As I sit here watching our GoldenDoodle puppy chasing her tail, it occurred to me the Republican Party is chasing its tail. The crop of wannabes are afraid of breaking with their hard core base but that base, if fed the same lies and bad information, cannot change. It is a circular train of thought which gets more embedded with each cycle. For the base to take another track would imply they are gullible and their leaders have been lying to them. Both of which are abhorrent to them, so it is easier to stay on that well-worn circular track.

            In spite of all the data by their own state officials saying the 2022 Presidential election wasn’t stolen; most Republicans can’t believe former President Donald Trump lost by over seven-million votes. Trump and his minions are being indicted for their efforts to overthrow the election in ways many of their bases don’t yet know.

            The base is being hurt by weather they may never have seen before, yet they are told it isn’t because of burning fossil fuels. Do they pay attention when they are told waters around Southern Florida have risen to over 100 degrees? What tunnel-vision is causing them to not connect rising seas, arctic forest fires, glacier melting, and record heat with climate change?

            The reason is obvious. The social media and Right Wing cable channels are streaming those stories saying the rest of the world is wrong and they are right is one cause. The other main reason is religious leaders are supporting liars and crooks so they can get one or two things enacted while overlooking the disasters to the country.

            Speaking the truth might not allow an intelligent presidential wannabe to get by the Primary in order to win the general election.

        The Republicans in the House of Representatives should know better than to throw stones at President Joe Biden for his son’s business. Apparently they are trying to connect him to his son’s business meetings during which he called his Dad. Granted he never discussed anything more than family and weather, but some of the Republicans want to equate those calls with former President Donald Trump’s legal problems. The other change has to do with his right to own a gun putting the NRA in a quandary as to support him or not!

            Throwing stones at Biden should encourage Republicans to look into their own financial dealings. It is a public record on how several of them have made stock purchases before and after committee meetings and closed door meetings with company executives. How about all those campaign contributions from people and companies they did favors. A few years ago my Republican Congressman announced he was retiring and the contributions flooded into a campaign chest he wasn’t going to need. Since he couldn’t get the money directly, he donated it to his wife’s non-profit which she shortly closed out before they both moved out of the country. Of course we can’t forget a speaker who must have made millions from a retired high school coach’s pension.

            The list of past and current Representatives who have made fortunes by directly dealing with individuals who told them where to buy land, or stocks, and gave their businesses lucrative contracts is most likely long. Are they forgetting all the jobs their spouses and children are being paid more than their co-workers while not coming to work?

            No, perhaps this is the time for the remaining good journalists to expose the corruption in both parties.

        George Santos was just elected to be the Representative for the Third District of New York. The Republican ran on a complete lie about his life. Somehow he managed to keep his fictional life from being found out. Now the Republican leadership in Nassau County is trying to find out how a fraud could have slipped through the cracks in the investigations of a nominee.

            This is Santos’ stated biography. He graduated from New York State University and Baruch College. (Neither Institution ever heard of him.) His work history is he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, two powerful companies on Wall Street. (Neither have any record of him working for them.) Santos says he ran a 501C3 charity named Friends of pets United. (The Internal Revenue Service designates who is a non-profit and they have no record of it.)

            Santos reported he has an income of $750,000 from the Devolder Organization where he ran a “Family Firm”. (No investigation has found any record of its existence.)

            Not in his biography but investigations have found out he confessed to being involved with a group committing check fraud. He confessed but apparently didn’t serve time. He has agreed with the question when asked. One report is his campaign was paid for from a loan financed by a Russian oligarch. He won’t comment on it. He was evicted several times from various residences for failure to pay the rent.

            With a five seat majority in the House can Republicans afford to toss him out and hope another Republican could win a special election when Santos won by only eight points in a District where President Biden won it in a landslide? After Trump is Santos’ so bad?  Who cares?

        Some of the best statements I have ever heard were in movies. I like Steven Segal’s action movies and at the end of “Above the Law” was a really thought provoking statement. “Whenever you have a group of individuals who are above any investigation, and who can manipulate the Press, Judges, and members of Congress, you will always have groups that are above the law.”

            If a person thinks very much about those words it is easy to see how it applies to today’s political scene. We have a former President who is an expert at manipulating people and the press. He has broken many, many laws during his lifetime. He has broken many contracts and broken people who sued. He has conned people into believing his lies and fabrications. He has ridiculed on people who fully support everything he says and does. He has used other people’s money to start a news social media site. His followers do as they are commanded by him or his minions. He demands total loyalty to him or he destroys them in his or their platforms causing those who don’t obey to cower before him, usually in public.

            The judges he appointed to Federal Courts are already trying to protect him. The first may have been the Florida District Judge who tried to keep the FBI from looking at or releasing any information about his secret documents. She was overturned and admonished by the higher court. He thinks he can be protected in any Federal Criminal case even if he has to go to the Supreme Court. He has said just that!

            Go back and reread Segal’s statement and see if you think he is right.

        What is the difference between progressive and conservative politics? Apparently there is no fine line between the two ideologies. Conservatives say they demand small government and low taxes but they and their followers would not want to go without the life protecting laws of the FDA and other agencies which work to keep our food and drugs healthy and real. Maybe conservatives have forgotten how foul rivers and air was before the EPA. Their constituents that depend on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security won’t be happy with their reduction or elimination. It is easy for Congress to dump those because they get big government pensions and medical care.

            Big government helps to feed millions of school children and their families. It forces businesses to make sure the working conditions are safe. Big government tries to keep financial transactions like stocks, bonds and other things honest and equal for all. Life in America would not be the same without the help and protection government gives us.

            Of course, conservatives don’t like the IRS because they and the rich and super-rich don’t want to pay taxes. Business people don’t want government interference in how they run their businesses and investments. Conservatives want to reduce taxes and expenses but their voters won’t be happy when those expenses are reduced. Those red states get far more from the government than they contribute. It’s an impractical dream.

            Both can exist and have the past with great success but some of the far right can’t see it is possible.

        During Haley’s announcement speech she said all presidential candidates over 75 should have to take a mental competency test. Why limit it to 75? Why not everyone who aspires to lead the nation? Perhaps it might eliminate those who have paranoia, massive ego, habitual lying, racism, sociopath behavior and other aberrations. An equally undesirable trait is when a person is easily manipulated like Ex-President George W. Bush.

            Ordinarily the voter might be expected to eliminate those candidates with mental problems but that doesn’t happen very often. Before people were allowed to vote directly for the president it was assumed the average person wasn’t smart enough to make such an important decision. I often think that early idea was right.

            Ex-President Donald Trump is a well-known counter puncher so I expect him to say every candidate for president should have to get a healthy report on their prostate gland or be eliminated.