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Jimmy Carter: An Appreciation

A right wing daily had the headline “20th Century’s Worst President Dead at 100”. Worst president? Not even close. I guess the author has forgotten about Woodrow Wilson (my number 1), Herbert Hoover, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and possibly George W. Bush. Of course I am not terribly fond of Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson either. I do like Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. George H. W. Bush ruined the Reagan legacy. I will never forgive Ronald Reagan for not having Jack Kemp as his vice president. Bill Clinton did some good things but was a sexual predator. Barack Obama was too obsessed with apologizing and grabbing power to be an effective president. But back to Jimmy Carter.

Carter was president during interesting times. He inherited a lousy economy, one with double digit inflation and double digit unemployment. The economic woes were a direct consequence of the OPEC induced oil crisis which precipitated the fall of the Shah of Iran and led to the Ayatollahs. He was late in addressing the economic crisis. His first mistake was to appoint G. William Miller as head of the Fed. Miller knew nothing about monetary economics. A friend of mine who was a senior economist at the Fed said that if anyone was hung over he could quickly sober up by going into Miller’s office. One publication said that Miller commented that when he arrived at the Fed and was confronted with the various theories of money and their relationship to the economy that he studied the theories and after a couple of weeks had them down pat. Carter, thankfully, replaced him with the chairman of the New York Fed, Paul Volcker. Volcker told Carter that to get out of the economic situation – called stagflation – that he would have to induce a recession. The Fed raised the Fed Funds rate to 17.5% (it is now 4.25%). The economy went into a recession but came out of it rather quickly – but too late to save Carter’s presidency.

Carter’s main foreign policy focus was on the Middle East. Perhaps his greatest achievement, and a controversial one, was the Camp David Accords. This agreement between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin was the first to establish peace between the two adversaries. It earned all three the Novel Peace prize. Although criticized by people in both countries, it did remove a major barrier to peace between the two nations. Carter, however, was no fan of Israel and favored a Palestinian state. He never wavered in that belief although roundly criticized by Israeli supporters. 

The aforementioned fall of the Shah led to the Iranian hostage crisis which left Carter paralyzed in his actions. He literally did nothing. One reporter asked Bess Truman what would Harry have done and she relied that she didn’t know but she knew that he would have done something. The hostages were freed after Carter lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. But Carter did do something but it failed. There was a rescue effort by the US military that ended in a helicopter crash costing eight lives. This further damaged Carter politically.

Carter also gave the Panama Canal to Panama. Although built by America in 1914 and administered by it through the years, Carter saw fit to give it to Panama to lessen criticisms about American imperialism in the hemisphere. Trump now of course wants it back. Carter was also faced the Mariel Boatlift in 1980 where Castro released 125,000 criminals and psychiatric patients and sent them by boat to the US.

Then there was the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Carter then levied trade embargoes and heavy sanctions on the Russians. He then canceled the participation of the US team in the Moscow1980 Olympics. The Russians played tit for tat and canceled their participation in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Eventually Carter and Soviet leader Brezhnev signed the SALT II treaty setting limits on nuclear weapons.

For us craft beer lovers, Carter was in essence the father of craft beer. Though a teetotaler, Carter signed into law the legalization of home brewing. Prohibited since Prohibition, Carter perhaps influenced by Georgia moonshiners like my great grandfather Milous Towles, in 1978 signed a law stating that any adult would be permitted to “produce wine and beer for personal and family use and not for sale without incurring the wine or beer excise taxes or any penalties” for up to 200 gallons brewed. Home brewers like Samuel Adam’s Jim Koch credits Carter with sparking the microbrewing industry. He is hailed as a hero by that industry..

Carter is also credited with saving NASA’s space station program. Carter was no fan of NASA and said that the space station was a mere contrivance to keep NASA alive. Yet Carter, for reasons that are not clear, rescued the shuttle by giving NASA the resources needed to see the project through to its inaugural launch in 1981and provided $200 million in additional funds in 1979 and an extra $300 million the following fiscal year. 

One of Carter’s shortcomings was his frosty relations with the congress. His closest aides were from Georgia like my classmate Hamilton Jordan, and although his vice president was Walter Mondale, Carter maintained himself as an outsider. He also had frosty relations with the snooty White House press corps which looked down its collective noses at the Georgian with the Annapolis, rather than Ivy league, degree. They were especially rude to Rosalynn who graduated not from Yale but from Georgia Southwestern College in my Dad’s hometown of Americus. Once at a White House function, a writer on the society page of the Washington Post scoffed at only sweet tea being served. Rosalynn’s remark was that this was her house and in her house there is only sweet tea. The cartoonist at the Washington Post was no fan either running a cartoon depicting Carter and Hamilton Jordan walking into a room that showed all the polls with the caption “Let’s see what our policies are today!”

Carter was also the first diversity and inclusion president. Note that the “E” is missing. The Georgian was a staunch civil rights advocate. Unlike Lyndon Johnson, Carter meant it. I was told that he instructed the recruiters in White House personnel that he wanted a qualified black on every appointed regulatory board in Washington. Note the use of the word “qualified.” That led to my being contacted by the White House to come to Washington to interview for an appointment to the first National Credit Union Administration Board. I was then on the faculty of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. On the call, the recruiter said that I had been recommended by the then chairman of the now defunct Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Agency who happened to have been my next door neighbor when I had been at the Comptroller of the Currency. Given that the law stated that the board had to be bipartisan and two of the three seats were already slotted for democrats, he said that I was perfect: a black scholar whose research and experience was in financial institutions and who was not a democrat.

Although Carter is thought of as a liberal, he was in fact one of the most market oriented presidents. He was no liberal. He was a champion of deregulation. Unlike most democrats Carter led efforts to deregulate the airlines, trucking, railroads, energy, communications and financial institutions. Phil Gramm – my old economics tutor at Georgia – writes in the Wall Street Journal, “The Airlines Deregulation Act of 1978, the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 and the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 unleashed competition and spawned the invention and innovation that gave America the world’s most efficient transportation and distribution system. The cost of flying a mile declined by half and air travel became a mainstay of American life. The logistical cost of moving goods shrank as a share of gross domestic product by 50%.” “The Carter administration began oil-price deregulation using its regulatory powers and set in place the gradual deregulation of natural-gas prices with the 1978 Natural Gas Policy Act.”

Carter also signed the most sweeping banking deregulatory act in history, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. That act enabled institutions other than banks to issue interest bearing checking accounts, deregulated interest rate ceilings on credit union loans and allowed certificates of deposits. The act called for a gradual phase out of the interest rate restrictions over a six year period. I helped write the act and have a thank you note from Carter along with a pen used to sign the act. I was also appointed to the Deregulatory Committee charged with the interest rate phase out. Paul Volcker was the chairman of the committee. At the first meeting I suggested that we phase out the constraints immediately because the system did not need six years to adjust. My motion died for lack of a second. However, at NCUA we were able to raise the interest rate ceiling immediately rather than over six years.

What Carter did was to make Reagan’s first term easier than it otherwise would have been. Deregulation made businesses more flexible. Although there was a crisis in the savings and loan industry, that crisis occurred because the institutions could not adapt their balance sheets quickly enough to avoid bankruptcy. As a result, their federal insurance agency, the aforementioned Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Agency was merged into the FDIC. I was appointed as one of four public interest members of the committee that oversaw the merger.

Much has been written about Carter after his defeat. He went back home to Plains and became active in Habitat for Humanity, for which he received well deserved praise. Unlike some other ex-presidents, he did not seek to enrich himself. Yet all was not praise. Carter meddled in foreign affairs and was criticized as being antisemitic for his views on Israel. Again, his presidency was one of interesting times. He probably faced more adversity than any peacetime president since Herbert Hoover. He was the most pro deregulation president in history. Ok To call him the worst president of the 20^th century just shows blind prejudice and is clearly false.

Rest in peace Mr. President.

Biden’s geriatric gaffes

Biden has made up fanciful tales his entire career which may explain why his initial presidential gaffes were ignored. But it soon became evident that these gaffes were something more. I do not understand why everyone is now blaming the White House and the media for covering up Biden’s lack of mental acuity. We should blame ourselves. We have all seen it from the first days of his presidency. We knew it existed despite the protestations from the left. Even when Robert Hur’s report was made in February 2024 saying that Biden was “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age,” the democrats kept making excuses. I guess they were hoping that telling us that what we were seeing was not what we were seeing would convince us that we were not seeing what we were seeing (Kamala Harris would be proud of that one!). They were lying. We knew they were lying. 

The New York Post says that Biden made 148 in 2024 alone. But Biden has made geriatric gaffes during his entire term. Here are only a few of them.

1. “Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.”
2. Reading the teleprompter instructions: “Four more years? Pause?”
3. In a speech at the White House, he asked “Where’s Jackie?” But Rep. Jackie Walorski was dead.
4. Kept going the wrong way off of stages
5. Kept calling Kamala Harris the president
6. Said that democrats campaigned in 54 states in 2018
7. Thanked at an Asian conference the Prime Minister of Columbia for hosting the conference when the host country was Cambodia
8. Called the Royal Air Force the RFA
9. Called the British prime minister Rashee Sanook (instead of Rishi Sunak)
10. Called the Congressional Hispanic Caucus the Congressional Black Caucus
11. Said that he had been to every mass shooting.
12. Said that he had commuted by train over the Francis Scott Key Bridge which doesn’t have train tracks.
13. Called Zelensky “President Putin”
14. Said “Look I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she were not qualified to be president.”
15. Forgot defense secretary Lloyd Austin’s name and called him “black man.”
16. Biden said he would beat Donald Trump again in 2020.
17. He said “We must be honest: The threat to democracy must be defended”
18. Announced at the NAACP convention that he is going to cap raises of rent to $55.
19. Said an uncle was eaten by cannibals during WWII.
20. He confused then British PM Theresa May with Margaret Thatcher
21. He said the democrats would take back the House of Representatives when they were already in the majority.
22.  Mistook a woman he took a picture with for Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC), who was not present at the time.
23. Confused French President Macron with former French President Mitterrand who died in 1996.
24. “When I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic. Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit, and help fix it!'”
25. Said on a Philadelphia radio station that he was proud to be the first black woman to serve with a black president. 

That people are finally conceding what Tom Cotton said that Biden is an “addled and demented old man” simply is amazing to me. What took so long? Of course, the upside of all this is that if he had been removed from office, then Kamala Harris would have been president.

Random thoughts

Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner, had a 4.0 GPA last semester at Colorado majoring in anthropology. His overall GPA is 3.75. He was named to the Academic All American squad and joins Tim Tebow as the only Heisman winners that are academic all Americans. Why isn’t this well known? One would think it would be headline news. But no there is more coverage on Hunter’s girlfriend than on his academic prowess. Hunter is from Swanee, GA.

Trudeau admonished Americans for having “voted for a second time not electing its first woman president.” So Canada must have had a lot of women prime ministers, right? No they have had only one. Kim Campbell was prime minister from June to November 1993. Earth to Trudeau: shut up.

Trump wants the debt ceiling raised. How does that square with the Department of Government Efficiency’s task of reducing spending?

Have you seen all the howling on the left about “President Musk”? I haven’t heard them complain about all the faceless “presidents” who have been running the country for the last four years.

Tom Cotton called Biden an “addled, demented old man.” Well that addled, demented old man is still in charge. That addled, demented old man just commuted over 1,500 sentences and took 37 prisoners off of death row in federal prisons. Who picked these folks for the “president” to commute? Surely not the addled, demented old man that is president. There has been an uproar mainly from the victims and their families and from the right. Most notably Josh Shapiro was critical of one release. I have heard nothing from Kamala Harris or Tim Walz or Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries. Also I have not seen criticism from CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Although there was much hue and cry over the commuting of the death sentences, two of the inmates have been on death row 31 years. Commuting their sentences from death to life in prison seems redundant. 

Trump wants to take back the Panama Canal. He says that Panama is ripping us off with the fees charged to go through the canal. Trump says we built it, we operated it and then Jimmy Carter gave it away. He wants it back. Of course the Panamanian president say “No way” and Trump responded “We’ll see about that!” Stay tuned. I’m waiting for Trump to slap a 25% tariff on the whopping $152 million in goods imported from Panama if they don’t give back the canal.

Trump has also wants to annex Greenland which is administered by Denmark. Greenland is closer to the United States than to Denmark but Alaska is closer to Siberia than it is to the lower 48. Does this mean we are to cede Alaska to Siberia? Greenland does have a US Air Force base but so does Germany. Maybe we ought to annex Germany. Obviously, guarding against an invasion, Denmark has responded by increasing the defense funding for Greenland. It added two more dog sled teams to their defenses. I am now waiting on a 25% tariff on Denmark’s exports to the United States. Carlsberg beer anyone?

Speaking of Panama, I was once at lunch with a friend who is a well known professor. He started talking fluent Spanish with the waiter and I asked him where did he learn his Spanish. He said that the relevant question was where did he learn his English. He had a fairly common American name but he said he was Panamanian! I thought he was from Chicago. Not a trace of a Spanish accent. It turns out that his grandfather went to work on the canal in 1906 and never returned to the states. There were thousands of other American blacks who went to Panama. Some returned while many stayed. The same is true for the 45,000 Barbadians who also arrived between 1904 -1916 to build the canal. My professor friend said that the Americans set up schools in which the instruction was in English, maintained their social clubs and churches. Who knew? So maybe Trump can seize the canal by invading Panama to unite the Panamanian brothers with their kin on the mainland. Isn’t that the excuse Putin gave to invade Ukraine?

Merry Christmas

When I was growing up Christmas was a really big deal. We knew it was coming when Dad gave us the Sears Roebuck catalog to pick out the clothes we wanted. On Thanksgiving night our family joined thousands of others to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree atop Rich’s Department store which marked the official start of the Christmas season. I remember Dad putting me on his shoulders so I could see above the crowd. We all then knew that it was time to light our tree. Dad loved Christmas. He loved to decorate. The exterior of the house would be lit. There would be Christmas candles in every window. There was a live tree on the screened in porch with presents underneath.  Mother used to joke that when the lights came on, it might cause a brown out in the city. But we weren’t the only ones. Every house in the neighborhood had lights and a tree.

On Christmas day all the kids would be outside playing. When we were small it was cowboys and Indians with our cowboy hats, chaps and cap guns. Later we put on our new metal fly-a-way skates. I think I was the only one who could not skate backwards. I remember waking up to new bicycles. They were identical except mine had a black seat and my brother’s seat was tan. We rode all around the neighborhood. It was obviously a neighborhood plan because I think every boy got a bike that year.

I think Christmas was especially overflowing for us because of our parents. My mother grew up on a farm and said that Christmas often meant a couple of small gifts with fresh fruit and nuts. She said that she knew it was not going to be much but she and her siblings couldn’t sleep the night before being excited about what the morning would bring. They were never disappointed. Dad grew up in the city with six brothers and sisters. If anything, his Christmas was even more meager than mother’s. But they had handcrafted decorations, went out into the woods and chopped down a small pine tree and hung cards, beads and crepe paper on it. Like Mother, they were to get small gifts, maybe a new shirt, or new pants but always a couple pieces of fresh fruit and some nuts. I can just imagine the sacrifice of my grandparents to give their children a joyous Christmas.

So when we were born, both Mom and Dad had good jobs. Dad was an elementary school principal and mom taught second grade. They were not extravagant but were generous. Our gifts were everything we asked for and a bit more. What was interesting is that neither my brother nor I asked for very much. Mom used to say “Don’t you like that shirt?”, trying to get us to say yes so she could get it for us. Ironically, my children were the same way with me trying to induce them to ask for more.

On Christmas Day, the men on our street would go from house to house to spread Christmas cheer. It would start at the first house on the street where the first man would go to the second house to have a small bite to eat and a sip of an adult beverage. Then the man from the second house and the one from the first house would go to the third house and do the same. It continued from house to house with the first person being dropped off when they all reached his house on the way back. It was a rowdy bunch but full of love and good cheer. Mother would hand out her homemade scuppernong wine – even though neither of my parents drank. But we still had fruit – usually Florida oranges -and nuts Christmas Day.

As we grew older my folks never lost the Christmas spirit. There were always decorations, always a live tree and always candles in every window. Dad still loved to decorate. Mother would prepare the same Christmas dinner, turkey, ham, potato salad, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato pie, green beans, mac and cheese and sweet tea. It was always her best meal served on the best china. When the grandchildren came, I always tried to be home in Atlanta for Christmas. Sometimes my brother would be there with his family. It was always a joyous occasion.

Now my parents are gone. My children are in other states. Their children are grown and there is even a great grandson. Rarely if ever are we able to be together physically at Christmas. Yes we talk, yes we still exchange presents, yes we love each other. But what is missing is the feeling of joy and gratitude emanating from our parents and our neighbors who marveled at their blessings on their rise from humble beginnings to one where Christmas finally meant sharing without sacrifice.

Merry Christmas all. 

The College Playoffs

The college football playoffs are here. I had three dogs in the hunt: Georgia, Ohio State and Tennessee. When Notre Dame completely outclassed Indiana, the grousing began. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffen tweeted disparaging comments about the inclusion of Indiana. Kiffen has always been insufferable. Earth to Lane: shut up. Yes you beat Georgia and play in the SEC but you lost to an awful Kentucky team at home no less. If you had beaten Florida in Gainesville you might have gotten in, but you lost. I have no problem with the inclusion of Indiana. They had a great season. I know some will point to no opponent being in the final top 25 but so what? They played in the Big 10. They beat every team by double digits except Michigan (which beat Ohio State in Columbus) and lost only to Ohio State. Indiana crushed Nebraska which barely lost to Ohio State. By those metrics, Indiana deserved to be in the playoffs. But speaking of insufferable, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is full of himself and whose pregame bravado was not backed up by his team.

The teams without ugly loses were Oregon (undefeated), Texas (which lost twice to Georgia), Georgia (which lost on the road to Alabama and Ole Miss), Penn State (Ohio State and Oregon) and Boise State (which lost to Oregon).  All the rest had ugly loses. Notre Dame had the ugliest lost (to Northern Illinois). My only gripe was the seeding. My beloved Bulldogs are seeded second even though they lost their starting quarterback. No way Boise State should be the number three seed and Arizona State the number four seed. I have no issue with guaranteeing a spot to the conference champions in the Power Four. I have an issue with guaranteeing them a bye. Why not pick the twelve and then seed them with the top four getting a bye. That way the byes this year would be Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Penn State. The first round games would be Clemson at Notre Dame, Arizona State at Ohio State, SMU at Tennessee and Boise State at Indiana.

The first round results showed dominance by the home teams. Indiana, SMU and Tennessee never had a chance. Clemson came from way down to almost getting within a touchdown of Texas but was thoroughly outplayed. Those detractors of the committee who argued against SMC and Indiana have egg on their faces unless they want to argue that Tennessee should not have been there either. Ohio State was completely dominant and beat the Vols by 25, and it wasn’t even that close. The problem goes back to the seeding. Now Oregon which is number one must face Ohio State. Georgia must play Notre Dame. Both will likely be underdogs. Yet lower seeds Texas and Penn State will be heavy favorites against the higher seeded but weaker Arizona State and Boise State. So expect Penn State and Texas to cruise into the semifinals with Texas hosting either Oregon or Ohio State (Go Bucks!) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Something needs to be changed. Penn State will play the winner of Notre Dame and Georgia (Go Dawgs!). I, of course, am hoping for an Ohio State – Georgia final in my hometown of Atlanta.

The Stupid Party Lives!

Once again the republicans have shown that it is easier to heard cats than to lead their House caucus. The first “continuing resolution” was 1,547 pages long and thankfully failed. Its only chance of passage was for some republican support and all the democrats in favor. This, mind you was from the republican leadership in the House. The MAGA House members said they would vote no. Then Elon Musk tweeted his displeasure soon followed by a message from Trump and Vance to kill the bill, Speaker Johnson withdrew it. Then Johnson submitted a slimmed down bill of 100 pages with Trump’s blessing. Since it stripped out some of the democrats’ goodies, the new CR would get no democrat support and not pass the House because of a technicality that it would need a two-thirds vote. Given the slim republican House majority the bill was destined to fail. But if the government shut down, the blame would fall on the democrats. But no! Instead of a unanimous vote for the CR from the republicans, 38 of them voted no, ensuring the defeat of the bill and showing the public that the republicans were incapable of governing. 

A major bone of contention was that Trump wanted an increase in the debt ceiling and the 38 dissidents wanted no increase in the debt ceiling and spending offsets instead. As Tom Massie said that instead of a CR that contained new provisions, he wanted four things: a vote on a clean CR, a vote on the debt limit, a vote on disaster relief and a separate vote on farm bailouts.

Again, regardless of the language the bill had no chance of getting two thirds of a vote. The insurgents were led by Chip Roy (no surprise) along with our Tim Burchett (again no surprise), Nancy Mace and Bob Good. Of course Good would probably never vote for anything that Trump endorsed since Trump led Good’s defeat because Good backed Ron DeSantis for president. It didn’t matter that Good was head of the Freedom Caucus. In a like manner, Trump has declared war on Chip Roy who agrees with Trump on every issue instead of raising the debt ceiling. Here is some of what Trump said:

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory – All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with.”

Weak and ineffective people like Chip have to be dismissed as being utterly unknowledgeable as to the ways of politics, and as to Making America Great Again. Put ‘America First,’ and go for the Victory, even if it means shutting the Government down for a period of time.”

“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent. By the way, how’s Bob Good doing? I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary. He won’t have a chance!”

So much for diplomacy. Trump demands that everyone agree with him on every issue and attacks those that do not. Roy, like Good, should be a valuable ally but instead Trump has made him an enemy. Chip Roy is not one to tuck tail and run.

Trump went after all the republicans who voted to impeach him and only one will return to the new Congress. The question is whether he will go after the 38 who voted against his CR? Can you imagine a candidate attacking Roy – or Burchett for that matter – for not raising the debt ceiling?

Finally, in their statements on the failure of the latest CR both Trump and Vance blamed only the democrats, failing to mention the 38 rouge republicans. Vance said “The Democrats just voted to shut down the government, even though we had a clean CR because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during his first term or during the first year of his new term.”

Earth to JD: What about those 38 republicans who are now more MAGA than you and more MAGA than Trump?

Idaho, Joni Ernst, the “CR” Mess

Idaho just banned DEI on its college campuses. Whoopi. The state is one percent black. I’m curious as to what the DEI initiatives were – move your campus to Mississippi?. Maybe they were to add diversity to the football and basketball teams.

Joni Ernst who heads the Senate’s committee on government efficiency has introduced a bill to move a third of the federal workers out of Washington. Do you think she read my blog piece “Drain the Swamp”? In fact her bill is entitled “Decentralizing and Re-organizing Agency Infrastructure Nationwide To Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Management Practices Act,” or DRAIN THE SWAMP. Cute.

I am not wise in the ways of Congress’ legislative morass but I would have thought that Mike Johnson would have run the bill intended to postpone the government shutdown by Donald Trump. Apparently, he didn’t since Trump demanded that the bill not be passed. Johnson withdrew it. 

I am also not up on the nomenclature of bills either. The Affordable Care Act isn’t. The Inflation Reduction Act isn’t either and neither was this Congress’ “Continuing Resolution.” I would think a continuing resolution would be just that, a continuation of a previous budget. In fact, the definition is “A continuing resolution continues the pre-existing appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year (or with minor modifications) for a set amount of time. Continuing resolutions typically provide funding at a rate or formula based on the previous year’s funding.^”

Therefore, a continuing resolution should be at most one paragraph long. So how did this “continuing resolution” get to be 1,547 pages? As Majorie Taylor-Greene said this wasn’t a CR it was an omnibus funding bill. Chip Roy was less diplomatic saying “We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich. Why? Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner. It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.” Another House member, Eric Burlison said “It’s a total dumpster fire. I think it’s garbage.”

Surely, Johnson knew that this “continuing resolution” was not going to get pass his conservatives members and had to know that he would get all the democrat votes and enough republican votes to pass. Even though Mike Lee and Rand Paul on the Senate side blasted the resolution it would have passed the Senate since the democrats are still in the majority. Speaking of the Senate, is Kamala Harris back presiding over the chamber?

Well Elon Musk immediately fired off a Tweet condemning the increase in spending and said that any member voting for the bill should be voted out in the next election. To which one democrat member told Musk to mind his own business. Then Trump and Vance issued a statement saying that the bill should be voted down. Mike Johnson withdrew it. Now a new bill has to be introduced 72 hours before it can be enacted. I thought the “shutdown” was supposed to occur at 12:01AM Saturday?

What a mess. Since Trump somehow lambasted the bill without criticizing Johnson, I would assume that Johnson’s status a majority leader is secure unless our Tim Burchett and his buds decide to stage another palace coup. Why didn’t Johnson introduce a clean CR? The House would pass it and the Senate would not. Then the government shutdown would fall on the democrats instead of the republicans. Apparently a clean CR would not have passed the House. Some republicans demanded that the CR be augmented to satisfy their constituents. Those from farm states wanted $10 billion for additional farm aid. Then there was $100 billion for hurricane and disaster relief. Moreover, two members demanded that ethanol be sold year round rather than banned in hot weather and on and on. Of course, the democrats wanted their goodies as well and the “continuing resolution” became anything but.

A friend of mine asked me if we were ever going to see the return of statesmen instead of what passes for politicians these days. I seriously doubt it because a statesman would have to consider the welfare of the country over his or her own personal welfare.

Some more Random Thoughts

Trump has nominated Kimberly Guilfoyle to be ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle was once married to Gavin Newsom and then was engaged to Don Jr. Some wags said that Trump nominated her to get her out of the country since Don Jr is now dating some Florida socialite. Guilfoyle was once a regular on The Five. She always sat on the end – in the seat now occupied by Judge Jeanine Piro – and wore very short dresses and low cut tops. I actually once wrote Fox asking if it was a company policy that all their women (except Dana Perino) were instructed to wear short dresses. Thankfully those days are over. But going back to Guilfoyle, I guess it wasn’t Fox’s dictates after all. Long after she left the network she was still obviously proud of her looks and proudly displayed them. I am sure she will do a great job as ambassador – whatever ambassadors do.

So now Trump has nominated four from Fox to positions in his administration: Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy, Megyn Kelly and now Guilfoyle. I once jokingly asked if Trump was going to nominate Greg Gutfield. But on a serious note, a nomination of Harold Ford, Jr to one of the top cabinet positions would have been a home run.

Trump also nominated Herschel Walker to be ambassador to the Bahamas. Walker, who came back to graduate from the University of Georgia after being gone 42 years, is probably more fondly remembered for running over Tennessee’s Bill Bates than his run for the Senate in 2022.

Is a recession coming? Some of the women on the networks are now wearing long dresses. The so-called Hemline Index, attributed to Wharton economist George Taylor in 1926, states that the length of women’s dresses forecast changes in the economy. If times are going to be good, hemlines go up and if bad hemlines go down. There has actually been some serious econometric research on the issue with one study finding no predictive power in the length of women’s dresses. It looked at the correlation between hem length and the stock market. However, there was an indicator that fashion actually follows the economy with a lag. That is after good times come in, dresses get shorter and after bad times they get longer. So is this a chicken or the egg issue?

What’s up with all these pardons?

Will Biden pardon himself?

Will Biden pardon his brother? James Comer, chair of the House’s Oversight Committee is convinced that Hunter, Joe and brother Jim constitute a crime family. His committee is investigating the Bidens and with the pardon of Hunter for crimes real and imagined, Comer will probably go after Joe’s brother Jim. Comer has said “Joe Biden obstructed my and (Jim) Jordan’s investigations. He lied multiple times. He lied about his knowledge and involvement.” Stay tuned.

Apple is going to introduce a foldable iphone. Why don’t they just call it a flip phone?

France’s government has fallen after a no confidence vote. I thought that it meant that Macron was ousted but no, it was Macron’s prime minister Michel Barnier who only served three months must leave. Macron doesn’t have to stand for re-election until 2027. I am confused and don’t have the energy – or the interest – to try to figure out the French form of government.

Britain’s Liz Truss lasted only 44 days as prime minister and the country has had 30 governments since WW II.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has also lost a no confidence vote triggering early elections in February. Scholz actually called for the vote knowing that he would lose it. Go figure.

Both Germany and France have multiple parties and must cobble together coalitions to form a government. Those coalitions tend to be fragile giving rise to no confidence votes. The poster child for change in governments is Italy. Its prime minister is Giorgia Meloni heads the 68th government since World War II. That is a new prime minister and a new cabinet every 13 months! But Meloni has actually been prime minister since 2022 which must be a post-war record.

I have mused that it would be logical for the democrats to split into two parties, the progressives and the liberals. The republicans could also split into two, the MAGAs and the traditional conservatives. Then a newly elected president – from one of the four parties – would have to cobble together a coalition in both the House and the Senate in order to govern. Would this mean better or worse governance for the United States or just the chaos of European governments? Likely worse governance because the smaller more radical parties would have outsized influence – see the Greens of Germany or closer to home the eight disgruntled republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy.

Did you see where the North Koreans mistakenly killed Russian soldiers in the Ukraine’s Kursk region? I guess they all looked alike.

Caitlyn Clark’s “privilege”

I am not a basketball fan – not college or pro, not men’s or women’s (or is it now womyn’s?). But I saw that Caitlyn Clark won Time’s Athlete of the Year. I didn’t know Time had an Athlete of the Year Award. I knew it had a Man of the year (now Person of the Year) – likely that they will eliminate the “son” from “person” in the never ending quest for gender neutrality. But lo and behold, they have been making the athlete’s award since 2019. The previous winners are 2019 – United States Women’s National Team (soccer), 2020 – LeBron James, 2021 – Simone Biles, 2022 – Aaron Judge and 2023 – Lionel Messi. 

Clark felt it necessary to apologize for being white (and straight). She said “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that, the more we can elevate black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

What about other great white players like Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurausi and Breanna Stewart? I think Clark may be the only great white WNBA player other than Becky Hammon that did not go to UConn and I think that is part of Clark’s fame. If she had gone to UConn and was setting records, it would have been ho-hum. But because she was at Iowa and elevated that team to the NCAA finals was what was historic. I recall that the starting five on her Iowa team was all white. But that seems consistent with the composition of both the Iowa and Iowa State football teams. Yes there are a few black players on those squads but the majority of the players are white. Going from Iowa to the WNBA was likely a culture shock for Clark.

But Clark’s so-called “white privilege” doesn’t stem from Time Magazine’s award. It shows itself in the endorsements she has received in contrast to those of other (black) WNBA players. That Clark is perceived as more marketable than say Angel Reese is a reflection of who buys the tickets and who purchases the merchandise. But Clark is now in a league that is majority black and has to deal – perhaps for the first time in her life – with black players who may be jealous of her fame. But Clark does have game. She is very gifted and created excitement while in college and raised the profile of the women’s game. Recall after losing to South Carolina in the finals, Dawn Staley at the trophy ceremony praised Clark. If Clark were a very good player she would have not received such accolades. She reminds me of Pete Maravich. She also has the benefit of a photoshop make over by Time. Look at the cover and compare it with how Clark actually looks.

Sixty three percent of the WNBA players are black while 19 percent are white. In the NBA 70 percent of the players are black and 17 percent are white. Of course it seems that most of the white players in the NBA are from Eastern European countries with names that sound like two boxcars colliding. However, I don’t recall that Nikola Jokic who has won three out of the four past MVP awards in the NBA has apologized for his “white privilege”.  I do remember him saying of the 2023-24 award that it should have gone to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander instead. However, the voters disagreed giving the award to Jokic in a landslide 926 points to 640. Kendrick Perkins claimed it was because 80 percent of the MVP voters were white. Actually it is 63 percent and indeed, Jokic got 60 percent of the vote for MVP. Hmm.

Hear no drone, see no drone, speak no drone

I don’t think Trump likes Canada. It is true that prime minister Trudeau is a dumpster fire. Trudeau is a weak ineffectual leader whose unpopularity is likely to lead to a regime change in Canada. What he did to the truckers who protested his shutdowns during Covid was criminal. Trump is threatening Canada with 25% tariffs for lax enforcement of its borders allowing illegal entry and fentanyl. Yet neither is nowhere as serious as the southern border. I think Trump just likes being a bully. When he imposed tariffs in his first administration, Canada retaliated. It will retaliate this time as well. The government of Ontario has threatened to cut off the flow of oil into the states. Since 60 percent of the crude we import is from Canada, Trump will certainly take notice. I think this is called “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” – or something like that.

Now what about the drones? We can dismiss that the drones are a security risk because they are flying over New Jersey. What are they spying on? Commuters to New York? Commuters to Philly? Maybe it is Kansas State spying on Rutgers’ practices in preparation for the highly anticipated Rate Bowl in Phoenix. What is most disturbing is the total lack of information coming from the Biden Administration. Early on I had respect for John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. He is a retired navy admiral and seemed like a straight shooter. He was one of the few people in the administration willing to talk to Fox. Kirby unlike Karine Jean-Pierre seemed to be sincere and competent. But Kirby has lost all credibility in this dronegate. 

Kirby has said that the administration does not know what is going on with the drones but knows that they do not present a danger. He said “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.” What? How would they know that if they do not know anything about the drones? The “foreign nexus” was, I guess, in response to New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s remark that there was an Iranian mothership off the coast piloting the drones. I didn’t think Van Drew was serious – maybe he was thinking about the Led Zeppelin album of the same name –  but obviously the Pentagon thought him serious when they trotted out another spokesman to categorically deny the assertion. Kirby then said that many if not most of the sightings were of small piloted aircraft and not drones.  Kirby said “Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to, and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.” Again this comment was met with derision by New Jersey state and local officials who said that Kirby was calling all of them liars for saying that the sightings were off drones. Me thinks he thinks that we are all fools. Kirby is the one looking like a liar.

Trump of course had a very different response saying “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I (don’t) think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, (shoot) them down!” Leave it to Trump to say what is on the minds of the people not associated with the Biden Administration. What I don’t understand is why New Jersey is whining to the federal government. I bet that if the sightings were over Oak Ridge, that if the feds did not take action, the state would. If it happened in Georgia, we would call our wildlife rangers and say that hunters were using drones to spot deer. They would immediately shoot them down. So why does New Jersey keep whining? Is whining part of the democrats DNA? Why doesn’t it have its helicopters or planes follow the drones until they come down and confiscate one of them? Or, following Trump’s suggestion, have its air national guard just shoot one down? If it indeed is a civilian drone piloted by kids in their backyards, then we will know that they are not a threat. 

This is all too reminiscent of the stonewalling about the Chinese spy balloon. Remember when the first Biden spokeswoman, Jean Psaki, said that in contrast to the Trump administration that Biden’s administration would share “accurate information with the American people” and “bring transparency and truth back to the government to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear.” So where are the “truth and transparency” now, Jen?

Of course, there are two issues here. First, if the administration knows what is going on, then why don’t they tell us? Second, if the administration does not know what is going on, then we are all in deep do-do – at least until January 20,