Tag Archives: GOP

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.

State news

Ex-governors relegated to obscurity

Texans elected two men to be their governor and they served, in retrospect, with considerable presence and gravitas.

George W. Bush and Rick Perry served back to back in the early 2000s. Bush got elected president in 2000 as Texas governor, then resigned to enter the White House. Perry, the lieutenant governor, succeeded Bush and served longer than any man in state history.

Let me be clear about one thing. I didn’t vote for either man. Looking back, though, I find them both to be men of considerable stature. What earned them this belated praise from little ol’ me? They both are right on immigration. They both have argued for reforming the nation’s immigration system. They have favored treating foreign-born Texas residents who entered the country as children as Texans. Perry and Bush both argued to allow those residents to enter Texas public universities as in-state students, thus, reducing their costs.

Both men espoused views on immigration that reflected their experiences governing a big, important border state. Perry ran for president in 2016 and was pilloried by the MAGA morons for actually speaking out in favor of the DACA program: Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals. This is an executive order from President Obama that granted amnesty from deportation for those who came here as children of undocumented immigrants, were raised in the United States and became de facto Americans who got educated, landed good jobs and paid taxes.

Perry did become energy secretary in Trump’s first go-round in the White House … and has said or done virtually nothing of significance ever since!

No one should doubt these men’s Republican credentials. Now, they’re considered RINOs — Republicans in name only — for reasons that baffle me.

education news

Vouchers coming: get ready

Oh, how I wish Texas Republican legislators can do what they did a legislative session ago and kill a plan to gut the state’s public education system in favor of sending tax money to pay for private education.

It doesn’nt appear it will happen. During the 2023 Legislature, rural Texas lawmakers, including some in North Texas, railed against the idea of siphoning off public money to pay for private school vouchers. They said public schools are the heartbeat of their communities and they should be strengthened with more funding, not have it taken away.

The Texas House managed to kill the legislation. To their credit, the GOP legisltive caucus stood firm against Gov. Greg Abbot’s effort to gut the public education system.

I am a big believer in public education. I agree it’s damaged, but depriving it of valuable resources that can be spent to improve it is not the way to go.

I just wish the rural Texas GOP lawmakers can make the case once more that the state must not do irreperable damage to communities that rely on public education to hold cities and towns togeteher.

national news

We are the ‘United States of America’ … yes?

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While listening to congressional Republicans preen and prance over the conditions they demand for disaster aid to California fire victims, I am reminded of a speech delivered in 2004 by a young upstart politician from Illinois.

State Sen. Barack Obama delivered the Democratic Party convention keynote speech in Boston. He told conventioneers that this nation doesn’t comprise “red states or blue states,” but said “we are the United States of America.”

So it should always be, particularly when Americans are in dire peril recovering from disasters such as those wildfires that have ravaged southern California. Recall, too, that when hurricanes destroyed much of North and South Carolina, and Florida — all regions that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 — Democratic President Joe Biden didn’t hesitate in sending disaster aid to those states.

Such magnanimity isn’t on display these days as Republicans led by Donald Trump attach conditions to disaster aid aimed at helping Californians who live in a state that voted heavily for Biden in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Is this a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats seemingly put partisanship aside when the call goes out for aid to all Americans regardless of whom they support at the ballot box. Republicans, though, seemingly make up conditions for aid to deliver to those Americans who vote the other way at election time.

Barack Obama had it right in 2004. We’re supposed to all live within the United States of America.

national news

Cast of clowns nearly finished

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It looks as though Donald J. Trump’s cast of clowns and kooks assembled for the executive branch of the federal government is about complete.

All that’s left, apparently, is for the FBI director-designate, Kash Patel, to squeak through his committee hearing and then he’ll be confirmed likely by a party-line vote in the Senate.

Oh … my. Spare me the anguish.

Trump has picked an array of goofballs, kooks, outright numbskulls to lead agencies that are supposed to carry out the bidding of Congress.

Except that Congress has been compromised beyond immediate repair by the gutless wonders who comprise the Republican majority in both legislative chambers. I keep waiting for someone, anyone, among the GOP majority to stand up to Trump, to tell him the unvarnished truth … which is that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing!

He imposes tariffs on major international trading partners, then backs off. He issues orders to furloughs to tens of thousands of federal employees, then backs off of that order, too. He fires inspectors general and orders probes into anyone who worked on the probe into the Jan. 6 insurrection that he incited.

The confirmation hearings related to Patel, DNI-designate Tulsi Gabbard, health secretary RFK Jr. were too painful to watch.

Courage is MIA in the Senate and in the House. The slim majorities in both chambers just cannot summon a modicum of courage to stand up to Trump, to tell him the truth. Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that speaking truth to Trump is the only way to prevent him (hopefully) from bullying you.

The cast of clowns with whom he has surrounded himself is now set to take over the executive branch … more or less. Trump still has his unelected sidekick, Elon Musk, issuing directives about how the government should spend our money.

Good ever-lovin’ grief, man.

national news

Cowards’ caucus remains silent

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The Republican Party caucus of congressional cowards continues to advance unqualified, unfit and undeserving nominees to the Cabinet headed by Donald J. Trump.

The party-line votes for the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Pete Hegseth suggest that these individuals aren’t likely to enjoy any sort of support from Democrats. But, by cracky, their Republican support among senators unswayed by the serious questions into their qualifications will be enough, more than likely, to lead them across the finish line.

Gabbard and Kennedy have just been approved by their respective nominating committees. Defense Secretary Hegseth was approved as well and, in fact, has taken office and has been dealing — rather smartly, I suggest — with the crash in D.C. of the Army helicopter and the American Airlines commercial jet.

Trump continues to hand power to an unelected zillionaire who continues to make command decisions on matters over which he has zero authority. What are Republicans doing to protect their constitutional authority?

This all pains me to ask: What the hell is happening to this government we all say we cherish, honor and vow to protect?

Trump is nominating certifiable wack jobs to key executive posts and is getting away with it because the Republican majority that controls both houses of Congress won’t stand up to him. Some of them tease with tough questions, only to vote to confirm the likes of Gabbard to be the next Director of National Intelligence and Kennedy to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

Next up is likely to be the worst of them all, FBI Director-designate Kash Patel, the moron who once declared his intention to shutter the FBI building and turn it into a museum of the deep state.

I am left to lament the absence of the governing majority that could stop this march toward madness. They are cowering in the corners of Congress while Donald Trump and his unelected sidekick, Elon Musk, run roughshod over the rule of law.

national news

When will GOP awaken to travesty?

A good friend and I frequently engage in political discussions that usually do not engender a lot of dispute … given that we’re cut from the same partisan cloth.

She does pose a question I want to repeat here: When will the Republican Party’s elected officials realize and say so out loud the travesty they are supporting in the White House?

She’s an avid anti-Donald Trumper. So am I. I cannot answer her question. I do not know what it will take for the GOP to realize (a) that Trump is not an invincible collossus, (b) that he is just as fallible as the rest of us and (c) that their show of courage very well could play well among the millions of “silent majority” American out here.

Trump’s remarks in t he wake of the air crash that killed 67 people this week in Washington, D.C., were just the latest outrageous insult that Trump threw into the political blender. He followed that up with his declaration of war against the FBI by firing all the field agents in charge. Then came Trump’s nominee for FBI director, his pick for director of national intelligence and his health and human services secretary nominee flip-flopping all over earlier remarks they had made about the damage they sought to do to the “status quo.”

Trump is surrounding himself in the executive branch of government with people who are profoundly unqualified for the jobs they hold. Then again, they mirror the lack of qualifications by their benefactor for the job to which he has been elected twice.

My friend informed today she has written GOP U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas a letter informing him of her intention to oppose every Republican candidate who continues to back Trump’s hostile takeover of the federal government. Cornyn, a former Bexar County trial judge, is one of the targets of her rage.

Her hope rests in a belief that Cornyn’s legal background might imbue him with the knowledge that facts matter. Americans have witnessed with their own eyes an insurrection against the government, the purging of the FBI, the appointment of certifiable numbskulls to the highest levels of government.

What do all these things have in common?

Donald John Trump!