The Bernhard Perspective

As T**** finishes up with his self-obsessed “Victory” tour of the Mid-East, we should not forget that this is not his first rodeo with a Gaza cease fire. Because, in point of fact, there was one already in place when he took office in January. It had been negotiated by then-President, Joe Biden.

Biden’s plan called for a three-phase approach. The phases emphasized a gradual but comprehensive pathway from ceasefire (phase 1), hostage and prisoner release and withdrawal of forces (phase 2), and ultimately, reconstruction and stability for Gaza (phase 3). Phase 1, the ceasefire, was in effect on January 21 when T**** took office. 

If this all sounds familiar, it should. Biden’s phases 1 and 2 combined are what T****  is touring the area celebrating now.

So what happened? With a ceasefire in place at the beginning of the year, why were there another ten months of war and death between then and now? We have Donald T**** to thank for that.

This is because, although he claimed to support it, he gave only lip-service to the plan, T****’s administration pointedly did not emphasize a push for phase two and phase three. Rather, he let them slide. Instead, there were statements by T**** about forcibly relocating Palestinians from Gaza or taking administrative control of Gaza in ways that alarmed observers.

Some of his public remarks, like  talking about “owning” Gaza and creating a ”Mid-East Riviera” with T***’owned resorts and casinos, or making demands that weren’t in the negotiated terms, created confusion about U.S. commitment to the deal.

T****’s contradictory rhetoric; contrived brinksmanship and failure to secure or insist on later phases, and his undermining trust with extreme proposals, were essential to the failure of Biden’t plan. 

And in fact, that was Donald’s plan all along.  It all began when he assumed the presidency in 2017. His deficiency of character lead to his extreme anger and jealousy over the fact that Barak Obama, a Black man, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. So Donald T**** determined that he deserved and contrived to get one, no matter what. 

It began when he assumed office again this year as he claimed to have already stopped seven wars. They included conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Armenia and Azerbaijan. He also threw in three additional conflicts that had not yet taken place. 

There are, however, many problems with these claims. Some of the “wars” were not full-blown conflicts at the time. In some cases, the fighting resumed after T****’s alleged efforts. And in others, the extent of T****’s personal role was either minimal at best, or non-existent. In point of fact, T**** was lying about all of it. 

In any event, T**** was livid because the Nobel Committee had not recognized his so-called peace-keeping efforts with “his” prize. So for years, he claimed that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize when in face he simply did not 

And then, with a ceasefire deal in place as he re-assumed the office in January, and with his well-known derisive hatred of Democrats in general and Obama in particular, T****’s obsession with the Prize and his fragile ego could not allow the possibility that Joe Biden might be awarded what he self-righteously believed belonged to him. 

And so Donald T**** deliberately set out to tank the deal. And by doing so, he condemned Gaza to an additional ten months of warfare. That meant an additional ten months of obscene destruction. An additional ten months of hunger and starvation, and an additional tens of thousands of maimed and dead Gaza civilians.

And all because this deeply flawed person, this man with a seriously deficient and fragile character, this self-proclaimed practicing Christian did, with a perverse passion, break the Tenth Commandment: he coveted. He coveted something he did not deserve and could not have. 

And in doing so, so he broke the First Commandment as well.

The Bernhard Perspective.                                   

It is important to recognize that Donald  T**** is not simply. giving Argentina $20 billion. The money comes from a currency swap arrangement executed through the U.S. Treasury; it is not a simple cash transfer or loan. But in a way, it is even worse. 

The Treasury first acquired $20 billion worth of Argentine pesos, and then exchanged the pesos for U.S. dollars. The transaction is intended to provide Argentina’s chaotic economy with immediate market stability. 

This works because US dollars generally have more liquidity in Argentinian than their own currency. In fact, Argentines have long preferred to exchange their pesos for U.S. dollars as quickly as possible because dollars are much easier to use for large transactions, savings, and even everyday commerce.

So what really happened is that T**** did Argentina’s president Javier Milei, a huge favor and screwed American at the same time.  Milei got $20 billion in American dollars, the most dominant and influential currency in the world. We got  a pile of almost worthless Argentinian pesos. 

But above all else, we have to remember that Donald T**** is a con man and a grifter, and he never gives without getting first. No-one knows what part of Argentina Meili had to give up to T**** for his stack of American money. 

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. made an absolute fool of himself at the latest cabinet meeting. It is doubtful that he even knew it. 

He began by lying to the president concerning a video he had seen about a pregnant woman taking Tylenol. He then referred to the trouble she may be causing to “her baby in her placenta.” 

If this was a simple mistake on his part, Kennedy was not self-aware enough to recognize it. The womb in which babies grow is the woman’s uterus. The H.H.S. director apparently does not know this.

Then he gravely warned: “There are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism.” He continued, “It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol.” 

Apparently conceding that there’s no evidence Tylenol causes autism, Kennedy was seemingly taking back his earlier unsubstantiated claims about the connection between the two. However, he assured T**** that “We’re doing the studies to make the proof.”

Kennedy’s earlier claim was supposedly that mothers taking the drug caused autism in their babies. But because the “they” to which Kennedy was referring to here was the babies, the clear but totally absurd inference that infants given acetaminophen is what causes autism staggers belief. The connection between Jews and early circumcision makes this ridiculous assertion borderline anti-semitic as well.

Even more absurd is Kennedy’s ignorance of how science works. In legitimate research, you don’t set out to ‘make the proof.’ You set out to test a hypothesis. Saying you’re “doing studies to make the proof” means you’ve already decided what you want the results to be.

This is the exact opposite of the acknowledged scientific method. Kennedy’s blithering stupidity here is scientifically illiterate, medically irresponsible and ethically reckless. 

For a brief moment after his presentation, the Secretary’s humiliation hung in the air like smoke, but he remained untouched by it. At the highest level of government, he had made a complete fool of himself. 

Yet humiliation requires self-awareness, and that, alas, is a luxury he does not seem to possess. This man is an affront to the concept of human intelligence. 

But, then, what would you expect from a T**** appointee? 

THE IRONIC FATE OF STEPHEN MILLER

All you citizens of a beloved, multi-cultural America, just listen to T**** advisor Stephen Miller’s rage-induced defense of civilization. Listen to him using the term “our” when mentioning ancestry that dates back to places with predominantly white populations. Just listen:

”Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities, they produced the architecture, they built the industry. [people like him and Charlie Kirk] stand for what is good. And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hate against us, what do you have? You have nothing, you are nothing, You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing, you can produce nothing, you can create nothing. We are the ones who build, we are the ones who create, we are the ones who lift up humanity.”

So who are the “us” and the “we” that Miller refers to? That is important because he is clearly separating humanity into two categories, those who can and those who cannot. Looking at the history of Western civilization over the last millennium and a half, and in the contemporary context of T****’s ascension to autocratic power, Miller is clearly referring to white Christians.

And just who are the “you” that Miller castigates so mercilessly? Who are the wicked? the jealous? those who have nothing? Well, it’s certainly not white people, so it has to be people of color: Black and Brown people. Asians. It has to be Hindus and Moslems as well. And so it is. Now, Miller evidences a profound ignorance of human history when he makes these assertions. That, however, is grist for another mill.

But Miller has a severe case of self-denial, here. That is because Stephen Miller is a Jew. And one truth that Miller apparently will not acknowledge is that for T**** and the MAGA’s, the Christian Nationalists, the white supremacists and anti-semitics who make up his base of support, Jews are not considered to be white. To them they are a separate, inferior race, the hatred of which extends back over a millennium. He choses to forget that Jews were so-defined by no less than Adolph Hitler.

The purges have already begun, and the list of this administration’s enemies includes not just individuals. T**** and his MAGA’s are in the process of suppressing Black people and are already coming after Brown people. They have been vilifying Moslems for decades. It does not end there.

Because although Stephen Miller may have convinced himself that his whole-hearted MAGA advocacy will protect him, some fourteen hundred years of Western civilization strongly suggests otherwise. And if they cannot be stopped, with or without his personal acknowledgment T****’s ruling class of Christian Nationalists, racists and anti-Semitic bigots will eventually come for the Jews.

And when they do, they will come for Stephen Miller, too.

   MURDER 

The U.S. government and Donald T**** must be held accountable. Blowing up vessels in international waters is a violation of international law and, without the consent of Congress, a violation of U.S. law as well. And if it can happen at sea it can happen anywhere. 

T**** has offered no defining or limiting principle for who can be labeled a “terrorist” or why he can summarily act as judge, jury and executioner. Nor has he offered any plausible legal theory for why an armed conflict exists. 

These actions are not covered by the Supreme Court’s ruling that he cannot be held accountable because they are clearly outside his normal duties as president. In truth, Donald T**** has gone from convicted domestic felon to international felon.

This is murder, plain and simple

LESSON TIME FOR JD

“If you’re an American citizen, and you’ve been to a hospital in the last few years, you probably noticed that wait times are especially large and very often somebody who’s there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien. Very often, a person who can’t even speak English. Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?” — Vice President JD Vance.

Dear JD: The answer to your question is quite simple. I am sure you would agree that America is a Christian nation. And in case you have forgotten, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, commands you to heal the sick. This is not a suggestion on his part, and He does not mention any any exceptions. 

So either you are prepared to admit that He is as selfish as you are,  or you must acknowledge that He commands you to heal the sick, feed the hungry and care for the needy, and you just don’t want to. And what kind of a blaspheming heretic does that make you?

Besides, other than the fact that they are Brown and speak Spanish, how can you tell who is and who is not an “illegal alien.” Or are you that kind of bigot, too? 

Signed, 

Andrew J Bernhard

TRIUMPH OVER EVIL

In their unprecedented recall of the nation’s top military brass for an hours-long tirade, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Donald T**** inadvertently tipped their hand: they plan to suspend the Constitution.

Hegseth went on and on about the “warrior” ethic, which he gets from his White Supremacy beliefs. “Your job is to kill people and destroy things,” he told the generals and admirals who sat mute. He said nothing about preserving, protecting or defending the Constitution.

And when it was Donald’s turn, he rambled on for over an hour in his standard garbled idiocy. But it was when he came to talking about America’s enemies, that’s when he gave it away. 

He did not mention Russia. He did not mention China, North Korea or any other foreign threat. Instead, in a speech reminiscent of Stalin, Hitler or Castro, only this: “America is under invasion from within. No difference than a foreign enemy but more difficult because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform, you can take them out.” Note here that “the enemy within” are the exact same words Hitler used to describe the Jews in Germany.

T**** told our military leaders that sending combat troops into American cities “is a big part of war, now.” He said that “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” and that American soldiers will be deployed to American cities to ”quell” disfavored groups by force. 

Clearly, what T****  wants to do and clearly what he and Hegseth were attempting to prepare the generals for is the implementation of marshal law and a military takeover of America. T****’s call for a “rapid response force” sounds like nothing less than preparation for the provocation of strife and chaos.

But in order to do that, he needs a pretext. He needs a reason. Thus his referral to Portland, Oregon as a ‘war zone.” The fact that this is not true is of no consequence and is no impediment to his plans for a coup.

In his phone call with Oregon Governor Tina Kotek about sending the National Guard to Portland he said, in apparent dismay,  “Wait a minute, am I watching things on TV that are different from what is really happening?” Our president makes decisions not based on facts, evidence or briefings from expert sources, but on what he sees on TV outlets like Fox News. 

But in the end none of this really matters. T**** has already asserted that, in his own words, “I am the President of the United States of America. I can do what I want.”

In order to carry out his coup, T**** needs civic strife directed at him. And if it’s not happening, he will simply pretend it is or make it happen. The truth will not interfere with his plans to flood the nations’s cities with uniformed and armed, soldiers and un-uniformed, unidentifiable, armed and masked ICE agents, his own private army,

Donald T****’s plan is to deploy “his” military into the streets of large and predominantly Democratic cities and provoke violence. This will give him the excuse he needs to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution, including national elections. There is no question that he has no plans to leave office on January 21, 2029 no matter what the election results are.

So how does a patriotic American respond to this assault on the Republic? In many of my posts I have advised resistance as a viable strategy. And I believe that to be true. But that strategy must be nuanced by T****’s ability to carry out his plans. No strategy against him can include violence. We cannot give the tyrant what he wants.

I come back again to the words of Mario Savio in Berkeley back in 1964. Spoken from atop a police car containing an arrested demonstrator and surrounded by hundreds of protestors: “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own it, to the people who run it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

In opposition to Donald T****, I believe we must channel the soul and conscience of one of our country’s greatest moral leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not violence; non-violence. Not violence; non-compliance. The ANTIFA anarchists must suck it up. They cannot play into T****’s hands. 

We must  show our countrymen and women, and the rest of the world, that if we are not allowed to govern ourselves as free men under the rule of law and our Constitution, then Donald T**** will not be able to govern as a tyrant. And we must do it without resorting to violence, nor should we respond to his violence in kind. Those of us who stand with the Constitution must not give Donald T**** the excuse he needs to unleash his dogs of war and reign of terror on our people and our freedom. 

As I have said before, there is risk involved, here. Make no mistake, these will be wrenchingly difficult times. The nation will suffer, people will suffer. There will be violence. Some will be hurt. Inevitably, some will die. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1787, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.” The country will survive. 

Freedom isn’t free. 

Our generals and admirals already know that eventually they will have to choose between loyalty to Donald T**** or to the  oaths they took to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. They have pledged not to follow illegal orders. These are men and women of uncommon honor who hold their oaths and vows sacred.

Our task will be to take our country back from a small, soulless man who believes it belongs to him. Unable to do more than rant, rage and  throw stones, T**** will be left on his own. He will have no country over which to rule. And then, following the guidance and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, we welcome back into our country’s loving arms his lied-to and wholly misguided MAGA followers.

Resistance. That is how we beat him.

On strike. Shut it down.

THE LAST ELECTION

The next two federal elections will be neither free nor fair. In fact, they may never even happen at all. This is because Donald T**** has made the subversion of the electoral process essential to his political career and his lust for power. 

He began in 2016 by lying about whether Barak Obama was even eligible to be president. He has claimed without evidence that every election since 2012 that Republican’s lost was rigged. He even insisted that that his 2016 margin of victory would have been bigger if not for alleged fraud.

This campaign of lies culminated after his 2020 loss when he illegally attempted to remain in power and sparked an insurrection aimed at stopping the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.

Since taking office, Trump has installed loyalists who follow his orders into key positions at all levels of government. This second T**** administration is staffed with so-called election deniers, including three cabinet members, the Attorney General, FBI director and Defense Secretary, two Assistant ADA’s and at least one close aid, Stephen Miller. Voting rights advocates are now fighting the federal government itself rather than fringe outside actors.

As for Donald T****, he has installed MAGA loyalists in virtually all federal election offices in the country. In the twenty-three states with both Republican-controlled legislatures and governors, these reach down even to the precinct level. Their role, up to and including the state’s highest election officials, is to challenge and/or simply refuse to certify results which favor Democratic candidates in close elections.  

On March 25, T**** issued a sweeping executive order aiming to allow the president to directly set state election law. By law, however, presidents have almost no Constitutional role or legal power in the administration of elections. For T****, however, this has never been an impediment. 

The order directed that states require voters to show proof of citizenship in order to vote. On the alleged grounds of identifying fraud, it ordered the Department of Homeland Security to obtain full voter files from every state, including names, addresses, party affiliation and Social Security numbers. The order also aims to eliminate mail-in voting altogether and attempts to forbid the use of voting machines. 

These actions are being used to set the stage for future lies about election integrity and attempts by the White House to control or to change the outcome of upcoming elections. Judicial rulings in lower courts have temporarily halted some of these actions. However, there is no reason to assume that the Supreme Court will reject his plans to subvert the voting process. 

And should the Court rule against him, T**** has not shied away from breaking the law to do what he wants. There are a number of instances where federal courts, up to and including the including the Supreme Court, have found his administration’s actions have been in violation of court orders. 

Even more sinister is the connection between the elections and Donald T****’s instance on deploying soldiers on the streets of so-called “blue”cities. In furtherance of his plans, he has ordered the extension of the deployment in Los Angeles until next November. And he has told a meeting of the military bass that they should consider American cities “training grounds” for military operations. 

The fact of having soldiers in camouflage, standing with weapons at port arms, lined up in front of a polling place, will have a major intimidating factor on civilian voters waiting to cast their ballots. The tension alone could lead to violence, which is what T**** is hoping for in order to validate their deployment in the first place.

There will also be squadrons of T****’s  brown-shirted, unidentifiable, masked ICE agents on the streets as well. Hispanic voters will not be comfortable going to the polls and likely stay home now that the Supreme Court has allowed ICE to profile and arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on racial characteristics and the language they speak.

What Donald T**** wants is perfectly clear: the autocratic power to suppress and corrupt the election process to the point where he controls the winners and losers from his desk in the oval office.

Much as contemporary dictators leaders like Putin, Jung Un, Erdoğan and Bukele, T**** aims to stay in power by controlling national election results. And it is important to remember that all of these contemporary dictators were legally elected to office. For that matter, was Adolph Hitler.

Some of the power Donald T*** needs to accomplish his perversion of the electoral process is already in his hands. The rest is in the works. He will have it all if we, the People, do not stop him. 

There is Only One Path Forward: RESISTANCE.

There is not much time left.

                                                   IT’S ON US

It has come to this. Consider these words spoken on the floor of the House: 

“There is no longer any middle ground. The ideology [of the American left] is pure evil.They hate the good, the truth and the beautiful and embraced the evil, the false and the ugly. And they, literally, will kill those with whom they disagree.” — Rep Bob Onder (R-M0)

This is pretty harsh stuff. It used to be that in response to events like the Kirk shooting, politicians from the lowliest House member to the highest elected officials would at least give lip service to the idea of ending the violence and uniting the country. Not any more. 

In an interview two days after the Charlie Kirk shooting, President T**** concurred with Onder’s vehemence. Quote the Prez: “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them.” The interviewer asked him “How do we fix this country?”

T**** replied, “I couldn’t care less.”

And I’m thinking, of course not. Bringing the country back from the brink does not fit his agenda. He wants autocratic control and the rise of civil strife will give him the excuse to send more soldiers into the streets, to declare marshal law, to put the population under his thumb. And he could do it. 

T****’s grasp on the reins of executive power grows tighter and his Congressional toadies and his hand-picked Justices are all aligned to serve him. He lusts for power, the machinery is in place and it is in motion. We are literally under the gun, here.

And we are on our own. No one is coming to save us. Not the courts. Not some last-minute hero. And certainly not the politicians. People may want to believe that someone, somewhere will stop Donald T**** before it’s too late. But that is just wishful thinking. If democracy is to be saved, it will not be by any of them.

No. If democracy is to be saved, it will be saved by us.

Democracy will be saved by those who understand that the maintenance of freedom often demands personal risk and are prepared to accept that risk. The call to action was made decades go much more eloquently than I ever could: 

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own it, to the people who run it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” — Mario Savio, Berkeley Ca., December 2,1964.

We are beyond the point where holding placards alongside the road or making a few phone calls is a relevant response to T****’s offensive against the democracy. Yes, we can fill the streets with the cries of millions; that may be enough. And yes, we do have the ballot box. But the way the MAGA’s are preparing to sabotage next November’s election – if there even is one – that’s not a sure thing, either.

The bottom line is that our democracy is in peril and may not be saved by those who simply refuse to be silent. It will be saved by those who choose to act. By the those who commit throwing themselves on the gears, the levers and the wheels of the machinery. 

Those now in power must be made to know that absent the forms of government and freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, the machinery will not be allowed to work. And that the people can, and will stop T****’s rise to dictatorial power.

It will be saved by those prepared to stand fast and are willing to take the One Path Forward.

                                                        RESISTANCE 

SO WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON, HERE?

US-based Hyundai employers followed US immigration law. The immigrant workers at the SC Hyundai plant followed immigration law. In order to come here and work, they had to.

But our fascist leaders ordered the ICE raids on the factories anyway. And they did it without regard for US immigration law, without regard for due process of law or anything close to the maintenance of basic human dignity.

This proves yet agin that it never about those “coming here illegally.” It was never about the criminals, the murders and rapists. It was never about the invasion of Venezuelan gangsters. In fact, it was never about immigrants coming here legally or illegally at all.

It is and always will be about shutting down non-white immigration. It is about the Great Replacement Theory and their impending loss of White Privilege. It is and always will be about advancing White and Christian Nationalism.

It is about their racism, their bigotry and their fear.

thebernhardperspective.com