National politics

I remember well, because it was just a few months ago, when political commentators ridiculed Kamala Harris for placing so much emphasis on preserving democracy in the face of Trump when it was simply obvious that the main problem facing Americans was inflation. Meaning, it was more important for the Harris campaign to talk about the price of eggs than the price of freedom.  Now it is clear that Harris was correct and the pundits were wrong. For Trump is acting more like an authoritarian and wanna-be dictator than was expected by Trump critics like me -- and I expected…

Yesterday was quite an interesting day for my wife and me. We were able to buy a 2025 RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid XSE at Capitol Toyota, but it was a close call -- because of Trump's 25% tariff on imported cars and auto parts that goes into effect next Thursday. The saga started last Tuesday when Laurel and I were picking up her 2019 RAV4 Hybrid (which isn't a plug-in) after service on it was completed, and she asked a Toyota salesperson if there were any 2025 RAV4 Plug-In's that she could take a look at. Laurel has liked her car…

If there was any doubt about the incompetence of the Trump administration, this story in The Atlantic today should squash it. Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic. I'm a subscriber. This gift link to Goldberg's story should enable anybody to read it.  Remember the uproar over Hillary Clinton using her own email server when she was Obama's Secretary of State? Trump and other Republicans thought she should be go to jail for engaging in a breach of security protocols. Well, the debacle described by Goldberg is way worse than Clinton's emails. Hopefully there will be investigations…

There's a lot of anger among Democrats, especially the left wing of the Democratic Party, right now. The anger is divided between Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, and Democrats in the Senate -- especially minority leader Chuck Schumer -- for preventing a government shutdown by voting to end a filibuster that would have blocked a Republican-backed continuing resolution to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year, September 30. That anger is completely understandable. Trump and Musk are doing terrible things. They're taking a wrecking ball to the federal government, to our economy, to international…

We Democrats are notorious for engaging in circular firing squads where different factions of the party take political shots at each other. But the arguing over Senate Democrats voting today to avoid a government shutdown is unusually intense. Yesterday I was surprised to see MSNBC's Chris Hayes, who I usually agree with, telling Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer not only that he was wrong to support ending a filibuster so a continuing resolution passed by the House that would keep most federal agencies funded at their 2024 level until this fiscal year is over on September 30 could pass with…

My wife couldn't believe I was able to do this, but I've watched most of Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress last night. I did so because I believe in knowing your enemy. I wanted to see how Trump came across rather than just read about his speech. I also was curious to see how Democratic legislators acted during the speech. How aggressive would they be in protesting what certainly would be copious amounts of lies coming out of Trump's mouth, not to mention his truthful statements about what his administration has been doing since inauguration day, naturally…

While it wasn't widely reported, probably because it isn't news when Trump says stuff that clearly isn't true, today Trump claimed once again that tariffs are paid by foreign countries.  The Chris Hayes show on MSNBC did talk about what Trump said, correctly pointing out that this is another example, among a great many, where it is unclear whether Trump is incredibly stupid or an incredible liar. My personal conclusion is that he's both, though I admit that in any particular instance, logically it is difficult for Trump to manifest both personality defects.  Tariffs are a great example. At the…

Kamala Harris has been vindicated.   After her loss last November, many people claimed that her campaign was too focused on the danger to our democracy that Trump posed instead of doing more to reassure voters that if elected she'd work to bring down the price of groceries and inflation in general. Now, two and a half weeks into the chaos that the Trump administration has produced, it's clear that if anything, Harris should have uttered her warnings about how Trump would subvert our democracy in a louder voice.  For every day it becomes more obvious that while Trump's first…

Did you think that your Social Security number was kept secret by the federal government through rigorous security measures? Well, think again, because Trump's billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, has allowed six 19 to 25 year old dudes access to the Treasury Department's payment system that has sensitive information which, until now, was closely guarded. WIRED has a bombshell story about this by Vittoria Elliott, "The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover." Excerpt: Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in…

Silence means surrender to tyrants. I'd rather be writing about other things than Trump's latest outrageous action, but I refuse to allow myself to be shocked into submission by the mountains of authoritarian crap that Trump is shoveling out in these early days of his presidency. For as soon as the American public accepts Trump's completely unacceptable behavior as something that we simply have to silently put up with, that's the day our nation slides irrevocably into a dictatorship.  Today Trump broke new ground for a president, and not at all in a good way. For he claimed with zero…

I'm not an egg eater, but my wife is. When she puts eggs on the list for my LifeSource Natural Foods shopping, ideally the pasture-raised variety, I buy a dozen. But today, for the first time I can remember, the shelves were completely bare in the egg section. I didn't look for eggs when I went to Trader Joe's, Natural Grocers, and Fred Meyer (there's four stops on my weekly grocery shopping expedition), so I don't know if any or all of those stores also were out. LifeSource has a "Where are the eggs?" page on their web site. They…

Like so many others who voted for Kamala Harris, then watched Donald Trump defeat her in a fairly convincing though not overwhelming fashion, I'm politically depressed. Meaning, I'm still enjoying the personal life I was leading before the election. But when my attention turns to Trump, my spirits sink.  Trump looks like he's hugely enjoying the kickoff to his second term. He's keeping his promise to be a dictator on Day 1, extending that promise throughout his first week in office. I expect Trump will attempt to realize his authoritarian dreams throughout his entire presidency. Meanwhile, while Trump holds center…