OK, huddle up, and take a knee.
I want to talk about team rivalries, and brace yourselves, team: This will not be pretty.
Many people have been taught to hate the Other Team at all costs. They’ve been shown – wrongly – that making excuses for themselves, and denying the good plays made by the opposite team, that this is a good thing. I’m here to tell you, it is not; it is divisive and self-destructive, and it harms our people more than any really bad call ever could. (more…)
I’m on vacation, folks, so this will be a quick one. But then again, stop and consider: How important is this that I’d interrupt my fun in the sun to talk to you?
It’s not urgent, mind. I want to say that up front. But it IS important. (more…)
President Donald J. Trump: The words are painful for many of us. This is understandable; his persona is not one that engenders trust and comfort, and we’ve had it easy for eight years. Obama was quietly charismatic and sought bipartisanship; Trump is almost diametrically opposite. So yes, it’s a bit of a shock.
Since the inauguration, Mr. Trump’s opponents both in the (more…)
I’m going to be honest: This may never see Part Two. There is so very much to write about that a lot of very important things will certainly fall by the wayside over the next few weeks and months, and this may be one of them.
But it was a very important happening on Tuesday, and here it is Thursday and there’s been no coverage. The major media is letting this slide because they have the same problem I do: Too much happens all at once, and there’s only one front page.
But this is important (more…)
“This isn’t the state of California, it’s a state of insanity.” – General Joseph W. Stilwell
Feb. 25, 1942. Just before 3am, the Japanese launched an air raid on the city of Los Angeles; by the end of the encounter, five men were dead and numerous injured, 1500 rounds of antiaircraft artillery had been fired and several enemy saboteurs had been arrested and turned over to the F.B.I.
This was it. The ‘unassailable mainland’ was finally the target of Japanese bombs and all the drilling done by the raw American volunteers would be put to the test.
Only it never happened. (more…)
There’s a survey the White House has put out in advance of the President’s scheduled first address to a joint session of Congress. Which promises to be quite a spectacle, of course; given the present antagonistic climate in D.C., I won’t be shocked if the Democrats pull some sort of horrible stunt and if the President responds with a blistering rant.
The White House has me on their mailing list. I’ve been there for a long time; got grandfathered in from a previous administration (more…)
For the months following the election, and again for the weeks right after the inauguration, we saw a brief surge of political involvement and activism on a scale not practiced since we got out of Vietnam. People were angry; they were marching — and it was beautiful.
Even today there are protests, with people out in the icy cold carrying signs and chanting (more…)
A lovely young lady of my acquaintance is going traveling, off on a great adventure. I’ve been very excited for her, and it was with shock that I heard her talk about her fear while walking into a rural gas station. “Surely she can’t mean it,” I thought. “It’s a joke of some sort.”
And then she explained: It’s a trip through the heart of Trump country, and she’s neither male nor white. She fears violence, discrimination, and the Klan.
Again, my reaction was startlement. Shock. Amazed disbelief. After all, if there’s (more…)
“The Fake News doesn’t tell the truth.”
-President Donald Trump, CPAC speech, 24 Feb 2017
Once again, President Trump spoke out against the Fake News, this time at the CPAC conference at National Harbor. To be fair, it sounded a lot more powerful when he was talking. It sounded impressive, deeply meaningful, profound even. And then I read the words.
Trump sounds great in person. When you’re watching him with an open mind, he’s an incredibly powerful speaker — but he doesn’t say much. He’s a skilled orator who uses a third-grade vocabulary to convey simple ideas and make them seem powerful.
The comparison has been made (more…)
For me, the trouble with writing about politics these days is that it’s too easy to say bad things.
I don’t mean that it’s easy to insult the President and his people. That’s always easy. It’s always been easy, truth be told, which is exactly why the media always does it: They meet their deadlines and win Pulitzers and can still make Happy Hour, and (more…)
The Not Fake News 
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