The last week has been hard on Joe Biden’s reputation as a competent and empathetic leader. Joe is trying to end a 20 year war that less than 25% of the American people support. However, the media; right, left, and in-be-tween have piled on the president. A man who had nothing to do with the start or in fact the end of the damn affair. So, Dave is here to try and bring calm to the disturbed waters of American ego.
In recent years, the image of Rudy Giuliani has sunk to lows unimaginable two decades ago. His legacy has been severely damaged by his connection to Donald Trump. In his pursuit of Trump’s approval, and every cent he could get his hands on, Rudy may have broken the law while trying to help the former president overturn the 2020 election and line his own pockets. The FBI thinks there is evidence of crimes and they just confiscated Rudy’s personal and business devices.
Rudolf Giuliani was born on May 28th, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York; U.S.A. He attended Manhattan College as well as New York University. For over 50 years, Rudy Giuliani has served, city, state and national government in multiple capacities. Giuliani has also had a private law practice.
Giuliani is a long time Republican. In 1993 he was narrowly elected Mayor of New York City. Giuliani immediately began cracking down hard on petty criminals. He always urged police to take aggressive stances against even minor violations of the law. Giuliani was often referred to as “the Nanny of New York.” He claimed credit for reduced crime rates stating that civilization had found its way into the city. Critics disregarded Giuliani, stating crime rates had decreased nationwide. They also added that Giuliani was contributing to police abuse and corruption. Rudy was expected to run for the U.S. Senate in 2000, but due to some negative personal events he decided not to run.
On September 11, 2001, New York was attacked. The attack brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center leading to the death of over 2800 people. Giuliani received praise for his handling of the situation, and the aftermath. He even was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his conduct. In 2007 he announced that he would seek the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2008. However, in late January 2008, Giuliani withdrew from the race after finishing a distant third in Florida.
Rudy Giuliani was an early enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump in his 2016 run for president. After Trump’s election, Giuliani jostled for several cabinet positions but was overlooked. He was later chosen as an ‘unofficial adviser on cyber security.’ In 2018 Giuliani was part of the legal team that represented President Donald Trump in the Special Counsel’s (Mueller) Investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. After the Special Counsel declined to file charges against the then-President Trump Giuliani continued as the president’s ‘personal attorney’.
In search of “dirt” on Trump’s anticipated rival in the 20220 election, Joe Biden, Giuliani became involved in what was referred to as a backchannel between President Donald Trump and some not so kosher former Ukrainian officials. The allegations indicate that Giuliani engaged in efforts meant to pressure current Ukraine officials into launching multiple investigations into corruption by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The quid pro quo allegations and the firing of Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovich brought Trump and his associates, including Giuliani, under intense scrutiny.
An impeachment was launched by the House of Representatives against President Trump. Giuliani was portrayed as a key player in the scandal during the House proceedings. In December 2019, after being impeached, the door of hope opened for Trump in February 2020 when the Senate acquitted him. Time was not in his favor as Joe Biden defeated him by 7 million votes in November.
Following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, Trump picked Giuliani to head his legal team challenging the election results. Giuliani’s failure was notable, losing every case in every jurisdiction. The process was a total failure.
On Wednesday, April 28th, 2021, under the authority of a duly authorized search warrant Federal Agents raided Giuliani’s Manhattan home and office. Various gadgets were seized, including computers and cell phones. It looks like the business dealings of Rudy Giuliani are under investigation. The Feds look serious. The FBI doesn’t execute search warrants on high profile individuals, especially lawyers, unless they are confident they will find incriminating evidence. Leaks indicate Giuliani may be under scrutiny for illegal money transfers, campaign finance fraud, and acting on the behalf of a foreign government, etc, etc, etc. According to the prosecutors, the warrant, which required approval from the top levels of the judicial Department, and a federal judge, signifies that the government is convinced Giuliani has committed a federal crime(s).
Mr. Giuliani, in a statement after the seizure, denied any wrongdoing and argued that the search warrants demonstrated a “corrupt double standard” on the part of the Justice Department. Giuliani said he was being persecuted while the DOJ/FBI are ignoring “blatant crimes” by Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and President Biden. He even stated the Feds refused to take evidence of crimes by Hunter Biden that Giuliani has in his possession.
Many of Trump’s allies have been trapped in federal investigations, and there are likely to be more on the horizon. The big question becomes will Giuliani pull a Michael Cohen and ensnare the former president in criminal charges. Time will tell. Of course, these guys are all as old as dirt. Any could drop dead at any moment. Hopefully the AG gets them sentenced first.
https://www.calamitypolitics.com/2019/05/11/rudy-guilliani-moments-great-small/
Dave came back early this week with another podcast. He is pissed off. Time for Trump and his sick sycophants in the Senate and the House to stop trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s continuing attempts to intimidate election officials in Georgia has sent us here at Calamity News and Politics off the rails. Anyone not possessed by Trumpism is angry. Joe Biden’s won the 2020 presidential election and he will be sworn into office on January 20, 2021 no matter what Donald Trump and his desperate supporters do next.
There is no accounting for human behavior. Particularly in times of trouble. Stress and panic are capable of leading to seemingly irrational behavior on the part of the American electorate. Such as the re-election of Richard Nixon in 1972 despite his actions in Asia. And then there’s the insanity of George W. Bush’s two elections. Why the comfortable re-election in 2004, after stealing the 2000 election from Al Gore? The 2004 victory still makes me shake my head in bewilderment. The stupid idiot (#43) started two wars that we are still fighting nearly two decades later. A shockingly high number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan were not even born when the Twin Towers fell. The unpredictable American electorate and their often obvious disconnect from reality is a forever unknown. Which is part of why the Biden-Harris landslide was far from a fore gone conclusion, despite the polls.
The 2020 US election made history in many different ways. Some of them better than others. For starters there was the highest voter turn-out ever. Both despite and because of the pandemic. Leading to one of the longest vote-counts, lasting nearly a week from kick-off to final whistle. Something closer to what would be expected somewhere like India which has a much larger population base. Kamala Harris has risen higher in American politics than any woman before her, minority or otherwise, now named Vice President-Elect. With Biden declared President-Elect he is the oldest incoming president and one of the few to come from a modest economic background, as well as the first to attend a public university. Even George W. Bush, somehow managed to get into Yale and Ulysses S. Grant attended West Point.
Well, our nation needs a manicure after this nail-biter election but the plus-size diva has now sung. History has been made with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. The two Dems have received a record number of votes, more than any other presidential and vice-presidential candidates in American history. We will have our first female, African-American, and South Asian Vice President.
I am shouting “President Biden!” from the rooftops – OK, I am afraid of heights, but I am shouting it in my living room and from my car window. While we dance by our lit Biden-Harris sign, car horns honk in the background, fireworks are being shot off, celebrating the end of a four-year living hell. I would run up and down the street hugging total strangers, but thanks to Trump’s incompetence in handling COVID-19, I can’t.
When ‘the Donald’ first took office, a very wise friend commented that people always had feelings of racism, “but now we know who they are”. Unfortunately, many of them we have known for a very long time, like my nephew, or the church deacon who applauded myself and my spouse when we finished RCIA (Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults) and were formally accepted as members of our faith. Our old friend, whose home we often visited and child we often babysat. Being told by those blind to the truth to “open my eyes” and change my vote, something I would not do even if I could.
When I first heard that Donald Trump was running for the presidency, I knew of course it had to be a joke. Who in the world would vote for a egotistical bigot with multiple bankruptcies to run our nation? My friends and spouse all had a good laugh at the very idea of Trump as a presidential candidate.
I have been heavily involved in pageantry. I knew from witnesses “The Donald” thought nothing of walking in a dressing room during a Miss Teen USA pageant, while underage young ladies were in varying stages of undress. His obnoxious and racist conduct was viewed by me first hand at the Miss USA pageants for a two-year period in the nineties in Gary, Indiana. I knew it was impossible for such a man to be taken seriously, his moral code being so corrupt. His raunchy locker room talk of, “grab ‘em by the pussy”, was an unbelievably disgraceful comment. He would never get the nomination. His claim that he would “Make America Great Again”, was a preposterous campaign slogan.
America was great with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the helm. We had the Affordable Care Act, finally. Our military had taken out Osama Bin Laden. The auto industry and the banks had been saved. The LGBTQ community finally had equal love and marriage, and our President was a decent caring man that cried for gun victims. He led our nation with dignity, “with God’s grace”; and never even a breath of scandal.
Barak loved his beautiful wife and his daughters. The Obama’s have been married for 28 years. They brought an adorable Portuguese Water Dog to the White House and we watched the president play in the snow with his girls. Michelle created a garden. This was a First Family that you could not help but love. Our first Black President was stellar. His VP, Joe Biden has known tragedy. He had been a single-parent widower, who put his children first. He found love again and has been married to his second wife ‘Dr. Jill’ for 43 years. He has never been unfaithful to either of his wives. Of course this great team was re-elected, and the Democratic party was making strides at keeping America great through inclusion and acceptance.
We had Hillary Clinton ready to break the glass ceiling as the first female President of the United States. Instead of that glass ceiling breaking, our hearts broke. Donald Trump received the Republican nomination for president. My mouth dropped nearly to my neck from shock. Surely, there was no way he could be elected. Hillary was by far the clear, experienced choice and Trump’s low-down, ridiculous tactics about her emails would not be taken seriously, or would they? Why, some of her emails were just simplistic messages about her daughter’s shower. Hillary had nothing to hide in her emails in the least, whereas Mr. Trump continues to hide his debt and blatantly refuses to show his tax returns. All other United States presidents and candidates had released their tax returns. Surely, the American people were not foolish enough to fall for this man’s malarkey.
I sat on election night at a colleague’s restaurant, wearing my “I voted” sticker with my husband, awaiting Hillary’s brilliant acceptance speech, when the unthinkable happened. I watched in horror, losing my appetite, as a smug and smirking Donald Trump descended a staircase with his family to make a victory speech. Our nation had just descended into hell. Tears streaming down my face, my husband escorted me to our car. I was literally in a state of shock; I cried for three days. Hillary wrote a beautiful email to all of her supporters; I used a half of a box of tissue while reading it.
Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa were bittersweet because we knew what was to come. I prayed, I cried, I hoped and I feared; emotions ran high during the holidays. Anger simmered below the surface at my husband’s Trump-voting brother-in-law’s house. New Year’s Eve brought tension, not celebration. Never had a bigger deal been made of a President leaving office. President and First Lady Obama would be much missed. I could not watch ”The Donald” take the oath of office. News photos of Barack and Michelle kindly escorted Melania to her seat, while her husband ignored her completely. I vowed to never call Donald Trump ‘president’ and I could not bring myself to refer to a woman who has been seen naked in magazines by half the world, ‘first lady.’ The nightmare had begun.
“White is something, just like black is something. Everybody born on this earth is something, and nobody, no matter what color, is better than anybody else.” Mildred DeLois Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976)
The ‘Muslim ban’, ‘the wall’, ‘make America great again,” have receptive listeners. Such rhetoric is part of Donald Trump, and Stephen Miller’s war against people of color. If it was just about terrorists we would look north and south. The Canadian border however is no concern because to Trump because it separates two predominately white countries. If it were really about illegal immigration there are other issues besides our southern border. Why hasn’t the president called for a countrywide sweep to pick up of all the Irish visitors who have over stayed their visas? Statistics show that most of the illegal immigrants are here after over staying legally obtained visas. These visa abusers flew into the country, they didn’t walk across our southern desert.
It is a question that has been asked before. Though as we get closer to Election Day and things might still go either way, it is still a productive exercise to try and figure out how we got to where we are today. Particularly with so many Trump Voters, particularly in swing states, suffering industrial strength buyers guilt.
The answer seems obvious. All the Trump voters are backward, racist, sexist, idiots who don’t know what’s best for them. A ‘basket of deplorables’ as Madam Clinton once put it. This is a mistake. Not only is it reductionist and prejudiced, the very things most accuse Trump of being, it is also wrong. I don’t mean wrong in the modern sense of things that make people feel icky. I mean it in the far more basic, Aspie way of false as according to the evidence. There are simply too many people of various groups, including those whom Trump has attacked, supporting him for this to be the whole story.
If anything, the less savory things Trump has said or done are incidental to his support. Not that what he did doesn’t matter. It does in terms of general morality but a lot of things are a matter of priorities and he has other aspects that outweighed his misconduct. At least in the minds of those who prioritize such things. One of the things a lot of critics overlook is his focus on jobs. Particularly in places like Michigan. A state in which things have been so bad for so long, the condition of cities like Flint have been referred to as ‘economic terrorism.’ A situation which makes it easier to understand Trump’s support despite his desire for a border wall or his opinions on where it is okay to touch female strangers. Even if they ‘let’ you.
Joe Biden made history with his selection of the bright, beautiful and tenacious Kamala Harris as his running mate. As Vice President Biden points out, “There is no door Kamala won’t knock on, no stone she’ll leave unturned, if it means making life better for the people.” Joe originally met Senator Harris through his son Beau. Joe valued his son’s respect for the strong-willed senator from California. Kalama and Beau became friends when both were state AG’s and worked on financial institution reform.
Biden knows Ms. Harris has demonstrated her ability to be a leader from day one. As the Attorney General for the state of California, she ran one of the biggest governmental legal organizations in the world, and is a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
Women of all races and walks of life identify strongly with this spirited heroine. Kamala Devi Harris is 5’ 2” of pure energy and strength. This pretty, petite powerhouse has stood for justice since she was a child. Senator Harris is an East Bay native, deeply rooted in the area, She was born October 20th, 1964, in Kaiser Oakland Hospital, Oakland, CA. Her name Kamala, means “lotus” and refers to empowered women.
Her parents were immigrants and academics. Donald Harris, her father, is an emeritus professor at Stanford University. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Shyamala attended the University of Delhi, completing her undergraduate degree when she was only 19.
Kamala’s grandmother, Rajam Gopalan, who married at the age of 16. Rajam was considered an upper-caste wife. She used her elite class status to help disadvantaged women in India. She was famous for driving around in a Volkswagen Beetle, announcing through a bullhorn how underprivileged women could access birth control.
Kamala holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Howard University. Ms Harris received her law degree through Hasting College Legal Education Opportunity Program for Students from Adverse Backgrounds. She was elected as the Attorney General of California in 2010. She was reelected in 2014. In 2016, Ms. Harris became the junior senator from California, making her the third female senator from California, and the first South Asian American senator and the second African-American woman elected to the United States Senate.
The fearless Senator Harris has always fought for our nation’s good. She has worked tirelessly for the American people, a lifelong leader for civil rights and public safety. Kamala’s political career spans decades, and her exposure to activism started early. Her parents, met at UC Berkeley and shared a passion for civil rights. When Kamala was still a toddler her parent’s took her to numerous campus protests. As a toddler, fussing little Kamala was once asked what it was she that she wanted – having already attended several civil rights rallies, the adorable, precocious tyke replied, “fweedom”.
When she was only seven years old, her parents divorced. Kamala was raised by her mother in a yellow duplex in Berkeley, along with her little sister Maya. While in first grade, she was one of a group of students bused to Thousands Oaks Elementary School, a very prosperous upper-class Caucasian neighborhood.
Maya and Kamala attended both an African-American Baptist church, as well as a Hindu temple, at the same time. Ms. Harris was influenced by her grandparents when she visited India as a child. Her grandmother was an activist and her grandfather was a government official of high-rank, both educating and fighting for the rights of the Indian people. She attended high school in Montreal, where her mother taught at McGill University, and also held a position at Jewish General Hospital as a cancer researcher. 13-year-old Kamala, along with younger sister Maya, successfully led a protest outside their apartment building due to the policy that prohibited children from playing out front on the lawn.
Harris had wanted to be a lawyer since childhood. Harris interned for Senator Alan Cranston of California, worked as a press aide at the Federal Trade Commission, and even served as a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Her role models include Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Constance Baker Motley. Kamala advocates for abuse victims, and works to educate the public that certain behaviors such as dress and music do not necessarily equate to gang membership.
Her sister Maya received a B.A. from UC Berkeley, and then her law degree from Stanford. She was in charge of her sister’s presidential campaign, having worked in television as a commentator and as an executive director of ACLU for Northern California. Her husband, Tony West, served during the Obama administration as an Associate United States Attorney General, and now is the Chief Legal Officer for Uber Technologies, Inc., in San Francisco.
The stunning and stylish Ms. Harris joined the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha while at Howard University. Also, during her time at the school, she ran her first campaign, for the freshman representative position on the liberal arts student council, and was also a member of the debate team. Howard taught an excited Kamala that you can be many things – the homecoming queen can also be the valedictorian, channeling Elle Woods.
Daily after classes in law school, she helped potty-train her niece. Recalling the experience in 2018, Harris said, “I’m dealing with this brutal stuff, dog-eat-dog in school, and then I would come home and we would all stand by the toilet and wave bye to a piece of shit. It will put this place in perspective.” She passed the bar exam on her second try in 1990. The same year, she joined the Alameda County Prosecutor’s Office in Oakland, as an Assistant DA.
She was recruited by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to help end teen prostitution. Ms. Harris’ goal for these young women was to view them as victims, not criminals, selling sex. She has always advocated for women and children. She was instrumental in developing the San Francisco Department of Public Health program which enables emergency rooms to identify evidence of sexual abuse. Kamala is the co-founder of the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids, pushing the strengthening of laws to end profiteering of those under age. Her efforts produced San Francisco’s very first safe house for minors to escape sexual exploitation. Ms. Harris’ creativity and influence has resulted in punishment for perpetrators victimizing youth.
Even when she receives criticism, she does not back down from her principals. Kamala insists that it is imperative to be “smart on crime.” “Back on Track” is a program, she helped design for non-violent lower-level drug traffickers. The program offers life skill and job training, with the chance to avoid a prison sentence. Only 10% of the program’s graduates had repeat offenses, contrasted with the typical recidivism of 53% for those with drug convictions. Her rehabilitative program is more cost-effective than jail time. She refuses to consider offenders as lost causes.
Ms. Harris also targeted the truancy of elementary school children when she discovered that nearly 95% of those murdered before the age of 25 in the San Francisco area happened to have dropped out of high school. Those who were very often absent while in grammar school were more susceptible to leave high school prior to graduation, typically by age 35 ending up dead or jailed. She developed programs to assist parents with school attendance.
In 2003, Kamala Harris ran against her former boss to become the first African-American female elected DA in California. Within her first three years as the District Attorney of San Francisco, conviction rates increased from 52% to 67%. She endorsed her friend Barack Obama when he ran for the Senate in 2004, and in 2010 she went on to win the race for the state’s top attorney. Attorney General Harris filed a successful civil enforcement action citing “widespread misconduct” on foreclosures against OneWest Bank.
The fashionable and funny vice-presidential nominee often sports pearls and has an extensive collection of Converse sneakers, including platform versions and All-Stars. Her unique style rocks; a high-low mix of classic attire. Not since 1984, when Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, have we had the pleasure and progress of a female vice-presidential nominee. Rumor has it she enjoys a good burrito, and loves cheeseburgers, but admits we need to establish more healthy eating habits, reducing red meat consumption. She also recognizes the importance of American families being able to put food on the table.
Kamala loves to cook. In a video she shows Senator Mark Warner the proper way to assemble a yummy tuna melt. She can roast a chicken with the best of them, using salt, pepper, chopped herbs, lemon zest, and minced garlic, trussing the poultry and allowing it 24 hours in the fridge. Then rubbing it with butter or oil, and slow-roasting it at 325 degrees for at least a couple hours, making a sauce of the drippings and using the leftovers for a scrumptious chicken salad.
She is married to prominent entertainment attorney Douglas Emhoff. Harris and Mr. Emhoff met on a blind date set up by a friend. Senator Harris is tough and courageous, yet still has a big heart – her two stepchildren affectionately call her “Momala”.
She is also resolved and resilient – in 2017, her rather persistent grilling, which had Jeff Sessions remarking he was “nervous” after only three-and-a-half minutes of her interrogation, went viral. Another viral moment came during the intensive questioning of Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings in 2018. During the 2019 Democratic Presidential Debates, Joe Biden quipped to Kamala Harris to, “Go easy on me, kid…,” Six months later he chose this amazing woman to make history as his running mate. If elected she will become the first female and minority Vice President in U.S. history.of the United States.
The lady Donald Trump referred to as, “nasty”, we call, “insurmountable, decisive, intelligent, and caring”. Kamala allows us to see her fun-loving side. One video shows her attired in leggings, a jacket, and sneakers, dancing like everybody’s watching, and we are. On November 3rd, my leggings, jacket, and sneakers are ready to join our new Vice President-elect in a victory dance – “you go, girl….”
"If puppies and kittens don't make you smile, you might consider therapy." D. S. Mitchell 2015.
Self-isolating has forced us to turn even more to telecommunication and social media.
The Major Cause Of Sex Trafficking Is Poverty
Many great charities, here are a couple that I support: Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood.
