Temper tantrums galore

Temper tantrums galore

Perhaps it’s the stress in Washington that has led to a total breakdown in decorum. First, Pam (Blondie) Bondi went on the offensive and traded insult for accusation at a Senate hearing. Then Karoline Leavitt and Hakeem Jeffries needed a referee to step in and call time out. Maybe it is the pressure stemming from the government shutdown but Jeffries had not so nice things to say about Trump’s press secretary. He said “You’ve got Karoline Leavitt, who’s sick. She’s out of control. And I’m not sure whether she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar, or all of the above.” And what had prompted this remark? It was Leavitt who had said likely about the demonstrators in the latest “No Kings” demonstrations “The Democrat Party’s main constituencies are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals. That is who the Democratic Party is catering to — not the White House, and not the Republican Party, who standing up for law-abiding Americans. Not just across the country but [also] around the world.” Ho boy. And here is what Jeffries retorted “But the notion that an official White House spokesperson would say that the Democratic Party consists of terrorists, violent criminals, and undocumented immigrants makes no sense, that this is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration in the middle of a shutdown.”

I wish – to no avail – that everyone on both sides would cool it. We have had the left call the president, his supporters and republicans in general every vile name in the book. The tradition has been for the republicans to take it. No more. Its now insult for insult. Members of congress are coming close to blows as tempers boil over. We had not yet resorted to fisticuffs and duels but it seems that we are getting close.

Speaking of no kings, did you see where there was a no kings rally in London – where they actually have a king? I wonder what King Charles thought about it?

The rallies in the US appeared to be mostly peaceful. I guess we had one in Knoxville but I am not certain.

Did you see where Portland’s city council voted unanimously to codify its sanctuary city status and instructed its police department not to assist ICE? Trump has called Portland “war-ravaged” and claimed federal facilities, including ICE sites, are “under siege” by Antifa and “other domestic terrorists.” It is evident that Portland’s elected officials and by inference its residents want to harbor the illegals and resist any effort by federal officials to deport them. Doesn’t the Supremacy Clause take precedent here where the federal laws supersede any local or state law? I wonder why Trump hasn’t just threatened to throw the entire Portland city government in jail?

The president seems to think that George Soros is the funding source for all that’s on the left and has threatened to sic the IRS on Soros’ organization accusing them of RICO violations. I thought RICO was an anti-racketeering law.

The president’s war on Venezuela is couched on drugs but that’s just a ruse. The Navy’s presence in the eastern Caribbean is there to harass Maduro and not particular to stop the flow or drugs, since most of that goes through Columbia into the Pacific. It obvious that the president wants a regime change in Venezuela but Maduro has so ingratiated himself with his military that a coup seems unlikely. Meanwhile, the flow of drugs is progressing finding new avenues to transport it to the buyers in the United States. Well at least, the Navy got in some live fire exercises to keep sharp.

Speaking of drugs, the president has now turned his sights on Columbia calling its president a drug dealer – something he also called Maduro. Since Columbia is the primary source of drug production its about time that decisive action is taken. Is the president threatening to deal with Columbia like he is dealing with Venezuela? Is he going to send the navy into the Pacific to interdict drug smuggling from Columbia? Well not quite. First he is just ending any payments to Columbia to aid in their fight against the drugs calling them a long-term rip off. Second, he is threatening to shut down the drug production if the Columbians won’t do it saying that they had “better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” So now the president has threatened to invade both Venezuela and Columbia.

I can’t help but think that the president just likes being a bully picking on those who really cannot fight back. Hence threatening Venezuela and Columbia. Yes Maduro is a bad actor but cocaine and heroin account for only about 25 percent of drug deaths annually. Last year it was around 30,000 deaths. But opioids account for almost three times as many deaths. So why hasn’t the president threatened to invade China to shut down the manufacture of fentanyl? Absent that rather than threaten them with tariffs, how about a complete embargo of Chinese goods and ban Americans from doing business with China until the flow of fentanyl stops? Why doesn’t he rattle his sword at China or is all this just for show?

7 thoughts on “Temper tantrums galore”

  1. Frequently your blog accuses Trump of being a bully. A bully is typically a person who intimidates others for no particular reason other than to cause fear in the bullied individual to extort favors from them. But Trump while flexing US military might is not extorting anything but stating illegal activities (stopping illegal activities is not a favor but an expectation of a civilized society) stop that impact our country. That is not extortion per se but law enforcement. The issue we have in this country is that Trump’s approach is not nice enough in his approach. (Obama and Biden were nice enough for the minority but accomplished little good and a lot of bad – Supporting Iran’s return to nuclear capability, Afghanistan pull-out that was a debacle, Excessive gov’t spending that drove inflation thru the roof, Mandating energy and vehicle production that appeals to the green weenies but drives both energy proces and EV costs along with other ICE costs thru the roof with their artificial and uneconomical CAFE standards) . ) Trump is straight forward with demonstrated action. That offends some. Not me. We have anti ICE protests in this country which are actively opposing laws our legally elected congressmen and women passed years ago. There was 4 years of unenforced illegal immigration under Biden. Biden violated his oath to support our laws. A small segment of our population is shocked that the current admin actually enforces our immigration laws. That segment is states that our laws offend their sensibilities. But rather than pass a different set of laws per our Constitution, they run to the streets and the media cameras in an attempt to circumvent our Constitutional process using street violence. Seems to me that its a simple case of anarchists vs Constitutionalists. Anarchists are not democracy activists. They are communists.

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      1. Not arguing anything. But just wondered if you still get the Daily Beacon ; ? online..?

        Has to do with “ a shift in how the university views free speech…”

        Oct 1 st 2025 has 2 stories that discuses previous ‘ instructor Incidents’- and another on the change in policy to meet the right- wing agenda of the Trump Tennessee legislature.
        Oops – I’m arguing…

        Know you don’t talk local stuff- but this is a national concern.

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  2. Yes there was a No- King march, and there has always been anti- royalty marches in UK. I didn’t participate in the one here. I did go to the first, which was a Saturday Night Live performance, with ‘Tim Burchett’, ‘Donald Trump’ and ’ Leavitt’ . Yes it was vile- because the aforementioned are vile characters.
    No King is a Community get-together, are very American. Ask the founding fathers..

    Two trips to GA! You’ve seen the confederate flag waving at the TN/GA border. .

    You may have gone to Octoberfest in Helen.
    I have to say, I’ve never seen so many Asians in one place. Nor heard so much Spanish, either. WHERE WAS ICE?..
    Leavitt believes non-white = Democrat criminals. Georgia must be all- Democrat, all criminal…

    Research that Machado . She’s not only using her babe appeal on Trump but is trying to bring Israeli troops to Venezuela …

    fm a Turkey news service on Machado playing Netanyahu ….”Machado’s award aligns with Trump-era regional policies, projecting a pro-Western profile while reaffirming the historical tension: the prize emphasizes prestige and diplomatic signaling over concrete peace outcomes…”

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    1. Yes that flag still is flying but having matured it no longer bothers me. But during my years at the University of Georgia the football games looked like a Ku Klux Klan rally. No longer. Then the flags were relegated to the tailgates. No longer. Then they flew in people’s yards and on their pickups. No longer. We just played Ole Miss. No flags there either. It still amuses me to see 11 black starters on defense for the “Rebels.”

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  3. Barack Obama famously once said that he was neither a king or an emperor and could only do so many things as president without consent of Congress, but went on to do those things anyway. I did not see any Democrats or other people marching in the streets with animal costumes back then.

    TDS runs rampant!

    Research and quotes:

    Barack Obama made statements along these lines, particularly in the context of debates about executive power and immigration policy. Most notably, he said variations of “I am not a king” or “I am not an emperor” when discussing the limits of his executive authority.
    These comments typically came up when he was explaining why he couldn’t unilaterally take certain actions (particularly regarding immigration reform) without Congress passing legislation. He used this language to emphasize the constitutional separation of powers and the limits on presidential authority.
    The most well-known instance was around 2010-2014 when he was under pressure from immigration advocates to take more expansive executive action. He repeatedly stated that he couldn’t simply bypass Congress and change immigration law on his own because he wasn’t “a king” or “an emperor.”
    Interestingly, Obama later did take significant executive action on immigration (the DACA program in 2012 and an attempted expansion in 2014), which led to criticism that he had contradicted his earlier statements about the limits of his power. His administration argued these actions were within the scope of prosecutorial discretion rather than changing the law itself.

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