February 2020

President Trump: Excessive Examination and the Expected Exoneration

Published on February 20, 2020

*On Tuesday, February 4, 2020 The Senate of the United States announced the acquittal of President Donald J. Trump. Only the third president in history to be impeached, and just as the other two, (William Clinton and Andrew Johnson) he was not removed by the Senate. Richard Nixon would have been removed, but he resigned before that could have happened.

First, it was the Russian Investigation that was going to provide all of the charges to get Trump impeached. Instead, it simply drew attention to a Justice department that was taking the side of the Democrats, and F.B.I. managers who were willing to disregard the law in the interests of Democrats. The law was being ignored and testimony was doctored, with evidence (or lack of evidence) that was tilted towards a $24 million investigation that yielded very little. Keep Reading

When Ghosts Come a-Haunting – DNA Tests and You

Published on February 9, 2020

The Life Slant

*The following recounts true and recent events. The names have been changed.

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Sally had spent scores and scores of hours researching her family’s lineage, an interest she had begun to cultivate after her youngest headed off to college. By the time she finally got around to send a little spit off to a popular genealogy website she was certain about what the outcome would be – after all, she had memorized the family tree from her dad back to her great-great-Grandfather!

When the report arrived in the mail she opened it with pronounced anticipation and began to scan for Johansons. There were none. More slowly this time, she again perused the list of relatives and still no Johansons. She checked to make sure it was her report and not a case of mistaken identity. Hers. Wow!

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On Not Taking the Bad With the Good

Published on February 8, 2020

The Political Slant

*Tom was an alcoholic and a smoker. A master carpenter and sometimes-roofer, he was wiry and tough and a living old-school ad for both Budweiser and Marlboro.

From time to time, usually at the urging of his family, Tom would stop drinking for a while, or stop smoking for a while, or stop both, for a while. At a point in his late 30s he decided and voiced that he’d rather live a short life with his beer & cigs than live a long life without them. When he entered the hospital at age 43, his body riddled with cancer, he did not complain or blame or mourn. He knew why he was there and he was at peace with it.

We all do this to a certain extent: put up with some bad if it is outweighed by some good. Drinkers put up with hangovers because they enjoy the drunk more than they dislike the hangover. Pot smokers live with coughing their lungs out when they invariably take too big a hit, but decide it is worth it for the buzz. Obese people enjoy the third bowl of ice cream and bag of chips more than they dislike buying bigger clothes each year.

And so it goes.

We also do this when we vote.

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Dept. of Veterans Affairs Gets a Reality Check

Published on February 2, 2020

The Political Slant

*As lawmakers on Capitol Hill are taking part in the impeachment process, President Trump is quietly seeking to accomplish reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs. But realizing this reform requires Assistant VA Secretary, Tamara Bonzanto, in leading accountability efforts.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the second largest federal agency, and is responsible for taking care of our Veterans. Just a few years ago, it was the most tarnished agency in the nation.

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Qassem Soleimani: Ravaging, Revolutionizing, and Retribution

Published on February 2, 2020

The Political Slant

*Richard M. Nixon’s book The Real War has a list of rules for the presidency. Rule number six is: “Never let your adversary underestimate what you would do in response to a challenge. Never tell him in advance what you would not do.”

Just so you understand, invading the embassy of a sovereign nation is the same as invading that nation. The embassy is the soil of that nation. Period. This is why citizens of a foreign nation can seek refuge in an embassy, because wherever that embassy is, whatever nation the embassy resides in, it cannot be violated by the hosting nation. Not that terrorists care anything about international law or have any respect for sovereign nations, mind you.

killing of Soleimani