National Republicans
Jerry Brown vs Trump
Mention Jerry Brown, and people are apt to laugh and say, “Governor Moonbeam” or “flake” or the like. Wrong. Today, Brown is serving his fourth term as California’s Governor. He restored his state to fiscal sanity. He made it a climate-change leader. He has emerged as a wise elder and truth-teller. And never more so…
Read MoreAlternative Universe
Trump started his Presidency with a speech that should have surprised no one. It’s what he said from day one. Then he sent his spokesman to tell a blatant, bald-faced, laughable lie about crowd sizes. “Alternative facts,” the White House explained. Trump has an obsession with the size of his things. Then hundreds of thousands…
Read MoreWeaving Their Way Through Congress
Donald Trump was blunt, saying his Presidency is going to be about taking power away from the Washington Politicians and giving it back to the people. I’d like to say, Amen. But is Donald Trump really a populist crusader? Or is he a pragmatist who simply decided anti-Washington populism was the train to ride to…
Read MoreHard News and the Search for Clicks
I read down the list of headlines on the newspaper’s website until I came to one that read: Trump’s inaugural address echoes anti-Semitic isolationists and a Batman villain. Fact, I wondered. Or opinion? According to the newspaper it was fact. Hard news. When Donald Trump said his inauguration was about taking power away from Washington…
Read MoreTrump’s Speech
Donald Trump didn’t mince words: “We are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another,” he said, “we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to the people.” “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost……
Read MoreFour Tribes
A year and a half ago – when the election began – the Democrat Washington Politicians battled the Democratic Outsiders and the Republican Washington Politicians fought the Republican Outsiders. So where are the four tribes now? Hillary’s gone. But both the Democratic Washington Politicians and the Democratic Outsiders are carefully watching Trump waiting for him…
Read MoreThe Old World
Back in 1789 there was nothing in the federal Treasury worth stealing but Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams it was only a matter of time: He didn’t see, he said, how the Constitution would stop a scoundrel (or a group of scoundrels) clever enough and ruthless enough to cajole (or buy) 51% of the votes…
Read MoreLimited Power
When the election began Millennials trapped in dead-end jobs faced a choice between a Democrat Washington Politician and a Socialist (who could only come from Vermont) and the Millennials chose the Socialist. On the other side of the aisle working class families sitting at kitchen tables in small towns staring at stacks of bills faced…
Read MoreA New Wrinkle
‘Sallie told David who told Harry who told Joe that Sergie said’… It sounds like gossip flying around a sewing circle of old women but it wasn’t – it was a story about Donald Trump and the Russians told by a former MI6 agent in a ‘report’ that caught fire (on one website) then rolled…
Read MoreTrump Trepidation
Studies say the most depressing day of the year is today – the third Monday in January. The holidays are over, winter has set in and it’s, well, Monday. But this year many, and maybe most, Americans say the most depressing day will be the third Friday, when Trump is inaugurated. Both days come this…
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