Category Archives: political news

entertainment news, national news, political news

The Boss speaks for many of us

Bruce Springsteen once was thought of as merely a musical icon, a man whose notes resonated with generations of Americans.

Suddenly, though,, he now has become — dare I say it — an iconic political commentator.

The Boss stopped a concert he was performing in Manchester, England, the other evening to offer a commentary on the country he loves and has sung about with great passion for more than 50 years. He doesn’t like what he’s seeing in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and said as much to his audience of thousands of admirers. Turns out his soliloquy reverberated far beyond the audience that heard it in person.

He spoke of the damage being done to the world’s greatest republic by Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk, the MAGA dipshits who are cheering them on and the Republican majority in Congress that lacks the courage to stand up to the machinations of a madman/would-be dictator.

To be sure, it can be argued — and I won’t do it here — that an American citizen shouldn’t take his message overseas to deliver what’s in his heart. Springsteen noted, though, that Americans here at home are being detained and jailed for doing the very thing he reminded the Brits in Manchester that our Constitution guarantees as a fundamental right of citizenship. This nation was founded by dissenters, those who spoke against the Crown and who finally went to war to free themselves of the oppression brought to them by their British masters.

So, there was a certain irony that Bruce Springsteen, the man who was “born in the USA,” would speak from the depths of his heart about the anguish he is feeling about the nation he loves.

He did so with remarkable eloquence.

national news, political news

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.

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.

national news, political news

Trump’s gone loony

Donald J. Trump has flipped that mass of hair on his noggin, gone ’round the bend, has become certifiably nuttier than a Snickers bar.

He says he is considering a way to seek a third term  in the only office he’s ever sought or held. How does he do that? He ain’t saying. Other Trumpkins are concocting ways to skirt around the U.S. Constitution, which has that 22nd Amendment that bars anyone from being elected more than twice to the presidency.

Trump’s been elected twice, to this nation’s ever-lasting shame.

He says “there are ways which you could do it,” meaning he can find a way to get elected a third time as POTUS.

It won’t happen.

Not in this or any lifetime any sane person can envision.

As I said already, Trump isn’t sane. He’s nuts. Bonkers. He’s also an old man who might not live to the end of the current term. He’ll be 83 at the end of the current term. Cognition? Looks like it’s beginning to slip … but that’s just me thinking out loud.

The framers made it difficult to amend the Constitution. They didn’t write a perfect governing document, but they were right to set the bar very high for changing amendments added to it.

The 22nd Amendment is on the books for keeps.

political news

Trump needs serious reality check

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Earth to Donald Trump: The nation’s founders, the men who crafted the government you were elected to lead, gave you limited power for a reason.

They didn’t want an imperial presidency in the United States of America.

Thus, Trump needs to comprehend that he cannot declare something to be and then expect it to occur.

He says he wants to take back the Panama Canal from Panama. He wants to purchase Greenland from Denmark. He wants Canada to become the 51st state of the United States.

The simple and undeniable fact is that Trump cannot possibly make any of that happen simply because he is the POTUS. Yet, he keeps blathering on with statements that defy all logic. They are utter nonsense. He has no authority anywhere to make any of it happen.

He declares media criticism of his antics to be “illegal.” He calls for the closing down of media outlets that present opinions with which he disagrees. He calls for the impeachment of federal judges … only to be scolded by the chief justice of the Supreme Court that impeachment is not an option for removal of judges who issue opinions at variance with Trump’s.

The dude is out of control. He is a maniac. He acts, talks and behaves with sheer stupdity.

However, Americans managed to elect this nimrod to the highest office in the land. Go … figure.

political news, State news

House shines with glimmer of hope

There’s the slightest glimmer of hope coming from the Texas State Capitol Building after the House of Representatives selected a new speaker of the lower legislative chamber.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, will take the gavel and lead the House for the next legislative session that began this week.

Why the hope? Well, Burrows is an ally of Rep, Dade Phelan of Beaumont, who angered the MAGA crowd with his handling of (a) the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and (b) key legislative initiatives favored by Gov. Greg Abbott.

That suggests to me that Burrows might be more, um, moderate than the right-wingers of his Republican Party would prefer. Burrows, for example, is not slamming the door on selecting legislative Democrats to chair House committees. He said in December he prefers for the entire House to decide on those chairmanships, not just the speaker. Hmm, that sounds a tiny bit promising.

Burrows does favor Abbott’s school voucher notion, so he won’t scuttle that initiative.

Back to the chairmanship matter. It’s important to realize that the Legislature does contain members of both major parties. And that they represent Texans of all political stripes, principles and beliefs. I am one Texan who does not want to see the Legislature do the bidding of those who favor issues to which I am fundamentally opposed.

Besides, any legislator who can incur the wrath of super right-wing lobbyist Michael Quinn Sullivan — which Burrows has done — is OK in my book.,

local news, political news, State news

Abortion to ‘challenge’ Texas Legislature?

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The headline atop the front page of the Dallas Morning News screamed out that the new Texas Legislature faces many “challenges” as it prepares to get to work on our behalf for the next five months.

One of them surely is going to be abortion and whether legislators are intent on banning all abortive procedures, all of ’em, making women, spouses and docs criminals.

Newly sworn in Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, says categorically that Texas must ban all abortion, citing what he said is “God’s creation” being sacred to merit legislation by mere mortal human beings. He appeared this morning on WFAA-TV’s “Inside Politics” program.

I will disagree with the gentleman. He doesn’t seem to take into account what happens to a child who is born with debilitating deformities. Who cannot care for herself or himself. Whose birth puts Mama’s health — and life — in jeopardy.

I offer those caveats as a pro-life Texas resident myself. I consider myself pro-life, however, I do not believe in legislating from afar whether a woman can take command of her own body or whether she must surrender her reproductive rights because some lawmaker in Austin forces her to do so.

Rep. Money is taking the seat once held by another right-wing extremist, Bryan Slaton, who was drummed out of the House because he got a female legislative staffer drunk as a skunk before having sex with her.

I am going out on a limb here, but I do not believe most Texans adhere to Money’s view that we need to ban all abortion, period.

There in could lie Texas lawmakers’ huge “challenge” as they prepare to convene their next session this week.

May the force of common sense and compassion be with all of them.

national news, political news

Is there another Carter?

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Jimmy Carter’s death brings to mind something I wrote on this blog prior to a recent presidential election … I think it might have been the 2020 event.

I long have lamented that today’s Democratic Party is dominated by the same tired faces, speaking the same tired policies, appealing to the same tired constituencies. I wanted a new face to emerge from the crowd of 300 million-plus Americans.

I thought there might be “another Jimmy Carter” out there.

We all remember the 1976 Democratic Party primary, yes? The field was full of familiar faces. I actually put a Frank Church lawn sign in my front yard. Church was a U.S. senator from Idaho who had been on the national scene seemingly since The Flood.

He didn’t win the Oregon primary that year. Carter did! He went on to the convention that year and stood before the crowd and opened with that familiar refrain: “My name is Jimmy Carter and I am running for president.”

Many of us didn’t know this guy. He had that deep South drawl. He hailed from Georgia. He said he’d never lie to us. He vowed to fix the then-wounded economy. His opponent, President Gerald Ford, was running for election to the office he never sought but was handed it when Richard Nixon resigned ahead of certain impeachment and conviction for the Watergate scandal and coverup.

I still think there must be a Jimmy Carter out there. Certainly someone can emerge from the crowd of Americans and surprise us in 2028. History can, and often does, repeat itself. Someone brand new can capture our imagination the way Carter did. Hey, it’s a big country out here. Many of us are waiting for a fresh face and vigorous new voice.

I will hope for the best as we endure four years of Donald J. Trump.

political news

No, Steve, he can’t run again

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s go-to firebreather, now says the future president can seek a third term in 2028.

Hmm. Well, let’s see what the U.S. Constitution says about that. I looked up the 22nd Amendment in my handy-dandy pocket edition of the nation’s government document. It says, in part:

“No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two hears of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.” 

Bannon’s reason for Trump standing for election in 2028 is that his two terms are non-consecutive. Therefore, the former federal prisoner says, Trump is eligible to seek a third term.

I did not see any reference to consecutive terms or non-consecutive terms in the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment.

Trump has won the office twice. After this term is finished, he’s done. Gone. Finished. And not a moment too soon.

political news

Trump can govern without a majority

I am going to do something on this blog I once deemed impossible: give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt as he prepares to take office as president of the United States.

Trump will be able to govern without winning an absolute majority of the ballots cast in the 2024 presidential election. His ability to govern doesn’t depend only on his winning percentage, though. It will depend on whether he is able to dispense with the rubbish that flows frequently from his mouth.

Eight times dating back to 1948, presidents have won election without earning a majority of the ballots cast. Trump has done so twice; so did Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996; Richard Nixon squeaked into office in 1968; John Kennedy did so in 1960; Harry Truman, who everyone in the country thought would lose the 1948 contest, managed to win election.

The most controversial election, of course, occurred in 2000 when George W. Bush waited for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the recounting of ballots in Florida. The court ruled 5-4 to stop the recount … with Bush holding a 500-vote lead in Florida. He won the state and then the presidency.

Trump and his MAGA team, however, are overstating the “mandate” they say he won. He doesn’t have a mandate. He will need to tread carefully as he assembles his executive team and as he prepares to enact policies he has pledged to do.

The question we all must ask is this: Is Trump capable of adjusting his “I am your retribution” posture to being the leader of a team upon which he will need to enact a legislative agenda? I am a strong critic of this individual, so I am inclined to believe he cannot pivot from being a top-tier asshole to becoming a statesman.

However, there always is a glimmer of hope that he can figure it out.

I intend to hope for the best.