Tag Archives: 2020 election

political news, State news

Bonnen won’t face prosecution; just let him go away

The Brazoria County, Texas, district attorney won’t prosecute Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen for any felony charges stemming from a rotten deal he cut with a right-wing provocateur.

That is just as well. Bonnen has announced his intention to step down after the 2020 election; he won’t seek re-election to another term in the Texas House of Representatives. I hope he just disappears from public view. He doesn’t need any jail time.

DA Jeri Yenne called Bonnen’s conduct “repugnant,” but not criminal.

What did he do? He met with Empower Texans guru Michael Quinn Sullivan this past June and gave up the names of 10 fellow Republican legislators that Sullivan’s group could target in the 2020 election. Sullivan recorded the meeting he had with Bonnen and former Texas House GOP chairman Dustin Burrows of Lubbock. Bonnen denied stabbing the lawmakers in the back, then Sullivan released the recording and, well, proved Bonnen to be a liar as well as a back-stabber.

The district attorney where Bonnen represented in the Legislature had considered prosecuting the speaker on campaign finance charges, but then decided there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal investigation.

That is just as well. Bonnen disgraced himself nicely by consorting with Sullivan and Empower Texans, an outfit that many of us detest. They are a rigid, right-wing organization that seeks to undermine mainstream Republican politicians in Texas.

My hope is that Bonnen doesn’t inflict any more damage on his fellow legislators before he leaves office prior to the start of the 2021 Legislature.

I just want him to go away. Goodbye, Mr. Speaker … and don’t let the door hit you in your backside.

national news

Rep. Ryan drops out of 2020 race for POTUS; more should follow

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan didn’t have a prayer of being nominated by the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States, let alone of being elected.

So, today he called a halt to it.

Frankly, in the discussion about the still-monstrous Democratic field, I barely ever heard his name mentioned.

Ryan is done. There clearly needs to be others who will step aside, return to what they were doing before they decided to run. Former Housing Secretary and ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro has said he needs to raise $800,000 soon; if he falls short, he’s out. Hmm.  We’ll see.

Look, the race has boiled down to about five, maybe six Democrats.

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and perhaps Amy Klobuchar are still in the hunt. The rest of them? Well, they ought to reconsider their future.

I’ll presume Rep. Ryan does a good job for his Ohio constituents.

The winnowing of the field should continue. I am growing tired of trying to listen to the field seek to outshout one another on those joint appearance stages.

national news

Waiting for the candidate who can wipe out Trump

Critics of this blog — at least some of them — have made some incorrect presumptions about me. They seem to believe I am some sort of far-left socialist who wants to redistribute wealth. That’s the vibe I get from a few of ’em.

I am a patriotic American, a veteran who went to war for my country, someone who’s been married to one woman for 48 years, has reared two sons watched them become two of the finest men on Earth. I pay my taxes without complaining.  I attend church most Sundays. I revere the principles for which our flag flies and I get choked up at military parades.

Accordingly, I do not want to see some far-left socialist nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Donald J. Trump. I favor a more moderate approach to good government. Who is that candidate? Who should carry the torch forward into political battle against a president who has zero business holding the office to which he was elected? I do not yet know.

I merely want to endorse the candidate who embodies moderation but one who can take the fight directly to Trump and his minions.

I had the distinct pleasure this week of attending a Trump rally in downtown Dallas. I went as an observer. I told a couple from Rockwall I meant about my intent in being there. They got it, even as they wore their Trump gear while waiting to get into the arena.

I met a lot of nice people. I had half-expected to see my share of wild-eyed wackos. I didn’t see them. Instead, I saw thousands of committed Trump supporters whose enthusiasm for their candidate was as fervent as any I have seen since, oh, 1972, when I got involved politically for the first time. My guy at that time was progressive U.S. Sen. George McGovern, a Democrat from South Dakota who campaigned on a pledge to end our involvement in the Vietnam War.

I had just returned from Vietnam and I wanted Sen. McGovern to win in the worst way. Instead, he lost in the worst way, losing 49 states to President Nixon. We were committed, too. Our crowds were huge and enthusiastic, too. We lost big.

My point is this: Fringe candidates do not win national elections. Trump is no extremist. He is, as best I can tell, a complete anomaly. He has no ideological base. He doesn’t stand on principle. He brought zero public service credentials, let alone interest, into the office he won in what I consider to be the Mother of All Political Flukes.

He has disgraced his office. He has embarrassed me as an American patriot. I want him banished from the White House. I want the next president to represent the sensible center of American life.

Whoever that person is, I am waiting for him or her to present themselves to Americans and to make the case in the strongest terms possible that they can — and will — restore dignity to the nation’s highest and most exalted office.

national news

POTUS provides impetus to proceed now with impeachment

Donald J. Trump’s profound arrogance has given the House of Representatives all the evidence it now needs to determine that the president of the United States has committed an impeachable act.

He has committed an unconstitutional act. How?

By awarding himself a massive government contract that will bring the leaders of the seven leading industrial nations of the world to his posh resort in south Florida. Yep, Doral National Country Club is going to play host to the G7 summit of nations next spring.

Donald Trump has declared Doral to be the most fitting resort in the United States to host this event. He has violated the Emoluments Clause to the U.S. Constitution, the one that says the president cannot profit from his public office.

Trump will profit bigly by playing host to the G7 summit.

There is no more need, in my mind, for the House to look much further — if at all — for reasons to impeach the president. He has delivered a big reason all by himself.

I haven’t mentioned — until right now — what White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney declared, that the president withheld arms to Ukraine for political purposes. He then scolded the media to “Get over it.”

That, too, is an impeachable offense. It also violates the Constitution.

However, this awarding of the government contract to his own business simply crosses the biggest red line possible.

Donald Trump needs to be impeached. He needs to be thrown out of office after a Senate trial.

My question remains: How in the name of no man being above the law can Republicans in Congress and across the land ignore what is occurring in real time before all our eyes?

national news, political news

How does a rookie congresswoman’s endorsement matter so much?

For the life of me I cannot come to grips with the notion that a presidential endorsement from a freshman member of Congress is somehow seen by many on the left as a “game changer” in the 2020 race for president of the United States.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont who’s running in the Democratic primary.

Sigh …

Why does this matter at all?

The young woman known as AOC became a media star the moment she took office at the beginning of the year. She beat a longtime Democratic congressional heavyweight, Joseph Crowley, in the 2018 primary and then cruised to election in the heavily Democratic congressional district. She took office and immediately could be seen on damn near every media outlet in the country; even on Fox News, which has covered her every utterance, using it as fodder for its on-air critics of the self-proclaimed socialist.

I don’t have any particular animosity toward AOC, other than she has embraced a celebrity status that she hasn’t yet earned. Nor do I particularly care that she endorsed Sanders, the one-note samba candidate who peppers every response to every question with some reference to “income inequality.”

I actually want AOC to become a consequential public official. She has potential, but she hasn’t realized any of it just yet. The fact is that AOC needs a lot more congressional seasoning before I start to take anything she says with any sort of seriousness.

Maybe she’ll acquire the wisdom and seasoning she needs. Maybe she’ll emerge as a legislative champion, someone who puts her name on landmark bills that become the law of the land. Just maybe she will be able to present herself as one of the wise women of the U.S. House of Representatives.

At this moment, she is just another loudmouth rookie legislator who has managed to elbow her way to the center of the political stage. Trust me on this, too: She is far from being the only grandstander among the current crop of freshman congressmen and women, which is why I don’t take any of the others as seriously as I might when they obtain the wisdom I believe they will have earned.

So, she endorses Bernie Sanders for president? Pfftt.

local news, national news, political news

Well now … that was some KAG rally in Big D

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To my friends and assorted loved ones who expressed concern that I was plunging into the belly of the beast by attending a Donald Trump re-election rally, I have good news.

I survived. Intact. No one laid a hand on me. No one got angry. I stayed for as long as I wanted to stay and left on my terms.

There. Now that we’ve cleared that up, I want to offer a word or two about what I saw at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas this afternoon and evening.

I saw a huge crowd of Trump fanatics — the vast majority of whom (close to 90 percent, I am guessing) — wearing Donald Trump gear. MAGA hats. Shirts with assorted sayings and slogans; some of them were profane and expressed a good bit of anger.

I met a very nice couple from Rockwall, who drove all the way into Dallas to see their man, the president. I confided in them while we waited outside that “I am not a Trump supporter. I am here as an observer.” OK, I didn’t tell them the whole truth, that I was there as a fervent anti-Trump voter and that I intend to keep skewering Trump whenever possible. They promised to read my blog on the subject and I hope they don’t hate me too much.

There were t-shirts with the message: Trump Supporter, I Won’t Apologize For It.” When have you seen a political supporter offer up that qualifier? Anyone? Oh, and there was this gem: “Fu** Your Feelings.” I didn’t have the courage to ask if those wearing that article of clothing were among Trump’s evangelical base of supporters.

The crowd outside was remarkable in its ethnic/racial makeup. It was not as lily white as I expected. I saw several African-American men wearing “Blacks for Trump” attire.

Then there was the shirt that said “Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President.” Actually, that one made me want to hurl, given that the shirt contained the name of Jesus Christ and arguably the most anti-Christian man ever elected to the presidency. Enough of that.

I stood in a line that stretched more than a mile and a half. We snaked our way around several barriers outside the AAC, then walked up the steps and into the building. The U.S. Secret Service did a remarkably thorough but quick inspection of everyone entering the arena.

I found a seat way up high.

Then out came the president of the United States, applauding along with the cheering crowd. I never can tell why he claps so much when he enters a room. Is he cheering those who are clapping for him … or is he just so damn proud of himself that he cannot resist giving himself an ovation?

Whatever.

He launched into the same tired tirade I’ve been hearing since he took office. Democrats are the enemy. So are the media. Everyone opposed to Trump and the Republican Party want “open borders,” they want to “take away your rights,” they favor “socialism” over capitalism, they hate the United States, and on and on.

Admission time: I didn’t stay for Trump’s entire tirade. I heard all I could stand and left.

My final takeaway from this Trump “Keep America Great” rally is this: The enthusiasm of the 16,000 or so in the arena and in line waiting to get into the AAC is as fervent as anything I have ever seen at events such as this. I will give Trump credit for that much; his base of support is seemingly unshakable.

Which makes me wonder yet again: Are these Trump loyalists so blinded by their fealty to this man that they can overlook the crimes he has committed? Or are they — and there’s no pleasant way to say this — just plain ignorant?

national news

National divide might take generations to mend

Oh, how I hate the division that is threatening our national fabric. Really, I believe we are heading for fracturing that might take generations to heal.

Donald Trump got elected president in 2016 promising, among other things, to heal the wounds that divided us during that brutal campaign. How has he done? Not well … not well at all!

Indeed, the president has done next to nothing to even attempt to heal those wounds. The Charlottesville, Va., riot in2017 provides an example of what I mean. Klansmen and Nazis gathered in Charlottesville to protest the taking down of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee; counter protesters showed up, one of the counter protesters got run down and killed by one of the Nazis. Trump then said there were “fine people … on both sides!” Oh, no. There weren’t fine folks on both sides, Mr. President.

It has been like during Trump’s term as president.

We are degenerating into a society with intense anger fueled in large part by those who adhere to the president’s scorched-Earth policy regarding his foes.

To be fair, I don’t mean to toss all the blame solely at the president’s feet. There has been a good bit invective hurled at him from the other side. Perhaps the most egregious utterance came from a newly elected Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib, who declared at a rally that “we’re going to impeach the motherfu****!”

I don’t remember, though, who started this political pi**ing match. At this point, it doesn’t matter to me.

What matters is that we’re entering a presidential election season shrouded under the clouds of probable impeachment over presidential solicitation of foreign government help in his re-election fight. Donald Trump is going to launch every rhetorical missile in his formidable arsenal at his foes, who are likely to return fire with equal gusto.

I am just a spectator and a chump blogger with plenty to say about all that is unfolding in front of us. I don’t like what I am seeing and hearing.

I want it to end. I’ll get to my proposed solution right here: It will end only when Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States. He needs to be shown the door.

national news

Tulsi Gabbard thinks better of boycott

I generally detest boycotts. They don’t work. They are mostly counterproductive, especially when a political candidate who needs public exposure seeks to “boycott” an event where he or she would get the exposure needed for political success.

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii had planned to boycott Tuesday night’s joint appearance with 11 other Democratic presidential candidates. Then she thought better of it.

Gabbard had said the Democratic National Committee was “rigging” the primary season to favor other candidates and that, by golly, she was having none of it.

Oh, but wait a second! Gabbard is languishing in the very low single digits in public approval among the Democrats vying to run against Donald Trump in November 2020. So, were she to “boycott” the joint appearance, she would do her already struggling candidacy more harm.

She’s changed her mind. She’ll show up on the stage in Ohio and will have her say among the still large field of Democrats.

Gabbard has some important things to say. She is being overshadowed by all the coverage of the front rank of Democrats — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg come to mind.

I am glad she’ll be on that stage. A boycott would have sunk her even farther than she already stands among the crowd of Democratic contenders/pretenders.

Who knows? There might be a breakout moment in store for Rep. Gabbard. The only way it can happen is if she’s standing alongside her foes going toe-to-toe on the issues of the day.

national news

Sen. Cruz is breaking his silence on Trump and election interference

What do you know about this?

Ted Cruz, who I dislike intensely in his role as the junior U.S. senator from Texas, is speaking out — finally! — on this matter of election interference from foreign governments.

Cruz, the Republican firebrand who nearly lost his seat in 2018, now says that foreign governments have no place in our nation’s electoral system. None, man! He has been critical of Donald Trump’s asking for electoral help from China and Ukraine.

According to the Texas Tribune: During an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, Cruz said no foreign government should be involved in American elections.

“That’s true for all of them,” he told moderator Margaret Brennan. “It should be the American people deciding elections.”

OK, so he hasn’t yet declared that Donald Trump needs to get booted out of office because of his solicitation of help from foreign governments. However, his statement — in my view — marks an important turning point in GOP reticence regarding the president’s current difficulties.

Trump is facing increasingly probable impeachment by the House of Representatives over issues relating to foreign interference in our elections. Cruz isn’t likely to join his Democratic colleagues in calling for Trump’s impeachment, conviction and ouster. However, at least The Cruz Missile is standing on an important principle that has been lost on the president.

What’s more, Cruz told Face the Nation that Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, needs to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in connection with reports that the former New York City mayor met with Ukrainian officials about Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, regarding Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Is the senator signaling a turn against a president — who he once called a “sniveling coward” and an “amoral” narcissist who is unfit for the presidency?

I won’t bet the mortgage on it. Then again … stranger events have occurred.

national news

Trump provides one of life’s mysteries

Life is full of mysteries. Things happen that we cannot explain, no matter how hard we try to comprehend them.

One of the current mysteries of life involves the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Specifically, it is a mind-boggling mystery to me how this guy maintains his vise-grip of support among Americans who I am certain do not subscribe to The Donald’s personal code of living.

Many millions of Americans who retain their adulation of this fellow are straitlaced (and I mean that in the good way), God-fearing folks who are faithful to their spouses, who follow the Golden Rule, who do not cheat their way through business deals.

Yet the president of the United States has admitted to philandering; he says he never has sought forgiveness; he acknowledges that he seeks to operate in a climate of fear.

Trump got elected president of the United States after waging one of the more vicious campaigns in U.S. history. His re-election effort is likely to make his election campaign look like a Scout picnic in comparison.

And yet … he holds onto his core of support. I just looked at the RealClearPolitics poll average and Trump maintains a 43 percent approval rating among Americans. Remember that the RCP average includes all major surveys, those that lean right and those that lean left. RCP averages ’em up and we see that Trump’s support doesn’t waver much — even in the wake of credible evidence that he has committed impeachable offenses.

This might offer yours truly some grist for questioning Trump’s supporters this week. I am going to attend the Donald Trump MAGA rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Thursday. I’ll get there early. I’ll have my notebook and pen in hand. I just might pose the question in search of one of life’s mysteries.

My challenge will be to ask these folks in a manner that doesn’t rile them up. I know it’s a challenge. I shall do my best to get the answer that has eluded me all this time.

I always have wanted political leaders to exhibit some level of goodness. They need not be goodie-two-shoes, but merely individuals who at minimum treat others the way they want others to treat them. Does the president adhere to that code? Hardly.

I hope to get a better understanding of this mysterious aspect of POTUS’s core of support. This inquiring mind needs to know.