Random thoughts over the past few days:
“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you” -- Friedrich Nietzsche President Trump who you may have noticed likes to lie a lot, has now begun saying things about his border wall like, “the wall is being built.” Which, we know, is not true. Sections already were in place and repairs are being made to those but no new footage is being built. So, it occurs to me why doesn’t he just solve the big problem between himself and the Democrats by saying, “the wall is built!” Then the country can move on to more important things.
“Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately" – Joe Biden Biden seems to be doing the old Mario Cuomo moonwalk, keeping us all guessing as to whether he’ll run for president or not in 2020. While there was a time I would have liked to see a President Biden, that time is long gone. I do think though the wise old men in the Democratic Party should start impressing upon him why he shouldn’t run. Then whoever the Democratic candidate is, he or she will have two of the best surrogates in history – Biden and former President Obama. That would be a fun campaign to watch, those two against Trump, thus keeping the candidate a little above the fray.
Virginia is for... What? One might think that Virginia Gov. Northam is having a bad year already. But, he got very lucky. Rather than the attention being solely on him and why, as a medical student he thought putting shoe polish on his face to imitate an African-American was cool, he now has two other statewide office holders for competition as dumbest elected official in the state. One has admitted to the same offense of putting on blackface and the other is fighting off accusations of sexual offenses. Lucky Northam, unlucky Virginia voters.
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” – Alexis de Tocqueville. The 2020 campaign is already underway. It’s kind of like seeing those Christmas decorations being displayed before Halloween. Uh, too soon? Also, for those of my vintage, it seems the current crop of candidates is diminished in my eyes because I’m older than all of them. No one younger than me should be president! (Just kidding)
Seattle got 6.4 inches of snow on Friday, which is just shy of the 6.8 inches the city usually receives in an entire year. Our Seattle correspondent, Barry Schumacher, reports that as the heavy snows were approaching, consumers rushed to the grocery stores to stock up. There was plenty of milk and bread left on the shelves after the onslaught, but the stores ran out of Kale.
Never Again. Antisemitism has never, and never will, disappear completely but lately it seems to be a lot more public than it has been. The German government has reported a 10 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents last year. A new American congresswoman was forced to apologize for using anti-Semitic tropes. France is calling for a firm response to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents there. Women’s March leaders in this country were criticized for attending an event with Louis Farrakhan who, as always, made incendiary remarks about Jews. All a demonstration of why we can never let our guards down about prejudice against any segment of our society. Bad things are always just a step away.
“You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth” – Donald Trump Jr. President Trump already is using what will be one of his re-election campaign arguments next year – He’s alining Democrats with Socialists and claiming, in effect, that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for socialism. With his record, he knows that his primary path to re-election is to make the Democrats appear worse than he is. This will be a very ugly campaign.
Shutdown Shmutdown. Don’t forget, it was Trump who said he would take “credit” for the first shutdown earlier this year after grabbing the bait Senate Minority Leader Schumer held out to him in an Oval Office meeting. This time, he claimed he “always accepted” blame for the first one (which he didn't) but would never accept it again, if it happens. People, he never was going to shut down the government again after seeing the dire effects the last one had. Plus, he says the shutdown really was to emphasize how bad a shutdown is. People wouldn't have understood it otherwise, he said. Oy.
The Dean’s last words. John Dingell, who served in Congress longer than anyone, died a few days ago and literally on his death bed dictated an op-ed which The Wasahington Post ran after he pased, leaving a message behind for the rest of us. In part his message was:
“In democratic government, elected officials do not have power. They hold power — in trust for the people who elected them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite properly revoked (the quicker the better).”
Amen, Mr. Chairman. RIP
“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you” -- Friedrich Nietzsche President Trump who you may have noticed likes to lie a lot, has now begun saying things about his border wall like, “the wall is being built.” Which, we know, is not true. Sections already were in place and repairs are being made to those but no new footage is being built. So, it occurs to me why doesn’t he just solve the big problem between himself and the Democrats by saying, “the wall is built!” Then the country can move on to more important things.
“Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately" – Joe Biden Biden seems to be doing the old Mario Cuomo moonwalk, keeping us all guessing as to whether he’ll run for president or not in 2020. While there was a time I would have liked to see a President Biden, that time is long gone. I do think though the wise old men in the Democratic Party should start impressing upon him why he shouldn’t run. Then whoever the Democratic candidate is, he or she will have two of the best surrogates in history – Biden and former President Obama. That would be a fun campaign to watch, those two against Trump, thus keeping the candidate a little above the fray.
Virginia is for... What? One might think that Virginia Gov. Northam is having a bad year already. But, he got very lucky. Rather than the attention being solely on him and why, as a medical student he thought putting shoe polish on his face to imitate an African-American was cool, he now has two other statewide office holders for competition as dumbest elected official in the state. One has admitted to the same offense of putting on blackface and the other is fighting off accusations of sexual offenses. Lucky Northam, unlucky Virginia voters.
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” – Alexis de Tocqueville. The 2020 campaign is already underway. It’s kind of like seeing those Christmas decorations being displayed before Halloween. Uh, too soon? Also, for those of my vintage, it seems the current crop of candidates is diminished in my eyes because I’m older than all of them. No one younger than me should be president! (Just kidding)
Seattle got 6.4 inches of snow on Friday, which is just shy of the 6.8 inches the city usually receives in an entire year. Our Seattle correspondent, Barry Schumacher, reports that as the heavy snows were approaching, consumers rushed to the grocery stores to stock up. There was plenty of milk and bread left on the shelves after the onslaught, but the stores ran out of Kale.
Never Again. Antisemitism has never, and never will, disappear completely but lately it seems to be a lot more public than it has been. The German government has reported a 10 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents last year. A new American congresswoman was forced to apologize for using anti-Semitic tropes. France is calling for a firm response to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents there. Women’s March leaders in this country were criticized for attending an event with Louis Farrakhan who, as always, made incendiary remarks about Jews. All a demonstration of why we can never let our guards down about prejudice against any segment of our society. Bad things are always just a step away.
“You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth” – Donald Trump Jr. President Trump already is using what will be one of his re-election campaign arguments next year – He’s alining Democrats with Socialists and claiming, in effect, that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for socialism. With his record, he knows that his primary path to re-election is to make the Democrats appear worse than he is. This will be a very ugly campaign.
Shutdown Shmutdown. Don’t forget, it was Trump who said he would take “credit” for the first shutdown earlier this year after grabbing the bait Senate Minority Leader Schumer held out to him in an Oval Office meeting. This time, he claimed he “always accepted” blame for the first one (which he didn't) but would never accept it again, if it happens. People, he never was going to shut down the government again after seeing the dire effects the last one had. Plus, he says the shutdown really was to emphasize how bad a shutdown is. People wouldn't have understood it otherwise, he said. Oy.
The Dean’s last words. John Dingell, who served in Congress longer than anyone, died a few days ago and literally on his death bed dictated an op-ed which The Wasahington Post ran after he pased, leaving a message behind for the rest of us. In part his message was:
“In democratic government, elected officials do not have power. They hold power — in trust for the people who elected them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite properly revoked (the quicker the better).”
Amen, Mr. Chairman. RIP
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