sometimesdedicatedblogger-blog

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Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa—New Year's Eve edition

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa—New Year’s Eve edition

You can’t enter a new year without undoing all the mistakes you made in the previous one. Forthwith my apologies for the missteps of 2018.

1. I still blamed Hillary Clinton for running a poor campaign. She didn’t. She ran the campaign that got her enough votes to win—minus Russian interference, a complicit social media, and gerrymandering and voter suppression on a massive scale.

2. I felt…

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Donald Trump knows less about what veterans want than any president—or human being—ever.

Donald Trump knows less about what veterans want than any president—or human being—ever.

The day Donald Trump promised to withdraw our troops from Syria, he pointed skyward—apparently invoking veterans who had fought and died—and proved yet again that he has absolutely no shame when it comes to exploiting Americans for political gain. That’s what “they” would have wanted, he said.

He and his bone spurs have no idea what “they” would have wanted, but let me hazard a guess: “they”…

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A new nation deserves a new name.

A new nation deserves a new name.

It’s not the Republican leaders against the Democratic leaders, it’s the Republican leaders against democracy…against majority rule.

GOP leadership has even divorced itself from its own party, further distancing itself from mainstream America. (I would recommend trying the following facts on your Republican friends, but chances are they already know them…and agree.)

The majority of…

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The words of someone who has been there and doesn't want to go back.

The words of someone who has been there and doesn’t want to go back.

As our home slowly ages, more and more workmen arrive at our door, many of them having emigrated here for a better life. They’re always interesting to talk to, though my basic ignorance of foreign languages usually obviates any long discussions.

Last Friday’s appointed arrival presented no such difficulties. The man had been in this country for decades, having emigrated from eastern Europe…

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“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit to Scrooge, mocking the man's own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit to Scrooge, mocking the man’s own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

In the early morning she began having seizures. When emergency personnel arrived, they measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees. She was transported by helicopter to Providence Children’s Hospital in El Paso where she died within 24 hours.

There, in digest form, is the biography of a seven-year-old Guatemalan refugee who, with her father, came to America to escape the horrors of their…

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Even under siege, Trump continues to dismantle the world we thought we lived in.

Even under siege, Trump continues to dismantle the world we thought we lived in.

Those of you lamenting the fact that Trump’s America seems to be wandering about alone in the world without direction, without friends, without allies… rejoice! At the recent climate talks in Poland, America proved we could play nice with others—as long as the others are Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

Together these four nations issued a statement agreeing to “note” but not “welcome” the…

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We can't complain about the gas prices, but should we?

We can’t complain about the gas prices, but should we?

Earlier this week I spoke of impeachment as no longer off my table. My table doesn’t count for much, but I do have one, and it’s becoming more crowded.

I also spoke of a constitutional crisis and offered the suggestion that we were already immersed in one. Since then we have seen our democratic principles shattered in Wisconsin where the last vestiges of a Republican state senate have stripped…

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Impeachment may be the only way to avoid a constitutional crisis.

Impeachment may be the only way to avoid a constitutional crisis.

There’s a widespread belief that, once the Democrats take control of the House, the worst thing they could do is initiate impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. It would cause, some say, a constitutional crisis.

I was drinking that Kool-Aid for a while. I’m no longer thirsty.

Democrats, have at it!

First off, the fear of a constitutional crisis no longer means anything: we’re in…

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How many lumps of coal in how many stockings will slow down this environmental disaster?

How many lumps of coal in how many stockings will slow down this environmental disaster?

It would be difficult to find a weekend that brought more dire environmental news than the past one. And we probably could not have expected anything more given the natural calamities the world has faced over the past few months, from the floods in Venice, to the hurricane winds on Florida’s panhandle, to the deadly fires in California.

This past weekend the Trump White House released an…

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The day the New England Patriots were coming to Hartford (and the thousands of succeeding days when they weren’t) Former Connecticut governor John Rowland’s basic claim to infamy will be his resignation and prison time, but it was twenty years ago that he was involved with another fiasco—the master plan to move the New England Patriots to Hartford.

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The cult of toxic personality

The cult of toxic personality

Last week we elected a Democratic governor in Connecticut, a decent guy whose vision for the future is either muddled or non-existent. He defeated another decent guy, whose vision for the state, he said, would be different from the first guy’s. I’m not sure how we would ever know. It was all very confusing and silly.

The winner, Ned Lamont, asked for unity. The loser, Bob Stefanowski should have…

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Tweeting ignorance: it's an art the president has mastered.

Tweeting ignorance: it’s an art the president has mastered.

I don’t subscribe to the president’s Twitter feed for the same reason I don’t record the observations of infants at day care centers. They might murmur something cute once in a while, but most of it is indecipherable and not noteworthy.

So it is with the president.

But every once in a while he, unlike the infants, says something so abysmally stupid that everybody hears about it, and because he is…

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Early observations from the lookout tower—Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Early observations from the lookout tower—Wednesday, November 7, 2018

It’s 10:59 a.m on the day after and, so far, no Democrat mobs have been rampaging through the streets.

It could be the worst of them are hung over from a night of celebrating the annoying of the president, or maybe they’re just gathering their sticks and torches for a concerted effort later.

Or maybe the president was lying to us when he said that Democrat House victory meant rioting, immigrant…

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"That's why I voted for Trump" and other sad truths from the other side

“That’s why I voted for Trump” and other sad truths from the other side

While waiting for an oil change yesterday, I was privy to a conversation, one that occurred between people who aren’t, shall we say, part of my political spectrum. I really didn’t pay any particular attention until, at the end of a stream of disjointed and unproven observations, one participant said “That’s why I voted for Trump.”

He was a middle-aged black man, and I never learned whether he was…

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We can slow down the crazy train on Tuesday, or continue off the rails. Your call.

We can slow down the crazy train on Tuesday, or continue off the rails. Your call.

Let’s realize something: from 2009 to 2016 people like me lived in our own little sphere. After all, we’d elected the president we wanted and watched that 2008 love fest in Grant Park when we, once and for all, squelched the idea that a black man could not be president and that there was even a scintilla of racism left in the country. All was pretty much right with the world.

But long about 2010…

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A Faustian deal and scary evangelicals—it must be Halloween

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How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in ’t!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in ’t!

I doubt that Shakespeare, when he penned those words in The Tempest, was anticipating that one day there’d be an Internet platform called GAB, whose basic operating principle would be this: Free speech means you can offend, criticize, and make memes about any race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Sick and tired of the double standards for “acceptable speech” and “protected classes” on…