dear Privacy Officer or Coordinator:

In accordance with the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a(d)(1), I request copies of (1) all records about or pertaining to me in the possession or control of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) or the United States Digital Service (USDS), and (2) all records about or pertaining to me contained within any system of records in the possession or control of DOGE and USDS, including any records or information about or pertaining to me that is contained in a copy, made or received by an employee or contractor of DOGE or USDS, including members of “DOGE Teams” or other DOGE-affiliated individuals.

Additionally, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 553a(c)(3), I request that you provide an accounting of the date, nature, and purpose of any disclosures that you, your agency, or your organization have made under 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b) providing access to a record about me to another person, organization, or agency, including within the Executive Office of the President.
I further request that you confirm that DOGE, USDS, and members of “DOGE Teams” or other DOGE-affiliated individuals will comply with the requirement of 5 U.S.C. § 553a(e)(7), that no agency may maintain records cross-referenced with information about how I have exercised rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or unless pertinent to an authorized law enforcement activity.

To facilitate your response, I provide below my contact information and an itemized list of the records sought:

Full name: _________________________________________
Mailing address: _________________________________________
_________________________________________
Preferred email address: ___________________________________
Date and place of birth: _________________________________________
Requested records pertaining to me containing my name, or the identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to me:

◦ Education records
◦ Financial transaction records
◦ Medical histories
◦ Records relating to my eligibility for government benefits
◦ Criminal or employment histories
◦ Dissemination of my data to other entities: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(o)(2)(A)(ii), if any such records have been transmitted to a recipient agency as defined in 5 U.S.C. § 522a(a)(9), provide me a with copy of the written agreement between DOGE and/or USDS and the recipient agency or non-Federal agency specifying — (A) the purpose and legal authority for conducting the program; (B) the justification for the program and the anticipated results, including a specific estimate of any savings; (C) a description of the records that will be matched, including each data element that will be used, the approximate number of records that will be matched, and the projected starting and completion dates of the matching program; D) all other information required in such written agreement under 5 U.S.C. § 552a(o)(1)(A)-(K).

Where possible, please provide responsive materials in an electronic format by mail to:
________________________________________________[INSERT email address].

Alternatively, please provide responsive materials in native format or in PDF format on a USB drive. Please send any responsive material sent in paper or USB drive form by mail to:
_______________________________________ [INSERT preferred mailing address].

If you contend that inspection of records must occur in person, provide me with accessible place(s) of inspection and the procedure to schedule it. Under 5 U.S.C. §552a(f)(5), you may not charge any fees for the search and review of these records. If paper copies are provided, please state the cost of duplication, and whether it exceeds the standard $0.05 per page.

If you deny this request, in whole or in part, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available to me under the law. I expect a timely acknowledgement, response, and production of the requested records and information in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act.

Sincerely, ______________________________________________________ [WET SIGNATURE]

IDENTITY VERIFICATION In accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1746,

I, ____________________________[INSERT FULL NAME], declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct, and that I am the person named above and requesting access to records about me. I understand that any falsification of this statement is punishable under the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by a fine of not more than $5,000, imprisonment for not more than eight years, or both, and that knowingly and willfully requesting or obtaining any record about any individual from an agency under false pretenses is punishable under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. § 552a(i)(3) by a fine of not more than $5,000.

Dated: ________________

____________________________________
[WET SIGNATURE]

]]><![CDATA[Dear Mr. President.]]>Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:49:00 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/dear-mr-president

In my last blog I suggested ways to express your dismay with the Trump Administration. One such action was to write a comment to the White House on the following web address: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. I am following my own advice and doing just that. Starting on February 24 I started to leave a daily comment on the White House website.

The act of writing down my thoughts about a recent Trump action is very therapeutic for me. Once written down you can also send a copy to members of Congress and department heads within the Trump Administration. It seems like a small action to take, but your voice is important, and our elected officials need to hear from you.

Below are copies of the comments that I have sent to the White House over the past fourteen days.

February 24, 2024

Dear Mr. President,

My wife and I have spent a lot of money on reservations to visit the magnificent national parks this summer. I was extremely disturbed to learn that park rangers are being fired, and funding is being cut to these parks. They are a national treasure to generations of Americans and to the millions of foreign visitors each year.

National Parks are a crucial part of the regional economies of the states in which they preside. Cutting funds to these parks not only diminishes recreational experiences for our fellow Americans but it can be devastating to the folks that work and live in these areas. The jobs that are being eliminated are not high paying. They are being performed by dedicated professionals who love nature, love the parks, and love our country.

Cutting funding to American's parks is a big mistake because people of all political affiliations love and use them. Please take care of our cherished parks and keep America beautiful. From a lover of America's magnificent National Parks and a dedicated voter.

February 25, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing about your decision to fire several thousand IRS workers. This makes little sense in the middle of tax filing season. It is unsettling to the rest of the workers during this busy time of the year and hampers the agency from helping the millions of taxpayers who struggle to do the right thing by filing their tax returns.

This country runs annual budget deficits in the trillions of dollars and the national debt is becoming a national security crisis. It is estimated that over $100 billion in taxes goes uncollected each year, and firing IRS agents only encourages more tax cheating. IRS agents who investigate tax fraud bring in several times what it costs to employ them. We need to collect the tax revenue that is legally owed. What is your answer to this? This country can't cut enough expenses to put a dent in the debt and deficits. Increasing revenues while holding down expenses is the answer. You are a businessman and certainly understand this. Don't let politics get in the way of doing the right thing.

I am a Tax Aide volunteer and prepare dozens of returns each year for seniors and low-income families. I am on the front lines of the annual tax filing juggernaut and the folks need more help with income taxes, not less.

Please reconsider your decision to fire the IRS employees. Main street Americans need them more than do the millionaires and billionaires who will benefit most from their absence.

February 26, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Your approval ratings are now under water and the main culprits are Elon Musk and DOGE. You claim that you want to bring transparency to the government bureaucracy. But DOGE has become an unelected shadow government whose structure and members are unknown to the American public.

Elon Musk has claimed that in a very short period of time he has found tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. If that is the case, make the evidence public. Cutting waste and saving taxpayer dollars is admirable, but it must be done with care. Otherwise, institutional integrity could be damaged, critical expertise could be lost, and national security could be undermined.

Don't let your administration become the latest victim of DOGE's excesses.

February 27, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am deeply concerned that your administration is abandoning traditional allies in Western Europe, Canada and other NATO countries in favor of authoritarian regimes in Russian, China, and North Korea. Have you switched sides and upended our global alliances which have been in place since the end of World War II? By backing Russian in its war of aggression against Ukraine that appears to be the case.

You have called President Zelenski of Ukraine an unelected dictator and accused his country of starting the war against Russia. These statements come right out of the Russian playbook and has unsettled the American public and European allies. In the U.N. General Assembly this week the United States joined Russia, China and North Korea in voting against a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution that calls out Russian aggression and demands an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Whose side are you own Mr. President? Have you been compromised by the Russians or are you just infatuated with murderous dictators?

I know that you want the war in Ukraine to end, everyone does. But not at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. If Ukraine is pressured into ceding land to Russia, then Putin wins, and the world will be less safe. Do you think Putin will be satisfied with the border regions of Ukraine and end his ambitions to rebuild the former Soviet Union? What will the U. S's position be if Putin sets his sights on a NATO member country such as Poland or one of the Baltic states?

If the war ends and Russia is allowed to keep any of its territorial gains in Ukraine, other authoritarian governments will be emboldened. What message will this send to the Chinese? Perhaps that the U.S. will not intervene if China chooses to invade Taiwan?

Don't be a puppet of Putin. Do the right thing for the people of Ukraine, for the future of Europe and our traditional strategic alliances.

February 28, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I was disturbed and discussed with the “Trump Gaza” video that you shared on your social media accounts. It was callous and diminishes the dignity of your office. Even though the video was made in jest, it shows no sensitivity to the extreme hardships and suffering experienced by the Palestinian people who live in Gaza. During the war with Israeli most of the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza were displaced, 92% of their buildings were destroyed, more than 60,000 were killed and many more injured.

To forward such a video does nothing to move the peace process forward. It cheapens the image of the United States in the Middle East and emboldens Hamas and other extremist groups in the region. You couldn’t have asked for a better recruiting tool for the enemies of the United States. As the leader of the most powerful country in the world your actions have consequences. It was thoughtless, irresponsible and dangerous to forward the video. Thanks to you the United States is complicit in keeping the Middle East unstable for years to come.

Leadership without justice and compassion is tyranny.

March 1, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

The way you and your vice-president treated President Zelenskyy yesterday was a despicable and shameful treatment of an ally. This is not how diplomacy is supposed to work. You exposed yourself to all the world as a thinned-skinned bully. Very unpresidential. Was this a setup to justify an inevitable deal with Putin to end the war in Ukraine with huge territorial gains for Russia? All of Europe, and indeed the world, are now on notice that the United States is not to be trusted.

Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission put it well, "Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It's up to us Europeans to take this challenge". Of course, this plays right into Russia's hands. One high ranking Russian official was quick to tweet out about Zelenskyy "The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @real DonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is gambling with WWIII".

The United States needs strong strategic alliances for the world to be safe. I’m afraid that you are beginning to dismantle the balance of power in the world, and I dread to think where it will lead.

March 2, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Under your direction Elon Musk and DOGE have eliminated most of the programs and staff from the USAID agency. This was supposedly done to end the waste, fraud, and abuse at this agency. What you don’t understand is that many of the programs carried out by this agency provide vital nutrition and food supplies to thousands of starving children, mostly in Africa. This is shortsighted on many levels, but the main outcome of these actions is that innocent children will die.

Mana Nutrition is a nonprofit company based in Georgia which produces a product called “Ready to Use Therapeutic Food” or “RUFT “. It is a nutrient-dense food specifically formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition and restore a child’s weight, strength, and overall health. It is made with mainly agricultural products produced in this country. This product is shelf-stable (no refrigeration needed), requires no preparation, and packaged in an easy-open, food safe pouch. RUFT is distributed around the globe by USAID to alleviate a form of acute malnutrition known as “severe wasting”.

Now that DOGE has cancelled the USAID contract with Mana Nutrition about $10 million worth of life saving nutritional products is piling up in warehouses in Georgia. To add insult to injury the $14 million in reimbursements owed to Mana Nutrition is in doubt. As a result, the company may have to fire most of its employees and stop purchasing millions of dollars of agricultural products from American farmers.

At a recent prayer breakfast in Washington you proclaimed that you wanted to “bring back God” into American society and to root out anti-Christian bias. Helping to feed the poor is the most Christian thing your Administration could do. Elon Musk and JD Vance both have small children. Let them explain to the thousands of mothers whose babies will die how these actions by your Administration will “Make America Great Again”.

Do the Christian thing Mr. President and bring back the USAID nutrition programs for the world’s neediest.

March 3, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

You are correct to assert that World War III could flow out of the war in Ukraine. But it won’t be Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s fault, it will lie squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin. He started the war and could stop it tomorrow if he wanted. But with your Administration pressuring Zelenskyy to negotiate away more sovereign territory to Russia, Putin is content with continuing the war to increase territorial gains.

Your transparent support of Putin to the detriment of Ukraine is baffling and troubling. So is your Secretary of Defense’s order to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia. Russia has the most sophisticated cyber operations in the world and is working 24/7 to hack into U.S. government agencies, energy and aviation infrastructure, financial institutions, think tanks, election systems, and our national security infrastructure. What does the U.S. get in return for this largess? Vague promises from Putin to end the war with terms that will embolden our enemies and weaken the Western Alliance.

The more you kowtow to Putin, the further you strain relations with European allies, and the more unstable the world becomes. Please reconsider your incongruous decision to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia.

March 4, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

As a special government employee Elon Musk is prohibited from participating personally and substantially in a particular government matter that will affect his own financial interest, according to federal law. Federal regulations also prohibit the government from awarding contracts to a government employee or company owned or substantially owned or controlled by one.

The Federal Aviation Administration has been a target of Elon Musk and DOGE, resulting in hundreds of layoffs and contract cuts. Musk’s Starlink company is now on the verge of securing a $2.4 billion contract with the FAA. This stinks of conflict of interest.

DOGE is looking into several government agencies that have contracts with one of Musk’s companies. It is also looking into federal agencies that have ongoing investigations of one of Musk’s companies. The White House Press Secretary said that Musk is responsible for identifying his own conflicts of interest and would “excuse himself” when his companies’ contracts overlap with his work with DOGE.

The American people don’t buy any of it!

March 5, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

During your speech to a joint session of Congress last night you stated many falsehoods and exaggerations. I want to focus my comments on your assertions about Social Security. You stated that the Social Security database lists millions of people over the age of 100, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and more than 130,000 people over 160. You led the American people to believe that millions of dead people are collecting Social Security checks. This is false and you know it but continue to spread the lie anyway.

Just this week the new acting director of Social Security, Lee Dudek, acknowledged that there are many people in the database over the age of 100, but are not necessarily receiving benefits. Several investigations into this matter have shown that the problem lies with antiquated software which inaccurately lists the age of people born in 1920 or earlier. The age of many of these people will default to an age of 150 or higher due to the faulty software. Additionally, as of September 2015, the Social Security Administration automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years.

The real concern is that your claim that millions of dead people are fraudulently collecting Social Security benefits dupes people into thinking that there’s an easy fix to solving Social Security’s financial problems, when there isn’t. I am also concerned that you or DOGE will claim to have saved the Social Security system billions of dollars by eliminating these dead people from the benefit roles, when no savings were achieved. That’s the problem with DOGE looking at databases and algorithms without knowing the systems and regulations behind them. They make false assumptions that end up hurting some people and deceiving the rest of us.

March 6, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I don’t understand your obsession with using tariffs as a blunt force instrument against other countries to bend to your will. It is a bullying tactic that is backfiring by hurting friends and foes alike. The financial markets are getting clobbered, hurting the retirements savings of millions of Americans, and undermining confidence in the system. All the post-election gains in the stock market have been erased, and for what?

You have antagonized Canada and Mexico, our closest neighbors and largest trading partners. These countries are now going to retaliate by increasing prices on food, energy, minerals, lumber and other goods used by average Americans. Recent national polls show that most Americans now believe that prices are going to continue to rise. Never forget that the main reason people voted for you in the first place is because they believed that you would lower consumer prices.

You seem to think that because the tariffs you implemented during your first term didn’t damage the economy, they won’t during your second term. But during your first term the economy was in a low inflationary period and could absorb price increases due to tariffs. Today the economy is in a very different place. Prices remain stubbornly high, and inflation is once again pushing higher. As all reputable economists know, tariffs lead to higher prices. This could stop the economy in its tracks, and you will be to blame.

Tread lightly Mr. President, using tariffs as your big stick isn’t working. It is disruptive to the economy and financial markets and hurts the very people who elected you.

March 7, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Since the beginning of your 2nd term all U.S. aid to Ukraine has stopped, including final shipments of ammunition and equipment authorized and paid for during the Biden administration. Earlier this week the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, cutting off the flow of vital information to soldiers on the battlefield. The U.S. has also cut off Ukraine’s access to crucial satellite imagery, hampering air defense systems.

All these moves were obviously an attempt to bring President Zelenskyy to heel and come back to the negotiating table. Unfortunately, these moves backfired and played right into Russia’s hands. Overnight the Russians launched a massive aerial attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones. Dozens of civilians were injured or killed, and vital infrastructure that delivers heat, light and power to homes and factories was destroyed.

So much for helping a supposed ally. Well done Mr. President.

March 8, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

With all due respect, is the White House running a shake-down racket? First you threaten our closest neighbors and allies with tariffs if they don’t comply with your wishes, now you threaten to withhold support from any NATO ally who doesn’t comply with your spending demands.

On Thursday you told reporters that you would reconsider the U.S.’s commitment to the 32-nation alliance which has been the cornerstone of peace in Europe and around the world for decades. In your own words you said, “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them”. This strikes at a core tenant of the NATO security alliance- that an attack on one member is an attack on all members.

Does everything have to be transactional with you? This is no way to build trust among friends and allies. It further alienates the U.S. from its traditional allies and pushes us further into the orbit of what is fast becoming the new axis of evil: North Korea, Russia, China and the United States! Let’s hope that this trend doesn’t continue.

March 9, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Cutting the fat from federal programs is admirable, but making large cuts at the Social Security Administration may be a bridge too far for many Americans. Over 73 million Americans receive benefit payments from Social Security and a disruption in this income would be devastating to them and the economy.

According to news reports approximately 7,000 employees will be eliminated from the Social Security Administration. Many senior staff members have already left, and divisions are being eliminated. This is all being done before your nominee to run the agency, Frank Bisignano, has been confirmed.
Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner, has admitted that outsiders are the ones making the decisions on staffing reductions. People from DOGE who are unfamiliar with the policies, computer systems and other complexities of the agency are making the decisions. This is dangerous and shortsighted and will not end well.

The Social Security Administration is too important to be placed in such a precarious situation. Computer systems could be corrupted, and vital institutional knowledge lost. At a minimum put a halt on the staffing reductions until the new Social Security Commissioner has been confirmed by the Senate.

If you break Social Security, tens of millions of seniors will never let you forget.

]]><![CDATA[Feeling a Little Helpless About the Barrage of Actions Taken by the Trump Administration? There are Some Actions That You Can Take.]]>Tue, 25 Feb 2025 01:43:55 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/feeling-a-little-helpless-about-the-barrage-of-actions-taken-by-the-trump-administration-there-are-some-actions-that-you-can-take

During the first month in office President Trump has taken 108 Executive Actions: 73 Executive Orders, 23 Proclamations and 12 Memorandums. During this time the president has empowered Elon Musk and the recently formed Department of Government Efficiency to engineer the firing of thousands of federal employees and the dismantling of government agencies created by Congress. If all this activity has got your head spinning, you are not alone.

The Democrat leaders in the House and Senate seem helpless to stop the onslaught of Trump 2.0. Short of throwing up their hands in resignation what are ordinary Americans to do? Here are some actions that you can take to shake off that feeling of helplessness without having to wait for the next election.

Immediate Term Actions

Join National Boycott: A nationwide economic blackout is set to take place this Friday, February 28, 2025. The boycott is being organized by The People’s Union in response to President Trump’s dismantling of DEI programs. According to the website, “If we disrupt the economy for just one day, it sends a powerful message”. For a 24-hour period consumers are asked not to make any purchases either online or in brick-and-mortar stores. If consumers must make purchases, they are asked to buy local and pay in cash, not credit cards. Major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, who have already announced plans to roll back their DEI programs, are targets of the boycott. Donald Trump is particularly sensitive to a weakening economy, so I suspect that there will be more boycotts in the future, including those being scheduled in March and April by The People’s Union.

Call and Write the White House: You can call and write the White House to let the president know your views on his actions and policies. The president will never read these comments, but they are tallied, and the president’s team keeps track of the tone of the comments and the ratio of positive to negative comments. To leave your comments for the president you can email at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ or if you prefer to call and leave a comment you can do so at (202) 456-1111, Tuesday-Thursday from 11AM-3PM EST. I plan to send daily comments to the president to let him know my opinion on his latest action.

Call and Write Congressional Leaders: Go to the website of your elected representatives to get their contact information. They need to hear from you routinely to help them gauge the mood of their constituents.

Boycott Elon Musk’s Companies: If you are unnerved by the unchecked power of Elon Musk to slash and burn government agencies, cut thousands of federal employees doing jobs he knows nothing about, and dig through your private data, then it’s time to boycott his companies. Don’t purchase any vehicle, solar energy generator or battery storage equipment from Tesla, and avoid using his social media platform X. Many of us own Tesla stock in mutual funds or the S&P 500 index. Write to Tesla’s Board of Directors to let them know your dissatisfaction with their CEO, and ask when he has the time to manage the company.

Support Independent Journalism: Without independent journalists the American electorate will be kept in the dark of what is happening behind the curtain in Washington D.C. Since 2005 the United States has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers, and we are on pace to lose more than 100 this year. Independent news outlets and journalists need our financial support to survive. Here are some of the news outlets and journalists that I support:

PBS NewsHour
National Public Broadcasting (NPR)
The New York Times
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Atlantic
The Meidas Touch
Brian Tyler Cohen

Long Term Actions

Longer Term Actions: The midterm elections are not until November 3, 2026, and the primaries will be heating up about a year from now. It will be difficult for the Democrats to regain control of the Senate in the next election cycle, but the House of Representatives is within reach. According to the Cook Political Report the most vulnerable House Republicans are David Schweikert (Arizona), Juan Ciscomani (Arizona), Gabe Evans (Colorado), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Tom Barrett (Michigan), Don Bacon (Nebraska), Ryan Mackenzie (Pennsylvania), and Scott Perry (Pennsylvania). The Democrat challengers in these districts will need financial support and help with their ground game. Pay attention to these vulnerable Republican districts as well as those in your home state. Presidents usually lose House seats in the midterm elections, but this is no time to be complacent. Make it happen.

Things coming out of the Trump White House are very unsettling these days, but we are not helpless. Let your voices be heard, support independent journalists, and never miss an opportunity to remind family, friends and acquaintances that Trump is not keeping his promise to lower your costs or improve your life in any material way.

Don't Be This Guy, Take Action.

]]><![CDATA[Bribing the President has Gotten a Whole Lot Easier.]]>Sun, 16 Feb 2025 02:00:02 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/bribing-the-president-has-gotten-a-whole-lot-easier

Donald Trump’s propensity to profit off the presidency knows no bounds. He has made millions of dollars from the sales of Trump branded merchandise, used his campaign to fund raise and pay for his personal legal team, and has enriched the Trump Organization by holding government and political functions at his various properties. Foreign governments spent over $8 million at Trump properties during his first term, and various special interest groups use the same tactic to curry favor with him. Trump routinely overcharges the Secret Service for accommodations at his resorts while there to protect him and his family. The House Republicans hosted a retreat last month at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami as a way to pay homage to their party leader, and line his pockets, setting the example for any other group or individual looking to gain access to Trump.

Trump’s latest scheme to enrich himself and his family is the most insidious because it exists in the unregulated and shadowy domain of the crypto world. On January 17, 2025, just a few days before his inauguration, Trump announced to his millions of followers on Truth Social that he was releasing his own crypto meme coin. Not to be left out of the latest Trump family scheme, the incoming first lady released her own crypto meme coin two days later.

Dogecoin

Meme Coins: Also known as meme tokens, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency based on a meme or image. They have been around for about ten years. The first and best-known meme coin is Dogecoin, inspired by the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog.

Meme coins can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges alongside other digital assets, or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin meme coins are not used as a form of currency and have no intrinsic value. Consider them as collectables such as trading cards or beanie babies in digital format. As with other collectables there are speculators who buy meme coins with the expectation that they will increase in value. But they are highly speculative, so buyer beware.

Anyone can create their own meme coin and start selling them to the public for a very modest fee. If you are interested in creating your own meme coin, Pump.fun is a popular website to get started. For more on cryptocurrencies you can refer to my 2022 blog on the subject.

Trump Meme Coin: Trump Meme, sometimes referred to as Official Trump, has the trading symbol $TRUMP. Trump Meme is marketed with an image of Trump, fist raised in the air with the words “Fight, Fight, Fight” splashed across it. $TRUMP can be purchased through most cryptocurrency exchanges or through the Trump Meme website. According to the website one billion $TRUMP coins were created and so far 200 million have been released for sale in the open crypto market. The remaining coins will be released for sale over the next 36 months.

The ownership of Trump’s meme coins is hidden behind limited liability companies controlled by the Trump family. Fight Fight Fight is the company that owns the official website for the meme coin, and Fight Fight Fight is owned by Trump’s CIC Digital and Celebration Cards. These two companies own the 800 million Trump coins yet to be sold. As of this writing the $TRUMP coin is trading for $18.89, bringing the value of the remaining coins to approximately $16 billion.

The creators of the Trump meme coin receive a share of the trading fees, which can be quite lucrative. In the few short weeks that the coin has been trading the Trump controlled entities behind the coin have made an estimated $100 million in trading fees.

Influencing the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies: Currently there are no federal regulations governing the issuance and trading of meme coins, and federal regulations surrounding other cryptocurrencies are in flux. The Biden Administration attempted to build a comprehensive strategy for regulating digital assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through Executive Order 14067: Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.

Three days after taking office President Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14067 with an executive order of his own, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology”. This executive order puts into motion Trump’s promise to make America the “Crypto Capitol of the World”. Its purpose is to create a friendly regulatory environment in which digital assets and related technologies can grow across all sectors of the economy. Trump’s new treasury secretary will oversee all provisions of this executive order.

True to his vision to make America the crypto capitol of the world, Trump is stacking his cabinet with crypto friendly secretaries. The new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is a former hedge fund manager with pro-crypto views. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a strong backer of cryptocurrencies, and his department will take a leading role in establishing regulations for digital assets. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, is the current CEO and principal owner of Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York Investment Bank with extensive dealings in the cryptocurrency space.

Trump will essentially be selecting all the leaders whose agencies will be tasked with enforcing existing laws as well as developing new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. Trump’s recent entry into the meme coin business is nothing short of a massive conflict of interest, one that could benefit him and his family handsomely.

Money Grab or Something More? The Trump family gets a cut of the fees generated from the buying and selling of every Trump meme coin. All information surrounding these transactions is encrypted and stored on the block chain. This means that there is absolutely no transparency surrounding the sale of these coins. There are no searchable transaction ledgers, no ownership certificates, no public records, and no way to trace the money flows in and out of any account holding Trump meme coins. As one investigative reporter from Bloomberg put it, “the Trump family crypto business offers anyone seeking favor with the new administration a legal way to send money directly to the president”.

In a January 22, 2025, letter to the acting directors of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Jake Auchincloss detailed the inherent conflicts of interest and potential for foreign influence and corruption that the Trump meme coin creates. Their letter points out that Trump’s meme coin “opens the door to secretive foreign buyers seeking to curry influence with the administration, and the possibility of foreign emoluments clause violations”. I doubt that Senator Warren will ever have her letter answered or concerns assuaged.

As more and more Trump meme coins pour into the market there should be a ready source of buyers: individuals, companies and foreign entities looking to curry favor with the president. As a Washington Post reporter put it, “This meme coin has become the easiest, most convenient way to do that. The Saudis no longer need to stay at one of Trump’s hotels to line the president’s pockets, they can flash their digital wallet to show how much they boosted his net worth. After all, every dollar they put into propping up the value of Trump’s meme coin will effectively add cash to Trump’s bank account, emoluments clause be damned”.

The issuance and sale of the Trump and Melania meme coins are just the latest examples of how Trump and his family are using the presidency to build vast wealth. The conflict of interest that these meme coins present are glaring and the potential for corruption has enormous implications for the prestige of the presidency as well as for national security. Ordinarily a president’s team of lawyers and advisors would have steered him clear of such blatant conflicts. But Trump’s team of advisors was hand picked to rubber stamp any of his directives, legal or not.

If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.

Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[Political Retribution and the Rewriting of History Signal the Start of Trump’s Second Term.]]>Sat, 01 Feb 2025 02:14:59 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/political-retribution-and-the-rewriting-of-history-signal-the-start-of-trumps-second-term

Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office have been a blitzkrieg of executive orders, policy pronouncements and personnel purges. Call it “shock and awe” or “flooding the zone “, but the barrage of trivial as well as consequential executive orders has had the desired effect. The Republican led Congress has ceded its authority to the executive branch, the Democrats are scrambling to mount any kind of opposition, and many Americans are just happy that someone is finally doing something about the “illegals”.

Trump is a mean-spirited man on a mission to punish his political enemies and to use the enormous resources of the federal government to rewrite the historical record to reflect his “facts and truths”. Trump has had four years to prepare for this moment and has not been shy about telling the country what he intended to do once back in office. None of his actions over the past few weeks should be all that surprising, except perhaps for the speed at which they are being carried out.

Many of his cabinet secretaries have not even been sworn in, proving once again that they are mere props. Most of the executive orders and personnel changes that Trump has already put in place come right out of the Project 2025 playbook, which he has previously claimed to know nothing about. As Trump continues to remake the federal government and rule through executive orders, the one thing I will never overlook or forgive is perhaps his most egregious act, that of pardoning the January 6 defendants.

Pardons for January 6 Defendants: In one of his first official acts of his second term President Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to over 1500 individuals convicted of crimes related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump also commuted the sentences of fourteen others, including Steward Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

With the stroke of a pen (sharpie) Trump ended the largest and most complex investigation ever undertaken by the Department of Justice. Trump has called the attacks on the police officers defending the Capitol on January 6, “very minor incidents”. He referred to those convicted and jailed as “political prisoners” and claimed that they were “absolutely innocent”. The proclamation announcing the pardons states “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation”.

If there is one thing that most Americans agree on, it is that the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our country’s history, and that many who participated are violent criminals. There is no doubt, that as president, Donald Trump has the Constitutional authority to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime. But it is morally repugnant to pardon the nearly 600 defendants convicted of violent crimes, including the assault on police officers.

More than 150 officers from the Capitol Police and the D.C. Police were injured on January 6. In the days and weeks following the Capitol riot several officers died from physical and emotional trauma received at the hands of the rioters. The pardon of violent criminals by Trump undermines the rule of law, is an outrage to the men and women in law enforcement and is an affront to common decency.

Purges at the D.O.J. and F.B.I.: The pardon of the January 6 defendants was just the first step in Trump’s plans to rewrite the history of events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Last Monday about 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on Capitol riot cases were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry. According to a Justice Department spokesman these prosecutors could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda.

On Thursday Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove instructed the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors who had worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot. Then on Friday Mr. Bove ordered the acting leadership of the F.B.I. to compile a list of all agents and staff members from across the country who had worked on investigations and/or prosecutions relating to the Capitol riot.

Eight senior F.B.I. officials along with the heads of 20 field offices have already been ordered to resign or be fired for working on January 6 cases. In a statement on Friday, the F.B.I. Agents Association called the moves “outrageous” and warned that the dismissal of potentially hundreds of field agents could weaken national security.

Revisionist History: It has been said that “history is written by the victors”, and Trump is doing his damnedest to do just that. If those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are innocent, so is Trump for sending them there. This feeds into the narrative that what happened at the Capitol that day was a legitimate protest against an election that was stolen from Donald Trump. Trump is unapologetic about spreading “the Big Lie” and uses it as a litmus test for loyalty to him. He will not stop until history records the outcome of the 2020 election in his favor, and he will use the power of the federal bureaucracy and a compliant Congress to do just that.

Two days after Trump issued pardons to the January 6 defendants Speaker Mike Johnson announced that House Republicans would establish a new select subcommittee to counter the “false narratives” surrounding the Capitol riot. The Department of Justice has already removed from its website the database detailing the criminal cases and convictions of the January 6th defendants.

Donald Trump is only at the beginning of his second term, and we have already witnessed what he is capable of doing. The Constitution prevents Trump from having a third presidential term, so he has little to fear from the electorate. He will disregard any law and pardon any sin if it furthers his aims or rewards those loyal to him. If Trump’s ambitions are not checked it could result in many Americans losing faith in the rule of law and in government institutions, the pillars of a health democracy.

If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.

Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[Will There Ever be Peace on Christmas?]]>Tue, 24 Dec 2024 09:57:19 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/will-there-ever-be-peace-on-christmas

Last year at this time I wrote that there was no peace in the Holy Land this Christmas. Sadly this Christmas the violence continues, Lebanon has been brought into the conflict and the fall of the Assad regime has destabilized Syria. There are ongoing efforts between Qatar, Egypt and the United States to negotiate a ceasefire deal for the region, ending the years long conflict. With the end of the brutal Assad dictatorship, there is hope that the people of Syria can unite their war-torn country and live in peace.

Reflecting on the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, reminds me how fortunate we are to live in the United States. Despite the political divisions that were intensified during this election year, we live in peace with our neighbors and enjoy general prosperity and safety. Wishing for peace this holiday season may seem a bit naïve, but the hope for a peaceful future for ourselves and others should never be crushed under the weight of cynicism or despair.

Nearly 60 years ago when the Vietnam War opened Americans’ eyes to the madness of war, a new Christmas song was released by Stevie Wonder. The song is as relevant today as it was then and remains one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs. Here is a link to the song, and the lyrics are printed below.

Someday at Christmas, men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys.

One warm December, our hearts will see
A world where men are free.

Someday at Christmas, there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for.

When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on Earth.

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free.

Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime.

Someday at Christmas, we'll see a land
With no hungry children, no empty hand.

One happy morning, people will share
Our world where people care.

Someday at Christmas, there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no men have fears.

One shining moment, one prayer away
From our world today.

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free.

Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime.

Someday at Christmas, man will not fail
Hate will be gone and love will prevail.

Someday a new world that we can start
With hope in every heart.

(Someday all our dreams will come to be)
(Someday in a world where men are free)

Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime.

Someday at Christmastime.

The world continues to be chaotic and at times unjust, making the holiday season a welcome respite for many of us. This season of holidays is a time to slow down and reflect on what really matters in life. No matter how you celebrate the holiday season I hope that you can find peace and comfort in the company of friends and family.

This Christmas the world is not at peace, but at least my older brother Mark has finally found his peace. He passed away this month after a brutal fight with cancer. Rest in peace brother.

]]><![CDATA[President Biden Pardoned his Son Hunter, and the Moral Outrage is Deafening.]]>Wed, 11 Dec 2024 01:03:31 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/president-biden-pardoned-his-son-hunter-and-the-moral-outrage-is-deafening

On December 1, 2024, President Joe Biden granted his son Hunter a full and unconditional pardon “For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024”. The pardon clears Hunter Biden of the nine federal tax charges that he plead guilty to in September and his three felony convictions for lying on a federal firearms application.

In his statement announcing the pardon President Biden stated that Hunter had been treated differently and unfairly singled out to hurt Biden’s presidential campaign. The president went on to state that, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”.

Reactions From the Right: The reaction from Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans was predictable. Trump called the pardon an abuse of power and a miscarriage of justice. House Republicans called it proof that Joe Biden couldn’t be trusted and that the Biden family was attempting to coverup criminal behavior.

This is pure hypocrisy. In justifying his own questionable pardons while president, Trump stated that the presidential pardon power is complete and free of limitations. Trump has pardoned close friends and associates such as Rodger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort for various crimes committed in his service. Let’s not forget that Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner who was convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign contributions. To add insult to injury Trump has selected Mr. Kushner to be the next U.S. ambassador to France.

House Republicans have been using their majority over the past two years to investigate Hunter Biden in order to damage President Biden. A since discredited star witness for the Republicans claimed that Joe Biden had financially benefitted from illegal overseas schemes involving Hunter. The House Republicans could never prove any wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, as I have written about in a previous blog .

Reactions From the Left: If you need any further proof that the Democratic Party is adrift, look no further than their response to the Hunter Biden pardon. Party leaders across the country were quick to jump all over Joe Biden for failing to keep his campaign promise not to pardon his son. The hand wringing and moralizing about the degradation of presidential norms and standards is astonishing and speaks volumes about the state of their party. Do they forget who the American people just elected to be the next president of the United States? They have given Trump a pass on every misstep and misdeed, so the bar has already been reset. If the Democrats have a problem with this, they need to have a serious conversation with the American people about standards and norms.

Well, what about Joe Biden’s legacy? Biden’s legacy has already been diminished by his decision to run for reelection in 2024 and handing Donald Trump a 2nd term. Pardoning his son will be a mere footnote to the storm that the next Trump Administration will bring.

The Real Issues Raised by Hunter Biden’s Pardon: No one is really very surprised that Joe Biden pardoned his son, and on a personal level they understand it. The issues surrounding the pardon that have caused consternation among legal scholars and politicians are the scope of the pardon and the language used by the president to justify it. The pardon gives Hunter complete immunity for all federal offenses he may have committed back to January 1, 2014. This sets a new precedent and could possibly lead to abuses of the presidential pardon in the future.

The pardon may not have caused much of a stir outside of MAGA world if not for the president’s attack on the integrity of the justice system in his statement announcing the pardon. The president’s statement made clear that he thought the prosecution of his son was politically motivated and that Hunter had been unfairly treated by the justice system because he was the president’s son. Democrats fear that Biden’s condemnation of the justice system will bolster Trump’s claims that the Department of Justice had been weaponized against him.

In Defense of Biden: On several occasions over the past year President Biden had pledged not to pardon his son for the tax and gun violations he was charged with. Biden should never have made that pledge, but it was in the middle of a presidential campaign, and he fully expected Donald Trump to lose the election.

With a Democrat returning to the White House, Biden thought his son would be protected against further criminal investigations and prosecutions. That was upended when Trump won the election, and Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate.

Biden’s apprehension grew as the new president-elect began to nominate MAGA loyalists to key positions in his administration who are hell-bent on dismantling the “deep state” and seeking retribution against Trump’s enemies. The nomination of Kash Patel to head the FBI and Pam Bondi to be Attorney General, convinced Biden that his son’s legal problems would only intensify.

Newly emboldened House Republicans have pledged to continue to investigate the “Biden Crime Family” and other foes of Donald Trump. Given these circumstances it is understandable that Hunter’s pardon was written to provide broad protection to cover the timetable outlined by the House investigation into his overseas business dealings. Hunter’s pardon frees up the FBI and House of Representatives to spend their time and taxpayer money on pursuits more aligned with the needs of the American people.

To the charge that Biden’s expansive pardon of his son clears the way for Trump to pardon January 6th defendants, I say nonsense. Trump has been stating for months that he considered the January 6th defendants to be “political prisoners”, and that he would most likely pardon them if reelected. I expect Trump to pardon some, if not all the January 6th defendants, and it will have nothing to do with Hunter’s pardon, despite his claims to the contrary.

The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad powers to grant pardons, so President Biden did nothing illegal in issuing his son a pardon. It was wrong for Biden to claim that the prosecutions of his son were political, impugning the integrity of the Justice Department. But there is no doubt that investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas activities by House Republicans were politically motivated to damage President Biden.

With the pardon of Hunter Biden by the president, Democrats fear that they have ceded the moral high ground. But to whom? Certainly not the Republicans! With the election of Donald Trump our national politics has entered a period when morality takes a back seat to expediency. The Democrats and the rest of the country need to get over the president’s pardon of his son and focus on the real threat to presidential norms and standards.

If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.

Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[The People Have Spoken. Trump Wins Resounding Electoral Victory!]]>Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:37:56 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/the-people-have-spoken-trump-wins-resounding-electoral-victory

It was not the result that I wanted, but the American people have given Donald Trump a decisive victory over Kamala Harris. He won both the popular and electoral votes. Harris graciously conceded to Trump, and the transition is underway for the 47th President of the United States of America. The silver lining is that the election results are not being litigated in courtrooms across the country, and there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

In the history of the United States there has never been a more uniquely flawed candidate at the head of a major party’s presidential ticket than Donald Trump. That is why I thought that Kamala Harris would squeak out a victory. But I was wrong. The American people had been expressing their dissatisfaction with the direction of the country throughout the campaign, and the Democrats were mostly tone deaf to the things that mattered most, namely high prices and border security.

Joe Biden was an unpopular president, and by the time he begrudgingly dropped out the race it was too late for any replacement candidate to mount an effective campaign against Trump. Joe Biden was an 800-pound albatross around Kamala Harris’ neck, and she could never effectively articulate how her administration would be meaningfully different than Biden’s. Republican wins in the House and the Senate sent a clear message that the country wanted change, even if that meant bringing back Donald Trump.

The Democratic Party was clearly out of step with the mood of the country. The progressive politics of the Biden Administration pushed the party left while the majority of the country shifted right. The Trump campaign effectively portrayed the Democrats as a party trying to impose a radical left-wing agenda highlighted by racial, gender and identity politics, while the needs of ordinary Americans were being ignored. As a result, Donald Trump and his party will soon control the executive branch and both Houses of Congress.

But What About Trump? Donald Trump was an unpopular president and unpopular presidential candidate. In recent days his favorability rating surpassed 50% for the first time. Voters were willing to overlook the criminal indictments and convictions, the xenophobia and misogyny, the name calling and petty antics, and the circus atmosphere surrounding Trump. None of Trump’s nonsense and misdeeds impacted voters personally, but high prices and the sense of insecurity resulting from a porous border did. It’s true that Trump’s base of MAGA supporters is strong. But Trump was pushed over the finish line by anti-incumbent voters who rejected Joe Biden’s policies, and by extension his political party.

Trump Gets a Clean Slate: The electorate did more than just forgive Trump’s boorish behavior, it gave permission to the Justice Department to dismiss the two federal criminal cases against him. Within the past few days, a court in Washington D.C. dismissed the case which alleged Trump had attempted to overturn the 2020 election. This week the federal documents case against Trump in Florida was also dismissed.

In the court filings to dismiss these cases Special Counsel Jack Smith cited a Justice Department policy that sitting presidents may not be prosecuted. Prosecuting a sitting president would certainly impair his ability to perform his duties, but I doubt that the framers of the Constitution intended the president to be above the law.

The door remains open for the prosecutions to be renewed once Trump leaves office, but the chances of that happening are remote. The American people handed Trump a get out of jail free card when they elected him to be the next president of the United States.

Trump still faces state charges in the Georgia election interference case, but odds are that case will die a quiet death. It now appears that Trump’s sentencing for his 34 criminal convictions in the New York hush money case will be delayed until after he leaves office.

Going Forward: Despite his claims to the contrary Trump was not given a mandate by the voters to go “full MAGA” on the country. He received just under 50% of the popular vote, which means that half of the country voted against him. Nonetheless, Trump is newly emboldened by his election victory, the Republican takeover of both Houses of Congress, and the dismissal of the criminal cases against him. There will be little to no restraint on his ambitions to become an all-powerful executive in the Oval Office. His cabinet and other key government positions will be packed with loyalists ready to do his bidding, and Project 2025 will be their roadmap.

For the next two years Trump will yield nearly unfettered control over the reins of government. It’s time for Mr. Trump to put up or shut up and “Make America Great Again”. Without those pesky Democrats to get in his way he has no one to blame but himself if he doesn’t execute on his agenda. The good news is that the mid-term elections are two short years away and the American people get cranky when politicians swing too far to their ideologic extremes, just ask the Democrats.

The 2nd Trump term will be a test of the resiliency of the Constitution and the rule of law. It will remind voters of the importance of the separation of powers, the need for checks and balances within the federal government and determine whether the co-equal branches of government actually function as such.

Some Crazy and Not So Crazy Predictions:

A group of Trump supporters will promote an effort to put Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore or create a monument to him on the National Mall.
The Trump Administration will force Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to step down so that they can be replaced with younger justices.
Trump will try to get reelected for a third term claiming that he was cheated out of having two consecutive terms. He could also justify such a move by declaring (or creating) a national emergency. If Trump forced the Republican Party to nominate him in 2028 would the Supreme Court stop him?

If the 2024 presidential election proved anything it is that American voters don’t vote for the best and brightest. Americans vote out of self-interest. For most voters that means which candidate will provide them and their family with the most financial well-being. Stubbornly high prices on everyday goods, high interest rates on credit cards and car loans, and high mortgages and rents have undermined the financial well-being of too many Americans.

To sum it up, Harris lost the election because paychecks went further under Trump. In the immortal words of Democratic strategist James Carvel, “It’s the economy stupid!”

If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.

Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[Millions of Americans Have Already Voted in the 2024 Election, and So Have I.]]>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 23:28:44 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/millions-of-americans-have-already-voted-in-the-2024-election-and-so-have-i

As of this writing over 66 million Americans have already voted in the 2024 presidential election, and I was one of them. If you haven’t voted yet you have until the polls close on November 5, 2024. I can’t say it any better than that renowned statesman and gifted orator Donald J. Trump who is imploring his supporters to “Get your fat ass out of the couch” and vote.

For me the decision on whom to vote for is clear. It is a decision between a candidate who attempted to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, the bedrock of our democracy, and one who didn’t.

Rather than to rehash it all, I thought it would be interesting to revisit two of my blogs from the 2020 election cycle and present a few of their highlights.

Vote 2020

Here it is in the middle of July, and it is ramping up be the summer of our collective discontent. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, the economy is in a shambles, protests against police injustice occur nightly, civil war era monuments are being toppled, and dozens of our citizens were killed by firearms over the 4th of July weekend. The citizenry of this country should be discontented, if not downright outraged. Contentment leads to complacency, and this is not a time to be complacent.

Black Lives Matter was considered by some to be a fringe radical group when it started in 2013. Today it is an international movement with support from people of all races. It is an example of a group of people getting together in common cause and raising awareness of racial injustice right here in the United States. I think that their cause is catching fire and will finally lead to some positive changes. But what about the rest of us? How can we make a difference? The answer my friends is at the ballet box! The presidential general election will be held on November 3, 2020, and several state primaries are being held in the months leading up to November.

Voting is a fundamental right of every U.S. citizen 18 years of age and older. The free exercise of this right is one of the most effective ways to let your voice be heard and to affect change. There are laws that make voting mandatory in approximately 22 countries, but not here in the United States. No one can force you to vote. But if citizens are complacent and don’t vote, how will change be affected? If you are not motivated to vote, I have listed a few things that you may want to consider.

Reasons to Vote:

Preservation of Democracy: Apathy and indifference play into the hands of despotic leaders, and weakens democracy. The fewer people who vote, the more power accrues to the few at the top. Voting is the most effective tool that citizens of a free society have to prevent injustice, tyranny, and despotism. When the right to vote is denied or restricted, then all power is ceded to the state. Look at China, which has a one-party system. Xi Jinping is the President of the people’s Republic of China and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. In 2018 the Chinese constitution was amended, removing term limits for the president. Xi is now an autocrat, and what he says goes. Is there any wonder that the Chinese government recently imposed new security laws on Hong Kong, minimizing the island’s autonomy and restricting the rights of its citizens? Another example of a country where free and fair elections are questionable at best, is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Putin recently pushed through constitutional amendments which virtually guarantee his presidency for life. Autocracies are never good for the rights of the citizens.
Local Elections Matter: What happens at the city, county, and state levels of government has a real impact on your family, community and your wallet. Local elections choose school boards, city councils, mayors, county supervisors, judges, sheriffs, DAs, state legislators, governors, and others. I would venture a guess that most of us pay more in state and local taxes (and fees) than we do in federal taxes. At the federal level, you may pay income and payroll taxes, excise taxes on some fuels and alcohol, as well as fees on some utility bills. But at the local level, you pay sales taxes, gasoline taxes, transient occupancy taxes, vehicle taxes, tolls, property taxes, interest from bond measures, utility fees, income taxes, etc. Most of these are determined through ballet initiatives, or by elected officials. Perhaps even more important than how much is collected, is how the money is apportioned. How tax money is spent in your community on such things as schools, roads, public health, public safety, parks, green spaces and other community services, has a big impact on your quality of life.
Down Ballet Candidates Matter: Even if none of the presidential candidates are to your liking, there is more to November’s election than the presidency. The control of Congress is up for grabs, and the stakes are high. Congress is a critical check on presidential power, it will determine which federal judges are appointed and the legislation that makes it to the president’s desk.
Be a Part of History: Today, many of us take our right to vote for granted. But those who came before us fought long and hard to win those rights that we enjoy today. 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. The least we can do to recognize this major achievement for women, is to vote. Vote to commemorate the achievement of all the brave women, and other marginalized people, who fought so that we wouldn’t have to.

Voting During the Pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. To top it off we are faced with a national election. How do we do it safely during a time of self-quarantines, social distancing, and enhanced sanitation procedures? We don’t know if the virus will still be with us in November. But we can’t sit idle and wait to find out. We do have some experience with voting during this pandemic, and it wasn’t pretty! During this primary season we have all read and seen news reports of people waiting in long lines, under extreme conditions, to vote. Voters in Wisconsin stood in lines for hours in the frigid cold, to exercise their right to vote this past April. More recently the good people of Georgia endured long waits, in scorching heat, to vote in their primary. Why did this happen? Election officials blame it mostly on the pandemic.
Many of the poll workers are volunteers, who were frankly too frightened to work the polls. Those who did work were provided too little, or inadequate training, due to distancing and sanitation rules. Fewer poll workers lead to consolidation of polling places, compounding an already bad situation. Is this what we can expect in the November election? I hope not, and it doesn’t have to be. (Thank God the pandemic is over!)

Is the 2020 Presidential Election Finally Over?

The 2020 presidential election is finally over. The Electoral College met on December 14th in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and cast their electoral votes. The Electoral College has spoken, and the winner of the 2020 presidential election is (drum roll please), Joe Biden! It was a very contentious election, and President Trump and his allies have tried every legal maneuver possible to have the election results overturned. But the numbers don’t lie. Here is the election scorecard, which even the most hardened partisan cannot overlook:

2020 Presidential Election Score Card

Votes/Challenges       Trump Biden

Popular Vote 74,223,753 (46.9%) 81,283,495 (51.4%)

Recounts in Wisconsin and Georgia   *

Lower Courts Lawsuits (50+)    *

Supreme Court Rulings (2)    *

Electoral College Votes    232 306

Victor   *

Even before all the votes from the November 3rd election were tallied, the President’s campaign, and members of the Republican Party, began filing over 50 lawsuits in various jurisdictions. The lawsuits contested the election outcome due to outright fraud or voting irregularities. Some of these lawsuits are still pending, but the majority were thrown out or decided in Joe Biden’s favor due to lack of evidence. The Supreme Court challenge, filed by the Texan Attorney General, was denied due to lack of standing (he didn’t have the legal right to sue other states over their election laws). The Supreme Court challenge against the state of Pennsylvania, for liberalizing absentee voting, was denied due to lack of merit. Much to the chagrin of President Trump, the separation of powers is still working. The partial recount in Wisconsin and the full hand recount in Georgia, both went in Joe Biden’s favor.

On the floor of the Senate today, Leader Mitch McConnel acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. He went on to congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on their victory. On January 6, 2021, Congress will meet in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winner of the presidential election. For the sake of the country, let’s hope that Donald Trump and his millions of admirers accept the outcome of the election so that we can work together on the challenges ahead. (Guess how that turned out!)

]]><![CDATA[Are Christian Values Compatible With Trumpism?]]>Sun, 20 Oct 2024 01:03:34 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/are-christian-values-compatible-with-trumpism

In the past I have written that I have disqualified Donald Trump from consideration for the presidency due to his character flaws and lack of moral integrity. Nearly half of the American electorate, including many Christians disagree with me.

Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States with over 63% of Americans identifying as such. In the latest national polls approximately 47% of registered voters support Donald Trump for president. Most of these voters are Christians who can separate Trump’s moral failings from his policies. I believe in the separation of church and state and have never voted for anyone because of their religious affiliation or beliefs. But the values I learned from my Christian upbringing are so opposed to Donald Trump’s lies and rhetoric that I would have to cast aside my foundational principles as a Christian to support him.

Trumpism: Volumes have already been written in the few short years that the MAGA movement and Trumpism have taken hold of the Republican Party. It has been equated to right-wing populism, Christian nationalism, national conservatism, authoritarianism, and even neo-fascism. Trump may indeed have certain tendencies which puts him into one or more of these political ideologies, but he really doesn’t have a political philosophy. Trumpism is simply a political movement that supports Donald Trump, and he will align himself with any group that supports him, and then coopt their views as his own.

Rather than having a political philosophy, Trump has a moral philosophy which he learned from his friend and lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump learned from Cohn that in business and in life, in order to win you must “Attack, attack, attack. Admit nothing, deny everything. No matter what happens, you claim victory, and never admit defeat.” This philosophy of Trump’s is at the root of his conflict with Christian values.

Christianity: I am not a theologian, but I was born and raised a Catholic. I have come to believe that being a Christian doesn’t require affiliation with a particular church, but it requires a belief in and the practice of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christianity in America encompasses a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds, beliefs and churches. One thing that binds most of these groups together is the teachings of Jesus Christ as written in the New Testament.

The teachings that I remember are those found in “The Gospel According to Matthew”, particularly the teachings known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. Before examining how Trump’s campaign rhetoric has diverged from Christian values and norms it is important to review some of the teachings of Jesus, which are foundational to Christianity.

Christian Values: This is just a partial list of Jesus’ teachings. Many of these are familiar to Christians and non-Christians, and also appear in the writings of other religions.

Love your neighbor as yourself.
Be kind to others.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Forgive those who sin against you.
Do not judge others, or you too will be judged.
If anyone slaps you on one cheek, turn and give them the other cheek.
When someone takes your coat, let them have your shirt as well.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Don’t be angry with your brother and never insult him.
Give to him who begs from you.
Practice humility by putting others’ needs ahead of your own.
Blessed are the peacemakers and the merciful.

For me, this passage from the New Testament really sums up Christian values: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick or imprisoned and you visited me. As you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Jesus also taught about the importance of following the ten commandments. The most relevant commandment for our discussion of Trumpism is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” To bear false witness against others is to lie about them, and the word “neighbor” as written in the English translations of the bible means an associate, brother, neighbor, companion, fellow, friend, husband, or anyone else.

Jesus taught us to be good neighbors to others, to be kind and generous, to help those in need, to be forgiving, to be humble and honest. How do these teachings square with our understanding of Trumpism and the words and deeds of Donald Trump?

Can a Vote for Trump be Morally Justified: The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant, and second largest Christian organization in the United States. In 1998 it wrote about the candidacy of Bill Clinton in a resolution which stated that “۰۰۰moral character matters to God and should matter to all citizens, especially God’s people, when choosing public leaders.” The resolution further urged “۰۰۰all Americans to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honest, moral purity and the highest character.”

Twenty-six years after many conservative Christian organizations spoke out against the moral failings of Bill Clinton, how is it that they can now support Donald Trump who falls much lower on the moral purity scale? I don’t consider myself a conservative Christian and will not attempt to justify something that I don’t understand. All I can do is assess the words and deeds of Donald Trump which speak to the character of the man who may very well be the next president of our country.

The Violation of Christian Values: In the final days of the 2024 presidential race, the violation of Christian values by Donald Trump are on full display. He tells lies and spreads false rumors to instill fear, divide the American people, and denigrate a large segment of our population. He calls immigrants rapists, murderers, and blood thirsty criminals “poisoning the blood of our country”. Trump uses rhetoric such as, “the Haitians are eating the pets” to promote hate and set people against one another. He portrays America as a country in decline, ravished by criminal gangs of illegal immigrants.

Trump has a record of mistreating women, distaining the rule of law, and undermining public trust in government institutions. He lacks the humility to admit that he lost the 2020 election and continues to push the false claim that the election system is rigged against him. His false claims that the Biden/Harris administration withheld hurricane relief funds from predominately Republican areas, have led to threats of violence against FEMA employees and the closing of FEMA offices. Trump’s lies have led to violence and threats of violence against Capitol police officers, poll workers, elections officials, immigrants in this country legally, and public officials who have attempted to hold him accountable for his actions.

Trump has promised retribution against those who have wronged him and to use the power of the presidency to punish those who disagree with him. He has vilified his political opponents by calling them the “enemy within” our country and has suggested that he will use the military if necessary to crush them.

Are these examples of love for one’s neighbor, kindness and compassion towards others, forgiveness, humility, and not judging others? Well, the answer goes without saying.

Trump is Not Pro-Life: For decades many conservatives supported the Republican Party due to its pro-life stance. Trump was hailed as a hero in conservative circles for appointing three Supreme Court justices who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But Trump is an unprincipled man who has changed his views on abortion several times to fit the prevailing political winds. Evangelicals and other conservative Christians have supported Trump over the years because he was the pro-life candidate. But it is difficult to reconcile that support with Trump’s shifting position in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe.

Trump now claims to be the champion of women’s reproductive rights. He is against a national abortion ban and has called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “too harsh” and “a terrible mistake”. Will this cause conservative Christian voters to withhold their support for Trump? We will know in a few short weeks.

I have made my views on Donald Trump crystal clear during this election cycle. As I have expressed in a previous blog, character counts in the selection of any candidate for public office. My views on the character traits that I feel are important in a candidate were formed by my Catholic upbringing and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That is why I question the morality of supporting and putting into power a man who has hate in his heart, is vengeful, and lacks humility and integrity.

Donald Trump has told conservative Christian groups that he “loves Christians” and will defend them against the radical-left. Even for Trump that is a wildly self-serving proposition. If he truly wants to align himself with Christians and their values, I suggest that he reads the Bible rather than hawking his own “God Bless the USA” Bible.

One final piece of advice for Donald Trump, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you”.

]]><![CDATA[J.D. Vance “Sanewashes” Donald Trump in V.P. Debate.]]>Sat, 12 Oct 2024 01:12:14 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/jd-vance-sanewashes-donald-trump-in-vp-debate

When Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate a lot of people were left scratching their heads. Anyone watching last week’s vice-presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz now has a better understanding of Vance’s strengths. Vance was poised, polished, smart and an articulate defender of Donald Trump and his policies. He was clearly the best debater on stage that night, but more importantly he presented himself, and by extension Donald Trump, as reasoned, rational and well within the mainstream. He clearly did his job of “sanewashing” the Trump ticket, and that is what troubles me.

The term “sanewashing” has been around for a few years, but it entered the political lexicon this year in the craziness of the 2024 presidential election. It has come to mean the act of packaging or massaging radical and outrageous statements in a way that makes them sound normal. News outlines covering Trump have been accused of this. In some cases it is a purposeful attempt to present Trump in a more favorable light, and in other cases it is simply to help the intended audience make sense of his ramblings. In either case it creates a misleading picture of Trump to the public and sanitizes what can only be categorized as unhinged, delusional and the utterances of an unwell man.

In the hands of J.D. Vance, the concept of sanewashing has been taken to a new level. He has the ability to spin, distort, and deflect in such a way that overcomes any criticism of Trump, casting a favorable light on any of his discredited policies. The vice-presidential debate highlighted the dangers of an articulate Trump enabler like J.D. Vance. Vance’s performance attempted to rewrite the history of the first Trump administration and normalize a deeply flawed candidate who doesn’t have a coherent plan to lead the country forward in a dangerous world.

J.D. Vance may have won the debate on delivery, but he lost it on substance. Most of what he said sounded good, but it doesn’t hold up to close examination. If you are interested in a fact-check of the debate, I refer you to the CBS News’ analysis.

I’m not claiming that everything that Walz said was 100% accurate. But the difference is that Walz’s inaccuracies pertained mostly to his own personal history, while those of Vance were misleading or false statements about Donald Trump and his policies.

Here are the most important inaccuracies uttered by Vance that all voters should consider:

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Also know as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, it was signed into law in 2010 and was the crowning achievement of the Obama Administration. This law represented the most significant overhaul and expansion of the U.S. health system since 1965, providing affordable healthcare coverage to tens of millions of Americans. It was opposed by all Congressional Republicans, who have vowed to repeal and replace it every year since its inception.

In the debate Vance claimed that Trump had “salvaged” the ACA, saying that “۰۰۰when Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and healthcare costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”

This statement was blatantly false. Trump was no champion of the ACA; in fact, he was just the opposite. He did everything in his power to dismantle the program which millions of Americans depend on for affordable health care. During his 2016 presidential campaign Trump vowed to repeal and replace the ACA. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order which proclaimed: “It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Throughout his term Trump pushed Congress to repeal the ACA, with little success. To undermine the law, Trump cut funding for advertising and outreach programs for the ACA and reduced subsidies to insurance companies for low-income enrollees. Trump still doesn’t have a healthcare plan that would replace the ACA and admitted as much in his September debate with Kamala Harris.

Peaceful Transfer of Power: The biggest takeaway from the debate for me was that Vance refused to acknowledge that Trump had lost the 2020 election. This came after Vance claimed that Trump had peacefully handed over the reins of presidential power to Joe Biden. Here is what Vance said, “It’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January 20th.” This is a dangerous revision of what actually happened in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

The transfer of power from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration took place in a city under siege. Thousands of troops lined the streets and miles of fences restricted access to the grounds of the Capitol. This all took place in the aftermath of Trump’s failed attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election. It was not the peaceful transfer of power that Vance claimed.

After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump convinced millions of his supporters that the election had been stolen. This led to hundreds of election workers and state officials being threatened with violence. The life of Vice President Mike Pence was threatened for refusing to assist Trump in overturning the results of the election. The Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, resulted in over 150 Capitol police officers being injured and the lives of at least seven people were lost. No Mr. Vance, the transfer of presidential power was not peaceful!

Vance did a great job during the debate of sanitizing Donald Trump’s record and sanewashing his often incoherent ramblings. But he doesn’t believe any of it, and neither should you. It was very self-serving. Vance is looking to his own political future and Trump is the most expedient way to move it forward.

]]><![CDATA[Character Still Matters in our National Leaders.]]>Sat, 28 Sep 2024 01:53:15 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/character-still-matters-in-our-national-leaders

I have not been affiliated with a political party for over twenty years. Officially I am known as a No Party Preference voter in the state where I live. I am dissatisfied with both major political parties and feel that they play a role in Congressional disfunction, and in the political polarization across the country. I have voted for Democratic, Republican, Independent, and write-in candidates. I don’t vote for a candidate based on party affiliation. I vote for a candidate’s strength of character and temperament, followed by the policies they champion.

The character of the individual candidate says a lot about the type of leader they will be. If a candidate lacks a minimum level of standards and moral integrity, I deem them unfit for office and won’t even consider them when casting my vote. To me character trumps (no pun intended) all other things that a candidate brings to the table, including political affiliation, policy positions, and promised giveaways to voters.

Integrity: This is perhaps the most important aspect of a candidate’s character. Integrity implies a high level of honesty, morality and trustworthiness. In the context of a candidate for the presidency it also implies that they will respect the rule of law and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk which read “The Buck Stops Here!” This was a demonstration that he was personally responsible for his actions and those of his administration. Taking personal responsibility for your actions is another attribute which shows character in a leader. This point brings me to Donald Trump. His moral lapses are well documented, his shady business dealings are legendary, and his legal entanglements could fill a law library. But rather than owning up to his many shortcomings he has perfected the art of denial, deflected his failings onto others, and has draped himself in the cloak of victimhood.

In case you don’t follow Trump’s exploits as closely as I do, here are just of few of the legal entanglements he has faced in recent years which are reflective of his character:

E. Jean Carroll Civil Lawsuits: On May 9, 2023, a New York jury ruled that Trump was liable for sexual assault and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. Carroll had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the 1990’s. When she went public with the information Trump accused Carroll of lying, leading to her lawsuit. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages.
After the first lawsuit, Trump continued to disparage Carroll, calling her story fake and totally made up. This resulted in a second defamation lawsuit against Trump which concluded in January of this year. Trump was again found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay an additional $84 million in damages. Trump is appealing both verdicts.
Classified Documents Retention Case: On June 8, 2023, federal prosecutors filed multiple criminal counts against Trump for the willful retention of national-security information, obstruction of justice, withholding of documents, and making false statements. A Florida judge dismissed the case in July of this year, but the special prosecutor in charge of the case has appealed that ruling. The case is now pending review by the Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Federal Election Interference Case: On August 1, 2023, federal prosecutors filed a four-count indictment against Trump in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to block the certification of the election on January 6, 2021. The case was paused after the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. This week federal prosecutors refiled the charges against Trump taking into account presidential immunity. It will be up to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan whether the case moves forward, which I'm confident that it will.
Georgia Election Interference Case: On August 14, 2023, Trump and eighteen other defendants were indicted for taking part in a criminal conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia. This case is on hold pending an appeals court hearing scheduled for December 5, 2024.
Civil Fraud Case: On February 16, 2024, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties after being found guilty of business fraud. The fraud resulted from a scheme to dupe banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth on financial statements to lower his tax bill or to improve the terms of business loans. This case is currently under appeal.
Hush Money Case: On May 30, 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to cover up hush money payments to women who claimed to have had sexual relationships with him. This makes Trump the first former president to be convicted of a felony crime. Sentencing is scheduled for after the election on November 26, 2024. Trump will appeal the verdict.

True to his character, Donald Trump has not taken any personal responsibility for any of his actions relating to the aforementioned criminal cases. Trump simply claims that he is the victim of election interference and political persecution. The prosecutors and judges in each one of these cases are “corrupt” according to Trump, and political lackeys of Joe Biden.

Character as a Guidepost to Leadership: This November we will not be electing a candidate for sainthood; we will be electing a president. No candidate for higher office is perfect, they are human after all. It is incumbent upon us to elect a candidate who has the character to rise above their inherent flaws and self-interest to do what’s right for the American people.

Donald Trump’s leadership capabilities during his presidency and in the aftermath of his loss to Joe Biden were shaped by his character. Here are some of the things about Donald Trump that I have learned over the past nine years:

He values loyalty over substance in his subordinates.
He mocks and denigrates anyone who disagrees with him.
He uses lies to shield against the culpability of his misbehavior and wrongdoing.
He has allowed self-interest to get in the way of doing what’s best for the American people. This was made evident when he initially downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and then politicized his administration’s response to the national health emergency.
His lack of humility and self-awareness led him to second guess the public health experts and insert himself into medical decisions during the pandemic.
For political reasons and pure self-interest, he engaged in an orchestrated campaign to cast doubt on the integrity of the U.S. election system. As a result, a significant portion of the American people now question whether it is possible to have a free and fair election in this country.
His ego prevented him from accepting the results of the 2020 presidential election even after his own attorney general and sixty courts of law could find no evidence of election fraud.
His lies about the “stolen election” compelled thousands of his supporters to go to Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, to protest the certification of the election. At his urging Trump's supporters marched to the U.S. Capitol and a violent riot ensued.
He lacked the common decency and respect for presidential norms to attend the inauguration of Joe Biden.
As demonstrated by his federal indictments in the Documents Case, he cannot be trusted with Top Secret documents.
His vindictiveness has been on full display this campaign season, telling his supporters that he will seek retribution against those who have wronged him and them.

There are several of my friends who readily acknowledge that Trump has flaws and cringe at some of his pronouncements, but are voting for him anyway. They agree with many of his policies and claim that they are voting for the Republican platform and not necessarily for Trump. But what they fail to realize is that Donald Trump has taken complete control of the Republican Party, and he is the platform.

The world is a complicated and dangerous place, and the U.S. President commands an influential and very powerful position. The presidency is perhaps the most difficult leadership position of all, requiring physical and mental stamina, courage, resilience, intelligence, competency and the highest level of integrity.

Unchecked power in the hands of an unethical and morally corrupt person, backed up by the enormous resources of the federal government and military establishment, could lead to injustice, cruelty, and much, much worse. After the Supreme Court’s inexplicable decision this summer to strip away the Constituent’s checks on presidential power, it is more important than ever to elect a president of the highest moral character. Donald Trump is not that person.

]]><![CDATA[Donald Trump’s Lies Have Real World Consequences!]]>Mon, 16 Sep 2024 22:06:46 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/donald-trumps-lies-have-real-world-consequences

The United States is in the throes of a contentious presidential race, and it is no surprise that political rhetoric has risen to a fever pitch. But there is a big difference between political rhetoric and blatant lies meant to hurt and deceive people for political gain. We are now witnessing in real time the purposeful spread of malicious lies by the Trump campaign, and real people are suffering. Haitian immigrants living in the city of Springfield, Ohio are the latest victims of Trump’s lies, vitriol and stupidity, and the entire city is suffering as a result.

Most political rhetoric during a campaign is relatively harmless and generally recognized as pandering to prospective voters. But there comes a point when political rhetoric crosses the line and becomes dangerous. Donald Trump has crossed that line several times. The most prominent examples are his insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from him and today Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

The Big Lie: We are all familiar with the “Stop the Steal” movement created by Donald Trump in the aftermath of his loss to Joe Biden in 2020. The lie about the 2020 election being stolen did much more than massage the ego of a narcissistic man, it extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from gullible supporters and damaged the lives of thousands of Americans. The most visible example was the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

It is important to remember that Trump summoned his supporters to Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. At his urging thousands of Trump’s supporters marched on the U.S. Capitol and a violent riot ensued. A bipartisan Senate report determined that at least seven people died in connection with the Capitol riot and about 150 law enforcement officers were injured and many more will carry the emotional scars for the rest of their lives.

Thousands of Trump’s supporters who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 had their lives upended by the events of that day. By August of this year over 1,100 people had been arrested in connection with the Capitol riot, approximately 900 have been convicted of crimes, and over 500 of the convictions have led to prison sentences. Ask these folks if their lives are any better for having believed Trump’s Big Lie.

The Big Lie did much more than impact the lives of the people involved in the January 6 Capitol riot, it upended the lives of hundreds of election workers and officials in over a dozen states. Many of these people and their families received threats of violence and death from Trump supporters inspired by his false claims that the election had been stolen. Reuters did extensive reporting on the full extent of the campaign of fear launched against election workers in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Here is a link to Reuter’s findings.

The devastating impact to the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Americans as a direct result of Trump’s Big Lie should be condemned by all. When you factor in the tens of millions of dollars states across the country had to spend to defend against bogus claims of election fraud, it is a mystery to me how the electorate of this country has let Trump get away with his lies.

Trump’s New Big Lie: During the nationally televised presidential debate on September 10 Donald Trump went on a tirade about how the Biden/Harris Administration had allowed illegal immigrants to destroy this country. Referring to Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio Trump said, “In Springfield they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating-they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” This is of course not true, but the Trump campaign has been pushing this lie for over a week.

Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance started the rumor by posting online that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were abducting and eating pets. Vance also posted the lie that Aiden Cark, an 11-year-old boy who was killed when a mini-van driven by a Haitian immigrant crashed into a school bus, was, “murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.” This is a racist lie intended to inflame hatred against immigrants and people of color. Young Aiden’s death was a tragic accident, not murder, and the Haitian immigrant involved in the accident was in this country legally.

Trump and Vance aren’t letting up on their deplorable hate speech against the Haitian immigrants in Springfield. Trump vowed during a press conference on Friday that he would conduct mass deportations of immigrants. “We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country.” “And we’re going to start in Springfield”, Trump said.

The rumors of immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield are false, and most Haitian immigrants living there are doing so legally. But this has no relevance in Trump world. The lies feed their narrative that illegal immigrants are destroying America, and Springfield, Ohio and the Haitians living there are collateral damage.

Last week city officials began to receive threatening phone calls, and bomb threats closed two elementary schools and caused the evacuation of Springfield City Hall and other state buildings. The lies spread by Trump and Vance have put Springfield, Ohio in the cross hairs of racists and conspiracy theorists who take Trump’s words as gospel. Trump is playing with fire and has proven once again that he will say and do anything to regain presidential power.

The New Trump Whisperer: There have been several influential advisors to Donald Trump since his improbable political rise nine years ago. The most notable of these was Steve Bannon who is currently serving a four-month prison term for defying a subpoena to appear before the House Select Committee that investigated January 6, 2021.

The newest Trump whisperer is Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist, conspiracy theorist, and internet personality. She has made a name for herself in far-right wing circles for her frequent racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic comments. Ms. Loomer has championed conspiracy theories, most notably that 9/11 was “an inside job”. She makes RFK Jr. seem like a reasonable guy.

No one would much care about Ms. Loomer if not for the fact that she has been getting a lot of face time with Donald Trump in recent weeks. She has been traveling with Trump on his campaign jet, she attended last week’s debate and appeared with Trump in the spin room afterwards. Inexplicably Ms. Loomer attended the 9/11 memorials with Trump last week in Pennsylvania and New York. If a man is judged by the company he keeps, Laura Loomer does not reflect well on Donald Trump.

According to people close to Trump he is listening to Ms. Loomer’s advice. Trump has called Ms. Loomer a “free spirit” and “supporter”. Is she somehow behind Trump’s insistence that pets are being eaten by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio? We may never know. But what we do know is that throughout his political career Trump has listened to “advisors” who flatter him and play to his vanity. We also know that Trump is averse to reading policy statements, and gathers most of his information by watching television and through verbal communications with trusted advisors. This leaves Trump open to manipulation by people pushing a particular policy or agenda, knowing full well that he won’t fact check them or do his own due diligence.

It is frightening to think just how easily Trump can be manipulated by those he trusts. Repeating false claims and conspiracy theories as facts is disturbing and dangerous. But the real danger lies in Trump’s inability to recognize just how vulnerable he is to manipulation by sophisticated foreign adversaries such as Russia and China. Is it any wonder that the Russians would prefer Donald Trump in the White House over Kamala Harris?

]]><![CDATA[Why I Am Voting for Donald Trump!]]>Thu, 05 Sep 2024 22:28:46 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/why-i-am-voting-for-donald-trump

I will not be voting for Donald Trump in the upcoming election, but tens of millions of Americans will be. The voters of America have the right to vote for whomever they choose. But in presidential elections it is important to know the reasoning behind your vote and the consequences of that vote. I respect anyone who can thoughtfully articulate why they will vote for a particular candidate, whether I agree with their choice or not.

My wife recently forwarded me a post that is making the rounds on Facebook which justifies a vote for Donald Trump. I am sharing the post because I think it is important that we respect differing views and try to understand those who we don’t always see eye to eye with.

Facebook Post: “ This is not a Jr. High or High School popularity/personality election!! I’m not voting for the person, I’m voting for the platform! I’m voting for the second Amendment. I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice and defending the traditional composition and independence of the Court. I’m voting for the Electoral College, and the Republic we live in. I’m voting for the Police, and law and order. I’m voting for the military, and the veterans who fought for and died for this Country. I’m voting for the Flag. I’m voting for the right to speak my opinion and not be censored. I’m voting for secure borders. I’m voting for the right to praise my God without fear. I’m voting for every unborn soul. I’m voting for freedom and the American Dream. I’m voting for good against evil. I’m not just voting for one person, I’m voting for the future of my Country and our Constitution which was written based on Biblical values and protects our freedoms under God! What are you voting for? God Bless the United States of America.”

Part of America’s greatness lies in the diversity of views among its people. Without understanding, our differing views can divide us and weaken our democracy. We all know people with views different from our own. It is our responsibility to reach out to them, respect their opinions, and help to foster greater understanding and friendship across divisive lines.

The operative question from the Facebook post is “What are you voting for?” I now have a better understanding of what some of my Republican friends hold dear and the reasoning behind their support of Trump. But Trump has demonstrated through word and deed that he is not a conservative and will not uphold the principles and values that are foundational to conservative Republicans. Trump has also demonstrated that he is willing to ignore the rule of law and the Constitution if they get in the way of his self-interest. Interestingly, all those reasons given in support of a Trump vote are also reasons underpinning my decision not to support him.

I’m voting for the Second Amendment, which needs to be repealed and replaced. I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice to round out the one-sided Court. I’m voting for a Supreme Court which will properly interpret the Constitution and not rewrite it. I’m voting to diminish the impact of the undemocratic Electoral College and to do my small part in assuring that the Republic lives on. I’m voting for law and order and the foundational value that no one is above the law. I’m voting for the flag, which belongs to all Americans. I’m voting for the military and veterans who have sacrificed much and will be called upon again in support of our allies around the world. I’m voting for free speech and for a government that won’t dictate which God to pray to. I’m voting for a comprehensive immigration policy which includes secure borders and a guest worker program. I’m voting for the reproductive rights of women and for the protection of all children. I’m voting for the best that this country can offer, not one which excludes people based on their gender identity, religious views, country of origin, or cultural differences. What are you voting for?

]]><![CDATA[Donald Trump’s Cloak of Invincibility Has Come Off.]]>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:01:56 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/donald-trumps-cloak-of-invincibility-has-come-off

There was a seismic shift in the 2024 presidential race on June 27 when Joe Biden’s debate performance showed the country that he was not up to the challenge of winning another term against his challenger Donald Trump. The more that President Biden dug in and tried to reassure his party and the country that he was up for the job, the further behind in the national polls he fell. Things began to fall into place for Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump was handed a get out of jail free card on July 1 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of his immunity claims. The Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity when conducting official acts while in office. This casts doubt on the legality of the remaining state and federal indictments that Trump is facing. To put an exclamation point on Trump’s legal victories, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case, finding that the special counsel handling the case had been appointed unconstitutionally.

Surviving an assassination attempt on his life on July 13 cemented Trump’s image among his base of supporters. He was viewed as the divinely chosen candidate destined to retake the White House. Trump himself believed in the inevitability of his winning the presidency. This is borne out by picking J.D. Vance as his running mate. J.D. Vance is the youngest and most inexperienced of the VP candidates that the Trump campaign had vetted. He won’t bring in many new voters, and more importantly, he won’t help Trump’s odds in the all-important swing states. The pick of J.D. Vance shows that Trump was convinced that he would win the election, and he wanted a VP whose ideologic views were aligned with his and who could be the future of the MAGA movement.

Just days after the failed assassination attempt, Trump was welcomed at the Republican National Convention as a concurring hero. The reverence for Trump among his MAGA supporters had never been higher, and even the Democrats thought that it would take a miracle to defeat him in November. That miracle came on July 21 when Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race and throwing his support behind VP Kamala Harris.

Harris Becomes the Democratic Nominee for President: Kamala Harris quickly garnered the support of Congressional Democrats, big donors, and party leaders such as the Clintons and Obamas. Within days of Biden dropping out of the race delegates to the nominating convention began to pledge their support for Harris. On August 6 Harris received enough delegate votes during an online voting process to become the Democratic nominee for president.

Enthusiasm among Democrats for Harris’s candidacy has exploded to levels not seen since Barack Obama was the nominee in 2008. Donors both big and small have been pouring money into the Harris campaign, and in the runup to the Democratic National Convention Harris was ahead of Trump in most national polls.

Readjusting to a New Reality: The Trump campaign was built around defeating Joe Biden, and is scrambling to recalibrate against a new opponent. The past three weeks have not gone well for Trump’s campaign or his psyche. The cloak of invincibility has been pulled from Trump and what’s underneath is disturbing.

With all the light shining on Harris, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have tried to recapture the narrative, but with limited success. Republicans attribute Harris’s surge in the polls as her honeymoon period, but there is more to it than that. The main obstacle to the Republican’s message getting through to swing and undecided voters is Donald Trump himself.

Trump Goes on the Attack: Over the past two weeks Trump has tried to shift the momentum back to his campaign through a series of press conferences and interviews. The press conference at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 was the first of these events and was a prelude of things to come. The Trump campaign had hoped that their candidate would present a substantive case for his election, including his accomplishments and important policy prescriptions. But that didn’t happen.

Trump has an inexplicable inability to stay on message and quickly defaults to his old playbook of personal grievances, untruths, bizarre theories, and petty personal attacks. The Trump campaign, and even Trump himself realizes that Harris is vulnerable on some key policy issues, namely the border and inflation. Rather than sticking to a winning strategy against Harris, Trump resorts to personal attacks, nonsensical theories and blatant lies. Below are a few choice examples of Trump’s failing message.

Personal Attacks on Harris: The personal attacks by Trump won’t stop because he claims that he is entitled to them due to the mistreatment he has received from the Biden/Harris Administration. The personal attacks are petty and undignified for a candidate running for the highest office in the country. Here are some of Trump’s recent public comments about Harris:

Trump has questioned Harris’s race, saying “۰۰۰she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went-she became a Black person.” “I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Trump frequently disparages Harris’s laugh, calling it the laugh of a crazy person and lunatic.
Trump ridicules Harris’s name by intentionally mispronouncing it whenever he mentions her.
Jealous of the fact that Harris’s image is on the recent cover of Time Magazine, Trump couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on her appearance, saying that “I am much better looking than her.” Attacking a woman’s appearance is never a good strategy when attempting to capture the all important women’s vote.
Trump has called Harris stupid, incompetent, a communist, and the list goes on and on. My advice to Mr. Trump is to stick to the issues and not the personal attacks. His schtick is getting old and it’s no longer funny.

Bizarre Theories and Nonsense:

Trump is obsessed with crowd sizes. At his Mar-a-Lago press conference he claimed that the crowds at his January 6, 2021 rally in Washington DC were as large, if not larger, than the crowds of people who turned up for Martin Luther King’s speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Martin Luther King’s speech drew approximately five times more people than Trump’s rally did.
Last week Trump promoted the untrue theory that the images of the large crowds at Kamala Harris’s rallies were faked by Artificial Intelligence. He even suggested that Harris should be disqualified from the race because creating fake images to enhance her crowd sizes is election interference. Is anyone buying this stuff?
Trump has frequently veered off into tangents about the fictional character Hannibal Lector during his rallies. He doesn’t realize that this makes him sound a little bit crazy and leaves many listeners scratching their heads. Calling the serial killing cannibal Hannibal Lector “a lovely man” is nonsensical and doesn’t project competence in a national leader.

Untruths and Scaremongering: Trump has always been fast and loose with the truth, but the rapidity with which he tells lies has reached a fever pitch with the rise of Kamala Harris. This makes it difficult to accurately access anything that Donald Trump says, which is why some people dismiss anything he says outright, and others support him out of blind faith. Here are just a few notable lines on his current play list:

“Everyone is going to be forced to buy an electric car under Harris.”
“Harris is going to destroy Social Security and Medicare.”
“Harris will ban private medical insurance.”
“Harris wants to take away your guns.”
“My tax cuts were the biggest in history.” The tax cuts enacted by Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama were larger.
“Democrats are allowed to do abortions even after the birth of the baby.” That would be murder, which is illegal everywhere.
“Nobody was killed on January 6th.” There were at least seven people who died in connection to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
“All over the world prisons and insane asylums are being emptied into our country, and over twenty million people have come across the border illegally under the Biden/Harris Administration.” There is no proof of any of these claims and border officials call them greatly exaggerated.
“Kamala Harris broke the economy,” and “she wants to install a communist like system.”
“If Harris is elected there will be a 1929 like stock market crash.”
“Harris wants to abolish coal, oil, and natural gas.”
“Our country is in decline; in fact, it is dying under the Biden/Harris Administration.” “America is a third world country.” That’s news to me and to most Americans.

The Democratic Party came to the realization that their presidential candidate was unelectable in the days following the June 27 presidential debate. President Biden’s age, mental acuity and physical stamina were preventing him from being an effective spokesperson for the party and could no longer assure victory in the November election. Party leaders persuaded Biden to drop out of the race for the good of the party and the country. After several agonizing weeks, Biden did the right thing by dropping out of the race and passing the torch to Kamala Harris.

Today the Republican Party is worried that their candidate may be slipping and turning off voters that they will need in November. In many of his public appearances Donald Trump comes across as paranoid, delusional, and stuck in the past. Campaign officials are frustrated with Trump because they are well aware that Kamala Harris is vulnerable on key issues, particularly border security and the economy. If Trump could stay on message his campaign might have a winning strategy.

Trump’s dystopian view of America does not play well against Harris’s joyful optimism. Trump should take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook, who with hope and optimism portrayed America as that shining city on a hill.

It is Donald Trump’s election to lose, and if he does, he has no one to blame but himself. Trump is already setting the stage to contest the election if he falls short on November 5, 2024. But that is a topic for another day.

]]><![CDATA[The Trump Campaign’s Swift Boat Attack on Tim Walz is the Height of Hypocrisy.]]>Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:05:56 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/the-trump-campaigns-swift-boat-attack-on-tim-walz-is-the-height-of-hypocrisy

Like most Americans I didn’t know much about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz until Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate last week. From what I have read he is a decent man with a long and proud record of public service. He has strong mid-western roots and seems to be a regular guy who can appeal to both urban and rural voters. This has got the Trump campaign worried, and it didn’t take long for it to go on the attack.

Swiftboating: This term was coined in 2004 to describe an unfair or untrue political attack and was first used during the 2004 presidential race against the Democrat nominee John Kerry. Kerry was an officer in the U.S. Navy, served a tour of duty in Vietnam in charge of a Swift boat, and received several combat medals for that service. A partisan group called the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” attacked Kerry’s war record during the 2004 campaign, claiming that Kerry had embellished it. The claims were later discredited and proved to be politically motivated, but the damage to Kerry’s campaign was significant.

The architect of the “Swift Boat” campaign against John Kerry was political operative Chris LaCivita who happens to be a co-manager of the Trump campaign. Is Tim Walz the victim of swiftboating? Let’s take a look.

J.D. Vance Levels Accusations Against Tim Walz’s Military Record: Within days of Walz being picked to be Kamala Harris’ running mate, the Trump campaign rolled out its vice presidential nominee to go on the attack. Vance served for four years in the Marine Corps, so he was tasked with attacking Walz’s 24 years of service in the Army National Guard.

Vance accused Walz of abandoning his unit right before they went to Iraq. Tim Walz filed papers to run for Congress on February 10, 2005, and retired from the National Guard that May. In August of 2005, the Department of the Army issued a mobilization order for Walz’s unit in preparation of deployment to Iraq. The timing might look suspect to some, but there is no proof that Tim Walz timed his retirement to avoid being deployed to Iraq. He did nothing improper in how and when he retired.

J.D. Vance also accused Tim Walz of “Stolen Valor” for claims he made in 2018 while speaking to a group about gun control. In support of common-sense gun control laws Walz said that “we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.” Tim Walz never served in a combat zone, so according to J.D. Vance it was a mortal sin for Walz to claim that he had carried a weapon in war. It is true that Walz never served in combat, and therefore did not carry a weapon into battle. But Walz certainly trained with weapons of war in preparation of going into a combat zone during a time of war. The argument is purely semantics, and the Harris campaign was quick to scrub any of its campaign materials referencing Walz’s “weapons of war” comments.

The final allegation against Tim Walz’s military record is that he claims to have retired at the rank of Command Sergeant Major. The truth of the matter is Walz did serve as a Command Sergeant Major, but he did not complete the requirements to retire with that rank. He retired at the lower rank of Master Sergeant. The Harris campaign’s website has been updated to reflect that Tim Walz did not retire as Command Sergeant Major, but only served as one.

Tim Walz has held political office for nearly two decades. Like any politician running for office he may have embellished his record to cast himself in a more favorable light. In a vacuum that doesn’t look good. In the context of the current political race, it is insignificant and downright laughable when you consider who is leveling the charges. Donald Trump as head of the Republican ticket has no standing in the military community and has an aversion to telling the truth.

What has Trump to Say on the Matter: Donald Trump has been silent on the matter, and for good reason. He has no credibility when it comes to military service, and that’s why J.D. Vance was tasked with the attacks on Tim Walz’s military record.

Trump avoided military service during the Vietnam War through dubious means. He received a deferment helped by a medical examination by a private foot doctor who diagnosed bone spurs in his heal. A New York Times investigation in 2018 revealed that the doctor who performed the medical evaluation was a tenant in a building owned by Trump’s father, and that the deferment recommendation was done as a favor to the family.

In addition to not serving in the military Trump has often disparaged those who have served. He belittled John McCain’s military career because he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. When Trump visited a French cemetery for Americans killed during World War I he said it was filled with losers and suckers. Trump lacks any understanding of the service and sacrifice that our veterans have made in defense of our country.

Comparing the Public Service Records of the Candidates: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have spent nearly their entire careers in public service, not so for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Let’s compare the public service records of each candidate and you decide which record is more deserving of your vote.

Donald Trump: Trump was never in the military and never held a public sector job. The only elected position he held was a four-year term as President of the United States.

J.D. Vance: Vance served in the US Marine Corps for four years. He was a combat correspondent in a non-combative role, including a six-month deployment in Iraq with the Public Affairs Department. He has served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio since 2023.

Kamala Harris: From the time of her graduation from law school in 1989 to the present-day, Harris has worked in the public sector. From 1990 to 2003 she worked as a prosecutor, first as a Deputy District Attorney for Alameda County, then as an Assistant District Attorney for San Francisco, and finally as a special prosecutor with the San Francisco City Attorney’s office.

In 2003 she was elected to the office of District Attorney of San Francisco and served in that role from 2004- 2011. In 2010 and again in 2014 she was elected to serve as the Attorney General of California. She successfully campaigned for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and served in that capacity from 2017-2021. She became Joe Biden’s vice president in January of 2021 and serves in that role to this day.

Tim Walz: Walz started his career in public service when he enlisted in the Army National Guard at the age of 17. During his 24 years of service, he acquired a college degree and went on to teach and coach in public high schools for approximately 15 years. Waltz left teaching to run for Congress where he served for 12 years. In Congress he sat on the Agriculture, Armed Services, and Veteran’s Affairs committees. Tim Walz is now in his second term as governor of Minnesota.

Let’s hope that the American people can see through this blatant attempt by the Trump campaign to discredit Walz’s honorable military career by spreading falsehoods and casting aspersions. Donald Trump is not even in the same league as Tim Walz when it comes to honesty, integrity, and dedication to public service. Disparaging Tim Waltz’s military career is a losing hand for the Trump campaign and is the height of hypocrisy.

]]><![CDATA[Two Non-Newsworthy Events Create Outrages of the Week. One From the Left and One From the Right.]]>Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:11:44 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/two-non-newsworthy-events-create-outrages-of-the-week-one-from-the-left-and-one-from-the-right

We are officially in silly season when any innocuous event can trigger outrage in the hyper-partisans and culture warriors. I am referring to Donald Trump’s remarks to a Christian group which Democrats quickly embraced as proof that he would dismantle democracy if elected, and to the segment of the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics which outraged Christians on Friday night. These people need to take a deep breath and enjoy the remaining weeks of the summer.

Let’s first review Trump’s remarks which have many on the left in a tizzy and then move on to the opening ceremony in Paris.

Trump’s Remarks: Trump addressed a group of Christians on Friday night at “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, Florida. Wrapping up his speech Trump said, “Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” He went on to say, “In four years you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good; you’re not going to have to vote.”

Was this a threat that the 2024 election could be the last before Trump plunges the country into authoritarianism? No, it was just classic “Trump Speak”. He doesn’t fully think through his thoughts before going off script, particularly at campaign rallies and other friendly venues. You must remember that Trump only cares about this election, which if he wins will be his last. Trump is self-absorbed, so whether Christians vote in the next election doesn’t concern him, because he won’t be running.

Olympic Opening Ceremony Riles Christians: The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic games did not take place in a stadium, which is typical. Rather, it took place in the heart of Paris along the Seine River and incorporated the Eiffel Tower and some of the city’s historic bridges. All the bridges along this stretch of the Seine contained dancers and other performance artists highlighting France’s diverse cultural identity.

The performance on the Passerelle Debilly bridge was misinterpreted by many Christian groups as a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper”. Christians were outraged that Jesus and his disciples were depicted by drag queens and other members of the LGBTQ community. All this anger proved to be misguided. Even the French know that it wouldn’t be wise to offend Christian communities around the world while the Olympic torch illuminates their capitol city.

Which painting is the more likely inspiration?

The Paris Olympic organizers were quick to apologize for any offense taken and to explain that the performance had nothing to do with “The Last Supper”. The performance had been inspired by Dionysus, the Greek god of winemaking, fruitfulness, and ecstasy. According to the ceremony’s artistic director, the performance was meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.

Come on folks, the French invented decadence after all. They have been at the forefront of food and fashion for centuries and have pushed the limits on behavioral norms along the way. The French have the center stage at the Olympics, let them showcase Paris and their culture in a way only the French can. Now let’s get back to watching the Olympic Games and enjoying all that French culture.

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Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[Project 2025]]>Tue, 16 Jul 2024 16:16:04 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/project-2025

At the time of this writing the Republican National Convention is just getting underway, and the country is coming to grips with a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Voices across the political spectrum are calling for the political rhetoric to be toned down and for the campaigns to focus on issues rather than personalities. Democrats are scrambling to divert attention away from their struggling candidate Joe Biden, so the timing couldn’t be better to turn the focus to policies. Democrats are doing so by raising the alarm about a conservative agenda for the next Republican administration called Project 2025. What is Project 2025, who is behind it, and is it something we should be concerned about?

Heritage Foundation (Heritage): Founded in 1973 the Heritage Foundation’s mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense. This prominent conservative think tank is based in Washington D.C. The Heritage Foundation is the driving force behind Project 2025 and promotes conservative governing principles through its publication of “Mandate for Leadership”.

Mandate for Leadership: According to Heritage’s website, the vision for Mandate for Leadership was that it would serve as a guidebook of specific policy recommendations for reducing the size and scope of the federal government and for ensuring that it stayed within its constitutional bounds. It was first published in January 1981 and served as a conservative plan of action for the Reagan Administration. Mandate for Leadership was a collective work by conservative thought leaders and former government insiders, many from outside of Heritage, which set out policy prescriptions, agency by agency for the incoming President. The book literally put the conservative movement and the Reagan Administration on the same page.

After that first edition, a new Mandate for Leadership was produced every four years. Soon after President Donald Trump was sworn in, his administration began to implement major parts of the 2016 Mandate for Leadership. During the first year alone his administration had implemented 64 percent of its policy recommendations.

From the original 1981 Mandate for Leadership to the current 2025 edition, the purpose is to present concrete proposals to revitalize the economy, strengthen national security, and halt the centralization of power in the federal government. The latest edition is called “2025 Presidential Transition Project”, or simply “Project 2025”.

Project 2025: Simply put, it is the conservative movement’s playbook or blueprint for the next conservative administration, presumably Trump’s, to be ready to govern on January 20, 2025.

Facilitated by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is the work of over 50 conservative organizations. The full document is 920 pages laid out in 30 chapters revealing hundreds of concrete policy recommendations for White House offices, Cabinet departments, Congress, agencies, commissions, and boards. Project 2025 is built on four pillars.

Four Pillars of Project 2025:

Pillar I: a consensus view of how major federal agencies must be governed and where disagreement exists brackets out these differences for the next President to choose a path.
Pillar II: a personnel database that allows candidates to build their own professional profiles and our coalition members to review and voice their recommendations. These recommendations will then be collated and shared with the President-elect’s team, greatly streamlining the appointment process.
Pillar III: the Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system taught by experts from our coalition. For the newcomer, this will explain how the government functions and how to function in government. For the experienced, we will host in-person seminars with advanced training and set the bar for what is expected of senior leadership.
Pillar IV: (The Playbook) the formation of agency teams and transition plans to move out as soon as the President is sworn into office.

Conservative Values Driving Project 2025: The authors of Project 2025 believe that the following guiding principles will decide America’s future.

1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.
4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty.”

Democrats’ Opposition to Project 2025: Democrats fear that if Donald Trump is elected and follows the Project 2025 blueprint it will erode democratic institutions, reduce the rights of citizens, and give him unchecked powers over the federal government. The head of “Stop Project 2025 Task Force’”, Democrat Congressman Jared Huffman, stated that Project 2025 will “abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will.” Here are some of the most controversial sections of Project 2025:

Personnel: As of 2022, the executive branch of the federal government employed nearly 2.2 million full-time civil servants across more than 400 agencies and departments. This figure does not include the U.S. Postal Service or uniformed military personnel. Currently an incoming president must fill approximately 4,000 positions with political appointees. Project 2025 proposes to revamp the civil service and vastly increase the number of positions that will be appointed by and beholden to the president. This would involve creating a new job category for federal employees, known as Schedule F, that would exempt these employees from civil service protections and make them easier to remove.

Federal Agencies: Several agencies would be eliminated or folded into other agencies. These include the Department of Education, Homeland Security, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some agencies would be privatized, including the Transportation Security Administration.

Transgender Rights: Transgender rights and gender identity beyond biological sex are roundly rejected, with such steps as reinstating the ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, prohibiting public school educators from referring to students by anything other than their birth name and pronouns without parental permission, and ensuring no federal funds are used to provide gender-affirming care.

DEI and LGBTQ Rights: Project 2025 seeks to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from throughout the federal government and in universities. It also calls for changing laws that bar discrimination based on sex to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity.

Climate Change: The proposal would undo much of the federal government’s climate work, including by leaving the Paris Climate Agreement. It would overhaul the Department of Energy to promote oil and natural gas, deemphasize green energy sources and curtail climate research. The size and scope of the EPA would be reduced.

Abortion: Project 2025 recommends that the Food and Drug Administration revoke its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. It would prevent any abortion equipment or medication from being mailed, bar federal funds being used to provide healthcare coverage for abortion and require states to report all abortions that take place there to the federal government.

Education: The Department of Education would be eliminated, leaving the states to direct education policy. An emphasis would be placed on a “school choice” policies that direct public funds to be used for students to attend private or religious schools. The Head Start Program that promotes the school readiness of children from birth to age five would be eliminated.

Student Loans: Student loan relief efforts would come to an end, including the public service loan forgiveness program and income-driven repayment plans.

Big Tech: TikTok would be banned, and tech companies and social media networks would be shielded from being sued over content on their platforms. Laws would be promoted, like those passed in Florida and Texas, that seek to punish social media companies who ban or suspend users based on their “viewpoints.”

Justice Department: Project 2025 calls for a “top-to-bottom overhaul” of the DOJ and FBI. These agencies would be filled with far more political appointees, making them more accountable to the president.

Taxes: Project 2025 would seek to get rid of current tax rates and most deductions and credits, instead proposing a 15% rate for anyone under the Social Security wage base ($168,000 in 2024) and 30% for taxpayers earning more than that. This means the lowest-income taxpayers will now pay more and some higher earners will pay less. The corporate income tax rate would be lowered to 18%.

Foreign Relations: Project 2025 directs the U.S. to pull out of international organizations when they don’t serve the administration’s interests, including the World Health Organization and various United Nations agencies.

Healthcare: Project 2025 does not seek to overturn the Affordable Care Act but would make significant cuts to Medicaid and impose work requirements to receive coverage. It would reform Medicare and make Medicare Advantage, a paid supplement to Medicare, the default option for patients. Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices would be repealed.

Immigration: More money would be provided to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and the Department of Homeland Security would be dismantled. U.S. Customs and Border Protection would be combined with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase their focus and power to secure the border.

Trump Responds: Facing pushback from Democrats, Donald Trump is attempting to distance himself from Project 2025. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump recently posted on his social media platform. He also claimed “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Trump’s assertions that he knows nothing about Project 2025 are disingenuous to put it kindly. As stated earlier, his administration implemented major parts of the 2016 Mandate for Leadership. Several of Trump’s appointees during his administration are now affiliated with Project 2025, including the project’s director Paul Dans who served as the chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

My Views on Project 2025: It is very common for presidential campaigns and presidential administrations to enlist the services of think tanks to help draft policy proposals and to promote partisan causes. The Heritage Foundation has been working with Republican administrations and other conservative groups since it was founded in the 1970s. Liberal think tanks, particularly the Center for American Progress, was used extensively by the Obama and Biden Administrations to develop progressive policies.

I’m concerned about Project 2025, but not panicked. It is a wish-list, a compendium of conservative thought that has been tailored to align with what Donald Trump and his supporters have been saying for the past ten years. What is laid out in minute detail in Project 2025 should not come as a surprise. Trump is not shy about telling the American people what he intends to do if he regains the White House; much of which is spelled out in his Agenda47. Project 2025 aligns with Trump’s vision of being an all-powerful executive. It also provides him with a means to wrestle control from those departments that were less than loyal or outright opposed him during his first administration. Stripping career civil servants of protections and making them politically accountable to an all-powerful executive is very disturbing. All sorts of mischief can result if the federal bureaucracy is subject to the whims of a new administration every four years, not to mention the chaos it would create.

Project 2025 serves as a counterweight to what Trump and his conservative allies view as Biden’s “woke” agenda, which requires DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and climate mitigation steps be included in every policy and piece of legislation. I believe in the separation of church and state, and Project 2025 would certainly blur the lines between the two. An attempt to legislate morality, as Project 2025 does, would infringe upon individual rights and stifle diverse views and opinions.

The federal bureaucracy is vast and mind numbing in its complexity. No one president or administration can even begin to grasp the intricacies, much less effectively manage the sprawling maze of over 400 departments and millions of employees of the federal government. I welcome any organization, inside or outside the government, willing to examine the bureaucracy with an eye to improving efficiency and effectiveness. Afterall, our country has a mind-boggling national debt of $34 trillion which grows larger by the second. Untangling the vast web of the federal bureaucracy is necessary to begin an effort to reduce that debt.

Project 2025 lays out for all to see the conservative playbook for governing, now it’s time for the Democrats or progressives to show us theirs.

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Thanks,
Armchair American

]]><![CDATA[An Open Letter to President Biden.]]>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 22:33:46 GMThttp://armchairamerican.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-president-biden

Dear President Biden,

I voted for you in 2020 without hesitation because Donald Trump posed a clear and present danger to our democracy and had to be defeated. My vote proved justified as Trump’s lies about “the stolen election” led to one of the darkest days in U.S. history, January 6, 2021. Mr. President your many years of government experience and calm demeanor were just what the country needed to move beyond the chaos and trauma of the Trump presidency.

When you ran for president in 2020 you were already well into your 70’s, and many Americans had doubts even then whether you had the physical stamina and mental vigor to take on such a demanding job. You calmed people’s fears about your age by saying that “I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else”. At that time Mr. President you campaigned with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Cory Baker, who you called “۰۰۰an entire generation of leaders”, and “۰۰۰the future of this country”. In other speeches you said that “I view myself as a transition candidate”. You portrayed yourself as a one term president to steady the ship of state before transitioning to a new generation of leaders. Now is the time to begin that transition Mr. President.

In the CNN debate last month your goal was to show the American people that you have the cognitive ability to beat Donald Trump and to serve four more years as president. You failed in spectacular fashion. Your performance on the debate stage cannot be explained away due to a cold, jetlag or fatigue. No one is buying your explanation that you simply had a bad night. It will take a candidate with physical stamina and sharp mental faculties to defeat Donald Trump in the fall and to lead this country for the next four years. The American people don’t believe that you are up to the challenge.

Your recent interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos did nothing to quell concerns over whether you have the mental acuity to serve another term as president. It proved to me that you are not being honest with yourself or the American people about your health. The shocked reaction to your debate performance shows that your administration has shielded you from public scrutiny and has not been transparent with what is now apparent to all. You are not the man the American people elected in 2020, and your fitness to stay in the presidential race is in doubt.

Mr. President, the majority of registered voters were never enthusiastic about a rematch between you and Donald Trump, and the distaste for such a rematch only grows. You have stated that you are the most qualified person to be president and to defeat Donald Trump. But your poll numbers have taken a substantial hit since the debate, and you are now trailing him nationally and in the all-important battleground states. As an incumbent president you should be trouncing your opponent who is a convicted felon, serial liar, and responsible for the January 6th Capitol riot. Your refusal to acknowledge your negative poll numbers shows how out of touch you are with the sentiments in the country.

It is hubris to think that you are the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump in the fall. You have criticized the Republic Party as being a cult of personality built around one man. Show the American people that the Democrat Party is a party of principles and bigger than one person. It is not too late to pull out of the race on your own terms and preserve your legacy as a successful president. If you don’t get out, the next four months will be a nonstop test of your mental acuity. Every speech you make, every interview, every utterance will be analyzed for any signs of decline. Your record of successes and the issues important to the American people will be drowned out by a continual sound loop of your verbal stumbles gleefully played by the Republicans. This will take a toll on you personally and politically and will be a drag on other Democrats down the ballot.

President Biden, if you put your political clout behind Vice President Kamala Harris it will ignite a spark under the moribund campaign, and improve the Democrat’s chances with independents, undecided voters and those sitting on the sidelines. The decision to stay in the race is entirely yours Mr. President, but the American people will live with the consequences for years to come. Don’t go down in history as the president who oversaw the transition of the United States from a democracy to an autocracy and the ascendancy of King Donald I to the presidential throne.

Thank you for your service Mr. President.

Sincerely,

A very concerned voter.
July 8, 2024

Update: On July 21 President Biden announced that he would end his presidential re-election campaign. In a speech to the nation he said "The defense of democracy is more important than any title." He went on to say that nothing can come in the way of saving democracy, and that includes personal ambition.

Thank you Mr. President for putting country ahead of self.

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