national news

Trump Cabinet coming together … for better or worse

Four down and a bunch more to go for Donald Trump as he seeks to assemble the latest version of the federal government’s executive branch.

As expected, it’s been some tough sledding for some of Trump’s picks to administer policy decisions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth needed a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance to push him across the finish line. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sailed through with a unanimous 99-0 Senate vote.

CIA Director John. Ratcliffe from North Texas and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also got confirmed; they both had their share of “no” votes.

What’s next presents the possibility of at least three serious donnybrooks. FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence hopeful Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

I almost don’t where to begin with these three nimrods. Patel wants to destroy the very agency he says he wants to lead; Gabbard has chummed around with deposed Syrian goon Hafaz al Assad; RFK Jr. might seek to endanger our children by getting rid of many vaccines now required.

All three of these individuals have serious opposition facing them. Patel has zero business running the FBI, given his expressed hatred of the agency. Gabbard is equally unfit to become DNI, as she has next to zero intelligence-gathering and analytical experience. RFK Jr. is half-cracked judging by his statements involving the care of our elderly and our children.

All three of those individuals need to be shown the door … with malice. It isn’t likely to happen because the GOP majority in the Senate is demonstrating it comprises a cabal of cowards who cannot bring themselves to demand that Trump find truly qualified public servants to fill these key posts.

Welcome to the return of government by chaos.

military news

DoD head appears cleared for job

Pete Hegseth should never be allowed to take the job he appears set to assume … secretary of defense of the world’s greatest military power.

But he will because I keep hearing how Senate Republicans, with a couple of notable exceptions, are standing with him. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska likely will vote against Hegseth. Two more GOP defections and the dude is toast.

Who might abandon this guy remains an open question. What we’ve all seen in the second coming of Donald Trump to the White House is that the GOP caucus is as scared of him as it was when he left office in 2021, having been defeated by Joe Biden.

To be honest, it makes me so angry I want to spit.

Let’s just set aside all the sexual abuse stuff, the womanizing, the marital infidelity for just a moment. Hegseth is a combat veteran. He served in the Army. Hey, so did I, so I’ll thank him for his service.

That’s it! He didn’t command large groups of men and women. He held no administrative job. He gravitated from the military to a gig on the Fox Propaganda Channel, serving as a weekend host on “Fox and Friends.”

This does not constitute any sort of experience that qualifies this guy to lead the nation’s — and the world’s — most powerful and lethan military organization.

Toss in the stuff about his alleged sexual misconduct — which comes from women who have identified themselves — and you have a recipe for unmiitigated disaster.

The dude has waffled, flipped and flopped on many of his more controversial views, such as whether women should serve in combat. He said “no,” now he’s backing away.

Donald Trump continues to boast about finding the “best people” to work with him as POTUS. Pete Hegseth isn’t possibly one of them.

national news

Newest MAGA moron steps up

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Step right up, Andy Ogles, and take your place as the latest MAGA moron to exhibit his colors as a blind loyalist to the MAGA man in chief, Donald Trump.

Ogles is a Tennessee Republican House member who has introduced a bill to allow Trump to run for a third presidential term when his current term runs out in January 2029. Ogles, of course, wants to rewrite the Constitution, which bans anyone from being elected president more than twice.

This is the product of a MAGA dipshit who believes Trump is the savior for a nation that, truth be told and heard, is in quite good shape. Ogles’ amendment would limit a third-term president to those who serve non-consecutive terms. That means, quite naturally, that former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are out, given that they were elected to two consecutive terms.

Let it be understood that the 22nd Amendment was crafted in the late 1940s by Republicans who didn’t want an “imperial presidency,” which they feared when Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt got elected to four terms. It has worked out all right since its ratification in 1951.

I am quite sure that when Trump’s current term is up that Americans will have decided they have had enough of the carnival barker masquerading as a serious politician.

As if one term wouldn’t have sufficed.

legal news

Birthright citizenship: solidly inscribed in Constitution

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Let’s just agree with this crystal clear notion … which is that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution makes no distinction among those who are born in this country.

It is silent on whether parents are legal or illegal immigrants. You’re born here, you earn the right of citizenship. Period.

Donald Trump doesn’t see it that way. He wants to ban. He issued an executive order making that declaration. A federal judge, though, has declared Trump’s action in direct violation of the Constitution. Trump will appeal that sensible ruling. How far it goes is anyone’s guess. He’s got that right-wing-stacked Supreme Court on his side.

You must amend the Constitution to use the end of birthright citizenship to stem illegal immigration. There are serious hurdles to clear to amend the document.

The 14th Amendment also stipulates in crystal clear language that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges … of citizens of the United States.”

Our forebears took care to ensure clarity of this amendment.

We must not trifle with birthright citizenship.

national news

Once more … what if?

What if a Category 4 or 5 hurricane were to slam the Texas coast, killing many people and destroying billions of dollars in property?

Or … what if a similar storm blasts Florida, causing that kiind of damage?

How about if an F-4 tornado swept across Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, tearing apart valuable farm land?

Would the Republicans in Congress be so eager to attach strings to the damage the way are demanding of California in the wake of the wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes, killing dozens of people? Of course not!

Why? Because those previous states are governed by Republicans, which tells me in the plainest language possible that the congressional GOP is politicizing aid to Americans that should be far above any political concerns.

The debate over whether we can afford aid to Americans who live in one of our United States simply makes me sick to my stomach.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Donald J. Trump should be ashamed of themselves. That is, if they have any shame left.

national news

Yep, it’s the Age of Rage

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To be perfectly honest, I had never thought of what one might call the current political period that has enveloped this nation.

Then, as I was typing a message to an acquaintance, it popped up on my computer screen. I called this period the Age of Rage.

What? Really? Then I thought about it for a moment or two. Then it dawned on me that this is precisely how we should describe this time in the history of our great republic. Besides, it has kind of a nice rhyming ring to it … you know?

A thoroughly unqualified and unfit individual has just returned to the presidency by virtue of an election he managed to win in 2024. Donald Trump took his oath, then delivered an inaugural speech full of bitterness, vindictiveness and anger. He described a country I do not recognize. The US of A is not “in decline.” We remain the envy of the world. The weaker nations of the planet turn to us for help. How can that possibly signal that we are on the decline?

He is an angry man.  Full of rage at immigrants, environmentalists, feminists, those who adhere to the rule of law, gay and transgender people, indigenous people.

Not only that, his first flood executive orders have triggered rage among those of us who oppose him, his policies, his world view (such as it is), his alliances … damn near everything about this guy!

Yep, we have entered the Age of Rage in the United States of America. It doesn’t feel good to me, nor should it feel good to you or anyone else.

Except, of course, for the guy who provokes the rage.

crime news

Trump sets dangerous precedent

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Donald J. Trump’s pardoning this week of 1,500 or so mobsters who stormed the Capitol Building four years ago sets a precedent that sends chills up my spine … and should frighten you, too.

Many of those pardoned by Trump were involved in violent crimes against Capitol cops, against security officials and against bystanders.

What this idiot has done by pardoning the worst among the insurrectionists is send a message to anyone who, in the future, decides to do the very same thing in his defense that the president has their back. They will not have to pay for the crimes they commit.

Think about that for just a moment. That’s all the time you’ll need to process what this means. It means that Donald Trump has legitimized violence against police; it means the POTUS has decided that it’s OK to desecrate public property — even defecate on the floor — as long as you are defending whatever numbskull policy the president decides to enact.

You want an existential threat to our way of life? Donald J. Trump has just delivered it to us in the form of that blanket pardon of the mobsters who stormed the Capitol at his behest.

Moreover, do not tell me or anyone else that the pardon only affected the non-violent participants. Some very bad actors are walking free today because their MAGA chieftain defied the rule of law on their behalf.

national news

Trump legitimizes treason!

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How does one process the action on the first day of his return to high office … other than to recognize that Donald J. Trump delivered on a campaign promise.\

Just after taking the oath as POTUS, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 of the traitorous goons who stormed the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to President Biden.

It was arguably the darkest day in the history of our republic. Thousands of people stormed the Capitol that day, waging hand-to-hand combat with police officers seeking to protect members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence from the anger emanating from the assailants.

Americans never in our history had witnessed such a flagrant attack on the very system of government we say we cherish.

Well, Trump called the prisoners “hostages” and issued blanket pardons to them.

Utterly and completely disgusting and abhorrent to those of us who value the rule of law.

This American patriot — that would be me — am simply astonished at what transpired after the inauguration.

Donald Trump has just legitimized a clear and present act of treason against the government he swore to defend and protect.

I’ll have more to say on the other executive orders Trump issued, but first … I need to catch my breath.

national news

Birthright citizenship must stay

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The first sentence of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says this: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State where they reside.”

Donald J. Trump wants to get rid of that right of those born in this country. Birthright citizenship, he said, must be repealed. Trump said also that he’s the man who’ll do it.

Whoa! Let’s hold on a minute, shall we?

Amending the Constitution requires a whole lot more than merely a presidential declaration. Repealing birthright citizenship would require a super-majority of both houses of Congress to approve it, Then it would require a super-majority of the 50 state legislatures in the United States of America to approve it.

This action goes far beyond a president’s ability — or authority — to make it happen.

This is part of Trump’s anti-immigrant view, which is articulated by many senior advisers within the administration he has created. He wants to stem what he calls the “invasion” of immigrants across our southern border. Many of those immigrants — chiefly the undocumented among them — are bring unborn children with them. Therefore, he reckons that this country cannot afford to have children born to those who are here illegally, but who become U.S. citizens the moment they draw breath.

The amendment was ratified in July 1868 and has served as a beacon for those seeking opportunity in the “land of opportunity.” Trump’s desire to shoo away those seeking a better life in this great nation ignores one of our great land’s basic tenets … which is to welcome everyone born within our borders.

national news

Custom gets flushed

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Customarily, presidential inaugural speeches are intended to appeal to Americans’ highest ideals, setting a tone for the incoming administration to follow.

But … as is always the case with POTUS No. 47, custom got flushed down the crapper today. Donald J. Trump took his oath of office and then launched into all the campaign talking points he used to win the election in November.

He didn’t bother to thank his predecessor, President Biden, for his five decades of public service, or to congratulate his 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for the spirited campaign she waged against him.

Oh, no. None of that grace was to be heard in Trump’s speech. He railed yet again over what he called the decline of our nation, vowing to “make America great agaiin.”

It was vintage Trump. Frankly, it sickened me.

I decided to watch his speech hoping I might hear a word of grace from the man who violated the very oath he took in 2017. I hoped he might have learned a lesson or two from what I consider to be a failed presidency the first time around.

I was disappointed.

Just maybe, though, I shouldn’t have set my hopes too high.

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