Tag Archives: POTUS

Ex-POTUSes united in opposition to current guy

We have four living former presidents of the United States, three Democrats and one Republican.

The Democrats all have spoken out loudly and clearly against the policies pitched by the incumbent, a Republican. The current GOP former president hasn’t spoken lately, but we all know that he cannot stomach Donald Trump.

Why is this important? It means that the ex-presidents are forgoing the custom of not speaking ill of their successor. They usually pretend to stand united behind the incumbent. The gloves are off. Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden all have spoken of the destruction that Trump has brought to the economy, to our international alliances and to our national security. President Bush has made his feelings known over the years about Trump, particularly as Trump has criticized the “Thousand Points of Light” program pitched by Bush the Elder.

The former presidents, in my view, are on the right side of history, which I believe is going to provide ample evidence that Trump will stand at the end of his term as arguably the most unfit, unqualified, ill-equipped man ever to take the presidential oath of office.

The former presidents club is among the most exclusive such collections in the world. No one knows the struggles that presidents endure better than the men who have endured them.

They also know a buffoon when they see one. Trump’s buffoonery is in a class by itself.

Trump rewrites the rules

Try to imagine if you dare any president prior to Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene in 2016 saying the things that often fly out of this guy’s mouth.

Take your pick of any of ’em. Republican or Democrat. It makes no never mind. Think of what the reaction would be if any president said out loud that he might seek a third term in office. Think of the insults any of them could level at former national security advisers or chairmen of the Joint Chiefs. Think of the kind of epithets they might hurl at fellow politicians. Think, too, of seeking to eliminate news organizations simply because they provide commentary you deem critical.

They would be impeached by the House of Representatives. There’s a decent chance they could be convicted of a high crime and drummed out of office.

Not now, man! No way. The current POTUS has rewritten the rules of conduct, of decorum, of behavior.

It’s now OK to talk like a junior high schooler, to speak of others in the most unkind language imaginable. It’s all right to lie openly.

It’s OK if you’re Donald John Trump!

Dude gets away with it … because he instills fear in those who might be inclined to speak out.

President George H.W. Bush once promised to turn the nation toward a “kinder, gentler” political climate. Donald Trump has torn that playbook into shreds, leading us to an environment full of insult and invective.

I prefer the G.H.W. Bush version of politics.

SCOTUS chief pushes back … a bit

Media reports saiy that U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back on Donald Trump’s call to impeach federal judges who rule against him.

I consider the chief’s response to be a tepid rejoinder. Then again, the chief justice of the nation’s highest court need not scream and bellow in a manner resembling what Trump demonstrates.

Roberts said that impeaching a judge is an “inappropriate” form of protesting a court ruling. He said the appeals process has worked for two centuries and that should be the way to respond to a ruling one dislikes.

Fine. I get the message. I fear it will be lost on the Maniac in Chief.

What fascinates me, though, as I watch Trump bloviate about all the revenge he intends to seek is that the courts do remain reasonably solid in the checks and balances realm of our federal government. Trump’s moronic staffers suggest that certain judges lack jurisdictiion or standing to rule as they do.

That’s pure crap. The only body that makes that call is the nine-member Supreme Court, whose chief has laid out what the Constitution allows.

Judicial impeachment is off the table!

How did it get to this?

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.

A loathsome POTUS pretender

I want to share this critique of Donald Trump by a commentator who, in my view, sums up perfectly why he is the most loathsome individual ever handed the title of president of the United States.

Take it away, Charles Pierce.

“In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, “And we shall overcome.” I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on Sept. 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C.
“These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
“And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
“The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
“Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don’t have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.”

Jimmy Carter: great American

A truly great man has departed this Earth, which is a better place today because this man chose to serve the world from an office in Washington, D.C.

President Jimmy Carter died today at age 100. We’re going to hear a lot in the next few days and weeks about his being the “greatest former president in U.S. history.” He was all of that, but I am not going to use that as a measuring stick to denigrate the four years this man served in the crucible of power as president.

Jimmy Carter did not preside over a failed presidency. There. I have gotten that out of the way. This good man, who came out of virtual nowhere to win the office in 1976, embarked on a series of initiatives that changed the world forever.

  • President Carter negotiated the handing over of the Panama Canal to Panama, which had sought control of the key passage. It was a difficult and complicated negotiation, fraught with controversy at the time. Ultimately, though, it has proved to be the wise decision.
  • The 39th president initiated diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China. It meant severing our relations with Taiwan, but it was in keeping with this country’s “one-China” policy. Certainly, our relationship with China has had its ups and downs. However, it was the right call.
  • President Carter helped negotiate a lasting peace treaty between two sworn enemies, Israel and Egypt. He brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David where they hammered out an ironclad peace agreement that stands to this very moment. Please note that Egypt has been silent since Israel went to war against Hamas after the terrorists’ rocket attack against Israel.

Yes, there were some serious setbacks that plagued the Carter presidency, chief among them being the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis. I want to call attention to this fact: Jimmy Carter negotiated for the hostages’ release until the very day Ronald Reagan took office in Washington in January 1981.

Rampant inflation inflicted deep wounds on Carter’s term. Reagan promised a brighter future. Voters elected him in a 1980 landslide.

Carter’s post-presidency saw him earn a Nobel Peace Prize for his work promoting human rights and free elections. He built houses for the poor. He established the Carter Center in Atlanta and used it as a platform to promote his ideals of justice for all.

Carter was a deeply devoted Christian who didn’t use his faith as a prop. He believed in Jesus’s teachings and lived in full devotion to what Jesus taught his believers.

President Jimmy Carter’s legacy is firm. May this good man rest in the eternal peace he has earned.

POTUSes don’t ‘own’ these offices

I have heard enough of media commentators adding possessive adjectives to public offices … and so I want to vent briefly.

Repeatedly I hear news talking heads say things like “Donald Trump’s attorney general,” or “Joe Biden’s vice president,” or “Barack Obama’s secretary of state.”

Let me declare in the loudest voice I can muster: Presidents do not “own” these individuals or the public offices they occupy. We do. You and I. We pay for them with our tax money. We, I submit, are the bosses.

To be sure, this isn’t a major policy gripe. It’s all about style. I am willing to take swipes at presidents of both parties for committing what I believe is an overreach.

President Obama had an annoying habit of referring to “my Cabinet,” or “my national security team.” He seemed to take undue possession of the office he inherited on a temporary basis … although I do acknowledge he said he knew he was there just for a brief period.

The most egregious offender of this style lapse? As my Mom would say: I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Donald J. Trump!

During his first tour in the White House, Trump would refer routinely to “my generals” when talking about military matters. He also routinely smothers Cabinet officials — all approved by U.S. senators — in the personal possessive adjectives I find so objectionable.

What do I wish presidents would say? I prefer the plural possessive description, you know … “our administration,” or “our Joint Chiefs of Staff.” We’re on the same team, at least that’s how the nation’s founders designed it.

Biden shows his class

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a much better man than I am … and he’s a damn sight better man than the nimrod who will succeed him as president of the United States at noon on Jan. 20.

I was frankly moved by the demonstration of class and grace that Biden showed toward Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office the other day when the two men met to discuss policy matters and the transition of power from one administration to the next one.

This was the sort of photo op media event that Trump denied Biden four years ago after Biden defeated Trump’s bid for re-election to the presidency. Accordingly, after what Trump did on Jan. 6 and after all the phony claims of being robbed of victory by unproven voter fraud, I would have expected Biden to say something crass to his successor. He didn’t go there … to his enormous credit!

I am going to say something nice about Trump, too. He accepted Biden’s hand and said that “politics is tough” and “not always nice,” and added that he looked forward to a smooth transition of power. As with almost everything that Trump declares out loud, it good to question his sincerity. I won’t do so — just yet!

Biden’s reverence for the institution of the presidency steered him toward the show of grace and dignity. To be honest I do not know what guided Trump’s demonstration in response to the president.

I want the new president to turn the page and act like a man who reveres the office he will inherit. Wanting it and expecting it, however, remain distant possibilities.

Still can’t respect the man

Allow me this simple declaration, which is that despite my being faithful to declining to refer to Donald Trump directly as president of the United States … I am going to keep pledge intact for the man’s second term as POTUS.

Why? Because even though I revere the office, I despise the man who is about to inherit it. Therefore, Trump has earned the right — in my mind — to have the word “President” published in this blog directly in front of his name.

My former media colleagues have bent over in every direction to ensure they refer to him as President-elect. Hell, I can’t even do that!

I accept his election. He won it fairly and squarely. I salute his campaign staff’s acumen in ensuring he visited all the right “battleground states” at the right time. His strategy paid off as he was able to win every one of them.

But damn! Dude conducted himself in the most disgusting manner imaginable down the stretch, with the worst demonstration of callousness occurring in the final week when he handled a microphone the way someone handles a male sex organ. Good grief! Remember, too, that did that in front of children who were scattered about in the rally crowd.

So … this man is elected president. He’s got four more years in the Oval Office. The Constitution forbids him from seeking office again.

I am going to commence holding my breath at noon on Jan. 20.

But I damn sure won’t be silent.

Trump countdown is on

Some of us out here have commenced the countdown clock to determine when Donald J. Trump is going to commit a profoundly foolish, stupid and potentially illegal act when he assumes the presidency on Jan. 20.

I am not making any bets. I don’t know when it will occur. I do have some notions, though, about what Trump might seek to do when he takes his hand off the holy book on inauguration day.

He could:

  • Pardon the traitors who were jailed for their attack on the government on Jan. 6, 2021.
  • Issue an executive order establishing a sky-high tariff on imported goods, which could trigger an inflation rate we haven’t seen in many decades.
  • Call Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and promise to end any support for Ukraine, which would clear the deck for Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
  • Issue another executive order calling for the mass deportation of 11 million U.S. residents who are here illegally.
  • Call flag officers back to active duty and then order them court-martialed for comments they made about Trump being a fascist. I am researching that idiotic notion to see if it’s legal. I’ll get back to you on that one.

Will he do any of them? Beats the daylights out of me. I’m just speculating, because that’s all I can do sitting here at some distance.

None of this, of course, includes any of the idiotic pronouncements he could make. I am wondering what could be the memorable from his second inaugural speech. The first one gave us “the American carnage ends” immediately. It didn’t.

The second Trump term well could be as chaotic as the first one.

Let’s all hold on with both hands.