Category: Politics

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Execution is a solemn occasion. We, and I use the word we here because the state is acting on our behalf, only carry out this sentence for the most extreme crimes after a jury of 12 people review the facts in the case. It is a grave matter to decide that taking a man’s life is a just sentence. When all is said and done a human being is dying. It is sad if only that the murderer found himself making profoundly stupid decisions that he could have easily avoided.

The glee with which Pete Hegseth takes in executing a man is disturbing. It certainly isn’t solemn, it is more like won’t it be cool to kill a man on live television. Maybe he could wear a white shirt so we can see where the bullets He is behaving like a 12 year old with a brand new BB gun who wants to kill, well, anything. He clearly misunderstands the gravity of taking a man’s life.

Holding public office requires an understanding of polite behavior. He may think it is all fun and games in private. That is his business. In public, however, he is a cabinet secretary of the U.S. government. He serves the people of this country and a certain amount of decorum is required to serve in this position. Either he is so arrogant to not care about how a cabinet secretary should behave when faced with such a situation or he is incredibly stupid.

I wish I could say he was just an asshole but I am inclined to believe he is really a stupid asshole although I am debating which puts us in a worse position. Malicious or clueless. Neither one is particularly helpful at this time.

Sometimes when I think the fate of the world is in the hands of people of such character as Trump and Hegseth my mind boggles.  This is one of those occasions.  

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I have to give Donald Trump credit for one thing — I am a much better citizen than I was in 2016. Before that, I paid attention to elections to the extent that I read the newspapers and made my decisions based on what I learned. But that was pretty much it. I didn’t worry much about Republicans winning elections. I may have been a little disappointed but that was the extent of my feelings. Life went on and, more importantly, democracy went on without getting much more input from me.

Now I pay attention. I think maybe I pay too much attention. I have to review every poll for every Senate race to see who is ahead. I know the candidates for every close Senate race in the country. Ask me this 20 years ago and I would be hard pressed to supply this information.

This isn’t a bad thing. Trump may be our punishment for taking democracy for granted. Thinking that all I had to do is just show up every election and everything would be find. I realize there are people who should just not hold office and I need to pay attention better which isn’t a bad lesson to learn.

But is is also driving me a bit crazy. Compulsive reading of poll numbers isn’t exactly easing my mind. I wonder. Are these correct? Polls have been wrong in the past, what if these are wrong now? How are we going to get through another couple years of the mad man Trump?

It is making me anxious and my anxiety can’t be quelled by thinking the Democrats look good and might win. Because, then, I start thinking about what revenge will Trump take on the country then.

So, at least until November 4, I will be anxious. Forgive me ahead of time if I am cranky for the next month or so.

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Trump regrets his 3 Supreme Court nominees who now, rarely, but on occasion, vote independently of what Trump wants.

This seems to be a reoccurring problem for the President. He seems to have a problem with selecting good staff. Indeed, I can’t recall a president ever having so much trouble with his own staff.

It must be difficult to find people with tongues long enough to reach the tippy top of his intestinal wall.

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Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt’s embarrassing gaffe regarding Jack Smith is more than a little puzzling. The sparse evidence Schmitt possessed confirmed absolutely nothing that Schmitt thought he had evidence for.

  1. Even if Smith had gone to the game, it only proved he was in Atlanta. Schmitt didn’t have any evidence that Smith had talked to Fani Willis — just that he was in Atlanta at the same time as Willis. This is Schmitt’s best case scenario and, if true, he would have had to provide evidence that the two actually met which he clearly didn’t have. So why would he even pursue this line of questioning is mind boggling?
  2. Given this slim gruel of evidence, Schmitt projected Smith into a meeting with Willis based solely on proximity. If Smith had said yes, I was at the Atlanta Hawks game and I was in Atlanta — this hardly proves he talked with Willis. Ok, Smith was in Atlanta, so what?
  3. Schmitt, because he had so little evidence, could have approached his questioning more as an inquiry instead of an accusation. In this way, he could have sussed out whether he did indeed have the goods on Smith and saved himself from looking so stupid. A polite question to Smith about where he was, and seeing Smith’s confusion regarding the question, he would have had an opportunity to suss out his next move. If he had listened to Smith, he might have even had realized that their was a problem with his thinking and to proceed with caution. Instead, he was so convinced he had his Gotcha Moment, he didn’t even listen to the confused Smith who was trying to figure out what Schmitt was talking about, and he barrelled a head into ignominy.
  4. The worse part of this whole brouhaha is that nobody stopped to think that there was no there there. They had sketchy and, as it turns out, incorrect evidence that Smith was in Atlanta and none that Smith met with Willis. This was the whole basis of the Gotcha Moment and nobody looking at this sparse evidence and said this doesn’t really add up. I mean I can accept that one Senator from Missouri might be dim, that is a given, but a whole staff of paid professionals just shook their heads yes and said gotcha.

Then, to hear that Eric Schmitt is being considered as a potential Vice-President candidate. Yes, I realize that Donald Trump as set the bar so low that almost any idiot can clear it but even the Republicans surely can come up someone better than Schmitt.

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One of the more illuminating revelations of the Epstein Sex trafficking scandal is that when given a choice between protecting children from a billionaire predator and enjoying the same billionaire’s lavish hospitality that most, if not all, people will accept the sexual predator’s hospitality with nary a word about the young women wandering around the party without their parents.

At best, they enjoyed Epstein’s food and liquor while ignoring the suspicious presence of teenage girls at these adult functions. These people claim ignorance about what Epstein was up to but it is willful ignorance given Epstein’s reputation with young women. They weren’t just a tiny bit suspicious that Epstein was up to no good. These rich and powerful people said absolutely nothing.

Mind you, this is the best case scenario — willful ignorance. From there it descends horribly given the participation of the person in Epstein’s fun and games.

This, in and of itself, is troubling but it gets worse. These are the same people entrusted to make important decisions for government and business. It should be concerning that they behaved so badly when tested. They don’t seem like a group that would be particularly motivated to protect Anne Frank from the Nazis.

One thing I do know for sure is that they don’t care one bit what happens to your children.

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Laura Loomer, MAGA megaphone and friend of Donald Trump, called Angie Nixon, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Florida, a ghetto bitch. This is, of course, wrong and way out of bounds. It is also an irritating diversion from what the media and the rest of world should be focused.

Loomer, an attention seeking asshole, knows that if she says something outrageous, the press will print her bull shit in big bold letters for the whole world to see. So she says something horrible about Nixon. The press, then, asks Nixon for a response to Loomer’s put down which puts her in an awkward position. She can return fire or keep her mouth shut.

What self respecting person wouldn’t respond what Loomer said. So now Loomer gets to respond to what Nixon said and the whole news cycle gets consumed by this attention seeking idiot. This continues until another nut job, perhaps even Loomer herself or the ever talkative Donald Trump beats her to it, says something outrageous for journalists to stir their every growing pot of irrelevance.

So, it gets better. Trump renames Lake Ontario Lake America, right. Now we have the Lake America controversy and the press is lapping it up. What important subjects are not being talked about while Doug Ford, the Ontario premier, grabs headline with his giant sign saying Lake Ontario. Take that Donald Trump. You aren’t the boss of us.

The problem here is that Trump and Loomer don’t care if they look like idiots as long as they are getting headlines and, more seriously, they are driving the media to cover their drivel instead of, for example, say the war in the Ukraine or Gaza or Iran or inflation or the elections or, how should I put this, oh I know, real problems.

Don’t get me wrong, I get why Nixon and Ford responded to these idiots. They are infuriating people. But it is depressing to see so much attention given to these narcissistic assholes and their faux controversies. This is exactly what they want and we are giving it to them every single time their craving for attention strikes them.

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Bernie Sanders and James Carville are having a disagreement about the rising power of the Democratic Socialists. Sanders even suggested that Carville should think about starting a different party which is, with all due respect to Bernie here, the worst possible suggestion he could make.

It is important to remember that the Democratic Socialists may be winning some of these close primary races but they are close races. El-Sayed beat Stevens by less than 16,000 votes out of 1,500,000 votes cast. He needs the Stevens’ votes to win the seat in November. When your win is narrow, and you need the votes of the person you just defeated to win the next contest, a moment of humility and grace might be the better approach than gloating and rubbing the defeated’s nose in their loss.

Carville, who, after all, worked on the Bill Clinton’s winning team, has a lot to offer in the way of political advice. He is not a part of the Republican disinformation machine. He is a loyal Democrat. That he is concerned about how the Democratic Socialist’s are behaving should give one pause.

Perhaps what appeals to left wing Democrats isn’t particularly appealing to more moderate Democrats, so say nothing of Independents and unhappy Republicans. Millions of Americans choose Donald Trump as the lesser of two evils in three very close elections. This should disturb every Democrat. People knowingly picked an incompetent asshole because they were more afraid of the Democratic Party than they were of Donald Trump. This is a big problem.

American political parties are umbrellas that cover large groups of various interests. These groups don’t always agree. That is OK. In order to win elections, you do, however, have to keep everyone under the same umbrella. This is a difficult task. Telling someone to leave is political suicide if you can’t replace them with someone who can bring in the same number of votes. This makes moderate Democrats essential if we are going to win in November.

I would be more impressed with the Democratic Socialists if they were now spending some time trying to win over people like Carville instead of alienating them. I am hoping this is the temporary flush of victory and they will come to their senses soon, but so far they look like a bunch of assholes who think they are unbeatable. I am afraid they are beatable.

The goal here is to get remove as many Republicans from office as possible. Keep your eyes on the ball.

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Winning primaries is a much easier task for Democratic Socialists because the Democratic Party is the left wing party in the American two party system. There is a disproportionate number of left wingers. It makes sense but it doesn’t answer the question about can these left leaning people win general elections.

Winning the general election should be on every Democrat’s mind because Donald Trump is a menace and the only thing that can stop him now is vigorous opposition coming from the legislative branch of government. Democrats need to win elections in order to tame Trump.

Now if we were talking about your garden variety Republican, someone like George Bush, I might be more willing to gamble on Democratic Socialists. Their thinking happen to align more with my own thinking.

On the other hand, it is more important for the Republicans to be defeated. Much more important. A half of a loaf of bread is better than no loaf at all.

That Democratic Socialists can win in a place like New York City is great news but unsurprising. New York City is much more liberal than the rest of the country. Can these Democratic Socialists win in places like Wisconsin and Michigan, states that even more moderate Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris barely and painfully lost — leaving us with Donald Trump as president.

I have been told many times that all the American people need is to hear a true candidate of the left and they will magically cast their votes for the left wing candidate. Well, tell that to President George McGovern, President Jesse Jackson, President Howard Dean, President Bernie Sanders. I have supported an array of left wing candidates who never held power.

Americans are suspicious of big government. I happen to disagree with them but then that doesn’t change any minds, does it? The polling for James Talarico in Texas and Jon Ossoff in Georgia shows a more plausible way forward the Democrats. Are they perfect? Of course not. But can they win in states where Democrats have difficult time getting elected. Absolutely.

My fear is that very winnable races will be lost by candidates who are wasting their time on having to define what a biological woman is or what personal pronouns to use because these are the issues the Republican party will raise in these close races.

In the 1990’s most Democrats opposed Gay Marriage — not because they actually opposed it but because they knew it would sink their potential election. Gay people largely understood this and bided their time until the public perception (with a grand assist from the Supreme Court) of Gay Marriage changed.

The same thing can be said for Capital Punishment. I don’t think very many Democrats actually support Capital Punishment but the American public do. Until minds are changed, it is irresponsible for Democrats to lose elections on an issue where the public has a firm commitment.

The world is imperfect. This will always be the case. This means that we will elect imperfect people who hold imperfect positions in an imperfect government. In order to get things done, we have to accept reality and imperfection.

I hope that the Democratic Socialists do well however my bigger concern is that they don’t torpedo potential Democratic victories in the election. Ideological perfection is all well and good but if we have learned anything during the Trump years is that the people who hold the power make the rules. This means winning elections.

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Apparently Troy Jackson, the Democrat’s new candidate for the Maine seat in the U.S, Senate, had sexual relations with his second cousin. This is news for some reason. There is nothing illegal or wrong about it. Maybe a little weird for some people but nothing that would stop me from voting for someone.

What I object to is the waste of space in the media to pursue this non-story. There is a better use of this space given the state of the world than investigating second cousin sexual relationships. Give me a break.

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I avoid talking about Donald Trump because, him being a narcissist, it doesn’t matter if it is good or bad — as long as you are talking about him. So anytime anyone talks about him — it is a win in his eyes.

Sometimes, however, I must comment on the antics of our president. This is one of them.

Let’s stop for a moment and review what is going on in the world — there are wars in the Ukraine, Iran and Gaza. These wars have affected gas prices which creates a cascading effect on all prices which use transportation — which is everything — so inflation on the horizon for the whole damn world. The President’s party will be standing for election in November which, if the present polls are correct, they are running significantly behind. Not to mention the wading pool and the chaos on the White House lawn.

This would seem like a fairly full plate for the President to be dealing with it. He must be working tirelessly to address all of this. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem much bothered by any of this because he spent the weekend creating silly memes attacking his “enemies” and making himself heroic.

Now, in a way, as someone who worries about how Trump acts as president, I actually prefer him spending his time on silly memes as this way he will have less time to start an unnecessary war or spouting off about something he knows nothing about which, in turn, unintentionally irritates our allies. Let him cut and paste like a kindergartner at playtime. Very interesting Donald, a good use of the cut and paste feature, lets see if you can make one about Kaitlin Collins’ looks.

But really. I mean really, the most powerful man in the world spending his precious time figuring out how to put George Washington into a meme seems like a waste of his precious time. Doesn’t he have better things to do with his time? I mean like lead the Western World or something that, at least, falls into his job description.