Let's hope this business of "March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb" holds up. Dang, it's cold this morning but, here, the coffee is HOT! Sunday Morning Coffee starts brewing long before the sun comes up, at least in the winter. It's my weekly look at the news stories you've maybe seen and some you may have missed all laced with my commentary. It's what I get to do. Let's go!
CPAC
Yesterday in a profane laced address to the Conservative Political Action Committee "45" was on a roll for over two hours and largely off script. How is this...coming from the President of the United States of America, "You know, I don't know, maybe you know. You know, I'm totally off script right?" He went on, "This is how I get elected by being off script and if we don't go off script, our country is in big trouble, folks."
What the hell does THAT mean?
He went on to say the investigations of him are "bullshit", mocked his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said the Democrats "are socialists" said National House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Shiff (D-CA) is "Little Shifty" and "These people are sick. They're sick."
I'm old enough to remember when the office of the President was, at least in public, something that garnered respect. No longer, it seems.
One other observation: Over two hours of calling people names, making fun of energy solutions, saying "those people hate America". It reminds me of the 1930's when Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini would gather thousands of people who would stand for hours listening to the deranged "off script" speeches that also called people names, derided the opposition and spewed hate. History has a way of repeating itself.
Oh, But There Is More
Last week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) actually wanted to talk about the ballooning deficit that has been created under the Republicans by out of control spending and tax cuts that created more wealth for the wealthy. But, and we all knew this was coming, those things are not the problem. Nope, not at all. The real problem that has created the massive deficit are "runaway entitlements". You know the stuff that actually cares for people like Social Security, Medicare, college grants, Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps).
And then out comes Alan Greenspan last week and, on cue, says the reason we have high deficits that will, in his words, "bring on rampant inflation" are...wait for it..."Democrats unwilling to rein in entitlements."
There you have it. I promise you that the GOP will try to hammer home that if it were not for old, sick, out of work, under employed, unemployed lazy shiftless people in this country everybody would be living the high life.
And you know what? Many will buy into that flawed logic. Especially lovers of the Grover Norquist Elixir.
Michael Cohen
"He is a racist, he is a liar and he is a cheat." I think I'll leave it right there. But it does beg the question, "We all knew that, what else have you got?"
Walk Away
For weeks we had to endure the hype: "45" was headed to Vietnam to meet with the dictator of North Korea and it was going to be "massively successful" worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. So the president flies halfway around the world and, in the end, doesn't even have lunch.
Then at a press conference "45" says that North Korea wanted all the sanctions removed before they started their efforts to denuclearize their country. So he "walked away". Meanwhile North Korea held their own press conference and called the president a liar saying they only wanted "some of the sanctions removed" and the deal was they would start the process of tearing down their facilities.
Who do you believe? Given the track record...ya gotta go with North Korea. (Photo: NBC News)
I'm on my second pot of coffee...you?
Uncle Joe and Mike Pence
The fur is flying. Last week former Vice President Joe Biden said that current Vice President Mike Pence is "a decent guy". That brought out the long knives. Here is the quote, "The fact of the matter is it was followed on by a guy who's a decent guy, our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, 'I'm here on behalf of President Trump,' and there was dead silence. Dead silence."
Mr. Biden was referencing an event where Mr. Pence said that he brought greetings from the president of the United States and was met with stone cold silence. That, my friends is what international leaders think of "45".
Clearly he was making reference to the lack of foreign policy and tried not to be too hard on the current VP. But he was taken to task by some folks for saying that this "decent guy" is an evil person when it comes to the LGBTQ community.
Mr. Biden said he was sorry for saying "decent guy".
BTW: When "Uncle Joe" announces his candidacy this month...all the air will go out of the race. Watch my children...
Beto
I have it on good authority, as of yesterday, that former Congressman Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) will announce his candidacy for president and be in Iowa within two weeks.
Book it.
That would make it three: Three candidates that could and would defeat "45" in 2020: Biden, O'Rourke or Sanders.
This is going to be fun to watch.
School Nurses
My state senator Charles Schneider (R-Clive/WDM/Windsor Heights) really, really wanted to get rid of school nurses. He and his GOP caucus thought, for a bit, that would be a great way to help our schools and our school children. And he was right. Push the responsibility of dispensing epipens, insulin and medical care to the school teachers. After all they don't do anything all day but infuse our precious kids with socialist propaganda. And, when you think about it every one of them are living on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. It's about time we make them work for a living... Weary. Thankfully somebody decided to pull the draconian bill. Maybe it was...Chuck.
Now to defeat this crazy idea of using taxpayer dollars for private schools. You wanna send your kid to a private school...pay for it.
Guns and Knives
There is an old saying, "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight." That is a true saying and something that legislators in Iowa agree with. Suspect you know that you can pack a gun into the Statehouse if you have a permit but they will confiscate your pocket knife. I'm not making that up. It is good that the Iowa Legislature has adopted that old saying and put it into practice. Let that be a lesson for each of you.
But Guns in Jails...
Seems a person headed to jail in Polk County, Iowa was that close to sneaking a gun into jail with him. This guy drives into a snowdrift, the police show up and arrest him for being drunk and having some "Mary Jane" with him. So. off to jail he goes where at the booking they find a .32 caliber handgun in his sweatshirt. Oops! Seems the deputies that "patted him down" missed it...it was small.
Partly Personal
Last week our 10 year old granddaughter came to my office with a globe. She and my Bride go out to eat at an "ethnic" restaurant each month but...before going...Jovie has to research the food, the area where it comes from, the language of the people there and more. Then she gets to write a brief story about what she has learned. Pretty cool...huh?
So, she comes to me with this globe and says, "Zayde, where is Puerto Rico?" I said, "Look just south and east of Florida." She looks at me like I have a third eye and says she has no idea where Florida is. Stunned I ask her to point to the United States and she points to Russia. (well...that is profound when you think about it). I asked her if she learns geography in school. "Nope."
This sixty-seconds turned into a fifteen minute conversation about the world, the countries, the continents all winding up with pointing out where Puerto Rico is.
The next day was Parent/Teacher Conferences. Lucky me...right? I had to ask about geography...I mean...along with leftist propaganda do they teach it?
They do and I was relieved and Jovie said, "Oh, that! Sure we learn about that I just didn't know the word geography."
My bad...
Finally, I think it is a GO! Last week I mentioned that I had been invited to participate in an effort to help create a Black Business Incubator program in the Metro. We had our first meeting and we're moving forward. People from the community as well as the Iowa Workforce Development and the Small Business Administration met and are making plans to bring this together. I am so stoked. You see, I believe there is only one way to reduce the cycle of unemployment and under-employment and that is through economic development in a very broad sense. Stay tuned...
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Sunday!
Comments