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You serve to protect rights you surrender

Dakota Meyer is a Medal of Honor recipient who earned the medal in 2009 for saving his fellow warriors from Taliban fire in Afghanistan.

President Obama presented the medal to the U.S. Marine Corps sergeant in a White House ceremony. Meyer then left the Marine Corps for 15 years.

Now, though, he is returning to the Corps as a reservist. He had become highly critical of President Biden’s decision to withdraw our forces from Afghanistan. He was married for a time to the daughter of former Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin. He says now he will return to service, but plans to “stay out of politics.”

Good call. It’s also a prudent decision on his part. Why? Because even though he is serving to protect the rights of all Americans to speak their minds, men and women in uniform actually surrender that very right the moment they don the uniform.

The First Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to seek “redress of grievances.” Except that those on duty in the military cannot criticize the commander in chief, who is their commanding officer, so to speak. If the president issues a lawful order, then those under his command are obligated to follow those orders without bitching out loud about it.

There can be “redress of grievances” for those in the military, be they active duty, or reservists.

A member of my family retired from the Army not long ago after serving for 20 years on active duty. He served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also was highly critical of President Biden. He sought a promotion in rank, but was routinely passed over. My belief? His commanding officer knew of his social media rants aganst the commander in chief and nixed his promotion.

I am delighted Sgt. Meyer has decided to return to the Marine Corps. I am equally delighted he understands the folly of bellowing out loud his discontent over political matters made by those who serve far above his pay grade.

 

Donald Trump

Yes, I want POTUS to succeed

Believe this or disbelieve it, but I want to clear the air on an issue that needs clearing.

It is the future of the presidency under the regime led by Donald J. Trump. In short, i actually want Trump to succeed. I don’t wish him success because he deserves high praise; he seeks it out even when he doesn’t deserve it.

I want the country to reap the benefit of whatever success Trump can bring forth.

I consider myself to be an American patriot, not a phony patriot who believes the lies that pour out of Trump’s mouth. I ain’t a MAGA American, as I believe the nation has retained its greatness even during the most difficult times imaginable.

What do I believe will happen with some of Trump’s policies? I believe the tariff tantrum he’s on only will worsen our daily lives by driving up the cost of damn near everything we consume. His deportation policy is heartless and inhumane. Trump’s meddling in higher education only weakens universities’ traditional independence.

The guy is a classic RINO, calling himself a “conservative” while unleashing the government to punish his political foes … to whom he refers as enemies.

I am a fair-minded fellow, regardless of what some critics of this blog might believe. I want Trump to succeed because continued failure only means more rough days ahead for the rest of us.

OK, maybe I’m self-serving in wishing the best for Trump’s policies. If he succeeds, we’ll all reap the reward.

national news, political news

Trump redefines conservatism

Donald J. Trump, through the force of his enormous will, has managed over the past decade to reshape the political landscape into something few of us recognize.

Take the definition of the term “conservative.”

I came of age politically in a time when Barry Goldwater and later Ronald Reagan became the gold standards for political conservatism. Their view was the term meant minimal government influence in our lives. Goldwater later became known more as a libertarian, taking the view that government had no role to play in determining people’s sex lives or whether a woman could obtain an abortion.

Trump has taken the conservative movement in an entirely different direction. He wants to use government as a weapon to wield against his political enemies. He vows to sic the FBI and the Justice Department on those in the media who criticize him.

He wants the government to go after colleges and universities who teach certain subjects in class. He recently withheld a huge fund from Harvard University because the Ivy League school refused to knuckle under his demand to stop teaching about racism, slavery and other low points in our nation’s glorious history.

Trump wants the government to ban transgender athletes from competing, he wants transgendered patriots to be barred from serving in the military.

None of this is “conservative” as I grew up understanding the term. An activist government is more of a — dare I say it? — liberal effort. In the old days, liberals were seen as wanting to deploy government to bring meaningful change.

These days, it’s all been tossed into a cocked hat.

Which brings about a key question. Who in our modern political world stands out as a Republican In Name Only? The Republican Party used to be thought of as the conservative party, yes?

I’ll cast my vote for Donald Trump as the nation’s RINO in chief.

local news

Dogs are in fact ‘loved ones’

I saw a social media post that declared, “Losing a dog is almost as bad as losing a loved one.”

Hah! “Almost as bad”? I beg to differ. Losing a dog is just like losing a loved one. At least that’s the case in my house.

I live in North Texas and am the parent of an energetic 6-year-old Chihuahua mix named Sabol,  Sabol joined my family right after I returned from an overseas vacation in September 2024. We met at a park in Princeton and fell in love with each other immediately.

You see, Sabol was living with a woman who is in failing health and her daughter sought to find a new home for the puppy. That’s when I came along. Sabol took the place of another Chihuahua mix pooch I lost in December 2023 to cancer. I wrote extensively about Toby the Puppy over the nine years he brought joy to my household. I lost Toby the same year cancer claimed my bride of 51 years. Indeed, Toby’s passing provided a symbolic bookend to the worst year of my life. I said farewell to Kathy Anne near the beginning of 2023 and I said the same to Toby the Puppy near the end of that horrific year.

I won’t equate the losses. I won’t say that losing Toby was the same as losing Kathy Anne. I will say, though, that letting Toby go after his battle with cancer became too much for him hurt just like “losing a loved one.” I loved Toby very much.

And I love Sabol just as much.

I long ago ceased referring to myself as a “pet owner.” I am a proud “pet parent,.” And like any parent can fathom, losing a loving furry baby brings plenty of pain.

business news, economic news

Tariff tumult requires testing

Donald Trump’s fixation with tariffs has the markets in an uproar. Hints of Trump blinking send the Dow Jones averages into outer space. Then the numbskull in chief says all the wheeling-and-dealing is a mirage … so the markets tank again.

I believe the Trump skeptics who contend that POTUS 45 & 47 doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t understand the economics of a tariff, which makes me wonder out loud whether he evrer learned against the Wharton School of Economics, where he says he earned good grades.

I don’t what his grades were. I damn sure don’t care. He isn’t exhibiting a scintilla of knowledge about basic economics with this tariff nonsense.

President Reagan of all people called tariffs a “national sales tax” He was speaking in 1987 when he denigrated the notion of attaching tariffs on goods imported into the country. The Gipper was right then. Trump is wrong today in proclaiming that tariffs on imported goods will “make America great again.”

He is turning a national economy that was held up as the gold standard for the world to emulate into an international laughingstock.

national news

I want efficient government, too!

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Allow me this admission: I am all in on Donald Trump’s desire to make government more “efficient” and more “accountable” to the folks who pay for it … that means you and me.

We have heard tales for decades about wasteful spending in our federal government. Remember the stories about $600 toilet seats? Or airplanes that couildn’t fly?

Those were maddening tales to be sure. Trump got elected in 2024 partly on his promise to cut waste in our government. Hey, count me in!

What I — nor I doubt any other American — could foresee was the method Trump would use to slash government spending. Indiscrimiinate firings of inspectors general, or civil servants, of dedicated public employees, slashing of entire Cabinet departments all have become part of the modus operandi.

Then we have Elon Musk and that quasi-government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The term DOGE has become part of the government vernacular like NASA. We refer to the acronym as if it’s a real word.

Musk has been unbridled in his public statements about cutting Social Security, which has called a Ponzi scheme when, in fact, it is an earned benefit paid for with our tax noney we old folks paid with our tax money. That doesn’t matter to the richest man on Earth, whose DOGE lackeys are running amok.

The Musk-Trump strategy — such as it is — only demonstrates to me that the president has no plan, no principle, no idea of what our so-called leaders want to do.

They have taken a noble cause — making government more efficient — and turned iit nto a clown show.

The product is far from efficient … and no one is laughing.

national news

RFK is spinning in his grave

Robert Francis Kennedy ran for president of the United States seeking to heal a nation torn apart by divisions over the Vietnam War and over continuing tension among Americans divided by race.

An assassin ended RFK’s bid to heal a nation. They buried the U.S. senator and former attorney general, where he has rested since June 1968.

Now comes his son, RFK Jr., serving as health and human services secretary in an administration led by the most divisive, boorish narcissist imaginable.

I long have wondered what Daddy Kennedy must think about the turn his son has taken.

Bobby Kennedy would turn 100 years old later this year. I believe that were he able he would rise from his grave and throttle his son.

national news

Trump rewrites the rules

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Try to imagine if you dare any president prior to Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene in 2016 saying the things that often fly out of this guy’s mouth.

Take your pick of any of ’em. Republican or Democrat. It makes no never mind. Think of what the reaction would be if any president said out loud that he might seek a third term in office. Think of the insults any of them could level at former national security advisers or chairmen of the Joint Chiefs. Think of the kind of epithets they might hurl at fellow politicians. Think, too, of seeking to eliminate news organizations simply because they provide commentary you deem critical.

They would be impeached by the House of Representatives. There’s a decent chance they could be convicted of a high crime and drummed out of office.

Not now, man! No way. The current POTUS has rewritten the rules of conduct, of decorum, of behavior.

It’s now OK to talk like a junior high schooler, to speak of others in the most unkind language imaginable. It’s all right to lie openly.

It’s OK if you’re Donald John Trump!

Dude gets away with it … because he instills fear in those who might be inclined to speak out.

President George H.W. Bush once promised to turn the nation toward a “kinder, gentler” political climate. Donald Trump has torn that playbook into shreds, leading us to an environment full of insult and invective.

I prefer the G.H.W. Bush version of politics.

local news

Two pups, two personalities

I have had two cherished pooches in my life … one was Toby the Puppy, the other is Sabol, who I also refer to as “puppy.”

They’re both Chihuahua-mix puppies. I lost Toby to cancer in December2023. They have similar coloration. Both are about the same size, although Sabol is a bit pudgier than Toby.

That, however, is where the similarity ends. Toby hated water. That included lawn sprinklers and rainfall. He was good with a bath, though. Sabol? She loves to play in the rain. She rolls around in the mud.

Here’s another difference, which is the point of this blog post. Toby didn’t like loud noises, such as the one the lawmower makes. Sabol seems to relish the sound.

This morning I mowed my back lawn. Whereas Toby would have run like a thief from the sound, Sabol today followed me around the yard barking joyfully at the rumbling Craftsman machine. I had to shoo her away a couple of times when she got too close to it for my comfort.

Sabol didn’t interfere with my lawn-cutting chore. She was just, um, a presence who felt as if she had to make herself known to me while I was in the middle of an important task.

Understand this about Sabol. She joined my family in September 2024, after I had put the lawnmower up for the winter. The sound of the machine was new to her. The lawnmowing session was the first of this grass-growing season for me.

What will I do in the future when it’s time to fire up the lawnmower? I likely will have to keep Sabol restricted indoors while I finish the job. I’m tellin’ ya, puppies are as unpredictable as kids.

media news

Obama: What if I did this?

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Barack Hussein Obama, speaking to a crowd of college students the other day, raised a fascinating subject out loud.

The 44th president of the United States wondered, “What if I did any of this?” He explained himself. “What if I had banned Fox News” from the White House briefing room? The outcry from the right, he said, would be vociferous.

He is correct. What’s more, the right would have been justified in expressing anger at a president banning a media organization from access it was giving to other such media outlets.

Then he went on. He noted how Donald Trump has banned some news outlets that have been critical of his policies from access to White House sources. “It’s not a partisan issue,” President Obama said. “It’s about who we are as a culture,” he added.

Indeed, the very people who would be angry as hell at a Democratic president doing such an outrageous thing have grown silent as their guy, Trump, seeks to silence The Associated Press, CNN and MSNBC as they seek to cover the events dictated by the current president.

Obama also noted that “a good many of my predecessors” would be aghast at what is transpiring these days within the White House now run by Trump, the MAGA morons who back him and Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth.

Trump has declared his desire to see MSNBC taken apart. By whom or what, he doesn’t say. The implication, though, is clear. He wants to sic the government on the left-leaning network. Trump, who is astonishingly ignorant of the Constitution, seemingly doesn’t know that the First Amendment declares that a “free press” must be kept free of any government interference.

President Obama was spot on in delivering his rhetorical question. He is right to question aloud where we are as a culture that allows people to accept as normal the machinations of a wildly out-of-control chief executive who exhibits every sign imaginable of wanting to run this country as a dictator.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience