I wrote how  the article “Democrats lack strong voice amid Trump’s Russia investigation meltdown“ made me recognize  how old the Democratic leadership had become. It also points to the lack of appeal the party of the ancients has to younger folk and why the Republicans control Congress and most state governor offices and legislatures.

As devastating as that is it does not account for an even larger problem in the Democratic Party. It just so happened that the last two paragraphs of the article address it. The writers of the article Annie Linsky and Matt Viser hit the nail on the head. (or as my wife would say “hit the head on the nail.”)

They pointed out: “Democrats will huddle this week in Washington at an “ideas conference” sponsored by the left-leaning Center for American Progress.”

It seems to me the last place the Democrats would want to go to for ideas is a progressive think tank. It was funded by George Soros and founded by Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta. Having seen the American people reject the ideas of this group why are they going back to them?

Is it because they don’t know what else to do with themselves? Is it once having felt the cheering of the crowds they have to go on and on until like the band in the movie  “This is Spinal Tap” there is no more crowd? While the Clintons cling to lost dreams of White House Riches the odor of corruption clings to them. Even aside that, even before the days when the folks from Arkansas decided to set up a foundation to enrich themselves, Hillary, the great white woman hope, was hugely unpopular.

Yes, she got three million more votes that Trump. Any normal candidate should have received thirty million more votes. Trump is right when he claims there was fraud in the election. There was. Huge amounts of it. The American people were defrauded out of having a candidate who did not have huge negative ratings. Trump has a 63% unfavorable rating while she had a 52% immediately before the election.  Two people widely despised ran for office; the choice was to hold your nose and pick the least unworthy.

“Democrats lack strong voice amid Trump’s Russia investigation meltdown“ read the headline of an article in the Boston Globe. When I read that I thought of Renee Fleming of Met Opera fame who I had just seen interviewed on PBS. She is 58-years-old.

She was asked by Jeffrey Brown what happens to the voice of an Opera star like her when she gets older. Fleming replied: “You don’t have the resilience, the physical resilience. So, if I sing a big performance, I don’t want to do it again the next day.” She said opera singers are power singers who have to be heard over all the chorus and orchestra without amplification. “When you’re young you can keep doing it and doing it and doing it.” 

Yes, as Fleming points out, as one ages the powers one once had begin to diminish. I was also reminded of a 1957 selection by a U.S. Senate committee of the five greatest senators in U.S. history. They chose Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert La Follette, Robert A. Taft and Henry Clay. Those familiar with American history would agree that those men were the leading voices of their parties. Their careers in the Senate were long. The longest living of them was Clay who died at age 75. The others: Webster aged 70; Calhoun aged 68; Taft aged 63; and La Follette  aged 70. Except for Clay who was instrumental in bringing about the Compromise of 1850 the others were at their prime in their forties through early sixties.

Trump is hell bent on destroying America.

What could be worse than his pulling out of the Paris Accords.  First of all they weren’t binding but set goals.  Perhaps Trump did not comprehend that.  Whatever he did or did not know about the agreement is not the point nor is whether the agreement good or bad.

What is the absolutely worst thing is that it was the United States which fought tooth and nail to bring all the countries of the world together to reach this agreement.  We said here is the road to follow if we want to protect our planet. By hook or by crook, by twisting arms or handing out goodies, we did bring all of them along and they followed because we persuaded them this was the right thing to do.

Many of the leaders of these countries went along at great risk to themselves. And their reward for doing this was to see the USA cut and run. What does that tell the leaders of these countries about following America’s leadership

Plain and simple it suggests to any country which does think of following the USA’s lead better rethink that decision. So where is the leadership to come from now that the commitment of the USA is so shaky?

There was Donald Duck and Daffy Duck and now we have Daffy Donald. Who would ever think a cartoon figure would be in charge of the American policy. Thanks to millions of begrudgers America has entered into the comic book era.

Daffy Donald (DD) recent budget proposed major cuts in food stamps and other programs to help the poor. He wants to cut the taxes on the rich. Meanwhile we were treated to Melania-Antoinette’s response not with the verbal “let them eat cake” but its equivalent when she took her first outing in the Sicilian sunshine in a colorful floral applique jacket by Dolce & Gabbana that sells for $51,000.

She and her husband have the attitude of Leona Helmsley:“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people do.” Is Melania-Antoinette taking over as “the queen of the mean”? Trump said about Leona, “Leona always liked having me around. . . . I was always asked to be [at her parties] and was always given a seat, usually right near her.”

Yes, a very troubled man happens to have been elected president of the United States by a discordant group of discontents. It seems we will be stuck with him for longer than many weak stomachs can hold out. Unfortunately there are sick days in the offing.

Calvin Coolidge once said the business of America is business. A true capitalistic statement if ever there was one. Until some wiser judges gained seats on the Supreme Court breaking the hold of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants we were treated with decisions like those that ruled that the laws prohibiting child labor interfered with the right of contract between employer and employee and thus were unconstitutional. Only a Trump-WASP could believe there was equality in bargaining position between a 13-year-old boy sorting coal and the mine owner.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Any identification with real life individuals is merely coincidental.  There is a compelling story that remains to be told about this matter but it did not start with the murder in July 2016 which the police passed off as a failed armed robbery as the victim was returning home in the early morning hours from a visit with his friend.

Too often the police for lack of effort where no witnesses are present and the likelihood of solving the case appears remote throw out the idea of a stranger to stranger murder where the tragedy resulted during a flubbed up situation.  It is sometimes hard to think outside the box when one horror piles upon another. How would the cops expect that what they came upon may have been a hit?  Isn’t the idea behind a”hit” is to make it appear like it wasn’t a hit? What better time for one than getting a chance in an empty street in the early morning hours before dawn begins to lighten up the scene and the cops are tired after a long journey through the perilous night? What better place than DC where street crime swells in the darkness?

Obamacare required people with pre-existing conditions to be covered. It made the insurance companies charge the same rates for all. It put the onus on all policy holders to help with these extra costs.

Trumpmare will allow people with pre-existing conditions to be thrown into high risk pools. These have been failures producing limited coverage, long waiting periods (while the condition eats away at you) and huge premiums. It lets the healthy young people be given reduced premiums. That is a nice windfall for the insurance companies since almost all of these people won’t be making claims. Trumpmare will help insurance companies reach the goal of taking in oodles of money and not having to pay anything out.

Here’s an article on the pre-existing coverage that explains it fairly well.  Yes, when the Trump and the GOP say they cover pre-existing conditions that is true. What they don’t say is the coverage will be worthless and not affordable. Sort of like being asked to buy a season pass to the Cape Cod Tunnel for $15,000.