Tag Archives: Donald Trump

International news

Trump, Putin serve a ‘nothingburger’

All the hype, the speculation, the thought of a possible breakthrough … and Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, after meeting in Anchorage, stood before the assembled media and didn’t say a damn thing worthwhile.

The men gathered to discuss the Ukraine War. Whether there would be a ceasefire. Finding a possible path to peace. Seeking international aid to assist the victims of this bloody war that Putin started three years ago for reasons that still baffle many of us.

They presented nothing. Zero. No result.

They did put on a show. Putin spoke first. Then it was Trump’s turn. About the only “news” to come from the presser was Putin saying, in English, that Trump could visit Moscow for the men’s next meeting. Trump accepted the invitation.

I’m still trying to parse what went down. No one knows what the leaders said in private. For all any of us knows they might have simply taken pot shots at the man who should have been in the room, Ukraine President Volodyrmyr Zelenskyy.

Someone speculated that at least Trump could have made some public demand, the way President Reagan did in 1988 when he said in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Soviet leader did a year later.

No one is going to get fat feasting on a nothingburger such as what Trump and Putin served up in Anchorage. I will cling to my belief that Putin needs to shed his stubborn resistance to Zelenskyy’s presence at the negotiating table with the aim of stopping the bloodshed that has ripped Ukraine to shreds

national news

Wanting a return, again, to normal

Every living, breathing, thinking American should join me in this simple request … a return to normal conduct by the president of the United States, his/her Cabinet, the political team that works for the individual in charge and a Congress that doesn’t demonize the other side as the spawn of Satan.

I soiught such a return at end of Donald Trump’s first term in office. Voters delivered it by elected Joe Biden president of the United States. Biden had spent his entire professional life in public service. He knew how the government works — or doesn’t work, in some cases — and sought to bring normal behavior back to the White House.

President Biden succeeded famously.

He served one term before the wheels flew off and he got caught in the mental acuity rumor mongering. Trump managed to parlay a weird public desire for weirdness into an electoral victory in 2024 and now we’re in the midst of a hostile dismantling of our democratic process.

Trump promised to exact revenge on his foes. He’s delivering the goods. All the while he is conducting himself in an amped-up version of his first presidential term. Who in the world knows where this is headed?

With all of that I want to wish out loud once again for a return to normal behavior. A return to what the late John McCain called “regular order.” I want spirited debate, but I don’t want recrimination and revenge when the lights go out.

The American political system appears to be broken. I do not believe it is beyond repair. Joe Biden managed — to the extent he could with GOP control of Congress — to restore a sense of normal behavior during his single term as president. He left the presidency after getting plenty of constructive things done for the country.

Trump is now well into the first year of his final term in office. I want him to succeed, too. I also want there to be a return to normal behavior, decorum, dignity and grace among opponents. With this guy in charge of the executive branch — and his penchant for surrounding himself with sycophants — my hope is fleeting.

However, I will keep the faith.

military news

Zelenskyy must take part!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a spectator, a bystander in what has turned out to be the bloodiest ground war in Europe since World War II.

Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago seeking to overrun the sovereign nation. It was supposed to take only a few days. The fight has turned into a quagmire, thanks in large part to the huge aid packages recommended by then-President Joe Biden.

Now, Donald Trump wants to meet with Russian goon Vladimir Putin — in Alaska, no less — to seek a way to stop the violence, the bloodshed, the war. I applaud the end Trump is seeking. I am concerned that a conclusion will not include the first political casualty of the Ukraine war, the president of the country that Putin attacked.

Zelenskyy already has rejected a Russian proposal that requires Ukraine to give back land it took from the Russian invaders. Russia is making zero concessions for the illegal invasion it launched. Or for the war crimes it has committed by bombing schools and hospitals. Or for the civilians the Russian army has killed.

Zelenskyy is not a spectator. He has been an active participant in this war. He needs a place at the negotiating table and he deserves to have his beliefs heard above the din of the battle.

Uncategorized

A chance for peace?

Donald Trump and his good buddy Vladimir Putin appear to be preparing for a bilateral summit to figure out a way to end Putin’s illegal, immoral war against Ukraine.

While I welcome an effort to end the bloodshed, I am troubled by the seeming absence of the third party to this horrible event: Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy. If there’s a hero among the three of them, it clearly is Zelenskyy and given that he has been leading the fight to preserve his democratic nation, he ought to be a party at whatever peace talks occur.

I am going to give Trump a measure of credit for at least calling Putin out on the way he has prosecuted this bloody war. It isn’t known how Putin has taken the open criticism. Nor is it known even if Trump will follow through on his threats of sanctions against Russia if Putin reneges on any portion of whatever agreement is found.

I have the fear expressed by many that Putin doesn’t take Trump seriously as a world leader. The Russian goon is the former head of the Soviet spy agency, the KGB. The guy is a killer, which makes him someone to be feared, even though he commands a third- or fourth-rate conventional military machine. He does possess those nukes.

The world will await the outcome of this summit. I only am left to express the hope that it is expanded to include a third chair at the negotiating table.

business news, economic news

Tariffs come and go … and return

Donald J. Trump is in love with the word “tariff,” if only he understood what it means and who it penalizes.

He has just slapped another boost on the tariff he wants to charge India for goods imported into the United States. India now will pay a 50% tariff on everything that comes from that country into this one. So, if you want to buy a pashmina scarf from India, it will cost you basically half again the sticker price of the garment … which is pretty steep as it is!

That’s just one example of the inflationary pressure that awaits Americans who will pay for the tariffs Trump insists on leveling against the entire planet. He calls it payback for being “screwed” by the world’s nations. Good grief! You and I are going to pay for this nonsense. The weirdest part of all is that Trump is penalizing nations, such as Canada and Mexico, for engaging in trade practices that Trump himself worked out when he tossed aside the North American Free Trade Agreement. Go figure that one, ya know?

What does Trump have to pay? I don’t know nor do I care one damn bit. I am bitten by the “interest and apathy” bug.

All I can tell for certain is that when Trump gets done deciding how much of a tariff he wants to apply to this and/or that product or commodity, you and I are going to pay a hefty price for this numbskull’s obsession with a concept he doesn’t understand.

local news

Diversity being tested

My family — immediate and extended — is a diverse lot, comprising “yellow dog Democrats” and “rock-ribbed MAGA Republicans.” So, I cannot say they influenced my own world view, as I have charted my own path over the course of my 75-plus years on this Earth.

One of my family members, who considers herself to be a mainstream, social and fiscal conservative Republican, has just informed me that, in her view, “Texas is really screwing the Democrats.” How so? In her mind, it’s the midstream reapportionment debacle unfolding in Austin that just gets her motor running.

My aunt is a kind and serious woman. She is not prone to latch onto cults the way many in both political parties seem prone to do on occasion. Therefore, the target of her anger is the MAGA cult that has attached itself to Donald Trump’s world view, such as it is. Trump has singled out Texas, with its strong GOP ties, to help him solidify the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House. He declares the Legislature, which is meeting in special session, can redraw five strong Democratic House districts into five GOP districts.

Trump wants to disenfranchise minority voters who are represented in Congress by representatives who reflect their views. We can’t have that, Trump has said.

The guy’s a maniac! And a dimwitted one at that! If he can piss off a reasonable Republican such as the member of my family I have just illustrated in this brief post, imagine how many others out there might be willing to rebel against the elected officials who are so damn willing to crater to this dipshit’s cravings.

national news, political news

Yes, block GOP effort to redraw boundaries

This will surprise no one who reads this blog regularly … but I am going to back Texas legislative Democrats’ efforts to stop the Legislature’s Republican majority from redrawing the state’s congressional districts to ensure the election of even more GOP members to Congress.

Democrats who comprise the Legislature’s minority have fled the state. At least 51 Texas Democrats are holed up somewhere to prevent a House vote on a plan urged by Donald Trump and endorsed by his GOP pals Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to re-jigger boundaries to bolster the Republican majority in the U.S. House.

This reapportionment matter takes place every decade when the Census is taken. It falls on the Legislature to redraw these lines. I remember the late state Sen. Teel Bivins, an Amarillo Republican, bemoaning the task. He said it gave legislative Republicans a “chance to eat their young.” I still am not sure what he meant by that, but I took it to mean partly that he didn’t like having to redraw the lines.

It’s not clear to me or to many others how long this strategy will hold up. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton calls Democrats “cowards” for shirking their duty. He vows to arrest them, although leaving the state in this fashion is a civil offense, so arresting legislators remains an iffy proposition.

Legislators have tried this before. Previous walkouts have ended when Democrats who vowed to hang tough forever gave in, enabling Republicans to get their way.

I am just aghast that Donald Trump would encourage this form of political bullying and I am delighted that Texas Democrats — so far! — are standing firm in opposition to this interference in Texas politics.  

media news

So … what about WH communications chief?

I am going to call attention briefly to an individual who hasn’t received a whisper of chatter in the boiling controversy over Jeffrey Epstein’s files and whether they should be released for public review.

I refer to the White House communications director. That’s right. Donald Trump hired a guy to serve as communications director for his second term as president. His name is Steven Cheung, a native of Sacramento, Calif. He played football at Cal State-Sacramento,  but didn’t earn a degree there. Hmm. More on that in a moment.

The communications director role is to control the information flow from the White House, to ensure it is consistent with whatever message the president wants to convey. The communications chief must work with the press secretary and all Cabinet staffers and White House staff to deliver a cogent, reliable message from the White House to the public.

The Jeffrey Epstein communications flow has been a cluster fu** of the first order. What in the hell has Steven Cheung been doing? The White House changes its tune about whether to release the information contained in the files pertaining to Epstein, the late child molester/sex trafficker and his relationship with Donald Trump. It vows to be “transparent,” then reneges on its pledge to reveal all the information it has on Epstein.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has told the media she informed Trump in May that his name is in the files. Trump then said he didn’t hear about it until June. Or maybe it was July. Shouldn’t the communications director be able to tell the president keep the story straight?

Cheung is not a seasoned communications professional steeped in political tradition. His earlier stint as commo director for the 2024 Trump campaign was riddled with blowups with the campaign media. He quit the White House during the first Trump term over a snit he had with White House chief of staff John Kelly.

It all seems connected to the revelation that Cheung didn’t complete his college degree at Cal State-Sacramento. He looks for all the world to me to be a throwaway appointment, a sycophant whose fealty to Trump made him preferable to others who well might have more actual experience keeping the lines of communication untangled.

So, as the White House stumbles, fumbles and bumbles its way through this Epstein matter, Americans are entitled to ask: What is the White House communications director doing during the daylight hours … because he has lost control of the narrative?

crime news

Epstein isn’t going away

I can say this with crystal clarity … Jeffrey Epstein is not going away anytime soon.

He’s dead. He won’t come back. His name, however, won’t die along with his miserable body. With that in mind, the Congress is taking a monthlong break. I am sure they’re going to get a snootful from their constituents at home. Listen up, GOP U.S. Rep. Keith Self, I am putting you on notice, too.

Trump once pledged to release all the info on Epstein, the convicted child sex trafficker. Then he backed away. Now the Wall Street Journal says Trump sent Epstein a birthday greeting card with lots of lewd pics of underage girls. Trump denies it. He has sued the Journal for a billon bucks. He’s going to lose.

I am reminded of the trouble that caught up with President Nixon as he tried to cover up his involvement in the Watergate scandal. That matter never died, either. Nixon ended up quitting the presidency when the Supreme Court ruled he had to release the tapes that contained his instructions to cover the matter up.

Something tells me the walls might be closing in on Trump.

crime news, national news, political news

No apology for being right about this clown

A critic of this blog just cannot seem to grasp the notion that my mind was settled long before Donald and Melania Trump glided down the escalator in the summer of 2015 to begin Donald’s career in politics.

I concede the obvious. Yep. My mind was made up a long time ago. And the 45th and 47th POTUS has done nothing at all to change it. I believe then what I believe now, which is that Trump is categorically unfit for public office.

But you know that already. Correct?

What none of us knows at this moment is what can be done to improve matters in D.C.

I’ll start with a couple of possibilities. One is to turn the House of Reps into an organization led by Democrats. Voters need to wrest control of that chamber from Republicans. If that occurs in the 2026 midterm election, then the fun can begin anew. There might be a third impeachment of this fundamentally corrupt individual. This impeachment could center on his involvement with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein hanged himself in a federal prison cell. Trump is now believed to have had something more than a passing acquaintance with this sexual predator. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump sent Epstein a birthday greeting card years ago. Trump denies it. He has sued the Journal, which stands by its reporting. I’m inclined to stand with the WSJ.

We have seen some fracturing among the MAGA fanatics who have supported Trump since he rode the escalator with Melania. Many of them want Trump to release the documents that could reveal a whole lot about Trump and whether he and Epstein were besties.

The other option is to elect someone to the presidency in 2028 who is clean, scandal-free and who knows how in the hell to govern. It won’t be Trump … no matter what some of his ardent supporters would like to see happen. The Constitution has labeled Trump a lame duck until Jan. 20, 2029.

Then it will be good bye and good riddance to the singularly most stupid individual ever elected to the presidency. Then we’ll have to ensure we cannot make that mistake ever again.