Category Archives: national news

national news

Compromise: not a four-letter word

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A word to the wise is in order as Congress prepares to end the ridiculous closure of the federal government.

It is that “compromise is not a four-letter word.”

The U.S. Senate approved a compromise spending bill with a 60-40 vote and sent it to the House, where it likely will pass with a bipartisan majority before it goes to Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Holdouts on the left don’t like certain elements of the bill. Holdouts on the right are of the same mind. They are angry with the bipartisan centrists who have said “enough is enough” and want to return the government to its fully staffed capability.

I understand the idea of governing on principle. I do not understand why those principles become so hardened that they prevent any kind of governance to occur. That’s what happened with the government shut down for 40 days, setting a record.

Congress should not have been allowed to collect its salary while federal employees were being denied their pay while continuing to report for work.

The deal that appears set to be worked out will keep the government running until late January. Then we’ll likely have more of this foolishness.

Don’t pat yourselves on the back members of Congress. You did nothing to crow about.

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Wanting to repeal the 22nd

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Time for an admission that I hate making, but I’ll do so anyway out of fairness to the integrity of the issue at hand.

As I watch the 44th president of the United States hit the campaign stump for fellow Democrats, I am filled partially with the desire to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, the one that limits presidents to two elected terms.

Barack Obama still has the chops to stir ’em up. He can deliver applause lines like no other politician I have witnessed in the 40-some years I have been covering and watching presidential politics.

Republicans in Congress had grown fearful of an imperial presidency after Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term in 1944. He took office in March of 1945 and died a month later. FDR was a dead man walking, suffering from blood clots, one of which traveled to his brain and took him out. The GOP intended to preserve the presidency for the common American who could seek the office.

Then we got the clown we have now. Donald Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, only to refuse to accept that he lost. He instigated the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. He won again in 2024.

Democrats now are turning to the one home-run hitter sitting on the bench. He’s a former president who reminds us how Republicans used to criticize Democrats for even wanting to talk to Vladimir Putin. Now the former KGB spy is having a “Bromance with Trump,” but that’s OK!

Trouble with Trump, though, is that POTUS No. 47 doesn’t give a crap about the obvious truth coming from Obama … not to mention all the other presidential predecessors.

We won’t repeal the 22nd Amendment. I am actually fine with it. I just wish at times the part of me that resides in Fantasyland could affect public policy in real time.

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Pols run close to ruining their own careers

Politicians dismiss public opinion polls all the time, especially those that tell them things they don’t want to hear.

They do so at considerable risk. Why say such a thing? Public opinion polls are speaking with one voice on this issue: the government shutdown. They are telling us that Americans are disgusted with Congress and the president over their refusal to reopen the government because Democrats insist on preserving elements of the Affordable Care Act that will provide insurance for millions of Americans.

Without the ACA — aka Obacare — tens of millions of Americans will lose their health coverage.

One party controls both congressional chambers; and the White House. No laws are being legislated. The House hasn’t even been in session. Speaker Mike Johnson decided to let ’em all go on vacation rather than stick around and do their job. Get this: All members of Congress are getting paid for their inaction. Listen up, gang: You and I are getting ripped off! None of us likes it.

I get that pollsters get a bum rap. They are right in many instances. Such as now. When they measure citizens’ angst over their government’s performance, Congress’ ratings head straight for the crapper.

We all know that members of Congress depend on their performance to guarantee they’ll continue their political careers. If they don’t get busy in a major hurry, my hunch is that voters in November 2026 will look for candidates who can step in and do the job for which the do-nothings are being paid.

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Is it the truth …?

I have been a member of Rotary International for the past 30 years and I have sought to live according to the concepts espoused by what is arguably the world’s pre-eminent non-governmental organization.

Rotary has authored what it calls its “Four-Way Test of the things we think, say and do.” The first of those concepts asks, “Is it the truth?”

A Rotarian from Shelby, N.C., pitched a fascinating notion in a letter to the editor of Rotary magazine.

I am certain he is aiming his barbs at D.C. leadership, namely the president of the United States. “These are times that try the consciences of Rotarians in the United States,” writes Steve Nye. “In our world today, there is a concerted effort to prevent anyone from getting the truth. For years we have heard claims that are based on false assumptions and nonexistent evidence,” he writes.

Yeah. Ya think?

He implores Rotarians to reach out to those in power to get them to live by the rules espoused in the Four Way Test. Indeed, the demand for truth-telling carries an implied directive, which is that the truth must be demonstrable. There must be evidence to back up whatever assertion these people make.

“If we are to be true Rotarians,” Nye writes, “then it is imperative that we ask for the unvarnished truth, even if ithe facts prove to be contrarary to our own personal beliefs.” He continues: “There is a reason that ‘Is it the truth?’ is the first rule of the Four-Way Test. Without the truth, we are left with a situtation where chaos reigns over all we hold dear.”

This man’s cogent message must fall directly on the audience that hears the rubbish that comes from the White House these days. The man who utters is beyond redemption. He’ll never change. It becomes our responsibility to call him out whenever he bellows such blatant lies.

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One year down (almost), three more to go

Listen up, boys and girls, I have some good news to remind you about some news that might cause you some queasiness … as it does for me and I’ve just now thought about it.

The good news is that we’re closing in on the first year of Donald Trump’s second term as POTUS. He took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2025, which means on that date next year — which is just around the corner! — he will have completed the first year of his Retribution Tour.

Now for the rest of it. Dude’s got three more years to wreak havoc on our democratic republic.

I shall qualify the bad news with a few glimmers of hope that we might be able to stem the damage this blowhard can inflict.

The midterm election is coming up next fall. A year from next week! It’ll be here in a flash. We have to prepare for a back-alley brawl with the MAGA cultists. It is winnable. The House of Reps is close to flipping to Democratic control. If the nation can elect a handful of Democrats, we can welcome Hakeen Jeffries as our next speaker. The Senate is a tougher climb, but there appears to be a GOP senator or two who might be vulnerable to defeat. I am not going to toss John Cornyn under that electoral bus … at least not yet.

Trump keeps yammering that he’s in the strongest public approval rating in history. Yeah, he actually has said it. He’s lying. His approval rating at this moment stands at around 41%. President George W. Bush’s rating peaked at around 90% right after 9/11. President Bush the Elder’s rating topped out at 91% when he declared that Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 “will not stand.” President Reagan won a 49-state re-election landslide victory in 1984, garnering 59% of the popular vote. President Nixon also won a 49-state re-election bid in 1972, and with a 62% popular vote.

Finally, Donald Trump said this week that he cannot seek a third term as president. The Constitution’s 22nd Amendment won’t allow it, he acknowledged. So, there … even the insurrectionist in chief has realized that amending the Constitution to allow him to run for a third term is out of the question.

What does all this mean for democracy’s future? It means that Trump is the lamest of ducks and that if he continues to blunder and bumble his way through the rest of his term that there well might be a candidate who can restore regular order to the way we govern this great country.

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What if it were your house … ?

Let’s play a little game of “what if” … if you don’t mind. I’ll be brief, but the point I want to make is pretty damn big.

What if you rented your home to a tenant who promised to take good care of your property? He wouldn’t touch it. He would make no alerations to it and would return it to you in precisely the condition he found it when he took the keys to the place.

Then, suddenly — and with virtually zero advance warning — bulldozers and backhoes show up and start knocking down an adjoining structure. What if your tenant told you he wanted to build a room to make fishing flies. But … wait! That’s not the deal we entered into when I rented the place to you, is your response. That’s tough, he said … live with it.

So here we are. The man who is living as renter in the people’s house, the White House, has decided to knock down the historic East Wing. He wants to build an opulent ballroom. He wants to use that ballroom to entertain heads of state. He deems the State Dining Room, where presidents have welcomed visiting kings, queens, potentates and assorted leaders of various nations for many decades.

Donald Trump is making a mockery of the house that you and I own. Where I come from, I call it “de-facing public property.” Yes, I get that he’s a U.S. citizen, too, so he can claim ownership of the White House where he will live for the next three years. To my way of thinking, that does not give him license to destroy a couple of centuries of history by building a ballroom that likely will look like a sort of Mar-a-Lago on the Potomac.

I’m sure you’ll recall the jokes that went viral when Trump considering a run for the presidency. Some jokesters wondered aloud whether he would erect a huge “TRUMP” sign and hang it on the front of the White House. It got a huge laugh.

Today … it’s not so funny.

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Speaker losing shutdown battle?

Mike Johnson — bless his heart — is trying desperately to blame the government shutdown on Democrats who oppose Republican bills to reopen the government.

What the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatves never says while chastising his Democratic friends is the reason for the string of “no” votes. Republican honchos leave out the part about Affordable Care Act subsidies being swept away by these GOP efforts to unlock the doors of the federal government. Getting rid of the ACA only will send insurance premiums far into the deep blue sky. It will deny health insurance to millions of Americans who depend on what is referred to colloquially as Obamacare.

Do you remember when “Obamacare” was tossed around as an epithet? These days, even the former president, Barack Obama, uses the term when referencing the ACA at political rallies. The ACA was the 44th president’s signature piece of domestic legislation, which then-Vice President Joe Biden was heard calling a “big fu**ing deal.” And it is!

The government is shut down and heading for a record stint of governing inaction by the political party that runs both congressional chambers, has one of its own in the White House (which he is destroying with the ballroom construction), and yet these numbskulls can’t find their ass with both hands.

Speaker Johnson is losing the battle and possibly the public relations war over this government shutdown. To be honest, I don’t give a crap about Johnson and the Republicans’ standing in the polls. I do care that the government restarts and gets revved up to help those of who are paying for the services … which we aren’t getting!

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East Wing crashing down!

I really have little to offer about Donald Trump’s decision to tear down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom. I am left mostly to shake my head in utter astonishment that this moron would do such a thing to a cherished piece of our national history.

Trump once promised to leave the White House structure alone were he to make significant change in it. That he broke that promise is no surprise, but it doesn’t lessen the ghastly sight of he wrecking crews knocking down the place where heads of state have met with presidents and where important events have occurred.

I am going to presume that Trump will glitter the ballroom up with the gold trimmings he already has placed in the Oval Office and throughout the West Wing. The guy sickens me to my core.

You know, of course, who is paying for this ballroom. You and I are. The taxpayers. We’re going to pony up about $300 million for a project that received zero public comment prior to the arrival of the wrecking crew. And, yes, even the legality of this work is being questioned.

Trump just makes me want to hurl.

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GOP fails to govern

Look for the common denominator … which happens to be one of my favorite pieces of advice I hand out.

If, after looking at all the tempests and tumult and you find something in common that runs through them, then you have a culprit you can separate from the pack of demons.

What, then, is the common denominator in all the government shut downs we have endured over the past five decades or so? One jumps out at me. It’s the Republican congressional leadership. All these shutdowns seem instigated by GOP hotheads intent on making names for themselves. They place notoriety over notable legislative achievement.

The latest government shut down is the on the verge of setting a dubious record for longevity. The GOP blames Democrats because they keep rejecting Republican efforts to pass continuing resolutions that would re-open the government. Democrats counter that the GOP plan includes the notion of ending Affordable Care Act subsidies that uninsured Americans need to continue receiving health insurance.

The stalemate drags on. We have found the common denominator. It mirrors prior such schemes from the same political party that has given us too damn many of these misadventures.

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SOBs mislabel ‘No Kings’ rallies

Spoiler alert: Be advised that this brief blog post contains a healthy dose of profane invective aimed at those who defend Donald Trump’s power grab.

The rotten sons of bitches who continue to assert that those of us opposed to Trump’s unconstitutional power grab “hate America” are demonstrating the worst form of demagoguery.

Communities across the nation rallied to protest Trump’s quest for power by staging the “No Kings” rally. They carried signs. They called immigration officials “Trump’s Gestapo.” These rallies were peaceful.

I am unaware of anyone who stated that they “hate America.” And yet that’s he kind of horse shit we heard from House Speaker Mike Johnson and a host of other right-wing dipshits who are intent on demonizing those who merely are dissenting from government policy decisions.

These assholes don’t grasp that the nation was founded on dissent. That dissent is an essential part of how we hold our elected officials accountable. I suspect we’ll see many more of these rallies for the remainder of Trump’s time in office. And we’ll hear plenty of epithets that tell lies about those who participate in them.

The rotten bastards.