Apologies to my many followers for not posting a blog the past couple of weeks.  Due to crossing the North Atlantic (East and West), I had limited access to the Internet, making blog postings impossible.  Seems technology on the High Seas either has not advanced as far as it should have or the ocean liner simply chose not to make it affordable and/or fast enough to work.  After all, why would anyone want to work while making "the crossing?"
        So now that I am back in North America, I find Congress is embarking on their own "Vacation" of five weeks, despite a bevy of issues left unattended.  What will these great men of Congress be doing on vacation?  Raise money and campaign, of course!  With them out of Washington, pundits can focus their entire attention on how Donald Trump is "ruining the GOP brand."  Regardless, I am sure I will find enough to write about during "vacation time."  In the interim, many thanks for your patience and I will be back to my routine within the next week or so.  As President Theodore Roosevelt once wrote; "When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all."  Now I wish members of Congress would work more and play less.  Have a great week!

          With so many running for president, it's a wonder that anything gets done in Washington or in the respective governors' offices (but then again, very little other than political rhetoric is coming out of Washington these days anyway).  I mean, years ago some of the ideologically-oriented media slammed then Governor Howard Dean for being away from his Executive desk in Vermont and how it was detrimental to the citizens of his state. Not surprisingly though, today those very same media outlets don't say a word about the multiple Republican governors "shirking their responsibilities" while on the campaign trail seeking a totally different political office. Perhaps it is because the citizens of their respective states actually prefer their governors find work elsewhere? Just more hypocrisy from our modern media.
           And speaking of hypocrisy, look at Donald Trump surging in early GOP polling.  Yes, you read that correctly.  "The Donald" has lit up the Far-Right of the GOP, so much so that it is reminiscent of the McCain-Palin campaign (specifically, the Palin part).  With simple populist messages targeted to elicit the emotions of the uneducated, uninformed, ignorant or just plain frustrated, Trump is scoring points - which has the attention of his GOP rivals questioning their very own campaign messaging.  How can they collectively bash Clinton if they have to confront the visceral attacks from Trump?  And the GOP brand?  It will continue to suffer immensely by these "populist" attacks on anyone they either disagree with or look and act differently from.
           Along these same lines, anyone notice the continued attempts to attack Clinton for her wealth?  It's getting a bit difficult to pursue this strategy when Trump constantly boasts of his "Billions" and "Successes", while Jeb Bush raised over $114,000,000.00 and Walker has his own Koch Brothers bank roll.  The obvious problem the GOP has with the 2016 election is not what they plan to do as president (too tied up in talking points and narratives), but how they plan to find a nominee out of so many declared candidates that has an actual  prayer of winning the White House.  I mean, the more you pander to the same Far-Right political base, the less chance in the modern age of media you have of correcting course for the Fall/General Election - and THIS is the problem the Republicans collectively face (imagine if Bernie Sanders was leading in the Democrats' polling).  Sure Hillary may not be the "ideal" candidate, but neither was Woodrow Wilson when he was handed the reins of the residency after the GOP self-imploded with T. Roosevelt and Taft splitting their base.
           As President Theodore Roosevelt once wrote; "Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big."  I guess we are all still waiting for a presidential candidate that uses less rhetoric and promotes real action to move this great country forward (and not just their political benefactors).  We must seek serious candidates (from all sides) that offer serious solutions and less attacks and emotion-based rhetoric.   Have a great week!

        Happy Birthday America!  I know, I am a day late, but why not...it's our collective birthday!  Being with friends and family makes it difficult to write extensively today, but what I want to mention today is the problem we face in this country when it comes to ignorance relating to our Constitution.  As expected, over the weekend there were a lot of celebratory postings on social media, but one caught my attention.
         Following a posting on Facebook about July 4, some folks erroneously celebrated the birth of the Constitution being July 4.  Only this great holiday does not celebrate the Constitution, but our independence from England as laid out in the Declaration of Independence.  Despite this fact, many postings seemed to think otherwise.  I guess it's okay to celebrate America and mix the two up - but only to a certain extent.  What did catch my attention was a thread that someone started about how we don't need the Supreme Court because anyone, including the person posting knows every plain word of the Constitution and we don't need a Court or "liberal teachers" to tell us what it says. They even go on to say that we all can glean exactly what the "Founders" intended just by reading the words in the document.  And herein lies the problem!
        America has gotten so far away from properly educating our electorate that some actually believe we don't need a Supreme Court!  They are so screwed up in their thinking that they believe the Supreme Court was created by Congress and therefore, can be eliminated "for the greater good!"  You can bet I cringed when reading this statement and all of the supporting statements that followed.   For some folks to believe they alone can determine what the Constitution means just from reading it,  seems to ignore why the Framers created the High Court in the first place (Article III of the very document they claim to be "experts" in).  The same nonsense can be seen in postings from people supporting a spreading notion that States should be able to ignore anything that comes out of Washington, including Supreme Court rulings.  Some true Americans right?  
        So let us all celebrate our great nation, and pledge to remind our fellow Americans that this nation was built on a foundation of law and that the "Framers" anticipated change and allowed the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution in ways that reflect such change.  Think I am wrong?  How many ways have our collective national lives changed since 1776?  Yet how far from liberty are we getting when individuals claim they know the Constitution better than the Supreme Court, just by reading the document itself?  We've got a lot of teaching and learning to do, and that's an American ideal, not a "liberal" or "conservative" one!
        As James Madison once wrote; "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?"  Liberty and learning, gee, what a unique thought!  Have a great week!