Monthly Archives: January 2025

Donald Trump

Trump’s angry because of this? What … ?

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Donald Trump has expressed displeasure over the nation’s salute to one of his predecessors at the time of a presidential inauguration.

Small-mindedness has hit a new low.

President Biden ordered all flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days to honor the late President Jimmy Carter. Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, while the flags will still be flying at half-staff. Trump thinks that disrespects his return to the presidency.

Give me a break … man!

Carter died near the end of the year just passed. President Joe Biden’s order was totally proper and in keeping with longstanding national tradition. Of course, Trump doesn’t respect any tradition that he deems diminishes his own role, which this one does not!

For the incoming president to bitch about flags flying in honor of a great statesman only sullies Trump’s already rotten reputation.

local news

It’s me vs. solicitors

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My friends tell me I possess a fairly even-tempered disposition, that they like that as a rule I don’t get too rattled.

I am afraid that’s about to change as it regards door-to-door solicitors.

I have posted next to my front porch a “No Solicitation” sign. It’s been out there for years. And … for years solicitors have ignored it.

I young man rang my doorbell today, carrying some material for a home security system. I said “no” to him. He was on his way.

He chose to ignore the sign, I guess.

From this very moment on, I am going to tell solicitors of the sign. I want to point it out to them. I might also spew a few four-letter words at them for seemingly ignoring my plea to stay away.

I am declaring a state of war between me and the door-to-door cabal out there. I feel better now.

national news

Jan. 6 to come … and go

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Pop quiz time: How many Americans do you think knew that Jan. 6 was a politically significant date prior to the onslaught that occurred on that date four years ago?

My guess? Damn few of us knew.

I mention that because on Monday, Congress is going to gather in the Capitol Building to certify the Electoral College result from the 2024 presidential election … just as it did four years ago when the traitorous mob stormed the Capitol seeking to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump four years ago. Trump rejected the result, calling the election “rigged” and “stolen.” He sent the mob to the Capitol, imploring the goons to “fight like hell.” They did. You know what happened.

Four years later, Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. Will the VP summon a mob to attack our government? Nope. Won’t happen. She took her loss with grace, dignity and class.

Jan. 6 falls precisely two weeks before Inauguration Day. Every four years, Congress and the incumbent vice president gather to canvass the Electoral College votes and then certify the winner.

The irony, of course, will drip from the event that takes place next week. Harris was elected duly as vice president in 2020 and this year she will preside over Congress’s ritual certification of an election that produced her defeat by the individual who incited an insurrection four years ago. I have to wonder if she’s gritting her teeth at the idea.

But this post-election certification will go off without a hitch because the guy who lost the previous election — and denied President Biden the peaceful transition he deserved — will have won.

Many patriots, such as me, will accept the result … even if we dislike the outcome.

national news

Here we go: Round 2 of MAGA incompetence

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Mike Johnson lost his first bid to re-up as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

It is beginning to look like yet another intraparty donnybrook as Republicans, who control the House by the tiniest margin in memory, struggle to find a leader who can control the legislative flow in the congressional chamber.

This appears to be shaping up as arguably another leadership debacle that has become all too familiar to those of us interested in good government. Which is to say that good government doesn’t exist in the nation’s capital.

The House has a one-vote Republican majority. The GOP already has lost one vote, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who said he cannot support Johnson’s re-election as speaker. No telling what will bring this particular MAGA goofball around.

Remember when it took Kevin McCarthy 15 votes to finally corral enough votes to keep the speaker’s gavel? It was the MAGA crowd that stopped McCarthy from taking charge. It also was a MAGA House member who called for his ouster … which took place quickly.

This is what we can expect to see moving forward. Oh … boy!

Sports news

Season over … try again next time

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OK, I’ll be candid: My interest in the college football playoff ended with the end of the Oregon-Ohio State game last night.

The Buckeyes brought their “A” game to the Rose Bowl, while the Ducks played like, well, they didn’t belong there. The final score was 41-21, but it easily could have been a wider margin than that.

I realize the season isn’t really over. We football fans have two more sets of games to watch. Since I have lived in Texas for more than 40 years, I have to toss my love at the Texas Longhorns to win the college football title when all is done.

Texas awaits the Buckeyes on the semifinal game next week.

I’ll have to admit that my allegiance to Oregon stems only from the fact that I was born in Oregon, came of age there, wanted at one time to attend college in Eugene and have rooted for the Ducks since I was old enough to know what “rooting” for a team meant.

Events got in the way of my attending school at U of O.

The other element that puzzles me is this “transfer portal” business. Athletes come and go using this method of transferring to various schools. The Ducks appear to be among the masters of attracting blue-chippers to Eugene to play ball. They aren’t necessarily students, having finished their academic requirements already. But they do play good tackle football.

There seems to be little local connection with these individuals. So, why cheer for them just because they fit into a uniform associated with the University of Oregon?

Whatever. The season is over. I moved to Texas at the age of 34. I have lived here most of my life. So, I’ll save my cheering for the Longhorns when they suit up — in the Cotton Bowl, no less — to play the Buckeyes.

Hook ’em, Horns!

Donald Trump, national news

Trump gets a bouquet … yes, believe it!

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Get ready for a shocker, ladies and gents, as I am about to offer a good word for the next president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump said this week he plans to attend the funeral of the late President Jimmy Carter.

OK, it’s not a huge deal. Trump should be there. He says he will go. What’s remarkable is that he said so quietly, in a statement. He made no big splash, no grand proclamation calling attention to himself.

I am going to presume he’ll join the other men who have held the presidency: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The incumbent president, Joe Biden, will deliver the keynote eulogy honoring his predecessor, with whom he forged a remarkable friendship dating back to when Biden first entered the U.S. Senate in 1973.

In what has to be the most moving element of the funeral will occur when the sons of two high-profile politicians deliver memorials on behalf of their fathers. Ted Mondale, son of former Vice President Walter Mondale, will read his late father’s eulogy he wrote years ago. Steve Ford, son of the late former President Gerald Ford, will do the same.

Walter Mondale and Gerald Ford expected Carter to precede them in death. He outlived them both, but they wrote the eulogies in case he did.

I won’t be fixated on Donald Trump’s presence among the attendees. I am, however, glad to see him take a moment to honor a good, decent and most honorable man as the nation and the world bid him a fond farewell.

local news

Here’s to a new year, a new outlook

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Here is a sample of the chatter I have seen on my social media circle of friends and acquaintances: I don’t remember ever wanting a year to end like this one. Don’t know what 2025 has in store but has to be an improvement.

You and I know what this individual is talking about. If not, I’ll spill the beans: It’s the presidential election and the result it produced.

This person is a former elected official, a friend of mine and someone with whom I share his disdain over the election result. I, too, wish it had gone differently. It went the wrong way. I am dealing with it.

I have been able, though, to compartmentalize events of 2024 and separate them from the events of the previous year. 2023 was the worst year of my life. I lost my dear bride to glioblastoma (cancer of the brain) at the start of the year; then near the end of the year I let my puppy, Toby, go because of the cancer that ravaged him.

I looked forward to 2024 being a far better year than ’23. For me personally, it damn sure was a lot brighter. If you include the presidential election result, why … even the year that is passing into history turned out better than its immediate predecessor.

I was able to travel in ’23 and in ’24. My trek in 2023 took me to both coasts, where Toby and I visited family and dear friends. The 2024 version allowed me to fly twice to Europe. In the spring, I visited beloved friends in Nuremberg, Germany. In September, I boarded another long-haul jetliner and flew to Greece, where I met my cousin and her son; we soaked up some late-summer sun on the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea.

Not only that, upon my return from Greece, I received another new member of my family: Sabol the Puppy, who needed someone to care for her. We fell in love at first sight. So … there you go! How can it get any better than that?

I am going to rely on the strength of our Constitution to withstand the pressure it will feel from the new government in DC. My faith in the founders’ wisdom is strong. So is my faith in my government to hold fast and steady in the tempest that awaits.