Month: April 2017

Here are two recent quotes from vice president Mike Pence, and if they don’t scare the hell out of you they should: “the age of strategic patience is over.” And “the Shield stands guard and the sword stands ready.” Mike Pence usually comes across as a kind of pansy, but he is putting on the sternest face he can and spouting warnings designed to scare North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and missile development. (Mike would also like to buff up his own tough-guy image.) Such posturing may or may not scare the tubby little dictator with the funny hairdo, but it should really scare Americans who would just as soon not see us involved in another war of any kind. No one really wins a war. Everyone loses, not the least, all the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and bombings. Now is a time for more, not less, patience. We should back off and keep the ball in North Korea’s court, continuing to build our own defenses, but being careful not to provoke North Korea into making that first fatal mistake.

Partisan politics is like a wet blanket, insinuating itself into every issue, every activity of government. The extreme application of partisanship so far observed in the Trump administration presages nothing but constant dissension, bickering, and obstruction, based not on the merits and specifics of any issue involved, but on the purely partisan prejudice of the individuals involved. Now that the Republicans are in complete and total control of every aspect of federal and many state governments, it appears likely some of the most draconian, far-out ideologies are going to be forced on the American public, even though far less than a majority of Americans voted for Trump and his agenda. We have already seen a good sample of the right wing mentality in their attempt at repeal and replace. Republicans actually thought it was perfectly okay to deprive millions of low income people of their health insurance on one hand, while giving billions in tax credits to wealthy Americans with the other hand. If we could just, somehow, get Republicans to think more like citizens of the USA rather than as members of the Republican Party, maybe we could discover a middle ground more beneficial to everyone involved.

The Wall. The Great Wall. The Beautiful Wall. To secure our borders so they say. “A country is not a country without secure borders to keep out the crooks and drugs.” Some would say, however, that a combination of enhanced border patrols, up-to- date surveillance technology, and strong fencing will do every bit as well as a 2000 mile, multibillion dollar wall. And there are those who are making book on how many tunnels will be dug during its first year of completion, and how many ladders will be for sale on the Mexican side of the Wall.