(Political Ramblings from a Little Left of Center)
Trump recently announced that American troops will immediately withdraw from Syria and will decrease their presence by 50% in Afghanistan. As a proud Army Brat (the self-descriptive term used by those of us who grew up in career Army families), I am perhaps a bit more attentive than most when American troops are deployed into…
Last week, federal prosecutors called Donald Trump a felon. In their sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time lawyer, the prosecutors noted that Cohen paid off two women who claim to have had extramarital affairs with Trump. Since the payments were intended to influence the Presidential campaign, they violated campaign finance law when they were…
In the recent elections in Wisconsin, Democrats won every single statewide race. Voters chose a Democratic U.S. Senator, a Democratic Governor, a Democratic Attorney General, a Democratic Treasurer, and a Democratic Secretary of State. In addition, Democrats won 54% of votes cast statewide for the U.S. House and 54% of votes cast statewide for the…
Nancy Pelosi is not my favorite Democrat. I think she and Harry Reid missed a golden opportunity in 2009 to reach across the aisle and pick off a few moderate Republicans for some early bipartisan wins when Democrats briefly controlled everything. (Yes, moderate Republicans did once exist.) The pair could have made Obama’s life a…
In partial preparation for an initial analysis of the 2020 Presidential election, some of the first state-level data I gathered related to the Electoral College. That data subset quickly took me down a rabbit hole chasing after a rodent that’s been on my nerves for a very long time. This is why I have a…
There has long been an expectation that an “October Surprise” would impact the upcoming November 6 elections. Even though October is now behind us, I know better than to assume that one or more major news events won’t occur before election day. However, I will contend that the October Surprise has indeed already occurred. It’s…
My work-in-progress modus operandi for this blog is to first simply collect random notes, articles, and references that I find interesting. These artifacts occasionally combine to form the raw idea of a blog topic and a few of the collections eventually morph into an actual post. This week, however, I’ve found myself largely unable to…
Thus far, I’ve purposely steered clear of the “Issue of the Day” when selecting blog topics. My preference is to pick a topic that is important, but not one that is currently flying across cable news chyrons. I find value in stepping back a bit to gain some perspective before weighing in. But not this…
“Fun with Flags” is a recurring bit on “The Big Bang Theory” sitcom where Sheldon records a video podcast on the exciting topic of vexillology – the study of flags. I wondered how the gang might weigh in on the various flag stories currently in the news… Scene: The apartment. Sheldon and Amy are on…
I decided on the title of this piece before I had much of a clue how to actually write it. What the hell was I thinking? Even a cursory discussion of this topic could easily require several books. Several intensely boring books. I had writer’s remorse about even “going there” given that (a) I’m by…