TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950’s and 1960’s was interesting. When I was very young, I, my mother, and my younger brother lived in an area of West Los Angeles which was predominately white. It is fair to say that until I was in my junior year of high school, I was surrounded by and lived in an atmosphere of white privilege. The only time I came in contact with anyone my age who was non-white was in the local parks, and later when I joined a baseball team in a predominately Black area of Venice. I never thought about it then, but playing sports gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with different races, most of whom had a different color of skin than my own. Until my junior year in high school, 1962, and at the age of 16, I attended Catholic schools. At the end of my sophomore year, I was playing varsity basketball in a mostly Catholic summer league. I was certain to be a starting guard the following year. In late summer, I attended an event at St. B...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart I admit to repeating myself. I have written similar articles before. However, it is more accurate today than ever before that God, if there is one, made one serious mistake. This one error in judgement will end His or Her greatest creation, the planet Earth. When I was a young man and learned about the tragedies occurring every day around the world, how the most disenfranchised people in the world suffered from disease, famine, wars, and genocide, I began to have my doubts about the existence of a God. I was raised a Catholic, attending Parochial schools for 10 years. We were taught the eight beatitudes. Two of them are why I began to question not only my religion, but all religions and their belief in a supernatural power who watched over us and cared for us. “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.” “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” These lessons...

Trump, like all white supremacists/fascists, believes that pure whites are stronger and more resilient than all other races. Of course, he is ignoring the fact that Hitler’s fascist army was soundly defeated by allied forces composed of a racially diverse and ethnically mixed group of “inferior” fighters. Trump was trained by his father. The reason he was sent to a military boarding school at the age of 13 is unknown. What we do know is that Trump was removed from his mother during the most critical and formative years of a teenage boy’s life. When his “education” in the private sector ended in 1964, he joined his father’s real estate business. Although the details of his duties are not clear, it is acceptable to believe that during that time, he was involved in his father’s high rise apartment rentals. When a Black man or woman applied, a large red “C” was placed at the top of the rental application, literally preventing men and women of color from gaining residence in his buildings. ...

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...

In August of 1619 the first slaves stepped onto the New Land. This vile and inhuman act began what has become pervasive racism in the United States for more than 248 years. Republicans, with assistance from their propaganda machine, FOX News, continue to confirm that their party is composed of racists, bigots, homophobes, religious bigots, and sexists. This tells us that about one-half of all 340 million people are prejudiced without reason. One event which I never read in history class, and only learned about later in life, is demonstrative of how destructive racism has been for our nation’s future. The Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had a very successful business district in 1921. However, on March 31 and June 1 st , an angry crowd of about 10,000 angry white men stormed into the Black part of Tulsa on March 31 and began attacking Black men and women while setting fire to their stores and shops. At the end of a well-planned attack on June 1 st , more than 300 Black men and women...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Over the last nine years, anyone who follows politics and political figures knows that if Trump or his cronies said it, it was a lie. Desperate to win the 2024 election, Trump’s television ads have become more vicious, composed of more outrageous lies than ever before, and if you know the facts are so fallacious they are almost hilarious. I believed that his biggest lie would always be his baseless claims that he won the 2020 election. However, with election day just one week away, his whoppers have reached a level never attained by great imaginations like Walt Disney or Stephen Kiing. Over the last nine years, every plan for our nation’s future in the fascist manifesto, “Project 2025,” originated at one of Trump’s hate rallies. His supporters simply compiled his beliefs into a 922-page document designed to destroy the country I have cherished for 78 years. Trump told one of his biggest lies when he claimed that he knows nothing about it. Last ...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Let’s take a look at something which I find extremely confusing. I understand t hat hardcore Republican voters are in decline: many of them are around my age. I am an original baby boomer. But this fact adds to my consternation.   Donald Trump lost the vote of America’s women in 2016 and 2020. I am fully aware that the right-wing began a war on women in 1981 with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan , but why are they escalating that war in the 21 st century?   I don’t believe that Reagan was a misogynist. What I do know is that he was a religious zealot, an extremist, and his faith surpassed the rights of women regardless of their relationships to him or his constituents.   MOSCOW MITCH LEARNED THAT DREAMS CAN COME TRUE   Nearly two years ago a major goal of the old, white men on the right side of the aisle became a reality. After a 4 9-year fight, the law protecting a woman’s right to decide the future of her own mental and ...