POWER TO THE PEOPLE

You are meant to feel powerless. That is what a strongman wants: make you feel as if nothing can stop his taking over of your country. This is Donald T****’s strategy, it is what he is counting on. Our country and our way of life hangs in precarious balance. 

Our democratic institutions rely on the compliance of its citizens and leaders with and within the law. They are not capable of dealing with the existential threat of tyrannical defiance. Our Founding Fathers presumed and relied on the intentions of good men to hold the reigns of power and authority. But Donald T*** is not good man.

The 1st Amendment guarantees our right to free speech and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It is time to exercise them, to continue to fill the streets across the country and make our petitions with loud, strong language. It is not necessary to be nice; Donald T**** not a nice man.

This is our one, our strongest weapon in defense of our country, our liberty and our freedom: ourselves, our voices and our righteous anger. T**** wants us to feel powerless to stop him. 

He must see that we are not. 

We must forcefully demonstrate that it is the people and only the people who are sovereign in this country. He does not make laws for us nor is he above them. And if he endeavors to become so, we can and will bring him down.

And we have the way to do that. We have the way to fight against his lust for power. We have the ballot box. And we have the One Path Forward.

STAND UP       SHOUT OUT        RESIST  

#1PathForward

#progressive-commentary

thebernhardperspective.com

PRESIDENTIAL PREDATOR

On the campaign trail, T**** promised women, “You will no longer be in danger. I will protect women at a level never seen before, whether they like it or not.”  Given his history, it’s understandable if some women don’t. But T**** is not really being original with this pledge. 

“Protector” is a common theme among white evangelicals, who promote the idea that men and women have different but complementary roles. This cave man mentality says that big, strong men are the providers and protectors, and weak, frail women the nurturers and supporters, who must submit to male domination. 

That is certainly true of Donald, who has a long history with dominating and uncontrolled sexual behavior. Having famously cheated with his first and second wives with his second and third wives and on his third wife with an adult movie actress,  he infamously boasted on “Access Hollywood” about being entitled to forcefully grope and kiss unwilling women. 

He has bragged about strolling into Miss Teen America dressing rooms so he could ogle half-naked underage girls.

Donald has made many inappropriate comments about young girls as well. In 1992, T****, then 46, said about a 10-year-old girl: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years.” 

That same year, after asking two 14-year-old girls in a youth choir their age, T**** said: “Wow! Just think, in a couple of years, I’ll be dating you.” 

He has publicly sexualized his own daughter., Ivanka. During the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, T***** asked Miss Universe to comment his 16-year-old daughter’s  physical attributes. He once even said that if she weren’t his daughter, he’d be dating her. 

These comments and actions demonstrate a pattern of sexualizing and objectifying underage teenagers, which behavioral experts consider dangerous and enabling to predators.

Then, of course, New York juries found him liable of the sexual abuse (rape) of E. J. Carroll, and believed Stormy Daniels details how he had sex with with her before covering up their affair with a $130,000 hush money payment.

So the word that comes to my mind in connection to Donald T**** and women is not “protector.”

It’s Predator 

#1PathForward

#Progressive-commentary

AMERICAN GULAG

Abrego Garcia was swept up in an ICS raid and flown to El Salvador without a warrant, a court appearance or any semblance of due process. The feds claimed he was a gangster but he wasn’t. He was in the US legally and had committed no crime.

So why hasn’t the T**** administration acted to secure Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release? After all, he is there because of a government screw-up.

Horrifying enough, there can be only one answer. The T**** administration is using this case to establish that no one can stop him from imprisoning anyone he wants anywhere in the world.

In an amazing Catch-22 presentation to the Supreme Court, the administration argued that the only remedy available to a person in custody is a writ of habeas corpus, But then the administration contended that federal courts have no authority to issue such a writ when the person is held in a foreign prison, even when they put him there in the first place.

There can be no doubt about what this means.

If SCOTUS upholds trhe administration’s argument, there would be nothing to stop T****from without notice arresting and jailing his critics in another country and then claiming that the courts have no jurisdiction to remedy the situation.

Armed with this power, any federal law enforcement agency could apprehend anyone and ship them to any country that would take them. T**** has already floated the idea of deporting American citizens. These individuals would have no legal recourse from any American court. They would just disappear.

What T**** wants is to create his own gulags with no more judicial review than existed when Stalin did the same thing in the Soviet Union.

That’s the power Donald T**** lusts for. He wants what Stalin had. He wants what Hitler had. What Tojo had, and what Jong Un has. He wants absolute, dictatorial and tyrannical power of life and death over anyone and everyone.

Donald T**** is a national Socialist. A Nazi, plain and simple. And he will get what he wants if we do not stop him. If we don’t, we lose everything.

STAND UP SHOUST OUT RESIST LIKE YOUR COUNTRY
DEPENDS ON IT.

#1PathForward
#progressive-commentary

KISSING THE RING

On Monday Trump boasted online that “Countries from all over the world are talking to us. Spoke to Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate!”

And that’s what this is really all about. It’s not about tariffs or growing the American economy or even America First. It’s about the world’s leaders sending “top teams” or coming themselves to his castle and kissing his ring.

It’s about everyone except Russia acknowledging his power as America’s strongman who can destroy the world’s economy and more if they do not service his fragile ego. It’s about Donald playing King. 

This cannot stand. Donald T**** must be stopped because his lust for tyrannical power threatens more than just America. 

Only the people are sovereign in this country. We give and we can take away. We the people have the power to send him into the oblivion where all tyrants go. And we can when take the One Path Forward. 

STAND UP       SHOUT OUT       RESIST

#1PathForward

#progressive-commentary

thebernhardperspective.com

THE DEATH OF WHITE PRIVILEGE

The only people who support dismantling DEI are upfront racists and those, mostly whites lacking higher educations, who benefit from moving up without it. And contrary to MAGA doctrine, programs like DEI which address racial discrimination in the workplace are not in and of themselves discriminatory. 

Face it, if you are competent, you are not concerned about such things. Besides upfront racists with long excuses, mediocre whites are the only people attack DEI initiatives. They fear being beaten out by people who historically have had to fall in behind them for jobs and advancement. They fear the loss of White Privilege. 

Even as late as the 1980’s, white men in an industrialized-based economy dominated the workplace thanks to longstanding traditions like “last hired, first fired” and other discriminatory labor practices. Thus, the manufacturing economy provided a cushion for white men with only a basic education that guaranteed them success.

However, in the last 40 years, that has changed significantly. Today, with an economy based on services and knowledge, the coming (and going) of Affirmative Action and more recently the advent of DEI initiatives, mediocrity in the job marketplace is not an option for success. 

Previously marginalized groups now outpace whites without degrees in hiring and advancement. That’s because DEI allows for merit-based opportunity. Better education and work ethics are what count in today’s workplace.

The simple truth is that, despite MAGA and other racist arguments to the contrary, DEI programs do not exist to make it possible for lesser qualified Black and Brown job applicants to take precedence over more qualified white ones. Rather, they exist to make sure that better qualified Black and Brown candidates get those jobs over lesser qualified white ones. 

So what has happened? White men in the job marketplace with only a basic education have lost their place in line. They oppose DEI because they don’t want to have to be competent in order to get hired or promoted. Their problem is not with DEI, it is that they are no longer rewarded for simply being white and showing up.

#1PathForward

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CORRUPTRION DEFINED

Donald T****’s recent creation of a “US Strategic Crypto Reserve” has caused a deal of concern among many observers. That is because T**** has investment holdings in crypto currencies and, since his announcement, the value of those holdings has risen dramatically. 

For example: In the day following the announcement, Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, posted 20% and 12% gains respectively. A lesser known crypto, Ripple, posted a 25% gain. It should come as no surprise that T****’s cryptocurrency investment portfolio includes all three of these. 

Corruption in human affairs is defined as a dishonest or fraudulent abuse of entrusted power or position for personal gain. 

Let’s look at this. Does a president have the power, authority or position to create a crypto currency reserve? Yes, he does. Was this action by T**** dishonest? Because he did not disclose his cryptocurrency holdings, yes, it was. And will his action incur for himself personal gain? Yes, it will. 

The Aristotelian nature of this logistic syllogism is precise; the conclusion is irrefutable. Is Donald T****’s creation of a US Crypto Reserve an act of corruption by a sitting president?

Yes, it is. 

#1PathForward

#progressive-commentary

thebernhardperspective.com

IF YOU SEE IT, ITS THERE

This comes under the heading of, if you see it, it’s there.  

Rep. Tim Burchett, (R-TN) is standing by his labeling George Soros as a “money-changer of the worst kind.” This is a long-standing anti-Semitic trope against the financier, who is Jewish

Burchetrt’s use of the term “money changer” refers to the biblical parable of Jesus throwing money changers (ie: Jews) out of a temple. It harkens back to over a millennium of Christian hatred of Jews, who were not allowed to own property, of being unclean “money changers.”

Burchett continues and segues into the standard disclaimer declaring how much he loves the Jews: “My voting record clearly reflects my support for the Jewish people,” he says.

And let’s not forget Donald T***’s ‘some of my best friends are Jews’ -stye platitude from a campaign speech last year: “I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had.”

So. With all their talk about how much they love Jews and support Israel, do the T**** and his MAGA’s really give a rat’s ass about Jewish people? Not hardly. In fact, they wear their anti-Semitism on their soiled sleeves.

#1PathForward

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thebernhardperspective.com

Taking stock after only 56 days in office. here’s what we know we have:

We have a president who sides with dictatorships like Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Russia against an embattled, nascent democracy, Ukraine.. 

We have a president who has appointed some of the most incompetent people imaginable to his Cabinet and to run the most critical departments in the government.

We have a president who has started a trade war with our three biggest trading partners, and we’re watching the beginnings of what could be a catastrophic financial meltdown. 

We have a president who doesn’t respect American institutions. Nor does he acknowledge the limits to his executive power or the separation of powers our Founding Fathers specifically intended when they created the Constitution of the United States of America. 

Given these things that we know we have, I am not at all convinced that Donald T****  loves our country. I believe he is just using it. I am convinced that he only loves himself, his money and his lust for power. 

And I am convinced that there is only one response to what we know about Donald T**** for those who do love our country, There is only one way to fight against T****’s madness. Only One Path Forward

STAND UP     SHOUT OUT      RESIST 

#1PathForward

#Progressive-commentary

thebernhardperspective.com

T**** IS A TRAITOR

Question: Is Donald T**** working for us, or is he a Russian asset? Is he in Putin’s back pocket? Let’s tale a look.

When he asserts from the Oval Office that Ukraine started the war and that its president Volodymyr  Zelenskyy is a dictator, T**** is repeating Russian propaganda and lies.

He gave away bargaining points before negotiations began when he said that NATO membership for Ukraine was not on the table. This is a major Russian condition for any negotiated settlement. 

And while his hope for a 30-day moratorium in a quest for a lasting peace is laudable, this “master of the deal” demands concessions from Ukraine, the transgressed victim, that it give up its sovereign territory to its enemy and its national wealth to us, yet requires no concessions at all from the transgressing aggressor, Russia. 

As a bargaining tool, he cut off arms shipments to Ukraine. Then he cut off all aid to Ukraine, and finally he cut intelligence information from Ukraine. He reversed these decisions only after Zelenskyy agreed to his 30-day cease fire proposal in his one-sided quest for a “deal.”

He has done everything he can to undermine NATO on the world stage, even to the point of admitting he would not allow the US defend a NATO ally if it were attacked, and maintaining that NATO would not defend the US in a similar situation.

He has done everything he can to discredit Zelenskyy. Tag-teaming the Ukrainian president with JD Vance as they blindsided him in a staged event was horrid and inexcusable. His repeating Putin’s lie that Zelenskyy is a dictator while knowing full well it isn’t true, is no less so.

In all these things Donald T**** has done precisely what a Russian asset would do, exactly what Putin would want his puppet, his paid for mouthpiece, to do. And he has done exactly what an American traitor would do. 

In answer to the question is T**** a Russian asset, the answer is clearly, yes. He is. President, T**** is openly working on the behalf of and giving aid and comfort to America’s enemy, Russia. In doing so, according to Article lll, Section 3, clause 1 of the US Constitution, he is committing treason. 

President Donald T**** is a traitor.

#1PathForward

#progressive-commentary

HITLER AND HIS GENERALS

Donald T**** has alleged more than once that he wishes he had generals like Hitler’s generals. I sincerely doubt that he understands the concept of irony, let alone how it applies here., 

History records that after the initial success of the Blitzkrieg, Germany’s generals lost every essential battle of WW II, starting with the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of Britain. Their armies were kicked off the African continent and surrendered in Italy. Their vaunted Atlantic Wall was breached in less than 24 hours and their invasion of Russia was a catastrophic failure. Eventually, the Allies defeated the Wehrmacht on both fronts.

And the Irony? Above all else Donald denigrates losers. And the truth is that Hitler’s generals lost their war. 

Also, the primary attribute Donald demands from his subordinates is loyalty, and he apparently believes that Hitler’s generals were loyal to him. But the truth is that his highest ranking officers held him in low regard and were involved in no less than 5 assassination attempts against him. In fact, a pair of his field marshals were aware of two of these attempts, yet neither of them thought to report it to their Führer. 

I suspect that what T**** really admires has to do with style rather than substance. Shallow and superficial in all things, he is most likely impressed with the Nazi general’s stiff, sharp uniforms and the way they are portrayed in movies with their disciplined, military correctness. He admires the way they are always snapping their heels together and delivering stiff-armed “Hiel Hitler” salutes all the time. Nothing impresses an autocratic more than servile obsequiousness.

But the truth is not in the movies or perceptions but in history, which is where the fate of the Führer and his generals is sealed. So when to comes to Donald T*** and his desire for generals like Hitler’s, I am mindful of the old adage, 

 “Be careful what you wish for. You just may get it.”

#OnePathForward

#1PathForward

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