Tag Archives: MAGA

legal news, national news

Why delay, SCOTUS?

Many details soar over my occasionally pointed head, such as the apparent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on whether the 45th POTUS deserves presidential immunity.

The high court heard oral arguments this week from the ex-POTUS’s legal team and the legal eagles assembled by special counsel Jack Smith. At stake is the pending trial on the Jan. 6 assault on the government that took place at the former Liar in Chief’s urging.

I heard reports yesterday that justices appear inclined to deny the ex-POTUS’s claim of immunity from prosecution, but are going to drag their feet in issuing their decision.

Why wait? Why delay this matter any longer than necessary? Why not issue a ruling and if it’s the way media have speculated, then let’s get on with the trial post haste?

SCOTUS can move quickly on these matters. Look at what they did in 2000 when given the case involving the recount of Florida ballots in that year’s presidential election. They heard oral arguments and then — boom! — stopped the recount with Texas Gov. George W. Bush ahead in Florida by 527 votes, giving him the state’s electoral votes … and thus, the presidency over Vice President Al Gore.

It was done in a matter of days.

The current SCOTUS is equally capable of delivering a decision of monumental importance.

International news

So proud, but then again …

NUREMBERG, Germany — My journey abroad is beginning to commence to come to an end. I only have a couple more nights in Bavaria before I board a jet for home.

I want to stipulate two critical points.

One is that I am a true-blue American patriot who served his country in war, who pays his taxes without bitching about it and who salutes the flag whenever it flies in front of me.

I also know my country if far from perfect and my aim always in criticizing public policy decisions is to get policymakers to do better.

The other critical point is that whenever I travel to non-English-speaking places around the world, I am a bit self-conscious over my inability to communicate in their language, forcing them to do so in mine. I get that English is the international language of commerce and transportation. But still …

My trip to Germany has been eventful and full of new experiences. I came back to Nuremberg to catch up with two dear friends, a husband and wife who greeted my bride and me in 2016 when we came here the first time. Kathy Anne is gone now and my return was tinged just a bit with sadness. As I told my friends, though, I am moving on with my life just as my wife insisted I do. They get it.

I have seen once more how Europeans have developed rail travel almost to an art form. I have learned how they have crafted a sustainable energy policy that relies almost exclusively on renewable sources of energy. I also have learned how Germans encourage young people to serve their country in a voluntary public service capacity before embarking on their own careers. And … I have learned that higher education in Germany is free.

We don’t do everything perfectly in the country of my birth. A globalist view of our national development seemingly would require us to examine how other nations in our shrinking world handle their everyday affairs. Why not, then, take a peek?

My trip abroad is nearing its end. I will take back many more cherished memories of my time here … and also with fuel for thought that all of us at least should consider.

Donald Trump, national news, political news

Bannon blathers the ‘truth’?

Steve Bannon’s blatherings normally run into one of my ears and out the other, given that I don’t trust the guy as far as I can throw him.

However, when the former inside man in the POTUS 45’s administration says what he says about what Republicans prefer in the 2024 presidential race, well, I tend to perk up.

Bannon believes most GOP members of Congress want the ex-POTUS to lose to President Biden later this year.

Why is that? Because the former Idiot in Chief is a loser and he would bring other Republicans down with him. We saw it happen in the 2020 election and in the 2022 midterm balloting. POTUS 45’s endorsements were poison to GOP candidates and they want him gone from the scene … according to Bannon.

You know what? I’ll go along with what ol’ Steve says on this one. I just hope his version of the “trick knee” doesn’t let him down.

If only some of these Republicans would get off their duffs and work to defeat the one-time commander in chief.

International news

Speaker does his job

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In the Republican Party of 2024, styled in the image of former President Donald J. Trump, a norm-preserving, consensus-driven act — even a basic one — can be a career-ending offense.

So wrote the subhead on a story in the New York Times about the decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson to proceed with a vote to give Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid.

I am of mixed feelings about Mike Johnson. He is far from my idea of a perfect House speaker, yet I do not want to see him torpedoed by the MAGA cult that comprises the most vocal caucus within the House GOP conference.

The MAGAites don’t want to assist Ukraine in its fight for survival against the Russian army invaders. They are beholden to Vladimir Putin, the ham-fisted strongman who pretends to be a BFF of the 45th POTUS. The reality appears to be that while POTUS No. 45 admires Putin, his “good buddy” actually loathes him and sees him as a useful idiot.

Mike Johnson, Like Pence, Does What Passes for Brave in Today’s GOP: His Job – The New York Times (1ft.io)

Well, thanks in part to the speaker’s insistence on doing the right thing and standing tall for democracy, Ukraine is going to get more needed aid from Congress as it seeks to fend off the immoral invasion by Russia.

A large part of me doesn’t want to see Mike Johnson torpedoed because he stood up for democracy.

military news, national news, political news

Is he really that stupid?

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NUREMBERG, Germany — As you know, I am visiting friends in this lovely city in the gorgeous Bavaria region.

They are well-read, erudite and sophisticated. Alena asked me a fascinating question today about the intelligence of the POTUS No. 45. “Do you think he’s really that stupid,” she asked, “or is he just playing to the people who support him no matter what?”

Her reference point is that ghastly mini-speech he made the other day about the Battle of Gettysburg, the fight that turned the tide of our Civil War. The ex-POTUS offered not a single word about the significance of the battle, but instead prattled on about how “bloody” and “beautiful” it was.

Her point is interesting to me. She believes he might just be saying such a thing to appeal to his MAGA cult base of voters who themselves might not have any notion about the importance of this — or any other — significant event in our nation’s history.

Hmm. I thought for a moment about what Alena said. I don’t believe the former Philanderer in Chief is that sophisticated. I do believe he is an ignorant fool. She describes him as “evil.” My bride used that term,, too, to describe the presumed  Republican Party presidential nominee.

Perhaps the term “evil” connotes a level of genius. I’ll have to consider it. He strikes me as someone I have felt all along is unfit for public office, given that he’s never devoted a nano-second of his professional life to giving back to the nation,

Yes, I also believe he is that stupid.

International news, military news, national news

Nice knowin’ ya, Mr. Speaker

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House Speaker Mike Johnson might not be long for the powerful post he now occupies. Why is that?

Because he has decided to do the right thing by allowing a vote on an aid package for Ukraine, which is likely to piss off the MAGA crowd that opposes sending more aid to the nation fighting forces sent to Ukraine on orders from Vladmir Putin, the good pal of the POTUS No. 45.

“I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,” Johnson said recently. There you have it. He’s on the record calling Putin, the Russian strongman, part of a newly formed evil triumvirate.

Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine? | The New Yorker (1ft.io)

I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around the irony here.

He is speaker largely because he was endorsed by the former Liar in Chief. Now the ex-Moron in Chief might turn on him if the MAGA cultists in the House engineer a vote to remove him.

Jiminy Crickets. My head won’t stop spinning!

He is going to allow a $60 billion aid package to come to a vote. The MAGA crowd won’t stand for it.,

It, however, is the right thing to do. Johnson knows it. So do most Americans. The MAGA cultists, however, march to their own cadence … and it is seriously out of step with the rest of this nation.

local news, political news

Cruz needs to be shown the door

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Of all the men and women I have watched in politics over many years as a journalist and now as a civilian with a keen interest in public policy, Ted Cruz stands tall among them as the most loathsome.

The junior U.S. senator from Texas keeps getting sliced and diced by the state’s largest newspaper — his hometown sheet, in fact — over this and that policy issue. The Houston Chronicle has peeled the bark off Cruz’s backside most recently over his blocking of high-speed Internet service coming to Texas.

But in reality, the Cruz Missile is now trying to rebrand himself as a bipartisan senator, someone with Democratic friends and colleagues. My goodness … this guy is utterly without shame.

He has spent the bulk of his nearly dozen years in the Senate doing two things: trying to advance his own political ambition and trashing Democrats at every opportunity.

He damn near lost his first re-election bid in 2018. Now he’s facing another Democrat who’s abandoning his House seat to challenge him. The foe this time is Colin Allred of Dallas.

Oh, how I want Allred to win. I want another senator who can work with pols on the other side of the still-great chasm. Our state’s senior senator, John Cornyn of San Antonio, at times shows promise in steering clear of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party.

Cornyn needs a partner in that bipartisan effort. From my vantage point, it doesn’t appear to me that Ted Cruz is wired in that manner.

Which is precisely why I want Colin Allred to give Ted Cruz the boot in the backside.

Uncategorized

Courts have become political

Our nation’s founders, the men who crafted a federal judiciary they intended to remain “above politics,” surely are doing somersaults in their graves.

The nation’s federal judiciary has become a third political branch of government, not a branch intended only to determine the constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress and signed by the president.

Democratic senators have signed a petition that aims to stop “judge shopping” by conservative activists seeking judges who they believe will rule in their favor. Of particular concern is the federal court based in Amarillo and which is presided over by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was nominated for that seat by the 45th POTUS. Kacszmaryk succeeded a judicial legend in the Texas Panhandle, the late Mary Lou Robinson, of whom no one ever complained was being “too political” in her rulings.

Robinson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and served with distinction and high honor. Now comes Kaczmaryk, whom conservatives seek to overturn policies enacted by Democratic and progressive members of Congress and presidents.

Schumer, McConnell introduce judge shopping bills | The Texas Tribune

“As I have said before, the problem with venue shopping is not a judge in North Texas,” Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor. “It’s a national problem driven by the ability of single judges everywhere to grant injunctions that are national in scope.”

The founders couldn’t possibly have envisioned this kind of mess developing within a judicial system they created.

crime news

This dude’s life about to get seriously uncomfy

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POTUS 45’s life is about to enter a world in which no man should have to visit …. but he’s got it coming to him.

The former Liar in Chief is going on trial beginning Monday in a New York state court on charges that he spent campaign money illegally by paying $130,000 to an adult film actress to keep her quiet about a one-night stand she alleges occurred between her and the future POTUS.

The former Philanderer in Chief denies it happened, but he paid her the money anyway. Go figure that one, folks.

The tryst allegedly occurred just as the ex-POTUS’s wife was caring for the couple’s then-infant son.

How long will this circus last? Some legal experts say it could be over in three weeks to a month once they seat a jury of the former Moron in Chief’s “peers.”

My favorite aspect of this is that because it’s a criminal trial, the defendant will be forced to sit through it all. He’ll get to watch the former alleged paramour tell jurors of what occurred in the hotel room that night. He’ll have to listen to his former lawyer/fixer/right-hand man tell them how the ex-POTUS ordered him to write the check.

Hey, it’ll be fun to watch.

national news, political news

Democracy is strong … not ‘fragile’

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Vice President Kamala Harris needs to take a deep breath and assess carefully the strength of the democratic republic she is governing alongside President Joe Biden.

Harris told an interviewer that the 2024 election well could be the “last democratic election” this country could have. Really, Mme. Vice President?

She frets that the presumed Republican presidential nominee could get elected and enact a permanent dictatorship. Thus, we have the end of democracy in this great nation of ours, she reckoned.

Kamala Harris agrees with interviewer that 2024 could be last US democratic election (yahoo.com)

Harris was speaking on a podcast hosted by Angie “Pumps” Sullivan. “I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say this genuinely could be the last democratic election we ever have,” Sullivan said.

“You’re right,” Harris responded.

Excuse me, but I’ll butt in for a moment.

Sullivan is being hyperbolic in the extreme. For the VPOTUS to endorse that hyperbole is folly in the extreme.

All of this seems to presume that the GOP nominee is going to win the election. I am going out on that fragile limb and say, “No way in this world is that moron going to win the election this fall!”

Harris went on: “No, and I’m going to tell you. As vice president, I’ve now met with over 150 world leaders … in the last three international trips I’ve taken — which are going back to the end of last year through this year — world leaders have come up to me, expressing their real concern about this election,” Harris said.

What precisely do they know about the character of Americans? We have it totally within our power to stop this crazed lunatic from ascending to power yet again.

And make no mistake about it, the GOP nominee-to-be is flat-out nuts, a loon, and he poses an existential threat to the very government he once swore to “defend and protect.”