With President Trump out of office, the United States can now continue to grow the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Part of that growth is a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. Which allows each nation to reduce its carbon footprint over time and re-evaluate its progress in intervals.
The Biden administration brings new hopes to lawmakers. Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken activist for the climate movement in America. In the interview below, she explains her enthusiasm with the new administration and climate change:
Donald Trump has remained in the news since leaving the White House Office. Not to the extent prior to leaving the White House. Since leaving office, the House Leader Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent over the impeachment articles for the second impeachment of outgoing (now gone) President Donald Trump. Republicans have since jumped ship and now are advocating for dismissing the articles of impeachment (for the second time). Why?
The reasons vary considerably but are centered around the fact that President Trump is out of office already. But the articles of impeachment (if convicted) would cement President Trump from ever seeking office again. I am in agreement with removing the ability of Trump from ever serving in any capacity again. He is destructive to society.
Late Night TV hosts have taken to their respective shows to call out the absurdity of letting President Trump off of the hook. The reporting comes from 'The New York Times' articles over the last couple of days. First, from the article titled "Late Night Is Unswayed by Republicans’ Excuses" the author gives us a bunch of different quotes that capture the insanity of the Republican party - letting President Trump off of the hook:
“Now, the last time Donald Trump got impeached, most Republican senators said they wouldn’t convict him because he hadn’t done anything wrong,” Noah said. “But after the Capitol attack, they had to admit that yes, maybe Trump actually did incite an insurrection. But they still don’t want to impeach him because that will make his followers angry — and have you seen his followers? I mean, they staged an insurrection.”
“Man, they’re throwing everything at the wall: Impeachment will stir up the country, the election was stolen, we all bear some responsibility. It’s like getting pulled over with a giant plume of marijuana smoke in the car and telling the cop, ‘I think it’s the exhaust pipe, and it is legal in several states, and I only started smoking when you pulled me over because that gave me severe anxiety.’” — SETH MEYERS
“This is one of the most ridiculous arguments ever. Trump committed crimes on his way out of the door. So, what, the people just have to let it go? That policy doesn’t exist anywhere else. If you get fired at Best Buy, they don’t just let you steal a TV on the way out. They don’t even let you take that blue shirt with you — you walk out of there naked.” — TREVOR NOAH
“I mean sure, his supporters were looking for some of you with torches and pitchforks, but come on, that was like three weeks ago.” — JAMES CORDEN
“I love them out there going, ‘No, no, no — he’s not in office anymore, so we don’t need to convict him.’ That’s like someone burning down your house, and then you go, ‘We should find the person who did this’ — ‘Look, the house is gone now, let it go. Let’s focus — let’s focus on building a new house.’” — JAMES CORDEN
The Republican party leadership has lost its minds. Why would you let politicians off of the hook who incited violence at the U.S. Capitol? Meanwhile, the FBI continues to prosecute local followers who showed up at the U.S. Capitol at the riot. Followers who thought that they were there to carry out the ordersPresident of the United States' duty?
The second article is titled "The Man Who Wouldn’t Leave" continues where the last article left off. Again Republican Senators want the impeachment trial to go away:
“Earlier today, all 100 senators were sworn in as jurors for Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial, which starts on Feb. 8. The trial is to determine if the attack on the Capitol by thousands of people wearing flags that said ‘Trump’ and hats that said ‘Trump’ is the fault of — get this — Trump.” — JAMES CORDEN
“Today, only five Republicans voted in favor of the trial, which means there’s no chance Trump will be convicted. Even Mitch McConnell, who specifically said Trump provoked the crowd, voted against it. I knew we should have been suspicious when he did the right thing. That was a sign.” — JIMMY KIMMEL
“Now, to get a conviction, the House is going to have to convince 17 Republican senators that the former president incited the riot. Even though they were all hustled out through secret tunnels to keep them from being murdered by the president’s own bloodthirsty, fascist squad of goons, they’re on the fence.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
These Republican Senators must be having PTSD memory lapse. Can they not remember that their lives were threatened by the actions of President Donald Trump? This historic moment deserves to be center stage, and a trial needs to occur. If these Republican Senators choose not to convict, questions should be raised as to the fitness of themselves to carry out their public duty. Stay tuned.
With the United States of America finally, back in the hands of a worthy leader, the time has come to strengthen up the federal programs across the board. Over the last few decades, some federal programs have suffered. Under the Trump administration, Federal programs were being destroyed at break-neck speed. Inserting inexperienced leaders in federal services at the top to lead the departments in charge of making sure that the nation is served appropriately. What does Ralph Nader think of this?
New Auto Safety Report Demands Biden Strengthen Federal Programs Now
Today the New York Times rediscovered its previous auto safety news beat that blossomed in the 1960s after my book, Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) caused an uproar in Detroit. Reporter Christopher Jensen told New York Times readers about a new report by a coalition of six automotive safety groups demanding that the new Biden Administration recharge the moribund, industry-dominated National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with strong leadership, adequate budget, and long-overdue, proven vehicle safety standards.
Since its creation by Congress in 1966, NHTSA has had some bright moments which made motor vehicles more crash-worthy and operationally safer, with less pollution and more fuel efficiency. Since then, over four million lives have been saved and many more injuries prevented. Property damage was diminished and insurance premiums were lower than they would have been had the “wild west” non-regulation, “style over safety” manias been allowed to continue. Laissez-faire runs amok.
In recent decades, however, under both Democratic and Republican Administrations, NHTSA was degraded into more of a sporadic, meek consultant to the auto giants, instead of a strong law enforcement agency. Its Administrators wafted sleepily in their few years at the helm and then retired to lucrative positions in the industry they failed to regulate.
To the extent that NHTSA did anything significant, it was due to a small band of gritty citizen safety advocates such as Joan Claybrook, the prime author of this report, Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety, and the insurance-industry-funded Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety led until recently by Jackie Gillan and now Cathy Chase. These advocates used the tools of litigation and lobbying to protect all of us, receiving little recognition for their unsung and life-saving endeavors.
Alas for the most part, at NHTSA, the routine was official inaction, not considered “news” by the mass media. Standards not issued nor strengthened, recalls not ordered, penalties not applied, data not compiled by make and model, safety research vehicles not funded and chronic secrecy by the auto companies and government not qualifying as “newsworthy.” A few high-profile auto defect scandals, often exposed when manufacturers were sued by tort lawyers, were widely reported, but the news coverage rarely included NHTSA’s inaction and institutional abandonment by Congress and the White House.
The revival of the federal government’s motor vehicle safety/pollution/fuel efficiency missions must start with Congressional hearings for updated, stronger laws, including criminal penalties for refusal by auto companies to recall defective or noncompliant vehicles, legislatively mandated safety advances, and more capacity and funding for NHTSA’s tiny budget, now far less than what is spent on military bands!
With distracted driving and ever more vehicles on more crowded highways, fatalities (including pedestrian casualties) started to increase pre-Covid.
The media, on its part, should not be distracted by the hype around a premature autonomous vehicle and super smart highways. Every day, people are dying in the old-fashioned ways that could be prevented by long-ready, better-handling and crash-protective vehicles.
Imagine the benefits of safer vehicles with far more environmentally benign engines and adequate funding for cost-effective public investment in new forms of public transit and upgrading existing mass transit. Getting around on the ground should include many diverse forms of arriving at one’s destination in a timely, safe, and environmentally preferable manner.
The Claybrook report titled, Safer Vehicles and Highways: 4.2 million U.S. Lives Spared Since 1966, is very specific about what needs to be done. New technical talent is needed at NHTSA in this era of electric cars, autonomous safety assists, and the computerization of motor vehicles vulnerable to hacking.
A tougher position on recalls is essential. “Automakers continue efforts to minimize expensive recall costs by delaying the recall, narrowing the scope of a recall, or denying the defect,” declares the report.
Moreover, many of the safety features and performance levels in your vehicle have not been updated for years in practical, cost-effective ways long urged by the more innovative automotive suppliers. These include child safety safeguards.
It is time for the Biden people, under the new Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, to catch up and end the soporific record of their predecessors, including that of those from the Obama/Biden Administration. (See: Jerry Cox Steven Bradbury and Why 30 Million Takata Airbags Are Not being Recalled).
The French have a saying “the more things change the more they remain the same.” That applies to the auto company executive-suite culture. In their comfortable atriums, they arrange for deniability while they press for immunity from criminal and tort laws. They still preside over obscure financing and advertising deceptions. They still dangle before buyers of their less expensive vehicles, over-priced options for long-amortized safety improvements that are standard equipment on higher-priced vehicles so as to pressure them to upgrade.
They still instruct their lobbyists to go to Congress with one message “NO, NO, NO” to long-delayed improvements for motorists to reduce the casualty toll on the highway and the various economic costs associated with such stagnant corporate stubbornness.
Biden promises a New Day from Trumpism. Let’s see if he and his team can provide America with a New Day of Public Safety from callous corporatism on the nation’s roadways.
With a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, the time has come to restore American programs that serve Americans!
With all of the craziness that has occurred today, I am taking today (Friday) off of this blog post. What I will say is that I am personally happy that the control of the United States of America is back in control of a safe person. A politician with experience in running a nation the size and scope of the United States of America.
That being said, one major victory for everyone is the return to the Paris Accord. As readers have learned in the past, there was no opting out or quitting (or even pulling out) of the Paris Accord as President Trump stated -- a false statement -- years ago.
The world is moving toward more renewable energy. Regardless of what people would like to think locally.
Let us reflect on the last two weeks over the weekend. Have a great weekend.
What can some of us - the peaceful part - of America do in the current setting (i.e., time) but sit back and watch. America has been under assault by Americans (renegade Americans). Why? President Trump has incited riots that resulted in the death of Americans. Death! Why? Protesters are asking for pardons - why? See below. Before we get to that, let's read what Ralph Nader has to say on the whole matter.
Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, a graduate of Harvard Law School, asked his colleagues: “If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, then what is?” Ten Republicans voted for Impeachment, but 197 House Republicans disagreed. Trump incited the crowd in person on the Mall. He lied to his supporters saying, “I’ll be with you” on the march to the Capitol. Trump then refused to call the crowd back when it turned into a mob that violently stormed into the Capitol. Trump scurried back to the White House to gleefully watch on TV his “special people” rampage through the Congress with destructive intent.
Why should the GOP obeisance to Trump, the Mobster in Chief, this recidivist criminal, a violator of many provisions of the Constitution, obstructor of justice “as a daily way of life” according to his former national security advisor John Bolton, and hourly lying sociopath, surprise anyone?
Congressional Republicans have aided and abetted, for four years, Trump’s assertion that “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as president.” Dangerous Donald did just that. He finally incited a massive, homicidal street crime against the very Congress that let him get away with everything, day after day, as if there were no laws and no Constitution to be observed whatsoever.
The GOP speakers who defended Trump in the House Impeachment debate will go down in history as unsurpassed political cowards and lying bloviators, led by Trump clone, belligerent Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Trump’s Congressional protectors, however, failed. The House of Representatives voted for Articles of Impeachment that are on their way to the Senate for a certain trial. The Senate should convict treacherous unrepentant Trump and ban him from ever seeking federal office again.
In the days before the trial, more incriminating evidence will emerge.
Already, a GAO investigation is underway into Republican lawmakers suspected of being complicit in aiding the mob’s objective of physically overturning the results of the presidential election. Evidence of early facilitation both before and during the armed invasion is reaching investigators, including the involvement by some Capitol Police and other police officers in plain clothes.
Trump’s business allies and supporters are not waiting for any verdicts. Major corporations such as Disney, Coca-Cola, and J.P. Morgan Chase have suspended campaign contributions to the GOP. Last week, the powerful National Association of Manufacturers demanded that Trump be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. Trump’s banks, to whom he owes hundreds of millions of dollars, are distancing themselves from their insatiable borrower. New York City has canceled its contract with the Trump corporation. More cancellations of deals with TRUMP, Inc. will come.
Though verbally defiant, admitting no mistakes, and as usual taking no responsibility, Trump is a broken man, assailing his most loyal subjects including total toady Vice President Mike Pence. Deprived of his Twitter machine and other Internet platforms, Trump will soon be a besieged debtor, a manyfold investigated and sued defendant abandoned by the likes of Mitch McConnell.
The calculus of political survival for the just re-elected McConnell’s Congressional Republicans has changed. In the minority, no longer will Republicans be able to confirm corporatist judges or pass Trump-like corporate tax cuts for the super-rich, or dismantle health and safety regulations.
But out on the MAGA hustings, Trump may be a huge tormentor, raising money and wanting to run again. Such a prospect is intolerable to McConnell. That is why he is turning against Trump by declining to oppose Impeachment and signaling that he may unleash his Republican Senators to convict Trump, if only for their own political survival. The GOP polls are slipping and will slip more as the toxic stench of what occurred before and during the January 6th attack increases.
McConnell does not want Trump either to run or threaten to run again in 2024. The only way that yoke can be lifted is to free 17 or more Republican Senators to vote for conviction followed by a simple majority vote banning Trump from future federal office.
Out of office and prohibited from regaining office, Trump will be increasingly defined by his more violent, hardcore Trumpsters. Trump being Trump, will not oppose their street actions. He will want to continue to address and exhort his followers to remain a political force.
This entanglement is already underway. While Washington, D.C. is brimming with thousands of soldiers, police, and surveillance technology, the Trump militants are unfazed. They are planning more protests.
According to Pentagon officials, reported in the New York Times, “Some 16 groups – some of them saying they will be armed and most of them made up of hardline supporters of Mr. Trump – have registered to stage protests.” This cannot be good political news for the Congressional Republicans left behind after the Trump family departs the White House.
What are the probabilities that a conviction in the Senate will be achieved? Better than 50/50, given the survival instincts of the politicians wanting the felonious Trump off their backs.
As for Trump, what he has left until noon on January 20th, barring some last-gasp grotesque eruption, is the pardon power for his closest allies like Rudy Giuliani, his family, and himself. He could enlarge the range of pardons by declaring a Day of Forgiveness on January 19th with general pardons of deserving, elderly prisoners, political prisoners, and nonviolent drug offenders in the federal prisons.
However, such a vision is inconsistent with narcissism. We’ll see.
Riots that left people dead. And now some protesters are asking for pardons from President Trump? Jenna Ryan, a realtor from Texas, decided to board a private jet and fly to Washington D.C. to participate in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. She describes her journey as a Patriotic Duty that day. Her actions have resulted in Federal Charges and possible jail time. She pleads with President Trump for a pardon. Here is an interview with Good Morning America:
Wow!
Here is my response to her actions in the video below:
It is not patriotic to destroy America! There is no excuse for Miss Ryan's actions. She should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
The time has come to have an awkward conversation about the obvious. The obvious is that there is a large following of President Donald J. Trump. Even more obvious is that the disillusioned President is waging war with the United States of America. A war that played out last Wednesday when supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol at the request of the President. President Trump has refused to accept the obvious fact that the 2020 elections were carried out, and the result was the President-elect Joe Biden won.
In an interview with Katie Couric, a former cult follower describes the parallels between past known cult leaders and President Donald Trump:
You decide for yourself if there are parallels between former cult leaders and President Donald Trump.
With the unprecedented events taking place in the nation's capital last week, it is easy to forget that the COVID-19 virus is still ravaging the world. The virus is persistent and consistently attacking citizens whenever and wherever possible.
Last week at the capitol is a perfect opportunity for the spread of the virus further with thousands of rioters and protesters seizing the capital for hours. Let us not forget that the virus will ultimately take many more lives if we do not continue to take safety measures against transmission.
According to reporting from Politico's Nightly report on COVID-19, the month of January could be the largest number of deaths thus far in the total time that COVID19 has been present:
MEANWHILE, IN OTHER BAD NEWS — Not even two weeks into the new year, January is shaping up to be the worst month ever when it comes to Covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations.
In the first 10 days of 2021, nearly 30,000 Americans died because of Covid, more than the country’s total death toll in all of February, March and the first half of April. These past 10 days alone have accounted for nearly 8 percent of the country’s total death toll of 365,630.
The virus could claim another 70,000 lives by Jan. 31, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation — 100,000 deaths in just one month.
When are we going to realize that the only strategy besides the vaccine is social distancing and mask-wearing?
When are we going to accept that the vaccine outweighs the risk?
The FDA would not have let the vaccine rollout if the production and testing did not meet their standards?
