What's left to say about 2024?

I can't help but say it...but here it is: 2024 was a year where, here in the United States, hate and bigotry won out at the polls.

And the price of eggs was used as a cover.

We, as a group, put a convicted felon back in the White House...a man who called for an insurrection when he didn't win the 2020 election...a man who, like his runningmate, ran with the nonetheless-debunked belief that immigrants in Springfield, OH, were eating their neighbors' dogs and cats...a man who won't take responsibility for his actions.

77 million voters showed they'd rather stick a twice-impeached man back in the Oval Office than put a woman of any color in there.

Yes...I admit that the Democrats would've been better off running a brokered convention at Chicago's United Center last August and finding Joe Biden's successor at the confab. (The leaders of America's legacy media probably would've trotted out the old "Dems in Disarray" headline.) And things would've been better if Merrick Garland and his people would've acted sooner (like on 1-20-2021) to make sure an insurrectionist never again held the nuclear codes...even if Garland would've been accused of doing this for political motivation.

I can't help but think the rest of the world looks at us Americans in light of last year's election and comes away feeling that our laws are toothless.

I remember what happened to Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and how that country's government dealt with him.

Power-abusing Bolsonaro lost his presidential reelection bid in 2022...and went on to cast unfounded doubts about Brazil's electronic voting system. So...in June 2023, that country's top electoral court ruled him ineligible to run for any political office until 2030.

What if America's government officials had mustered the courage to do the same to a former reality-TV host?

Instead, starting on 1-20-2025, we'll be taking a ride many of us just might regret...the kind of ride we've been on before.

We'll see what happens.

Age ain't nothing but a number

He signed into law the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, the $1 trillion (or so) bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the 2022 climate-and-health spending bill.

He got an albeit modest gun-safety law on the books...one that expanded background checks (if not universally), made it easier to prosecute illegal gun trafficking, and provided federal money for red-flag laws. (Still, a modest gun-safety law is better than no gun-safety legislation if you've been tired of all the mass shootings going on here in the US...let alone years of inaction at the top.)

And he ended the Afghanistan War...America's longest-running military conflict.

The CHIPS Act (hiking stateside production of semiconductors), the passage of a long-awaited postal-reform bill, much-needed military aid for Ukraine, and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act all happened under his watch. So did executive orders to forgive student loans and to pardon folks who were busted for possession of marijuana.

He's nominated federal judges at a breakneck pace...breakneck according to historical standards. Plus, he nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to this country's Supreme Court...and made some more history in the process.

COVID has claimed 400 American lives a day since this past April...far below previous rates of 2,000-3,000 dead per day. The United States has rejoined the Paris Agreement and has done away with that (fill in your favorite expletive) Muslim travel ban.

Speaking of travel...the Environmental Protection Agency has established new, higher fuel-efficiency standards for 2023-2026 vehicles. Service members have now been given a much-needed pay increase. We've now got legislation addressing acts of violence against Asian Americans partly by expanding access to the reporting of hate crimes and expediting the review of COVID-related hate crimes. And at long last, Juneteenth is a federal holiday...and at long last, lynching is a federal hate crime.

All if this under the watch of a man who turned 80 years old on 11-20-2022.

Still, some of his fellow Democrats are asking him not to go after a second term of office in 2024. (They want somebody younger to be the Donkeys' standardbearer.) The way I see it, though: Even with a lot more stuff needing to be done to get the US beyond the shadow of where it was on 1-6-2021, I'd love to see Joe Biden run for a second term in the White House.

How about you?

Good enough for me...and then some!

He'd double the tax rate for nonworking millionaires, eliminate the lower rates on dividends and capital gains for those Americans who annually make a million bucks or more, and boost the top tax rate to almost 40%. He'll continue to champion America's constantly-marginalized people. Once in the driver's seat, he'll start a pandemic testing board to scale up and allocate nationwide testing. He also wants to launch a state-and-local-government emergency fund to provide medical supplies, hire more health-care workers, give certain essential workers overtime pay, end cost sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatment, and start up a national public health jobs corps. (Who knows? Maybe these moves could mean 100,000 people doing contract tracing.) Scientists would be taken seriously. Period. His housing plan would cut child poverty by 33%, reduce racial opportunity gaps, and would even help with middle-income housing affordability, especially in cities on the two coasts. And then there's his economic plan: In it, $400 billion over a four-year period would go to American-made materials and services. At the same time, the plan would earmark $300 billion more for US-based research and development...like electric cars, artificial intelligence, etc. The plan also boasts a 100-day "supply chain review" to get federal agencies to choose American-made medical goods and supplies. It'd close up all the loopholes in the government's "Buy American" clauses. And his economic plan would restore the jobs that the coronavirus pandemic has taken away. In addition, the plan would fire up an additional five million gigs. He'd build on the Affordable Care Act and on the Violence Against Women Act...and these moves would help level the playing field for America's physically-challenged people. And earlier this week, he found his runningmate: US Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). Well, there you are: A ticket whose members have been fighting for years for America's rank-and-file citizens. On 11-3-2020 (better yet, earlier than that as long as I can vote by mail), I'll be more than happy to cast my ballot for former Vice President Joe Biden and his pick for vice president, Harris. How about you?

A simple-but-drastic solution

Well, it finally happened.

After two long years and eight long months, the United States House of Representatives has initiated an impeachment inquiry.

The last straw?

That former host of TV's The Apprentice decided that withholding $400 million in US funds, supposedly earmarked for Ukraine's defense, to get dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden would be a great idea.

This is, by no means, the only impeachable offense committed by a man who kept NBC happy from 2004 to 2015. Heck, the site https://rootsaction.org lists 23 impeachable actions as of 8-8-2019...the eve of the 45th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from the White House, for crying out loud.

Take just Donald Trump's violation of domestic emoluments, for example.

His lease of Washington's Old Post Office Building alone would be enough to get him kicked out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...and, according to the General Services Administration, that lease is a no-no.

Speaking of Washington...at least somebody on Capitol Hill is paying some sort of attention to this country's Constitution. Somebody on Capitol Hill still cares about preserving the Constitution...and not just its Second Amendment.

It's the Democrats who control this country's House.

And it's the Democrats in the Senate.

And don't forget Congress' three independents...US Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT) and Angus King (ME) as well as US Rep. Justin Amash (MI).

This past February, House Democrats passed a bill calling for background checks on future purchasers of guns. It was one of 49 bills passed in the four months since the Donkeys regained control of the House.

The only reason we don't have background checks right now, lower prescription drug prices yet, or an infrastructure deal in place is the same reason the Equality Act and the Green New Deal aren't law yet:

Senate Republicans won't bring these bills to a vote in the upper chamber. 

They're the same Senate Republicans currently fighting tooth and nail to defend their 73-year-old meal ticket...the one who used to end every telecast of his with: "You're fired!"

The way I see it, the only way to get these bills up to the Senate and get these bills to become law is simple.

And drastic.

Some people are going to have to do it kicking and screaming...but it's got to be done if America's going to remain a constitutional republic and not the police state Mitch McConnell, Steve King, Trump, and Co. crave so much.

Here it is:

We've got to stop putting Republicans in office...and we've got to stop reelecting incumbent Elephants. 

Think about it.