Tag Archives: MAGA

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.

national news

The full Donald was on display … waiting to see if appears here

Donald Trump was in full crass/disgraceful/boorish mode while standing among the faithful in Minneapolis, Minn.

He ventured to the Twin Cities ostensibly to target an audience he thinks might help him win re-election in November 2020. He lost Minnesota to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election … but not by very much. Trump believes he can parlay that close finish to victory next time.

How would he accomplish such a feat? One way, I suppose, is for him to go directly after the individual he believes poses the most direct threat to his re-election. That would be former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Trump crassness was on full display, particularly when he said Biden’s only claim to being an effective VP was that he learned how to “kiss (Barack) Obama’s a**.”

Ohhh, the crowd loved it! They screamed, they hollered, they cheered themselves hoarse. The Donald loved the reaction.

I am one who is utterly astounded that the president of the United States would say such a thing about any American citizen, let alone a former vice president of the United States and a man who likely has more friends on the Republican side of the aisle than Donald Trump.

Trump, though, behaves in a boorish fashion that I believe far exceeds the behavior we have ever witnessed in a head of state/commander in chief.

They reported that the arena in Minneapolis was full. I expect the American Airlines Center in Dallas, where Trump will stage another political rally next week, also will be full. I mean, he’s coming straight into the heart of Trump Country — even though Hillary actually collected more votes than Trump in Dallas County.

Still, Dallas is surrounded by Trump-friendly communities and the president will be able to display to a highly receptive audience how low he can go.

I’ll be in the crowd listening to this individual’s idiocy.

My fervent hope — at this moment — is that I don’t puke.

Donald Trump

Dallas MAGA rally looks as though it’ll be a doozy

If Donald Trump’s rally this week in Minnesota offers a preview of what we’ll get next week in Dallas, then we’re in for a doozy of a barnburner at the American Airlines Center.

The president got ’em fired up in the Twin Cities, saying that Joe Biden never was considered a “good senator” and the only reason he earned praise as vice president was because he figured out how to “kiss (President Obama’s) ass.”

Isn’t that swell? Isn’t that the kind of “rhetoric” one would expect to hear from the president of the United States?

No need to answer that. I got it figured out.

I intend to be among the crowd of folks gathered at the AAC next week to hear the president get all hot and bothered over impeachment, the Democrats, the “corrupt fake news” media, Robert Mueller, The Russia Probe, the “worst witch hunt in American history,” all that kind of crap.

The Minnesota rally got a bit of extra push because it was the first Trump re-election event since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry in the House. Oh, my, there has been a boatload of issues pouring forth.

I am anxious to hear how Trump plans to campaign for re-election if he’s impeached by the House, which now appears more likely than ever. I also want — but I do not expect — to hear Trump tout reasons to re-elect him. Instead, I fully expect to hear that his opponents all are corrupt, they’re “losers,” they can’t get over getting beaten in 2016.

I’ll be amongst ’em in Dallas. I’m getting giddy about it. Why is that? The MAGA rally, in the words of Tom Cruise in the film “Top Gun,” is certain to provide a “target-rich environment.”

national news

Can a POTUS defy a congressional subpoena?

I am believing we are about to find out in short order whether Congress has the stones to enforce a subpoena it would issue to the president of the United States.

Donald Trump has ordered a State Department official, Gordon Sondland — the U.S. ambassador to the European Union — to ignore a congressional summons to testify about what he knows regarding the, um, Ukraine Matter. Sondland took part in a conversation with other officials regarding the phone call Trump had with the Ukrainian president, the one that has gotten Trump into so much trouble; it’s the call in which he asked for a political favor in exchange for his releasing money to help the Ukrainians fight Russian-backed rebels with whom they are at war.

There appears to be a subpoena on the horizon, don’t you think?

So, what then? Does Congress issue the subpoena and then let the White House run roughshod over its constitutional authority? Hmm. I doubt it.

We now might have a case of the president piling yet another impeachable offense on those that already are building. You know, something about “no one being ‘above the law.'” If Donald Trump believes he is “above the law,” then it well might fall on the House to throw that count onto an article of impeachment resolution.

It’s getting weird.

national news

Thank you for the concern, but … it’s going to be all right

I have been getting some interesting responses to my announced plans to attend a Donald Trump “MAGA Rally” at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Some of my social media contacts — and a member of my family — have expressed some concern for my safety. They are afraid of the president’s followers, believing that they’re going to sniff me out — as someone who, um, is not a follower — and perhaps rough me up. They’ve been known to do that during campaign rallies, right?

Well, I feel the need to explain my plan while attending this event, which is set for Oct. 17.

I have wanted to see a Donald Trump rally up close ever since he entered political life in June 2015, when he announced his presidential campaign. Trump never brought his campaign to Amarillo, where I lived during his successful campaign for the presidency in 2016; I guess the Texas Panhandle was too much of a sure thing for Trump to “waste” his time and effort.

So, he’s coming to Dallas to have a rally in which he is going to exhort the faithful to help him “Keep America Great.” The Trump campaign, though, is calling it a “MAGA Rally,” which is sort of a takeoff from his 2016 campaign theme.

Hey, I intend to listen quietly while standing on the floor of the AAC. I won’t be cheering, stomping my feet, carrying on. Will that give me away? Will that serve as a clue to the crowd of Trumpsters in the arena that I ain’t one of ’em? 

Beats the devil out of me.

I do know how to behave myself in this context, however. What’s more, I will make sure to exit the building immediately at the first sign of trouble. I want to make that point abundantly clear.

Then I intend to report on all that I see and hear on this blog at the MAGA Rally. I trust you’ll get my drift.

It should be a fun and edifying evening among the Trump faithful.

national news

Awaiting a wonderful experience at MAGA Rally

I intend fully to enjoy myself in a few days when I venture into Dallas to attend a Donald John Trump “MAGA Rally” at the American Airlines Center.

No, I won’t cheer the con man’s lies at the Oct. 17 rally. I won’t slap others on the back for being so devoted to this pathological liar. I won’t join in any idiotic chants to lock anyone up; indeed, the only person who needs to be locked up appears to be the president of the United States … but I digress.

My good time will center on enjoying what I believe is a unique political experience.

I intend to pass out business cards as I talk to folks at the rally. I want to ask them why they (a) support the president and (b) dismiss the concerns of much of the nation that he has compromised our nation’s security in exchange for his own political future.

The answers should be, um, edifying in the extreme.

I want to report them to you on this blog. I also intend to offer my own views on what I see, hear and sense inside the building.

I’ve attended concerts at the American Airlines Center. I know roughly how many people it seats. I will be casting my gaze about the place to look for empty seats. I also want to report the size of the crowd that gathers to hear the president’s assorted rants. I keep hearing about how Trump inflates these crowd sizes. I intend to see for myself who takes time to attend this event.

Look, I am a partisan. I admit it freely and without reservation. I won’t vote for Trump’s re-election when — or if — the chance presents itself in November 2020. I still believe Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been a superior president in any way you can imagine.

However, I am not an idiot. I know how to behave myself at these events. I had the honor of reporting and commenting on two Republican Party presidential nominating conventions: in 1988 in New Orleans and 1992 in Houston. I thought the copy I filed while working for the Beaumont Enterprise was reasoned, rational and coherent.

I attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., but that was as a civilian. I had obtained media credentials to cover it for the Amarillo Globe-News; however, I got reorganized out of my job there, turning me into a non-journalist the moment I resigned my post as editorial page editor. My wife and I went to Charlotte anyway and I attended the DNC as a spectator and someone who supported the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket.

So … a new opportunity and challenge awaits. Donald Trump no doubt will be, oh, shall we say, entertaining. I might laugh a time or two at the president. However, I will be laughing at him, not with him.

national news

Nadler: POTUS ‘ought to be impeached,’ but first …

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has declared his belief that Donald Trump “ought to be impeached.”

I happen to agree with him — to a point.

Nadler believes the president has committed impeachable offenses. So do I. He seems to think the House of Representatives has the votes to impeach the president. As do I.

But … there’s this matter about whether the public is fully on board. Nadler is hedging enough to forestall any rush to impeach the president. I am not sure the public is sufficiently behind an impeachment effort to make it stick, or to persuade enough U.S. senators to convict Trump and toss him out of office after a trial for the charges the House would bring against him.

The conviction bar is far higher than the impeachment bar. The House — with its 235-200 Democratic cushion — needs a simple majority to lodge a formal complaint against the president. The Senate requires two-thirds of its members to convict Trump; Republicans control 53 seats. I do not believe there are enough GOP senators who have the courage to convict to boot the carnival barker out of the office to which he was elected.

There is Chairman Nadler’s conundrum.

The Judiciary Committee has effectively launched impeachment proceedings against Trump. Will it produce enough actual, concrete, tangible evidence that Trump has committed a “high crime and misdemeanor” to warrant impeachment?

Sure, but the process has to play out. It’s a political event, to be sure. Some Democrats keep talking about doing their “constitutional duty.” Fine, but to what end?

If the goal of impeachment is to persuade enough Americans and their elected representatives in the House and Senate to kick Trump out of office, then I believe the pro-impeachment brigade has more miles to march.

national news

Trump cannot be believed about anything!

1 Comment

This likely goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway.

Donald Trump is so manifestly untrustworthy that I no longer can believe a single word that flies out of his mouth.

Every declaration this man has made since becoming a politician in June 2015 has been fraught with falsehood. I don’t know why or how it is that it took me so long to make my own non-belief declaration about the president of the United States.

I guess I’m just a bit slow on the uptake.

I’ve been saying since the moment he rode down that Trump Tower escalator to declare his presidential candidacy that Trump is unfit for the office. I based my belief in his  unfitness on a number of issues relating to his personal history, his lack of understanding of government, his behavior.

I didn’t factor in his obsession with lying.

Everything he says needs to be fact-checked. All of Trump’s proclamations need to be run through screeners. Not a single statement that comes from the POTUS can be believed.

Nothing! Zero. It’s all phony. It’s all, shall we say, “fake news.”

Here’s the rich part: The president continues to blast the media for reporting “fake news.” Do the media get everything right every single time? No. Of course not. However, the media do manage to retract stories, offer clarifications, or corrections, or make expressions of “regret” for misreporting events and statements that public figures make.

Trump, though, cannot own any single falsehood. He cannot acknowledge his lying. He must make matters worse by lying about his lies.

I am done believing a single thing Donald Trump says.

national news

Trump’s lying might be overtaking him … finally!

Donald Trump’s lying is boundless, endless, bottomless.

He lies about big things. Little things. Important things. Trivial things.

The president recently said that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian. The weather forecasters said, um, no … it wasn’t. Did the president own a mistake, a misstatement, a slight bit of confusion? No. He made it worse.

He produced a map with a Sharpie line drawn beyond the official boundaries showing the impact that Dorian would have on the southeastern United States. Who put the line there? Who thought to include Alabama in Dorian’s path? Was it, oh, Donald Trump?

He then blathered on about early “models” showed Alabama in line to be clobbered by Dorian. No. It wasn’t. It never was part of the impact zone.

So this brings me to a critical point. Why does the president continue to lie even when a simple mea culpa would clear him even with his most ardent critics?

There is a growing line of thought that the president’s “pathology” forces him to lie. He is pathologically incapable of telling the truth. He cannot speak with any semblance of honesty on any topic at any time.

He has lied about how he made his zillions. He lies about what he witnesses at the time of national crisis. He has lied about attending funerals of “friends” who died on 9/11. Has lied about his father’s place of birth.

On and on it goes.

He lies about every single issue one can imagine.

The Alabama lie is just the latest. It also just might start to reveal even to his most ardent supporters that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth about anything at all.

That prompts another question: How do these Trump fanatics justify their continuing to stand by this pathological liar?

Donald Trump, national news

Wanting a president who’s better than this

I consider myself a fairly liberated male.

However, I do have some old-fashioned notions about how the world ought to work. Such what we should expect from our government leaders.

Take the president of the United States … for example.

I want my president to be better than the rest of us. I want that person to lead by example. I want the president to set the example for the country — as well as the rest of the world — to follow.

Does the current POTUS, Donald Trump, fit that description? Is he your kind of president? He damn sure isn’t my kind of individual I want leading my country.

I love the United States of America as passionately as anyone. I will take a back seat to no one when it comes to honoring our flag and what it symbolizes. I like the pageantry of patriotic events. I have been known to choke up over patriotic music. I honor our military men and women; I thank the older veterans for their service.

Accordingly, I want the president to symbolize all that is good about my country. Donald Trump does not come close to filling that bill. He dishonors the country, the office he occupies, the government he heads. He does not represent the best of the great nation he was elected to lead.

He embodies some sorry traits that have carried over from his time as a real estate mogul/reality TV celebrity/beauty pageant owner-operator.

I came into this world in 1949. Harry Truman was president at the time. He was a plainspoken man of the Midwest who inherited the presidency upon the death of the great Franklin D. Roosevelt. Truman rose to greatness himself with his decision to end World War II quickly by dropping those two horrible weapons on Japan in August 1945. He won election to the office despite heavy odds that he would lose the 1948 election.

Every president since Truman — Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama — all sought to put the country above their own aggrandizement.

I surely didn’t vote for all those men, but I honor their service to this day, recalling their commitment to the public; yes, some of these men had political fatal flaws, but they knew how to behave like our head of state, our commander in chief.

Not the individual who’s in office now.

I want a president who embodies the best of our nation. I do not want someone who keeps reminding me of his crassness and coarseness.

It’s an old-fashioned view of the president and the presidency. I’m fine with it.