Neither Democrats or Republicans are ready for when Trump passes away

 

This touches on being a follow up to a post I made a few weeks ago, but this focuses more on what happens with each party after Trump.

Or what lack of policy will not be enacted.

The Democrats still have their one page word salad and their pandering to different interest groups. They say things like universal healthcare, raise the minimum wage, tax the billionaires, etc, but never flesh it out to see how they are going to accomplish it all. I post more in this blog with more substance to some of my ideas than the Democratic party does across it’s entire spectrum of representatives and candidates. They love their message. They have no idea how to enact it.

Do they have a post Trump plan? Hard to say when half their messaging is Trump is bad and Trump is stupid and Trump gotcha posts. If Trump were to peacefully pass in his sleep tonight the Democrats wouldn’t know what to do. And would have a good chance of losing in 2026 and 2028 if any Republicans figured anything out.

Now the Republicans aren’t ahead of the game either. The infamous RINOs will try and retake the party, yet how successful will they be? And what happens to MAGA? Does it splinter into multiple factions? Or do they get lucky and someone rises to the top and takes the mantle? And this seems very unlikely. Vance isn’t as popular as the people around Vance would like him to be. Will a normal power play between Vance and Rubio break out and one of them starts spewing something close to rational political speak?

Or will the whole house of cards come tumbling down and all the extremists carve out different audiences fracturing the whole country even more? Imagine ten different Fuentes all vying for attention. Will they offset each other or create more monsters?

All this and more is possible. Somebody in the Republican party needs to start building coalitions or all hades will break loose.

And the rest of Trump’s cabinet, staffers, aides, hangers on and Congressional allies will have nowhere to go but low. Miller, Noem, Bondi, Kennedy, Johnson will lose standing quick once Trump is gone. My fear is Andrew Vought will find a way to survive since his real goal is Project 2025, not Trump, so he probably has some post Trump plans. The rest of the lot, not so much. 

Trump’s economic agenda will lose steam faster than ice thrown into boiling water. So what happens to fightfest 2025 at club MAGA? What sycophant will survive? Bessent? Pulte? Lutnick? Or?

And think about the “influencers” or whatever they want to be called. Bannon? Jones? Fuentes? Rogan? Who else? Do they still garner millions of views? Or do they fade away also?

And with all this Republican mess, who gets all the worthless crypto in the divorce?

Will the Democrats fill a void when the Republicans implode? Or will they continue to talk down to America, lecture us, and demean the MAGA population in general, completely forgetting that these are Americans also. (which they claim Trump does with their groups).

The hypocrisy of both parties is completely different, yet it is so bad that both parties have huge holes to climb out of if we ever want to get this country back on track. They finger point, say votes are wasted if you vote independent or third party, the parties run the primaries based on messaging only, not allowing fresh voices to arise, and all the while claim everything else is evil, yet doing nothing about the evil and incompetency that permeates their own party.

Now I am not a fan of either party so my hope is that when Trumpism fades, independents finally realize they need to get going and rebuild both parties or create new ones because the current leadership in both parties is a complete failure when it comes to representing the people and by the looks of it, aren’t ready for a post Trump world.

And let us hope that all this happens before July 04, 2026 so we can have a real independence day birthday celebration and welcome the world when it comes for FIFA’s World Cup in North America. Am I asking too much?

 

And since the world is coming next summer, let’s learn a bit.

Salud!

Cin Cin! Saluti!

Sante´!

Prost!

Saude!

Kanpai!

Geonbae!

Gan bei!

Nuo nke oma!

Fi-sih-tik!

Serefe!

And so much more

Cheers!

Why aren’t independents angrier?

 

I am at a lost.

 

First of all today I am supposed to be working on something good, something positive, yet I keep getting distracted by my thoughts on how far we have fallen as a country. I do a bit of volunteer work and for some of what I do I have to prepare. So as I was trying to prepare I just kept thinking about why the effort. Maybe I am feeling a bit melancholy. Or am I in a funk? Or is it because it is a cloudy day and the end of summer. I prefer spring and summer so who knows. Anyway though, I am distracted from doing good because I just don’t understand why we are where we are today.

 

I am not much of a facts guy, yet the facts don’t paint a pretty picture. I tried getting a snap shot of how the US has done in education since 1975 and what I found was there is no standardized ranking system since 1975. I did find these interesting facts since 2000.   

Overall: U.S. students have consistently performed about average in reading and science but below average in math on PISA tests since 2000.  PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment. (yes programme)

So is this important? Well when it comes to making America great again or some other nonsense it should be. We are average among developed nations for 25 years. That to me sounds like we aren’t doing what we should.

And we all know about the debt ballon:

The U.S. national debt rose from $533 billion in 1975 to $35.46 trillion by September 30, 2024. This represents a substantial increase, with the debt surpassing $1 trillion around 1981-1982 and growing significantly in the decades that followed due to increased government spending. 

Or how about the deficit each year and honestly this can be looked at in two ways. First the debt straight up or compared as a percentage to GDP either way it gets interesting.

Now I found charts from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, yet to copy and paste them onto a word document becomes cumbersome. You can search for them using the resource mentioned, but generally show there has been some years in late 1990’s and early 2000’s and mid 2010’s where we had a slight surplus, but we don’t get to 36 trillion in debt without some disaster years. All in all, without taking an academic deep dive into it, hard to say what all this means except we are currently in a deep pile of doggie doo doo.

One of the left’s biggest bugaboos is the wealth gap:

            The wealth gap in the United States has been a persistent issue since 1975, with significant changes in distribution over the years. The top 1% of Americans have seen their share of wealth increase from 17% in 1990 to 26% in 2022, while the middle class has lost its share of wealth. The bottom 20% have maintained their share of wealth at around 3% over the past three decades. The total market income for the top 1% averaged $3.4 million in 2021, compared to the bottom 20% who have seen their share of wealth remain at around 3%. The wealth of the American middle class has changed, with the 60% of income earners between the top and bottom quintiles having seen their share of wealth diminish since 1990. 

U.S. Senate

 

            NEW STUDY: Nearly $80 Trillion Redistributed from the Bottom 90% to the Top 1% Since 1975

• March 4, 2025

 

So why am I throwing out unrelated facts?  You can always pick and choose facts to make any  point or can skew the conversation to make facts sound good to your audience, yet when you really just look at it, in the above metrics and more we aren’t improving as a nation. Go to wages for the middle and working class, review how many people vote in our country, you can find upteen amount of lists to review, yet nothing says gold star.

So why am I bothered by all this noise? It is because time and time again Democrats and Republicans tell us they have the answers. And have they? Sure you can manipulate facts to make you sound good and I have heard many times Democrats say we balanced the budget in the 1990’s. When the reality is we had a booming economy in the 90’s that was attributed to the beginning of the growth of the internet. Many new types of businesses were born. This had more to do with government surplus than any Democrat public policy.  Republicans will say then cutting taxes for businesses is good since a booming economy helps our budget, yet when Republicans have cut taxes business doesn’t take off and we run deficits.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

Let’s talk messaging.

How many times have you heard that tax cuts benefit the economy?

 

How many times have you been told that all we need is to do these two or three things like increase minimum wage or universal healthcare and everything will be okay?

 

And honestly those aren’t bad ideas. Yet they are weak in a vacuum. To really change the trajectory of this country it is going to take work. It is going to take comprehensive public policy that addresses an inordinate amount of issues. There is no quick fix, yet our illustrious two party system wants you to believe if you would just listen to my side ignore the other side then everything will come up roses. It doesn’t.

Both sides vet their candidates to make sure they tow the party line, their message in elections fits the narrative that they think will win votes. It doesn’t even begin to cross the rubicon and look for what are the best policies. It is all about the message.

And the messages are getting old, and have never been enough.

So some people think rank voting in primaries will help. Nope, because it is still the people the party has chosen to be in the primary. There is no new message much less new policy much less new actionable items to help us all out. Again nothing for the “all”. Just messaging to fire up the base so they come out and vote in the primary. And once they vote in the primary you have the candidate who best represents the party line, not you.

And then there are those that think we should have term limits. That is democracy on whatever is the opposite of steroids. Term limits is laziness. Voters are responsible so they should get who they want, not be held back by people who are incompetent. The two party system has made us want term limits because we won’t do the work to vet the candidates, look for fresh ideas and expect our representatives to represent us. And term limits will not solve the problem as it stands since the parties will still have candidates that tow the party line, just new names.

The original framers of our country and constitution had no idea where politics were going to go, yet I am sure, they would be horrified by what politics has become. Many even warned against political parties and their fears have come true. It is more about the party than it is about governing.

So as an independent are you angry yet? And even before I made this paltry effort to get you angry how did you feel?

Folks it is time to rethink what is before us. The duopoly of Republicans and Democrats no longer are effective in governing this country. Over fifty years ago, our two party system did create a somewhat balanced view of governing. Some days we needed conservative thinking, other days we needed to be more progressive. Yet a sense of civility and pride allowed both parties to respect each other. They still were not close to good, but they managed. Now the hate, the partisanship, the finger pointing, the lies, the incompetence dominate Washington D. C. and do not allow any intrusion into their world.

We need new leadership, new parties and new ideas to move this country forward. The government on paper, the Constitution is still the best going for mankind right now. We need to bring back the values, the principles, the ethos of our founders and update it for the 21^st century.

As regular readers know, I prefer a center right public policy tilt to what needs to be done, yet whatever we can bring forward that doesn’t rely on the current messaging from either party, but brings forth new energy and actual public policy that benefits the country as a whole, I will listen. And no, socialism and facism are not the answer.

Respect, hard work, policies that benefit the mainstream are the answers. The Republicans talk about the importance of business. Yes we need a strong economy, but the truth is that comes from the people participating in it more so than the rich getting benefits. The Democrats talk about all these feel good policies, yet have no idea what this country can afford and what actually works, but want to tell us over and over again what is bad. No one responds to lectures. No one responds to being left out of the game.

 

Yet we let both parties run over us, saying we waste our vote if we don’t vote for their side. My statement to them is we have wasted our votes for far too long.

Are you angry yet?

 

It is time to change.

 

Cheers

Dallas Cowboys comments, predictions and other Dallas Sports thoughts

 

Dallas Sports Headlines:

Two great players, two horrible trades all in one year. Sheesh, yet for one team…..

 

Will the Dallas Cowboys make the big game?

Hope springs eternal, yet we aren’t in spring, this is fall and that is what is going to happen, the Cowboys season is going to fall.

So no big game celebrations in Big D this year just like for decades now.

In fact I will venture the question will the Cowboys have a winning season. They might scratch one out, but both the offense and defense lines are the key and well.. go back to that two great players headline and we might struggle on the defensive side. The offensive side is an interesting situation. Is it truly revamped or is that Cowboy preseason hype?

Time will tell so unless it is truly revamped and stronger a 7-10 season is a high possibility, but let’s have fun, throw in a tad bit of spring for these dog days of summer and hopefully they will go 9-8. And maybe just maybe 10-7 and a chance at the wildcard game. After that, there just isn’t that much hope in this spring to go further.

I will finalize my prediction at 8-9 and hope I am wrong as heck and the left side of the ledger is a rising number.

And speaking of the dog days of summer, those red shoe Rangers are hanging in there. Tough series with Houston coming up, but a long win streak or winning  the various series even if 2-1 for most before end of the year and they have a good chance.

Once they get in I am still at a bit of a loss. Their inconsistency is weighing on me, but since this is baseball lets stick with spring and hope and say they go at least a playoff series or two. Definitely an exciting and nail biting September coming up.

 

And for that first disastrous trade, the Dallas Mavericks may still have a chance. Everyone in Dallas still thinks a better chance with Luka than without, but at least the Mavericks came away with some luck and received some potential for the year. Flagg will make rookie mistakes, that will be inevitable, yet with help, good player development coaching and some luck the Mavericks could go far. We will discuss further in October.

As always I admit I am a casual fan of the Dallas Stars so we will look into it a bit more come October also. It is always fun when both the Mavericks and the Stars are running side by side in the playoffs come spring.

 

And if Trump doesn’t screw things up, we are looking forward to all the World Cup action next summer. Hopefully we can get into a game or two in that large monstrosity of a stadium in Arlington.

 

Cheers all

Happy Labor Day

 

To all those who make our country great. Yep since this is a service economy all our labor is working to make ends meet on this glorious holiday to celebrate those who can afford not to work.

 

The irony is lost on those in Washington DC though.

 

Truly we need to let the people who labor enjoy this day. Maybe we should shut down all the retail stores, convenience stores, restaurants etc and let the people who work enjoy the day. We could all get our foods for grilling, gas for driving etc just by planning ahead one day.

 

It is good some get the day off, but we should work to give all the day off.                                                                                                                                           

 

 

And thanks to a Tumblr reader who reblogged on Tumblr last year’s post. Today’s is the elevator speech version. lol

Last night I dreamt I met Donald Trump…. and it was……

 

Interesting……

 

And cordial

 

And as all dreams go, it had that bizarre dream world to it. Yet it was also very vivid. I can remember some of the places we went.

It started out with me somehow getting to meet him to discuss my view points on what the country needed.

And of course dream world makes the fruition of this meeting unusual. After some machinations around trying to go somewhere we ended up in an almost dive of a breakfast place or sandwich shop. Hard to completely describe. The place was small, older, somewhat cramped, old four top tables where we sat at one. You ordered from a cashier that was more of a convenience store feel to it. I didn’t get anything because I didn’t have any cash on me and I didn’t want to use my debit card for the small snack I thought I wanted.

Mr. Trump got himself what appeared to be a breakfast sandwich. Eventually he only ate half and left half for me, however at that point we were on the move again.

The conversation at the breakfast table though included my ideas for better public policy and yes in dream world you don’t get to explain it all, yet I remember presenting some of my ideas. He seemed interested, but non committal.

And the whole conversation was very open. He didn’t criticize, offer alternatives, just listened.

His demeanor seemed to me that he wasn’t trying to be repentant, more like trying to understand something that he missed, but wanted something better. He seemed to have more of a reflective tone to his musings. And this is where I think him saying he wasn’t sure if he was going to heaven caused this dream. Again he wasn’t repentant in the evangelical sense, but more trying work through what he needed to do. It definitely had the feel of some soul searching. I always pray for Trump, yet in a different way than the people who pray over him. Maybe this dream was my answer for how I wanted things to go if my prayers were working. Anyway back to the dream.

He appeared calm, curious, and calculating next steps. As mentioned we left the place where we ate and went to another I am going to say something of a museum, yet small. We ended up looking at what might have been a sitting room for some body, really nice furniture, people dressed nice, yet somewhat of a uniform look there to help. We walked around for a moment. Trump appeared impressed by the surroundings. I saw some small bits of trash on a table and went over to pick it up. And after gathering it up, I turned and he was gone.

I looked around, went outside to a nicely manicured lawn area and nowhere to be found. I felt remorse that I didn’t get to say goodbye. And I looked down at my phone and there appeared a text from him and as I started to read it I woke up.

If you read my blog regularly you know I am not a fan of Mr. Trump and worry incessantly about the damage he is doing to our country. So was this an alternative universe dream, God telling me not to judge because I do not know him dream, just a dream like I mentioned triggered by him saying he was worried about going to heaven and my subconscious envisioning him as a better person, or any other of a thousand reasons for a dream. Who knows? Yet I had that dream and it was very vivid and like all dreams hard to remember thirty seconds after you wake up.

And on a completely different note I want to mention that being secular or agnostic is still a sin. We all know the first commandment, I am the Lord, your God. You will have no other strange Gods before me. Yet Jesus takes it one step further: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

And the catechism of the Catholic Church goes even further: This immediately echoes the solemn call:  Hear, O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord.

God has loved us first. The love of the One God is recalled in the first of the ten words. The commandments then make explicit the response of love that man is called to give to his God.

Or for you agnostics and secularists, God created you, loves you so you are called to love him. And hence failure to do such is a sin. There you go folks your daily lecture that you didn’t want to hear.

Or you can blame Trump since it was that dream that made me want to spell this out for you.

And Mr. President, if you want to get to heaven, call me, we can enroll you into OCIA. The National Cathedral or many local parishes in D.C. can help.

Cheers

The Republicans are making it harder to vote and the Democrats are making it easier for themselves to lose

 

Okay, a bit of a long title, but how do I get your attention.

 

If you read the news just a small bit you know Republicans are seriously gaming the system to win in 2026 and if they do, then 2028 will be a shoe in for them. Republicans have completely acquiesced to Donald Trump’s mad power play. They are throwing away the country so Donnie boy can stay out of jail. We all know that if sane people got back into controlling Congress his days would be numbered. Yet for some reason the Republican Party thinks that by letting Donnie control the world they will get something out of it, I think. I just cannot figure why so many Republicans feel the need to capitulate to him. It is stark raving madness to watch this continue to grow year over year for the last ten years. He is trying to usurp power for himself. And then what, once he passes away from old age the Republican party will be in a dog fight and our country will be dismantled. Amazes me people are being this short sighted.

And as mentioned above the Republicans are gaming the system and the headline is the Texas and now maybe more gerrymandering that is going on. And there is so much more that isn’t dominating the headlines. Read deeper into their efforts and it is a nightmare to democracy.

And yes Gavin boy is trying to out Trump Trump, yet that will fail. Trump does have a unique ability to be able to bully and denigrate and act like he isn’t doing anything wrong, but that isn’t why the Democrats are setting themselves up for failure.

They seriously haven’t learned anything over the last ten years. You go on social media or listen to some of the Democratic leadership and they are still talking down to people. Their clueless elitism knows no bounds. I have seen multiple examples on social media where someone will make a statement about a so called woke article or some such nonsense and they will be down voted like they are Epstein himself, yet the comment will be about stop telling people how to feel and give us something better. Literally almost the exact quote for one post and yet clobbered in the replies. Ridiculous! Democrats to this day cannot communicate to the country anymore. You would think after 2024 they would have learned it is the pocketbook issues dominating the political landscape right now, but no. They still lecture, tell us they know it all, shun new ideas from other sources accepting only what they think is the right way to do things.

Do I want a green infrastructure? I actually do, but the Democrats lecture instead of explain the advantages even in new business and development. How many people have heard how powerful new changes are for an economy from the Democrats? I started writing years ago the advantages of a green revolution so to speak (don’t think I used that phrase though) and probably said more in this blog about how strong our country would grow than the entire national Democrat party has said. Oh they think they tell us, but really they don’t. Not in energy, not in new businesses, not in the future, they just don’t do enough at any level to give us something or a reason why we should choose better policies. Damn crickets on real substantive ideas from the Democrats right now.

They have the gotcha posts down, the Trump is bad posts down, the Republicans are Trump sycophants down, the world is falling apart posts down, yet giving us a whole new vision to get past Trump and real build our values, our Constitution, our economy (they cannot even explain why tariffs are bad to the average voter or don’t) is very weak. They spend more time whining than fixing.

We are screwed. It maddens me that so many Democrats say we don’t need new parties when I bring it up because they tell me they are the only ones strong enough or have enough votes to beat the Republicans. Well until they change their tune, they don’t.

We need new parties and I hope and pray people hear that things need to change now or the Republicans in their short sighted blind loyalty to a demented madman is going to destroy this country. And the one percenters kissing Trump’s rear end will eat up the rest of the economy and serfdom here we come.

 

On an irrelevant note to that point, I priced Cowboys tickets to take the family. It is beyond my reach. I am not well off by any stretch of the imagination, yet I could spend some money to go to one game if tickets were reasonable. Ticket prices are beyond anyone’s rational ability to pay. About ten years ago give or take I spent $600 to take 8 of us to a Cowboys playoff game, a playoff game, and had somewhat decent seats. Now it costs almost that much for two nosebleed tickets to a popular game. A non premium game I might get three tickets. So the average Joe can no longer even begin to think of taking his kids or grandkids to a game. Now that is SAD! To get a suite for 18 people, tens of thousands of dollars. I could take the whole family to Europe off season for almost a week for less than the price of a suite for one game and we have grown. I priced it. It is $22,000 for the cheapest game for smallest suite (18 people). Next cheapest game is $30,000.00. To take 12 people to Rome in October and stay in a nice hotel, has a 9.2 out of ten review rating, which is better than the Holiday Inn I also checked and for 12 people it is $21,800 for flight and hotel. And Rome is a premium city. For the Holiday Inn it is $18,600.00 and if you get up early you can still see a game. Sure food adds to it, but food and parking add to the Cowboy game. Lisbon comparably with a hotel with 9.4 rating and breakfast included is $22,500; the Holiday Inn City Center is $20,200 and a Ramada by Wyndam is $20,000 both with 8 plus review scores. Paris? It kinda jumped up a bit, however I did find one 9.0 “great for families” for $22,000. Which is best value I ask you? Cowboys are questionable to make the playoffs so you might end up spending the money for a losing game. Sheesh

The rich think we can afford to live like them. They no longer have a clue about America anymore.

And I will make my annual Cowboys prediction next week. I have to be honest, I am waiting for this Micah Parsons disaster to play out. And even with him, the Cowboys may still struggle and without him, ugh! I still research though so we will see.

Purgatory is hope

 

I know I am not a Saint, theologian, or anyone special at any level, yet I do know people need to hear the truth. And if it ticks you off to hear that Purgatory offers hope then you may need to rethink some things.

Purgatory is hope because it still offers the knowledge that eventually you will spend eternity with God’s love.

Hell is death and I am not the first to say that, yet once you spend eternity without God’s love you have died. You may live in eternity in constant angst and everything else, but you live without love and joy forever.

I may spend a higher percentage of eternity in purgatory than heaven, but I will still have hope.

And for people who understand percentages and who know there can never be a measurable 100% with the concept of eternity, then you know how much I am saying.

Cheers on this Monday morning

The Texas GOP may have given us the crack in the door we need. Time to get creative

 

And when I say we, I mean independents, third parties, fringe candidates, you name it. The problem remains that the duopoly does not want other people successfully running a campaign. Both parties for years created a détente so they could retain power. They acted like they were fighting for you by not being the other side, but nothing was actually done on a regular basis that proved they represented the people anymore.

And over the last couple of decades it just got worse. The divide of incivility grows daily with finger pointing and denigration of our whole body politic. Now the Republicans in Texas are going for an all out nuclear option and tearing up the unspoken détente between the duopoly.

If I were wealthy I would hire the attorneys myself and file all manner of injunctions and motions in regards to the redistricting in Texas. The plan is to say all independents (and there are just as many independents as Republicans and Democrats combined) are not represented in the current format, much less any changes that do not allow for independent representation.

I am not an attorney so the language filed in these documents would need to be parsed to show how both parties have disenfranchised independents and third parties and hence cannot change redistricting without more representation in the process.

The Constitution does not spell out we have only Democrats and Republicans so you argue on multiple fronts the current system is unconstitutional.

It is harder for an independent to get on the ballot than a Republican or Democrat is one argument. Since there are more independents than either of the duopoly then districts that do not divide up the populace to allow for independent or third party representation means my rights to one person one vote is invalidated. These are just a couple of examples. A well versed constitutional attorney knows more.

The plan then begins with the third parties and any independent candidates in the past to file a motion together to oppose the suit the Republicans filed. The grounds takes work since the redistricting isn’t completed. Yet the argument states the Republicans create future harm by their actions if a vote comes to fruition along with the other arguments about prior districting by the two parties favors the duopoly and has never allowed a truly representative government.

I am a bit angry with the whole situation so trying to keep my head on while I type. As you know I constantly lobby for new parties with you the reader and in other social media platforms so I see this as an opportunity I wish to take advantage. Yet resources are not my strong suit.

If the Libertarians, Green party, Texas Solidarity Party and any others, that might want to join, meet to go over the specifics that is step one for all of us.

I argue that if you know leadership in any of the non duopoly groups to suggest they look into this and meet with their counterparts to plan a strategy. These parties possess some legal representation to muster a well thought out plan. They need to act fast though while the Courts are still waiting on action to happen from the Republicans.

Or any independents that join are welcome also. If anyone knows a good attorney not doing anything on a Thursday morning their help means wonders. Any way you shake it, the Republicans have opened a door and we need to stick our heads in and see what we can do.

 

In some ways this is a continuation of a previous post, now I see it move forward. Share the heck out of this.

Texas GOP continues the failure of the duopoly.

 

So the Texas GOP wants to change the electoral map in Texas so they can win more seats. They are not doing this to better represent the people. They are doing this to continue the partisan divide that is killing this country.

Democrats will surely retaliate and again not to better represent the people.

Every day the duopoly show it’s true colors that retaining power is the only goal.

People do not want this partisan divide anymore or at least a majority of this country. They haven’t gotten to the point where they are shouting it from the rooftops, but the disillusionment of both parties in the polls show we might be close.

There are just as many independents if not more than Republicans and Democrats combined. Yet why don’t we have more independent candidates? We don’t have them because the duopoly has been for decades been making it more difficult to run as an independent than as a member of either party or gerrymandered districts to favor themselves. Now they are just making it worse.

The duopoly sells they are the only solution and prevented anyone from being able to offer an alternative. There are wonderful options. I know because in my little mad self I come up with them all the time. Are the best out there? Who knows, yet alternate ideas from what is offered from the duopoly are possible. 

People don’t want to hate as much as the extremes on either side, but to claw our way back into the fold politically we need new parties or at least equitable avenues to power. And right now this is more important for our country than anything the duopoly gives us.

If more different voices were elected into state and national offices the current power structure would crumble and they will tell you so in no uncertain terms. What is funny is that crumbling power structure would be a good event. It doesn’t mean our country would crumble, it would just mean the current life long politicians and crooks would have to change their tune or they would lose in dramatic fashion. In fact they would have to do more than change their tune, they would have to change their actions, the policies they support.

And right now unfortunately we may need quite a bit of splintering of the political power and then consolidate to what works for this country to continue to thrive. It can be a massive amount of independents, third parties etc until new major parties begin to form from the fall out.

Some of the duopoly will scream that would wreck this country. I say really?! We have survived the last ten years of the duopoly losing control of the country. They point fingers at each other, scream at each other, threaten each other, yet we survive. Now it may not last forever and that is why we need to change now.

The Texas GOP is just giving us more proof it is time for the duopoly to be broken up.

Can this Epstein bomb drop?

 

We definitely need a real reckoning with the Epstein situation, yet how will we know when it happens.

I am not sure how the right wing echo chamber is still addressing Epstein since they have been fed so many conspiracies to distract them you wonder if it worked or if they are just in limbo.

They spent years waiting for someone to tell all on the Epstein saga, delivering all sorts of theories to their audiences only to have the rug pulled out from under them by the man who promised them the world. Actually he wasn’t as vocal as others, but he never quelched the desire.

The left wing echo chamber has jumped into the fray and so we are now six years (plus previous history) into this so what will people accept.

When Bondi and Patel said there was nothing to the Epstein saga, no client list, no covered up murder I was ready to believe them because I have spent years hearing stories that couldn’t be corroborated. Every left wing elite was on the list and so much more. Now it is all Trump. So who do we believe?

Currently the evidence doesn’t look good for Trump. There always were some stories of their friendship and even some shenanigans chasing around models and beauty pageants. And now more and more of those stories are surfacing with more details.

The problem is two fold. When will it end? And more importantly when will it end for all the victims. It is sad for the, is it hundreds of girls, reliving their horror every time a new story hits the airwaves. Do they cringe every day? Can they hide from social media, the news, the podcasts, the constant barrage of headlines?

That is the saddest part of this unfolding nightmare. There is no place to hide. No one in Trump’s world acknowledges they even exist and in left wing echo chamber madness it is all about Trump with a tad of recognition by some podcasters and news casters, but not near enough to remind all those people that wanted the story in the first place, that this is what it was all about; monsters abusing children. To way too many this has become the back story, not the main story. 

The whole point of finding out about Epstein was to find out who abused these children. Now the abused children are like all victims in our society, forgotten until it is convenient to drag their abuse through the mud to achieve larger audiences. I am glad we do not know all the names and it should be up to them to let us know they were a victim if they choose, yet at times I wish we did know the names so we could reconcile with the fact they exist, they were children, they have lives now that must cope with this perpetual madness.

I want this saga to end, but in the right way with real truth. It is not pretty. And if you dig you fear it is much uglier than even the first people who screamed we need to expose the people with Epstein. We still do, but now will we ever know?

I didn’t follow the conspiracy. Now I don’t want to hear about this daily, yet I do watch to hopefully see a break through that resolves the whole tragedy. There are certain people who definitely need this to be put to rest. I am not one of them, yet it has come to the point where our whole country needs to know and I am part of that group.

It would be nice to say it is no longer important to know what happened, it is the past, but we cannot let it go. Too much has been said, too many accusations have been made for even disinterested people to ignore.

I hope we see a final bomb so to speak so we can move on, yet what must it contain to allow us to move on. This may be with us way too long going forward. And that is a horrible reality on top of a previous horrible reality for the victims.

Two topics: 1) Hillary Clinton destroyed this country 2) Corporate greed and DOGE has destroyed customer service, more specifically customer service on 800 #’s

 Yes half this country is going to scream what am I talking about, how can I say that with Donald Trump as President, the other half will think they can come on here and scream we told you so. And both are wrong. The next few paragraphs ain’t going to make anyone happy.

Long before Hillary Clinton stuck her foot in the American people the Democrats had been on a long slow decapitation of the support of the working class in this country. Many decades ago people would complain about the elites in the Ivory Towers telling us what to do. And since those people were country club Republicans no one gave it much mine because of anyone on planet Earth country club Republicans had it the best. They were all well off, lived in great neighborhoods, had job security and the list goes on. They may not have been wealthy, but they were well off.

The Democrats though continued to lecture this country and over time more and more people became well that is all and good, but what are you doing for us. Supporting the working class was dwindling by the 1980’s and so we had Reagan coming along and pulling democrat votes. Why, because he said words that made them think he was thinking of them. He wasn’t of course, but the verbiage was there and the Democrats continued to lecture and underperform for the working class.

The 1990’s were an anomaly. No one seems to remember on both sides of the coin, our country boomed because the internet came into its own. Scores of new businesses developed, the tech industry emerged, computer industries like Dell and IBM took off. The economy was rocking so much so we actually managed to balance the government’s budget. ( And please do not think this is support of trickle down economics. This wasn’t about tax reductions, this growth was solely based on a brand new economic world developing.) Eventually we had the dot com bust, but that was because people got ahead of themselves in the market. It eventually straightened out and went back to being it’s usual greed based entity.

And all this time, jobs were going overseas, the rich were getting richer and the poor were watching all this happen while constantly being told by both sides we have your back. No one did and so the working class frustration and anger grew. Add in two decades of Fox News germinating hate for the Democrats as a whole and by 2015 the world was ripe for Trump.

The problem was the Democrats in their ongoing cluelessness still hadn’t seen the writing on the wall. Trump should have been a slap in the face. Instead it was the exposure of years of clueless elitism. So Ms. Clinton instead of saying the Trump supporters were deplorables she should have acknowledged I understand why you think Trump is great, yet let’s talk about it. Nope she kept doubling down on insulting half this country and drove them unabashedly straight into Trump’s arms. He ate it up.

Sure Trump is a fraud, a conman, etc, but even a halfwit knows you don’t insult people you need to help you. Yet the clueless Democrats didn’t have the brain of a halfwit in 2016.

And what is worse, they still haven’t figured out the half wit is still correct. So the majority of this country is engulfed by MAGA, Trumpism, greed, lies, a whole administration of grifters and sycophants tearing down our country one institution at a time. As you know I have been yelling and screaming for decades now we need new outside leadership so you would have thought that Trump would be an option for me. Sorry Trump supporters, I just wish you would realize he just isn’t what he says he is and it isn’t you that are deplorables, just Trump.

And all this because Hillary Clinton is so self centered, so base, so ignorant that she never realized it wasn’t the” deplorables” destroying this country, it was her cluelessness.

 

And now a quick note on 800 numbers. They have now become a bane of American existence. The people can be wonderful, some go out of their way to help, but the overall system, corporate instructions to these people, the lack of being able to talk to someone, and now with DOGE removing half the people helping us, we cannot get help.

Corporations have dumbed down the system so bad it is insulting to call. Again it is not the people. It seems their hands are tied behind their backs. Sometimes you can hear the verbiage you know they have to say just to get a passing grade on the call. Actually helping someone and acknowledging the caller is human is laughable. Corporations don’t care. 

Both for corporations and government services now it takes hours for you to reach someone. It is so bad some corporations have built in call you back features.  And when you reach someone, they have to get help from another source just to answer your question. Or you can barely understand them because the call center is in another country.

Now they have apps they want you to use. The people on the line apparently are being told to get a good call score teach the caller how to use the app. Apps don’t solve problems. They make be great for a few functional items, but when you need to know something of importance they are useless.

And for me apps are just another tool to be exploited like companies’ websites. We still hear in the news how some company was hacked and all your information is now on the dark web or some such madness. Once Apps start getting hacked what are we supposed to do? And because they are on our phones hackers will be able to track you down, much less steal your info.

Yet corporations will not be held accountable for all the malfeasance that lands upon you. They never have and never will, even though according to our Supreme Court they are persons, but persons not responsible for any of the crap they do.

And don’t say you can sue them, heck they have built in responses in their business models for class action suits. So much so there is a cottage industry of attorney firms that specialize in class action suits. They make a fortune and the people harmed get $1.17 or something nowhere near the damage incurred.  And the corporation raises prices to pay for their insurance premiums going up and paying their attorneys. When you make billions it becomes necessary to treat your customers like crap to please Wall Street and the share holders. Forget about the only reason you make this money is because you have customers. Yet the customers must be treated like serfs so we can exploit our riches.

So plan way ahead if you need to call an 800 number. Take a vacation day or something if you have to call a government agency nowadays because it is that bad.

And you may think I am a socialist or something after this rant, but lo and behold I am not, I just know true market economies make sure the market works for all so it can survive long term.

 

So two rants you have heard before, but until we decide to do better across the board, we got to keep slapping ourselves upside the head so maybe we do something about it.  

Yes it is crazy and very true, the Republicans have a good chance of winning in 2028 in multiple different paths.

 

Unfortunately one is a very dark path so let’s talk about two probable ones instead real quick.

The first one is real easy, Trump doesn’t run (and yes I know he can’t, but who is to say he doesn’t try to save his back end), or has passed away and some semblance of order comes about and the Democrats go too far left. And this is highly possible.

Another path is for the Republicans to ditch Trump, Vance and Johnson before 2026 and find some way to move a bit to the center with centrist right Republicans and “neocons” retaking the party. They won’t win in 2026, but their loses will be mitigated and the Democrats in their unfailing cluelessness will get to far onto to that high horse and also move too far to the left or maybe even just a tad bit to the left of where they were in 2024. The Democrats nominate a feel good candidate and the Republicans nominate someone respectable and win again.

Democrats to this day do not seem to understand they need to reconnect to the working class, come up with rational economic policies that don’t scare people away and run from an eye to eye perspective not their usual talk down to people elitist know it all attitude. I am not seeing they understand this yet. It might appear maybe they are realizing this with some of their Epstein bi partisan work with a few sane Republicans, but I wouldn’t bet on them having a full blown epiphany.

I still don’t trust either party so I will continue to scream we need a new center right party to right our country’s ship.

 

And on a completely separate note I am getting tired of corporate America sucking up to Trump.

 

Cheers

The problem with Trump’s mortality

 

Let’s begin by saying I am not a fan of Trump, his ideas, his policies, his administration and just him. I never was a fan.

I didn’t like the Apprentice. I thought it was a weak show. I saw it a few times. Also though I should state I am not a fan of reality shows in general. On occasion I will see one, but I avoid them as much as possible.

I wasn’t a fan of him in the 80’s and 90’s, yet not being a New Yorker I didn’t know much about him. It struck me odd that so many people talked about him, yet every other article about him showed him as a failure or a person not of high moral standing so to speak. Bankruptcies, affairs and failed marriages seemed to dominate the headlines about him. This post isn’t about all that, just wanted to lead into a different take.

I wrote a few days ago about Trump being a test for Christians. You can read that if you like.  Yet as a Christian we are charged with keeping people out of hell. It is our responsibility to save souls. So, it also amazes me all these Evangelicals spend more time praising him than trying to save him. Seems like that test needs to be graded on a curve. And based on what I know I think it might be. At least for us Catholics we get reconciliation as a chance to find that curve. Who knows though.

If as a Christian you need to worry about his soul then we should also worry about his health. And I am worried, however some of my concerns are based more on what happens after he passes away than him passing away. Well I need to at least say I hope he finds God before he passes away. The current crop around him doesn’t seem to be helping save him.

I read about his health being somewhat benign. I doubt it. Those pinata size ankles do not look good. I posted on “X” that he may be sleep deprived. I am confounded by the fact that isn’t spoken about more.

It is always a concern when a President passes away. It really hasn’t happened in our country very often. Yet the turmoil that will surround his death will be tumultuous.

There is a procedure to swear in Vance as President and will be set up rather quickly. The technical succession transition is established. And that is about it when it comes to sanity.

My fears revolve around the turmoil and what certain people will try to get away with in the interim and soon thereafter of Trump’s passing. I fear Andrew Vought, Stephen Miller and especially J.D. Vance for starters.

And interestingly enough Lawrence O’Donnell from MSNBC gave a brief story about J. D Vance positioning himself to take over. I won’t get into the details. You can watch it yourself, but he references a social media post Vance made that sounded to O’Donnell that he is starting to force some hands and if those hands are forced it might lead to Trump’s downfall. That is one story developing now. Let’s see how far that goes.

A more deeper and troubling concern about J. D. Vance is something liberal and conservative commentators and writers are espousing. And that is the notion of whether this is a country of an idea or a nation state. Jonah Goldberg of the Dispatch and Dr. Heather Cox Richardson (she actually was on a video I saw and said she may write a piece) have articles out discussing what are we as a country that does a much better job of describing the problem in Vance’s ideology than I would be able to detail in my mild ramblings. The gist of their arguments goes back to who we are as a country. Vance’s version of the argument brings up the worst version of this country, stating that citizenship resides more in how long you have lived here versus what you believe about who we are. Please look for both discussions. Again they do a much better job of laying out what this is all about than I can. I also believe this is a country of “idea” and ideals more so than if you came here in 1600 or not. You can be a pilgrim descendant yet if you fight against the Constitution are you truly a citizen of this country. Some scary thoughts being promoted by Vance question the legitimacy of our fundamental values and puts some very nasty values above our Constitution.

And then there is Vought, one of the authors of Project 2025, the ultimate bogeyman item of the Democrats and more importantly should be all Americans. I am a conservative and I know some don’t think so, but if you are a conservative you desire conserving our values. Those values come from the Constitution first. Any policies, programs or actions that go against the values and ideas of the Constitution are not conservative values in my worldview.

And of course another favorite bogeyman is Stephen Miller.  I need to go to confession for my thoughts on Mr. Miller. Personally I feel he is a soulless husk of a human. His soul has already gone to hell and his body and actions just fulfill what put his soul in hell in the first place. So let me admit I am being judgmental, but hey until he changes his ways, that is the way I feel.

And there are many others that will take advantage of the resulting chaos that will ensue when President Trump passes away. Some will be grifters, others will try and claim the mantle of the head of MAGA, who knows how the MAGA faithful will react, others will try and rush their agendas (Vance or Speaker Johnson for examples) through Congress before the dust settles and more rational people begin to climb back into the picture.

Let’s face reality. President Trump is old and depending on you who follow his health might be questionable. Personally I worry it is not good. He has never been known to be a health nut, has bad health habits, to me is dangerously sleep deprived and the possibility of a stroke concerns me. And maybe a stroke is more dangerous because it would put the Presidency in some sort of limbo until it was determined if a succession should be put in place. The resulting chaos from the confusion or the resulting power plays would be horrendous to our country.

Again I am not a fan of Trump, tariffs, his immigration policy, his big beautiful bill, DOGE or anything else his name is attached to in this administration. I am a fan of stronger immigration policy, reduced and effective government spending, reducing the debt, changing the tax code to better benefit the vast majority of this country, improving Social Security and more. I doubt any of my ideas would come to fruition in the resulting chaos, yet that is another story and another time, hopefully extremely much sooner than what it looks like now. Yet all what Trump supports would look like child’s play if the worst impulses of his administration were to take hold if he passes away while President.

The Democrats are clueless and there are no other political entities or parties to usher in something more pragmatic when he passes so we not only stare Trump’s mortality in the face we may be staring our country’s mortality in the face if many other forces in this country don’t prepare themselves for this eventuality.

Why the capitalists of the United States are failing the United States

 

I cannot even begin to state how crazy and backwards we have become. When the biggest dreamer in the United States is a psychotic South African that should tell you right there we are missing the boat in making America great again.

What made America great especially when you talk about market growth was projects like the St. Lawrence seaway, the railroads in the 19^th century and then the interstate highway system of the 20^th century. Folks it is 2025 in the 21^st century and we are arguing about who is to blame because our infrastructure is crumbling.

The Democrats and Republicans have made us hate each other so much we can’t do the basics in government anymore, yet that isn’t what this post is about.

Let’s talk about what we can do instead. I once wrote a rambling three glass of wine post that talked about what Elon Musk wants to do by going to Mars, but on an even grander scale, but that is another story.

I once wrote a post about an inter continental waterway to help alleviate some of the problems of global warming and climate change. We still need to work on that not like yesterday, but like last century. That is one project we need to consider and the benefits of that are astronomical.

We need an electric cross country high speed rail system. And as far as I am concerned the airlines should invest in it for their own growth. And that is one example of the problem. Companies and industries are stuck. They are not thinking ahead. They are spending tens of millions of dollars to save one percent on their taxes. That is flat out counter productive to growth.

To continue the example the airlines are already in the business of moving people about, but are dealing with multiple problems not the least of which is air traffic control.  Maybe we have too many planes in the air. Or maybe air travel should be more tailored to long haul travel. And if they invested in a rail system that used green energy you now create multiple industries that bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States ie, new rails, new trains, more green infrastructure and the list goes on. All that development spurs more development as people need services to go along with the growth.

Are American capitalists thinking like this? No! just flat out no. They spend more time convincing Congress to give them breaks instead of thinking what could they do with the hundreds of billions they are investing in wealth management companies hoping to create more wealth, that just sits there. Waste of money, waste of resources waste of our country appears to be the goal instead of investing in this country to grow it.

Congress should only give tax breaks to companies that create new growth and tax the hell out of the rest of them to pay for their waste of our country. 

Look at Dubai, look at China, they are investing in their future dramatically more than our capitalists even care about. We still have the greatest wealth on the country and it is rotting in hedge funds. We should tax the heck out of hedge funds so our capitalists move the money back into the country and grow it.

So if this crazy old fart can dream just as crazily as some psychotic billionaire why can’t the wealthy amongst us figure out that they will make more money not by sitting on it, but by putting it to work.

Again a canal system to move water around and help with hydroelectric power that runs along our current highway system so we can upgrade it while we are building the canals. And did you know that if you drive the major highways in Europe their rest areas or service areas are top of the line. You can eat at restaurants, fill up your car, shop, let the kids play at a small park and they even have umpteen amounts of charging stations for electric cars. And yes they charge to charge. Can you envision what a whole new waterway added along the highways could do for us. Also secondary bonuses are floods can be managed better, areas with water can share excess water and rain with areas with drought, you can build desalination plants to add to fresh water as needed. And what is that doing, adding to the ability to use the desert southwest for agriculture, giving us necessary water to fight wildfires, and since we can see hurricanes coming we can open the canals to move water quickly out of rising rivers to alleviate flood damage. Heck the hydroelectric power created by moving water powers the pumps to move the water if you do it right.

Folks Mexico is looking to build a cross country rail system to transport freight to help their economy. They are planning for this to compete with the Panama Canal. If they can think ahead why can’t we?

And you add more wind and solar energy along with the hydroelectric power to fuel electric high speed trains. Musk is building a small system in Las Vegas, imagine it working in and to and from various cities at a larger scale.

For example the Dallas Ft. Worth area has grown so much driving around is suicide. We need to build out our rapid transit system to look more like what they are planning to do in Dubai instead of this piecemeal once every ten years add a line madness.

And what does all this do? It adds new industries, add jobs and adds to the economy with real growth, not destroying our country with greed induced wealth building.

Our capitalists are failing us.

And some of the first steps to start doing this is to get money out of politics, rewrite the tax code to encourage growth and not reward greed, flesh out public private partnerships that uses private capital to invest to earn money and public input to make sure it benefits the country as a whole. An example is insurance companies should be required to invest in flood control as part of this canal growth. It helps them lower the cost of claims which helps to keep premiums in line, and they get their tax break for the money they invest so their bottom line can be improved based on positive investment, not tax breaks alone.

And with just an iota of amount of thought there are hundreds of small and large projects that can be developed. Again the airlines should invest in the short haul high speed trains, use airports for long haul and maybe add to the airport as train stations so no one loses out and more benefit. Why fill the air with plane trips from Dallas to Houston or Austin when you could drive closer to your house jump on one train station to go to the main train station and get their almost as fast as waiting two hours in an airport. They do some version of this in Europe all the time.

And people wonder why I say we need new parties; it isn’t because I hate Democrats or Republicans. I could care less. What I see is no vision by anyone in power in our country. That is why we need change. 

Again our capitalists are failing us so if we really want to make America great again, remove the stagnant aging morass in power and start building our future.

Are the Evangelicals right? ….. well sort of …. Maybe

 

There is great hulaboo amongst certain Evangelical groups that Trump was sent by God to save America or some such thinking.

Maybe he was sent by God, however maybe it is to test us.

Everything Trump does or says is antithetical to what Jesus Christ taught. Everything. What if we, as Christians, are to recognize what is our test and double down on what Jesus taught? We are to put God first, follow God’s will, supposed to help the marginalized, love our neighbor, think of the story of the good Samaritan for example, visit prisons, not judge others, are just a few of the points Jesus taught. When does Trump do any of this? I am not going to spew a bunch of comments about Trump since one of the items is not to judge others so I will attempt to follow.

And yes no one is perfect, but when you look at everything Trump does and says and then read what Jesus says, how can anyone say Trump was sent by God. Unless you step back and think  about it for a moment. Would it not be a test of faith to let someone completely the opposite of what was taught become a leader? Would it not be a test of are you listening to me instead of the ways of the world to put someone so diametrically opposed to the teachings of God in charge?

Just a thought since there is this group in America who for some reason think Trump is some sort of savior. And if you really let those words sink in, could you not see God is testing us.

And another topic some Evangelicals keep trying to push is the end times. Really???????

Isn’t the end times God’s choice, not anyone else’s? Why would you try to push the end of the world just to force God’s hand. Again are you following God’s word?  Let’s say you get the world to end so to speak, create a disaster or something, but it wasn’t God’s choice. You create unnecessary suffering for billions just because you think it will get you to Heaven if the world ends.

The world won’t end until God decides, life will go on, it will just be miserable. 

So maybe a few Evangelicals need to go back and read the Bible a bit more in depth. It might help them realize they are not in control and to quit trying so the rest of us can sleep better at night.

And one more quick note, I love when people say the Catholic Church needs to update their thinking to the modern world or some such nonsense. Really, you are asking the Church to change what Jesus taught to make you feel better.  No, the teachings of Jesus will always be the teachings of Jesus. You cannot change what God wants from us to please you. Listen to the word, follow it as best you can, (we are human) and learn that God is love, just not always the way you want it to be.

For humor I will say this, if you want to update the teaching maybe you can say in God’s wheelhouse instead of God’s will, but in the long run it is still the same.

Cheers

The trip; the disaster and of course the reminder everything is still beautiful and last post on the trip

 

There is so much I still want to talk about from our trip, but now it is been a few weeks since we got back and the world is moving on, so must I.

Let’s recap; our trip we flew to Lisbon then drove to Rome and back. We went through a northern path through Portugal.  We wanted to at least stop by Porto or see some of the silver coast, yet we left Lisbon late, then realized we forgot something right about the fork in the road to choose to head straight to Spain or go to Porto, so we drove back to the hotel in Lisbon and then it was really late so we went on to Spain. We spend the first night in Salamanca. Since we spent the entirety of the day in Salamanca we didn’t even leave Spain for the next night.

We drove across France and stumbled into Lourdes. And I mean we stumbled into Lourdes. Diving down the highway I saw a sign that said Lourdes one Kilometer and since we were going about 125 kilometers per hour we didn’t have time to realize where we were. The better half did check the internet and lo and behold it was Lourdes so we doubled back and spend the afternoon there. Of course this slowed us down some more. We actually had prepaid hotel in Rome so we needed to get there in a couple of days. We rushed to Montpellier and this was one of the few disappointing moments of the trip. The hotel just didn’t do it for us and we left early.

Only problem was I made a wrong turn and we ended up in very rural France desperately needing to fill up the car. We barely solved that problem timely, yet by now we were well off the beaten path and more specifically a highway to get going.

After about a hour or so we are back on track and at this point we could still make Rome about 7 or 8 if memory serves.

No no no, we hit multiple sections of the highway with road construction including times when the highway was completely stopped. This was from the last few cities of southern France, all through northern Italy. We did not get to Rome until 3 in the morning and we had a prebooked tour at ten thirty. We ran late everywhere in Rome, again really Vatican City. I have told our tales to so many people that I lose track of who knows what.

Okay I think I talked enough about Rome up until when we left. We finally got in the car and were headed out. We really wanted to go to Florence, but it was already late and we wanted to go one more place so we booked a hotel in Assisi. We went to the Basilica of Paul outside the wall. It was a bit of a drive from central Rome and we got there close to 6. We parked the car on the side of the road across from a park and near a couple of restaurants. The Basilica closed at 6:30 so we stayed no more than forty minutes.

We got back to the car and it was broken into. Someone had broken the back window, pulled down the back seat and stole all our luggage and a backpack and yes just about everything we had with us was packed inside. I want bore you with the litany of stuff we lost, but this was a three week trip and we had packed quite a bit. The only saving grace was we didn’t take clothes for three weeks and did laundry a couple of times along the way. The night before we had gone to a laundry service near our hotel so we had a small bag of clean clothes done after we packed up on the floor of the car. They didn’t take that, nor a bag of souvenirs, a box of cookies and a bottle of wine that was under the clothes. So that was it.

We filed a police report, contacted the rental car company and let them know we had reservations in Assisi and they said they would pick up the car once we got to the hotel and get us a replacement the next day. Sounded good to us.

By the time we left Rome it was dark, so we were doubly glad we were only going to Assisi since only about two plus hours away. And finding our hotel out in the middle of to us nowhere was a bit of a challenge, yet we did. Tired, angry, frustrated because we drove on some very country roads that was barely wide enough for one car, much less two.

First the hotel was outside of the actual town which ended up being quite a treat, yet that night coming in at midnight in pitch darkness on roads where we kept missing turns didn’t help  our mood one bit. We got checked in, called the customer service to let them know we arrived and a tow track came about a hour later. We went to bed.

Like the title says, now the beauty. We woke up and just about everywhere we looked, every window we opened, or looked through walking through the hotel the scenario was serene looking and I mean picture perfect serene looking. We were looking across a wide valley overlooking small houses, fields all green, the horizon had large hills that blended into the blue sky. And I mean blended in, since the hills were somewhat different heights, the top of the hills would kind of fade into the sky. It was eight in the morning so the sun was up.

The grounds of the hotel were also very nice, flowers, greenery everywhere. Well everywhere may not describe it well since overall this was a small hotel. I don’t think they had 100 rooms if that. They did have breakfast which was really good. They had a pool area that we just stared at since we no longer had bathing suits. Imagine just walking among outdoor tables here and there set in peaceful little not gardens per se, but grass, flowers, shrubbery that meandered throughout the grounds.

Yet we had to take care of business. We finished breakfast and called customer service. They arranged a ride to a local airport because they had a rental counter there. We checked with the hotel and they were fully booked for the night, yet the manager or owner, never knew which made arrangements and we were able to keep the same room we had the night before. At that moment we were grateful, but we didn’t know how grateful we were to become.

After spending the day arguing with the rental car employees, saying they didn’t have a car since we didn’t have a reservation, nor a car that could cross borders and we kept telling them we were told they would have one. Finally someone figured out corporate customer sent them an email around ten in the morning. They had pretty much ignored it apparently so at five o’clock or so customer service hires another service to come pick us up at the airport and take us back to the hotel. If the person in the morning had not made special arrangements for us, we would have been standing  in a hotel parking lot with our stuff and no where to go since the arranged ride was only to go back to the hotel. We were beyond mad. Now we would have to wait until customer service found us another car. I asked for them to arrange something in Florence since we wanted to go there. Nope somebody at the counter in Rome said they could get us a car. So the next day the rental car company arranged a driver to take us to Rome. Two plus hours back where we had come from two days ago.

Now the aside is sunset at this hotel was just beautiful. We sat on a balcony drinking that botte of wine that survived and didn’t move for well over an hour. It was only when we realized the restaurant was about to close and we were hungry did we move. The sun actually set behind the building from where we were sitting, but we watched the light fade over the valley and the moon rise while the sky was dusk. There was a bit of a haze over the valley that reached the hills so they magically disappeared into the sky. So after five to six hours of pure anger we now had two to three hours if you include sitting there again after dinner of a pure peace. We didn’t talk, we didn’t move, we just became part of the scenery on that balcony until we just couldn’t stay awake and went to bed.

Next morning we get up, received confirmation when the driver would pick us up to take us to Rome, was able to get the room for that night since we weren’t sure what time we would be back to get what was left of our things, and went for breakfast.

Folks it is a small world. At another table in this remote and very beautiful hotel was someone my wife knew. My wife had been posting on facebook our plight and so they knew about our situation. What neither knew until breakfast was that we were at the same hotel.

Again the hotel is very special and apparently this other couple who travel frequently knew of it so they choose it on their way, I cannot remember which direction they were headed, but they were there just for the previous night, had a few of their adult children in tow and after breakfast the family was going into a couple of different directions. Yet to be stranded in heaven on Earth, and run into someone my wife knew, just made added to the entire surrealness.\

They were very kind and offered to help in any way they could. Yet we were headed out so the lady and my wife spoke for a bit about things in general until we left for Rome.

The rental counter at Rome was another disaster. After being told we would have a car at one in the afternoon, it wasn’t there. They insisted they could only give us this one car and we had to wait until it was returned and cleaned up. So close to five we get our “replacement”. It was not equal to what we paid for, it was smaller and it was wrecked. Seriously, there was a big scrape dent running down the side covering both doors up to the back tire, the underside was scraped also. And they expected us to be happy with this car. Problem was we had no choice. We wanted to get going again. We still had to drive back to Assisi. We wanted to go to Church since it was Sunday. Which was another crazy story. I dropped my wife off and went to look for parking. I never found it and spent over a hour driving around the neighborhood getting lost a couple of times, using GPS on my phone which isn’t the same app as my wife’s so struggling to get back to her and we finally left Rome around 6:30 or 7 in the evening.

Tired and angry we get back to the hotel, yet again, pure serenity atmosphere and we settle in for the night. Now one thing that worried me was we were not required to pay until we left. I kept offering and the manager/owner kept saying do not worry about it, you can pay when you leave. Now I am a bit paranoid sometimes and all of a sudden I started to worry how much this was going to cost since they knew we were stranded. Nope paradise is paradise, the overall cost was no more than my original night prepayment and I breathed that momentary sigh of relief at check out and at this point we were two to three days behind where we wanted to be so we had to skip going to Florence and Tuscany and decided to go to Pisa.

First though we went to town and spend a wonderful good five or so hours in Assisi at the Cathedral, walking through the streets afterwards, the better half did some shopping for souvenirs, not for us yet, and we had a quaint lunch somewhere in town. Around 3 or 4 we headed to Pisa. We spend the night near Pisa, went clothes and toiletry shopping the next morning for ourselves, saw the tower and the surrounding area and drove on.

The rest of the trip flew by. We didn’t get to see half as much as we wanted and were always running behind. We saw Monaco at night which was absolutely beautiful staring at the moon headed west over the harbor.

We drove to a hotel near Nice, arrived late, but they took care of us. Woke up had coffee on the balcony overlooking a small park. Had breakfast then left, drove on to I forget where, but strange but true we had chosen a family type resort hotel in a small resort town. It was a crazy evening. We were tired now, which was pretty much how we felt since Rome, but there was a trivia contest going on in the bar/restaurant area to win a bottle of champagne. We played while drinking frozen cocktails. We didn’t win. My wife wanted to shop since we had seen street vendors while driving up, yet by the time we got out, they were closed up. We wandered for a short bit, then headed back to the hotel.

Left the next morning, tried to see the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, yet you needed to reserve tickets like two weeks in advance so we took pictures of the outside, bought some souvenirs and headed out.

We drove to Valencia and along the way we stopped at one of the small beach/marina towns for lunch. Had a simple lunch and some fun conversations with the local wait staff.

At Valencia we managed to get there early enough so we could walk around. We were not in the main tourist areas, but there was enough going on that we had a good time at a local restaurant. There was about thirty people at one table so it was keeping the wait staff super busy, but we were watching what was going to their table and copied catted them somewhat with our orders, especially the drink orders. I guess business was good or they felt bad about how busy they were since they could tell we were tourists and brought us some free drinks which were a local specialty. It was some type of creamy rice liquor drink with cinnamon on top and was very good.

Next day was going to be brutal and we did manage to get out of there somewhat quickly after having a pretty good breakfast buffet. I prepaid just a few of our hotels so we could be like the wind and see where it took us for much of the trip, but now we were headed back so the last few nights of the trip I prebooked us in the south of Portugal before we drove to Lisbon to fly home.

Yet we were in Valencia so we had to drive hard throughout the day to get to our hotel before dark. We did make it by early evening, got situated and was able to walk along a street that was just shops, street artists, restaurants and bars. It was quite an enjoyable evening and we finally got to relax. This was the beach part of the trip. Finally

We got up, had breakfast and spent the day at the beach in two parts. First part was laying out, catching some rays and playing in the water. Eventually as the tide was coming it the waves washed out our blankets and stuff so we headed to one of the walkway along the beach restaurants, had lunch and drinks. Thought we would go back to the hotel pool, but now it was getting late afternoon so we decided to shower and get ready for dinner.

We went back down to the beach area since it was early evening and headed across a pretty good stretch of beach or where it ran into rock formations. And this was fun.

We walked through the rock formation or under it like a small cave and walked into a whole new beach area. Now this area had more rock formations along the beach that water was going through, you can stand in one and look up to see the sky, quite unique. And all this was part of the beach the resort town we were in was attached. We crossed a good stretch of this beach and it started getting late so we finally found some stairs that was a monstrous climb back to the town. We made it and we realized we were now at the far end of the road we had explored the night before and I do mean the far end. We strolled along and eventually settled on another restaurant, had dinner and went back to the hotel. My wife bought some items for the grandkids here also from a street artist. Basically she was buying souvenirs here and there a bit throughout the trip.

We got up the next morning, headed to Lisbon, stayed the night there and flew off in the morning. We did manage to see more of Lisbon that night and go to church so a successful last night. And just one more fun strange thing happened, we accidentally found a tex mex restaurant in Lisbon so we had a great time, reacclimating ourselves to home before we went home.

The flight home went well. Returning the car was a bit of a chore since we wanted to start asking for money back etc, we are still working on that, but we have our ammunition filed and are expecting credit back to our card we used.

The only hiccup coming home was TSA in Boston. I don’t know what we did, but we set them off, and before it was all over, we lost some of the items we bought in Europe to them, not customs mind you TSA getting on our plane to Dallas. Since we lost our luggage, we did buy one to replace it since we had so little, but because we only had one suitcase we carried on some of our bags. Well that didn’t go well with TSA and so a couple of souvenirs and something else ended up in their care so to speak. I have no idea what they did with our stuff.

We made it home late that night and as they say the rest is history.

The Democrats have created a loop that they cannot get out of nor get out of their own way.

 

As many of you know I claim to be a conservative so take this with a grain of salt if you want. And I will get back to posting about the trip, but the Democrats drive me mad so I try to give them constructive advice, but they never listen. And if you are wondering, yes the Republicans frustrate me also mainly because they are not a conservative party right now, not sure exactly what they are, but true conservative, no not that.

And I am much more conservative than I let on, I would love to take Musk’s infamous chainsaw to our budget, but I would do it much more constructively if given the chance. He just did what he did for political show and wrecked it up and did more harm than good. And I am also a realist, which is why I propose more center right policies than hard core conservative policies. If you want to get something done, you have to propose something more people can get behind, which leads me to my criticisms of the Democrat party.

Yes, I still think they are clueless, but to give positive criticism here goes.

The Democrats are losing the political battle in both policy and messaging. If they are not careful, they are going to hand the Republicans the 2026 midterms. I truly believe that is a real possibility with the current path they travel. First the entrenched party leadership and elitists still haven’t figured out why they lost to Donald Trump twice. And it wasn’t because they ran two women, well Hillary Clinton was going to lose no matter what, but her campaign was an absolute nightmare of incompetence. Not only is Ms. Clinton not liked to hated by the majority of this country, her pandering nonsense didn’t help. Ms. Harris just blew it with policy and messaging. And maybe it was too late for her to develop her own messaging, but it was the policy and messaging that killed her campaign, not necessarily her. Well the tone of her voice didn’t help, but it wasn’t because she is a woman that hurt.

The Democrats lost the blue collar worker decades ago when they quit fighting for unions with any energy and let corporations and Republicans run roughshod over the working class. After giving faint hearted lip service for years the workers got tired of being treated like step children and moved on. Unfortunately they moved on to our country’s worst instincts with Trump.

This is one of the Democrat’s major mistakes and that even took a few years to develop. Trump picked up on that and messaged the hell out of it. I think the Democrats weren’t paying attention to why Trump was garnering millions of followers on Twitter around 2010 and onward.

Second reason and I am going to give two examples about policy ideas that are killing them.

The first is the unions and the working class and education. Over ten years ago I started posting in this blog that we need to change the way we look at education and to encourage some people going to trade schools. Looking back I think that post was already over ten years too late. Apparently some countries in Europe had already been working with this thinking and have a better handle on improving their working class because of it. They may need to do more work, but they are definitely way ahead of us. Not only did the Democrats fail to realize college isn’t for everyone, they looked down on people who didn’t attend college. So, they ignored a problem then exacerbated it.

And the irony now is careers that involve trade school such as auto mechanic, plumbing, HVAC installation and repair, electricians, even installing solar panels (I do think we need to move forward with energy), construction, and more are not as affected by AI as some other careers are now. And these industries or careers aren’t hyped by the Democrat party and yet these jobs if given proper due and proper economic importance would have benefited this country greatly. So instead of forcing college on everyone and yes it is good, but the student debt problem, the lack of employable college graduates and AI suggests the Democrats missed the boat to help out the working class years ago. And then in 2024 they still missed it. Do you hear the Democrats talk about making the trades a great way to earn a living and also fight for these same trades to earn good money. Just like when the Democrats worked with the unions, they should work with these industries and the unions to rebuild the working class into a viable economic force. Maybe it is me, but I am not hearing this too loud.

And also much to everyone’s ignorance in 2025 apparently the Republicans have forgotten the working and middle class do more to improve the markets than billionaires. Billionaires tend to hoard wealth, not put it back in the economy. Our country is strong when we have a viable working and middle class. And the ignorance lies in the Republicans forgetting that in a market driven economy, you need people participating in the markets for it to grow. You start excluding people and eventually your economy collapses. So the Republicans may call themselves champions of the free market, but currently that is just a hyperbolic farse.

The second example is in regards to social programs, benefits and actually helping the people that need help. Right wing echo chambers love to say, why do we give people food stamps, they are abusing the system and they are all fat. They argue why do fat people need free food. Don’t believe me, then go out and read their posts etc. They love saying this to argue why we should get rid of food stamps. And I may lose some of you here, but work your way through this. Sec of HHS Robert Kennedy Jr is addressing this problem. And no he isn’t solving food stamps, but indirectly the failure of food stamps.

The reason many food stamp recipients are overweight is because they eat processed foods with no nutritional value. Why, because it is less expensive. So RFK, Jr saying we need to look at what we eat is correct. We, as a society, need to eat better or healthy. Democrats in their clueless ivory towers try to say something similar, yet they look down at everyone for not eating correctly and do nothing to rid us of the agricorporations that profit from this country eating crap. So to go back to food stamps, we should trim the bureaucracy around it, increase the actual amount given to food stamp recipients and say you can only buy certain foods with food stamps. Basically put more money in people’s hands and require them to use it wisely. You save money in the long run because we have less obesity in the country, which saves on medical costs including Medicaid without taking either benefit from people. Also as part of many of my posts to reduce the deficit, trimming the actual bureaucracy can more than make up for the up tick in benefits given.

Do you hear this messaging from the Democrats? Is it loud enough? No they currently think they should move more to the left and in doing so continue to lecture us on why we fail. We aren’t failing. They are because they cannot see the writing on the wall. Socialism does not work. Do we have a problem with the wealth gap in this country and is it hurting us? Yes, but their answers are only lectures and socialism. Again a strong working and middle class will do more for our economy than billionaires, but that takes making the them stronger, not taking it away with pie in the sky economic engineering.

You hear so much in the last week how the Democrats need to listen to the mayoral candidate that won the Democratic primary in New York City. They follow that path, they doom themselves to the history books. And if they do that there may not be any history books of consequences if the current Republicans get their way.

We need a strong two or multi party system. Both current major parties are failing the country by refusing to understand what made this country great in the first place. For now I am giving my advice to the Democrats and I am giving it to them is because we desperately need to balance out the power structure in 2026 or we may be in trouble. What bothers me though is they keep touting the same message or even worse moving further to the left that has doomed them politically for the last ten or fifteen years. They don’t want to listen. I talk to various people all the time and the madness of the Democratic faithful is just as bad a problem as the MAGA madness, just a different direction.

So when I talk about a new center right party and would definitely prefer that over the current Democrats, I hope you see why, but for now there is no traction on a new party, I would at least hope the Democrats for political survival would see the writing on the wall and rethink their policies and messaging to attract more people.

Or everyone, lets get to work on a new party and getting some practical public policy passed that benefits the vast majority of this country.  

Cheers