American Democracy is at a Crisis

These Trump Challenges must be Defeated

The American system of government has been on the edge ever since Trump was elected. He broke rules and pushed limits whenever he could. Why not? He grabbed women "by the pussy" without asking and got away with it. Why not grab Washington and its established norms by the crotch? He did and so far has gotten away with it again. Trump was not a President. He was and still is an egomaniac. But it worked.

Three things have to be accomplished to at least have a chance of preserving the America that evolved until 2016:

1. The issue of people ignoring a congressional subpoena has to be met head on. None of Trump's minions can be allowed to ignore their duty to show up for questioning. If they are not criminally charged, nobody will show up in the future. This is especially important given the possibility that Trump and Co. could be back in power. They must be charged and found guilty quickly. If prison is the result so be it.

2. The Democratic Party is now looking as fragmented as the GOP. It is time to get its act together. It is great that younger blood is forming part of the Dems. but like it or not, some of them are mere rookies. Changing Washington politics is overdue but blowing up your own party in the process is unacceptable. The Democrats are handing the next election back to you know who. AOC and co. you have to earn your stripes - as yet you have not. Manchin and Sinema nix the grandstanding.

3. Settle the issue over 3.5 trillion and pass something that will benefit millions of Americans. This is needed to win a majority in the mid-term elections and boost the economy prior to 2024. Only then might they also take 2024.

A nice-to-have would also be to charge Trump officially with something they can make stick. Unfortunately even an inmate or ex-inmate can run for and win the Presidency. Nothing in the Constitution prevents it. If he wins the next election it might indeed take a civil war to remove him. Right wingers are just crazy enough to give him the election if he is charges or incarcerated! Welcome to America.

Do you really want to pay this guy a pension on which he will find a way to pay no taxes? Electing Trump for a second term would be like handing the papacy to the devil.

#thebrewsterblock

The Next U.S. Election Needs Unbiased Observers. Who?

Presidential Election 2024 will need Chaperones - like a Prom!

I have said this many times. It will never happen, but I will write it anyway. After all of the lies that Trump and very deceitful Republican members of both the House and Senate have spread, there can not be another U.S. election without all the crap generated in 2020. The damage is done. Thanks Donald, Mitch, Ted, Lindsey and the rest.

When you add to that all of the "fix is in" legislation recently passed at the state level (again primarily Republican) there is no way anyone resident or not will have faith in future elections. Trump has put his country right up there with Russia and North Korea in terms in that nobody in the international community, and unfortunately the domestic one, has faith that American elections are fair.

It is time for impartial observers to be present at all levels of American elections. Apparently some 23 states already allow this (https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/international-election-observation.aspx). Articles I have just read point out that it is a very difficult task for a non-resident. 

They don't know the system or the habits of a country's good and bad voting practices. They don't know the tricks of the trade. I remember in 2020 a Republican faction in California put out its own "collection" boxes in democratic areas. What do you think was going to happen to any blue votes in those boxes? We only found out because of the media. Just the same, I think the time has come. Any attempt to build back better voting integrity should be encouraged. New Republican state laws have turned their own future elections into a farce.

So who could play this role? The potential list is long. A few follow but it is all for naught as I will explain later.

1. Judges. This is a very expensive solution and as most people know by now, some American judges are not saints and typically lean left or right. This includes the Supreme Court. Besides being a very expensive suggestion, many, many would be required and they are needed elsewhere in the crime ridden paradise called United States.

2. Priests or other religious leaders. Once again perhaps elsewhere but remember this is the home of Jim and Tammy; Jim Jones; Ted Haggard; Richard Baker (Google him); Jimmy Swaggart (I think I remember him "crying" for his sins) and many more. It is too bad but many of the country's most visible men (and women?) of the cloth are wolves in sheep's clothing. Let us not forget that the worst of them got rich by hoodwinking millions of gullible Americans. Why trust them with ballots?

3. Mickey, Minnie and the gang from Disneyland? OK I threw that in to see if you read even this far.

4. Audit Firms? This seems like a good choice. Still, recall that they look after the Oscar selection process and that is hardly squeaky clean. Every corrupt Wall Street firm that screwed the entire country had auditors. So did Donald Trump. Need I say more? We all laughed at Cyber Ninjas because they had never handled an election before but hey - they found that Biden won even more soundly. That was one tiny area. The largest audit companies have big, big, corporations who pay them lots of money. The lobbyists will just switch from influencing politicians to influencing auditors.

5. Another country or two? Who? Most don't trust America anymore. Why should they? America has broken one too many agreements. Russia? China? Others? They wouldn't know a legitimate election if they tripped over one. Canada might be a possibility. They could be bilingual for the French communities. I am Canadian. Don't forget we have a hell of a lot of money riding on America buying our oil and permitting our pipelines through certain states. Maybe this is not a good idea. Besides - could Americans really tolerate Justin Trudeau's doublespeak for that many months? We don't know what he is really saying ourselves so how could Americans? 

I like the idea but it will not happen. Why? Because anyone chosen will want to return home some day in something other than a pine box. If the Republicans lost, a few would most certainly be hung outside a polling station or be shot by one of the thousands of guns in bystanders' back pockets. Yes it is that bad.

Only in America. You made your own bed. Now you have to LIE in it. Many in Washington and state capitals are already doing so and don't want to wake up.

#thebrewsterblock

American Citizens Tired of Same old, Same Old

The Presidency Needs a Kick Start

Trump became President because the people were tired of status quo politics in Washington. Who can disagree with that? Trump was just the wrong agent of change. Hopefully rational people will realize that in 2024. OK, make that before 2024.

But the need for a change is still there, much as I like Biden. The old guard are all getting older. What is needed is the right guard, pun intended. After all - things have smelled in Washington for a long time.

Here are a few suggestions which I have discussed in the past.

1. It is time for a female at the helm. Look at: Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain); Golda Meir (Israel); Indira Gandhi (India); Angela Merkel (Germany); Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand) to name a few. Some corporations have also done well under female leadership. Men love to bring up the "bitch" word or the "time of the month" syndrome. Any man who parrots this is not worthy of being a leader. Men have started and continued most of the great wars of the world, not women. If you want to stereotype, women are logical, organized, and actually communicate with each other on a much more basic level than men.

2. A younger person would be welcomed. The world and its cultures have changed a lot in the last few decades. Younger people if left on their own have less racial bias or gender bias. They know that the environment is in a mess and fixing it is a top priority. They also know that the gap between the super rich and the rest of us has to narrow.

3. Eisenhower was the last General who became President. There are arguments for and against having a military man in control but having a lawyer in control was seldom much better. Generals know the consequences of real war and are used to giving orders and dealing with those who don't follow them.

4. Third party. It is time for a true center party in the United States. Combine this with youth and a female and you might hit a grand slam. This party must share some values of the left and right but know how to compromise and appeal to the majority. It would force the other two to smarten up, or keep losing. The Tea Party was not a good example. It was too far right and Sarah Palin was too far wrong!

5. Publication of a President's tax return should become mandatory, not voluntary.

6. Here is one more change also discussed in the past. Pathetic as this is, American elections now need impartial international observers at all polling stations. Republican states are already cooking the books. The "fix" Trump referred to is within his own party. It is too bad that observers will never happen. No American would admit that things have declined this much in the ultimate democracy but they have.

If things keep going the way they are in America it is doomed. This is like road rage at the highest level. If there were horns in either chamber, they would be blowing constantly.

The world has changed. Attitudes have changed. Climate has changed. It is time for leadership to change as well.

#thebrewsterblock

Trump 2024

Is 2024 just 1984 forty years later?

I never read the book "1984" by George Orwell but now I will. I have always heard about it and the term "Big brother is watching you!" I would say that some of Trump's more elite followers are trying to create the society depicted in the book. To get a flavor, just read its Wikipedia article - scary stuff.

I doubt if the Donald is capable of getting through an entire book of this volume but he appears to be modelling himself after some of its characters (someone must have counselled him). I have mentioned before, I think he is also a Joe McCarthy wannabe. Also remember that "Make America Great Again" was touted by Reagan long before Trump echoed it. He did author The Big Lie but I doubt much else.

What is alarming to me is just how far right the GOP has now swung. Some will point out that many Democrats have shifted very much to the left - also true. I believe however that the balance of violent behavior is coming from the right. As evidence one only has to look at the events on January 6th. It was not leftists or Democrats calling for Pence to be hanged and Pelosi to be shot or otherwise hurt, it was flag-carrying Trumpers. Remember that this was their own Republican Vice President.

Trump didn't just throw his own Vice President under the bus, he was willing to watch them march Pence up the stairs to the gallows and probably do nothing as he dropped through the floor! Look at the events this week-end, September 18. Trump is once again trying to fire up his people in defense of those who built those gallows and stormed the Capital.

The American Dream has become a nightmare. It is all but dead. To me the only way to salvage some of what America used to be is to have the bravest of the brave on the right form a new Republican party. It will have to totally redefine what it stands for. I recently heard a recording of Governor Reagan talking to Nixon years ago and referring to black Africans as monkeys! It needs someone brave enough to inspire a new following the way Trump or Trumpism did for his base. For sure conservative ideals must be a part of it but NOT violence. 

It also has to recognize that America is simply not going to be predominantly white anymore. That does not kill the dream - it just changes it. It will not only save America but prove to the world just how resilient this unique country is.

Please step up to the microphone Liz Cheney, or Mitt Romney, or a former General. Imagine how powerful it would be if such a man/woman did step up and win the Presidency with a partner of a different race.

If the country was capable of electing and tolerating Mr. and Mrs Trump for four years, it's not a big stretch!

#thebrewsterblock

FBI and Co. GUILTY in Nasser Probe

Somebody has to pay for those female athletes' abuse!

This Senate hearing into the abuse of young female athletes at the Olympic level and elsewhere was flawed before it began.

You could not help but feel for and admire the four athletes who spoke to the Senate hearings on behalf of many, many other girls. It is a travesty that so many responsible people in the FBI and Olympic groups ignored them. Somebody other than the girls must pay.

The problem I see with the Senate Hearing is that the optics were bad from the start. Why on earth are women not controlling these hearings? How can we say we understand when the athletes ended up facing a bunch of old men who look like they wouldn't understand sexual abuse if they tripped over it? These men were older than the victims' grandfathers. When most of them were as young as the girls, touching, kissing, feeling and ignoring such pleas were par for the course. The poor women had a large handicap before they even got up onto the tee. Who wants to lay it all out there for their Grandfather?

They should have been speaking first and foremost to other women. Nasser should have been behind bars after the first complaints - years ago. Those in the FBI and other organizations who ignored things, told the girls to keep quiet, or simply kept stalling must be punished.

Two additional things come to mind. Today in the realm Trumpism and the pandemic, we keep hearing people that sound completely zingy talking about demonic celebrities who are trying to capture and consume our children in some satanic ritual. This gives those dingbats ammunition to say - "See! We told you they are out there!" The authorities including the FBI are accessories in this matter.

Secondly, what I did not hear about was how on earth Nasser was ever hired or put into his position without appropriate screening. Surely anybody who is in constant contact - physically - with attractive and fit young women - too timid to scream as loudly as adult women might - must be screened at a much higher standard before being hired or appointed. This same standard by the way has to be applied to any of the so-called "support" groups and individuals to whom the girls are referred for treatment. Otherwise you could be rescuing these girls from the wolf and tossing them to a jackal. 

Those who ignored the complaints or covered them up must suffer severe penalties, because they deserve it and to set a precedent for others.

These are brave women who will forever be remembered. Sadly it is another broken cog in the already flawed American justice system. Let me guess: some people will say that the solution is to arm young female athletes with pistols so they can defend themselves in the future. The second amendment solves another problem!

#thebrewsterblock