Tag: Biden

Donald Trump and a quote of bob Anderson

Before we get to the poll data let’s look at the type of things that have caused other nations to think less of us. There was a time where the world could look at our C.D.C. for guidance and truth and science. Not any more and it is because the Trump administration now controls the information. For example, C.D.C. scientists didn’t write the virus testing guidance on its website last month, and it was published against their objections, officials said.

The Pew Research Center found, in a survey of 13 countries, that America’s current standing in the world has dropped to unimaginable lows.

In 2020, Only

26 percent of Germans,
30 percent of the Dutch,
31 percent of the French,
33 percent of Australians and Swedes,
35 percent of Canadians, and
41 percent of the Japanese and British

Have a favorable impression of the United States.

In 2016,

The U.S. favorability rating ranged from a low of 57 percent (Germany) to a high of 72 percent (Japan).

In 2020,

Only 15% of respondents give the United States good marks on the pandemic.
China’s handling of the pandemic is more than twice as popular.
Trump is more unpopular than Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping.
- Eighty-three percent of respondents in U.S. allies have no confidence in America’s president.
- Only 16 percent trust him to do what is right in world affairs.

A new survey out Thursday from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that most Americans reject Trump’s isolationist, protectionist policies.

62% say that the lesson of covid-19 is that we need to “coordinate and collaborate with other countries to solve global issues.”
68% say it would be better “for the future of the country if we take an active part in world affairs.”
65% say that globalization is “mostly good” for the United States.

The majority of Americans are in favor of free trade, alliances and international leadership — the traditional pillars of America’s post-1945 foreign policy.

60% of Republicans now support for NATO.
- 85% of Democrats now support NATO
21% of Republicans now view climate change as a threat.
- 75% of Democrats now view climate change as a threat
40% of Republicans are now concerned about Russian power.
- 57% of Democrats are now concerned about Russian power.
61% of Republicans now are concerned by large numbers of immigrants and refugees coming into the U.S.
- 13% of Democrats now are concerned by large numbers of immigrants and refugees coming into the U.S.

Democrats want to address the United States’ internal problems and take an internationalist approach to foreign policy.

Republicans favor a nationalist, unilateralist approach while denying that America needs to address serious flaws such as racial or income inequality.

Republicans are far more friendly toward Russia, and far more hostile to NATO, than they used to be. However, 40 percent still see Russia as a critical threat and 60 percent still support NATO.

Most independents are closer to the Democrats than they are Republicans on foreign policy.

Do Bad Character Traits Trump Trump’s Policies?

By Fred

On June 5, 2020

In Politics

Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers
George Will,
For the better part of the last four decades, George F. Will has been at the intellectual center of American conservatism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-one-should-want-four-more-years-of-this-taste-of-ashes/2020/06/01/1a80ecf4-a425-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.
James Mattis, a four-star U.S. Marine Corps General, served as President Donald Trump’s 26th Secretary of Defense from 2017 to 2018)

http://https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/06/03/former-defense-sec-james-mattis-calls-trump-a-threat-to-constitution.html

The nation needs to choose leaders more wisely.
John Kelly, Former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump

No books, no friends, no music, no curiosity, no patience, no integrity, no compassion, no empathy, no loyalty, no conscience, no courage, no manners, no respect, no character, no morality, no honor, … not even a dog. (Bob Anderson)
Bob Anderson, BEing Liberal

Trump’s Approval Slips Where He Can’t Afford to Lose It: Among Evangelicals. Polls and private concerns from top social conservatives show the president’s standing with the cornerstone of his base isn’t what it used to be. A photo op with the Bible was supposed to help fix that.

Former President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney won’t support Mr. Trump’s re-election. Colin Powell will vote for Joe Biden, and other G.O.P. officials may do the same.

I am sometimes a little right of center but mostly left of center and try to be an Independent. I am not a fan of Bernie Sanders and certainly not a fan of Donald Trump. That said, here is an article from Being Liberal.

Being Liberal is rated as Left Biased based on story selection that always favors the left and Mostly Factual for factual reporting, rather than High, due to the use of reasonable sources, while excessively using emotional language that can occasionally lose context. (D. Van Zandt 7/30/2017) Updated (10/16/2019)

by Charles Pierce– (W) “In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, “And we shall overcome.” I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

“These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.

“And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.

“The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.

“Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don’t have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too. Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.”
– Charles Pierce

Kids, don’t try to pass your next history test with these ‘facts’ pic.twitter.com/A9lToIoaLP
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 3, 2020

The Case for Buttigieg

By Fred

On March 1, 2020

In Politics

I try to keep this site, HelloFred.com, informational and not opinionated. But with this post I wanted to try my hand for making a case for Pete Buttigieg for President.

Let’s start with a question. When do we turn leadership of this country over to a younger generation? Biden would be 78, Sanders would be 79, and Bloomberg would be 78 when they would take office in 2021. They would be 82, 83, and 82 respectively when they started their second terms. Warren 71/75 and Klobuchar 60/64 have yet to be competitive.

China seems to always have leaders that match those ages and typically Republicans have older candidates leading their ticket. Democrats tend to elect younger presidents with the last five Democratic presidents being 47, 46, 52, 55, and 43.

Only three presidents have been over 65 when taking office. One died shortly after taking office, one finished their second term with Alzheimer’s, and the other was Trump.

Buttigieg was told by a caller at a Town Hall that they didn’t want a President less than 40 years of age. Well, Buttigieg would be in his forties for 7 of his 8 years as President.

Its no secret that black voters have reason to mistrust white politicians especially in the southern states for they have so often made life more difficult for black people. So when Buttigieg fired his black Police Chief for alleged illegal wiretapping and one of South Bend’s police officers shot and killed a black person, there was reason to be hesitant about supporting Buttigieg.

South Bend was deteriorating and it had problems when Buttigieg was elected Mayor at age 29. Buttigieg left South Bend a better place eight years later. He was a manager. Firing the Police Chief might not have been in Buttigieg’s political interest or the right decision but the decision did not give a window into his soul proving him to be racist either.

Buttigieg has shown in the debates that he keeps his cool and can say what he wants to say with ease and without yelling. That should carry over to the Situation Room where he would listen and allow knowledgeable people to speak candidly. Decisions would come out of the Situation Room that reflected what the team of experts had weighed in on and not what one person decided to do based on tendencies and habits and ego.

Buttigieg would be able to coherently tell us the facts and keep us informed. In 2016 Americans were forced to select from two people that fairly or not were not liked by way too many people. Buttigieg is likeable.

I like that he is very smart and studied history instead of law. I like that he distinguished himself academically. I like that he can communicate in several languages. I like that he can play the piano, harmonica, guitar, and didgeridoo. I like that he served in the military and was in a war zone. I like that he was a mayor instead of a Senator.

I like that Buttigieg is a little left of center and not far left of center. Why? I say I like left because I believe that the left side is people oriented and the right side is business oriented; and the farther one goes left or right the more extreme the differences.

Being pro-business does not mean people support greed and being pro-people does not mean people do not want businesses to be very successful. Being pro-business doesn’t mean someone is materialistic. Being pro-people doesn’t mean someone is more spiritual. We need balance. Extreme pro business that ignores people leads to greed, lack of inner and outer peace, and war. Extreme pro people without material development leads joblessness.

Honesty is in our nature, and it is one of our greatest means of restoring faith in our democracy among everyday Americans and building a national movement rooted in trust and faith in our country and our beliefs. Internally and externally, our effort will be characterized by fidelity to the truth.
Pete Buttigieg

My faith teaches that the world is not divided into good people and bad people; [it teaches] that all of us are capable of good and bad things. Today, more than ever, politics matters, because leaders can call out either what is best in us or what is worst in us, can draw us either to our better or to our worst selves. Politics at its worst is ugly, but at its best politics can lift us up. It is not just policy making; it is moral. It is soul craft.
Pete Buttigieg

While Americans have moved from state to state, job to job, young to old; there has been a political battle for control of the direction America takes. The direction is dependent on how we incorporate into our voting these words from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth and shall have a new birth of freedom.

Does America move in the direction where we become a nation where all people are equal before the law and have unrestricted participation in self-governance?

Or, does America move in the direction where a only some us enjoy the full blessings of liberty; where only some of us can decide on who is granted privilege and who is capable of self-governance?

Lincoln and Washington have clearly told us their preference.

Update: Buttigieg has suspended his bid for the Presidency and endorsed Biden. Maybe this post should be changed to the case for Buttigieg for Vice President. Biden needs to bring new and younger faces into his administration and give them opportunities to evolve and take us into the future. He has already said that Buttigieg reminds him of his son Beau. But Biden promised to run with a female vice president so maybe Secretary of State for Pete.

This interview with Katie Curic reminds us of Pete’s capabilities.