The View From Here Like many of you, I believed the infatuation with Trump would have worn off a long time ago. Yet, it still goes on. Back in 2016, conventional wisdom predicted his defeat by Hillary Clinton and after his abortive run in 2020, I thought he would be gone for good.* Like many,…

Don’t take my word for it, just keep your ears open and you will know that Marjorie Taylor Greene, the buffoon from Georgia, has struck again. Frontpage news this week is that Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, plans to address aid for Ukraine, an action that has become a cause celebre for the…

I can’t remember where I left off the last time I wrote something for these pages. I guess it’s the “mad cow disease” that goes with my increasing age. I believe it had something to do with my promise to hang in there and do better after a long absence due to fatigue and disgust…

Since the 2016 election, I have been wondering why in the world so many acquaintances voted for Donald Trump. Initially I gave such voters a pass thinking they were dyed in the wool Republicans who simply could not vote for a Democrat and probably believed that once in office Trump would come around and get…

Senator John C. Danforth’s opinion piece in the WSJ today is a must read for Republicans as they head toward the 2024 presidential election. Entitled “The GOP Can’t Afford to Indulge Populism,” * it nicely sums up the differences between true conservatism and the fire-eating machinations of the MAGA crowd. Danforth, the respected former Senator…

My last blog provoked a response that surprised me. One reader seemed to either miss the seriousness of the current political crisis or simply did not want to acknowledge it. Why is this the case? What is it about the last seven years that we don’t get? Really. Voters need to look in the mirror…

Do you ever take time to think about our political lives during the last seven years? If so, you must acknowledge that these times have been characterized by turmoil, rancor and fruitless actions that have done little to address the nation’s needs or problems. This is especially evident when one watches the Republicans in action,…

Time flies, eh? Especially when you are old and have trouble remembering things. I believe it has been well over a year since I last took up the pen to scribble my thoughts for this blog. It’s been too long – a task abandoned out of dismay and disgust – but I still have thoughts…

I’m depressed. For days now I’ve been reading about and watching the awful, inhumane attack on Ukraine. The photos increasingly have become more graphic in portraying the needless suffering, killing and destruction unleashed on the Ukrainian people. As pundits have observed, it’s 1939 all over again, the world caught in the grip of a madman…

Given their disparate origins and experiences, it is more than a coincidence that Messrs. Putin and Trump are friends and fellow travelers. Putin, the former KGB operative, and Trump, the celebrity schmoozer and former real estate tycoon, are both ruthless, amoral and used to getting their way. Both have connived their way on to the…