Category: Politics

By on

I have mixed feelings about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Half-time show on Sunday.

I only half paid attention to it. I would look up whenever somebody shouted there is Lady Gaga or there is Ricky Martin but other than that it held half of my attention at best. Before you get all bent out of shape about me not watching the show, I can also make the same admission about every Super Bowl Half-time show I ever witnessed. Half-time shows are a time to refresh my drink, to grab some grub and to go to the bathroom. I can’t recall ever being so mesmerized by a Half-time show to commit one to memory. To be fair, the actual football game falls into that category as well.

Frankly, I am too old for the shows. I rarely, if ever, have any personal knowledge of the entertainer who is flying in from the rafters or appearing in a whiff of smoke. I am also just a little bit bored with the annual outrage of whichever artist gets selected to perform. Nobody they choose is going to please everyone in such a diverse population. The artist will be too niche, too controversial, too sexy, too tame, too boring, too young, too old, and I think you get my point, anyone selected will be too too something. It is a fool’s errand and I think the Super Bowl Entertainment Committee would be best to go back to marching bands instead of big name entertainers.

That said, I do think there was a problem with Bad Bunny. Someone somewhere wanted to deliver a message to Middle America and Donald Trump. Trump obviously received that message given his vitriolic response. He got angry which is what he was supposed to do and like a well tuned clock — he did. Taking their cue from their master, the conservative talking heads screamed their agreement. Does it make any sense though? Putting on a show in which a significant majority of the people watching don’t speak the language seems unnecessarily provocative and more than a little petty.

If you are trying to put on a show that celebrates immigrants, perhaps using a common language would be helpful to the people who you are purportedly trying to influence, otherwise you are missing your target. Oh, but it was the most watched Half-time show in the history. I think “watched” is a pretty strong word here. I would argue it was more background noise and that most of Middle America could care less. It is a quick conversation the next morning and then back to work. By the end of the week, the rest of the country will have forgotten about it and moved on to watching skiers fall at the Winter Olympics.

All we really got out of Bad Bunny was another experience of Donald Trump foaming at the mouth which, lets face it, we could have elicited by any number of pokes in the eye. It isn’t terribly difficult. I can’t wait until next year when the Super Bowl Half-time Entertainment Committee decides to have the best opera singers and classical music artist performs to ensure that Americans get exposed to a culture that they are unaware of.

By on

Conservatives recent field day complaining about the Somalian daycare center corruption is difficult to take seriously when this is accompanied by silence about the obvious corruptive practices of Donald Trump — things like the Qatari prince giving him a jet, or Trump pardoning of social security frauds and drug traffickers, or Trump awarding defense contracts to companies associated with his son.

But, no, the corruption outrage is limited to Somali immigrants or, rather, to any group seen to have connections to the Democratic party. Any fraud that may be associated with Trump or any of his billionaire friends are to grift without consequence. The stench of hypocrisy is just far too overwhelming. What really matters is who is committing the fraud but I don’t believe for one minute that you truly care about ending corruption.

In order for me to believe that they care I would think an investigation into Trump’s dodgy pardons would be a nice start. Oh, and if your defense is but Biden did it too. It’s a child’s defense after getting her hand caught in the cookie jar based in the notion that everybody is doing it, why are you getting bent out of shape because you caught me. That argument holds little, if any, moral principle.

So, by all means, let’s investigate the Somalian day care centers for fraud but you can get off your fucking high horse because nobody believes your show of faux moral indignation.

By on

Occasionally, after writing a post, I have this wait a minute moment. I realize that I didn’t quite write what I wanted to say. This happened to me last night after I posted regarding the Epstein Files. I realized I wanted to emphasize a point more strongly than I did.

What is bothering me here is that the Biden Justice Department sat on these files for 4 years. The pressure for releasing these files came from MAGA and Donald Trump. Trump is rarely held accountable by his supporters, latched on to the issue during the 2024 campaign because it was useful then, probably thinking that once he took office he could forget any he promises he made about the files. MAGA deserves a little credit for holding him to his promise because some MAGA members continued to campaign for their release even after Trump tried to bury them again. Democrats joined the bandwagon because Trump was president now and the files could be used as a cudgel to use against him. They were counting on maximum embarrassment to Trump and the Republicans.

Unfortunately the files uncovered a much more insidious problem — a lot of political and business elites think it is ok for themselves to enjoy sexual relations with trafficked women and girls and they expect other people in the elite club to look the other way and protect them if they get caught. Sadly, it looks like they might get away with it.

Given the heavily redacted documents which prevents further investigation from people outside of the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s opposition to further prosecution, it looks like the most these men will endure is a little embarrassment and perhaps a job loss here and there. Not much, I would say for participating in a global sex trafficking ring. But we can’t have VIP’s being embarrassed, now can we?

What has me roiled here is that Joe Biden could have released these documents while he was president. Prior to Trump’s second inauguration, I don’t recall many Democrats all that enthused about their release. Biden’s Justice Department could have redacted the documents instead of Trump’s. But, for some reason, nothing happened. Oh, right they were protecting the poor women who were abused by Epstein and Maxwell. I thought that was the purpose of redacting the documents — protecting the victims. So, that particular excuse simply doesn’t hold water. So why did they sit on these documents and do absolutely nothing for 4 years? Protecting rich powerful men from prosecution is the only thing I can com up with.

This leads me back to the conclusion — Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of a greater problem — a system that clearly is broken and no plausible way to fix it. Sigh.

By on

Every so once in awhile I realize that Donald Trump is a diversion from the real problem. The latest release of Epstein File documents made me focus again on the bigger issue here — the rich and powerful are misbehaving and getting away with it and have absolutely no interest in changing things.

This is apparent because after 20 years of investigations into Epstein, only two people have been convicted of any crime — Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Pretty strange, don’t you think? If you have sexual trafficking going on, there are sellers (Epstein and Maxwell) of the girls and then there are buyers of the girls. The buyers have managed to skirt the justice system so far. Why?

The government is sitting on reams of evidence naming potential customers. None of them, except ex-Prince Andrew, who, poor thing has been stripped of his title, has had any reckoning with the law. It is more than a little telling and also disappointing that four different presidential administrations have gone by since Epstein’s first crimes were discovered, with more and more evidence accumulating with each year and the Department of Justice does nothing to pursue Epstein’s johns. This will change now that the evidence has been released, right?

Apparently no. Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, says they don’t have any evidence that these gentlemen committed any crimes. Yes, they did socialize with known sex traffickers but that is not a crime. Blanche says this in such a way that suggests if he had some evidence to pursue these men he surely would. Right. They may not have admitted to anything but, Jesus Christ, he has names of people who might have information or, worse still, have committed crimes.

Dragging them into the police station for a few questions seems called for particularly from an administration that has no trouble blowing drug trafficking suspects out of the water without a trial. Hmm. Makes you think doesn’t it. What is the difference between a suspected Venezuelan drug dealer and a suspected Epstein party goer? Let me think.

But these rich powerful men, these best and brightest didn’t know what Epstein is up to. You can’t blame them for not seeing what was going on. They just came for a little R and R. It is possible these men coming to a secluded island with a bevy of adolescent girls didn’t know what was up. It is possible but highly unlikely. One of the more eyebrow raising effects of the released Epstein files is to witness these rich and powerful men squirming awkwardly about their culpability. They just didn’t know what old Jeff was up to.

Does anyone honestly believe that? Given that many of these men have teenage daughters of their own, the idea that they can’t eyeball a girl and gauge her age seems a bit, oh I don’t know, unbelievable. More importantly, if they are too god damn stupid to see what Epstein was doing, should they really be trusted with such important jobs. So to put in bluntly they are either liars and therefore unworthy of their position or stupid which makes them even more unworthy of their position.

The whole Epstein fiasco points to a much bigger problem than just Trump. Biden’s Justice department wasn’t doing anything with the information either and probably for the exact same reason that Trump initially didn’t want to release the files — they were protecting important men from, at the bare minimum, embarrassment and, at the worst, prosecution for sex with minors. This suggests that the system is rotten to the core. Trump going into retirement won’t change that.

By on

Hear me out on this one. This might take a minute.

I never got Ronald Reagan. His charm eluded me but a comfortable majority of the country disagreed. They loved him which allowed him to change the American political environment. The free market/small government ideas he espoused still dominate the political debate nearly 40 years after he left office. If you don’t believe me, try raising taxes anywhere in the United States and the overwhelming response will be no. Americans prefer potholes to good public services.

Reagan had a nice guy personality that connected easily with the public and is completely different from our current president. Criticism rolled right off Reagan’s back and he worked with his political opponents whenever possible while respectfully disagreeing with their ideas. This enabled him to incorporate much of his political agenda into American life.

This worries me because Trump is such an obvious asshole. I think a lot of his own supporters think he is an asshole. They support him any way because they agree with his politics. Nearly half the country for the last three elections has voted for him despite him being an asshole, an idiot, a misogynist pig, a racist, and a corrupt detestable human being.

Where would he, and more importantly, the country be if he was slightly less obnoxious? My fear is he would have even more support than he presently does which should put the fear of God into the Democratic Party, but doesn’t. I have been supporting the most left leaning candidate my whole life (voting since 1976) and have met with disappointment almost every single time. These candidates somehow fail to catch fire beyond the left leaning communities they come from and the Democratic nominee (see Carter and Clinton here) is generally more conservative than I prefer. Obama is the only successful exception that I can recall and keep in mind his best result in a general election was 52% of the vote.

So when leaders on the left try to say Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez are the answer, I seriously have my doubts. Don’t get me wrong, I would like them to be the answer, I just don’t think it will happen. If an obnoxious asshole like Trump can win elections, imagine how a less obnoxious asshole can do.

By on

I googled the percentage of voters in 2024 that thought they were voting for the lesser of two evils. I was astounded to learn that 47% of voters felt this way. This information should raise red flags for both parties but, since I vote Democratic, it should particularly alarm Democrats because, given this bad choice between a corrupt babbling idiot and a rather tame party hack, a lot of people choose the idiot.

More people distrust the Democratic Party than Trump. There is this assumption among liberals that Trump is somehow tricking good people into voting for him. I purpose an alternate vision that people know Trump is corrupt, a liar and an idiot but they are voting for him anyway because the Democrats scare them more. This means the problem isn’t Trump but the Democratic Party. The question, then, should be why are people choosing Trump as the lesser evil?

This is also why attacking the Trump voters is counterproductive. Notice I said Trump voter not Trump. The avid Trump voter is a lost cause but the lesser-of-two-evil Trump voter is not. When you call Trump voters racists, you are also potentially ceding the lesser-of-two-evil Trump voter. Yes some Trump voters are racists but some are not. if you are trying to change minds — calling someone names really is a lousy way to do it.

It reduces the Democrats strategy to making the Republican candidate so fucking unpopular that lesser-of-two-evil voters chose the Democrats as the lesser evil. This is hardly a ringing endorsement of a future Democratic Administration. It also explains why the Byzantine political processes that govern American processes so easily thwarts change. Nobody is exactly sold on the change. Paralysis is a better option than initiating drastic change that will take the country who knows where. People unhappily vote Democratic while also understanding that the filibuster will prevent any big changes from happening.

The Democrats need to win voters in a variety of states other than New York and California. Whenever I talk to Bernie Sanders fans I catch this disconnect with the rest of the country. If you say that words like Socialism don’t translate well in the American heartland, their answer is this isn’t a problem when they listen to Bernie and hear what he actually is saying, they will change their minds.

Well, Bernie ran for Democratic Party nomination twice among the most liberal voters in America. If he can’t win the nomination of the more liberal party what makes people think he can win with more conservative voters in November. This is the whole point of primary elections — testing for the strongest candidates for your party. Sanders has failed this test twice.

I wish people like Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez all the luck in the world. I truly want them to succeed but the idea that they are the answer for the Democrats has yet to be proven outside of New York City and, let’s face it, the typical New Yorker hardly represents middle America. Let’s do some more testing before we place our markers on the wrong bet.

By on

Greenland, not too long ago, was a hunk of ice that few people cared about. But then Greenland started to melt making it more feasible to exploit its natural resources and making the waterways surrounding the country more navigable. So now Trump wants it.

So even though Trump doesn’t believe in Global Warming, he wants to take advantage of the destruction Global Warming is causing. On one hand, nothing needs to be done to slow Global Warming because it isn’t happening and, even if it was, it has nothing to do with human activity. On the other hand, this vast hunk of ice that covers Greenland is disappearing, I guess for no particular reasoning, and Trump wants in on the action.

The contradictions here are mind boggling.

By on

I was talking with my brother about the Hitler/Trump comparison and I always end up in the same place. Trump just isn’t Hitler. Not even close. It is an impossible measurement. Hitler is one of the all time champion dictatorial monsters. Valid comparisons to Hitler are Stalin and Mao but Trump falls short in this competition. Way way short.

This doesn’t mean Trump isn’t dangerous, he just fails to match Hitler.

I think the Hitler comparison comes about because Hitler’s rule was so disastrous for the entire world. A lot of people died directly and indirectly during his rampage through history. He is the worst case scenario. Hitler is meant to scare people. But because Trump isn’t nearly as bad as Hitler the comparison fails to accomplish this task and might even be counter productive.

The danger of this comparison is that people will judge the comparison as faulty and dismiss the argument.

The real problem, as my brother pointed out, is that Trump is crossing lines that are intolerable in democracy. He is arresting people and taking over countries with very thin pretexts. He is condemning people to death without trial. He thinks the president can do anything he wants. He is no longer playing by the rules of American democracy so when is it all right for people who disagree with him to stop playing by those rules.

This is a much more difficult proposition and one we need to be very careful about. Political violence is terrible because once it starts, all bets are off. Once the bodies pile up, things get pretty bloody awfully fast. I, personally, would like to avoid that if at all possible. I may be wrong but I still think we aren’t at a point to stop playing by the rules.

By on

I have been looking for an example of what is wrong with the present political system that isn’t about Donald Trump doing something outrageous. This has been a difficult task because Trump is consistently behaving outrageously. It is so frequent that I started writing the present blog minutes before I discovered Trump kidnapped the Venezuelan president and his wife. I had to stop this blog to write another blog because kidnapping a president and taking over another country is pretty big news.

I now feel comfortable to return to the less outrageous, but concerning, actions of a politician I happen to like — Nancy Pelosi. She believes there is something wrong with Donald Trump’s mental capacity related to his advanced age. I happen to agree with her. The problem I have is her diagnosis is tainted by her previous toleration of Joe Biden’s declining mental capacity while he was president. She was quite willing to foist a declining senior citizen who also happened to be a Democrat on us until it became obvious to the general public that Biden was no longer capable of doing the job.

So thanks but no thanks for this helpful information about Trump. Her words here are meaningless because she changes her tune depending on what party the declining senior citizen is a member. The same criticism goes for all the many Republican and conservative pundits who delighted in pointing out Biden’s decline while presently ignoring the deteriorating health of Trump. How can you take seriously people who complain about putting an old man into power while simultaneously nominating a 78 year old man for president. Huh?

But Trump isn’t the same as Biden. Maybe, maybe not. The issue, however, is putting an aging person in a position of power. The health of 78 year old can change and change rapidly. It isn’t a particularly wise move particularly if you say you are concerned about an aging person in power. What makes putting a 78 year old in power in 2024 different from putting a 79 year old in power in 2020?

So talk all you want about your concerns but it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in your opinion when you selectively use arguments that are important when your party is out of power and not so important when your party is in power. It is, in fact, irritating to hear such hypocrisy roll of the tongues of leaders who expect, in return, that you take it as received wisdom. So blah blah blah right back at you.

By on

I have to give Donald Trump credit. He chooses his enemies well. Nicolas Maduro is an unpopular asshole and difficult to defend as he is probably, at least passively, involved in the drug trade. A good portion of his own people are glad to see him go which puts people who question Trump’s action in the awkward position of saying but what about the law. Yeah, well, keep talking because I don’t think it is going to matter much. This would only matter if he had fucked it up and he didn’t.

People will be outraged. Rightfully so, but it will have little effect. What is the frequent theme for television heroes? A guy who doesn’t let the rules get in the way of him doing the right thing. Over and over again. The hero, if ever, is very rarely a rule following fussbudget. The hero isn’t going to get all the right forms completed and then signed off before arresting the villain. The hero is a rule breaking rouge, a bit of a scoundrel, who figures a way to get the villain despite those annoying rules.

This isn’t a television show and Trump is no television hero. Right. That is the theory any way. The reality, I’m afraid, is somewhat different because why has everyone been glued to their televisions for the past year waiting for Trump’s next move. The Trump show keeps coming up with different ways to shock and entertain us. What will he do next?

But this is an illegal operation, done without congressional authorization, against a head of a legally elected government. But but but and blah blah blah.

To be clear, I don’t support this in any way. I am saying that the outrage will be limited to the people who already hate the man. I doubt very much that anyone else will have their minds changed about him particularly when a Trump controlled Venezuelan government floods the energy markets with cheap oil. I hope I am wrong and the world will come to their senses and turn on Trump. Right now, I doubt it.