Tag Archives: MAGA

national news

Then and now: big difference

1 Comment

There might be some temptation to compare the pressure that President Biden is feeling from Democratic lawmakers to that which fell on President Nixon in the summer of 1974.

There’s a heap of difference between the circumstances.

Biden’s heat is coming from Democratic leaders who are urging him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, fearing he is sure to lose to GOP nominee Donald J. Trump. Biden doesn’t see it that way. He believes he has a path to victory and to be blunt, I share his belief that the fight ain’t over. Yes, the questions are lingering about Biden’s mental acuity in the wake of that debate fiasco, but he’s showing signs of recovery from that stumble-bum performance.

In August 1974, Richard Nixon faced a different set of circumstances. The House Judiciary Committee was preparing articles of impeachment against the president over his covering up of the Watergate scandal. Several senators stepped up, ventured to the White House and told Nixon the following: The House is going to impeach you, Mr. President, and the Senate is going to convict you in a trial that will commence. You need to resign.

Moreover, the message came from the likes of Nixon’s fellow Republicans, such as Sens. Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott … both of whom told Nixon they would vote convict him of the crime of coverup.

Nixon had no choice but to resign. He did the next day.

The drama playing out today is far from finished, despite what many in the media are reporting.

International news, military news

Russia about to gain a WH friend?

3 Comments

Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his 2024 Republican Party presidential running mate should send chills up the spine of every “real Republican” out there.

Why is that? Because Vance, a freshman U.S. senator from Ohio, has emerged as Russia’s most vocal ally in the ridiculous debate over whether we should continue to assist Ukraine in its valiant fight against the Russian invaders.

Vance has made it clear: If he has any say in the matter, the United States won’t spend another dollar to assist Ukraine as it fights for its life against the immoral, illegal and unprovoked invasion by the Russian armed forces.

There has been plenty of talk about this election being a fight for democracy. That fight is playing itself out on the battlefields of Ukraine, which is fighting to preserve its democratic government against. the authoritarians in Moscow who want to take Ukraine back as a “Russian state.”

President Biden has been steadfast in his support of Ukraine, vowing to keep the United States engaged by sending money for military hardware essential for Ukraine to defeat the Russian aggressors.

Now, though, Trump and his “friendship” with Vladimir Putin stands in the way. Moreover, Trump now has a vocal running mate who is standing openly and foursquare with Putin’s designs on spreading his dictatorial regime beyond Russia’s borders.

Republican political orthodoxy used to stand against Russian aggression. We engaged in a decades-long cold war with the Soviet Union to keep them from advancing beyond their territorial limit. Two presidents named Bush, and others named Nixon, Eisenhower and Reagan stood strong against the tyrants.

We must not let the Russians win this fight!

Donald Trump

Things I don’t get

1 Comment

The world is chock full of matters that pass my occasionally meager understanding. Donald Trump’s standing in the current public opinion polls is one of them.

With that I must make an admission: I do not understand the thinking of Americans who can justify their backing of a man with the kind of morality, the record of lying, the examples of fraudulent behavior that Trump continues to exhibit.

Family members who say they value my opinion on such matters keep asking me why Trump continues to hold this standing. I have no answer. I do not understand it. I cannot fathom anyone backing a candidate for president with so many personal and moral failures as this individual.

He speaks of his “populism.” He is no more of a populist than, say, King Louis XVI. He talks about caring for the little guy. When has anyone seen him showing up unannounced to work in a soup kitchen? He talked about losing all those friends in the 9/11 attacks. Yet … he never attended a single funeral or memorial service for anyone who died on that horrific day.

His many moral failures are too many to mention here. You know what they are.

And yet, here he is set to capture the Republican Party presidential nomination for the third consecutive election cycle. He won the first time, lost the second go-round and well might win the 2024 election.

Is this nation really so gullible, so prone to this man’s phony promises to elect him a second time to an office about which he knows absolutely nothing?

I cannot even begin to grasp what might lie ahead for this great land if our worst nightmare comes true.

national news

Going to wait for nominee

1 Comment

Running a blog allows me to make command decisions without consulting with another human being … so I have done that very thing.

I have decided to wait until Thursday night to watch the Republican National Convention that will send Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance off to battle against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The RNC has nothing to offer me until the nominees take the microphone.

Why wait? Well, Trump says he’s rewriting his acceptance speech, crafting a document he says will stress unity.

Hmm. Do you believe him? Well, in truth neither do I.

But I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt simply by waiting to hear what the GOP nominee says when he takes the stage.

I am sure the delegates and many TV viewers will be emotionally charged when they see Trump, injured in that assassination attempt over the weekend. I won’t be caught up in the emotion of the moment, but I will be caught up in the context, tone and tenor of his remarks.

Trump has crafted his political career around rhetoric that seeks to divide Americans. He’s been good at it, too. I’ll give him plenty of credit for the success he has enjoyed.

How does he change gears, shift direction and come at us with a unification speech? Beats the daylights out of me.

I also am dubious on two other points: that he’ll actually deliver a unity speech and on whether he will be faithful to that promise in the rare probability that he does deliver it.

national news

J.D. Vance: ‘Never Trumper’ runs with Trump

4 Comments

J.D. Vance’s decision to run with Donald Trump is an eye-opener to be sure.

The freshman U.S. senator from Ohio — whose public service career spans the two years he has served in the Senate — once called himself an irrevocable “never Trumper.” He sounded pretty solid when he made that declaration in front of TV cameras.

Now he’s in Trump’s camp. All the way, he indicates. So, Trump chose him to run as VP on a GOP president ticket led — for the third straight election cycle — by Donald Trump.

It’s not that the GOP field of VPOTUS hopefuls lacked candidates who at one time or another spoke ill of the presidential nominee. So did Sen. Marco Rubio, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. Tim Scott. They were passed over for Vance.

I don’t know what to make of this selection. If Trump follows past patterns, he’ll sing Vance’s praises until Vance says or does something that displeases Trump. Then he’ll become the “worst human being ever to walk the Earth” …. or words to that effect.

Today’s odds suggest Trump is going to win the presidency. I am not going place that bet just yet. We still have some time to go. President Biden has his own convention to get through. He still has time to sharpen his daggers. Yes, he’s got that assassination attempt hanging over his temptation to resume recounting all the lies, the criminal activity for which Trump has been convicted and truckloads of negativity that accompany Trump wherever he goes.

Trump also reportedly is going to speak to the GOP convention to propose a theme of unity. I am going to hold my breath on that one. I do not expect him to follow the theme he is going to set.

What the hell … he might not even find unity between himself and the fellow he chose to run with him!

Uncategorized

Politics on hold … for now

Let there be no mistake that I likely will bristle, gnash my teeth, mutter a bad word or three as Republicans seek to make political hay over the event that unfolded shockingly in Butler, Pa.

But out of respect for the political process that is underway and the noble goal of choosing a presidential nominee, I will do all of that quietly.

I won’t take my frustrations out with posts on High Plains Blogger. I am going to declare a very brief moratorium on assassination-attempt political commentary. I won’t predict when it will resume. I merely want the FBI, Secret Service, Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and local police to complete their investigation into what happened over the weekend.

I am quite certain that Trump and his family as well as his cadre of cultists will test my good will with their statements about the political ramifications of those events.

I will add only this, which is my complete endorsement of the way the Secret Service acted in killing the shooter. Sharpshooters arrayed around Trump’s podium drew a bead immediately on the gunman and wasted him, These men and women are the best at what they do and in that instant, they reacted the only way that made sense, given the chaos of the moment.

I will await the right moment to shuck the gloves with regard to Donald J. Trump. Don’t ask when that moment will arrive. I’ll just have to tell you that I’ll know when it does.

Joe Biden, national news

‘Vote shaming’ has commenced

There appears to be a tide of “vote shaming” that is swelling across the land as Democrats are now rallying behind their presumptive presidential nominee.

We now are hearing it more loudly and clearly than at any time during the past three presidential cycles. A vote for Donald J. Trump for president is going to relegate the presidency and the nation into a spiral from which neither can recover.

And it is to the ever-lasting shame of those who today remain dedicated to casting their presidential vote for a convicted felon, an admitted philanderer, a man found liable for rape and an individual who admits to groping women.

Democrats are ramping up their message machine to cast shame and embarrassment on the MAGA cultists and the Republican Party leadership who continue to back a man who has been shown to be a fraud, someone who isn’t even close to being the smartest businessman in the room. Indeed, as President Biden has been saying, Trump has filed for bankruptcy “six times, even for a casino” in which had invested. “I didn’t know that was possible,” Biden has said.

President Biden and the Democrats are making Donald Trump the issue in their battle to keep him away from the Oval Office.

They damn sure should make Trump the No. 1 issue in this campaign.

But here we are, wringing our hands over whether Joe Biden is too old and too mentally infirm to run for president. I am teetering on this issue myself and I am not comfortable admitting that. However, you may count me as one American patriot who will gladly cast my ballot for Joe Biden if the choice happens to be Donald Trump.

Those who are standing behind a moral reprobate who is now a convicted felon, someone who embraces tyrants over small-d democrats, well … you deserve the shame you are getting.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Most important … ever!

1 Comment

My active involvement in presidential elections goes back a while, to 1972, when I cast my first vote for president.

And just as surely as the sun rises in the morning, every election cycle has contained the phrase “the most important election in our lifetime.”

I believe the 2024 election fits the bill. It’s the real thing. It appears to be the most important election in our nation’s storied history.

The candidates for president aren’t the best we can offer. The consequence of electing one of these men is what gives the result the heft it deserves.

Where do we stand? The Democratic Party nominee appears to be the incumbent, Joe Biden. Then again …

The president had that debate a few days ago and everything seems to have changed. The party of which he has been a faithful member might be turning on him. Or it might stand firm. He looked and sounded like a doddering old man in that debate and the party faithful is full of doubting members who are concerned about whether he’s up to the job.

The Republican Party nominee? Oh, brother. He is a former POTUS who got impeached twice while in office. He’s now a convicted felon. There might be more convictions on the way. Donald Trump has vowed to sic the Justice Department on his political foes. He well could end our support for Ukraine, which is fighting the Russian invaders. He vows to reverse virtually every law that Biden has signed. Trump has threatened to toss the U.S. Constitution into the shi**er on the first day of his administration.

Consequential election? The most important in US history?

It damn sure looks that way to me.

Are we really and truly ready to throw the very foundation of our government — the one other nations use as their model for freedom and liberty — away because a newly elected president wants to make friends with killers, despots and tyrants?

If we are then … God help us!

national news

Changing my mind daily

A member of my family called today to ask me: What do you think President Biden should do, stay in or pull out of the race?

I had to level with her. My mind changes daily. Yesterday I thought maybe he should pull out. Today I am thinking he should stay.

That’s my answer. It depends on what day it is and whether I have changed my mind overnight. I am prone to do so at my age. Old men like me have that right, if you know what I mean.

I keep hearing that more congressional Democrats are abandoning the president. They want to defeat Donald Trump. They say the ex-POTUS is an existential threat to our national security.

So … who has defeated him already? Who has the experience to take the case directly to Trump’s soft underbelly?

It’s Biden.

So, today I am sticking with President Biden all the way. However, I am feeling malleable.

national news

VP stands tall

1 Comment

Kamala Harris made history four years ago when voters elected her as the nation’s first female vice president, the first Black and the first Asian American ever to hold the office.

Yep, she’s a complex individual … with an ethnic diversity that makes heads spin.

President Biden vowed to make her a consequential VPOTUS. While the jury is still out on whether he was faithful to that pledge, there can be no doubt these days about the value she brings to an embattled president. Biden is facing calls to step down from the top of Democratic Party ticket on the basis of his debate performance the other night in Atlanta.

I am one American who is so very torn. I don’t want him to step down, but I would accept his decision to do so if that’s what he decides.

Oh, as for Harris? She stands tall in the wings. Vice President Harris has emerged as the Biden administration’s most effective spokesperson on the issue of women’s reproductive rights. She is taking the fight straight to Donald Trump, who wants his old job back amid threats that he would undo the basic framework of our representative democracy.

The VP is speaking with courage and conviction and is emerging as someone who is (a) defending the president’s stellar record and (b) looks and sounds willing and able to lead a nation that chose her as vice president in 2020.

Kamala Harris might never have imagined being thrust into this role when she said “yes” to Biden’s request to join the ticket. Indeed, as an observer of American politics, I am finding it hard to grasp what might be unfolding in real time.

The drama that is playing itself out is almost too much to imagine … but it is. I am proud of the politician who made history when she joined the winning ticket four years ago.

Keep standing tall, Mme. Vice President.