Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Carter gets loving sendoff

As far as presidential state funerals go, today’s event honoring the life and legacy of the late President Jimmy Carter was one for the ages.

I don’t generally choose to sit through a televised funeral from start to finish. Today, I did precisely that.

I was struck by several images. One was of Donald J. Trump chatting amicably with Barack H. Obama. Another was the sight of all the living former vice presidents and their wives in the row behind the two presidents. Still another was of the huge Carter family sitting across the aisle, with Amy Carter wiping tears from her eyes.

Steve Ford, son of the late Gerald Ford, and Ted Mondale, son of the late Walter Mondale, read their fathers’ eulogies to Carter, thinking they would outlive the former president who died at age 100.

One family, though, was notably absent from the proceeding today. Nor was there any mention of the patriarch’s name. Former President Ronald Reagan didn’t get a mention that I heard. I saw no evidence of any of Reagan’s three surviving children at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan, of course, defeated Carter’s re-election bid in a near-historic landslide in 1980.

That there would be nothing stated about Carter’s immediate successor, though, seemed odd and a bit bizarre.

All told, President Carter received a well-earned tribute to his humility, his Christian faith, and the great work he did in the four decades of a full life he lived since the presidency.

national news

How will next POTUS respond?

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I harbor some reluctance to bring this up, but I am going to do so anyway and risk some blowback from MAGA cultists who read this blog.

It is to wonder how the POTUS-elect is going to respond verbally to the tragedy that is unfolding in Los Angeles County, Calif. The worst wildfires reportedly in southern California history are ravaging entire cities, forcing the evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people.

We have heard how Donald Trump has responded before to disasters affecting communities that did not support him politically. He scolds their leadership for alleged incompetence. He does so instead of offering the government’s full support.

California suffered serious damage during Trump’s first term in office. He responded by lecturing leaders on how to keep the brush clear. Why did he do that? Because California is a “blue” state where most voters cast their ballots for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

I am one American patriot who wants to hear whether the president-elect can exhibit some semblance of compassion and grace. I fear he won’t … and that he will make me angry all over again.

national news

‘L’ word doesn’t exist

Donald Trump wallowed today in the “L” word to describe the 2024 presidential election.

In Trump’s universe, the “L” word is shorthand for “landslide.” He kept saying during a rambling, nonsensical presser with reporters in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., that he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in a “landslide.”

Let me be crystal clear — again! No, he did not ride a landslide of votes to victory in 2024!

He made some remark about winning the popular vote by “millions of votes.” Let’s see, he pulled in fewer than 2.3 million more votes than Harris. Let’s also note that more than 155 million ballots were cast. Now, when you say “millions of votes” separated them, my own perspective tells me it’s more than what Trump rolled up against the VP. Yes, he won more votes than any Republican presidential candidate in history, so I’ll give him that.

But the landslide he said he scored does not exist.

I just want to be clear on that point.

I won’t go into the rest of the idiocy that flowed from this fellow’s mouth. Doing so would mean I would miss something critical.

Landslide? It did not occur in 2024.

Donald Trump

Trump’s angry because of this? What … ?

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.

Donald Trump, national news

Trump gets a bouquet … yes, believe it!

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.

national news, political news

Is there another Carter?

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Jimmy Carter’s death brings to mind something I wrote on this blog prior to a recent presidential election … I think it might have been the 2020 event.

I long have lamented that today’s Democratic Party is dominated by the same tired faces, speaking the same tired policies, appealing to the same tired constituencies. I wanted a new face to emerge from the crowd of 300 million-plus Americans.

I thought there might be “another Jimmy Carter” out there.

We all remember the 1976 Democratic Party primary, yes? The field was full of familiar faces. I actually put a Frank Church lawn sign in my front yard. Church was a U.S. senator from Idaho who had been on the national scene seemingly since The Flood.

He didn’t win the Oregon primary that year. Carter did! He went on to the convention that year and stood before the crowd and opened with that familiar refrain: “My name is Jimmy Carter and I am running for president.”

Many of us didn’t know this guy. He had that deep South drawl. He hailed from Georgia. He said he’d never lie to us. He vowed to fix the then-wounded economy. His opponent, President Gerald Ford, was running for election to the office he never sought but was handed it when Richard Nixon resigned ahead of certain impeachment and conviction for the Watergate scandal and coverup.

I still think there must be a Jimmy Carter out there. Certainly someone can emerge from the crowd of Americans and surprise us in 2028. History can, and often does, repeat itself. Someone brand new can capture our imagination the way Carter did. Hey, it’s a big country out here. Many of us are waiting for a fresh face and vigorous new voice.

I will hope for the best as we endure four years of Donald J. Trump.

national news

MAGA Nation at war with itself?

Heads up, MAGA Nation … there appears to be a multi-front battle forming among members of the cult that scored a victory in November but who amazingly don’t yet know how to spend the spoils of victory.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of MAGA’s chief proponents, could be in danger of losing his powerful post as second-in-line to the presidency. His sin? Johnson has deigned to work with Democrats on keeping the government from shutting down. The MAGA credo includes a prohibition against working with them dreaded Democrats.

Not only that, but Johnson’s performance in mishandling the budgeting legislation has pissed off the MAGA cultist in chief, Donald Trump.

High tech billionaire Elon Musk is wearing out his welcome at the White House’s waiting room simply by being in the news more than the guy who elevated him to the un-elected post he shares with GOP loudmouth Vivek Ramaswamy; the two of them want to cut trillions of dollars from the budget.

Ramaswamy has angered MAGA followers with some language they deem inappropriate for whatever cause they are seeking to put forward.

Now we hear elements of the TEA Party are entering the fray. You remember them, right? They were the “tax enough already” cult that used to rule the roost in Congress until they got shoved aside by the MAGA loyalists. (FYI, I choose to capitalize “TEA” because I see the word as an acronym meaning “taxed enough already.”)

Oh, and what about Vice President-elect J.D. Vance? Is he missing in action? Not word lately from the veep-to-be. Go figure where he stands on anything.

So, Donald Trump’s rocky start to ascending to the pinnacle of power continues. May the battle be as “bloody” as many Americans hope it becomes. I say that because I believe our government will survive … serious injury and all.

Donald Trump, national news

Do not disbelieve Trump’s warnings

Donald Trump’s pathological lying makes it impossible for me to believe virtually nothing that flies out of his yapper.

Except for one thing.

That would be the warnings he has issued about what he intends to do when he becomes president of the United States of America.

When he has said he lost “many friends” on 9/11, we learned he attended zero funerals for his friends after that tragedy. He boasts about his “landslide” victory in 2016 when in fact he lost the popular vote and was elected solely on the basis of the Electoral College. He inflates his net worth, his intelligence and says he hires only “the best people”; all lies.

But he says he will toss the Constitution aside on his first day in office and will govern “like a dictator” for one day. That kind of boast … I believe.

He has said he intends to pardon many of the Jan. 6 traitors imprisoned after being convicted of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. He vows to let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” with Ukraine. He intends to “drill baby, drill” even though we’re now producing more petroleum than ever in our history.

Trump will take office with plenty of executive authority at his disposal. He says his 2024 victory gave him a “mandate” to use that power. Well, it did nothing of the sort. His victory was narrow. He will deploy that authority immediately upon taking office, or so he has vowed.

I will take him at his word on that, but on nothing else.

business news, International news

No, you cannot just ‘take back’ canal

Donald J. Trump is all bluster and fake bravado and zero substance and knowledge of the limits of the power of the office he is about to inherit.

He said he wants to “take back” the Panama Canal from the country that owns it outright, Panama. Why? Because he doesn’t like the steep fees the Panamanians are charging U.S.-flag ships using the canal.

Good grief! Panama took over the canal decades ago in a deal worked out with the U.S. government. It belongs to them! Panama is a sovereign nation that can do whatever it chooses with its assets. The United States has zero legal authority to seize property owned and operated by another nation.

I get that Trump doesn’t like the fees being charged U.S. shipping. I don’t particularly like it either. However, disliking another nation’s policies does not give us the inherent right to do the kind of thing that Trump is suggesting.

Let’s all get ready for this kind of nonsense to repeat itself for the next four years.

national news

POTUSes don’t ‘own’ these offices

I have heard enough of media commentators adding possessive adjectives to public offices … and so I want to vent briefly.

Repeatedly I hear news talking heads say things like “Donald Trump’s attorney general,” or “Joe Biden’s vice president,” or “Barack Obama’s secretary of state.”

Let me declare in the loudest voice I can muster: Presidents do not “own” these individuals or the public offices they occupy. We do. You and I. We pay for them with our tax money. We, I submit, are the bosses.

To be sure, this isn’t a major policy gripe. It’s all about style. I am willing to take swipes at presidents of both parties for committing what I believe is an overreach.

President Obama had an annoying habit of referring to “my Cabinet,” or “my national security team.” He seemed to take undue possession of the office he inherited on a temporary basis … although I do acknowledge he said he knew he was there just for a brief period.

The most egregious offender of this style lapse? As my Mom would say: I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Donald J. Trump!

During his first tour in the White House, Trump would refer routinely to “my generals” when talking about military matters. He also routinely smothers Cabinet officials — all approved by U.S. senators — in the personal possessive adjectives I find so objectionable.

What do I wish presidents would say? I prefer the plural possessive description, you know … “our administration,” or “our Joint Chiefs of Staff.” We’re on the same team, at least that’s how the nation’s founders designed it.