Tag Archives: Ronald Reagan

business news, economic news, local news

What happened to the budget deficit?

I want to discuss briefly on this blog an issue that once stood as the hallmark of conservative Republicans’ policy, but which has been buried under an enormous mountain of rhetoric … and money.

Republicans used to proclaim themselves to be “deficit hawks,” meaning that they detested the idea of spending more money than the Treasury had in hand for the government to operate. I’m sitting in my North Texas home at this moment thinking of the 1980 presidential campaign between President Carter and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Carter was saddled with a $43 billion shortfall in the budget, giving Reagan, the GOP nominee for president, ample ammunition to use against the incumbent.

That issue, along with the Iranian hostage crisis, paved the way for Reagan to score a massive landslide victory over Carter.

The $43 billion figure today seems quaint. Why? Because the deficit being run up by the current GOP POTUS tops — oh, hell, I don’t know — something in excess of $2 trillion. And that number is growing because of demands by the Pentagon to add another $1.5 trillion to fight a war with Iran that Trump says we’ve already won!

What the f***?

This quote has been ignored in recent years, but Trump once described himself during his run for office as “king of debt.” Well, His Majesty the Debt King has demonstrated that he doesn’t give a damn about predictions from earlier Republicans about what these deficits — and the spiraling national debt — will do to our nation’s long economic future. They said during the Obama years in the White House that the debt will destroy our economy.

The GOP thought today? BFD, man.

Therefore that makes Donald Trump the RINO in chief. He’s no real Republican … but just talks a good and fraudulent game.

local news, media news, military news

Recalling quick trip through history

I have spent a good chunk of today recalling the tremendous, emotion-packed weekend I just spent touring the nation’s capital with friends … and acquaintances who have become my friends.

I took part in an Honor Flight to D.C. to receive a pat on my back for the service I delivered to my country as a snot-nosed teenager, who ended up serving the Army in Da Nang, South Vietnam. Words are inadequate to describe the feelings that overwhelmed me at times during our quick-as-hell visit to Washington.

There were 45 Honor Flight participants on this trip. Many of them served in ‘Nam; others served nearby in places like Thailand and the Philippines. Others still didn’t serve in a war zone, but they too were eligible to take part in an Honor Flight. They came and received the love that Honor Flight organizers give everyone who dons a uniform and choose to serve.

Three events caused me to show my sappy side. The first was the Love Field Fire Department firing water hoses into the air in an arch to celebrate our flight as it departed the airport in Dallas; the fire department salute came after being applauded by onlookers as we entered the ticket area to prepare for boarding. We received countless expressions of thanks from those who clapped at us we walked through the airport. We each had “guardians,” volunteers who served as our helpers. If we needed wheelchair aid, someone to carry gifts, or just be there to serve as our companions, the guardians were there. My guy was a former Air Force airman who lives in Tyler. He’s now a dear friend.

No. 2 occurred on our arrival at Reagan National Airport in D.C. Staffers and onlookers began applauding us as we deplaned. So help me, I thought of The Gipper — and wondered if he would have been there to applaud us as well.

We scurried from memorial to memorial the first day. It was a busy time, but we got through it. Our hotel accommodations were first class.

The next day was much like the first day. Breakfast was served. We chatted with each other, had plenty of laughs over our remembrances.

Then we departed for Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Our return from BWI was set and we took off for Love Field, where event No. 3 awaited me.

We landed and were instructed to let the non-Honor Flight passengers depart first. We did. Then we exited the aircraft. I had told the jetliner captain to “have a good flight” when we boarded and thanked when we got by saying, “Good job, Skipper. The flight was great.”

While waiting at the gate we were instructed — again! — to stay put until we got the signal to head for the front door.

We got the “high sign” and headed out of the airport … where we were greeted by a huge throng of folks, chanting to the sound of a Scottish bagpipe band playing that Scottish anthem you always hear at these events.

They were cheering, clapping, thanking us for our service. My family was there. My sons, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter were there to tell me of their love for me and thanked all of us for serving our nation.

It was an unbelievable experience that I will take with me to the moment my time is up.

I am thrilled to have taken part in this wonderful moment.

economic news, national news

Shut up, Donald, about that bribe

Donald Trump’s offer of a $5,000 “dividend” to every living U.S. citizen he would pay if the midterm election turns out the way he wants it is nothing more than a bribe … so that’s what I will call it from this moment forward.

Accordingly, I just wish Donald would cease offering the bribe by yammering through his overfed pie hole.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the bribe requires a congressional vote to become legal. It won’t ever get that far.

A bribe is what we all know it to be. It is a payment to someone who does someone else a favor. Trump’s poll numbers are taking faster than an ocean liner that hits an iceberg. Donald knows it, even if he doesn’t acknowledge it. The bribe is meant to give those who reside in MAGA Land a glimmer of hope that Donald can actually deliver the goods. He cannot.

There once was a day when real Republican conservatives railed at the thought of a budget deficit. Remember when Ronald Reagan chided President Carter during the 1980 presidential campaign for running the government on a deficit that totaled $43 billion? It scored enough political points to carry him to a landslide victory. Trump’s deficits have been running consistently in the trillions of dollars. Sending bribe money out to every American is going to blow an even bigger hole in the deficit and add another $1.4 trillion to the national debt.

Donald Trump is a feckless fool for even suggesting such a thing. He ought to shut his trap.

And concentrate on ending that idiotic war in Iran.

media news, national news

AI scares the bejeebers out of me

For as long as artificial intelligence has been on the worldwide radar, I have been reluctant to weigh in on its benefits or its burdens.

Until this moment. I am going to declare that AI scares the living crap out of me.

I worked in a profession for nearly four decades that relied on human beings reporting the truth as we understood it. Journalism places strict rules on accuracy and fairness. AI has managed, in my view, to scramble it all up and turn what we know to be real into something that could be made up.

I am sickened by the images I see and audio I hear depicting people commenting on matters that they cannot possibly know or understand. The images are products of AI-generated computers. For instance …

I recently watched a video of two American presidents — John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan — carrying on and joking about an issue that post-dates their deaths by decades. A friend of mine in Germany sent me a video of President Barack Obama declaring that Donald J. Trump screamed at a judge that he is “above the law!”an event that hasn’t been reported by any legitimate media anywhere on Earth.

I used to trade in truth-telling. It is the AI-produced nonsense that has me melting down at times at the thought that I could be listening to computer-generated fakery being passed off as the real thing.

I get that AI is used for entertainment purposes. Some top-of-the-line artists have used it to produce fabulous music videos.

The possibilities for abuse of this astonishing technology, however, is giving me the heeby-jeebys.

I am afraid of it. Very afraid.

business news, economic news

Tariff tumult requires testing

Donald Trump’s fixation with tariffs has the markets in an uproar. Hints of Trump blinking send the Dow Jones averages into outer space. Then the numbskull in chief says all the wheeling-and-dealing is a mirage … so the markets tank again.

I believe the Trump skeptics who contend that POTUS 45 & 47 doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t understand the economics of a tariff, which makes me wonder out loud whether he evrer learned against the Wharton School of Economics, where he says he earned good grades.

I don’t what his grades were. I damn sure don’t care. He isn’t exhibiting a scintilla of knowledge about basic economics with this tariff nonsense.

President Reagan of all people called tariffs a “national sales tax” He was speaking in 1987 when he denigrated the notion of attaching tariffs on goods imported into the country. The Gipper was right then. Trump is wrong today in proclaiming that tariffs on imported goods will “make America great again.”

He is turning a national economy that was held up as the gold standard for the world to emulate into an international laughingstock.

economic news

Trump’s callousness in full view

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You want a measure of the callousness of the Dumbass in Chief, the guy who said he looks out for the “little guy”?

On the second day of Donald Trump’s unprovoked international trade war, a day in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 2,000 points , costing total investments to lose trillions of dollars, Trump jets off to Florida to play a few rounds of golf.

Hey, no worries, man. The MAGA Moron in Chief doesn’t give a rat’s red backside about the loss of millions of Americans’ retirement funds. He said he does, but you know how believable anything is that flies out of Trump’s overfed pie hole.

It kind of reminds me of the February 2021 escapade in which Sen. Ted Cruz sought to grab a few rays in Cancun while Texans were freezing to death in the killer winter storm that paralyzed the entire damn state. Cruz got caught escaping, returned to Texas … and then blamed his daughter for talkiing the family into the ill-fated family vacation.

This time, the callousness belongs to the president of the United States of America, who launched an unprovoked international trade war by imposing tariffs on virtually every product imported into this country. Nobel laureates have proclaimed this to be a catastrophe. So have politidians of both parties. Even the great President Reagan beomoaned tariffs in the 1980s, calliing them a national sales tax that falls on every Amerixan to pay.

One of the countless lies that Trump told voters while campaigning for the presidency is that he cares about them, their welfare and their livelihood.

He doesn’t give a sh** about ’em, the folks who followed him all over creation to cheer on the lies he told them.

Here’s a thought: If he truly cared about us, he would keep the golf clubs stashed away and he would rescind the tariffs he knew would cause the havoc they have caused.

crime news

Accountability at the top!

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You want accountability at the top of our personal security chain of command?

Well, we got it this week when the head of the Secret Service, Kimberley Cheatle, resigned after a gunman tried to kill Donald Trump. Calls for her resignation or firing came from both sides of the great congressional chasm.

Let’s say, though, that such demand for immediate action hasn’t always been the case.

In 1901, a gunman shot President William McKinley to death; in 1963, a shooter murdered President Johin F. Kennedy; in 1975, two women — on separate occasions — shot at President Gerald Ford; in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt.

What do those instances have in common? The Secret Service directors all kept their jobs, despite the obvious failures to protect our commander in chief.

I am old enough to remember the JFK, Ford and Reagan incidents. I do not recall anyone in authority raising a stink about failures in the security system designed to protect our president from madmen.

Frankly, I am glad we have ratcheted up calls for accountability when these events occur.

national news, political news

Waiting anxiously for debate

For a long time I have been cautious about referring to events when two or more politicians stand on a stage as “debates.”

They aren’t, really. they have allowed the candidates to pontificate and excoriate their foes. But they do occasionally bring moments of excitement. They even have helped turn elections in favor of candidates.

Do you remember the time in 1976 when President Ford said Eastern Europe was “not dominated” by the Soviet Union? Of course it was! He lost the election that year. Or when Ronald Reagan asked us in 1980 whether we were “better off than you were four years ago.” We weren’t. Reagan won in a landslide.

The format for the Thursday appearance with President Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump will be without a studio audience and will have a sound cutoff when the candidates exceed the time limit or when they tell a lie knowingly.

I am one American patriot who will wait anxiously to see how Trump handles the mike sound issue. He and his MAGA cult followers already are saying the debates is rigged. Who knew?

Something tells me we might see more than our share of meltdowns as Trump seeks to lie his way past the silent mikes. Will it influence the end of this miserable campaign? I damn sure hope so.

national news

Nothing wrong with note cards

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As Republicans continue to make President Biden’s alleged intellectual slippage an issue, I am intrigued by a recent criticism that has emerged.

The president uses note cards to conduct meetings with public officials. My response? Big fu**ing deal! There is nothing wrong with an individual who happens to be president of the world’s most powerful nation relying on written notes to help guide him through sensitive discussions.

I recall that President Reagan relied on note cards when he met with individuals. I also recall that Democrats took pot shots at Reagan for what they implied was a sign that he had slipped a bit, too.

One of my favorite critics happened to be the congressman who represented me in the House of Representatives, Democrat Jack Brooks of Beaumont, Texas. Brooks routinely would come to visit us at the Beaumont Enterprise and usually took time to swipe at Reagan. He actually once criticized Reagan’s use of note cards as a crutch.

But … guess what! Brooks did the very same thing! He, too, would meet with our editorial board and would glance at note cards to remind him of points he intended to make.

I am not the least bit concerned about President Biden’s mental acuity. He slips up occasionally, misstating people’s names or saying he’s been somewhere when he hasn’t. BFD, man!

As for the note cards, let the man scribble a note or two on them to remind him of the topic at hand. It’s part of doing business in a highly complicated world.

Joe Biden, national news

Good government gone … not forgotten

Do you remember when government at all levels — from Capitol Hill, to state capitols, county courthouses and city halls — worked for the people who pay their bills?

It wasn’t necessarily a government run by liberals. There once was a conservative movement that railed against government, but whose adherents didn’t stand in the way of government seeking common ground.

Those days are gone. I hope, though, that good government as I recall it isn’t extinct, like the dodo bird and the woolly mammoth.

I long for its return.

Even during the Ronald Reagan era, government could rise to the occasion. The 40th president declared at his first inaugural that “government is the problem” and the cause for the nation’s ills in the early 1980s. President Reagan, though, found a way to work with his old nemesis/drinking buddy Speaker Tip O’Neill to find a way into the light.

We have an entirely different climate today in D.C. Those damn MAGA morons have taken obstructionism to a new level, almost turning it into an art form. The progressive caucus on the other side also has dug in deeply, seeking unaffordable government actions, such as Medicare for All and forgiving every former college student’s debt.

For the purposes of this blog, though, I am going to aim my rhetorical fire at the MAGA cultists.

Because of the MAGA crowd’s ignorance, the U.S. House this year required 15 ballots to elect a speaker … and then only after he conceded so much to the MAGA morons that he made himself vulnerable to the ouster vote that booted him out of office.

This Congress has proved to be among the least productive legislative sessions in history. Why? Because the MAGA crowd insists on seeking something on which to impeach President Biden.

This isn’t good government in any possible form.

Just maybe there will be enough Americans who are as fed up as I am to dropkick the MAGA crowd to the sh***er. I don’t have a problem, per se, with conservatives as long as they understand the value of outreach on occasion to the other side of the aisle.

President Reagan understood it clearly. If only he were around today to lecture the MAGA morons on how to govern while standing firm on their principles.