Category Archives: national news

Trump’s ‘ratings’ are, um, tanking

Donald J. Trump’s political career has been a testimony to his “ratings,” as he has said himself countless times.

Dude was a reality TV celebrity before becoming a politician, who he knows about ratings. He would boast that his political “ratings” were the best in human history … or words to that effect. He would chide his foes for their “failed ratings.”

We’re now 80-some days into the second term of Trump’s time in office. Know what? Man’s ratings are taking a header off the proverbial cliff.

Makes me wonder: Why is the Dumbass in Chief being so silent about them? No need to answer. I know that the charlatan cares only about news he deems favorable to him. Everything else is “fake,” or is a conspiracy of some sort.

This is what happens when a politician simply doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Meaning that Trump just doesn’t know, for example, that his tariff tantrum is going to result in a national tax increase for every living American.

He and his sidekick, Elon Musk, have set about cutting inspectors general loose, slashing the ranks of national park personnel, Social Security staffers, limiting veterans benefits, slashing foreign aid to countries that need assistance to fend off disease. Oh, and turning this country’s back on an ally in the middle of a ground war with Russia.

I don’t recall Trump ever boasting that he would do all these things while he campaigned for office in 2024. Do you?

Of course not. It’s because the Ignoramus in Chief doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

Chaos is back in form

There once was a time when Republican politicians seeking to keep the party’s presidential nomination away from the guy who would win it spoke truthfully about the numbskull.

All of them who eventually became MAGA minions blindly loyal to Donald Trump would rant, rave and rail against him.

I harken back to the statement that came from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who called Trump the “chaos candidate.” He predicted in 2016 that Trump would govern in a boiling sea of chaos. That prediction looms quite large for me know as the world watches the way Trump is seeking to make his imprint on a second term as president.

Chaos is back. Bigger and more worrisome than ever!

The worrisome aspect comes from the observation of many that Trump’s team actually is more organized, which I translate to mean that it wants to foment chaos, they do it on purpose. They want to keep Americans and our nation’s allies off balance. They prefer for Trump to act when the spirit moves him. No plan. No strategy. No thought given to the consequences of decisions.

If that doesn’t alarm you, then you’re a MAGA moron. The rest of us, though, have reason to be alarmed beyond measure at the chaos that has made its return to the West Wing.

No explanation needed, Mrs. Obama

Former first lady Michelle Obama finds herself feeling the need to explain why she stayed away from Donald J. Trump’s inauguration.

Allow me this bit of candor. There is not a reason on Earth for Michelle Obama to explain a single thing. Not to me, or to you. Or to anyone.

She stayed away because, in my view, she could not stand the thought of making nice with those who have demonized her, along with her husband and all of the couple’s political friends. What is so mysterious about that? Not a damn thing!

Even more troubling came the whispering about the state of the Obamas’ marriage. OK, she stayed away from Trump’s inauguration. Then she went MIA for the funeral of former President Carter. Her husband was there, along with former President Clinton and President Biden and, of course, the incoming Trump.

Again, Mrs. Obama didn’t need to rework her schedule to fit in a public appearance with Trump. Yet, the questions persisted about the Obamas’ marriage.

Finally, it fell to the former president to declare publicly that he and his wife are fine and that the rest of the world needs to butt the hell out.

Michelle Obama conducted herself with class, grace, good humor and style during her eight years as first lady. She also recognized that as the nation’s first Black presidential couple, she had to do her job to perfection. And she did!

To her everlasting credit, the former first lady responded to pressure to explain her absence from the ceremony involving the return of a totally unfit human being to the presidency. It’s a shame that she deemed it necessary to explain herself.

Ex-POTUSes united in opposition to current guy

We have four living former presidents of the United States, three Democrats and one Republican.

The Democrats all have spoken out loudly and clearly against the policies pitched by the incumbent, a Republican. The current GOP former president hasn’t spoken lately, but we all know that he cannot stomach Donald Trump.

Why is this important? It means that the ex-presidents are forgoing the custom of not speaking ill of their successor. They usually pretend to stand united behind the incumbent. The gloves are off. Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden all have spoken of the destruction that Trump has brought to the economy, to our international alliances and to our national security. President Bush has made his feelings known over the years about Trump, particularly as Trump has criticized the “Thousand Points of Light” program pitched by Bush the Elder.

The former presidents, in my view, are on the right side of history, which I believe is going to provide ample evidence that Trump will stand at the end of his term as arguably the most unfit, unqualified, ill-equipped man ever to take the presidential oath of office.

The former presidents club is among the most exclusive such collections in the world. No one knows the struggles that presidents endure better than the men who have endured them.

They also know a buffoon when they see one. Trump’s buffoonery is in a class by itself.

Trump wishes us a ‘happy Easter’ … sort of

Donald J. Trump has this way with words … consider what he posted on Truth Social today to comemorate the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar.

“Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country,” the president wrote.

What a sweet, heartfelt and faithful thing to say. Right?

I didn’t think you’d buy it either.

That’s how this idiot rolls. He can’t let go of the grievances he holds deep in what passes for his heart.

I just had to share it here to remind the MAGA morons what they got when they returned this guy to office.

How did ‘woke’ become an epithet?

I have many acquaintances, many of whom have hooked up with me via social media … and I have a precious few actual friends.

Some of the actual friendships have carried over from my years as a journalist, when I cultivated sources who would later become my friends. The deepest friendships, though, go back to my childhood. I have some of those, too … people I’ve known since I was a boy.

One of them is my oldest friend. We go back to the seventh grade together. We became friends in our junior high school home-room class and we have remained close over the course of 63 years.

Lately, though, he has taken a dramatic turn from the man I once knew as a fairly progressive fellow. Indeed, our shared world view drew us closer as we would comiserate over the state of the political world. Those days of shared angst are gone, possibly forever.

My friend — who I still love dearly — has gone on an anti-woke binge. His criticism of progressives is steeped in his loathing of their “woke” view of the world.

I had to look up the word “woke” to understand what it means. I found this: The term has its roots as a Black adjective meant to describe racism, but has since been broadened to call attention to sexism and gay rights. Those on the political right have used the term in recent years as an epithet to criticize those who champion progressive causes.

Wikipedia says this: Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. It is synonymous with the General American English word awake.

Sadly, the term has become a four-letter word.

Woke isn’t a dirty word. It’s not a corrupt philosophy. All it suggests to me is a desire to do right by everyone. Yet the 2024 Republican presidential field before it culled itself down to one clown, the nominee, kept hammering against “woke” policies. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis became the lead vocalist in the GOP amen choir blasting those damn woke-minded politicians.

I don’t get any of it.

I dislike the term woke because it sounds kinda foreign to me. However, if you’re going to call me “woke” because I oppose discriminating against people because of their skin color, their sexual orientation or their immigrant status, well, then fine.

Call me “woke.” I stand tall and proud … and I will always love my friend.

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.

I want efficient government, too!

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.

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.

Trump rewrites the rules

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.