April 16, 2021

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Donald Trump never gave any credit to his predecessor for inheriting a healthy, growing economy. “American carnage” is what he called it. So, to be fair, he has no right to claim any credit today or tomorrow for a robust economy and a stock market that is hitting new highs. You can’t have it both ways.

The reality is that Trump did inherit a healthy economy that he needlessly turbocharged with a $2T tax cut. We did have minor improvements in employment, and the stock market did rise to new highs, but at the cost of a ballooning budget deficit. I think if you gave me $2T, I could have achieved the same results. Now we have Joe Biden turbocharging a slowly recovering economy that left many millions of Americans behind. The jury will be out for a while before we can decide if it was needless or not as Republicans claim. Clearly, businesses are reopening and hiring, but we have a long way to go to get everyone back on their feet. However, regardless as to how well or not the recovery takes place, according to the Trump playbook, Biden gets all the credit.

April 14, 2021

The Conservative blogosphere is awash with warnings of liberals going crazy as if they were on college break in Miami. We are warned about the Squad, the lefties, the Communists, and the Socialists. We are being warned about the cancel culture being promulgated by the left-wing media. Have Democrats gone too far? I don’t think so.

President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion infrastructure package with a focus on climate change and the environment, which would be paid for by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Is this radical? Republican President Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. Republican Herbert Hoover built the Hoover Dam. Teddy Roosevelt built the Panama Canal. Someone paid for these projects. Taking on big infrastructure projects has been bipartisan throughout our history. Investing in the future isn’t radical; it’s prudent.

Tackling climate change and protecting the environment has not been a purely Democratic issue. Republican Teddy Roosevelt started the national parks program to protect our wilderness for future generations. Richard Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency, and signed the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970. Is it really radical to want to protect the environment? Ask anyone under 21 what they think?

The radicalized right is saying unabashedly that the radical left is trying to rig and steal elections without offering any proof. Voting rights is not a new issue being foisted on white Americans by people of color. The Voting Rights Act was passed by a vote in the Senate of 77-19 (only two Republicans voted no), and was signed by President Johnson in 1965. Who has been radicalized in the past 56 years? Are Progressives really being all that progressive, or are they just trying to protect their hard won gains?

April 6, 2021

I may be treading on dangerous territory, but why aren’t more blacks buying guns and forming their own militias? Like Senator Ron Johnson, I am just asking the question. Wouldn’t that be a rational response to the world as they see it. They see police officers putting their knees on their throats. They see a rise of white supremacists whose only purpose is to maintain the power, privilege, and position of white people. Gun sales have gone through the roof. It’s not hard to figure out who politicians believe they are protecting themselves against when they pose with AR-15’s. Blacks see white people storming the Capitol while flying the Confederate flag. They see a pandemic, that was grossly mishandled by the President of the United States, killing them disproportionately. Finally, they see an assault on their right to vote in more than forty states around the country.

I would feel threatened. Blacks do have a history of taking up arms. John Brown and Harper’s Ferry comes to mind. I remember when black students, brandishing guns, took over an administrative building on Cornell’s campus. One of them, Thomas Jones, went on to be a Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup’s Global Investment Management business. I am certainly not advocating for armed insurrection or retaliation. However, in the words of Chris Rock riffing on O.J. Simpson, “It would be wrong, but I understand.”

April 4, 2021

It may be a mixed metaphor, but major league baseball made the correct decision in taking a knee by moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta. It will hurt some local businesses, but the larger point is much more important. Georgia is aggressively attacking voting rights within its own borders, and those with economic muscle need to push back. Even though there is no crying in baseball, state Republican officials led by the Governor are crying foul.

Republicans are using the same culture war curveballs that they have been using recently in attacking Democrats. They have invoked cancel culture, which is almost laughable. They are blaming “liberal activists” like Stacey Abrams, Coke, and Delta. They continue to embrace the big lie about the 2020 presidential election. I am waiting for someone to invoke “wokeness,” Mr. Potato Head, and antiFa. While trying to “stop the steal,” Republicans got caught at second base trying to steal the next election, and now they want the umpires to check the videotape. The best thing that could happen to the Republican Party is for Congress to pass HR 1, the For the People Act of 2021. More citizens would register and vote, which would force Republicans to actually put together a platform that might appeal to the majority of voters. However, if Georgia Republicans continue to focus on exclusion rather than inclusion, they will certainly lose a lot more than the All-Star game. What Georgia Republicans have done is a disgrace to their state, and a supreme disservice to the legacy of Hank Aaron.

April 2, 2021

I got my COVID shots courtesy of Pfizer, and headed two weeks later to Florida for my version of spring training. Fifteen rounds of golf in thirteen days. The weather was terrific. It’s hard to believe we live in the same country. Beaches, sunshine, eight lane highways, cars, BBQ joints, gated communities, and strip malls as far as the eye can see.

It was pretty easy to figure out the politics as Fox News was the default TV program everywhere. I can see why people think the way they do. Despite not having any direct political discussions with my Florida friends, which is our version of don’t ask, don’t tell, I heard what I assume was an intentional mispronouncing of the name of the Vice President of the United States. I suspect I was being trolled. The infrastructure package was referred to as the “tax package.” And they were certain that Joe Biden had no intention of completing his first term, in which case the person whose name they could not pronounce would take over. There were various complaints about wokeness and political correctness.

There definitely weren’t any discussions about the COVID rescue package, gun safety, voter suppression, or climate change. Like most Republicans, they were on the wrong side of the American people and history. Like most Republicans, there was scant attention paid to the future, and what was needed to improve it. Republicans have become the “Repeal and Replace” party. They want to prevent Democrats from doing anything, but have no ideas of their own. GOP should stand for the Grand Obstructionist Party. Mitch has already said there will be no Republican votes for an infrastructure package. The only plank they have is the one they will be using to walk off their sinking ship.

March 24, 2021

Sen. John Kennedy recently tried to compare our gun terrorism problem with drunk driving. Here is a golden oldie I blogged over a year ago.

January 31, 2020

Gun Control

It is a matter of fact that the United States has the most gun-related deaths per capita than any other country in the world by orders of magnitude. And it is also a fact that we do not suffer from mental illness more than any other countries. We love our guns. We also love our cars and trucks. So why can’t we regulate guns the same way we regulate motor vehicles? After all, we obviously consider cars and trucks lethal weapons when in the wrong hands. Here is how we should regulate firearms, which is analogous to the way we regulate cars and trucks.

• Must be sixteen years of age to operate

• Must take and pass a course in gun safety

• Must pass a shooting proficiency test in the presence of a police officer

• Must take an eye exam

• Must have a gun owner’s license with photo ID

• The license should be subject to renewal

• Guns must be registered

• Guns must be insured

• Must have established procedures for transferring ownership of a firearm

• Gun owners must go through a criminal background check

• Gun owners must store their firearms in a secure location.

• Gun owners must report stolen firearms

• Gun owners must not carry a firearm while intoxicated

• The size, characteristics, and capacity of firearms must be regulated

• Guns should be taxed

• Guns should have inspection stickers

• Guns must not be concealed

• Gun owners must be subject to “red flag” laws

March 12, 2021

Spring has sprung. We saw our first robin this morning, and the rest of the birds at the bird feeders are chirping their tiny little brains out. It’s great to see the finches, sparrows, tufted titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, juncos, woodpeckers, doves, blackbirds, wrens, flickers, and more helping themselves. Tomorrow night is daylight savings. St. Patrick’s Day is on Wednesday. Opening day is right around the corner, and will soon be followed by The Masters. I actually played golf yesterday.

Joe Biden and his team have their arms around the pandemic. My family is almost totally immunized. Financial help is coming for people who need it. Children will be going to school shortly. I will be traveling to warmer climates to shake the rust off of the golf clubs. It will be tough to beat last year, but I do need to shoot my age. Hopefully, the shorts still fit. I will be going dark for a couple of weeks because, after what we have been through, dark life matters.

March 8, 2021

I was taken to task recently in the Letters to the Editor section of the Springfield Sunday Republican for being a “prolific basher” of Donald Trump. All I can say in my defense is that I am guilty as charged, and will take it as a compliment. At least it was more respectful than some of the nastiness I have received in the mail. I really did want to move on from Trump after the election in November, but “the other guy” won’t go away like other Presidents. He destructively and maybe illegally contested the election results; he promulgated conspiracy theories; he fomented an insurrection of the U.S. Capitol; and then he and and his wife received their vaccinations in private.

Frankly, I would rather write about climate change. I would encourage everyone to read Bill Gates’ new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” to get an idea of the immense challenges facing us. I would like to see an infrastructure bill get passed so I might be able to take a high speed train ride from Springfield to Boston one day before I pull into my last stop. I would like to see discussions of Mr. Potato Head turn into discussions about how we get potatoes for all of our citizens. I would like to see a discussion from our Republican friends as to how they can possibly defend the hundreds of proposed laws around the country designed to restrict the vote of minorities.

I will stop bashing when he stops being a threat to democracy. In the meantime, I will try to focus on more productive issues.

March 5, 2021

What is wrong with Texas? With apologies to New Hampshire, Texas really is the “Live Free or Die” state. In the immortal words of Ted Cruz, “FREEDOM!” First, it gives all of its citizens the right to die in an epic winter storm because no one is going to tell Texans how they are going to run their electric grid. As former Texas Governor and Energy Secretary Rick “Oops” Perry said, Texans would rather die than let the federal government get its hands on their energy. Then, just to prove that having a moronic Governor was not a one off, Greg Abbott announced that Texas was open 100%, let the science be damned. The Lone Ranger will be the only Texan wearing a mask. Texas will now be remembered for more than just The Alamo.

They will make fun of Massachusetts for “canceling” Dr. Seuss, which wasn’t canceling at all but self-editing in the name of political correctness. An unfortunate encounter between a black student and a janitor at Smith College wasn’t cancel culture either. If you want to dredge up old news, they could mention the canceling of West Side Story at Amherst High School because it was unflattering to Puerto Ricans, but that was just the “Berkeley of the East” being overly PC. Lastly, Amherst College changed its name from the Lord Jeffs because Lord Jeffrey Amherst brought small pox to the Indians centuries ago. In the scheme of things, these are insignificant events that make living in western Massachusetts both charming and perplexing. Fortunately, the only thing anyone has died from is embarrassment.