national security, national security team

Sen. Hothead joins Trump team

Leave a comment

Well now, Donald Trump has just fired one of the most incompetent members of our national security team and replaced her with a fellow who once challenged a Senate committee witness to a fistfight in the middle of a hearing.

I don’t know about you, but I do not feel one little bit safer now than before.

Kristi Noem made a hash of our Homeland Security Department with her handling of the ICE goons she loosed on the streets of our cities. She spent $200 million of our tax money to produce glam-shot ads featuring her and touting the successes she insisted occurred during Trump’s administration.

We started a war with Iran, several American warriors died right away, and Noem couldn’t bring herself to offer a word of condolence to the survivors of the soldiers who died.

Trump cut her loose. Fine. Good bye and good riddance!

Up steps Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to become the Homeland Security secretary. He’s a Trump loyalist through and through. No surprise there, given that’s what Trump wants in Cabinet nominees. What is astounding to me is that Trump would select a guy who about a year ago had to be called down by a committee chairman for wanting to settle a dispute with a witness with his fists.

Sen. Hothead actually stood up and challenged the witness right there in front of the whole world!

This is the guy whom Trump has chosen to lead our homeland security defense team? Trump said he always intends to hire “the best people” to advise him. Markwayne Mullin, to my eyes, appears to be one of the worst.

International news, military news

Chaos reigns at DHS

Leave a comment

All righty, kids, here is what I understand has happened in the war with Iran … and make no mistake, we are at war with a nation of 90-plus million individuals who are governed by a group who made “Death to America” a household phrase in the Middle East nation.

Donald Trump sends in air power off the deck of two nuclear-powered air craft carriers. U.S. and Israeli pilots bomb the crap out of Iranian command and control centers. Iran strikes back and already we have service personnel listed as killed in action.

The POTUS trots out his incompetent homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to lie to us about motives for going to war. Noem spends more time fighting with reporters than answering their questions. Noem is supposedly our go-to Cabinet official, correct?

Then Trump fires Noem. He brings in Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Mullen’s got to go from zero to 150 in an instant.

We have witnessed a prescription for chaos … at precisely the worst time, while we have launched a war with a regional power such as Iran.

I support the removal of Kristi Noem as DHS secretary. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. The brutal truth, though, is this: There could no “good time” to cut her loose. Trump started this war with no clear goal in mind, no exit strategy if we ever achieve that unknown goal, and little support from Americans who are sending their young treasure into battle.

God help us … please!

Uncategorized

Talarico: the real Democratic deal!

Leave a comment

James Talarico has emerged as the latest political star in Texas and he hopes to parlay his standing into a successful career in Congress.

The man has my support and I am about to explain why.

Talarico is a man of deep Christian faith. He wears his faith plainly and professes it from the campaign stump. He’s a Presbyterian seminary student and he has a graduate degree in economics. He’s a smart guy.

Talarico’s faith, though, carries an important caveat that he’s also proud to display. Talarico understands what the founders intended when they drafted the nation’s governing document. They intended to create a secular state free of religious influence. James Talarico gets it … and endorses the founders’ intention.

He has emerged as a fierce foe of Christian nationalists, those who seek to turn the U.S.A. into a Christian nation.

I guess I favor Talarico because he and I share the same view of the religion to which we both profess our faith. I practice my faith with enthusiasm, but am reluctant to shove it down the throats of others.

I want Talarico to succeed in his quest to win a U.S. Senate seat. If he defeats Sen. John Cornyn in the fall, I suspect it will occur because voters have grown weary of D.C.-centered politicians like Cornyn passing laws we all must follow. If he manages to beat Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, it well might be because Texans are disgusted with the way Paxton has conducted himself in the decade he has served in statewide elected office.

Talarico is a new breed of Texas Democrat, which in its way mirrors the way Democrats here used to present themselves.

The Democratic Senate nominee has time to refine his message, to fine-tune the manner in which he intends to deliver it. I also want him to ensure to keep the many promises he no doubt will make as he travels the length and breadth of this great state.

Many of us are waiting, James Talarico.

Donald Trump, State news

Cornyn’s time as senator is up?

Leave a comment

If I were a betting man — and I damn sure am not — I might be inclined to think that Sen. John Cornyn is facing a serious challenge to his once-storied congressional career.

He’s going to face Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on May 26 in a runoff election for the Senate seat Cornyn has occupied seemingly since The Flood. Why the gloomy outlook?

Cornyn finished first in a three-way Republican Party primary, winning 42% of the vote. Paxton finished second with 41%. Third place went to U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who collected 13%.

Paxton and Hunt both paint Cornyn as a RINO, a ridiculous assertion on its face. If there is a more dedicated Republican in the Senate than Cornyn, I do not know who that would be. Indeed, Paxton and Donald Trump, his bestie in the White House, are the real Republicans in name only.

So, with the field narrowed to the top two GOP finishers, it falls on Paxton to seek Hunt voters to close the narrow gap between him and Cornyn. If the Hunt crowd is as MAGA gullible as I suspect they are, Paxton should have little trouble rounding up the support he needs to send Cornyn packing.

And what about Paxton? The guy is ethically challenged, to state the obvious. He was indicted early during his time as AG by a Collin County grand jury of securities trading allegations. He was supposed to go to trial long ago, but skated free of that episode. Several key legal aides quit the AG’s office and accused Paxton of corruption. The Republican-dominated House of Reps impeached Paxton, who then avoided conviction in the Texas Senate when Republican senators declined to follow their House colleagues’ lead.

If Paxton should manage to win the runoff, he will face a seriously rising star in the Texas Democratic Party, state Rep. James Talarico, who I will guess is dying to run against the ethically challenged AG.

We have just witnessed the opening act of a yearlong political drama. It’s going to get a whole lot rougher as we move on through the year. And if I were running the Democrat’s campaign, I just might be drooling at the chance to take on Ken Paxton.

First things first. Paxton has to win the GOP runoff. Here’s hoping for a donnybrookl

military news

I’m older, but still confused

Leave a comment

There once was a time when I was full of piss and vinegar, and when the United States of America was involved in a faraway war that seemed to have no end in sight.

You know what? I wanted to get into that fight if only to understand why we were fighting it and learn a lesson or two about life in real time. I got my wish and in the spring of 1969 I shipped out to Vietnam. I returned later still confused about what the hell we were doing there.

Bombs were falling and men were dying when I arrived. It all was happening when I returned home.

I’m an old man now. Too old to fight. We’re involved in yet another war, this time with Iran. Donald Trump decided to send in the bombers and, along with Israel, decided to inflict maximum damage to Iranian military command and control.

I am still confused. More so than before. I keep waiting for the POTUS to talk to me and to the nation. He is putting men and women in harm’s way. Some of theÃ¥m have died and the commander in chief has yet to acknowledge openly their deaths. He’s talked about the heavy damage U.S. and Israeli forces are inflicting. He says Iranian air defense is gone, along with its offensive capabilities; he says Iranian leadership in a state of chaos.

But … we have no stated exit strategy. No stated goal. No mention of regime change. Or a change in government. Capt. Bone Spurs declares we could be in this fight for a while.

Why? To what end?

Talk to us, Mr. POTUS. I’ll beseech you once more to simply tell us the truth behind why you have committed our young warriors to a war without an apparent end in sight.

national news

Tillis makes his point with DHS boss

Leave a comment

Thom Tillis was pissed off — as in royally pissed off — when his time arrived to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before a U.S. Senate committee.

I watched a bit of Tillis’s performance, and I have to tell you, the North Carolina Republican brought his A-game to the hearing. He believes Noem is incompetent and doesn’t deserve to be in the job she holds. He wants Donald Trump to remove her if she doesn’t quit. If that won’t happen, he wants the House to impeach her.

Tillis is angry over the behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons who have been arresting children in schools, U.S. citizens and other on suspicion that they might be out to do harm to Americans. What a crock of bull dookey!

Here, though, is another remarkable aspect of Tillis’s remarks to Noem. The DHS secretary took it. She absorbed the blows quietly. She didn’t fire back with filibuster-like responses. There were no insults hurled at Tillis from the witness chair. She didn’t lie to suggest that ICE thugs were acting appropriately.

I only can conclude that unlike the Democratic members of Congress who have challenged Noem’s handling of this immigration matter, Republican members are getting the respect they deserve … and which all members of either party deserve when they question witnesses who take an oath to tell the truth.

Other appearances by Noem and other Cabinet honchos have been exercises in futility as Democrats and witnesses talk — and scream — over each other. The hearing I watched today was educational, given that Kristi Noem knew her place in the moment and reacted accordingly … for once!

local news, political news

RINOs are everywhere!

Leave a comment

Seems as if it takes damn little to be labeled a RINO these days … you know, a Republican in name only.

Donald Trump, the nation’s RINO in chief, throws the term around with utterly no understanding of the irony that he calls anyone a RINO.

Texas is going through its primary election today. State Rep. Jeff Leach has been called a RINO by his challenger Henry Thorsen. Why? Well, it seems that Leach had the temerity to serve as a prosecutor in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.

Never mind the body of work that Leach compiled while representing Collin County in the Legislature. You turn against a crook like Paxton? You’re toast.

It’s happened to other anti-Trump Republicans, such as former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. She stood her ground and went for Trump’s jugular. She remains a conservative Republican. But she’s now out of office, scorned by the very party to which she once dedicated her political life.

Paxton and Trump are now besties. That’s the connection between the Texas AG and the POTUS.

I won’t vote in the Texas GOP primary today. I am going. to pull for Jeff Leach. I don’t know him well, but I do know him to be a conservative with a conscience. What’s more, he is no RINO!

national news, national security

Border crisis need not produce this solution

Leave a comment

Critics of this blog have long accused its author — that would be me — of being a “yes man” to all policies Democratic and a “hatchet man” to ideas that come from Republicans.

Wrong! As in really wrong!

I was the rare President Biden supporter who said long ago that the president needed to call the situation along our southern border what I believed it was: a crisis. He refused to do so. Instead, the president masked the situation in gauzy terms meant to disguise the reality along our southern flank, which was that people were continuing to seek refuge in the “land of opportunity, freedom and good fortune.”

Donald Trump came along and then sicced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons on our cities and border towns. The result of their heavy hand has made us even less safe. I want, therefore, to declare that Trump’s answer to the crisis is the wrong answer.

If the current POTUS had an ounce of compassion coursing through his overfed body he would have told the ICE agents to use extreme discernment in rooting out the bad guys. He didn’t. The ICE goons have picked up on the message from the top, which is that it’s OK to roust everyone, to beat many of them to within an inch of their lives, to separate children from their parents.

I like quoting one of my favorite philosophers, who happens to be fictional character on a once-popular TV show. You remember Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick who used to tell the world that “Two wrongs don’t make it right.”

Tonto is correct. It was wrong for President Biden to avoid declaring the southern border mess a “crisis.” It is wrong for Donald Trump to hire heavily armed and masked thugs to beat the living daylights out of U.S. citizens while searching for criminals.

It no longer matters what we call the border mess. We can fix the second problem and force ICE to rethink the way it enforces the law.

military news

Ayatollah is dead. What now?

Leave a comment

Word broke over the weekend that U.S. and Israeli forces launched massive air strikes against Iran, killing the Ayatollah Khameini and several of his family members in the process.

I have been trying like the dickens to wrap my arms around what this means to patriots like you and me.

As an American patriot, I applaud Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for ordering the strikes on Iran. The ayatollah was a seriously bad man and he needed to be taken out by whatever means necessary. Now, though, come the questions. They are plentiful and they need serious answers.

Presidents cannot declare war unilaterally. The Constitution says Congress must approve any presidential request to go to war. Trump reportedly didn’t consult with anyone on Capitol Hill before launching the attacks on Iran.

Trump won the 2024 election partly by declaring he would end “the endless wars” this nation has fought since 9/11. Have we just committed our sons and daughters in uniform to another endless conflict?

Do we intend to seek a change in regimes in Tehran? The Iranians today reportedly are in a state of confusion over the future of the Islamic Revolution.

Trump seems to have adopted a cavalier attitude about his decision to put our warriors in harm’s way. He is conducting war policy from — gulp! — his golf resort in south Florida. The Situation Room in the White House? Who needs it? Not the current president … apparently!

Iran is no cupcake pushover. It is a country of 90 million people who have lived under the repressive heels of the radicals who stormed to power in 1979 when the shah was tossed out. Khameini’s death was met with joyous celebrations in the United States and across Europe. He had killed thousands of Iranians who had protested their government’s heavy hand.

Now he’s dead and the time has arrived for the president to speak to Americans and explain what the hell he’s going to do now. I know this is a tall order for Donald Trump but — for God’s sake — tell us the truth.

crime news

Nothing to hide? Show us!

Leave a comment

A thought keeps rattling around in my noggin that I just cannot shake loose … and it has everything to do with Donald Trump and his one-time bestie, the late sex trafficker and child molester Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump keeps insisting he and Epstein only were pals, that he took no part in the sexual escapades of which Epstein was convicted. Fine, Mr. POTUS. But why in the name of full disclosure do you keep resisting calls to show us the entire catalog of files that have been dug on Epstein? If there is no “there, there,” then show us for real, Donald.

We’ve waltzed down the pea patch with Trump already. He said he broke no laws in filing his income taxes, but won’t allow us to see them. Now we hear that his name appears in those Epstein files thousands of times. He once pledged to release them all. Then he backed away.

Look, I am willing to give Trump the tiniest benefit of the doubt on this matter. I do not believe he diddled underage girls along with Epstein and any other of the perverts who’ve been singled out.

The overarching question in my mind is … what did Trump know about Epstein’s behavior and when did he know it? I believe it is important for Americans to know when a man who would become president was a BFF with a guy who would be convicted of horrifying sexual crimes against girls.

He won’t tell us anything about that. He won’t allow the public to see files that well could clear him of any criminality. He is engaging in a coverup on a scale that seems set to dwarf anything that the Nixon administration did during the Watergate scandal more than five decades ago.

Come clean, Mr. POTUS.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience