TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart When Trump was evicted from the White House on January 20, 2021, the economy of the United States was nearing a second Great Depression. You never heard this on the evening television news broadcasts. They would never make their leader look bad. His failure to lead our nation in the fight against Covid-19, combined with a fiscal policy of “trickle-down economics,” a policy which failed three previous Republican presidents, unemployment was rising, small businesses were nearing bankruptcy, and increasing uncertainty resulted in a nosedive on Wall Street. In 2025, Trump is dumb enough to continue the worst fiscal policy in American history, “trickle-down economics,” and has added an even more destructive policy, huge tariffs. The lengthy fight to create a free economy with our allies was flushed down the toilet. Tariffs never work, but Trump doesn’t care. Afflicted with malignant narcissism and a corrupt Supreme Court, he is mad with power. A lifelong schoolyard b...

When presidential historians and other politicos attempt to rate our nation’s 47 presidents, there are always a large number of opinions. As a writer who has been involved in American politics since 2012, I feel qualified to offer my opinion, based on years of reading historical fact and current articles from legitimate sources written by the world’s most respected journalists.   My assessment of our presidents is focused on the 13 men I have experienced in my nearly 79 years. I rate them by applying how well they served all of our nation’s people, their abilities to make decisions which positively affected all of our nation’s people, their loyalty to our country and their willingness to do the right thing every time, regardless of political consequences. Of the 13 men who affected me and those I love since 1956, I believe that only one could be considered great, five were good, and four were a disgrace to the principles and values of our founding fathers. The remaining three were ...

Trump’s primary effort in 2017 and for the next four years was to divide our nation’s people. The plan, co-created by his puppeteer, Vladimir Putin, worked very well. “Divide and conquer” was their motto, and because most Americans learn everything they know from television, it was a major success. During the 2024 campaign, empty seats dominated the stories about Trump’s hate rallies. That was just the beginning. Kamala Harris received massive amounts of campaign donations, far surpassing those of the old man. After another election, which I am convinced was once again rigged by Putin, Trump is extremely unpopular with the two most important groups: Democrats and Independents. Once again, I believe our corrupt government is hiding the truth, hiding their incompetence. There are signs at every protest calling Trump what he is, a fascist, and demanding his removal from the White House. The right wing’s fascist manifesto, Project 2025, is being checked off plan by plan. The 922-page docum...

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...

Fact: America is more than 30 trillion dollars in debt. Fact: When Bill Clinton left office in 2001, the national treasury boasted a surplus. Fact: Failed fiscal policies, two illegal wars, wasteful personal spending, and failing to lead our nation in the fight against Covid-19 by two Republican presidents placed our nation in enormous debt. Fact: If every individual and corporation paid their fair share of taxes, America would truly be the richest nation in the world without a single dollar in debt. Most of our serious problems would disappear. American politicians have convinced our poorly informed citizens that taxes are unnecessary and should be lowered. This is one of the biggest lies in our nation’s history. No country can exist without fair and equal taxation. The United States has some of the lowest taxes in the free world. The villain in this story is an institution signed into law on July 1, 1862. It is called the “Internal Revenue Service.” This was a break with the ideas of...

    Republicans don’t know or don’t care that the citizens of the richest and most populous state in the Union, California, are Americans. In fact they are true Americans while Republicans offer their fealty to Trump and his puppeteer, Vladimir Putin. I grew up in Los Angeles. I will always be grateful to have lived in the greatest city, the greatest state, until I was in my early 40’s. No other state offers such a variety of lifestyles. No other state offers the opportunities available in California. I lived in Los Angeles when many terrible fires occurred in Malibu, Laurel Canyon, and other wooded areas when the Santa Ana winds blew in from the east. However, I could never imagine the tragedies which are devasting such beautiful areas of Southern California today. As of today, Monday, January 13, 2025, more than 12,300 structures have burned and 24 lives have been lost. And the winds will be worse today according to Los Angeles weathermen. H...

I’ve read all the suggestions and analys e s of the Democratic Party, and, in my estimation, they are all full of shit.   I have watched the changes in both polit i ca l parties for about 68 years, a nd I can tell you what is wrong with both of them .   For Republicans, it began in 1981 with the beginning of Reagan’s first term. Reagan demanded absolute loyalty, no dissent from any Republican was allo wed: Reagan’s word was infallible. During this     same period, support for what would be come the Christian Religious Right, and for the super-rich be came part of the party’s platform : trickle-down economics.  Over the next 44 years, it would move further and further to the right.     To win elections, Democrats also moved further to the right, abandoning their   principles and being the party of positive change: of moving bravely forward into the future. They forgot that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the most popular president in history ...

I must be totally honest with you: I did not read the attached article. The title of the story made me think about what is really wrong with America’s leadership, something ignored by the mainstream media, which once again hides the truth from our nation’s people. It made me think about why I am an Independent. The government of the United States is not only dysfunctional, it is the most incompetent and corrupt in the world. Every man and woman who holds a political office, including the Supreme Court, has ignored its primary purpose: to protect and expand the quality of life for all of America’s people. If you sit on the right side of the aisle, the profits of the super-rich and major corporations are priority number one. For the men and women who sit on both sides of the aisle, reelection is their primary goal. Political parties are the problem. There is no logical reason for belonging to a political party. They do not deserve your loyalty or support. The only thing they share is the...

Once again, this is where I tell you how incompetent and corrupt the mainstream media has become. However, for once I am not focused on how all major networks protect Trump and his party. No. This time my displeasure is focused on Democrats. It seems unrealistic that Kamala Harris could have lost to not only the worst candidate in history, but the worst person on the face of the earth. You have probably read or heard this many times: “What happened to the Democratic Party in 2024?” If the media had been truthful beginning in 2009, the American people would have refused to vote for a single Republican since the 2012 election. Democratic presidents have been the best guardians of our nation since Bill Clinton. They have accomplished 100 times more positive achievements than all Republicans combined since Reagan. However, all television media, the Washington Post and other major newspapers, learned a lesson from FOX News: sensationalism increases viewership, and increased viewership relat...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart The Truth Lives Here The facts are undeniable, and the truth is irrefutable. In 1981, Ronald Reagan adopted a fiscal policy he called “supply side economics,” but is known as “trickle down economics” by most Americans. It was a major failure. The quality of life for working Americans stagnated or declined. Unemployment rose. The national debt rose to one-trillion dollars by the end of Reagan’s second term in 1989. His Republican successors, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump used the same policies, the worst being Trump who added an estimated eight trillion dollars to the national debt in just four years. In each situation, our nation’s economy was saved by a Democrat: Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008, and Joe Biden in 2000. This is reality, not a fallacious television ad. Op-ed by James Turnage