A Republican -- On Republicans

Don't take it from me, folks.

So many former Republicans. This man, David Jolly, Bill Kristol, George Will. So many.

This Unbelievable President and Presidency

Once again, this President leaves me disbelieving just where, exactly, we all, as a nation, are. 

Yesterday's debacle and insurrection and assault on our nation was nothing if not unforgivable. There's so much to say on it. I could write and write here and then post other's information, too. Obviously, that won't help and no one could read it all. I'll just put where we are now.

And that is, we are, it seems clear, stuck with this greedy, absurd, self-centered, selfish, ignorant, reckless, now obviously dangerous dolt for a few more days. Thirteen to be exact. That and we just have to hope and maybe pray, if we do that sort of thing, that he doesn't do anything else stupid. That is a tall, tall order for this man, as we've repeatedly seen in the last 4 years.

One outcome of all this, sort of shallow as it is, is that he's suspended, indefinitely, on Facebook and Instagram.

Think of that.

Not a teenager but no less than this Republican Party President is blocked from posting on social media because he tells so many untruths--read: lies--and emotionally incites his followers. Again, unreal. For any other President, this would be unthinkable, unbelievable. Heck, for any other adult it would be unheard of.

Then there's his administration.  People are now, no big surprise, bailing on him and it all, and left and right. There have been 9 quit so far with the most notable being Elaine Chao. Yes, THAT Elaine Chao. None other than Senator Mitch McConnell's own wife. 

Then there's very Right Wing nutjob Mick Mulvaney. He quit, too. It was too crazy in Trump's White House now even for him.  You can the rest of the list of the people who have so far, to this minute, bailed here:

Everyone Who Has Quit the Trump Administration After Wednesday’s Anarchy

People are, deservedly, asking, telling him to resign or be thrown out. And not just Democrats are saying it. In fact, this is the first person I heard call for him, Trump, to step down or be removed and he's GOP.

Illinois GOP Congressman: Trump Must Be Removed

Meanwhile, it's ratcheted up since his call hours ago.

Top congressional Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi say Trump should be removed by office by 25th Amendment or impeachment

As for yesterday's insanity and obscenities, I was certain that, because we knew they, Trump's supporters/protesters were going to Washington, that all the security would be in place and it would be inconsequential. I forgot we live in Trump's world, at least now.

If there is any silver lining, so to speak, from this ugliness yesterday in Washington, it is that the Republican Party is in meltdown just now, before our very eyes.

Ex-GOP Senator Says Republicans Must Form New Party

We have at least that to thank Mr. Trump for. Ironically, very ironically, none other than Right Wing, Republican Trump lapdog Senator Lindsey Graham predicted this.

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 3, 2016

Who knew he'd be so prescient?

Think about yesterday's attack on our Capitol, too.  The only leadership we get from this pathetic excuse for a President is to have his delusional followers attack our capitol building in Washington DC. Meanwhile, record numbers of Americans are dying from this pandemic.

A record number of people died from Covid the last two days in America as rioters stormed U.S. Capitol

Which now brings us to the far more local party of this unfolding news and that is our own Missouri Senator Josh "I'll Do Anything For a Vote" Hawley. He rightly isn't coming out of this well. The following is from our own Kansas City Star.

Assault on democracy: Sen. Josh Hawley has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt

A bit from the article:

No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.

This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman who was apparently part of the pro-Trump mob was fatally shot by Capitol Police as lawmakers took cover. Some of those whose actions Trump encouraged and later condoned brought along their Confederate flags.

And no longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.

Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

Meanwhile, Senator Hawley has been very rightly savaged in the media across the nation for this words and actions leading up to yesterday's Trump supporters' travesty. At one point, at the beginning of the Right Wing assault on our Capitol in Washington, Senator Hawley actually went outside the building to cheer on the Trump troops. Not surprisingly, it prompted lots of backlash on social media. This was my person al favorite.

Again, certainly deserved.

None other than deeply Right Wing, very conservative, very Republican columnist George Will had this to say about our Senator.

Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are the US Constitution’s 'most dangerous domestic enemies'

Which leaves us rather incompletely at where we are now. Both the 25th Amendment and another impeachment would take far longer than the less than two weeks we have now so chances are strong that, unless Trump does abdicate or bail, chances are strong we are, in fact, stuck with him. I think Vice President Mike Pence is far too much both a coward and opportunist and won't invoke the 25th Amendment. He doesn't want to burn himself with even the nutcase Trump supporters of the party.

But one more good thing that could well come of this, however, is that Nancy Pelosi and the House may well put him, Donald J "Jenius" Trump up for impeachment anyway.  And here's the great thing about that.

Donald Trump would then be the only, only President, of all 45, that has been impeached twice.

Among the things we can't have is this.

Trump asking aides and lawyers about self-pardon power

This is what we need to keep in mind going forward, I think.

You Don’t Heal a Nation By Forgetting About Fascism. You Heal a Nation by Punishing Fascism Swiftly

Think happy thoughts, campers.

Also, hope---and pray, if you're into that--that the worst of this man Donald Trump and his Presidency are behind us.

Stay and be safe and well.

Three of This President's Best Critics

3 favorites of mine to read in this Age of Trump:

• David Frum
• George Will
• Bill Kristol

All 3 are deepset, longtime conservatives, Republicans and all 3 rightly savage him. The best critics are from the inside. Herewith, just a few quotes from each, highlighting the horribleness. First up, David Frum.

“President Donald J. Trump did not start the pandemic of course. But at every step of the way, Trump has acted as if guided by one rule: ‘How can I make this trauma worse?’”

Next, George Will, one of Donald Trump's most scathing critics:

"I believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse ... you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon's surreptitious burglaries did."

So finally, Bill Kristol:

“I'm very honestly just agnostic about what the future looks like,” he says. “I do think in the short term, I think a second term of Donald Trump is very dangerous.”

Important side note---while researching this post, I found the following, too.

George Will: Republicans Will 

Forget Trump 'Fast' After 2020

I'd like to make clear here--we can never let this happen, folks. Once Donald Trump is out of the White House, we can never let the Republicans conveniently "forget" about this man and what he did and tried to do to our nation, our people, our Democracy. Heck, to Democracy itself. It's why I so frequently and repeated write "Thanks, Republicans!" on social media posts. We can never let them forget this man or what they unleashed on this nation and on the world. This will be, must always be a scourge on them and their political party. We, the nation, must never forget---so we never repeat.

Links:

David Frum Rethinks Conservatism

George Will's startling assessment of Donald Trump

Neoconservative Thinker Bill Kristol Says 2nd Term Of Trump Would Be 'Very Dangerous'

George Will calls Trump ‘sad, embarrassing wreck of a man

Conservative Icon George Will Urges November Sweep: Vote Out Trump, All GOP Enablers

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Donald Trump Is Crazy, and So Is the GOP for Embracing Him

Please Read This Article

I can't emphasize enough reading very conservative, Republican Party supporting George Will's article on this President, his political party and his enablers.

Trump must be removed. 

So must his congressional enablers.

Just a bit from it:

"A political party’s primary function is to bestow its imprimatur on candidates, thereby proclaiming: This is who we are. In 2016, the Republican Party gave its principal nomination to a vulgarian and then toiled to elect him. And to stock Congress with invertebrates whose unswerving abjectness has enabled his institutional vandalism, who have voiced no serious objections to his Niagara of lies, and whom T.S. Eliot anticipated: 

We are the hollow men . . .

Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats’ feet over broken glass . . .

Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come. Which implicates national security: Abroad, anti-Americanism sleeps lightly when it sleeps at all, and it is wide-awake as decent people judge our nation’s health by the character of those to whom power is entrusted. Watching, too, are indecent people in Beijing and Moscow.

My Biggest Concern About This President--and His Political Party

"The Week" hit the nail on the head currently.

The Fabric of America Is Coming Apart

No overstatement, no exaggeration. A bit from the article:

Mass unrest engulfed cities across the United States over the weekend, as thousands of people protested the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and police typically responded with violence. In some relatively isolated cases, riots and looting broke out — including in Washington, D.C., where President Trump turned off the lights at the White House and hid in a bunker.

It seems the United States was a powder keg just waiting for a spark. Police incompetence and brutality — carried out at enormous expense to the American taxpayer — have only added to the intolerable daily burden of poverty and misery experienced by the American working class, particularly its black and brown members. The fabric of America is coming apart.

Race protests and riots in the middle of the worst, most killing international pandemic the world has seen in over 100 years, with yet more tax cuts for the already-wealthy, with heavy spending to help Americans during the pandemic and so, heavy, heavy national debt, with absurdly low tax rates for the already-wealthy and corporations and so much more. We have problems, America.

Then this President is fomenting yet more violence, virtually each time he speaks, in the worst racial protests we've seen since the Rodney King riots of 1992, if not the Watts riots in the middle 60s.

Then Paul Krugman penned a similarly themed article for the New York Times.

Trump Takes Us to the Brink

A bit from it:

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that America as we know it is on the brink.

How did we get here? The core story of U.S. politics over the past four decades is that wealthy elites weaponized white racism to gain political power, which they used to pursue policies that enriched the already wealthy at workers’ expense.

Until Trump’s rise it was possible — barely — for people to deny this reality with a straight face. At this point, however, it requires willful blindness not to see what’s going on.

...I still see occasional news reports that describe Trump as a “populist.” But Trump’s economic policies have been the opposite of populist: They have been relentlessly plutocratic, centered largely on a successful effort to ram through huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and a so far unsuccessful attempt to take health insurance away from poor and working-class families.

Nor have Trump’s trade wars brought back the good jobs of yore. Even before the coronavirus plunged us into depression, Trump had failed to deliver major employment growth in coal mining or manufacturing. And farmers, who supported Trump by large margins in 2016, have suffered huge losses thanks to his trade wars.

So what has Trump really offered to the white working class that makes up most of his base? Basically, he has provided affirmation and cover for racial hostility.

We have so, so many problems, so many national issues and we're not addressing them.

Meanwhile, this was his Tweet today, 2 hours ago:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump·

D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!).

The nation is coming apart and he can only pat himself on the back. Stunning.

We know what needs to happen:

Trump must be removed. 

So must his congressional enablers.

What is most encouraging to me is that this article, this opinion piece was penned by uber conservative, ultra-Republican Party supporting George Will, not some "Leftist", Liberal member of the Democratic Party. Mr. Will has been writing similar pieces since Trump has been in office, at least. He sees this man Trump for what and who he is and knows its bad, really bad, for the nation.

Here's hoping, folks.

We have to take our nation back. We have to take it back for the people.

Vote. Always vote. And yes, you guessed it, vote blue.

We can do this.

We must.

This Trumpian Republican Party

I caught an excellent article, thanks to a friend, over the weekend on this President and what has morphed into his political party:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

One of the challenges in analyzing modern American politics is accurately describing the Republican Party without seeming unserious and hyperbolic. Major publications are understandably in the habit of presenting both sides of the partisan divide as being inherently worthy of respect and equal consideration, both as a way of shielding themselves from accusations of bias and as a way of maintaining their own sense of journalistic integrity.

Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party’s abdication of seriousness, good faith and reality-based communications or policy-making has stretched even the most open-minded analyst’s capacity for forced balance. Donald Trump’s own inability to string together coherent or consistent thoughts has led to a bizarre normalization of his statements in the traditional media, as journalists unconsciously try to fit his rambling, spontaneous utterances into a conventional framework. This has come at the cost of Americans seeing the full truth of the crisis of leadership in the Oval Office for what it is. For instance, it was ironically salutary for the American public to witness Donald Trump’s bizarre pandemic press conferences where he oddly attacked reporters for asking innocuous questions and recommended researching bleach and sunlight injections, because they got to see Trump raw as he truly is, without the normalization filter. Republicans have long argued that the “mainstream media filter” gives them a bad shake, but the reality is the opposite: sure, it’s not as good as being boosted by Fox News’ overt propaganda, but it does them a greater service than letting the public see them unfiltered at all...

...Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that 

• a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; 
• that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; 
• that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; 
• that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; 
• that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; 
• that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. 

That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”}

I personally can't recommend the complete above article enough.

Meanwhile, this happened two days ago, Saturday.

Trump retweets a message calling Hillary Clinton a 'skank' and spreads sexist insults about other prominent female Democrats

On Saturday, President Donald Trump shared a series of sexist insults and personal gibes about prominent female Democrats.

Trump has a long record of aiming sexist insults at female critics.

Who does this?

What public person, let alone government representative, let alone 74 year old, let alone Congressional representative or, I don't know, what PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES talks like that?  What adult calls another, a woman, a "skank"?  Who does that??

This President is frightening but as that first article above shows, much of the Republican Party has gotten scary, honestly, no overstatement, scary.

Fortunately, there are a few, a very few Republicans out there warning people about him and this. People like Utah's Mitt Romeny, conservative writer George Will, uber-conservative Bill Kristol and others.  It's not enough but it's something.

Then there's the fact that this President has repeatedly tried to spread an untrue and extremely irresponsible murder conspiracy theory, of all things, about Joe Scarborough.

Trump uses Twitter to push 

murder conspiracy theory 

And this was yesterday at the Memorial Day activities. As this President and again, his political party would have it, it's "sleepy Joe" Biden we have to worry about, no one else. And yet...

Trump’s struggles to stand still didn’t go unnoticed during Memorial Day visit to Arlington

Oh sway can you see.

President Trump’s struggles to stand still during a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery lit up social media Monday, prompting users to recall past incidents in which the commander in chief, who turns 74 next month, battled to find a balance.

“Is the President having trouble standing up straight as the National Anthem begins at Arlington Cemetary (sic) or am I seeing things?” Joshua Potash from Queens asked on Twitter.

The Trump critic posted that video, along with another clearly showing the president swaying in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Between this President's ravings, his questionable health and his political party's going off a d eep end, it seems clear we don't lack for things we have to work on, let alone be concerned of.

Thanks, Republicans.

"Only the best people."
"So much winning."

Links:

Op-Ed: Let’s count the ways Donald Trump has gone where no president has gone before

Are White Working Class Folks Tiring of Trump's Act?
Trump Sabotaged America's Recovery Even Before COVID-19 Began

24 conspiracy theories Donald Trump has floated

6 months on, Trump hasn't completed his physical. The White House won't say why.

Editorial: If the pandemic-preparedness cupboard was bare, it was Trump's doing

Conservative, Right Wing Republicans on this President

Herewith, I give you, as said above in the title, two Right Wing, very Conservative Republicans and what they have to say about this Republican Party President. First up, George Will.

George Will: No Republican Who Supports Trump Should be Re-elected

It's an excellent, I think even important column with lots of good to great information and points but, following here, I'll only post this one paragraph from the end:

In 13 months, all congressional Republicans who have not defended Congress by exercising “the constitutional rights of the place” should be defeated. If congressional Republicans continue their genuflections at Trump’s altar, the appropriate 2020 outcome will be a Republican thrashing so severe — losing the House, the Senate and the electoral votes of, say, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina and even Texas — that even this party of slow-learning careerists might notice the hazards of tethering their careers to a downward-spiraling scofflaw.
Next up, as we go into the beginning of the public hearings from and in the House of Representatives on this President and possible impeachment this week, finally, keep this in mind, too.

Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel Says White House Officials Defying Subpoenas Are Obstructing Justice

And now, from very deeply Right Wing, Conservative, Republican Bill "I Usually Support All Republicans Blindly" Kristol:

Republican Should Challenge Trump in 2020

From earlier this year:

Manchester, N.H. — For the good of the country and the Republican party, Donald Trump has to be challenged from the right in 2020, Weekly Standard editor-at-large Bill Kristol told a friendly crowd of business executives and political insiders here Wednesday morning.

“I don’t know if a challenger would succeed. In my view, I think it’s important to have one just to force the debate,” Kristol said. “I think if Trump were to lose in 2020 it would allow for someone to step up and say, ‘Well, here’s a different way forward than just kind of trying to redo Trump over the next several years.’”
Kristol was the second prominent Never Trumper in as many months to appear at the Politics & Eggs event series, which puts political speakers in front of an audience of New England business leaders who tend to show up in charcoal suits, wearing name tags that flash impressive job titles. Senator Jeff Flake’s anti-Trump speech here at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics drew a standing ovation in April. Attacking Trump from the conservatarian right, Flake flirted with the idea of challenging Trump for the nomination in 2020. (Kristol, who rejects speculation that he might run himself, says he prefers to help find the right challenger, and thinks John Kasich is the most obvious and potentially formidable one.)

After that, let's please, please all keep in mind that it was this President, Donald J "The John" Trump who, this week, was penalized by a judge for--get this--taking 2 million dollars from a charity. And not just any charity, either. This was a charity for American Veterans.

The man given 493 million dollars from his father felt he needed to also take 2 million dollars from a charity for our Veterans.

To date, Republicans have expressed zero regret or remorse for this man.

Zero.

Finally today, I have to ask, in what bizarro world could or would it possibly be okay if a President of the United States were to ask the head of another, foreign nation to investigate any private U.S. citizen, let alone the son of one of his foremost political rivals in the coming national election?

Additional links:

FBI investigated how Trump's actions seemed to benefit Russia

Putin's Payout: 12 Ways Trump Has Supported Putin’s Foreign Policy Agenda

Supreme Court Lawyer Says Trump Will Be Impeached, Won't Even Be On 2020 Ballot

Trump makes history — First President to Never Reach 50% Approval Rating

Trump has More Than 2,500 Conflicts of Interest and Counting, Live Tracker by Watchdog Finds

A Scathing New Pentagon Report Blames Trump for the Return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Former Federal Prosecutors Call for Giuliani to Be Disbarred, Possibly Indicted

In Case You Missed This Last May

Right Wing, Republican, very conservative columnist George Will wrote an article last May on this President Donald J. Trump. What he observes is beyond important.

Trump has a dangerous disability 

- The Washington Post

Additional link:

George Will: Trump disabled by inability to think, 

speak clearly | TheHill

The Incredible, Soon-To-Be Presidency of Hillary Rodham Clinton

...And why it's great for America.

In all of the coverage of this God-awful 2016 presidential race for the White House, what hasn't been said and what isn't being said--yet, anyway--is how the Hilary Clinton presidency will, yes, of course, be historic for the nation and unprecedented, but the ways in which it will be unprecedented.

First, of course, we'll have our first female president.

That, alone, is historic and nearly mind-blowing. For all our work and attempts to be modern and forward and open-minded, not only have we never had a woman president but, worse, there are still far too many people in the nation--both male and female--who think we should never have one. The fact that we will is fantastic.

Second, the fact that we'll have two presidents in the White House at the same time is incredible.

I can't think of any other nation that has had such a situation at any time during their history. It happens, of course, naturally, in monarchies that lead their nations but not in Democratically-elected heads of state. It's, again, unprecedented.

And the thing is, not only is it history-making but the nation gets one helluva bargain at the same time.

Like it or not, agree or not, Bill Clinton, as president, was a very successful one in his time in office. Having all that experience and knowledge and his international and political contacts is a huge boon to her presidency and to the nation and our need to work with other nations.

In that way, you could also say, then, with all that experience and information and knowledge, America is getting one incredible political and governmental bargain. We're getting a "two-fer", America, a two-for-one bargain.

Following on the heels of a successful, very successful presidency of one Barack Hussein Obama and the not-to-be-overlooked fact of his being the first Black president, this is, indeed, again, monumental and historic. It's a great day for America.

Look, don't get me wrong, too. It's not like the election is over, far from it. Things could happen. But I'm basing the reason for this post today on the fact that not only does Mrs. Clinton have a lot of support behind her but she also has a great many Republicans on her side because they are strongly and wisely against having their candidate, Donald J. Trump in the White House. It's just fact.

So, congratulations, America. Not only will you be making history for more equality of the sexes but you'll also be getting one heckuva bargain, financially, diplomatically and politically, all three, at least, with Mrs. and Mr. Clinton back in the White House.

Links:

George Will: Republicans Must Keep Trump Out Of The White House

Krauthammer Explains Why He's Not 'Capable of Voting for Donald

Republicans Give Up On Trump And Work On Plan To Obstruct President Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump faces uphill climb to the White House

Don't Panic: Donald Trump Will Never, Ever Be President

It seems Donald Trump's candidacy is actually even likely making the Republican Party weaker.

RNC pulls worst fundraising numbers in recent years

And check this out. An entire nation doesn't want The Donald anywhere near their country should he, God forbid, become president.

The Philippines considers permanently banning 

Donald Trump

Question for The Kansas City Star

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch rather quickly--and wisely, I think--ended publishing Right Wing columnist George Will after his first article on rape that was strongly anti-women.

Now, Mr. Will is at least "doubling-down" on his comments and defending them:

George Will Stands By His Incendiary Sexual Assault Column

I love that he also tries to blame, in this video, the Obama administration for his situation.

So the question is, Star, how soon until you do the same?

It's not about following the "big brother across the state" or that big competitor or anything like that.

He has defended rape and rapists and belittled the situations of rape and possible rape.. Additionally, there are plenty--plenty--of Right Wing, Conservative columnists out there to choose from, heaven knows.

What part of this man's writing could or would you possibly want or want your readers to have now?

Hopefully the Kansas City Star will follow suit

This was announced yesterday:

Saint Louis Post Dispatch dumps columnist George Will

Seems Mr. Will defended rape and rapists by males so the Post-Dispatch  dropped him.

As I said, hopefully the Star will be as inciteful.

At long last.

George Will, Uber-Conservative, on Afghanistan

From ABC's "This Week" this morning: "It's time we get out." --George Will, Conservative, Writer, Author, Columnist

Right wing ignorance on Sunday's op/ed page in The Star

I can't imagine two more Right Wing cases (outside of the Tea Party) than George Will, nationally, and Thomas McClanahan, locally. And each of them, yesterday, on the op/ed page had two of the most either wrong or ignorant columns I could imagine. Mr. Will came down squarely against campaign finance reform laws while Mr. McClanahan's headline spoke for itself: "IS PRESIDENT OBAMA TO THE LEFT OF DENG XIAOPING?" To Mr. Will's column, I have to ask, how else are we to get corporate and wealthy people's money (bribes) out of our legislator's pockets and out of legislation and so, out of our government, unless and until we kill these "campaign contributions." The answer is, of course, we won't. We need stringent campaign finance reform and we need it badly and as soon as possible. As for Mr. McClanahan's column, it's just too plainly ignorant to spend (waste?) time or energy on. Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/24/3164591/is-president-obama-to-the-left.html; http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/24/3164592/rigging-the-process-via-curbs.html

Milestones, Sunday, June 26, 2010

--We've had a huge Gulf oil spill thanks to British Petroleum now for 2 months; --19 American soldiers were killed this week, according to the Kansas City Star, in our two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; --America has been sending soldiers to Afghanistan to fight and die for them and our country, if that's your point of view, for a ten years now--a decade; --George Will thinks President Obama did something very right, it seems, by dismissing General McChrystal this week and replacing him with General David Petraeus. Will wonders never cease?; --Same for uber-conservative Monica Crowley--she had nothing but good things to say about the President's handling of the leadership situation and his decisions. Surely hell is freezing over, right?; --Ditto for, again, ultra-conservative, 81 year old John McGlaughlin--he said the President did something--this exchange of generals--right. Will wonders not cease?; --So much meaty stuff happened this week, politically, that ABC's "This Week"'s round table discussion group had too many topics and so, couldn't get to the very important, significant and rather ground-breaking financial reform work put through Congress this week. That's a big news week, for sure; --ABC's "This Week" had at least some minority representation today, which was a nice change of pace, what with George Will, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, David Sanger and Robin Wright on the "Round Table" discussion. "The McLaughlin Group", meanwhile, whas lily-white but somewhat "saved" itself by having two women on, at least. It still stuns me how bleached white and unrepresentative our national media is. They don't even try to really represent the huge, "minority" viewpoints and solutions in this country. --George Will has come to the conclusion that the Iraq war is unwinnable. That's a stunner, folks. Take note. It's a snowball that's going to become an avalanche; --Same for John McLaughlin from his long-running PBS' news show. With this and the high cost of the Afghan war, both in terms of soldiers and money and materiel, it's only a matter of time before the American public insist we get out of Afghanistan. And thank goodness. Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Thoughts on a Sunday morning

It happened again. Thomas McClanahan and I agree on something.

Whenever that happens, I'm a little stunned. This is the 2nd time I can think it's happened.

Mr. McClanahan points out that eliminating the e-tax would be irresponsible if it's not replaced with some other tax of some kind, so the $200 million raised by this tax is done away with.

But his bigger point is that a "land tax" would make much more sense because it rewards development in the city, instead of pushing people out of the city, like the e-tax, and the property tax, which punishes and disincentivizes (I think that's a word) even the purchase of property, let alone development of it.

Good on Mr. McClanahan. This is a really eye-opening and educational column.

It would be great if a representative or better yet, some representatives in Jeff city would study this land tax option.

--Donna Brazile is terrfic.

She's most usually seen and heard, if at all, on ABC's "This Week" news program on Sunday morning.

She's smart and gives terrific, intelligent insights on American politics and society.

What's sad and unfortunate is that she's also one of very few people of color who are on the weekly sunday morning news shows. To my knowledge, she may be the only one.

--John McLaughlin (of The McLaughlin Group on PBS) is losing it, it seems.

Out of the blue this week, when they were discussing the Tiger Woods' apology this week, he asked his guests if they thought Tiger might one day run for political office.

Wth?

Seriously, John?

His guests paused at first, then laughed off the question.

Oh, and his show covered Tiger's apology before addressing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement from earlier in the week that suggested Iran is becoming a military dictatorship.

Great priorities, Mr. McLaughlin.

Not.

--The Tiger Woods apology this week is the biggest non-story of the week, at least, if not the year.

The interest in it stuns me.

Other than his family, friends, golfers and people in the golfing industry, why the interest? It seems clearly purient.

--I was watching the Sunday morning news shows, obviously, with its scroll at the bottom, given our ice/snow storm, when I was reminded of one of my favorite abbreviations.

It's COGIC or Church of God in Christ.

I've always thought that was cute, downright funny and a great counterpoint of simple, clear, unemotional and rational thinking or

LOGIC.



Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.

Health care situation doesn't look good

To see and hear the conversations on different news media--newspapers, television and internet--it seems clear to me that the corporations and their lobbying dollars--millions of them--are winning this fight.

Whether it's The McGlaughlin Report or The Week with George Stephanopoulos or, God forbid, of course, Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck and the Fox Network,etc., the support of the corporations comes through.

George Will and Liz Cheney, naturally, spew the lines and sound eloquent, so people might think they're correct.

And of course they're not, plainly.

Our American health care system is badly, badly broken and is financially breaking American citizen's households because we have the most expensive health care system in the world and that story is, I think, completely lost.

All these people have to do is instill fear, ala' George W. Bush's techniques, which they've clearly learned so well, and health care reform, to benefit us all, seems unlikely to pass.

Sad.

Really sad.

Liz Cheney needs to go away

I never understood why anyone thought we need to know what Liz Cheney's opinion is on anything but, ever since Dad left the White House, she's seems to be ubizuitous.

She shows up again and again on news shows and all because of her last name.

Today, she outdid herself.

Ms. Cheney was on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC and she not only put out here obnoxious opinions, which would be bad enough, but now she's introduced right-wing, shout-down-the-opposition, Bill O'Reilly-type tactics to this show which, up to now, was always calm, lucid and intelligent.

If you saw it, you saw Mr. Stephanopoulos totally lose control of his show, thanks to Ms. Cheney, and not just once but a few times.

It got so bad that, at the end of the show, Liz was still droning on with her views, talking over everyone si Gwen Ifill even tried to help give back the show and control to its host.

Liz Cheney should be asked to never return to this show unless or until she can discuss issues the old way--calmly, respectfully and like an adult.

If she's capapble of that.

At least the corporations are getting their money's worth.

Nice change of pace

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I read or am exposed to a column by Geoge Will and find that he and I agree on a subject.

Such was the case a week ago this past Saturday when he wrote of Americans, our diets and our exposure to corn, corn subsidies, corn syrup, meat in our diets and obesity in the United States. Even the title screamed agreement to me: "BAD HEALTH BUILT INTO OUR CORN-FED FOOD SYSTEM". (The capitalization was theirs).

He gave some terrific history about us, I think. For instance, he quotes Michael Pollan (no pun intended), author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and in Defense of Food. Mr. Pollan, he writes, "says that after World War II, the government had a surplus of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient of explosives--and fertilizer. Furthermore, pesticides could be made from ingredients of poison gases. Since 1945, the food supply has increased fster than America's population--faster even than Americans can increase their feasting."

Seriously, fascinating stuff.

People either don't know why we're so dang fat or they wonder why we are. The fact is, it has a great deal to do with farms, farming and corporations.

President Eisenhower warned us, for sure.

More:

--Did you know three in five Americans are overweight?

--one in five os us are out and out obese?

"Dureing World War II, when meat, dairy products and sugar were scarce, heart disease plummeted. It rebounded when ratioinng ended."

That's pretty incdredible right there.

"When you adjust for age...rates of chronic diseases like cancer and type 2 diabetes are considerably higher today than they were in 1900."

Yow. That's pretty indicting stuff.

My sister has been claiming for years, along with others, that if we ate better and smarter, we wouldn't have to pay millions and billions of dollars to treat and try to cure cancer. She's not alone, by a long shot. There are medical people who have been claiming this for years, too. It seems the data makes this clear and not really debatable, doesn't it?

Still more from Mr. Will's column: "Four of the top causes of American deaths--coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer--'have well-established links' to diet, particularly through the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat,' Pollan says."

So why put this down now?

First, because Mr. Will wrote of it just this past week.

Second, to spread the information.

And third and finally, because I am, just now going to board a cruise ship out of Miami and if I've heard anything about cruising, it's that there is mass quantities of food, all over the ship, virtually non-stop.

This gives me more desire to tone it all down, in the first place, and maybe evaluate the consumption, casually, while I'm enjoying myself.

Bon appetit'.

What needs to happen instead

Yesterday, I wrote that the US won't have a new, inclusive, workable health care system by the end of the year because we haven't got the will for it and we don't understand and/or accept that we have to take profit out of that same system.

I stand by that.

But more than all that, what really needs to happen is that, as David Brooks said Sunday morning on "This Week with George Stephanopoulis" on ABC, "The house is burning down around us."

It's all great that President Obama is tackling our other big problems, sure. Tackle health care. Tackle relations with the Soviet Union, the Taliban, Iran and the rest of the world.

But not right now.

Above all, get a handle on our economy. It is THE big problem, above all others, that needs to be addressed.

Fortunately, everyone agrees on this.

But that's not, it seems, what is coming out of the White House, to date.

I think this is going to change. The President and his staff and administration are all bright people.

I'm not just being trusting here. I'm not simply being naive.

The people running the country are opportunists and the kind of people that jumps on the biggest problems that would run them down otherwise.

But this needs to happen sooner--like this week--rather than later. The need to get on top of and pay attention to the economy, right now, above all other and as soon as possible.

Great Expectations (?)

The question keeps getting asked or proposed, lately, about President-elect Obama and that is, "Can he live up to our, literally, great expectations?"

And my answer is, yes--unequivocally, absolutely yes.

And here's why:

The conservative writer David Brooks, on PBS evening news last week, said he thought Obama was "non-partisan", in his words.

From a Conservative Republican, that's pretty extraordinary, for starters.

But more than that--much more--is that it seems that this new President is going to be, apparently and hopefully, a statesman, of all things.

We haven't seen one of those for a long time.

You may have already heard that the President-elect had dinner last week with a few very conservative columnists like William Kristol, for heavens sake, at George Will's home.

That's already very nearly unbelievable.

Can you remember the last time such a thing happened? I know I can't.

Another quote from last Friday evening's newscast was that Mr. Brooks found Mr. Obama to be much less of an "ideologue" and this, too, is so very welcome and now foreign to our politicians and politics.

It's generally agreed that the last 16 years have been tremendously ideological and divisive.

Far from being a "uniter", as President Bush promised he would be, years ago, he and his administration were loaded with ideologues and ideology, to the point of out-and-out dogma.

Right-wing, conservative, business-serving dogma and it's been very divisive and negative for the country.

When Republican Presidential administrations and campaigns started, years ago, clearing and denying attendees at what were supposed to be public speeches and presentations, so they could get audiences that were purely and completely acceptable to them and their ideas and directions, I was surprised--almost shocked--and disappointed, knowing we were going down a bad path.


I think President-elect Obama, as President, is going to bring statemanship, wisdom, calmness and intelligence back to the Presidency and so, the whole country.

Will Democrats and liberals get everything they want, always, from this new President?

No, certainly not. I'll say that right up front.

Barack Obama isn't perfect--he doesn't "walk on water", by any means.

But he's going to be what we need in this country, especially now, when we need to recover from the legal, internal and external, constitutional and financial issues, problems and messes we have now, due to the last 8 years of mismanagement, ineptitude and travesties.

This really is a new day.

A very welcome new day.