One Path Forward

Author: Andrew

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    Thanks to President Joe Biden, Donald T*** is inheriting an economy that is the envy of the world. Unemployment is as low as it was before Covid, we are pumping more oil than any time in history and the domestic energy production is higher than it’s ever been. Jobs are up, wages are rising and the economy is growing. So for the second time, Donald T**** assumes the presidency with a healthy, robust economy, courtesy of a Democratic president. And just as he did the first time, he will most likely take full credit for something he didn’t create. 

    Because in fact, it was President Obama’s strong economy continuing on through T****’s first three years in office that created the illusion that Donald knew anything about running a country. He tanked that economy big-time in 2020, yet for the next four years he preached to his minions of his economic wonderland. Thus T**** created the myth of his great economic miracle, and all the while shamelessly decrying Biden’s economic disaster.

    But T**** isn’t in the clear on this economy business because he still doesn’t know squat about any of it. Still insisting that foreign countries pay the tariffs, all he knows to do is to slap one on anything or everything, creating havoc in American industry and causing already inflated prices to rise even further. The lickspittle toadies with whom he has surrounded himself aren’t likely to tell him either “no” or the truth, even if they know it; T**** lives in his own fantasy world. 

    It is easy to presume that Donald T**** will tank Biden’s stupendous economic recovery the same way he tanked Barak Obama’s. And if he’s around past 2028, he’ll blame that all on whomever comes after him. It’s in the cards.

     After all, he is an idiot. 

    #OnePathForward

    #Progressive-commentary

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    On Thursday, January 2, Fox News reported at 10:43 a.m. ET that the truck involved in the New Orleans NYE massacre had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, two days before the attack..Donald  T***** made his first statement about the attack just five minutes after Fox News’ initial report, enhancing the lie by connecting the attack to illegal immigration. Soon after, Fox edited their report to refer only to the truck, not the suspect. Then at 11:55 a.m. ET, Fox retracted its story entirely; none of it was true.

    T****, however, has not retracted his lie connecting the New Orleans attack to illegal immigration even after the killer was identified as a native-born US citizen. In fact, he has doubled down on his initial lie despite all evidence to the contrary, claiming that the attack proved his assertions about criminals entering the country were correct. Based on eight years of witnessing the same, this what we can expect going forward: Lie after lie after unfounded conspiratorial lie from the right wing media. These lies are then reposted by the president, who doubles down on and enhances them with his own lies. He retracts nothing.   

    This round of untruths and lies will fade into the background as the sequence repeats itself over and over again. And because his MAGA followers do not challenge what he says, even in the rare cases like this one where the truth is affirmed by traditional media, the lies told by the Donald T**** become part of the mainstream consciousness. The New York Times reported that T**** told over 30,000 lies over the course of his first presidency. History suggests that lies told in this one will not be widely corrected by any media, if they are corrected at all. In most cases, nothing will ever be set straight. No lie will be taken back. No truths will ever be confirmed.

    For the next four years our country will be plagued and its course determined by lies told by its president. This is both foreseeable and should be unacceptable. There is only one appropriate response. Only one way to challenge the neverending lies told by Donald T****. Only one path forward.

    RESIST

    #1PathForward  

    #progressive-commentary 

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    President-elect Donald T**** has not signed the agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA) that would require him to disclose donors to his transition fund and limit individual contributions to $5,000. Because of this,  T**** is keeping secret the names of the donors who are funding his transition effort. This will make it impossible to see, except for the likes of Elon Musk and his ilk, what interest groups, businesses or wealthy people are helping launch his second term, and no-one will know what they are getting for their money. And unlike with campaign contributions, foreign nationals are allowed to donate to the transition as well. 

    By dodging the agreement, T**** can raise unlimited funds from unknown donors to pave the way for him to take over the government. And since the amount of hush-money he takes in can easily surpass the cost of even the most extravagant transition, T**** can pocket the rest. Those seeking to curry favor with T**** now have the unlimited opportunity to do so without their names or potential conflicts ever entering the public record. In essence, T**** has put access to and influence with the president of the United States of America up for sale to the highest bidders in what amounts to a secret auction. 

    This action by Donald T**** represents not only the epitome of governmental corruption and greed at the highest level, it also illustrates the depths of depraved indifference to duty, honor and country to which our next president has willingly  descended.

    #OnePathForward

    #Progressive-commentary’’

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  • The Bernhard Perspective

    One of the myths about the war in Europe is that the U.S. can’t afford to keep sending weapons and money to Ukraine. However, the fact is that foreign aid is not simply America tax dollars being sent overseas. 

    In reality, a significant portion of American foreign aid is “tied aid,” meaning it must be spent on American-made goods or services. This practice aims to benefit the U.S. economy while providing assistance abroad. Some 75%` of American foreign aid consists mostly, as in the case of virtually all military aid, American made or assembled goods. And all of it done by American workers in American factories.

    The remaining 25% of American foreign aid, loosely categorized as “Humanitarian Assistance,” includes emergency relief for natural disasters, conflict zones, and refugee crises. The majority of this is channeled through U.S.-based agencies which then work with a mix of primarily local non-nonprofit organizations (NPO’s) to implement specific projects abroad.

    True, there are cash disbursements associated with America foreign aid. This occurs when a direct cash transfer is the most efficient manner of furthering our country’s foreign policy. Such disbursements are not the norm and are scrutinized and monitored closely.

    The bottom line is that T****’s isolationist, “America First” policies and his plan to significant reduce America foreign aid would have a negative impact on the American economy and working class. Also, It’s important to note that foreign aid spending accounts for only about 1% of the U.S. Federal budget, significantly less than many Americans believe.

    The fact is that America First isolationism is a reality-defying fraud. No country, not even North Korea, exists in isolation. America is the richest, most powerful and influential country in the world. The global interconnectedness of economic and political systems makes homeland isolationism impractical and is stupid and shortsighted.

    Donald T****s plans to greatly reduce foreign aid and claims that such assistance is merely wasted taxpayer dollars fail to acknowledge the reality of its strategic and economic benefits for the U.S. as well as our standing as a world humanitarian leader.

    Because they are being lied to by Donald T****,  his followers  either remain unaware of the facts or choose to dismiss them, Not willing to stray from their narrow, right-wing world view, the MAGAs don’t hear or know the truth. 

    Or perhaps they just don’t care to know.  

    #OnePathForward

    #Progressive-commentary

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    Because he is a criminal defendant, full disclosure has given Donald T**** access to all federal grand jury material relating to his Jan. 6 indictment. He knows what the witnesses, mostly Republican insiders and his closest advisors, have said under oath. He understands the clear and immense risks he faces at trial. That’s why it was critical for T**** to delay his trial until he could again be elected  president and  have the federal charges dismissed. If not, he knew he was going to prison. 

    The public has the right to have full knowledge of what T**** did on Jan. 6 and could do again. That is why it has always been  essential for all the evidence gathered during Prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigation to be presented in open court before the election. It wasn’t. The only saving grace is that Smith dismissed the charges “without prejudice,” which means that they can be re-instated at a later time. 

    But the exact expiration of the statute of limitations on T****’s crimes remains uncertain due to complex legal and political factors, and it may ultimately require decisions by his Supreme Court to determine the final deadline for potential prosecution. 

    It is totally unacceptable that a president of the United States can attempt to steal an election and seize power, but our justice system is incapable of bringing him to trial before the next election four years later. But that is what has happened.

    The America people deserve to see justice done for the January 6 insurrection. And justice demands holding the man responsible for it accountable. And that man is Donald T****. 

    And justice delayed is justice denied.

    #OnePathForward

    #Progressive-commentary

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    Project 2025

    During the campaign, Donald T**** disavowed any knowledge of the Project 2025 document, claiming he’d never read it, and had no idea what was in it. Now that he’s the President-elect, he has changed his tune, admitting that it has been the MAGA’s playbook all along. 

    So what is Project 2025? Titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” It is the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page blueprint for an ultra-Right takeover of the US government. Project 2025 also suggests legislation to make changes that are presently outside of executive control. 

    Project 2025 has been talked about and discussed in bits and pieces. But in order to get an idea of the magnitude of what T**** and the MAGAs have in store, its really should be taken as a whole. To do this, I asked an AI program to give me a 1000-word synopsis. Here it is. 

    KEY OBJECTIVE

    Project 2025 is a Heritage Foundation initiative to create a governing agenda for Donald T****. The leaders of the project state that its goal is to deconstruct the administrative state. The project also sets as its goals to restore the family as the centerpiece of American life, defend the nation’s borders and secure “God-given” individual rights.

    UNITARY EXECUTIVE

    A critical aspect of Project 2025  is the concept of the “unitary executive.” This refers to the placing the entire federal bureaucracy, including all Cabinet level positions and traditionally independent agencies, under direct presidential control.

    CIVIL SERVICE

    The Project proposes the elimination of civil service protections for thousands of government employees who could then be replaced by political appointees who are beholden to the executive. It also proposes dismantling or significantly overhauling several federal agencies,

    LABOR AND EMPLOYMEN

    Staffing requirements for certain government workers would be eliminated. The project proposes eliminating card check elections while accelerating the process to decertify unions. It would reduce overtime protections for 4.3 million workers. It supports banning public sector unions entirely and that Congress authorize state and local government waivers from federal labor laws like the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

    CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

    The  project proposes cutting federal funding for renewable energy and increasing fossil fuel production. It would downsizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration due to its efforts to battle climate change. It would also slash federal funding for renewable energy research and investment, close the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.

    SOCIAL ISSUES

    The Project would declare that “men and women are biological realities and married men and women are the ideal, natural family.” It targets for elimination all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government, labor and, employment. It proposes outlawing same-sex marriage and restricting the rights of LBGTQ+ citizens across the board. 

    HEALTH CARE

    The Project calls for dismantling or outright eliminating the Affordable Care Act. It would also restructuring Medicare and Medicaid. and advocates, among other things, repealing the $35 per month cap on insulin costs for seniors on Medicare, ending Medicare’s $2,000 per year cap on out-of-pocket drug costs and the federal government’s ability to negotiate drug prices. 

    EDUCATION

    The Project recommends dismantling the Department of Education to facilitate school choice and increase local parental control over schools. It would eliminate the Head Start program. It would also eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program enacted and end the Biden-Harris SAVE initiative.

    IMMIGREATION

    The Project proposes implementing mass deportations and raids, ending birthright citizenship and separating immigrant families. It advocates dismantling the asylum system and recommends eliminating the Department of Homeland Security. It also recommends eliminating the prohibition against apprehending migrants in sensitive places like schools, playgrounds and churches. And it would authorize active-duty military personnel and the National Guard to help with arrest operations on the border. And it would continue to build a wall on the Mexican border.

    ECONOMY

    Project 2025 proposes massive cuts to both corporate and personal income taxes. The authors suggest the next administration should consider abolishing the Federal Reserve and returning to gold-backed currency.

    REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

    The abortion drug Mifepristone would be removed from the market entirely or limited to the first seven weeks of pregnancy. 

    The Project recommends enforcement of the Comstock Act of 1873, which it claims would ban the mailing of abortion drugs. It would also penalize states that require abortion coverage in private insurance and disqualify any provider of elective abortions from Medicaid. The plan recommends that the next president replace the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force with a “pro-life task force.”

    GENDER IDENTITY

    The report calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to declare that “men and women are biological realities and married men and women are the ideal, natural family.” It would eliminate terms like “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from all federal rules, regulations, contracts, grants, and legislation, thus effectively stripping  LGBTQ+ individuals of legal protections against discrimination and violence.

    CONCLUSION

    Project 2025 represents a comprehensive and ambitious attempt following the election of Donald T**** to reshape the federal government along ultra-conservative lines, and offers a roadmap for effective, one party conservative governance. Emphasizing swift action through executive authority, it also aims to impose conservative Christian cultural and social values on the entire nation. Relying heavily on the concept of the “unitary executive,” it would allow Donald T**** to govern ostensibly by fiat. 

    And that’s Project 2025 in a nutshell, the MAGA’s plan to usurp governmental power and rule in their own image. The implications for the democracy are dire and chilling. Short of taking back the reins of government from T*** and the MAGA movement at the ballot box which could take years, there is only one way to fight against their impending ultra-Right coup. Only one path forward. 

    RESIST. 

    #OnePathForward

    #Progressive-commentary

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    The cold-blooded murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HealthCare is a deeply immoral thing. In spite of the vitriol coming out from under the rocks of the social media world attacking him and the industry he represented, it solves nothing and cannot be countenanced nor alibied because his company made $22.3B last year selling medical insurance instead of high-quality widgets. 

    At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the fact that tens of thousands of Americans die every year because of the health insurance industry. I also mourn for them. But I don’t see any press or media coverage or concern for their deaths.

    The case can be made that United HealthCare merely follows the laws written by Congress; they simply play by the rules. And that would probably be correct. But we cannot ignore the fact that those rules allow the the health care industry to net hundreds of billions every year while patients go bankrupt from medical debt. But the real culprit here isn’t even Congress or the money in politics.

    Unlike every other nation in the world that is part of the Western economy (and many that aren’t), America, the richest nation in the world, does not offer its citizens universal health care. That’s because we have been lied to for decades by Conservatives, – whose job it is to protect and provide for the enhancement of the profits of American industry – that universal health care is really “socialized medicine.” And that anything remotely connected to socialism reeks of communism and is evil. And for the most part, we have believed this travesty. 

    Therefore, we have allowed its consequences. 

    At the time of this writing we do not know the motive of the shooter in the murder of Mr. Thompson. Officials are sure it was a targeted action, and from the words found etched on the assassin’s ejected bullet casings, we can reasonably assume Thompson’s killing had something to do with the company he headed and the inequities of the system it represents. And if that is the case, should we wish to search for the the real culprit in this heinous act of murder, we have only to look no further than the mirror.

    The culprit is  us.

    #Progressive-commentary

    #OnePathForward

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    Donald T**** and the MAGA-Republicans have their panties in a bunch, shouting :hypicris because President Biden pardoned his son even though he had previously said he would not. Some few Democats are concerned about the “optics”.

    Hunter was guilty of tax evasion and lying on his tax forms in 2018 and 2019. He has since paid the taxes he owed plus interest, and the fines. And he failed to check a box on a Federal application for a firearms purchase stating that he used illegal drugs. He plead guilty to these charges (nb: Hunter did nothing that millions fo other s have done, and for the same reason.).

     By the usual and accepted standards, Hunter Biden doesn’t deserve incarceration. Virtually no-one is prosecuted for not checking a box on a Federal form, and tax evaders who pay their back taxes with interest and fines are commonly give non-criminal penalties. It is clear that he was treated differently, and it takes no great stretch of the imagination to comprehend why.

    But consider this. We have a 34-count convicted felon who is about to walk into the White House. This man has never acknowledged doing anything wrong, claimed the events which led to the charges never happened and that the trial was a rigged, political hit job.

    And I’m thinking that maybe these self-righteous Republicans ought to take a close look in the mirror. The obvious moral dilemma of their desire to lock up the minor repentant criminal and send the unrepentant convicted major criminal to the White House based on political motives is both obvious and compelling.

    For these T****azoid MAGAS, it is clear that minor infractions of the law must be punished to the maximum if it involves Democrats, but major criminal conduct and convictions are just fine with them as long as it’s their Lord and Master, Donald T****. 

    There is a human ,element in this which that has never properly been addressed. A dispassionate look makes it easy to understand why President Biden pardoned his son even after having said more than once that he wouldn’t. Consider for a moment: He lost his baby daughter Naomi when she was just one year old, and his oldest son Beau when he was 46. His earlier assertions to the contrary not withstanding, the President was not about to allow the possibility of his remaining son, Hunter, to languish in jail because of his political opponent’s petty vengeance. 

    In my opinion, neither the Congressional Republicans nor their sullied leader have any moral standing to pass judgement on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden’s pardon, or on bond between a father and his son. 

    #OnePathForward

    #progressive-commentary

  • The Bernhard Pespective

     PETE HEGSETH

    Just about everything you see about Donald T****’s Defense Secretary-nominee Pete Hegseth has to do with the fact that he paid off a woman (women?) for her silence after having sex with her. It’s easy to understand why Republicans aren’t concerned about this. Hell, their Lord and Master got busted for it and it didn’t matter a whit.

    However, I am a lot more concerned with who he is that what he’s done, especially since a whole lot of other guys up there have probably done the same, or worse. So just who is Pete Hegseth? The answer is in his body art. Etched into his skin, Hegseth has self-defining tattoos associated with Christian nationalism,  white supremacy and neo-Nazis

    First. there is the Jerusalem Cross, a large cross with four smaller crosses in its quadrants, predominantly displayed across his entire right chest; The symbol dates back to the 13th century and was used by the Crusaders as the emblem for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Hegseth’s claims it’s just a religious symbol and he likes it. But critics note its obvious political implications in far-right circles, and Hegseth’s refusal to acknowledge this is disingenuously pathetic. 

    Second, “Deus Vult.” On his bicep, this Latin phrase means “God wills it,” and was the rallying cry for the First Crusade. Deus Vult was the battle-cry of the Crusaders as they went onto battle to massacre Muslims. The phrase has been adopted by the far-Right and white supremacist groups to justify their beliefs and causes. Hegseth most certainly knows it, and the fact that he wears it on his body advertises his belief in what it stands for.  

    Third, “Cross and Sword”. This phrase refers to Matthew 10.34 in the Bible, a verse where Christ brings a sword rather than peace. Hegseth has also added “Yeshua”  to this. Yeshua was Jesus’ given, Hebrew name. It means Joshua. (Interesting to note here that there was no-one called “Jesus” running around ancient Palestine some 2000 years ago. The word Jesus is a Latin word.)

    The white supremacist’s connection to the Crusades is based on a fundamental misunderstanding and deliberate misrepresentation of history, and is used to promote a false narrative of white Christian superiority. They portray the Crusades as a struggle between a “pure” white, Christian Europe and a threatening non-white Islamic world. This narrative ignores the historical reality of a diverse medieval Europe and the complex nature of the Crusades, which cannot be reduced to a simple conflict between religions or cultures. 

    This distorted view of history is used to justify and inspire contemporary acts of bigotry and violence. Christian nationalists and white supremacists use this conspiratorial fabrication as a rallying cry against perceived threats to Western civilization, including Muslims, immigrants, and other groups deemed “anti-Christian”.

    Interesting to note, Hegseth was one of twelve National Guard members who were removed as guards for President Biden’s 2021 inauguration over his extremist ties. 

    So while everyone seems focused Hegseth’s sexual picadillos, the truth is that T****’s nominee for Secretary of Defense is a far-Right Christian Nationalist, white Supremacist neo-Nazi. And we know this because he wears the proof proudly etched into his body. T**** knows it, too,  and is clearly OK with it,. And so will all the cult-following MAGA Republican Senators who will conform him as the new Secretary of Defense. 

    In truth, Hegseth can deny any knowledge of any of this if he so choses. But since the connections are clearly established in the ultra-Right, Christian nationalist and white supremacist culture, and since he wears his tattoos proudly,  he would, of course, be lying through his teeth. 

    #Progressive-commentary

    #OnePathForward

  • The Bernhard Perspective

    Donald T**** is a  man who has no moral or social conscience, empathy, or remorse. He is a brazen pathological liar, a depraved and shameless con man, bigot and sociopathic criminal. Under-educated, crude and vulgar. Unsophisticated and unschooled in history, government, science or the arts, he has no respect for the Constitution and In January he will swear to uphold laws for which he has no respect. To make matters worse, he clearly has emotional and cognitive deficiencies as well.

    For over 250 years, Americans have presumed to believe that the presidency was more than the man who held that office. Rather, it was one institution of government, with checks and balances to assure that it remained a co-equal one. Clearly, this was not his understanding. So having experienced the incompetence and chaos of his first presidency, in 2020 we righteously voted him out of office. That judgment was vindicated by his criminal attempt to steal the election on Jan. 6 and defy the voice of the people. 

    Say what you will about how the Democrats blew what should have been a clear opportunity to retain the presidency. They just didn’t. What happened? Where does the blame lie? Media pundits have advanced a number of theories and assessments. They may all be true, or maybe none of them are. It may not matter. In the end, that answer may defy logical reasoning; his attraction runs much deeper than his fanciful political posturing.  

    But the fact is that over a period of four years we had witnessed and learned about Donald  T**** all we needed to witness and learn. And since he made no secret of his plan to usurp power and rule with autocratic authority should he be elected, that left us with no rational excuse for returning to the office of President of the United States, with the operative word being “rational.” 

    And I submit that there is only one rational response to this travesty. 

    #One Path Forward.