Introduction: Some blessings of the Baby Boomer generation. The current state of politics is, of course, the reason for this essay. Somewhat strangely, the horrifying crisis in today’s politics clarifies… Read more Yo, Chicken Little, You’re right. The Sky is truly falling. Also, You folks who think the mouthy kid from next door is lying about The Wolf had best look to your flocks. A Right-Wingnut Wolfpack with Blood-Stained Teeth is on the Prowl! →
Okay, I have been quiet as a mouse in the last few months. I have been meeting other commitments that take precedent over the blog. BUT I have now HAD… Read more HEROES IN THEIR OWN MINDS →
Medicare will pay for a heart transplant, and it will be charged something like $1.3 million for that procedure. Medicare also covers treatment for end-stage renal disease that costs over $90 thousand per year. However, if an American living in the community develops early onset Alzheimers and needs monitoring for safety and assistance with meal preparation, personal hygiene, and dressing, Medicare will almost always ignore those needs. If an American of 85 in a nursing home has chronic conditions that require treatments and needs assistance as she or he bathes,… Read more Long-Term Care and the 2020 Election →
[An Essay by George] It is time that we honestly faced up to the basic issues concerning gun violence. For too long people on both sides have skirted around the core of the issue with worn out platitudes, specious arguments, and canned sound-bite justifications. The latest shootings in El Paso and Dayton raised our unbelievable tally of mass shootings to 251 in the last 216 days. They are commonplace in the US; a daily occurrence. Why is this so? Some say that it is caused by guns in the hands of criminals.… Read more DEATH AND VIOLENCE →
Support Among All Potential Primary Voters in Democratic Primaries The Democratic candidates seems to line up as a 4 plus a few. For all likely Dem primary voters, Biden holds at 33%; Sanders receives 19%; Warren and Harris receive 14% and 13%, respectively. The next tier of candidates are Buttigieg (5%), O’Rourke (3%), Booker (2%), and Yang (2%). After those eight, it is l% or less for all others. Support Among All Potential Primary Voters in Early Democratic Primaries For early primary voters (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada),… Read more Latest Polls on Dem Primary Voters →
POST FROM GEORGE All Democratic eyes are focused on the presidential primaries and on which of the twenty-some-odd candidates is their favorite. They focus on one policy promise after the next looking for those they like best. Tax reform that helps the lower and middle classes, closes the wealth gap, and reduces our soaring national debt. Medicare for All that makes health care a right and affordable. Tuition-free college education. Forgiveness of the massive burden of education debt. Investment in infrastructure. Legislation that puts an end to gerrymandering. And… Read more THE WHITE HOUSE ISN’T ENOUGH →
The latest polls on presidential approval has DJT at high of 46% in Gallup’s late April poll. What does that mean? It is unclear. A look at the historical data from Gallup may be helpful. In the last half of 2018, his rating showed little variation, ranging from 39-42%. All of this with samples with error rates of +/-4%. 2019* April (17-30) 46% April (1-9) 45% March 39% February 44% January 37% 2018* December 39% November 39% October 40% September 40%… Read more Trump approval 46% (?) and 2020 Tidbits →
SURVEY OF POTENTIAL DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTERS Morning Consult reported the results of a survey of approximately 13k individuals who indicated that they were likely to vote in the democratic primaries. The horse race data is what you would expect. Table entries are percentages of likely Democratic primary voters. Candidate Very Favorable Somewhat Favorable No Opinion, Unknown Somewhat Unfavorable Very Unfavorable Biden 45 33 9 9 4 Sanders 34 41 8 9 6 Warren 19 36 28 12 5 Harris 18 30 40 8 5 Booker 16 26 44 9 4… Read more Looking Ahead to 2020 →
[from my friend, Margaret, previously published in Second Journey} Eleven spirited elders – ranging in age from 50 to 87, met in the non-fiction section at Quail Ridge Books recently and faced reality together: we are aging, and we will die. What to do? Seated in a small circle within a large circle of books about art, science and philosophy, we pondered both infinite finality and infinite possibility. Quandaries, both spoken and unspoken, migrated across the spaces between us. How do we enlarge our lives so that we arrive at… Read more CRIMINALS OF A CERTAIN AGE →
I watch MSNBC with great frequency (pretty much all the time). Okay, it can get a bit repetitious with all the anchors chewing on the same story. But I am… Read more Breaking News! Breaking News! My Ass! →
Dear Y’all, As you may have noticed, I have added only a few posts since the 2016 election. There have been several reasons for the absence of new posts on theleftcorner. In part, however, that absence results from a sense of what I can only call despair at the state of American politics. The election of Deadbeat Donald, his antics, and the tragic results and horrific implications of his and his administration’s policies and pronouncements have left me with little more than a strong, almost constant, urge to spew forth… Read more Coming Up For Air? →
Hugh Hewitt, a right wing radio personality and pundit, is one of the current masters of “whataboutism.” This term refers to the excuse that Trump supporters use whenever their hero yet again does something heinous (Yeah, Trump did this but what about….). The most current version of this is Hewitt’s and others’ claims that Trump’s rhetoric has nothing to do with the most recent episodes of political violence and domestic terrorism. Hewitt’s Argument (from the Washington Post) “After the arrest of a Florida man for sending homemade bombs to former president Barack… Read more The Problem of “whataboutism” and False Equivalence in Recent Commentary on Violence →
The latest NBC/Wall Street poll has Delusional Donald at his lowest approval rating point yet in the low 30s. It is a bizarre outlier. Our Petulant President has rocked along… Read more Our Petulant President in Quinnipiac’s August Poll →
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently performed analyses indicating that nursing homes have over-reported their staffing, especially on weekends, for decades. The importance of this deceptive practice is that staffing… Read more Putting the Most Vulnerable Among Us at Risk for Profits →
From George: As our Warlock-n-Chief is fond of saying, the Special Counsel investigation may be ”the greatest witch hunt in history” – and, I might add, the most successful. Robert Mueller has just delivered another load of witches. The response by the White House communications people traveling with Trump was astounding for its totally narcissistic focus on the fact that the indictment didn’t say that anyone in Trump’s orbit was named. It offered not even one word of condemnation of Russia for its blatant attack on the very basis… Read more THE WITCH HUNT →
Inconsolable grief recently filled ten thousand square feet of US Capitol lawn. In that area, people had placed 7,000 pairs of empty shoes, each pair representing a child killed by… Read more Empty Shoes and The Politics of Firearm Safety →
When you think the NRA can’t get any crazier, they just sink farther toward the bottom of the swamp. They recently named Oliver North (Yes, the Iran-Contra North) as their… Read more Welcome to NRA Newspeak — Civil Terrorism →
A PERSONAL TALE Believe it or not, I am a former National Rifle Association (NRA) member. I purchased a firearm while I was in Texas and got a year’s free membership, plus a really nice multitool with a rosewood handle. I purchased a firearm? Yes, I lived with spouse and dogs in a rural area literally crawling with a variety of poisonous snakes (bad for dogs, children, and two-legged creatures). I also got an NRA sticker for my back window. I put it there next to my OBAMA sticker and… Read more A FORMER NRA MEMBER CONFESSES →
People – men, women and children – living in the United State are 25 times more likely to die from being shot than those living in all of the other industrial nations combined. There would seem to be but three explanations for our abysmal status. First, Americans could be crazier than those in the other industrialized nations – maybe possessing up to 25 times the mental health problems. Although greater attention to mental health would be good for our country, mental health doesn’t hold water as a explanation for our… Read more Sensible Gun Safety Proposals from George →
It has been some time since I have posted on theleftcorner. My only explanation, well my explanations, fall into the categories of stunned disbelief, a slow-burning rage, and some good… Read more Cyber Trash, Truly Fake News, Russian Antics, and American Elections →
Trump’s recent comment painting African nations as “shithole countries” has set off a wave of condemnation. Many claim to be shocked by his words. Where have they been? They are… Read more TRUMP OR US? →
If you are like me, then the results from Alabama last night were a much-needed tonic. It has been a long time since an election result was uplifting. But, how… Read more Alabama! Alabama? →
Largely in response to the excesses of the McCarthy era, John Higham, a historian at Johns Hopkins wrote STRANGERS IN THE LAND: PATTERNS OF AMERICAN NATIVISM, 1860-1925 and published his… Read more BRUTAL AMERICAN NATIVISM REDUX →
Let’s think about a bit of our history and our political culture of today. At one point in his march toward Richmond, General Grant visited the picket line of the… Read more ALL IS NOT QUIET ON THE FRONT →
As terrible as it is to have this moron as President of the United States for the next three years plus change, I suspect that we will survive. Barring a… Read more Former President Donald Trump and a Truly “Bully” Pulpit →
Silent Sam on UNC Campus My apologies for being a bit of a nativistic here, but DJT argues that to remove statues of Confederate “heroes” is destroying our national… Read more SOME PERSONAL HISTORY: A TRUE SON OF THE SOUTH SPEAKS ABOUT STATUES, “OUR HERITAGE,” AND UNC’S “SILENT SAM.” →
The statues of Confederate heroes of “The War Between the States” or “The Rebellion” are not really the driving force behind the battles in this country surrounding those… Read more CHARLOTTESVILLE, THE NEW CONFEDERACY, AND THE CIVIL WAR →
My spouse and I lived for years in Mexico. We lived in a neighborhood called “El Centro” because it was the older central section of the city built around the… Read more Nazis, Kluxxers, Donald Trump, and other Insects →
[James Alex Field in Charlottesville among members of Vanguard America] The term Alt-Right is a fictional term, a bit of Orwellian newspeak conjured up because the Nazis, Klukkers, and… Read more “Alt-Right” is “newspeak” for far-right hate groups. Call them what they are! →
Donald Trump’s statement on the violence in Charlottesville, VA “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many… Read more Charlottesville in the Context of American Violence →
I have provided the URL for the posts on the blog, by topic.The specific name of the post is the last portion of the URL. Some posts are listed under… Read more BLOG TABLE OF CONTENTS—POSTS BY TOPIC →
Here is another take on the future of President Trump. I will comment after you have read the following. From Next Conservatism on Daily Kos …. “Jennifer Rubin’s ”Right… Read more Trump’s Resignation Under Pressure from Mueller? →
Our infrastructure is not the only thing that is crumbling. So too is the Trump Administration. Under the weight of endless chaos, it is falling apart bit by bit, day… Read more Trump’s White House: Chaotic, Crumbling, and Ineffectual →
Usually in politics and political or social commentary, a certain amount of decorum (deserved or not) is maintained. Rarely do we get down to the “raw truth” about a candidate,… Read more Republicans, Cruelty, Healthcare and Paul Krugman →
Why It Failed Try as they might and they tried mightily, the Republicans could not repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in spite of controlling the Senate,… Read more WHY REPEAL AND REPLACE OF ACA FAILED →
Follow the link below to a PDF with polling results. Sorry, but have tables that don’t seem to work unless I do it this way. WHAT ARE THE POLLS SAYING-7-12-17-xps
Charles and I are inching a bit closer together. However, once again I must differ with a point Charles raised. Whether or not a sitting president can be brought to trial on criminal charges is often debated but it is not settled law. It has never been adjudicated. It came close in the Watergate scandal but, in United States vs Nixon, the Warren court decided that it could deny Nixon’s ability to use executive privilege without addressing the broader issue of whether or not criminal charges could be brought against… Read more George’s “Good-Bye Trump” Scenario →
Since the Us DOJ can’t bring charges against POTUS, then it will have to be a state AG who tries to bring any charges against POTUS. The legal knots generated by such an effort would take an enormous amount of time and effort to untangle. Any tough issue will, like the 2000 election suit, be decided by a majority R Supreme Court. Without state action, the Rs in the House of Representatives must bring impeachment charges against DJT for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That will NEVER happen. I don’t really… Read more Charles Sticks By His Guns, Sort of →
The fly in the ointment regarding impeachment is Trump’s approval rating among Republican voters. Although his overall approval rating has been hovering between 37% and about 40%, approval among Republican votes has been fairly steady at 84% to 85%. It is unlikely that House Republicans would go anywhere near an impeachment vote UNLESS: This percentage drops markedly at least to 60% -65% and it may even have to go lower than that to scare them into action. They will be very cautious about riling those who vote for them. They… Read more George Has Problems with My Predictions, Too →
For those of you who followed “Two Guys” in the run up to the election will remember my friend, George. He has decided that I am wrong about how long we will have to deal with DJT. I hope he is right, but I still think we are stuck for the full term. (Though I desperately hope George is right, until I think of President Pence.) It is rare for me to disagree with Charles, but I have long believed that Trump will not survive a full term. He and… Read more George Thinks That DJT Won’t Last →
MYTHS AND MISSIVES 1. Democrats Must Dramatically Change Their Approach to Electoral Politics Let’s immediately call “bullshit” on this one. HRC won the popular vote by almost 3… Read more MYTHS AND MISSIVES ABOUT THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WITH 2020 PREDICTIONS →
The fourth day of July each year for the last 241 years has been the day of the year set aside for celebrating the signing of the American Declaration of… Read more HAPPY JULY 4TH and Don’t Forget JANUARY 6th →
We have somewhere around 500,000 sworn local law enforcement officers in this country. They have literally millions of encounters with citizens every day. So, when we see a North Charlotte… Read more Policing the Police: Rotten Apples and Occupational Cultures →
With the fear generated by terrorist threats, and some leaders calling for more boots on the ground, we need to think again about what that really means. We have seen… Read more Returning from War: A Rumination →
DETAILS OF ANALYSES OF POLICE KILLINGS IN WASHINGTON POST DATABASE POLICE KILLINGS OF PERSONS WHO WERE NOT ATTACKING ATTACKING NO ATTACK TOTAL WHITE Row % 382 83.0% 78 17.0%… Read more POLICE KILLINGS IN 2015 AND RACE/ETHNICITY →
What is “American Exceptionalism?” At its core, it is the belief that we, as the first “new” nation, threw off the shackles of our European heritage and made ourselves and… Read more American Exceptionalism Gone Woefully Awry! →
Americans are not big history buffs. This is especially true when it comes to remembering our foreign policy screw-ups. Ted Cruz and other R hopefuls are no exception, particularly… Read more Why I Would Probably be Shouting “DEATH TO AMERICA!” — If I Were Iranian. →
I just completed Gilbert King’s compelling non-fiction work, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. The book deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize… Read more The Devil Still Lives : Gilbert King’s DEVIL IN THE GROVE: THURGOOD MARSHALL, THE GROVELAND BOYS, AND THE DAWN OF A NEW AMERICA. →
Surveys on National Policy Issues—Asking Bad Questions Gives you Bad Information AMERICANS ARE EVENLY SPLIT ON “GUN CONTROL.” Quinnipiac University. June 24-30, 2014. N=1,446 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error… Read more Lying About Statistics →
When I was growing up in West Texas, a common statement in some circles, and I now know it was a vulgar one in all circles went something like, “Well,… Read more Tea-Potters, Mad-hatters, Right-Wingers, and a Ball of Confusion →
I watch MSNBC with great frequency. Okay, it can get a bit repetitious with all the anchors chewing on the same story. But I am sick of their anchors’ near fetish for “BREAKING NEWS!” That news may be just another minor twist in the seemingly endless story of Deadbeat Donald’s, his family’s, and his friends’ perfidity. While their anchors so often use a microscope on their BREAKING NEWS, the real story of the effects of the Trump administration on Americans, especially vulnerable populations, slips along as unseen as a venomous snake in… Read more BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEW! MY ASS! →
Support Among All Potential Primary Voters in Democratic Primaries The Democratic candidates seems to line up as a 4 plus a few list. For all likely Dem primary voters, Biden holds at 33%; Sanders receives 19%; Warren and Harris receive 14% and 13%, respectively. The next tier of candidates are Buttigieg (5%), O’Rourke (3%), Booker (2%), and Yang (2%). After those eight, it is l% or less for all others. Support Among All Potential Primary Voters in Early Democratic Primaries For early primary voters (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and… Read more Latest Polls on Dem Primary Voters →
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