National politics

We're in desperate times when the American president -- sadly, it's Donald Trump -- says that reminding members of the military that they aren't required to follow illegal orders is seditious behavior, punishable by death. Well, more accurately, this is how Trump put it in his all caps fashion: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" Here's the video that set Trump off into an authoritarian rage. I find it totally acceptable, since the lawmakers are simply restating a provision in the code of military justice. But Trump clearly wants to make the United States military into his own private army. That's…

If someone is innocent, they have every reason to want as much information as possible made public about a suspected offense. As the saying goes, the truth will set you free. Epstein and Trump But Donald Trump is doing the exact opposite when it comes to the Epstein files. That doesn't prove Trump was guilty of sexually abusing underage girls, as Epstein and his female accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, did. It sure raises questions that demand answers, though. Since a discharge petition that would force a vote on a House bill compelling the Justice Department to release files relating to the…

I'm not a fan of government shutdowns. Hardly anyone is. But along with lots of other Democrats, I want my party to stand strong on not reopening the federal government until Trump and his fellow Republicans commit to an ironclad guarantee that expiring subsidies to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, will be put into law for the next ten years at an estimated cost of $350 billion, or $35 billion a year. That's $5 billion less a year than the Trump administration just paid to prop up the Argentinian currency. In the big scheme of things, it isn't much…

Today the Justice Department came up with another sham indictment of people on Trump's enemies list. Letitia James, New York's Attorney General, was indicted for the non-crime of stating on a mortgage document that it was for a second home, then later renting the house out. The only way this is a crime is if prosecutors can prove that James intended to rent the house at the time she signed the document, because obviously people rent out second homes all the time. Since James can't be called by the prosecution as a witness, this is another instance of illegal selective…

I'll say this as non-gently as possible. Anyone who takes medical advice from Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or anyone else in the Trump administration is a fucking idiot! Okay, not you, if you've done what I said you shouldn't do, because I adore  each and every one of my blog visitors. I'm just talking about everybody else who listened to Trump's incoherent recent remarks about how pregnant women shouldn't take Tylenol (acetaminophen) even if they have a high fever, because Tylenol causes autism. Both of those statements aren't true. But you shouldn't take medical advice from me either.…

I used to wonder why Trump had such fondness for authoritarian leaders of other countries: North Korea, China, Russia, Hungary. Those nations aren't exactly exemplars of freedom and human rights, to put it mildly. But now that Trump is unleashing his own authoritarianism to a much greater degree than he did in his first term as president, it's obvious that Trump adores authoritarians because he's one himself. And if there's one person Trump loves (there may only be one), it's himself. Yesterday Trump posted this on his Truth Social propaganda account. "Pam" is Pam Bondi, Trump's Attorney General. James Comey…

I’ve gotten used to learning about outrageous goings-on in the Clown Show of the Trump administration. But when I heard this afternoon that Jimmy Kimmel Live, his late night show on ABC, had been suspended indefinitely because of a comment he made about how conservatives are using Charlie Kirk’s killing to score political points, that struck me as beyond outrageous. In a story about Kimmel’s suspension by ABC, the New York Times reported what he said. The comments at the center of this week’s firestorm came during Mr. Kimmel’s opening monologue on Monday night. “We hit some new lows over…

As painful as it is for me to say this, congressional Democrats bear a lot of resemblance to the pitiful Oregon State football team that lost a game to Fresno State yesterday it should have won. Unorganized. Mistake-prone. Divided. Listless. After recording the game and watching enough of it to realize how bad Oregon State was playing, I fast-forwarded my way through most of the rest of the game, because it was so painful to watch a team I wanted to win perform so poorly. This also is how I feel about the Democrats in the House and Senate. They…

There are many bizarre aspects to Trump's second term. One among many is this. The Republican Party used to be known for its commitment to limited government, unbridled capitalism, and individual liberty. No longer.  With Trump as president, today's Republican Party firmly supports massive government control, federal interference in business decisions, and unheard of constraints on the freedom of Americans. The party that feared black helicopters and jack-booted thugs when a Democrat occupied the White House is fine with them, now that Trump is the occupant.  I recall the uproar when Republicans claimed that the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, would…

I'm an unhappy Democrat. I have lots of company. Currently I'm stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. I can't stand Trump and what he's doing. I also can't stand the Democratic Party and what it's doing. My irritation with the party I've been a member of since I was old enough to vote is manifesting in various ways. Whenever I get a text message from a Democratic politician asking for money to support some quixotic liberal cause, I quickly press "delete and report spam." If the text is from Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton, I press even more…

It was clear that something bad was in store for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) when Trump fired the head of the agency after the BLS reported poor job creation numbers recently. That's Trump's style: fire the messenger when they report an accurate message that the Dictator in Chief doesn't like. Today the bad thing came into view. Trump has nominated an unqualified MAGA loyalist, E.J. Antoni, to be the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is unheard of, since the BLS is a nonpartisan agency that is known for producing world-class high quality statistics on…

It's tough being a Democrat these days. After being depressed over Kamala Harris' disappointing loss to Trump last November, there hasn't been much to raise my spirits on the national level. (Locally and statewide in Oregon, Democrats are faring better.) Just about every Democrat on the national stage either irritates me or fails to inspire me. I get countless,  more or less, text messages and emails every day urging me to contribute to some Democratic cause. I never read them before I delete them. Sure, I realize that Democrats have no power in Washington, D.C. They don't control the White…

In any other presidency, two things Trump did today would be so outrageous to both Democrats and Republicans, our representatives in Congress would waste little time protesting the president's actions. But with this presidency, it's just another day in the Office of Sleazy Goings-On for Trump's acolytes. Outrage #1 was Ghislaine Maxwell being moved to a minimum-security camp in Texas from a regular federal prison in Florida. The move required a waiver of guidelines that prohibit prisoners convicted of serious crimes with more than ten years remaining on their sentence from being in such a camp, which doesn't have any…