For progressives all around the world, President Joe Biden’s performance at the June 27, 2024 presidential candidate debate with expected Republican candidate Donald Trump was much more than disappointing. DEPRESSING and TERRIFYING are two words that immediately come to mind.
DEPRESSING, as one always feels empathy for an individual who is losing their cognitive abilities.
TERRIFYING, as Biden’s abysmal performance made clear and confirmed with absolute certainty that the current neck and neck horse race will very quickly turn into a landslide Trump victory, unless Biden withdraws — and withdraws ASAP.
TERRIFYING, as Trump is morally and ethically unfit to hold any form of public office, let alone the presidency of the most militarily powerful country on planet earth.
TERRIFYING, as Trump’s economic platform will at best put the U.S., and at worst, the entire world’s economy into recession. His commitment to impose jaw-dropping tariffs of 60% or more will result in an immediate large increase in U.S. inflation and if reciprocated by other nations, may set off a trade war identical to the 1930’s trade war that economists say was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression.
TERRIFYING, as the corrupt and biased U.S. Supreme Court on July 1, 2024 released the judgement that Trump had been salivating about for quite some time — ruling that Trump is above the law and may act however he wishes as he is totally immune from prosecution so long as his actions have been carried out in his presidential capacity.
Of even more importance, two other parts of their judgement irrevocably free Trump, and presumably future U.S. presidents, to act outside the law. First, a court may no longer consider the President’s ‘state of mind’ in taking any action. Further, official acts cannot be considered as evidence in any potential trial.
In a July 5th interview with Nahlah Ayed on CBC’s The Current, Georgia State University law professor Eric Segall explained the unprecedented implications of the Court’s decision, including his fears about Donald Trump’s future actions – up to and including murder — should the unthinkable occur and he becomes President again.
Trump, if elected, will be a king with utterly no fear of prosecution no matter how evil his acts. He will, in fact, be as free to do as he wishes as kings and queens were in previous centuries. It is woefully ironic that U.S. voters may opt to put into power another absolute monarch, 248 years after winning their freedom from just such a monarchy in Britain.
TERRIFYING in particular, due to the far-reaching implications of Project 2025 – a plan developed by a conservative coalition led by The Heritage Foundation for a future Republican U.S. presidential administration to completely overhaul the American government and society. They have produced a 900+-page handbook, Mandate for Leadership, which details a conservative agenda for the next president.
This is a monster plan. Monster not so much as a result of its page count, but much more due to the ominously breathtaking and repulsive proposals that appear throughout it from beginning to end. Project 2025 intends that immediately on taking office, the Republican president will have a governing plan and the right people in place to undertake ‘top to bottom’ reforms.
The handbook’s proposals are truly frightening. Among its intents are:
- to replace thousands of civil servants with political allies by reclassifying them as political appointees — thus removing their job protections and requiring that they be hired or maintain their employment on the basis of loyalty to the President, not competence in their jobs.
- to infuse the government, schools, and society with so-called Christian values moving the U.S. ever closer to a theocracy. Project 2025 will not permit the teaching of values from any of the other great religions – Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.
- to consolidate the authority of the executive branch such that congress becomes neutered.
- to remove the independence of agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice department and put them under the direct control of the President. If the President wants someone charged criminally they will have the ability to simply order it. An independent judiciary will be become a relic of the past.
- to cut funds for climate research and to massively reduce environmental regulations.
- to reduce funding for Medicare and Medicaid.
- to remove and eliminate all legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
- to place undocumented immigrants in internment camps and to undertake massive deportations.
- to completely outlaw all types of abortion, including abortion pills.
- and to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement.
Although Trump is now attempting to publicly distance himself from the coalition’s plans, saying he knows nothing about Project 2025, and although he is never mentioned by name in the document, the plan is being commonly referred to as a ‘wish list for a Trump presidency’, and it is being promoted by long-time Trump allies. If this plan is implemented, as it surely will be following a Trump victory, U.S. society will be irreparably destroyed, opening up the door for other right-wing governments around the world to implement similar agendas.
TERRIFYING, as a Trump victory in November of this year will literally, not figuratively, be analogous to when fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler pushed into power during the last century. Both gained power legitimately with few citizens aware at the time what their true plans were able to seize total control of their respective governments within a few years.
Few initially were aware at the time that those two individuals were devils incarnate. It was only after each had held office for a number of years, absent any checks and balances, that the depth and breadth of their depravity, megalomania, and desire to cause harm, suffering, and death to millions of innocent civilians became apparent.
The one and only way to avoid a guaranteed landslide victory for the current U.S.A.’s Mussolini/Hitler wannabe is for Biden to immediately withdraw.
DEPRESSING and TERRIFYING, as if you have any doubts about Biden’s mental and cognitive capacities in spite of the debate — and even I did for a short period of time – I strongly urge you to take just a few minutes for your time – right now – to watch this July 6th Rational National podcast. It is a very valuable assessment of what was Biden’s only remaining hope – a one-hour interview with one of my favourite and very balanced journalists, George Stephanopoulos.
While this interview was not as devastatingly bad as Biden’s debate performance, it did nevertheless make it absolutely clear that he has very sadly, and without question, lost the intellectual and cognitive ability to be anything but a demoralizing, failing candidate if he remains on the ballot.
All we can do now is desperately hope that senior Democratic figures and major donors are successful in persuading Biden — known for many years to be very stubborn — to put the interests of planet earth first and immediately withdraw from the presidential race.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (July 9, 2024): 425.81ppm
One year ago (July 7, 2023): 422.52ppm
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