1.18.2025 – the second-worst

the second-worst
delivered second term to
the worst president

Based on the last paragraph of the article, Joe Biden had one job. And he failed, by Mehdi Hasan in the Guardian.

Mr. Hasan writes: Joe Biden had one job. But because of his arrogance and intransigence, his caution and complacency, he failed.

Today, I consider Joe Biden to be not the most impressive but perhaps the second-worst president of my lifetime because he helped deliver a second term to the worst president of my lifetime.

Not so sure that History won’t disagree.

Not so sure that I don’t want history to disagree especially that this incoming feller is the worst President of anyone’s lifetime.

1.14.2025 – extend alien ban

extend alien ban
scandalous bootlegging of
aliens through seaports

WOULD EXTEND ALIEN BAN

Secretary Davis Will See Coolidge on Canada and Mexico Quotas

Special to the New York Times

Washington. Jan. 13 – The application of the quota provisions of the Immigration law of 1924 to Canada, Mexico and Central and South America, which are at present excepted from the restrictive features of the statute, will soon be discussed with President Coolidge by Secretary of Labor Davis a view to the extension of the act through legislat1on.

Secretary Davis insists that the quota principle be extended to Canada and Latin America to suppress the scandalous bootlegging of aliens through seaports and over the Southern and
Northern borders. He would admit labor when needed but would have the President authorized to limit or prohibit immigration whenever the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Commerce found that unemployment in this country made such suspension of the law desirable.

100 years ago today in the New York Times.

We certainly have come a long way since then.

President Coolidge was never arrested.

And the aliens weren’t from Mars but coming from the same old places … Mexico and Canada.

1.13.2024 – intellectual

intellectual
acuity invented
that does not exist

Some speculate that Trump is engaging in Richard Nixon’s deliberately staged “madman” theory of intimidating people into accepting his terms, whatever those might be. Still others wonder if it’s all performative to keep his masses entertained with the show. His grandiosity is certainly a constant expression of his malignant narcissism. Attributing his atavisms of imperialism and blunt-force tariffs to a thought through theoretical exercise to return to the 19th century invents an intellectual acuity that does not exist.

From the article, “Donald Trump isn’t even in office yet and silly season has already begun” by Sidney Blumenthal in The Guardian.

Mr. Blumenthal’s mastery of multi syllable words must be saluted.

I also like the idea that adding Greenland and Canada will add multiple, more likely Democratic Party based, states with their Senators and Representatives to Congress.

Maybe once the GOP figures that out, they will be as excited about adding these new states as they are about adding the States of DC and Puerto Rico.

On the whole, how did this guy end up President.

As Mr. Mencken said in his book, In Defense of Women in 1918, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

12.18.2024 – I did it to make

I did it to make
his life miserable, which
I’m happy about

From the article, Trump Sues The Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Maggie Haberman, David Enrich and Alan Feuer.

The article states:

In Mr. Trump’s own telling, winning his civil legal actions isn’t always the point.

Mr. Trump, who has often attacked journalists publicly for details in news accounts that he hasn’t liked, famously lost a libel case that he brought against the writer Timothy O’Brien over Mr. O’Brien’s description of Mr. Trump’s net worth as much less than he claimed it to be.

The case played out over the span of years. But during the 2016 election, Mr. Trump told The Washington Post that it was worth it, even with the loss.

“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” he said of Mr. O’Brien and his book publisher. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”

There isn’t enough here to move my needle of dismay and disgust anymore.

There is a spoiled little ten year old coming in the run things from the Oval Office again and may God Save the United States.

It’s like when The 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz once said, “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.

Only we got the poor United States.

So far from God.

So close to Donald Trump.

I am also reminded of what Winston Churchill said when Germany under Mr. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and Mr. Churchill said, “If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”*

I think that I can say if Mr. Trump sues the Devil, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in Court.

*Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 370.

11.18.2024 – new rulers stymied

new rulers stymied
by incompetence, infighting
self-sabotage

Once Trump won, decent outcomes for the country were probably off the table. The institutions are unlikely to hold. Establishment Republicans cannot be counted on to protect us. The best we can hope for is that our new rulers will be stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage. In that respect, Gaetz may be just the man for the job.

From the article, Matt Gaetz Is the Perfect Man for the Job by Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times, Nov. 14, 2024.

I am trying to stay out of politics so the topic of the article is incendental and I want to salute the word craft in the marvelous sentence “The best we can hope for is that our new rulers will be stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage.“

… stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage.

In many ways, this was the underlying foundation of the Allies war on Nazi Germany and it worked out okay and I can easily imaging these words being strung together by Mr. Churchill.

That being said, I am reminded of a discussion of the so called ‘End Times’ I had with a friend of mine.

The End Times in Evangelical circles is when the world as we know finally falls apart.

As we talked about this I thought outloud:

The amount of sin in the world gets to the point where the only thing that can make any difference is the return of Jesus.

Then I looked at my friend and asked: “This would be a bad thing … why?“

Then I asked, “Do we want to encourage bad behavior?