Tag Archives: GOP

media news, national news

How did ‘woke’ become an epithet?

I have many acquaintances, many of whom have hooked up with me via social media … and I have a precious few actual friends.

Some of the actual friendships have carried over from my years as a journalist, when I cultivated sources who would later become my friends. The deepest friendships, though, go back to my childhood. I have some of those, too … people I’ve known since I was a boy.

One of them is my oldest friend. We go back to the seventh grade together. We became friends in our junior high school home-room class and we have remained close over the course of 63 years.

Lately, though, he has taken a dramatic turn from the man I once knew as a fairly progressive fellow. Indeed, our shared world view drew us closer as we would comiserate over the state of the political world. Those days of shared angst are gone, possibly forever.

My friend — who I still love dearly — has gone on an anti-woke binge. His criticism of progressives is steeped in his loathing of their “woke” view of the world.

I had to look up the word “woke” to understand what it means. I found this: The term has its roots as a Black adjective meant to describe racism, but has since been broadened to call attention to sexism and gay rights. Those on the political right have used the term in recent years as an epithet to criticize those who champion progressive causes.

Wikipedia says this: Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. It is synonymous with the General American English word awake.

Sadly, the term has become a four-letter word.

Woke isn’t a dirty word. It’s not a corrupt philosophy. All it suggests to me is a desire to do right by everyone. Yet the 2024 Republican presidential field before it culled itself down to one clown, the nominee, kept hammering against “woke” policies. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis became the lead vocalist in the GOP amen choir blasting those damn woke-minded politicians.

I don’t get any of it.

I dislike the term woke because it sounds kinda foreign to me. However, if you’re going to call me “woke” because I oppose discriminating against people because of their skin color, their sexual orientation or their immigrant status, well, then fine.

Call me “woke.” I stand tall and proud … and I will always love my friend.

national news, political news

Trump redefines conservatism

Donald J. Trump, through the force of his enormous will, has managed over the past decade to reshape the political landscape into something few of us recognize.

Take the definition of the term “conservative.”

I came of age politically in a time when Barry Goldwater and later Ronald Reagan became the gold standards for political conservatism. Their view was the term meant minimal government influence in our lives. Goldwater later became known more as a libertarian, taking the view that government had no role to play in determining people’s sex lives or whether a woman could obtain an abortion.

Trump has taken the conservative movement in an entirely different direction. He wants to use government as a weapon to wield against his political enemies. He vows to sic the FBI and the Justice Department on those in the media who criticize him.

He wants the government to go after colleges and universities who teach certain subjects in class. He recently withheld a huge fund from Harvard University because the Ivy League school refused to knuckle under his demand to stop teaching about racism, slavery and other low points in our nation’s glorious history.

Trump wants the government to ban transgender athletes from competing, he wants transgendered patriots to be barred from serving in the military.

None of this is “conservative” as I grew up understanding the term. An activist government is more of a — dare I say it? — liberal effort. In the old days, liberals were seen as wanting to deploy government to bring meaningful change.

These days, it’s all been tossed into a cocked hat.

Which brings about a key question. Who in our modern political world stands out as a Republican In Name Only? The Republican Party used to be thought of as the conservative party, yes?

I’ll cast my vote for Donald Trump as the nation’s RINO in chief.

national security

Yep, it’s Trump’s party

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If you harbored any doubt that Donald J. Trump has hjiacked a once-great political party and molded it into his plaything, look no further than the reaction to the hideous security breach involving the national security adviser and the secretary of defense.

Republicans have been, shall we say, tame in their response to reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz leaked classified battle plans to a reporter for Atlantic Monthly magazine.

Imagine, too, if a Democratic leadership team had done such a thing. What would be the outcry among Republicans? We know what it would be. Republicans would be bellowing “lock ’em up!” just as they did in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was caught using her personal email server while working as U.S. secretary of state.

This time, the relative silence among GOP operatives is deafening and so very telling about the selective outrage among those who now call Donald Trump their master.

national news

RIP, Sen. Simpson

Alan Simpson has left this good Earth after spending a career in public life trying to make it a better place.

The U.S. senator from Wyoming wasn’t exactly the kind of public official I would have voted for had I been given the chance. However, he symbolized a bygone era that allowed politicians of vastly different points of view to remain friends even after they tussled over policy issues.

Simpson, who died yesterday at age 93, was as conservative as they come. He also was a good-hearted man who was able to maintain close friendships with the likes of he late Ted Kennedy, the Senate’s renowned “liberal lion,” with whom he fought over policy matters.

The Wyoming senator also was the subject of Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation.” Brokaw told the story of how young Alan befriended a boy who had been sent to Wyoming after the U..S. entered World War II. Robert Matsui was a Japanese-American who’s only “sin” was to be of Japanese descent. The government rounded up hundreds of thousands of Americans and sent them to camps away from the Pacific Coast.

Matsui and Simpson got acquainted through the chain link fence and the razor wire that kept young Bobby locked up. They retained their friendship once they both entered Congress, Simpson as the conservative from Wyoming and Matsui as the liberal from California.

Alan Simpson embodied one of the essential qualities of good government. He was able to set personal friendships aside to debate political matters. When the debate ended, he joined his friends on the other side and had a good laugh.

national news

CR = crappy governance

Continuing resolutions keep bailing our Congress out of fiscal calamity.

Congress diddles and farts around trying to call the bluff of the folks on the other side of the aisle. They dicker over how much to spend and the rest of us hold our breath waiting to see if they can find common ground before the government runs out of money and closes down.

The CR is a crappy way to run a government. It’s got to stop!

The U.S. Senate agreed in a bipartisan vote to accept a Republican budget proposal. Ten Senate Democrats joined their GOP colleagues in agreeing to keep the doors open or another six months.

Then they’ll cue the music for the next budget dance in late summer.

And we’ll go through the same nonsense all over again.

Republicans usually have been the government shutdown culprits. They have screeched the loudest about budget issues and threatened to shut ‘er down if they didn’t get their way. This time, Democrats played that stupid game, resisting the Donald Trump-Elon Musk gambit for wiping out thousands of jobs in an effort to make government “more efficient.”

This so-called budgeting nightmare isn’t more efficient. It is a travesty that subjects everyone to unneeded heartburn and anxiety over whether the government will remain a force for good in people’s lives

Frankly, I hope Democrats can find a way to head off the disaster that awaits if the Trump-Musk tandem gets its way. They should operate from a position of fiscal responsibility, which to my way of thinking means they need to keep our government fully functional.

The ongoing string of CRs isn’t a solution.

national news

Don’t do it, Democrats!

Democrats in the U.S. Senate apparently are going to commit a form of political suicide if they stick together to oppose a Republican-sponsored continuing budget resolution aimed at keeping the government operating for the next month.

The Demoratic caucus doesn’t like the cuts in the budget, nor the increases in defense spending. They say they want to “send a message” protesting Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul the government.

We’ve had government shutdowns before. They usually have been pitched by Republicans. The longest one occurred during Trump’s first term in office. It didn’t go well for the GOP. Why? Because Americans want to depend on their government to provide service when they need it.

A Democratic-led shutdown won’t go down any more easily than the previous attempts did.

I wish Democrats and Republicans could hammer out a deal to keep the feds’ doors open for business. If the public rebels, Democrats will have no else to blame.

national news

How did it get to this?

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I can state with absolute conviction that Americans have elected — twice, in fact! — the most ignorant, arrogant and insulting individual imaginable to the presidency of the United States of America.

Which makes me wonder — yet again: How in the world did it come to this?

Donald John Trump took an oath in January to defend and protect Americans from enemies at home and abroad. And yet, he has declared war on the government he was elected to administer. He has unleashed the world’s richest man to slash, slice and dice the government, sending pink slips to millions of dedicated public servants.

He has imposed tariffs on our nation’s most faithful friends, namely Canada and Mexico, and guaranteed that the cost of goods purchased and used by Americans will skyrocket into the great beyond.

Trump has sided with Russia, the illegal and immoral invader of another sovereign nation. He has pulled away all American military aid to Ukraine in an astonishing display of betrayal.

Trump has the backing of congressionl Republicans who comprise a paper-tin majority in both houses of Congress. They, too, are cowards of the first order, refusing to stand up for their constitutionally granted power to control the federal budget. They have handed the POTUS sidekick, Elon Musk, the virtual key to the treasure chest and told him, “It’s OK, Elon … you can just have. your way with taxpayers’ money and our authority.”

So help me, I will go to my grave never understanding how Americans — who used to believe in seeking only the very best among us to hold this power — have sunk so low to elect a certifiable ignoramus to the highest office in the land.

God help us.

national news

No more GOP town halls?

The scaredy-cats who run the Republican Cowardly Congressional Caucus have put the word out.

The word to GOP members of Congress is: Do not conduct any more town hall meetings in your congressional districts because your constituents are too angry with Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk.

To a person, the RCCC members seem to be following the dictates of the cowards who tell them how high to jump.

GOP members have been getting snootfuls from their constituents angry over the massive budget slashing, the firing of inspectors general, the gutting of USAID capabilities around the world and Trump’s abandoning of Ukraine as it seeks to defend against the invaders from Russia.

Trump this week announced the suspension of all military aid to Ukraine … while it is in the middle of a bloody ground war against the Russian army. Why? Because Trump thinks he’ll be able to get a better deal for the Russians if the Ukrainians are rendered incapable of killing thousands more Russian troops.

It is a load of pure horsesh** that Trump is peddling. Make no mistake that the congressional cowards’ constituents know a monumental betrayal of a valuable ally when they see one.

And they are witnessing one now in real time being orchestrated by the Oval Office.

What the GOP cowards do not seem to appreciate is that the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech allows for anyone to protest the government. It does not restrict these town halls just to audiences friendly to the political party in power. “Representing all the people” means precisely what the phrase states explicitly.

Therefore, all the people deserve to have their voices heard.

Especially when it makes the men and women in power squirm.

national news

Trump learned zero from first term

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Strange as it might seem to many readers of this blog, I actually had harbored a hope — faint though it was — that Donald J. Trump had learned something about governance in the four years between this nimrod’s first and second terms as president.

He didn’t learn a thing.

The only evidence to which I can point is the character and the deep flaws of the men and women he has chosen for the Cabinet posts filled by the incoming POTUS.

Trump has been aided immeasurably the cowardice displayed by Republican senators who command a slim majority in the “world’s most distinguished deliberative body.” There’s not a damn thing distinguished about GOP senators rolling over and being steamrolled by the president.

The way the president has handled the firing of key FBI senior officials for merely doing their job is another example of a lesson ignored by Trump.

Why in the world didn’t someone, say, such as Melania Trump, take the nimrod aside and tell him to study just a little bit the fine points of the Constitution? Dude isn’t wired to study anything.

I keep hearing about bettors making wagers on when Elon Musk will bolt from the executive branch under Trump. It cannot possibly be too soon.

We are seeing a virtual re-run of the “chaos presidency” that Jeb Bush predicted we would get in 2016.  This time, the difference is frightening, given that Trump has no one close to him who can tell him the truth … that he is making a shambles out of the government he took an oath to “defend and protect.”

national news

Conservatism turned upside-down

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As I watch Donald Trump and his No. 1 suck-up Elon Musk, I am wondering how it is that the new administration can possibly describe itself as “conservative.”

The budget strategies being developed by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency is slated to increase the national debt by $4 trillion. Yep, that’s “trillion” with a “t.”

DOGE members also are boasting about how they’re acquiring power normally reserved for members of Congress. Roll that around for just a second, ’cause that’s all it’ll take. Conservatives used to rail, rant and rage over consolidation of power. Now? Why, it’s cool, if you buy into the MAGA morons’ world view.

Conservatives formerly fought for the need to reduce the size of the federal government. DOGErs say they intend to reduce government’s size by putting millions of Americans out of work through layoffs, buyouts and firings. They are stretching the rules of legality by firing federal employees for — and this is rich — doing their jobs!

None of this is “conservative government” as I have long understood its meaning and application. It’s the reverse, for criminy sakes!

But … the MAGA goons who govern us now don’t know or care that they are redefining our government structure into something none of us recognizes.

Think of it as the ultimate conflation of ignorance and apathy.