Now what happened was…

February 10, 2020

There is an African American narrative tradition in which a story begins “Now what happened was….” Once you hear this you know you are about to hear a long, convoluted tale that tells the story from the perspective of the storyteller and which only occasionally (and possibly never) has a connection to what actually happened. Here is a hilarious example of this storytelling tradition by Tiffany Hadish. The clip itself is about 8 minutes long but is so funny the time just flies by, however if you can sample just a minute or two you will understand the narrative tradition. 

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Stuck in the Middle

February 2, 2020

I recently read a piece by Robert Reich the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration which you can look at it (here) In it while not discounting racism as one of the driving forces behind Trump’s supporter, also lists anti-establishmentism as an additional factor. I have long been interested in those voters who voted for Obama and then Trump, two people who would seem to have little in common, except they were perceived by the electorate as outside the establishment. While both have proven that they were not outsiders, both promised the electorate that they would be. As

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The Farce of Impeachment

January 22, 2020

I don’t think there is anyone who believes that Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will end in anything other than an acquittal along partisan lines. From even the limited evidence revealed so far there is no question that Trump withheld aid to the Ukraine authorized by Congress as in the national interest, in an attempt to extort Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Biden’s that would be in Trump’s personal interest in the 2020 election. The bigger game afoot is the 2020 elections. Republicans believe that their steadfast support of the president will aid them in gaining the votes of

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Thoughts on impeachment

September 28, 2019

I recently had occasion to speak with a Trump supporting retired CEO who had a few dealings with Trump the businessman.  He said that those who call Trump stupid are way off base. For the record I have never called Trump stupid. Vain, narcissistic, corrupt, and a miserable excuse for a human being, sure, but never stupid. After all he was clever enough to take a fringe candidacy and turn it into a winning presidential campaign. That he did so through lies is just proof of his intelligence. He knew what lies to tell, how to tell them, and to

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Trump is having his cake and eating it too on race

July 31, 2019

Watching Donald Trump play the “race card” is fascinating. On the one hand he is appealing to his white supremacist base by using “dog whistle” racist comments, that is, by appealing to race while not using the word race itself. Racism is as racism does. It is only non-whites that he has railed against. You haven’t heard him tell any white congress people to go home to where they came from. He hasn’t told white congress people who represent majority white poor districts that their districts are unfit for human habitation. You haven’t heard him say or tweet that white

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Why do women support Trump?

July 15, 2019

I wondered why women continue to support Trump given his record of adultery, womanizing, misogynistic tweets, body shaming, and overall lechery. So I went online to look at statements from female supporters. I think I need a shower now. What I found was that women support him mostly for the same reasons men support him. They like the conservative policies he espouses, they don’t believe his critics in the mainstream media which they feel is biased against him, and they are willing to accept his character flaws because as one woman put it “he’s not dating my daughter.” They praise

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What to the rest of us is your Fourth of July

July 3, 2019

As Washington D.C. prepares for Trump’s obscene 4th of July celebration with a military parade, tanks, and fireworks; attended by those fat cats who can afford tickets and make political donations; and witnessed by the millions in the Trump cult, I cannot help but think of the words and outrage in Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech “What to the slave is your fourth of July.” Douglass was of course talking about slavery, but his words can be applied to other forms of bondage. There are those in bondage to poverty, those in the bondage of health needs who cannot afford medicine,

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None of the Above

May 14, 2019

I’d like to expand on something I said in the last blog post. If there is anything the electorate has been saying since 2008 it is that they are dissatisfied with the political system and both parties. Obama’s election in 2008 and 2012, Hillary’s loss in 2016, Trump’s victory in 2016, and the midterm elections in 2018, show that they are dissatisfied with mainstream politics and they want something else. These are votes against the usual suspects. There is no one ideology they support as those voters who switched from Obama to Trump attest. They want someone who will shake

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Designing the Democratic Candidate for President

April 10, 2019

The Trump presidency is ripe for coming to an end, but only if the Democrats can get themselves together to nominate a winning candidate. What should that candidate look like? I have no favorites in either the sense of “someone I like a lot” or “the most likely to win the primaries.” So I will design my own. Of course this doesn’t necessarily predict who will win the nomination, but it is just my musings on who should.

If the Obama and Trump elections tell us anything, they tell us that the electorate is looking for someone out of the ordinary.

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Mueller? Mueller? Mueller?

March 25, 2019

In the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, teacher Ben Stein in a bored monotone is taking attendance and utters the classic line “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” The camera cuts to Bueller’s empty chair. There is nothing there. Upon hearing Attorney General William Barrs’s summary of the the Mueller Report, many may have felt the same way. The Mueller report has finally been concluded and it matters and it doesn’t. As I thought there is nothing in it to show that Trump committed any crimes, does little to support impeachment, and leaves our best option at getting rid of Trump as the

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