July 2025
When Did the GOP Embrace Stupid?
31/07/25 07:47
July 31, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 30) - There is a reason historians consider Dwight D. Eisenhower as one of America's greatest presidents. He was smart. During a dangerous decade, he kept a lid on things through quiet diplomacy and behind-the-scenes strategy. As historian Fred Greenstein wrote in his seminal work The Hidden Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader, Ike was able to affect major changes and influence public option without anyone realizing he was doing it. Imagine that, a politician willing to make major changes without worrying who got credit for it.There were other Republican presidents who, despite their flaws, were equally smart. Richard Nixon masterfully ended China's international isolation and cooled down an overheated Cold War with Russia. Ronald Reagan took things a step farther by restoring a sluggish economy, bringing down the Berlin Wall and forcing communism into the dustbin of history. George H.W. Bush masterfully managed the reunification of the two Germanys and the fall of the Soviet Union. While George W. Bush made serious mistakes in his War on Terror, he embraced a vision of "compassionate conservatism" that resulted in much-need reforms in education and Medicare. If Congress had followed the younger Bush's approach to immigration, we would not have the current White House occupant building concentration camps for the undocumented.
Unfortunately, by the time George W. Bush left the presidency, the DNA of the Congress and the Republican Party had changed. The party's leaders were influenced by nationalists and evangelists who embraced anti-intellectualism, tax reductions, limiting immigration and shrinking the public safety net. The GOP's policies are being dictated by the sentiment of the mob instead of through rigorous open-minded analysis. And in Donald Trump, they found a charismatic leader whose policies have been based on an anti-intellectual bias, personal whims and a desire to inflict retribution upon those who dare to criticize him. American primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities. This twisted philosophy has infected local school boards and state legislatures. Here in Kansas, GOP lawmakers are challenging tenure and are questioning professors' workloads. (I spent nearly 30 years as a professor and I can tell you that it is hard work that often requires 50-60 hours a week to get the job done.) Since the days of Dwight Eisenhower and his thoughtful, quiet public policy analysis, today's Republicans have devolved into latter-day Know Nothing Nativists, whose "America First" anti-intellectual and anti-globalization policies have severely damaged this nation's standing in the world community.
We are swimming in dangerous waters. Eisenhower knew that the world needed a stable United States to keep the peace. All this current president knows is that he resents all who, whether real of imaged, oppose him. Trump spends his time grifting, tweeting and deconstructing two and one-half centuries of constitutional power-sharing. In his desire to enrich himself and punish his detractors, Trump is putting us all at risk. Russia and China are poised to take advantage of the Trumpian chaos. Even France and Britain are preparing for a post-American future. To put it simply, MAGA is little more than an empty hat. And that is just plain stupid. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
CBS Cow Tows To Trump
19/07/25 07:37
July 19, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 29) - CBS's decision to end its top-rated late night show. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is just the latest example of media corporations cow towing to threats made by Donald Trump. The network claims that the show's content, often featuring some of the most blistering attacks on the White House's incompetence, has nothing to do with decision to end The Late Show next May. There's some truth to that, as the audience for late night television has been dwindling. But it is also true that the decision to axe Colbert comes as CBS is merging with Skydance, a corporation owned by Trump allies. Another consideration is that the merger requires Trump Administration approval. Trump has been exalting over the decision to cancel the show. This is just the latest in a series of legal battles in which Trump has won meritless victories over the media. Disney, ABC's parent company, and Paramount, CBS's owner, have recently settled lawsuits, each paying $16 million to Trump, to end lawsuits that legal experts say were slam-dunks for the media. They did so out of fear. Now the Big Orange Turd has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for its reporting of the close connections between Trump and Jeffery Epstein, the sexual predator who hanged himself in his cell in 2019. This suit pits Trump against Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who helped put Trump into office in the first. Once again, it isn't a question of whether Trump can prevail. For Trump's claim to stick, he will have to show that he has been defamed, that the defamation has been communicated to a third-party, that he has clearly been identified as the target of the defamation, that the defamation has resulted in damage, and that The Wall Street Journal's reporting is false. Because Trump is a public figure, he carries the additional burden of proof: actual malice, which is defined as a knowing falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth. Considering the careful editorial process used with this story, Trump has a snowball's chance of hell of winning such a lawsuit. The only question whether Rupert Murdoch, once a close ally of Trump, is going to back down when confronted by the wannabe dictator. To put it another, albeit ironic, way: Rupert Murdoch, the father of Fox Faux News, has now been cast as the latest champion of press freedom. May God have mercy on our souls. Before you celebrate yet another attack on the media, consider this: You cannot have a democracy without a free press. Trump's ongoing assault against media companies is just another example of him undermining our nation's institutions to enhance his oligarchical and dictatorial powers. If you are rooting against the media in this barrage of meritless lawsuits, you are rooting against your own best interests. It's time to pick sides. Choose wisely. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.It Didn't Have To Happen
12/07/25 02:06
July 12, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 28) - Regardless of the sentiment among local, state and federal officials that the July 4 flash flood in Texas could not have been predicted, the fact is that it could have - and should have - been anticipated. Maybe we can't stop Mother Nature's wrath. But with forethought and planning, we certainly can mitigate it. While Texas's lame-ass governor refers to questions about finding out who is to blame as "the word choice of losers," the fact remains that "blame" is just another way of saying "accountability." And the people of Texas and the United States have a right to know who is behind the colossal failures that have led to at least 120 deaths with many more still missing.
There are four stages to any crisis: the prodromal or warning stage, the point of no return where damage is unavoidable, the clean-up stage (in this case, the search and rescue of victims), and the period when things return to "new normal." The biggest failures in Texas came in that first stage, when there were warning signs of a potential disaster but they were ignored. The local government officials and the state knew that the region had experienced serious flash flooding in the past. Yet they did nothing. One local official railed against the idea of installing flood warning sirens for aesthetic reasons. The MAGA following commissioners initially turned down $10.8 million in federal COVID recovery funds because they felt President Joe Biden was a corrupt communist. They eventually accepted the money, ostensively to deny it from being distributed in a blue state. However, they did nothing with the money to address the flood warning system. Governor Abbott and the state legislature should have taken responsibility for the health and well-being of their fellow Texans by installing updated warning systems in the flood-prone region. The state had the resources to do it. But - again - they did nothing.
When the flood hit the "point of no return stage," the Trump administration's evisceration of the National Weather Service and FEMA made matters worse. The short-staffed Weather Service did an admirable job warning of the impending threat. However, the key official charged with coordinating with local emergency management officials had been fired by DOGE. That left a critical gap in the response. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a/k/a "Dress-Up Barbie," established reckless budgetary restrictions on the federal government's response. In short, she had to personally sign-off on expenditures over $100,000. During any major emergency, FEMA would spend several times that amount in rolling out resources to respond to the emergency. Secretary Noem was sent the budgetary request on Friday morning. But she didn't get around to signing it until Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, thousand of calls to FEMA from frantic citizens went unanswered. And, the man who actually heads FEMA has been nowhere to be found. When President Trump toured the disaster area yesterday, he used his press conference to vent old grievances. The practice of his predecessors has been to act during disaster responses as a "comforter-in-chief." But that's not Trump's style. At least he didn't throw paper towels to the victims.
In my May 29, 2025, post, I warned that the Trump administration has gutted the government's ability to respond to disasters. I take no pleasure in saying "I told you so." But make no mistake about it: The actions of the local, state and federal officials in this matter borders on criminal mismanagement.. There are signs that the Texas legislature is finally motivated to do something about a flood warning system. And the Trump administration appears to be quietly shelving its idiotic plans to eliminate FEMA. But that is not enough. Kristi Noem should be fired, as should the elusive head of FEMA. Voters need to hold their elected official accountable at the polls. The massive death toll from the Texas floods should have never happened. But it did and the "new normal" stage of the crisis should result in a reckoning on Election Day. That's it for now. May God bless the victims and comfort their families and friends. Fear the Turtle.
An Unpardonable Sin
04/07/25 06:57
July 4, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 27) - During the 19 years I have been writing this blog, I have reserved the post nearest to Independence Day for an offering that is often nostalgic and/or aspirational. I find that hard to do this year. The events of the past 24 hours have made me seriously question the future viability of this nation. The battle over Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" was not your typical Capitol Hill budget battle. It was a fight over the heart and soul of America - and America lost. What congressional Republicans did yesterday was an unpardonable sin. They turned their backs on two and one-half centuries of American values to embrace neo-nationalist policies that echo Germany in the 1930s. Of course, the President's supporters laugh off this kind of talk as being "woke" - whatever the hell that means. I'll let you decide if that's true. Despite their public protestations to the opposite, the fact remains that the Republicans severely cut Medicare funds to low income Americans. They tell you that they are just making more of these poor wretches do what "real" Americans do, get jobs that pay for their healthcare. This ignores the fact that most of these people already work for employers who do not provide any form of health care. They tell you they've cut your taxes. And, in a sense, that's true. But what is also true is that Congress yesterday raised the tax rate among the lowest income levels while lowering it among the top one-tenth of one percent of earners. They've slashed many of the safety net programs to fund their "take from the poor and give to the rich" priorities. They are pouring money into defense programs and so-called border security. Much of our defense spending goes in support of Israel, an expansionist Middle Eastern power that has been waging a war of aggression - some even call it genocide - against Palestinians. However, it's on the latter point, immigration, that Republican hypocrisy rings loudest. They want to deport everyone who came to this country illegally — except the cheap labor farm workers who are the backbone of American agriculture. They want to deny birthright citizenship, even though it was a right memorialized in the original Constitution. Republicans plan to expand their immigration enforcement efforts by establishing what amounts to little more than concentration camps for the undocumented. ("Sieg Heil," anyone?) They've been sending out masked agents to arrest and deport non-whites, including American citizens. The basic argument Republicans have for their draconian approach is a warped view of what they call fairness, a belief that these "illegals" jumped-the-line ahead of those who immigrated properly. They need to wait their turn. Of course, one can't believe in "fairness" while denying due process. They tell you that only American citizens enjoy American rights. That's not what the Constitution says. Anyone within the borders of the United States enjoys constitutional protections.
But wait, there's more! The bill enacted yesterday cuts food subsidies for the poor, a policy that will severely impact farmers. Congress not only removed tax credits for alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind, but it has chosen to tax them. (A big win for the petroleum industry.) This is a policy that will cause Midwest consumer energy prices to soar. These Republicans are trying to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in favor of their ill-defined view of meritocracy.. However, one need look only at the disparity of opportunities between whites and non-whites in this country to know that the U.S. is a long way from becoming a meritocracy. I also suggest they re-read the Declaration of Independence, America's founding document, which proclaims that "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." And to top it off, these "fiscally responsible" Republicans who like to bitch and moan about the budget deficit, adorned this legislation with pork barrel spending for pet projects that will raise the federal debt by nearly $4 trillion. They say the increased productivity produced by this bill will offset the deficit. Unfortunately, those are the same claims Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump made with their own tax cut measures. They didn't work then and they won't work now. Instead, they choose to pay for their donors' golf club memberships by stealing from your grandchildren. For the record: Democrat presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden all reduced the federal deficit during their times in office. Republican presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Trump all increased the deficit.
On this day after the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" was narrowly enacted, it's increasingly hard to take pride in what our nation has become, an oligarchy that serves only the rich and does so at the expense of everyone else - even you. We should be ashamed of what Congress has done - and polls suggest that a majority of Americans (53 percent), in fact, are appalled by this abandonment of basic American values. The greatest irony of the "Big Beautiful Bill" is that the very Americans who support Trump's vision of America are going to be the ones hurt the most by his policies. When the full impact of yesterday's betrayal becomes apparent, real change may finally occur. Until then, we must fight to preserve the values that made this nation the greatest on earth. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.