Tag Archives: MAGA

national news

Just who suffers from TDS?

Many of you already are aware that I’ve been accused of “suffering” from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I actually don’t consider it a malady I should shake. I am proud of the variation of the syndrome I lug around in my head and heart.

What I should say right off the top is that my accusers suffer from it, too. Only their syndrome is an affliction that is causing them distress that might be going unrecognized.

A pro-Donald Trump reader of this blog, and I believe I have more of them out there than I probably know about, is as stricken with the ailment as I am. Only he or she will never acknowledge it publicly. Therein might lie a fundamental difference between them and me. I wear my TDS proudly and I call it what it is. They don’t. They hide behind some fiction that life has been better for them and for the country since Donald took office a second time in January 2025.

How in the world can it be that they believe such fecal matter? We’ve gone to war with Iran after Trump said categorically he would never sanction such an activity. The individual has imposed tariffs against the entire planet, driving up the costs of essential goods and services. He said he would end the Russia-Ukraine War on “day one” of his new administration; it rages on.

He continues to lie about the scope of his victory in 2024 over Kamala Harris, calling it a landslide when in reality he just barely squeaked by her.

If you’re going to accept his lies and disregard the fact that he has added trillions of dollars to our national debt, well … I believe you have the Trump Derangement Syndrome you accuse me of having.

Just own it, OK?

national news, political news

Never have seen hatred like this …

My interest in politics and public policy goes back a ways … to, oh, around 1968. I had just graduated high school the previous year and was floundering in college.

Military duty awaited me, along with the Vietnam War that was fueling much of the debate in this country. The war and the debate raged on after I donned the Army uniform in the summer of ’68; in fact, I was inducted on Aug. 21 of that year, which means I will commemorate my induction date in just a few days.

I had a preferred presidential candidate that year. It was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York. He was possibly on track to be nominated that summer as the Democratic candidate for president. Then in June 1968 it ended in a hail of gunfire in the Los Angeles hotel kitchen the night of the California Democratic primary that RFK won.

I went on to serve my country. I returned home in 1970. I got involved in the 1972 presidential election.

Where am I going with this? At no time, not a single time, did I witness the kind of bad blood flow among activists and politicians that we’re witnessing now in the Age of Donald Trump. We are witnessing the tearing apart of one of the essential threads of our political fabric. It’s the fabric that tells us that civility and decorum have their place … even as we debate with every ounce of mental and emotional strength in favor of policies and politicians we admire.

These days we hear about politicians fearing for their lives, that their political foes could react violently. And I won’t be coy about this aspect of the today’s climate: Pols and activists on the right — especially the MAGA right — are the most guilty of fomenting this fear. To be fair, the violence has its roots across the spectrum. I will cite the gruesome murder of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk as a key example of how dangerous this rhetoric has become for everyone in the public eye.

Can we return to the good old days of fierce debate among friends in high places? I damn sure hope so.

national news, political news

Trump earns title of ‘loser’

One of Donald J. Trump’s favorite epithets appears to be “loser,” which he bestows on anyone he deems to be, um, well … not worthy of any description other than that one.

I want to hang the label round the flabby neck of the current POTUS, for he has assumed the title of loser in chief.

He keeps harping on an election he lost to Joe Biden. He has filed 60-some lawsuits and lost every one of them in various courts of law. Trump continues to tease us with the half-baked notion of running for a “fourth term” in the White House. Why four? He won the first race in 2016, claims to have won the second one in 2020, captured the presidency in 2024 and suggests the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t apply to him … so he might run again. The amendment says he’s only able to win twice. He did so. At the end of the current term, he’s out. For keeps. Forever!

He backs candidates who win their Republican primaries. So, he can claim victories there. The test of success has come in general elections when his MAGA morons face real opposition. Then they lose. I am suggesting strongly they’ll keep losing throughout the 2026 midterm election season.

What does make the 47th POTUS? It makes him a loser. Pure and simple.

His legislative agenda — such as it is — is dead. He’s heading for certain impeachment once Democrats reclaim control of the House of Reps. Then it will fall on the Senate to determine if he stays in office. If the GOP keeps control of the Senate, he might hold on until the end of his term. If not, well, then the fun really begins.

The loser in chief’s legacy will be cast in stone.

national news

Trump surrounds himself with dimwits

It is as clear as the length of the day that Donald Trump’s premier broken campaign promise is the one that he pledged to surround himself with only the “best people,” the brightest minds and bona fide experts in every field known to humankind.

It also is clear as the deep blue sky that Trump has delivered us an executive team full of dimwits, nimrods, dipshits and kooks. I won’t name them all, as they likely would take too much time to finish these thoughts.

However, I want to explore briefly why Trump has scraped so low to fill his government executive team. It’s because the boss himself — that would be the POTUS — fits into all the pejorative descriptions I laid out in the previous paragraph. The last thing Donald Trump wants to do is have his team show him up by actually have an understanding of government, the Constitution and the limits the framers placed on the president.

In a strange, perverse sort of way I kind of get it if that is Trump’s desire. He doesn’t want to be shown up by underlings. We saw glimpses of that during his first term. He had a retired Marine Corps general, Jim Mattis, as secretary of defense. Mattis got the boot because he knew better than to just be a yes man to the president. The same can be said of John Kelly, another USMC general who took a spin at White House chief of staff. Mark Esper, another Defense boss, also got the boot in the. rear. I would even count Rex Tillerson, the first secretary of state to serve the Trump team.

The second term administration is filled with lackeys, yes men and women and assorted individuals who have no business serving in the highest levels of government.

We are getting the kind of government we should expect from a POTUS who brings to the highest office in the land zero background in public service.

national news

Trump’s fixation with ‘things’ proves key point

Donald J. Trump’s fixation with adorning the West Wing with gold trimming, his destruction of the East Wing to build a fancy ballroom, his plans to build an Arc de Trump, his decision to plaster his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts proves what many of us have said all along about this fraudulent “champion of the people.”

He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about everyday Americans, nor does he care a one tiny bit about the value of public service.

I used this blog to warn folks about supporting a man who has never spent a waking moment of his adult life thinking about improving the nation. His entire focus, every damn moment, has been aimed at enriching himself. He doesn’t care about the MAGA morons who proclaim his virtue … such as it exists.

He talks about our “great military,” yet he refers to warriors as “suckers” and “losers.” He desecrates the memory of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War hero who was tortured during his years as a prisoner of war.

The physical evidence of Trump’s real passion can be seen all over the nation’s capital. You hear it in his remarks. He cannot stop talking about that damn ballroom and he presumes to believe that Americans are in favor of spending more than $1 billion to build a place for the POTUS to entertain heads of state.

Well … we don’t want to spend more money on a fancy dining hall, Donald.

national news

More of the same trash from Trump

I won’t pattycake this issue with you … but so help me when I heard that Donald Trump had a big announcement to make during his prime-time TV talk I was hoping for something really spectacular.

That would be an announcement that he was quitting the presidency, that he’d had enough of the negativity surrounding him and his administration. Truth be told, I was hoping for a sort of an “LBJ moment,” that might remind us of the time in March 1968 when President Johnson announced on TV that he was suspending the bombing of North Vietnam and then dropped the biggest bombshell of all by declaring he “would not accept” the Democratic nomination “for another term as your president.”

I musta been living in a dream world. I get it. What we got from Trump instead was a warmed-over speech about unconfirmed and unprovable claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. What a crock of sh**!

Trump has no more ideas left in that vacuous, pointed skull of his. He is relying now on the raw emotion of the MAGA morons who have bought into his election theft rubbish.

He said he would release documents that never have been seen. That was his “major announcement.” Big fu***** deal, Donald!

If anyone on Earth is guilty of attempting an election theft, it’s Donald John Trump. And, brother, we had better wake up to the fact that the incumbent president is the thief in chief.

national news

They talk and yell over each other

I am going to express one of the many frustrations that have erupted in this Age of Trump in Washington, D.C.

Have you spent any time watching Cabinet officials testifying before a panel of House members or senators? Until I started a boycott of the national news, I admit to spending time trying to learn something from congressional questioners and officials sitting before them.

The frustration with the hearing process has driven me away.

I am going to blame congressional Democrats along with the Trumpkins they have summoned to testify for the confusion and chaos that too damn often dominates these so-called hearings.

Here’s how it goes. The Donald Trump acolyte takes an oath to tell the truth, sits down and begins fielding questions from members of Congress. The acolyte often seeks to preface his or her answer to an explanation. The Democratic questioner has none of it. The member of Congress interrupts. “I don’t need a filibuster,” the questioner might say. “It’s a simple question, requiring a yes or no answer.”

The bickering often escalates into name-calling. In one exchange, a Republican senator actually challenged a Democratic witness to a fistfight. Man, that was a treat!

But I have to tell you that Democratic congressional questioners seem to enter these hearings with little if any patience with the witnesses they summon for testimony. As for the Trumpkins who get the summons, they ought to refrain from speechmaking and stick solely to answering the questions they get. And if the questioner says up front that the question requires only a yes or no answer, well … they ought to stick to the script.

The frustration cuts to the heart of the value of these hearings. They ought to be of immense value. They instead have become sh**shows … and a monumental waste of time and money.

local news

Good news … and news you need to ponder

I have some good news and some news that we’ll need to consider as it takes shape

First, the good news. Donald Trump’s time as the nation’s leading loudmouth politician is drawing to a close. It’s not just around the corner. Not yet anyway. But each week that passes means it’s getting a bit closer and for that I am extremely grateful we have a U.S. Constitution that won’t buckle under pressure that the dipshit in chief will seek to apply to it.

Now for the questionable news. How is Trump going to react when they count the ballots in November 2028? Especially if the winner happens to be a Democrat? I suppose I could ask the same thing if the winner in two years is a Republican, one who isn’t of the MAGA moron variety, but is more of a principled conservative with actual ideas.

It well might be that the MAGA moron in chief will rant and rail against both major party nominees.

I read something earlier today that Republicans in Congress have endorsed a resolution allowing for Trump to serve a third term. It won’t happen. The 22nd Amendment is clear: Two terms and that’s all someone gets to serve as POTUS.

It’s the process, the inexorable march toward the end that allows me to wake up every morning feeling good about the day that is unfolding before me. Each day closer to the end renders this asshole less relevant.

OK, I’ll have to toss one more uncertainty onto the mix. Trump will be gone no later than Jan. 20, 2029, but that MAGA movement will still be around. Good news once more? Without their leading Main Man, the MAGA morons will be left to fend for themselves. My gut tells me they won’t survive.

media news

Not a normal Sunday for me

On a normal Sunday evening in North Texas, I would be settling down for an hour of news analysis from “60 Minutes,” the heralded CBS News program that until this past week was a staple in my home for as long as I can remember.

No more, man. Not since the MAGA morons who run the network fired “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley for telling the truth about what could be happening in this great country because of the whims and machinations of Donald Trump.

I’m going to have to figure out another way to spend the next hour or so. “60 Minutes” used to educate me on the story behind the story. It offered clear and unambiguous information on why these things mattered to us.

I’ve been treating myself to watching Pelley explain his view of what went down when he got word he was being canned. Trump called Pelley a “stiff” and a “low-IQ journalist” who “doesn’t care for his country.” Pelley told the interviewer he could buy the stiff description or the term Trump used to challenge the journalist’s smarts. He challenged Trump’s view that Pelley doesn’t love his country.

Pelleu said he’s “never worn the uniform, but I’ve been in combat” while covering war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. “I’ve had people shoot at me,” he said, adding that he isn’t aware that Trump could make that assertion for himself.

He said journalists “love their country,” and declared that “democracy cannot exist without journalism.”

I am proud of Scott Pelley and I hope with all I have within me that he stays in the game of reporting our nation’s on-going story.

media news

Trump has ‘murdered’ ’60 Minutes’

At this very moment I am thinking of some of the titans of American broadcast journalism, men and women who sought the truth and told it to us without fear of recrimination.

You know who they are: Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Leslie Stahl, Bob Simon, Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer, Diane Sawyer, Dan Rather and now … Scott Pelley.

They all worked for “60 Minutes,” the premier TV news show that exposed everything — good and bad — about the government for which we pay. Pelley, a West Texas native, recently spoke aloud about the dangers of censorship and government overreach being inflicted by the Donald J. Trump administration, which seeks to control the news that’s being reported.

Pelley has lost his job at “60 Minutes,” along with reporters Cecelia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. This is a dark time for American journalism.

Pelley’s ouster hits me in a vaguely visceral way. I don’t know him, but I am good friends with a fellow West Texan who attended Texas Tech University with Pelley. My friend is now retired from journalism and he has told me a story or two about Pelley’s journey into the spotlight.

The First Amendment is supposed to guarantee a free and unfettered press. Congress “shall make no law” that seeks to control the media, the amendment declares. Trump has engineered the takeover of CBS News by MAGA-friendly execs. They have executed the removal of journalists they deem as threats to the POTUS. We are witnessing a disgraceful flouting of the very rights the First Amendment guarantees to maintin our representative democracy.

I just might join that movement to boycott CBS News.