TheWiseOldFart

They call themselves “Republicans.” They are not. I remember the Grand Old Party and today’s men and women prove day after day that they bear no resemblance to the Party of Lincoln. First and foremost, Republicans would never have nominated a fascist who is the least qualified candidate in American history for the presidency in three successive elections. Republicans had integrity, morals, and principles. Today’s fake Republicans are extremists whose priorities are themselves and their owners, oligarchs/billionaires. What these AI Republicans are not: supportive of small business, defenders of individual rights, equality for all, including minorities, the LGBTQ community, and women, freedom of and from religion, encouraging voters to go to the polls, and willing to create a system of fair taxation for all Americans. I turned 21 in 1967. The first general election I used my right to vote was in 1968. It was a difficult year to be a first-time voter. My candidate of choice was Ro...

Mentally healthy human beings don’t want to believe the worst about others. We would like to believe that what we see, hear, and read is at least partially true or even untrue, depending on the situation. Humans want to find a reason to forgive the mistakes, crimes, and heinous acts by others. We look for reasons; things in their past which brought out the worst in another person. I hate to tell you the absolute truth, but in most situations, this is psychiatric bullshit. We are all born with free thought and free choice. During our preteen and teenage years we have an opportunity to choose our friends, make decisions about what comes next, and search for the truth. I know no one in my generation who lived lives depicted by television shows like “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Father Knows Best,” or “the Donna Reed Show.” For the most part, post WWII children grew up in dysfunctional families. PTSD, changes in family structure created during the War, new opportunities for women in society, and a...

      When any politician offers this excuse whenever they don’t want to answer a direct question: I can’t answer that “for reasons of national security,” you know they’re hiding something, and that something is not good. All politicians are professional liars. It begins with their campaigns. They make promises they never intend to keep. They will say anything to get your vote, but when elected forget you exist. Let’s get to the truth. In a Democratic Republic, the people elect men and women to represent their needs and wishes. However, in the 21 st  century we elect rule over us, refusing to serve us. The truth is simple and opposes the intents of our Founding Fathers: politicians consider themselves better and more worthy of living the “American lifestyle” than their constituents. Fascism is alive and well in D.C. It is no longer a secret: America’s federal government is the most corrupt and incompetent in the world. Look at history. R...

    I knew it in 2017; Donald Trump is a very sick man. He is mentally challenged similar to that of a serial killer. I studied his early years and realized that his parents had failed him. He was sent away to New York military boarding school at the formative age of 13. By his own actions and words, he is a man obsessed with a need for relevance, hatred for anyone he believes opposes his self-proclaimed “brilliance,” and hatred for anyone who criticizes him for his many crimes and a debilitating and escalating condition known as malignant narcissism. In 2017 the sick, old man was 71 years old. In about seven weeks he will be 79; soon to be an octogenarian. His mental faculties have clearly declined since his first inauguration to such a low level of competency he cannot be trusted to take a walk by himself. Sadly, the men and women who call themselves “Republicans” today lack the courage to do the right thing and join in applying the 25 th  Amendment to Trump and remove ...

Trump is a Nazi and ICE is his personal gestapo. He promised to deport criminals and illegal immigrants, but of course, he lied. After covering Trump closely for the last 10 years, I still have no answer to one question. I understand how he became a white supremacist, but when did he focus on Hispanics as the one race he hates beyond all others? It should be clear to everyone that he ordered the removal of any and all Hispanics, even if they earned legal residence in the United States. And once again he is intentionally inflicting even greater pain by separating parents from their children. This is torture and he is enjoying inflicting pain on others. Part of being a malignant narcissist is a lack of compassion while enjoying the suffering of others. Trump’s mental incompetence is escalating. What’s next. Will he create his own form of “death camps?”  Which brings me to another question I have asked myself tor a decade: Has Trump ordered the murder of anyone in his life? He has com...

Think of America as an enormous boat. In the front are 813 oligarchs, and in the rear 340 million working men and women. In the middle are more than 20 million millionaires who want to be billionaires. The people would like to move forward, but they can’t. The problem appeared to be the enormous difference in the numbers. So many people in the back who wanted to move towards the front. However, after the super-rich brought their billions of dollars in gold onto the boat, the weight began to shift. As the riches grew, the bow began to slide deeper into the sea, and the stern began to rise. The working parts of the boat had been forgotten, and were no longer able to function as designed. The boat lost its ability to move forward. The balance of power had changed as its most necessary section rose above the sea. This is what is happening in America today and worse. The working class is moving backwards, while our country’s oligarchs are paying fewer and fewer taxes and moving their outrag...

The national debt in 2025 is estimated to become $35,000,000,000,000. That’s a lot of zeroes and they will never be erased during my granddaughters’ lifetimes. Throughout our country’s nearly 249 years, it was not unusual for our presidents to leave office with the nation in debt. However, the numbers were miniscule compared to what has happened in the 21 st century. In 1981, Ronald Reagan’s policy of “trickle-down economics,” simply defined, this was a fiscal policy which gives money to the super-rich in the form of enormous tax cuts, hoping that they will become “job creators.” When Reagan left office in 1989, America was nearly one-trillion dollars in debt, and the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent and escalating.  George H.W. Bush succeeded Reagan, served for one term, and added more than three trillion to the national debt using the same, failed fiscal policy. Bill Clinton’s fiscal policy improved the situation. Over eight years, the national debt rose by just over one trilli...

The headline reads, “CNN Poll: Trump’s approval at 100 days lower than any president in at least seven decades.” That goes back to Eisenhower’s first administration. He was the first president I remember. I was ten years old when I came home from school, turned on the television and began watching the 1956 Republican National Convention. It is an undeniable fact that there will never be a worse president in history than Donald John Trump: if there is another president. Trump is a Nazi and seeks the dictatorship of the United States. No one can doubt this fact. He has proven my allegations time and time again during his first 100 days pretending to be an American president. [Trump’s 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back at least to Dwight Eisenhower – including Trump’s own first term.] CNN Personally, I do not understand how it could be that high. Illegitimate President “Destructo” is destroying our nation piece by piece. Once again, h...

I love my wife more than I could ever tell her. She is a worrier. All too often she believes what she reads on the internet, not realizing that as much as 95 percent of everything we read on the misinformation highway is propaganda designed to frighten the average person, and designed to prevent them from telling or learning the truth. I often rely on the wisdom and honesty offered by one of the greatest men in the history of the world. “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” Martin Luther King, Jr. The most important human right guaranteed by the Constitution is the combination of free thought and free speech. The Constitution and our system of government encourage honest dissent. Nothing works in Washington without intelligent deliberation and compromise. This works just as well in the private sector. This is of greater importance in the 21 ...

A free press is protected by the First Amendment. Now that the mainstream media is controlled by some of America’s wealthiest men and women, there is no longer a ‘free press,’ formerly known as the ‘Fourth Estate.’ What your read or see on television is closely censored by the men and women who own our nation’s largest newspapers and broadcast television networks. Donald Trump uses the term ‘fake news’ incessantly. He is referring to the only national news services who were not afraid to ask the tough questions, questions Trump and his cronies refuse to answer. He was not including the original fake news, Fox News, or the newest right-wing propaganda machines including Newsmax, The Old-Time Gospel Hour , One America News Network, Real America's Voice, and others which seem to appear from nowhere every week. Our billionaires/oligarchs are busy spending their money on misinformation. I know what you are thinking: “if what I am saying is the truth, where can I find ‘real news,’ storie...

There is an old saying: “Birds of a feather, flock together.” This is clearly true when the discussion is about criminals. There is another which also applies here: “We are judged by the company we keep.” Trump takes great pleasure in pardoning criminals like himself. Immediately after his undeserving inauguration he pardoned about 1,500 traitors who were convicted of treasonous actions performed on January 6, 2021. These men and women are “his people.” On Thursday he pardoned a horrible and brazen woman who stole money from funds designated for a police officer’s memorial and used it for outrageous personal expenses, including plastic surgery and luxurious family vacations. The woman, Michelle Fiore, had been in Nevada’s state government for a large number of years. When she committed her crimes, she was on the Las Vegas City Council. Her scam was something Trump would praise. It is a well-known fact that he stole from his own charity for personal expenses. She was seeking donations f...

  Ron DeSantis is a Republican. He is currently the Governor of the strangest state in the Union, Florida. Add those two facts together and I am very surprised that it took this long for DeSantis to become the center of a scandal. DeSantis revealed himself to be a fascist and a bigot time and time again. However, until now he has not been suspected of a major misappropriation of large amounts of money. It was only a matter of time: he is another fake Republican. In my life of 78 years, no situation in America has been as mishandled and no administration has failed to make genuine attempts to save lives as the coronavirus known as Covid-19. Trump did nothing other than lie to our nation’s people, claiming “it will just go away.” More than one-million lives were lost and our economy crashed, nearly becoming a second Great Depression. How does this apply to Desantis. That’s easy. Florida is home to millions of Americans who were members of the most ‘at risk’ group during the pandemic....

The last words of our nation’s National Anthem are, “O-er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” One word no longer applies. In the 21 st century, only one percent of all 340 million people experience the American dream, and the core reason our country was the most respected country in the world. That word is “freedom.” I am 78 years old, and struggle to keep our home, eat fresh and healthy food, and pay our utility and water bills every month. I am a slave to a government which ignores me, my wife, and nearly 80 million other citizens. We are not ‘free,’ we are survivors of the corrupt leadership in Washington. We are expected to show our appreciation for a 2.5 percent annual raise when Greedflation has increased by as much as 60 percent on necessities. If “the People’s President,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had not displayed his deep concern for all of our nation’s people and created the plan I and my wife paid into for more than 40 years each, Social Security, my wife an...

The damage is done, and it’s irreparable. I continue to find it unconscionable that Trump was allowed to wear the label of President of the United States for a second time. He has doubled down on the destruction of my America. Lawerence O’Donnell reports that a significant number of Trump’s most ardent supporters and independent voters who failed to vet Trump and his party, are turning against him. These ignorant men and women were warned that the plans contained in Project 2025 would harm them the most, but they ignored facts and accepted more lies from the worst old man in the world. “But the marginal voter who made Donald Trump, that swing voter who made Donald Trump president, has now turned against Donald Trump,” O’Donnell said. Okay, here’s what I don’t understand. Fact: Trump has failed to keep every campaign promise. Fact: Every action taken by Trump and Musk is destructive and removes some of the only working parts of our government. Fact: Trump is following the right-wing fas...

Trump is above the law. Until six corrupted and traitorous members of the Supreme Court removed charges of treason and violating the Espionage Act in 2024, I had hope that those who work in law enforcement and serve in our military would support the Constitution and save our country from fascists and Nazis. I was wrong, very wrong. America is a nation without laws if you are wealthy, powerful, or a member of our corrupt and incompetent government. This is the greatest damage caused by Trump and his fascist supporters. I grew up believing that America was a nation where the rule of law was paramount to maintaining order and civility. When Trump pardoned the domestic terrorists, or more accurately traitors, who took part in a violent insurrection with two goals: halting the certification of the Electoral College vote, and killing Mike Pence and Nancey Pelosi: I knew then that my America had been defeated once and for all without a shot being fired by any member of law enforcement or ...

Anyone who understands the intricacies of international economics will tell the same story: tariffs are a bad idea and generally ineffective. Tariffs are the enemy of free trade, a system which encourages and enables economic growth among all nations. However, your ignorant president, who knows nothing about anything with the exception of failing at every business venture he attempted, loves the idea of increasing prices on everything for his nation’s people, the same people he promised to better their lives by ending Greedflation. Although Trump has partially reduced most of his moronic ideas, he continues to bully China. Big mistake. Unlike Trump, President Xi is a very powerful and very rich man. He will not back down from a man he knows is extremely inferior to himself. Although your mainstream media fails to offer the American people the entire truth, I will tell you about Trump’s extreme disadvantage. America is in debt. Thanks to the fiscal policy of trickle-down economics, used...

I have long been aware that the first meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin was in Moscow in 1987. The 41-year-old business failure was desperate to save his future. When he received an invitation from the KGB to come to Moscow, he and his first wife, Ivana, eagerly accepted the invitation. As you would expect, there are no records of the time they spent in the Russian capital. However, we do know that in the late 1980’s Putin was a high-ranking member of the spy agency, and a rising star in Russian politics. Between 1987 and 2013, there is no proof that the two men met again in person. However, when Trump’s real estate business began to fail during the time he was in Moscow, and continued into the 1990’s, Russian oligarchs began to invest in his New York and Florida properties and he was rescued from a bankruptcy and the likely demise of his “empire.” Then, in 2013, under the guise of taking the Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow, Trump once again traveled to the Russian capital. A fo...

Here’s the picture. I was born in July of 1946, making me an original ‘baby boomer.’ When I began my school years, I was sent to a Catholic elementary school. The first thing we did every morning, before prayers, was to stand, face the American flag in the corner, place our right hands over our hearts, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. This was two years before the words “under God” were added to the oath. My mother had a large family, and there were family gatherings frequently. I enjoyed them, but did not understand everything they talked about. Three of my uncles had returned from serving in WWII; one did not. Although I don’t remember them talking about what they did and saw during the war, politics and the state of our nation were frequent topics of conversation. Although politics were frequently discussed, my family was very patriotic. Movies on television were often stories about battles on the land, sea, and air during the war. John Wayne was an American hero, although he av...

It is abundantly clear that Trump learned nothing from his first, four disastrous years in the White House. I dare anyone to disagree with me that Trump’s administration is composed of the least qualified, anti-American, and uncaring millionaires and billionaires in our nation. Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Robert Kennedy Jr., Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi and the others are a slap in the face to every man and woman who previously held their positions. I find Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the greatest embarrassment of all. Before his confirmation by a corrupt Republican-dominated Senate, he was a part-time Fox personality, and a well-known alcoholic, even while at work, a sexual predator, and a thief who embezzled funds from two organizations he led which served our veterans. It appears that Hegseth may be the first major member of Trump’s administration to be removed from his position. An anonymous federal official claims that the White House is looking for an indiv...

When I was much younger and Catholic, Easter Sunday was a day for church and family. I will not lie; I did not enjoy all of my family, but no one does. However, we loved each other and those were special times, especially while my grandparents were alive. My maternal grandfather was the greatest role model a young man could have. This was normal in the mid-twentieth century all across America, and continues to be popular today with millions of Americans. But not for the Trump family. During the 2016 campaign, the pastor of the Christian church Trump claimed to be his own claimed that he had never seen him cross the threshold of his place of worship. No surprise there: the Antichrist is not welcome in a place of worship designated to honor the life of Jesus Christ. Trump owns the leaders of the Evangelical branch of the Christian religion. They continue to support him although he is a traitor to his country, a convicted felon, a confirmed sexual predator, a serial philanderer, and oppos...