Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, March 22, 2021

Democrats push forward as if a 50-50 Senate proves a national mandate. In some sense it does. Even with suspicion of a stolen election, Republican voters allowed that by winning arguments rather than winning friends. But, as the well-earned Democratic agenda moves forward, Roe v Wade does too.

Arkansas just passed a law directly challenging Roe v Wade and with a a 6-3 Republican-appointed Supreme Court, an overturn is not unlikely.

While courts take what they take, Democrats are setting up danger in the Senate. Removing the filibuster won’t even give Democrats two years to work before a routine mid-term flip in 2022. With the unresolved suspicions of election stealing, the “incumbent” rules won’t apply the same either. We are set for a Republican takeover in 2024, without a filibuster-curbed Senate, made possible by Democrats, who were give power by unsympathetic Republicans, and only stoppable by a third party. Whether we see that third party before or after 2024 has yet to be seen. We just don’t know how many people have woken up to the nation’s deeper problems.

Law

Arkansas governor says he signed near-total abortion ban so Supreme Court can decide if it’s a ‘direct challenge’ to Roe // CNN

Congress

When LBJ and Hubert Humphrey Teamed Up to Break a Talking Filibuster // Politico

Mitch McConnell warns Democrats that overhauling filibuster rules will lead to ‘completely scorched earth Senate’ // CNN

State & Local

Michigan restaurant owner in jail for defying virus orders // ABC News America

NATO Focus

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Conducts Passing Exercise with Turkish Navy // US Navy

Standard
Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, March 8, 2021

The GOP is in a season of soul-searching. The party that’s all too happy to offer financial support to its candidates wants to use the name of the president some of its members voted against. It’s like the Little Red Hen, only if the rat had been fighting her the whole story. Maybe they should be called “rats” instead of “RINOs”.

Whether voters support or oppose Trump, we should all fear a party that allows its members to be so blatantly fork-tongued. Then again, purifying that party with new blood might not solve the problem. It just might make things worse.

Democrats are getting along a whole lot better than Republicans ever did, especially recently. The COVID-19 porkulous bill is sailing through Congress faster than lies from a used car salesman. Yet, the bigger topic of Capitol discussion is the sixty-vote requirement for non-budget bills. That’s part of the Senate’s current “Standing Rules” named after the late Democratic Senator Robert Byrd. So, they call it the “Byrd” rule. They made it, now they want to end it. That would look like a power grab.

You know how midterms go. Democrats ending their own “Byrd” rule might backfire. They seem bent on getting Trump elected in just four years. Obama took eight, so their efficiency is improving. If people can trust elections again, Biden may have to join Carter and HW in the great hall of one-term presidents. Maybe Biden will get lucky and have a dam named after him like Hoover, or maybe a vacuum cleaner.

Law

Supreme Court: Bad GOP lawyering may have just saved the Voting Rights Act // Vox

Congress

Voting rights fight could move Democrats to finally end the filibuster // Yahoo News

More Democrats Join Effort to Abolish the Filibuster // NY Times

Pressures grows on Biden to take on the filibuster // WA Post

Washington as Usual

Democrats

Cuomo defiant as top New York lawmakers call on him to quit // AP

Republicans

Trump says he’ll campaign against Murkowski in Alaska next year // CNN

Trump sends cease-and-desist letters to GOP campaign committees // NBC News

CPAC: Trump targets Republicans like Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell // USA Today

Violence, Radicalism & Terrorism

Boulder party on the Hill: Police looking to make arrests // NBC 9 Boulder

Security & Public Safety

Minneapolis on edge as the first officer charged in killing of George Floyd goes on trial // MSN News

Markets, Economy & GDP

China is sounding the alarm about a global market bubble // CNN

The Isles

Meghan Markle says she was ‘suicidal’ in bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry // Daily Mail

Standard
Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, July 20, 2020

America is facing a crisis. Powerful forces with big money pull the strings. Had they pulled the strings differently, the world might not be in the situation it is in. Look at the Gates Foundation funding of the World Health Organization. What kind of sway was squandered in that influence?

While an epidemic that seemed to be passing resurges, Democratic voters turn to government guidelines while Republican voters turn to the Republican party. People are distracted with solving the current crisis, in a strong struggle over how.

Meanwhile in Washington, Senator Biden toys with the idea of removing the Senate rule allowing the filibuster—that would require only 51 Senate votes for most laws to pass instead of 60. With Americans—from both sides of the political schism—turning to government to solve today’s problems, a powerful Senate could become the most dangerous tool in the world.

As for Trump’s re-election, we see a massive push from Left-leaning media to paint the election as a Republican failure. Their arguments are based on what is right and reasonable from a Left wing view. But, whether correct or a matter of opinion, elections aren’t determined by what is right or wrong or reasonable; elections are determined by the popular vote. Right now, right or wrong, reported or ignored, Trump supporters are the majority.

We can’t trust surveys to say otherwise because those surveys always forecast Republican failure around this time in every election year. No Republican victory was ever reported as anything other than a surprise by the media, not even Fox News in 2016. So, if a Republican victory looks like it would be a surprise, historically speaking, that only makes it all the more likely.

Biden’s campaign is based on encouragement through difficult times and incompetence of the current president. His ads are long. Without difficult times or incompetence of the incumbent, Biden has no message. His appeals are akin to Jimmy Carter’s in the election he lost.

Trump’s campaign is built on his own competence, campaign promises he kept through laws, orders, and appointments, and resolve to continue pushing. His ads are short and sometimes censored on the internet.

The difference in the two campaigns, by itself, is enough to determine the outcome. As for the Democratic view that Trump was incompetent with the pneumoniavirus outbreak, Trump supporters blame Democratic politicians, Bill Gates, and China. They fear as much as Democratic voters, and they have their reason to keep their Republican vote unchanged. The epidemic doesn’t change votes, it only increases how adamant voters are on not changing their votes.

Unlike Republican voters, Democrat voters know the issues to address, but they don’t know how things happen in the world. So, the inevitable Trump victory in November will surprise them. Then, they will go into rage and possible riots. The Senate could grab for power as could China.

In tough times, people awaken. These are tough times. We will get through them. But, it won’t be smooth sailing.

Election

Even Donald Trump knows he is in deep, deep trouble in the 2020 race // CNN

Congress

Joe Biden signals possible support for ending filibuster that could completely change how US laws are made // Independent

Scandal, Graft & White Collar Crime

Coronavirus update: Florida labs not reporting negative test results, report says // Fox News

Spin control… truth 10%, not 98% …so the Tweet was false?
Florida’s recent record day for COVID-19 might not have been quite that high // wtsp.com

Pandemic

Target, CVS join Walmart in requiring face masks at all U.S. stores // WA Post

A Simple Step to Help Keep You Safe: Walmart and Sam’s Club Require Shoppers to Wear Face Coverings // corporate.walmart.com

 

Standard
Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, March 13, 2017

After the rains, flowers in the Southwest are in full bloom. One highlight is purple, the color for The People’s Party. As for the east coast, things are frozen, both in weather and in politics. Lowering taxes could take time. Getting health care laws to lower health care prices and unshackle employers could take more time. The leading political party’s interests are divided and their opposition has no tactic beneath them. Democrats are filibustering every political appointee as Obama appointees persist; Trump fired 46 Obama-appointed prosecutors. Of course, opposition filibusters and firing federal prosecutors for any new, incoming president are both standard practice. Conservatives expected as much and don’t demonstrate any shock, yet Liberals usually think their loss deserves exception. Everything suggests that Republicans will gain ground in the Senate come 2018, thanks to the Democrats refusal on cloture. Therein lies the real danger: supermajority.

A group of professors had a wild idea: What if Trump had been a woman and Hillary had been a man? Surely that would have flipped election results. Actually, after a carefully-rehearsed reenactment of the presidential debates by one skilled actor and one skilled actress, Liberal supporters were in for another surprise. Hillary supporters adored Trump’s words when they came from a woman and hated Hillary’s words when they came from a man. After learning the truth, they didn’t change their political preferences, of course.

People rarely change their opinions, given new information, no matter what political party they are from. While Conservatives will tout the results of this little theatrical-political experiment, they reacted with much of the same blindness over news about Bush family dealings. Note, the term “Trump dissident” is important in describing this presidential term. Most of the people who voted for Hillary didn’t like her, supported Bernie Sanders, and liked Trump least of all, to say the least.

Hillary’s team met with the Russians before the election, according to the Kremlin. That will make the upcoming hearings even more interesting. The game of chairs keeps revolving. No political victory is final. No enemy is ultimate. And no pettiness evades anyone.

continue reading

Standard