Sunday Morning Coming Down

The 45th President has taken political speech to a place unheard of when he said that President Obama had the Trump Tower wiretapped. I've often heard it said: "If you can imagine it, you can make it happen."  It is probably one of the most popular maxims in the motivation business.  Politicians may have that little bird whispering in their ears all the time. Healthcare is going to be great, I'm going to build a wall, I am going to rebuild the military, I'm going to drain the swamp, I'm going to cut taxes, ... the infrastructure is going to be fixed, I'm not going to change Social Security or Medicare.  Political promises can be derailed by any number of things.  All Presidents have these issues.  Somethings require political capital other things are just slam dunks. Saying "stuff" that is false is not good for a leader's credibility and it can be like a dripping faucet when it comes political capital or in this case it is like a fire h...

The Washington Post just reported on a payment of $68,000 made to Michael Flynn, the recently resigned NSA Advisor of the Trump Administration and retired Lt. General of the Army by the Russian Television Network.  If you appear on RTN or Russian Television Network and are a retired U.S. Army General you can get paid for your appearance and it looks like you can get some face time with Vladimir Putin. In the U.S.A. you might have to pay for that sit down with a Senate or Presidential Candidate and you might get a picture for your wall.  Betty De Vos donated a lot of money and became Secretary of Education, and so it goes. Wilber Ross is the Secretary of Commerce and may still be on the Board of Directors for the Bank of Cyprus which has big loan exposure in Russia, Ukraine, and China. The most cynical of us might wonder what was General Flynn selling and what was Russia buying? Sun Tzu said: "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". What would he think of G...

A quick review of the internet shows that Rep. Steve King has few legislative accomplishments and except for sounding like a racist of the first order doesn't seem to be doing much good for the Republican Party either. U.S. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who last July said white Christians have contributed more to Western civilization than any other “subgroup,” on Sunday found himself again the subject of criticism, this time for saying that Muslim children are preventing “our civilization” from being restored. King, who was retweeting a message endorsing Geert Wilders, a far-right candidate for Dutch prime minister, said Wilders “understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.”

The last twenty four years in politics have been so contentious, divisive, and ideological that I believe the folks we have elected to office don't want to compromise like they need to in order for the system to work and even more sadly they have lost the skills necessary to compromise. The health care debate is a textbook example of this.  The Republican Party lined up against President Obama.  The mantra has been "repeal Obamacare" that was passed with virtually no Republican support through a Democratic maneuver called "reconciliation", which allowed the passage with only Democrats voting for the legislation. The ACA or Obamacare was passed in 2010 before the mid term elections and as per history the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives.  Since then hardly  anything has happened politically or in policy. The 112th, 113th, and 114th Congresses succeeded in doing not much more than keeping the government running.  Congress has been held ...

Tuesday I was called for jury duty in Miami.   Getting to the courthouse was a little bit of challenge as I have not had to get just about anywhere by 8:00am.   A good thing about being retired is you kind of set your own schedule. It was a long day.   Getting to the train and getting home was twelve hours and for a person that that has retired it was a long day, not only for myself but probably everybody else that was in the jury pool room, the courtroom hall, and the courtroom. There were a lot people called.   We all took an oath that we were citizens, lived in Miami Dade County and were eligible to be jurors. I was not chosen as a juror.   I don’t think the State Attorney or the Defense Counsel thought I would be a reliable juror for their case.   Eventually six/eight folks needed to be chosen for a case that would decide guilt or innocence for a person charged with manslaughter.  I've served on several juries, it is not easy, but ...