TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart I was a child raised by television. My brother and I were raised by a single mother in the 1950’s and 60’s. I remember our first television. It was nine inches in diameter, and the picture was in black and white. There were only three channels, and the broadcasts ended at midnight, returning at six in the morning. We were a poor family and the “boob tube” was our only source of entertainment. In its beginning, broadcast television was limited and there were many restrictions. All of its programs were “family friendly,” and their content was decided by the time of day their programs were broadcast. Television news broadcasts began in 1948, and were limited to 15 minutes. In 1962, the popularity of Walter Cronkite on CBS extended its early evening broadcast to 30 minutes. Advertising was limited primarily to food products, automobiles, and cigarettes. Forbidden were ads involving alcohol, the medical profession, and services offered by the legal profession. During...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart I live in Northern Nevada. On November 3 rd , our state’s people will choose the man who will lead our state for the next four years. The governor’s race is between Republican Incumbent Joe Lombardo, and current Attorney General, Aaron Ford, a Democrat. Lombardo revealed himself as a tool for our state’s super-rich over the last four years. His campaign tactics involve lies, paid for by his wealthy supporters. Expensive and professionally constructed ads claim that his efforts have improved our educational system, made healthcare more efficient and less expensive, and reduced housing costs for one of the west’s poorest states.. Meanwhile, Lombardo continues to make false allegations about his opponent, Mr. Ford. If this sounds familiar, it is. Lombardo is another Trump sycophant. THE TRUTH IS LOMBARDO’S GREATEST FEAR AND HIS ONLY ENEMY A little about my home. Nevada is our nation’s fifth largest state, geographically. However, its entire popu...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Inciting anger, hatred, and violence. Dividing a nation’s people. Brainwashing the uninformed. Ending intelligent conversation. Winning elections based on lies and misinformation. Foreign nations deciding the outcome of elections. The former situations are used every day around the world. Misnamed “social media:” Facebook,” “Twitter,” now known as “X,” and the most misleading of all, “Truth Social,’ are some of the tools used by desperate politicians and other despicable groups to control the minds and therefore the actions of subscribers. ALL GREAT INVENTIONS/CREATIONS ARE EVENTUALLY ABUSED AND MISUSED The telephone, the automobile, television, wireless phones, computers, the internet: these are a few of the greatest inventions of the 20 th century. However, all of them have been abused and misused. Each is a tool used every day for unintended and negative use more often than for the reasons they were created for the masses. One undeniable fact is that t...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Your government doesn’t want you to know the truth: they declared war on Afghanistan. The Pentagon doesn’t want you to know: they lost the war. The mainstream media won’t tell you the truth: they are owned by oligarchs who own our government. But, I will: it’s my responsibility. When George W. Bush failed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden late in 2001, he left our military forces behind, creating our nation’s longest war. When our military forces left Afghanistan in August, 2021, our nation had lost 2459 lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. It was the Pentagon’s 4 th loss since WWII. However, the losses continue today. HOW OUR NATION CONTINUES TO SUFFER FROM ANOTHER UNWINNABLE WAR After the final members of America’s military left Afghanistan, its poppy fields began to grow rapidly. Today, most of the world’s illegal heroin is produced in these fields. A whopping 85 percent of all illegal sales across the world originate from a previous war zone, a...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Where has the hundreds of billions of dollars the Pentagon received this year gone? For decades, watchdog groups have reported an undeniable fact: the Pentagon wastes about 50 percent of the funds they receive. The money they were given was spent on failed projects, the purchase of overpriced parts, and for cost overrides where contracts were given to incompetent companies. The American people have been duped by the military industrial complex for nearly 70 years. Although the United States has the largest and most expensive military force in the world, it is also the most incompetent. Trump and his subjects running the Pentagon are losing his war on Iran. The truth is, America has lost every war they fought since the end of WWII in 1945. And yet, their budget receives an increase each year. THE PENTAGON AND POLITICS The attacks on Iran continue to be war crimes. America was not under attack, and not a single allegation by the Trump administration has been verif...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart No citizen of any nation wants their country to be engaged in a war. However, in America, our illegitimate president began a war with Iran on February 28 th . We should have been prepared. During the 2016, campaign, Trump told his ignorant cult, “I love war, even the nuclear kind.” Trump has never studied history, and therefore never learned from the mistakes of our past. Since WWII our government and the Pentagon have lost four wars: Iran will make it five. FACTS: OUR MILIIARY IS FIVE TIMES LARGER THAN ALL OTHER NATONS COMBINED, AND FIVE TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE For decades, watchdog groups claim that 50 cents of every dollar received by the Pentagon goes to waste. However, our corrupt legislature votes to increase the military budget every year. 10 years ago,, the Pentagon received 585.3 billion dollars. Trump is asking Congress to approve a 2027 budget of 1.15 trillion dollars. We are not getting what we paid for. Our military leaders have become entirely politic...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Caring for returning physically and mentally injured military and their families: Universal healthcare: complete equality for women: ending racism and bigotry in America: affordable higher education: end escalating gun violence: fair taxation: reforming our corrupt and incompetent government: placing the American people in priority over special interests. These are the major issues which have faced America for more than 50 years, and nothing has changed, with the exception that some of these issues, including income inequality, have become bigger problems over the last five decades. THE THIRD WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY It is no secret to anyone who chooses to be an informed American: the government of the United States of America has become the most corrupt and incompetent on the planet. Our Founding Father’s intention was to have a government which would represent the needs and wishes of the people. However, today, they work for themselves and rule over us, not...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart The news division of CBS moved from being the most respected information network in America to the new Fox News, a broadcast focused on spreading right-wing extremism to millions of loyal viewers. The change was placing Trump sycophant, Bari Weiss, in control of the news division of CBS by its parent company, Paramount. Changes came rapidly. Like Fox, the truth became CBS’ least concern, placing their Fuhrerr, Donald John Trump, in  priority number one. Facts prove that the truth became the enemy. Therefore, Weiss fired some of America’s most respected and legitimate journalists because they refused to surrender their integrity and report stories which were blatant lies. Names you might know are Scott Pelley, Shaaryn Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega. RESPECTED JOURNALISM DISAPPEARED FROM THE EVENING NEWS AND “60 MINUTES” IMMEDIATELY I have not watched a morning or evening news broadcast since November 9, 2016. Failures during the 2016 campaign season by the ...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Unlike Trump who cares only for his 989 oligarchs/billionaires, Alexandrea Ocasio-Cortez would be the people’s president. That said, let’s look at a recent event which is a perfect example of where the 21 st century is headed, unless radical change occurs immediately. WHEN WILL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE COME FIRST? I am an Independent voter: always have been and always will be. I have complaints about both parties and they are the same: if you are an elected official in America, you fail to listen to the majority of our nation’s people. You fail to perform the job for which you were elected. You do not represent the people, you work for yourself. What happened yesterday in the House is a perfect example of why professional politicians are the worst people in the world. A bill was passed giving our incompetent Pentagon $1.15 trillion. Before learning more about the actual vote, I assumed that all Democrats voted against the proposal, and all Republicans voted for it. ...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart        Questions which need to be answered: Where do the funds for Social Security come from? What is an “entitlement?” Why is the program underfunded? Who is to blame? FACT: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS THE MOST CORRUPT AND INCOMPETENT IN THE WORLD To learn the full truth, we must go back in time. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “the People’s President,” was elected in 1932. From day one, it was clear that he placed the working class first. Deeply concerned about how every man and woman working in jobs which offered little or no retirement assistance, he eagerly signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. To this day, Social Security is the only perfect law ever passed by Congress. This is how it was designed. Funding would not be provided by taxpayer dollars. Every employee and employer would contribute to the fund and added to the program based on the amount of money earned. When the employee reached retirement ag...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart For more than 10 years, I have been telling you that Trump was a huge fan of Adolf Hitler. Before going to sleep, he read his Fuhrer’s speeches over and over again. It is also fair to assume that he read “Mein Kampf” as well. Anyone with common sense is aware that if Trump’s lips are moving, he’s lying. However, some of his lies are laughable and others are extremely destructive. His lie about the 2020 election is not only the most infamous lie he ever told, but it also remains responsible for the great divide among our nation’s people. However, Trump did not create this lie. He learned it from Mein Kampf, Hitler’s own fascist manifesto. FROM HITLER TO TRUMP WITH HATE Hitler was a master manipulator. He knew one important fact about the average person. He was aware that if he was to be an all-powerful dictator, the people would need to believe that everything he said was fact and anything which opposed his ideas and beliefs was actually misleading and false. His...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Our country has survived 66 months of Trump’s illegitimate rule over 340 million people. It hasn’t been easy. His regressive and destructive policies and words challenge even the most patriotic men and women in America. Truth be told, his old age, combined with an historical level of incompetence, allowed our nation to celebrate 250 years of existence today. PROMISES UNKEPT, FAILURES ABOUND, THE RESULT OF OLD AGE AND DEMENTIA? All politicians are liars. Trump is not only the worst president in history by far, he holds the record for telling the most outrageous lies imaginable. During the 2024 campaign, Trump made multiple promises, as do all professional politicians. However, three of his guarantees to the voting public contributed to his controversial victory. Trump stood before his cult and millions of uninformed Americans promising that he would end Greedflation and the invasion of Ukraine on day one. He also promised that with him in the White House, there w...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart If you ask 90 percent of voters what the most important issue in any election is, the answer is always, “the economy.” Being an American is not easy in the 21 st century. The solution to any problem, and at the root of most crimes is money. If you want the “American dream,” you must have money, and lots of it.. As an original baby boomer, I grew up in a country struggling to move from a wartime economy to something more normal. As a boy in the 1950s and 1960s my dreams were not very lofty. Most of my friends had more “things” than me, but that was never important. Most of the kids in my school had two parents. I and my brother were raised by a single mother. All she did was work. She considered raising two sons her entire reason for existing. I worked lots of jobs, but never became rich. My wife and I finally achieved the American dream in 1999 when I was 53 and my wife 49: we purchased our own home. Statistics prove that most Americans 35 years of age and youn...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Gossip. When I was a teenager attending high school, the world was a far, far different place. My freshman and sophomore years were spent in a Catholic high school. Boys and girls were separated by the primary entrance to the school. We could only communicate with members of the opposite sex before and after school, or at rallies for the football team. The only time we saw each other was when we passed each other on the lobby stairway. Notes were passed and hidden, to be read later. Some of the notes contained “gossip” about other students and the teachers. When I left St. Bernard High School, I attended Venice High School. Public schools were far different. Dress codes were very lenient, and with the exception of gym classes, everything was co-ed. We didn’t need to pass notes, and the amount of gossip was plentiful. My brother and I were raised by a single mother and her parents. Many of the principles and beliefs I have today came from them. My grandmother was...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart In January of 2017, an entire political party, which was once known as “the Grand Old Party,” abandoned its morals, its self-respect, its principles, and its dignity, and surrendered its free thought and free will to an old, obese, and mentally deficient failed businessman who had renently been illegitimately sworn in as their president. The Party of Lincoln had taken its last breath. MOST “REPUBLICANS” KNOW BETTER I have no doubt that the majority of the men and women who call themselves “Republicans” in Washington have at least average intelligence and are fully aware that Trump has become a dictator. They know that his policies are wrong for America, but with a shrinking voter base, they are desperate to receive the votes of his ignorant supporters. His failure to keep his promises, most notably ending inflation, ending the invasion of Ukraine, and keeping our nation out of another unwinnable war in the Middle East, are adding to the possibility of Democrats ...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart This story is confusing, sad, and almost unbelievable. At the center of this tale is Senator Lindsey Graham, Rep., South Carolina. Arizona Senator John McCain lost his battle for life on August 25, 2018. He and Lindsey Graham were close friends, almost inseparable. Although my beliefs and those of Senator McCain were often in direct opposition, I admired him for the only reason which mattered: Mr. McCain always acted in a manner focused on doing what he believed was the right for the American people. I believed that he and Graham shared the same principles and morals. However, after Senator McCain passed, Graham became hypocrite number one. During the 2016 campaign Graham constantly criticized Trump: a couple of examples. In 2016, Lindsey Graham wrote, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it." "The bottom line is I believe Donald Trump would be an absolute, utter disaster for the Republican Party, destroy conservati...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Your government is the most corrupt in the world. It is also the most incompetent in history, refusing to perform the jobs for which they were elected. That said, a watchdog group claims that the Washington Mafia is hiding the truth about our national debt. Although it is reported as 39 trillion dollars, this group claims that the actual number is 170.3 trillion dollars. TRUTH IN ACCOUNTING CLAIMS THAT YOUR GOVERNMENT FAILS TO INCLUDE ALL OF THE COSTS INCLUDED IN THE DEFICIT [As of Sept. 30, 2025, the U.S. government had only $6.1 trillion on hand to pay for $176.3 trillion worth of incurred and promised liabilities, Truth in Accounting reports.] The following are a few of the debts unreported by your corrupt government. [Within that number, projected Social Security benefits for all Americans who have entered the workforce amount to $54 trillion, total Medicare benefits will cost $74.5 trillion, and military and civilian retirement benefits will be $15.5 trilli...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart I am a proud, lifelong pacifist. There are no “winners” in a war or any form of physical combat. Everyone loses, and no one can prove me wrong. However, two mentally deranged white men are eagerly murdering thousands of innocent men, women, and children in what is being called “Trump’s Iran War.” THE VIOLENCE BEGAN ON THE COAST OF VENEZUELA Trump and his brother from another mother, Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, supported by an incompetent and fascist Pentagon, began murdering passengers on power boats racing along the shores of Venezuela. They claimed justification based on an unproven assertion that these boats were transporting illegal drugs. Nothing has ever confirmed this old adage more accurately: “when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” Trump is not intelligent enough to gaslight our nation’s people as he nears the age of 80. The mainstream media will not report the exact number of those murdered by missiles fired from a U.S. Navy ship, bu...