Category: Uncategorized

By on

Sometimes the choice you have is between two bad options. Neither option is particularly desirable but a choice has to be made nonethless. I am afraid this is the position Chuck Schumer was in when he decided to go forward with the Continuing Budget Resolution. One option is to shut down the government, which is what many Republicans want in the first place, or continuing funding a government which Trump and company are trying to dismantle.

Fighting the funding seems like a losing battle with possibly worse results than just continuing with the present chaos. What exactly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expected Schumer to do is unclear. Fighting for a better bill, particularly when large segments of the Republican party would love to shut down government permanently, seems like a losing battle with the stakes being even greater chaos than we are presently experiencing. Primary him if you must but Schumer is making much more sense to me than Ocasio-Cortez.

By on

There is nothing more annoying than a white man whining about how badly white men are treated. So I don’t encourage reading Matt Walsh’s cri de coeur about how people should be thanking white men for all the good that they have brought to the world. But, if you must, the rundown can be found below:

” I am proud to be a white man. I think that if anyone’s writing an article singling out white men, it should be to thank us. After all, as I said recently, this country could not exist without white men.”

“The vast majority of the greatest pioneers, inventors, thinkers, leaders in the history of Western civilization have been white men.”

Isn’t that a mouthful of bullshit? There are so many juicy targets here, I don’t know where to begin. His basic premise is both wrong. All you have to do is google inventions by Blacks, then change Blacks to Asian, then change Asian to women, and you will find significant inventions from members of all these groups. So what exactly does he mean when he writes “Nearly every good thing you have in your life — everything that makes your life safer, more comfortable, more enjoyable — was given to you by a white man.” Walsh has written a tricky sentence here both allowing him to acknowledge that non-white men may have contributed something to civilization while, also, allowing him to repeat his false assertion of “everything.”

Then there is White Men tend to tell stories that make White Men the heroes. So, when he talks, for instance, of the pioneers he is failing to acknowledge that these White Men followed paths that the Native American population already travelled and, in some cases, they were assisted by a Native American guide. This changes the story significantly. Lewis and Clark didn’t just wander into the woods and find Oregon. Non-Whites told them where to go. But Lewis and Clark got to tell their story in a way that it looks very much like White Men found the pathway across the continent when they were traveling paths used for centuries by non-Whites.

Most importantly, since White Men have been the most powerful people these past few centuries, it also stands to reason that they are responsible for every bad thing that has happened too — like industrial pollution, World War I, World War II, Racial Prejudice, and the subordination of Women. When you are in charge you have to take the good with the bad. Walsh wants you to thank white men for the good while ignoring the bad. It is a much more complicated legacy than Walsh would have you believe.

Which makes his whining so irritating. Poor White Men. No one appreciates them. Get out your handkerchiefs.

By on

Donald Trump is trying to position himself as the realist in the ongoing dispute between Putin and Zelenskyy. He wants Zelenskyy to come to terms with his inability to win the war. OK. Fair enough. But Putin is in exactly the same position. Putin can not win it either. So why is he only applying pressure on Zelenskyy? And why is only one side making concessions in this great deal that Trump is working on.

Furthermore, why is Zelenskyy getting the blame for trying to start World War III? Putin invaded the Ukraine. Doesn’t Putin deserve just a little bit of the blame then. If nothing else, for being impatient. What kind of shit sandwich is Trump expecting Zelenskyy to eat?Surrendering more land to Putin is all I am hearing, so and, wait I forgot, wait there is some promise from Putin that he will never never invade again.

What a deal. I am sure that it sounds pretty empty to Zelenskyy whose county has been invaded twice in the last 10 years. I keep thinking I am missing something. If not, it seems like an incredibly bad deal with Zelenskyy conceding land for nothing. And, I can’t believe this one, Trump wants Zelenskyy to thank him for his help.

My mind is blown. What a nakedly apparent betrayal and humiliation of Zelenskyy. And Trump is loving every minute of it. He is taking revenge on the world with no concern for tomorrow. He has absolutely nothing to lose now.

Since he is a lost cause it would be helpful for the wise men in the Republican Party to step up. There comes a point when getting reelected seems secondary to the world and to the future. But I guess not. Silence. Mostly just silence. And some of these guys have nothing to lose. Senator Grassley is 91 years old. What is the risk? What a bunch of cowards. Lots and lots of cowards.

By on

I was worried that I was becoming too numb to the daily Trump outrages. I would see them but reacting to them seemed difficult. There is only so much nonsense you can take before tuning it all out. He is going to take over Greenland, then the Panama Canal, then Canada. I repeat CANADA. Then he renames the Gulf of Mexico. I just am unable to be outraged every day.

Then last week occurred. I am glad to report Trump has jolted me back into outrage.

Correct me if I am wrong but is he is making the case for Putin being the injured party for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine? Are we talking about the same Russian invasion? I know it was a couple years ago but my memory is very different than Trump’s. It was all on television for about a month. Now Trump wants me to change my mind without offering any compelling evidence to do so.

Even more shocking, and let me tell you I am pretty damn shocked at this point, is that the whole Republican Party, even formally strong Ukraine supporters, are mad at Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently servile to Donald Trump. They aren’t saying that Zelenskyy is wrong but that he didn’t have the good sense to grovel while his host was spewing nonsense. Bad manners and all that.

Despite the fact that J.D. Vance and Trump started this little slugfest and expected Zelenskyy to sit quietly and take the punches. They made the choice to publicly dress down Zelenskyy in public. Zelenskyy isn’t the type of guy to back down from a fight. Ask Vladimir Putin.

But Trump picked a public fight and he got one. His guest behaved badly. Well, yes, after his host called him ungrateful in front of the television cameras. There is also a certain etiquette on how you treat your guest. Not embarrassing your guest is near the top of that list.

Trump is being calculated and shockingly transparent here. He wants to distance the US from the Ukraine. He has begun the process. So, in a few months, I guess, we will abandon the Ukraine, despite Russian aggression, despite Putin being a dictator who kills his opponents, because Zelenskyy hurt Trump’s feelings.

If you are looking for Hitler comparisons, and I know you are, try this one. Trump is in the Neville Chamberlain role. Putin fills in for Hitler and Zelenskyy is Eduard Benes, the Czechoslovak leader in 1938. Trump will encourage the partition Ukraine to bring peace to Europe while doing nothing of the sort. At least, Chamberlain thought he was bringing peace to Europe. Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about peace in Europe.

Well, at least, I got out of my numbness and am back to outrage. That is something.

.6

By on

I baffled at what the end game is for the billionaires club now dismantling the federal government. The present system has served them well. They have wealth, power, and beautiful women. Talk about hitting the jackpot. What more can they want? More importantly, what possible good can come from the chaos they are creating in our system.

They have this mistaken notion that they can control the chaos. But chaos, by its very nature, is uncontrollable. A disorderly dismantling of government is just fun and games right now but the further gutting of a system that has worked remarkably well these past 230 years or so for what? To be replaced by what? Everyone will be free to do whatever they want to do. That is mighty vague.

But what does this mean about public schools which, by the way, the founding fathers supported without reservation. What about Social Security which provides retirement income and people paid for in their payroll taxes. What about the National Parks? What about the FAA? None of which are perfect and all of which have a necessary function. What do the stripped down versions of these look like after Trump and Musk get through with it.

The arrogance of these men is dumbfounding. They sit on billions of dollars all earned in a system that was highly favorable to billionaires making money. Yet this isn’t enough somehow. Call me old fashioned, even call me conservative, but I prefer orderly change which protects the institutions we have while also opening these institutions to gradual change. It is less traumatic and boring but there is a lot less chance that the goose that laid the golden egg will be murdered in the process.

By on

Perhaps the Pope’s doctors were trying to report on his condition in a way not to alarm the public but how can there be anything mild about kidney failure. This seems like a pretty big deal and the mild in the phrasing does little to mitigate my concerns when directly after mild I see kidney failure.

Wouldn’t the Pope is in the early stages of kidney failure be a more accurate phrasing of his condition?

By on

I don’t particularly like Rudi Giuliani’s politics but I think this is an unduly cruel use of precious press time to point out he has to buy hair dye at Walmart.

He is no longer on the political scene, at least, not in an effective position worth writing about. Trump has used him and tossed him aside just as quickly now that he is of no use for him.

I am all for speaking truth to power but Giuliani is powerless. He is a broken man. I see little reason to point out his travails other than to laugh at him and how far he has fallen. It is unkind and unnecessary.

By on

I have been laid off twice in my career.

There is a way to do it that benefits the company eliminating the jobs while also minimizing the upset to the people losing their jobs. Donald Trump, a business genius no less, is doing it in the most careless and obnoxious way possible.

First, he and his DOGE stooges are laying off people and then discovering that they need these employees still. Musk, in his storied career, has repeatedly made this mistake. Most companies take a little time, particularly when there is no emergency, in learning what people do, assigning the tasks to retained employees so there is no gap in service and trying to put the laid off employees in the best position for a new position. Planning for the company’s sake, compassion for the people losing their jobs. Trump is doing neither. It is a shoddy mistake that gives retained employees and customers the impression that you don’t know what you are doing.

Planning requires a little more effort than looking at a spreadsheet and eliminating jobs. Doing this so quickly and without consideration to the repercussions is a costly mistake especially for businessmen of Trump and Musk’s supposed caliber. The abruptness could lead to rehires, gaps in services, and law suits. What money you saved from the layoffs will be eaten away in the chaos created by the layoffs. It isn’t they way to run a business successfully but then I doubt seriously if this is Trump or Musk’s intention. Destroying the Federal Government is much more like it.

The unalloyed glee that the DOGE boys are taking with their job is unforgivable. Laying people off is a sad task and it should be approached as a regrettable but necessary task. These guys are having way too much fun. People are losing their jobs. The DOGE boys may not like them, they may think their jobs are unnecessary, and they may think it is the right thing to do but they should respect the people they are putting out of a job. It is the very least they can do. Instead they are acting like a bunch of mean girls in high school who get to say who is in and who is out.

Trump and Musk are bullies. They enjoy laughing at others but are unable to take any ribbing at their own expense. They demand respect without giving any. The extraordinary number of people who have turned on them speaks volumes about their character. Nobody much likes Trump and Musk once they are free from their orbit. Let’s hope we all learn how to stand up to bullies in the ensuing few years.

By on

I don’t know why Hamas thought attacking Israel on October 7 was a good idea but they were wrong. What a disaster. It has failed utterly to do anything of value for the Palestinian people. All they are getting from it is more martyrs. A whole population ruined again by this ill thought out attack.

And I don’t blame the Israelis for kicking the shit out of the Palestinians. Hamas attacked the civilian population of Israel — killing men, women and children. Did they really expect the Israelis to do nothing? Anyone watching the Middle East for the past 70 years knew they were going to retaliate. Unsurprisingly they did with the full might of their military.

Maybe Hamas thought that they could change world opinion which might have worked if October 7 had not been so vicious. But it was so much so that whenever I try to get mad at the Israelis, I remember October 7 and I no longer can muster the requisite anger to actually change my mind.

The modern world doesn’t work in a way that matches the Hamas’ strategy. The news is everywhere. What you do is seen and once it has been seen, it can’t be unseen. Terrorism still scares the shit out people. The more repellant the terrorism, the less likely that any positive message you have will be heard. October 7 was truly repellant.

What about the Israeli merciless attack on Gaza. Yes it was bad but, again, I keep coming back to Hamas. Israel wanted the perpetrators of the October 7 attack. They were hiding in Gaza. If Hamas truly wanted to stop the Israeli counter attack, they could do what any losing army does when their civilian population is getting the shit kicked out them — they can surrender. They refused to do it, so then who is responsible for the long bloody war in Gaza? To my mind, Hamas.

Unfortunately for the Palestinians, it looks like the world agrees or, at least, they aren’t willing to do much to save them outside of street demonstrations. So, Hamas allowed its civilian population to take the brunt of Israelis justified anger after a pointless, but savage, attack of Israeli citizens. How has it helped the Palestinians in any way? I mean fucking Donald Trump wants to take over Gaza, kick out the Palestinians and put up resort hotels.

By on

I know that Donald Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the poor but I think it is important to question him, nonetheless, on his intentions here. Getting rid of social welfare programs is all fun and games to him, but it will have a serious impact on poor people thus on everyone else in the community.

Contrary to popular opinion, social welfare programs work. The biggest drops in poverty have occurred during the expansion of federal social welfare programs during the 1930’s and the 1960’s. Conservatives like to think that just cutting these programs will somehow force poor people to go out and get jobs. This has never worked. Never.

And we know that because there were an awful lot of poor people around before social welfare programs existed. Indeed they made up a much higher percentage of the population than they do now. Churches and charities were unable to make up the difference. That was why there were so many poor people back in the good old days.

Even Jesus realized this. Matthew 26:11 “The poor you will always have with you.” So how does Trump, Musk and company intend to help them. Taking them off the dole is hardly helpful. People need housing in order to take showers so they can make a good impression with looking for a job. They need transportation in order to arrive at the job on time. They may need psychiatric counseling so that they are coherent enough to hold a job. They may need drug rehab or alcohol rehab. They may need job training so that they can work the available jobs. The poor need an awful lot of help to make companies see them as potential employees. Where is this help going to come from?

I do have a modest proposal here and it is from the Bible — a source that Republicans particularly like to refer to. Matthew 19:20 If you want to be perfect (a perfect Christian that is), sell what you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Come on Donald and Elon, you know what to do.