The countdown to Joseph Biden's and Kamala Harris' inauguration is over. It has been quite a stressful last four years ending in the disputed election of 2020, a Radical takeover of the Capitol and  the  ascension of the Biden/Harris team to the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. 

There won't be much time for celebration however, America has a pandemic to put down and vaccinations to administer. Rather than seeing a daily entry readers will see the newest information on Covid 19 vaccinations and other related information. Some of the websites from the state and other sources seen a bit too complicated to those of us without a degree in computer engineering. We will do our best to get you the information you need to keep yourselves and your families safe. Our Covid 19 page will have the most up to date news on the pandemic as possible.

Joe  Biden will assume the presidency at the peak of a deadly pandemic in a  city on lockdown, its streets cleared and many subway stations closed,  with about 20,000 National Guard troops patrolling against domestic terrorism and in front of a U.S. Capitol still under repair after a violent insurrection.

But  rather than pivot his plans after the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol,  advisers say he has scripted inaugural events built around the same  unifying themes of post-partisanship and governmental competence that  undergirded his campaign. Biden’s answer to the roughly 1 in 3 Americans who doubt his legitimacy and a departing president who refuses to formally hand off power will  be a program of nationally televised inaugural broadcasts anchored  around the country’s potential to unite in the face of crisis.(click photo for entire story)

As terrifying as it was to watch the attempted coup unfold on January 6, the news that afternoon offered some cause for relief. Although the U.S. Capitol was overrun, few injuries were initially reported. At first, it appeared that only one woman died in the melee. No lawmakers were harmed. The Electoral College certification went forward, despite some delay.

(to read complete article click photo)

  When Norman Ornstein, a resident Scholar at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote the book:

 It's even worse than it looks : how the American constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism

in 2012 it was basically an exposure and condemnation of the Republican dominated congress at the time. The destruction of our government did not begin with Trump. He merely brought us to this point where many  worry about the safety of our duly elected President and Vice-President elect. In weeks to come we will be seeing the true proportions of the disaster visited upon our country by Trump, his cronies, twisted Congressmen and Senators, treasonous military leaders, unfaithful police and many of those we take for granted who really hold the US government together.

Many of us, of a certain age, can remember how bullets changed the course of history. Idealists like to say you can't kill a belief with a bullet but Booth, Oswald, Sirhan and Ray tried to do just that. Those assassins may not have destroyed beliefs but any student of politics or history knows how they were certainly held back. Many Americans are still waiting.

At this point in time Biden will be fighting a battle on two fronts in a very similar way to how Obama inherited the Republican created disaster of the housing crisis and massive unemployment. He had to battle a Republican dominated congress for almost all of his two administrations trying to head off the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, while attempting to do what government can do to get Americans back to work.

The worst of the worst, people like Mitch McConnell, spent all of their time obstructing any constructive changes while they condemned Obama for not solving the problems Republicans caused and continued to prolong.

Like Obama, at the beginning of his first administration, Biden has both houses of Congress dominated by Democrats; for now. Unlike an economic crisis he faces a health crisis. For a comparison, Obama inherited a house infested with termites and he had the difficult job of killing the insects while rebuilding the structure; Biden has inherited a house ablaze. Both disasters caused by the Republicans and if recent history is anything to go on, we will soon see the Republicans using their favorite tool: mendacity, to dry-clean their image and will try the same tricks they used against Obama. 

Perhaps this newest generation of voters will have a better memory than those that took the tools out of Obama's hands only two years into his attempt to repair the house and perhaps Biden will be allowed the time to extinguish the conflagration and rebuilt a better America, a newer America, a country that replaces it's arrogance and stupidity with a sense of fairness and true justice for ALL. 

Allegations of racism against the Capitol Police are  nothing new: Over 250 Black cops have sued the department since 2001.  Some of those former officers now say it’s no surprise white  nationalists were able to storm the building.

by Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien

Jan. 14, 5:30 a.m. EST 

For an excellent analysis  of how America has gotten into the terrible condition it is in and, the destructive mentality that got us here, read today's "Letters from an American"

Despite the fact that Trump fomented a riot and encouraged the destruction and death perpetrated on January 6th, not to mention the total incompetence and disinterest in the hundreds of thousands of Covid dead,  there are still 197 Republicans who believe he should be allowed to stay in office and reap all of the benefits and perquisites of a retired president such as a very generous annual pension, lifetime protection by the Secret Service  and escaping the well deserved political blot on his historical record as the first president to not only be impeached twice but to actually be cast out of office for his crimes.

There is a good chance that future investigation of these elected individuals will reveal some of them to have not only agreed with Trump's twisted vision of America but to be complicit in his malfeasance.

Donald Trump has brought America down to it's moral and ethical knees in the eyes of the world but our shame did not begin and end with him. Like it or not, we are a Democratic Republic and those supporters of the shameful behavior we have seen over a long period of time (some say since Nixon, some Reagan and some even earlier) were elected by us. 

Whether Trump is convicted or not will not alter the fix America is in. With a pandemic raging and killing us by the thousands, with an economy that is crumbling along with our infrastructure and a total misunderstanding of our constitution due to the misreading of it by Supreme Court judges like Scalia and Roberts we are facing a dystopian future. 

What is the solution? It won't be simple and it won't be quick but removing the fuel from this conflagration is a good first step. Write down the names of those 197 members of Congress and remember their complicity in the attempted murder of America. 

Much has happened yesterday in a Congress that seems to finally have seen where America was going. There is still a large fire to extinguish and the attached article is very inclusive of where we are and where we can go.

 Officer Eugene Goodman stopped a mob of white rioters from entering the chambers of the United States Senate. At this perilous moment in our nation’s history, he was the one person standing between democracy and the rule of tyrants. (Photo Credit: New York Times) 

The Americans that respect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law are appalled at the extent of pandering to fascists these Pennsylvania Congressional Representatives are responsible for; and why have they sold out all that is sacred to our country. It isn't because they believe in any particular case more important than their own self interest. Their entire aim is staying in Congressional seats they were voted into by the people they helped to unbalance with the help of their Con-man in Chief, Donald (let me sell you something) Trump. 

They will plaintively tell you that nothing that transpired last Wednesday was their fault. They were only going along with their constituents desires. Well, what their constituents desired was not only the worst of America but it was also illegal and treasonous. Conspiracy with traitors makes them as guilty of treason and, in this case, murder of a Capitol policeman. 

This writer took a particular interest in D.Meuser and his slimy political and business connections in 2018 and researched him ad-nauseum. After leaving the protection of another incompetent politician, then Governor Tom Corbett, he quickly wiggled under Trump's wing for an even cushier existence.

If there is any justice in this country Meuser and the other rogues gallery will be running for congress in two years from the safety and comfort of a Federal prison. Lucky for Meuser, Lewisburg isn't that far from his home.

Because of her fair and truthful examination of political life in America Doctor Heather Cox Richardson will be a daily feature on the Democratic Committee of Columbia County's website. A professor at Boston College; she uses her skill and knowledge of history to uncomplicate many of the issues that even intelligent followers of daily politics can't easily fathom. This writer highly recommends subscribing to her daily blog.

Bill Moyers, long a voice of reason through troubled times, is a big fan and has even made her blog a feature of his own website: https://billmoyers.com/.../today-with-heather-cox-richardson

 Dr.  Richardson’s “readers are people who have been orphaned by the changes  in media and the sensationalism and the meanness of so much of Twitter  and Facebook, and they were surprised to find her there and pleased and  spread the word,” said Bill Moyers.

You will not find the explosive rhetoric you have read from time to time on this web-site, but in her rye New England style she has that rare ability to COMMUNICATE complex ideas and scenarios in easy to understand but not simplistic statements. 

Enjoy her writing as she clears a road through the "Pathless Wood of Modern America".