Tag Archives: GOP

national news, political news

Head-spinning begins

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My 74-year-old noggin is spinning like Linda Blair’s in the “The Exorcist.” At times it feels as if it’s going 360 degrees.

That is what this presidential election season is doing to me.

Republicans are set to nominate an individual they have selected twice already to run for president. He won the first time in one of the most bizarre flukes in American political history, capturing the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by 3 million ballots. He lost the second time fair and square, only to declare the election was rigged and was stolen from him.

Now the GOP is going to nominate him one more time? His platform sounds like the 2020 theme, which is that it is short on ideas for the future and long on made-up grievances.

Except that he has persuaded enough Americans that his dubious gripes are real enough for them to climb aboard his clown car.

Democrats have a successful incumbent running as an underdog, for God’s sake! President Biden’s term so far has produced far more successes than failures, and yet the MAGA minions seek to persuade us that the Joe Biden presidency has been an abject failure.

What the hell … ?

Republicans are hell bent on suppressing voter turnout. Democrats want the turnout to break the records set in 2020. By my own barometer, I long have believed that democracy works best when more — rather than fewer — voters take part.

I won’t even get into the felony trials involving the GOP nominee’s criminal allegations. He is wanting to delay them past the election and then is hoping for all he can to be elected so he can just crumple them up and toss ’em into the crapper.

I do not intend to allow that to happen, if this blog has any pull at all.

First things first, though. I have to get my head to stop spinning.

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How do you measure strangeness?

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I am at a complete loss over this issue … which deals with measuring political strangeness.

The past two election cycles produced campaigns that competed for the title of Weirdest Campaign in Political History. The 2016 campaign resulted in the fluke for the ages when Hillary Clinton lost the Electoral College vote while garnering 3 million more votes than the nimrod who won.

Then came the next four years of chaos and confusion.

The 2020 election resulted in the aforementioned nimrod losing the White House to Joe Biden. Then the Liar in Chief refused to concede the election loss, depriving the president-elect of the “peaceful transition of power” that he deserved.

Those two elections were weird.

Now comes the third in a row. How in the world do we measure its bizarre quotient.

It’ll be the same two men, apparently, competing for the presidency. Joe Biden is the incumbent this time. His opponent will be the moron he defeated four years ago. Polls show the Republican challenger leading, but by the slimmest of margins.

Will these two men debate each other? Hah! I am not going to wait for that to occur. Because they likely won’t. And why is that?

Do you think the challenger wants to answer questions about the upcoming trials that await him? He has been charged with felonious conduct relating to (a) the theft of classified documents, (b) whether he incited the mob assault on the Capitol on 1/6 and (c) whether he interfered with the 2020 election by demanding that Georgia officials “find” enough votes to overturn that state’s 2020 presidential election result.

To be sure, President Biden has some walls to scale if he wants to be re-elected. He has to deal with the immigration crisis; he must find a solution to the war in Gaza; he needs to keep the heat on Russia as it continues its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine. The GOP challenger is making hay on the border crisis … but he has no solutions to offer.

Biden’s State of the Union speech the other evening was a stemwinder. He has set the table nicely for a spirited campaign. However, I hate the notion of this presidential election causing one to nibble on his or her nails.

It should be a cakewalk for the incumbent. The nature of the challenger’s hold on so many MAGA minions, though, lends a quality that, for my money, makes this race the weirdest of them all.

local news, military news, political news

Media falling asleep

A longtime acquaintance of mine takes time every week to review the contents of the Amarillo Globe-News, a once-thriving newspaper in the city my wife and I called home for more than two decades.

It’s now a battered shell of its once-proud self. My friend noted the absence of a major breaking story that should have raised an eyebrow or two in what passes for the newsroom at the AGN.

What was missing: The story this week in so many print and electronic media sites about the demotion of former Rear Admiral and current Congressman Ronny Jackson after the Navy OIG found multiple unacceptable aspects of his service.

Jackson is serving his second term as a Republican congressman from the 13th Congressional District. He moved to the Texas Panhandle to run for the office when Mac Thornberry announced his retirement from Congress.

Dude once served as White House physician for two presidents: Barack Obama and the idiot who succeeded him. The Navy inspector general stripped Jackson of his rear admiral rank, busting him to captain after probing many allegations of serious misconduct.

This is the kind of story that should be splashed all over the front page of the local newspaper … except that the 13th District doesn’t have a local newspaper based in Amarillo. 

Jackson is a disgrace to his office and to the uniform he once wore. He continues to tout himself as a rear admiral on his website. The guy doesn’t even have the decency to tell his constituents the truth about his post-military standing. “As a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service I understand the commitment and sacrifices made by servicemen and servicewomen to serve our country,” the two-term Texas representative writes on his congressional website.

I am left to ask: Does character matter any longer to what passes for a formerly great political party … or to the media outlets that report on the conduct of those in power?

local news, medical news, political news

Jackson demoted … but he’s hiding it

Ronny Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy with the rank of rear admiral.

However, the former sailor who now serves as the 13th Congressional District representative in the Texas Panhandle, no longer has that rank. The Navy demoted him to captain, citing the results of an extensive investigation into “inappropriate conduct” when he wore the Navy uniform.

Here’s the deal, though. Jackson’s website still lists him as a rear admiral. No mention made of his current rank, which is still substantial; it’s just not a “flag officer rank” to which officers aspire.

Jackson, let’s remember, served as presidential physician to Barack Obama and the idiot who succeeded him as POTUS. He once said that the 45th POTUS was healthy enough to live 200 years, or some such nonsense.

The Navy probe into his conduct substantiated allegations of bullying, “fostering a negative work environment,” and using alcohol inappropriately, according to the Washington Post. The demotion was handled quietly two summers ago. The Navy said Jackson’s conduct is “not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022.”

None of these allegations was a secret. Jackson had been reported to have done these things while he was being considered for a Cabinet job in the previous Republican administration; the POTUS wanted him to serve as veterans affairs secretary, but Jackson pulled out after questions arose about whether he was qualified to run such a gigantic federal agency.

He also reportedly dispensed drugs a bit too, shall we say, freely to those who asked for them.

To be clear, I never have been a fan of the ex-White House doc. He moved to Amarillo specifically to win a seat in Congress after long-time GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry decided against seeking another term. Unlike Thornberry, who grew up in Donley County, Jackson never had lived in the CD 13.

And also unlike Thornberry, Jackson has acted like some sort of clown while firing off tweets damn near daily questioning whether President Biden has the snap to serve as commander in chief.

I am one Texan who is embarrassed that this clown represents my many Panhandle friends in the U.S. House.

Now we have this demotion to further stain his already-soiled reputation. Can we finally get some transparency from this guy? He needs to acknowledge his demotion … and stop living the lie.

national news, political news

GOP about to go ’round the bend

What passes for a once-great American political party tonight appears ready to ’round the ol’ bend, from traditional conservatism to something few of us recognize.

A former POTUS who was impeached twice by the U.S. House and now stands indicted in four courts — two state and two federal — of high crimes is likely to win enough delegates to seal his nomination to the presidency in 2024.

God help us all!

I have refused to mention this clown’s name on this blog. My pledge to avoid mentioning it remains strong. I am deeply troubled that the party he claims to represent no longer appears to care about a politician’s character. Indeed, the fellow who’s likely to be nominated in 2024 doesn’t have any character; he lacks morals; he lacks compassion; he lacks grace.

He is unfit for public office.

However, he is poised to claim the nomination of a party he has co-opted and hijacked.

I cannot even fathom what many of the great Republicans of the past would think of what has become of their party.

local news, political news

No one’s business … but my own!

I voted today in Princeton for the candidates of my choice, but I want to share briefly an exchange I had with a campaign worker standing outside the polling station.

She and I are acquainted. This campaign worker is a local politician; no need to tell you the office she occupies.

“Are you a Democrat or a Republican or are you an independent?” she asked. My answer was non-descript. “I have voted in both primaries,” I said. “Oh, I was just wondering,” she said.

Hmm. We exchanged a couple of pleasantries and then I went inside to cast my ballot.

Now, readers of this blog likely can determine which primary I cast that ballot. My campaign-worker friend had no reason to know, or any reason to ask which party to which I belong.

In Texas, we don’t “join” political parties before casting ballots. Ours is an open-primary system. What troubles me is that my acquaintance sought to question me out loud, in public, in front of a polling place. I don’t know how she would have reacted had I declared myself to be of the wrong political party.

Is that a form of electioneering? I kind of think so.

The exchange made me uncomfortable this morning. I don’t believe casting one’s ballot — which we do in private — should be a cause for discomfort.

local news, political news

End of ads looms … hooray!

I can state with a fair amount of confidence that the No. 1 reason I look forward to Primary Election Day 2024 is the cessation of the endless stream of political ads on TV.

Oh, brother. Spare me. Please!

They have been non-stop, repetitive, boring and only semi-truthful as far as I can determine.

The Republican Party primary is getting most of the attention, given the effort put forth by Texas Attorney General  Ken Paxton to defeat state legislators who favored his impeachment this past year.

And the next time I hear the words “true conservative” when describing these GOP candidates, I am likely to, well … aww hell, I don’t know. I might just curse out loud.

Liberals are called conservative and vice versa. This is just on the GOP side. Who do I believe? I don’t know. Nor do I care. That’s ignorance and apathy all rolled up into one Texas voter.

I am casting my ballot tomorrow morning. First thing. Going to the polling place in Princeton, where I am likely to run into a horde of campaign workers standing outside the designated wall of separation from the polling station.

I’ll just breeze on past ’em and cast my ballot.

Then I’ll get to wait for the next go-round in TV ads. For now, I am getting a breather. Not a day — or a moment — too soon.

national news, political news

Pledge? What pledge?

Nikki Haley is now hinting that the “pledge” she made earlier in the Republican Party presidential primary to support the eventual nominee isn’t really, well, worth honoring.

Haley was one of a gaggle of GOP candidates to make the pledge to endorse and presumably campaign for the nominee. Well, the nominee now appears to be the ex-POTUS, the guy who was impeached twice and who is indicted and awaiting trial on four felony allegations.

Not so fast, said the former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador. After all, she didn’t sign a legal document. There’s nothing on paper that binds her to some bogus promise to back the party nominee.

If she chooses to back away from the pledge, well, I cannot really blame her. Not that I care one damn bit whether she keeps the pledge or chooses to back someone else.

The nominee in waiting is damaged goods to be sure. I get that he leads President Biden in most of the public opinion surveys we see. However, as they say, a week is a lifetime in politics.

This is one weird political season for certain. The idea that a once-great political party could nominate a potential convicted felon for the presidency is something I never would have imagined even two decades ago.

I am still going to hold on with both hands as we travel the rest of this electoral journey.

As for Nikki Haley … you do what you must.

national news, political news

Who’s the real RINO?

The adherents of the 45th POTUS have redefined a long-held term: Republican In Name Only.

The only way now to be classified a RINO these days is to disagree with the cult leader’s world view or criticism him for it … such as it is. You agree with the idiot, you’re good. You disagree, you become subject to censure or worse, expulsion from a once-great political party.

Sen. Mitt Romney recently declared that “absolutely not” will he vote for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee this November. He hasn’t said who will get his vote, not that I care. Let’s remember that we cast our votes in secret, so it’s no one’s damn business who votes for whom.

He’s already getting the RINO barbs flung at him by the cult followers. He earned their misplaced scorn by voting to convict their hero in the first impeachment trial held in the Senate.

In reality, though, the real RINO is the cult leader. He ran as a Republican in 2016 because it provided him the easiest path to victory. Dude actually said so!

Does he know about basic Republican doctrine? Does he care to learn about it? Does he give a crap about anything other than fattening his own wallet? No, no and no!

The term RINO these days ought to be seen as a badge of honor by real Republicans who happen to be appalled at their party’s most recent and reportedly future presidential nominee.

If only they could — or would — deny him the power he craves.

national news, political news

Wait for ‘RINO!’ epithet

Mitt Romney, the Republican junior senator from Utah, has made his choice for president clear … which is that he will “absolutely not” vote for the presumptive GOP nominee this year.

Romney famously called the former POTUS a “phony and a fraud” in 2016. Then he became the first senator to vote to convict a president from his own party when the former Liar in Chief stood trial in the first of two impeachments.

Romney says “character counts” for his vote. Thus, he cannot vote for the party’s nominee if it happens to be the idiot who stands ready to accept the Republican nomination.

The fans of the ex-POTUS are going to proclaim Romney to be a Republican In Name Only. Why? Because he isn’t loyal to the moron who once held the presidency.

Hey, Sen. Mitt Romney is much more of a Republican than the guy he opposes.