The quiet men won

In 1952,  in the wake of nerve and life-shattering World War II, the movie "The Quiet Man",  won the hearts of a nation.  John Ford, the director got an academy award and John Wayne made his mark starring in a non-western.  This week the quiet men won, too.  Competence and credibility spoke louder than any tweet or shouts over helicopter engines or exhortation from a rally podium.

Joe Biden, who had no campaign money, no get out the vote on the ground organization,  no fancy in house polling to target voters,  no multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, no thousands attending his rallies, won even in Michigan. Why?  His years in the public arena spoke louder than any the tools magnifying modern campaigners' shrill voices and high tech methods.  A quote uttered by a mourner of FDR's death and repeated by more than one candidate this winter, "we know him and he knows us",  was a message that rang clear to a wide and diverse group of demographics. Biden's blue-collar  Scranton PA roots, the tragedies in his life that shaped him to be a dignified empathy in chief, and his having Pres. Obama's back for eight years spoke louder than any words.  His most effective inoculation against his opponent's attacks on his person, that his stutter speech impediment means he is senile or demented, failed as his confidence returned in his voice and he appeared back on his game. The Russian disinformation machine is betting on their bots and the Trumpsters' tactics to paint  Biden as over the hill.  Tuesday showed many ignored Joe's life long stuttering problems causing him to search for words and they still preferred him over, crowd-rousing orators.   His quieter voice contrasted with the current occupant to the White House and served to elevate Biden's appeal as a competent, effective, and experienced public servant.  His quiet voice won.

More quiet men spoke. Vice President  Mike Pence quietly conducted a Coronavirus update press conference and allowed the scientists and experts to speak.  His administrative experience as a governor and development of voter support for public policy initiatives kicked in, garnering praise from numerous media pundits.  Getting nationwide recognition for his efforts,  Colorado's Governor Jared Polis quietly explained on national television why seventeen confirmed cases of Coronavirus (including those in Vail and Summit County)  in Colorado triggered his declaration of a state of emergency.  It gave him tools to give special attention to protecting the most at-risk citizens and expanding access to testing. He announced he was directing the  Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to ensure paid sick leave for workers in food handling, hospitality, child care, health care and education who are awaiting testing and to find ways to cover sick leave for people whose employers do not provide it, such as unemployment insurance.

https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/10/colorado-coronavirus-update-gov-polis-announcement/

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-colorado-state-of-emergency/

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/colorado-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-over-coronavirus-covid-19-2020-3

More thoughts about Biden's unexpected surge on March 10.

I really do not know who is pushing whom...the voters or some controlling factor in DNC, because I am not aware if the DNC had phone banks or other techniques to get that kind of turnout and vote for Biden. Biden was broke, had no ground organization or advertising bucks, but the voters already knew him and who he was and knew where he was coming from and why. That was the upside of his being effective and left of center all of his many years of public life. However, the DNC may have had a great deal of pressure on those candidates in the "moderate" lane to endorse Biden just before the March 10 vote. Except for a few states, Bernie's votes were in the mid-'30s and if the "moderate lane" candidate votes were added together, the moderate lane total was higher than the Bernie/Warren votes. That was true in Colorado. The DNC is rather broke, too. In a perfect world, idealism should prevail and addressing people's needs should be the motivation for voting for this or that. It usually is. This year what is unusual is that the electorate is thinking strategically. That never has happened in my years in politics. I think Bernie is making a mistake is claiming voters for Biden were the "establishment". Voters for him probably do not think of themselves as "establishment" . and puzzling, too. It was a simultaneous and organic uprising of the middle, not a manipulated one by media or some incredible political organizing. That this time electability is foremost may have been foremost for two reasons: hating Trump and what he stands for and the sad realization that if the candidate is not electable, we give Trump 4 more years to work his evil. I think those character issues and Trump's misogynism accounted for the suburban women surge in turnout. Why did then every single county in Michigan go for Biden instead of Bernie? I had not expected that either at all. I do not know. why, but I can speculate. Partly I suspect that Biden was not Hillary. Hillary had no blue-collar bonafide unlike Biden and the other, much to my feminist dismay, Biden was not an aggressive woman. I am working through my channels to get Biden to embrace Bernie's priorities if not his method of a socialist revolution. and changing the basic economic structure of the country. I am looking forward to the debate on Sunday to see how Biden responds to Bernie's clear issue challenge. Hopefully, Biden rephrases the goal and methods and embraces similar goals and concepts. I think most voters like Bernie's goals, just not using a revolution to get there and will settle for Bernie light. Another factor, voters realize that unless there is a blue wave that brings in a blue Senate (and enough to threaten the filibuster) and keeps the House...and occupies the White House, neither Bernie's platform and or Biden's have a prayer in hell of being enacted for years. Another factor, speaking as an old person, it is a demographic that has a gut negative reaction to the word socialism and communism. The younger generations have not gone through the cold war and do not fear the word. The Michigan vote was a bit like Obama and Iowa. Biden had to demonstrate he could win in a state where the majority electorate in the primary was not African American but was representative of the rust belt states exactly the ones that swung to Trump in 2016. Biden is right about the importance of the youth vote, and I hope the party and Biden can come together. In the long view, I think none of this will be factors in November. There will be a huge voter hangover from the Coronavirus and a realization among the unaffiliated and more rational republicans that Trump is an incompetent fool and Biden's experience is to be valued. I also think the Coronavirus has exposed and laid bare the failure of our current health system and such issues as paid sick leave and levers the government can use to remedy the gaps of capitalism that progressives support. A word about Grand County...our demographics are not typical of the rest of the nation: we are 89% White, with only 8% foreign-born/or ethnic or racial minority. It is no wonder Trumpists carry the county and Democrats have been in the minority. I do not have much faith this will change in the future until the demographics change.

Coronavirus crisis: When Trump's credibility gap hurts

Revised: updated March 2 - 19  2020 and again April 29, 2020

On January 27 in USA Today Joe Biden warned about the coming Covid, outlined a plan to combat it based upon his experience with the successful response to Ebola, which Donald Trump at the time ridiculed. In late January, Trump was in denial in spite of every federal agency, including the intelligence agencies flying red flags. In February, Trump did nothing. In early March he was spreading his ignorance and his mouthpiece at FOX was his megaphone, claiming this was a media-generated hoax. Here is the op-ed that ran in USA Today. Read it and weep at how another president than Trump would have reacted to COVID and think of the lives that could have been saved.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/01/27/coronavirus-donald-trump-made-us-less-prepared-joe-biden-column/4581710002/

 Once again today, as yesterday, Trump refers to the Coronavirus as the Chinese virus. Hopefully, most Americans are mindful this is his way of saying "not my fault; I didn't cause it".

What will be his fault will be the lies and spins and politically motivated denials that made us as prepared for the virus as Italy. Those who believed every word he uttered was true and the media and social postings who became his megaphone were part of the problem. His turn around once he figured the stock market was crashing regardless of his attempts to deny the threat may have caused the remarkable conversion. For that we can appreciate for once he listened to his experts and applied science.

A version of this  below was published in the Winter Park Times, March 5, 2020
https://winterparktimes.com/opinion/columnists/coronavirus-when-trumps-credibility-gap-hurts/

And his credibility gap is still fed by his own twists and lies: March 12: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/12/fact-checking-trumps-address-nation-cornavirus/?fbclid=IwAR0nhAyvPpUK73xM-_geGtrGmkyqw69BeXzPClxM2zg7_XnjrXeHYkKiaRE

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trump-defended-cuts-public-health-agencies/608158/

March 12,2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QOidd8FGUM  Biden's comments on Coronavirus

FOX news coverage of Coronavirus differs from their own corporate practices
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/media/fox-news-coronavirus/index.html

www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/

https://www.facebook.com/factcheck.org/videos/1366735383514511/UzpfSTEwMDAwMTA0MDY1NDg4MDoyMjYwMTE4ODU3NjI3Nzk2/        the worst of Trump's spins and denials leading up to the declaration of a national emergency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fUDIucr2eo
Sometimes satire conveys truth the best:
So much as been said and written about Donald Trump’s lies, spins, and looseness with the facts that Trump already had a credibility gap before the coronavirus crisis.  Fewer will trust him now particularly since that lack of credibility has real-life consequences There is a time when his words and actions hurt people because they do not know who to believe and in their confusion may react in ways that could harm themselves.  Such is the situation now as the coronavirus spreads worldwide. This is the time when trustworthy leadership is sorely needed to deal with the virus. Some may take Trump at his word of playing down the threat, calling any heightened awareness a Democratic party hoax,  and as a result, do not plan to take precautions. That gamble is theirs to take.

Few trusted Trump before the virus threat. Only a third of Americans found Trump honest and trustworthy, per a January 2020 Economist/YouGov Poll and a spring 2019 Gallup poll. Even a quarter of Trump voters and Republicans do not believe he is honest and trustworthy.  Trump has done nothing to make us feel more confident about the ability of his administration to look out after our welfare instead of his re-election welfare in the face of the coronavirus crisis. While he was visiting India and the world became aware of the new deadly strain of a virus Trump’s immediate words were not his concern for the suffering of anyone in the world, but for the impact on the US stock market. It plunged with fears of a worldwide economic slowdown and as I write this it is still a disaster for those who have IRAs or have retirement funds invested in it.  For Trump, it means damaging his main argument for re-election,  economic gains and a comfortable future, what some voters want so badly that they excuse his behavior and his character flaws.  He minimized the impact with the memorable words, "by April it will miraculously disappear”. Scientists just do not know.   The miracle will be if few in America get sick and die from it in the meantime. What we do know it is very contagious and the most conservative estimate is that the death rate is ten times more than the normal flu. Contrary to Trump's podium asserted claim that vaccination is being developed soon, "soon" was defined by experts as 12 to 18 months in the same press conference.

So far we have no idea how much of the virus is already present because we had no widespread testing program in place in the US even though the virus was known in December. The test kits immediately made available were faulty and turn around time for results took days. The more improved versions will be available next week. Local health agencies were given permission and formula to develop their own.  In 2018 Trump destroyed our national preparedness to meet a pandemic emergency by defunding, destaffing the national security mechanism once in place to coordinate a quick response. He had also cut funding to the  Center for Disease Control (CDC )and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientific government-funded agencies charged with combatting pandemics.  He muzzled those same experts by putting that great science denier Vice President  Mike Pence in charge of coordinating government statements. Trump wants us to trust his judgment? Pence had bungled the HIV scare as governor in his own state and promoted other anti-scientific based public policies.  Trump requested from Congress $2  billion-plus to make up for 2018 cuts in preparedness, but neither the expert personnel are in place nor the money to fund the efforts which still has to go through administrative hoops no matter how much Congress appropriates.   Now we will only get the truth filtered for conformity to suit  Trump's political advantage.  I will seek my advice from the World Health Organization instead of from the White House.  https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019


______________________________________________________________________________

Repercussions  are already being felt: I friend of mine who supplements her  limited retirement income by dog walking and pet sitting had all of her March appointments lost as her wealthy clients canceled their spring break cruises and their university students studying abroad were evacuated and sent home. Sometimes we do not think of the secondary ripple effect on small businesses and individuals throughout the economy who are affected by a shutdown caused by a  worldwide health crisis.   That is the micro view. The macro view per  Ved Nanda,   Denver Post columnist and distinguished DU professor writing  Feb. 22: " .. Coronavirus has already adversely affected China’s, as well as the global economy, as many factories are closed and even many American retailers (there)  have closed their stores. Apple is one prime example..., Coronavirus could threaten President Donald Trump’s recently concluded trade deal with China, whose centerpiece is China’s agreement to purchase an additional $18.5 billion in energy products this year and $34 billion next year beyond the current level...".

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/485398-is-coronavirus-a-hoax

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/02/factchecking-trumps-coronavirus-press-conference/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/united-states-badly-bungled-coronavirus-testing-things-may-soon-improve

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/02/americans-dont-believe-or-like-trump/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/260495/trump-seen-marginally-decisive-leader-not-honest.aspx

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-donald-trump-truth-president

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/02/will-the-new-coronavirus-go-away-in-april/

https://fox5sandiego.com/news/trump-says-coronavirus-will-miraculously-be-gone-by-april-once-the-weather-warms-up/

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/810095474/reexamining-mike-pences-record-on-health-care-as-indiana-governor

https://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-coronavirus-science-hiv-aids-smoking-evolution-climate-change-1489458

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/business/media/coronavirus-right-wing-media.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/06/trumps-bogus-effort-blame-obama-sluggish-coronavirus-testing/


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/yes-it-is-worse-than-the-flu-busting-the-coronavirus-myths

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-work-coronavirus-074817221.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_ca

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-falsely-blames-obama-admin-hurting-rollout-coronavirus/story?id=69410162&fbclid=IwAR3fCmdNdtUCoFaxtGz3jP-WKXx1g0uZlm50hnybj6auKT7tWRtIZTqPtTs

Tyranny and autocracy are a method of governance, not always an ideology

When I was a student majoring in political science, I came up with a theory that the degree of the tyranny of a government was related to ideology.  In those student days, we were just out of the McCarthy era of a red scare that Russian communism would bury us and every commie had to be rooted out of US society, not just government. In my junior year abroad in Berlin and travels through  Yugoslavia,  I had just seen first hand how Russian Communists consolidated their power on the zones of Germany they controlled.  It was brutal and a study in mind control and propaganda. I was also trying to figure out how fascism got such a hold on Germany. The results of Berlin's war wounds, vacant bombed-out lots and large expanses where houses and buildings one stood, piles of rubble and shrapnel pitted walls of those parts of buildings left standing testified to the horrible end of fascism.  I saw a relationship between the extremes of fascism and Russian Stalinist communism.  The usual graph is a straight line with communism on one left end and fascism on one right end and libertarian capitalism off a bit to the right and New Dealism on a bit off to the left, still to the right of socialism which was closer to communism than not.  The key difference between communism and socialism was being the difference of who owned and controlled the economy and means of production...socialism, not so much and communism totally owned by a government (in theory only by the people).

I saw the graph of ideology not as a straight line with extremes left and right, but with fascism in the mix, it was a circle, where Stalinist communism met fascism at the bottom of the circle.  I got an A and a shoutout from my poli sci professor for that analysis.

I have since given that some thought.  Ideology is indeed related to autocracy and tyranny because centralizing everything in the hands of government whether by force or by persuasion and propaganda makes it easier for a tyrant to control everything in the country which is totalitarianism. The belief when I was in college in the late 1950s was that socialism would automatically lead to communism and tyranny.  Hitler,  Stalin, and Tito exercised totalitarian control of the economy and the military/police reins of power.  There was no room for dissent and deviation from either ideology, fascism or communism and all methods of communication were in their control.  Dissenters were treated brutally with no civil rights. Gulags, firing squads, or gas ovens were death and killing methods.  The only difference was the racist elements of fascism and their harnassing capitalism and the "brotherhood of all workers" of communism. 

My modification is due to my on hand observations of post-cold war experience.  I have had the advantage of being on the ground with my families of blood and marriage living in socialist societies of western and former satellite countries. European socialism is not tyrannical and gives room for capitalism and individual rights and liberties.   One does not automatically lead to another and the ideological graph is a straight line, far left of pure communism to the far right of libertarianism. In fact, the reverse can happen with former communist societies that become much more liberal with a blend of both capitalism and socialism. Communism, capitalism are ideological economic systems but are different from the governance methods, which range from totalitarianism to libertarian, with liberal democracies being a blend in the line of various degrees of government control.  So long as people have a  say by vote and are protected with civil rights, the method of governance and the ideology they espouse are separate and do not necessarily meet in a totalitarian society.   When liberal democracy fails,  there is little difference between totalitarian communism and totalitarian fascism and the circle I saw as a student in the 1950's is still valid. Dictators espousing communism and dictators who are fascists are still dictators, but worse. They are totalitarian dictators.
Both extremes of communism and fascism meet when the ideological straight line is bent into a circle per their methods of governance.  The essential element common in both ideological extremes is authoritarian control of their thoughts, actions, and personal lives, tolerating no deviation and brutally punishing dissenters.  For that reason,  I am dedicated to opposing authoritarian control of governance and less worried about blends of socialism and capitalism. I see Trump's attempt and desire of governing like a dictator abhorrent. and to be stopped, and feared much more so than Sanders' European socialism.  I still prefer moderation in any case. Count me as a left of center moderate in economic and political systems.  Extremes leave me with little power to live my life as I want, while at the same time still caring about the wellbeing of those in my society.

Trump: Putin's tool?

Much has been made of Donald Trump's spur of the moment tweeted policy changes, but in one area he has been consistent from the time he was a candidate.  He is acting like a  tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is in spite of his being told by the intelligence community that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections to help Trump and that they are at it again in 2020.  It is no wonder Russia would want Trump to have a second term since Trump's foreign policy advances Russia's goals at the expense of traditional US national security interests. Holders of that traditional position view Russia as an adversary so it is in US national security interest to stop Russia from controlling their former East European satellites, most of whom belong to NATO. Stopping Russia's encroachment also strengthens the national security of our valued partners in Western Europe.

While Special Counsel Robert Mueller could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt Trump himself conspired with Russians in 2016, it was Trump's staff and associates who got into trouble. Many of Trump's associates went to jail or are awaiting sentencing, or a presidential pardon,  such as Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, because of their lies about frequent contacts with Russians before and during the campaign and into his administration. It was Trump's attempt to force a new anti-corruption Ukrainian president to investigate a Russian propaganda line of  "Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the DNC server in 2016 " that figured in the 2019 impeachment of Trump.  In Helsinki, Trump had told Putin he trusts Russian intelligence over US intelligence regarding the 2016 interference. Mueller's report detailed 160 pages of exactly how the Russians meddled in the 2016 elections to help Trump. This month, the Director of National Intelligence,  Admiral Joseph Maguire,  testified to Congress they were doing it again in 2020. That intelligence chief was immediately fired by Trump and replaced by a political appointee ambassador with no intelligence experience, but he is a Trump loyalist.

None of this should have come as any surprise. At the Commander in Chief's Forum, September  7, 2016, two months before his election, Trump laid out his views about Putin, giving him an A for leadership and glossing over his Crimea actions, as well as questioning whether Russia hacked the DNC server.  We were forewarned from spring 2016 through inauguration by any number of news reports that Trump supported foreign policies that dovetailed neatly with Russia's, considering recognizing as legitimate the Russian grab of the Crimea, lifting sanctions against Russia,  calling NATO obsolete as a military defense alliance, demanding members pay more,  and being fuzzy about whether Russia's ally Assad in Syria must go. None of those policies are or were in America's or our allies' interests since it weakens US allies’ ability to check Russian land grabs in the Baltics and Balkans and increased Russian involvement in the Middle East. Later as President, Trump refused to back NATO’s stated purpose to come to the defense when  NATO  member nations were attacked. So alarmed was Congress that  President Trump would lift sanctions against Russia, in 2017 Congress enacted legislation to prevent the lifting of sanctions and increasing them. Trump signed the bill, but he has ignored and missed the implementation deadline.

What is very clear is that Russia wanted Trump elected, wants him re-elected per the intelligence report to Congress,  and the Russians did and are doing what they can to help him. Tump is now unfettered by advice that does not support his preconceived notions and pro-Russian sentiments and he has begun purging all in intelligence services and the military who would confront him with inconvenient facts and evidence.  The hoped-for military "guardrails" are gone.  Every general who worked at the White House, from John Kelly, Jim Mattis, to H.R.McMaster  quit or was fired.  Trump is freed from any constraints of impeachment, oversight hearings and is convinced that he can do anything he wants as a sitting president.  If we think the next months until January 2021 will be a hazard to the health of our national security, just imagine what a second term could bring.

The Bernie Sanders factor:  in 2015-2017 Sanders supported changing the nature of NATO from a mutual defense treaty to including Russia and opposing NATO expansion.  He needs to repudiate this or face the GOP's planned strategy. This dates to 2015 and 2017.  I may be able to support many of Sanders'  social proposals, knowing that unless Democrats also control both houses of Congress, they may never get enacted, but might get enough support to improve if not change the status quo and reverse the damage Trump has and is planning to do to health care, the environment, social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  However, Sanders is going to have to repudiate this past stance on NATO because the GOP is laying in wait to charge him as being a Russian sympathizer and a communist. Trump also will be charged as being a Russian sympathizer..and the GOP game is a false equivalency, but they will be able to paint  Sanders as more dangerous in foreign policy and our national security than Trump. I see nothing in the impeachment inquiry that shows  Democratic members of either house think Russia is the USA's friend.  If anything, they were consistently viewing Russia as a dangerous adversary. In fact, Democrats supported the Russia hawks in the Trump administration that Trump has been and now is purging from the National Security Council, the CIA, the FBI, and the military.  Sanders' comment praising Fidel Castrol only adds to the GOP case Sanders' is a commie at heart. What this does to the Cuban vote in Florida I can only imagine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzYqmIL1WtU&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=BjyPi5FkKLa-cyPH%3A6&fbclid=IwAR3V1fqUVRiLP2cPzYpP4ExYaYrYcx7DY8Sm87LtKZRIPplBNQ778fWLbH0


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/24/bernie-sanders-greets-his-new-front-runner-status-with-greatest-hit-praising-fidel

https://apnews.com/e10865b9478744b2acf3923985992e11

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-putin-press-conference-election-meddling-2018-7

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/17/1912176/-New-info-emerges-explaining-why-Tillerson-called-Trump-a-f-ing-moron

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/trump-generals/601348/

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/19/807191309/dark-towers-exposes-chaos-and-corruption-at-the-bank-that-holds-trump-s-secrets

https://time.com/5788479/trump-fires-maguire/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/21/trump-is-ready-to-say-youre-fired-to-nato/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yNVAx68FB0&t=144s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_Donald_Trump_administration#Russia

https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-mcraven-defends-dni-joe-maguire-opinion-trump-2020-2

n interference on his behalf in the 2020 elections. What a contrast with Trump and it could have been a problem for Sanders if he had not. Trump's strategy against Sanders is to paint him as a communist and pro-Russian, in order to neutralize Trump's being a tool of Putin. That is Trump's usual tactic to paint his opponent with the same black colors that others paint him. It is ye old false equivalency he uses to deflect his own weaknesses.

Don't let the Democratic debate make you forget we are Americans and we are capitalists.

FOXBUSINESS.COM

Trish Regan: Socialist Bernie Sanders may get the nomination — and, Dems have only themselves to blame

Don't let the Democratic debate make you forget we are Americans and we are capitalists.