Tag Archives: Hurricane Katrina

Point of View Columns

Nightmares Come True. Fairy Tales Don’t.

Four years ago, the unthinkable (and barely plausible) notion that Donald Trump would be elected President of the United States was considered a bad joke that would soon dissipate of its own accord. The idea of Trump as president was considered to be a nightmare for America that couldn’t possible come true – until it did. And now, the only nightmare worse than the election of Trump is the re-election of Trump for four more accursed years.

And now, after more than three years of the Nightmare Called Trump, there is a very real possibility that Trump will be re-elected. The Democrats seem to be operating on a strategy that is based on the fairy tale that sounds something like – after a series of internecine slash and burn primary campaigns with each candidate taking and giving body blows, all the losing candidates and their losing constituencies will forgive and forget all those body blows and come together in pure and eternal unity in support of the eventual Democratic Party candidate.

While we are living in the proof that nightmares do come true, the Democrats seem welded to the notion that this fairy tale of unity after hand to hand campaign combat will come true. Somehow, too many people are reading the dog-eared memoranda pulled out of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign trash bin. Those would be the memoranda that spoke of the inevitability of a Clinton victory due to the obvious flaws and outrageous deficiencies of one Donald Trump. And we know how that worked out – ask for President Hillary Clinton at the White House switchboard and you will get the answer.

Democrats are writing the campaign themes for Trump’s reelection campaign – Sanders is a socialist – Buttigieg is out of his league – Bloomberg is a misogynistic sack of cash – Biden is too old – Klobuchar can’t beat an egg – Warren can’t inspire – and what the hell is Tom Steyer doing here, anyway? Somehow we are supposed to believe that at the conclusion of this rhetorical food fight, everyone is going to wipe off the spaghetti sauce from their faces and join in a chorus of “God Bless America” before going out to slay the Trump dragon.

A more likely scenario is that the supporters of Sanders will pull a reprise of their 2016 electoral temper tantrum and either stay home or vote for Trump. If Sanders is the nominee it will be quite a show watching Bloomberg and Biden and Warren and Buttigieg twist themselves like pretzels as they speak out in support of Sanders while video clips of their attacks on Sanders go viral courtesy of the Trump campaign and Fox News and the Russians.

The Democrats seem to be wishing on a star for those long ago halcyon days when hatchets were buried in the ground and not in the back of the victorious candidate and party took priority over the individual. Trump blew up the playbook for that scenario in 2016 and it is doubtful that those mythical times will return from the mists of the past.

Every attack by every Democrat on the other Democrats has already gone viral and they are all embedded in the cloud and can never be deleted. And all the while Trump is mangling yet another language – this time in India – and salivating at the thought of feasting on the remains of the Democratic primary battle.

It bears repeating….these are not ordinary times. These are times of extreme danger and jeopardy for the norms and institutions that have kept this country, as profoundly flawed as it is, functioning and operating in an orderly and relatively reliable fashion. Trump is the antithesis of order – he is Chaos with bad hair.

But Trump can win on November 3, 2020. Especially if the Democrats continue to believe in fairy tales and help make the American nightmare of another four years of Trump come true.

 

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Point of View Columns

Weekend Edition – January 18, 2013

Even though the Teapublican inmates are threatening to take over the Congressional asylum, I am still going to Washington for the second inauguration of Barack Obama because it will be history in the making – but the Teapublicans are still crazy. Meanwhile, in some kind of bizarre twist, we are about to witness a showdown on……………guns, where the winner or the loser will be us. And, speaking of lunatics, there are 187 Teapublicans who think that the victims of Hurricane Sandy don’t deserve federal assistance…….just because.

Not a Big Enough Asylum

On November 6, 2012 the Democrats actually picked up a few seats in the House of Representatives and several certifiable crazies like Todd (“legitimate rape”) Akins and Richard (“rape pregnancies are a gift from God”) Mourdock and Ben (“Obama is the worst president in history”) Quayle were sent home and hopefully to oblivion.

But there are more than enough Teapublicans to fill the crazy ward in the House. In just the first few days of the new Congress we have already seen bills introduced to do everything short of sending President Obama and his family to the moon (but stay tuned on that one).

Aside from over 180 Teapublicans voting to reject the fiscal cliff deal – thereby voting to send this country over the cliff – we are already hearing threats of impeachment hearings and an absolute embrace of the concept of this country defaulting on the national debt at the end of February.

A recent poll indicates that 64% of Republicans still believe that Barack Obama is hiding something about his youth. This means that the “birther” canard is alive and well and thriving in Republican circles. What is puzzling – and troubling – that there appear to be no sane, adult and reasonable Republicans willing to stand up and suggest that a lunatic strategy is actually no strategy?

At this rate the Republicans will go up on the shelf of history right next to the Whigs and the Know-Nothing Party.

The Showdown on Guns

In an historic moment, President Obama has signed 23 executive orders in an effort to truly address America’s gun addiction problem. It should be noted that he did not propose to take guns away from anyone. President Obama specifically reiterated the right of Americans to own guns legally. He also pointed out the rather logical notion that it is probably not a good idea for ex-felons or the insane to own guns.

In a predictable move the National Rifle Association attacked each and every proposal of the president. In a surprise move, the NRA even dragged the president’s daughters into the mud pit, claiming that their Secret Service protection was an indication of “elitism”, proving once again that there is simply no bottom in American politics.

Teapublicans like Senator Rand Paul accused President Obama of acting like a “king” for having the temerity to issue an executive order. He conveniently forgets that his right wing hero, Ronald Reagan, issued over 300 executive orders.

And now, we hear Teapublicans doing the Bull Connor/George Wallace/Strom Thurmond oldies routine threatening the “nullification” of President Obama’s executive orders.

Meanwhile, we are on schedule for over 11,000 Americans to die from gun violence this year.
The Teapublican/NRA response is to do nothing and let the blood flow.

The Sandy Aftermath

Earlier this week the United States House of Representatives passed a $50 billion relief bill to assist the victims of Hurricane Sandy, most of whom live in New York and New Jersey. That is the good news.

The bad news is that over 180 Teapublican members of Congress voted against providing aid and assistance to their fellow Americans. This would be the same aid and assistance that was routinely provided to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

The regional, sectarian meanness of the Teapublicans is unworthy and shameful.
Unfortunately, due to the magic of gerrymandered engineering, we are going to be stuck with these Teapublicans for a while longer.

Have a great weekend!

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