Monthly Archives: October 2025

national news

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.

local news, political news

‘A proud husband and father … ‘

Here we go … again, with political candidates bragging to voters that they are faithful to the sacred vows they took when they married their wives.

We’re going to the polls soon in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area and one of the candidates for a Texas Senate seat is offering that boast on his TV ads across the market. Former Southlake Mayor John Huffman talks about his budget-balancing record, his ability to keep taxes low … and, yes, that he’s faithful to his wife and devoted to their children.

It’s the last item that draws my attention with this brief rejoinder.

Since when does a man’s faithfulness to his family become grist for selling a political candidate? Look, I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to hold up his moral example as a selling point, which he sees as important given the propensity for men in public life to stray away from their vow to honor their spouse “for as long as they both shall live.” To my ears, it is an empty form of bravado. Do you recall how former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards professed his love for his late wife, only to be revealed that he was having an affair that produced a baby? The sleaze bag …

I won’t cast a vote in that Texas Senate race. For all I know, John Huffman is a good guy. He won the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News this past Sunday. It’s interesting that the DMN never mentioned his fidelity to his wife as a reason the paper is backing his candidacy.

Hmmm. I wonder why. Maybe it’s because the Morning News realizes what I have believed all along. Which is that candidates who brag about such matters are wasting their time on an issue that is far from being a big … deal.

media news

No Kings message is spreading

It turns out the No Kings protest movement is growing some legs, as the many thousands of legs that carried protesters up and down streets of our great communities protesting the power grab underway in the Donald Trump administration.

You know what? That movement has spread to cities and towns favorable to notions that come from Trump and his MAGA cultists. KERA, the Dallas public TV station, reports that crowds gathered all over Collin County, a Dallas suburban county known as a bastion of Republican politics. Well, for at least one day, it was far from a pro-Trump reservoir of support.

Republicans labeled the No Kings rally a “hate America” event. It wasn’t. These individuals love our country as much as the Trumpkins. They are alarmed at the manner in which Trump is gathering power for the executive branch of government. They turned out Saturday to express their concern, just as it is provided in the Constitution’s First Amendment.

You would expect big crowds in pro-Democratic regions, such as Travis County, Texas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the multi-state Great Lakes, and the Northeast region of the country. Crowds showed up to protest. We also saw Red States rally against the administration. This is a national phenomenon.

I wil not and cannot predict where this will lead. My fond hope is that the anger over Trump’s unconstitutional power grab remains white-hot and sustains enough voters to get off their duffs and repel the enablers in Congress who breathe life into this movement.

 

national news

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.

 

media news, national news, political news, Uncategorized

MAGA’S message works

Every so often I get a criticism on this blog that rings true, that the critic makes a good point.

I am going to acknowledge one of those critics right now.

He challenged a blog post that suggested that voters can reject the MAGA movement simply by voting the MAGA dipshits out of office. My critic pointed out that parthy shift from Democrat to Republican is the most significant he has seen in his lifetime. I can’t challenge that, so I’ll accept it.

But I believe the underlying message of his critique is correct. The MAGA movement has perfect its messaging, its content and its delivery of it to Americans. The anti-MAGA gang is floundering. They cannot seem to speak with a limited number of voices, let alone with a single voice.

Think about this. I’ve used the term “MAGA” as an actual word. It’s in reality an acronym for Make America Great Again. Right there is a victory for the MAGA movement. It has established its identity to such a level that the acronym now doubles as a word, kinda like SCUBA diver and TEA party.

I disagree that we need to “make Ameria great again.” We have been a great country for my entire life. Even longer than that. We continue to lead the world in research and development, in Nobel laureates, we are the strongest military machine in human history. We remain the sole indispensable nation on Earth. The MAGA cult has persuaded enough of us to believe that none of that is true.

How did they do it? I believe it is from MAGA’s lack of ambiguity. It has a clear message and it delivers it with passion and the belief that they are right and the rest of us have grown a second head or a third eye.

The anti-MAGA crowd must develop its own message technique in a hurry. The result will be catastrophic for our nation as the MAGA goons continue to make mincemeat of the rest of the world’s greatest nation.

 

local news

Future is in our hands

The future of our democratic republic well may lie in the hands of those of us who care enough to vote to preserve it. That’s my call, ladies and gents.

I now shall explain.

We have an election coming up in a little more than a year. We are going to elect a new House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. A lot of incumbents who have swallowed the Donald Trump swill are on the November 2026 ballot in all 50 of our United States.

Now comes the question. Are we going to continue to stand silently by while both congressional chambers cede their constitutional power to an overreaching, overzealous, overheated POTUS who sounds and acts like a man intent on tossing aside the limited powers granted in the Constitution?

The correllary question is whether we’re going to use the power granted to us by the founders and vote out the gullible goons who comprise so much of today’s Republican Party. I hate saying this, but that has to include a man I had hoped would know better, my congressman, Keith Self.

Self is a retired U.S. Army combat infanty officer. A West Point grad. He’s a man who understands the value implied in the oath he took to defend the Constitution. Donald Trump does not honor the oath he took to honor the governing document, and yet Self — who I consider to be a good man — continues to stand with the numbskull masquerading as president.

The county is chock full of others just like Self. We need to rid ourselves of the men and women who follow the dictates of a charlatan blindly and with no regard to the sacred oath they took. After all, they end their recitation of the oath by declaring “so help me, God.”

legal news

Vengeance effort picks up steam

Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution appears to be gathering a head of steam and for those of us worried about the future of this great country, serious worry is settling in … rapidly.

Today brought news that former Trump national security advisor John Bolton has been indicted on 18 counts by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from allegations that Bolton mishandled classified material. More bullshit from the Justice Department.

Former FBI director Jim Comey is indicted in the slimmest indictment in human history. New York Attorney General Letitia James is indicted for alleged real estate fraud crimes. What do Bolton, Comey and James have in common? They all are Trump critics!

Good grief, man! Who’s next? Sen. Adam Schiff of California is reportedly a target. Same, perhaps, for Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona?

Trump is out of his mind. He’s fu**ing insane!

He’s now presiding over a government that has shut down because Republicans don’t want to fund Affordable Care Act subsidies. The shutting down of the government is depriving Americans of services they paid for. It is endangering travelers at airports because traffic controllers aren’t getting paid. Trump is sending troops into the streets of great American cities to crack down on crimes that don’t exist.

Donald Trump 2.0 is far worse than Trump 1.0. He told us he would do precisely what he is now doing. And yet he got elected president in 2024.

Come to think of it, maybe it’s the small plurality of Americans who voted for this numbskull who need their heads examined.

Donald Trump

Why do they hang with this guy?

Men and women of good will, a deep faith in God, of conscience and commitment to public service all swear allegiance with the same oath of office.

They all pledge to serve the Constitution of the United States without fear or favor.

Why then — I have to ask — do so many of them stand behind a man who has become the embodiment the perversion that has overtaken so many men and women who get into public service? Donald Trump has become the antithesis of what we once called the better angels of our society.

His vengeance campaign against his political foes is beginning to make many of his Republican allies squeamish. The longer we watch the GOP leadership back away from their unconditional support for Trump, the more concern I feel for the very fabric of our democratic republic.

I stand behind my earlier assertion that the Constitution will hold up under this intense pressure. That it will show how well it works even as the president does all he can to undermine it. That doesn’t mean I will enjoy seeing the Constitution being stretched beyond recognition as it faces pressure from all three government branches.

Through it all, we have 535 members of two congressional chambers who take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies. Too many of them don’t seem to realize that the founders implied strength for them by ensuring that their power matches that of Congress and the courts.

The sooner they snap out of their daze, the better for the nation.

national news

No on ‘War’ Department

Vice President J.D. Vance has joined Donald Trump’s name-change cabal by declaring the Defense Department as the “War” Department.

This American patriot, who once got a glimpse of war back when I suited up for duty in the Army, will not join the MAGA cultists in making such a reference. I will continue to call it what it is and what it should remain, the Department of Defense, with a mission to “defend” the nation against foreign enemies.

I just don’t understand what enters Trump’s vacuous noggin. Think for just a moment about this.

When he was eligible to serve in the military when we were fighting a war, he chickened out. He claimed bone spurs. Has anyone ever seen him walking the aid of a cane? A doctor said he had them, so he backed out of serving the nation he said he loves.

Since becoming a politician, he has denigrated those who have served. He once said he didn’t want to be photographed with service personnel wounded in battle. He has insulted the likes of the late Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam War prisoner whom Trump once said he didn’t deserve to be called a hero. He said he likes only those who “aren’t captured.” The bastard …

Now he wants to rename the Defense Department the War Department because it sounds tough. It has a sort of manly ring to it. This blog never will refer to the Defense Department in that new context, any more than it will attach the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

A department of “war” is overtly provocative and should be tossed aside as a reminder of the smallness of the individuals who support this cockamamie notion.

International news

Don’t forget: Hamas is a terrorist regime

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Amid all the hype and hubbub over the ceasefire that has been declared in Gaza, it is wise to remember an essential element about this situation.

One of the combatant forces, Hamas, is a terrorist regime committed to the destruction of Israel. Hamas has released hostages held since the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack. That’s fine. The world is heralding their release. The world also is heaping praise on Donald Trump for his role in brokering the deal.

However, the world has many miles to go before this matter comes full circle.

The task for Trump and his team is to remain laser focused on the obstacles that lie before them.

How do Hamas and Israel reach an understanding that presumes Israel is a permanent player? What assurances do the Israelis expect if they are to exist without the threat of further violence? What about a two-state solution that requires an independent Palestinian state functioning alongside an independent Israel? Who will pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, which the Israelis destroyed when they went to war after the terror attack?

Donald Trump has exhibited a remarkable skill in recent weeks by bringing the warring sides to this stage in their conflict. I wish him well, which is to say I wish the world well, as this process proceeds.

Just don’t forget with whom we are dealing. Hamas is first and foremost an organization that aims to terrorize the world.