Archives for Opinion

Truth, whole truth and nothing but…

by DOUG THOMPSON | August 23, 2017 | 3 Comments

As a lifelong newspaperman, I find the debate over what is or is not “truth” and what may or may not be “fake news” both frustrating and fascinating. Gave it even more thought Tuesday after a discussion on Facebook that started when I posted a link to last Sunday’s lead editorial in the New York Times, headlined “The Failing Trump Presidency.” I also used the editorial for a Monday column in Capitol Hill Blue. The link sparked a fair amount of debate with some agreeing, some not. Interestingly enough, those who claimed the New York Times “doesn’t know the truth,” either
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Trump: True enemy of America

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 20, 2017 | Comments Off

In its lead editorial Sunday, The New York Times laid out what most Americans now know and fear. Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, is unfit for the job and poses a major threat to the United States of America. The first three paragraphs say it all: With each day, President Trump offers fresh proof that he is failing the office that Americans entrusted to him. The rolling disaster of his presidency accelerated downhill last week with a news conference on Tuesday at which he seemed determined to sow racial strife in a nation desperate for a unifying
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Keeping up with the world

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 19, 2017 | 1 Comment

Each morning, I get up around 0500 (5:00 a.m.), start guzzling coffee, and go to work on a computer with multiple monitors and a broadband connection to the world, editing updates to a political news website that began just under 23 years ago in our den in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. Editors and reporters connect via online conference as we map out the stories followed for the day. In this day in a year of topsy-turvy national government of our country, most of the stories will, of course, deal with the latest antics of our President. Sometimes,
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Hey Trump: Fat lady is about to sing

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 18, 2017 | 3 Comments

Heads up: The fat lady is about to sing on the fat President who can’t do anything correctly. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican, said publicly Thursday what others of the party of the elephant usually utter behind closed-doors. Trump, Corker said, is neither competent or stable. Trump, Corker said, does ‘not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation” and called for “radical changes” in the White House. “The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the ability or the competence that he needs to be successful,” said Corker Enter, stage right, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim
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Trump is a racist, a bigot and worse

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 16, 2017 | 1 Comment

Despite what he claims, and most of what he claims are an endless stream of lies, Donald Trump is a racist. When he owned casinos, managers of the establishments were ordered to keep minorities away from he and his wife when the visited and black card dealers were replaced with white ones anywhere near him. He has paid enormous federal fines for flagrant discrimination tactics in his real estate business. His White House Chief Strategist proudly portrays himself as a member of the “alt-right” and a “white nationalist.” It took him three days to finally read a statement written by
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Trump’s embrace of racists brought death

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 13, 2017 | Comments Off

White supremacists brought violence into our midst and a President who embraces both violence and white nationalists tried to evade his role in all this with a statement that has brought denunciations and calls for a stronger stance from both sides of the two political parties that divide our nation today. Hate and racism dominated the actions of white supremacists in a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va. One drove his Dodge Charger into a crowd of those rallying against racism and hate. The attack killed a 32-year-old woman. The car turned weapon threw several through the air. “It was a wave
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Trump & his DC hotel rip off taxpayers

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 11, 2017 | 3 Comments

Yes, Donald Trump is using his presidency to make money — more money than normal while turning business losers into profit centers. Exhibit one: The opulent — and may say ‘tacky’ — Trump International Hotel in what once was the old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. Federal documents show Trump expected to lose around $2.l million after opening the fancy digs in the midst of what most felt was a losing campaign for President. Before the election, it was mostly empty with low occupancy rates and a restaurant with few patrons. The
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Trump: A victim of himself

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 7, 2017 | 1 Comment

Donald Trump plays the “victim” card often. He is, writes New York Times columnist Charles Blow, “the reigning king of American victimhood.” Trump claims: No politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly. He’s a victim all right — a victim of his own lies, self-indulgence and self-promotion. Newsweek magazine’s cover this says it all: Writes Matthew Cooper of Newsweek: The president’s erratic behavior, the infighting among White House staff and the slapdash creation of public policy have taken a toll on even hardcore conservatives. Just six months ago,
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Will Trump go down?

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | August 4, 2017 | 4 Comments

The lies, misdeeds and conceit of Donald John Trump are piling up like raw, toxic waste that has turned the Washington "swamp" into a vile sewer. Trump's endless stream of lies defies comparisons with previous Presidential administrations. All Presidents lie from time to time but none, at least in modern history, has done so with endless compulsion like Trump.
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Trump & the GOP: Birds of corrupt feathers

by DOUG THOMPSON - Opinion | July 31, 2017 | Comments Off

Frustrated Republicans, finally facing the reality of a madman in the White House driving both the nation and their political party to disgrace and ruin, increasingly say they have had enough. But have they? It took Arizona Sen. John McCain, facing death from brain cancer, to cast the deciding vote to end — at least for the time being — the GOP rush off the cliff in a madcap suicide pact to replace the Affordable Healthcare Act with something even more onerous. One crisis averted for now but so many remain and the biggest of them all if the existence
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