The Issue Of “Age” In Upcoming Midterm Elections In 2026

Ronald 21 Comments

The US Congress, in both chambers, is the oldest in age of any period of American history, and the issue of whether it is time for members in their 70s, 80s, and beyond to move on, and allow a younger generation better able to relate to the future, to be replacing them.

David Hogg of Florida, who was a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, caused controversy in promoting such change, and he was pushed out, and is working with others to challenge many older, longer serving members in upcoming primaries for the 2026 Congressional Elections.

And the issue has come to the forefront, particularly, in the state of Maine, where Democratic Governor Janet Mills, age 77, is challenging sitting Republican Senator Susan Collins, who will have served for 30 years in the upper chamber, and is presently 72 years old.

So Graham Plattner, age 41, an oyster famer and Marine Corp veteran, is challenging Janet Mills, with the issue of age being a crucial one.

And Maine already has Senator Angus King, who just won reelection at age 80 in 2024, and Vermont has Bernie Sanders, who won reelection in 2024 at age 83.

But there are other such cases, as with Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massacusetts, age 80, who has served a half century combined in the House of Representatives until 2013, and since then in the Senate. Congressman Seth Moulton, age 47, is arguing that while Markey has been an excellent leader for Massachusetts, it is time for change.

Other Democratic Senators of advanced age are retiring, including Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Also Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is retiring in 2026.

But there are others who are over 70 and choosing to run for reelection, or planning to when the next elecion for their seat takes place, including Ron Wyden of Oregon and Chuck Schumer of New York in 2028.

Also, in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi of California, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the fist three past leaders in the chamber, are running again in 2026, despite their being in their 80s. And Republican Senator and President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley also could run for reelection in 2028, although at present, he is 92 years old!

It would seem legitimate that these older political leaders would finally give up their positions, and allow for the future generation to take over Congress.

All News Outlets Except One Refuse New Pentagon Media Restrictions!

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Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense (or War insisted by him and Donald Trump) has pushed out all access to Pentagon information, by forcing all journalists to leave their long determined rights to have ability to question and investigate what is going on in our government, regarding military matters and national security.

Except for the one case of One America News, an extremist right wing MAGA Republican news outlet, ALL other news and journalistic websites and their reporters no longer will be able to gain information, except through outside connections, undermining the idea of a government accountable to the population of the nation. Corruption and abuse will flourish as a result!

So 40 news outlets, from left wing to right wing, including
Fox News
Newsmax Media
Daily Caller
Washington Examiner
(all right wing oriented)
join other, more reputable outlets including
NBC News
ABC News
CBS News
CNN
MSNBC
Associated Press
The Economist
The Guardian
The Hill
Huffington Post
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
NPR
PBS Newshour
Politico
Real Clear Politics
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post,
Washington Times
and numerous lesser known news outlets in their unity against the Pentagon mandate!

This is massive interference with Freedom of the Press!

Renaming Defense Department As War Department A Bad Sign For Future!

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Pege Hegseth, the Fox News weekend host, now heading the Pentagon, has brought the “wrecking ball” to that government agency, and has promoted renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War.

That was the name of the department that deals with military and security matters from 1789 to 1947, but renamed the Defense Department under President Harry Truman in 1947.

But Donald Trump and his crony, Hegseth, want to promote a war like imperialistic image, and are aggressively engaged in hostile actions toward nations in the Western Hemisphere, including attacks on speculated “drug boats” of Venezuela and Panama regarding the Panama Canal Treaty, as well as pushing the idea of Canada becoming the “51st state”, thereby causing the worst relations with our northern neighbor in more than a century and a half of peaceful neighborliness.

Additionally, there is growing fear of Trump and Hegseth pushing for control of Greenland, taking it away from Denmark, which it has been part of for the past two centuries, thereby causing tensions with NATO.

Additionally, Hegseth has attempted to force journalists who report on the Pentagon to agree to limitations on freedom of the press, but the good news is that journalists of the left and the right have refused enmasse to agree to such limitations.

The idea of reviving the Department of “War” needs to be repudiated in every way possible, and the idea of US invasion of sovereign nations and territories needs to be repudiated vehemently by all civilized nations, as there should not be any caving in to the concept of US imperialism being revived!

Release Of Israeli Hostages A Major Accomplishment For Donald Trump, BUT What About Preserving Democracy In America?

Ronald 12 Comments

The deal struck by President Donald Trump that has led today to the release of Israeli hostages is a major accomplishment, for which Trump deserves credit and praise.

However, Trump is over the top in his belief that a new world has emerged in the Middle East, as if this arrangement solves all of the issues involving the Palestinians and Israel, and the reality that Hamas has not been totally dissolved.

So the likelihood is for future warfare and conflict, and more bloodshed down the road, if not immediately.

This is a sad situation, but is a realistic assessment.

So while Trump can be praised for what he has done, and it has made him popular in Israel, the reality is that it does not make up for the total destruction of American democracy and the rule of law at home in America.

Trump has been engaged with his sycophants in the Cabinet, in the MAGA Republican Congress, and in the Supreme Court, in undermining the Bill of Rights.

It is clearly well along toward establishment of an authoritarian Fascist government, that is nativist, racist, misgonynist, homophobic, and imperialist oriented on the world stage, with his threats toward Latin America, Canada, and NATO, and his creating tensions around the world with his crazy tariff policies.

52 Years: From Nixon And Agnew To Trump And Vance!

Ronald 122 Comments

Fifty two years ago, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned under scandal, and ten months later, President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, abandoned by his own Republican Party in Congress.

Who would think that a half century later, we would have an outspoken, obnoxious, obsequious sycophant, JD Vance, with few qualifications to be President, being a heartbeat away from the White House, which has in Donald Trump a President far worse and more corrupt than Richard Nixon ever was!

And to top it off, the Republican Party in Congress is a lapdog, unwilling to challenge the President and Vice President, unlike how many of their party did so in the 1970s.

American democracy and the rule of law was under threat back then, and was saved by Gerald Ford and by opposition Democrats who worked together to overcome the worst elements of the Watergate Scandal.

Can we expect a similar situation in the present tense? At this moment, it seems as if we are witnessing the most dire threat to American democracy, since World War II and the Civil War, and it is hard to imagine we will come out of it as a nation based on the US Constitution, and just as we are to “celebrate” the 250th Anniversary of the American Republic and the Declaration Of Independence!

“Red” Rural States To Suffer Most From Increases In Health Care Premiums!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Democratic Party in Congress has refused to sign off on the continuing resolution, leading to a federal government shutdown, due to the reality of the horrendous effect that the cutting of federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and Medicaid will have on millions of Americans, mostly poor or lower middle class, and most heavily in rural states that are “Red” states.

The Southern States and rural Midwest and Western States, that are strongly Republican in voting patterns, will be harmed the most.

While racial minorities will be greatly affected, so will white rural Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

This includes states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, and Wyoming.

The Republican Party, by its refusal to move to restore health care subsidies, is undermining its own electoral future!

Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Maria Corina Machado A Worthy Winner!

Ronald 1 Comment

Maria Corina Machado, a human rights advocate of democracy in Venezuela, and a leading critic of the dictatorship headed by President Nicholas Maduro, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the committee that decides that esteemed honor.

Machado is a worthy winner, but faces constant threats to her life, and lives in a state of hiding, as to her security and safety, and may not be able to go to Sweden to receive the award in December.

Twice a Presidential candidate in Venezuela with a great public following of millions of her countrymen, she is described as a “Woman of Steel”, who has devoted her life to promotion of democracy in her nation.

Her children live abroad, due to death threats at home, but she has refused to flee the nation that she loves! She has received many awards for her heroism and principles, most recently on the list of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in April 2025!

Sadly, Donald Trump was critical of the fact that he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, but there is no way that he deserves it, with the way he deals with other nations, and his growing, belligerent and imperialist attitude toward other nations in the Western Hemisphere, and Trump’s close association with right wing authoritarian governments around the world!

Growing Evidence That Trump Is Planning To Be Aggressive Toward Latin American Neighbors, Reviving American “Imperalism” Historical Record!

Ronald 4 Comments

President Donald Trump came into office for his second term, declaring that he wished to downgrade our involvement in international affairs and overseas wars, attracting the support of isolationists in the Republican Party, which has long had a history of promoting that view, as in the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century.

However, Trump had no problem in cozying up to authoritarian dictators, including the leaders of the Russian Federation, China, North Korea, Hungary, El Salvador, and elsewhere.

And there is now growing evidence of Trump’s desire to be aggressive toward our Latin American neighbors, and even Canada, displaying his imperalist urges.

So he has, earlier, made an issue of the Panama Canal, and spoken of making Canada “the 51st State”! He is unlikely to abandon these thoughts with still more than three years to go in this term.

But now, Trump, without Congressional authorization, is utilizing his “Commander in Chief” authority to promote attacks on what he believes are boats that are transporting drugs in the Caribbean, and coming from Venezuela, having caused the destruction of four boats, and the deaths of 21 people on board, without any clear cut evidence to have initiated such attacks.

Certainly, the US Navy could have stopped these boats and inspected them, and if need be, arrest those onboard, but just to attack and obliterate the ships and the occupants is a violation of international law, when America is not at war with any nation in the Western Hemisphere.

There are also veiled threats against nations, such as Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and particularly against Brazil, because that nation has convicted its former President for inciting a insurrection, equivalent to the one Trump provoked, and should have been convicted for, if the Biden Administration had only moved faster, to prevent Trump from running again for President in 2024.

Trump’s push to deport hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, who were supposed to have protection against harsh dictatorships in those nations, is another sign of his antagonism toward Latin America.

We are in for a period of controversial imperialistic ventures by the 47th President, reminding us of past sins toward the Western Hemisphere!

American Urban Areas Dominate Economy, But Are Controlled By Hostile State Governments And Trump Hostility!

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The latest economic statistics demonstrate how American cities and urban areas dominate the American economy.

Metropolitan areas accounted for 90.8 percent of the nation’s economic output; employ 88.2 percent of the American population; and house 86.4 percent of the people of the nation.

The total land mass of cities and urban areas are, overall, a small percentage of the total land of the nation, but rural areas, while certainly significant, particularly in regards to agriculture, have a very small total influence on the nation.

But many state legislatures, dominated by rural conservative and often Republican power centers, make life difficult for their metropolitan areas and populations, not allowing them local control of their policies and prograrms.

And Donald Trump has declared ‘war” on cities, and is utilizing his power to force militarization of cities, with his false accusations of crime and terrorism in the metropolitan areas.

Already, he has caused chaos and disarray in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland Oregon, and seems ready to impose the Insurrection Act of 1807 in an uncalled for, abusive manner as part of his plan to establish an authoritarian, Fascist regime on American democracy!

Open Racism And Nativism Of ICE And Its Leadership! :(

Ronald 22 Comments

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become an agency promoting a policy of open, clearcut racism and nativism.

ICE has been horribly abusive, perceiving anyone with black or brown skin, or who has a Spanish surname or speaks Spanish as the primary language, as automatically the “enemy”.

Many of the people being picked up by ICE, abused, and often incarcerated in horrendous conditions, are US Citizens, not undocumented immigrants.

The tactics being employed, as recently in the brazen raid on an apartment building in Chicago, of putting children, the elderly, and all the residents of that building in handcuffs, zip ties, and injuring many of the residents, is an outrage that cannot be allowed to continue!

Kristi Noem, Thomas Homan, Stephen Miller, and others that are pushing this abuse of power, must be held accountable, and ICE must be put under control and restrictions, as basic civil liberies are being horribly abused!