Tag Archives: public service

national news, political news

Yep. the man is unfit

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Dawn  finally is breaking over the pundit class that is covering the third presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Ever since he announced his bid for the presidency the first time in 2015, some of us have been saying that Trump’s zero experience with public service would render him unfit for the presidency. Now, others are seeing the proverbial light.

Consider what the numbskull said about those who receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and how it compares to the Medal of Honor. He put them on an equal footing, suggesting further that the Medal of Freedom is “more important” because Medal of Honor recipients “always are wounded” and some have died to earn the recognition.

What an absolute crock of bull dookie!

The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor; it goes to those who contribute greatly to our cultural life, through athletics, art, music, drama. The Medal of Honor is our nation’s top military honor; it is awarded to those who perform heroically on the battlefield.

Both medals are big deals.

However, for the former POTUS to put down Medal of Honor recipients because they are “wounded or killed” betrays a profound lack of understanding or appreciation of those don the nation’s uniform in service to their country.

It also reveals what I have noted many times on this blog, which is that Trump never has committed a single moment of his existence on this Earth to public service.

I am running out of ways to say this … but this moron is unfit for public office at any level, let alone as commander in chief.

national news

Career pol vs. rank amateur

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am wondering when the term “career politician” became a four-letter word, an epithet that no one wants to have plastered next to their name.

In the context of the 2020 campaign for the U.S. presidency, I am going to say out loud and with crystal clarity that I much prefer a career politician over the rank amateur who are vying for the nation’s highest political office.

Joseph Biden Jr. is the career politician in this race. Donald J. Trump is the other guy. The rank amateur has had nearly four years to fix the things he said that he could repair all by himself. He hasn’t gotten the job done.

Biden’s pledge? He wants to restore our national soul. Beyond that, Biden wants to bring a sense of public service to the apex public service job in America.

Yes, Biden is a career politician. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He served there for 36 years. Then he accepted Barack Obama’s offer to run as vice president in 2008. He served for two times at President Obama’s side.

A career politician doesn’t have to be someone who enriches himself on the public dime. He doesn’t need to lie just because he fears the truth. A career politician can, indeed, be someone who is dedicated to public service.

A career politician quite often is someone who understands the complexities of government … and it is a complex endeavor. Legislating is complicated. It often requires compromise, which results when a career pol gives a little and takes a little here and there. The career politician works with other career politicians who might share different world views, but they all seek a common goal.

I am not a Pollyanna who thinks all career pols are paragons of virtue. I’ve known my share of snakes and skunks in public life. I just don’t happen to believe that Joe Biden falls into that category of career politician.

As for snakes and skunks, well, they exist in the so-called “real world” of business, too. Do you get my drift here?

Donald Trump sold many of us a bill of goods in 2016. He called himself a self-made success story. He is neither self-made nor is he a successful businessman. Sure, he’s rich and he reminds us of that fact regularly. He’s also insecure, which reveals itself by his constant reminders of his gawdy lifestyle.

He doesn’t know how government works. He has no intention of learning how it works. Trump doesn’t care about you or me. Only about himself. Public service is not in his DNA and it was nowhere to be found in his background before he became a politician.

I want my government to work again. I am more than willing to put my government back in the hands of a career politician who knows how to maneuver the levers.

national news, political news

Get elected to Congress, and enrich yourself?

Median income of Americans has fallen since 2003.

How about the incomes of their elected congressional representatives? It’s gone the other direction.

http://members-of-congress.insidegov.com/stories/4235/list-congress-members-getting-richer?utm_medium=social.paid&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=ao.sp.fb.dt.4235&utm_term=insidegov

And to think that some members of Congress want a pay raise, that 174 grand a year isn’t enough, that only “rich people” can serve.

That’s the line being pushed out there by U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., along with other members of the House and Senate who gripe that they’re underpaid.

Check out the link attached to this blog and you might get a different idea of just how “impoverished” some of our elected reps and senators have become — which is to say they aren’t impoverished in the least.

Many of them have seen their portfolios increase while serving on Capitol Hill.

How does this happen? In some instances, senators and House members parlay their public standing into positions on corporate boards. All they do, then, is belong to boards of companies that reap tremendous profits and then distribute some of that wealth among board members.

Hey, it’s great “work” if you can get it.

This is the kind of stuff that makes the plea such as what’s been coming from Alcee Hastings sound ridiculous on its face.

Let’s can the give-us-a-raise talk.