Time to Think

Young and Old By Hank Silverberg I am very lucky to have two wonderful grandchildren who live nearby and are often playing around my house as I write this blog.  They are both bright boys, and I expect their quality of life to be better than mine. But at times, I worry it won’t happen. Getting a college education has always been encouraged in my family, and it has worked out well for those of us in the Baby Boomer generation, for the most part (see story angle below).   Our children also did pretty well, though like many of their classmates,  they are now strapped with huge student loans that are getting harder and harder to pay off. So, it was with great alarm that I noted this story that floated around the edges of the news cycle this past week.  Just the headline should make many people a bit nervous.   https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/10/trump-proposes-end-to-student-loan-forgiveness-program.html The President’s proposed budget for 2021 ...

Disinformation By Hank Silverberg I have never been to Iowa. I hear it’s a nice place, if you can stand the cold winters where temperatures hover between 14 and 20 degrees in January.   But it’s time for them to change the way they pick delegates to the political party convention.   Last week’s caucuses, as everyone knows by now, were a   d isaster.   It really makes no difference at this point who won. New Hampshire, where people actually vote, is much simpler. But the beginning of the primary season got off to a bad start and the only person who won was Donald J. Trump. That, combined with the highly predictable vote to acquit him on the articles of impeachment in the Senate, gave Trump a very good week.    You would think that would give him a chance to move forward, forget about what has happened in the last year, tout his accomplishments and work on things that matter, like reducing the national debt or fixing thousands of roads ...

Expectations By Hank Silverberg Here we are, exactly where I predicted we would be weeks ago. And I am certainly not alone in that forecast. By mid-week the Senate will have voted to acquit Donald J. Trump on the two articles of impeachment, and he will then be free to do whatever he wants for at least another year.  There are those who will say the U.S. Constitution worked. But did it? I say no. It stopped working the minute the Republicans in the Senate voted to deny new witnesses or new evidence to be admitted to the trial, making the whole Senate procedure useless! Trump won’t be removed from office, but the trial certainly did not exonerate him. We are right where we were after the release of the Mueller Report. He has NOT been exonerated. WE know s omething smells, but the GOP is throwing out the rubbish and covering it up with soil before we can get to the bottom of the the garbage can.  But at least we can get back to the election campaign, whic...

The Trial, The Space Force and Chocolate By Hank Silverberg How much of the Trial of Donald J. Trump did you watch on TV? I spent a few hours on it. I had watched some of the House   hearings. Much of what we heard during the prosecution’s opening just recapped the evidence in the case.   I was most interested in how the White House was going to defend Mr. Trump. I am waiting for witnesses, people who were close to the President and were involved in the decisions to testify, and say, “No, that’s not what happened.” But guess what? We are not likely to hear from those witnesses. The Republicans on the jury (53 United States Senators) apparently don’t want to hear what the principal players would say if they were to testify. They   apparently will settle for a couple of not so smooth-talking lawyers to just repeat the President’s claim that he is perfect and did nothing wrong. That premise is ridiculous. Donald Trump did plenty wrong. I am not a Co...

Guns, Prayer and Revisionist History  (updated)  By Hank Silverberg Guns are a hard issue to write about. I am not a gun owner and never even thought about owning one. I don’t see the need. But I understand the argument by some that they are an option for self-defense of your home. Sports shooting, and hunting are legitimate activities, assuming you are in season, licensed, understand the rules and will eat any animal you kill.   What I will never understand is some people’s need to own an arsenal, including military-style weapons. I don’t see black helicopters coming to take away everybody’s gun, and those who say guns are needed to protect us FROM our government would be better off hiring a good civil rights lawyer.  Despite the political shift to the right, the danger in some of President Trump’s policies and all those high-profile mass shootings, crime has been on a downtrend over the last decade. And so far, the rule of law is still the best weapo...