Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Dubya looking better all the time

A dear friend and I today visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. It was my fourth visit; it was her first.

I want to stipulate something I believe is quite significant, given that I think this is the second time I’ve been to the Bush center during one of Donald Trump’s administration. It is that I cannot help but compare the incumbent POTUS to the 43rd president. With each comparison that comes to mind, Dubya comes off looking better than the previous time.

I didn’t vote for President Bush in either of his presidential elections; nor did I cast a ballot for him for governor in 1994. I will not apologize for opposing his election to the governor’s office or the presidency or his re-election to the White House.

But I’ll be deep-fried and damned if he doesn’t look like the Second Coming compared to Trump. The Bush library contains many images of President Bush huddled with children while touting his education reforms. Today I noticed a hand-written letter from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy thanking the president for his work to help children learn to read. There is quite an exhibit explaining Bush’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, notably through his federal initiative known as PEPFAR, which stands for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Indeed, I learned in 2004 while attending the international AIDS conference in Bangkok, that PEPFAR has pumped more money into AIDS research than all other worldwide government programs … combined!

The Bush center also puts this man’s humanity on display. We see it through his care for families whose lives were destroyed by the events of 9/11 and by his concern for poverty that continues to strike all families across the land.

Quite naturally, the Bush center says nothing about the mistakes made by going to war in Iraq in 2003 or the economic freefall that struck the nation at the end of his presidency.

I just look at George W. Bush’s life of public service and I am filled with the desire to thank him personally for all he sought to do to make this a better world. I compare that to what Donald Trump continues to do to destroy the very fabric of our great nation. I simply shake my head out of disgust and rage.

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Talarico making more sense

The more I hear from James Talarico, the more appealing he sounds as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas.

Here is why. Talarico is a young Presbyterian seminary student who (a) wears his faith openly and expressses it freely and (b) is taking aim at Christian nationalists who are seeking to pervert the U.S. Constitution into something the nation’s founders expressly forbid … which was to make religion a part of our governing structure.

Talarico hails from Austin. He is running for the Senate against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s lugging so much legal and ethical baggage into this race I am surprised he is able to catch his breath long enough to make any sort of logical statement.

Talarico doesn’t fit the norm of modern Texas Democrats. He speaks openly of his Christian faith. He cites Scripture at campaign rallies and has opened his campaign with the slogan that it is time to “flip a few tables,” referring to the Biblical reference of Jesus being so angry he tossed tables to get his disciples’ attention.

Right-wing evangelicals are critical of Talarico, suggesting he is perverting Christianity to fit neatly into his political message. They believe the founders intended to create a Christian nation and want the current government to reflect those founding ideals.

I have chosen to take a different view, for if the founders wanted  Christian theology to take root after the Revolution, they would have written it into the Constitution. The nation’s government document is quite clear that it is a secular framework. There isn’t a single mention of Jesus Christ, the New Testament or Christianity to be found in it. In fact, the First Amendment to the Constitution declares that Congress shall make no laws establishing a state religion.

These are the things that James Talarico will seek to make clear to Texas voters. I am going to wish him all the success in the world as he carries out that mission.

national news, Uncategorized

Enough is far more than enough

OK, where do I start with this brief blog comment on a racist, vile, evil, heinous, despicable epithet spit from the slobbering puss of a UFC fighter from the front lawn of the White House?

I have run out of ways to condemn such statements … which I won’t call “free political speech.” The dipshit won his cage match, grabbed a microphone and questioned the gender of former first lady Michelle Obama.

I suppose I could bellow that “Enough is enough!” Except we crossed that line years ago with some ghastly comment from Donald J. Trump. It’s way beyond “enough is enough” territory.

Why, I cannot even summon strong enough language to condemn Trump’s absence of anger at the hideous blathering of the UFC numbnuts. Maybe I have become numb to these blatherings.

I have no need to explain to you what you already know or believe about the former first lady. She served in an office she never sought with dignity, grace and class. Her response to the moron who desecrated the people’s house with his idiocy only illustrates what we know about her.

As for the shit for brains who said what he said, I’ll let him slither into the dung heap from which he emerged.

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Interest grows in wanting Iran war to end

I have an interest in seeing the Iran war come to an end and it has nothing to do with whether I would be called up or whether my sons would face the same future.

Hey, they’re both too old as I certainly am.

My interest in the war’s end is rooted in my retirement account. I read just a few minutes ago that consumers are now bracing for the biggest monthly decline in oil prices in six years, that June might signal a stellar month for retirement accounts across the land. The war that Donald Trump launched has cost us all a ton of money. Why launch a war remains the question of the day … and Trump appears none too ready to explain a damn thing about why he did it.

When word leaks out that negotiators are getting close to a deal, the market goes bonkers. When we hear from Trump about plans to bomb the hell out of Iran, markets tank dramatically.

The rumor mill now is grinding out reports of a deal in the works. If it’s true, then I will be among the first to offer Donald Trump some qualified praise. Ending the Iran war will allow me to breathe more easily as I look farther down the retirement road. The only qualification I will have will be in learning why in the hell we went to war with Iran in the first place.

It had better be worth it.

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Candidate will be gone, ideology will remain

One day quite soon, I am confident that our American political system will rid itself of the poisonous MAGA founder, Donald Trump.

He’s been elected twice as president. The Constitution says two terms is enough. No more. He’ll be gone and on Jan. 20, 2029, someone new will take office.

I will be glad to send Trump packing. I fear, however, that the movement he founded will linger for a good while longer. It will lurk in the shadows. It will present itself on occasion when the right candidate feels comfortable enough to run on the MAGA notion … whatever the hell it is.

I say this provide some counsel to those who are looking forward to Election Day 2028 when Trump’s name won’t be on the ballot for the first time since 2012 when Barack Obama won re-election as president. The 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections all had Trump’s name on ballots.

This imbecile has poisoned the presidency. His corruption is utterly breathtaking. So is his vengefulness. His lack of empathy, his grace, his collegiality all are MIA. Trump’s poison will take time to cleanse itself.

Trump’s exit is welcome. I won’t be cheering too loudly, knowing that what he has built will remain.

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Colbert to soar, Trump to crash and burn

We have gotten through comedian Stephen Colbert’s final show on Late Night, for which I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch just how Colbert was going to sign off.

He didn’t disappoint me.

My favorite part was when Sir Paul McCartney walked out after Colbert was rejected by the “the pope.” Sir Paul offered himself to be Colbert’s final celebrity interview.

OK, I am going to offer only this brief takeaway from last night’s extravaganza. Yes, Colbert got the axe because Donald Trump cannot — in Bruce Springsteen’s words — “can’t take a joke.” Trump put the arm on CBS officials to cut Colbert loose because the comedian wouldn’t stop poking fun at Trump’s feckless, reckless and criminal activity as POTUS.

I am willing to predict — in fact I’ll do so right now — that Stephen Colbert’s star is going to rise into the stratosphere as a result of what happened this week, while Donald Trump will continue his flameout into oblivion.

Trump has the audacity to say that Colbert lacks talent, that no one cares about his comedy or his art. I believe saw a graphic demonstration that Colbert’s status as a comic genius and satirist was on full display … while Trump showed us once more that he is little more than a petulant bully.

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Bulls, bears … what now?

When the POTUS launched that foolish war with Iran, the world found itself turned on its head.

Wall Street retreated immediately from its “bull market” status to becoming a “bear market.” The price of oil skyrocketed into the heavens, bringing the price of gasoline and diesel fuel right along with it.

Then Donald Trump began backing off some of the dire and grim threats he laid on Iran. The impact of that backing away was to watch the market storm back.

It prompts a question. Wall Street had been in bull market territory. Then it became a bear market. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 retreated so dramatically that market analysts said those markets had marched into “correction” territory.

Now the NASDAQ and S&P have marched into record high territory. So has the Dow Jones Industrial average.

What do we call a market that plunges into a bear market then storms back into a bull market?

This nuttier than hell political climate is doing a number on the business climate.

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‘Weaponization’ resumes

FBI Director Kash Patel lacks the gene that compels him to ponder the hypocrisy of his actions and statements.

Why else would he choose to launch a criminal probe into former CIA Director John Brennan’s actions relating to the first impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019?

The same can be said of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who’s going after many top officials who got swept up in Trump’s first impeachment.

These two people are doing precisely what they have accused the Biden administration of doing … and wrongly, I should add. They are using national security assets to seek revenge against Donald Trump’s foes and they have said all along that President Biden did the same thing to Trump’s foes. There stands no greater example of weaponizing the Justice Department than what we’re seeing unfold in real time.

It is striking in the extreme to realize how Trump has surrounded himself with hypocrites. Indeed, they are mirror images of the POTUS himself.

He wanted loyalty among his top advisors, the “best people”? He got loyalty, all right. The cost to our cherished American system is horrific.

national news, Uncategorized

Hit the road, congressman Swallwell

Eric Swallwell looked to many Democratic partisans like a sort of political hero. Then the sh** hit the fan!

Swallwell ended his campaign for California governor and then today announced he intends to resign from Congress. What happened to this one-time Golden Boy? He got caught messing around with several women other than his wife. One of the “other women” reportedly is a member of his House staff.

So, just like that he’s gone from hero to zero. Good riddance, jerk!

I would give him the benefit of the doubt except that this pattern follows too closely the pattens set by other politicians caught doing similar misdeeds.

I would like to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. But it’s too hard to ignore the allegations leveled by these victims. Swallwell, considered a leading candidate for California government, calls the allegations “false.” Then he acknowledged making the mistakes too many married men make. It’s between “me and my wife.”

Give me a break.

I am shaking my noggin. This clown simply should just disappear into the darkest corners of any room he happens to find.