Category: Progressive Commentary

Progressive commentary and criticism on politics and government

  • If It Walks Like a Duck…..

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK

    You can call it what you want, but what’s happening here, this mass deportation business, is not really about deportation at all. Let’s face it:

    When people are captured off the street and thrown into a place where nobody knows where they are and they can’t get out of, that’s kidnapping.

    When people are held incognito in unidentified facilities and are denied proper food, medical attention, access to lawyers and visitors, that’s not prison, it’s a concentration camp.

    When people are sent to another country against their will, that’s not deportation, it’s human trafficking.

    When this is all done without even a pretense of due process, that’s not justice, it’s tyranny.

    When the leaders of a country do these things, they are doing exactly what the Nazis did in Germany in 1935.

    At his command, T****’s army of immigration agents is doing all of these things.

    Therefore, the T****’s administration is doing exactly what the Nazis in Germany in 1935.

    The logic is inescapable: Donald T**** is a Nazi.

    Period.

  • There Are No Words

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    (Notre:) This was written the day after ICE agents murdered an innocent woman in Minneapolis

    Minneapolis Public Schools announced that classes will be canceled for the rest of the week after armed, masked Border Patrol agents violently attacked people coming out of a high school following ICE’s deadly shooting of a woman that same day.

    Officials at Roosevelt High School said the agents descended on the property during dismissal on Wednesday and started tackling people, handcuffing two staff members and pepper spraying bystanders.

    There is no question as to who the villains are here and why it’s happening. T****’s Brownshirts are in “blue” American cities to create havoc and provoke violence, thereby giving his little doxie Christi Nome an excuse for allowing her Gestapo agents to murder innocent civilians. 

    And then, after thalf the country has seen the truth in the videos, they lie their fool heads off, invoke conspiratorial BS and then ask, “So who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”

    Well, just like the lies they tell about January 6, I believe what I see. And I believe that along with their fawning little puppy Pete Hegseth, they are all lying scum.

    And all beneath contempt.

  • Truth in a Basket

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE.

    I saw a lady T****azoid on TV the other day claiming that Donald was committed to the truth and never lies. I don’t know how these people are able to survive in such a fantasy world. T**** lies about everything. For example, T**** blames Joe Biden for the entire Afghanistan withdrawal catastrophe. However: 

    It was T**** not Biden who negotiated directly with the Taliban terrorists and excluded the Afghan army.

    It was T**** not Biden who drew U.S. forces down from 13,000 to 2,500, making them vulnerable to attack.

    It was Trump not Biden who ordered the release of some 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison.

    It was T*** not Biden who wanted to secretly invite Taliban leaders to Camp David on the 18th anniversary of 9/11 (seriously).

    It was T**** not Biden who agreed to a May 1st exit from Afghanistan and then bragged that he didn’t need an exit strategy.

    It was T**** not Biden who shut down every airbase in Afghanistan except one, thus crippling America’s ability to extract its assets safely.

    And finally, it was T**** who refused to brief Biden’s transition team on the situation in Afghanistan.

    It is conceivable that Joe Biden could have done a better job of extracting Americans and our Afghani assets if his people had a clue as to what the situation was when he took office. But they didn’t, T**** made sure of that. And of course, T**** goes and lies about the whole thing.

    And as usual, the MAGA’s believe him. Not wanting to see their entire world of T****-inspired fantasy come crashing down around them, they are afraid to question anything he says or does. 

     But I’m not.  

  • The Looking Glass

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    If you look closely it’s not hard to see just who Donald T**** is. Yes, he is almost casually identified as a 34-count convicted felon, failed businessman, con man, cheap hustler, grifter, pedophile, ignorant in virtually all matters pertaining to his position, and a consummate liar. 

    But that’s just his outward, public persona. Based on those criterion it is almost impossible to understand how he could have been elected president once, let alone twice. So who are these MAGA’s who support and believe in him; what do they see in him? 

    The answer is, they see themselves. For Donald T**** is the personification of their worst instincts, darkest fears and deeply hidden hatreds. In T**** they have found a kindred spirit in their darkness. 

    If they are racists, misogynists, or if all they care about is money, he’s their guy. If they secretly make fun of disabled people, mock people’s physical appearances or hate intelligent people, T**** appeals to them. Serial cheaters and rapists hold him in secret admiration. 

    If they envy hustlers, conmen and those have not done an honest day’s work in their lives, they envy Donald T****. If  they are unconscionable liars and do so day and night, he is their model. If they are white supremacists, sociopaths or anti-Semitic, and care not one iota about humans who live a lifestyle they don’t like, he is their man. 

    Now. If he only had two or three of these issues, he never would have been elected. Rather, it is the fact that he has virtually all of them, and apparently millions of Americans are as toxic as he is. They relate to him in one form or another; he is one of theirs.

    In truth, it’s never been about T**** at all. It’s always been about the people who finally have their most secret feelings about others validated. He has given “those people” their voices and permission to disparage and hate their fellow human beings without guilt or consequence. 

    Donald is only symptomatic of a much larger issue. If there is a single truth that characterizes Donald T****’s loyal followers it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”

    That may be what is so terrifying about Donald T****. Who knew that so many Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans?

    Who knew that after years of seeming progress on race and gender, tens of millions of mostly white Americans lived in quiet, seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to arrive who would legitimize their worst selves? Because that is precisely what Donald T**** does. 

    That is the essence of Donald T****.

  • Donnie and the Golden Fleece

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE.

    The last U.S. battleship, the USS Missouri, was commissioned in 1944. These huge ships were primarily tasked with shore bombardment during WW II. U.S. battleships saw combat for the last time in the 1991 Gulf War, when the USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin provided naval gunfire support and launched cruise missiles against Iraqi targets.

    
Now, Donald T**** has announced plans for a new “T**** class” of very large surface vessels as part of a so‑called Golden Fleet, describing them in public as new U.S. “battleships.” Public descriptions of these vessels emphasize size, prestige and advanced weapons but do not define clear Navy doctrine beyond generic roles like deterrence, power projection, and fleet strengthening.

    No-one will probably ever see one. Designing and building a new generation of navy ships isn’t cheap. The aircraft carrier USS H. W. Bush, an advanced Nimitz-class carrier commissioned in 2009, took over ten years to build at a cost of some $13 billion, and T****will have to ask Congress for funding. He can’t just take his tariff money.

    Money from tariffs goes into the U S. Treasury’s general fund and is used for general government expenses. And no matter how much he may want to, T**** can’t just use those funds for whatever he wants. Besides, the next administration can kill the project before it’s off the drawing board.

    Trump has bragged that the vessels will be larger, faster and “100 times more powerful” than any previous navy vessel ever built. But it’s just bragging. Ships this huge, including just about all of America’s aircraft carries, are anachronistic in the 21st century.

    A recent NY Times article described how these huge, lumbering ships can easily be taken out by weapons such as hypersonic missiles, which both Russia and China have in their military arsenals but we don’t. These things fly at Mach 5, that’s five times the speed of sound. At that rate, they can cover a distance of 100 miles in less than a minute, making traditional reaction times impossible. 

    
T****- class battleships? Golden Fleet? Don’t bet on it. It’s just Delusional Donnie’s brain dribbling nonsense in public, one more time.

  • False Promise

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    December 19 was the day the DOJ was to have released all of the Epstein files. Of course that full release did not happen, and many documents were almost if not completely redacted. All we have now is AG Bondi’s promise that they will release the rest in a month or so. 

    The DOJ is now in violation of the law. This was probably to have been expected, because when the law was written there was a loophole. It did not include any specific enforcement procedure. And we really cannot expect the DOJ to investigate itself to find out why there has not been a “full drop.”

    The remedies for non-disclosure are of no consequence to T**** or his people. These include avenues such as Congressional oversight, including hearing and subpoenas, and federal court motions demanding full release. Such remedies are of no consequence for T**** and his MAGA’s.

    They typically ignore and/or appeal Congressional subpoenas, and court orders which go against them are subject to appeal a well. These court procedures can drag on for months. No wonder the Republicans had no problem passing the law and T**** had no problem signing it. 

    They knew it had no teeth and that as written was designed to allow the prolonged delay of what T**** fears most: full disclosure. So as of now, there is still no way, no law, for anyone to expect or force the release of the full Epstein files any time soon. 

    Don’t look now, but, we have just been had. 

  • They Don’t Want to Hear

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    MAGA’s and Trumpazoids get almost apoplectic when they are called fascists and Nazis. They get all kinds of nasty and accuse those those who do as being the real fascists, that such talk leads to violence or worse, and that such talk is seditions or treasonous or whatever. In truth, they are just being pathetically in self-denial. denial.

    So the next time you hear some right-wing jerk-off get his or her panties all in a bunch for being called a fascist, acquaint them with this quotation:

    “Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of the day and night, poor helpless people are being dragged from their homes….Families are torn apart. Men, women and children are separated. children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

    Then remind them it is true that ICE and Border Patrol agents, often masked and often unidentifiable, have kidnapped people from the streets, sometimes smashing car windows to extract the occupants.

    Remind them that it is also true that a large number of these disappeared people have been held without warrants in concentration camps and then deported. And all this is done without any pretense of due process.

    This is the truth. They are MAGA’s, so be sure to have them affirm that they are OK with this kind of activity.

    Then remind them that it was the Nazi fascists in Germany who kidnapped and “disappeared” people, held them in in concentration camps and then deported them.

    And before they go into their denial mode, when they finally calm down, tell them that the above quote is not a description of an ICE raid in Chicago or of any one of hundreds of ICE and Border Patrol agents.

    Look them in the eye and tell them that the above quotation comes from the Diary of Anne Frank, written on January 13, 1943.

    Then tell them that by their own admission they are are in total agreement with what the Nazi fascists did in Germany.

    Finally, tell them that if the shoe fits, they damn well have to wear it.

  • Hidden Meanings

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    Just listen to him go on about a pair of women. It is almost fcrightening.
    “They have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. They have AOC’s low IQ. Have her passed, like, the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. I took, those are very hard, they’re really aptitude tests, I guess, at a certain point, but they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against T****.
    “Let Jasmine go against T****. The first couple of questions are easy, a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to about five or six, and then when you get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they couldn’t come close to answering what Donald any of those questions.”

    Aside from his being unable to articulate his thoughts in complete, grammatically correct sentences, these attempted takedowns of these women demonstrate that T***** really doesn’t comprehend that those are in fact specifically DEMENTIA tests.

    They called him back for an MRI after just six months because the doctors are concerned about something. And as he himself admitted, he doesn’t know that part of him they scanned. But then, he is a liar.

    Perhaps they’re looking for evidence that his brain has turned to mush, which would be understandable. I suspect Donald thinks those tests are hard because his 79-year-old brain is drowning in burger grease and lost its grip on reality a long time ago.

    And there is no reason to believe him when he says the MRI was perfect because, of course, he is a liar. The truth will probably not out because the doctors are all sworn to silence, just like the doctors who treated him after he was shot in Pennsylvania.

    However, considering his rambling pejorative assessments of two sitting Congresswomen who have both achieved much higher academic accomplishments than he, one of the few things his brain is still capable of doing s demonstrating his abject racism and bigotry.

    For indeed, this is at the core of his “low IQ” talk about two Democratic women of color. This is not the first time he’s gone off on this pair, and projection is everything in T****’s world. So the fact that he’s constantly bringing them up to disparage their intelligence tells us a lot more about hm than it does them.

    It shows how much he fears them.

  • American Slaughter

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    When Charlie Kirk was killed the MAGA’s elevated him to almost sainthood status. T**** orders flags flown at half mast. Eulogies abound. Statues appear out of nowhere, and Turning Point USA chapters become mandatory in Oklahoma high schools. 

    Two National Guardsmen are shot and again, the MAGA’a are incensed. To them it is a “crime against humanity.” Clearly the tragic deaths of these three people caused heart-wrenching angst and apoplexy among the MAGA’s.

    However. Consider these statistics on mass shootings in America since 2000. This list is not intended to be comprehensive and only includes incidents where more than ten people died. 

    Las Vegas, Nevada (2017), 60 people killed at random , 13 killed by a white supramcist outside a grocery store;and hundreds injured;

    Orlando, Florida (June 2016), 49 people killed and more than 50 injured in an attack on an LGBTQ nightclub; 

    Blacksburg Virginia (April, 007), 32 people killed and over 20 injured on Virginia Tech campus; October, 

    Newtown, Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School (December, 2012), 27 people killed at the school;

    Sutherland Springs, Texas (November, 2017), 26 people killed during a Sunday church service; 

    Uvalde, Texas, (May, 2022), 21 people killed at Robb Elementary School; 

    El Paso, Texas (August ,2019). 23 dead at Walmart shooting;

    Buffalo, New York, (May, 2022) 13 dead outside a grocery store;

    Brookfield, Wisconsin (Oct 2007) Living church of God shooting, 11 dead;

    DeKalb, Illinois (Oct, 2007) Northern Ilinois shooting. 11 dead.

    That’s a total of 240 Americans dead  in mass shootings, at at least 60 of them were children. 

    Indeed, if we include the dead in the some 30 other incidents of mass shootings that left at least 10 dead, we’re already over 370, and that’s not even counting the hundreds of shootings that killed a mere handful. The overwhelming majority of these nameless dead are simply innocent victims of random, senseless violence. 

    And why did they die? 

    Social theories abound on this subject. However, Kirk an acknowledged font of MAGA wisdom, alibied these killings in a truly heartless manner when he claimed that “Having an armed citizenry comes with a price. You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” Indeed, right wing commentators such as Tim Pool and other pro‑gun influencers have explicitly insisted that no amount of dead children justifies limiting gun rights. 

    This may account for the fact that the best we often seem to get from the from the right wing after a mass shooting is thoughts and prayers, followed by politically-charged accusations and innuendo. For example:

    Following the 2023 Nashville Christian school shooting, senior Republicans expressed outrage about attacks on Christians and schools, used the event to attack “woke” culture and trans people.

    After the 2022 Uvalde massacre, Texas Republicans and national right‑wing figures responded with intense anger at the local police, the school system, and “soft” security, demanding more armed personnel, fortified schools, and crackdowns on mental health.

    The overall pattern of MAGA responses to mass killings is that when conservatives habitually move beyond “thoughts and prayers” to some combination of demanding more armed security and policing in schools, churches, and public spaces, harsher and expedited  criminal penalties, expanded “good guy with a gun” responses, culture‑war attacks on liberals and minorities, and even “godlessness,” all framed as the real cause of the shootings.


    This is all in directly opposed to what has generally become the left-wing response to these events: a kinder, gentler nation, a humane response to the violence and support for federal gun‑control legislation. 

    The truth here seems to me to be that besides the fact that the America public in general has become inured to this level of slaughter by firearms, American conservatives seem to get aroused to more than their standard, off-the-shelf responses only when they identify with the victims. 

    The rest of the dead are deemed expendable to the god of the 2nd Amendment, or more simply because of who they are. They serve only to create a platform for political rhetoric aimed at perceived political and cultural targets. There is something fundamentally wrong with this picture.

    And that is reflected in the politically-charged and cold-hearted response of the conservative right which does not weep out loud for long over the untold thousands who fall victim to mass shootings. Instead, they respond emotionally with knee-jerk angst, then continue with heartless, soulless bullshit. Their lack of humanity is apparent and appalling.

    And that’s what is wrong, here. 

  • Angel of Death, redux.

    THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

    ANGEL OF DEATH

    One unmistakeable trait of a tyrant is a demonstrable lack of concern for human life. The evils of Hitler and Stalin come readily to mind. Tragically, Donald T**** exhibits that same indifference. For, in spite of his claimed belief in Christianity, instead of endeavoring to feed the hungry, heal the sick and give aid and comfort to the needy, he has sanctioned and even facilitated human suffering and death.For example:

    A prominent, detailed scientific report by a commission of 33 scientists was published by The Canadian medical journal Lancet in early 2021 which attributed about 22,000 deaths in 2019 to the T**** administration’s rollback of environmental regulations during his first term.

    Continuing government and university studies have demonstrated a direct relationship to human suffering and death as a result of the changing climate. Exhibiting a callous disregard for the lives of his fellow Americans, T**** rejects the entire concept of global climate change, and has cancelled those studies.

    T****’s selection of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services is another prime example of T****’s indifference to human life.

    Vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA), the molecule that made possible the COVID vaccines, have shown to be effective against diseases ranging from pancreatic cancer and Type 1 diabetes to multiple sclerosis and even bird flu. Yet, Kennedy has re-branded mRNA therapies as “weapons of mass destruction.“ And all the while, he spreads conspiratorial lies about untested vaccines being pumped into the food supply to “mass medicate” Americans.

    Claiming that more COVID research was needed, Kennedy has also changed vaccine protocols. He alleges without evidence that healthy adults and children do not need to be vaccinated against a virus that is now endemic in the population.

    However, research shows that the virus does cause severe disease and hospitalization, and that the effects of “long covid” commonly occur in people without pre-existing conditions. Mortality in these cases is not unknown. T**** and Kennedy ignore this truth and do not care about their victims.

    T****’s actions and his selection of Kennedy for H.H.S. Secretary will result in tens if not hundreds of thousands of Americans to suffer needlessly, and some will die from COVID and other wholly preventable diseases. Do either of these men care about the American people who will perish because of what they do? Not in the least.

    On the world scene, by eliminating the USAID program T**** purposefully denied vital food and medical aid to myriads of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. The Lancet reported that an estimated 14 million wholly preventable deaths from starvation and medical conditions will occur in the next 5 years due to the elimination of USAID assistance. This number would include some 4.5 million deaths among children younger than 5 years.

    There is an inherent racism to T****’s actions. The overwhelming majority of his victims are not white. Consummate racist that he is, the president most assuredly doesn’t give a damn about any of them.

    T**** has also terminated American funding for Gavi, the organization that purchases vaccines for children in developing countries. This will significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of children, again almost all non-white, who will die because of what he has done. And gain, he does not care.

    Here at home, the president’s bloodlust is evident by his rapid re-instatement of the federal death penalty and by his desire to add four more crimes to the list of Federal capital offenses. One of these crimes, large-scale (non‑homicide) drug trafficking, doesn’t reach the level of a capital offense in any state. But that doesn’t stop T****’s lusting for the power to kill.

    Neither does T**** care about this nation’s poor. All during his campaign and after, Donald has insisted he would not touch Medicaid spending. Yet his “Big Beautiful Bill” cut $1.2 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies. Betraying the promises he made, T**** gleefully signed his bill.

    Because of this, some 11.8 million Americans will lose their Medicaid coverage and their access to medical care. The number of those who will not survive because of this can only be surmised.

    It is estimated that up to 40%, or some 23 million Americans, rely on Social Security for most or all their income In spite of this, the dismantling of Social Security is already in progress. Twelve percent of the Social Security workforce has been terminated. Many services, including almost the entire telephone answering and information service, have been either truncated eliminated as well. Offices have been “consolidated” or closed outright.

    T****’s actions and indifference in these instances will bring suffering and death to untold thousands of the poorest and most vulnerable of our citizens. Millions will no longer be able to get the medications and medical services they need to survive, will not be able to adequately feed themselves, or lose their homes.

    For in truth, does Donald T****does not care a whit about the fate of America’s poor or her senior citizens.

    And then there is his alleged fight against fentanyl. Over 100,000 Americans have died since 2022 from fentanyl overdoses, an estimated 46,000 of them last year. Donald T****’s initial round of tariffs against Mexico and Canada were heralded as a way to force those countries to stop the smuggling of that drug into the country.

    This was, of course, absurd on the face of it. America cannot browbeat her neighbors into engaging in drug-interdiction in this manner. The tariffs have since been withdrawn.

    Since then T*** has taken to just blowing up small, fast-moving surface vessels in the open sea. He claims the individuals on board are “narco-terrorists” and cartel members. However, the U.S. has provided no evidence to support these claims, and reports indicate they are most likely low-level traffickers or fishermen.

    Legal experts and some lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes. They argue that they amount to extrajudicial killings and a departure from the historical approach of interdicting drug boats as a law enforcement issue.

     Recently, as directed by the Commander in Chief, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued orders to simply “kill everyone” aboard one targeted vessel. When the smoke cleared after the first strike, two survivors were seen clinging to the disabled little boat. Hegseth ordered a second strike which killed them as well. That action was a clear violation of all acknowledged international rules of warfare and clearly constitute a war crime.

    But these niceties are beyond T***’s comprehension. He just wants to kill people.

    In fact, his administration’s focus has little to do with addressing the root causes of addiction in the U.S. Instead, T**** would rather make political points with symbolic declarations about border security, indiscriminate murder on the high seas rather than actually consider helping the afflicted, the addicted, and the dying.

    And finally, there’s his first administrations response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was basically no response at all. His studied inactions lead to a horrendous toll.

    T**** knew in December 2019 what was happening in China and that disaster was headed our way, yet he did nothing to prepare America for what he knew was coming. And when the virus arrived, he claimed it was of no consequence and spent months calling it a fraud and a “Democrat Party hoax.” He was lying, of course, and he knew it.

    In the early stage of the pandemic there were three “interventions” identified to help stop the virus’ spread. But did Donald champion or model any of these behaviors? No. In fact, he did the opposite. And people died. And does he care? Of course not.

    T**** did declare a national COVID emergency. However, “Operation Warp Speed” to the contrary notwithstanding, T**** did nothing substantive to marshal the country’s vast resources to fight the virus. And when the vaccines arrived, did our nation’s leader roll up his sleeve and lead by example? No he did not.

    Donald T*****’s considered and deliberate refusal to lead the fight against COVID-19 by decree, by action or by example took a horrible toll. Some 385,000 Americans died on T.****’s watch while he sat on his heels and suggested we ingest disinfectant. And so our president turned a mounting crisis into a monumental tragedy.

    Almost another half million Americans perished in 2021 before more dynamic leadership, higher levels of natural immunity and weaker strains of the virus finally brought the pandemic under control. But because of T****’s dereliction of duty, hundreds of thousands of Americans died from COVID-19 who did not have to. The blood of these dead Americans is on his hands. But does he care? Of course he doesn’t.

    In all of these instances, Donald T**** had it within his power to uplift humanity by saving lives at home and around the world. By his actions alone he had the power to relieve the hunger and suffering of tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable human beings. Instead, he did just the opposite.

    Our country’s stature as a great and humanitarian nation depends on our president, our people’s representative does, from his high platform promote hight laudable and laudable actions at home and on the world stage. But does Donald T**** assume that mantle of leadership? No. Instead, he sheds it.

    In depraved indifference to the requirements and demands of an enlightened leader and the needs of mankind, Donald T****’s deliberate actions and studied inaction has and will continue to lead to tragedy for millions of people in this country and around the world. With the power of life and death in his hands, deliberately, tragically and perversely, Donald T**** choses death. And he does not care.

    It is almost as if he wants them to die.