Day 795 – Three Things That Would Be Different If …

Thursday, March 23, 2023

I know. I know. There’s all the talk about will he be indicted and his supporters in Congress are twisting themselves in knots to say it’s nothing. I love the “it was a private payment, no campaign violation” and the “It’s a bookkeeping error” excuses. To which I say, “No, it was labeled as a business expense and for the purposes of hiding it during a campaign, which makes it also a campaign expense, and thus hiding such expense is illegal. If you think he’s being singled out, tell that to the 165 people charged with the same business expense error since the Manhattan DA took office. And it was for the purposes of hiding the truth from the voters. Remember John Edwards? Yeah, he got hit with the same campaign finance stuff for having a child via an affair that he paid to keep quiet during his election bid. I didn’t hear the sloughing off from Jim Jordan or Ted Cruz during that time.”

But, enough of that, I was thinking of something else and that is, “how would our world look different if a more traditional President had been elected in 2016?”

There are three things I can think of right off:

1. Covid would have been dealt with more effectively.

2. We wouldn’t be in so much debt and having a possible crisis over it.

3. Russia would not have invaded Ukraine.

Evidence:

To Point 1 – Biden had said as Covid was hitting that we shouldn’t depend on the Chinese accounts, but rather we should send people over there to find out for ourselves. We had a lab over in Wuhan that Obama set up. We had people on the ground. Trump not only shut that down but he then stuck his head in the ground and waved his hands saying Covid wouldn’t come to the U.S. and it would go away on its own.

Anyone who has looked at the history of pandemics knows that they don’t go away on their own. It takes hard work and good science to defeat them. There are numerous examples. The latest was Obama’s strong early actions to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. In the early 20th century a man died in New York City from a very infections disease. Typhoid? I forget. The head of the heath department realized that the only way to stop the spread of the disease was to get everyone in the city vaccinated, which he did, No small task, but there was no outbreak.

Point 2 – Trump piled on 25% of our national debt in his four years in office. Republicans always outspend Democrats and they do less to balance budgets and reign in spending than Democrats. Had a Democratic President been elected in 2016 our national debt would have been much lower for two reasons: Dems don’t spend as much and they don’t cut taxes like Republicans are fond of doing. This would have meant our economy would have been in better shape coming out of the 2016-2020 presidential term. 

Remember when W took office? Clinton left him a surplus of $265 Billion. Many said he could have used that to shore up Social Security and ending the possible shortfall looming, but instead he gave the money away.  This is the common Republican method of operation. They keep saying if they cut taxes (for the rich) that the economy will somehow magically get better, despite piles of evidence to the contrary. Remember Liz Truss? She was appointed British Prime Minister and put forth an economic plan for Britain that many of the right wing – sorry conservative – economic pundits hailed as terrific. She lasted 49 days. The main reason for her short tenure was her economic plan, which would have made a hash of the British economy. Even more than Brexit did.

Point 3 – If we had had a more traditional president in 2016 in the Oval Office who understood the danger of Putin (and this was clearly expressed by the other candidate) steps would have been taken to shore up Ukraine’s defenses years earlier. However, the man in the Oval Office groveled to the Russian President. We now know that during his campaign Trump had been scheming to build a tower in Russia, while lying about it on the campaign trail. When he got in office, his son-in-law tried to set up a back channel to Russia, and Trump held numerous meetings with Putin, which he tried to keep secret and to which there has never been an accounting as to what was discussed. Not only that, but right wing media beat the drum of lies about a secret server in Ukraine that somehow the Dems or Biden – someone – had used against the Republicans. Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate and all the President of Ukraine wanted was weapons from the U.S. to defend his country. Given those facts why wouldn’t Putin think he could invade Ukraine without interference?

And to those who say it’s none of our business Russia and Ukraine have been tied together for centuries. Well, yes it is our business as the fate of our foreign policy and democracy around the world depends on Ukraine staying free, and yes Russia and Ukraine have a history, not a pleasant one. Remember “Fiddler on the Roof”? That’s musical about the Czars instituting a plan to kill and kick out people from Ukraine, mainly its Jewish population. Before that it was Catherine the Great invading and subjugating the people there. And when Stalin took power he took all the grain from Ukraine and let millions of people starve. So, yeah, there is a history between the two countries. But if you’re a Ukrainian, it’s not pleasant.

BTW I was sure Trump wouldn’t be indicted last Tuesday for the simple reason that he predicted it, and I’ve never known that man to make a statement that didn’t contain a lie. QED he wouldn’t be indicted that day.

Enough. Get the cuffs.