Category Archives: political news

political news, religious news

They are ‘evangelical hypocrites’

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For those among us who continue to proclaim their fealty to the Bible while condemning their neighbors in the context of a heated political campaign, allow me this brief reminder.

The New Testament places no qualifier on whom we should love. It doesn’t tell us to embrace only those who look like us. It doesn’t say to feed only our political allies. It makes no qualifying statement on who deserves our grace.

So, when you hear the garbage being spewed by those who purport to be “evangelical Christians” while they heap all those caveats on who Jesus Christ instructs them to receive their care, please understand that these are religious perverts. They have twisted the words inscribed centuries ago to fit a political narrative that has zero place in understanding the tenets of faith.

They are not “evangelical Christians.” They instead are evangelical hypocrites lurking among those of us who understand –and honor — the messages contained within our holy book.

political news

Far from politics

NAXOS, Greece — I have told a joke on occasion that starts with Mrs. Bear Bryant moving back to College Station, Texas, where Bear coached the Texas A&M Aggies before becoming head football coach at the U of Alabama.

Bear died and Mrs. Bryant, according to the joke, moved back to Aggieland to “get as far away from football as possible.”

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Well, I have gotten as far away from politics as I could by visiting Naxos, in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It feels quite cleansing. I don’t read my cell phone news feed too often, nor do I open my laptop to catch up on the political news of the day. For a political junkie that might seem like a mighty hill to climb. The truth is … it’s not been nearly so difficult.

I have spent the vast bulk of my day catching up on family matters with my cousin and her son; I have been fetching compliments on my ballcap that says “Pappou,” which is a Greek colloquialism for “grandpa.” I pay for items with a credit card and the vendor wants to know when he or she sees my name, “Are you Greek?” Then they mention the obvious, which is that I have a Greek name.

My answer to the last part? Uhh, yeah …  I know.

It has been a marvelous time away from the hustle, bustle, humdrum and occasional hassle of my wonderful North Texas life.

Am I ready for it to end? Not … just … yet.

national news, political news

Harris seeks to continue ‘normal behavior’

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Joe Biden promised us in 2020 when he decided to run for president a return to what we all think of as “normal behavior” in our head of state.

The former vice ;president was appalled at the Charlottesville, Va., riot launched by Klansmen and Nazis and declared he would campaign for the “soul of our country.”

By and large the president has succeeded in restoring normal behavior and in recapturing our national soul.

He now wants to hand those tasks off to Vice President Kamala Harris, the current Democratic presidential nominee.

I, too, share in the desire for Harris to continue to trek toward normal behavior and I want her also to keep the scrub brush handy as she fights to restore a national soul damaged so egregiously by Donald Trump’s hot pursuit of an authoritarian presidency.

When you watch and listen to Harris and Trump side by side, it becomes — to my ear — literally impossible to believe that Trump’s inarticulateness ever can lead to anything good. Donald Trump does not have an original thought in that brainless skull of his.

I have to mention, too, that Trump cannot string enough sentences together to deliver any sort of cogent thought. Kamala Harris is fully capable of weaving thoughts into the fabric of sensible policy. That ability by itself sets her apart from the incompetent foe she faces as this campaign winds down to its finish.

national news, political news

Harris ‘most qualified’ ever?

Michelle Obama could be excused for getting caught up in the cheering moment as she delivered her speech recently at the Democratic National Convention.

She called DNC nominee Kamala Harris the “most qualified” person ever to seek the presidency. The former first lady basked in the cheering endorsement of the 20,000 or so attendees … and she surely has earned the nation’s admiration as an accomplished first lady and ambassador on behalf of children everywhere.

But … is the 2024 Democratic nominee the “most qualified” presidential candidate? I’ll stick to my own guns and declare that my candidate for most qualified is a Republican, former President George H.W. Bush.

I now will tick off GHW Bush’s pre-presidential experience:

  • US Navy aviator serving in World War II; he was shot down in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
  • Business owner immediately after being discharged from the Navy.
  • Two terms as a congressman representing Houston from 1967 until 1970.
  • CIA director.
  • United Nations Ambassador.
  • Special envoy to the People’s Republic of China.
  • Vice president for two terms during the Reagan administration.

Pretty impressive background, don’t you think?

All that moxey he earned prior to being elected president in 1988 didn’t result in his re-election in 1992. Indeed, I do happen to notice one significant shortcoming in President Bush’s background: no government executive experience, although I could understand an argument that serving as CIA director required plenty of executive management know-how.

Fast-forward to the present day. Vice President Harris does bring plenty of her own skill to the office she is seeking. Prosecuting attorney, San Francisco County district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president.

I also believe her experience will serve her well if she — and we — are able to benefit from her election in November as the next president of the United States.

national news, political news

Walz flubs simple test

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CNN anchor Dana Bash posed a simple yes-or-no question to Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz.

It went like this: You said you carried a weapon in war, but then we learned you did not. Did you misspeak?

Walz didn’t answer the question. Instead, he walked us through his 24-year career in the Army National Guard, expressed his pride in his service and said we shouldn’t denigrate any service person’s military record.

Bash asked him a second time: Did you misspeak?

And again, Walz didn’t answer the question, saying something about how voters “know about my record.”

Republicans have made a bit of noise about the Minnesota governor embellishing his service record. For me, it’s not a huge deal. I accept that he is proud of his service to the country and that he retired as a senior non-commissioned officer; that, too, has been a talking point the GOP has sought to use against Walz.

Bash’s interview with Walz and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was enlightening, to be sure. My own thought is that they both handled themselves coolly and with poise.

I just wish Gov. Walz would have spoken directly to the direct question that Dana Bash posed. I guess I can answer it for him.

Yeah … he misspoke!

local news, political news

We aren’t a battleground yet

Democrats in the state where I have lived for the past 40 years keep crowing about how we are becoming a “battleground state” for the candidates seeking the U.S. presidency.

Spoiler alert: Texas is not a battleground state. At least not in this election cycle.

How do I know that? Because if we truly were up for grabs, we would be seeing Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent as frequently as they are being seen in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

It’s not happening. At least not yet.

Now, this isn’t intended to denigrate my wish that we would become a place where Democrats can compete statewide against Republicans. We’re inching closer to that day.

In 2020, Joe Biden lost Texas to Donald Trump by about 5 percentage points. That is tantalizingly close to the margin of error in most reputable political polls. I live in Collin County, just northeast of Dallas County, which — and this might be difficult to believe — has become a Democratic stronghold. 

Yes, I was aware that a lot of Democrats got all wound up when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced he is a Republican. My reaction: B … F … D! He is elected mayor as a non-partisan; that’s all that should matter to the residents who are concerned about potholes and police protection.

I am going to presume that Trump will get Texas’s 40 electoral votes. I will be curious and anxious to see how the final results roll in.

If only Kamala Harris could get it through the thick and vacuous skulls of the MAGA cultists here about the danger of putting Trump anywhere near the Resolute Desk. If we continue to close the gap between Ds and Rs, then I might be able to accept that our days as a battleground state are closer than I fear at this moment.

political news

Biden made unprecedented move

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I want to bask for just a little while longer in the afterglow of the Democratic National Convention, which wrapped up Thursday and sent its presidential and vice-presidential nominees to fight the Republican ticket.

My point is to echo the praise we heard from the convention podium about the selflessness exhibited by President Joe Biden as he dropped his re-election bid, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him … and he did this on his own.

I won’t quibble or quarrel over what motivated him to take that dramatic action. Biden said he loves being president but added quickly that “I love my country more.”

Indeed, when you ponder it for just a moment, the act of voluntarily giving up political power has to rank as one of the most improbable acts imaginable.

Could the president reverse his political fortune and defeated the GOP ticket? I believe it was possible. The seamless handoff to Kamala Harris, though, has energized Democrats beyond all expectation.

I also agree with Biden about the imperativeness of keeping Donald Trump away from the Resolute Desk … forever!

If that was Joe Biden’s primary motivation in surrendering power, then I’m all in on that effort.  I also join others who have hailed this act as one of high political courage.

As former President Obama said at the end of his stemwinding speech at the DNC: Let’s get to work!

national news, political news

Yep. the man is unfit

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Dawn  finally is breaking over the pundit class that is covering the third presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Ever since he announced his bid for the presidency the first time in 2015, some of us have been saying that Trump’s zero experience with public service would render him unfit for the presidency. Now, others are seeing the proverbial light.

Consider what the numbskull said about those who receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and how it compares to the Medal of Honor. He put them on an equal footing, suggesting further that the Medal of Freedom is “more important” because Medal of Honor recipients “always are wounded” and some have died to earn the recognition.

What an absolute crock of bull dookie!

The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor; it goes to those who contribute greatly to our cultural life, through athletics, art, music, drama. The Medal of Honor is our nation’s top military honor; it is awarded to those who perform heroically on the battlefield.

Both medals are big deals.

However, for the former POTUS to put down Medal of Honor recipients because they are “wounded or killed” betrays a profound lack of understanding or appreciation of those don the nation’s uniform in service to their country.

It also reveals what I have noted many times on this blog, which is that Trump never has committed a single moment of his existence on this Earth to public service.

I am running out of ways to say this … but this moron is unfit for public office at any level, let alone as commander in chief.

national news, political news

GOP has no governing platform

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Anyone who believes today’s Republican Party has a governing platform that is worth a damn needs to pay careful attention to what is being reported all around the world.

It is that the GOP is — and has been — the exclusive property of a one-time real estate developer and a former TV “reality show” host who in 2016 stumbled into the U.S. presidency.

Put another way, Donald J. Trump has no policy, no guiding principles, no moral compass to guide him. He makes policy up as he goes along and that “policy,” and I use the term with an abundance of caution, somehow becomes the policy of the MAGA cult that is running the once-great political party.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is on the verge of unveiling her economic policy. She will present it perhaps before Democrats meet next week in Chicago to send her into the fight with Trump as their party’s nominee.

I met someone today who expressed support for the “Republican Party platform.” I answered that the party “doesn’t have one.” This individual wouldn’t buy that idea. We changed the subject.

This is the kind of stubborn notion that is so damn hard to expunge from Republicans’ noggins.

Of course, this all ignores the deep moral failings that Trump has exhibited his entire adult life.

I have been impressed by the rant offered by Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz, who reminds us that “public service” is a foreign concept to Trump. I have been saying since the day his political career began that Trump has spent his entire professional life focused on one thing: enriching himself. He purports to be a populist but doesn’t give a damn about the millions of disenfranchised Americans who need a real champion, not one who portrays himself as a populist on the campaign stump.

So, when Republicans tout their party platform, they should add a caveat that reminds us that it’s all a creation of Donald Trump’s demented mind.

national news, political news

GOPers for Harris channels an earlier mutiny

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They call themselves Republicans for Harris, believing that the Democratic nominee for POTUS is suited better to hold the job than the Republicans’ own presidential nominee.

It is far too early — and the view from my perch doesn’t allow me to predict anything with accuracy — to know what this means in terms of determining the outcome of the election.

This Republicans for Harris movement designed to bolster the election of Kamala Harris over Donald J. Trump has a certain ring that I recall vividly from my first political campaign.

Flash back for a moment to 1972. Democrats nominated Sen. George McGovern for president. He ran against President Richard Nixon. McGovern wanted to end the Vietnam War. So did I, so I signed on as a campaign worker. I was aligned with the Democratic Party in my early years. My wife, Kathy Anne, and I were newly married and we both became involved.

Not all Democrats were enamored of the effort the nominee was making to obtain an early-as-possible exit from the bloodshed in Vietnam.

Thus, the Democrats for Nixon movement was born. One of its leaders was the late Big John Connally, the former Texas governor who was wounded seriously that day in Dallas when President Kennedy was murdered. Democrats for Nixon grew to a huge following of disaffected Democrats.

Nixon won that election with 520 electoral votes to McGovern’s 17; Nixon carried 49 of 50 states, winning 61% of the popular vote.

I smile these days when I recall those results, hoping that this Republicans for Harris movement could contribute to the same level of victory for the candidate I want to become president, Kamala Harris.

I cannot predict an outcome, even though Harris’s momentum continues to build. Trump continues to struggle.

Maybe it’s a long shot, but I am going to cling to some notion that history just might be able to repeat itself.