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Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

PIC Trump and Palin 2 cards v3The news of Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump seemed quite unsurprising, almost inevitable.  It immediately brought to mind an expression I heard long ago from a fellow soldier at Fort Benning. From time to time, Tom would remark with mild derision, “What a pair to draw to.” I have no recollection of the particular persons or things that inspired the comment, but a quick look on Google renewed my understanding of what he meant. As one writer put it:

One memory I have of my father is a saying he would use whenever we would encounter two people–usually two men, but sometimes a couple–who looked as if they were up to no good. My father, an inveterate poker player, would indicate with a nod and say, “There’s a pair to draw to.”

In the metaphor of poker, of course, the pair to which he was referring would have to be seen as a low pair, deuces or treys. Fours, fives. So in fact they were not a pair to draw to at all. It would be best just to fold before the draw and sit this hand out. But also there was the implication that trouble was just around the corner and was being drawn to the energy of the pair even at the moment, and if we wanted to wait around we probably could see it arrive.

Read More »Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

Blog No. 90. Obama’s SOTU and the Sixth Republican Debate

Coming on Tuesday and Thursday nights of last week, President Obama’s State of the Union message and the sixth Republican debate combined to make a depressing package of television viewing. For those of us in the Pacific time zone, the best that might have been said was that we did not have to stay up late to watch and that neither event interfered with regular prime time programming.  Given the extensive coverage of them, we will limit our comments to a few observations.Read More »Blog No. 90. Obama’s SOTU and the Sixth Republican Debate

Special Bulletin. Veterans and In Vitro Fertilization

A report on the PBS NewsHour this week brought to our attention an issue that we had previously overlooked. The report, which can be viewed here, concerned the inability of the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for veterans who have suffered wounds that make it impossible for them to conceive children any other way.Read More »Special Bulletin. Veterans and In Vitro Fertilization

Blog No. 89. Trump and Cruz: Republican Scylla and Charybdis

We had hoped to begin 2016 on an optimistic note, but after waiting until the eleventh hour and beyond, it seems to have eluded us. For RINOs, the continued presence of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz atop the Republican leaderboard is singularly depressing. We do not accept that the nomination of either is inevitable, but it is more of a risk than we can understand or accept.Read More »Blog No. 89. Trump and Cruz: Republican Scylla and Charybdis

Christmas 2015; A Carol for Children

Veteran followers of RINOcracy.com may recall that two years ago at Christmas, we posted an Ogden Nash poem, “A Carol for Children.”  The poem was published in The New Yorker in December, 1935 and reprinted by The New York Times as its lead editorial on Christmas Day, 1978.  In each case, the poem spoke to the troubled times at hand and we felt that it was equally appropriate in 2013. Last year, we reached the same conclusion and, sadly, it seems even more compelling this year.

The poem is not a “merry” one at all and the tradition that we carry on is one that we would like to find reason to discontinue. Yet surely Christmas is a time to look past Santa and Rudolf, egg nog and tinsel, and reflect on the more serious meaning of the occasion. And what can be more central to that meaning than the promise of a better world for our children and generations to come.

A Carol for ChildrenRead More »Christmas 2015; A Carol for Children

Special Bulletin. Lindsey Graham: Ave Atque Vale.

It has been clear for some time that Lindsey Graham was not going to be the Republican nominee for President. Yet it had been our hope that enough lightning would strike to propel him at least onto the main stage of the Republican debates, where his presence was sorely needed.  Graham’s inability to gain visible support was as baffling and depressing to us as Donald Trump’s successes.  (In our previous blog we referred to Trump, as others had, as The Teflon Don. Our friend, Suzanne Garment writing for Reuters, has suggested that Teflon doesn’t begin to capture Trump’s magical quality, “Truth is Superman, but Donald Trump is pure Kryptonite.” )Read More »Special Bulletin. Lindsey Graham: Ave Atque Vale.

Blog No. 88. Teflon Don: Did He Really Say That?

Through some magical power, Donald Trump has managed to enter a fact-free zone that can only be the envy of his competitors. Unlike the statements of the other candidates, Trump’s are not scrutinized for accuracy, and indeed they are generally assumed to be unprovable or flatly wrong. No, Trump’s pronouncements are assessed primarily on the degree unpleasantness with which they are delivered. (We imagine a campaign logo: “The Surly Bird Gets the Worm.”) He appears to have succeeded John Gotti to the title of the Teflon Don.

Other candidates have attempted to pick him up on this or that fact, and Glenn Kessler has depleted his inventory of Pinocchios in making multiple awards to the Donald. But no one, so far as we know, has made a comprehensive review of Trump’s claims and observations, even within the limits of a single debate. We though it might be a useful experiment applied to the Fifth Debate. Confined to that debate the experiment is obviously limited and will omit any number of his more noxious expostulations. Nevertheless, one has to start somewhere. What follows is the entirety of what Trump had to say at the Fifth Republican Debate, omitting only various personal comments directed at other candidates or the moderators. We have supplied headings and questions and comments in bold.Read More »Blog No. 88. Teflon Don: Did He Really Say That?

Blog No. 87. The President, the Contenders and ISIS

The President’s recent address from the Oval Office was clearly intended to reassure the nation. Whether anyone in fact felt reassured is highly questionable. As many observers noted, he offered nothing new to a strategy that has shown little sign of success thus far and gives little reason to believe that it will be more successful going forward. In fairness to the President, however, none of the current candidates for the presidency have offered a particularly persuasive path to a successful outcome for our struggle with ISIS and related elements of radical Islam.

The most detailed and comprehensive proposal for combating ISIS was provided by Hillary Clinton in a speech on November 14. Clinton’s proposal was similar to Obama’s existing policy, notably in prescribing a highly restricted role for American ground troops and hopeful reliance on the “65 country coalition.” It differed principally in a tone of greater urgency and a recognition, even before the San Bernardino shooting, that the past and present levels of effort were insufficient:Read More »Blog No. 87. The President, the Contenders and ISIS

Special Bulletin. Donald Trump: Again and Still and What to Do?

The New York Times on December 2 carried yet another story of Republican leadership fretting about Donald Trump, “Wary of Donald Trump, G.O.P. Leaders Are Caught in a Standoff.” The article quoted among others, Senator Lindsey Graham on the effect of a Trump nomination. As a candidate himself, and one who is trailing Trump by a wide margin in the polls, Graham is not exactly a disinterested observer. Yet his succinct precis bears repeating:

“It would be an utter, complete and total disaster,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, himself a presidential candidate who has tangled with Mr. Trump, said of his rival’s effect on lower-tier Republican candidates. “If you’re a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot, you’re going to have a hard time being president of the United States, and you’re going to do irreparable damage to the party.”

Read More »Special Bulletin. Donald Trump: Again and Still and What to Do?