Archives for December 2016

It is almost universally agreed 2016 was a crappy year.

We recently suffered the deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, … only one day apart. This came on top of some really big music legends joining that big “nightshift” in the sky: George Michael, David Bowie, Prince, Glenn Frey, Maurice White, Keith Emerson, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell and Greg Lake.

Yes, every year sees the names of many music superstars on the “check out” list. But so many, so young, so soon?

In world and national events, you had the following tragedies (in no particular order): Syria, Haiti, Zika, Orlando, Charlotte, Nice, Brussels, and Berlin.

But perhaps the biggest downer for most Americans, and all peace-loving people of the world, was the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States.

That the greatest nation on earth … Reagan’s “shining city on a hill,” could elect as their leader an infantile, narcissistic con man is too much for many to bear.

Yet as hard as it may be accepting the fact that a carnival barker was elected president of the United States on November 8^th, it is even scarier facing the reality that this same person will officially be elevated to our nation’s highest office on January 20, 2017.

When Donald J. Trump has the power to actually sign bills into law … bills that the Republican-controlled congress is salivating to get to his desk, that’s when the real scary part begins.

The Affordable Care Act? Fugetaboutit! Social Security and Medicare? Fugetaboutit! Environmental protection? Fugetaboutit! A woman’s right to choose? Fugetaboutit!

Yes, 2016 was a bad year. But 2017 could make crappy 2016 smell like roses in comparison.

It is distressing when, for many people, avoiding nuclear war would be a sign of success for the coming year.

Image | photogiz

Like humans, the meanings of words also evolve.

Take, for example, the word “gay.” Up until the early 1960s, the word primarily meant “lighthearted and carefree.” In the 1930s, you had Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers starring in “The Gay Divorcée.” In 1962 you could find Sam Cooke singing about a New York place where “people are so gay, twistin’ the night away.”

Today the word is almost universally known to mean homosexual … especially men.

One could make a case for words changing their meaning ever since the first word was uttered.

The word “fact” has recently undergone a major shift. Thanks to years of conservative news outlets like Fox News, and more recently the Trump campaign, the word that once meant “something that has really occurred or is actually true” now means, “something you believe has really occurred or is actually true.”

The late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously said, “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

How quaint. How so totally vintage!

Scottie Neil Hughes, the conservative CNN commentator and ardent Trump supporter, recently told radio host Diane Rehm, “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.”

And observation bears that out.

Donald Trump claims to have won the national popular vote. Fifty-two percent of Republicans say it’s a fact, according to one poll. Forty percent of Trump voters believe that to be true in another poll.

The reality is that the final vote count showed Hillary Clinton won almost three million more votes than Trump!

This is a fact in the old meaning of the word. It is knowable, provable and empirically true. But nearly half of Trump voters don’t buy it. Why? They believe Donald Trump over the crooked media which just makes up the numbers.

Hughes, in the same radio interview, went on to say, “And so one thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch, is that people that say facts are facts – they’re not really facts … Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth, or not the truth.”

Sorry, Sen. Moynihan, in our brave new Trumpian world, everyone is entitled to his or her own facts.

Come on now …is one to believe the corrupt media or the words of our new “Dear Leader?”

Photo | ourstorian.wordpress.com

At a time when the world is becoming increasingly dangerous, the United States elects its most erratic, temperamentally unstable president. When the leadership and steady hand of the world’s greatest power is needed most, Americans choose a loose cannon as their commander in chief.

There are many religious folks out there who are predicting, and praying for, the end of times. With Donald J. Trump’s tiny finger on the nuclear button, they just might get their wish.

This week was particularly alarming. With terrorist attacks in Berlin, Germany and Amman, Jordon, along with a political assassination in Turkey, it does seem that the world is fast going to hell in a hand basket.

Instead of a cool, calm and collected commander in chief, we are about to install an inexperienced, unpredictable, thin-skinned and intellectually incurious con artist as leader of the free world.

Donald Trump, with his consistent anti-Muslim rhetoric, has perhaps done more for ISIS recruitment than just about anyone. And who does he surround himself with? Like-minded advisers.

Trump’s choice as national security adviser, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, has been quoted as saying, “Fear of Muslims is rational.”

Giving the reins of power to a likeable but completely incompetent man didn’t work so well the last time around. No, George W. Bush did not blow up the world (some may dispute that). He just set the stage for a popular demagogue, who has a thing for nuclear weapons, to do so.

It is being said some Congressional Republicans are as fearful of the harm Trump might inflict on the world just as much as everyone else. But they will stick with him as long he allows them to fulfill their wettest dreams… more tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization of Medicare and Social Security, business deregulation, etc.

Once Trump stops playing ball with the legislators, however, they have enough dirt on the ethically compromised “billionaire” to impeach his butt.

But it might be too late. World War III might have already started.

As always, for Republicans, it is party over country… or even the world.

Photo | bossip.com

Nearly one and a half months after their candidate’s defeat, Democrats are still in mourning. They’re in the dumps. They cannot understand how a Hillary victory that was seemingly in the bag ended up as one of the most shocking presidential losses in American history.

The Democratic Party will no doubt conduct a postmortem similar to the one carried out by Republicans after their 2012 loss.

Already there are different theories being floated for this devastating upset. Hillary did not campaign enough in the Rust Belt states. Hillary did not address the economic concerns of the angry white blue-collar male. Hillary forgot about rural America … and so on and so on.

Democrats, save your money.

There is one simple fact that led to your electoral demise. You nominated perhaps the most viscerally hated political candidate in your party’s history. Unfortunately, you got too hung up on the corresponding fact that Hillary was also the most experienced candidate in your party’s history.

For many voters, the 2016 election literally came down to choosing the lesser of two evils.

While many voters (especially evangelical) disliked the Republican candidate and correctly saw him as an immoral, narcissistic, pathological liar, he was not the devil incarnate, Hillary Clinton. With Trump the sinner, there was always the possibility of redemption. That could never have been the case for the Princess of Darkness.

After years of Clinton bashing by conservative media; after years of politically motivated investigations by Congress, there was nothing Hillary could have done, short of walking on water, which would have changed the minds of many Hillary-hating voters.

Yes, the FBI’s illegal actions weeks before the election, along with Russian interference favoring Trump, did not help Clinton’s chances. Nor did voter suppression in many Republican-controlled states.

The simple truth, as much as Democrats hate to admit it, is that voters did not so much vote for Trump as they voted against Hillary.

As one Wisconsin voter, who had previously voted for Obama, told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes at a town hall meeting held last week in Kenosha, “I voted for Trump because he is not Hillary.”

The Democratic Party should not complicate things. Instead, they should heed the wisdom found in the principle of Occam’s razor. The simplest explanation is usually the best.

Photo | downtrend.com

Surprise, surprise! Today U.S. intelligence officials revealed they believe Vladimir Putin was directly involved in efforts to disrupt our presidential election. Specifically, they have strong evidence that the Russian President, and former KGB spy, oversaw a concerted effort to help Donald Trump get elected president.

To many, this was not news at all.

It was long suspected, prior to the election, that our longtime geopolitical adversary committed the hacking of the DNC servers and the subsequent release of damaging information to WikiLeaks. But now we are told the effort to undermine our electoral system went directly to the top … Comrade Putin.

Certainly U.S. diplomats, and other government officials, familiar with Putin and his autocratic ways are not surprised.

That Russia could have been involved in trying to influence our presidential election without strongman Putin’s knowledge or active involvement was always a stretch … almost on a par with bully Chris Christie not knowing about, or somehow being involved in, the George Washington Bridge lane closures. What underlings would dare take such actions without the big boss’s approval?

And now what?

Both Democrats and Republicans are calling for a formal investigation. Some think Congress is up to the task while others are calling for an independent probe to avoid the potential stink of partisanship.

Whatever form an investigation takes, there is no way results will be known until after January 20, 2017 … when Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as our nation’s 45^th president.

A small group of Electoral College electors (10) has asked U.S. intelligence officials for more information on Russian interference in our election and any ongoing investigations surrounding Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia. They have asked that the information be given them ahead of their Dec. 19 meeting to formally vote for the next president.

Whether or not the electors get the information requested, they need to approach their Constitutional duty with the utmost seriousness … namely, by rejecting a man who appears to have been placed into office through the aid of a foreign enemy, at best, or the potential treason on the part of the Trump campaign, at worst.

The future of our great country, and that of the world, is now in the hands of 538 individuals. God help us.

Photo | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

One of the most important jobs in any presidential administration is that of Secretary of State. The holder of that position serves as America’s top diplomat around the world and the job is often held by those hoping to use the post as a springboard to higher office at some point in their careers. An argument could be made that the job is the most important cabinet position since whoever holds the office is fourth in the line of presidential succession.

President-elect Donald Trump has yet to name his choice for Secretary of State. A number of interesting names have been floated as possible picks: Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, Bob Corker, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and retired General David Patraeus.

But as important as the job may be from an historical perspective, we are now living in strange times. A TV celebrity, with no governing experience, whose only foreign policy goal seems to be how best to promote his business interests, will soon be occupying the White House

Some political observers are wondering if the position of Secretary of State will be as critical in a Trump administration as in days past. In fact, one Republican analyst, Ana Navarro, has observed the nation no longer needs a Secretary of State.

Navarro tweeted: “Let’s stop obsessing over who’ll be Secretary of State. We don’t need one. Our Twitter-in-Chief can set foreign policy in 140 characters.”

As amusing as Navarro’s comment may be, it is painfully very close to the truth.

We may be looking at the first president who will conduct his foreign policy by way of social media. It is very possible the main function for the next Secretary of State will be to put out diplomatic fires initiated by a Trump tweet.

Who would want such a job? Certainly not any one in their right mind!

Only a diehard Trump flunky could possible consider such a thankless, seemingly impossible, job. Only someone who has spent a lot of time defending Trumpism, in all its shades of inanity, would be willing to humiliate himself on an international stage.

It looks very likely our next Secretary of State will be “Mayor 9-11” himself … by default.

Also, Giuliani has been accused of not bing in his right mind for quite some time.

Photo | nymag.com

Not too long ago, when the idea of a president-elect Donald Trump seemed as remote as a manned-mission to Neptune, political writers had a field day satirizing what a Trump administration would look like. I plead guilty to the sinful pleasure of having put out a list of potential Trump cabinet picks. (Confident Trump Lining Up Cabinet)

Invariably, Sarah Palin made almost every satirist’s list for secretary of something … State, or perhaps, Education?

Just the thought of Palin as the head of any of the 15 executive departments was a hoot in its shear absurdity.

Now, a close Palin aide and a top Donald Trump transition official have told ABC News Sarah Palin is seriously being considered for secretary of veterans affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs just happens to be the largest government agency, with over 300,000 federal employees and a budget of $182 billion for 2017.

As crazy as it may seem having the half-term, half-witted Alaska governor run such as massive enterprise, the news is no joke. This is not satire.

It appears Palin’s main qualification for the job is that her son, Track, spent a year deployed in Iraq with the U.S. Army. You may recall it was Track Palin who got busted for drunken domestic abuse only to be defended by “Mama Grizzly” who blamed the incident on his PTSD … and President Obama, of course!

So the woman who, as John McCain’s 2008 VP pick, thought she was qualified in foreign affairs because she could see Russia from her backyard now thinks she is experienced to run the largest governmental agency because her son served one year in the military?

But more importantly, what would such an appointment say about the judgment and competency of the soon to be President Trump?

It is safe to say veterans do not see this news as humorous.

With a Trump administration, we may soon be witnessing the end of humor as a means to ridicule and expose political stupidity.

From hereon in, don’t assume a headline such as this: “Trump Pardons Bernie Madoff And Picks Him To Run Treasury Department” is meant as political parody.

Fact-checking will never be more important.

Photo | usmagazine.com