Amen! Thank you Henry. I plead guilty. I toggle between sad, angry, fearful and back to sad. There are days when events kidnap my psyche. It’s not healthy and I work hard to stay balanced and open. I remember a time when politics was the least interesting thing to talk about. Stay informed. Vote. Live a good life and try to do some good. I long for an environment that has a focus on what we have in common. The world is a more interesting and gentle place. Your thoughts on this are very much appreciated. Thank you.
Henry, Oh Henry how can TDS create one so blind in the eye and deaf in the ear? Trump will vacate office after pocketing billions of dollars because of the position he holds. This is intentional on his part and wrong on every level. I thought the Clintons were bad but this guy is far worse. When he leaves office I want a thorough and full audit investigation of the abuses and criminal activities under his watch. What is most galling to me is the Republican party aquiesence to his conduct. I always believed in the party, that it stood for standards in conduct and behaviour: Old fashioned things like honesty, truth, principle and integrity. With this man all is quietly accepted as "oh thats just donald, get over it".
The sad thing is his big broad brush policy ideas are spot on. Debt, NATO, Immigration. Its just how he goes about it is totaly wrong. One day this will be a Havard Business Study of how not to manage an organbisation.
The graft/get family rich quick schemes.
Hotel and golf resort projects in nineteen countries many with local governement support.
Meme coins
dinners at whitehouse for top meme coin holders
TV shows of Melania for $
Shall we touch on deportations
Numbers are not running dramatically higher than in previous years. Maybe 15-20% higher.
In Trump 1 that number peaked at 95,000 in fiscal year 2018. The record for is 238,000 in fiscal year 2009, Obama's first term. They know that they cannot actually get a million deportations a year. Internally, everyone involved operationally knows that's impossible.
Dodgy Doggy
$2tn to be saved, now it may be $160bn and that is over ten years. The severence package for fired federal employees will likely eat into most of this figure too.
Then there is his view of trade, I choose Canada because they are our best friend ever!
The Donald is heading so deep into a rabbit hole of trade policy madness that there is no telling where we will come out. But it will surely not be a golden age of prosperity.
Take trade with Canada. When it comes to exchange of goods and services across the 5,500 mile US/Canadian border total trade amounted to a hefty $911 billion or more than 3% of the combined GDP of the two countries. Yet the net balance was just $33 billion in favor of Canada or a mere 3.6% of total commerce.
Needless to say, that marginal imbalance had nothing to do with cheating by Canada. After all, owing to the Donald’s own pride and joy—the NAFTA redo he christened as the USMCA—there were zero tariffs on all of the $911 billion of two-way trade.
At the end of the day, the US/Canada trade in goods and services represents a free trade environment functioning at an extremely high level of efficiency on nearly $1 trillion of two-way commerce. When it comes to the vast, intricate facts and economics of global trade, the Donald is a complete ignoramus.
A few more weeks of this nonsense and both Main street and Wall Street will begin to buckle under the sheer uncertainty and madness the Donald is unleashing. But that will bring about its own cure—an economic crisis, a mid-term GOP wipe-out in 2026 and a Trump presidency that might become a lame duck one.
The much heard idea that Trump is somehow prospering from his various policies and executive orders is ubiquitous. Yet there seems little evidence to back up this notion. On the contrary there’s lots of evidence Trump has lost billions, or at least many millions. He’s been sued by the government, raided by heavily armed government agents, been shot and shot at several times, and much more abuse.. and yet through all that which would subdue any mortal man, he keeps going. To say he’s going through and enduring all this for some kind of monetary gain seems highly improbable.
Why would a very smart and rich guy, with an MBA, put up with all the abuse?
I believe what he says about wanting to improve our economy, our health and make a runaway government smaller and thus lower taxes. These all seem like real improvements to our national condition.
DH: Status quo was not working. Get used to the changes. They are both necessary and critical. No, it is not business as usual. And much of what you just wrote sounds in TDS; not fact. Now tell the bratty, obstructionist, Cloward-Pivens Democrats to get out of the way and let's keep these reform measures going. What is different is we are on to you this time. That is the game changer.
JL I wish a better governement for America. Trump is more of the same. He is simply even more brazen and better at it than the Clintons in my book. I do not see change. There is no reform. No policy. Just witch hunts to feed the base.
Change, we need change. For change we need policy. Lets get an election done and dusted in two months. What a saving. Other countries do it why can't we? Get private big money out of Washington. Reduce time in office to two terms.
The simple truth is both sides of the ailse feed off the private money swilling around the corridors of power. It is no better than a corrupt fuedal fiefdom of old. With out change the decline of America will only accelerate.
I didn’t read Henry’s comments to mean we shouldn’t pay attention or be involved. Personally, I agree with everything you said and fear for our country. I also agree with Henry that the emotions we all feel so strongly on both “sides” can seep into every aspect of our lives and overwhelm our ability to be civil or kind to each other. Just something to be thoughtful about…and not that easy in our current environment.
We created two classes of citizens - those who are now fully dependent on the taxpayer and love more expansive Democrat policies. 23 million government employees alone is one heck of a built in Democrat voting base to draw from.
Then, there are those who are not taking their full employment and benefits from the government. And they do not want to see increased and expanding taxpayer burdens with no end and no accountability.
Where do you think we can find a "middle ground" between these two fundamental view points. "Limited government" is the middle ground. No one is saying no government. So is there buy-in for cutting back and limiting government? And following through with many of the DOGE reforms? Where is the middle line when it comes to correcting the current waste, fraud, abuse and just plain lousy accounting trails DOGE has uncovered?
What you say sounds good and I often think I spend way too much time obsessing about things I have no control over. Unfortunately, if we, the average person, ignore politics we end up with places like Nazi Germany or Putin’s Russia. Places where people are afraid to disagree with their leaders. We do have to fight for everyone’s rights, otherwise they could be shipped off to concentration camps or El Salvador. And we could be next.
Since all politics are local, we now have a city council, supported by our state representative Gregg Hart and Monique Limon, that wants to drop manufactured ADU's into everyone's backyard and eventually front yards. Plus rob the city budget, which is already in pension free fall, for more "housing". And a new city department for "homeless services".
We must stay alert and alarmed, because forces are out there who do want to take everything away. And their hive-mind crowds show up to intimidate even the strong-willed into submission.
Of all people, city council rep Kristen Sneddon who personally is pulling down a quarter of a million dollars a year in total tax payer-funded compensation, is demanding the city taxpayers find $5 million "extra dollars" in the city budget for more "housing". Who is going to city hall to protest this? So things like this are still happening.
Thank you, Henry, for your thoughtful commentary. We are living through a sad time. It's as if a virus has swept through all social and public spheres, infecting relationships from the highest public and political spheres, Congress, and down into the most intimate, within our families. One week later, I am still shaken by a stranger's open statement to me that she no longer has anything to do with her (I deduced) MAGA son, her making assumptions about my own political stance. (And ignorant of the trauma I had days before emerged out of, my own son's medical emergency.) It's as though we are a nation of zombies, controlled by malevolent forces. Two powerful ideas steady me. First, our Constitution, which has endured worse challenges. Second, there is more goodness in the human spirit than the forces that assault goodness and kindness and decency and tolerance. Hope will overwhelm the current despair.
According to my many dependable educated news sources, trump HAS assaulted, “ goodness, , kindness, decency, and tolerance .”
If you can not see this, you are not tapped into the reporters and sources who are UNreliable. WHY IS FRUMP DEFUNDING NPR AND PBS? Because they are the TRUTH SAYERS.
Nancy, please stop trolling this site. Clearly you read INTO, as opposed to READ, my post. Your intolerance and ideologically-based anger is the problem.
Celeste…why dont you comment on my questioning trumps performance…of NOT ADHERING to what you think are good values……? Instead of deflecting from your goody goody sentences without committing to anything….
Appearing to straddling values and not committing to anything.
WHAT exactly did I “read into”? As you accuse me of doing? How easy it is to imply I didn’t read you correctly!
I commented on how trump has none of the values you set forth as worth while, which SHOULD have you questioning trumps values.
What are you running for with your seemingly placid comments…...local card reader?
Deflection is the opposite of intelligent truthful comments.
Good article, Henry, and one that a lot of us can certainly relate to. It reminds me of the song by Johnny Cash "The one on the right was on the left".
The weaker the argument is in facts, the stronger it tends to be in emotion. The Democrat party has embraced Alinsky's rules for radicals in which the opposition is to be demeaned in a personal way, reduced to an object of loathing. This is certainly used by politicians of all parties, all countries and is as old as time. This has been perfected by the modern day Democrat party. I see this effect here in these pages when some of our regular commenters berate Trump without reference to policy but rely on personal attack. Trump: pervert, bankruptcies, infidelity, fondler of women, cheat, liar, does not pay taxes, smells bad (NF), and on and on. And when one of their own does not march in lockstep they too suffer personal attacks. John Fetterman has been the victim of attacks questioning his mental capacity to serve. What has Fetterman done? He visited Trump and approved of some cabinet picks. Notice the attacks do not focus on why these were bad decisions regarding policy but rather focus on attacking the individual. Realize that when we are expected to hate our opponent as a person, we are blinkered to the true nature of political ambition. For today's Democrat party, that ambition is socialism, Marxism, communism, government domination of everything. Most Democrat's hate-blinders obscure that fact and they serve as useful idiots for the party.
Great article. I was just at a family reunion. Most are on the left. I am on the right. We were able to talk politics and even poke fun at each other. At the end we went back to other conversation and just let it go and move on. But this is very rare these days.
WELL SAID. ALL TOO OFTEN WE LET POLITICS DICTATE OUR FRIENDSHIPS. WE DO HAVE MANY VALUES THAT WE SHARE AND AGREE UPON WITH PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT POLITICAL BELIEFS. LET'S EMPHASIZE THE THINGS WE AGREE UPON.
I read this article on AMERICA by Henry Schulte tilted "Looking Forward to the End of Politics as We Know It" I have a new title "AMERICA is not AMERICA ANYMORE" I quote from Mr. Schulte
"We Don’t Care What You Think; Just Play AND There is an annual music series in Santa Ynez I used to attend. I loved it. However, at one point every musician seemed impelled to throw in their political two cents. I asked the sponsors if they could ask the musicians to keep their opinions to themselves:"
People of other Countries Dream of Coming to America and still do. People sing about AMERICA
as seen in this recent song "Tu Vuo' Fa' L'Americano" or "You Want To Be an America" weblink>
As a very famous stone sculptor said when asked how he carved his statues so beautiful out of the block of stone, he said "Just remove the stone that does not belong."
Hello Louise Bekins and with your excellent logic "Just remove the stone that does not belong." ...... a large number of "So-Called-Santa-Barbara-Leaders" need to be removed
or just maybe they already have been REMOVED. Should I list them all in the Santa Babara Rogues Gallery?
We don’t fear that Trump‘s policies will make America great again we fear that he’ll make America trump’s kingdom.
Most of the news has always been depressing. It has steadily been getting worse since the great divider slithered down the escalator. Depressing news got worse and worse since then to cover his corrupt moves and keep the public distracted. He announces his asinine theories, ideas and policies almost on a daily basis. It’s designed to distract the public so we don’t question what’s really going on. He floods the zone to distract the public so we don’t question what’s really going on.
He’s using the presidency to regain he’s wealth. He’s selling access to the White House to his donors and corporations. It’s a you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours situation. Everybody wins, except the regular citizens. Then there’s the insider trading situation, MTG seems to have made a killing lately. She has knowledge of contracts been given to certain companies. I believe she’s on the oversight committee who is privy to the information?
trump says he wants a united nation, but then does and says things he knows will divide us. Two of his division tactics started with his birther lie. Obama made a joke and hurt his thin skinned feelings and inflated ego. Then came the Covid debacle. He told us if you don’t want to wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. He said if you don’t wanna take the vaccine, don’t take the vaccine, many people died. Then he reversed course and said we needed to do something like inject some kind of cleaner. Lately, it’s been against judges he says they’re all corrupt, and why, because they’re not letting him break the law, which he constantly does.
This is one of his greatest skills to divide our nation, and bring it down, so he can do as he pleases. Politics has always been a dirty and corrupt business, no matter who enters with the best intentions. Trump has taken politics to its lowest dredges of his cesspool.
On a lighter note, how about a joke?
A felon, a few billionaires, an alcoholic, multiple sexual predators, a puppy killer, a Russian spy, and a heroin addict, with part of his brain eaten by a worm, walk into the White House.
Thank you for this article! I so very much share your points of view. What’s going on now IS NOT AT ALL NORMAL by any stretch of the imagination. For family members to “disown” one another just for a different political stance? REALLY??!!
I’ve got my own views, and don’t really feel the need to get into a heated discussion defending them to opposing views for the most part. When ppl want to try to suck me into their own nasty political drama, I just reply “Left wing, Right wing…it’s all part of the same bird!”… which is true. Never has there been so much rabid divisiveness…something that reached a fevered pitch in the past administration. One needs to wonder “WHY?”… it’s akin to a magician’s use of distraction to pull off a trick. It gets old. I, for one, would be quite joyful indeed if the whole political system as we now know it crumbles and LOVE ONE ANOTHER becomes the norm.
I noticed a big game changer during the Watergate hearings when many were glued to constant "breaking stories" That was the beginning of the 24 hour new cycle addiction.
What a let down, when this was over since many of us arranged our daily lives around these hearings and the follow up "breaking news" if we dared get out of radio contact. Since I was also living in Wash DC at the time, the hourly focus was even more intense.
The OJ Simpson trial had the same effect. The networks learned the ears and eyeballs were there, if they could only manufacture the same lurid 24/7 interests. News became now 24/7 junk FUD - fear, uncertainty and death. 24 hour frothing over Trump, is the latest horse to beat to death. Notice how Trump issued a single tweet in the early morning, yet the networks frothed for the next 24 hours and then claimed Trump was the disruptive one?
Plus this new younger generation admits to the phenomenon called "FOMO" -fear of missing out. It is an addiction to our own supplies of adrenalin and dopamine. I suffer this myself, now even more in my more sedentary dotage. Milking outrage addiction, adds to this mix too. Ain't it awful and pearl clutching is a known human weakness too. Eric Berne - "Games People Play" anyone?
Breaking a bad habit is like breaking any bad habit, just say no and have a list of ready substitutes on hand. But I have been a political animal since the 5th grade and I have for years walked the walk, as much as I talk the talk.
So FOMO is built into my own DNA. In case anyone is still wondering. Taking long cruises, where the WiFi has been lousy, breaks this up from time to time. But darn it, the ships have added Starlink now so the immediacy of the real world is back to only a few fingertips away again. Just say no.
Thanks Henry. A brief note: "No one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American people" Most likely PT Barnum, but also frequently attributed to HL Mencken. With digital and newer AI based control systems Public Consensus on topics will be more efficiently controlled by those seeking Power and its sibling, Wealth. Reminds me of the POGO quote: "I have met the enemy, and he is us. God help us.
I'm here to tell you that Politics is not here to stay, we as American citizens who who reside in this County deserve better respect as We the People for Santa Barbara County thats all we ever need to be. We do not need the political idealogy of the two party system that has gone way beyond the measures of institutional Racism this is the end of Affirmative Action Period and incorporations who entered our State under Maritime Law. Thr level of corruption of this eviness is purely a spiritual war against good and evil and We all know who wins our Creator, Jesus Christ who died for God to honor his convenant to Man. It is no different that our forefathers who used thr bible to write our beautiful US Constitution compacted aka They made a covenant with God ratified and approved by Congress and the same for California in 1849. All we need to be We the people and common Law which is natural law from Our Creator the Ten Commandments. We are way more divine that people think. PSALMS 33:12 "Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. The People He has Chosen for His Inheritance." No other Country has made a convenant with God in their Constitution. NewCaliforniaState.com is the only biblical viable solution to what is coming. I stand for true Liberty "freedom and Morality,"
Another fine article, harkening back to a kinder and gentler America.
The basic question seems to be: What happened to make America so hateful and so divided.
One theory that could explain this shift in Americans intolerance for each other, is the high amount of government intrusion into all our lives.
Since 1913 when the Federal Reserve private bank act, and its enforcement arm, the IRS came into existence, American politics have been more and more focused on who gets taxed and who gets exempted from taxes.
Before 1913 everyone paid the same percentage of tax rates, excise taxes on buying foreign products.
Today in America some working economic classes are paying 40-50% or more on income taxes. While others making hundreds of millions escape the claw. If we count in property taxes and sales taxes we working people are being taxed near to death. And the government still wants more in taxes.
This huge Intrusion into our lives and the taking of so much of our income, is akin to a gradual slavery. Where only the clever and connected are rewarded with tax exemptions, and the working classes are getting severely punished. And today, the working classes means people who make $60k to hundreds of thousands to millions a year.
With our very life blood at stake, being forcibly drained away by an out of control government machine, our only recourse is to delve into politics. We try in vain to somehow reverse and lessen the grasping hand of government into our pockets.
If on the other hand, we had the chance to keep say, 90% of our incomes, it wouldn’t matter as much if we didn’t like our government school. We could afford a private school.
If government wasn’t shutting down our industries at the behest of one side of the political spectrum, we could find more and better jobs to earn our place in this world. But that is not the case. Politics now intrudes into every aspect of nearly every persons life, through taxation, over regulation, social engineering, media control and censorship. All squeezing Americans into contortions and unwelcome sacrifices. A loss of freedoms. A loss of choice.
So that’s a guess at what is different with America today, and with Americans. We are beset with such a government taking of our incomes, that we are forced to fight against the tide of taxes, and fight against that side which seems to welcome the ever growing tax and spend economic model, that big government has proscribed for us.
With our current tax rates of 50% and massive government debt, like it or not, we are as rats in a shrinking feed lot. And this condition of soft slavery does not bring out the best in our nature.
As the early American TEA party said about a 2% tax on tea.
so true and so sad. Why anyone would be against Musk and Trump getting rid of the corruption is beyond me unless they're corrupt themselves. Except for the naive marching in the streets chanting silly slogans
Sir - not everyone cares to be a simply "get along" - Christ did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I will never agree with 99.99% of Americans on politics as a Carlist - I am extremist, a zealot, fanatic - in other words "insane", and even the "traddies" and the "far right" I put to shame. Some people can never see eye to eye - it's not about bringing politica up in everything, but my vision of the world is incompatible with everyone else's desires.
I guess it makes sense. Your values are basically summed up in bbq grills, picket fences, Americana nostalgia - mine are rooted in the Social Kingship of Christ, the Supremacy of the Catholic Church as the One True Faith - and traditional monarchy as the only form of governmeny capable of maintaing a moral society.
You’re dreaming Henry. Of course it would be great to be able to focus more on friendships, gardens, butterflies etc. but then how do 350 million strangers deal with each other? There’s gotta be politics, and as long as politicians are voted in by the majority to ‘represent’ and manage their interests, the average stupid voter is going to buy their promises.
Instead of voter ID, we should require a basic intelligence test: “If you’re stupid enough to stand out in the rain, (which most people are), you can’t vote.” Of course that would mean the Commie-Dem-Libs would pass after spending years wasting their time on an indulgent Art History degree.
Amen! Thank you Henry. I plead guilty. I toggle between sad, angry, fearful and back to sad. There are days when events kidnap my psyche. It’s not healthy and I work hard to stay balanced and open. I remember a time when politics was the least interesting thing to talk about. Stay informed. Vote. Live a good life and try to do some good. I long for an environment that has a focus on what we have in common. The world is a more interesting and gentle place. Your thoughts on this are very much appreciated. Thank you.
Henry, Oh Henry how can TDS create one so blind in the eye and deaf in the ear? Trump will vacate office after pocketing billions of dollars because of the position he holds. This is intentional on his part and wrong on every level. I thought the Clintons were bad but this guy is far worse. When he leaves office I want a thorough and full audit investigation of the abuses and criminal activities under his watch. What is most galling to me is the Republican party aquiesence to his conduct. I always believed in the party, that it stood for standards in conduct and behaviour: Old fashioned things like honesty, truth, principle and integrity. With this man all is quietly accepted as "oh thats just donald, get over it".
The sad thing is his big broad brush policy ideas are spot on. Debt, NATO, Immigration. Its just how he goes about it is totaly wrong. One day this will be a Havard Business Study of how not to manage an organbisation.
The graft/get family rich quick schemes.
Hotel and golf resort projects in nineteen countries many with local governement support.
Meme coins
dinners at whitehouse for top meme coin holders
TV shows of Melania for $
Shall we touch on deportations
Numbers are not running dramatically higher than in previous years. Maybe 15-20% higher.
In Trump 1 that number peaked at 95,000 in fiscal year 2018. The record for is 238,000 in fiscal year 2009, Obama's first term. They know that they cannot actually get a million deportations a year. Internally, everyone involved operationally knows that's impossible.
Dodgy Doggy
$2tn to be saved, now it may be $160bn and that is over ten years. The severence package for fired federal employees will likely eat into most of this figure too.
Then there is his view of trade, I choose Canada because they are our best friend ever!
The Donald is heading so deep into a rabbit hole of trade policy madness that there is no telling where we will come out. But it will surely not be a golden age of prosperity.
Take trade with Canada. When it comes to exchange of goods and services across the 5,500 mile US/Canadian border total trade amounted to a hefty $911 billion or more than 3% of the combined GDP of the two countries. Yet the net balance was just $33 billion in favor of Canada or a mere 3.6% of total commerce.
Needless to say, that marginal imbalance had nothing to do with cheating by Canada. After all, owing to the Donald’s own pride and joy—the NAFTA redo he christened as the USMCA—there were zero tariffs on all of the $911 billion of two-way trade.
At the end of the day, the US/Canada trade in goods and services represents a free trade environment functioning at an extremely high level of efficiency on nearly $1 trillion of two-way commerce. When it comes to the vast, intricate facts and economics of global trade, the Donald is a complete ignoramus.
A few more weeks of this nonsense and both Main street and Wall Street will begin to buckle under the sheer uncertainty and madness the Donald is unleashing. But that will bring about its own cure—an economic crisis, a mid-term GOP wipe-out in 2026 and a Trump presidency that might become a lame duck one.
The much heard idea that Trump is somehow prospering from his various policies and executive orders is ubiquitous. Yet there seems little evidence to back up this notion. On the contrary there’s lots of evidence Trump has lost billions, or at least many millions. He’s been sued by the government, raided by heavily armed government agents, been shot and shot at several times, and much more abuse.. and yet through all that which would subdue any mortal man, he keeps going. To say he’s going through and enduring all this for some kind of monetary gain seems highly improbable.
Why would a very smart and rich guy, with an MBA, put up with all the abuse?
I believe what he says about wanting to improve our economy, our health and make a runaway government smaller and thus lower taxes. These all seem like real improvements to our national condition.
Mr.Heald,
Thank you for your voice of what appears to many of us to be real in this administration.
One ( I ) gets tired of challenging the people on this site who are blind and deaf to the chaos and destruction which trump is causing.
DH: Status quo was not working. Get used to the changes. They are both necessary and critical. No, it is not business as usual. And much of what you just wrote sounds in TDS; not fact. Now tell the bratty, obstructionist, Cloward-Pivens Democrats to get out of the way and let's keep these reform measures going. What is different is we are on to you this time. That is the game changer.
JL I wish a better governement for America. Trump is more of the same. He is simply even more brazen and better at it than the Clintons in my book. I do not see change. There is no reform. No policy. Just witch hunts to feed the base.
Change, we need change. For change we need policy. Lets get an election done and dusted in two months. What a saving. Other countries do it why can't we? Get private big money out of Washington. Reduce time in office to two terms.
The simple truth is both sides of the ailse feed off the private money swilling around the corridors of power. It is no better than a corrupt fuedal fiefdom of old. With out change the decline of America will only accelerate.
I didn’t read Henry’s comments to mean we shouldn’t pay attention or be involved. Personally, I agree with everything you said and fear for our country. I also agree with Henry that the emotions we all feel so strongly on both “sides” can seep into every aspect of our lives and overwhelm our ability to be civil or kind to each other. Just something to be thoughtful about…and not that easy in our current environment.
We created two classes of citizens - those who are now fully dependent on the taxpayer and love more expansive Democrat policies. 23 million government employees alone is one heck of a built in Democrat voting base to draw from.
Then, there are those who are not taking their full employment and benefits from the government. And they do not want to see increased and expanding taxpayer burdens with no end and no accountability.
Where do you think we can find a "middle ground" between these two fundamental view points. "Limited government" is the middle ground. No one is saying no government. So is there buy-in for cutting back and limiting government? And following through with many of the DOGE reforms? Where is the middle line when it comes to correcting the current waste, fraud, abuse and just plain lousy accounting trails DOGE has uncovered?
What you say sounds good and I often think I spend way too much time obsessing about things I have no control over. Unfortunately, if we, the average person, ignore politics we end up with places like Nazi Germany or Putin’s Russia. Places where people are afraid to disagree with their leaders. We do have to fight for everyone’s rights, otherwise they could be shipped off to concentration camps or El Salvador. And we could be next.
Since all politics are local, we now have a city council, supported by our state representative Gregg Hart and Monique Limon, that wants to drop manufactured ADU's into everyone's backyard and eventually front yards. Plus rob the city budget, which is already in pension free fall, for more "housing". And a new city department for "homeless services".
We must stay alert and alarmed, because forces are out there who do want to take everything away. And their hive-mind crowds show up to intimidate even the strong-willed into submission.
Of all people, city council rep Kristen Sneddon who personally is pulling down a quarter of a million dollars a year in total tax payer-funded compensation, is demanding the city taxpayers find $5 million "extra dollars" in the city budget for more "housing". Who is going to city hall to protest this? So things like this are still happening.
Thank you, Henry, for your thoughtful commentary. We are living through a sad time. It's as if a virus has swept through all social and public spheres, infecting relationships from the highest public and political spheres, Congress, and down into the most intimate, within our families. One week later, I am still shaken by a stranger's open statement to me that she no longer has anything to do with her (I deduced) MAGA son, her making assumptions about my own political stance. (And ignorant of the trauma I had days before emerged out of, my own son's medical emergency.) It's as though we are a nation of zombies, controlled by malevolent forces. Two powerful ideas steady me. First, our Constitution, which has endured worse challenges. Second, there is more goodness in the human spirit than the forces that assault goodness and kindness and decency and tolerance. Hope will overwhelm the current despair.
Celeste,
According to my many dependable educated news sources, trump HAS assaulted, “ goodness, , kindness, decency, and tolerance .”
If you can not see this, you are not tapped into the reporters and sources who are UNreliable. WHY IS FRUMP DEFUNDING NPR AND PBS? Because they are the TRUTH SAYERS.
Wake up!
Nancy, please stop trolling this site. Clearly you read INTO, as opposed to READ, my post. Your intolerance and ideologically-based anger is the problem.
Celeste…why dont you comment on my questioning trumps performance…of NOT ADHERING to what you think are good values……? Instead of deflecting from your goody goody sentences without committing to anything….
Appearing to straddling values and not committing to anything.
WHAT exactly did I “read into”? As you accuse me of doing? How easy it is to imply I didn’t read you correctly!
I commented on how trump has none of the values you set forth as worth while, which SHOULD have you questioning trumps values.
What are you running for with your seemingly placid comments…...local card reader?
Deflection is the opposite of intelligent truthful comments.
Good article, Henry, and one that a lot of us can certainly relate to. It reminds me of the song by Johnny Cash "The one on the right was on the left".
The weaker the argument is in facts, the stronger it tends to be in emotion. The Democrat party has embraced Alinsky's rules for radicals in which the opposition is to be demeaned in a personal way, reduced to an object of loathing. This is certainly used by politicians of all parties, all countries and is as old as time. This has been perfected by the modern day Democrat party. I see this effect here in these pages when some of our regular commenters berate Trump without reference to policy but rely on personal attack. Trump: pervert, bankruptcies, infidelity, fondler of women, cheat, liar, does not pay taxes, smells bad (NF), and on and on. And when one of their own does not march in lockstep they too suffer personal attacks. John Fetterman has been the victim of attacks questioning his mental capacity to serve. What has Fetterman done? He visited Trump and approved of some cabinet picks. Notice the attacks do not focus on why these were bad decisions regarding policy but rather focus on attacking the individual. Realize that when we are expected to hate our opponent as a person, we are blinkered to the true nature of political ambition. For today's Democrat party, that ambition is socialism, Marxism, communism, government domination of everything. Most Democrat's hate-blinders obscure that fact and they serve as useful idiots for the party.
Jeff
You are right on!
The Democrats of today are who Alinsky referred to in that book as the useful idiots.
Keep up the work!
Cheers
Great article. I was just at a family reunion. Most are on the left. I am on the right. We were able to talk politics and even poke fun at each other. At the end we went back to other conversation and just let it go and move on. But this is very rare these days.
WELL SAID. ALL TOO OFTEN WE LET POLITICS DICTATE OUR FRIENDSHIPS. WE DO HAVE MANY VALUES THAT WE SHARE AND AGREE UPON WITH PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT POLITICAL BELIEFS. LET'S EMPHASIZE THE THINGS WE AGREE UPON.
I read this article on AMERICA by Henry Schulte tilted "Looking Forward to the End of Politics as We Know It" I have a new title "AMERICA is not AMERICA ANYMORE" I quote from Mr. Schulte
"We Don’t Care What You Think; Just Play AND There is an annual music series in Santa Ynez I used to attend. I loved it. However, at one point every musician seemed impelled to throw in their political two cents. I asked the sponsors if they could ask the musicians to keep their opinions to themselves:"
People of other Countries Dream of Coming to America and still do. People sing about AMERICA
as seen in this recent song "Tu Vuo' Fa' L'Americano" or "You Want To Be an America" weblink>
https://x.com/TheFigen_/status/1919793886240584124
So You Are an American or "You Want to Be an American"?
Better Do Something because AMERICA is quickly slipping away .................. Going, Going and GONE
Think Santa Barbara Corruption. I can hear a song coming ......................
"Report: Corruption in U.S. at Worst Levels in Almost a Decade" Weblink>
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/28/report-transparency-international-corruption-worst-decade-united-states/
Like a Broken Record. I keep pounding the Corruption here in Santa Barbara.
Howard Walther Member of a Military Family
As a very famous stone sculptor said when asked how he carved his statues so beautiful out of the block of stone, he said "Just remove the stone that does not belong."
Hello Louise Bekins and with your excellent logic "Just remove the stone that does not belong." ...... a large number of "So-Called-Santa-Barbara-Leaders" need to be removed
or just maybe they already have been REMOVED. Should I list them all in the Santa Babara Rogues Gallery?
As we know, the corruption is everywhere in our lovely Santa Barbara. Time to remove the corruption.
BEKINS
and what does NOT belong I’d defying our Constitution….trumps lawlessness.
Henry,
We don’t fear that Trump‘s policies will make America great again we fear that he’ll make America trump’s kingdom.
Most of the news has always been depressing. It has steadily been getting worse since the great divider slithered down the escalator. Depressing news got worse and worse since then to cover his corrupt moves and keep the public distracted. He announces his asinine theories, ideas and policies almost on a daily basis. It’s designed to distract the public so we don’t question what’s really going on. He floods the zone to distract the public so we don’t question what’s really going on.
He’s using the presidency to regain he’s wealth. He’s selling access to the White House to his donors and corporations. It’s a you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours situation. Everybody wins, except the regular citizens. Then there’s the insider trading situation, MTG seems to have made a killing lately. She has knowledge of contracts been given to certain companies. I believe she’s on the oversight committee who is privy to the information?
trump says he wants a united nation, but then does and says things he knows will divide us. Two of his division tactics started with his birther lie. Obama made a joke and hurt his thin skinned feelings and inflated ego. Then came the Covid debacle. He told us if you don’t want to wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. He said if you don’t wanna take the vaccine, don’t take the vaccine, many people died. Then he reversed course and said we needed to do something like inject some kind of cleaner. Lately, it’s been against judges he says they’re all corrupt, and why, because they’re not letting him break the law, which he constantly does.
This is one of his greatest skills to divide our nation, and bring it down, so he can do as he pleases. Politics has always been a dirty and corrupt business, no matter who enters with the best intentions. Trump has taken politics to its lowest dredges of his cesspool.
On a lighter note, how about a joke?
A felon, a few billionaires, an alcoholic, multiple sexual predators, a puppy killer, a Russian spy, and a heroin addict, with part of his brain eaten by a worm, walk into the White House.
Oh, sorry this wasn’t a joke, it’s reality.
Thank you for this article! I so very much share your points of view. What’s going on now IS NOT AT ALL NORMAL by any stretch of the imagination. For family members to “disown” one another just for a different political stance? REALLY??!!
I’ve got my own views, and don’t really feel the need to get into a heated discussion defending them to opposing views for the most part. When ppl want to try to suck me into their own nasty political drama, I just reply “Left wing, Right wing…it’s all part of the same bird!”… which is true. Never has there been so much rabid divisiveness…something that reached a fevered pitch in the past administration. One needs to wonder “WHY?”… it’s akin to a magician’s use of distraction to pull off a trick. It gets old. I, for one, would be quite joyful indeed if the whole political system as we now know it crumbles and LOVE ONE ANOTHER becomes the norm.
I noticed a big game changer during the Watergate hearings when many were glued to constant "breaking stories" That was the beginning of the 24 hour new cycle addiction.
What a let down, when this was over since many of us arranged our daily lives around these hearings and the follow up "breaking news" if we dared get out of radio contact. Since I was also living in Wash DC at the time, the hourly focus was even more intense.
The OJ Simpson trial had the same effect. The networks learned the ears and eyeballs were there, if they could only manufacture the same lurid 24/7 interests. News became now 24/7 junk FUD - fear, uncertainty and death. 24 hour frothing over Trump, is the latest horse to beat to death. Notice how Trump issued a single tweet in the early morning, yet the networks frothed for the next 24 hours and then claimed Trump was the disruptive one?
Plus this new younger generation admits to the phenomenon called "FOMO" -fear of missing out. It is an addiction to our own supplies of adrenalin and dopamine. I suffer this myself, now even more in my more sedentary dotage. Milking outrage addiction, adds to this mix too. Ain't it awful and pearl clutching is a known human weakness too. Eric Berne - "Games People Play" anyone?
Breaking a bad habit is like breaking any bad habit, just say no and have a list of ready substitutes on hand. But I have been a political animal since the 5th grade and I have for years walked the walk, as much as I talk the talk.
So FOMO is built into my own DNA. In case anyone is still wondering. Taking long cruises, where the WiFi has been lousy, breaks this up from time to time. But darn it, the ships have added Starlink now so the immediacy of the real world is back to only a few fingertips away again. Just say no.
Yes. We suffer from over abundant information, even on cruse boats it’s like a drug to keep up on the latest scandals.
Thanks Henry. A brief note: "No one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American people" Most likely PT Barnum, but also frequently attributed to HL Mencken. With digital and newer AI based control systems Public Consensus on topics will be more efficiently controlled by those seeking Power and its sibling, Wealth. Reminds me of the POGO quote: "I have met the enemy, and he is us. God help us.
I believe the quote was no one lost money underestimating the ..good taste... of Americans? I'll ask GROK.
I'm here to tell you that Politics is not here to stay, we as American citizens who who reside in this County deserve better respect as We the People for Santa Barbara County thats all we ever need to be. We do not need the political idealogy of the two party system that has gone way beyond the measures of institutional Racism this is the end of Affirmative Action Period and incorporations who entered our State under Maritime Law. Thr level of corruption of this eviness is purely a spiritual war against good and evil and We all know who wins our Creator, Jesus Christ who died for God to honor his convenant to Man. It is no different that our forefathers who used thr bible to write our beautiful US Constitution compacted aka They made a covenant with God ratified and approved by Congress and the same for California in 1849. All we need to be We the people and common Law which is natural law from Our Creator the Ten Commandments. We are way more divine that people think. PSALMS 33:12 "Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. The People He has Chosen for His Inheritance." No other Country has made a convenant with God in their Constitution. NewCaliforniaState.com is the only biblical viable solution to what is coming. I stand for true Liberty "freedom and Morality,"
Another fine article, harkening back to a kinder and gentler America.
The basic question seems to be: What happened to make America so hateful and so divided.
One theory that could explain this shift in Americans intolerance for each other, is the high amount of government intrusion into all our lives.
Since 1913 when the Federal Reserve private bank act, and its enforcement arm, the IRS came into existence, American politics have been more and more focused on who gets taxed and who gets exempted from taxes.
Before 1913 everyone paid the same percentage of tax rates, excise taxes on buying foreign products.
Today in America some working economic classes are paying 40-50% or more on income taxes. While others making hundreds of millions escape the claw. If we count in property taxes and sales taxes we working people are being taxed near to death. And the government still wants more in taxes.
This huge Intrusion into our lives and the taking of so much of our income, is akin to a gradual slavery. Where only the clever and connected are rewarded with tax exemptions, and the working classes are getting severely punished. And today, the working classes means people who make $60k to hundreds of thousands to millions a year.
With our very life blood at stake, being forcibly drained away by an out of control government machine, our only recourse is to delve into politics. We try in vain to somehow reverse and lessen the grasping hand of government into our pockets.
If on the other hand, we had the chance to keep say, 90% of our incomes, it wouldn’t matter as much if we didn’t like our government school. We could afford a private school.
If government wasn’t shutting down our industries at the behest of one side of the political spectrum, we could find more and better jobs to earn our place in this world. But that is not the case. Politics now intrudes into every aspect of nearly every persons life, through taxation, over regulation, social engineering, media control and censorship. All squeezing Americans into contortions and unwelcome sacrifices. A loss of freedoms. A loss of choice.
So that’s a guess at what is different with America today, and with Americans. We are beset with such a government taking of our incomes, that we are forced to fight against the tide of taxes, and fight against that side which seems to welcome the ever growing tax and spend economic model, that big government has proscribed for us.
With our current tax rates of 50% and massive government debt, like it or not, we are as rats in a shrinking feed lot. And this condition of soft slavery does not bring out the best in our nature.
As the early American TEA party said about a 2% tax on tea.
We are Taxed Enough Already.
so true and so sad. Why anyone would be against Musk and Trump getting rid of the corruption is beyond me unless they're corrupt themselves. Except for the naive marching in the streets chanting silly slogans
Sir - not everyone cares to be a simply "get along" - Christ did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I will never agree with 99.99% of Americans on politics as a Carlist - I am extremist, a zealot, fanatic - in other words "insane", and even the "traddies" and the "far right" I put to shame. Some people can never see eye to eye - it's not about bringing politica up in everything, but my vision of the world is incompatible with everyone else's desires.
and scary
Scared? Of what? Conviction?
I guess it makes sense. Your values are basically summed up in bbq grills, picket fences, Americana nostalgia - mine are rooted in the Social Kingship of Christ, the Supremacy of the Catholic Church as the One True Faith - and traditional monarchy as the only form of governmeny capable of maintaing a moral society.
"I feel sorry for you"
You’re dreaming Henry. Of course it would be great to be able to focus more on friendships, gardens, butterflies etc. but then how do 350 million strangers deal with each other? There’s gotta be politics, and as long as politicians are voted in by the majority to ‘represent’ and manage their interests, the average stupid voter is going to buy their promises.
Instead of voter ID, we should require a basic intelligence test: “If you’re stupid enough to stand out in the rain, (which most people are), you can’t vote.” Of course that would mean the Commie-Dem-Libs would pass after spending years wasting their time on an indulgent Art History degree.