It’s Always Darkest Just Before Dawn

Posted on February 6, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, February 6, 2022

Apparently, people have been saying that for four hundred years. Whenever things look really bleak, when people are terrified or sad and feeling hopeless, that mantra helps them stay sane. The darker it gets the closer dawn must be. If you’re not fond of metaphors, maybe you’ll like Bookbrowse’s take better: “Things always seem to get worse before they get better – even in the worst of circumstances there is hope.”

Anyone who has read this blog knows I have resisted melodrama when discussing the future of our country. I’ve suggested that there is far too much media hype that blows the seriousness of what has happened since the 2020 election out of proportion. I have never stopped being optimistic about our future, but protecting it will soon require action by all of us who care. Cheerleading from the sidelines while the forces of darkness attack the fundamentals on which our nation was built can only have one outcome.

In just the last century we can cite sufficient examples: the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the fascist takeover of Italy and Germany, the subjugation of North Korea, Hungary and Venezuela’s slide toward dictatorship. It is now clear to everyone that Donald Trump will stop at nothing to get what he wants. We all know what he is, though some of us have continued to hold out hope that at some point he’ll just give up and accept reality. That hope relies on the assumption that Trump possesses a shred of integrity and decency. He does not possess either. If there’s something he craves that he can’t own, he’d rather destroy it. Just ask the residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

I am still optimistic. Trump’s most recent actions clearly reek of desperation. He feels the walls closing in on him as various arms of our justice systems do their work. His disastrous appeals to the courts since the election have surely shaken his confidence in the “loyalty” of the three Justices he placed on the Supreme Court. A titanic fight for the existence of the Republican Party looms, and with it the future of Donald Trump’s influence and the survival of our democratic system. Things are going to get very tense in 2022. Billions of dollars are going to be spent by people who think they can profit from being on the winning side.

It’s going to be a political bloodbath, a scandal that the entire world will be watching on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. Even if the proponents of racism, hatred, and greed are defeated in the end, the sideshow will leave an indelible stain on how the rest of the world views America. And that’s probably the best-case scenario. It’s time to develop a regular correspondence with the people who represent you in Congress, especially in states or districts where the coming election is likely to be competitive.

What is at stake is everything we believe in. Trump has already plunged a dagger into our belief in truth and science. From the very beginning he masterminded a campaign of misinformation and disinformation. He used the Nietzschean trick of simply reversing the meanings of common words and getting his sycophants to chant them at every opportunity. Nearly a third of Americans now believe “fake news” and “alternative facts” are real things. The seriousness of that cannot be overstated. When we can no longer reasonably distinguish truth from lies, we will have doomed our futures.

That is what Trump is counting on, which makes Task One for the rest of us preventing that from happening. When Trump screams to his ignorant supporters that our entire justice system is corrupt and aligned against him, the rest of us have to scream louder that it is not. When Trump calls his crazed militias to arms to defend him against legally obtained felony indictments, the rest of us have to shout them down. And when individual Representatives and Senators speak in defense of insurrection instead of the Constitution, their constituents must speak even louder at the ballot box.

This isn’t about politics. Politics is the way governing bodies negotiate their differences to move the country forward. Trump’s movement is a perversion of the natural order, an attempt by people who value power and wealth above all else to undermine our nation for their benefit. Much like the way my father and the rest of the Greatest Generation went off to war in the 1940s to defend us against fascism and dictatorship, the current generation must stand up against Trumpism. The stakes are as high today as they were then.

Yes, it’s looking dark on the horizon. But it’s always darkest just before dawn.

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The Most Dangerous Animal on Earth

Posted on February 1, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, February 1, 2022,

Animals aren’t inherently dangerous unless you get caught between them and their young, their home, or their food. The most dangerous animals are those that are cornered, scared, or injured. Thus, we describe trapped, deadly criminals as cornered rats, hunters stay clear of wounded game, and everyone knows to avoid rabid dogs and rodents.

Any philosopher, sociologist, or animal trainer will tell you the most dangerous species on the planet is homo sapiens. It follows that a cornered, terrified, wounded human is potentially the most dangerous creature on the planet. What if that human also possessed no moral center, acted ruthlessly in all situations, and fit the classic definition of a narcissistic sociopath? What if he had a darkly charismatic aura and a unique ability to appeal to people’s worst natures, and completely lacking in conscience, would pander to anyone who would open their checkbooks or vote for him?

If all that were true, we would be talking about someone whose niece, a licensed psychologist, described him as the most dangerous man on the planet. She takes that so seriously, she included those words in the title of her family biography. I agree with Mary Trump. I’ve believed since he came down that escalator in Trump Tower five-and-a-half years ago, spewing racist venom and lies, that Donald Trump was capable of destroying America and possibly the world.

Donald Trump cares about only one thing: Donald Trump. He doesn’t care about the Constitution, except in as much as he can find corrupt, beholden Justices who support his sick, distorted interpretation of it. (I do not think that will happen, though Trump is betting his future on it.) He doesn’t give a damn about his supporters – to him, they’re the political equivalent of cannon fodder. He lies to them, playing on their fears, insecurities, and hatred, and has gotten them to contribute more than half a billion dollars to his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, much of which he diverted to his own accounts to pay his personal legal fees.

But most important of all, Donald Trump couldn’t care less about making America great or whether Americans prosper, starve, or die of COVID or for lack of affordable health care. He doesn’t care about the people who elected him in 2016, and cares even less about those who sent him packing in 2020. He cares only about salving his wounded ego, accumulating personal wealth, and keeping the legal wolves at bay, because they’re closing in on him on several fronts. As many experienced observers, as well as Dr. Mary Trump warned us, when he feels threatened, Donald Trump will do anything to survive. He will throw anyone he needs to under the bus. He will slander and libel anyone who opposes him. If necessary, he will destroy our republic if he believes that will give him a chance to regain power.

The Special House Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is systematically building a terrifying picture of a President so desperate to win, he was willing to violate federal and state laws, as well as every precept of common decency. He threatened and lied about state election officials, most of whom he declared traitors, because they were Republicans who put the law and the Constitution ahead of loyalty to him. He was prepared to seize voting machines by Executive Order. He blatantly, before a national audience, directed several Secretaries of State to “find” votes for him. He directed a plot in six states to falsify the certification of electors and submit fraudulent election results when the Congress met to certify the new president.

Prosecutors in Georgia believe Trump is guilty of committing felonies, and after his unhinged rant in Texas last weekend, attacking our entire legal system as corrupt, the people investigating him in Georgia have had to request heightened security from the FBI. Both the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney are nearing the end of a multi-year investigation into Trump’s business practices and the actions of his family. People who understand such things tell me investigators only leak information nearing the end of their research when they are certain of their case. Previewing their finding of a persistent pattern of misinformation and distorted valuations of multi-million-dollar properties means they have the goods on the former president. And don’t be surprised if records from Deutsche Bank, which has already been fined hundreds of millions for money laundering, result in Trump being indicted for racketeering.

If he somehow manages to extract himself from his legal jeopardy and is able to corrupt our political system enough to regain power, he will destroy us. Donald Trump is truly the most dangerous animal on Earth, a jungle creature whose credo is kill or be killed. He does not possess a shred of charity, humility, generosity, mercy, or empathy. He is a vicious animal who must be stopped, and soon, before he turns the midterm election into a shambles.

Make no mistake – Donald Trump is America’s most dangerous enemy.

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How Much of a Threat to Democracy is Donald Trump?

Posted on January 22, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, January 22, 2022

2021 was a torturous exercise in having to be patient at a time when our national identity crisis appeared to require immediate action. Anyone who understands how our Constitution structured our government knows that momentous decisions take time. Leaving out scenarios like responding to an attack from another country, knee jerk responses during crises are almost always a mistake.

Throughout the year, we witnessed ever-growing threats to our democracy. Former President Trump spent it promulgating his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and rife with fraud, despite the fact that every audit and investigation, even by members of his own party found no evidence of problems that might have affected the outcome. He has done everything possible to undermine the nation’s confidence in his successor and threatened every Republican in Congress with brutal retaliation during this year’s primaries if they do not oppose every initiative by the Biden administration.

At the same time, Republican-controlled legislatures passed more than thirty state laws that use every imaginable tactic to suppress the votes of traditionally Democrat-leaning populations, specifically those dominated by nonwhite voters. The double-barreled opposition to two new federal voting rights bills, from both Trump loyalists and traditional Republicans seduced by the dream of holding on to power indefinitely, is a bald-faced ploy to give those states time to complete their redistricting based on the 2020 census, which we have already seen elevates partisan gerrymandering to unprecedented levels.

A third issue that may eventually be the deciding factor in the future of our democracy is the composition of the Supreme Court. Trump’s three appointments, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, established a 6-3 Conservative majority that, based on the ages of the new Justices, is likely last for decades. Trump has openly demanded loyalty from them, hoping to compromise the integrity of the Court and coerce them to support his activities. But predicting how Justices will rule is problematic. Chief Justice John Roberts is a perfect example. His extremely conservative past views convinced observers that Roberts would be a right-wing hardliner, yet he has subjugated his ideology in favor of common-sense rulings that were in the best interests of most Americans. Might that be true for the three new conservatives as well?

All three describe themselves as originalists who believe in a literal reading of the Constitution and the Founders’ intentions. If they were to approve state laws clearly designed to subvert the Constitution’s guarantees of universal suffrage and cave in to Trump’s attempts at insurrection, it might well spell the end of what Americans hold most dear. We must ask: just how much of a threat to democracy does the former president pose?

The Court’s performance so far has been interesting. It permitted Texas and Mississippi to ignore fifty years of legal precedent and make abortion nearly impossible for many of their citizens. It acted twice to overturn President Biden’s mask mandates, first, as it applied to large corporations, and second to federal employees, though the latter decision may not be final. But on the key issue of loyalty to Trump, they did what most legal scholars hoped they would. They threw out his request to block transfer of working papers and White House communications concerning the January 6th insurrection from National Archives to the Special House Committee. Knowing in advance, from the testimony of several witnesses that those materials would likely be very damaging to Trump, they allowed their release, demonstrating that there are clear lines they won’t cross to support him.

That will enable the House Committee to tighten the noose around Trump’s involvement in the insurrection. The fact that the committee has asked Ivanka Trump to testify tells us they are very close to determining whether to recommend criminal prosecution of the former president by the Justice Department. Fulton County, Georgia prosecutors have convened a grand jury to investigate whether Trump violated state and federal laws when he attempted to pressure Georgia election officials to “find” him 11,800 votes. The New York Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney are nearing the end of long civil and criminal investigations into fraud and racketeering activities of the Trump family and their business.

How much of a threat is Donald Trump to our democracy? Surely not the threat he wants us to believe he is, and not nearly as dangerous as the hype on social and traditional news media make it seem in their competition for relevance. Our system is finally beginning to show its resiliency. As momentum builds, we’ll see rapid progress. As more indictments are handed down, and Trump’s attorneys continue to be dissed by judges and courts, as Trump himself appears in greater danger of being charged, his influence will wane quickly.

Trump’s most rabid supporters, racists, white supremacists, hatemongers, and ignorant people who are easily led by the nose will continue to support him. But there aren’t enough of them to subvert the nation or the Constitution. The people who will make the critical difference are those who voted for Trump for any number of other reasons, who since awakened to his true nature. They won’t turn into Progressives, but they will act to preserve our nation.

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The Will of the Minority

Posted on January 17, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, January 17, 2021

When our Founding Fathers proposed that our nation be governed by democratically elected leaders, intending that we would be led by people who reflected the will of the majority of voters, it was a bold new concept. The entire civilized world was governed by kings, queens, emperors, and petty warlords. Could the idea of electing leaders actually work?

We’re still asking that question today, and it’s not looking good for democracy. In the eighteenth century, our Constitution appeared to support majority rule in concept, but reality fell far short of that. Majority, in 1789, meant a majority of white, male landowners, who were, in fact, a pitifully small minority of the population.

That held true for nearly fifty years, but in the 1820s, America achieved nearly universal white male suffrage. New York began the trend in 1821, when it removed the land-owning requirement for white males, but not for nonwhites. It took until the end of the decade for full voting emancipation (for white male adults) to be legislated in most of the other states.

After the Civil War, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments expanded voting rights to all Negroes, whether they were former slaves or not. In 1840, non-property-owning whites were allowed to vote in the presidential election in most states, but it took until 1856 for that to become law in every state. At the end of 1865, Congress and the states incorporated Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation into the Constitution in the Thirteenth Amendment. Three years later, the Fourteenth Amendment granted equal citizenship and civil rights to all Negroes, both former slaves, and those who had lived free. In 1870 Congress and the states finished the job of repatriating former slaves, by adopting the Fifteenth Amendment: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Finally, the Constitution had provided for governance by the majority of citizens – as long as they were male. (Women, who always comprised more than half of our adult population, didn’t get the right to vote until 1920.) Some states wouldn’t accept the general statement of Amendments 13-15, and a battle between states’ rights and the federal government ensued until 1965, as state after state claimed the right to control its elections, legislating poll taxes, literacy requirements, and any other restriction they could think of to keep nonwhites from voting. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed to correct that, but the fight continued, as states and the Supreme Court chipped away at the 1965 law.

Today, we face a critical time for voting rights, and it’s one that drips with irony. The Supreme Court now has a 6-3 Conservative majority – or does it? All three of Trump’s additions to the Court claimed to be strict constitutionalists, or “originalists.” That literally means adhering to the letter of the Constitution and the perceived intent of the Founders, which can be summarized in two concepts: democracy and majority rule. If they adhere to the principles they professed at their confirmation hearings they will find most of the provisions of the restrictive state voting laws of 2021 unconstitutional. But will they?

This is a critical question because it gets to the root of the Big Lie. If the Court allows current practices in many states to stand, democracy and majority rule are in serious trouble. Gerrymanding allows political operatives to skew the vote toward the party in power in each state. In some cases it nullifies the ballots of as many as one quarter of a state’s voters, whose only crime was registering with the opposition party. The proposed new redistricting map in North Carolina would allow more than 70% of the seats in the legislature to be captured with less than 50% of votes cast.  Voting restrictions designed to keep down the nonwhite vote count assure under-representation by blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans.

All this is what is on the table in the fight to pass a new federal voting rights law. Think about that. Democrats control only half the votes in the Senate, but those Senators represent the views of more than two-thirds of Americans who support democracy and majority rule. The only thing preventing passage is the filibuster.

The fight over the filibuster will go on indefinitely, but this is not about eliminating it from Senate rules. Carve-outs are nothing new. All the President and forty-eight Democratic Senators are asking is that the filibuster be suspended for one vote to save our democracy. I want to hear Senators Manchin and Sinema justify their opposition to that in open forum. Wouldn’t you love to see Jake Tapper and Chris Wallace grill them in a national Town Hall?

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Breaking the Logjams

Posted on January 11, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, January 11, 2022

Logjams are fascinating. There’s nothing really holding all those logs together, no ropes or wires or nails. What keeps them all locked in place is the pressure of flowing water holding them in place against an immovable thing like a riverbank. Yet it can be hell to pry them apart. The key is to identify the main pressure points in the jam, specific logs which, if they are removed, will allow the larger mass to move freely.

Of course, this isn’t about logs, it’s about our Congress and our Department of Justice. It’s about the force of Donald Trump’s threats against anyone who opposes him, about Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s concerted effort to block anything President Biden tries to accomplish, and about progressive and centrist Democrats who would rather bicker than take on their real mutual enemy. I remember when Democrats and Republicans stood for something beyond tearing each down to attain or hold on to power, when opposing politicians actually proposed new ideas instead of being constantly negative.

Those three logjams have kept our country in stasis for far too long. A nation cannot maintain either its inner strength or its influence in the world if it cannot move forward. Even great white sharks and killer whales must move constantly to keep from drowning. We are now at a truly critical point in our history at which we can no longer allow obstructions to keep us from acting to save ourselves before it’s too late.

Collectively, our leaders must accomplish three critical things in the next few weeks. Most urgent by far, President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer must this week use every weapon in their arsenal to achieve a suspension of the filibuster to pass a strong voting rights bill. That cannot be restated loudly or often enough. The Big Lie that Trump was cheated out of re-election is a cancer that will continue to spread and eventually metastasize until it kills the patient until it is excised. The patient this time is our republic. The malignancy has already infected voting rights in nineteen states, whose legislatures believe that extreme gerrymandering and partisan control of elections is a better approach than adhering to our Constitution.

There has long been a pattern in the Senate to “carve out” exceptions to the filibuster when something critical needed to be done immediately, but while that sounds constructive, it has generally been done only in support of the hyper-partisanship that is strangling us. Biden must do more than get a voting rights bill passed, though that will remain number one until it is done. Democrats, if they expect to have any chance to remain relevant after the midterms must agree on new Senate rules that allows critical legislation to be passed and show voters that they can come together and act instead of engaging in petty squabbles over individual influence.

I’m pointing directly at Bernie Sanders, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema. What the hell is the matter with you people? You were elected to respect and support the Constitution ahead of all else. Are you really willing to let your intra-party power struggles default to a Trump-dominated Republican Party? Do you really believe our democracy can survive that? None of you deserve to be re-elected if you allow your disagreements to enable Mitch McConnell and Josh Hawley to dominate the Senate.

All this assumes that the logjam that is Donald Trump’s extortion racket is unbrdeakable. It’s not. As DOJ and several state governments begin to display evidence of Trump’s gangster tactics, in both in his business life and his actions as President, true Conservative Republicans will begin to peel away. Those Republicans see the coming week as critical also, because they believe in the Constitution. We have already seen Mitt Romney (R-UT,) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK,) Roger Marshall (R-KS,) Mike Rounds (R-SD,) and even Mitch McConnell (R-KY) acknowledge that Trump’s Big Lie is itself a dangerous fraud. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mike Lee (R-UT), while they have not publicly debunked the Big Lie, are on record as saying they’ve seen no evidence to support it, and both voted to certify Biden’s election.

Republican Senators know a day of reckoning is upon them, as Schumer has said they will have to vote in front of all the media on both the filibuster and the two voting rights bills before the Senate no later than January 17th. That’s six days from now, and they will all have to decide whether they’re more afraid of Trump, the sociopath or of voters who by a large majority want to preserve democracy. It only requires three or four more to break with Trump and loosen the logjam, permitting the nation to move past him.

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President Joe

Posted on January 6, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, January 6, 2022

On a day when our president spoke so eloquently and forcefully about saving our country, I feel compelled to write about him. I’ve been a fan of Joe Biden for fifty years, because he always struck me as honest and dedicated to serving his country more than enriching himself. I haven’t always agreed with him – I’m still upset about Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings and the way Anita Hill was mistreated by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It wasn’t Biden’s fault, but I always wondered why as Chairman, he didn’t intervene on her behalf.

On the other hand, although I’d have preferred a face-to-face public acknowledgement that he might done better for her, in 2020 she was very clear that the choice between Biden and Trump was a no-brainer. Whatever may have happened thirty years ago, she cast her vote for Joe. In an era when sexual harassment and abusing women has become a cause celebre on a daily basis, Ms. Hill was stating the obvious. No right-thinking woman, especially a professional woman of color would ever vote for an immoral predator who treats women as playthings, especially when the alternative is a highly moral man who values women for who they are. If you don’t believe me, just ask Doctor Jill.

Today, in a twenty-five-minute address to the nation, Biden showed us who he is. After a full year in office during which Trump’s carefully orchestrated campaign of lies and libel characterizing the president as senile, weak, dishonest, and corrupt was on display every day, Joe Biden put the lie to all of that. He was strong, he was tough, he sounded fully in control and very comfortable in his own skin. Compare that with Trump, who was incapable of giving a speech without descending into adolescent name-calling and childish nicknames.

Whenever Trump speaks, he sounds like a semi-literate schoolyard bully rallying his cowardly, insecure followers to pick on that day’s victim. When Biden speaks, he treats everyone with dignity and respect, a personal trait and leadership skill that served him well all his political life. As directly as he attacked Trump, this morning, he never succumbed to the crude, vulgar slander that is Trump’s hallmark. As much as President Biden clearly despises what Trump stands for, if not the man himself, he never addressed him by name, always giving him the respect of the office he held, referring to him as “the former president.”

Moral leadership is Biden’s trademark, but today’s speech was about forcefully and fairly throwing down the gauntlet to those who have supported Trump’s campaign of lies, especially those in Congress and the media who conspired to execute the January 6, 2020 attack on the Capitol, and possibly, had the lynch mob been able to find him, Vice President Pence. Today was about telling the truth about the insurrection and the efforts of many Republicans to undermine the constitutional guarantee that every American citizen shall have the right to vote and have his or her voice counted. Today was the opening salvo in an all-out assault on those who would turn our democracy into an autocracy, with an insane sociopath in charge.

President Joe spoke with strength and determination. He was passionate, and he was angry, though he suppressed the latter most of time. He let it show when he talked about the police who guarded our Congress during the attack. He let it show when he mourned the loss of life among the defenders of the Capitol. And he let it show when he accurately described Donald Trump as a man who always put personal power and profit ahead of his responsibilities as president, and Trump’s dereliction of duty. He didn’t mention the unnecessary deaths of more than a half million Americans that could have been avoided if Trump cared enough to tell the truth about the pandemic from the start. He couldn’t allow even so heinous a crime to dilute the focus of his main message.

In case you missed it, that message was that democracy is teetering on the edge of an abyss, and if the people who would destroy it for their own benefit are not stopped and brought to justice, we could lose it. In the context of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s address the day before, Biden issued a stark warning that he will not rest until every perpetrator and collaborator gets what they deserve. He presented evidence to support every charge he made, and he managed to be compassionate, too, something of which his predecessor was incapable. I cannot imagine any American who values our heritage not being inspired by his message.

President Joe’s number one priority is passing a voting rights bill that will undo the damage being done by Republican controlled legislatures that are attempting to undermine our elections with naked partisanship. That should be the priority of every American. It’s time millions of us flooded Joe Manchin’s inbox with appeals to his better nature.

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A Critical Two Weeks for Our Democracy

Posted on January 4, 2022 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, January 4, 2022

As a patriotic American, I don’t know which is more embarrassing, a Senate that is unable to come up with fifty votes to assure that every American is able to vote, thus preserving the main bulwark of democracy, or a former president who is clearly guilty of planning and directing an insurrection against Congress, and still continues to tear the country apart with lies, a year later. As to the latter, I cannot imagine any former president since the Great Depression who would have stooped as low as Trump in his lust to retain power. Even Richard Nixon would not have done so, and more importantly, his Republican majority in the Senate, led by Barry Goldwater, would have stopped him.

Don’t ever let a Trump supporter get away with calling him or herself a Conservative. Real Conservatives know where to draw the line between political self-interest and the interests of the nation. They understand that we have prospered and grown strong over two-and-a-half centuries because of our Constitution, not in spite of it. Trump would tear it up and write a new one designed to create a safe haven for a power-mad, sociopathic emperor.

I’ve been waiting for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to make his move on passing a national voting rights bill that will supersede the efforts by Republican controlled states to rig future elections in their favor. That’s something that cannot be put off until the last minute. Despite the media hype about Trump controlling the Republican Party, I have never lost confidence that in the end, the Senate would get its act together and do the right thing.

Conventional wisdom says Schumer’s biggest challenge will be getting West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin on board to allow a voting rights bill to avoid an endless filibuster. He also needs Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema to agree, but to date, she hasn’t been willing to put herself on the line publicly in a definitive way. The same conventional wisdom suggests she will go along with any deal Manchin makes with Schumer and the President.

My confidence in the Senate is such that I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s another John McCain or Jeff Flake lurking in the weeds, a Republican who is a true Conservative who values principle and the Constitution more than loyalty to Donald Trump. To me, the most important moment in the Trump administration was when McCain gave Trump the proverbial finger and shot down the Republican attempt to kill Obamacare. I think it can happen again and very well might. With the future of democracy in the balance, even Mitch McConnell might see the light, at least enough to allow someone in his caucus to choose voting equality.

Schumer sent a letter to his Senate colleagues informing them that if by January 17th, Republicans still line up unanimously to obstruct a voting rights bill, he will attack the filibuster. That’s a very bold commitment, which was undoubtedly made in consultation with President Biden. Schumer is a skillful enough politician that he’d never box himself in that way if something weren’t happening behind the scenes to make him believe he would succeed. Since the Senate seems uncharacteristically leak-proof on this issue, it could be any number of things. It’s no coincidence that the time period targeted by Schumer begins with the anniversary of the January 6th attack on the Congress and the public hearings that will be conducted by the Special House Committee, and ends with Martin Luther King’s birthday. The symbolism is far from subtle, an indication that Schumer has pulled out all the stops to get the bill passed.

My favorite hypothesis is that Joe Manchin, who is really in a tough spot as a Democratic Senator in a state that went two-thirds for Trump, will ultimately not allow Republicans to retain power indefinitely through lies, gerrymandering, and preventing whole populations from voting. I believe Manchin has the kind of principles John McCain had. He will continue to negotiate down to the wire to get the best possible deal on Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, and that may be the leverage Schumer needs to get him on board with voting rights.

Build Back Better is important. It’s expensive, but unlike the equally expensive Trump tax cut that mostly benefitted billionaires, it is aimed at improving the lives of ordinary people. Important as that is, it pales in significance compared to preserving voting rights for every American. Whatever Schumer and Biden have to give up to reach Manchin’s $1.5 trillion benchmark, it’s a price worth paying to gain his support for suspending the filibuster.

My gut tells me it’s doable, and I think it will happen.

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Goobye to 2021

Posted on December 31, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, December 31, 2021

A year ago, most of us were saying, “Good riddance” to 2020. Some may say that about 2021, but the two years could hardly have been more different. It’s time to set the record straight.

In 2020, we had a president who denied COVID, because he feared that shutting down our economy pre-emptively would hurt his chances of re-election. He withheld critical information that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if he hadn’t let his self-interest take precedence over his responsibility as president. Someone I trust who spoke with the Moderna development team leader told me the Trump administration authorized the company to begin work on a vaccine three weeks before Trump admitted COVID was a problem. Friends at the Defense Department told me they had been warned that a very dangerous pandemic would be coming and directed to stock up on necessities while they could – two weeks before Christmas in 2019, while Trump was publicly denying the virus existed.

The contractors tasked with finding and testing a vaccine did incredible work, but the Trump administration had no plan for its distribution, leaving states on their own. Contrast that with President Biden’s handling of the pandemic. We had a distribution plan funded by the federal government within weeks of Biden being inaugurated. We had vaccine distribution centers all over the country, in pharmacies, health care facilities and public health offices. But for anti-vax opposition fostered by Trump and his people, which persists a year after he left office, our country would have achieved herd immunity by now. The virus would have been unable to find new hosts and mutate, possibly avoiding the delta and omicron strains entirely.

Trump’s lies and self-serving behavior put us all at risk for years to come. Biden sacrificed enormous political capital to reverse that threat. Trump would not permit health care experts at NIH and the CDC to speak freely, that is, to tell the truth. Biden has given free rein to Drs. Anthony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky to keep the public informed. A consensus of public health experts have said that of the 823,000 COVID deaths in the United States, at least a half million could have been prevented if Trump not been derelict in his duty.

The economic chaos that resulted from not having a coordinated nationwide response to the virus left our economy in a shambles at the end of 2020. The Biden administration turned that around spectacularly, passing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March of 2021. Almost every dollar spent went straight into the pockets of Americans who needed it to pay their bills and keep their homes. But ARP was not a welfare program. All the money spent went directly back into the consumer economy, stimulating an unprecedented recovery that was further energized by the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in July. Both laws were passed without the support of a single Republican, at the direction of Donald Trump.

Last week, Matthew Winkler of Bloomberg News tweeted: “U.S. financial markets outperformed world by biggest margin in 21st century as American economy improved more in Biden’s first year than any president during the past 50, notwithstanding contrary media narrative contributing to dour public opinion.” Winkler was reacting to 7% growth, nationally in the current quarter, and more than 6% for all of 2021. He was also reacting to a reduction in unemployment from 6.2% to 4.2%, and the highest average corporate profits since the second world war.

Trump spent four years tearing down international agreements and alliances. Biden has re-engaged with the world, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, repairing our relationships with NATO and the EU, and calling for a united front against aggressive behavior from Russia and China. He ended the war in Afghanistan, keeping the commitment made by his predecessor, who had unfortunately removed all of our military intelligence assets in Afghanistan before leaving office. Without them, our military leaders could not know that the Taliban had co-opted the Afghan military we trained and paid for. Thus, the Afghan army dissolved during the final evacuation, resulting in confusion and the deaths of thirteen American troops. Despite all of that, the withdrawal was an unprecedented success.

Trump spent the second half of 2020, knowing he would likely lose to Biden in November, plotting to undermine confidence in the election and subvert the Constitution. He continued this effort throughout 2021, starting by engineering the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. With all the real problems his administration faced, Biden has had to fight total obstruction by a Republican Party dominated by Trump, whose goal is to seize power for a minority that can control the country for at least a decade.

President Biden, recognizing that partisan gridlock could destroy the viability of Congress, made a commitment in 2021 to reach out for bipartisan solutions, but the vast majority of Republicans, taking their marching orders from Trump, have made that impossible. Biden now faces a daunting challenge on which the future of the country as we know it depends. Republicans have left him no alternative but to break the filibuster to pass a federal voting rights bill.

Joe Biden has done a marvelous job in his first year as President despite being undermined at every turn by his sociopathic predecessor, who would rather destroy the country than admit defeat. I can sum up 2021 in three words – THANK YOU, JOE!

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Hope For Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, December 24, 2021

Being neither a Christian nor a fan of organized religion, I’m not fond of Christmas, either. My idea of celebrating is to avoid its associated hypocrisy as much as possible. Growing up in New York City, most people I knew celebrated “Jewish Christmases:” Chinese food and a first run movie on a night when there were no lines. One of my Catholic daughters-in-law called me to say she and my son were planning a Jewish Christmas this year. They found a great Chinese restaurant, but Omicron convinced them to watch a movie at home.

There used to be a lot of signs and bumper stickers saying, “Put Christ Back in Christmas,” though not this year. At least the church hierarchy, corrupt as it is, agrees with me on one thing. Christmas is either a celebration of Christ or it isn’t. Either celebrate it with that in mind, or change what it’s about. Or, my preferred solution: send it to the holiday graveyard along with Columbus Day, where it belongs.

However, when in Rome…I give my grandkids Christmas presents and acknowledge that most people want messages of hope on Christ’s birthday, though apparently, even that was faked by the church, which preferred to celebrate Christianity by co-opting pagan festivals that occur in late December. Most historians believe that if he existed at all, Christ was probably born around 5 B. C. in the Spring. But I digress. On Christmas Eve, I’m hopeful about three things, which is unfortunate, because we currently face more than three existential threats, COVID, for example, which is likely to remain an annual celebration of American ignorance. But on three fronts, there’s a faint light in the distance.

Most Americans are waking up to the reality of climate change. I’m in central Florida today, which expects to see temperatures in the 80s for most of the last week in December. If you live in the Midwest, you’ve noticed that deadly tornadoes are no longer restricted to summertime, and if you live near New Orleans, Galveston, or Tampa, you see the Gulf of Mexico inching closer to your front door every day. We’re buying electric cars, approaching energy sufficiency with a smaller carbon footprint, and building more solar panels and wind turbines. Is it enough? For now, it’s a ray of hope.

Our most immediate and dangerous threat is Donald Trump. Many may disagree, but I believe that like most charismatic movements – despicable as he is, Trump is a charismatic leader – his will die the moment its head is cut off. That means when Trump is either indicted for a serious crime or bankrupted by the many lawsuits he’s facing. His hotel empire suffered staggering losses due to the pandemic which his own negligence and malfeasance exacerbated. Ironic justice, or just a sad end to a tragic tale of lies and corruption?

Americans who are accustomed to instant gratification don’t realize that the Special House Committee investigating the events of January 6th is moving inexorably toward a not-too-distant decision about referring Trump to the Justice Department for prosecution over dereliction of duty. There is mounting evidence that he delayed calling off his dogs that day for more than three hours, hoping the insurrection would reverse his election loss to Joe Biden. Who cares if Congress and the Vice President faced their worst physical threats since the War of 1812? Who cares if police died and the nation came very close to a far more serious catastrophe? Clearly, Donald Trump didn’t.

Other actions are moving forward in the courts. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in January over Trump’s claim of Executive Privilege over materials subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee from the National Archives and Records Administration. If the appeals court ruling that his claim is invalid stands, the Committee will be inundated with data incriminating Trump and his closest supporters. Investigations of possible corrupt business practices (money laundering, fraud, racketeering) are proceeding in New York City and Albany. Georgia is investigating whether Trump is guilty of election tampering, and Georgia poll workers filed suit against Rudy Guiliani for libelous accusations of election fraud.

Finally, there’s West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Whether he’s a brilliant negotiator standing off against his more progressive colleagues to protect our deficit or a man drunk on power as the swing vote in the Senate on all of President Biden’s agenda, the United Mine Workers of America got his attention when they came out against his threat to scuttle Biden’s Build Back Better Plan. Whether he was cowed by his need for their support or looking for cover to do the right thing, he now suggests that some version of that bill will make it through the Senate.

That’s a good thing, but far more important, is that it sets the stage for Manchin to go along with a filibuster suspension that will enable Democrats to pass a strong voting rights bill. Make no mistake – that is the most critical task facing Congress. The fate of our Constitution depends on it.

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Pre-Holiday Jitters

Posted on December 20, 2021 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, December 20, 2021

Christmas is five days away, the beginning of 2022 only twelve. It’s normally a joyous time for most people, but the news today is shockingly depressing. I scanned the CNN website this morning as I do most mornings. I also look at the Washington Post and New York Times. It’s hard to trust any media outlet these days, because even those that believe in unbiased reporting can’t escape the financial realities of dependence on sponsors and advertising, but those are the sources I trust most.

What I saw was bleak. There’s so much negative news, it’s hard to know where to begin, but we might as well start with something about which we’re not powerless – COVID. “Dr. Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health, [said] on Friday that the Omicron variant could result in as many as a million new cases a day.” The first thing you hear when you repeat that is a chorus of “yes-buts.” Early indications are the Omicron is far more contagious than other COVID variants, but results in many fewer hospitalizations and deaths – for now, at least. Even if that holds true, a million new cases a day? With hospital systems and health care workers already strained to the breaking point, how much more stress can they survive?

The one bit of positive COVID news was that the half-dose booster of the Moderna vaccine increases antibodies against Omicron thirty-seven fold, while the full-dose booster increases them eighty-three fold. Yet, anti-vaccine politics has become a cynical tool of right-wing extremists and Trumpers. The degree to which millions of Americans have been influenced by negative propaganda about vaccines is staggering. Only sixty percent of American adults are fully vaccinated, a level that allows the virus to continue to spread and mutate. Any disease expert will tell you that it’s impossible to predict what the next variant will be like. It could be far deadlier, and the only way to avoid it is to prevent the virus’ spread. Is America truly that ignorant and stupid?

There’s also ominous COVID news from Europe. Cases are spiking in the UK, and other European nations are trying to prevent British travelers from infecting their populations. Germany requires every traveler from the UK to quarantine for fourteen days upon arrival, and France has temporarily banned all travel to and from the UK. The Netherlands has instituted a near total shutdown. Greece and Italy require a negative COVID test for every traveler entering their countries. Denmark has closed all of its public entertainment venues, Norway has a less restrictive but similar policy, and Sweden is requiring proof of vaccination from all travelers from neighboring countries. Does that sound like the pandemic is over and we can all ignore it?

Barbara Walter of the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego, has spent thirty years, including four years on a CIA task force studying the causes of insurrection and civil war. The two most important causes are democracies sliding toward autocracy and the use of racial tropes for political advantage. She concludes, after six years of the Trumpism influencing our politics, that both those conditions exist today in the United States. Using the same criteria that our intelligence services apply to evaluate the risk of civil war in other countries, the task force now places the risk here at “approaching very high.” When identical conditions are observed elsewhere, those countries are placed on a high-risk watch list for political unrest, instability, and civil war. We’re going to hear a lot of talk about love and brotherhood in the coming days. Unfortunately, most of it will be complete hypocrisy.

Depressed yet? We’re not done. The Republican caucus in the Senate, using the voice of Chuck Grassley has made it clear that they will block any appointment to the Supreme Court made by President Biden if they win a majority in the 2022 elections, this, after nineteen states controlled by Republican legislatures have spent 2021 attempting to rig all future elections in their favor. How would you describe a situation in which a radical wing of a minority party is able to force its will on an entire nation, and their goal is to undermine democracy for their own political gain? I call it the beginning of a long slide into autocratic Fascism, one that will be unstoppable if it isn’t halted before it gains any more momentum.

The most important thing the Biden administration must accomplish is the passage of a strong voting rights bill that negates states’ attempts to undermine our Constitution. That means that every Senate Democrat must be willing to suspend the filibuster to get it done. Are you listening, Senator Manchin?

Happy holidays, everyone.

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