The Gulf

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It’s the Gulf of Mexico. Period.

And calling it the Gulf of America is as silly as some people got after the September 2001 terrorist attacks when France opposed our invasion of Iraq by deciding to call French fries, Freedom Fries.

The pettiness and immaturity of a 78-year old man with a superiority complex was played out a few days ago when he threw a tantrum and banished an Associated Press reporter from an Oval Office press conference dominated not by the old man but by his  hatchet man. The reporters was not banned because he asked an impertinent question of either of the stars of the event.

He was barred from the event because the Associated Press won’t call the Gulf of Mexico the presidentially-designated Gulf of America.

To begin with, Trump’s executive order on the Gulf shows his usual ignorance of and respect for maritime/economic law and the authority of individuals as well as countries to keep calling it the Gulf of Mexico.

But never trouble Donald Trump with facts or with respecting any system, nations, and cultures that long-ago legally or at least culturally designated names of places.

Renaming Denali, for example, is disrespectful of the Koyukon Athabascan people who have lived in that area for centuries and have called it Denali. Not until 1896 was it called Mt. McKinley, and not by any official action or decision by an international naming agency but by a gold miner who started calling it McKinley to support a presidential candidate. President Wilson signed a bill in 1917 making McKinley the official name.

But the state of Alaska asked in 1975 that the United States Board on Geographical Place Names make the official name to the traditional Denali. Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula blocked it because McKinley’s hometown of Canton was in his district and he didn’t seem to care what generations of natives had called the mountain long before he came along. Canton is a long ways from Alaska and surely Regula (who died a few years ago) could have found something closer to home with which to make a headline.

The Board of Geographical Place Names?

The King of Renaming Puffery apparently does not know, or does not care about, the existence of such a body that was created in 1897 and assumed its present status by federal law in 1947. The board, part of the Department of the Interior, tries to allocate place names based on local custom “as well as principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic names, foreign names, Antarctic names, and undersea feature names,” as one source puts it. More than fifty other nations have similar national bodies.

Such organizations are necessary to avoid confusion about what is what and where that what is.

Then there is the United Nations Economic and Social Council  and its nine-member Group of Experts on Geographical Names that has been reviews things every five years, beginning in 1960. Having a commonly-used name of a place is important in domestic and international trade.

But we are learning that this President has no regard for federal agencies or international programs, especially when he decides to show his power by ignoring them with executive orders. And woe be unto anyone who does not worship his impulses.

Here’s the deal about the Gulf of Whatever—

The United States does not OWN the Gulf of Mexico.  The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grants countries control of waters about twelve nautical miles from the country’s shores. That’s the closest this country has to owning a gulf, a sea, or an ocean.

There also is an “Exclusive Economic Zone” that covers 200 miles of offshore water. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the zone allows this country to “explore, exploit, conserve and manage natural resources” in that area. That zone overlaps similar zones for Mexico and Cuba. But they don’t count in inner Trumpworld.

So the Great Geopolitician is asserting authority over Mexico and Cuba with his MAGA-pleasing proclamation, something outside his and his country’s authority. The solution to his situation should be easy for him: Make Mexico our 52nd state and Cuba our 53rd.

Canada already is in line to become number 51. And that brings us to another issue for our President and our takeover of Canada.

What’s with this St. Lawrence Seaway thing?

It allows oceangoing ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota.  It’s named for the St. Lawrence River that links Lake Ontario to the Atlantic. We expect an executive order soon renaming the thoroughfare the Duluth Seaway.

And while we’re at it, why is it the Missouri River when there are so many other states involved?  We can’t call it the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska-Iowa-North Dakota-South Dakota, Montana River.  Let’s simplify it and just call it The Trump River and make it a symbol of his success at bringing the county together.

And then—

The administration’s new Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum says the department is considering redrawing boundaries of our national parks and historic sites so there’s more room to drill, baby, drill—even though we understand the major petroleum companies are less enthusiastic about the increased supply that will lower the pump prices of gas and oil.  But as long as we’re tinkering with those parks and historic sites—-

Let’s add the scowling Presidential visage to Mount Rushmore although rock experts have told the National Park Service the remaining rock is unstable.

It might be the perfect place for a Trump sculpture after all

(Actually, increased drilling should be welcomed by consumers who will pay less for the fuel it takes to buy their more-expensive groceries.)

And while we’re talking about the Gulf of Mexico, why don’t we annex the Caribbean?

Now back to the AP reporter. Trump’s action constitutes a punishment for a news agency that reports the news in a way he does not like.  That’s been illegal since John Peter Zenger was accused of libel by the Royal Governor of New York because Zenger’s New York Journal published an editorial critical of Governor William Cosby.

Cosby issued a proclamation condemning Zenger’s newspaper for “divers scandalous, virulent, false, and seditious reflections,” a crude eloquence we won’t find on (Un)Truth Social. It doesn’t even have an exclamation point, a misspelling, and a capitalized word.

Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton—the father of Alexander—argued that truth is an absolute defense against libel. It took a jury only ten minutes to find Zenger not guilty, a judgment that established press freedom in this country.

Trump’s hissy fit because the AP recognizes the internationally-established name for the Gulf of Mexico, while not a libel, is an exercise of press freedom. The press is not obligated to print the party line or the individual declaration of anyone, including Presidents with a totalitarian attitude.

–or as the AP put it, “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audience.”  The AP does agree to change the mountain to Mt. McKinley in its style book.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group, commented, “President Trump has the authority to change how the U. S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a new organization for using another term.”

Well, he did.  And he’s moving to punish news organizations who dare question his bloviating about any issue that pops into his head.

Someday, perhaps, we’ll get into a discussion of “America,” another word about which Trump is, shall we say, extremely uneducated.

Some General, Generally Biased, Observations

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We cannot help but reflect on the man whose birthday is today. You know, the guy who said in his second inaugural:

“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

We have a retread President who is 78 years old but acting as if he’s just seven and seems immune to rational thought (see Greenland, Canada, Panama, sh—thole countries in general  including Haiti, El Salvador, and all African countries), fawning about Putin, Xi, Erdogan, and North Korea’s Un and only, California wildfires caused by poor raking of leaves in forests, having the Army shoot protestors in the legs, claiming to be a Christian whose favorite Bible verse is “Two Corinthians,” a billionaire who wants to be like his idols—Musk and Bezos, etc., and so forth)

Forbes in 2023 listed him as only 420th on its list of 1490 billionaires, behind Republican whipping boy George Soros (410) various members of the Walton family, and well behind Charles Koch, who was 67th but who has a bottomless check book that he uses to influence political candidates—or buy them, as some suspect. Musk and Bezos were 1-2. Trump admires them for their wealth. Being around them makes him feel bigger.  He wants to be them.

A few days before his re-inauguration, he bragged that his administration already had hired 1,000 people some of whom will replace some of the THREE MILLION people who are federal employees now, about 2.3 million being full-time. The military makes up 775-thousand, the largest segment. Veterans Affairs involves another 476-thousand.

Adding one-thousand people while proclaiming he’ll make big cuts in the government payroll sees a little counter-intuitive. He and some of his acolytes want to eliminate the federal education department.  We recently checked and found doing so would eliminate about 4,150 jobs.,

Wow!  Our  billionaire president eliminates an entire department in which the average employee earns $130 thousand a year. Don’t think that’s excessive until you’ve read the real estate ads in the Washington, D.C. metro area yet.

In that same message he asked people quit referring people to him such as  “people who worked with, or are endorsed by Americans for No Prosperity (headed by Charles Koch), “Dumb as a rock John Bolton, “Birdbrain Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, disloyal Warmongers Dick Cheney and his psycho daughter, Liz, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, (General(?) Mark Milley, James Mattis, Mark Yester, or any of the other people suffering from Trump derangement Syndrome.”

What’s with the question mark next to General Milley’s name? He was just the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, capping a distinguished military career of 44 years, which is only about 44 years more than the question mark served.

At least he didn’t call Pence a traitor.  At least not this time. But the rest of it—the name-calling?

If you lack the intellectual capability to do anything else, you can always call somebody a name. “Poopy Head” is a good one for seven-year olds. When he was in office the first time, maybe he should have sent Poopy head Milley to serve in one of his famous sh—hole countries.

As for those who were endorsed by “Americans for No Prosperity,“ Charles Koch is worth about ten times more than lowly number 420.  But we doubt that he and most of the others—especially those higher than 420, have better things to do than sit at their computer all night dreaming up derogatory names of people who not only are far wealthier than he is, but in many cases probably better people.

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Having taken our retread President to task in the comments above, let us congratulate him for his brilliant idea that the Palestinians from Gaza should be sent to other places while he takes their damaged homeland and turns it into a beautiful place for the right kind of people.

His idea is very American.  And his plan was part of the original Make America Great plan.

It is uncomfortable for many who raise this point because they might be considered “woke,” and your correspondent realizes the risk he runs by reminding us of this proud part of our heritage—when good Christian people “helped” natives of another land move elsewhere after the systematic destruction of their cultures so the vacated land could be developed and inhabited by better people.

You might have heard of some of these places:

Navajo Nation, Uinta and Ouray, Thono O’odham, Standing Rock, Crow, Wind River, Pine Ridge, Fort Peck, and San Carlos Indian Reservations.

So don’t be critical of our President for suggesting natives go someplace else so others can turn their abandoned lands into profitable enterprises. He’s just continuing a cherished American tradition.

Let’s wrap up today’s spleen-letting with these two observations:

Given the nonsense that has emanated from the Trump Royal Golf Course in Florida, we suggest its name be changed to Mar-a-Liego.  And when his time in the White House is over and if there is to be built a place to hold and study his unclassified and classified papers, it would be appropriate to refer to it as the Presidential Liebrary.

     

 

A Lost Weekend for Missouri Sports—Except for One Guy

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

—Tigers lost. Chiefs overwhelmed. Thank Heavens for Baseball.

(CHIEFS)  Look for a lot of new names on the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line next year. ESPN reports Patrick Mahomes was pressured on 29 of his 56 dropbacks in the Super Bowl and was sacked six times, more times than in any other game in his career.  The Eagles helped him to a forgettable record with those 29 pressures, breaking the record of 25 held by Buffalo’s Jim Kelley in Super Bowl 26.

And the Eagles did it without blitzing. They just rolled over the Chiefs’ offensive line.

Mahomes was sacked eleven times in the Chiefs’ three post-season games. In the regular season, the defense got him on the ground 36 times.

The Eagles dominated the Chiefs, especially in the first half when the Chiefs became the second team in Super Bowl history to have fewer total offense yards than the number of points they gave up. Their total offense in the first half, on 20 plays, was only 23 yards. They had only three running plays (Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco combined for three yards) and trailed 24-0 at the break.

The highlight of the game for the Chiefs was the winning the coin toss.  By the end, they had suffered the worst loss of any team in a Super Bowl since since losing to Tampa Bay 31-9 four Super Bowls ago.  The loss, however, was far from the worst in a Super Bowl.  SB24 saw the 49ers clobber the Broncos 55-10.

Statmuse.com says this is the 26th time in the entire history of the franchise that the Chiefs have given up 40 points and the first time it’s happened since they lost to the Vikings 45-20 on December 20, 2003.

Travis Kelce set a new record for most catches in a Super Bowl. He finished with four in the game and 35 in his career, two more than Jerry Rice. Earlier in the playoffs he had broken Rice’s record for 100 yard playoff games, with 117 yards against the Houston Texans, his ninth playoff game getting 100 yards or more. Going into the game Sunday night, Kelce’s 350 Super Bowl yards ranked him fourth in the record book. He was first with 174 catches and now has 179. He went in ranked second with 2,039 receiving yards and second with 20 receiving touchdowns.

Andy Reid’s career coaching record now is 301-162-1 in 26 seasons. Including playoffs. He’s up one on Bill Belichick for most playoff games coached, with 45. Belichick has 31 wins. Reid has 28. He will be 67 when the Chiefs start the 2025 season.

(mizz)—Dropping two games to top-10 teams last week have has led to Missouri, not surpisingly, dropping six spots in both of the major polls. They’re down to 22 in the coaches poll and

he Tigers fell to No. 22 in the USA Today Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll in Monday’s top 25, down six places from their previous ranking. They also dropped six positions in the AP sportswriters  ranking.

Both Missouri losses were by a combined seven points against top-10 teams. Tennessee remained at No. 4 in the coaches poll and Texas A&M moved up four spots to No. 9.

The teams that beat Missouri last week rose in the polls.

A last seconds heart-breaker of a three with 1.8 seconds left gave Texas A&M the win in Columbia Saturday but the Tigers sowed the seeds of their defeat with two long dry spells.

They went the first 5:40 without a point before Tamar Bates hit a three from the corner. Missouri didn’t scored in the last 8:13 of the half. The Tigers dominated the second half and tied the game with ten minutes left. They took the lead with 53 seconds left but left too much time on the clock and Wade Taylor got the game winner.

(The Baseball)—That’s what Hemingway’s Old Man called it in The Old Man and the Sea.  Pitchers and catchers are drifting into the camps in Florida and Arizona. Full squads are due by the 17th.

Both teams start the season with questions.  For the Royals, it’s “Can they do it again—and do more?”  For the Cardinals, the question is “What are they going to do, anything?”

Now, The Wheel Guys, one in particular:

(EDWARDS)—Retired Columbia NASCAR driver Carl Edward never was close to being the most popular driver of the year during his career. But any self-doubts he had about being an outsider were erased last Friday night when he joined the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In his 8th year of retirement, Edwards talked about why he abruptly retired and how he learned he was part of the NASCAR family.

Edwards was headed for the NASCAR championship when a crash took him out of his last race in 2016. A few weeks later he met with his  team owner, Joe Gibbs, and told him he was not coming back for the 2017 season.

“I’m grateful that we didn’t win that championship because it gave me time to go home and think about a few things…I didn’t know my kids and because of brave men like Dale Earnhardt Jr., and other athletes, I was aware that there are real risks to hitting your head over and over.”

Edwards told Gibbs from the dais, “You said , ‘If this is important to you, I’ve got your back’…You changed my life. You gave me permission to do something I needed to do.”

Carl’s full speech:

Bing Videos

Next weekend, big-time NASCAR racing returns at full throttle with the Daytona 500.

(Photo credit: Yahoo Sports)

The Portrait

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It is not hard to dislike Donald Trump, especially if one overlooks the idea that he is, was, and always will be an unconventional President, to grossly understate his description.  Or if one does not understate it.

The fact is that he pulled off one of the most remarkable turn-arounds, perhaps THE most remarkable turnaround in American political history—although it was not the landslide he brags it was (in terms of the popular vote; although the electoral college was equally landslidey to the whipping he took four years earlier from Joe  Biden) .

You obedient observer does not recall anyone asking Trump him, as one asks those departing from office, how he wishes to be remembered. Trump already has answered that question with his presidential portrait for his second term.

If he wants to be remembered for this glowering, angry, and threatening image for the next century or two or more (we hope), so be it.  From his standpoint, that’s who he is today.

It’s a far cry from the portrait for his first term, which is used by the Trump Presidential Library.

The two portraits contrast the different places that Trump’s life has taken him as he regains the White House. The first exudes confidence, health, vigor, and excitement about being in the oval office, a winner. It’s a friendly image. He was a robust 70 then.

The second image is of a bitter old   man, worn by four years of well-deserved legal proceedings, one of which made him a felon and the second of which has seen an escalation of damages to more than one-half billion dollars while he appeals the finding. It shows a man driven by revenge, a man comfortable with his reputation as a bully who does not forgive those who question his lies or a country that will not be intimidated by his threats.

It is reminiscent of his mug shot taken at the Fulton County, Georgia jail, the first criminal mug shot taken of any previous President.  Reprinting it on t-shirts made him a lot of money.

And yes, there IS a Trump Presidential Library. It’s a website run by the National Archives nd Records Administration, the very organization he did not want to give some of his records to.  It’s considered a placeholder until a brick and mortar library is put up.

He’s 78 now, battered and facing questions about his own psychological stability—the same issue that dogged his predecessor in the recent campaign.

HuffPost writer Kimberly Richards consulted with some body language experts about what the portrait says. One, Mike Bowden, says the portrait “conveys a sense of aggression…the impression of intense targeting or scrutiny, as if he’s locked onto a subject.” He thinks the portrait “echoes the defiance” we see in the mug shot and turns it into “a statement of power and control” and a “readiness to confront and dominate.”

The CEO of the Body Language Institute, Janine Driver, thinks the new image “conveys    authority and determination. The absence of a smile signals seriousness, perhaps an effort to project strength…Whether one admires or critiques him, it’s hard to deny the intentionality behind every element of this new portrayal.”

I hate to say it but—wait, I don’t hate to say it:

The new portrait looks more like a mob boss than a President.  It looks like a man totally wrapped up in himself, the general population be damned.

But best of all, it looks like Donald Trump and it is the image that will represent who and what he is for generations to come. It is an image he carried through his inauguration—

—and is continuing through the next four years.

If he wants to be remembered as this kind of person, we will respect one of his few demonstrations of a commitment to truth.

Sports: Another Big Win; A Big Game to Come; And a Talk with a Hall of Famer 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.

(MIZ)—We’d buy a ticket, if the University of Missouri didn’t require a second mortgage on our home to buy one AND to park somewhere in Boone County, to see Missouri’s Caleb Grill and the WNBA’s Katlin Clark have a three-point shootout from near-center court.

Grill’s latest three-pointer blitz was a major factor in Missouri’s impressive win Saturday against another top-15 club. But it wasn’t just his long-range shooting that led Missouri to crush a team by 27 points that was ranked seven slots higher in the rankings. The Tigers defense was impressive against Mississippi State and Missouri rebounding has made us almost forget last year’s regrettable rebound record.

This was a landmark win. No Missouri men’s basketball team in the entire history of MU roundball had beaten a ranked team on the road by 27 of more points. Ever. It was Misosur9’s fourth top-25 win of the year, the second top-15 road game win.

Missouri posted a season-high 15 three=pointers.

The win has boosted Missouri not the teens in the rankings—16th in the coaches poll and 15th in the sportswriters poll—the highest ratings for a Tiger eam since February 8, 2021.

It’s February now.  Only eight regular season games are left. Missouri is seventh in conference power rankings, third in the overall standings and is considered “the league’s biggest surprise.”   The Tigers are 17-4 overall and face fifth-rated Tennessee tomorrow night. That game also is on the road. . (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—We were sorting though some stuff the other day and came across what we first thought was an old handball.  But nobody in our family ever played handball.  But one bounce confirmed the second thought; it was a Super Ball, a popular plaything in the mid to late 60s.

Why mention it here?

Because it is part of the big game next Sunday.

Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had seen some kids playing with the “mystery ball with 1,000 bounces” and his mind quickly moved Super Ball to “Super Bowl.”  His Chiefs were playing the Packers in what was termed the “AFL-NFL Championship Game,”  and sometimes referred to as the “World Series of Football.”  But Hunt’s nick name for the game caught on so quickly that NFL Films’ coverage of the game (The Packers blew open the game in the second half to beat KC 35-10) called it the “Super Bowl.”

It became the official name of the game for Super Bowl III, when the Jets became the first AFL team to win.

The odds makers say this could be a super game.  The Chiefs have been listed in the early line as favored by half of a field goal.

(FASTBALLS  AND FAST CARS)

Two sports are starting to rev up now that we’re in February.

By this time next week, pitchers and catchers will be pitching and catching in Florida and in Arizona.

(CARL/NASCAR)—Friday night, Columbia retired NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  Edwards drove his last race in 2016 although he didn’t know it was his final race at the time.  He was headed for his first Cup championship with ten laps to go in the last race of the year when he tried to block challenger Joey Logano from going beneath him. His left rear fender hit the nose of Logano’s car and Edward’s car crashed hard into the infield wall.

Carl Edwards HUGE CRASH Final round 2016 Nascar Sprint Cup series

The NASCAR world was stunned when Edwards abruptly walked away.  Last year he was named one of the 75 greatest drivers in NASCAR’s 75-year history.

Edwards cut his teeth on the local tracks in Central Missouri and was the track champion at the now-gone Capital Speedway in Jefferson City.  He finally drew the attention of NASCAR team owner Jack Roush who put him in some NASCAR truck series races in which he finished in the top ten in 35 of his sixty races, with six wins.

In his 13-year career he won 28 Cup of 445 races, was in the top five 124 times and in the top ten 220 times.  In his last year his average starting position through 36 races was 7.2.  He finished second in the standings twice including one year when he and Tony Stewart finished tied in points but Stewart took home the trophy because he won more races.

For ten years, eight of them with full-time rides, he ran in the top feeder series for the Cup program, racing on Saturday before the Cup races on Sundays, posting 38 wins in 245 starts and finishing outside the top ten only 71 times. He won what was then the Busch Series championship in 2007 and finished second in the standings four times and third once.

Edwards was known for his backflips from his car when he won. He was a prominent image in NASCAR marketing, and was considered a likely race winner every time he buckled into his seat.

Then he left after the final race and what became a career-ending crash. He has seldom been seen at the track since although he admits a pull back to the sport, not as a driver but as a respected retiree.

We confess, we miss him and looking at the picture above, taken while he was in the pits at Indianapolis, reminds us what a pleasure it was to watch him race—and to talk with him. When we talked the last time, he admitted privately that he was considering what he should do for the second half of his life. I couldn’t tell him what he should do but we did discuss what he shouldn’t do, and he didn’t. And whether that conversation influenced his decision is not material. But it was nice of hm to ask.

Carl told an interviewer last year after learning he’d been elected to the Hall of Fame, “I just needed time. I woke up…and I realized I’m not spending time doing anything other than racing and that’s time I would never get back.”  He also felt he had done everything he wanted to do in NASCAR racing and, “I understood that I was the best that I could be…I escaped without any injuries” of the kind of concussion problems Dale Earnhardt Jr., had worked through.

He admits it took “a couple of years” to adjust to non-racing life, “to get a balance,” as he put it. But 2016 was the first time, he said, that he “ looked around and thought, ‘there are some other things that I really need to tend to. My family, nobody else is going to take my role there,” so he had to make the clean break he did.

Carl Edwards Talks Hall of Fame, NASCAR Exit: “How I Left Was Misunderstood…”

He has no desire to climb back into a Cup car again. He’s 45, a little grey at the temples now, comfortable with his life-decision, and knows the sport has moved beyond him—although he confesses he has been on a simulator a few times.

He still lives in Columbia, travels a lot, and says he keeps busy with a lot of things. And he’s a good guy.

Next week in this space we’ll be telling you about NASCAR’s opening race, the Daytona 500.

(Screenshot from his interview; photo by Bob Priddy at Brickyard 400, 2014)

The VEEP

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Andy Borowitz is a New York-based humorist and political commentator who a few days ago posted this on The Borowitz Report:

MUSK’S DEPT. OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY CUTS POSITION OF VICE PRESIDENT

(WASHINGTON—The Borowitz Report) —Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has eliminated the position of vice president of the United States, Musk announced on Monday.

“The job of the vice president is to fill in for the president if he falls ill,” Musk said. “This seemed unnecessary since I’m in superb health.”

Musk added that he was inspired to cut the VP position “because JD Vance hasn’t been seen in weeks and no one’s missed him.”

According to sources within DOGE, Vance will immediately be reassigned as a used Tesla salesman.

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Well, is a Vice-President about as useful as a (fill in the blank)?

His or her main importance is that the Veep will become the Prez if the big guy is ruled incapable of continuing in office.

One of country’s best-ever syndicated political commentators, Jules Witcover, wrote a book that came out in 2014, The Americam Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power.  His column that came out on October 18, 2014, was headlined, “Come On, Joe, Being Veep Ain’t So Bad: The Virtues of the vice-president.”

We have a new Veep, one who seemed to disappear at some point in the recent campaign; not an unusual situation when the presidential nominee sucks all of the air out of a room or out of a campaign. But it’s likely he will become more visible because he’s likely to break a lot of votes, as he did a few days ago when he broke a tie to confirm a new cabinet member. We enjoyed Witcover’s column so much that we offer it now that  J.D. Vance has become America’s official second banana. .

The general public regard for the American vice presidency was once summed up by Thomas R. Marshall, Woodrow Wilson’s standby, in the sad story of a man who had two sons. One was lost at sea, the other became vice president of the United States, and neither was ever heard from again. Wilson offered his own judgment of Marshall by once unguardedly referring to him as “a small-caliber man.”

The office of the vice presidency has never ceased to be the brunt of ridicule—even by its very occupants. Vice President Joe Biden at Harvard last week jokingly derided the office as “a bitch” before quickly insisting, perhaps less convincingly, that taking it was the “best decision I ever made.”

Not all vice presidents would say the same, especially most of the early, long-forgotten ones like Daniel Tompkins, George Dallas and William King. But despite Marshall’s and Biden’s gibes, most latter-day occupants of the second office have been significant—in some cases, essential—presidential partners in governing the country, attesting to the power of the role. Often, less-than-illustrious vice presidential performances have had less to do with the office itself than with the selection of running mates by presidents-to-be and how well, once elected, they made use of their seconds-in-command. If being vice president is like being lost at sea, it’s because, as history confirms, for too long presidents picked their VPs frivolously or carelessly and then left them to drift.

The first three presidents—George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—had no say whatsoever concerning the identity of their vice presidents, as the Constitution stipulated that the runner-up in the balloting for president would get the job. The faults of this system were soon apparent. Adams, as Washington’s first veep, observed woefully, not unlike Biden, that “in this I am nothing, but I may be everything.” The second VP, Thomas Jefferson, used much of his four years in the office subverting his boss by creating what eventually became the Democratic Party, while publicly deploring “factions” in the young nation’s politics. (He once insisted, “if I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go at all.” Two centuries later, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. was moved to observe: “Even Jefferson soon decided that, with the right party, he would be willing to go, if not to heaven, at least to the White House.”)

By 1804, when the Twelfth Amendment was ratified, it had become clear that the existing VP selection system meant members of rival factions might be forced to work together, imperiling continuity of policy if a vice president succeeded to the presidency. At first, the path to the vice presidency was often through the death of a commander in chief. Eight accidental presidents, from John Tyler to Lyndon Johnson reached the Oval Office through the death of their party leader (though Tyler opportunistically turned Whig once he was president), and Gerald Ford got there by way of Richard Nixon’s resignation in the Watergate scandal.

Other Vice Presidents Who Hated Their Job

“Look at all the Vice Presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow’s fifth teat.” —Harry Truman

“Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected vice president of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again.”  —Thomas R. Marshall

“I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes.” —Nelson Rockefeller

“I would a great deal rather be anything, say professor of history, than vice president.” —Theodore Roosevelt, before becoming William McKinley’s vice president

“I have no interest in it. Might very well turn it down, indeed, and probably would.” —Al Gore, before becoming Bill Clinton’s vice president

“The vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm piss.” —John Nance Garner

But in the modern era, seekers of the two top offices, for practical purposes, have run on the same ticket—and increasingly the president wisely has decided to make greater use of the second office in governance. For too many years, presidents basically ignored their understudy as they clung warily to their power and closely guarded presidential secrets. In 1945, when Vice President Harry Truman took the Oval Office after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he hadn’t even been told that the atomic bomb that would end World War II was near completion. Succeeding vice presidents were generally kept better informed, but 30 more years passed before they were employed in a manner commensurate to their experience and skills. Even Lyndon Johnson, master of the U.S. Senate prior to becoming John F. Kennedy’s second-in-command, was essentially kept on the sidelines as key Kennedy aides handled major legislative matters, to LBJ’s immense frustration.

Ironically, not until a Washington outsider named Jimmy Carter became president in 1977 was the vice president made a genuine presidential partner. Carter personally interviewed and chose running mate Walter Mondale, a U.S. senator from Minnesota, who, in alliance with the president, was most responsible for the evolution of the second office.

In a sense, the defeated 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern inadvertently played a role in the development of the Mondale model. After selecting Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his original running mate under the pressures of a contested national convention, McGovern dropped him upon disclosure that Eagleton had received electric-shock therapy for mental depression. The furor persuaded Carter four years later to conduct a thorough personal vetting of several running-mate prospects, including Mondale.

In advance of Mondale’s interview by Carter in Plains, Georgia, the senator’s chief of staff Richard Moe drew up a detailed memorandum on what Carter seemed to need and want in a vice president. Mondale and Moe then crafted a paper describing what Mondale could offer and sent it to Carter, who bought into it at once. When he met Mondale, Carter told him: “I want you to be in the chain of command—a vice president with the power to act in the president’s place.”

Once installed in the White House, Carter and Mondale together created the modern model for putting the vice presidency to work fulltime. Carter gave Mondale complete access to him in the Oval Office and to his inner circle, and made him his chief adviser in dealing with Congress, about which Carter had no experience, as was often revealed.

Since then, after a long history of idle and near-invisible occupants, the office has evolved into a vehicle of notable political power. Four of the last six vice presidents—Mondale, Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden—have had major roles in governing the nation never envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Their power, to be sure, has been delegated by the presidents under whom they’ve served; the Constitution gives the vice president only two roles, as presidential standby and president of the U.S. Senate, without a vote except to break a tie. These four, however VPs, and to a lesser extent two others—the senior George Bush, who later was elected president in his own right, and his vice president, Dan Quayle—also had access to the president and freedom to weigh in on certain policy decisions.

The senior Bush, who first ran for president against Ronald Reagan in 1980 before becoming his VP, professed to abhor the vice presidency. When asked whether he would accept it, he repeatedly said: “Take Sherman and cube it,” referring to the Civil War general’s declaration that “if nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.” But in the end, Bush took the job and kept a low profile, particularly as Reagan recovered from the 1981 assassination attempt that could have made his stand-in the president.

When Bush was elected president in 1988, for a sort of third Reagan term that distinctly didn’t turn out that way, he startled the political world by selecting the singularly unimpressive Quayle as his running mate. Presidential nominees always vow they will pick the individual most qualified to succeed to the presidency if destiny dictates, but Bush appeared to pick his own Bush as vice president—a youthful and pleasant enough fellow from a well-off conservative family who would happily serve in the shadow of the president. But the gaffe-prone choice was particularly baffling inasmuch as Bush himself, only weeks into his own vice presidency, had come within inches of the presidency in that shooting of Reagan.

Reagan followed the Mondale model in bringing Bush into the West Wing, but without the same regular access. Clinton in 1992 adopted the model with Gore but gave him specific areas of responsibility in government reorganization and cleaning up the environment.

George W. Bush also assigned his vice president specific areas of responsibility—in this case, in military and foreign policy matters—but went a step further. In 2001, the junior Bush allowed Cheney to set up what in some respects was a parallel staff of his own, with key former aides also placed elsewhere in the administration, assuring Cheney broad influence. In turn, Cheney took on roles in expanding presidential powers and wartime policies. His advocacy of intelligence-gathering and treatment of prisoners and detainees cast him almost as a de facto assistant president. Ironically, Bush had asked Cheney to help him find a running mate, and in effect he wound up finding himself.

Biden, after first telling Barack Obama he could better serve his country by continuing as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed to be his running mate on Obama’s promise that he would always “be in the room” when major decisions were made. Like Mondale, Biden would serve as a general adviser without departmental or other limiting responsibilities, as both VPs had desired. In office, however, Biden has taken on some specific policy assignments such as overseeing the use of economic stimulus funds in the states and cities and being the administration’s voice for middle-class concerns—and, for good or ill, overseeing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

The most successful vice presidential candidates seem to be the ones explicitly chosen for their judgment and competence. Of course, even in recent experience, this yardstick is not always used. Beyond the senior Bush’s selection of the gaffe-prone Quayle, Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s gamble on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in 2008 confirmed that White House aspirants remain capable of yielding to purely political judgments of what may get them elected. Palin proved to be a charismatic running mate but was also one woefully ill-informed on matters that would come to a president’s desk, which might very well have contributed to McCain’s margin of defeat.

In most other cases, the vice presidency has not been much of a stepping-stone to the presidency. After Adams and Jefferson became vice president as runners-up in the soon-discarded presidential balloting, only two occupants, Martin Van Buren and the senior George Bush, ever have been elected directly from the second office—and both lost reelection. Three vice presidents, Mondale, Hubert Humphrey and Gore, did win their party’s presidential nomination, but were left outside the Oval Office looking in. Biden probably won’t even get that far.

Nevertheless, the vice presidency has come a long way, even since its lowest point in 1973, when Spiro Agnew was forced to resign as he faced conviction for taking payoffs from construction contractors as governor in Maryland and later in the White House. President Richard Nixon, himself imperiled in the Watergate scandal, at first regarded Agnew as his insurance policy. A 1973 White House tape caught Nixon telling aides: “Impeach Nixon? Well, then they get Agnew.” And later: “No assassin in his right mind would kill me. They know that if they did they would end up with Agnew!” On another occasion, Nixon considered removing Agnew from the line of presidential succession by appointing him to … the Supreme Court!

Fortunately, most recent presidential nominees have taken to heart their responsibility to choose VPs reasonably qualified to become president. But voters still look to the top of the ticket at the ballot box, leaving to presidents thereafter to make the most—or least—of who’s waiting in the wings.

Today, J. D. Vance, seemingly “the man who wasn’t there” during the latter weeks of the campaign and pretty much since then, has become the gentleman-in-waiting should the oldest person ever inaugurated in the presidency not make it to his political 18th green.

*Jules Witcover and I share the same birth day.  He is about 13-14 years older than I am but is an inspiration to the younger generation of political observers, of which I am a part.   I didn’t say WHICH younger generation, but younger.

Hearing a Speech Never Given 

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A few minutes before President Kennedy was to arrive at the Dallas Trade Mart on November 22, 1963, he was murdered.

Some of his planned remarks are useful for us to consider today. The text of the speech is available from numerous sources.

But what if he had lived to deliver it?

Well, we now have an idea of how it would have sounded.

A few days ago, I listened to  John Kennedy deliver that speech, in which he said, among other things::

“Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country’s security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.

“There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable…

“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will ‘talk sense to the American people.’ But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.”

As he neared the end of his speech he would have cited how American leadership through strength had blunted the Soviet Union’s expansionism.  He would have said:

“. There is no longer any doubt about the strength and skill of American science, American industry, American education, and the American free enterprise system.”

He would have warned, “In today’s world, freedom can be lost without a shot being fired, by ballots as well as bullets. The success of our leadership is dependent upon respect for our mission in the world as well as our missiles – on a clearer recognition of the virtues of freedom as well as the evils of tyranny.”

He would have concluded, “Our adversaries have not abandoned their ambitions, our dangers have not diminished, our vigilance cannot be relaxed. But now we have the military, the scientific, and the economic strength to do whatever must be done for the preservation and promotion of freedom…

“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: ‘except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’

Artificial Intelligence can be monstrously good and monstrously evil, which is why it is so frightening to many of those who have seen past promises of peaceful and proper use of technology turned inside out by those who have exploited them.  So it can be with AI, which is alternatively exciting and frightening.

But AI also has given us John Kennedy’s voice giving the speech he never lived to give.  You can read how it was done and then hear the speech here;

JFK video: hear Kennedy’s ‘lost’ Dallas speech in his own voice

The technology is remarkable—-and it is just beginning its ascendency.  And while listening to how technology has woven words into speech, it is more important to focus on the words never spoken—

“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint,”

AI has given us that speech. Will human intelligence let us appreciate it in these angry times?

 

Chiefs: Let’s Play Three; Tigers Rise

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

The Kansas City Chiefs scored more than thirty points for the first time since 24 games and they needed every one of them to break the hearts of Buffalo Bills fans again and head to their third Super Bowl in a row.

Harrison Butker’s field goal with 3:33 left provided the points. The Chiefs defense kept Buffalo from getting close enough to tie and clutch Marhomes to Pacheco and Mahomes to Perine passes made sure Buffalo never got another chance.

The Chiefs shut down the bills on third downs, letting them succeed only five times in fourteen changes. The Chiefs went 5 for 9.  The Bills also converted four fourth downs but coiuldn’t make it happen in their last possession.

In about ten days the Chiefs will try to something no other team has done in the 59-year history of the Super Bowl—with a third straight Lombardi Trophy.  They’ll face The Philadelphia Eagles, a team they beat to start the string of championships.  Kansas City rallied from ten points down to beat the Eagles 38-35 on a Butker field goal.

Philadelphia demolished the Washington Commanders 55-23, a record scoring output since the beginning of the Super Bowl era.

The Bills and the Chiefs have met 56 times.  The Chiefs have won just 25 of them—but four have kept the Bills from playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since they went to the game four straight years, 1990-93 with Jim Kelly at quarterback and Marve Levy as the coach. Levy coached the chiefs for five years before going to Buffalo.  Levy will be more than halfway to his 100th birthday when his Chiefs, not his Bills, play another Super Bowl.

(MIZZ)—The Missouri Tigers split their two games last week but still moved up a little in the rankings.  They’re 21st in the USA TODAY coaches poll.  They’ve hopped up two slots in the AP sportswriters poll, to 20th.  Missouri was up to 20th one week during the 2022-23 season, the first one for Coach Dennis Gates.

The Tigers face #5 Tennessee Thursday night and  Tennessee Sunday afternoon. (ZOU)

(BASE BALL)—It originally was two words.  Former Jefferson City Mayor John Christy pronounced it that way.

It’s getting closer.  Pitcher and catchers are less than two weeks away from throwing their first pitch and catching it  in Florida and Arizona.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals head into the 2025 season with three guys who were part of the 2011 rally-back World Series on the coaching staff to help the young Birds brow into a competitive team this year.

Three members of the “Memphis Mafia” are on the coaching staff this year==Jon Jay,  Daniel Descalso, and David Freese.  Descalso will start the season as the bench coach. Jay will work with young outfielders. And Freese will be on hand during Spring training as a consultant working with third basemen and first basement. At this point, he’ll be working with young backup candidates at third. The Cardinals have not yet moved Nolan Arenado but the speculation continues about what will happen with him, including

(ROYALS)—The Royals have made only minor adjustments during the off-season but they, too, have their speculators.

The first engines have started running hot at Daytona—

(RACING)—The Daytona 24-hours is the first major auto race of the new season each year and the final results at Daytona show that the race cars of Roger Penske will be another major problem for everybody else.

Penske Porsche driven by 2023 winner Felipe Nasr  teamed with Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanhoor.  Close behind was the Acura with Indycar drivers Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon, with Colin Braun and Tom Blomquist, who had a few Indycar rides earlier.

Several other drivers from Indycar and NASCAR drove in other classes.

 

Another Nasty Woman Speaks Up

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Trumpworld has had a spasm—as expected—to a religious leader who had the nerve to call on the President to be a real religious person, not just someone who uses faith as a political crutch.

It started with the President himself, who has proclaimed that God saved him from an assassin’s bullet so he could become the nation’s leader. Washington, D.C. Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde looked at the President in a national prayer service the day after his inauguration and told him,  “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”

She really stirred the Trumpian bladder when she continued, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We’re scared now. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

She also pleaded for him to be merciful to the LGBTQ+ community.

Trump can’t stand anyone who speaks truth to him, especially a woman. He was deeply offended: “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”

Long on invective. Short on facts. Donald being the usual Donald. Another “nasty” woman had confronted him. And the several studies that show the crime rate among immigrants is well below the crime rate of native-born Americans are of no interest to him. But don’t expect him to respect any facts other than those he creates.

The cutaways during the service showed someone who probably preferred to be anywhere but there.

One of the offended  parties is Congressman Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma. We’re going to challenge an opinion piece he wrote in the wake of the well-deserved pulpit remarks and we are going to take them apart piece by piece.

As a believer, I attended the service for the purpose of praying for our nation, President Trump, the president’s family, and the success of his administration.

(He obviously fails to understand that is exactly what most of us pray for these days, although our definition of “success” will differ from his. He wants success for Trump while others want success for our nation—the two not being alike.)

I purposely left the prayer service early after realizing how the pulpit was being used for left-wing activism and not for true worship unto God, to seek His will and wisdom. Mr. President, what accosted you at the prayer service was political–not biblical.

(Oh, really?  This is in contrast to a President and his supporters who have used religion for his right wing political purposes,  peddles grossly overpriced reprints of a 17th Century Bible and claims it is his favorite book but seldom darkens the door of a worship center and shows inclination to do unto others what he would want to be done unto him or—better—the reverse.

Congressman Brecheen likes to cite Bible verses to support his assertions. That’s one of the Bible’s problems; it can be cherry-picked to support any position.

We have or are thinking of a series of verses with which he and other Trumpians appear to be ignorant or choose to ignore, verses that Contributor Annette Griffin has written for Biblestudymaterials.com are a “series of blessings highlighting the qualities and attitudes valued in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 5, 3-12:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That seem to pretty well cover all of the people President Trump doesn’t like.

The congressman is correct. The Bishop made the mistake of building her remarks on the Sermon on the Mount when she should have fallen in line and accepted the Psalm of J6.)

We wonder if the scowling super-Christian President who shills for his personally-endorsed book where these simple statements are found can quote any of the Beatitudes.  Wonder if he can even spell the word.

Brecheen goes on:

“When we tolerate lies, we are empowering a distortion of the truth. It is time for every believer to take a stand, get in the exit row, and walk out of services where the full counsel of biblical truth is being distorted.”

(This is an important observation oozing hypocrisy.  If it were carried out elsewhere as the congressman suggests happened in this service, Mr. Trump would have been speaking to empty auditoriums throughout his campaign, to an empty Capitol Rotunda during his inauguration, and to an empty room at the luncheon afterward—not to mention the his speech on January 6, 2021 to his tourists/hostages.)

Why didn’t the other believers walk out of the “service” on January 6?  Because they tolerated lies, distorted truth, and then they savaged the Capitol.

Brecheen might be excused for some of this because he was not among members of the House and Senate who fled for their lives while the tourists were paying a peaceful visit. He joined the House in 2023.

Many know of the faith of our Founders and the biblical influence on our nation.

(Such as the Pilgrims and the Puritans banishing Roger Williams and other Baptists from Massachusetts Bay because they weren’t Puritan enough to present Rhode Island, which he founded as a place where “liberty of conscience” was allowed. Or maybe we should emulate those Christians who murdered women branded as witches in Salem, etc.  And who can overlook the deeply Christian beliefs claimed by the Ku Klux Klan decades later?)

Brecheen:

Even as recently as the 1950s, President Eisenhower and Congress declared “In God we Trust” our nation’s motto and added “one Nation under God” to our Pledge of Allegiance. 

(We wonder if we aren’t dealing with a little toleration of lies and distortion of truth here., too. The Pledge was originated  by former Union Army officer George Thatcher Balch in 1885 not as a religious statement but as a way to teach patriotism to school children.  Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister—another trouble-making Baptists such as Roger Williams—is credited with modifying the pledge in 1892 to read most of the way we recite it today to promote the sale of American Flags. But here is something important to remember about Bellamy—he left out any religious references ON PURPOSE because he was an absolutist on the issue of church and state.

Bellamy was a self-proclaimed Christian Socialist, an interesting characterization in today’s political world.  But he might fit right in with The Gospel of Donald because he wrote, “Where all classes of society merge insensibly into one another every alien immigrant of inferior race may bring corruption to the stock. There are races more or less akin to our own whom we may admit freely and get nothing but advantage by the infusion of their wholesome blood. But there are other races, which we cannot assimilate without lowering our racial standard, which should be as sacred to us as the sanctity of our homes.”

Trump could love this guy after all.

Religion was not added as the result of any 20th Century Great Revival. It was added to make sure Americans knew we are superior to the “Godless Communists” of that time.

Brecheen seems to think the words “Under God” were added during the Eisenhower administration because Eisenhower had two legs:

A man of faith, President Eisenhower’s heart was set on this path from a young age when prayer saved him from death after his leg became infected and required amputation. The Lord answered these prayers, saving young Eisenhower’s leg, and thus, our future president was set on the trajectory of attending West Point and becoming the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II. This would have never happened had President Eisenhower’s leg been amputated.

What that has to do with the creation of the phrase in the pledge, we don’t know. History tells us Eisenhower had nothing to do with creating the phrase nor was he the biggest advocate for it. He got behind the political movement to include it and signed the bill creating it.

Brecheen asserts that Eisenhower approved the change after finding the greatness of America in church: “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!”

That latter reflection seems to argue against the point Brecheen is trying to make. It’s pretty hard to see the harsh attitude toward immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community—or even to the Episcopal Bishop of Washington —as being  “good.”  And a strong argument can be made that making American great again is the opposite of the message Trump uses to gin up his base.

Brecheen continues;

Unfortunately, a day after President Trump promised that his administration “will not forget our God,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde distorted the truth and used her position at the National Prayer Service to seek political fame and selfish gain. By ignoring biblical teachings that God made humans distinctly male and female (Genesis 1:27), that we must go to someone in private before accosting them in public (Matthew 18:15-17), and that we must obey the law of the land (Romans 13:1-3), Budde ignored biblical truth.

(The truth was sitting right in front of her. I read the lessons of the New Testament to be positive ones.  Is it not true, or more true than Brecheen wants us to accept, that Jesus’s message was one of inclusion rather than exclusion?  Is not the story of the Good Samaritan a core lesson? Is not the story of Cornelius, a centurion becoming a Chrisian an extreme example of loving one’s enemy?)

In her sermon, Budde cited a Bible verse commonly used in left-wing arguments, that “We are to be merciful to the stranger.” To understand this verse, we must understand the word stranger in its full meaning, as taken from the original Hebrew language.

This particular Hebrew word is specifically used to describe a foreigner who fully submits to the customs and culture of their country of refuge. Illegal aliens are not submitting to the laws of the land–they’re defying them.

(There he goes again.  He chooses one word and used it to distort the truth of the Sermon on the Mount. And the facts show a far different view of whether illegal aliens submit to the laws of the land. If Native-born Americans committed crimes at a rate as low as those committed illegals, would country would be much better off.)

Ecclesiastes 8:11 warns us against ignoring laws being broken, saying, in effect: When the law is not enforced, the people’s hearts are enticed to do more evil. Let’s not forget the murders, rapes, and gang violence that the lawless southern border has perpetuated. 

(Maybe Brecheen needs to get his nose out of the collected, selected verses from Trump’s favorite book and read numerous reports by federal agencies and private researchers indicating that comment simply is not true. And we won’t comment on the pardons of 1500 tourists when it comes to someone “ignoring laws being broken.”)

The left frequently ignores such teachings, taking Scripture out of context and using half-truths to justify their politics. Do not fall into this trap! A half-truth is always a full lie.

(Is he preaching to himself or to Trump here? To us, the truth in his statement applies more to the Trumpian empire than it does to those hated people on “the left.” Using half-truths to justify politics is something St.Donald uses far more effectively than St. Paull ever did.)

The pulpit did not flame with righteousness during Budde’s sermon but instead promoted principles that inherently contradict biblical truth. 

(If the pulpit did not flame with righteousness, why do the President and his supporters feel burned?)

If we are to return our country to one nation under God, we must speak the truth in love. Love without truth is not real love. 

(Now, THAT is profound.  But if we turn to Trump’s favorite book, we find a more expansive definition of love:)

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,  but do not have love, I gain nothing.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

That’s from Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Corinth. Of course, the President says he doesn’t want to get into his favorite Bible verses because “its very personal.” He has modestly conceded that Jesus Christ is more famous than he is worldwide. He once did reveal that his favorite verse. It is the Old Testament’s “an eye for an eye.”

Brecheen:

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

(Who can argue with that?  The problem is that the “love” chapter of the Bible is in First Corinthians and the “liberty” verse is from “Two Corinthians,” as the Bible scholar/President puts it. The question for the writer of this sentence is whether the spirit of the Lord resided in the pew with the stony-faced attendee (we shall not call him a worshiper) or whether it resided that day in the pulpit.

When it comes to quoting scripture, perhaps Trumpworld and its leader should ponder this passage from the 11th chapter of Luke’s Gospel:

“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: ‘The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

‘All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,  the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.

‘But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.  And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.’”

Too bad Trumpworld lacks the compassion to recognize that we are all brothers (and sisters).

Trumpworld’s follow-the-leader response won’t change Bishop Budde’s mind or standing. She told the Associated Press, “I don’t consider him an enemy. I believe we can disagree respectfully and put our ideas out there and continue to stand for the convictions we’ve been given without resorting to violence of speech.”

THAT is the Christian.

Trump showed his sincerity as a Christian by skipping church, as usual, yesterday.

(The knee-jerk reaction of Trumpworld went far beyond thc Congressman’s reaction.  I suggest you check out Bryan Kaylor’s column for A Public Witness:  (7) After Viral Sermon, GOP Threatens Religious Liberty

Bryan is a minister following in the footsteps of earlier troublesome Baptists. He is the co-author with Beau Underwood, a Christian Church/Disciples of Christ minister, of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism

(Editorial Cartoon is from the Tribune Content  Agency)

 

The No-Bible President

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No Bible-thumper, he—

Unless he can make a buck off of it.

It couldn’t be seen on the television screen as we were watching the swearing-in of President Trump Monday, but First Lady Melania Trum was holding two Bibles, as she did in 2017.  This time, however, he didn’t put his hand on them, as he did in 2017.

One was Abraham Lincoln’s Bible used in 1861.  The other had been given to him by his mother when he was a child.  He raised his right hand but his left hand stayed by his side.

We briefly wondered at the time if he was using one of his personal “God Bless the USA” Bibles that he was hawking as the only Bible endorsed by Donald J. Trump and singer Lee Greenwood whose song was frequently heard at campaign rallies. His  special Bible originally was published at the order of English King James VI in 1611—long before there was a Constitution, a Declaration, and a Pledge—and has been replaced in many denominations worship services by modern translations and interpretations, although it remains popular among many evangelicals—and evangelicals are his people.

But he didn’t even use that one.

Before anybody gets TOO critical of this situation, here are some things to remember:

It doesn’t mean that his oath of office is invalid.  A Bible is not required for swearings-in at any level. Article Six of the Constitution might be taken by some as an argument against using a Bible to swear an oath: “All executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

But it is interesting that a man who a year ago was thumping the tub for his Bible by saying in a promotional video, “”Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast” did not touch either of the ones Melania was holding for him to use.

“It’s my favorite book. It’s a lot of people’s favorite book,” he said in his sales pitch.

Trump was raised a Presbyterian but claims today to be “non-denominational,” a convenient position to make sure he doesn’t offend any of the faithful.

Other than going to funerals, there’s no record that identifies the President as being any kind of a church-goer (maybe being non-denominational means you don’t have to go to any church) although he did attend a pre-inauguration service at the St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is close enough to the White House that numerous Presidents have attended worship services there and was a convenient place, you might remember, for him to stand in front of the parish house holding a non-Official Trump Bible for a 2020 photo opportunity, signifying—

—we don’t know what he was signifying, actually. He did not appear to be happy about being there in the photos we’ve seen of the occasion.

Later accounts said daughter Ivanka came up with the idea  that he walk to the church, go inside, and say a prayer. Hope Hicks, the presidential counselor, suggested he read some scripture or visit with church leaders. But Trump reportedly said all he wanted to do was hold up a Bible for photographs.  He spent all of six minutes on the scene.

Numerous church leaders of several denominations, including officials at St. Johns wasted no time accused him of using the church as a “political prop.”

It is interesting that this man who has claimed in his commercials that the  Bible is his favorite book did not have one he could carry with him to the church.  Ivanka pulled one form her purse, and she gave it to him on the walk to the scene. When a reporter asked, “Is that your Bible,” Trump responded, “It’s a Bible.”

The Bible he used that day is not the official Trump Bible, the KJV as it’s called by many.  It was the RSV, the Revised Standard Version.  He did not even know that the Bible he so proudly displayed that day is not the one endorsed by  man evangelical Christians who make up a big part of his political support.

There were several reports that he held it upside down.  Later investigations refuted that.

In June 2020, Emily Singer of the American Independent Foundation tracked Trump’s church-going since he took office in 2017. “Trump’s stunt at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., marked the 14th time that he’s attended a church since he took office in January 2017,” she wrote.

One visit was the pre-inaugural service in 2017.

He attended Easter and Christmas services at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Church in Palm Beach while he was at Mar-a-Lago resort five times. Once he attended a Christmas service at Baptist-affiliated church in West Palm Beach after a Christian magazine wrote an op-ed criticizing Trump’s “grossly immoral character.”

Other church visits chronicled by Singer:

Sept. 2, 2017: During a visit to Texas to survey the destruction from Hurricane Harvey, Trump went to First Church of Pearland. He didn’t attend services there, but rather gave remarks to volunteers who were giving out supplies to those impacted by the storm.

Dec. 5, 2018: Trump attended the funeral service of former President George H.W. Bush at the Washington National Cathedral, along with his five living predecessors. But Trump caused a stir when he did not say the Apostle’s Creed, which according to the Washington Post is “one of the prayers most core to Christianity.”

Dec. 24, 2018: Trump attended Christmas Eve services at the Washington National Cathedral because he couldn’t travel to Mar-a-Lago thanks to the government shutdown.

March 17, 2019: After a monthslong church-going drought, Trump attended Lenten Services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square. Prior to his church attendance, Trump was airing his grievances on Twitter, including frustration about his portrayal on “Saturday Night Live.”

June 2, 2019: After playing a round at his golf property in Virginia, Trump went to a conservative evangelical church for 11 minutes so the church’s pastor could pray over him. Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, had designated the day as a “Special Day of Prayer” for Trump.

Jan. 3, 2010: Trump held a campaign rally at an evangelical megachurch in Miami, Florida, in his effort to court the evangelical vote. The event raised questions about the church’s tax-exempt status.

June 2, 2020: Trump visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine ahead of an executive order signing on “religious freedom” but was condemned by the Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory for using the shrine as a political prop. Gregory called Trump’s visit “baffling and reprehensible” and that Trump “egregiously misused and manipulated” the shrine.

Now, look folks, a lot of people are Easter and Christmas Christians. So his church behavior is not unusual.  But we don’t know of any of the other people going around selling self-promoting Bibles, and none other than the President who has proclaimed that God saved him from an assassin’s bullet so he could be re-elected President of the United States.

“God Bless the USA,” he and his promotional Bible say.

Millions of Americans have a different sentiment.

“God help us.”

(Photo Credit: Church: Official White House Photo; inauguraiton: Morrie Gash/AFP via Getty Images)

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