The 555th Review

 Putin's War against Ukraine | Russo-Ukrainian War 2022 An Analysis by Jonathan Berry 02 February, 2022 16:00 UTC-6 Flag of Ukraine On Thursday, the Twenty-fourth of February in the Year 2022 at around 05:00 local time (UTC+2, Kyiv), Russia invaded Ukraine. In this blog-post I do not intend to provide a hour by hour or even a day by day account of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Russo-Ukrainian War. Rather, I want to take a look at the greater situation, a look at the historical parallels and the possible outcomes. I am writing this on Sunday, February 27, 2020 around 14:00 UTC-6. The situation may have changed by the time you are reading this. As of writing, Ukrainian military forces are giving Russia a bloody nose. I would not say they are winning, but by providing stiff resistance and tougher resistance than Russia was expecting, Ukraine has a chance. The Ukrainian regular military forces are still operational and fighting back, in addition irregular military forces are...

Understanding the Situation in Afghanistan by Jonathan Berry August 19, 2021  The situation in Afghanistan is a mess. There is no getting around it. However, to solely place the blame on President Biden is folly, as multiple people contributed to the rapid collapse the the democratic government and the Afghan Armed Forces during the Taliban's rapid advance. To begin with, we need to look at how all this began. For that we need to go back twenty years to  September 11, 2001 when 19 members of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda hijacked four jet airplanes and used them in terrorist attacks which saw the Twin Towers of of the World Trade Center be destroyed and wing of the Pentagon damaged. The American people wanted revenge and Congress and President Bush obliged it. Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama Bin Laden where being sheltered by the Taliban in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, who ruled Afghanistan at the time. The United States would invade Afghanistan and ended up over...

 January 20, 2021 is the last day of Republican Donald Trump's presidency and the first day of Democrat Joe Biden's President. At noon (Eastern Time), Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States. But this years inauguration is very different. To begin with security is very different from previous inaugurations. Thousands of National Guard troops are stationed in Washington, D.C. to assist local law enforcement secure the Capitol and the District of Columbia. Additional, State Police form other states are also there to help provide security. This is all to prevent a repeat of January 6, 2021 when a mob of Trump Supporters stormed the United States Capitol Building and disrupting the counting of the Electoral Vote in an apparent attempt to prevent Biden from being certified as President-Elect. There is also evidence to suggest that within the mob were groups and individual actors who were prepared for the event. Perhaps planing to take hostages. Furthermore the mob d...

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 The Keyston State has been called for Biden, meaning Biden is now the projected winner of the 2020 Presidential Election. Mr Trump, You're Fired! The election will no longer distract me from my assignments. -Jonathan Berry

 Pennsylvania and Georgia are now leading in favor of Joe Biden. While things could change, it looks like Biden will become the next President of the United States. I would say Georgia is more likely to flip back to Trump, but Biden does not need Georgia to win, as long as he keeps his lead in Nevada and Pennsylvania, then Biden has safely won the Presidency. Let us no also forget, North Carolina could flip to Biden as well and Alaska has not yet been called for Trump yet. The election is not yet over. Every vote needs to be counted. We the People decide the election, not the candidates. But Mr. Trump, I advise you start preparing your concession speech, because its not looking like you can win.

 As of the writing of this post, a winner has not yet been declared. As of 11/04/2020 3:30 CST the election is still undecided. However, based on current leads as reported by the AP, if Biden can secure the win in Nevada and Michigan, Biden will win the Presidency with 270 electoral votes. 270 is the minimum amount of votes needed to win the election. Biden still has the chance to take the lead in a few other states. The closest of which are Georgia and North Carolina, where Biden needs to pick up less than 80,000 votes to secure the win in each state. Both states still have about 5% of the expected vote uncounted, so Biden still has a chance. If he wins just 1 of those states he will win the election without a doubt with either 285 or 286, but if he wins both, Biden will have 301 electoral votes. Biden is down by 383,000 votes in Pennsylvania with about 16% of the vote still uncounted. While it is possible that Biden will win, a Trump victory in the Keystone State is not unreasona...

Today is your last day to Vote in the US Election. Just because your candidate is ahead in the polls does not mean they will win. Not to mention all the state and local elections as well. So get out and vote, unless you already did and if so good for you.

I predict that Joe Biden will win in the 2020 Presidential Election. Based on historic trends, current trends and polls, and my own gut instinct. The only thing I'm unsure about is that Both Maine's and Nebraska's Second District goes to Biden. Even if I got those two wrong, Biden will still win. I personally don't think Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, or Texas will go to Biden/Democratic in this election, so I gave them to Trump. Below is my election prediction map. Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com You just saw how I think each state will vote, bit what about the margins. Well the following map will show them. Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com Now because I want to, the next map is the best case senario that would see a Trump victory based on current polls and trends. Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com The last prediction map I'm going to do is the best case senario that would see a Biden victory based on current polls an...

 The United States Supreme Court has become politicized. This is not good, the Founding fathers did not intended for the Court to be political, they wanted the Justices not to influenced by elections and needing to curry favor with politicians to get on the court. But the system they designed has broken down. In 2016, Senate Republicans refused to even consider President Obama's last Supreme Court nominee because the Primary process had already started at that over 6 months out from the election was too close to the election. In 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsberg died about a month out from the election and those same Senate Republicans pushed through Presidents Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Senate Democrats rightly called out the Senate Republicans hypocrisy. This was clearly a power move by Senate Republicans only because they hold the majority and are aware of the possibility that Trump will not only lose in 2020, but that they may also loose the majority in the Senate. It shoul...

 The Last Presidential debate for the 2020 Presidential Election between incumbent President Trump and former Vice President Biden. This debate strikes a very different tone from the first debate. The ability for the microphones to be muted certainly helped. Both candidates took a different strategy during the debate from the previous debate. Trump's strategy seemed to be focused solely attacking Biden on all fronts. Even when ask how he would address the country should he win, he still managed to attack Biden. Biden meanwhile, seem to employ a more flexible strategy. Biden's strategy seemed to be defend as a stalling tactic, but was able to turn the tables and launch a counter attack on Trump about half way through the debate. Biden's strategy seems to be the more sound debating strategy. Not only do people say that a good defense is a good offense, but it is also said that people typically remember the end of a speech/programing the most. Biden's strategy seemed to pl...

  In the previous week, the national polls continue to favor Biden, as do many of the state polls, notable in the battleground states.  It is reasonable to say that the polls are expect to narrow by Election Day. However, we have not yet seen any noticeable narrowing nationally. Additionally, if anything Biden is gaining in the polls, which is counter intuitive to how polls behaved in previous elections.  When it come to the debate, it was better than the first debate, if only because the candidates were not in the same room to interrupt each other. While the Biden campaign was willing to hold a virtual town hall debate, the Trump campaign refuse. As such we ended up with two separate town halls. I watched the Biden town hall on ABC in its entirety, while I have only seen clips of the Trump town hall on NBC. Based on online reactions, it seems that Biden's town hall was more informative for voters than Trump's town hall. The Neilson rating also seem to support this, with...

 I normally don't share other people's content on the blog without commentary, but this is an exception and a good video talking about the current state of the 2020 Presidential Election. The video is by the YouTube channel Let's Talk Elections.  

The AP has reported that six men are being charged in Federal Court for attempting to kidnap the Democratic Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer. The AP also reports that those 6 men were in contact with a militia group and had plans to overthrow the Michigan Government. Seven other men were charged of targeting police and the State Capital. Read the article here: https://apnews.com/article/michigan-checks-and-balances-archive-gretchen-whitmer-da09ca66cd8d5f36722021d3593425ff To give you a history lesson, back in 1898 the duly elected government of  Wilmington, North Carolina was overthrown by armed white supremacists. It was a coup d'état. It has called Wilmington insurrection of 1898, Wilmington massacre of 1898, or the Wilmington coup of 1898. It was originally considered a race riot started by African Americans but as new evidence came to light and the fabrications of the usurpers were unraveled, historians began calling it what it was, a white supremacist insurgency and coup....

 The Vice Presidential Debate has ended and it was a debate. While Trump and Biden both would give an F for their performances, Pence and Harris pass. Since I brought up grading them, I give Harris an 8.5/10, a solid B and I give Pence a 7/10. a C-.  (I'm using a 10 point scale, but on the other grading scale it would be a D). Pence's biggest issue during the debate was his willingness to lie for Trump and if it was not for him lying and presenting falsehoods, then he would get at least an 8/10. BUT his constant lies and false equivalencies, worsened his performance. Harris's biggest issue would be nothing, as I think she had a good performance and relied on truth and facts. There were moments where I noticed that Harris deflected, but that is somewhat to be expected with any politician. Pence attempted to drawn a comparison between Covid-19 and swine flue, but guess what there is a vaccine for swine flue, also known as H1N1 Influenza. The same flu that struck in 1918, but ...

 Trump is so desperate to win the election he is attempting to bribe voters by saying if he wins reelection, then he will pass a COVID relief bill. This is the definition of a Quid Pro Quo, this for that. I would even go as for to say that Trump should be impeached because of this. As bribery is one of the enumerated reasons for impeaching a President.  If you care about the integrity of the election and of politics, Do NOT vote for Trump. Vote for Biden or anyone else, just do not vote for Trump. It however is sad to say that if you live in a battleground state, that voting for Biden is your best choice because of our system which encourages strategic voting. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-kills-stimulus-talks-tweets-no-deal-until-after-i-n1242312?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

This past week was an interesting one for the Presidential Election. We had what many are considering the worst Presidential Debate ever. The general consensus online seems to be that Biden narrowly won the debate and that Trump lost the debate. But as a part of that, most say that Biden had more to loose than Trump and he did not loose and that Trump was his own enemy coming off too aggressive. Biden seemed to be better prepared for Trump, than Trump was for Biden. Additionally, most people agree that the debate was difficult to watch and a mess.  But that is not all that came out last week. The October Surprise came out as soon as the month started with two days after the debates, President Trump, along with his wife, tested positive for COVID-19 and he was latter flown to Walter Reed Medical Center for observation and as a precautionary measure. While I and many others do not wish for harm to come to Trump, it does seem a bit of karma after his blundering of the response to the...

The United states Presidential Election is a little over a month out, or is it. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November is the day of the popular for President is cast, but the winner of the popular vote does not become President. As happened in 2016 and 2000 the winner of the Electoral Collage did not win the popular vote. This should not be the case, the President should be the winner of the popular vote. The is an interstate compact/agreement once this group of states has 270 electoral votes under their control, they would pledge their electoral votes to whoever won the national popular vote their than their state popular vote. However, some would prefer if the Constitution were to be amended to abolish the electoral college and have the President solely chosen by the popular vote. I however doubt enough Congressional support and state support will be achieved to reach the required super-majorities. But if an amendment could be agreed upon,  I see some possibilities...

 The first Presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden recently concluded. The debate was moderated by Chris Wallace. First off, I caught Trump and Biden exchanging pleasantries right before the debate on stage. But other than that, they were not pleasant with each other. I felt Biden was a bit more cordial, but still very blunt. Also, I felt like Biden held the better position at the end of the debate. In terms of being a debater. However, I felt like Trump made a larger impact on screen due to him being a former reality TV host and knowing how to rally a crowd. I also have to say, I think Hillary Clinton did a better job debating Trump than Biden did. Still I felt Biden held his ground well and preformed better in the debate. He stayed relevant to the topic more often and he did not need to resort to lies to support his arguments. Trump failed to denounce white supremacy and white supremacists groups during the debate and frequently interrupted Bid...

 As you may heave heard, the New York Time has obtained Donald Trump's Federal Tax Returns. And let me just say, Donald Trump has paid less in taxes than the vast majority of Americans. The only people who pay less have to either get more money from the Federal Government than they pay in taxes (likely through welfare services) or do not have a job. In the year of his election and the following year Trump only paid $750 in taxes each year. That is Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars, no thousand, no million, just $750. It is disgraceful that the supposedly richest President pays so little in taxes. He does not contribute to the government the same as all Americans do, he contributes less than people working minimum wage, less than teacher, less that frankly anyone. The NY Times also has revealed that Trump pays more in taxes in other countries from overseas investments and offshore accounts, than he does in the United states. But what is even more troubling is that these revelations have ...