Tag Archives: POTUS

national news

Fright is setting in

I don’t want to sound alarmist.

However, I am getting filled with astonishing feelings of fright at the prospect of a second presidential term with Donald John Trump sitting in the Oval Office.

I don’t scare easily, so this isn’t some sort of Chicken Little screed. The very notion that Donald Trump could actually win a second term is filling me with dread. It’s the real thing, man. I mean it!

Trump took office without a single moment of public service experience under his belt. His entire adult life was aimed at self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. He took that experience with him into the White House.

The man doesn’t possess an ounce of empathy or compassion. I mean, my goodness, he admits to preferring to trample over people than to hold them up.

Trump’s lack of public service experience has been coupled with his abject ignorance of the government over which he presides. He talks about enacting “bills” all by himself. Remember when he told the Republican convention in Cleveland that “I, alone” can solve the nation’s ills? He cannot. That hasn’t stopped him from continuing to imply such a moronic strategy.

We’re now well into the 2020 presidential campaign. I have not yet heard a single coherent statement that speaks to how he wants to govern during a second term. He continues to spend his entire re-election campaign effort at denigrating his Democratic foe, Joe Biden. Where’s the plan for governing, Donald? It ain’t there.

So are we going to expose ourselves to four more years of the kind of (non)leadership we’ve gotten during the past four years? Are we going to hand this president an invitation to do anything he thinks he can do without recrimination?

My goodness, we cannot allow this guy to send in federal “agents” to put down protests in our cities. We can’t allow him to “dominate the streets” with “heavily armed” troops. We cannot allow this individual to assault his foes using language that to my ears sounds overtly racist.

This clown snookered too many of us in 2016. A lot of us saw this disaster coming the moment he announced his candidacy at Trump Tower. I happen to one of those who now is frightened at the possibility that this guy could fool too many of us once again.

Donald Trump

Those closest to Trump think so little of him?

One of the astonishing takeaways I am gleaning from Mary Trump’s book about Uncle Donald — the current president of the United States — has to do with how those closest to him think of his ability, his credibility, his qualifications.

They think very little of any of it, according to Mary Trump, author of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,”

She recounts, or so I understand, how his sister thought so little of him when he announced his presidential campaign in June 2015 that she thought he was joking. She presumed he was pulling off a publicity stunt to call attention to his “brand.”

Others in his family — sis, a brother and several other nieces and nephews — dismissed his boasting for what it was, empty rhetoric. He wasn’t self-made, as he claimed; he didn’t attend church, yet evangelicals flocked to his side; he is a man of zero principle.

Trump doesn’t apologize for anything. He never admits he is wrong. He tramples over everyone he meets. Trump is callous, callow and without any redeeming personal quality, or so Trump is reporting.

I happen to believe what she has written. What astounds me, though, is how those close to Donald Trump think so much less of him than those who have glommed onto his cult of personality.

Donald Trump

Yes, I believe Mary Trump

I am trying to decide if I want to purchase Mary Trump’s bombshell book about her uncle, the current president of the United States.

She doesn’t need my money to make the fortune she already has earned by early sales of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” I hear she’s sold nearly a million copies of her book.

But there’s another reason why I might not read the book from cover to cover. From what she has said so far in TV interviews, there’s nothing she has revealed about Uncle Donald that I don’t already believe.

I believe he is the “virulent racist” Mary Trump says he is. I believe the assertions she has made about his use of the N-word and the anti-Semitic slurs he has uttered. I also actually believe that young Donald got someone else to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test he needed to enroll at the University of Pennsylvania.

I believe Donald Trump is as vile, venal and vengeful as Mary Trump reportedly portrays.

She won’t change my mind one little bit about this individual.

So, it falls on me to decide whether I want to spend money on a book that likely won’t tell me anything I don’t already believe.

Mary Trump is no interloper. Her father, Donald Trump’s brother, died of alcohol abuse. She has no relationship with Uncle Donald. Still, she is highly educated, earning multiple degrees and carving out a career as a clinical psychologist.

She seems credible to me.

I am left to wonder whether it also will ring true to those who keep giving Uncle Donald a pass on the conduct in which he engaged for his entire adult life.

legal news

SCOTUS justices provide satisfaction

I took more than a little bit of satisfaction from this week’s stunning decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that no president is above the law.

My satisfaction came in the form of two justices’ decision to side with the 7 to 2 majority that declared that Donald Trump cannot invoke presidential immunity no matter what, that a Manhattan, N.Y., prosecutor is entitled to obtain Trump’s financial records in a probe that could result in some serious criminal indictments.

Those two justices happen to Donald Trump’s two nominees to the highest court in America: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Let’s presume Trump’s ignorance of the law and the Constitution for a moment and conclude that the president had hoped Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would stand with him. I mean, Trump does demand loyalty even from members of an independent and co-equal branch of the federal government. The justices didn’t do as Trump no doubt wanted.

This gives me hope on at least one important matter. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh likely will sit in their high offices long after Trump leaves his office. Trump said he wanted to appoint rock-ribbed, true-blue conservatives to the federal judiciary, which is another way of saying he wants judges who will vote in his favor at all costs.

Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh saw the question arising from the Trump finances case differently. They interpreted the law with no regard to how it might affect Trump’s continuing refusal to release his financial records to prosecutors.

I cannot predict whether Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will continue to demonstrate their judicial independence on future cases. The Supreme Court term has ended; justices will return to the bench in October, just ahead of the November presidential election.

I am hoping the election will deliver a new president who then will take over the appointment powers from a president who doesn’t grasp that the concept of an independent judiciary is inscribed in our nation’s governing document.

I am going to hope that the men who ended up on the court because Donald Trump nominated them will continue to exhibit the independence they showed in determining that no one — not even the president of the United States — is immune from criminal prosecution.

national news

Donald ramps up his demagoguery

Let’s call it Demagoguery by The Donald.

It was on full display this weekend as Donald Trump spoke to the nation during two Independence Day events.

He said this, among other things: “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.”

How about that? Makes you proud, right? Well, if it does, then you’re as sick as Donald Trump.

Trump’s full-on, all-out assault on our nation’s culture contains so many red flags, I almost don’t know where to begin.

A “merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes …”

I want to visit with that statement for just a moment.

Defaming “our heroes” is nowhere to be found in this current effort. The “heroes” to whom Trump refers are actually traitors to the nation. These are the individuals who sided with the Confederacy that in 1861 seceded from the Union. Their aim was to overthrow the federal government. They went to war against the United States.

Why? Because they wanted to preserve slavery. They wanted to retain the ability to enslave human beings, to treat them as property.

These individuals might be “heroes” to those who endorsed the treason they committed, but not to the rest of us. They are traitors.

Yet these are the individuals Donald Trump wants to salute. These are the treasonous characters Trump wants to salute.

I am having trouble recalling a time in my life when I’ve heard such blatant, bald-faced demagoguery coming from the president of the United States.

There it is. Laid out there for all to see and hear.

This individual is a disgrace.

national news

Kanye for POTUS?

Kanye West has tossed his hat into the presidential ring.

He wants to run for president in 2020. My first reaction was decidedly mixed, believe it or not.

Initially, my thought was this: What kind of gimmick is this clown pitching to us? A rapper who married into a reality TV family, a guy with nothing whatsoever to offer a nation in turmoil wants to lead the government and become commander in chief of the world’s mightiest military machine? Is he serious? We’ve got some serious issues to resolve, not to mention a serious crisis involving our collective health and, indeed, our lives!

Then it dawned on me: This United States of America had the bad sense to elect Donald John Trump in 2016.

God help us.

Donald Trump

Worst week of hideous saga coming to an end

I believe it’s fair to suggest that Donald John Trump is coming off the worst week of the presidency he inherited.

It has revealed to the world just how low this individual can go to debase the principles he took an oath to protect.

Let’s ponder a few things that occurred.

George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis; the cops who killed him were fired immediately; one of them was charged with murder and manslaughter, while three others have been charged as well. Trump’s response was to lash out at the protesters; to be fair, many “protests” turned to riots … which drew Trump’s public attention. He has been silent on the issue of how African-Americans are mistreated too often by police agencies.

Trump then vowed to unleash “thousands and thousands of heavily armed” active-duty military personnel to “dominate” the streets of American cities. He said he would use the most potent and lethal military machine in world history on American citizens exercising their rights to protest government policy.

He also used cops and some sort of “secret security force” to clear the streets between the White House and an Episcopal church of peaceful protesters. The cops used tear gas on the protesters. Trum then traipsed to the church, carrying a Bible. He stood before the holy place, held up the Bible … for a photo opportunity! Yes, this individual demonstrated for all the world to see how he is able to use a Holy Bible as a political prop.

The blowback from these repeated demonstrations has been scathing condemnation general-grade officers, including a former defense secretary, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former White House chief of staff, the former special operations commander and an assortment of three- and four-star officers, all of whom have served their country with honor and heroism. 

Oh, and thousands more Americans died from COVID-19, the disease Trump dismissed as no worse than the flu.

I have said it many times and I will say it again and again. Donald Trump is morally, temperamentally and psychologically unfit for the office he holds.

I would suggest that we have witnessed the worst possible week of a presidency in mortal peril of disintegration … except that we have many more weeks ahead of us before we can usher this individual out of the Oval Office for the final time.

national news

What kind of lowlife would do this?

1 Comment

I just cannot stop shaking my head in utter disgust.

Donald Trump continues to exhibit the traits of a disgraceful, despicable lowlife capable of defaming the characters of those with whom he has mere political disagreements.

His latest target happens to be an MSNBC talk show host, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress who has since become a Trump critic.

The president of the United States of America has suggested several times openly that Scarborough had a hand in the death of a former congressional aide. Donald Trump has said Scarborough was responsible for the death of Lori Kaye Klausutis. Authorities have debunked anything of the sort.

Trump, though, keeps pitching that scurrilous lie. Not only is he seeking to harm the reputation of Joe Scarborough, Trump is brining untold suffering and pain to Klausutis’ family. Her widower has called on Trump to cease and desist. So has Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who has said “enough already” with the defamatory rhetoric.

When reporters ask Trump about the lie he keeps fomenting, he falls back on that lame “many people have said” defense.

To think, therefore, that this piece of sh** politician managed to get elected to the highest office in the land and that the individual masquerading as our head of state is continuing to conduct himself in such a reprehensible manner … while he should be focused exclusively on putting down a global pandemic that has killed 100,000 Americans.

Lori Kaye’s husband, T.J. Klausutis, has asked Twitter to take Trump’s tweets down. “I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain,” he wrote in a letter to Twitter. To date, the social medium has not done so, but it has put warnings out about the lies that Trump keeps fomenting.

Donald Trump is sickening in the extreme.

State news

Lt. Gov. Patrick ought to eat those idiotic words

This editorial cartoon is one of many that have blasted to smithereens the remarks from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had the boorish bad taste to say that old folks ought to sacrifice themselves to the coronavirus to save the nation’s economy.

He’s taken his share of criticism. I have joined those who suggest that Dan Patrick’s butter has slipped off his noodles. He hasn’t responded to me, nor do I expect this goofball to fire back at little ol’ me.

However, I continued to be appalled that the state’s second-ranking elected official — and arguably Texas’ most powerful politician, as the presiding officer of the Texas Senate — would even think such a thing, let alone say it aloud.

Yet this clown said that elderly folks shouldn’t seek aid if the virus strikes them down. Dan Patrick’s alleged rationale? The economy needs to be Priority No. 1 over the care for aged Americans.

This guy disgusts me at virtually the same level as the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2020/03/not-afraid-to-die-for-the-economy/

I’m even more ashamed of Patrick now than I was when I posted this blog item.

Sickening.

national news

Why the opposition to Donald Trump?

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This might surprise some readers of this blog, but I actually do ponder at times why I oppose Donald John Trump so vehemently, so angrily, with so much hostility.

It’s true. At times my anger toward this individual troubles me. Then I reflect on the danger he presents to the country he was elected to lead. Upon reflection, my anxiety dissipates.

My opposition to Trump is visceral. It is intensely personal.

I’ve never lost a dime investing in anything with this clown’s name on it. So it’s not that. I never have met him or seen him in person, which means he has never insulted me personally. Nix that reason, too.

It’s just that Donald Trump was in our face for many years prior to the moment he decided to become a politician. Most of us knew of The Donald, a flamboyant businessman who boasted of his “self-made” status. To be candid, I believed it, not that it made him any more palatable. It was his personality that grated on me as I watched him from some distance interject himself into the news of the day.

The Central Park Jogger comes to mind. He called for the execution of five young men — all of color — even after they had been cleared of any charges relating to the beating and rape of a woman in New York City.

It was clear to me long ago that Trump had focused like a laser on one goal during his entire professional life: self-enrichment. He was in it for himself. No one else mattered.

So, he brought all of that reputation with him into the political arena. He made that showy entrance in Trump Tower in June 2015, declared his candidacy and immediately impugned immigrants from Mexico.

The rest of this clown’s public posture is well-known. I won’t regurgitate the record here.

It’s just that my gut-wrenching, visceral dislike and distaste for this guy eclipses whatever this individual has to say.

It has little to do with policy. Trump doesn’t believe in anything. He is without principle. He lacks morals. He cannot be trusted at any level. Donald Trump is a pathological liar who lies about big things and small things. It matters not one damn bit to him.

So, my animosity is alive and well. I doubt it will ever subside. Donald Trump has been in front of us for too long. To be candid, he has been in a pain in my backside for far longer than he’s been president of the United States.

One more thing: I oppose this individual out of pure and categorical love for my country. Donald Trump is destroying the exalted office he occupies.

I want him to vanish from the public stage.